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?

Jackson’s Mill Fall 2019

I spent this past weekend with friends at a spiritual Conference in West Virginia. It is always such a great time. It is held at Jackson's Mill 4H Camp and we try to go three times a year! I get to room with my awesome friend Laura every time and we are perfect roomies together!

This year was amazing weather the entire weekend! Hot and sunny and no rain at all! Perfect weather for walking around in the country and hanging with 300 of your favorite people!! Here is a picture in front of one of the old, original log cabins that stand on the site.

Below is a picture across the campus...this is the mess hall were we go to eat every meal. It is all included in the price for the weekend and the food is amazing!! It is served family style at each table so you pass the bowls of food around to everyone at your table. It is also all you eat so you can really overeat if you do not watch yourself...here is the menu everytime...

Friday Lunch - Vegetable soup, ham salad or chicken salad on bread or croussants and side salad.
Friday Dinner - Fried Chiken, mashed potatoes and gravy, corn
Saturday Breakfast - cereal, toast, oatmeal, eggs, sausage patties, sausage gravy and biscuits
Saturday Lunch - Lasagna and garlic bread and side salad
Saturday Dinner - Roast beef,mashed potatoes and gravy and green beans 
Sunday Breakfast - cereal, toast, oatmeal, eggs, bacon, sausage gravy and biscuits

Delish, right!?!?! See that theme...GRAVY! YUM!




This is the theme for the weekend!


A picture of some of my very favorite people! That lady that photo bombed in the back with glasses was hilarious! She is sooo super funny - one of my favorite people!


This is my friend and roomie Laura indicating the Lodge where we stay each time w go.



Here is another view of the campus...


And another...



I just instantly relax as soon as we drive up to these gates....


Every time we visit we stop at the Jane Lew Truck Stop to get a picture in front of this painting. It is a painting by Charlotte Gerlach of the Civil war with Jesus right in the middle of it with a gun. It is my opinion that it is Jesus but I have not confirmed that with the painter and many do not agree with me. But I make them visit every time and get a picture. This time, we added three new friends to the trip; Stu on the far left and Robyn in purple and Paula on the far right behind Laura. Paula agrees with me that it is Jesus...I only need confirmation from one and she is it! Someday I hope to connect with Charlotte Gerlach and find out for sure. Let me know if you know her! I am pointing to Jesus in the picture.


We stopped off at the Trans-Atlantic Insane Asylum since we were all out and about in Bruce's minivan.  The asylum in closed and they do historical and scary tours. We opted for historical since I wanted to sleep at night. Here are Bruce and Stu posing with a lovely cut out lady...

And here is our whole crew out front for a picture. If you have never been here; you should check it out. In the Fall they have a haunted house and also a fall festival going on out in front - it is awesome! If it is not fall, they still off tours all year round.

This is Laura waiting for our tour to begin in her favorite chair......

This is what they used to do shock therapy on patients...check out the sign....crazy that this was therapy!!! UGH!

Here is a close up of what it says...

Here is a photo from the inside of the grounds...the shorter right side of that building was built before the civil war and housed those injured by PTSD in the civil war (although it was not called that then)

Picture of the building that housed rooms and patients.

Another...

After the tour we went back to Jackson's Mill. That evening after dinner and speaker (which was Paula actually) we had an awesome sing along on the outside patio of the speaker hall!

It was a perfect end to a perfect weekend! I can not wait until the Winter Round Up!!

I hope you all have a fantastic week ahead!! HUGS to you all!

Friends Friday...

Happy Monday everyone!!

I had a fantastic weekend and I hope everyone else did also!!!

The weekend started off with meeting up wiht a great friend of mine John.

We have been friends for years and we make sure to get together for our birthdays every year.

I took this picture since I was teasing him about his CLAM-SHELL phone! Yes, you read that right, he still has a clam-shell phone! He will not cave and get a smart phone! HA HA!

After getting home from spending time with John; I took out my trash to our condo dumpster area...this is what greeted me! Ahhhh! Scared the crap out of me actually!!! WOW! He popped right out of the dumpster and just hing there waiting for me to leave! HA! What a cutie...but definitely scary!


Saturday morning I planted my flowers and herbs for the year. Remember that plant that was aphid infected? I returned them to Costso and they gave me a full refund. I ran to a local grower near my home and bought all of these...first a new Mandaville...


And a clematis...


This is got before; it is the one with the baby birds in it...


This is curley parsley, oregano and thai basil...


Regular basil...


My mint ...delicious!!!


Catnip (of course)...


and my fuscia from before...


After planting was finished; I went up to my parents house for the weekend.

Every Memorial Day (after we honor the fallen) we celebrate all the family birthdays in May and put in all the lake toys for summer!!!  Which means it is time for lake fun to start!

That post will follow soon!!!

Hugs everyone!

Thankful Thursday

This week I am joining Rebecca Jo at Knit By God's Hands for her Thankful Thursday!

Even though she is having struggles after surgery she is still hosting this week...way more of a trooper than I would be under those circumstances!! Please send her your prayers and blessings!!

This week I am thankful...

- That I am booked on a flight to Aruba in two days!!! I am so excited to escape this Pittsburgh weather!!! Ready to be in the steady 88 degrees that is One Happy Island!!!  Ahhhhhhhhhhh...

- That I have the world's best cat sitter and house sitter ever!!! This woman is amazing and she loves my babies as if they are her own! She was always so tolerant of my dumb requests to send pictures and videos (until I got the cameras) and she really loves them as much as I do! I have very skittish cats that don't even really come out for my family members and they crawl all over her and her husband!! It is great to know that my home and pets are well cared for - there is NOTHING like peace of mind when you are away!!!!

- That as of now I have a job. This next year I will be learning a new job function and I am really looking forward to it!!

- That my last "lady" doctors visit I told her about my hot flashes and she thinks she has something that will help. She has prescribed generic Prozac (Fluoxetine -Selective Serotonin Re-uptake Inhibitor) for me?? At first I was like....what?!?! Then she explained that this is what they are using in place of hormone replacement (since it has been shown to cause breast and ovarian cancer). I am not starting the new medicine until I return from my trip since I don't want to have any negative side effects while out of the country! HA! I will keep you posted on how it works. She also mentioned that is an appetite suppressant so it may help in the diet arena too. WIN WIN! HA HA!

- And, as always, for my family, friends (real and bloggy) and God! You will ALL always be on my gratitude list!

I hope everyone has an amazing rest of their day and I can not wait to go see what everyone else is thankful for!!!!!  Hugs!!!

Any one else dealt or dealing with hot flashes? What are you doing or taking to minimize them? Do you have someone watch your house when you are away? What do you do with your pets? What are you thankful for??

Back to School Pivot

My sister is taking her youngest son to college today for his Sophomore year. When I spoke to her after they loaded up the minivan and sprinter she mentioned that they are going to have to move a heavy sofa couch into his place.

From what I understand; it belonged to one of the other kids friends and they decided not to take it back to school because it is so heavy.  My nephew saw it in the garage and decided it is perfect for his room at school! LOL!

My sister and brother-in-law loaded the sofa couch into the sprinter and she said it was horribly heavy so they are not sure how they are going to get it up three flights and into his room at school!!

It totally reminded of one of my favorite episodes of Friends. I will leave you with this laugh for today as I sit at work and picture my sister and brother-in-law pivoting the sofa bed up to the third floor!




Wish them luck - please!!!!!

Good luck and have a great sophomore year Matthew!!!!

Any one else love the show Friends? Anyone else moving kids into school? The old shows were so much better - what is your favorite show from "back then"?

Tweaked the Plan...

Happy Friday Everyone!!!!!!!!!!!

So...Anyone who knows me has heard of my struggle over the past few years to finally lose A LOT of extra weight!!

All together I am down a lot (over one hundred pounds) and until the past year or so doing really well.

Over the past year I have struggled a lot- maintained a lot - and gained just a little ....but it has been a yo yo between 10 lbs up and 10 lbds down. I just was not serious about it anymore - got comfortable with less than my best effort!

I have to write this post to solidify it to me - my issue has SOLEY been eating at night!

This past week I started a weight watching "contest" with two close friends (Donna and Colleen)...we are weighing in on Mondays and at the end of each month whichever one of us loses the most that month gets a paid lunch out from the other two. I fingured this would finally get me serious again about losing!!!!!!
I ALWAYS exercise every day and this week since it is the start of this new "contest" and since work has been crazy I have not gone to the gym even one day and I am losing on average a little under a pound a day!!!!!!!! So, here is what I learned...

1. apparently I eat alot at night after 6PM. I am not eating anything after 6PM now and every night this week I am constantly getting up and heading to the kitchen for a little snack - then I catch myself and go sit down. I never realized how one handfuls of almonds, an apple, a skinny cow, a bite of cheese, a bite of Walt's icecream, a gummy worm, a little of this or that, etc. all adds up - each one is little and meaningless calorie wise but after ten trips of that - IT ADDS UP!!! I just never couted those points or paid attention to those calories lately until now - so my issue all along has been the night snacking - WOW!!!!!!! LIGHT BULB GETS BRIGHT!!!!!!

So that is the answer to my Plateau and I must say that every evening is a struggle!!! I keep telling myself I am not hungry and drinking tea and water all night but it is HARD!!!!!!! It is such a habit for me at night to pick in food that I am halfway to the kitchen when I realiaze that I am not allowed to eat anything - LOL!!!!

I just want to lose this weight for good and then maintain!!

I will keep you posted on my progress....I am just sooooo happy to have made this realization and now finally can lose the rest of this weight-if I can keep my mouth shut after 6PM

:-)

!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thanks for listening~~~~~~~~

Taste Tasters - yummmmmmmmmmmmmmm!

I will actually combine a few in this....
I have lots of pictures to post....yeah!!!!!!!!!!

This is Theo - it is a friend of ours' son and he is such a peanut....This was taken at a picnic we went to a week ago.

Here is Waliacha (Walt) at that same party....playing with the Camel puppet...and people wonder why I LOVE this man!!?!!?!!

This is one of our favorite couples to hang out with - they are sooooo much fun and we get together and just laugh and laugh!!!!!!!!

Here is a picture of a place where I led on Wednesday....very strange....we are all used to meetings in the basements of churches....but this one was at a mall.....very interesting!! Great group of people in Charleroi!!!!!!

And here it the title of the post!!! I got this card to call a number and get free Red Robin food to help with training the staff.......sooooo yummy!!! Here is when we went.....last night for date night and we took our favorite couple with us!!! It was awesome!!!! Best burger ever.......and free!!!

This is a horrible picture of me but I have to post as we got to pose with the Red Robin!!!!!! Yeah us!!!!!

And here is our favorite couple....they brought us a huge piece of chocolate ice cream cake to share also.....sooooooooooooo yummy!!!

Another icky one of me and Waliacha....I hate myself in pics....hope someday that changes (my hair is definitely growing again though!!!!) getting a little longer!!!

Anyway, that's it!!!

Thanks Red Robin!!!

We WILL be back when it opens on May 10th!!!!

And we will pay.....it was that good!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

If you have not eaten there, you should - it was soooooo yummy and the staff is sooo friendly!!!!!!

And no, this is not a paid endorsement...but I would not turn down free food!!!!!!!!!!