Kevin and I just returned from a lovely, long weekend visiting my brother, Greg, his wife, Marianne, and their daughter, Gabi, in Pittsburgh. Here they are in a picture from our visit to Phipps Conservatory.
Here's Gabi and Uncle Kevin in what Gabi calls her 'plain' pose.
Don't know if she had a name for her pose in this picture, but I'll guess it's her 'fancy' pose.
Click here to view the blog's photo album from our visit. The album starts with botanical pictures from the Phipps. The glass art mixed in with the plants are from the Chihuly exhibit that runs until February 24. Very neat.
The next batch of pictures are from the University of Pittsburgh's Cathedral of Learning's Nationality Rooms. These rooms are classrooms designed in the style of various countries. We took an audio tour of the rooms on the first floor and a few of the newer rooms on the third floor. Exquisite.
Greg and Marianne are expecting a baby in a few months (May?). Six year old Gabi knows this, but I don't think she knows this. I don't think she has any idea what's going to hit their home when that baby comes home from the hospital. It appears they're having another girl which will bring our niece total up to 7 (Mary, Sammie, Ashley, Sydney, Kristen, Gabi and #7) and our nephew total up to 0.
I like Pittsburgh. This is our second visit there. I don't know what I expected when we first went there a few years ago, but I was pleasantly surprised. I especially like that it has all those distinct neighborhoods. At some point, talk turned to talk, as in Pittsburghese. That link has a disclaimer that the site is all in fun and is not meant to be used for scholarly research on Pittsburghese. If what you want is scholarly stuff about how yinzers talk, click on the Pittsburgh Speech & Society Project website. Huh. In Pittsburghese, our cat Nosey could be called Nebby.
I like dialects. I think it's neat how different accents and words develop. Sometimes I catch myself saying things that give away how long I've lived in NJ and how much I've soaked up the accent and phrasing. At first, I didn't care for it; I don't really tawlk like that, do I? Now I don't necessarily embrace it, but just accept it as part of life and where (geographically) life has taken me.
I gotta go do some stuff. Smudgie's got a new chemotherapy protocol starting today which requires one med 4 days on/3 days off and weekly bloodwork before starting up again; Dolly's going on Smudgie's old chemo drug; Nosey continues to have blood in his urine; the kittens start a once-a-day for three days deworming today (they've been dewormed twice already; what gives?); along with Dolly's usual hyperthyroid pills and Nosey's usual insulin shots. I want to get and keep all these meds straightened out. These cats are like a part-time job. The biggest thing now is to find something that will help Smudgie stop losing weight and start gaining weight.
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