Our block club is planting ~30 new trees on linwood today. e:matthew
was an organizer. I never thought I'd be up shoveling at 9am on a
Saturday.

At least I missed the joints.

Yesterday during our tree planting expedition we were cleaning up the trash from El Wasseems over by Ferry and Oxford and planting some tree over there.

Across the street there was The Buffalo Free Market. Looked pretty neat. I guess there idea is people bring stuff fthey don't want and trade or give it away. The people in the neighborhood seemed excited.

In this picture there were only a few people as they set up, but within and hour it was packed with people.


It was such a weird mix of urban punk and ghetto. I watched some people pouring vegtable oil intto thir car for biodiesel. The house they seemed to live in was a house on one side, but burned out without roof on the other. It reminded me of this one house in germany that was split in half, one side crumbling into decay and the other very up to date.

El Wasseems on Ferry and Main street has the most digusting corner on main street. It appears people buy stuff at El Wasem's go outisde, unwrap and throw the trash on the street. The was an unbeleivable number of cans, wrappers, bottles, bags, etc. I think that really the store needs to be held accountable for some part of it and should probably clean up around their storefront but clearly they don't. At least they should have a trash can outside. I guess the block club is thinking about installing a trash can there. We had wanted to plant trees but people just drive over the sidewalk too much for that and the baby trees are expensive.

It seemed like the area directly around El Wasem's had another kind of shopping going on that was totally unrelated to the Buffalo Free Market across the street. The kind of shopping where young kids buy something on the street from not people that live in the apartment buildings behind the store. As an example, For a while when we were cleaning some ~15 y/o on a skateboard was hanging out against the wall of the store looking really out of place. Then a dude comes out of the apartment building, he and the kid trade something in their hands and the kid takes off on a skateboard. Maybe they were trading baseball cards, I doubt it.

The last tenant to go was supposed ot be out May 1st. If you remember from my previous entry about it, I gave her $100 to have her stuff out on the 1st. She already owes use so many hundreds of dollars, I figured what was one more, if she was just gone and we could begin the rental process again with different people.

Well, we went to go clean it on Sunday and all her stuff was still there. So I call her today to tell her to get it out by friday or its going to salvation army and she flips out. We get her rent from the city and I told her I was holding it until the stuff was out because she is renting the space until it is vacated.

So she has her grandmother call me, all upset that the poor girl has no money and why can't I cut her a break. Well, because she has screwed me out of $1000+, she left both apartments nasty, and she removed the appliances from upstairs and brought them downstairs - which means I have to bring them back up and they are way heavy.

It really makes me so mad because we have been so extra nice with her and she just keeps fucking it up. According to her grandmother she has been trying to get her stuff out since she moved out but for one reason or another she couldn't.

She still had the heat on 70 when I was there yesterday after goign nuts about her spring heating biull being over $1000. I guess thats what you get when you leave the heat on between 70-80 24/7.

I kind of blame myself a bit because I saw her birth certificate yeserday and on the dining room table and she was born in 1991. Yes, she is 18. Had I known I would probably have never rented to her but I guess you can't do that anyways.

I think in the future I am going to back to students, they at least have to worry abou thtings like their credit score and having a place to live. My trial with the poor did not work out so well.

But my life has been a series a computer programming tasks, followed by home repair tasks - back to back, 18/7. I am ready for the part of summer that has things like food festivals and hiking.

I was contacted by the Jeanenne of the Crohn's & Colitis Foundation of Buffalo because my journal came up number one for "crohn's buffalo" and they are having some walk on May 20th. I will post more about it when they send me the info.

In light of the ranking, I figured I should post a positive crohn's post for any other crohnies out there look for positive inspiration.

The truth is I don't think about it much anymore because I don't have any symptoms anymore since I had my appendix out last year in April e:paul,44050. You can tell because I haven't posted about it since.

During the last year I have also been taking Lialda a form of mesalamine. It has no side major side effects for me so far and is a million times more manageable than when I was on asacol. With the asacol I used to take 3 pills, three times a day. I would worry all the time about remembering the pills and thought I needed to take them with food so it messed up my whole schedule. I think the worrying made it all worse.

With the Lialda I take 3 pills once in the morning with water before breakfast. Nothing to worry about all day.

The great news is that either I am just doing better minus the appendix or the Lialda is a freakin' miracle. My life is totally different to when I think about my life during that flare up I had in January of 2008. I really thought I was gonna die.

During the year I also wen tto the gym a lot, put on like 20 pounds and eat really well.

The only downside is the Lialda costs $900/month. Luckily, I have really good health insurance that pays for all but $15 of it. I mean it seems worth so much if it is in fact what is making me better but at the same time that seems like such an extreme about of money and cost prohibitive for so many people.

I keep wondering if I can go off the medicine since it has been a year since I had symptoms. I should probably go and see the doctor but the last time I saw him he told me I would need to take it forever and as long as I have health insurance, that is okay with me.

This is the walk I wrote baout in my previous journal e:paul,48621.

Take Steps for Crohn's & Colitis is our annual walk dedicated to finding cures for these digestive diseases. Our goal is to raise $80,000 on Saturday, May 30 at the Buffalo Zoo & Delaware Park. The walk registration starts at 5:00 pm and the walk kicks off at 6:00 pm. After the walk, everyone is invited to stay and enjoy some food and music by The Frontline. For more information and to register, visit

Nearly 10,000 Western New Yorkers suffer from Crohn's Disease or ulcerative colitis-400 of whom are children. With the support of communities nationwide, CCFA has raised much needed funds that, through research, have brought us closer to a cure. For those who live with these chronic diseases, life is a roller coaster of active and remitting disease. However, the opportunity to make life more manageable for patients who live day to day with intense pain, the threat of long term hospital stays and multiple surgeries, has never been greater.

More than 80 cents of every dollar raised through our Take Steps Walk campaign goes directly to fund research and patient programs in Buffalo.

The Nokia N97 and I have been waiting for like 2 years for is finally here. The problem is it costs $699 and I am not paying that. Several years ago I might have but right now there are enough smart phones like my stupid iphone that work ok for $199 with carrier discount. I mean teh iphone costs about hte same if you buy it without a contract. It just does everything I want and it has a keyboard and it is nokia, and I still love them. Having a keyboard would make me mobile blog a lot more. Read this comparison in specs with the iphone



I wish they would team up with a mobile carrier here in the US so I could get a break on it. I want it so bad.

I've been watching this house on porter near Kleinhans slowly be consumed by the elements. I hope no one lives in it. It's been like this for so long and seriously looks like it's about to collapse. I wonder if it's abandoned? Anyone know the story behind it?

From the tenants. This is on the inside of the window as the storeindiw in the outside was not broken.

Luckily, it is an old window that will require surgery just to get it out for repair - fun.