Beautiful View

Thursday

From The Chicka-blog

More Car Troubles Solved

...with a $5 part.

From The Chicka-blog

First Game at the New Arena

Tuesday

From The Chicka-blog

Penguins 6 - Thrashers 3
Sid whispers sweet nothings into Talbot's ear.
(Thanks Dave!)

Tigger - Barn Kitty

Monday

From The Chicka-blog

X-word Puzzles

Sunday

From The Chicka-blog

Delayed Christmas Gifts

Saturday the 25th

From The Chicka-blog

Snow for Christmas

Friday

From The Chicka-blog

Getting Back Into It

Thursday

From The Chicka-blog

Revamped Christmas Carol

From The Chicka-blog

Brush yo Teef

Monday

From The Chicka-blog

Does this look familiar?
http://pachickster.blogspot.com/2010/08/catching-up-on-picsand-then-vacation.html

Chorale Cookies?

From The Chicka-blog

After a "shotgun choir rehearsal" we sang challenging Christmas choral music for a small group of family and friends, then shared some delicious cookies.

A good motto to stand by

Saturday

From The Chicka-blog

Bike Light Experiment

Friday

From The Chicka-blog

This is what you get when you mix a dark bathroom, a 5 second shutter, a custom timer, and a bike light with a couple different settings.

Elwood - My guitar

From The Chicka-blog

I had been neglecting my 6-stringed friend lately (named after my late grandmother's maiden name) so I'm glad I was asked to start playing at Catalyst again. I'm trying to pick it up for 15 minutes a day so my calluses will come back...and focusing on making sure I can play bar chords without looking at my fret hand.

Someday I will be worthy of this instrument...

New Friend at the Office

From The Chicka-blog

I had no trace of any stink bugs in my office this year until today. This guy just started crawling up the wall from behind my desk...

Balaclava: A must-have for winter

From The Chicka-blog

This is worth every penny!

A Sufjan Christmas

Thanks to a friend who gave me a reason to love Christmas music again. Banjos just make every song much more enjoyable to me.

Sharkarelli - Soggy Bottom Boys

I just. Wanna. Sleep.

Saturday

Outdoor Dining FTW

at the Double Wide Grill in the South Side.

Mormon Marketing?

Bus time!

I forgot how great it is to take the bus!

I got to read a chapter of my book and I felt more bad-ass bundled up outside than the Hummer guy who was driving past my stop, in the comfort of his toasty vehicle.

This makes me think: taking the bus actually makes me enjoy the idea of commuting much more than driving or even biking (!) does. Now I'm not knocking bicycle commuting because I'm actually a big proponent (just see how many posts I have on biking). My only issue with biking is the same thing that I love about it. Biking, like driving, puts you in control of your vehicle, which also makes you part of traffic. It's so easy to be part of the rush rather than separating yourself from it when you have to pay attention to what you're doing.

The unique thing about mass transit is that it let's you take a break. You can fully enjoy the ride without the stress that comes from commanding your vehicle. It's a mode that makes you dependent on someone else's abilities while you just simply receive the service. You also have more opportunity to learn patience and promptness...something that the immediacy of getting into a car or (less so for) hopping on a bike doesn't really do for me.

My thought is to replace driving with bussing as much as possible this winter... and replacing bussing with biking. That way I can view my car as a long-distance/special occasion sort of thing.

Won Pens Tickets!

So I was at a fundraiser for Children's Hospital last night. The admission was $10 and that got you food, 2 drinks and a chance to win Pens tickets. I gave a $20 and said keep the change, then found out that there were other raffles that I could have used that $10 on (and the money still goes to the same place). But there was something weird about asking for that money back so I could try to win stuff at a charity event, so I didn't bother and just enjoyed company and watching the Pens game.

Well, as I was coming out of the bathroom right near the end of the night, the people drawing the tickets for the prizes were saying "Tricia....Tricia.....?" And my friends were looking at me, but in my head I thought, uh, I didn't buy any raffle tickets, must be some other Tricia... But it was for the Pens tickets and they were just having a hard time with my last name! AHH! I don't usually have much luck winning things so needless to say, I was completely surprised and completely stoked. :)

Good seats too check it out:

The War on Colds

and 4 hours later...

Advent - Cultivating Expectancy

Cow Couch at the Warhol

Old Radiator VS New Radiator

My housemate's brother installed a new radiator in the Honda. (I helped hold the flashlight...)

Here's what the old radiator core looked like (the metals parts disintegrate at the touch):


Here's the NEW radiator:

ooo, shiny....

Spiral Staircase at Tony's Garage

Friday

Geared up for Winter Riding

Wednesday & Thursday

Catan

Kendall got to open his Christmas present early so we could play while his brother was here. I won after a bad initial placement with longest road, 4 settlements and 2 cities (I had the white pieces). We need more game nights. :)

Short trips? Take a bike.

Monday - took today and tomorrow off. I ran errands at 4 different places today on my bike!

Car problems

Hopefully this will at least be a temporary solution...

BIEBER!

Saturday

My friends went to see "The Next Three Days" and we had to pose for this photo...

Epic Card Games - Thanksgiving Part 2

Still Thursday

Playing "Footsie" (aka: Hand and Foot) with the fam! My cousin is across the table (center), and is my all-time partner...we cleaned up and won with only 5 rounds. Next day, Hong and I weren't as lucky...

Gma Chicka Turned 96

Thursday - Thanksgiving and my grandma's birthday!

In Prep for Thanksgiving

Wednesday

Well this was only part of my meal at Houlihan's - where we went for our company lunch outing, but I think fruit on a salad could be the best thing ever... Pretty too.

Door to Freedom

...seems so far away...

Erasing Words, Not Memories

After the Final Curtain

Saturday - Puffer's wig

Backstage at Drooood

Friday

Forays into Fashion

Yup you are seeing correctly, that's a dress!
Elizabeth would be proud.

Kitty Butt

Oh yeah, this just happened...

Ben Folds is NOT background music!

So yeah, ever hear of a guy named Ben Folds?

You know, he plays music and stuff and he happened to be in Pittsburgh this past Thursday at Club Zoo...

Oh, you were at the bar you say? Well, I hope that Mr. Folds' piano strains provided a nice backdrop for your LAME bar room conversation...


Hi, I'm Ben Folds, perhaps you've heard of me?

SHEESH. The concert was as fun as it could be for where it was, but the venue was a real downer. The bar at Club Zoo is situated right alongside a good part of the standing room area. It was really annoying when people talked over the quiet parts of the songs. And the speakers set up didn't throw the sound to the back where we were standing very well.

Take this song for instance... Really fun piano jam in the song Lullabye, but when it gets quiet you can barely make out anything because of the constant chatter:



It was also hard to see with the crowd of people in front of us. I had to hold my camera up at arm's length on full zoom, so my videos are a bit shaky. Believe me, this video footage is better than the view we had....especially for the more vertically challenged among us.

Venue aside, I really enjoyed getting to see Ben in his more casual element (having first seen him in February with the symphony). He played many of the favorites, including my current fav, Gone. They of course did the audience sing-along for Army:



Guest keyboard appearance for Zak and Sara:



And they Rocked This Bitch with a Tambourine!

(note the beer tilt salute at the end)



My friends got to meet Mr. Folds afterward, but I was grabbing my stuff from someone's car, so I sadly missed my chance. However, it was a good night in spite of the space issues.

I leave you with this final statement:

Why the

did they not do this show at Mr. Smalls??

Paperwork, Paperwork...

Monday - this has been piling up for a while...

Mr. Folds

Friday - Ben Folds!

My review to come in a later post.

Prepping for Ben Folds Tonight!

Wednesday Biker Breakfast

A guy from Streetfilms came in to take footage on biking in Pittsburgh.

Ctrl-Alt-Delete

Ugh, had problems with my computer today. All is fixed now, but that put me back a couple of hours... Note to self: check for compatibility issues before downloading new software.