Things did not start out as I hoped. I went through my checklist of things that needed to be done and I realized my inspection expired at the end of July. I had done a few things at the beginning of the summer to have the car pass with flying colors, or so I thought. Apparently I needed a new right front wheel bearing in order to get my neato $20 state issued sticker. The shop was more than willing to do it for $195. But me being cheap, or stupid, or both decided "I'll just do it myself". So after picking up my car and jacking it up I started to take the lug nuts off of the wheel and noticed I only had 4 lug nuts. I also noticed there was a shiny one next to 3 rusted ones, and it was really loose. I guess the mechanic lost 2 of my lug nuts and just slapped any old nuts he could find laying around. I made a phone call to the shop and asked them "if they thought it was safer to be driving around on my old wheel bearing with 5 lug nuts or my new one with 3 lug nuts". I was less than cordial with these dickheads after that. So I took the rest of the afternoon driving back and forth to the auto parts store and once I had the right tools it took all of 30 minutes to replace. It's amazing how much these car places charge. It cost me $62 for the part. So that means the car place is charging $133 to install a part that a novice mechanic did in 30 minutes!! I really hate taking my car to the mechanic. I always wonder if they are actually doing the work right or just slapping it back together quickly in order to scam somebody else out of $350 for a brake job.







My newest addition to the Cav


Cars are feakin Dirty!

Saturday morning after dropping the Cav back off to get re-inspected I went to pick up my U-Haul. As I was walking into the store there is a customer yelling at the counter guy because U-Haul didn't have a truck for him. I guess he was moving to Rochester yesterday. So I walk up to the counter next to him to find out I am in the same boat. No fucking truck on the day I'm supposed to move! I was so pissed I just walked away. Drove to the nearest Penske rental place and paid just about double for a truck that needed to be returned the next day back in Syracuse. Luckily my friend Ted offered to take the truck back this morning. It did entail getting up at 5:00am this morning however. So once we arrived yesterday we had an early dinner at Fat Bobs. They have some really awesome ribs there. I thought the brisket was ok but a bit too dry. The vegetable side dish they had was quite good as well. I'm glad they are only a couple blocks away.


The new dwelling is slightly messy

My last week in Syracuse has been so busy that part of it was in Connecticut. I have taken the last week to visit my top three favorite restaurants here. L'adour is a French bistro in Syracuse that has a partially French waitstaff and some of the best food I have ever eaten. It's very expensive unfortunately so Saturday night in lieu of dinner I ventured out there for a shot of my favorite Czech liquor Becherovka and my favorite French beer Fischer Amber Ale. It's such a cool restaurant and usually they do a celebration for the Beaujolais Nouveau.



Not that I am a regular at Dinosaur by any means but I did have my usual 1/4 rack of ribs and beef brisket, with a side of macaroni salad and something called chicken velvet soup for lunch on Tuesday. Dino is my favorite BBQ around here and their waitstaff is so good they have a little bit of attitude. I have never had a bad meal there and the prices are really not that bad so long as you stay away from the beer.

Tonight I stopped for dinner at the restaurant I work in till tomorrow, Tokyo-Seoul. I was in the mood for some Sushi after a long day of insulating my friend's house. The sushi chef Ricki made me a spicy tuna hand roll with kaiware (daikon sprouts) to start. Next I had 2 orders of maguro (tuna), and 1 order of Hamachi (yellowtail) nigiri. The next two plates were complimentary, the first one consisted of very thinly sliced fluke draped over a leaf called ohba (that looked similar to mint) and topped with sea salt. This was probably the best piece of nigiri I've eaten there. I was instructed not to use soy sauce. It was very lemony and vinegary and a little bit salty. The next order was a piece of ika (squid) and a piece of fluke both done nigiri style but with a plum paste on top. I didn't catch the name of that sauce however. It was ok but sour. I prefer my ika made into a spicy ika salad with masago on a bed of red leaf lettuce. Tokyo-Seoul by far has the best sushi chef in Syracuse. There are other good sushi bars here but this one is something special.


Ricki

I am going to miss my favorite restaurants here but I'm looking forward to trying what Buffalo has to offer. As far as French and BBQ go how are Rue Franklin and Fat Bobs? I haven't really heard a whole lot but it sounds like these might be good. Where is the good sushi in Bflo???

Last night my friend Ted and I drove out to Hartford, Connecticut to see the Police at Rentschler field. I have been waiting to see this band live for a long time. It was definitely worth the wait. That was probably the best live rock show I have seen with the exception of maybe Radiohead. They played together unbelievably well. It was nice to hear a band play tunes that aren't exact copies of their albums. I didn't really dig the opening band much. They were called Fictionplane. Nobody else in the crowd really seemed all that interested either. It was semi predictable that most of the fans were really only interested in tunes off of the Greatest Hits album. I thought the entire show was great.
    
It was pretty amusing to watch drunk forty year olds try to dance. The people behind us were a bit out of control. They were most likely drunk in the parking lot long before the show ever started. They missed a good portion of the show either buying more $9.00 beers or flushing them. They didn't really bother me much till they spilled beer on my seat then spilled beer on my neighbors soccer jersey. Speaking of sportswear I saw three Whalers jerseys tonight. I'll bet they are still bitter about the team move. Anyway I had a laugh when the lush who dumped his beer fell flat on his ass. During the encore he was starting to doze off. Seems to be a bit of a waste to be trashed for a show that not only costs that much but is also unlikely to come Connecticut anytime soon.

Last night I went to Jazz in the Square in Syracuse. Being a fan of the jazz I try to go to it every year that I can. Previous years have had some great bands and I have always had a good time. This year however my former coworker Dan managed to procure two extra VIP seating passes for my friend Ted and I. VIP seating is really nothing all that special except for the fact that there is a tent filled with free booze and seafood for all pass holders. Free beer really sounded like a great idea at about 6pm, actually it still sounded like a great idea around midnight. However I must tell you free beer was not the best thing for my digestive system. Normally I can push through a hangover. But my stomach is angry today. To make matters worse I must go work from 1pm till 10pm. I suppose if I had an office job that wouldn't be all that bad. Unfortunately I work in a sushi restaurant and the thought of smelling salmon roe today actually triggered the gag reflex. I'm almost certain that my boss Mrs. Kim is going to tell me I look "so tired" today. The only thing I'm looking forward to is a heaping bowl of white rice to settle things down in there.

So I went to Lake George in the Adirondacks this past weekend with some friends on our annual visit. It was a beautiful weekend there. We did some boating and a nice hike up to the top of Rogers Rock to get a better view of the lake.


I suppose it wasn't the hardest hike in the world but it was pretty challenging. At the top was a great clearing and we all got our cameras out to take a photo. My friend Brian takes out his iphone not to take a picture but to see if he can get service so he can check his email! I was shocked to say the least. I suppose it really is an addictive device.

Im moving to bflo in a few weeks and am very excited about it. I have been living in Syracuse for the last 6 years. I have definitely have had some of the best times in my life living there. But Im ready to do something else really. Im going to UB in the fall for Biochemistry. I have spent the last two years catching up on all of the stuff I either didn't pay attention to in high school or completely ignored in college the first time.
My sister in law (e:lizabeth) told me about this site and I have been lurking ever since. This site is pretty interesting and it seems like there is definitely some life in Buffalo. Im really a blogging slacker but I guess I will have lots of free time after I move. Im hoping the neighborhood im living in is cool I found a place at Allen and N pearl and it seems to be interesting enough. Im just not sure where to go grocery shopping yet.