Lettuce wraps (and a drink) at the bar at P F Changs, creamy tomato soup at Panera, Harry Potter and Christmas lights.  Awesome evening!

Picture to come later, my phone lost it…

My first dinner at a Thai restaurant, and it was amazing!

We had the sweet and sour chicken (with pineapple and tomatoes!) and the Pad Thai, all highly recommended!

The Port Authority approved the cuts to routes, taking affect March 13.  The only word I can come up with is devastating.  The sheer amount of red on that document is astounding.

And speaking of, the document is so freaking hard to read.  The layout itself is goofy, but nothing that I can’t work with, and besides, I’ve seen worse before.  My big problem is the fact that you have to find your old route.  Or in my case, after being reminded once again that my old route no longer exists, find the old version of the current bus I ride and then see the cuts being made to it.

And of course, we have no specifics, so it’s more rampant speculation about what exactly the phrase “service reduced” means, and what it specifically means on over 90 routes (hopefully I counted correctly).  I’m guessing that “service reduced” means lots of different things to lots of different routes.

And don’t forget, this is not PAT’s fault.  Oh no, it’s the State’s fault.  While I certainly think they should shoulder some responsibility (everyone involved should, riders too), I’m so sick of hearing the same shuffling of blame every time a service cut is even mentioned.  We get it, you don’t want to take any responsibility for this.  But can we at least move on?

I’m venting, I realize that.  I’m frustrated.  Riders are frustrated, the city is frustrated.  I would even bet that PAT executives and state legislators are frustrated.  I’m sure I’ll discuss this some more in the future, we’ll see how things are once they settle down.

For now, just be thankful you have a Bus or T Line to get home.  You probably won’t be able to say that for much longer.

So, the idea was to watch the Winter Classic.

Four of the bartenders where I’m a regular had tickets, but the manager and others were going to be there, so I had made plans to watch it with them, even bust out my Letang Winter Classic jersey (which I also wore to the Baby Pens/Bears game, so I’m figuring my jersey is cursed).  The game got moved to 8 p.m. and I didn’t think anything of it.

Well, since it was the holiday, the bar closed early.  I didn’t even think about that, figuring it would be open for the game and since it was a Saturday.

So a buddy and I pull into the parking lot to see the building dark and empty.  We swear and try to figure out where else to go.  We decide on Dingbats, which just opened a new location at Monroeville Mall, where Houlighan’s used to be.

We head there and to the bar, and there are maybe ten people in the whole place, if that.  Having never been inside, I didn’t know what to expect.  Aside from no customers, the place is barren.  Maybe it’s just a shock from Houlighan’s, but there is nothing on the walls, everything is stark.  There are some very nice leather chairs and couches, had we not been at the bar, I probably would have headed there.  And let me note, I had the mushrooms from the appetizer menu, and they are absolutely amazing.

Since they were so slow, the manager closed after the first period.  So once again, we had to figure out where to go.

Primanti’s!  It was packed, filled with Pens fans (and some very oblivious customers as well) and a great atmosphere.  As the end of the second period approached, most of the televisions were switched to the UFC fight, which they had purchased (I’ve been there before when they buy the fights, must be their thing).  But thankfully, once the intermission was complete, the sound switched back over the the last of the Winter Classic, else we would have gone for the hat trick and found a third place to go.

A few comments about the game:

• Pensblog has, as always, an awesome write up, so make sure to check it out
• Ummm, NBC?  Why did you go to the blimp cam during play?  Was someone asleep at the switcher?  Aerial shots are awesome while things get set up, going to commercial, etc.  Not during play.
• The cameras were pretty crappy, but then again, Heinz Field is not set up for hockey.  That being said, from the second period on, it was better.
• Disco Dan’s hat is awesome.
• Yeah, the loss sucks, we’ll see how everything gets edited together for the last episode on Penguins Capitals 24/7.  I might pick up the series if they offer it as a DVD set.
• The weather kind of sucked, but as Pensblog pointed out of course, it sucked for everyone, not just one team.  And I realize that meterology is not an exact science.  However, I’m pretty good at reading a radar map.  Not for hours and hours in the future, but for at least the next four hours, I can read a radar map and tell you what’s going to happen, usually within about five minutes (it’s kind of scary).  So when you’re standing outside and it’s raining, don’t tell us that it’s going to rain.  Tell us that it’s raining.
• Most importantly, I hope this brought some more fans to the game.  I find football boring, so I don’t watch the Steelers (but will route for them), and baseball is boring as it is (unless you’re at a game with friends, then it’s fun).  Hockey is what I really like to watch, so if this gets more people energized about the sport, then good on the NHL.

Update: Added my comments about the whether, which I forgot to add earlier.

I’ve mentioned before on here about my involvement with National Novel Writing Month.  One of the cool things about it, is how writers across Pittsburgh get together for write-ins.  These, along with our kick-off and Thank God It’s Over parties are put together by our Municipal Liaison, Jenn.

She has an awesome blog which I wanted to spotlight, called 101 Achievements.  The idea is her and her husband working on accomplishing 101 different tasks, many of which revolve around cultural and food events in Pittsburgh.  Be sure to check out, and you can track their progress by seeing which achievements have been linked on the sidebar.

My favorite achievement they’ve done?  Number 86: Celebrate something imaginary in a nice restaurant.  They get tons of points for the props they used:

Michael Andres

This is Michael Andres, missing since Thursday night from his home in Beaver.

I worked with his brother, Alex, who Michael lives with.  Police have not had any luck finding him in Beaver or any of the surrounding areas.

Come on Pittsburgh, don’t fail me now.

Description: White male, 5 feet 8 inches tall, 215 pounds, dark hair. Last seen wearing a green military parka, blue shorts and athletic shoes.

If seen: Contact Beaver police on (724) 775-1550.

Nerve is reporting on a new “study” by FourSquare about the rudest cities, and Pittsburgh comes in forth.  I put study in quotation marks because it is not clear how this was measured:

So really it reads more like a list of the cities with the most expletive-worthy locations — positive, negative or otherwise.

Well, at least we’re not $&#@ing Manchester.

Dan Shaughnessy from Sports Illustrated wrote an article, complaining about Pittsburgh being the host city for the 2011 Winter Classic.  Deadspin is all over it, make sure to read the whole thing:

It’s not that Pittsburgh is not a metropolis WE associate with hockey. It’s that Pittsburgh is not a metropolis YOU associate with hockey. Because you are from Boston, and Boston is the metropolis people from Boston associate with fucking EVERYTHING.

May I suggest that you follow the Pittsburgh Zoo on Twitter:

This also allowed me to use the “Charlie Sheen” tag.  I feel fulfilled.

What you’re looking at is the screen that greets the user when you open up iBurgh.  I’ve tried to use it before, but without success, however this morning, I successfully submitted unsafe sidewalk conditions.

It’s an extension of the city’s 311 service,  I’ve called that before to report a nasty pothole, and to their credit, a few days later, it was taken care of, so I’m hoping this has the same affect, although with the coming snow, I’m not sure.

Like I said, I’ve tried to use this app once before, but it seems to take the GPS a long while to find itself, so I hope that in a future release that gets worked out, or better yet, users are able to add pictures from their album.  Right now, you have to take a live picture and then upload it, or lose the picture.  That could potentially be unsafe.

The developer, YinzCam, also has apps for Heinz Field (you have to be inside to use it on game day) and the Penguins (news, videos and extra cameras if you’re inside the Consol Center).  They do really awesome work, make sure to check them out in the Android Marketplace or the iTunes App Store.