Saturday, March 25, 2017

It's 60+ degrees Fahrenheit currently in Pittsburgh

After a spate of days/ weeks at or below freezing, today it's 60+ degrees Fahrenheit currently in Pittsburgh @ 5.15AM.

posted by Grace @ 3/25/2017 05:14:00 AM 0 comments

Wednesday, March 22, 2017

Monday- Beauty and the Beast

Monday night Debbie and I went to Beauty and the Beast with the two Emmas---Watson and Thompson---in the roles of Belle and Mrs. Potts. I loved the music, casting, Watson's singing (despite not being trained as a singer, actress), but I told Debbie I thought the whole movie was about the Stockholm Syndrome! Great movie and great venue.

posted by Grace @ 3/22/2017 07:33:00 PM 0 comments

Met my students today...

In the next-door building from ~18.00 to 18.23. Took attendance and handed back quizzes--announced the reflections, due at the beginning of lab next week.

Two students stayed after to ask questions about the quiz. Departed the building with JR, handed the door key off to her.

One of my students will be applying to transfer to school closer to home---I told her my cousin teaches there, but not in biology.

Walked home with my cane. Gave them instructions for next week, including for submitting via TurnItIn.com

Went to Bible Study with Mom and Dad in the game room. Sunny but cold today.

posted by Grace @ 3/22/2017 07:28:00 PM 0 comments

Friday, March 17, 2017

PSO, Heinz Hall with Dad

http://www.post-gazette.com/ae/music/2017/03/16/French-conductor-returns-to-PSO/stories/201703160015?pgpageversion=pgevoke

After the concert, Sixth Avenue and parts of Liberty Avenue were closed via police vehicles.  Here's the update:
http://pittsburgh.cbslocal.com/2017/03/17/downtown-pittsburgh-liberty-avenue-accident/

posted by Grace @ 3/17/2017 10:46:00 PM 0 comments

Chez JAH for SPring Break

I took Allegiant to go visit JAH in FL over  part of SPring break. Arrived at sundown on  SAT 4 MAR 2017.
SUN 5 MARCH 2017- We went to the 9.00 family Mass for the First Sunday of Lent 2017 at Epiphany Cathedral Catholic Church in Venice. Fr Charles G Ruoff celebrated the Mass. He is a second career priest who was a former politician. I had never seen the children go up and bless their priest and their parents, but they did at the end of Mass that day.

The congregation sang:
(we arrived during the Liturgy of the Word)
Responsorial Psalm 51, S. Pishner
.
.
.
Communion: On Eagle's Wings, M. Joncas
Recessional Hymn: Forty Days and Forty Nights, Martin Herbst & George H. Smyttan
We visited the Gift Shop; I got prayer cards and tokens by Lumen Mundi.

We then walked on Venice Avenue, a main street parallel to the beach, a street that was closed off for the Venice Art Show. After checking out a few restaurants, we settled on Made in Italy, a restaurant and bar, and we shared a Napolitan-style Tartufella pizza, which had tomato sauce, mozzarella, porcini mushrooms, sausage, truffle oil, and shaved parmesan cheese.  We met up with friends Beth and Tracy for a play, Ideation, in which Scooter's character was portrayed by a Point Park University graduate. The Urbanite theatre was a perfect venue for this work. The play was amazingly acted, morbid at points, and amazingly morbid all at once.
From https://www.urbanitetheatre.com/season

Ideation
by Aaron Loeb
Directed by Jim Sorensen

Jan 27 - March 12, 2017
Wednesday - Saturday at 8pm, Sunday at 2pm

Aaron Loeb brings a dark comic edge to this psychological suspense thriller, in which a group of corporate consultants work together on a mysterious and ethically ambiguous project. As the lines between right and wrong are blurred, these characters must navigate cognitive dissonances and moral dilemmas to decide for themselves if everything is as it really seems.

Contains adult language.

“Devilishly funny and demonically dark. Finely crafted portraits of constantly escalating and excruciatingly, logically based paranoia.” –San Francisco Chronicle

Running time: 90 minutes, no intermission
~~~
We had dinner @ Coolinary, where I had the local grouper, a white fish. Delish!
~~~~~
MON 6 MARCH 2017
Graded student notebooks in the morning, whilst JAH went to outreach Speech Therapy. We had tuna sandwiches/ hoagies at Jimmy John's, then went with our water bottles to Siesta Key Beach. We went to a strip mall to make photocopies of rubrics, then to Publix to pick up dinner items, including corvina fish. More tender white fish that is delicious, with Brussels sprouts.
~~~~~
TUE 7 March 2017
Awoke early to continue to grade, then finished grading ~ 11.00 AM. We had sushi from the grocery store from last night for lunch. We planned food for dinner WED night, as JAH was to be having a dinner party. Nap, then left for Gulf Gate Library, where JAH had five students for her English as a Second Language (ESL) class, which lasted for 1.5 hours. We went to JCP afterwards to shop.
~~~~~
WED 8 MARCH 2017
We went to one of JAH's workplaces. Met Ryan, and JAH led her class for Parkinson's patients. Many of the voice exercises were similar to vocal warm-ups for singers, and I told her some of the variations on the themes which we do for choral warm-ups. 
Lunch at the Roadside Rib Shack, then we checked out the Mangrove grove near the aquarium. (Angel told us about it!) Sandwiches. Then, to Trader Joe's and the Orient Gift Shop for supplies for dinner. Time to prep for the party, laundry, and cooking. At 18.00 her friends Elvira, Mary and Richard came over for dinner. What a great dinner party and company!
~~~~~
   
THU 9 March 2017
Went to the Ringling Museums on the estate. Visit was a reciprocal one, due to my workplace.  Went first to the Visitor's Pavilion, then to the Original Circus Museum for a tour (where I bought a magnet of the "Five Graces"), then to the Museum of Art for a tour at 14.00. 

 Ate at Yoder's Restaurant for home-cooked Amish food, including their famous fried chicken, before departing for the airport.
What a grand visit!

posted by Grace @ 3/17/2017 05:18:00 PM 0 comments