And, we're back.

We just returned home after a month in Pittsburgh. I spent approximately 29 years not thinking about Pittsburgh at all, but as it turns out, Pittsburgh is a pretty hip town. Cool bridges, very little traffic, and some yummy food.

Food highlight: Tram's Kitchen. This Vietnamese joint rocks. Some of their noodle dishes are better than those at my favorite place in Manhattan (ssssshhh!), and their fresh spring rolls are the Best. Ever. Pho and other noodle soups are very delicious, but have plenty of rivals. The noodles with coconut milk and chicken are worth a trip to Pittsburgh, tho, or at least a stop on your drive.

While we were in Pittsburgh, Zion (3 years) got to see lots of trains, including the ever-popular coal trains. On our second day there as we drove down the highway he spotted a train loaded with coal. It was lumbering along (no doubt due to it's heavy load) so slowly that he asked us if the train was still moving. We assured him that it was moving, but that it was difficult to see that from the car, since we were moving quickly and the train was moving very slowly. He considered this for moment and then asked "Is it a 1 train?" (The 1 train in New York runs locally, and so it makes frequent stops. With his preschooler impatience Zion has decided that this slowness is No Good, and that his favorite trains are the A and the D (which run express on the routes that we usually take).)

Also while we were in Pittsburgh I was unable to connect to the internet unless I was actually in Liel's bedroom. Since she sleeps more than anyone in the family this meant that my time online was drastically curtailed. To fill the void I began knitting voraciously, as much as 5 hours a day (the Pittsburgh house also had cable. Oh the joys of rotting my brain in front of the TV and knitting after the kids had gone to bed at night!). I'd brought all my partial skiens of yarn to Pittsburgh and turned them into an entrelac throw (that's it in the picture above). My gramma came to visit while we were there, and I gave it to her. And bless her, she bought me a set of Denise interchangable knitting needles! They are dreamy. I celebrated by starting a new project- the V Neck Sweater with Deep Ribbing from Fitted Knits. I started the sweater on Tuesday, and am now done with the body and 3/4's of the first sleeve. I'm knitting it with Malabrigo yarn and I am in LOVE. This yarn is so soft and squishy and yummy! This is also the first sweater I've made using top down construction, and I'm really digging that, too. In fact, I'm digging it so much that I'm now reluctant to knit a sweater any other way. Clearly I will have to learn to modify patterns.