Dana Daily

this seriously made me laugh out loud.

Goal #2 on my Birthday Bucket List is losing 10 pounds. We have an "At-Work" Weight Watchers meeting every Tuesday at MSA and I joined this last session which just started last Tuesday. I weighed in to get my starting weight (which was more than I expected - ouch!) and decided I wanted to lose 5 pounds the first week.  the coveted crown I lost 6.6, and won "The Crown" by losing more weight than any other woman in our group (the guys win a "HERO" badge). The Crown will stay perched on my cubical wall for the next week (except that I took it home to photograph it for this blog). My challenge/goal for this week is to again lose more weight than any other woman in our group to keep the crown, and hit the 10 pound weight loss mark. I don't know how feasible it is to have two big weight loss weeks in a row, but I'm sure going to try. My  Birthday Bucket List  goal was to lose 10 pounds, but that was just to get me started. There's more I'...

We were lucky to have fabulous late summer weather this last weekend of September and we made good use of it. My parents live in Small Town, USA and this time of year brings fall festivals and fun at local farms. My grandparents owned a farm while I was growing up, but it was sold when I was still in college so Sarah and Emily have never had the "farm experience". In the Pittsburgh Parent , I saw a blurb about Coolspring Farm and Corn Maze located near Mercer which isn't far from my hometown. We had to check it out today. We talked Uncle Andrew into going by agreeing to hit up the original Quaker Steak and Lube in Sharon for lunch beforehand. Sarah was happy to see watermelon on the buffet and Emily loved checking out the cars and motorcyles decorating the inside of the restaurant. The Coolspring Corn Maze was fun. This year's theme is "American Heroes". aerial view of the corn maze Sarah and Emily enjoyed their first hayride and my mom and I agr...

This evening was "Meet the Teacher" night at St. Ursula's. I had a chance to talk to Sarah's teacher last week, but tonight gave teachers the opportunity to discuss the goals for their students this year, how school is going now that we're a month in, and anything else parents wanted to discuss. I did talk to Sarah's teacher one-on-one again this evening, but she just reiterated that Sarah's doing well and that she is such an easy kid to have in class. She described her as a mini-adult, in a lot of ways. The biggest thing she wants Sarah to work on is playing with other kids. Mrs. P said Sarah seems to enjoy talking to her first thing in the morning and at other times throughout the day. She said she enjoys her as well, but they do try to encourage her to play with the other kids. I think Sarah is naturally drawn to and comfortable around adults and once she gets to know the kids in her class a little better and comes out of her shell a bit, she won'...

Here I am enjoying my new Kindle

I have to laugh when I think about all the nicknames Sarah has had in the last four years. Most are long forgotten already, but a few linger. One of the teachers at daycare started calling her "Sarah Smiles" when she was just 12 weeks old, and to this day still calls her "Sarah Smiles" each and every time she says her name. I'm not sure when I started calling her "Miss Sarah". The name "Sarah" is Hebrew for "God's Princess". There could not be a more fitting name for Sarah given her last days in utero and her birth experience. Certainly she put her guardian to angel to work early. However, something does not permit me to call her "princess" (or at least not often). I need Sarah to stay grounded and not morph into a little diva. "Miss Sarah" is my version of "princess" and she is none the wiser. Then there's "Sweet Pea". Where this came from I'll never know, but it's fitt...

I ended up in Maryland for lunch today. I just wanted to check out the Old National Road. The Casselman The Casselman on alternate Route U.S. 40 is located in Grantsville, Maryland which is just over the PA border in Garrett County. It's a small inn with just 4 guest rooms and a restaurant. The nearby Casselman Motor Inn features 40 rooms for travelers and short-term guests. This was a unique lunchtime destination. The food was good, the atmosphere friendly, and the building itself welcoming with lots of red geraniums potted around the outside. Here's a bit of history about The Casselman  and the Old National Road from the website: "The Casselman", 1800s Built in 1824, The Casselman was one of the numerous inns along the National Trail to serve the stage coaches, covered wagons, drovers and riders that made the Old Pike the busiest thoroughfare crossing the mountains. In its over 180 years of history, the Casselman has been called Drover's Inn, Farm...

What do Applebees, Trivia, and Gift Cards all have in common? Well, Applebees hosts trivia one night a week at select locations and the table with the highest number of points after 10 rounds wins a $20 gift card. Basically Applebees rewards you for having smart friends or a smart date. I am proud to say . . . my date and I won!!! It was exciting, but I must say, some people remember the most random information ever !

Emmy's self-portrait  Kids say the most unexpected things sometimes. As I was tucking Emmy in bed this evening, she said, "I love you, Mommy." I told her that I love her too and that I will never forget the first time I ever saw her. I said, "lovebug, you were such a beautiful baby." With all the sincerity in the world, she replied, "thank you, Mommy." She's a beautiful little girl too; wouldn't you agree?

I attended a copywriting workshop at the DoubleTree Hotel in downtown Pittsburgh today with three of my coworkers. The workshop itself is interesting. Not stellar, but interesting enough. With only an hour for lunch we had little choice but to hit the hotel's 4-star restaurant, Bigelow Grille . I was a bit skeptical. I'm not a "foodie". Actually, I'm not an adventurous eater at all. I also expected it to be quite pricey. When my coworkers, another attendee (from Michigan), and I were seated, the waiter informed us that the restaurant uses organic ingredients and food grown on local farms. Furthermore, Bigelow Grille has their own rooftop garden. "In an effort to continue our commitment to sustainability and the use of organic produce free of dangerous pesticides, Bigelow Grille is introducing our first roof top organic garden. 17 different culinary herbs are currently planted in organic mushroom compost to grow the best and healthiest produce available....

September 11, 2001 should have been a day just like any other, but for millions of people around the world and especially for Americans, it was not. For me, living in northwestern Pennsylvania , the day began normally enough. I went to work, logged into my computer, and started checking email. I hadn’t been there long when I received a message from a college friend saying a plane had hit the World Trade Center in New York City . I thought back to my most recent trip to NYC, a couple years earlier, when I walked past the World Trade Center . The towers were the New York City skyline, and in many ways, represented the city itself. How does a pilot accidentally fly into a huge building in the middle of the morning? But, given the towers’ height, I also thought, “surely the towers were built to withstand the impact of a small plane?” That’s what I was thinking, that it was a small plane. When the second plane hit it became apparent that this was no accident. We crowded around a...

I saw this book written by Philip Simmons, on a library shelf and was intrigued. An imperfect life? It certainly is, isn't it? Is life more or less what you thought it would be? Learn to fall? Are we given a choice? Philip Simmons was just thirty-five years old in 1993 when he learned that he had ALS, or Lou Gehrig’s disease, and was told he had less than five years to live. As a young husband and father, and at the start of a promising literary career, he suddenly had to learn the art of dying. Nine years later, he has succeeded, against the odds, in learning the art of living. Now, in this surprisingly joyous and spirit-renewing book, he chronicles his search for peace and his deepening relationship with the mystery of everyday life.   Set amid the rugged New Hampshire mountains he once climbed, and filled with the bustle of family life against the quiet progression of illness, Learning to Fall illuminates the journey we all must take — “the work of learning to live rich...

Friends of mine own a pop-up camper and when I mentioned one of my bucket list items was to go camping, I was invited to try it out for a weekend. It was fun, and I especially loved seeing how a pop-up actually pops-up. I don't think camping is going to become a new hobby anytime soon, but the s'mores were fantastic.

Sometimes it pays to wait until the last minute to make plans. I knew I wanted to do something with Sarah and Emily on Labor Day, but it wasn't until the Friday before that I made concrete plans. I heard a commercial on the radio for the Gateway Clipper Fleet over Labor Day weekend. Kids, ages 3 to 12, only cost $1 on all sightseeing cruises. The Good Ship Lollipop is one such cruise. Last weekend the girls got to watch Pop-Pop teach a boat rescue class on the Allegheny River in Franklin so when I told them that today we were going to take a boat ride on the Allegheny in Pittsburgh Sarah wanted to know if we were going to sink like a boat in Pop-Pop's class. I giggled and told her no, I hoped not. Although it was a gray, rainy day in Pittsburgh we had fun. The Good Ship Lollipop sails all three rivers and someone narrates and points out sights along the way. I think Sarah and Emily just enjoyed seeing the city from a new perspective. We stayed outside on a covered deck ...

One of my coworkers recently had dinner at the Robokyo Japanese Steakhouse and Lounge in Westmoreland County and raved about it at work. Having never been to a hibachi restaurant I added it to my list of things to try during my 34th year. Today I had the opportunity to have lunch at Robokyo and was not disappointed. What a fun dining experience.  Robokyo is located in a building that was once an inn dating back to 1790 and a stagecoach stop. The Water Room, where we were seated, accommodates up to sixty two-people on seven smokeless Hibachi tables. In Asian cultures, hibachi were portable stoves traditionally used to heat the homes of nobility and aristocrats, but were eventually adopted by ordinary people. In American culture it's taken on a different meaning. “Hibachi-Style” is a North American term for Japanese teppanyaki cooking, in which gas-heated hotplates are integrated into tables around which many people (often multiple parties) can sit and eat at once. T...

My sister treated me to a Friday evening dinner show at the Cabaret Theater in Pittsburgh for my birthday. It was so much fun to spend time with her, and the musical, The Marvelous Wonderettes , was. . .what else? wonderful . From the Pittsburgh CLO's website: The Marvelous Wonderettes is a cotton-candy colored, non-stop pop musical blast from the past! Travel to the 1958 Springfield High School prom where you’ll meet the Wonderettes: Betty Jean, Cindy Lou, Missy and Suzy, four girls with hopes and dreams as big as their crinoline skirts and voices to match. Follow their wise-cracking antics from prom through to their ten-year reunion, enjoying soulful renditions of your favorite songs from the '50s and '60s along the way. Featuring such classics as “Lollipop,” “It’s My Party,” “It’s In His Kiss” and more, The Marvelous Wonderettes is an unforgettable musical trip down memory lane! Emily and I arrived shortly after 6 and were seated immediately. As you probably kno...