Maybe I am actually living the american dream minus the kids and white picket fence. I was so poor before. Now I am eligable for social security insurance according to the government, although I have my doubts about it being there when I retire. The letter came with a handy list of how much I have paid into the system. Or at least how much income was taxed.

(e:hodown) - remember 1995. I think that explains a lot about the amount of money I had. I am quite surprised because I was actually working that whole year. So it makes me wonder if someone didn't actually report my taxes. Maybe I was working under the table?



I went to go buy a book on Ajax design patterns and javascript at the bookstore but realized tehre is nothing left to know really. I deliberately make choices to do things the way I do, I recognize all the possibilities and I am sure that I have thoroughly covered the issue.

There are so many books on blogging at the bookstore now. What exactly is a whole book about blogging even about. It seems like a person would be better off reading other blogs to get an idea about blogging rather than a book about blogging. I am sure there is even an idiots guide to blogging.

I am still sick today. I cannot believe it. I tried for once to not use echinacea. Usually my cold only last like 3 days. Well this time it is going on 7 days. Next time I am sure to use it.

I am so sick of having my throat hurt and coughing. I just hope that my sinuses are better by the time I go to get on the plane for San Francisco on Monday. One time I flew with stuffed sinuses and I distinctly remember thinking my eyes were going to pop of out of my face. I was so extremely painful and I actually remember holding my eye into my face because of the pressure. It was the first time I flew on a plane to south carolina in 1995.

I have been sick the last two days. Yesterday, I really wanted to eat some spicy food as I thought it would make me feel better. (e:theecarey) and I went to Wegmans at around 8PM and I was feeling a little more lively.

We bought lots of seafood to make jamabalya, another ultiate chocolate cake, and some champagne/wine. Well at first we didn't know what to make but my phone suggested jamabalya.

We bought mussels, scallops, catfish, sausage and spices. The mussels from Wegmans were pretty crappy. We bought two bags and I had to throw out about 40 of them as they were dead and smelled really bad. The rest were fine. I think I am done with mussels for a bit.

Bad ones


Good ones


I never realized what a difference there was in the quality of spice brands / labels. I suppose it makes sense. Let me use the bay leaves as an example.

Spice Island Bay Leaves are like the Kine Bud Did you know that Kine means excellent in Hawaii. Anyhow, at the opposite end of the spectrum, is the schwag of bay leaves - McCormick brand, red top line. They are all chopped up and have bug holes in the leaves, etc.

Spice Island Bay Leaves cost $9.50 per bottle


The McCormick Gourmet Line $5.89 per bottle




McCormick Red Top Brand Thrift Bay Leaves $3.39 per bottle




When I was searching for the spice island web site I found this

Here is the jambalaya itself, a very delicious dish. After we ate it I fell asleep on the dining room floor and then went to bed around 10PM.









We finally closed on the mansion today. I felt like crap the whole time and had to sign like 3000 peices of paper. I wish I could have not been sick but at least it is over and we own the house, moreover, we actually own more property than I thought. The stone fence is on our land as is part of our neighbor's driveway that he tried to tell me was his land. I really don't care if he uses it, but it isn't his property. He even cut our bushes the one day because he said they were on his property. Maybe, I should let him keep believing that!

While reviewing the land around the mansion, I had this overwhelming fuck you people who didn't think I was good enough feeling.

Over the last couple months the interest rate went down and we actually pay $100 less per month. The guy we bought the house from owed two years in taxes and back water bills. It came to over $6000 but they just took that out of the price of the house - so that we in essence got credited for it. Basically, the seller loses the money and the city gets it but we pay the same price.

The terry looking serious at the county clerks office - did you know that McKinley was burried here.


The downpayment


The property lines

I have been so busy the last couple weeks I have hardly had time to blog. I promise that I will make up fo rit in San Francisco. This video is for (e:twisted). If you love apple products do not watch it or you will cry while the rest of us laugh. They wantanly destroy apple products including microwaving an ipod nano. Considering, that I have "lost" two ipods to a washing machine and two mac laptops to liquids (one to beer (e:news,14) and one to water) I can enjoy this video. I only wish that I had videoed my mac destructive adventures.



And here is an excerpt from the southpark video about warcraft for (e:terry)

Part 1


Part 2


Part 3

I finally got my diploma in the mail today and it is damaged. Also, seems a little late for a 9/1 graduation. What the hell, for the amount of money I paid for it, I would expect to be in better conditiion. Oh well, at least it is finally over. I feels so good to actually have the paper and know it is done. No more homework ever.







Now I have the paper. Tomorrow I will have the papers for the house. Then I will be set.

I was cleaning out my camera phone again:

The Buffalo Smokehouse (257 Frankiln St) on Franklin kind of sucks.

(MAP TO: 257%20FRANKILN%20ST.)







It is the same place that used to be Darcy McGees. The place was empty, the sides were luke warm. The meat itself was pretty yummy though I doubt I would ever go back in a city that has Fat Bob's ( 41 Virginia Place ) although, frankly though, I cannot believe how bad the Fat Bob's website is

It doesn't even have its own url - check out the page. I guess it proves that a website means nothing as there food is far superior to the Buffalo Smokehouse.

(MAP TO: 41%20VIRGINIA%20PLACE)

Almost directly after the snow storm of arborgeddon all the snow melted away. These pics were taken of the house on the 16th.




We celebrated (e:lilho)'s birthday at home with just a few of us. We got drunk and ate webman's new ultimate chocolate cake It really is amazing. I ate so much of the cake. It is definately not for people that do not enjoy lots of sugar and butter.

I am sick again. It seems that october and february really do get me every year. (e:paul,3907)

Perhaps, I should just buy a bubble for these months.



At first I thought I was getting depressed - which I just about never am and would have no real excuse for. Then as the day went on I realized I was getting sick. It makes me wonder if lots of people's depression is based on some sort of physical unhealthiness.

At least I had a good night programming last night. I still have lots more code cleanup to do today.

Has anyone els enoticed that Buffalo Rising has been offline since the storm (e:paul,4679) . I wonder what happend as I think their servers are housed out of town. A new version or a storm related disaster?

Now I feel bad because (e:enknot) and I bought a lot of bottled water last night. I can't believe it will take 8 or 9 days to restore power to everyone.

Boil Water Order For Erie County Authority Customers
Posted by:  Athan Kompos, Producer  
Created: 10/13/2006 6:05:07 PM
Updated: 10/13/2006 7:55:58 PM
The Erie County Water Authority has issued a boil water advisory for all customers. The authority wants all customers to bring water to a rolling boil for 2 minutes and let it cool, before consuming.

The boil water advisory is only for cutomers of the Erie County Water Authority. Residents in cities such as Buffalo and Tonawanda recieve water from a different source and are not subject to the advisory.

The advisory has been issued because the main pumping station for the water authority is without power. When power is restored, water may include bacteria.

Erie County officials want all residents to consume water spareingly, due to the natural disaster caused by the Friday lake effect snow storm.
WGRZ-TV

This is the worst tree damage I have ever seen in my life. (e:matthew) says that it is because the leaves are still on the tree and hold up the snow which causes a huge weight burden and then the wind whips and cracks the branches off. That sounds about right to me. I don't remember the snow falling on green leaves very often. I feel bad that one of the best visual treaures of our city, the old trees, have been so badly damaged.

250,000 WNY residents are without power. That seems insane and they say it may be until Tuesday or Thursday before its all back up. The streets are alive with the sounds of people and chainsaws. It is an interesting combo.



I decided to go for a walk and tour the damages in and around the elmwood strip. Seems like the elmwood village was hit pretty hard in terms of power outages, etc but elmwood itself was clear as was deleware. ELmwood has very few tree left in the first place so they had minimal damage. Many of the stores including LeMetro and Globe Market were open. It appeared even the busses were running.



I ended up going by myself because no on else wanted to brave the cold as we have heat and electricty at the house. Linwood as well as other fancy streets and side streets with big trees were hit kind of hard.

Our house wasn't damages accept the awning in the back.













Here are some pics from where in and around the villagers live.