Everything's still coming up roses here in Pittsburgh. This morning I was musing about the many things I love about this place...
1. Wing Fat Hong, the asian market where I shopped yesterday for thai ingredients and Rob's beloved Sriracha sauce. Their merchandise is criminally cheap; I felt like I had committed a misdemeanor when I walked out with a cardboard box full of eats (cans of coconut milk, green curry paste, and sliced bamboo shoots, tins of white and oolong teas, brown jasmine rice, a package of cellophane noodles that could easily feed the Steelers, and chili sauce) having only paid the sweet, soft-spoken cashier $26. I towered over all the other customers, being the only caucasian I spied in the aisles. I so rarely get a chance to feel tall, so Wing Fat Hong, you'll be seeing me again soon!
2. Stillers Mania. Though their defeat last night by the Packers was painful and humbling, I've grown to really enjoy the ludicrous frenzy into which Pittsburghers whip themselves. Still owning no Steelers attire, I showed my support yesterday by wearing a golden yellow sweater over a black shirt, which actually looked pretty sharp. Saturday was the real day to people-watch, however. The entire Strip District, where the market is, is also home to countless vendors hawking Steelers paraphernalia. It's a gaudy, tacky, Steelers-lover's paradise. They were out in droves despite the rain and, terrible as this is, I was grateful for the minor fender-bender on Penn Ave., the main drag, for allowing me to freely walk on the street; the ordinarily crowded sidewalk was all but impassable with people stopped to purchase "Steelers Fans Bleed Black & Gold" t-shirts, Terrible Towels, and football-shaped baked goods. Nuts. I picked the wrong day to shop for bulk olive oil, finding the Pennsylvania Macaroni Company filled to the gills, making pre-Thanksgiving food shopping look piddly in comparison. I had half a mind to run screaming but I strengthened my resolve, gripped my red basket and pushed my way through the hoards and got my three liters of Spanish olive oil. Whew. No harm done. And though I suffer from a wee bit of agoraphobia, the passion is contagious, and I find dudes like this endearing:
3. The job opportunities! On Friday my wonderful Rob was offered a position at the zoo's Kids' Kingdom. Sure, he kind of felt like that was in the bag all along, and he's still waiting to hear about the education position there for which he interviewed, but it's nice to know that he'll be an official Pittsburgh Zoo employee in the near future. The Kids' Kingdom gig, while not quite as lucrative or illustrious, will be flexible enough to allow him to stay on at the aviary one day a week and me to stay at the market on the weekends. Either way, it's a win-win-win. And while I'm on the subject, I've been working on logos for my own place of employment. Cosi e Ferrari is undergoing a name change, so we will henceforce be known as Olio Fresca. We liked the old name better, but I didn't really have a say in the switch - I'm just the sign gal. Here's the rough draft of what will soon be our company design, with my obligatory hand-drawn font:
4. Local organic popcorn. On Friday at the market my Amish buddy, Mose, was selling little bags of golden nuggets - his neighbor's home-grown popcorn! I leapt about three feet into the air with unbridled glee; you see, Rob and I are always scouting local suppliers for our staples, and popcorn is at the top of the list. A dude at our neighborhood farmers' market just started bringing in bulk grains that he orders wholesale, but there was still too much middle man going on for it to make it worth it. But Amish and 50 miles north is about as good as it gets. Mose is going to inquire about what he can do about a 50 pound bag for us and we'll be all set. We also have two of Mose's spent hens in our freezer waiting to be ground into cat food once the other key ingredients (taurine, without which Ché and Wendell would go blind, vitamin E, and vitamin B complex, and salmon oil) arrive by mail in two days.
5. Not that this has anything to do with Pittsburgh, but I feel like it deserves mad props, nonetheless...Turbotax. This year was the fourth in a row I have utilized this invaluable tool for filing my taxes. A friend compared it to a game show in that you get to watch your refund rocket higher and higher as you enter in your deductions. Thank goodness for Turbotax and its user-friendliness; till then I was still using my father to file my taxes, handing over my (sometimes five or six) W-2 forms and letting him do my dirty work. On Friday night I sat down with our two forms at 7:16, noodled around with my numbers, and by 8:00 I'd received my e-mail confirmation that both my federal and state forms had been accepted and I can expect the refunds to land in our account in the next two weeks. Since we're expecting such a hefty return we're going to treat ourselves to a moving service. We were going to have to head back up to Maine to retrieve our belongings from our storage unit, but a good time doesn't seem to be presenting itself and having to make monthly payments is really cramping our style. After doing some research I found that, for a few hundred more dollars we can hire some guys to bring our stuff to us. Sounds like a sweet deal to me. I cannot express the relief I'm feeling from the thought of not having to make the 18-hour trip up there with Olive, emptying the unit and turning around and caravanning back to Pittsburgh in the span of 2-3 days. A new lease on life, folks. It would've been sweet to see some of our friends up there, but it would've been rushed. Another time...
No comments:
Post a Comment