The season makes people do some strange shit, all in the name of unabashed consumerism. I made my first foray to the Boulevard Mall since the beginning of the madness. I tend to take a laid back approach to these sojourns, but there is enough nonsense occuring to turn you into Michael Douglas' character in Falling Down.

With the snow, the parking lot looked like an angry toddler tossed his toy cars where gravity decided. People basically impaled their cars in snow banks in order to get their desired space. Essentially, cars abandoned everywhere. Inside, it was busy but not overwhelming like I can only imagine that the Galleria must have looked like the shopping apocalypse.

The Boulevard has those obnoxious folks with the carts who "HAVe" to ask you a question. I declined one such samply query with a polite "No, thanks" and kept walking as she just couldn't help but ask "Can I just ask you one more question?" Apparently, there is an air of ambiguity in my delivery of the phrase "no, thanks." I gather the death stare I awarded her foolishness sent her back to annoy somebody else.

After securing some duplo blocks (big legos) and a magna doodle for my 2 year old nephew, I was done and rewarding my efficiency with a quick escape to Ted's for some of their finest. With the snow and the cold yesterday, the ex and I decreed that everybody should stay put. I got a good nap out of the deal as well as not having to share one of my better culinary endeavors.

I had pulled into the Target lot, where a car was signaling left, so I started to cross, but she was still going straight (and looking right). I think the combination of almost christmas and actual snow can reduce some folks' cerebral cortexes into something resembling a jello pudding pop.

Since number one son was headed over tonight, I wanted to swing by Blockbuster on Elmwood for a game or movie where something blows up. With all the unplowed snow and all the people infiltrating the neighborhood for shopping, getting remotely close to Blockbuster was interesting to say the least. The elmwood village Santa was talking to a guy withdrawing money from the bidwell HSBC. From the car, it looked like Santa might have holding him up.

After making off with Indiana Jones #2 & #3 and Edward Norton as the Hulk, as well as Lego Batman for the Xbox for just $25, we had the makings of a decent night.

Stay warm everybody, round #2 is tomorrow.

Annual office christmas lunch was just a little bit ago. It feels a little forced. One of my staffers bought me stuff which was very nice. Our Business Adminstration chief was liked a hopped up four year old on Christmas morning, so it threw me off with my staffer. She bought me Guinness. How can you not love that. I nearly forgot about a card attached to the box (of Guinness!! Briliiant!!) because I had to present a gift to our boss in front of everybody.

It's a nice occasion, but to me it feels a little tempered. When I attended my first one of these last year, it was just our department and we went out to a restaurant. We stayed at the office and it felt a little weird having the shenanigans in front of non-participants from accounting passing us by. They were invited in, but chose not to. This can be such an awkward holiday at times.

That said, nothing like a helping of pizza and wings to get your mojo running for pizza and wings at the 24 this evening. A lunchtime food coma to kick the afternoon off right. Perhaps, the garlic bread could have stayed out of the mix.

Looking forward to it, especially since the winter apocalypse is coming overnight. I know the tv stations find some brown paper bags for their weathermen. They all seem to be hyperventalating at the prospect of some snow. Like we've never gotten it a foot a time before.

Kids are already counting on a snow day.

Ready for the weekend. It's been a spate of meandering gatherings, financial foolishness, and struggling to keep my wits about me, but I think slowly but surely I'm winning.

Went to a Sunday morning version of my Hot yoga class and came out of it feeling good. This, in and of itself, was a major breakthrough as most of the time I'm wrecked. I found a pace and kept on at just the right clip that I was almost jazzed by the experience. I thought I had a bit of breakthrough of sorts. The euphoria lasted till Tuesday night, where with a new teacher, I was a trainwreck. The key isn't the heat, just the steady pace you keep your breath moving. I fell off the tracks about 40 minutes in and never quite got it back. Just one of those things, but the frustration can make you loopy.

It was the end of a very long day that had me in Syracuse to start. I met my counterparts from the Syracuse and Rochester Zoo to brainstorm and whatnot. I had been to Syracuse a number of times and it is always gray and overcast (kind of like the residents), but the Zoo was a little odd. It is mostly inside exhibits, impressive in a way. The buildings all link together around a courtyard that has a town square like feel to it, but reminded me if somebody used the "Old West" set from Fantasy Island. Ah well, I think the long day threw off my yoga mojo.

There is another board here that I am a liason for and they are exasperating in the extreme. By in large, I rumbling along just fine. Part of our monthly gatherings is to do a Zoo update as to what is going on. My part of that is talk about potential advertising, promotion and most importantly, corporate sponsorships. That last one is something that is tougher to get. Now, both my boss and the board chair also like to hear about prospects for sponsorships, people I'm working on to get them to try something zoo related. One of those is a meeting I have to take in January with one of the personal injury law firms. It certainly isn't my first choice, but they have money and are interested. Now this board heard that and crickets filled the room as there are a handful of lawyers from firms a little higher up on the corporate food chain. So, I got subjected to their attacks of self-righteousness. None of these folks have their companies doing anything at the Zoo. The state,city, county, and the school board are all talking money from us (or at least attempting to) and these jackasses want to give me a little shit about somebody wanting to invest in the Zoo? Puh-leeze. I felt frustation starting to enter my voice so I just stopped talking because there didn't seem to be much point.

Worst part was I had to hang out because they had their holiday party. I was in no mood to grin, so I sullenly slugged back a couple of beers with my boss, partook of what catering food I could identify and headed home. An annoying meeting/gathering that spanked my yoga time, which in turn will make whatever weekend class I get to that much more of a chore.

To quote Yosemite Sam, "I'm thinkin' but my head hurts.

On the much more pleasant side, I got invited to my brother's house christmas party on Wednesday evening after work. Without getting into too much detail, my older brother is a special needs guy and resides in a duplex with five other folks. It's a good setting, well-staffed and designed to create as normal living environs as is possible for individuals dealing with everything mental retardation, autism , to a few "isms" I'm still processing. With the staff's help, resources are pooled and this year they had a party at the Italian Village in Williamsville. I got invited last year, but a work committment kept me away. It was nice to see a genuine holiday thing, even more fun to get a peek into my brother when he isn't dependent on the family. It was the first time he'd seen me not at our parents house or at his place, so the look of pleased surprise he gave me was pretty great.

So, that was a nice place to hang my coat of this week. After plopping down for the Zoo's annual fund, City Honors graduation dues (which I hope means Daughter number one graduates), I figured as long as I was spending money that I shouldn't, what the hell. Number one son and I are going to go see the Sabres and Leafs play tonight.

"Dad, do they have pretzels bigger than my face?"

Yeah, they do. Good times

I noticed that the rat bastards who now own Ben and Jerry's decided to quite making Nutty Waffle Cone and Rule Britannia. Awesome flavors. Bastards! A Pox on their blandly flavored houses.

While I'm at it, there is a Ice Cream topping called Mrs. Richardson. There is a variety of flavors all in the vein of parlor quality and nobody in Buffalo is carrying Strawberry anymore. The hell?

Went to early morning yoga this morning. THe 105 degree room felt really good considering how cold it is outside. To prep for class, you plop your mat down and lay down to give yourself a chance to get used to the heat. I was first one and found a space. The studio marks spaces out and it is very rarely packed. I felt the breeze of a mat going down near my left and got up to see I was surrounding where the other side of the room had room to space. Made me claustrophopic. It's too sweaty in there to be that close together people! Spread out.

People are sometimes a little too desperate to show that they are smarter or more sophisticarted than they really are. The church I go hosts a "Music Sunday" twice a year. A small orchestra comes in and the church's choir gets to show off with some really ambitious music. The place is full to the rafters for this one occasion. Some free classical music and people lose themselves. I got up a few years ago to my son to a class and came back to find a woman sitting on my belongings. A beautiful thing ruined by knuckleheads with no regard. I skipped yesterdays to go work out and felt better for it.

Thinking the genuises who planned the Bills' Toronto game weren't counting on the fact that more Dolphins fans would show up.

Our good "friends" at Time Warner never took my payment for October despite me making it. Argh!

What the hell is Sahara Grill doing selling Christmas trees? Moreever, what the hell is anybody doing buying from them? You know those were cut real fresh back in, you know, August.

Was running some errands last night and found myself in the unusual location (for me, at least) of being in the KMart on Hertel. Among the festivus chaos was a shoplifting bust. Seriously, swiping from Kmart? Ugh

Still bumming over the Friday after Thanksgiving report from Walmart and the poor bastard who died from being stamped to death in a "Black Friday" (Geez, I hate that term) mob of shoppers. Are "deals" that important that people lose their humanity? Does your holiday hinge on beating the fat bastard behind you to the HDTV specials. If that is what the season is about, I'll check out till New Year's.

Liked Cadillac Records on Saturday night (okay not a complaint, but an observation).

But, I was probably going to hell anyway.

I liked (e:jason) ' s line about being as efficient as the NYS Government lately. I feel similarly. Work has been a little static, but thanks to continued hot yoga, I have lost 12 pounds since starting in October. Today's class actually left me feeling pretty good. Onto laundry and perhaps checking in on the Bills canadian odysessy.

Stay warm, ya'all

Pretty sure I got stuff accomplished this week. I would just be hard pressed to tell you what. I don't know if it was the holiday, the change of season, what have you, but it seems like work filled the time space continumn, but left no residue of what happened. My plane ticket win was nice, but it was a sombulent week professionally speaking.

My darling eldest is one bad add looking cheerleader this week. She is on the city Honors squad and took a elbow to her cheek so she is sporting both an impressive shiner and a equally impressive string of nick names. I've settled on "Left Eye" myself. One of her friends thought that displayed a lot of soul for a white guy. That made me chuckle.

Went on an esoteric music binge which my latest Ipod feel good. It absorbed Sinatra's Only the Lonely, Radiohead's In Rainbows with the Forrest Gump Soundtrack thown in for good measure. I got some weird and easily influenced taste. Good call on the Frank, (e:Joshua) . Nobody can listen to "Angel Eyes" without immediately thinking of a bar someplace with the bourbon is getting poored over the rocks.

Apartment building is full once more. The new folks on the third floor had their tv going on before 5 this morning. That I didn't need.

The facebook virus hit my account. I do apologize if a funky looking email hit your account with my picture attached. It wasn't me as I never say anthing like LOL. Supposedly it's all good now.

I'm enjoying my home pc more so now with some time passing, My office just got new pcs and I think I did like the old ones a little better. THe new ones are the intel duo core models but the whole system slowed to a crawl this week, furthering the feeling of getting nothing done.

Univera picked up the tab for another round of yoga so that has me going for another month. I may actually start seeing some progress as I can get through a class without wanting to die as much as I did when I first got cranked up. Got a little definition at the very least I'm back to pre bell's palsy form.

I'm thinking more and more that my free airline tickets should take me someplace warm, beach laden and where there is the reasonable certainty that there are umbrellas fliiating in drinks nearby. Ft. Lauderdale looks like a contender. So, does San Diego. I was thinking New Orleans too, but I've been there before. When somebody else is paying, time to explore something new.

Time to get the predecorated tree out of it's box.

Organizational meetings can be pretty dull. I went to one this morning and they typically give out a crappy little door prize. As a result, I pay little attention till today when I won! This time, it wasn't so crappy, as I scored two free tickets anyplace Southwest flies in the continental US.

May get a vaca-y this year. Yea!, me!

Too much potential drama. I journaled about losing a cousin last week. Her service was today. She was very involved with a small episcopal church near ECMC so the church elders wanted to put on a show. A nearly two and half hour service. I've never been prouder of my guys or more anxious to get out of church. Knowing that was coming cast a bit of a pall over Thanksgiving dinner at my in-laws place, where everybody was thinking about that and it was the first major holiday without my father-in-law so we didn't need extra helpings to make our shoulders sag a little. Stiffer upper lip and all that. 4th significant funeral since February. 6th overall. I'm getting tired. Must be a sign of getting older when the "inner circle" takes such a whuppin.

Further causing what's left of my mind to whirl was the fact that my folks are dealing with a little bit of health issues. My mom is dealing with another round of prednizone to combat vascular arteritis. I think I'm close on the spelling. It beat her up last fall and this is a decidely lesser battle, but still. I had to tell my Dad to mind his manners. Mom might get a little roid rage. He has issues as well. His doctor has him set for a round at Roswell in January to have a biopsy done to make sure he isn't dragging a form of lymphoma around.

I've gotten to be pretty good at rolling with the punches, but holy crap. The cherry on the cake of all this is that my sisters are sniping again. They are 9 years apart and Manhattan ain't big enough for both of them. The elder one has been out of work for sometime and the younger one has been subtly rubbing her face in it with new husband, slowly prospering career. They go in waves and I wouldn't care but we are getting way to old for this shit. Our elder brother is a special needs guy and at some point, it's up to the three of us to see to his needs. When I get that call, I'll take the ex-wife before these two lunatics. I love em dearly, but there are times when I want to slap the nostrils clean off them. Unnecessary pitiness, imagined competitions, the way they can place each other on edge are exhausting me. They can't do visits home without coating it in shenanigans. All of this with no real reason. I don't know what to do about it. It's like they are competing to see who the parents favorite is.

Makes me look forward to the estrip gathering for some agendaless good times.

The folks things aren't something I'm getting to rattled out, just haven't had a whole lot of return on anything Roswell lately (except for this community of ours), so I think I'm owed. Mom's thing doesn't seem to be too big a deal. It's just the second go round in the same turf. They said it could come back. The holiday was a little shrouded because of the absent friends. You put it all together and it does make your brain hurt. Everybody is a little whipped after the service today so I told the kids to stay home and get a good nights sleep in their regular beds. I ran to the late Yoga class to blow off steam. Literally, I got back to my car and fogged the windows without the aid of a good woman (You know any?)

So, for once, home on the couch on a Friday doesn't seem so bad. I am finally enjoying the new pc I bought on Monday. It took five days to qwell my vista fear, but that too shall pass. After all, there is Guinness in the fridge.

It will all be okay.

A unique constellation of circumstances.....

Thought I was reasonably footloose and fancyfree yesterday, so I took Number One Son to go see "Bolt" yesterday at the Market Arcade. I would have preferred the new Bond flick but whatever, Bolt was okay but all the good lines are in the commercials. We ran a couple of errands and arrived at his house at 5:30 or so. I was planning on coming back here and checking on the Lasertron outting. Instead, it got decided on the spur of the moment that we needed to go hang out with an older cousin. Last night was the night picked to gather to eat drink be merry and distract our cousin. He lost his wife earlier in the week. The funeral is Friday, last night wound up being the informal get together for family. Just wish I would have known a little more in advance. There is a small circle of folk who I was looking forward to seeing, others who I had to introduce myself too (Oh, right, the nice white boy XXXX married) and some fools. One of the latter decided it was a good time to give me some flak about what kind of father would let number one son quit Tae Kwon Do. Grrrr. I hate when people especially ones who have no business passing out parenting advice decide to start in for the sake of starting in. Pisses me off to have to stand there, pretending to take things gracefully, when I had a perfectly fine invitation to go shoot stuff from a lovely soul (thanks again, (e:imk)). Apparently, giving my son a voice in his own world makes me an unfit parent. This same jerk was the one who decided that if I was any kind of man the ex wouldn't be gay. Christ on a bike. got home a little after 9, too late to make the shenanigans.

As usual, I would have preferred to be firing lasers with ya'all.

Got up this morning with an eye toward sponging off the folks and doing laundry for free and watching the Bills game with the old man. My folks both got health news (nothing serious, just annoying) and I thought it would be a good idea to have the kids come out. Instead they were booked till 2. Not wanting to be in Clarence all night, I ran downtown stairs and the laundry there was booked. Screw it, packed up the soap, the clothes, the ipod and headed for the laundramat. Got it all done in short order, picked up the youngins and broke bread over a good old starchfest in the burbs that perked everybody up.

The weekend was like a weekday of running around, just no work involved. That will change tomorrow with an educational video shoot at the Zoo. I have to take a guy in a bear suit through the Rainforest. That alone sounds like an old Letterman bit.

Blew off morning yoga to extend the coffee and blanket stuff in front of Charles Osgood, so back on the bike tomorrow night. I was beside myself on the last class. My balance for stuff is shaky at best, but I can start to do the on one foot stuff with some ease and actually held one on the poses for the entire time frame. Nearly made an unmanly noise of surprise.

Bumming over the pistol packing good time last night but the beautiful thing about estrip. There is always next time.....

Been reading a little about all the shenanigans involving the football game on Monday night. Having worked two night games last year on the Bills staff, it was decidely nicer to spend this game on my couch, warm and with the cold beer already paid for and no line for my reasonably clean bathroom. A few years ago, for a work function, I got to sit the M&T Club. That is one of the big monstrosities at the end of the stadium. 200 people private service, closed windows. It was like being a Roman watching the christians escape the Lions. But the past two seasons found me decked out in this splendor:



That was from the hockey game, but that was also my post for football days and nights. To the left were season ticket holders and pretty consistent in their attendence. To the right was a few season ticket types, walk ups, opposing fan types. Since it was the end zone, they were the last seats sold. Never a dull moment. When ESPN came to town last year, it was for a game with the Cowboys, which brought out the inner asshole in some Bills fans. The fights were clear cut. It's the near fights that put people on edge. The bulk of the stadium is fine, but something about the end zones and near end zones that. Something about somebody wearing the wrong team colors turns the joint into Lord of the Flies.

Game still sucked, but seeing the suckitude from the comforts of home is preferred.