Today, before the wicked weather the weather critters are promising happened, (e:Uncutsaniflush) and i thought we would go for a walk at Tifft. We thought the colours would be nice, and we have a track record of going there just as the weather is turning bad. When we got there, we were disappointed to find that it was closed!! *insert pouty face here* Last time we were there, there was a sign that said the info center would be closed and at what times, but the actual preserve was open. Today, the sign simply said that it was closed uless open for events. Shame.

We went for a walk by the water instead. Interesting to see seagulls ride the high winds. We didn't tred on too much good poop, either. And it was just starting to rain when we left.

We thought we would go to the Towne for brunch... since we clearly remember doing that the day after we moved to Buffalo a year ago. It was crowded, as we expected, but we got their last parking space. When we got in, the hostess told us there would be a 5 - 10 minute wait for a table. OK, shouldn't be too bad, there were people leaving, so we thought that time would be shortened slightly. After a few minutes, another hostess asked us how many people were in our party. The first hostess then barked at her, "No, we need to wait 5 - 10 minutes to seat anyone" We all looked at her puzzled and she told us her manager told her to not seat anyone because the kitchen and wait staff were not able to keep up. I asked her if we could sit down and have coffee while we waited and she said no. She repeated that it was her manager telling her not to seat anyone. OK, this is when i got bitchy. I told her that i would like her manager to see my middle finger. To which the hostess sarcasticly said "so would i, Sweetie". I gave her a look and said "Sweetie??" Then turned to Walt and said "i think i would like to leave". We did. And i think the hostess didn't handle my bitchiness very well and i think that the manager is a moron turning people away. Least they could have gotten a couple of bucks out of us for coffee. I guess the Towne has enough customers and doesn't need us?

Now, i am going to chill out for a bit and get going doing things around the house. We have some furniture coming tomorrow, after all. Speaking of, i emailed you, (e:Matthew), as (e:Paul) asked me to!!

Have a good Sunday everyone!

Is anyone in need of a dinning room set? A table, and 4 chairs -- 3 chairs without arms and 1 chair with arms?

You see, we were going to have a quiet day at home today. Maybe go out for dinner.. But, we decided to go to an estate sale on Lafayette between Elmwood and Delaware late this morning. We thought we would park near the sale, look at the stuff and the house (what can i say, i am a nosey parker sometimes... beautiful house, too, by the way), go to the Co-Op, head to our bank if we needed some cash. Nothing too exciting. Then, we saw this really nice dinning room set. I fell in love with it. The price was way to high, but they were eager to sell it and we bargained with them. In fact, Walt did a lot of it, for which i am proud of him for, since it isn't in his nature. They were very accomidating to what we want to pay for it. And it will be delivered on Monday afternoon. It's a solid Walnut table with self storing leaves, 6 chairs, a sideboard and a buffet. Ah, but we already have a set for our dinning room.

If anyone is interested, we will sell what we have now at an insanely low price...

Here's the chair with the arms



Here is the detail of the chairs



Here's the set, the table with the leaf and the chairs



Here is the detail of the legs of the table and the chairs




Our goal would be to have this stuff out of the house by Monday... it would be easier to get out of the house by the dinning room than if we brought it up to the attic.

And, as a reminder. i mean crazy insane low price!!! Email me or (e:Uncutsaniflush) if you are even the least bit interested!!

Who just happen to be myself and (e:Uncutsaniflush). Yes folks, it has been a whole year since we moved to Buffalo.

We arrived at about 4pm a year ago today, afer a 2 days in the car (i don't drive, so (e:Uncutsaniflush) broke it up into a 2 day drive) from Knoxville, TN. In our little Toyota Prius were all the possesions we could cram into it; things we thought we may need in the coming and unknown days, weeks or months.

Our house in Knoxville sold really quickly. We geared up for it for a long time. With a brief break in early 2004 due to some dental problems and tramas for me [inlink]leetee,24[/inlink] we worked for about a year getting things ready. We painted and repaired things. I got into those decorating shows telling people how help sell a house with careful placement of plants and removal of clutter. We had our agent over once before we started to tell us what would be important to do and again after we had done a bunch of things. She listed our house on September 24, 2004, and the following weekend, we were off to my cousin Krista's wedding in Kalamazoo, Michigan.

When we returned home, we found a couple of messages on our answering machine. It seemed there had been a problem with one of the keys in our lock box thingie. Someone had wanted to see our house while we were away but wasn't able to. Could they come soon? Yeah, ok, we cleaned up, unpacked a bit and left so they could see the house. Then see it again soon afterwards. The second time we went home and they were still there, so we drove around our neighbourhood for a while. We thought it was a good sign. And it was. They made an offer on the house.

There was some confusion about decisions and i felt a lot of pressure to move on their time frame and get things done in the house they were asking for (like fixing a toilet that had nothing wrong with it) and i broke into tears in our agent's office. Eventually, things got sorted out. There was a bad day in which we had to pay way too much money to have someone backhoe our backyard looking for our septic tank on the same day we had to have poor Diamond put to sleep [inlink]leetee,15[/inlink] that i somehow managed to survive. It was a stressful time. We managed though.The moving guys were really good... and the people that bought our house bought some of the stuff in it, too.

Our last night in Knoxville, we had dinner with friends at our favorite mexican place, El Charro. Little did we know we would find 2 places here that had a connection to East Tennessee. We joked that we needed to convince someone to move to Buffalo from Knoxville and we had no idea that someone would. Check out El Caporal on Union... they have good food. OK, where was i???

Dinner Knoxville. We stayed in a hotel our last night in Knoxville, too. Poor (e:Uncutsaniflush) wasn't feeling well after celebrating too much with margaritas and didn't even have the comfort of his own toilet to puke into.

We drove to our house the next morning to load up our car and give the keys to the people who bought our house. I cried as we pulled away from the house. We were married on the deck of that house...

Two days later we were here. We have been trying to remember where we ate our first meal as Buffalonians... and we think it was either the Towne or New York Pizza on Allen as a take away.... We think we want to eat at that place today.

Thank you, all (e:Peeps) for welcoming us. Thank you so very much (e:Paul) for creating and maintaining this space for us to get to know our new city and some pretty damn cool people in it. We learned a lot about Buffalo through here. I know there are people i have met through this space that i will cherish always.

Today was a very nice day outside. I do love this time of year... and the wind just seems to add to it all. It was a blustery day. We went to the zoo. I even remembered to take a couple of pictures...

... in the basement doing laundry. But i have news. News that means oh so very much to me. Some of you guys might not care, but i have been waiting years and years for this.

Kate Bush is releasing a new album. A double cd. It is due out in the US on the 7th (or the 8th, depending on the source). It's called Aerial. I am so excited i am freaked. She was my first ever crush.... and i just adore her still.

Just yesterday on the car ride home, (e:Uncutsaniflush) and i were talking about the ongoing and constant rumours that Kate Bush is releasing a new album and i am so not holding my breath... that if i beleived all the rumours, i would be at the record store every other week. But now, from a tiny bit in Rollingstone i read last night, i see the news and check out her official site and find that OMG, it is true!!! Yay!!!

Tomorrow morning, we are off to Knoxville. I am very much looking forward to it.

Seeing good friends. I am already obligated to do 1 haircut... I am charging my clippers as i write this, Christopher! Our friend, Linda had a new furry addition to her family that i am looking forward to meeting almost as much as i am looking forward to seeing Linda again! Expect pics of that, (e:peeps)! I am happy we have been able to keep in contact with some friends, but sadened that there is one we have lost... of not fault of anyone's, really, but just how life goes.

Eating at yummy places i miss. Great mexican in Knoxville! El Charro, here we come. And the tofu on the Mandarin House lunch buffet is sooo good. And Kaya (Korean) has some great tofu, too. I miss the waitress there, she is such a sweetheart. She told us not to move up here... "too much snow". Turned out she lived in upstate New York for years before moving to Knoxville.

I really want to visit the Knoxville Zoo this time. Last time, we didn't have the chance. This time, for sure!

Happy Trails to us.....

I was in a rare mood to go for a hike today. The weather seemed good for it... it was sunny and warm, but windy. By the time i showered and got ready, it was threatening a thunderstorm. It was really windy at Tffit, but we didn't get rained on. Thanks to (e:Paul) and (e:Matthew), i felt inspired to take pics...

Teeth

I have to go to the dentist again tomorrow. I even tried to go today. Sadly, no openings for me today. Another day of naproxen and generic orajel. I have a damn tooth that bothered me all weekend long. I thought it was the tooth that was filled last time i was at the dentist, but i am now thinking it is the one right beside it that also needs to be filled. I often have pain for weeks after a tooth is filled, worse than before it was filled, and it feels so much like a cavity, that i just assumed that is what it was this time, too. But alas, i do not think so now. I hope filling this damn tooth will make it feel better!!

Sweet Job

Ok, if you can get it, try to get a job working for the Canadian Consolate... 1 HSBC Center, Suite 3000. They are only open from 8am to 11am, Monday to Friday. Nice, eh? Bet they make a crap load of money, too.

Seems we were able to get stuff done without them anyway. We are going to try to download the Canadain Passport Application Forms i need, and we found a photographer that was able to do Canadian Passport pics.

I was impressed... the guy didn't use a tripod, and with one snap, on his digiatal camera screen was a decent pic. Not great, it still looks slightly like a mugshot. He even cropped another set for me for the picture for my green card. So i will have the same pic for both. And now we don't have to go back again. Hopefully, my passport won't take too long so when i go to the INS Service Center, i won't have different coloured hair. I need to be good for a month or so. *pout*

On Hold

When waiting on hold, some places have good music, others do not. The INS has really really bad music. I would rather listen to Muzak. But, i only had to listen to it for about 20 minutes. Record time. And the guy i spoke to was helpful. Even if he didn't quite understand my concerns.

OK, so i worry too much about this green card stuff. I just didn't want the Buffalo Service Center to wonder why i got a letter dated the 7th of October and didn't come in to get my new green card application processed until 4, 6 or even 8 weeks later. He just told me to explain to them that i wanted to have a travel endorsement in my passport, but i needed to renew it beforehand since the green card won't arrive for another 6 months and the passport expires in a month. He alos told me to continue using my current documents but to have the letter i got and my almost expired passport with me... seems everything is computerized and it would be hard to explain why i was using old documents when i have been approved for the new ones. Is this confusing to everyone? Funny that it isn't to me anymore. I mean, i know what a alien registration receipt card (Form I-551) is. I can use the lingo...

A big thanks to (e:Ladycroft) for her Congrats and (e:Paul) for welcoming me to his country!!

I am sure more is going on right now. But my mom needed to get the old folks that are myself and (e:Uncutsaniflush) home... we need our rest at this age.

(e:Ladycroft) gets the night started out just fine with her two fisted drinking methods that are envied by all.





The music just moves (e:Mike)



No evening would be complete without some sort of tall tale from everyones favorite story teller, (e:Terry). As you can see, (e:Joshua) can barely believe what he is hearing!



(e:Hodown) and (e:Mike) just chillin'



(e:Jill) and (e:Terry) just after the great clothing swap of 2005.



(e:Terry) and my mom, aka "Boss Mom"



(e:lilho), (e:Holly) and (e:Tina)



and here they are, last but not least, the birthday girls, (e:lilho) and (e:Tina)



Thanks for the invite, (e:lilho). We really appreciate it and the warm welcome you gave my mom.

Happy Birthday!

I love Halloween. That doesn't necessarily mean i love to get dressed up in weird clothes or spend time giving out candy. I just like the cool stuff i can get at the stores this time of year. I guess there is a part of me that is still and always will be a goth chick. I love black clothes with blood red accents and celtic crosses and gravestone markers and cemtetaries in general... and, of course, gargoyles. I love them.

I have one in our foyer. I call him Gary. Here he is.



The other day, (e:Uncutsaniflush) and i were at Target and i saw the cutest most adorable gargoyle. He was the only one left on the shelf and i just had to take him home. But i can't think of a name for him. And i am just wack enough that i need to name inanimate objects. Anyone have any suggestions? Here he is..