Very early this morning I said a fond farewell to my friend who was visiting from Colorado. I really do wish she and her family could live closer to NY and it doesn't seem like 8 years has gone by since she moved out to Colorado.

It was good to see her and I hope we get to go out to see them shortly. I think this year a visit is out of the question. My husband got his MRI results back and will probably elect to have surgery on his shoulder and this will happen when he has a break from school and my job will be quiet since I work in academics and that is the best time for the surgery. The break from school is also the best time to travel and we cannot do both.

I also said goodbye to my lush garden from the summer. We took down all the remaining plants and supports. It was sad to see it all go but it makes me look forward to spring.

We composted all we could so the old plants will bring new life when it is time to plant.

I am already thinking of my plants for next year. We learned that our pepper plants must be started inside as they have a long growth time requirement until they produce. I think I'm going to start all my plants inside, my spare bedroom will become plant central.

I tried new tomato supports this year and I think I will be replacing all the rusted and broken tomato cages with the spiral vinyl coated supports I got at Urban Roots. They're more durable and easier to store. They even held up the giant and very heavy tomatoes my father grew in his garden.

His garden that we take care of! LOL He enjoys having it even if he cannot do much with it and we've made it fairly low maintenance.

I did have a crazy allergic reaction after working in his garden this year and I hope it was a one time deal. Apparently, his tomato plants caused me to have contact dermatitis and subsequently caused a visit to the walk in clinic. I just need to remember long sleeves, long pants and gloves while working in the gardens.

Speaking of plants, my Christmas cactus is blooming again. Half of the plant bloomed this spring but now it appears I'll be getting a full bloom. I don't know if the change in temp and location caused it think it was time to bloom. I move the majority of plants on to our covered front porch all summer and then back into the house when the temps drop.

I just updated my browser and flash tonight so when I reboot, I'll post a picture of it.

Last night my BFF arrived from Colorado.

After she was settled in we went down the street to a neighbors place to have some drinks with a bunch of our neighbors. We do a weekly or bi weekly roaming wine/beer party. It's all very informal and great way to catch up with and/or meet your neighbors. It keeps us all connected and I feel a real sense of community where I live.

We drank way too much wine for a weeknight but we had a blast. She even made new friends and now we're all Facebook friends. LOL I'm addicted to Facebook some days.

It's not as if she comes back here all that often so we went a little crazy last night so it was a rough morning at my house but totally worth it.

Additionally, she traveling solo which is a pretty rare event. I adore her kids and I'm friends with her husband too so I love seeing them but they're usually running all over the place trying to see all their family so our visits are shorter or we meet them to do something with everyone, still fun but different from just us getting to hang out.

The news is just not good these days on the work front, it's not crazy bad either but some middle ground would be welcomed.

The not bad news is that since I don't work in Corporate America, I have no worries about losing my job.My job is totally secure and stable, just mind numbingly boring. I'm trying hard to think of things to learn to keep myself from going crazy.


The bad news which is only bad for me is that the potential step up to a new position is not going to happen for either a few years or ever. There is now an indefinite hiring freeze and the budget cuts are coming soon too. We just keep hearing its very bad but no one seems to know exactly how bad is bad and what the impact will be.

I'm not sure I'll still be with my current employer if I have to wait years to get another promotion or opportunity to advance. It is so disappointing to work for such a large organization but not have any opportunities to advance or move in to another area to expand job skills.

The rumor mill is busy buzzing like mad about a potential reorganization impacting all IT staff.

I have a job, it pays the bills and life is good otherwise so I don't feel justified in complaining but I did anyway.

It's almost here but I'll be waiting to buy our candy otherwise a certain occupant of my household will open and eat said candy well in advance of Halloween.

It is either wait to buy it and then the selection is poor or I will hide it with our upstairs renter. She is a very sweet woman and I feel more like she is our family than just a person who rents our upper apartment.

Generally we get a ton of kids. We live down the street from the Zoo and while I don't think they have any actual activities on Halloween at the Zoo we still get a ton of kids since I think at least of the nearby churches does do a Halloween party.

I think once we're done handing out candy, we have an 8:00pm time cutoff as I feel most of the little ones have come out by that time, we plan on stopping by the (e:strip) Halloween party. (e:paul) I don't know if Bob and James are planning on attending but we're going to bug them to do so.

I hope the weather isn't too chilly, due to the setup of our home we need to either sit outside or at least keep the porch door open and sit just inside it or no one will come in and the dogs freak out if the doorbells rings and they can scare the little kids.

I need to see if an old costume still fits and hubby is planning a crazy costume for the evening well at least for the party, he can't wear the costume to give candy out to little kids! He loves Halloween and he proposed to me right around Halloween 4 years ago.

Last journal was about random people and this will be just a collection of random thoughts. I am glad to find out that the random people who approach me enjoy the interaction.

My husband really has no concept of time management. I hope him being in school will force him to manage his time better. Yesterday he offered to do the grocery shopping. I sent him a list of what I needed by mid afternoon and I was a little late getting it to him.

He calls to ask what he can get started for dinner when he gets back from the store. I tell him what I need and what time I think I will be home.

I get home from work and getting the oil changed in the car and he isn't home so I was worried that my parents may have called and something was wrong. My Dad isn't in the best of health and told my husband on Sunday he wasn't feeling all that great lately. Everything was fine with my parents but I tend to worry about them but I feel justified as there have been too many late night calls and trips to the ER.

My husband was off all day from school and his work study commitment and even though I sent him my shopping list late it was well before 5:00pm which is when he decided he would go to Wegmans. He thought he'd be home by 5:30pm! oh honey, no. I know the layouts of 2 Wegmans and even if I run through the stores, I can barely make it out of there in 30 minutes unless I'm only getting or 1 or 2 items. I know we don't live far from Wegmans in N. buffalo but it does take a few minutes to get there and back.

He was surprised it was packed and how much everything cost. I think it was a bit of a reality check for him as I do almost all our grocery shopping.

I didn't get mad since there was nothing I could do but it just made for a late night of cooking as I had planned on making a couple meals for the week.

Next up for him is taking on meal planning and prep for 2 weeknights.

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Keeping with the time management theme. I seriously wish I knew how people manage to keep their houses neat and tidy without giving up many hours on a weekend. Maybe other people are just neater, more efficient and better organized than we are.

I wish we could afford a cleaning person to come by once a week to do all the routine cleaning tasks I really hate as in all of them. LOL

Regardless, we have to get the house in better shape. We have a friend coming to stay with us for a couple days.

This list doesn't even include the home improvement projects that need to be completed and the new projects that need to be undertaken. fuck I feel overwhelmed.

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Since we're not spending time cleaning or fixing we went out and had fun this weekend! We went to Ellicottville for Fall Fest. It was a beautiful weekend and we had a great time.

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Back to work and more task management.

Random people love to talk to me. I say I have a freak magnet and while not all the people who talk to me are freaks and unless they totally creep me out, I'll generally engage them in conversation for at least a few minutes.


Since Saturday, I've had 2 people just approach me to ask me about things and last night at Home Depot we got the life story of the sales clerk who helped us.

Admittedly we went and sought out the sales clerk and she was very nice but she practically gave us her life story as we were looking for something to cover our plants from the potential frost. We ended up with some burlap for the plants.

Just today while in CVS a young girl approached me and asked me about what I thought about a certain hair color product she had and was going to purchase. This is a busy CVS with loads of other shoppers in it.

We discussed said product and how I thought the color might be a bit light since she was dying only part of her very dark hair and that her skin coloring and that shade might not mix so well but if she wanted a dramatic effect, she would probably achieve it by choosing that shade.

On Saturday as my husband and I along with our dogs made our way over to the Farmers Market on Elmwood and Bidwell, a random guy approached us and asked all these kinda odd questions about the market.

He is from Buffalo but moved to Santa Monica and was visiting. We chatted a bit with him as he just seemed kinda stoned and not at all creepy. The dogs thought he smelled interesting too and they're usually a pretty good judge of character. :-)

We attended the Pet Blessing on Sunday afternoon. Thank you (e:drew) for blessing our greyhounds and one of our cats who happened to be with us. I think I should have asked you to please bless Hayley so that she will stop trying to eat bees. She has been stung a few times already this year but continues to try to eat them.

It's not that we just randomly travel with one of our two cats, Blackjack was on mouse hunting duty at my parents house and we were bringing her home. She was successful in her mission and my poor Mom can rest a little easier.

For those of you who live in the Elmwood area, please keep a lookout for a missing Italian Greyhound. The owner was at the Pet Blessing and she was just so terribly upset.

It's getting cold and Italian Greyhounds are thin skinned dogs who are very sensitive to the temps. He slipped his harness while out for a walk. Here is his information and contact information for the owner.


Missing since 10/03. Last seen at Cleveland & Elmwood.

Name: Colby but will also respond to his brothers name Tucker.

15 pounds, black/brown w/white face and white paws.

reward offered.

pls call 541-5311 or 840-2348 or 703-855-2981 with any info.

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.