🏷️ buffalo

With wireless broadband and my nokia 810, taking the bus is pleasant. I took it to my dentist in Kenmore near Sheridan. Unfortunately, the bus was only the stupid Kenmore line one and my dentist was near Sheridan. It was great chatting with @hodown on IM the whole time. I sent her pics from Kenmore along the way. It was so weird to be back in tthe old hood, running through the streets with @hodown, even if she was really in NYC.

The online metro system is so dumb. Its all in PDF. Luckily, my nokia 810 reads PDFs so I saved all the schedules while on the bus. Who has mobile access to PDFs besides me. I think i might put up a better site tonight.

Pet lover's paradise is closed. I wonder what happend to the monkey?

YAPL - Yet Another Parking Lot
On the way to work in the morning I was walking past this building and what appeared to be a Realtor outside was telling a couple that the building I circled in red was slotted to become a parking lot. They were just working with the city to get the permits or something. Maybe, I heard them wrong. I really don't care either way as that part of the street is so dead from Medina Deli to the Dare Care but I wonder just how many parking lots will be on Main Street in the end.



For some reason, that was the only picture I took yesterday. It's weird.

Work
It was a great day for programming. I got so much done but I still feel like 10 feet underground because of the crazy amount of stuff I have lined up. There are seriously like 17 million things I have to program. Maybe I need a 30 inch monitor like @jim.

I got this security system deployed for the IP cameras at work. I was really happy with the result and apparently so was the VP of secuirty.

Uh, can I RAVE about this Paul Visco guy just a little bit right now.

Smokin hot.

So, seriously, I am a hard worker and I love doing what I do - and it is so great getting positive feedback from work. During my five years at Canisius I did some amazing stuff which I thought really helped the program and I never felt appreciated. What a difference it makes to feel like you are making a difference at your job and that you are important.

Night Time
@terry and I went out with @jim and @james. It was fun as usual and the first time I had some drinks since the Crohn's thing started. I felt fine. In fact I didn't feel sick at all today. Asacol is seriously a miracle drug. I just wish I didn't have to take 9 pills a day.

This is why I don't read the paper usually. Imagine if we went out and got shot the other night. It makes me not want to go out ever. So much for my idea that I am not going to get shot if I am not involved in drug deals or gang violence.

4 shot in Pearl Street parking lot as hundreds are leaving nightclubs.

A man was critically wounded as he and three other people were shot Sunday morning when two gunmen sprayed more than a dozen bullets into a crowded Pearl Street parking lot.

The volley of gunfire erupted just after 4 a.m. in the heart of the city's Theater District, near Shea's Performing Arts Center, while hundreds of patrons were leaving downtown nightclubs.

About 100 people standing and walking in the parking lot went running for their lives, screaming and ducking for cover.

Most seriously wounded was Charles Holmes, 26, of Watertown, who was listed in critical condition Sunday night. He was shot in the abdomen and was in the trauma intensive care unit at Erie County Medical Center.

Two other men suffered single gunshot wounds. Duran Lynch, 27, of Sanders Road, was listed in fair condition in ECMC, and Jason W. Hargrove, 25, of Cedar Street, was treated in Buffalo General Hospital and released.

Police said a bystander, Jennifer Seltzer, 28, of Auburn Avenue, was struck by a stray bullet.

Seltzer survived a raging fire in 2006 when roofers rescued her and her five children. She was treated in ECMC's emergency room.

Buffalo police spokesman Michael J. DeGeorge said that one of the three men is believed to be the target of the gunmen, but he declined to say which one.

"It's my understanding from talking to detectives that there was a certain amount of pandemonium," DeGeorge said. "Certainly, people were scared and concerned for their safety, and thankfully, at this point, everyone is alive."

The motive for the shooting remains unclear, but it might have been sparked by a quarrel.

"It's possible that there may have been an argument outside one of those bars in the area and that argument spilled into the parking lot," DeGeorge said.

The parking lot is in the 400 block of Pearl Street, nestled between McCarthy's Bar & Grill and Michalina's Bistro on one side and Genesee Picture Frame and Holley Farms on the other. Across the street is Space entertainment complex, Club Marcella and the rear entrance of Shea's.

"I was sitting in the window when I heard loud bangs - probably about 15 shots," said John Szuba, owner of Michalina's, a bar and nightclub at 454 Pearl, less than 100 feet away from the shooting scene.

"There was gunshots flying everywhere. I made everyone inside get down on the ground, and a couple people left out the side door," Szuba recalled at the scene Sunday afternoon. Yellow crime tape was still blowing in the wind, and a brown beer bottle was smashed into pieces on the sidewalk.

Seltzer has now survived two life-threatening experiences in less than two years. On April 6, 2006, she and her children were trapped in their burning 2z-story house on Hawley Street, near Forest Avenue, when two roofers driving to a job site noticed the fire.

The roofers grabbed a ladder from their truck and, with the help of a neighbor, climbed up and rescued Seltzer and three of her children - carrying them to safety, one by one. Her two remaining children jumped from the roof into the waiting arms of one of the roofers and their mother's boyfriend.

At the time, Seltzer was 26, and her children ranged in age from 1z months to 7 years. They all were treated in ECMC for smoke inhalation.

Lt. Sal Colangelo, head of the city fire marshal's office, investigated that fire along with his fire investigators.

"I'm really hoping she's OK," Colangelo said of Seltzer after he heard of the shooting. "It's just fortunate that luck would follow a person around like that."

Back on Pearl Street, Szuba said he has hired three off-duty police officers to patrol his bar and uses metal detectors to check his weekend patrons.

Last April, Liquori Mills, 23, was shot multiple times outside his bar.

"I'm not going to renew my lease here," Szuba said. "It's a shame that people are trying to make an honest living, but the police are not protecting the citizens on Pearl Street."

Szuba said he believes that officers are not patrolling Pearl Street enough and focusing far more attention on nearby Chippewa Street.

DeGeorge disagreed with Szuba's assessment, saying that police patrols are boosted in the downtown entertainment district on the weekends.

Man admits killing woman in his North Street apartment
Kevin R. Baker, a previously registered Buffalo-area sex offender, pleaded guilty today to a reduced charge of first-degree manslaughter for the suffocation murder of a 24-year-old female escort he had called to his North Street apartment three months ago.

State Supreme Court Justice Russell P. Buscaglia told Baker, 39, he faces a prison term of between 15 to 20 years on plea deal worked out by prosecutors and his attorney, Joseph J. Terranova, in the suffocation of Jillian M. Flagg, 24, of Amherst on Oct. 13.

Baker, who last year served a brief local jail term on a misdemeanor unlawful imprisonment charge for a September 2005 incident with an 11-year-old Cheektowaga girl, was remanded pending his March 19 sentencing.

I wonder what part of North Street - at least this one was not 11 years old.

I saw this buffalo Rising cover in my mother's bathroom. I just can't believe how full of themselves they are.


I am excited to see what happens with the new Elmwood Taco and Subs.


Is Elmwood becoming a ghetto or what? I am glad I left for Linwood before all the businesses closed. Why is everything shutting down? Seriously, it seems like more things are empty now than I ever remember. Are the rent prices just too high. If you drive from one end to the other so many places are closed down. This house is at the corner of West Delevan and Elmwood - notice the smashed out upstairs window.





I was debating buying hertelvillage.com or not, lol.

Where should the chemicals go?
What does everyone else do with all their chemicals? When we bought the house we inherited tons of chemicals, half empty, rusted crap, etc. I tried to put them all together in two places of the garage and basement but really it seems dangerous. Especially the one in the garage, I took them all and put them in two plastic totes.

I kept meaning to deal with it. Once we actually brought them with us to the dump but they didn't take them there. So I searched and found this erie county government site that isn't very up to date. Apparently, the next scheduled drop off day is Sept 8th, 2007. I am going to call tomorrow and find out about the next one.

Radon Gas
While I was on the site I found info about radon . I am uploading their education video to youtube so that it is a badnwidth friendly more acessible version instead of the 85Mb mpeg on the erie county site. I will post it here when it is done.

Did you know that radon is common in NYS and in Western New York.



It is an odorless, colorless gas that comes out of the soil and into your house. Luckily, in the city it looks like it isn't much of a problem but way out in some suburbs and rural areas it looks dangerous. Especially, marilla - I mean I wouldn't even want to live in East Aurora.

I love the Buffalo and Erie County Botanical Gardens They are warm. I have decided to become a member so that I have a reason to keep returning to the warmth.

I took a bunch of pictures of the plants. I really love my Nokia s7c camera. It is so compact and takes such nice pictures.

Tis little pink flower was so hello kitty.


This orange puff was so cute.


Inside this large plants was this tiny microcosm with a mini flower in it.


This pine is so nervous looking.


So was this plant.


I kicked @flacidness's butt in checkers.


This cactus looked so mean.


This leaf is so giant


The banana plant was flowering.




These cacti look like penises.


The main chamber in the front room is so high and makes a giant echo chamber.


Buffalo State was having an exhibit today with student ceramics. This one was labeled Two Faced Bitch.

I hate the new indian territory in the middle of the city. Does anyone else think that is ridiculous?


They made the Casino look so awesome, lol. I hate them. I would say I hope it burns down but considering it looks 100% ribbed steel I doubt anything would happen.



We went to go eat at the city grill on Franklin but it was closed for a private party ;(

On the way back to the car I noticed these doors to the YMCA were covered in a disgusting amount of pigeon shit. I guess they never use them.







This one is for @hodown. It is a spot focaccia.


Can anything be more buffalo than a corned beef foccia. They have them at spot. Sounds like it should be served at McGuidos over by HSBC arena. That place, however, closed down.

paul 18:51 I am so bored
imk2 18:52 i never hear you say that youre bored
paul 18:52 haha, i have never been bored unitl tonight i think
paul 18:53 I couldn't describe
paul 18:52 because there was some new feeling
paul 18:52 i thought I wanted to kill myself
paul 18:53 and then it hit me that I was bored

We went to the broadway market this afternoon. It was lame. Maybe we went at the wrong time but I will surely never go back to find out.

The way there was so pretty. I love traveling down sycamore. It is by far the most scenic view of Buffalo.

@terry says they are developing som enew village here that he read baout on Buffalo rising.






No seriously, it makes me want to do a documentary about the history of advertising signs that rusted out.


While this pretty church is dead, every single other non-burned down, non-boarded up warehouse and crappy house is some other sect of freaky Christianity with blacked out windows.


This is what I expect in a Christmas Market.


Then we got there...


and this is what it was.


Back over to elmwood

We got new glasses today at Elmwood Specs. I had the same prescription. My only problem with the place was that the doctor brought her dog with her. I was very allergic to that kind of poodley dog so it wasn't so horrible but if it had been a cat, I think I might have died.


Why did stache or whoever owns this building paint the half timbering over? It seems really trashy.


I hope elmwood doesn't become sycamore ever.

@matthew and I were talking about outside investors after reading @ajay #42263 and then thinking about Canadian consumers with more valuable currency and I couldn't help but think of Buffalo as the new tiajuana. Our bars are open till four, their money will be worth more in our Casinos.

Please don't ever let me have to resort to selling chicklets on the street.