(e:Drew) suggested last night that I need to post more often. I haven't thought of a topic but then I realized I could just answer the question(s) most frequently asked when I meet someone.

1. How's the transition to Buffalo?

I think this might be obvious already, but I love Allentown. I'm very much enjoying Buffalo, all the cool stuff going on and the friendly people. Last night, I went to the ElmwoodJesus fundraiser at Cole's and hung out with (e:Janelle), (e:Vincent), & (e:Jason) while (e:Drew) served as happy hostess. We watched the presidential debate afterwards at the Obama campaign watching party at Cole's - very convenient!. (Thanks for the ride home, (e:Vincent)!)

Thursday night I went to Nietzsche's for a fundraiser for the WNY LGBT domestic violence committee that works with Haven House (domestic violence shelter).



I met some very cool folks there, including Reg and her partner Liz. Reg works for Haven House. I won some cool prizes in the raffle. Does anyone need a copy of Candyland? Kristen Becker hosted the event - she was very funny, definitely a professional, polished comedian. She hosts comedy night at Nietzsche's every Tuesday night. I want to go, but Tuesday's are in the middle of my work week so that might have to wait until break. Ava LaFey, burlesque goddess, did a fantastic sketch (? not sure of right word - it was extremely funny without a lot of skin) where she, as Sarah Palin danced for a lifesize cardboard cutout of John McCain to the Pet Shop Boys Opportunities ("I've got the brains, you've got the looks, let's make lots of money!") When she unbuttoned her conservative red suit jacket, her bra was stuffed with money. Too funny.

Last weekend, my friend A and my puppy Nisha visted. A and I went to see the Pointek/Michaud Jazz Trio (yeah, Nietzsche's again... I love live music.) and saw a Grateful Dead cover band Saturday night. A and I see our favorite local band pretty often in Tioga County but there's always a 30-60 minute drive involved. Live music 500' away? We're there.

Nisha got her hair cut at Pawprints by Penny... cutest poodle cut ever!!! Penny really listened to how I wanted her hair cut and did a fantastic job. The atmosphere there was very friendly. The dogs in doggie day care like to "help" ring up customers.




I'll also give a shout out to Patrick at East End Salon. The grad program I'm in had class pictures taken and I desperately needed a haircut quickly. He gave me a great cut and totally listened when I said I don't use product and the only "styling" I do is combing out my wet hair after a shower. This is a very difficult concept for most stylists to understand.

I would not have been able to find such a fantastic location and some immediate social contacts without all the advice and information I've found on (e:strip). Thank you so much for helping make this transition about as easy as it could possibly be.

(Update from (e:heidi,45556) : my apartment electric situation got resolved and my stuff is now well protected. Thanks, Tim!)

Great set of articles about what issues in housing & community development the next president needs to address:

Housing, transportation, urban policy... geeky geeky! I used to work for Moises Loza and Leslie Strauss, two of the authors, at the Housing Assistance Council in Washington, D.C. HAC is a national nonprofit dedicated to improving rural housing.

(Just so (e:tinypliny) doesn't go around thinking that I believe reproductive issues are unimportant...)

Bruce Fisher's article in this week's Artvoice is a really nice discussion of the importance of oil $ in our national politics and more importantly, why we should be looking at Sarah Palin's oil connections rather than her and her daughter's reproductive choices:

So it is that Big Oil rules Alaska-an enormous land mass with a tiny population of only 630,000, which is only two-thirds the number of people in Erie County.

All that money makes public services in Alaska very cheap, and the oil industry very popular. According to published reports, public opinion in Alaska strongly favors drilling in the Alaska National Wildlife Reserve. Alaska public opinion generally favors exploitation of every natural resource. Though Alaska's workforce of a little over 300,000 contains only about 15,000 oil-industry workers, the majority of voters there like the idea of more drilling.

Earlier this decade, a person named Sarah Palin, who is married to a sometime oil-worker, was commissioner of natural resources in Alaska. In other words, she was in charge of Alaska's Office of Oil Affairs.

Now that she is the marquee candidate for vice president, Governor Sarah Palin is front-page news and the front-and-center story for everybody who wants to discuss teenage pregnancy, out-of-wedlock births, Down syndrome and the breathtaking pivot of the Religious Right-which until recently (about three weeks ago, to be exact) frowned upon and fulminated about sex education and out-of-wedlock births.

One cannot help but observe, however, that the longer we discuss Sarah Palin's uterus, the more likely it is that American politics will remain distracted from the central issue of this election: whether the lords of oil will continue to control the United States as surely as they control Alaska.

Anyone know of a yoga studio in Allentown?

Thanks!

1. Location: it's on allen street.
2. Location: it's two blocks from the metro.

(Even though the metro doesn't have a "stand to the right" convention, it does have public artwork which the DC Metro system definitely does not have.)



3. Location: There are real live lesbians nearby. I know this sounds very strange but for the past five years of my life, the nearest out lesbians lived at least 10 miles away.
4. Sunny south-facing windows.
5. Hardwood floors.
6. Cute mini clawfoot tub.
7. Full-size range. (e:tinypliny), i know you're afraid of that gaping maw in your kitchen... have you developed a liking for cookies? How about some spicy molasses cookies? (Ginger, cloves, cinnamon...)
8. One very large closet, plus a small one in the bedroom.
9. Dishwasher.
10. China Cat Sunflower lives with me.

Right now she's refusing to come out from under the bed to have her picture taken. She's hanging out with my puppy's turtle.



Just a month or so ago she was happy to be photographed with Nisha:



What I hate about my apartment:
1. The three-prong electrical outlets are ungrounded.
2. There are several two-prong outlets (obviously also ungrounded).*
3. The building doesn't recycle. (this might be a "yet"... but my very large closet is starting to bulge with recyclables. I'm a little obsessive about recycling.)

• The only things of (dubious) value I own are computers and peripherals. In Tioga County, Pa., the electrical service is unreliable, has frequent large power surges, and suffers brownouts, so I have surge protectors on everything except lamps. Without grounded electrical, the very very important surge protectors are useless.

To remedy the electrical situation, I bought some of these adapter thingys:



But the surge protector still reads "ungrounded." (As does the electrical outlet grounding tester that I have. Yes, I'm that much of a geek.)

• grump*

Just a quick reminder, the deadline to register to vote for the general election on Nov. 4 is rapidly approaching. Here's the form to print, fill out and mail in:



As a recent transplant from Pennsylvania, I haven't figured out what's up with your primary season. Kavanaugh vs. Hoyt?? I definitely didn't get registered in time for the primary...

Randomly: (e:tinypliny)'s only been in buffalo a year and already is the 5th most prolific commenter?? wow!! that's dedication.

I'm liking the Metro a lot (big boo & hiss to the apartment rental guy who told me I'd take it once, think it too gross, and never take it again! (e:heidi,44769)) but what's up with the lack of a "stand to the right, walk to the left" convention on the escalators? In D.C., if folks were standing on the left side of the escalator, people would start bellowing "Stand to the right!"... well, it sounded like a bellow thanks to the neat acoustics of escalator tubes.





Maybe it's because it only applies to six people every 12 mintues? <grin> The metro-riding population is so small!

I went to the Elmwood Arts Festival yesterday. I think I should have gone Saturday; the selection of goods at many artists' booths was slim. I had a good time, though. I rode the 20 bus up Elmwood and got dropped off at the lower end of the festival (no parking worries for me!) and walked up one side of the line of booths till I got to the Lafayette Ave. end where a performance stage was set up. The dance troupe on stage was very good! Sorry, I have no idea who they are...









My camera battery died near the end of their performance :-(
On my way back down Elmwood, I chatted briefly with (e:drew) and had some artichoke hearts and a "strawberry blonde" smoothie in the food area. Then it rained and I caught a bus home. The festival was really nice and I'll definitely want to go again next year.

I've been working on that last post since 8/20 (e:heidi,45374) but estrip publishes by date of first save, not current/take-out-of-draft date so I'm bringing it to your attention. Bump!

School orientation went well yesterday. I'm very much an introvert and it's hard to do the networking and small talk that I know are important parts of the professional acculturation process - I'm drained from being around so many new people. I took the subway from Allen to UB South, then the Stampede shuttle. It was quick and easy. The metro is cute! It's so tiny... only two cars and not very many people.



Whaddya think of my mangaface? that was fun :-)

I moved up here last Friday and my friend A came with me and enabled me in my stuff addictions... four crates of books (yes, my complete Marion Zimmer Bradley and Ursula K. LeGuin collections, grad-school-related stuff, plus a bunch of books that I haven't read yet.), puppy, kitty, kitchen table, cookie cutters, and too many lamps...

But while we've been unpacking, we've also been experiencing Allen Street and the Buffalo metro area.

Friday night, with dirt rings around my neck that I washed off in the restroom, we went to the Towne for dinner. A says, "It was okay; it was just diner food." While on one level I agree, it is diner food, in comparison with the diner we went to in Tioga County, Pa., on Thursday, it was expensive and had better food selection. Thursday I spent $39 for lunch for six people and left a $10 tip for my superduper neighbor and waitress Jenn in at the Brick Tavern in Blossburg, Pa. I think I spent about the same total for the two of us at the Towne - I need to get used to "normal" prices again.

Saturday we kept unpacking, ordered a white pizza with spinach and broccoli from New York Style Pizza here on Allen. A says, "There wasn't any ricotta cheese on it, and the garlic was powder not real. The crust was very good and the service was great. It wasn't a bad pizza, just not quite what I thought it would be, I guess."

Did I mention that I have the cutest little claw food tub in my apartment? It's adorable... to look at. The shower wasn't ready when I arrived on Friday. Over the weekend, A and I tried multiple ways of bathing. We pretended to be coal miners in the 1890s, when showers (well, any indoor plumbing) were not a part of most houses in Tioga County. We poured pitchers of water over each others heads to shampoo and rinse. Once we were relatively clean, we went to Allen Street Hardware Cafe... Wow!!! great beer selection. Dinner was good too. A got the scallop special with deep fried plantains and rice, I got the eggplant & pesto panini. Yummy yummy. A says, "The food was good. The portions were a little small. The beer was good. It was a little dark in the restaurant."

Sunday, we went to Amy's Place up near UB South. I had the lentil soup - bland - but the sunny side up eggs were very nice. A had some kind of lamb wrap which he liked a lot. On our way back to the car, we met a very nice lady with a front yard garden. She has an alpine section - so neat. The flowers were gorgeous and very unusual.

I have an apartment less than 1/4 the size of the house I sold; it's hard to cram what I consider "necessities" into it. And that's after a 10x10 storage unit and several give-aways.

Missing Image ;(

We went to Home Depot, Target, back to the apartment, back to Home Depot, back to Target, and on our way home down Elmwood, we stopped at Saigon Cafe. A got scallops again, "They were very polite. Speedy service. Great portions for the buck. Excellent food." I got the eggplant in green curry which I didn't like because it's a coconut milk curry. But A loved his and the nibble of mushroom I had from his... yum yum. The hoisin sauce with my veggie spring roll was amazing. I got the caramel cream dessert. I didn't like it, but A loved it. I'd definitely go back but order different things.

Monday, more unpacking. *sigh* the apartment was dirty so we had to clean everything - kitchen cabinets, floors, windows, shelves - and unpacking took many hours more than I expected. However, we still made time for play and went to the Buffalo Zoo! I have a small but rather insistent animals rights streak and so I resist visiting zoos, but A hadn't been to one since he was a kid visiting his grandmother in South Carolina. Since A took time off to come here and help me move, he gets to pick the daily entertainment.

Go see pix:
[I tried to embed a slideshow and failed, and I don't have the patience to resize and upload the 22 pix.]

Here's one picture from the set to encourage you to go see the rest:



"The zoo's worth going to. There are nice exhibits with a really nice selection of animals. It's very kid-friendly," A said, "Someone shoulda been deep-frying those cockroaches."

I had lots of fun taking pictures. The Lorakeet Landing was especially fun - one bird let me get very close for quite a while. Such vibrant colors!

I've been living in a very rural area and have needed suits... twice? in the past five years. The program I started on Thursday requires more professional dress than I've needed in about 10 years, so going to the mall became a high priority. (I certainly welcome suggestions on where to get women's suits - plus size! 18/20. Lord & Taylor at the Walden Galleria had the best selection at that mall.) We had a little snack at Johnny Rockets, then after I bought a pretty nice suit at L&T, we drove back into the city and decided to cruise Elmwood to see what was still open. A decided to try Jim's Steak Out. He says, "It needs more exploration." I think that means he liked it and wants to go back. I tried a bean burrito supreme with a side of guac at Elmwood Taco & Sub (ETS) and really liked it.

On Tuesday, the management company finally installed my shower in the adorable clawfoot tub and I felt much cleaner. After I worked on a client's website for a couple hours, and checked in with my friend & colleague Kelly in Tioga County, we managed to get almost everything in the apartment cleaned and unpacked. I have a desk-ish thing and bookshelves. That's all that's really important, right?

As "payment" for helping me, I treated A to one of his favorite things - Korean barbecue at Woo Chon Korea House in Williamsville. A has had Korean barbecue one other time - when we moved my friend Lisa out of her house and into a storage unit in Maryland. (Her stuff moved into the storage unit; she moved to NYC.) Her parents were so kind and treated us to dinner at Woomi Korean barbecue in Wheaton, Md. That was freakin' awesome. Tonight at Woo Chon, the food was equally yummy, the service was outstanding, and the soju was biting! Since there were only two of us and I didn't eat barbecue, he didn't get the treat of the at-the-table barbecue, but he loved the kitchen-prepped beef barbecue. So many yummy sides! bean sprouts, tofu, kimchee and kimchee... I had the tempura, and a couple of those little pizza juns.



Then we went to several bars on Allen Street: Gabriel's Gate, Staple, the little no-name bar in the yellow vinyl-sided building, Nietzche's, Frizzy's, and another stop at NY Pizza. We had walked walked by Gabriel's Gate several times - it looked kinda tough and maybe like hardcore metalheads (no offense, (e:metalpeter) and (e:tinypliny) !) hung out there, but we went in anyway. It's gorgous inside!!! Totally worth going in just to see the woodwork. Staple was probably the most comfortable for me, A loved Nietzsche's - he's a bass player currently seeking a band and is now jealous of where I'm living. He liked this sign:


Frizzy's (I might have the name wrong) was boring in comparison to the other places and didn't have as good a beer selection. The no-name bar wasn't our style either. I'm looking forward to exploring more of the bars.

Wednesday while I was working, A visited THREE sausage markets. Spar's European Sausage Market, 405 Amherst, was his favorite - he bought a LOT of sausage there, plus a really nice cheese with peppercorns in it. He wanted to go to Canada, but he didn't remember to bring his birth certificate. Maybe next time. We did more shopping (poor guy had to sit in all these boring stores and wait for me to try stuff on) then got take out at India Gate. Good food once again.

A left Thursday and took my puppy home with him. :-( I didn't take any pix of her while she was here because I knew it would be painful to see them. China Cat Sunflower is settling in nicely.

I also miss my elderly cat, Kitten, who stayed with the house I recently sold. She would beg me to turn on the bathroom sink faucet: