Home Life

Saturday, June 21st, on the day after the Ducky Tour, Virg and I drove to an area of Pittsburgh called Shadyside. The main street there is called Walnut Street, and it's about as close as we've found to something like Palo Alto's University Ave.

Shadyside's Walnut St., as stolen from Wikipedia

There we grabbed sandwiches at the Pittsburgh Deli Company (one of our guidebook's first let-downs), walked around a lot, looked through stores, and stopped for coffee. The highlight for Virg was a cute store called Kawaii Gifts, with the largest collection we'd ever seen of Hello Kitty and other weird Japanese collectibles. Virg will be redecorating our home to look like the insides of that store at an approx. rate of two silly items per store visit.

Capping off an enjoyable, work-free day, we enjoyed a good dinner at the Point Brugges Cafe and went back out for some phenomenal chocolate cake at the Gullifty's Restaurant near our home.

The next day it was time to get serious about settling in, and Virg was in heaven on her first trip to Pittsburgh's Trader Joe's and Whole Foods. We had an excellent brunch at Harris Grill, unpacked a lot, and then Virg treated me to our first home-cooked meal in Pittsburgh--some yummy stir-fry. And the next day she cooked an even yummier steak-and-mushrooms meal.

That was Monday, and therefore Virg's first official day of working from home. We're slowly making the blue room in the back of the upstairs into Virg's office, and I've since moved my desk/computer set-up down to the dining room.

Virg gets to know her new co-workers.