We did not attend the animal blessing this morning with Basra. I don't think (e:matthew) realized it was a church service and animal blessing. I mean I have no idea how the Episcopalians do it but in the Catholic church I kind of remember a whole mass with candles they put up on the animals necks at some point.

Just shortly after Sahara Grill closed down ;( , Elmwood Bagels closed down too. I went there this afternoon for a sandwich and there was a sign saying thanks for being loyal customers they enjoyed there time in the elmwood village but had to close. I wonder if they are moving somewhere else. You think they would have a forwarding address if that was the case.

I have talked about Media Deli (e:paul,40698) a bunch of times in the past. Yesterday, there were actually a coupel people eating there in the morning and then today when i was walking past it on my way to work, I saw it was closed. Once I got to Main Street I saw why.



A freakin' car drove up the curb and slammed into it. I wonder if it was an accident or someone trying to cause damage or rob it.

Everything inside looked untouched, so it makes me think accident.


What is up with all the stores in the Allen Village being closed. I am hoping by calling it a village, everything will get fabulous.

This one is starting to smell moldy. I have a super power for detecting mold.



All the stuff in the windows is melting. It is such a weird mix of candles and food and knives.



The sky was so pretty yesterday after work.


I thought you guys would get a kick out of this.

I would really like to become something bigger in the organization I work for. I realize I haven't been there very long but I have this feeling I could really help organize and analyze systems on a much larger scale. I don't just mean for web development. There seems to be so much reliance on software vendors but I think there isn't necessarily an understanding for what they do. I wonder if I will ever attain a larger role in making decisions on a more comprehensive level.

One guy was telling me the other day he planned on spending $90,000 on a systems that prevented insecurities in web applications. That is utterly ridiculous. First of all because such a solution could not possibly exist among the multitude of web based systems we run. I guarantee that whatever it does cannot be worth $90,000.

There are so many diverse groups that don't seem to know enough about each other.

Well at least it isn't something bad.

It is victories like the one mentioned above that enabled the Elmwood Village Association to be included in the roster of neighborhoods that made the 2007 list of Great Places in America. It's a big deal for Buffalo, and the award will act as a lure to draw more businesses and people to the district.

I am sure this will really boost the city moral just like being an All America City did.

Here is the whole write up about the "Elmwood Village." Read it, it is actually nice

I am going to go ahead and say that I don't see this award as such an a big deal for the City but a recognition that when a neighborhood costs somewhere around $200,000 to live in that it becomes a "good neighborhood". Everyone knows that. It is just becoming more upper middle class suburdban style. It is reflected in the comment on buffalo Rising yesterday when someone asked if the good news was if the "Gays and Hippies" were leaving the village.

Today, Elmwood Avenue is one of Buffalo's busiest commercial districts with some 200 boutiques, restaurants, and taverns.

Does that count all the ones that have closed or are closing?

The thing this award certainly does not do - is solve any of the tax issues or shortage of skilled labor that really is affecting Buffalo. I saw ont he news only a couple weeks ago that Buffalo was rated the wrost city to open a business besides dDetroit and two other cities. It was 47/50. ya 47/50.

If they are talking about tourists being the saving grace, I think it would take a lot of tourists to attract business and why would anyone choose here over anywhere else t tour.

Now to live here is another matter, I would choose over just about any city I have lived in, but to tour. Come on , no one besides friends , relatives and exchange students come to tour Buffalo, do they?

I mean does anyone put the Elmwood Village on there vacation plans. What so they can go to a bunch of trendy boutique and clothing stores. There isn't even a real grocery store/ music store anymore. Name one thing the Elmwood Village offers a tourist that they just can't find somewhere else.

So yeah - just like St. James - all of the Elmwood village is a better palce to live. Good for the freakin elmwood Village.

Now it can get even more overpriced for the same old shit.

It is basically saying that a section of the city priced way beyond the reality of Buffalo city household budgets is a great place to live.

On a side note from the article:

To encourage an economic and cultural renaissance, the nonprofit Elmwood Village Association was formed in 1994.

Is that true? I could swear there was Forever Elmwood but I didn't hear any of this talk abut an Elmwood Village until only a few years back. Its not like I just don't rememebr either because I have live one block form Elmwood just about my entire life until I moved on down to Linwood. Remember, it used to be called the Elmwood Strip.

Soon we are going to have Village history books about when the foudning father created the Elmwood Village after the Indians gave it to them for Christmas their first winter in 1784. I really don't think the Elmwood Village is really a village. It is just a section of the city. I grew up in kenmore, which is a village and it is very different. the idea being that in a village everything is kind of isolated and self contained. Self governance, etc. I am not saying I am a fan of it, but seriously, is the Elmwood Strip really a village now? Are the village going to succeed from the City of Buffalo.

I think it is because he knit me my favorite hat ever.

The Hat - Ingrid Michaelson

::DOWNLOAD SOUND::

Okay, she is the first artist that made me purchase something from itunes. I am so sorry Kimya I feel like I cheated on you but you are still my favorite.

I am kind of obssessed with this Old Navy sweater commercial that has all thse super anorexic chics that make me feel buff.

The song from it is pretty catchy and the singer Ingrid Michaelson seems pretty good

Does anyone remember how many wires were on the back of my house? I am down to two. One power and the other time warner. I removed every form of communication that ever connected the house to anything. Direct TV, cable, phone, fax, church communication wire, ethernet, fax, and telephoen to every room, etc. It was insane. I must have taken down two miles of wires in the last couple months. It finally looks clean.



This time I decided to start saving the copper. I wish I did it before. I seriously would have about 15 lbs. Unfortunately, I didn't think of stripping the wires until yesterday.



I found this crispy dead baby bird in a nest they build in one on the decorative features of the house. You can really ee how a bird looks like a dinosaur.



You may recall that we were continuing to paint to the back of the house (e:paul,41275) and (e:paul,41298). Well, after a totally work filled weekend of painting, the back part is almost done. That was our goal, so we will see if we continue or just stop here for this year. All I can say is my body is broken a bit and so is (e:terry,41424)'s

I apinted everything, light green and white and then about 1/4 of the dark green. (e:terry) did most of the dark green. (e:matthew) painted some of the window frames and some dark green. I also painted the kitchen window and door brown. It was seriously exhausting.

Mario, the boy squirrel had an accident and didn't make it. He was survived by 3 children and his wife. I was going to take a pic of the grave but I think I need to dress it up a bit tomorrow. Nothing like burying in the dark of a fall evening with church bells clanging in the background.

I put this in the Toronto category in hopes that there would be more toronto journals to go along with it ;) You can see a lot more pictures of the trip on (e:jim,41347)'s journal. It's a little overdue, seeing as we went last Wednesday but I have been so very busy since then.

On a side note I am having a a really hard time not ending every sentence in a semicolon - which just goes to show you that I spent much more time writing code than in english;

The Adobe Air Conference we attended was at the Guvernment - which used to be the wharehouse and is located right by Jarvis and the waterfront. It was one of my favorite dance places besides the Docks, which I actually liked a little better. One time (e:hodown) dumped a bucket of ice water on my head here. I wil let her explain that one.

Anyhow, it is so different being inside this giant dance palace at a computer conference. They have really decked the place out. It looks more like a club in NYC than a giant warehouse. Here are some chandaliers from inside.



The food was pretty amazing. They had food breaks like every 4 minutes with fresh fruit, burgers, aspargus, garlic mashed potoatoes, muffins.



Then there was lots of candy, candy candy. Seriously, they had every kind of full size candy. Like whole packs of starbust, candybars, etc. None of that mini pick and mix bullshit. I brought (e:terry) home something called a Flake. It was pretty bad.



Here is a good reason to go back to the Guvernment but I have a feeling it is going to conflict with some previous event.


After the conference we toured around Toronto.

I guess those U-locks for bikes are really strong after all. Too bad the bikes that were locked to them aparently weren't. Who would lock their bike up here. I guess this person did.



I cannot believe how commercial it is. Living in a small city like Buffalo, we have no idea what it is like to oppressively advertised upon. I can't imagine what it is liek in Tokyo, Beijing or Hong Kong.

All of these pictures are in one city square. From different vantage points.







I have never seen these staple boards on sign posts I think it is a much better idea than tape. All the staples looked pretty cool as a texture.



Some pigeons getting their groove on.