Hungry Times Two

As promised: our weekend in Pittsburgh, a lovely city situated on some amazing bluffs and ridges at the confluence of three rivers! So charming, and the people were very, VERY polite. DC/MD/VA residents, are you hearing this? POLITE! Anyway, accentuating the positives: We arrived Friday just in time for dinner - we decided to take our friend Jim's advice and try out a former church-turned-brewery: Church Brew Works in the Lawrenceville 'hood. We tried our first ever pierogies, dumplings filled with cheese, chased with a Pipe Organ Pale Ale for Scott and a Pious Monk Dunkel for myself. We didn't linger too long, as we had to rise early to get in line for the..... All-Clad Factory Sale! This was the line when we arrived - it doubled back twice in front of us and took us about 45 minutes to make it into the warehouse. The organizers work very hard to ensure this event doesn't turn into madness - only 30-40 people are allowed in every 10 minutes or so for crowd control. W...

Scott and I are hitting the road today in search of all the fine things Pittsburgh has to offer. Can I just say I am more than a little excited? I already went out of my way this morning to hit Union Station to pick up my train ticket to meet Scott in Baltimore, and I have my backpack filled with reading material for the road, a Christmas CD which will annoy the hell out of Scott, and some snacks. I am psyched - and guess what? They're calling for SNOW this weekend in PA. Yes, me, the one who slept on Interstate 81 last year due to snow mucking everything up, is excited about the white stuff. Crazy, party of one! Good friends have recommended some excellent spots to eat and visit while we're there, and I hope the All-Clad sale isn't too insane. I'm already preparing my fetal position and head cover in case there's a stampede or I have to fight someone over the last saucepan. My dad taught me some pretty sweet basketball elbowing maneuvers back in the day, so I can...

Scott and I are finally doing what we've always talked about - making it to Pittsburgh for the All-Clad Factory Sale. Yes, we are willing to drive 5+ hours after work on Friday to make it to Saturday morning's early bird sale, where select seconds of All-Clad cookware will be approximately 60 percent off. Yes, we are tremendously cheap dorks. Supposedly this is a BIG deal that only happens twice a year. There are groups on Meetup.com organizing field trips to this sale, and our Nashville blogger friend Lannae recommended it to us. We figure we might as well invest in some solid, well-made and long-lasting pieces instead of the nonstick Target-brand stuff we started out with as amateurs. Okay, maybe we're still amateurs, but we're pretty fair bargain hunters. While we are there, Scott's researched all kinds of historic and city-planning related stuff for us to do. I just want to stay warm if possible (they're calling for the s-word - I can't even type it, but...