That past month of so went by fast. Work has been so event heavy, even when I've had sometime to put thought to screen, it's taken a bit of making my mental remote control to stop to know what.

Got to celebrate my Dad's 76th birthday last Sunday between Zoo events last weekend. Given his triple bypass in the Spring, it was a good thing to kick back, yell at the Bills and be thankful. It also tempered my own guilt at not making it to Purchase for younger daughter's Family Day. The ex and her partner and number one son made the trek and repeated my spoilage from the end of September. Not a huge deal, but I felt a little low at having to work three different Zoo events over the two days. But, that too shall pass.

Sick of the election season already, wish we could just vote. Nobody is saying anything worth listening to, nobody is asking questions that matter, and nobody is answering them.

Got to check out Mike A's Lounge in the Lafayette last night with some old and new friends, liked it a lot.

I screwed my ankle in the early summer, bad pulled the muscles right behind my achilles and the good doctor folks said that takes time to recover from, patience being the best thing with nerves. While that has never been my strong suit, some of the women in my office give me the "You've been limping" for awhile. They never ask if it hurts, am I okay, that bit, so when I got the "You've been Limping..." schtick the other day, I finally groused, "Yeah, my doctor says I need two to three old bitties a day yelling at it for improvement." Shut em up it did. Apparently, could be as much as six months to totally get over it wasn't enough for the office moms.

The second date from two posts ago, didn't turn into a third....and so it goes.

On a long weekend in NYC, hanging on out my kid sister's place and taking in a Springsteen show in the Meadowlands as a mini vacay away from work till Tuesday.

Nice to get away, but as I left my car at my folks, you have to go through rituals, directions from my dad, spoken mostly for my mom to hear, my elder sister's now almost three year old sense of how to do the trains. I was relieved to sit back and enjoy the almost comedic relief of the Buffalo Airport.

I hadn't flown in a little over a year so things change a little. The lovely nuisance of tossing your belt into the security bins was a new one, but reassembling myself with much time to spare I found a few things very telling. At 9:30 in the morning, the faux Anchor Bar was buzzing and the place across the hall from them selling breakfast fare was empty.

Typical Buffalo...

I took Jet Blue to JFK, and despite all the speeches at my folks house...and the fact I've done this before, treated myself to a cab to my bro-in-law's office in midtown. We grabbed some lunch at a joint around the street, then he went back to work for a bit and I went to play. This is a bit of rarity for me. I think it's the first jaunt to New York where I haven't been part of a bigger undertaking in a long time. So, I enjoyed that while watching the cast of "Person of Interest" shoot a scene in Bryant Park last yesterday. Walking through Times Square, I got asked for directions twice, so I think my NY death stare gaze is working okay. The active parade of costumed characters seemed a little wrong. Although high fiving a smurf wasn't my only celebrity encounter yesterday. Briefly shared a cafe table with Joe Walsh from the Eagles which was both awkward and cool at the same time. After exchanging "You're Awesome, No, You're Awesomes" we went our ways.

Tonight, it's Bruce in the Meadowlands and tomorrow it's dinner with the daughter up at SUNY Purchase.

Nice breather.

A few random notes....

I think I am officially milestoned out for a bit. Just returned from a whirlwind tour to take my younger daughter to start school at Purchase College in White Plains. My younger sister was hired to teach acting in one of their conservatories for the fall semester so that makes that large task seem like less of a thing.

My older daughter got herself in Buff State starting last week and is doing well, but I think this means any serious vacations for me for the foreseeable future are a nice daydream.

Proud of em both, just tired to the point of not being tired.

Their younger brother is toughing in out with his first day of high school on Tuesday. He had orientation on thursday and it reminded me that I was officially comfortable with our estrip community and shared photos in 2006 which simultaneously seems like both yesterday and a thousand years ago.

So, that combined with Labor Day at the Zoo tomorrow, makes the weekend a bit of a wash. Psst....don't come tomorrow as the crowd will consist of 10000 people who normally wouldn't be there.....

Gonna spend the comp time in NYC catching a Daily Show taping and Springsteen concerts.

Got a second date with somebody this week, that's nice too.

So, guess the start of the school year is a bit of a blank slate, everybody is getting a fresh start. Maybe my mojo is here somewhere. The apartment isn't that big.....

I want to be all snarky about the headlines about Buffalo and Toronto doing an Olympic bid, but I got nothing. The Olympics certify the best that sport has, but can also embody the worst too. The now infamous twitter feed of #BuffaloOpeningCeremony was pretty hilarious and that might make me a bad buffalonian, but I hope the recent collection of soundbites is it. As another blog correctly pointed out, what do we have that Toronto would need and couldn't get from Burlington, Hamilton, et. al.

As we have the real thing ongoing at the moment, with the medal counts (which don't really mean a great deal, I mean is there a trophy or prize for that) and hyperbole (Phelps, the most decorated Olympian ever, that sounds better than greatest Olympian ever), it's a little disconcerting that sometimes there isn't much to say. It's just a little weird that the time traveling Today show devoted more coverage to a gymnast hairstyle (Holy Non-Issue, Batman) that it did this. But at least the Games go away now tonight....



That is the Mars Curiosity Rover landing on Mars, taken from another satellite which I took from Yahoo.com. Now, that's cool. Just an odd feeling that it is almost an afterthought in light of what all else is going on. That should be a big deal

Now, My dad, thoughtful observant dude that he is, recently noted that all it takes to make everyone around you a doctor is for you to come down with something. Opinions and assholes are forever linked in that regard.

I guess it is a sign that I'm getting older that it is taking a bit for an ankle injury(pulled tendons above my achilles) to recover for me. Age and the fact that resting it is a little dull. The needs of my job need me to do some ambling around, making me the Dr. House of marketing. A couple folks see me coming with a "still limping, there" observation. That's helpful as I wasn't noticing. Powered my way through our recent benefit which I think would fry the healthy cortex of Schartzeneggarian proportions. You know you're doddering a bit when both your mom and daughter present you with ankle braces.

It's funny what can slow you down. My building has a set of stair cases that thankfully after five years, I don't think much about....till now. You have to be careful when you think about how you plant your foot a bit and that nearly induced, vertigo I guess. I'm part of a great team and one of the kind souls reorganized our group to "get Mike off the stairs." That made me feel both really great and sort of pitiful.

I've never been a jock of any kind to speak of, but take a degree of pride in doing my share, toting my barge, lifting my bale, doing for the team ("TEAM, TEAM").

I made sure I wasn't screwing anything else up. It's going away, but three weeks off from heavy lifting events will help, but the nerves can repair sooner.

I wouldn't mind.

As I try to shake off the effects of a less than stellar summer and right myself for what remains, it is food for thought.

On a cool night like last night, pasta

An old Italian lived alone in New Jersey . He wanted to plant his annual tomato garden, but it was very difficult
work, as the ground was hard. His only son, Vincent, who used to help him, was in prison. The old man wrote a
letter to his son and described his predicament:

Dear Vincent,
I am feeling pretty sad because it looks like I won't be able to plant my tomato garden this year.
I'm just getting too old to be digging up a garden plot. I know if you were here my troubles would
be over. I know you would be happy to dig the plot for me, like in the old days.

Love,
Papa

A few days later he received a letter from his son.

Dear Papa,
Don't dig up that garden. That's where the bodies are buried.

Love, Vinnie
At 4 a.m. the next morning, FBI agents and local police arrived and dug up the entire area without finding any bodies. They apologized to the old man and left. That same day the old man received another letter from his son.

Dear Papa,
Go ahead and plant the tomatoes now. That's the best I could do under the circumstances.
Love you,

Vinnie

My dad, thoughtful observant dude that he is, recently noted that all it takes to make everyone around you a doctor is for you to come down with something. Opinions and assholes are forever linked in that regard.

I guess it is a sign that I’m getting older that it is taking a bit for an ankle injury(pulled tendons above my achilles) to recover for me. Age and the fact that resting it is a little dull. The needs of my job need me to do some ambling around, making me the Dr. House of marketing. A couple folks see me coming with a “still limping, there” observation. That’s helpful as I wasn’t noticing. Powered my way through our recent benefit which I think would fry the healthy cortex of Schartzeneggarian proportions. You know you’re doddering a bit when both your mom and daughter present you with ankle braces.

It’s funny what can slow you down. My building has a set of stair cases that thankfully after five years, I don’t think much about….till now. You have to be careful when you think about how you plant your foot a bit and that nearly induced, vertigo I guess. I’m part of a great team and one of the kind souls reorganized our group to “get Mike off the stairs.” That made me feel both really great and sort of pitiful.

I’ve never been a jock of any kind to speak of, but take a degree of pride in doing my share, toting my barge, lifting my bale, doing for the team (“TEAM, TEAM”).

I made sure I wasn’t screwing anything else upIt’s going away, but three weeks off from heavy lifting events will help, but the nerves can repair sooner.

I wouldn’t mind.

Lot of milestones lately, and the latest one put me, the lovely mother of my lovely children, and the middle child of that collective in White Plains, New York at Purchase College for orientation. It was our daughter's orientation and first visit to the college of her choice. It was a pretty regular assortment of meetings, sessions, icebreaker type activities. Given it's location, about 30 minutes north of New York City so there were folks from all over.



I was relieved a bit that it looks nothing like U.B. and is a nice sized community for our daughter to start off and gain some confidence being on her own. It's right next to White Plains, but built so it is its own little world as well and I think that is kind of cool. One can ease themselves into things so it's not too much too soon. That didn't stop my amusement at some of the parents whose questions sounded more like they were sending their ten year old off to camp as opposed to their young adult off to school.



If a community can take our too cool teenager and move her from "I can tell already I'm going to hate it here" (when she saw students dancing parking directions for us) to somebody who has a schedule, two job prospects and three prospective roommates, they must be doing something right.

You never know anything for sure, but this feels like a positive start.

This might be one of the cooler work pictures I might ever get to take.