Pittsburgh

On the second weekend in November we had a gathering of Butlers in Pittsburgh.  Andrew and Mindy live just north of the city. Maryanne and Jared and the kids made the long pilgrimage back to the land of their residency from Iowa, and Tom and I drove across the state because - hey, Pittsburgh is a lot closer than Iowa.  It was a whirlwind of a weekend, but really fun.  We were grateful that the weather was gorgeous.

Below are photos of some of the highlights.  Unfortunately, we don't have any pictures from the other highlight of the weekend which, of course, was Saturday evening with Andrew and Mindy.  It was really fun to see them, to see their new house and to meet Elizabeth. The boys were hilarious and as exuberant as ever.  Almost as soon as we walked in the door Parker and Cole wanted to show us their room.  They told us that because of the sloping roofline in their room, they couldn't push the beds up against the walls.  They then proceeded to demonstrate how they could climb over the top of the bed, down to the floor on the opposite side and pop up from underneath.  We love those kids!!  We're so glad we get to see them more frequently now that they are in the same state. We also got to catch up with our good friends Jack and Maya who stayed with us for three months this summer - they really are sweet cats.  We ended up staying much later than we intended but see that as evidence that we were having a great time - we hope Andrew and Mindy see it the same way too.

Here are our adventures with Maryanne and Jared and the kids:

Delicious Indian food for lunch at the playground in Squirrel Hill:

Temporarily resting at the Science Museum:

On Sunday, we enjoyed the children's program at church and then ran into these two:

Levi and Emily (Nelson) Dean (this is such classic Emily that I had to post it).  It was really fun to see them.  We definitely got confused looks from some folks at church who wondered how on earth we knew each other - Brooklyn, of course!

Lunch after church at Schenley Park - the place was packed on such a gorgeous afternoon.

 I love this picture of Eli - too bad he was just about to throw the ball at the stroller.

Thankfully, Isaac didn't wake up.

It's funny how Pittsburgh seems so familiar and homey after visiting Maryanne and Jared there for so many years.  It was nice to see the usual sights and places and, of course get time to visit with lots of family and unexpectedly bump into old friends.  Unfortunately, after lunch, Tom and I had to say goodbye and head home.

My New Friend

I never thought I could be so excited about a new vacuum, but this thing is great.  Some of you have already heard my raves about it.  Here are the details with pictures. Our old vacuum was fantastic on the carpet in our old apartment, but we don't have carpet anymore and it was terrible on our hardwood floors.   I'm not expecting this one to perform on the carpets, but it is a master of the hardwood floors.

Here is what I love about it:

1.  It works - this thing has major suction.  I can see it pulling stuff out from the cracks in the floorboards (yes - our floors are that dirty). The suction is also adjustable with the little dial on the back so it doesn't eat the couch or rug or curtains (for those people who vacuum curtains).

2. It's light - somewhere around 12-13lbs.  I have been appreciating this more and more lately.

3. All of the wheels swivel.  This is an awful feature on an Ikea shopping cart - hello knees feeling like they're getting ripped apart - but something I can get behind in a vacuum. It follows more smoothly and it's easy to kick out of the way.

4. The attachments all hook into to a small collar at the base of the hose so it's really easy to switch between them.  There's no need to open the thing up.  The attachments aren't fancy, but work just fine for us.

5.   Telescoping wand - maybe the best thing ever.  Moving between floors, stairs, furniture and just getting into tight spots is so much easier because of this.  You also don't have to figure out where to put a section of the wand if you do take it out.  Look at all those notches!  That's a lot of flexibility!

6. It has built-in solutions to the problem of what to do with the wand that flops all over the place in storage.   A wedge (not the right word, but it isn't coming to me right now) on the back of the floor foot slides into a slot either on the back of the vacuum for storing it with the canister horizontally or a slot on the underside of the canister for vertical storage or to simply carry it all with one hand.  Also a strong contender for being the best thing ever.

7.  Its entertainment value - at least when you have a dopey cat who is more than willing to face off with it.  All other cats we have had, or that I know of, run and hide at the slightest movement of the vacuum - not Bert, he prepares for battle.

These are things I can get behind.