My allergies ramped up this week and for the past two days, I feel like I've been underwater and not in a good way. I tried walking the ring road at Delaware Park at lunchtime and with all the beautiful flora, I looked like a bad break up happened to me on my stroll.
This, too, shall pass...

Skeery driving in this morning. I turned off of Amherst onto Colvin going the Park and this white SUV is following me. I'm sort of groaning anyway as all the walkers who come to the Park for a prework walk all come to that end so there is precious few places to park. As I'm cruising to the last available spots, this SUV is filling my rear view mirror, enought that I'm getting a little afraid that if I stop my little red buggy quickly, I'll be a mitsubishi pancake left in its wake. I see a space to pull into and escape unscathed. Worse part was she wasn't looking for parking, she was just using the park to turn around on Amherst St. I get out of the car and promptly drop a bottle of orange juice which rolls down the curve of the road, under my car and is floating like the good ship lollipop on the other side of my car in the mud puddle by the grass. If that doesn't say omen, I'm not sure what does.

Thank god it's payday so the day recovered quickly. The Zoo runs a fundraiser in July called Wines in the Wild. It's a pricy mini Taste of Buffalo with some spas thrown in for good measure. The chairman was all proud that he got one of the golf stores to come and set up a "Golf Simulator" at this years event. I guess you hit a real ball and then computer generation shows what "happens" next. He was rubbing that in my face, so I responded in kind. I got one of the video game stores to come in and set up a station for people to play "Guitar Hero" and "Rock Band" between stuffing their faces. I think my contribution will be better received.

I took my son to see Iron Man and it was a lot of fun. I was smart enough to be the only guy over 30 of the many to bring a kid with him. To achieve intellectual balance, I went to see Chicago 10 at the Amherst. It will probably be gone tomorrow, but it was an interesting take on late 60's politics. I can say I had some brain food before I go to a special preview of Indiana Jones on Monday.

As soon as I figure out how to post an mp3 to play, I'll put up the cheesy commericial I recorded. It aired on Star 102 a couple of times and since I only got to write part of it, I sounded a little much like "Troy McClure."

Good tv tonight -- got the DVR set to earn its keep, catching Earl, Office, Lost, Grey's and American Chopper while I head off to help fight the No Child left Behind policy. There are some flaws inside them good intentions and stupid me, said I'd write a statement for next week's Buffalo School Board, just got to find some other sap to read it.

Partook of a growler of Alexander Keith's from the Village Beer Merchant and it was quite tasty. Now, that I have the growler fee paid, I may have to head back for a refill.

Think I may have stumbled into a relationship, too -- so far so good.

Good's starting to outnumber the bad.....

Keep passing the open windows, ya'all

Good times, watch, chuckle knowingly

Another Zoo baby pic (posted by indirect request of (e:hodown))

Before the rains came Saturday, we had a little fun. When the rains did come, I learned an important fact. Wet purple is not a good look for a man of my years, but check out old frosting face (no,not me)



Never saw a Rhino charge before, but the two ton mother could book. She was a little excited for cake. She charged the cake, skidding considerably to stop herself in time. Who were we to say no?



Too effin cute.

Enjoy

Went wandering around Hoyt Lake and Glens Falls, came back with a few interesting images.

Never been a party to this kind of party before. My employment has sometimes taken me to strange lengths, but I'm uselessly hoping the rain holds off long enough for the baby shower for this.



Her name is Clover and she isn't going to cute very long being a Rhino, but we're tossing her a party at the Zoo provided the thunderstorms hold off. Wet Rhino, nothing spells par-tay. Pray for late rain peeps.

Things I do for my work....

I got into a discussion with one of my staffers about the racial state of Buffalo and how divisive this city can be. What got us on the topic was the latest production to come to the Zoo. For a few weeks, this guy had been pestering my staffer to come and shoot for a show he has on local access. He wanted to do a music video, conveniently sending the lyrics for an 8:30 shoot over at a few hours before hand.

It actually went pretty well. The song was a hip hop piece, pro conservation, ecology and education and was pretty good. I don't know if they will get anywhere truly, but it was fun to watch. I knew it was going to be problematic as their cd was corrupted and wouldn't play. So, for the sake of lip synching, the mc had to work with captured audio of a cell phone. Dude did pretty well because that had to have been tough. They staged the same thing a few times around the Zoo for editing sake. The shots at the gorilla pen had me in stitches as two of the gorillas sat down outside the glass as the music is playing, just chillin' watching the camera. Finally the one male gorilla threw himself at the window to announce his presence. Scared the shit out of performers and crew.

Anyway, they finished all the shots that they needed for the video and quickly worked up staged question and answer to help in promoting the video. By this time, the Zoo is coming alive with field trips and I saw these two field trip Moms watching us from a distance and both had tha t "omigod, theres ethnic folk there" looks on their faces. Like the playground wasn't safe. You like to think that we are beyond such expressions, but it was unmistakable that those folks that the playground area was something to be regarded with suspicion.

That kind of shit makes me a little nuts. Only parallel I can think of was a number of years ago. My ex (who's black) and I (who's so not) were in Sweet Tooth partaking of some of their gastrointestinal delights and we are getting looked upon with disgust by this septagenarian who just can't comprehend that the races could come together, especially over ice cream. She wasn't even being subtle with the dismay. Finally, my lovely spouse shouting "What are we naked?' and that broke the old bitty's concentration.

More thngs change, more some perceptions stay the same. We all just folks, wish more folks could see it like that.

After dealing with a video production crew who was so prepared for their music video shoot, they ran their audio off a cell phone, this was a nice diversion.

The winds can blow pretty fast around here. The Doghouse might just have a doggy door in back. With all the suburban kids on break last week, all hands were on deck. For parts of four days, I spent a good chunk of the day directing traffic, trying to get people into the Zoo a little faster.

While in the midst of that crush, I got what I assumed to be a sales call from a guy wanting me to create a special discount. I thought it might have conflicted with an existing discount and politely declined. Turned out it was the pet project of a board member so, of course, it was turned into a thing. I hear my boss defending me to said board member, only to come tear me a new one for not talking to her first. I still kick myself pretty hard when stuff like that happens. That combined with the boss asking somebody else about the website when I’m sitting right there left my self-esteem eagerly awaiting the end of the week.

I come in yesterday determined to turn things around with a memo of proactive suggestions for the gate staff and show it to the boss for her blessing. Suddenly, I’m smart again. I guess you got to enjoy the moments for what they are. I just had a newspaper salesperson in my office, telling me I should approach corporate partners for more money after they have already given money to advertise with her paper. The way she talked down to me was like I was a little kid caught joyriding in Mom’s car. A little patronization goes a long way.

Anybody else get caught up in the traffic stop at Delaware and Forest last night. A bunch of the local gendarmes were checking license, registration and inspection last night on the right home. Weirdness. I’ve seen those types of stops before, but they are usually on one of the toll booths. I’m not sure why Delaware was picked other than it is a popular escape route for the suburbanites.

Thanks to a clueless landlord, I had to hightail to the laundry mat at Elmwood and Auburn and caught a look of the flashing blue light of surveillance shining down on us from the light standard near Willy Farms. Do I feel safer? No, not really considering the fact that I wasn’t thinking I was in much peril before the hanging of the new strobe light. All these high end stores and we still have blue light specials.

Nice day outside.

Crazy german mardi gras floats....