I am feeling rather chipper today.I am on my lunch eating last weeks veggie soup,well, stew (it should probably have a bit of broth to be classified as soup, yes? Barley sucked it up, should have gone with the lentils!)

It still tastes yummy.

I'm sitting in my car, watching and listening to the rain. Here is an unbroken tree and a picture of the pile of crap that has collected in my front seat; since my front passenger door does not open, it happens all of the time,

atleast that is my exuse. I am really not a pig :)

have a great day folks

Glad to see (or rather it appears) that all of (e:strip)s beloved (e:peeps) are all doing ok!

Damn monsoon out there now, huh? Check your basements! Get out your rafts and floaties! Even Youngstown hasn't been able to avoid all that wet and dreariness. Still strange that we didn't even get a flake of snow. (no longer complaining!)

Sooooo, I miss Buffalo!! It hasn't felt right to go try and hang out, admist all this chaos. I have stayed on my side of the Grand Island bridge. And although I have had plenty of heat, electric and cable, I havent had enough human contact- and that has been a bummer.
Visit by Mom doesn't count, haha.

I had Friday and Monday off from work due too all this. So although I did quite a bit if socializing on Friday, the remainder of the weekend and Monday were too quiet. There wasn't even anywhere to go that was open.

I love my alone time, but this was too much! I was forced to entertain myself on that Other Place (shhhh, My Space) haha and do laundry AND dishes. wow.

other thoughts and stuff:

(e:PMT) miss you guys!

so, (e:ajay) Are you missing B-Lo? What a warm welcome, huh? Glad you made it in and out ok!

It really is ironic that (e:mrmike) is without cable.

again, Happy Birthday, (e:lilho) -- I think you need to have an after chaos celebration; you got a bum deal on this birthday!


Or maybe we can have an, "I survived Buffalo's Blizzard, Tornado, Hurricane, Monsoon, Power Outage, Driving ban, Flood of Oct '06" party. We'll even have party favors: heat and electric. WOO!

That is the extent of my random thoughts, for now.

A long brisk walk through Fort Niagara. It always feels good to stretch my legs and breath in frsh air. The leaves and earth smells are growing strong. It was really quite a beautiful fall day.

I brought my Pocket PC with me as that is my only means of taking pictures at this point in time, unless I dug out an old 35mm or 110 camera, Ha!

I attempted to go look at cameras yesterday, but many of the stores are still closed up.

Dont move little furry friend, not sure what the shutter speed is..



Thats better..



I think I am impressed with the quality of the camera phone pictures-- well, much more than I thought I would be. I mean, the colors aren't stong, a lot ofdetail is missing, but its a pcoket pc- the camera is the least of the features. It will work for basic social pictures whiile I look for something more suitable.

I am looking for a camera that I can use to fulfill my photography endeavers. I want to be able to take a picture of the moon, the detail of a single snowflake and finally capture the many looks of Toronto from the shores of Lake Ontario.











Niagara River emptying into Lake Ontario. Old Fort Niagara to the right.









Sail away Sail away Sail away. Many boaters out today (not these ones-- but there were a few motor boats zipping through the river) I would have liked to have joined them. Although chilly, the sunshine and awarm hat made it bearable.














Sipped a mug of hot coffee while watching the sun set..








I wanted to take a video of the water crashing into the rocks; apparently I have no clue of what I am doing.


Miss Kayla, Joey's equally adventurous sister



Well, I think I am going to take on the culinary project of making my own Pad Thai. Wish me luck, I hope it turns out well. My mission this year is to learn how to make a few of my favorite ethinic dishes.

The weekend is wrapping up, I enjoyed having the extra day off due to the weather and such, even though it meant that most everyone was stranded. I think it was Friday that people were being turned away from the Grand Island bridge as the travel ban through Amherst and B-lo greatly limited traveling. So many places were and continue to be closed due to power outages and damage.. I am sure it will take awhile for things to be up and running again. As long as everyone is safe..

SO yeh, I stayed home all weekend. Cleaned, organized and walked around Lewiston Friday afternoon, then enjoyed a small party at my place later that night, bummed around the house Saturday, spent a lot of time on the computer, including My Space hahahahaha (I have ulterior motives) and ventured out to Wegmans for Pad Thai fixings and magazines. Today, more relaxing and pretty much kept to myself. The jaunt through the Fort never bores me.

I think I have hit my limit of alone time. I need to be around people asap.

Later gators

I think there should be a (e:peep) check in.

There are a few I havent seen on the site since Thursday; perhaps they are without power. yuck. namely, (e:imk2) (e:mrmike) and ..

Since there has been a driving ban and power outages everywhere, I have stayed close to home and have been on the computer a lot (of course!)

Had a fun improptu gathering last night at my place. (e:pyrcedgrrl) 's BIRTHDAY was yesterday, and since just about evrywhere was closed, my apartment was open! I couldn't stop laughing the entire evening. Good stuff. Joey, my beloved fur blob was very happy to have an apartment full of people. He is very sociable and loves the attention, particularly from the men. As everyone left, he kept stretching out and reaching out his paws to them. Very cute.

Slept till noon. Oy my head hurts today, perhaps a wee bit of a hangover? Nothing a large cup of coffee and a few pints of water can't cure.

I would like to make my way out to a digital camera store. I think I found one that might suit my needs, the Sony Cybershot H5. I could always order online, but I want to fondle a few before I make my ultimate choice.

one of many, many, many reviews I have looked at over the past month or so:


Guess its time to get dressed.

Hope everyone is doing alright!

Happy Birthday, (e:lilho) Are plans still on?

Although it would have been a bit fun to have snow to play in today, I feel really bad for all of the people who are without power for who knows how long. 250-300,000 people? wow.

Then there is the damage-- the kind that will take awhile to clean up and then the permenant damage to the aestetic view of various yards and streets. I can't get over how many trees went down.

Someone on tv mentioned that the damage is equivelant to a typcial hurricane. Apparently its Buffalos version of a hurricane with the amount of damage and disarray.

No nearly as much tree toppling would have occured if the leaves and such had already fallen for the season.

Earlier this afternoon (e:pyrcedgrrl) (give her a B-day shout out!) and I ventured into the Village of Lewiston to grab a cup of coffee at the Orange Cat coffee house. As they tend to keep irregular hours, it wasnt surprising that they were closed, although we were a bit annyed as we both looked forward to socializing with the locals. We tried another place, and it was closed.

hmph.

???

We continued down Center street looking for caffeine. Everything was closed.

???

Slightly perplexed until we arrived at a street light being operated by a generator. The usually super busy village appeared to be a ghost town.

Ahhh, we understand now. Everything really is closed because there is no power.

So we did have some power outage in this area as well.

We managed to stroll into a semi open DicCamillos bakery on Center Street. They had some coffee left over in their thermos' of which we reluctantly purchased. It smelled a little bitter.

and it was.

So we took our new found source of caffeine and continued our stroll down Center Street until we reached the Niagara River. Not bundled up enough for the cold air, we sat on a swing over looking the water and talked anyways, both detesting and relishing the hot bitter coffee.






Tonight, we have fresh coffee, a large bottle of wine, cake, music and friends over for a small impromptu gathering. Very nice.

if you happen to be in the area, stop over!

I hope you are safe and warm.

green green green

'lil sun trying to come through..









feelin' a little envious of B-Los snow. I still have my cross country skiis standing up against my front door..


wait.

what is that?

a snowflake??

yes, I count One, One snow flake, ah ah ah

but just one.

Alright, let me tell you, lol..

I took a so called "lunch" at 4:30, which is when I first posted some snow covered car pics. I forced my way out of the building as my growing hunger made me feel like I had a wine buzz. Only good if you actually have a wine buzz. Things have been crazy busy and its easy to forget or not have time to eat, but after yesterday of going all day, I couldn't do it again. hence, the quick "lunch"

So, food scrarfed down, I return to work. I leave late because the kiddos parents have trrouble getting to the school due to the weather. Understandable, I knew I'd be getting out late. And I do..

So I leave at 6:30 knowing that no route is a good route as from all the parents coming from various locations did not have a good story to tell in regards to traffic, power outages, accidents, fallen trees, blocked roads, etc.

I get on the highway.

And get stuck on the 290 for over two hours.

two freakin hours!!

I was smart enough to put 23$ in gas while grabbing my "lunch". I used up more than half sitting in traffic. If I hadn't I wouldf have been in trouble, as I had just over a quarter tank before then. For much of it, I had my car in park. Turning it off would have been nice, but it was damn cold out there..

on the plus:

I had my Pocket PC

which meant I had (e:strip) (thanks, (e:paul) )

which meant I had (e:peeps) to hear me whine a bit (thanks, peeps)

and on my phone I have a stupid little addicting game called Bubble Breaker, I think. It kept me amused for awhile.

I had chocolate (i brought some kisses and reeses mini pb cups to fill a halloween candy bowl at wortk. Before I left, I thought I should grab a handful with me.. yay!)

hahaha, I think I have a bottle of wine or two and maybe even some chanpagne in my trunk. I've told you before, if you are going to be stranded anywhere, you want to be with me. :)

I drank some diet dr. pepper instead.

I bought USA today while at the gas station on my "lunch".. and I had a 1974 copy of Play Girl, lol (i forgot that until now) and I probably had/have just about anything else I may need while in an otherwise uncomfortable situation as this was.

And I had front row seat to a super cool and mildly freaky lightening storm show.

Not sure exactly what happend, but I saw that the super large monsterous tow trucks for towing other tow trucks (and semis, etc) was all munched up-- hood ripped off and other unidentifiable truck body parts mangled along the side of the road. Cant imagine what the whole scenerio was like, as everything seemed cleaned up.

So after two hours and no abilty to move and/or find another way out of this mess, traffic began to move. I make it North over the Grand Island bridge and encountered freaky blizzard snow that made it very hard to see. I was disturbed that I may encounter longer travel time, accidents, etc.. I still felt a long way from home.

Eventually the snow wasnt as crazy, atleast I coul,d see where I was driving.

As soon as I hit Lewiston there wasnt any snow.. just a lot of wet and raininess.

I get to Youngstown.. guess what?!?! it was (is) DRY, NO SNOW.. NOT even a DROP OF RAIN. My driveway and everything else is bone dry.

As was the case all last year.. and I bitched about it.

and I hear that is was a nice sunny/clear fall day today, haha, as it shoulf be. But how weird how different a few miles can make.

So no need to move to Florida or the west coast to get away from the snow-- just drive 20 something miles to Youngstown and its a whole new world. So is the grass really greener on the other side? apparently so, when the other side is Youngstown!

damn, it isn't even as cold as the other areas I was just in.

(i might be imaging that)


and its after 9:00 pm, so.. well over 2 and a half hours after leaving work do I finally get home.

tomorrow is friday. finally!

yay.

oh, and its (e:pyrcedgrrl) 's B-day , then (e:lilho) then (e:vincent)

Yo mommas and daddies were finding ways to keep warm in February, huh? haha

bed soon...

updated:

My phone rang at 11pm.. it was my boss to tell me that the school is shut down tomorrow due to a majority of other schools shutting down, etc No one is prepared for winter yet. Plus all the outages, trees down etc. That is some heavy snow.

WOO HOO paid day off from work, YIPEEEEE

haha, who would ever think that there would be a snow day in OCTOBER?? and it isn't even mid october yet :)

and there still is not a single flake in Y-Town

... although it might be on the way.

'sup cross country skiis? :)


ooooh, Orange Cat coffee hourse is on my Snow Day itinerary. Lets go!

I was really tired, but as with snow days of youth, it is energizing to be told you don't have to go to school (or in my case, work!)

think I will go curl up an read newest issue of Scientific American or Entrepreneur till I fall asleep.

ho hum, stuck in traffic on the 290, still so far from home, both of them.

maybe there is someone I can flirt with while I am sitting here, haha

ew. someone on the highway is smoking a cigarette.

hehe

just two weeks into autumn...

albino brain chiggars, cover your ears!!!!!!!

Not getting a lunch and getting home late does not sit well with me. Now I am too hungry to eat.

Not that that will stop me. ;)


No way will I allow this slight irritation damage my evening.

Not that I am ever *really* irritated.


News that is good, is that I am kicking ass at work,

News that isn't, is that it is kicking mine as well.


Nice, it will all turn out very well, it will !!! it will !!!

Nothing is impossible.. right?



Need a distraction and balance, indeed.