O Tannenbaum, in honor of Joe's post about the upcoming Deutschland trip. Does the Ellicott Square Building have the largest indoor Christmas tree? This thing is huge...and beautiful. If you find yourself in this part of town, I highly recommend ducking into this amazing lobby to check it out.

I love how warm it has been so far this winter, and I love that we haven't had any snow yet, but I can't help but wonder if this should make us concerned about climate change. What's good for us could be really bad for other parts of the planet. In any event, the great weather makes for a great weekend. We started on Friday with lunch near my office, at Handlebar on Swan Street. This place is pretty awesome, but there weren't many other customers. I hope it gets busier at other times, because I'd hate to see it go away. Then we headed up to Allentown/Elmwood after work for the First Friday gallery walk. I wasn't too interested in the art we looked at in the shops, but it was fun to walk around with friends, and you couldn't help noticing how lively the city was, feels completely different from the place I left in 2009. We had dinner at Don Tequila, which was pretty solidly good and super budget friendly. Wish I would have taken some pictures there, but the only one I snapped all night was of this Buffalo statue in front of a gallery/house on Bryant. Today the Niagara gorge looks beautiful from the street in front of my house. I hope this weather lasts for a while longer!

After more than 6 years in Baltimore, I have come to realize that the best pizza really is in New York. NYC probably has the best, but WNY comes in at a close second, in my opinion. My favorite comes from this place in Niagara Falls that you'd never ever notice unless you were looking for it. It's on a residential street, and feels like a step back in time. There are only two people working there, and you can see the gigantic flour sifters, long table, and all the equipment they use to make this old fashioned pizza. Totally vegetarian, goes great with red wine, and I don't know what they put in the sauce--maybe crack--because I am so addicted to it!

DG Bread & Pizza, though locals tend to call this place Trusello's because I think that used to be its name.




Somebody made a Youtube video of the place. It's a little long, but you get the idea:

After nearly 7 years away in Baltimore, we decided to move back home, closer to family, in Western New York. My previous time in this area has always been spent in Buffalo, downtown and Allentown, so it feels a little strange this time to be living in Niagara Falls. But our new house has a view of the Niagara gorge from the living room windows, and that's a perk that makes my new location easier to accept. I took these pictures from practically across the street from our new house over the past couple of months. It's good to be home!

Paul's recent post about his wedding ring made me think of this advertisement I recently saw from Tiffany & Co. I worked for them in the late 1990s, and I am proud of my former employer for taking a stand on an issue that's important to me. It may be a smart marketing campaign, but it's also good to see them marketing directly to the gay community, because it moves us farther away from the margin and closer to normalization. I'm thinking back to when I was an adolescent, and how nice it would have been to see these things in mainstream media. It would have made me feel less alone, and would have allowed me to daydream about my future wedding and marriage one day, like most people do (and take for granted). It's these seemingly small things that add up and eventually change society's values and attitudes. It's a great way to start the new year, looking forward to the future! Happy 2015!