My dog was born one year ago today. Her main gift was a life preserver for when we're out sailing, and as her special treat this evening she had a giant bowl of ice cubes and a bunch of crunchy carrots.

My grandparents sent her a birthday card. They are the coolest people on the planet.







She's my bear.

Anyone else get spam in the flavor of one of those Nigerian bank scams from johnmichael_2k@yahoo.com?
(e:paul) - the IP was 196.201.88.200.

Gas prices are really depressing me. It was $2.99 on our corner this afternoon. Check out gasbuddy.com or the local version to scope out the best prices - and the worst.
We tuned up all our bikes (two "old fashioned" kinds and one vroom vroom zoom zoom kind), changing oil, lubing chains and checking air pressure. If it's above 50 degrees when I leave tomorrow I may be taking my other vehicle to work and out shopping.
I'll have to wake up a little earlier too, but I can do it! It will get me around the offensive construction that has clogged up Main Street from Bailey to Hertel. Does anyone have any idea what they're trying to do there? And when they'll be done?

Buffalo's politicians and community leaders should be looking for innovative ideas to keep and to draw people to live, work and play in the city.
Here's one.
UB's newspaper had an article last week about extending NFTA passes to all students for $25 each semester. This system is already in place for other local colleges, including my place of employment but I think it could go much further.
There are an average of 20 working days each month. If I were to take the metro rail, which is quite convenient to our house, a monthly pass would equal about $1.37 per trip based on a monthly pass of $55 . When a one-way ticket costs $1.50, that's not much of a savings. So, I gas up my car for $2.96 or more per gallon, (and later this spring, strap on my helmet for a bike ride), and join the throng of commuters on the road wasting fossil fuels.
My solution would be to offer any business, organization, school or group in the region the chance to sign their employees up for a discounted rate. If they want more riders, that's the way to do it. I think $30-$35 would be my personal price point to commute daily, and I'd be encouraged to use it to go shopping and to zip around town. Heck, (e:strip) could present itself as a community organization, and all (e:peeps) could qualify.

or, the recipe where I try to use up stuff in the fridge.
There are a few ways to do this. The best way to is to evaulate what's in your fridge and work from there. Ideally, you would be buying enoug fresh veggies each week to make this possible.
Take thinly sliced veggies and saute with OO and a splash of balsamic vinegar.
potential veggies: spinach, roasted red peppers, mushrooms and garlic, carrot ribbons, zucchini, onions, celery, peppers, pepperoncini. Remove from the pan to a plate.
Take bread (I use my favorite homemade focaccia) and spray each side with OO. Keeping the pan hot, toast on each side for a few seconds. Don't burn it!
Add cheese (parm, cheddar, something French) to the top of the bread, remove from the pan to the plate. Spread the veggies on top.
It's not the most elegant meal, but it's filling, healthy and a way to finish off veggies that would otherwise get gross.
If I had any, I may have added a few slices of sliced chicken or turkey, ham or salami.

To the man who left his Hummer running in the handicapped spot at the Mobil station near South Campus this morning:
I hate you, for oh so many reasons. When gas hits $4/gal I hope you suffer.

We watched episode 3 of South Park current season, and the Eric Cartman character has a pathological hatred of hippies. This recipe for granola is in honor of him.
Ingredients
4 cups old-fashioned oatmeal (rolled oats)
1 cup slivered almonds (any nut could be substituted here, but you want something small enough to clump with the oats)
2 tbsp. butter
3/4 c ap flour
1 tbsp sugar, any kind
pinch of salt
splash of vanilla
splash of almond extract (if you like almonds)
(scant) 1/3 c. maple syrup (the real stuff - not the cheapo maple-flavored crap)
1/8 cup honey
Tools
cookie sheet with a rim
a big bowl, a small bowl
a spatula
Steps
Heat the oven to 350.
Spread the oats and almonds evenly on the cookie sheet and toast for 10-12 minutes, stirring once.
In a bowl (or food processor), combine the butter, flour, salt and sugar. You'll need to chop up the butter until the whole mixture is crumbly.
In a small bowl, combine the maple syrup, honey, vanilla and almond extract. My next batch may contain dried raspberries (added after the mixture has cooled) and raspberry extract.
Remove the oats and almonds from the oven and dump them in the big bowl. Mix thoroughly. Pour the liquid mixture over the oat mixture and combine well. If you think the liquid mixture isn't thin/runny enough, use a microwavable bowl and heat it for 15 seconds.
Butter (spray or the real stuff) the cookie sheet and spread the granola mixture evenly onto it.
Bake in the 350 oven for 12-15 minutes, stirring every 5 minutes. The original recipe called for this time, but I had to go for nearly 20 in order to get my preferred level of crispiness.
Remove from the oven, cool and store in an airtight container. If you want to add dried fruit (raisins, bananas, apples), wait until it's cool.
Another variation would be to use dried apples, and instead of a maple syrup/honey mix try boiling down some apple cider until it's supergooey.
Serve with milk, soy milk (for you hippies out there), yogurt, fruit or ice cream.
With enough experimenting, you could probably bake these into bars, which would be a serious money-saver for me. A box of Quaker granola bars is, what, $2.69? You can get a whole container of oats for less than that, and that has 15 cups in it.

Paul has proclaimed me to be the new Public Relations director (e:news,80). Cool. We talked over a few ideas last night, the bumper sticker initiative being just one of them. Since he hasn't yet posted the others, I'm going to toss them out here.
- featured content, excerpts of posts and comments, pictures or sounds, selected based on a vote by (e:peeps).
- featured peeps - like a peep of the week.
- a print version that "teases" site content for distribution in local hangouts and haunts.
- incentives for bringing in new peeps.
- publicity. No set goal for this, but as much as possible.

I had another thought this evening but I"m floating it by (e:paul) first.

Buffalopundit has a post about Thruway tolls and some steps being taken by local politicians to remove the toll barriers in WNY.
As BP says, go tell the NYS Thruway Authority what you think . You can post your questions to the TA and their answers in my comments - I want to see if they send the same canned answer to all.

My question: Why has the Thruway Authority refused to remove the toll barriers in western New York as mandated by the 1968 Niagara Toll Removal Act?

Their answer: Thank you for contacting the New York State Thruway Authority.
The Thruway Authority collects tolls as a means to providing public transportation services in western New York and across the State. As a user-fee supported system, the Authority receives no State tax dollars, and is paid for by the travelers who use it, an estimated one-third of whom are from out of state.
The Authority is not a trustee of the Niagara Thruway Toll Removal Fund, and to the best of our knowledge, the agreement between the State, the Thruway Authority and the Federal government contemplated by the statute was never executed. No monies have been allocated or appropriated to the Thruway Authority from this fund, and the State has never received Federal money that is eligible to pay for the removal of tolls along the New York State Thruway.
We hope this information is helpful.
Sincerely,
The Department of Public Affairs
//
Thoughts?

A cautionary note for those interested in home brewing: you may, at some point, hear the words "one of the bottles might have exploded." When you hear that, the bottle most definitely did explode.