christmas vacation, part 2

tim's arrival
our friend tim has been living with his wife jenn in japan for the past 1 1/2 years. they haven't come home yet....until now! tim and jenn drive from scranton (old forge, to be precise) to pittsburgh on the 28th. once dropping off their luggage, we are their first stop. yay! they both desperately want thai food, so we invite jen, will, and shan over to order takeout from the green mango (possibly the best thai food in the 'burgh). it's super fun with 7 people vying for food and passing the 13 dishes we insisted we needed. we eat to capacity and digest for a moment before heading to cliff's to hang out. cliff's is fun and we don't leave until around 12 and then drive to plum to drop jen off. when we pull into the driveway, my phone rings and it's my in-laws wondering if they need to come get jen. they had fallen asleep and felt awful that they had forgotten her. luckily, we were in the driveway.
tim, day 2
the next day we sleep way too late and go to oakland to meet tim and senator for lunch at uncle sam's. the boys wander around oakland after that and i go to monroeville to meet jen and mom2 for some shoe shopping. huge dsw sale. it was amazing. head back home and hang with jp until we need to meet at sharp edge for dinner with tim and his flickr friends (who he is meeting for the first time). have dinner with them and head to 'exposure' which is essentially a meetup for pittsburgh flickrers. it's at club havana, on ellsworth. and it's awful. if you're a trendy 30-something who likes their bar really shiny and modern looking, it seems like just the place for you. plus, who can complain when bailey's on the rocks is a mere $7?? plus, the only people there seemed to be from the meetup, meaning it was like going to a house party where you know absolutely no one. eventually tim greeted everyone he wanted to and we left to go sit at crazy mocha and drink coffee and hang.
tim and jenn and jen leave
morningtime at ritters. ahhh, ritters. i just love it so much! 9 of us got together to send jenn and tim off with a proper pittsburgh farewell, which included a waitress that called some of us 'scum'. it was all in good fun though.
after ritters, we had to go out to robinson to meet mom2, papa, and jen for jen's farewell lunch at mad mex. we do so, and jp agrees to go furniture shopping with me afterwards. yay! as many good memories as i have of the big purple couch, i'm excited for it to leave. it's just too big, not really purple, and not really comfortable. other than that, it's a great couch.
we spend the evening watching 'los anos barbaros' (one of my fave spanish movies) and go to bed early.