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

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...

Saturday ride

Warm weather really hit us this weekend. I went out for a 20+ mile ride around Highland Park and across the Allegheny River to Aspinwall/Fox Chapel, then back up the steep incline around 57th St. I met up with Bethany and Silas at a park in Bloomfield on the way out to play. I didn't get many pictures worth showing, just the entrance of a church on lower 57th.

Moraine State Park canoeing

We were all feeling sort of pent up, so we decided to spend the day at Moraine State Park. We attempted to get out in the boat for a while, but Silas was uncomfortable in his PFD when he tried to bend in the middle. So, he and Bethany went for a hike while Guthrie and I did a little paddling and then some trail running to catch up to them.




Guthrie really wants to be in the boat when it's leaving the shore, but then changes his mind and would rather be running on land instead. I think he also was sick of being in the sun with his black fur. There's nowhere to escape it in the canoe.


View of one of the spurs of Lake Arthur.

Eating is good

Silas loves to eat. He also loves to touch his food and then touch you and your camera.

Below, he's eating aloo saag (creamed spinach and potatoes) at People's Indian restaurant in Garfield.

Chicken in milk

Yes, it sounds sort of disgusting, but I was intrigued by an article on Apartment Therapy describing their success with this dish, as laid out by Jamie Oliver. I would not have thought that slow cooking the chicken in milk, lemon zest, garlic, sage, and cinnamon would turn out so nice (sorry to the vegetarians and vegans). It cooked while Bethany was teaching a yoga class. I used a lower heat setting because she was to be gone 2 1/2 hours and the recipe called for 1 1/2 hour bake time. It worked out really well. The meat was super tender and very flavorful. As the two sites above mentioned, the milk did make a nice custardy sauce during cooking and was a good sauce for the mashed potatoes.

Don't make fun of my lack of sophisticated presentation in the picture below. We're pretty practical in this house and don't generally go all out to serve our family dinners with any fanfare. Good, organic ingredients and lots of love in the cooking constitute the bulk of our goal. Oh yeah, and maybe a fancy plate to nibble on while we're waiting for everyone to be seated so we can start eating...

Earth Hour

It's a little after the fact, but we spent Earth Hour hanging out with candles, poetry, and a little guitar music.

While we were paddling...

Alongside the Youghiogheny River is the Great Allegheny Passage trail. The trail goes from Pittsburgh to Washington, DC. Maybe the latter part is called the C&O Towpath. Bethany, Silas, and Guthrie had a nice hike while Kevin and I were on the water.

Guthrie was actually pretty upset he wasn't in the canoe. Normally, he'd rather be out of the boat running on shore. This time, when he wasn't invited into the canoe, he wanted to be in it really badly. The first picture is at the put-in in Dawson. The second shot is of Guthrie sprinting back and forth on shore when we caught up to the three of them near the take-out.

Madison trip

We went to Madison, WI, last weekend for Canoecopia. It's a huge canoe, kayak, and outdoor extravaganza thrown yearly by Rutabaga, the paddlesport shop I used to work at when I took a hiatus from engineering for a while. I worked the show (~24 hours in 2 1/2 days in Madison), so I didn't get to do all that much in the city outside of the Alliant Energy Center.

We did go to one of our old favorite breakfast haunts, Monty's Blue Plate Diner. Bethany already had brunch plans for later that morning, so she only had the fruit plate. I'm not one for static patterns in general, except when going to restaurants I rarely get to go to. So, despite the broad selection of good food, I ordered their version of eggs benedict, which I get every time. Silas ate some of Bethany's fruit and a selection of cheerios and some food we brought for him.


No trip to Wisconsin within 6 months of Winter should be without a picture of the avid ice fishing culture! Sorry for the crappy shot. The light was gorgeous both mornings I drove by on my way to the show, but I was marginally late and didn't take the time to stop. I love the fact that these guys will still be out there when there are open sections of water 50 feet away. It makes me a little sad that I've not used my auger and ice fishing rod in four years, since moving south to Pittsburgh. I hear there are places to do it in SW PA, but if I'm going to drive out of the city to do it, I'd prefer to hike.

Running with Silas and Guthrie

Guthrie, Silas, and I went for an evening run in Schenley Park today. The weather and temperature were great. Bethany was teaching yoga, so the boys got to go outside and play. I'm still getting used to running with the jogger and dog leash. It was better than last time, in that I didn't get the leash wrapped up in the wheels and didn't almost topple the whole thing over.

Our route is shown below. The outer loop, all on trails, was 2.0 miles exactly, per my GPS watch. So we ran up the hill to do two loops of the running course around the track and tennis courts, as well as a couple of detours into other areas to bump it up to 3.8 miles. We're still building mileage, because of my poor old sore joints can't take much more yet. Plus, I can't keep myself from sprinting up the hill from work home, so my thighs are trashed. :)


There is a nice vista of the city, including a disc-golf course that Guthrie was eyeing.


The prenatal yoga class that Bethany teaches is longer than it takes to get to the park, run, and get back, so we hung out for a bit and played in the grass.



Silas found a dried tree seed pod, the name of which I can't remember right now. I looked up what I thought it was, but I was wrong. I'll add the name when/if it ocurrs to me.

Spring hike

After Tim and I got turned back by the ice on the lake, the ladies (and Silas) were kind enough to wait up for us and go on a nice, short hike with the dogs.

Bad father of the year award

Yep. That's my claim to fame for the day. Bethany left to teach her yoga class. I wanted to feed Silas a little food before putting him down for a nap. So, I grabbed the sweet potatoes from the fridge and started feeding him. He winced big time at the first bite and gave me a really perplexed look. I laughed, because I thought he was shocked at how cold they were. He opened his mouth, and I fed him a second spoonful. Then, as I gave him the third, I remarked, "wow, Silas, why are you turning red?" Well, it turns out that the container happened to contain leftover Franks Red Hot sauce and butter (buffalo chicken salad for dinner last night).

The great thing was that he took it with style. His poor father freaked out, of course. I washed his mouth out with water, fed him a ton of yogurt, and let him drink about half a sippy cup of water.

I kept him up from his nap until I was sure his tongue wasn't going to swell and block his breathing and ended up sitting with him reading a book while he slept, checking to make sure he was still breathing...

Don't the sweet potatoes and buffalo sauce look similar in the picture above?!?! Who can blame a tired father?

So, long story short: he's ok. I'm kind of frazzled.

After Bethany got home and laughed at me, we had a nice dinner at an Indian restaurant, where Silas got to try new eats: a little lamb curry, naan bread, mango chutney, and mango lassi. Here's a parting shot to show he's ok.

Double fisted

I realize Bethany is putting up a picture of Silas every day, but I couldn't pass this one up from dinner. Healthy chunk of crusty bread in one hand and lightly steamed asparagus in the other. I love that he's getting to eat real food.

Family hike and run

I wanted to go for a run today, but also wanted to spend time with everyone. So, we all went over to Millvale across the Allegheny River to enjoy the nice snowy day. Well, at least those of use that like to go that far. Max (our cat) stayed at home. Guthrie and I took off and ran while Bethany and Silas strolled around and enjoyed the scenery at a slower pace.

The picture above is looking upstream at the 40th Street Bridge. Below is looking south across at Lawrenceville.


Guthrie was so happy to get out. The city looked pretty in the misty distance.


Yes, wet and muddy.

Guthrie got wet and cold, but much of the mud came off. Not a bad trade off, as we were heading to the car.

And, we eventually caught back up with Bethany and Silas on their way back from Mr. Small's Skate Park.

When I leave for work

It's hard to get up and leave the family in the mornings...

First run of the year

I made it out for my first run of the year yesterday. I had to take a month off because of the surgery and recovery, but I'm feeling good. I went out for a casual 2 miles on a nice, sunny Sunday afternoon. Bethany, Silas, and Guthrie strolled along the Eliza Furnace Trail while I ran and then we continued to stroll together for a bit. Guthrie was so happy to get out. Between me being cooped up, and Silas taking up so much of Bethany's time and energy, the poor dog spends much of his time on the couch either sleeping on licking one of his paws raw.

Below is a funded mural on the large retaining wall that supports the Parkway East and an entrance ramp up to the highway from Bates St. It cracks me up that the little description calls it public art, but they covered up all the other 'public art' in the area with gray paint. Evidently, the only art that can be public has to be officially consigned.

Below are some shots from and of the Hot Metal Bridge. It was an important bridge in the steelmaking heyday and the war effort in WWII. The bridge was a rail line between the blast furnaces and rolling mill of a steel plant.