Lightening and Thunder...Oh My!

I awoke early this morning to the sound of pounding rain.  And then I saw flashes of light through my window followed by the low rumbling of thunder.  It was so cool!  I love thunder and lightening storms (especially when I'm tucked away cozy in bed).  And I love even more that when I got up this morning at my usual time, the rain had stopped, and it is a rather lovely Fall day.  That's right, Fall is upon me.  I even went for a little jog and enjoyed the turning/falling leaves.  So fellow Californians, I'm finally experiencing real seasons.  Its kinda fun.  Then again, I'm not going to love it so much when it happens in the middle of the day and I have to get to campus and the bus is mean and doesn't pick me up (again).  But until that happens, I'm going to enjoy my 6am thunder storms.

Rainy Day

Its been a cold, rainy day here in the 'Burgh.  We recently realized that our downstairs neighbors control the heat for our 2 apartments.  Unfortunately for me, Spencer is from Massachusetts and when I went down there earlier bundled up to investigate the heating situation, he was hanging out with  his window open, fan on and in a short sleeved shirt.  After fiddling with the thermostat, we were unsuccessful in turning the heat on and I don't know what I'm going to do when real winter sets in.  Although, the roommate and I have discovered a makeshift space heater-  The oven!  The kitchen was so nice and toasty after making dinner, that once it started to get cold again, we decided to make Baked Apples as a study break treat and to provide some warmth (yeah, that's a fancy Saturday night in grad school, be jealous).
Before going into the oven:

20 Minutes later:

My study break treat, so tasty:

In other, more fun news, I got to go to the Dodger game last night.  Sadly, they didn't have a good night.  But it was fun to go downtown and have a study break.  We saw lots of G20 security, but no protesters or official G20 activity.  We luckily had dry weather after rain on Thursday.  The skyline looked beautiful and we enjoyed $1 hotdogs (although they don't make up the absence of pre-game Phillipe's tradition).

Also, don't tell Hannah, but I made a new friend when we got home:

Kayaking the Allegheny

Today is my one month anniversary with Pittsburgh and my roommate.  To celebrate, yesterday we took advantage of free kayaking for students and had an amazing time.  We were the only people out on the water and it was a beautiful late afternoon.  And to further the celebration, we went out for delicious pizza and beer.  So good!  So fun!  But unfortunately I'm back to the reality of having tons and tons of reading and homework to be doing this weekend.
I'm also struggling with a decision about my status next weekend.  Thursday class has been cancelled due to anticipated craziness from the G20.  And no work on Friday.  I'm trying to decide if I should skip town or stay to watch the protesters.  Also, Obama is going to be here and I'm half convinced if I mill around long enough I'll get to see him.  But realistically, that's probably not going to happen.  So, here are some make shift options:
-Go visit Heather in Chicago.  Would require purchasing a last minute ticket and dealing with crazy airport traffic.
-Go crash with my dad's cousin Paul in Cleveland, another place I've never been and within driving distance.
-Go visit Paige in NYC- could potentially be time consuming, and might also have to encounter the airport
-Go to Canada/Niagra Falls
-Stay in Pittsburgh, away from the crazies, and be a good student

Sorry Dad...

But I cut my hair....and i went SHORT!!!  I'm totally loving the new 'do right now.  And I'm thinking/hoping it will be easy to maintain.  And if not, there's a hat at target I've had my eye on.

Beautiful sunny day

Its a Beautiful sunny day in Pittsburgh and I'm spending it inside working on homework and reading. I guess I will mind less when its cold and miserable, but right now I just want to run and play
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Croatian Invasion!

The Croatian invaded Pittsburgh and we had a wonderful time exploring the city together.  Sasha flew in Saturday night and I took him to one of my favorite spots- Church Brew Works.  They have delicious brick oven pizzas and brew their own beer.  Its all very very tasty.  We even tried a Pittsburgh's Pierogi for the first time.  Interesting...tasty, but good.
Saturday was our day of exploration.  We had lunch and then headed over to the Andy Warhol museum on the North Shore.  We saw PNC park while a Pirate's game was going on and stumbled upon a really cool staircase water fountain where there were people cooling off in the water.  Saturday evening we enjoyed a quite dinner and movie in Squirrel Hill which is within walking distance of my apt.
Unfortunately, the weather on Monday was not as nice.  It was raining on and off all day.  But we managed to get some more walking in, and explored South Side.  Sasha even helped me mount a mirror on the wall before he left.  What a lovely and handy  guy.  It was a great weekend and I'm looking forward to more visitors from home!