Posts from August 2014

I had never heard of this plant before, but tonight my mom warned me to look for this on our hikes. It's a giant plant that looks similar to Queen Anne's lace when in bloom, but with a sap that will destroy your skin. These pictures from the DEC show a leg burned by the sap. Their map shows that there are tons of reported sightings in Erie County. If you find one, you're supposed to report it so they can document and eliminate it. I want to keep an eye out for them now.

Wikipedia says the toxin is furocoumarins, which enters your cells nucleus, bonds with the DNA, and kills the cell. Feel like going camping now @mike?

Midnight loves ice cream cake. Here he is at my great aunt's birthday party, too fast to capture. That is fressen.

Not only did we get a Polaroid at Emily's friend's party, we listed to records. Ben Folds, Temple of the Dog, and more modern St. Vincent. It was the most analog night of my existence.

I can't decide if I don't remember how long poloroids take to develop, or if the film was old and it really takes 10 minutes. It seems so insane considering we all had phones.

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