...and finally getting this posted. (Actually got home Wednesday, just in time for handbell practice.)
I went home to PA for Thanksgiving. We had the usual roast turkey and gravy, with stuffing, mashed potatoes, peas, cranberry sauce (whole and jellied – my sibs and I don't like the same thing), and pumpkin pie (homemade by a neighbor). My sister had invited friends, and they brought freshly baked (and wonderful) cookies.
On Friday, my sister and I went into Pittsburgh to see Bodies: The Exhibition at the Carnegie Science Center's UPMC SportsWorks building (which is across the street from Heinz Field). Then, on Sunday, we went to see the newly reworked/rebuilt (2-1/2 years and $36M) Dinosaurs in Their Time exhibit at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in the Oakland section of town. Some of those guys are huge, and others surprisingly small. (The T-Rex display won't be ready until Spring '08, though.)
I also got to see the last three of four televised WPIAL football title games on Friday, the Pitt game on Saturday, and the Steelers game on Monday night – all at Heinz Field. The field was in well-worn shape after the Pitt game, and its subsequent re-sodding was undertaken without any clue as to what the weather was going to wreak on it for Monday night's game. (The field didn't look bad for last night's game, even though it rained the whole time.)
The project I finished before first starting for PA, a 'cage' I made to erect around the driver's seat of my car when I got out for rest stops and fueling, worked well to keep my three cats in the car and not threatening to get out or down about my feet and the brake pedal. In the past a harness and leash on each cat helped, but the leashes got dragged through the litter pan and that wasn't too lovely for anything they were dragged over right after.
The cage is made of 1/2" square opening 'wire cloth' and took me several days to make – first creating a pattern from cardboard, then cutting out using side-cutters, fitting to the car, and finally taping around the edges with duct tape. It's in four sections: two are installed semi-permanently and the other two are erected just before I get out of the car. (I can't drive with the last two in place.) Everything is held together by Velcro wire wraps, small Bungee cords and an 'S' hook.