I think it is because he knit me my favorite hat ever.

The Hat - Ingrid Michaelson

::download sound::

Okay, she is teh first artist that made me purchase something from itunes. I am so sorry Kimya I feel like I cheated on you but you are still my favorite.

Well at least it isn't something bad.

It is victories like the one mentioned above that enabled the Elmwood Village Association to be included in the roster of neighborhoods that made the 2007 list of Great Places in America. It's a big deal for Buffalo, and the award will act as a lure to draw more businesses and people to the district.

I am sure this will really boost the city moral just like being an All America City did.

Here is the whole write up about the "Elmwood Village." Read it, it is actually nice

I am going to go ahead and say that I don't see this award as such an a big deal for the City but a recognition that when a neighborhood costs somewhere around $200,000 to live in that it becomes a "good neighborhood". Everyone knows that. It is just becoming more upper middle class suburdban style. It is reflected in the comment on buffalo Rising yesterday when someone asked if the good news was if the "Gays and Hippies" were leaving the village.

Today, Elmwood Avenue is one of Buffalo's busiest commercial districts with some 200 boutiques, restaurants, and taverns.

Does that count all the ones that have closed or are closing?

The thing this award certainly does not do - is solve any of the tax issues or shortage of skilled labor that really is affecting Buffalo. I saw ont he news only a couple weeks ago that Buffalo was rated the wrost city to open a business besides dDetroit and two other cities. It was 47/50. ya 47/50.

If they are talking about tourists being the saving grace, I think it would take a lot of tourists to attract business and why would anyone choose here over anywhere else t tour.

Now to live here is another matter, I would choose over just about any city I have lived in, but to tour. Come on , no one besides friends , relatives and exchange students come to tour Buffalo, do they?

I mean does anyone put the Elmwood Village on there vacation plans. What so they can go to a bunch of trendy boutique and clothing stores. There isn't even a real grocery store/ music store anymore. Name one thing the Elmwood Village offers a tourist that they just can't find somewhere else.

So yeah - just like St. James - all of the Elmwood village is a better palce to live. Good for the freakin elmwood Village.

Now it can get even more overpriced for the same old shit.

It is basically saying that a section of the city priced way beyond the reality of Buffalo city household budgets is a great place to live.

On a side note from the article:

To encourage an economic and cultural renaissance, the nonprofit Elmwood Village Association was formed in 1994.

Is that true? I could swear there was Forever Elmwood but I didn't hear any of this talk abut an Elmwood Village until only a few years back. Its not like I just don't rememebr either because I have live one block form Elmwood just about my entire life until I moved on down to Linwood. Remember, it used to be called the Elmwood Strip.

Soon we are going to have Village history books about when the foudning father created the Elmwood Village after the Indians gave it to them for Christmas their first winter in 1784. I really don't think the Elmwood Village is really a village. It is just a section of the city. I grew up in kenmore, which is a village and it is very different. the idea being that in a village everything is kind of isolated and self contained. Self governance, etc. I am not saying I am a fan of it, but seriously, is the Elmwood Strip really a village now? Are the village going to succeed from the City of Buffalo.

I would really like to become something bigger in the organization I work for. I realize I haven't been there very long but I have this feeling I could really help organize and analyze systems on a much larger scale. I don't just mean for web development. There seems to be so much reliance on software vendors but I think there isn't necessarily an understanding for what they do. I wonder if I will ever attain a larger role in making decisions on a more comprehensive level.

One guy was telling me the other day he planned on spending $90,000 on a systems that prevented insecurities in web applications. That is utterly ridiculous. First of all because such a solution could not possibly exist among the multitude of web based systems we run. I guarantee that whatever it does cannot be worth $90,000.

There are so many diverse groups that don't seem to know enough about each other.

I have talked about Media Deli e:paul,40698 a bunch of times in the past. Yesterday, there were actually a coupel people eating there in the morning and then today when i was walking past it on my way to work, I saw it was closed. Once I got to Main Street I saw why.



A freakin' car drove up the curb and slammed into it. I wonder if it was an accident or someone trying to cause damage or rob it.

Everything inside looked untouched, so it makes me think accident.


What is up with all the stores in the Allen Village being closed. I am hoping by calling it a village, everything will get fabulous.

This one is starting to smell moldy. I have a super power for detecting mold.



All the stuff in the windows is melting. It is such a weird mix of candles and food and knives.



The sky was so pretty yesterday after work.


I thought you guys would get a kick out of this.

Just shortly after Sahara Grill closed down ;( , Elmwood Bagels closed down too. I went there this afternoon for a sandwich and there was a sign saying thanks for being loyal customers they enjoyed there time in the elmwood village but had to close. I wonder if they are moving somewhere else. You think they would have a forwarding address if that was the case.

We did not attend the animal blessing this morning with Basra. I don't think e:matthew realized it was a church service and animal blessing. I mean I have no idea how the Episcopalians do it but in the Catholic church I kind of remember a whole mass with candles they put up on the animals necks at some point.

I picked e:hodown up from the airport and we headed on over to downtown Kenmore where she was goign to get some jewelry repaired at Hoefferts jewelers.



Then we headed to premiere to buy some caviar and cheeses. The most expensive caviar they had was from an American Paddlefish . It was $56.00/jar but when we brought it home it was covered in mold inside ;(



So we had to drive back, the woman we returned it to commented that the jar was warm. I was wondering if she was insinuating that we made it mold in the 15 minutes we had it in the car? Luckily, they switched it out for another bottle and their was no spitting required.

I learned a lot about caviar here I am curious why the Iranian Caviar is so freakin expensive

Caviar is good with creme cheese. e:hodown taught me to eat it like this.


e:terry likes to play on the scaffolds, will we ever return them.


Then we had champagne, which reminded me a lot of the housewarming months.




Even e:cindy drank a bit too much.


It was fun lounging around.


Then we hung out on the porch with the ants and the water rocket.

Ants love yogurt


e:matthew cleaned it up


For a little we had 2/3 of the ho clan on the porch. You guys probably don't see the he-ho Josh that much.

I still can't get over how much fun I had dancing last night e:jim,41532
I thought my body would be broken today but honestly it felt good, much better than if I had gone on a programming marathon sitting on the couch.

We spent Sunday "preparing" for the wedding reception at 6PM. We started the morning out with a lobster omlette.

Nothing goes better with lobster claw than cleavage. period. I really don't think any man can argue that. I think lemon, butter cleavage might be the only thing to top that. e:lilho your sister has raised the bar, how are you going to up this one?!


It was so yummy looking, I was dying watching it cook.





Of course it needed a dollop of caviar. It was almost like the New York City on a million dollars a day meal, minus the Russian Belluga.



After that we spent the day running around in the sprinkler. This rocket sprinkler really rocks. It is fun the play in and entertaining to watch.






I no longer have a happy trail. It is more like a happy 4 lane highway. I guess, what do I expect I am Sicilian after all.

First, I appointed e:jim,41585 as commander.

I have so much to say but every night when I go to blog, I instead program more on the new version of estrip. It looks essentially the same, but it is re-programmed from the ground up so that it is compatible with all the new code I am producing at Roswell - which means more updates and features for you guys.

Anyways, instead of boring you with those details I will share some pictures. I had lots of fun at the estrip dinner this evening. I hope everyone else did too! I know the waitress sure did, we gave her a great tip.

I loved this sign.



On Sunday, I went to the wedding of Kristina Kling and Rocky Costello at the Lancaster Country Club. I can't believe after 15 years they are finally getting married!

I actually got dress up!


e:hodown even put a flower in her hair



We had fun with the disposable camera from the table.


I don't understand this picture. I think Rocky and Kristina were sticking cake in each others face. I was rushing to get the picture and light got blurred but it looks like is that Kristina whipped out a laser sword.


I never thought I would see Rocky married


Here is the proof


it was nice to see e:zizzler


When I first met rocky 15 years ago he hated me, then we became pretty good friends. Now I actually see him more than Kristina.


After 100 years the bench met the garbage. It is the one thing no one took form our front lawn when put out.


Monday was fun, e:james, e:jim, e:matthew, e:terry and I lounged around in the sun with basra



and ate pixie stix.


The Robber
We saw Avery Leeper e:paul,32762 on Delaware by the jewish center - he is the guy who robbed our house last year. He told us the same sob story about having to get to his pregnant girlfriend in Medina or something. It amazes me when those crack heads don't have the creativity to change their story at all, even after a jail term. Come on, at least a slightly different story. I don't even have the pretension of being nice anymore and I hate when they try and pretend like they are some random street person I never saw before or that didn't already rob my house.

Calling 911
Then at night some guy collapsed outside our house. At first I wanted to go out but then I decided not to when I realized it was the drunken guy that is always wondering around on our street. Instead I watched for a minute when I noticed him rolling around in the oncoming traffic lane. He seemed to drunk to stand up. We decided to call 911 and believe it or not, in the heart of the city, the ambulance was there in 5 minutes flat. At that point he had wandered off down the street toward the park at North and Franklin.

The next morning I went and looked where he fell down and noticed this weird mix of stuff. Look at it. Later that day it was gone, he must have come back.

After our lunch break today, e:southernyankee needed to get some "buffalo" clothes at Marshall's today so I went with her and got some shoes. Well, not just any shoes, but shoes with metallic parts that go bling. I love them. 310 shoes They must be really rich to afford 310.com.

Its hard to tell but in disco lights it would look great.