Posts from August 2014

We headed up to hike at Zoar Valley with @YesThatCasey. At first it looked like it was going to pour, but it turned to a sprinkle in no time. The temperature was perfect. The water was low, and the flooding made the landscape pretty much unrecognizable compared last year. Paul and I engineered die Neue Transe Insel/Canal, a land where irradiated frogs can be comfortable in their own bodies.

I can't wait to back down and swim, maybe on a sunnier day.

Welcome new (e:strip)per!

After the bike ride we tried to see the fire dancers at Days park, but failed. I caught up with @terry and every one at Nietzsche's. Erica had everyone ausglitzerte with her unicorn dust.

Later we met up with Mike, Seth, Dave and @steve at Cathode.

Tonight @YesThatCasey, @paul, @terry and I went on the slow roll ride.
For August it merged with the Buffalo bike party that was so awesome in June. This ride was not as fun as the party ride - we stopped way too much. They should have corked the intersections and gotten everyone through rather than waiting at every light. Other than that it had a good turn out and amazing weather for it.

The route ran from the new bike-bar Handlebar on Swan Street, down to the Central Terminal, up to MLK Park and then back downtown to Handlebar. Terry was weirded out and said it was cultural tourism - a crowd of outsiders rolling through rough neighborhoods in Buffalo to gape. I see his point, but maybe that is too cynical - I think it also gives a chance for people not from these neighborhoods to see that there's more to them than their stereotypes. For example Paul had never seen the beautiful houses on Northhampton or the new splashpad at the park.

The splashpad was freaking awesome to ride around.

Terry went home, but we continued on to Handlebar with Kerry. The bar was awesome and they did a real nice job on the new building. It's attached to this expensive bike shop - Paul wanted this white and gold fixie. Very eye-talian.




















The bike company Campanaglo will sell you this wine opener for a cool $225

We looked at @AllenStreet's new office space further down on Franklin. It was so crazy huge - over 2600 square feet. It once was two side by side apartments above the flooring company. Now they're connected and a mix of office and living space.

The place was very catty - even I felt allergic - but part of the lease would include new flooring and changes to make it more office friendly. I feel like it has a lot of potential.

Even crazier is the back office which is also for rent. It wraps all the way around the block to Founding Fathers/

Thursday my family came over to celebrate my birthday and all my siblings' going aways. My mom made pizza and a chocolatey cake. I forget sometimes you need to triple your volume to talk when that many people are together.

There was a lot of knife pointing for some reason.

Non-sensical measurements, as seen at employee appreciation day. If you manage to chew all day you can burn off 1.309 orders of TGIFriday's mozzarella sticks! Fun story

Sunday, we wrapped up the weekend with a cookout. e:dave and @heidi came over.
@paul was the grillmeister.



Greens, corn on the cob, string beans, fake snausage, salt potatoes and grilled zuchinni



Heidi's happy face



e:caseythatcasey's plate-o-meat - chicken sans skin courtesy of @mike

After Windmill Point we had a last minute party. @Robert and mickey came by and got us to play hide and seek - this house is definitely big and dark enough for it. It wouldn't be a party though, if it didn't end on the roof.

We ditched Mike and Dave for camping at Windmill Point on Friday, but we did ride over to swim on Saturday. I was surprised at how well @mike handled camping (Dave didn't get pushed into a fire).

The quarry was amazingly warm and I got to practice diving with @terry a little.
We tried to find the mysterious neighboring quarry from google maps, but it's all privatized with signs *WARNING* you not to trespass.

On the bike path back, we were joined by John, this bleach blond man from Toronto. I thought we were just going to have a short chat, but it got real weird real quick. Apparently he got deported from the United States a few years ago, and wants nothing more than to find a Buffalo husband so he can come back.

He asked Terry to mentor him, help him find love, and get married. When he found out Terry was married, he told me that maybe one day we could get married. When we commented on how there was little to do in Ft. Erie compared to Toronto, he volunteered that there was plenty to do at his house. No thank you.

I was a relieved when we got to the border because I'm sure he would have followed us home. He let us know he would scream, cry and pray that we would come back for him.