Lifestyles category, Page 178
Out & About: Guests don bow ties and pearls for Cal U gala
California University of Pennsylvania’s first Bow Ties & Pearls Ball brought a sellout crowd of 300 guests to the Washington County campus on June 29. Party-goers found the Convocation Center arena transformed into an elegant venue for cocktails and appetizers, followed by dinner and a dessert buffet. University President Geraldine...
What to know: Pittsburgh’s fireworks frenzy on the FourthVideo
Pittsburgh will celebrate the Fourth of July in style again this year, from the 18th annual Heinz Field Fourth of July Celebration, featuring country singer Brandon Lay, to the EQT Flashes of Freedom. Be forewarned that the EQT event, staged at Point State Park, typically draws more than 50,000 people...
How the novelty pool float conquered Instagram
By the time spring rolls around, Brittany Goodman is already on the hunt for the perfect pool float. She peruses the Target aisles as well as small boutiques through April and May, determined to find her go-to float of the season. In 2016, it was a tube made to look...
Out & About: Westmoreland Art Nationals 2 opens at Twin Lakes
Westmoreland Arts & Heritage Festival Executive Director Diane Shrader credited Chef Mark Henry’s hors d’oeuvres for helping draw a crowd to the opening reception for the second Westmoreland Art Nationals exhibition, held June 29 in the exhibition building at Twin Lakes Park in Unity. It was a lovely spread, to...
Out & About: Saint Vincent Summer Theatre Gala marks 30 years
Guests at the 30th annual Summer Theatre Gala stepped into an enchanted world to enjoy “a tale as old as time” — “Disney’s Beauty and the Beast.” The production capped an evening of good food and fellowship for supporters of the professional summer theater that makes its home at Saint...
Out & About: Seton Hill student writers hear from fantasy author
Twice yearly, students in Seton Hill University’s MFA in Popular Fiction program gather from around the country — and sometimes from around the globe — for a week of intensive workshops on the Greensburg campus. One feature of the week is a lecture, Q-and-A session and book-signing/reception with a prominent...
Taco Bell hotel sells out in minutesVideo
A Taco Bell-themed hotel in California sold out in minutes and fans will have to hope for another chance to experience the limited-time vacation getaway. The Bell: A Taco Bell Hotel and Resort, located in Palm Springs, California, sold out in just 2 minutes after opening at 10 a.m. Pacific...
Key to a crisp chopped salad is salting ahead of time
A chopped salad, where every ingredient is cut into pieces of about the same size, offers the perfect mixture of flavors and textures in every bite. However, some vegetables get watery and soggy when you chop and dress them, and require extra attention. In this summery salad, we first salted...
Travel tip: Win a dream trip via ‘Vacation Do Over’ contest
The American Society of Travel Advisors is looking for someone who planned the trip of their dreams, only to have it turn into a vacation nightmare. The society will soothe the pain of plans gone wrong with a $10,000 dream getaway through its Vacation Do Over Contest. Best of all,...
To kick up your chicken salad, turn to your spice rack
To apply some modern tricks to old-school chicken salad, we turned to our spice rack. Most spices boast an impressive portfolio of phytonutrients—often the very same compounds that give them such potent flavor. Mild, creamy chicken salad was an ideal canvas. First, we found we could replace two-thirds of the...
5 dishes every new graduate should learn how to make
So your kid is going out into the world. Flying the coop. Time for them to learn how to cook. Maybe, just maybe, you didn’t do as good a job as you’d planned teaching them their way around the kitchen (cough — me too, despite what one might think). And...
Living with Children: Biological vs. adopted
Question: We have two married daughters, one of whom is adopted. The biological daughter has two children who, we recently discovered, have been told that it is wrong to call our adopted daughter “aunt so-and-so” because she is not really family. Nor, according to our biological daughter and son-in-law, is...
Should I ask my new boyfriend where our relationship is going?
Carolyn Hax is away. The following first appeared Jan. 2, Jan. 5 and Feb. 27, 2005. Dear Carolyn: I have finally met a guy I really like. We have been seeing each other on and off for a couple of months. Should I ask where this relationship is going or...
‘Don’t panic’ is first rule when you lose your passport overseas
Passport problems can elicit very real physical responses in travelers. On a blazing afternoon in Jakarta a few years ago, I realized I didn’t have enough pages in my passport to get to my next destination beyond Indonesia. I had one of those skin-crawling, heart-racing moments of terror. Reason went...
How to use cover crops in a home garden
Cover crops are a useful (and inexpensive!) way for vegetable gardeners to manage weeds, improve the soil, and help control erosion. Not intended for harvest, cover crops are planted either before or after the harvest of a vegetable crop, or in fallow gardens. Many gardeners think cover crops only have...
Twitter user suggests Ranch Pop-Tarts, Twitter goes bonkers
As Little Debbie’s Twitter feed put it, “There are times when people need to be saved from themselves.” That time was earlier this week, when a Twitter user’s suggestion that Hidden Valley Ranch Dressing and Pop-Tarts team up gained far too much traction on the social-media platform. Far be it...
Pride on display on 50th anniversary of Stonewall uprising
New York City is marking the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall uprising, days of unrest in Manhattan’s Greenwich Village that began with a police raid on a gay bar and catalyzed a sustained LGTBQ liberation movement. The streets outside the modern incarnation of the Stonewall Inn were blocked off Friday...
Ligonier Country Market offers camp, preschool information
Ligonier Country Market will provide information on camp and preschool opportunities for children on June 29, along with plenty of fruits, vegetables, baked goods and crafts. Fort Ligonier representatives will share information about Colonial America and what kids can look forward to at its kids day camp, Cannonball Club and...
Recipes worthy of a wedding cookie table
According to some bakers, there are cookies that make the wedding reception cut based on tradition, taste and presentation, and just plain “better be there” when guests arrive. Some require more technical skill than others, but all are baked with love and warm wishes. Lady Locks (A smaller version is...
Western Pa. bakers out to set wedding cookie table world recordVideo
Never mind the cake, guests at weddings in Western Pennsylvania are far more interested in the cookie table. A tradition that can send wedding hosts — and bakeries — into a frenzy, the cookie table plays a starring role in regional weddings. It also will star in Monongahela’s upcoming 250th...
All-green woodland gardens can provide serenity
All-green gardens are becoming popular again as the centerpieces of monochromatic landscaping. The designs are appealing and restive, driven as they are by massed ferns, moss, leaves, bark, berries, rock and foliage combinations. They serve some practical purposes, too. “Cool, mossy and damp, small space woodland gardens bring a welcome...
How do paint companies name their hues?
Several years ago, I painted a bathroom in my house a rich, smoky blue. Everyone who sees it asks for the color name. When I answer, “Benjamin Moore’s Gentleman’s Gray,” the questioner inevitably looks perplexed and assumes I have conflated two colors, because there is nothing gray about the shade....
Purge the peach trees of pests
Question: We have two peach trees in our backyard and we have two different issues going on that keep us from seeing any ripe fruit. Can you advise us on what’s going on and how to handle it? First, there are holes in the growing peaches. When you crack one...
Beauty grows in shadow of Carrie Furnace
Rick Darke sees beauty where others don’t. He’s a renowned garden personality, author, photographer, designer and, maybe most importantly, something called a landscape ethicist. He’s spent much of his career obsessed with converting industrial sites into amazing public landscapes. It was more than a decade ago when he was flying...
OpenStreetsPGH set for Sunday in Downtown, Strip, LawrencevilleVideo
Thousands of bicyclists and pedestrians are expected in Pittsburgh on Sunday for Bike Pittsburgh’s popular OpenStreetsPGH program. Roads will be closed in Downtown, the Strip District and Lawrenceville. Traffic will be prohibited from 8 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. on Market Street from Market Square to Liberty Avenue, on Sixth Street...
