i am rarely downtown esp. during the workweek and there is a lot of construction activity. i'm sitting at spot coffee and watching the work being done on the old federal bldg. and some guy trying to park.

my trip was due to my damaged engagement ring. one of the prongs was totally bent out of place. our jeweler is located near delaware and chip.

i so love the people downtown. i swear i just saw a guy walking with a banana in his pocket.

Below are the heirloom tomato and pepper plants we planted this year. We had no idea what we were getting since they were not labeled.

They grew well and are very tasty



These are more regular variety tomatoes. These also grew nicely.



They're still growing and we're going make some greenhouses to go over the plants. They won't be pretty but it'll work.


Rosemary, basil and a jalapeno plant all growing side by side.


The beginning of the shade garden. I image it will be very nice in a couple years.

I hope I've done this right, it is my first post with pictures.

My small garden in the spring of 2007


My small garden as of today.


It was over run with Bishops Weed and I had to lay down landscape fabric and a thick layer of recycled rubber mulch. That stuff grew through everything else I tried. My tulips won't be able to come up but I'll plant some new bulbs in another area of my gardens.

We woke up this morning to the worst smell in our house and if I can smell it, it was bad. I have a terrible sense of smell. My poor husband has a very acute sense of smell, he was probably very happy to leave for school/work study this morning.

He promptly declared a skunk had sprayed in our yard and since our bedroom is in the back of the house that was the smell we woke up to.

He took our dogs out and carefully surveyed the backyard to see if the skunk was still around. Seriously, I do not need our dogs getting sprayed by a skunk. No skunk but lots of stink.

Turns out the neighbors dog got sprayed by the skunk! Our entire neighborhood reeked like skunk this morning. I'm also guessing if he didn't kill the skunk it may have run through our yards and continued to spray everywhere.

The neighbor who owns the dog is fairly crazy, nice but crazy. She was ranting up a storm to anyone who would listen and my poor husband was the chosen one this morning.

He came home and looked up online how to get the skunk smell out of dogs. He walked the information over to her as I was leaving.

Tomato juice does not work. A solution of dishwashing soap, peroxide and baking soda is the recommended solution for pets.

We might need to spray our yard with vinegar and dishwashing soap if the smell persists.

oh well just another day in N. Buffalo. LOL

This is a movie I probably would not have watched had it not been for our friends and neighbors calling us to invite us over to have a couple drinks and watch a movie.

What a fun night. I truly love the fact that our neighbors became our close friends and that we hang out with them a lot.

The movie of the night was The Love Guru and I almost peed my pants from laughing so much. What a totally silly funny non-thinking movie.

If you've ever watched Hockey Night in Canada, it will be even funnier.

Mariska Hargitay

It was a rare event for our household, we went to a professional sporting event. It's an expensive way to spend a day. It cost us roughly $150 to see the game, park and buy a couple non-alcoholic drinks and some popcorn.

My husband is an Oakland Raiders fan, he is an import from the west coast. The Raiders last played here in 2001 and that was the last time he was able to see his favorite team play in person. It was a worthwhile indulgence to go to the game.

I should have posted live form the game but I didn't think of it. I did some updates on Twitter and I'll see if I can get the photos from my smartphone to post here.

As usual, I'm a freak magnet and the strangest of the strange people around us wanted to talk to me.

Buffalo weather forecasters suck. There wasn't a word about rain in the forecast. I checked from the game while getting rained on and it still said sunny. I determined the weather by looking out the window and it was raining in N. Buffalo and figured it might also rain in OP so we grabbed rain gear before leaving the house.

I had to set foot in Wal-Mart too and realized I still hate that place and it killed me to spend any money in there but I need a seat cushion.

Ironically, wal-mart sells seat cushions that are not allowed in the stadium so good work there. They said they would be getting other seat cushions that were allowed but they are not in yet. Waiting for next football season?

A throw pillow worked just as well for the day.

The Bills really need a more efficient entry process. It took us over 30 minutes to get in the gates. Every man had to be frisked before entering, I was not frisked just asked to open my purse. It was very crazy and the dude was all over my husband and probably patted him down 3 or 4 times. His response was "I'm a Hispanic young male Raiders fan, I'm used to it" Just cause you're used to it, doesn't make it right.

WTF is with parking costs. $15 to $20 to park. We parked in some guys backyard that was next to the ECC lot that was charging $15 bucks, it was 1/2 that in the guys yard. It was the same distance to the game and we didn't have broken bottles or trash all around our car when we left. A better deal all the way around.

The game was good but I'll admit I spent a lot of time looking around with the binoculars at the crowd and not paying much attention to the game. I'm very casual about sports so I don't find it necessary to jump up and down or scream and yell. Plus, I have a very important meeting this afternoon and I need to have a voice.

The end was exciting and did get me out of my seat and hugged by the drunk lady a couple seats away.

I'm happy the Bills won but I was bummed for my hubby but he was just happy to have been able to go to the game. It was a great day and it was a great weekend in general.

I bought a used Moto Q and I'm not sure if I like it. The phone itself is in fine working condition and I had no problems activating it. I only plan on using it for a couple months to see if I like the whole smart phone thing.

I'm on Sprint and it's been a good long term relationship with only a few bumps in the road. I thought about getting an iPhone as I have an iPod Touch but I have a bit trouble with the keyboard interface. That involves the drama of switching everyone over to AT&T since we have a family plan on Sprint.

(e:springfaerie) you're right.

It felt good to post all the crap about my job. I just scheduled a meeting with a someone here who might be able to help me fix my current dissatisfaction.

My job is SO boring lately, it makes the week go very slowly.

My search for a new job hasn't been wonderful. Ugh.

In just a couple hours I'll be enjoying the company of my neighbors and some wine and the night will be fun.


In response to tinypliny:

I currently work in IT. I'm an assistant director of IT for a smaller unit w/in a large organization. I'm being vague since it's not public in my workplace that I have a job search going on.

I would like to move up to the next level which would be becoming a director of IT within my current overall organization. However, there is not an opportunity to do that. There have only been 2 openings over the last 10 years for that type of position and both were filled politically. I don't see the any positions opening up as people tend to stay in their jobs here.

While I have expanded my skill set and my own job has grown due to my own ambitions since my employer has no outlined growth path for its employees, my job has also remained saddled with all of my old responsibilities. I'm very burned out.

What do I want to do? Well that is an excellent question! One I have been asking myself a great deal lately.

Since I find it doubtful I will be able to move up or even laterally in my current organization. I feel I will need to leave it and i hope to take my skills and apply them to a project management role or strategic consultant type role. While I work in IT my degrees are in Business so I have a good understanding of both worlds and can speak both normal people English and "geek speak". ;-)

I have to get a way from the day to day support role I currently have and yes even though I am an assistant director; I'm still the front line support person. 10+ years of hearing "I can't print", "I don't know how to use Word" - leaves a person burned out.

I spent all of August physically installing new computers since our intern was out of the office getting married. It's a waste of my expertise and it doesn't really bring me any job satisfaction to continue to have to do this work but when there is no one else to do it and it has to get done it falls to me.

Some may wonder why have I stayed with this employer for 10+ years, well until the last couple years its been an OK place to work and there seemed like there would be a path to grow my career. I was able to complete my MBA while working here, I have flexible hours and I was still learning new things but all of that looks to be coming to an end.

I'm picky about where my next place of employment will be. I'm not going to leave for a crappy employer that doesn't offer me the right mix of work/benefits. I know I will give up some things when I leave my current employer but I won't leave just for the sake of leaving.

Adding to this is that I am the sole financial support for my family at this time and will be for the next 5 years or so as my husband has returned to school so my decision has to be made carefully and thoughtfully.

whew that was a long post.

ok (e:paul) I finally broke down and started a journal. You've said something to me each time you saw me this summer and while I still contend I have nothing much to say or interesting things happening in my life. Here we go.