The holiday gave rise to a whole collection of random notes. Bear with me as I clean out a few mental pockets.

I’m fond of joking that my lovely former spouse and I are in the three phases of parenthood: With the youngest, we can still solve the occasional issue with a hug and a kind word. With the lovely middle child, we are the loveable buffoons who occasionally have the money. With the eldest, we are the fucking idiots with the money. And so it goes. Funny what you note and when you note it. We sent the mighty middle child west with her best friend and the friend’s parents on the fourth to spend time in Las Vegas followed by a canyon tour. Being all of 15 (and about to turn 16, as she would want me to add), her mom and I got over our fears of our child two time zones away and went on a charm offensive to get her at peace with the idea. The tragical history tour left last night and about 9 we got a call from chicago. “Did you like the first flight?” “No” was the curt reply. Apparently, she was really jazzed, but we were never going to see that.

I awoke to a text saying “I’m on a monorail.” So, I guess mission accomplished. Considering when her older sister turned 16, she was briefly in a bar with me in Williamsburg and now she is in Vegas. Either, we are either irresponsible or the coolest parents ever. I’ll opt for the latter.

While all this was going on, amazing number one son and I were watching a little tv and decided at the last minute to head down to the Central Wharf downtown to check out the fireworks. Got to say to Buffalo Place, well done. All the parking spots were open and reasonably priced. I slide into a space by the arena at 9:45 and we walked over the bridge to the strains of Lance Diamond turning somebody’s mother out in short order (although Lance may want to consider the turkey burger at Louie's, now what I mean?). The wharf wasn’t overly crowded and we caught a neat little show without working terribly hard. Not going to lie about the appeal of that. Nice half hour of pyrotechnics to cap a day, that sort of lost track of the holiday a little.

A friend of a friend lost his house saturday night and I started Sunday at a funeral for another. A little recentering was in order and Buffalo Place did the trick.

I’ve been paying casual attention to the World Cup and a couple things struck me.

The English soccer team is, as somebody already pointed out, like what Notre Dame is to college football, not nearly as good as advertised but they are there largely due to their own implied right to be there.

It’s not the horns that bother me, it’s the crappy officiating and blatant overacting. Some of the attempts at drawing penalties have been such blatantly bad theater you’d think Leonard Pimpf Garnell was doing play by play. Incredibly, the refs fall for it. I saw a guy get nudged in the chest and he covered his “eyes” in pained hysterics. Get up, jerk.

Not a fan, more of an appreciater, I wish there was a little ambiance for the English major leagues. I remember watching broadcasts on Channel 17 on Sunday mornings that inevitably my Dad and I would mock. If Arsenal got up too much, their fans would start serenading the opposition. Nobody says “You ugly!” like a chemically serene football fan.

It’s nice to see Papa Jakes and Cafe Aroma coming to life as different breeds of sports bars.

The US is out, but they gave it a good run, going deeper than ever before. Since they lost, there have been calls for the head coach, how he should be replaced, yada, yada, yada.

It’s a game, everybody should take a deep breath. It’s okay. The whole idea is to do your best. Isn’t that what we want to teach kids coming up. Shouldn’t we be happy that we made progress and our guys were among the best in the world? That’s a pretty good day’s work in my book. No shame in Ghana snagging one from us on the pitch as next time we see em on the ice, they are so our bitch.

Well, just how you want to start a Monday...

I knew something was off, as I woke this morning feeling pretty good. Pulled out of the driveway with the car filled with a really nice version of "Bartender" by Dave Matthews coming from the cd player. Nice vibe for the short drive into my office.

The local gendarme has taken to parking a car at the exit of Delaware Park for some official reason, I think, mostly to garner some extra change.

I follow rules of the road and pull up at Amherst and Colvin and out of my side mirror see a police car jockeying for position, but it was unclear as to what he was doing. I turn into the park on Colvin and he fires up the lights, looking for me.

"Excellent!"

The kind officer wanted to know if I knew why I was stopped and I honestly couldn't tell him. Apparently, back at Nottingham and the Park's exit, it looked to him like I was on my phone talking.

My phone was resting my pocket, where it wasn't used since Sunday afternoon. After he discovered that, he asked me about hands free devices, told him I don't use any as I don't take calls while I drive.

With that I was free to go, without a ticket. I guess the lack of a ticket was his apology for wasting both of our time, embarrassing me (as my boss drove by during my bust) and of course, being wrong.

Heck of a way to start the day.

The Zoo's annual creative black tie fundraiser was Friday night. Long day, but a festival of people watching. Doling out the champagne to the stars was your favorite celebrity bartender....me




Absolutely no truth to the rumor that I was employing the "two for them, one for me" method of pouring...well, almost none

It's the end of the week and this is what I have lingering in my mental pockets:

Refusing help with the BP spill? Sounds odd, but check this out

If somebody has an idea, it seems like help would be a good thing as the folks at BP are looking like Oil Executives in headlights. The never-ending news cycle has folded into name calling between Brits and some Americans and that seems silly. If the Belgians have an idea, bring it on.

C'mon Aaron Schoebel. I respect wanting to be close to the family. If you still want to play, but closer to home, say so. If you don't want to be a linebacker here, say so. The mealy mouthed "It's in the Bills' hands" rings a little empty, like somebody is watching over a bonus payment.

Pulling into work this morning, I got to see first hand the after effects of the Corporate Challenge, you know that race celebrated with lots of beer and bratworst? Given the high population of Sea Gulls scaling the mound of trash bags on either side of the ring road, it looked like the Challenge was sponsored by Alfred Hitchcock.

That amount of birds does make you think twice about where you park your car.

My employer is holding a creative black tie dinner tonight and in my email I got an inquiry from a business associate wanting to know how to dress.

Found tickets for Paul McCartney in Toronto. Seems like a good show to break in my Beatles appreciating son into, I mean, who's first rock concert is a Beatle? Hard act to follow.

Remember how the new Peace Bridge was supposed to be done around now? The legal funds of the few blocking the needs of the many.

Good for the Blackhawks and their Stanley Cup win. I didn't have a side in that series, but as hockey playoffs go, that was a great series and all praises to Pat Kane. He's adjusted to life in the spotlight pretty well recently and looking for family and remembering where he came from were great notes to end an exciting game.

Allentown Art Festival starts tomorrow and I can't help but wonder when the art gets in. All the soul is in Allentown west area where some great music and actual craft takes place. Don't need to stand shoulder to shoulder up Delaware for the sake of looking at largely generic sofa sized offerings.

Think Pete Carroll timed things just right?

Partook of some LaNova pizza for the first time in ages last night and circumstances lead to pizza induced bliss. My stomach was in its happy place for the rest of the night.

Where is the Save the Gulf telethon? The ineptness of BP's response has wrecked the area for untold years even if all the oil magically disappeared as you read this?

Got to get to the store (hence, the title)

Sorry I missed the shenanigans on Friday evening. I had three events simultaneously on Saturday, with one of them getting going before 7 so I needed to be something resembling good so I made do with a couple quiet drinks at the Sportsmen Tavern in front of one of my favorite bands. Set a good mojo for a horrific saturday at the office. Had to play security guard, first aid administer to a panicky deaf boy, bouncer, huckster and more. All of which left me spent last night. Sat on my porch listening to middle aged knuckleheads yelling "Opa!" as they waddled from the greek festival to the safety of their suburban bound SUVs.

Great parade today, despite the weather. Got a decent shot of the oncoming parade along with some dashboard photography from last weekend.

One of the downsides of living alone is that there is nobody to complain to when the alarm goes off to early. I had to do another TV stint for my employer and of course it is for an early morning show, which meant getting to work at 5, which meant getting up at 4.

Given our heat of late, my adoration for my air conditioner knows no bounds, but it's unifying rumble drown out Delaware Ave fairly well. Of course, you don't sleep great knowing that it is happening.

Having done this a few times, I strive to make it easy. Pick out some clothes the night before to minimize the thinking involved. Alarm goes off and I groggily get myself together. I grab my glasses to use as coverage for any bags under my eyes.

One of the upsides to getting to Delaware Park at 5 AM is the abundance of parking spaces. Got a good one. Got inside, got a water bottle and headed out to let the reporter and crew in. Everything goes pretty well. Didn't studder, yet I talked with my hands a little much for an Irish guy. Sent them on their merry way a little after 7AM and still had the rest of the work day.

Got to book around 2, seized the day and did laundry, ran a quick errand or two and settled in a little. You know that is a funky schedule that you aren't used to when the couch feels a little too comfortable and all the dialogue on Top Gear sounds like mooje, mooje, mooje.

That was God's way of telling me it was time for bed.

Crap, I'm old, but apparently still telegenic.

Another week in show biz. I occasionally have to remind me myself about the coolness of my job. We opened a new exhibit this week, and the opening, as always, is a festival of people watching.



It's a pretty cool thing, especially for little kids. But given the structure, it is kind of oasis like since you're removed from the rest of the hubbub.

We do a lot of grip and grinning at these things, especially to donors and partners. The one thing I took away was politicians are worried. Most of the Erie County Legislature showed for the opening as did our two state senators and a couple of assemblymen (the latter seemingly unperturbed about the unfinished business in Albany). It intrigues me to sit back and watch a state senator bolt before the program even starts because it doesn't revolve around him.

Nice night, unlike yesterday where we opened it to the public where it's a good thing we had so many volunteers as we needed somebody to buy the food purchased for the occasion.

You may have even seen my rain sodden self avoiding the cameras yesterday morning.

In other news, my church had a religious education celebration this morning. The minister is on sabbatical, and the RE director is outgoing, so she couldn't be bothered to come.

That is a little dispiriting, but I got a favorite band to play at work two out of the past three days, so there are compensations. Just got back from a house concert in Hamburg. Made a couple new friends, heard some good tunes, nice abbreviated weekend.

Haven't been feeling it lately, but let's reconnect.

Pre-emptive break-up today. Between that and being greeted with the need for bloodwork, that may qualify as a monday.

That is an odd thing, but since our offices are over an exhibit, everybody got lined up for testing. Didn't run into that in other assignments.

Joked that the last time I stood in a line like this, I got a Roger Waters ticket at least.

Had a comparatively mellow weekend. The ex was out of town so number one son bunked with me. We had a nice dinner at Chez Louie's on Friday night, where we got into a borderline scholarly discussion on the state of Batman with one of the counter guys. It was fun to see my boy hold his own with another passion supporter of the caped crusader.

Speaking of my faithful traveling companion, he has been taking Capoiera over at Shakti Yoga for a few months. Last weekend, the studio had a happening at a spa in East Aurora. It was done on this semi-enclosed porch. While it was beautiful to watch and to see my son hold his own with all types of folks, I couldn't help but wonder if the little enclosed patio was going to lose its roof.

Fate is a funny thing, as a reward for his showing, he asked if he and I could go to Iron Man. I said yes, since I was suddenly free that evening. I was going to go with the woman I've been seeing to see of all things a cover band who did Emerson Lake and Palmer. She had the tickets then lost them to somebody who was going to take a husband. After I said yes to my boy, she texts me back and says I got the tickets! I write back that since you didn't have them and were going to study, when my son...blah, blah, blah. She went with a friend, who asked her out this weekend and next. So, my pre-emptive breakup. Iron Man might be responsibile to the latest detriment to my social life, but keeping my word as Dad seems a little more valuable. The shenanigans never cease my friends.

I think I'm headed to the b-movies tonight, near the left bank.

Stay thirsty, my friends.