Dana Daily

Trick-or-Treat is postponed until Saturday thanks to the weather, but I did leave treats out for the girls last night to find this morning. Both of them had Halloween parties at school today as well. There won't be any shortage of sugar for awhile.

When the power went out around 12:50 am Tuesday morning, I lay awake pondering some of life's great questions: When will the power be back on? How much colder is the house going to get? At what point will the girls wake up and freak because the house is so dark? If we still don't have heat at dawn will we be refugees if we went to my parents' house? As it turns out, Emmy did come find me about 1:30 am, but as soon as I let her climb in bed with me she was out cold. Pun intended. Sarah woke up around 2:30 upset because her sock was missing. I don't think she was even aware that the house was so dark. Nor did she question me grabbing a flashlight to help her find another sock. She went right back to sleep as well. Fortunately the power came back on around 3:45am and I was able to get back to sleep. No more wondering about where the keys are for the man door on the garage. No more wondering how I would get my electric garage door open (yes, I know there's a ...

I know I shouldn't make light of the superstorm that is heading up the East Coast, but I cannot possibly be the only one who thinks of that song from  Grease . Why oh why oh why, oh oh San-deee. Anyway, here's Sandy 's projected path. It looks like Pittsburgh may just get the outer edges of this storm. Praying for NO snow.

What a miserable day, but Sal and I braved the wet weather and headed to Cleveland. We had tickets to the Browns / Chargers game. He also wanted to visit the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. We had awesome seats for the game, three rows from the end zone. We stayed for the first half. Ohio State's band played the halftime show and that was pretty cool. I am hoping the weather is better next month when we return to Cleveland for the Browns / Steelers game. After the game, we walked / ran over to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and spent a few hours. There is so much to see, but unfortunately cameras are not allowed. I did take this one as we were leaving. It's the grim reaper himself. Actually, that's Sal in one of Steubenville Marching Band's raincoats. I had one too and they are certainly warm and dry. It was an excellent call on his part to borrow a couple to use for the game.

Kindergarten  2012-2013

A new dining set has been on my wish list since I bought this house. I don't have a dining room, but my kitchen is certainly large enough to handle a good-sized table. I noticed that Levin's Furniture was offering Columbus Day deals so I hit  the showroom. They had a lot of options, but I was able to narrow it down to three. I went home and considered my options, the sizes, design, seating options, etc. The next day, Emily was home sick because of a low-grade fever. After a quick trip to the doctor who diagnosed her with croup and prescribed an antibiotic, she and I went back to Levin's. I let her try out my favorites, and a few others. Then she and I decided on the table from the Outback Collection. The wood is just gorgeous - I wish I had the space for the hutch and sideboard too - and the design has simple, sturdy lines which I love. According to Levin's website, " The Outback collection  is crafted from High Mountain Ash Hardwoods.  The timbers are mill cut...

At St. Ursula's, families are required to volunteer so many times throughout the school year and each has a fundraising assessment too. There are lots of fundraising opportunities, and a few of my favorites don't involve hitting up family members, friends, and coworkers to buy overpriced gift wrap and bland hoagies. The fundraising portion of the commitment is easy. As a working mom, I found it very difficult last year to get in all my volunteer hours and did end up paying to "opt out". St. Ursula's just isn't close enough to work that I can leave, go there for a few hours, and return to work. However, this year they have opened up Tuesday Bingo to parent volunteers. They need people in the kitchen to act as short order cooks basically, or to verify Bingoes (is Bingoes even a word?) on the floor. Having worked in the kitchen at Rocky Grove Fire Department for  Bingo for years, it seemed like a no brainer to get my hours in this way. Greg, who runs the Bing...

There are several pumpkin patches in the area, but Shenot Farm came highly recommended by my coworker. I had it planned for this Sunday for awhile, and just hoped the weather would hold out. It was perfect. We arrived shortly after they opened and the first thing we saw was an artisan pizza stand. We ordered a Blanco pizza and had it cut into 8 slices. Two for each. Sarah and Emmy are kind of funny about pizza and with the exception of the ricotta, which was easy enough to scrape off, they loved it. Then we got in line for the hayride. The girls were so excited when our tractor and wagon pulled up, and became even more so when they realized we each got an apple upon boarding. The hayride took us to the pumpkin patch and corn maze. Emmy chose her pumpkin rather quickly, but Sarah wandered around for a bit before she found what she wanted. Of course they had those irresistible cut-outs that I love so much. A place such as this practically begs for such c...

Sarah loves workshop and since the first week they had one she has begged me, literally begged me, to help out sometime. I signed up for this past Friday, and took Emmy with me. Mrs. Bridgeman had four stations, three pertaining to apples, and one for fire safety. Somehow, and appropriately so, I ended up working on fire safety. The class was divided into groups of three. They spent between 15 and 20 minutes at each station. Sarah was in my first group of kids and we made a dalmatian out of a paper plate. Emmy also wanted to make one. So there I was with four children trying to assemble these dalmatians. It was chaos. Complete chaos until Emmy said she would help me. When the next group of kids came around Emmy passed out all of the little pieces and I explained the process. That helped. Yep. I'm a great teacher when I have a 3 year old as an aid. One station was apple tasting and Mrs. Bridgeman said Emmy was welcome to participate if she wanted. The kids were to do a works...

I had an early flight out of Chicago Sunday morning, and it's a good thing too. As the day went on flights were delayed and canceled thanks to nasty weather in the area. A few tornado warnings were also issued. After a bumpy, hour-long flight to Pittsburgh I landed at 11:45. The airport is the halfway point between my house and Sal's so I detoured to Ohio. After lunch I slept the afternoon away while Sal watched the Cleveland Browns barely beat the Cincinnati Bengals. Sal made us spaghetti for dinner and we hung out for the evening. It was the perfect ending to a super-fun weekend. I am so incredibly lucky to have so many good (and fun) friends in my life, and to have finally met the perfect (for me) man. This was especially important today as it is Emmy's fourth birthday and I can't be with her. I miss my girls when they're with their dad, but some days are more difficult than others, holidays, their birthdays. It's hard. So, I focus on the good stuff and...

Unfortunately a terrible rainstorm covered most of Chicago for most of the day, but that didn't stop us from shopping on Michigan Avenue. I recognized many of the stores, Old Navy, New York and Co, Nordstrom's, Forever XXI, but the size of them. . .floors and floors each. Amazing shopping and I bought not a single thing. We had lunch at a Panera-like chain called Cosi. And then it was more shopping. L-R: Amanda, Sheila, Melissa, Jill, Dana, Jackie The creme de la creme of the trip was Saturday evening. After as dinner of tapas at Cafe Iberico, we went on a ghost tour. This was something I really wanted to do in Chicago and my friends were kind enough to go along with it. We all had a great time. The tour took us to the theater district where I fire claimed hundreds of lives in 1903, I believe. The alley behind the existing theater and side street are haunted areas, and while no orbs showed up in any of my pictures, some of my friends were not so lucky. Then we went ...

This afternoon I flew to Chicago to meet up with some friends for a girls weekend. The flight was just over and hour and absolutely perfect. Smooth take-off and landing, and absolutely no turbulence. Flying at only 28,000 feet gave us some great views of the fall colors below as well. I managed to fit my weekend attire and accessories into a single carry-on bag so I was able to skip baggage claim and head straight for the blue-line train that would take me to downtown Chicago. My friend Melissa, a Chicago native, picked me up at the train station and we went to the hotel to join more friends, Sheila and Jill. Sheila is from Green Bay and Jill lives in St. Louis. We went to a fantastic Italian Restaurant my coworker recommended called Rosebud on Rush . It was not the best Italian food I've ever eaten, but it was delicious. Another friend Jenn, from Rochester, joined us. After dinner we crashed early at the hotel because we had plans for shopping and sightseeing on Saturday. ...

Yes, the memories are all I have left now. I submitted my final project this morning. My graduate school experience is behind me. Now it's off to celebrate in The Windy City this weekend.

My last class is wrapping up and commencement is in December. Apparently I made it through the pre-graduation audit process, but there is still some paperwork to complete. I wasn't going to attend commencement, but Sal and a few others convinced me that I should. As a result I requested five tickets, three more than what the university allows. Supposedly anyone requesting tickets receives them so my fingers are crossed. This will get Sal, my parents, and my children into the 2 hour ceremony. This may be the event that singlehandedly proves to my children that there are worse things than sitting in mass for an hour on Sunday. I also mailed in the regalia order form. I just love those ill-fitting mortarboards and one-size fits most gowns. For $83 I plan to re-purpose them into a future Halloween costume. For whom, I'm not sure. The $60 price tag for ten oh-so-boring announcements sent me scouring the internet for a more reasonable and  aesthetically pleasing option. I foun...