Northpark Lounge

In Pittsburgh, we have a restaurant chain called Northpark Lounge. They have really good bar food and big salads and soups. It’s a chain so there are five locations around Pittsburgh. 

This location near McKnight Road did something really neat when Covid started! They created a whole outdoor, socially distant dining experience!! So you know we had to go check it out!!!

Last week I met up with two girlfriends of mine. We used to do all kinds of volunteer work together for CysticFibrosis but alas, due to Covid, we haven’t had any fundraisers to volunteer at this year. We have a meeting about once a month for dinners just to keep in touch. Here is the view of the greenhouses from the parking lot. Sooo cute!

There is between 8 and 10 of these little green houses outside of the building. There’s a picnic table inside each greenhouse so your little group is socially distance from everyone else. They’re cleaned every time someone new moves into them. They also have a 90 minute time limit to keep people from sitting in them for excessive length of time and not allowing others a chance to dine there. Along with the houses, They have also set up a ton of other picnic tables and chairs outside of the restaurants there are many options to eat outside there.

I should have taken a picture of our food because it looked and tasted amazing!  We all got very different things but they were all delicious!

And here we are!!! As you can see my weight has skyrocketed during Covid but I am working on getting it under control ASAP. At least it is headed in the right direction now. Ugh-I think it is officially a lifelong battle! Ha! Ha!

If you’re in the Pittsburgh area you should definitely check this out. It’s a lot of fun and a great way stay safe while eating out!

So, I am trying to stay positive and also trying to stay busy and keep up with friends. I have a few interviews scheduled and I will definitely keep you guys up-to-date on what happens.

I’m so happy to be back with you all in blogging again! Hugs to each and everyone of you and stay safe out there!

Dinner Out with Friends

I am happy to report that I finally went out to dinner with friends for the very first time in months the other night!!! It has been so long since I had a night dinner out with friends. (Side note - restaurants here in Southwestern PA are again closed so it's good we got it in before they closed again - HA!)

I met up with two of my favorite people; Kathy and Carol.

We met up at the Walnut Grille in Fox Chapel. This required me to drive over the rivers in Pittsburgh and head to the "other side of the city" from The South Hills. If you live in Pittsburgh you know what I mean.

We rarely travel over the river to other areas - HA!

here we are in our outdoor seating on the patio. Now masks were required when you got to you table outdoors. We did however keep social distance and no hugging....sadly! I felt super safe though.

Carol brought Kathy and I a birthday cake! Mine was in May and Kathy in June. We had not been able to get together since February!!! WOW! She is sooo super thoughtful - it was delicious!

One more picture before parting ways. Dinner lasted for 4 hours - we had so much to catch up on!!  I love these ladies!!! We are planning a Top Golf ladies get together at the end of July if it is still open then - fingers crossed.

That day I got new masks from my company. They sent each employee two and they are super comfy - thanks Bayer!! I am going to be so sad when my time there is over - it's getting closer every day :-(

I hope everyone is happy and safe!!

Thanks for stopping by and HUGE HUGS TO EVERYONE!!

Have you eaten out in a restaurant yet? Have you met up with friends at all? Did you feel safe? Do you know anyone that has been infected with Covid 19? Are you safe and well? How are you feeling today?

That Time I Stuck A New Bathroom Floor

I spent a lot of quarantine time doing small home projects.  

My favorite was my bathroom floor and it was so simple!

I had old, dark vinyl floor tiles in my bathroom and I just did not like how they looked anymore. I thought about doing Pergo, like I have in the rest of my condo, but I found this awesome product instead. My bathroom floor is not level so Pergo would be super difficult and this was super easy!

It only took like 2 hours for the whole thing!!

Here is what I bought at Home Depot... one box was about $30 and that was all I needed for my small bathroom. 

Here is the before picture. See the dark, dark floor?? It looked awful next to my new wood floors in the hallway. So i removed the quarter round the whole way around the floor and started peeling and sticking.

Here is the first new plank on the floor!!!

These "planks" are just peel and stick and were sooo simple!!

Here is the completed floor....

This is a close-up of the hardest part. I had to cut around the sink and toilet and that was pretty easy too after a little practice. 

Another tricky piece to cut!

All in all, it was about two hours to lay the whole thing! Sooo  easy and I LOVE how it turned out.

Here is the side by side comparison...

I can not wait to show you all of the other little projects I did. 

At least something good came out of quarantine.

Oh, and PS - I went to dinner for the first time at a restaurant with friends last night. It was great! I loved seeing them. We ate on the porch at Walnut Grille and it was fantastic to be out and about town again!!

I hope everyone as an amazing weekend!!! HUGS to you all!

Day 1 - Arrival in Aruba!!

So I got up at the crack of dawn… 3 AM this morning… and I was off to Pittsburgh International Airport. Today's the day I begin my vacation! I hadn't even gotten to the airport and I was already missing my babies…

Once on the plane and spent the rest of my flight time watching episodes of The Office. I was laughing out loud the entire trip!  I swear that show gets funnier the more you watch it! 

Next thing I knew we were getting ready to land… This is the flight tracker that was on my screen on the plane…

 And this is the view out my neighbors window… I had the aisle seat and he was kind enough to let me snag a picture out the window.   My neighbor on the plane also travels for work and he paid for his trip with his points also. We both determined that it's a pretty good trade off… LOL! 

 I had to post these pictures. My rental car the first two days is with National because I had two free days rental that I wanted to make sure that I used. On Monday I return it and swap it out with Hertz. The car that National gave me is almost too scary to drive… LOL!  Before I even put the car in drive it said it needed an oil change and then it was giving me a tire pressure air. It's covered in dings on the outside. I ran back in to make sure that this was not a problem and they said no it's fine to drive. I have to say I'm really happy that in two days I will take this back and get a real rental from Hertz!

Ugh...seriously?! Ha

 I saw this beautiful home on my drive from the airport to the hotel. Could you imagine how amazing this place can look if someone bought it and fixed it up! It is amazing looking now… I'm in love with Aruba! 

Apparently it is fashion weekend here in Aruba! They are here doing runway is on the pier through Sunday. I kept looking for the Kardashians  but I did not see them LOL!

I  walked across the street after I checked into my hotel and had dinner at a super cute restaurant on the water called The Paddock! This was my view for my meal.   Just a little trivia… The ship in the background is called Aida Perla (it is owned by Carnival) and it has a nudist only pool on the 18 floor of the ship.  Don't ask me how the people here know that but it is a fact. I googled it to see if it's true! Ha!

This was dinner! Ribs were the special with a delicious pasta salad and side of potato something. I can't remember what the waiter called them.

This little crab was walking down the pier as I ate and then he slipped back into water!!! Sooo cute!!! I am glad I got ribs and not seafood! 

Here us a tour of my room… This is the view when you open the door.

This is a view of my bathroom… Love the shower!

Super awesome toiletries are always a plus!

And this is a really great mixture of complementary toiletries!

 Two robes in my closet… I think I'll be swapping these out! Anyone else like to wear the robe in a hotel? Just makes me feel fancy - ha ha! 

This is the view out my balcony… I can look at other peoples balconies and the hallway. Can't complain when you're getting your room comped for hotel points.

 My bed and my little sitting area… Please excuse the mess I had already moved in. 

 And the view of the other side of the room which is the TV in the dresser…

 So Saturday night after I got settled in the room and went to dinner; I came home to review my day tomorrow. I found a note they had put under my door inviting me to spend a free $25 in slot play at the casino. It was early so I've ventured over… I came across this tree on my way in our lobby.   So pretty… There's my Christmas tree! 

 I gave them my name and got my $25 in free slot play and guess what? After about 10 minutes of playing my machine had me up $126. Then it started going down again.  I kept thinking it was going to get lucky again so I kept playing until I got down close to 100. I finally forced myself to cash out at  $100.75!!!

So I quit while I was ahead and left a winner! I really made $100 because it was their $25 in free play and I spent! I'll probably lose it by the end of the week but I feel like a winner tonight!

 I hope you all had a wonderful Saturday! I'm exhausted and I am off to bed… Hopefully I'll be able to sleep in  A little before breakfast tomorrow! Tomorrow morning depending on when I get up I plan to go to the island and I have the catamaran and snorkeling tomorrow. I'll get lots of pictures! 

 Have a great night y'all! Thanks for reading! 

 Do you gamble and play slots? Do you quit while you're ahead or just play until it's gone? Do you have a favorite machine? 

Day two - afternoon in Kauai

Hi y’all!!! Hope all my friends are having a great week!!!!

Monday afternoon we were all set to go on our first adventure! We were going tubing down and old sugarcane river!!!! Here is what was to come...only a little wetter!!! Ha ha!

Feral Chickens and roosters are wild everywhere here...they escaped when there was a natural disaster back in 1992 and the population exploded - you can read more about it here. These guys were running around outside of the Backcountry Adventures  office where we went for tubing. I thought it was neat that all three look totally different.


We went tubing with Backcountry Adventures in Kauai.  The tubing adventure goes down an old propagation river through an old sugarcane plantation and through six different tunnels.  This is us with our gear ready to get driven to the river. Me in the middle and my mom on your left and and Sandy on your right.


Here we are in the river floating ready to start…

Here we are all lined up on our tubes ready to start...


Little tubing selfie-lol!!!!



Below are a few different videos of the adventure I took. I had a waterproof case for my phone and it worked awesome!!! If you are looking to go on a tour in Kauai, Hawaii...Backcountry Adventures is awesome! We did two different tours and EVERYONE we met connected with this tour company was AMAZING!

Video 1
Video 2
Video 3

We went and spent a few hours at the beach after our tubing adventure. We went to a new beach called shipwreck Beach in the swimming was amazing! The waves are so crazy strong here you just get thrown into forward rolls in the waves! It was a blast! There’s also a really cool rock that juts out into the water that everybody jumps from. Here’s a few people jumping...

https://www.facebook.com/annsterwolfe/videos/10156621407264513/

After a long day at the beach we came home showered and headed off to dinner. We ended up trying a place nearby called Bangkok Happy Bowl Thai Bistro and Bar with a sushi bar inside called Rock and Roll Sushi. It was delish! My mom and Sandy had pad Thai and I had sushi-yum!!

Soooooo good!

It was a really great day full of soooo much fun!!!!

Hope everyone back home and in blog land is also having a fabulous week!!! Hugs to all!!!

Baywood

Happy Thursday yinz!

Don't forget to enter my giveaway for FREE Jamberry Nails HERE!

Whats new with me? Nothing at all.

I had an amazing work dinner last night with collegues at an establishment that is privately owned by the company I work for and I am still feeling sooo stuffed from the amazing dinner!!

I will leave you with a couple of pictures from where we were! I love it there sooo much! We had filet and shrimp out on the back patio! Soo lovely!

Happy Thursday!

Guac Squak

The last time I was in Columbus my sister and sister-in-law insisted we eat at a favorite of theirs which is Chipotle.
It was amazing!!! Annnnnnnnnnd I am thrilled to announce that we now have one really close to work...this may be a good thing or it may be a horrible thing!!! I went there today and got a beef burrito and chips and guac and it was better than I remembered!!! Plus, I got to eat all the guac myself!!! I am full after 1/2 half bag of chips and the guac....
Guess the burrito will be tomorrows lunch!!! :-) :-) YUM YUM!!!!

YUM!!!

This is the craziness that is my condo building!! There are only 12 units in the whole building and there are five for sale!! What the heck is going on?!?!?! Maybe they are all trying to get away from me...LOL!!! The point is - it looks like crap with all these signs...lower your prices and sell already PLEASE!!!!

This is a picture of my patio with my birthday flag I put up for myself...I love love love my patio...I know, some people may say it is a little too much but I love it!!!

Waliach is taking me out to dinner tonight at Amel's for my birthday (as it is date night) and I will post lots of pics from that tomorrow...

Happy Thursday all! It is almost TGIF and the looooooong holiday weekend!!!!!!!!!!!!!