"Allentown Athletix Group Discount" written by Chico on estrip.org

07/13/10 10:46 - 75.ºF - ID#52163

Allentown Athletix Group Discount

Hello friends! I thought it was a shame for (e:james)' hard work to go to waste, so I used my "time to renew at Allentown Athletix" appointment to discuss with Bill, the manager, the possibility of reinstating the (e:strip) group discount. The answer is YES but we need people to sign up! ((e:fing) this applies to you too so don't get angry or anything just yet).

The more the better, but it looks like the magic number is 5. If we can get five members of (e:strip) (myself included) to sign a one-year commitment, the group rate would be $309 per person (a savings of $170/year over the regular rate).

Anyone who previously was an (e:strip) discount group member at AA (http://www.allentownathletix.com/Facilities.html) and who was told the discount was over but recently signed up for 180 "dollar days" is eligible -- with the group discount and a one-year commitment, the $180 already paid would be credited toward the $309 annual fee.

The big issue of course is coordination and getting enough people to commit. I'm willing to do the coordination part, but only if enough people express a SERIOUS willingness to sign on the dotted line. Not to be a bastard, but I don't want to waste a lot of time and effort if folks are just going to flake out at the last second.

So, if you're thinking about getting a new gym membership, or are a 2009 (e:strip) group discount member coming up for renewal at AA (and not moving to Portland), and you are SERIOUS about making the commitment, then please contact me. If not, please don't.

Anyone who does contact me, I will be in touch. If we reach critical mass, we'll talk about the next step. OK?

Thanks for reading and I look forward to replies.

-(e:chico)

P.S. Sorry that I have neither the wit nor charm of (e:james). Curse my wretched sense of humor and lack of appreciation for polite society!

Permalink: Allentown_Athletix_Group_Discount.html
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Last Modified: 07/13/10 10:46

06/06/10 10:42 - 55ºF - ID#51810

Dyke March and Pride

It was really great to see so many (e:peeps) at the Dyke March celebration Saturday night! Weather stinks today but hope to see some of you at Pride too.

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Category: music

04/20/10 11:36 - 52ºF - ID#51423

cigarettes and chocolate milk

Rufus at the Albright-Knox! The National opens. Can't wait for Friday, June 18!

http://blogs.buffalonews.com/live/2010/04/rockin-at-the-knox-2010.html

http://www.myspace.com/rufuswainwright

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Category: food

02/07/10 07:59 - 20ºF - ID#50986

Brunch at Left Bank last Sunday

Brunch last weekend at Left Bank was soooooo good. The pictures don't quite do it justice. And of course you can't hear the jazz duo playing great music in the background.

Hot coffee, spicy Bloody Mary, shrimp bisque

Breakfast bruschetta (w/egg, sausage, and cheese; foreground)

Breakfast tortilla bowl (egg, chorizo, beans, salsa, with homefries)

This morning's homemade breakfast wasn't bad, but just couldn't measure up. Wish we could afford Left Bank every Sunday...

Permalink: Brunch_at_Left_Bank_last_Sunday.html
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Category: rant

01/30/10 02:34 - 8ºF - ID#50942

Memo to YOU, parking genius!

Memo to the genius who parked on the wrong side of the street on North Pearl between Virginia and Allen yesterday afternoon: THANKS for RUINING it for everybody.

For once, the City actually sent a plow up our street to clear all the parking spots. But because YOU parked your Ford Explorer illegally (in violation of the clearly posted alternate side of the street parking regs) directly in the path of the snowplow before it came up the street, the plow had to swerve out to avoid your SUV and left a long trail of snow and ice slanting from the curb to where your truck was parked.

Now there's a huge pile of chunky, heavy, icy snow ruining three or possibly four parking spots in a part of the block where a lot of residents need on-street parking, THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THAT.

P.S. I couldn't help but notice that you moved you truck to a clean spot on the other side of the street last night or this morning. Well played. You are a master of self-centeredness and disregard for your neighbors.

P.P.S. Are you also one of the geniuses who treat PMT's driveway as if it were a public parking lot? --see ((e:paul,47906)) and ((e:paul,50830))

Permalink: Memo_to_YOU_parking_genius_.html
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Category: food

01/21/10 07:46 - 29ºF - ID#50875

Guercio's

Can I just say how much I love Guercio's? I know their produce isn't as pretty as that supermarket chain that starts with W, but I freakin love the fact that I can pop over to Grant Street, load up on produce, Italian cheeses, extra virgin olive oil, and all manner of goodies and walk out of there with an enormous box of great food for what I would spend on two plastic bags of stuff at the big store. Man alive I love Guercio's!!!

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01/19/10 08:55 - 30ºF - ID#50861

Otis pics

Our new pal, at the city shelter.

And at home, post-op and still a little woozy.

He's a good boy, even if he did poop on the rug this morning. Yes, the rug that really tied the room together.

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01/17/10 09:12 - 37ºF - ID#50839

new addition to the family: Otis!

Tomorrow we pick up Otis, our new dog, adopted from the City of Buffalo Animal Shelter. We can't wait!!!

We looked around a lot trying to find the right dog for us and our 2-bdrm-apt-in-Allentown lifestyle. We're optimistic that Otis is that dog.

He's a little Chihuahua mix, black with white fur on his chest, muzzle, and paws. Unfortunately tomorrow he gets the ole snip-snip so he might not be himself for a couple of days.

We looked at a lot of dogs at the city shelter and at the Niagara SPCA (never made it to Erie during adoption hours) and also on Petfinder.com and I have to tell you there are so many great dogs that need a home.

More to come on Otis, but in the meantime, consider adopting a dog or cat from the city shelter. (I know I want to take home like 5 or 6, and I wish I could!!!!)

Some really special dogs that have been at the shelter for a while and need (and deserve!) a good home: Blossom (so sweet, and there since October 2009) and Merlin (super friendly and eager to please, there since November?). Also Conan (not for the faint of heart at 160 pounds! but super mellow and a sweet fella).

The people who work and volunteer at the shelter are great. If you're thinking of opening your home to a new dog or cat, definitely make it your first stop.

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08/14/09 04:14 - 86ºF - ID#49536

Pilates, yoga ... help!

Does anyone out there have advice/recommendations/cautions about yoga (not hot) and/or Pilates classes in Buffalo? I appreciate any/all responses.

Much obliged...

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Category: rant

07/31/09 01:32 - 75ºF - ID#49426

just say NO!

How to make the clunker debacle ((e:chico,49418)) worse: throw good money after bad.

(Well, "good" depends on your opinion of government stimulus spending.)

From the Wall Street Journal Online:

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D., Md.) told Democratic lawmakers that a bill to transfer $2 billion in emergency funding from the economic stimulus plan to the program will be voted on Friday, according to a senior Democratic House aide.

The legislation would shift $2 billion from the $787 billion stimulus plan to the clunkers program, which appears to have exhausted its $1 billion in funding after just one week.

While the House, which is set to begin its August recess, will vote on the bill, the Senate is unlikely to do so until next week, according to Sens. Carl Levin (D., Mich.) and Debbie Stabenow (D., Mich.). The Senate is in session next week.

No!!!

jason writes at 09:12:04 08/03/09 - Comment #50510: I'd like to see more money invested in public transportation too. I'd like it to also not be a money sink, but I guess that is a different issue. $1B for public transportation is not a lot of money. For the kind of investment advocates are talking about, many times more will be needed. I tend to agree more that I think about it that the government plan is meant to benefit manufacturers.

Tiny, the point IS to have less pollution, but the people who say it doesn't reduce pollution very much have a good point. I was simply offering something to people who want the plan to benefit the poor. Again, this means that the cars would have to be retrofitted. They would be using less resources, pollute less. Their previous owners who can afford a Prius will be happily puttering along. If it is impossible or too expensive to do this then scrap them, I don't care. In this instance the scales are so small, you're not hurting anybody, least of all Exxon.

You know, seeing as how narrow a scope it has to be, and how nobody is happy with this, and because the dollar amount is not good enough for any kind of investment, it's obvious the plan is shit and we shouldn't be putting any more money into it.

This government in power is anything but magic. I'm not on here constantly casting unfair vulgarity on the people in power. They just can't be trusted when it comes to numbers. When the politicians have to invent a statistical category nobody keeps track of to describe what the porkulus is going to do to jobs, and when they say that their health care plan is going to save money and it is found out that it is actually not going to save money, you know, it is just hard to put your faith in what they say to you. I worry more about people willfully living in denial than the politicians, at least you can boot the politicians.

We are all in the same boat, I do know that. For better or worse, politicians do what keeps them elected back home.

jenks writes at 09:47:38 08/01/09 - Comment #50468: don't blame me, I voted for Nader. ;)

jbeatty writes at 10:03:21 07/31/09 - Comment #50463: After looking at some numbers this program is such a crummy disguise. This bill is not meant to help out the environment, the middle class, or the poor. One billion dollars is hardly enough to make a dent into removing vehicles that are "clunkers". One billion dollars is only enough money at the very best best to remove 286,000 clunkers. According to the US bureau of transportation statistics there are roughly 101,000,000 Trucks and SUVs in this country. These are obviously the largest contributors of pollution for personal vehicles. So my question is how is removing a quarter of a percent of gas guzzlers going to do anything to reduce pollution??? It isn't, its meant to bail out car manufacturers, yet again.

I like Jason agree I don't live in a world where public transportation is used daily. This is mostly because it is a hell of a lot more convenient for me not use it. However I do think that now is the time that our government should start shifting our resources to expand it. Because the price of gas is never going down. At what price will it become a necessity for me to use it? I have no idea, but I'm certain I will see the day.

tinypliny writes at 07:21:58 07/31/09 - Comment #50459: Jason, I still don't get this plan at all (or its alternative) so help me understand. This is a plan for the good of the environment, no? Is it not the plan to give incentives to people so they will stop using these oil guzzling cars and buy newer more efficient ones that will use less oil, pollute less and thus, conserve some resources?

If these old inefficient and resource-wasting cars could be "retro-fitted" to tolerable efficiency - why not give out the money for "retro-fitting"? If they want to do something about the transport of the poor:
a) Why not buy new efficient cars for the poor directly and give it to them? Why cycle through a chain of financing the clunker-return and then spending some more to "retro-fit" them and then give them out?

b) Why not invest this $1 billion in public transport, that is definitely more affordable? Is $1bn so less nowadays that it won't even expand the existing public transport networks?

I don't have an ideological chip on my shoulder. I am just trying to figure out what this new government policies are and explain them to myself and puzzled folks at home. I see the point you are making about the inescapable place of cars and the oil industry in this country.

I am not really that nÃ¤ive or falsely optimistic enough to believe that the stimulus fairy will set everything right overnight. But I do wonder about this magic government in power and about its promised change in policies. I am sure you know how much the world's economies depend on the US domestic economy and the oil markets. One false move here drives up costs enormously back home. You are not alone on this planet, you know? :)

jason writes at 07:00:49 07/31/09 - Comment #50458: "Isn't the whole point of this (ill-conceived) idea to take those gas guzzlers OFF the roads because they are
a) gas guzzlers
b) polluting"

Yes. Dr. Niman's article, and Chico's posts, express disappointment that the plan does nothing for the poor. It is unrealistic to expect that every move the government makes can benefit the poor, but here they make a good point concerning taking an opportunity to do something for the poor when it is in front of us.

I wouldn't go along with an idea to give them $4500 for a car they can't afford, so if we can clean up the guzzlers somewhat and allow poor people to use them, they can more easily get a job farther away from home, travel to and from college, and more easily manage day care. If the cars work, and they can be retrofitted to be cleaner, it makes perfect sense. People need cars here to get things done for better or worse. I'm open to an alternate idea that isn't "help them buy a Prius" or "give them a bus token".

"Why on earth would you give them to be driven on roads again"

Because I don't live in a world where everyone crams into trains to get to where they're going, and neither do you, Tiny. Cars are here, and will continue to be here for some time. I don't have an ideological chip on my shoulder that makes me bristle at the thought of someone driving. I don't care if cars use gas or oil companies make money. We can use these vehicles to help people take better opportunities for themselves. Screw the watermelons.

tinypliny writes at 04:35:31 07/31/09 - Comment #50449: Okay, hopefully this will be my last comment on this. If this $2bn also makes its way into the clunker program somehow (and you never know the fathoms of stupidity politicians are capable of), won't it run out in 2 more weeks?

Then what? Borrow a trillion more from China to buy back all the nasty unresearched greedy little vehicles of doom using debt money??

tinypliny writes at 04:30:47 07/31/09 - Comment #50448: Seriously, is this the best both parties could come up with?? This is even worse than bigoted little Indian politicians and their puny evil agendas. Seems like all of them are desperately lacking any brains whatsoever.

tinypliny writes at 04:27:42 07/31/09 - Comment #50447: That plan makes even LESS sense. Isn't the whole point of this (ill-conceived) idea to take those gas guzzlers OFF the roads because they are
a) gas guzzlers
b) polluting

Why on earth would you give them to be driven on roads again - so that the oil companies can continue making money out of them from "poor people" instead of the original owners? Nice thinking. :/

jason writes at 03:38:42 07/31/09 - Comment #50446: I read something today that made me nearly fall out of my chair, Chico. A conservative saying, hey, Liberals enjoy redistributing, why not give away these clunkers to poor people? Of course, there are holes in the idea such as, well how are these poor people who can't afford cars going to afford gas or insurance? New brakes down the road? Who will pay?

Anyway I thought that was interesting. I would be alright with poor people getting a car as long as they were responsible for it completely on their own after they get it. If the watermelons want to retrofit a guzzler, all the better.

tinypliny writes at 01:46:47 07/31/09 - Comment #50445: I say TAKE the $1bn back!

tinypliny writes at 01:45:52 07/31/09 - Comment #50444: What the hell are they thinking? Are they thinking at all??? This is beyond ridiculous to the point of being idiotic! Is the government made of selfish idiots now? Exit war mongering, Enter idiocy. :/

Permalink: just_say_NO_.html
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