Some random notes now that I'm finally in a quiet time workwise.

I heartily agree with (e:Paul) 's assessment of the Connecticut Street Sandwich Company. I snuck over there a couple of days ago and the burger, chips and milkshake hit the spot. My stomach made yummy sounds all the way back to the Zoo.

Missed (e:ladycroft) 's shower because of work. In the midst of what would have been a four day weekend, I got yanked into my moonlighting gig at the Arena downtown. While working a hockey game is fun and my bank account needed it, I'm sorry to miss out on seeing the parents to be and other estrippers that it has been too long between visits.

On the upside, with a new bank pushing the old bank out of the Arena, I was able to turn in my tomato colored, flame retardant blazer for an equally ugly, but more practical fleece pullover thing. It is a different flavor of dorky, but a little more practical as it is cold in that place. The new hockey owner is doing something to make sure the ice is up to snuff, but that has lowered the temperature in the place. So, if you are going to something there, be prepared.

Halloween sort of came and went for me. We had the usual throng of folks at the Zoo so I was sort of spent by the time the revelary actually came. I did notice that now that number one is 13, I can't get away with the "Dad needs to inspect for safety" con. He just gave me a few kit kat bars to make me go away.

Working with aweber software for our electronic newsletter is the epitome of a love hate relationship.

Went out briefly with this woman I really liked in the first part of the fall. We had great times getting out, escaping parenthood but all the sudden messages stopped getting returned. I understand not going anywhere, not ready, not right time, but hell, to say nothing? That is just rude. Over 40 is too old to be that impolite.

Has anybody ever needed a head start to a left turn? Does that extra second make any sense?

New cupcake place has opened on Parkside, along with the new Spot on Hertel, perhaps Paul should snag Hertelstrip.com too.

When the home team stinks up the joint as a whole like the lads did on home ice, we moonlighters have a little time to watch the little things.

I was grateful to trade in the polyester blazer from the previous bank for blatantly blue, almost azure, of the new bank’s pullover, an infintely more practical change.

While the drinkers still astound me, it was a treat to watch a couple of different sets of parents bring little kids to their first games. The kids in both cases were old enough to know where they were and what they were about, but young enough to be unable to hid the joy of being there. You have to be made of stone not to find that heartwarming. You know at least a few folks weren’t sarcastic in their wave appreciation.

The new daiquiris come in some pretty interesting colors.

The pizza did look pretty good, from a distance, but I’m not sure what will make it artisian, hopefully that is a step from, well, bad.

Hopefully, the guys who came in Sabres costumes get a little better next time out.

Hope everybody had fun at the 24 Halloween party and (E:Ladycroft)'s baby shower. Work and reasons domestic got in the way of both for me, but I still have two days left of this long weekend, so we're gonna make the best out of it.

With my job, I move with a diverse group of folk when getting out of the office. The ones in the office are pretty cool too, but the nature of what we do has you mixing with a number of different publics. One of my favorite on-going collaborations is with the good folks at Visit Buffalo Niagara. The former CVB took a lot of grief from internet wags about their "Buffalo: For Real" slogan and that is unfortunate because it doesn't really touch on the big picture of this weirdly, wonderful pace we call home. They do tremendous work getting people to come see the place, but something struck me in watching the various reports, tweets, stories leading up to the premiere of "Buffalo:Unscripted," the documentary about life here.

A lot of folks here don't venture beyond their own self-inflicted boarders a lot and you need to play tourist in your own backyard now and again. There is a lot happening, but sometimes you have to be curious enough to go get lost. It's been on my mind a lot as we try to find the right mix to get folks to come see what we've been up to at my place of employ.

Wanderlust is in invaluable thing. My folks still live in the house that I grew up, but that neighborhood is shifting and the bulk of the landed immigrants are younger than me and more than once I've heard the comment about "Coming all the way out from the city." Like to get to Clarence from where I reside in the city, you had to stop in Cheektowaga for rest and provisions before completing the journey.

The key to seeing the big picture is to know some things and not care about others, and to occasionally try something new for the heck of it. Stride into Gigi's on the east side and you know what evil, what torture, what torment you'll face? A breakfast that will make you wonder where it's been all your life. I don't know how many trips I've taken down Niagara Street on various missions over the years, but had to remind myself to go explore Squaw Island on a early September afternoon. It was a left turn worth taking.

Between Buffalo: Unscripted and the National Preservationist Gathering, there is a upshot of feeling that we do indeed have some pretty good stuff around in these parts. What I take away is the feeling that people are looking around a little more, which hopefully means less of "I haven't been there (zoo, museum, fill in attraction here) in years." And, you know, hopefully, you start with the Zoo, just sayin."

So, I hope the preservationist conference attendees go back to their homes and talk about what they found, but hopefully the resounding energy of discovery can translate into somebody from Hamburg curious to see the evolution of Canalside or at least lunch at the Niagara Cafe, or gasp, even a little christmas shopping on Elmwood or Hertel. And then maybe dinner in Blackrock!

Imagine.

It's an epidemic, I tell you. All these buildings are throwing themselves in front of senior citizen drivers. Apparently it is a call for more drive through lanes. Just to be safe, I'm going to park behind the folks car when I go visit next.

As I write this, the Sabres are 2-0, the Bills 3-1 and it is 75 degrees on an October day in Buffalo. I can't help but wonder if some other Rust Belt city lost a bet.

I'm beginning to think that people watching the people occupying Wall Street might have a complete grasp as to why the original occupiers (occupiees?) showed up in the first place.

And speaking of capitalism faux paws (intentional), I can't fathom the logic in some "entity" chasing the Whole Hog Food truck away from the Bidwell Farmers Market last saturday. If it was a market-eer, maybe they would be some of your Kale for their awesome breakfast sandwich if you weren't sticking the cops on them. If it was another restaurant, then shame on you. Make good food and people will come to your place. There are plenty of stationary competitors too. Do good work and people will come. People are buying from these rolling merchants because the stuff is good quality. That might be a key, doncha know?

Back to the Wall street stuff for a moment, Peter King is quoted about not wanted to give the movement legitimacy. Well, Congressman, people are upset and making their voices known. Ain't that a good thing? Isn't that what a democracy is supposed to be about? People need heard. When the main republican leadership is and has been nothing more than to take down the President, the democrats mealymouth their way around so it isn't clear what they stand for and the executive branch spends a lot of time just trying to be liked, and none of them are representin', yo, people are going to get ticked.

On more mundane matters, I'm curious to see the new films on Paul McCartney and George Harrison, despite both having mixed reviews. Always liked the music of both guys and the possibility of learning a little more is intriguing, but not enough to sign up, even temporarily, for either pay channel they were getting shown on. I've always been a more "trust the art, not the artist" guy, so I've never really had a handle on those who fling themselves on the cars or things like that, but seeing what might have gone into building a portion of my life's soundtrack is a curious thing.

What do you think? Will it clash?

Every once in awhile, you get to let your inner child run amuck at work. It was an awful day for it and the wet look is not one of my better ones, but what the hey? It was pretty cool.



But, they did make me give back.

Best youtube mashup ever

The food truck battle in Buffalo reinforces some ridiculousness that I foolishly thought was disappearing. We spend so much time thinking about what might happen, almost nothing ever actually does.

The notion that the downtown restaurants “are sick” of the food truck “invasion” is rather nutty. It reminds me of the anuerysms that coffee shop owners had when Starbucks entered the region. Those shops made good product and everybody was fine. There has yet to be a food truck park right outside the Ellicott Square Building or right in front of the local pizza chain, but apparently that has to be guarded against. I guess my question is why. The acclaimed taco truck does lunch time business at the corner of Main and Mohawk, an intersection served mostly by the occasional homeless guy. The others go to spots where there aren’t much in terms of alternatives.

It amuses me that one of the leading squawkers is a former tea-party less government is better candidate for state office.

I can’t help but think that if people are walking past reheated pizza slices to stroll a couple of blocks for a freshly made lunch, perhaps those screeching should look at their own operations instead of screaming for regulation.

If people aren’t buying your stuff, maybe your stuff needs to improve. If you are worried about people continuing to buy your stuff, maybe you need to find a reason to keep them buying your stuff.

Reading about the permit process that the Ice Cream Bicycle dudes had to go through when nobody else was vending was mind boggling and we haven’t evolved any further when one truck got ticketed for a law that didn’t exist yet. Um, what??

Things get unnecessary hard when paranoia has people staking turf out instead of trying make something that doesn’t suck.

This is a battle riddled with inconsistencies as a local brick and mortar pizza chain had no problem dragging a trailer next to the food trucks at the Music is Art fair last week. That’s all well and good, and I hope everybody made money and a grand time. My son ate pizza, I had a nice burger from the truck next door and we were happy.

Choice is good, folks.

While us who follow the Sabres are understandably enamored with goings on orchestrated by Ted Black and Terry Pegula, I spent the afternoon basking in the efforts of another prominent Buffalonian as Robby Takac put on the latest edition of Music is Art on the Shakespeare Hill in Delaware Park.

Literally something for everybody, but if you haven't heard "We're Not Gonna Take It" or "I'm Too Sexy for my Shirt" done Polka Style then you haven't lived dear friends.

Kind of ironic to note that we're at the height of the food truck battles, one of the complaining entities pulls up their trailer next to the Roaming Buffalo, an entity you should visit.



























And as my son shows, getting VIP treatment is pretty cool too.

9/11 - Everybody has something to say about it as we've reached another milestone with that day

It's on my mind too, thanks to the regurgitation of the tv coverage. One of those seminal moments that seems like 2 minutes ago and twenty years ago at the same time. MSNBC reran the two hours of the Today show from that day and it was hard to not watch and wonder.

At the time, both my sisters were Manhattan residents. As I watched things unfold, I tried to remember my New York geography, hoping (correctly) that their routines at them safely out of harms way. My Dad and his software skills were rented out to a firm whose offices were across the street from the Pentagon. So it was a full day.

Because it was so seminal, I think it is one of those things where there will always be a faction that is just raw. The hullabaloo over who is invited for this or that seems like needless squabbling and no I won't use my facebook status for such propaganda.

My son was three and looking forward to Blues Clues but for once I was stuck on the Today Show as they brought whoever they could find in an attempt to describe it all.

I remember calling his mom at work and telling her to get to a tv set. At the time, the one tower of the trade center was on fire, but the time she saw it, the tower was falling.

Watching the rerun of the coverage, it is easy to second guess the bewilderment of the Today show crew as it was unfathomable. I've been a big fan of the show "Rescue Me" which has those events as a prevailing theme for its cast of characters. You seen that second plane and feel the jolt all over again. It looks like the scene from a movie, but tragically isn't. The "Rescue Me" folks had an interesting scene two weeks ago that I think put some of the squabbling over who gets invited to what ceremony in the proper perspective. The Chief of the firehouse gave a rare unterrupted speech about how those who died aren't celebrated on any wall, or any special ceremony. They are remembered by continuing to talk about them. And I think about all the events of the day in general.

It was an unfathomable horror, but it didn't effect everybody precisely the same.

It is good to see activity at that location and how One World Trade Center is 80 stories into the sky. Five years ago, all the political squabbling going on created a much ado over the hole in the ground zero, but not much else, so that progress in encouraging.

Note that the Border Collie has put the stick down in front of the “man.”


“Throw the stick Mister! Do I have to draw you a map?”