2009 March » Stop, Drop and Blog

St. Patrick’s Day Weekend in Pittsburgh

Mar 162009

We had a fabulous trip. The good news is that the crowd was not rowdy. In fact, as FireDad and I were discussing it, in our four years of attending the St. Patrick’s Day weekend festivities in Pittsburgh, we’ve only witnessed one fight. Pittsburgh news stations are also reporting that there were less arrests and citations this year: 6 physical arrests and 67 citations, down from 100 in 2008. Stay classy, Pittsburgh. (There was, however, a fatal shooting that looks like it will be under investigation for some time. But we never made it to the South Side.)

Personally, we saw some violations ourselves like the older gentleman that walked by with a glass of what I assume was gin and tonic. In a glass from the bar he had probably just left. So, a little theft and open container violation going on with that one. A short time later, a group walked by, pouring drinks into each other’s cups. Also, I can’t say if anyone I saw was actually underage but, well, they all made me feel old. That is all.

The band we saw at the Red Star Tavern was pretty darn awesome. They played music from the 80′s, 90′s and whatever you want to call this decade. I sang and danced and had a few beers (none of the green variety). We had a late, light supper. All in all, we had a great time. Kind of bummed that we missed the parade due to my practice but I think we’ll live.

We have a few pictures to share. This one is for Julie Gong.

Really?

We found that plastered to the bricks in Market Square while walking around on Sunday morning. We were amused. Apparently Mayor Luke felt a little vain this St. Patrick’s Day?

And a nice macro of my Primanti Brothers sammich, consumed on Sunday for lunch.

Mmm

And a nice picture of us with bellies full of Primanti Brothers sammiches.

Full

All in all, it was a great time. We slept wonderfully in the swanky bed in our swanky hotel room. We took our time driving back home. And we felt happy as pie when we picked up the boys. We’re lucky we felt refreshed because last night wasn’t a night that involved a lot of sleep thanks to leftover teething issues, a possible eye infection and a possible ear infection. But a weekend away like this always reminds us that we’re lucky to have the family that we do.

Now when is our family vacation? (Answer: camping in July, beach in August. All seem far away.)

Reading is So Important and So… A GIVEAWAY!

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Mar 132009

We’re a reading family. I always have my nose in a book (even if it is a horribly cheesy book that features teenage vampire love). FireDad loves to read. And it seems we’re raising two little readers as well. If you could glimpse at my living room floor right now, you might think a library had blown up. But, no, we have just finished up an evening read-a-thon. I’ll clean it up soon. I promise. But the mess was worth it. Watching LittleBrother’s vocabulary expand in front of my face fills me with pride. And watching BigBrother’s brain make connections and his imagination sore through the pages of a book, well, it makes me melt. And so we’re proud to bring you this post… and giveaway!

To help get the word out about National Reading Month (March), we’re participating in a giveaway with Leap Frog! That’s right. Leap Frog! A huge favorite in our house!

Tag Reader The prize is a Leap Frog TagReader bundle that includes Dr. Seuss’ Cat in the Hat and Green Eggs and Ham. It also comes with a story called Ozzie & Mack. If you’ve got a child in the 4-8 year age range (or surrounding ages) who is working on readking skills, this is definitely something you want to pick up. Don’t believe me? Check out this comprehensive review. But, as a real quick overview, it’s basically a pen (no ink!) that helps your children learn to read. (Did any of you have something similar in the 80′s? Because I did. But this is cooler.) It can hold up to five books. And there are bunches of compatible books! Win!

So, how do you win? What’s the catch?

First off, I want you to visit the Leap Frog Reading Pledge and pledge to read some hours with your children. (Or grandchildren. Or siblings. Or what have you.) The point of this giveaway is to raise awareness about the fact that it is National Reading Month and to inspire parents to read with their children. It’s just so important to read with your kids. I know that FireDad and I both have such a love of reading because our parents took the time to read with us.

Okay, now that I trust you have made a pledge to read (which involves a coupon for you for $10 off TagReader systems and books…), here are the steps to enter.

1. Read this great review (includes pros and cons) of the TagReader system.

2. Come back to my post here and tell me in a comment what you expect will benefit your child the most with the Leap Frog TagReader system. You may do this once.

You want some extra entries?

3. Tweet this giveaway on your twitter stream and bring me back the individual URL of your tweet (found by clicking on the time that you posted your tweet). Post it as a new, individual comment. You may do this once. Please copy/paste this tweet: It’s National Reading Month! Celebrate by entering to win a Leap Frog TagReader at Stop, Drop & Blog! http://tinyurl.com/SDBtag

4. Blog about it on your blog, linking back to this post! Include a link to the review in your blog post, please! After doing some, come back to my post here and post it as a new, individual comment. You may do this once.

5. Use other social media (facebook, digg, stumbleupon, etc) to link this post. After doing so, please return to this post with the username and link (if applicaple) to your shared link in a new, individual comment. You may do this once per social media engine.

The contest is open now through March 26, 2009 at 12:00pm EDT. At that point, this post will close to new comments and a winner will be picked via random.org. One winner will be chosen and contacted via email. Winner will have 12 hours to reply or another winner will be chosen. Winner must reside in the United States. Winning will be shipping straight from vendor. (Meaning, I don’t have it in house!)

[Thanks to Leap Frog for the chance to participate in something as awesome as National Reading Month. And thanks to Christy Matte for such an amazing review.]

Updated at 4:01pm, March 26, 2009: Winner Amanda, chosen by the random.org number generator, has accepted the prize. Thank you all for your entries. Now get to reading with those kids!