freaking crazy. There are cars getting stuck at the end of my street. The snow is coming down, and up off the ground. There's about a 40 mph wind non stop. mmtornow actually went to work today, it took about 20 minutes to travel 5 blocks.

I am not taking my camera outside! Here's the view from my windows.




This is my front porch. notice that it has WINDOWS! all this snow came through a 2 inch gap along the bottom. There's a bird in there now too, and it can't figure out how to get out.





Seems fitting that the world is gathered in copenhagen to talk climate change.

this is not natural. it was 45 here yesterday!

One little note about Healthcare... Right now, it's action time.

Now is the crucial point to make your voices heard. Over the next week big decisions will be made. The Senate needs to feel the heat.

You know why people always break their campaign promises? Because after the election the voters are out of the picture, and the politicians are in fundraising mode. So they listen to the lobbyists and they don't hear a peep out of us till next election.

We can't sit back and hope the politicians hear us screaming through the TV. We have to make phone calls and send emails to lobby and make sure people in Washington Listen to us.

To Contact Congress call this number and ask for someone, 1-800-828-0498 it's toll free, call somebody new every day.

Or you can write to them, type something up and send a copy to everyone. You can look at the letters I quoted in my last post for ideas.

Here are the Senators that may need a bit of persuading.
Joe Lieberman, Connecticut
Bill Nelson, Nebraska
Evan Bayh, Indiana
Blanche Lincoln, Arkansas
Kent Conrad, North Dakota
Mary Landrieu, Louisiana
Susan Collins, Maine
Olympia Snowe, Maine
I know none of them are in our state, but just shoot them an email anyway, that's how lobbying works. You find out who's making the decisions and you target them. If you know anyone in these states reach out and ask them to call.

Thanks,

Now the fun pictures




The House


Tuscarora rd. Cute South buffalo Street that runs paralel to Caz Park.


Love the brick roads.


This is a little triangle park, off Tuscarora



Caz Park Casino


Looking Out






Caz Park Soccer Game

More Pictures!!

enjoy


Buffalo Small Boat Harbor, took this picture on a bikeride with molly.






This is the Beach at the end of Tifft Street, right next to the Small Boat Harbor on route 5. We like having a beach so close to our house, we go swim and canoe. It's so nice on those 90 degree summer days, you just go down and dunk yourself in the water.


the Fam at the same beach,


Molly on the boardwalk. There's a boardwalk and a pier at the beach too.




Labor day in Cazenovia Park, this was so fun, I love parties in caz park and I love Labor. It was a big homey barbecue nothing fancy, but just having the community get together and party after a parade, it's one of those wholesome things.


The labor day parade, Mickey Kearns in front, I marched with them and handed out fliers, helped tie balloons, fun stuff.



My favorite South Buffalo party, the Irish Feis and Expo. they have like 5-6 rockin Irish bands, like Jackdaw, Seven Nations, Emish... they also have Irish dancing troops, 2 stages, local businesses, food, drinks. The party starts around 2 and usually goes till 10:30. Bring your own beer or they have good stuff on tap like Guinness Harp, Spaten.. There's also a whole section for local businesses to set up tables. Very grassroots community oriented.




the women from Emish, I actually went to Fredonia with them, and they majored in Music :)




Irish Fest crowd shot.




Blue Heron Music Festival, near Jamestown NY


Main stage, it was muddy the first day


Tent Setup, this is where we slept at the festival. Dry and cozy :)


Anne


Night


Muddy ruts, cars and... cows.


Parking lot was a bit of chaos. I got splattered pushing somebody out. but I did not get stuck thank you very much.


lots of sun, no rain that weekend. This is the last day.



That's all for now :)

Hi All, I want to share some photos. Sorry for not posting more over the summer, it was a beautiful summer and I was happy to be away from my computer.

Here's some of the summer in photos.


Our house with sunflowers in front.


Our front garden when we just started.


Our back Vegetable Grden when it just started.


The first plants


Garden Sprouts


Mid Season, lookin pretty good


Tomatoes on the left fence, cucumbers in the middle, I think I'm switching them next year and making a bunch of changes, I grew a little bit of everything this year to experiment, now I know what works.


lettuce


some daily harvest, pretty nice


One of our absolute favorite ways to eat fresh garden veggies!! mmmm
Mozzarella, tomatoes, basil, and olive oil, classic italian dish, the taste is purely the ingredients,salt and pepper is optional.


cherry tomatoes, I'm growing these next year. Most of the other tomatoes got molested by squirrels. The cherry tomatoes are delicious.


I did not grow this tomato, it came from Molly's parents in the country, but it is huge!! almost 2 pounds.





Yes the sunflowers were 8-9 feet tall


Molly on the steps

Party Photos!

It was a good time. Hope everyone had fun. I didn't take enough pictures. Enjoy these :)



































Morning after

Fun times. we had a good crowd. Thanks everyone for coming.

I love living in South Buffalo. We had a great weekend, actually a great week.

Wednesday and Thursday we hung out at our neighbor's house next door, had some food and drinks. We've met a lot of our neighbors already, it seems like summer is going to be full of activity. It was nice to spend some time, and get to know the 2 families in the house next door.

Friday 2 friends came over after work. We hung out in the yard, enjoying the excellent weather. We assembled our fire ring, but we got hungry and didn't end up lighting our first fire. But it was the first time we've actually hung out in the backyard with friends. We had a little dinner party, with some pasta and homemade sauce. I do make good pasta sauce, instant gourmet :)


Saturday, Mr Softie in the hood. Parked right outside my house. There are a ton of kids in this neighborhood.

Saturday

We went for bikeride. We had no perticular direction. First we dropped by a friends house to see their newborn baby, passed a hotdog stand on South Park Ave so we stopped for a bite to eat. Passed a street musician after we left, playing guitar at the bus stop by the library. Then mom's house, we found her outside gardening, of course :) Finally we rode around Cazenovia Park, and then around South Park Lake too. We saw a saxophone player outside the Botanical Gardens too. Such a nice day for a ride, it's like the whole neighborhood was in bloom.


I love Hot Dog stands, woodside and South Park :)


Outside Mom's


Dudes Fishin' at Caz Park


Baseball Game


Cazenovia Creek


South Park Lake











Outside the Botanical Gardens

Later we showed off our new house to one of mom's out of town friends. Then we all went out to dinner at the Blackthorn. Mom's friend in a Buffalo native who is actually moving back to B-lo from North Carolina because she misses the people, cheap living, and the friendliness.

At around 8 we went to a friend's birthday party in East Aurora. we stayed outside on the back deck and the porch, except to refill our wine glasses, and use the piano, she has a player piano, one that plays those song scrolls. Fun stuff.


Rockin' the Player Piano, that cabinet in the back is full of scrolls.

Sunday

I worked outside, starting my vegetable garden in the back yard. We had dinner at mom's house, backyard barbeque! Enjoyed my first corn on the cob of 2009, along with sausage, veggie-burgers and pasta salad. Cooking on the grill, lovin' the outdoors.







Molly says hi :) Actually she wrote some of this post!

(e:metalpeter) left a comment on my last journal that is right on. I had to give it a hell yea.

I guess the basic idea is that, in America we've slowly lost our sense of community, and that may be our biggest problem.

I probably worry way too much about America, and our problems. But you know what... in my frantic search for solutions, I often come back to the idea that we are all a little too isolated, a little too fearful, and a little too detached from one another.

Community.

That really is the the path to a better world, and a better life in your own skin.

Somewhere along the way, we were fooled into thinking that if we could just take more and more for ourselves, we would be happier. But I think the opposite is true. You have to give, in order to be happy. Cause you'll never have complete control, the world is disorderly, life is unpredictable, and if you think you can take enough from the world to make you happy, you're missing the point. Rich people can be miserable, and the dirt poor can be joyful. The thing that matters, is the people in your life. And if the people around you matter, then selfishness has no place.

Fear of eachother, and self-centered values. I'll bet that's hurt our society more than anything.

Yea, we moved out of our towns and cities. So we could get away from all those people. Get our own grass, our own pool, our own swingset, our own everything. But self indulgence has not made us happier, and fuckin'a we worked so hard to get it.

I think we're starting to come full circle though. Technology drove us apart, but now it's starting to bring us together again.

You know, I make eye contact with anyone I walk by. I want to know my neighbors. And sitting home alone I can relax, but I need people in order to have fun.




By the way, thanks (e:strip) for bringing people together, thanks paul for making it exist and enviting us to your house. And for improving the site all the time. I won't let you launch the new site without sending you a donation. I'm a cheap bastard, but I put my money where it matters.

Hey Everyone!!

Just wanted to show everybody some pictures from the Parade on Saturday. Yep Saturday, the one on the "Old Neighborhood" down in the valley, at South Park and Elk.

It was sooooooo fun! I had a ball, it was so authentic and comfortable, and there was a huge crowd, the parade went on for about an hour and a half. Then we went to the Valley Community Center afterword for some corned beef and potatoes. Plus live music and dancing. Did I mention it was a lot of fun? I was so satisfied I didn't even bother going to the parade on Delaware today.

I wanted to post these pics yesterday but my computer has been giving me a hard time, it keeps freezing. But it's happy now, so I better hurry up and post something!



This is how we started our day, 10:30 we're on the front porch and we see this festive pickup truck plating Irish music just 3 houses down the street from us. Molly says 'maybe there's a parade?' So we look it up online, shove some food in our face, fill a plastic bottle with red wine and hit the road.













These dudes are seriously riding motorized coolers! I gotta build one of these.







These kids were so cute, running around collecting candy in their little bags.



This little guy was so excited about the loot he collected, but I really just wanted to take his picture cause he has a green mohawk :)




Old neighborhood parade



This is where the festivities ended, classic Irish party at the Valley Community Center. Lots of kids, live Irish music, corned beef, potatoes, $2 beers. Molly got a sweet hoodie for $10. I talked to some local politicians and block club people.

I'm even more proud to be from South Buffalo now. What a fun crowd. You guys should go next year. Sure there's parties all over the city, but this just has a unique charm. and it's a great excuse to drink beer at noon :)

For Janelle :) Some of the woodwork in the house is painted. And there's paneling in the side hallway. the bathroom door frame and window are both painted too.

You can see they actually removed the frames in the kitchen, but luckily we have the original wood in the garage, or the attic. Most of the original stuff is still in the house somewhere. even the old bathtub :)


the walls are probably pretty bad under the paneling, the walls of the stairway are a little cracked in general. We are almost ready to paint the hallway to upstairs, and it took a some work getting the walls ready.


For james, more built in stuff, but not attached. I think this stuff was in the kitchen, cause I can't find any marks on the floors in the other rooms. But it doesn't fit anywhere in the kitchen now, I don't know where it was, the cupboards were all redone in the 80's or something.








That's the main project, it's going in the dining-room I think.


2 other pieces. the big one fits on top of the hutch I'm stripping, but it won't fit up the stairs. It's got to go outside through the trap door I think. After the snow melts :)




Detail of the door, this is one of my favorite things. The glass in the middle is the one I fixed.


I like the inlay in the floors too. It's throughout the downstairs. and 2 rooms upstairs.

It's starting to sink in, that we own a house. crazy.


peace

OK, finally some new pictures from AFTER we moved in. It's been a while I know. I have a bunch of stuff but they're mostly snapshots. Here's a few random views.







The livingroom. We got the vent-free gas logs for the fireplace. It's totally awesome. And efficient too. Not sure how much gas we saved, but it uses about a quarter of what the furnace does.










Kitchen stuff





Fixing the cut glass in the door. I love the front door, the glass was intact but a little wobbly, my father in law had the tools, but I ended up having the patience to solder it together.











One day i got the energy to go ahead and build a skateboard ramp in my basement. I had all the materials lying around. To my surprise I didn't forget my tricks, but I do seem to bruise a little easier.


They do this all the time. So cute.









a few more


The Foyer. Big pocket door on the left. I like the style of my house. The doors, it's kind of arts and crafts, Roycroft style.


Upstairs


This is a snapshot but it shows the front door, and the two kitties on the mat guarding the place.