Little helper

Silas helped make sure I had all the parts I needed to pipe in our new gas grill.

A year of being a dad

It's been a whirlwind, wonderful, and important year. Silas was born to Bethany and me last year on this day (about 10 minutes from now to be exact). This was the best and most fulfilling adventure I've ever embarked on, and I'm happy to have had Bethany to go on it with (nevermind the other crucial biological role she played that I was incapable of). Happy birthday, little kid. I and we love you. Thanks for putting up with your silly old dad and a house with plywood floors and peeling linoleum.

Bethany also wrote about his birthday today as well in her blog: The Life of Silas

Oakland runabout

Silas and I went on a nice hour-long run around Oakland today. We parked by the Cathedral of Learning (on the University of Pittsburgh campus) and ran over to the Allegheny County Soldier's Memorial, also known as the Soldiers and Sailors National Memorial.

There, Silas found the propeller of a WWII torpedo highly fascinating.

Then we ran over the bridge over Panther Hollow and looked at the steam plant and the Carnegie Mellon University building in the background.

From the next bridge, we watched the sun start setting over the city.

We did some loops through Schenley Park and popped back out with a nice evening view of the building at CMU we looked at before, but this time, there is a handsome parking lot in the foreground.

Running behind the Carnegie Museum of Art, we spent a little time in their open-air art courtyard and gawked at the waterfall.


Opposite the waterfall are the stairs from the lobby up to the galleries.


Just after this point, Bethany called and said she was on her way home. We didn't beat her there, nor have dinner ready. That's really my fault for forgetting to buy rice noodles at one of the Asian stores in the Strip District during my lunch break at work. It was a beautiful night for a run and well worth the consequences of eating at Ritter's Diner instead of my home-cooking.

Warhol Museum

Silas and I met up with some friends from work to spend a little time at the Andy Warhol Museum on Friday. Bethany was at a yoga teacher event at the studio she at, so it was another nice boys night out.

We all thought the Silver Clouds installation would be really fun to watch Silas take in. However, I think he thinks much in this world is pretty crazy and mylar balloons aren't that much more clever than all the other great things he sees every day. He was pretty neutral about it all. Evidently, he's not developed such rigid expectations for the world that it was all that remarkable. He didn't not enjoy it, but it didn't elicit much of an emotional response.


He was particularly fond of Debbie Harry.

And staring at a film of a three-foot eyeball proved pretty interesting for him.


He was also very curious about Mick Jagger flailing around wearing eye makeup in a some Rollings Stones concert footage from the mid-1970's. Although, it's possible he was fascinated by the cathode ray tube used to play the film. He'd probably not seen a CRT before.

Beauty in the mundane

At the Korean War memorial, Silas found the broken electrical box much more interesting. He knew the two were supposed to be connected, but couldn't figure out how to get them together.

Similarly, he found the sprinkler head and the surrounding wood chip mulch fascinating, completely ignoring the flowering tree sculpture in a courtyard in the Cultural District. The trees are well made and sort of interesting to look at in the dead of winter. However in the summer, it's a little sad to see man-made trees when real plants have been flowering like mad for the past few months. Maybe if I worked downtown, the perpetual blooms would brighten my mood on the overcast and rainy days, and I'd be more appreciative. The ivy is real, I think.

Civil engineers

I wonder if they're thinking, "wow, I wonder how beautiful this area was before our kind concreted it all over with roads, buildings, and parking lots." Was it then that the wicked witch of progress came and froze them where they stood as penance for such anarchist thoughts...?

Pittsburgh robot

We visited the robot down by the Allegheny River. He's got parts made of bridges and is Pittsburgh yellow. Beyond that, I'm not entirely sure what the inspiration is. We do have a robotics lab and Carnegie Mellon University. Perhaps that's it.

I love in the picture above that there is a bird perched on the robot's bridge head.

I have heard that the yellow used to paint the bridges over the Allegheny River in Pittsburgh is a specific yellow and that perhaps it's been trademarked. I can't find anything about it on wikipedia nor from a quick internet search. So, I'm just spreading unsubstantiated rumors here...

More from yesterday's art stroll with Silas

After we strolled around the North Side riverfront for a while and then over to the Warhol Museum to find it was closed, we wandered over the Warhol Bridge into downtown. There is a courtyard in the Cultural District with a water feature and these crazy eye benches. There are also chessboards. The guy in the hat was playing air drums for a long time and then asked the monk if he wanted to play chess. I don't think they played much chess. From the bits of conversation I overheard, it was a pretty metaphysically heavy discussion...


The walk back to the car provided a nice parting view of the city on a fine evening.

Playing in the fountain

Silas and I spent about three hours tonight after work tooling around by the river on the north side as well as some downtown. These shots are from a water feature that teems with families and dogs during the hot weather. I was actually headed to the Andy Warhol museum with him, but it was closed. Being outside was by far better this evening.

Evening run with the boys

Silas, Guthrie, and I went for a casual 5 mile run on the north side trail along the Allegheny River. Guthrie did some wading. The mother duck was very upset I let Guthrie into the river where she was paddling around with her two young ducklings. She quacked up a storm and put herself between him and the young ones. It was sweet, but I felt bad for causing her alarm. She didn't know Guthrie won't go any deeper than a half assed wade... We ran down past the stadiums (stadia?) and to the Science Center before turning around.


We had parked near the bridge to Washington's Landing (aka Herr's Island), so we jogged over to a nice vista point to look at the city. The sky was really nice and the city well lit.

First mountain bike race

Bethany and Silas supported me during my first mountain bike race. It was the Fat Tire Challenge outside of Sigel, PA. The sport category was 14 1/2 miles of single and double track trails in the wonderful forests of northwestern Pennsylvania. There were some nice technical sections and lots of mud. I survived my first flight over the handlebars after solidly planting my front wheel in hole dropping down from a large boulder. There was a long (reputedly 2 mile) climb in the middle that didn't turn out so bad, but the mile-long climb near the end was pretting grueling.

My goal was to finish within 2 hours, because I had no idea of what to expect. I missed it by 10 minutes (2:10 total). I'm ok with that. I didn't get hurt (which was my highest priority goal) and did lose 3+ of those minutes due to thowing my chain off the small chainring and wedging it good between it and the frame. I was almost to the point of giving up on fixing it and running the bike the rest of the way to the finish.

I think if they'd have normalized the field by either inverse cost of the bike or bike mass, I'd have been in the running for a medal. My bike was probably $400 new and cost me $150 used. The guy I was talking to setting up next to our car was riding a frame that cost $1,800. That's without the components and wheels and whatnot. Granted, he was good enough for that to make a difference. He placed 2nd in the expert class single-speed division.

Silas checked my gear over for me.

Setting up the group start. The expert riders were already 20 minutes into their race.

Transition to a jeep road about 7 miles into the race.

Beautiful part of the world to be riding!

Survived with a smile.

Final gear check by coach.

Running in the rain

Bethany met up with Becky to do yoga on the South Side. Silas and I went for a pleasant 5 mile run on the trails and streets. The city is always pretty at night. And we also stopped so Silas could watch choreographed fountain at Station Square.


Then we all went to the Library for dinner. Here was Silas sharing an inside joke with Becky. Maybe he was just hitting on her. He is pretty suave at times...

Art All Night

Art All Night was this past weekend. I'm finally getting around to posting a few pictures. The event is an annual art show where anybody can bring and show a single piece. It's held in the Lawrenceville neighborhood and is generally in a space that has been recently renovated and is hoping for some exposure.

It was pretty warm outside to start out with, but it was insane hot inside the warehouse.


Silas stopped to rehydrate.


This is Ryder's piece. It's a good work, but had a very unfortunate location. There was no light on it at all and a big beaming light just over and beyond it, so the contrast made it impossible to see any detail, let alone tell what the scene was. It was definitely in the top-tier of art by quality in the show. It's pretty sad he got such a bum draw on location.