This is a dentist and parking story.

Last few weeks G and I visited our dentist - Western New York Dental Group, in the Statler Towers. They are great! I started going there in the mid 1990's, when I was a UB student living on Amherst campus and didn't have a car, but I could take the Blue Bird (bus) and metro train downtown. (Yep, convoluted but it was what I knew how to do.) Recent years, we have been seeing Dr. Goldberg at this practice, and he is awesome, especially with G (age 6)! The dental hygienists, assistants, and front desk staff are all very professional and friendly.

Parking downtown - I've had the pleasure of using the new pay stations - instead of dropping coins in individual meters, I use credit card or coins to pay up to 2 hours worth of parking privilege (!). The station spits out a ticket/receipt for me to place on my dashboard. Efficient. (I've done this in NYC and Toronto. Hurray, big cities.) We made our dental appointment, which took less time than I expected, and then it hit me - no more leaving "extra minutes" on the meter for the next person.

Walking around village a little while ago - every store we walked into was packed! Spot, Treehouse, Spoiled Rotten. Sitting in Spot, enjoying iced coffee (overdue, to fight headache, surely not because we just saw "Ratatouille"), sharing the s'mores with G (verdict: hard chewy, sweet), and it occurred to me that our moving to Clarence is ... (analogies follow, please substitute local equivalent)

- moving from Morningside Heights in "the city" to Queens
- sure you can come shop and such in the city, but then make sure you plan out the bathroom locations and commute time, like right now I would be stuck on on the LIE
- you're happy to be part of the special hustle and bustle in the city, but then you have to slink away to your quiet home
- I bet, eventually, the hustle and bustle feels crowded and noisy, and the quiet expanse of lawns feels liberating, and I morph into THAT thing, the suburbanite (G asked me last night, what is the sub-parb?).

Japanese Garden, Historical Society, July 2007

... living in village/Buffalo (in no particular order),

1. public school system, especially bureaucratic administrators
2. parking, lack of, tickets (especially the one time you forget to alternate park on your own street)
3. Elmwood Avenue car traffic, including double-parked cars, waiting for left turning cars, poorly timed lights
4. crime
5. constant sirens (police, fire, ambulance)
6. absence of Dunkin' Donuts
7. lack meaningful public transportation
8. city hall, and I don't mean the architecture

...living in village/Buffalo, (not necessarily in any particular order)

1. friendly neighbors and friends
2. good eats, drinks
3. nice parks
4. sidewalks for walking and gawking
5. historical architecture (commercial and residential)
6. short travel time to and from hockey, baseball, theatre, museums, botanical gardens, zoo
7. sewer system
8. garbage totes
9. gardens and small yards
10. low property taxes, inexpensive housing
11. firemen who look good and fit, in addition to being heroic
12. (e:strip)

Tifft Nature Preserve, November 2006

Here is our home, in its summer glory. I just spent an hour talking to our next-door neighbor, who is like my 2nd mom, outside in the hot sun, just because that's the kind of neighborhood it is. She was gardening the island, I was taking this pic, and we started talking, and talking...



In response to (e:leetee) comment about house history, we are fortunate to be friends and neighbors with the family who lived in this house for 50+ years. They tell us stories and even showed us photos of the house. Isn't that awesome?!

We took family trip to Toronto on Monday for Yankees game b/c my father-in-law is huge Y fan, and that's his Father's Day present. Guess what celebrity showed up before the game and is on the big-screen in this pic below? David Beckham! That made my day.