Jaunt to Maryland

Shots from my Tuesday evening run on Buffalo Road. Despite the onslaught of new real estate (deliberately avoided by the camera. It's what you can't see on the right side of the road), the left side still has retained its bucolic beauty as I've always remembered it. I've probably run hundreds of miles on this road over the last fifteen or so years, and I love it.

Ah, going home. I love Pittsburgh, but of the fours states in which I've lived - Maryland, Tennessee, Maine, and Pennsylvania - there's nothing like my Old Line state. I wish we could've spent more time and seen a few more people, but Olive and I managed to squeeze in a blissful three days with my family and a few friends. Tuesday we enjoyed the company of my friend since the age of nine, Natalie, and her three year-old son, Jackson - a boy through and through with five new stitches in his little chin. They're always a fun pair to see, and spending time with Natalie is so wonderfully refreshing; never have I known someone who has changed so little in the twenty-one years I've known her. And she still towers a full head over me.

On Wednesday we made the harrowing-yet-nostalgic trek down I-495 to Falls Church, VA, to see Sam, my adorable college roommate and her arguably even more adorable ten month-old ice cream scoop of a son, Grant (seriously - his round, velvety-bald head resembles a heaping scoop of Breyer's vanilla. The rest of his body is comprised of marshmallow). Though she's got seven months on him, he outweighs her by a few pounds and his head dwarfs hers, making her appear even more pixieish. Later on that day my goon-girl and I took our first dip in Ben's mom's new pool. The water was warm and Buggy was eager to submerse herself herself in the saltwater-chlorine oasis - with her old Buddy and his doll of a sister, Jenna, to boot! This was pleasing to me since she hadn't taken what anyone would call a real shine to the Highland Park pool. Perhaps the water was always a little too chilly, or the kiddie pool a mite too crowded - or she was intimidated by the thirteen month-olds confidently paddling around her. Understandable. I could easily have spent another month down in Maryland, most of which would probably be spent at Ben's, but work called. Oh, and my husband. My dear, good, kind, and sweet husband. We arrived back home on Thursday night, and it felt so good. It was great to be away (the AC set at 81 degrees felt positively heavenly compared to the swampy air in our apartment), but it's great to feel such a sense of home-ness in our corner of this beautiful city.

Position in which I found my sleeping goon on night before I went to bed. She'd entertained herself for two hours before finally succumbing to slumber by pulling down Roma's box of football cards.

Grant "Scoopy" Fiddy, our son-in-law-to-be, gazing lovingly at the goon.
Grant had this rad stuffed tapir (!) - easily the coolest stuffed animal I've ever seen.