u/fnihost

My family and I attend every Squirrel Hill Night Market we can, and I just wanted to compliment Uncover Squirrel Hill and I Made It Market for putting on a truly fun and well-run event. There is a fantastic lineup of interesting and unique local vendors (and a good percentage of unique ones that you don’t typically see at the major arts festivals), a great lineup of food trucks and booths (special shout-out to Everything Empanadas which are some of the best I’ve ever had in the city), and a great stage with some fun and eclectic entertainment. It’s honestly one of the best regular events in the city. Sadly, I think last night was the final Market for the year, but I highly recommend checking one (or all of them) out next year.

I have a few reps that I enjoy a lot. The one thing that has bugged me about them is that the movements are pretty inaccurate. When you get your QC pics, everything looks well within tolerance on the timegrapher, but I have never received a rep that doesn’t gain or lose a minute or more a day out of the box despite good readings from the QC pics. I’ve sent them out for service, and they run much better, but what is causing this? My servicer says the factories don’t leave the watches on the timegrapher long enough for an accurate picture of how the watch is running. Is this something they do on purpose? Are the watches getting super magnetized in shipping? Is it a combination of these things? Should we be requesting timegrapher videos that last longer? TIA!

I swear only the Pittsburgh Pirates could lose a key player like Horwitz to a hamstring injury for a month, send him to Single A for a rehab assignment, and have him suffer a concussion on a HBP to the helmet. He homered in his next at bat after getting hit by that pitch by the way. Just ridiculous. Sure would have been nice to have him in the lineup tonight.

When the Pirates face the Reds on Thursday, it will be the first game they play against a team under .500 in 25 games. This far, in that gauntlet, they are 13-10. When you consider the amount of injuries we have had during this stretch to key players, you really have to tip your hat to this team, and especially to the young guys who have stepped up. If they can play this well during the worst kind of adversity, just think what they can do when they start getting guys like Cruz, Horwitz, and Griffin back. As much as we bitch about missed opportunities here, this team is special. Enjoy it.

Tommy Pham is playing right field for the Lehigh Valley Iron Pigs (Phillies AAA team). I’m actually a little surprised he hasn’t caught on to some major league team as a bat off the bench or utility outfielder.

I’ve been thinking about this amazing run Valdez is on, and it occurred to me that without the injuries the Pirates have undergone this season, there is no way Valdez would have even had major league at bats this season except for maybe a September call-up. I don’t know if he can keep up this pace, but what a stroke of absolute luck that he was forced into playing. It’s crazy to say that the injuries were lucky, but in this case, they really were. I just hope this isn’t a flash in the pan, and the Pirates, for once in my life as a fan, actually stumbled on a star. Skenes and Griffin are obvious stars. But it seems like every other team kind of lucks into an amazing player once in a while. Maybe it’s our turn?

Disclaimer: I work from home and I hate if the Parkway detours are causing anyone grief. That said, yesterday, I had to drive from Squirrel Hill to the North Side. I got on the parkway in Squirrel Hill toward downtown , and of course, due to the closure before the tunnel and the detour it was pretty empty. It was seriously amazing. No random idiots staying in the middle lane until the Blvd of the Allies exit and then coming to a complete stop in a moving lane to try to merge into a line of traffic in the far right lane that was obvious for a half mile. No morons slowing down for no reason to 15 mph before the bathtub underpass. No roid-ragers using the 279 exit only lane to avoid the tunnel traffic after the bathtub only to bring that lane to a complete standstill trying to merge back left to get on the Ft. Pitt Bridge. It was so pleasant. I know our topography and road planning generally suck for traffic, but I swear that 2/3 of the things I experience on the Parkway that make veins pop out of my forehead are due solely to people who either drive like they can’t read road signs or think that stopping an entire lane of actually moving traffic so that they can get ahead of like 5 cars is ok.

Just saw that stat on the post game show. WOW.

Just curious.

So for a long time, I have had the Volvo app on my Apple Watch because the apps on the watch are set to mirror what I have on my iPhone. But when I opened the app for about the first 4 years I had my XC60, it would say that Volvo is working to make the features work on the watch. It got to the point that I stopped even checking to see if it would work. Today, I opened the app on my watch and found that I can now use the remote start and door lock/unlock feature, and the watch gives me the location and mileage range of the remaining fuel in my car. This is great! I just wish Volvo would have told me it works. Putting this out there for anyone else like me who didn’t know. Did I miss something?