How’s your lawn doing? Your petunias and tomatoes? To say it’s dry across our region right now is an understatement. The latest Drought Monitor has been updated and now shows almost all of Western Pennsylvania in the abnormally dry category. We desperately need some rain, and this week’s for…
Do you like spicy food? Maybe the better question is how spicy do you like your food?
I love clever sayings and funny sayings created by clever people. Singer Joe Walsh used the lyric, “I can’t complain but sometimes I still do,” in one of his songs. I think of that often and believe that behavior to be true about myself and most people. Poet John Lydgate wrote another phrase…
I was having a conversation with a friend the other day when I noticed she suddenly looked at her watch. Her gaze lingered rather long as she was seemingly fixated on the time. One of my coworkers did the same thing recently and then started laughing. When two more of our friends repeated th…
Did you have a nice Easter? The weather was perfect with skies turning sunny and temperatures staying mild and comfortable through the day.
Do you like popcorn? My husband and I love snacking on this crunchy treat. Not only is it quick to make and fairly healthy with a high amount of fiber as compared to calories, but it’s also tasty and filling. While nothing compares to the giant tub of buttered goodness you get at the local m…
Thanks to William Shakespeare and Julius Caesar, we’re aware of what the ides of March can bring. As a meteorologist, I regard mid-March as gloomy, often wet or white and frequently chilly.
We’ve arrived at March 1 with the official start of spring merely a few weeks away. Nobody is waiting around for the calendar to mark that event because we’ve already enjoyed shorts and T-shirt weather so many days during this wild and mild winter!
Have you had your cup of morning coffee yet? I like to enjoy about two mugs full of hot coffee with just a touch of cream every morning. Though the caffeine surely gives us a jolt of energy, part of me thinks the ritual, the delicious aroma and the comfort of consuming a hot liquid is what m…
Welcome to February! Have you broken your New Year’s resolutions yet? Have you even taken down your Christmas lights?
Another week, another DIY (do it yourself) project. This item actually should go on the “another year, another project” list since it’s been on my “to-do” list for five years. Back then, I got the bright idea to put up faux wood blinds in my bedrooms, bathroom, and closet room. The helpful e…
Happy New Year! The holidays flew past too quickly as always and it is once again time to start taking down the Christmas lights, tree, and decorations. I always marvel at how empty the house looks once I take down the holiday décor, but then it also makes me feel as if my house is less clut…
You’re likely reading this on the last morning of fall 2022. Winter officially arrives today at 4:48 p.m., even though we already had a touch of wintry weather and a dusting of snow last weekend.
Can you believe that Christmas is just over two weeks away? It sure doesn’t feel like it with temperatures in the 50s and rain showers, but I’m thankful to not have to drive in ice and snow right now.
People keep asking me if we can be done with winter weather already after this past week of frigid temperatures and snow. It’s only late November and we’re already tired of the cold weather.
If you won the big Powerball $1.9 billion jackpot Monday night or even hit five numbers to win about a million or more bucks, you’re probably not reading this. I’m writing this as of Monday and you’re likely seeing it in your Wednesday morning newspaper. If you won, you may still be in shock…
As I’m typing this week’s musings, I’m looking down at my fingernails and am nearly ready to hide them in shame. What a mess they are! Not that it’s anything different than my standard operating procedure.
Have you driven on a highway lately? I spend about one to two hours each workday on the interstate driving to and from Pittsburgh and, let me tell you, it can be very interesting. Most days, the commute is uneventful and often even relaxing. Now that the Southern Beltway construction zone is…
When I was in middle school, my best friend and I used to sit on the back porch swing and just “watch the cars go by,” as we used to joke to our parents. We would laugh and joke and talk about anything as the occasional car would pass through our usually quiet neighborhood.
It’s the final week of summer, and that means my favorite month of September is upon us filled with sunny days, drier air, lower sun angles and football games. I’ve written before about my passion for pigskin and what makes it even more enjoyable is to watch the games with family and friends.
Last Friday night marked a momentous occasion in my amateur sporting life: It was the first time I ever shot below 50 for nine holes on the golf course. My final score was 47 and – what’s amazing – is that 47 was my real score with no “gimmes” or lying on the scorecard. I really did shoot be…
Did you ever feel so confident that you were making the right decision, only to be hugely let down later when it all went south? That’s what I’m going through right now.
When I was a little kid, our house had a porch on the side and a nice bit of yard next to that with a big tree. My dad built an awesome playhouse for us on stilts beside it with a sandbox below. As we got older, the porch was enclosed and became a family room, and the stilt house was torn do…
I just got home from a trip to the grocery store, and when I say a “trip to the store,” I really mean me pulling my car into the predetermined parking spots, clicking a button on my phone to tell the store I’m there, popping my trunk and waiting while some wonderful store employee loads up t…
This column marks a milestone: The first time I am writing it as a married woman. We tied the knot last month and took a long, wonderful honeymoon. Now, we’re settling into married life as newlyweds, and I have to say that – so far – it’s going swimmingly! Neither of us had been married befo…
How are you sleeping? Do you toss and turn all night and wake up in the morning feeling like you’ve been run over by a truck? Yeah, that pretty much sums up my sleeping habits over the past year. I was blaming most of the issues on menopause since all of my girlfriends in the same age range …
Is it just me, or does time seem to be flying by faster than ever? I’ve often heard people say that’s what happens as we age, since we are gradually facing the fact that, sadly, none of us is immortal. I turned around and suddenly it’s June. What happened to the first half of this year? Seem…
I was flipping through the television channels one evening last week and was surprised to happen upon the movie Downton Abbey. I squealed with delight and my fiancé looked at me like I was crazy.
Here we are almost at the end of April, and I once again find myself wondering where the time has gone.
Are you a tailgater? When I ask you that, what do you think I mean? Do your thoughts immediately go to Sundays in October when you’re decked out in Steelers gear and grilling brats on the barbecue at Heinz Field? Or do you think of the idiot who was riding your tail on the road yesterday in …
When I was starting out in the television news business as a fledgling journalist and weather forecaster, I used to search the want ads from stations across the country. I started in Steubenville, then made my first big move to Fort Myers, Fla. That was definitely an improvement as far as ge…
March is here! That means we’ve already made it through the bulk of winter. Despite a few weeks of very cold air and a couple of rounds of accumulating snow in January, this winter has seemed fairly typical to me and altogether not that miserable (despite having to shovel snow a handful of t…
Did you wake up this morning to watch Punxsutawney Phil’s annual prediction? As I write this, Groundhog Day is still two days away, but you’ll be reading this Wednesday morning, Feb. 2, 2022 – Groundhog Day!
Well, it’s finally here: A new year, the start of a new month and finally some chillier weather that feels more like winter.
The sun is shining, the grass is green and – much to everyone’s dismay – there’s zero chance of us having a white Christmas this year. The temperature has been cold enough for local ski resorts to fire up the snowmakers, but I’m hoping for some of the natural stuff to appear on the slopes soon.
Have you finished decorating for the Christmas holiday yet?
It’s Thanksgiving week, so to me it’s now officially the holiday season.
Some of you might be old enough to remember when United Airlines launched its “Fly the Friendly Skies” campaign back in 1965. They later moved away from it, and I just read they relaunched it two years ago – right before the COVID-19 pandemic grounded flights for months and put the kibosh on…
This is the big week before Halloween and my neighborhood is decorated with all sorts of blow-up spiders, ghosts and other ghastly creatures. Some folks have covered their homes in fake cobwebs while others have opted for orange strings of lights. Then there’s my house adorned with only a Ha…
I remember reading a humor column a long time ago by one of my favorite writers, Erma Bombeck. She was the best and always made me laugh.
As I write this, we’re enjoying a sunny late September day with a high near 80 degrees.
It’s usually tough to think about most of September as still being summer when the leaves are already starting to lose some of their luster, the sun angles are lower, days are shorter and everything around you is suddenly covered in pumpkins, hay bales and pumpkin spice dust.
They’re here! Well, OK, not here in Southwestern Pennsylvania (yet), but Washington state is close enough. I’m talking about those extremely creepy and downright scary creatures they’re calling the murder hornets. Have you heard about them? Asian giant hornets are two inches long and their s…
Have you been to downtown Pittsburgh lately?
Chartiers-Houston Community Library will welcome area jazz musicians, “The Dan Baker Group, for an outdoor concert at 7 p.m. Aug. 21. The concert is the result of a collaboration between Chartiers-Houston Community Library and Washington Jazz Society to end the summer on a high note. The con…
Ever since I was a kid, I’ve loved watching the Olympic Games.
I think my house is slowly trying to kill me. It’s not like the Amityville Horror house or anything creepy like that. If that were the case, then the house surely would have tried to electrocute me a few months ago when I changed out a light fixture for the first time in my life. I double, t…
Temperatures have been all over the place this spring and now early summer. June had 20 days above 80 degrees but the first official 90- degree day of the year for Pittsburgh didn’t occur until Monday, June 28. Pittsburgh saw a high of only 66 on the 22nd, then soared to 92 on the 28th, and …
Do you play the lottery? I sometimes do but usually only when jackpot amounts soar past $100 million – as if a prize of $5 million, $20 million or even $42 million isn’t enough to entice me to play. The last time I bought tickets, I didn’t even get one number correct.
Last week’s dry, warm weather motivated me to do some yard work. In addition to mowing grass and cleaning and mulching flowerbeds, I sighed and began the exhausting but highly satisfying task of trimming hedges.
Did you dodge the raindrops long enough to mow your lawn last week? Between downpours and chilly temperatures, it’s been a struggle, and my grass had grown about 6 inches tall in many spots. I desperately needed to mow it.
April is almost at an end, and suffice to say this month has had, well ... some issues. It seems to me like April 2021 is having an identity crisis. It can’t decide whether it wants to be part of spring or hold onto winter’s chill.
I saw a commercial the other day from a luxury carmaker touting its new electric sedan. Electric cars seem to be popping up everywhere now, and even auto racing has an all-electric circuit, which blows my mind. I can’t imagine going to a racetrack, hearing the announcer say, “Drivers, start …
I went for my somewhat daily walk around the neighborhood the other day for some exercise and was enjoying the sunshine and unseasonably warm temperatures that have been in place the past couple of weeks. Birds were chirping and a few kids were giggling as they played nearby. It was peaceful…
It’s almost here! Can you feel it? Spring is right around the corner with daylight saving time, St. Patrick’s Day and warmer temperatures all hinting that we’re about to turn the corner and veer away from what has been a very snowy winter.
Mario Lemieux has always held a special place in my heart. We’re roughly the same age and I felt like I grew up right along with him while watching his playing career, amazing feats on the ice and growing family. His injuries and medical setbacks, inspirational comebacks and transition into …
Every once in a while, I wind up reading something that makes my jaw drop, prompts me to burst out in laughter or simply leaves me stunned. All of those scenarios applied when I read the news release from the power company leading up to Valentine’s Day. They were reminding customers to fill …
