I had a dream I was walking around at night in the park, where I grew up, and behind the swingset, there was this 3-4 story brick building.  It looked like an old tavern or inn, but it was beautifully maintained with a nice porch and white shutters on the windows.  It had a for sale sign in front of it.  Across the front door in big gold plate letters “Washington Train Museum” was written.  I walked in and everything was very clean, but obviously it was closed.  The front lobby had a gift shop area.  The upstairs was a restaurant.  As I walked up the wooden staircase to the third floor, it overlooked the dining area of the restaurant.  In the third floor, there were a few rooms, like offices perhaps.  One of them had a light on inside, behind a sheet that covered the door way.  I walked in, and there was a man standing in there.  He was an artist of some sort, definitely a hint of mystery about him.  He was in his 30s, black hair, thin black beard and mustache, and dressed like you’d expect someone from the early 1900s to dress with a tightly fit vest and sleeves rolled up.  He seemed welcoming and asked if I was interested in buying the building.  I told him that I didn’t remember the building being there when I was a kid, so I knew that it was not a permanent building.  I was so very impressed with potential of the place though, so I asked him how I could be sure people would be able to get to it if I did buy it and try to reopen it to the public.  He seemed entertained that I had figured out the building was a sort of “traveling” building.  Then I came up with the idea that I’d have to market it as a place where you could visit in your dreams.  Only such a lovely place could be rationalized as existing in a dream world.

We shook hands.  I woke up.

This one will be a story, within a story…where’s Christopher Nolan when you need him?

I wanted to make some martini one night, and I didn’t have any vodka.  Deirdre and Jordan were out and planning on coming over later, so I asked them to swing by the state store to pick up some vodka for me.  They wound up at my mom’s house, got distracted and lost track of time, and the wound up staying late enough to miss their chance to stop at the state store on their way home.  They mentioned their predicament to my mom, and she said that she thought she actually had a bottle of vodka that they could have.

The fact that my mom had a bottle of vodka was unusual alone, but as we would find out, this bottle of vodka was no ordinary bottle of vodka.  She went into her bedroom and pulled a tall blue box from her closet.  This box had been in her closet for about 10 years, when it came from my grandfather’s kitchen, where it had been sitting for another 20 or so years.

As the story goes, when my parents were living in Maryland, near Washington, D.C. in the late 70s,  my grandmother had gone down to spend some time with them around Christmas.  While she was down there, they went to the mall, and in one of the stores, my grandmother found a lady’s purse with a wallet in it.  My grandmother took it to the counter, but with her faith in humanity, she decided she did not trust the clerk not to take the cash, so she decided she would take the responsibility to return it to its owner herself.  They went home, looked up the person in the phone book, and the lady on the other end was delighted to know she had her wallet!  The lady gave her address to my grandmother to return it in person.  As they approached the house, they realized this was The USSR Ambassador’s house, and the lady’s wallet was the ambassador’s wife.  In exchange for the good deed, my grandmother was given this box of vodka, straight from the U.S.S.R.

And here it sits; unopen and slowly becoming a part of world history as an product of a country that no longer exists.  I was flabbergasted that my mom would just send this 35 year old bottle of vodka up and expect me just to crack it open and drink it.  This is a unique item!  this is an heirloom!

Here’s an update on some Hill District projects:

YMCA: This is going in 2 blocks from my house on Centre Avenue. It is currently slated for an early 2012 completion. Should be awesome to have an indoor basketball court and pool so close! Also, it’ll be one of the city’s largest green certified buildings. Post-Gazette

Grocery Store: Shop ‘n Save has committed to putting in a full service store (FINALLY!). It is scheduled to be completed in November of 2011. This is going to be 3 blocks from my house. Post-Gazette

Consol Energy Center: The new home of the Pens will be opening with Paul McCartney on August 15th. On my walk to work, it’s looking just about done from the outside. still some paint, shrubs, and lights to finish though. It’s on its way to being the highest LEED certified sports center in the nation. http://www.consolenergycenter.com/

Connelley School: At the upper corner of the Mellon Arena’s top parking lot, there’s this old school that has been closed due to asbestos. Now, there’s money to convert it into a place for green start ups and research facility for Pittsburgh Green Innovators. Seems like a pretty cool thing.Post-Gazette

Pharmacy: Duquesne has announced they’d open a pharmacy in the Hill. I’m not sure exactly which store front it’s going in, perhaps the old Carnegie Library Space? That might be too large though. It is slated for later this year. >Post-Gazette

Cambria suites Hotel: The hotel in between the Washington Plaza apartments and Consol Energy Center is close to being structurally done. It has all the blocks in place, now just time to brick it up and put some windows in and finish the interior. Looks like it will open in December 2010. More & pictures

Kaufmann Auditorium: Right next to the Hill House, they’re making a bunch of modernizations and upgrades to this auditorium. Plans also include an outdoor amphitheater. link

Dinwiddie Street: Not sure what all is included here, but they are tearing down a bunch of abandoned houses and blight. I think they plan to build new houses, but maybe it will be apartments. I’m watching the HDCG for updates.

Pardon the political post.

United States of America.  My arse.  I am terrified about the Health Care Reform billed being passed this past Sunday.  I’m not terrified about the unknown long-term impacts or affects, or even the reconciliation package that is outstanding.  What I’m most scared about is that NOT A SINGLE REPUBLICAN voted for it.  There are 178 of them, and not a single one voted, "YES"???  That’s effing scary for quite a few reasons.

1. Can we honestly believe that every single district they represent didn’t want the bill?  Do we really assume that each one was overwhelming enough against it, that not a single representative teetered on voting "yes"?
2. If members of the Republican party are all going to vote the same way, can’t we just get rid of them and their salaries and get 1 person to represent the group?  Making this a Dems vs Reps opposition is not productive.  Get over yourselves and start thinking for yourself  THE PEOPLE YOU REPRESENT.

So they aren’t being true to their responsibility to the American people, they are wasting tax-payer money and time, and they are also creating a schism in the way our government works.  Our government was not set-up to be 2 entities deciding what is best for our country.  THAT’S EFFING WHY WE HAVE SO MANY OF YOU SUITS IN WASHINGTON.  If all they do is echo the sentiments of everyone else in their cute little party, then let’s get some consolidating going and get rid of everyone without a brain of their own and save some money and time listening to them ramble on and on.

Even George Washington said, "The common and continual mischiefs of the spirit of party are sufficient to make it the interest and duty of a wise people to discourage and restrain it.
It serves always to distract the Public Councils, and enfeeble the Public Administration. It agitates the Community with ill-founded jealousies and false alarms; kindles the animosity of one part against another, foments occasionally riot and insurrection."

Having agendas based on parties is like having big businesses run the government.  I can’t think of any argument in favor of that happening.  Each representative loses their individuality and becomes part of the group think machine.  They are no longer defending the views and rights of the people who elected them.  

And now we’re talking about creating new political parties???  These things are popping up like fraternities.

Watch this Jesse Ventura interview on Larry King – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2yr46X8f4ww

I was coming home from my uncle’s last night and was day-dreaming and ended up missing my exit and wound up on the North Shore.  I decided to take this as an opportunity to check out all the development going on over there.  The casino garage looks just about done and the casino itself seems to have all the walls up from the outside.  there’s at least 1 hotel in the works by PNC park, and I think another building in construction as well.  They razed the sportsworks complex to make way for the northshore T connector already.  One thing I couldnt explain, is the construction around the the Manchester Bridge Pier near Heinz Field.  It looks like they cut a hole in it or something.  So I went to research mode.

Turns out, it’s going to be the new Mr. Rogers monument.  It was supposed to be completed in Fall 2008, but I guess they hit some major delays.  I found a few articles that said the 10 foot scultpure of him is already done and sitting in a warehouse somewhere since may 2008.  That’s a long time.  This looks like a pretty cool place though.  I’m almost concerned that the northshore is going to become something like washington DC with all the monuments along the Mall.  Either way, I’m happy to see new stuff, especially for Mr. Rogers.

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07144/788654-53.stm

In follow up to my previous posts about wanting to collect dirt from around the country in small jars and display them…It looks like the Natural History Museum in Washington, DC has already done that in their soil exhibit.  Kind of ruins it for me now…not so sure this one is still on my list of things to do.  Here’s a video of the exhibit i took this weekend.

Over the summer, I was on the North Shore looking at Mt. Washington and I thought it’d be great to have a building that stretches from the top all the way down to carson street.  You could still put plants and stuff on the roof, but it’d be great to have another way to connect Grandview Avenue with the city below.  Some new business men want to do just that.  They’ll take Edge Restaurant, which has been closed for 20 years, and turn it into condos, a hotel, and spa.  The wow factor comes in with a staircase along the whole mountain side though.  That will be the landmark that sets pittsburgh apart from anywhere else.  I’m seeing it at a place for fitness events like the urbanathlon.  Swim down the allegheny, run from PNC Park to Station Square, then up the stairs.  It’ll take a while for sure, but they threw out 2011 for a date.

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/08263/913415-53.stm?cmpid=news.xml

Alright, first things first.  I ran my first ever 5k on Saturday.  I finished in pretty much 30 minutes flat.  I crossed the line at ~30:09 and I was in the back of the starting line, so take some time to cross the line.  It was on mount washington’s grandview drive, and then part of that hill that connects it to the liberty tunnel, so there were some crazy hills that i was not prepared for.  I definitely walked some of those hills.  I also ran 6 miles in an hour last thursday, so I’m feeling a little less worried about Urbanathlon.  My goal was just to finish it without being last, but if i keep going like this, i might actually be able to build a goal time and work on shaving time off of that.  I know the stairs are going to kill me, so i might start practicing on the 44 stories of the office building.  Wish me luck!

Now, as some of you may be in the loop, i’ve encountered a wonderful lady friend.  Ask me someday about how we met and i’ll tell you the story in person.  Anyway, we’ve had nothing but fun in the past month or so.  We’ve got a lot to learn about each other, and a lot of tough ground to cover, but I think she’s amazing.  I’m flying out to the state of california this friday to meet her family and such since her brother is getting married.  We’re going to go to disneyland and have a great time.  I’ll report back when I get back. 

Finally got my raise i was expecting at work too.  I’m going to keep trying to make more than twice my age, then i can retire with my goal of making 6 figures.  I’m not driven by money, i would just like to say that i made 6 figures.  Work’s getting better too.  I’ve got a lot of projects, so i’m keeping very busy. 

Going to the warped tour with erik on tuesday.  I havent been there since i was in high school I think.  can’t say that i’m excited to spend my day off there, but oh well.  Maybe i’ll take a book and read on the lawn.  How old would that make me look?  fun stuff.

Josh Hall project show coming up on august 24th…and we have yet to practice.  tim is talking about staying out in philly for an extra week.  I’m going to be away until the 11th, and andy has family coming in around the 15th or so and they want to take a trip that would have carried into the show, but he’ll come back for it, even though he wants to be away for as long as he can before…so basically it comes down to us MAYBE getting 1 or 2 practices together…this is going to be interesting for sure.

Next time you’re with a friend on top of Mount Washington looking down at the fountain at point state park, ask them how many rivers there are.  If they’re completely clueless of pittsburgh’s history, I could see someone saying just 2, assuming that either the mon or the allegheny river just flow into the other.  If they said 3, they’re still wrong.  It’s straight out of a DaVinci code or Nationaly Treasure plotline, but the fountain is actually supplied by an underground water souce.  I’ve always known this, but a recent article in the paper reminded me of that fact.  So the real answer would be 4 rivers would be in plain sight.

for more on the under ground "river" – http://www.clpgh.org/exhibit/neighborhoods/point/point_n77.html

Had a small dream last night where i was at my dad’s funeral, but it was in washington DC. Afterwards, my step-dad, Chris, and I walked out of the funeral home, and across the river you could see the lincoln memorial, but it had 7 circular rotundas in a semi-circle around it, each one about 25 feet in diameter. Chris said that he knew the name for the display, and they seemed very familiar, as if they were some monument from somewhere else, just relocated for a seasonal event. We just kept on walking down the street, and my cousin adam was riding a bike down the side walk, and he hit a spot of uneven pavement, and flipped over the handlebars and hit his head on the street. I went over to help him up. He was a little shaken, but fine otherwise. It was just me and him then, and we were going to continue walking down the street to meet up with my mom and sisters. We walk to this dead end street, and on the opposite side of the street, 2 teenagers got into a car, and broadsided an empty parked mini-van about 20 feet away from them and then drove off. We just looked at eachother like, “what the crap was that about” then, another 2 kids got into another car, and drove head to head into a bronco looking empty parked car. They backed up and did it again, and we assumed it was the car of the first 2 kids. then, this is where it gets graphic.
they had a deer (looking animal, it was larger like a camel) tied up next to their house, and a duck, that was actually more of a cartoon duck like daffy duck. the duck had arms and had a very animated face. anyway, they took a rope, tied it to the car they were in, threw it around a power line crossing the street, then took it back 40 some feet and attached it to the deer’s collar. then they tie another rope to the bumper, and the other end around the duck’s neck. the duck grabbed the rope with both hands, like begging for his life. Adam and i are just standing across the street on this porch of a house that we think everyone else should be at watching this go on in disgust. so the car starts to drive away, drags both animals for about 30 feet, the deer scraping his stomach on the street, and the duck tumbling around. Since the deer’s rope was tied around the power line, it started to get pulled up vertically, as if being hung. It got pulled up around 5 feet in the air, and from being drug on the street, a whole had torn through its skin on its stomach. intestines and stuff jsut startting falling out through this hole, and it was freaking out. so they cut it the rope above it, and it started to run back to where it was besides their house. At that point, adam and i just walked back the way we came, and a block or two down, we found everyone else.