A Mid-Week Day Off

My day started with cleaning up after Wigford, the cat who is afraid of everything. Apparently "everything" includes throwing up breakfast. Unlike the other two kitties, Wigford is not prone to hairballs, so he was bewildered by the sudden histrionics of his stomach. I tucked the comforter around his huddled form and left him to sleep it off on the bed.

I need to take all three to the vet anyway. Their shots are overdue...

My first stop was Joseph Beth Booksellers. Joseph Beth Booksellers is modeled after common "big box" stores with cooler stuff, an enormous stock from independent publishers and a great atmosphere. Pittsburgh is one of five smaller market cities with a store.

After a wander through the store I treated myself to:

Anthony Bourdain's The Nasty Bits

and

A groovy little map of Paris from Mapgroup International, called an InsideOut City Guide. The guide comes with popout maps, a compass in the spine and a little pen that lights up. As an additional bonus, the ISBN/price tag peels off the back.

The best part of the store is the staff. I spotted the InsideOut maps in the travel section but did not see one for Paris. One of the members of the staff looked it up, went downstairs, retrieved the box from the latest shipment, came back upstairs and gave the map to me. The man at the checkout told me to have a nice trip. I did not have the heart to tell him that I was not going anywhere.

Reasons to Love Crazy Mocha

Crazy Mocha is a chain of local coffee shops in Pittsburgh. They have locations throughout the city, in Bloomfield, Lawrenceville, the South Side, Oakland, the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh (how cool is that!) and Shadyside.

The décor is bright, the drinks are cheap and the desserts beyond yummy. The South Side location routinely makes slices of cheesecakes from the Cheesecake Factory up the street available along with the rest of the dessert rotation. They also serve vegetarian sandwiches and giant cookies.

Those are all good things that most successful coffee shops possess. But Crazy Mocha has a few extras that put them over the top.

1. A shop in the Main Branch of the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh. Seriously, how cool is that? Credit has to be given to CLP for not only putting a coffee shop in the first floor but choosing a local outfit over a national chain such as Starbucks or Caribou Coffee. Nothing against either chain, since I spend so much time in the Starbucks near my office that they actually have my order ready when I walk through the door.
   
2. They support other local businesses. One of the most successful is Dreaming Ant, a DVD rental store run out of the back of the Bloomfield location of Crazy Mocha.
3. Free wireless access at all of their locations.
4. Free access to computers for surfing at their South Side location.
5. No Fox News on their televisions. That alone makes them worth my patronage. Fox News is ubiquitous in Pittsburgh. It is especially painful to have to listen to them at my gym. Although I usually get angry enough by the massive stupidity of the anchors to motivate me through the rest of my workout.

As a bonus, a very nice older gentleman paid me a compliment while I was ordering a piece of chocolate cake. He said that it was nice to see a girl who liked to eat and was not always on a diet.

I'm not going to make it for the haircut or the new driver's license. I'll save it for another day.