(e:terry) and I cleaned out and painted the former blue room and made it into the green room in honor of (e:twisted)'s arrival. I tried to style it in a way that I thought she would like. I am going to go get carpet tonight, finish painting and scarping the paint off the windows, and repairing a rather large hole in the way that the former owner's son cut in the wall to fit his monitor on his desk. Who does shit like that? I seriously spent about 30 hours scraping the texture paint, painting, and spackling this room over the weekend. You have no idea how much we have painted. (e:mike) helped scrape the crunchy texture paint off the main hall walls.





While searching for what caused some water damage in the past of the 3rd floor hallway we found that there is a trap door out onto the roof. We wanted to go out here yesterday but couldn't because of the high wind. It seems as though my vision of a third floor roof porch ay happen after all. There is a ~ 20 foot square flat area right on top of the roof. I had to get up there anyways in order to remove a baby tree that decided to try and grow in our fireplace.



It seems as though the trap door was leaking at some point in the house's history and the water cause massive damage before anyone noticed. It seems like such a simple problem to let get out of control, but I guess for anyone not spry enough to climb around in the rafters it might seem like a bigger problem. I cannot wait to finish the non-finished part of the attic. It seems capable of supporting an additional floor/loft as a fourth floor? The ceilings are about 30 feet high in the middle.



Here is where the damage was the worst, there were even some dried up mushroom like in the crack mansion down the street. Thank god it is all dried up and fixed. I wonder when the damage occurred and how long it took some one to notice. The problem caused damage two floor down. The damage all seems fixable.

Don't get me wrong, I don't hate the place referred to as the Elmwood Village, I just the new name. I think it expresses an aire of pretension by trying to exclude itself form the rest of the city possibly to align it with a more suburban flavor.

This doesn't mean that I am not going to capitalize on it like everyone else. Maybe I shouldn't even care now that I live in Linwood Shire.

I think the sign that says, "Welcome to the Elmwood Village" on the front of We Never Close is what did it for me.



Frankly, it is a strip - it is a straight street that goes from one end of the city to city center and business does not travel much in any perpendicular direction.

Is the point of the name change just to make real villagers more comfortable with shopping there? Or is to make the people that live there feel like they live in a village. Is Hertel/North Buffalo going to become the Hertel Village in it's footsteps?

It seems like it takes credit away from the City of Buffalo be declaring Elmwood to be a Village. "This part is revitalizing, but we are not really part of the city."

On a totally separate note but still in the Elmwood Village - Atak (e:trish,83) has officially gotten lazy?



Why has nothing become of the old platos at ELmwood and Forest Avenue? The new Platos in the Village of Kenmore always looks busy. Myabe it is because that part of elmwood is really in a village, lol.



The house where (e:iriesara) lived and the murder occurred. It was a spooky place, I will let her tell you about it.


The Indian Buffet is yummy as ever. I love that place and the tasty red chicken legs.


The old estrip house on Lafayette still looks like shit. I wonder if Jim Leong will ever paint the outside. I love how on the front there is that big area of white that has been there for about 3 years. Across the street from him it looks like the boarding house has turned into some commercial spot with luxury apartments? The dude that used to live in the back part of that house was insane. Does anyone else remember him. I wonder where he will go when it is luxury apartments?


Totally non-related - naked babies at Amvets.

This morning at 7am we woke up to go get a u-haul van in order to transfer 1.1 tons of trash from our backyard to the east side transfer station. The was lots of trash that was left in the hosue when we moved in, plus the walss of a room we took down, all the furnace pipes from the basement, and lots of other debris from the attic. Pretty much the whole house is emptied out of trash now.

(MAP TO: 793%20S.%20OGDEN%20ST)

In buffalo, the first ton of trash is free for property owning residents. They let our extra 0.1 ton of trash slide. The eastside transfer station is pretty interesting. You drive up and they weigh your vehicle on the way in and then again on the way out. You are charged like $50 for each ton after the first one. That is so insanely cheap when you think how much trash is one ton of trash. I wish I had taken a picture of the before and after but I forgot. Basically it is like a quarter of our backyard full of trash.

The stone spot full of trash.









Notice the giant american flag in the trash. It was a crazy scene when the giant garbage compactor picked it up, swirled it around and then smashed it up. I wanted to take a video but I was afraid someone would freak out. This picture is taken from about 150 yards away. The flag was seriously huge.

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In the u-haul full of asbestos bags which all broke and leaked because our contractor ran out of contractor bags and decided it was a good idea to use doubled regular garbage bags. Needless to say, everyone ripped.

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We - (e:theecarey), (e:matthew), (e:terry) and I - went bowling last night.



It was pretty fun despite the fact I hate bowling and it is bad for my sensistive programmer's wrists, lol. Actually, I got to like it a bit. Man the bowling alley is a happening place. It was packed with people of every age.



Then ther was this pickup game.



(e:matthew) really wanted the pink panther doll from the pick up game and after several dollars we won it. Well I was the one to atcually pick it up!


Terry won me this orange dot doll. He is pretty cute although somewhat asymmetrical.





We ate lots more greasy food after I had already had lunch at anchor bar with work for the polish guys going away lunch - 100 wings - from which I only had 7.

(e:terry) got a strike. He won the first game and (e:matthew) won the second one.

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While my computer is copying databases, I will share this story. Last night at like 1AM the police showed up at my house. They seemed realy manic but maybe it was because i was tired. I woke up because I heard people talking loud downstairs and it was them. Apparently, some dude, opened our front door, reached into a jacket in the vestibule and stole (e:matthew)'s id. The police thought the house was an abandoned house they said. I think it happend are around 6PM. Some dude asked me and my brother for $4 to get to Medina. I had $.27 cents for him. Then we went up the driveway to the car and by the time we got down the driveway he was gone. I thought it was weird, but I never thought he was in the house or I would have gone back in the door and smashed his face. He never actually got in the house part because he (e:terry) and (e:matthew) were home probably.

According to the police Mr. Avery Leeper drug addict stole the wallet and then got busted on narcotic charges with our credit cards. They told us to report to the property offices in the morning and they would have the stuff. When we went their their was no record of the case or of the property. The property office sent us to the station and they weren't too sure either at first. Then some nice police officer looked into it further and it turned out the detective forgot our stuff in his locker maybe but he won't be in till next sunday. Weird. The whole thing was so bizaree. Next time homeless looking dude asks for money near my house I am going to punch him.

I was saying to terry I have no idea what I would be like if he was in the house and so was I. I really think I would keep hurting repetitively in some severe way.

Okay so why are bugs and food a running theme in my journal this week. I guess food has always been the theme of my journal in some way, it is the energy that I use to make the site and other things happen - so I suppose that the food I eat is an appropriate topic. Usually, I like to eat really tastey things like scallops.

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But for some reason this week, I have had this incredible craving for Top Ramen Oodles of Noodles, so the meal consisted of $10 worth of scallops and 15 cents worth of noodles. I swore to myself that i would never eat them again after college but somehow they were just calling to me in the store.



They are so cheap that it is really ridiculous that anyone is staving. I got a six pack for 90 cents and they taste quite yummy. It seems as though they have removed hydrogenated oil from the list of ingredients although I am not sure if their ingredients list is something that changes per package or not. It was hard ot get a clear picture with the steam.



Okay, so anyone who glamorizies the 80s has truly forgetton what the the 80s and early 90s were like. I was going through some stuff I found in the attic. Don't pretend they are freaks. A lot of you girls looked like that.



Sidenote - who forgets all the photos from their life when they move and hides a porn magazine with them. Double sidenote - very innapropriate - what woman enjoys eating some man's cum out of her vagina with a spoon and using a mirror to make sure she gets it all. I will spare you the pic.

Then I found this huge cricket in the basement, chipring away. I reminded me of my grandparents house over on Prospect. When I was a kid we would catch these black big crickets and keep them as pets. For some reason I never saw that kind in the suburbs.



I will leave you with a peaceful video of basra eating. I really need a better video camera on my phone. Come on 2010 - I cannot wait.

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I would never hire a Harris Beach attorney again. They have barely kept in contact with me through the outrageously extended process and provide only the scantest details of what is going on. Here is the latest enchange with my attorney's office. I would say it is by far the worst customer service experience I have ever had with any company - even Sprint.

From: "Jacqueline Heinrich"
Sent: 9/18/06 2:44 PM
Subject: 24 Linwood

Well Paul, the seller's attorney or the church (not sure which one) has hired an attorney in South Caroline to prepare the petition for the Court's signature. As soon as this is signed, we can close.

Sent: Monday, September 18, 2006 10:57 PM
To: Jacqueline Heinrich
Subject: RE: 24 Linwood

Hey Jackie,
Why an out of state attorney. Should I worry about the deal going
through, or are they just really slow? I keep doing work on the house because winter is approaching and it has to be done, but I don't want them to just change their mind or something and screw me out of the house and all the fixing/upkeep I have done.

Is it appropriate for me to call his attorney directly to get more details? Paul

RE: 24 Linwood
From: Jacqueline Heinrich"
Date: Tue, September 19, 2006 1:12 pm

No Paul, his attorney cannot talk to you - it's unethical so please
don't put her in that position.

I just received an email from that attorney preparing the petition for the court and it is almost ready for presentation. By the looks of
things, it should be just a few short weeks. Hang in there Paul, we are a whole lot closer than we were before. The attorney that is handling this seems to be very much on top of things.

So I guess I should tell everyone about it. On september 30th at around 3PM is our official housewarming party. It starts early but then should go into the night.

Feel free to bring anyone you want. It's at 24 Linwood. I will probably post about it again, but I wanted to get it out there so that you can start planning for it. The only details I have are the most important ones. First the address and secondly that (e:hodown) and (e:twisted) will be present. It should be a magical evening.

I am almost sad to mix these three food related topics because they don't deserve to be int he same journal but I am too lazy to make three posts.

delicious sushi
Last night (e:theecarey), (e:terry) and I went to have sushi at the new sushi place on Elmwood across from spot. I feel bad that I don't know the name but the food was excellent, the price was delicious and the service was great. Unfortunately, I didn't think to take a pic until after we ate most of the plate.





This is fucking delicious, I love fish eggs, now I have a favorite food after octopus and squid.


canning food
(e:terry) is doing a good job taking over for Nonna (e:matthew,384) when it comes to canning. He even canned some pears which look and smell so yummy. I wish we had collected more. Out of the about 2000 pears that grew in our backyard we ate or canned about 50 and the rest went bad. Next year we will plan better and do bushels of jams and cans.







And then the gross part, that is so fucking sick I will never eat that nasty couscous again

I decided to go through some food boxes after I found some bugs in some couscous. I thought it was a freak incident until I found that every package of couscous in my house had bugs and the worst part is three of the were sealed. The only flavor with no bugs was the garlic one. Aparently, coucous worms hate garlic. I seiroulsy will never eat it again. I can't imagine how many times I ate the nasty bugs. I decided to keep the one bag of so many bugs as a sort of ant farm on my mantel. It is completely sealed and yet is a thriving colony. All of the bxoes came from the coop, coincidence?

If you have your own boxes of couscous, check it out. I am so curios if this is an isolted incidence or not. I think that it is not as the bag was sealed.

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On another note, I losta ll the digital pictures I took this year. Thank god most of the are posted to my journal. On the hand why did I limit the resoltuion to save space. I should at least make them huge for my own pics. More on that coming soon.

And yet another note, why remember you webmans card when you can put it on the net and scan it from your phone screen everytime. I think it will work. Feel free to use mine.

First of all, I love vacuums. They make me so happy it is sick. I went and bought a bunch of HEPA filters for them yesterday.



Our basement is almsot completely done, this is a tiny protion of it that used to be the forer owners marajuana grow room. I know tghis because the floor was littlered with pot leaves, rotting vegtable matter, and dirt. Of course, I verified what pot leave look like on wikipedia as I had never seen pot before. The were enough leaves scattered around to fill up a box of asbetsos laden leaves, which got me thinking that people probably bought this stuff as it seemed like a quantity growing area and that I wonder if people actually ended up smoking asbestos when they bought the schwag.



The little room was so moldy and smelled exceptionally terrible that it was affecting the house. I mean you could fucking taste it. We had shut the room off which made it even worse. Our handyman Pat said he would take the room apart and remove the entire room for $50. I think he got screwed on that deal because it was mega disgusting and a lot of work. We had him doing a lot of other work so its really part of the whole basement deal which was around $2000 for removing the old pipes, cleaning the basement and putting in new pipes. So anyways, it turns out that dirt behind the wall, had a freahly dead turtle in it and millions of maggots. In fact there are actually garbage bags full of maggots and they were clinging to all the woodwork.





Our basment is now totlaly hepa vacuumed and cleaned from wall to wall. It looks like a whole otherworld. You can't imagine what crap condition it was in.

Got this email a week ago but just noticed it yesterday after they calle dme on the phone.

Dear Mr. Visco,

We have received the electronic submission of your dissertation, and are in the process of reviewing it for formatting, etc., before we deliver it to UMI for cataloging. (This is routine - The Graduate School is required to review each submission for appropriate format, and then we will submit all the dissertations in a batch to UMI at one time after the 9/1/06 degree conferral).

In the process of reviewing your document, I note that there are a couple of problems requiring your attention and revision:

1). on the title page - you have "thesis/dissertation" -- you are supposed to choose one or the other; in your case, I believe "thesis" is correct.
2). On the Table of Contents, as well as on the corresponding page itself (page 4), you have misspelled the word "Abstract"...

Please go back to the submission site, click on "revise dissertation/thesis", make the revisions and resubmit your manuscript as soon as possible, since we cannot clear you for your degree until your thesis is formatted acceptably.
Thank you,

Jennifer J. Chazen
Assistant Director, Office of Student Services

I just resubmitted it. I can't believe that I nor anyone else reading the thesis had not caught these two typos during the whole process. I seriously cannot wait for it to be over. Is it possible that they are going to charge me again.

Manuscript ID buffalo:2051 Received

Thank you. Your submission has been received. You will receive an email from The Graduate School once the administrator has verified the internal checklist to clear the submission for delivery to UMI/ProQuest.

At work I turned my monitor sideways. Well, it swivels. It make programming so great and the sideways resolution is still 1024.