Yesterday was my dad's birthday. We celebrated day 1, before my sister got home today, with some ice cream cake and some small food gifts.


Midnight is an ice cream addict- when we bring out ice cream cake and start singing happy birthday, he goes insane and starts barking along until he gets some.

HBD dad! Both he and my mom have done so much for me and my siblings, it's hard to even comprehend. It's always nice to see him so happy.

I haven't been running in a week or two, and decided to force myself to go for an easy one last night. The temperature was near perfect and it was a great way to end the day. Running in Kenmore at (and Kenilworth, my true hood (e:mike)) at night is weird. There are thousands of people in such a small area and yet I have the street to myself.




Sometimes I feel like I'm using every free second I have outside of work. Don't get me wrong, I love it - but it's nice to be going nowhere at all.

Beer Club at Goodbar was awesome, thanks to (e:terry) for the invite! Definitely some interesting beers to try. Getting there late and catching so fast was dangerous though because I was pretty hammered for a work night! Maybe I shouldn't go up for extras next time?





Beer inspired selfies

Camping this weekend down in Landrus, PA was absolutely awesome. Great time all around with (e:YesThatCasey), (e:paul), (e:terry), (e:heidi), (e:dianne), and some scroty Pennsylvanians.

Went to Marco's deli in Kenmore with my brother, and got to the campsite Friday night. Heidi and Dianne were super awesome since the tents and camp were already set up, so all that was left to do was drink around the fire.



Winoooo

The next day we went on a hike to try and find a trail to some ruins. Apparently it was a company coal town way back when, but all that is left now is some foundation ruins and some unmaintained roads.


Some sort of masonry


Snakes hiding out


Das Wasser ist scrotzig! - it smelled so sulfury



It was a pretty beautiful place.


Casey lumberjacking out



Selfieees

Saturday night was great, even though I was an early victim to day drinking. Huge fire, drunk German lessons, and a freezing late night swim. Definitely slept well that night.

Before heading out, we hiked to go swim in Sand Run Falls. We got lost-ish and almost fell victim to the mountain people (saved by 4G), it was a pretty nice hike. I thought it was crazy enough to go in the water the night before, but Paul, Terry and I forced ourselves to go in again.

On the way home, we stopped at Yorkholo Brewing Company in Mansfield, which was kind of reminded me of Geneseo. Paul and I found a creepy decrepit phone booth.



The goat cheese pierogi and black bean burger were pretty good, despite some mishaps (I may have accidentally eaten bacon, oops).



It's sad that this is one of the last few weekends of the summer. I really wish there was a time to go camping longer - can't wait until next summer.

Windy day on the beach today. I saw these guys parasail surfing (what google called it). It looked pretty awesome, although the water was pretty awful smelling and looking today.

Yesterday I began my first day of bike commuting to work. I've been biking and taking public transportation everywhere since the beginning of high school, so this summer when I had to get a car for work was the first time I've really been driving in my life.

Less than two months in of driving to work, I realized more than ever how much I hate driving. It's so wasteful for me to push my 170lb self around with a 3000lb car at 28mpg for an hour a day. I hate the aggression everyone gets in with each other, how isolated you are from other people and how easy it is to speed by and not even see what's going on around you. I hate how much space they take up and how much noise and pollution they generate. I wish Buffalo had a real 24x7 transit system, and hope that the bike culture keeps growing like it is.

Since I dislike it so much, I figured why not do something about it? It seemed hypocritical not to try just because the ride seemed long. So now that I can shower at work, I rode down. It was really nice to get out when few other people were. It took about 1hr for 16 miles and was without incident, besides yelling at a lady to pick up her dog's poop.


Love/hate.

On the way home was a little bit different. It took 1hr 03min for 16 miles, but felt so much tougher. There was a headwind off the lake, a lot more traffic downtown, and even a minor road rage incident. This woman was upset after she tried to left turn at a stop sign while texting her lap, where apparently I surprised her coming from the opposite direction with the right of way. She caught up to me at a light, and I started yelling back at her for texting and not paying attention to the road. Of course while she is doing this, she has the nerve to look down in her lap to text and tell me it's not illegal while she's stopped. We parted with a few choice words before it escalated. I seriously need to watch my road rage but she deserved it.

I was pretty wiped after all that, but I am going to try to bike at least every other day. I can probably drop the hammer a little more as I get used to it so it'll get better. Finished the day with some 90 cent cones from Anderson's with Emily and Carrie. (4 of them to be exact)

Day one: 32 miles, 1080 calories, 2 hr ride time

Lessons learned:
Eat more, I felt so sluggish on the ride home
Watch out for crazy middle aged ladies
Leave earlier for home


Getting into work


Poorly tagged inspirational quote on the Rt. 5 overpass


Riding through Larkinville

Saturday, Sunday and Monday most of my family got some work done clearing out my grandparents old house. It's hard to capture the extent even with pictures, but this is what you were met with just walking into the basement. I can't say I know for sure why/how it got this way, but it does frustrate me about how much is wasted.



All of it makes me just remember this video .
Thankfully we made tons of progress on clearing it this weekend.

Later Saturday, I headed down to (e:Paul) and (e:Terry)'s, to find Paul working on (e:Mike)'s unicorn bike. I have to say, that's one of the most awesome birthday presents I've ever seen. I took some pics with my newish lens that I'll have to put up later.

We ended up going out to Zoar Valley. I can't remember the last time, if ever, I was there. It ended up being a great day for a hike, and quick swim in the creek before we headed back for Mike's party. Can't wait to go back sometime!


Chillaxin' after climbing a bit.

I had a great time celebrating (e:Mike)'s birthday (HBD!!) this weekend at both Skybar and at his party. Skybar was so much fun to dance at, even when it started pouring up on the roof.








The party was amazing too, and I was glad that a few of my good friends came. A good time all around, from the supa fly unicorn bike to the clearance themed decorations. I took some pictures that are blurry, but then again so was the whole night.






Everyone looked to be having a good time, especially Mike. Even after the jello shots caught up to him.

Got around to giving a bath to my dog, and he wasn't feeling it. What kind of lab hates water? He does. That's okay, I love him anyway.



After I headed down for the last harbor of the year (and almost got hit by a bus). Besides that, the rest of the night was pretty awesome. I caught up with (e:Paul) and (e:Terry) for the second half of Lotus performing. It was a great show to dance to and there were even fireworks from the last Bison's game which seemed fitting to close out the concert.



Rest of the night was spent well with Mike, Dave, TK and Alex, dancing and playing football on Delaware. It was a great time, but I stayed up too late again!

Yesterday was (e:terry)'s birthday. HBD! :) I hope it was an awesome day for you.

After work, Terry and I tried to make it to a bike ride I heard about on College Street, but we weren't able to find anyone around. It ended up being alright going on our own bike ride, down past the canal, Ohio and Fuhrmann and around the Union Ship Canal. We found the floor from this old warehouse or factory nearby - there still was tiled floor from a bathroom (?) and this giant array of holes in the floor that must have had to do with whatever work was done there. It still kind of boggles my mind how much empty space is down there now, and how packed the waterfront with industry once was. On the way out to the street we ran into a tortoise turtle who seemed to be pretty pissed at us. Probably because he didn't liked getting poked.





Heading back, we ended up going through South Buffalo up Tifft, South Park, down to Larkinville and down Seneca to downtown. I swear with all the overpasses and bridges, it's probably the hilliest route in the city. South Buffalo will always feel like a foreign country to me.



After going home for dinner I came back down for the birthday celebration, a few good rounds of glow in the dark bocce ball, shenanigans with the spoon, and some good conversation. Ended up finishing the night with an awesome cake assembled/made by (e:paul), even if it did end up collapsing slightly!





Also, I may have relapsed on my candy addiction. I really just need to keep myself from eating that first piece, otherwise I can't control myself.

It was an exhausting but fun weekend. Had a really good night going out on Friday, a short nap, and not too bad of a morning outside for work. Then after a terrible boring drive down to Cleveland, I met one of my best friends Sarah at a church for another friend's wedding reception. The reception was great - I got to catch up with some Case and Hope people, and celebrate an awesome marriage. I'm really happy for Mike and (another) Sarah. They seem to just click so well together as long as I've known them together.

After Sarah and I went to go check out our old stomping grounds at Coventry and Case. It was weird to see all the new freshman moving in, roving in herds from their dorms, and some of our old friends. We were those freshman only a few years ago, but it seems like forever. Even weirder to think that we'll never have a first day of classes together again.

We went back to Sarah's house way after for dinner and to hang out with her family. Definitely had fun it, but by we ended up being too tired to even go out at that point. I slept 9 hours the next day, felt good to catch up on some sleep. I convinced Sarah to finally ride her bike in the bike lane (omg) on the way to get doughnuts, the breakfast of champions.


Not that a picture taken (dangerously) while driving over the innerbelt does it justice, but I love Cleveland's skyline. My second city fo sho.


The next day I got to go on a ride early in the morning. I love being able to ride around when almost no one is around, and it's still not hot yet. It made me want to start biking to work, hopefully I can start soon!