Vanilla Icing

U2 at Heinz Field

No longer able to resist, on the spur of the moment, Rick & I rushed down to Heinz Field to see if we could still get in to see U2 in concert.

The 'Claw' was easily spotted on the field; you could see it even just driving by Heinz Field.  The local news and radio stations were full of facts about the Claw in the days leading up to the concert.  It took four days to put up, it weighs x amount, it takes 120 trucks to move it, etc, etc.

We got in!  The concert didn't sell out but I think if it hadn't been for the standing 'seats' on the field it would have been.

Our seats were higher up in the stands then our season tickets for Steelers games but it didn't matter much because we had a perfect view.

Once the concert began, the Claw lit up in all sorts of interesting ways and occasionally put out waves of smoke.  Or would that be considered fog?  Hmmm.

U2 played for nearly three hours which was a real treat.  They played some songs off of their most recent album but they also played many of everyone's older favorites.

Break down of the Claw takes about 5 hours and I can see why:  The stage crew began their task before the stadium was even half empty!  Rick and I wanted to stay and watch the disassembly for a little while but we were gently shooed out.  

It was a fantastic concert and I'm sure glad we went to see them!

Kids in the Kitchen

I think it's important for kids to learn how to cook and bake so that as they get older they feel comfortable in the kitchen and are able to make--and prepare!--good decisions in their health and nutrition.  Tristyn and Maia often help me in the kitchen with all sorts of things: tortillas, pasta, cake, bread, eggs, bagels, and, of course, cookies to name a few.  But recently, I have really been encouraging them more and more to make things with absolutely no help from me beyond guidance.  It's working well.

Even if there is the occasional mishap.  Tristyn used a damp towel to take a cookie sheet out the second time and got a wee burn.  It was small and after 20 minutes barely red at all but I'm sure in the future he will be more aware of how he chooses to protect his hands.  The cookie recipe was from a cook book they brought home from the library.

They chose the most complicated, multi-step recipe in the book: checkerboard cookies and didn't even hesitate in their decision to bake the most difficult one.  Truly, they are bakers in the making after my own heart.

Cake in My Thoughts

 

Forbes State Forest

Following along in Unplugged Sunday's footsteps....

I found a website, Local Hikes, that has been quite inspiring for my family recently.  It allows you to look up the various trails both near and far to where you are and to read the relevant information about them.  A good many of the trails on the page for Pittsburgh I was already familiar with but there are a good many that I didn't know or haven't hiked.  

We picked one such trail yesterday.  Roaring Run-McKenna Trail was an easy 6 mile loop through a beautiful forest.  I packed a lunch and grabbed the camera and Rick gathered up the kids and dogs and we drove about an hour out of the city.   The seven of us hiked and chatted, hiked and lunched and hiked and then three of us kept silent,   (trying to enjoy)   enjoying nature while one of us kept a running monologue of her entire third grade year right down to a very detailed description of a book her teacher read her....at the beginning of the year.

Ironically....guess which one of us spotted this guy off to the right side of the trail munching a mushroom?

Yup, the chatty one also has eagle eyes.  We gathered around the turtle, oohing and ahhing until the poor thing gave us the hairy eyeball and started backing away.  I snapped a quick picture and motioned everyone along.  All of us felt pretty proud and we talked about turtles until two bikers came squeezing by.  They stopped to chat to us for a few minutes to tell us about the black bear they spotted earlier on their ride not too far from where they began.  

Suddenly, our turtle paled in comparison.

 

Flooding Fourth

The early signs were there.....grey, cloudy, overcast.....

....but that didnt' stop us from enjoying a baseball game of the Fourth of July at PNC Park.  It was the Pittsburgh Pirates versus the Houston Astros and we won-- 5 to 3.

And it didn't stop the guys from grilling in the rain.  When the clouds finally opened up and began dumping out buckets and buckets of rain, they used some American ingenuity and grabbed the old patio umbrella and kept on grilling!    

I hope you and yours had a Happy Fourth of July!

Two Blueberries

Last year, I boasted that I would have a dozen blueberries.  And I did have a dozen blueberries....a dozen green blueberries.  They never made it to blue; something ate them.  I gave up the notion of ever having blueberries and decided to let the blueberry bush that has scraped out its worthless existence live out whatever few cursed seasons it had left rather than my heartlessly yanking it out.  

This year I have two, blue blueberries.  I am so astounded by this that the blueberries are sitting in a small bowl in my refrigerator and a few times every day I open the fridge and just look at them in a quiet sort of triumph.  

Benevolent Negligent Gardening.   Apparently that's how I roll.