This was my personal favorite for Italian Idol

I ended up making my annual pilgrimage to the Sorrento Cheese Italian Heritage Festival on Hertel. It was a pretty descent time as I ate way too much and I purposely starved myself before going. I for some reason did get kind of sucked in to the bocce tournament but also unlike me I ended up watching the Italian Idol contest.

Here are some really bad pics of all the contestants.

























I was standing in back and these guys caught my attention, they were kind of like a crude working class version of Edgar Bergen and Mortimer Snerd. They were actually making half way descent comments about the contestants but also some off color ones about others.






St Anthony (Maybe I should start praying to him to find my lost girlfriend ;-))



This year I topped it off with Clams from the Lobsterhut






And of course there is the after in which I arrainge the shells in some sort of orderly fashion.

For some reason heading to the Chester's tent @ the Taste of Buffalo is always a ritual for me. I ended up stopping by on Sunday again for a quick bite to eat before I ended up hopping over to Canada and other things.

This totally came to me as a shock tonight

He always had a crazy energy, especially when you engaged him in conversation. I think I requested Anna's a Speed Freak by Pure once at the old Kingdom in Burlington after shooting the shit with him back in the late 90's. He reminded me of some old dude @ the Pink that still picked up 21 year olds even though he was in his 40's, some guys have that passionate edge but unfortunately in his case it may have been his downfall.

This economy is crazy, even though he was downsized back in May I seriously thought he was on some vacation or something. It's just also kind of creepy that he wrote his suicide note as a facebook update.

Earlier today, Martin Streek updated his Facebook status message with words that sound so ominous now. This, it turns out, is Martin's farewell to the world.

So...I guess that's it...thanks everyone...I'm sorry to those I should be sorry to, I love you to those that I love, and I will see you all again soon (not too soon though)... Let the stories begin.

Wow I feel so old as so much as he was so much a part of my life every Friday, Saturday and sometimes Sunday. I will always going up to The Kingdom in Burlington on Friday's; the couple of times I went to the Phoenix and the Sunday's @ Whiskey Saigon were some of the kick ass times in my life as I did score a VIP card from an ex of mine for a year once. Now even if I didn't manage to go up there it always pumped me up to hear the stuff on the live to air shows that they never played at all during the week. The Ministry, Skinny Puppy, Sisters of Mercy and nowadays Killswitch Engage. Although the shows have gone on for the most part since he was let go from the station in May, it's not going to be the same as I've been listening to him for 20 years. He won't ever reappear on some other station like Chris Sheppard and give me a change to think my opinion.

You'll be missed Martin :'-(

Yea, I had no need to fight traffic or fight for a spot on a grass lawn. I just watched as these rich people in Wheatfield entertained themselves with their own contraband fireworks this year.

Ok, I'll stop by the Starbucks on Elmwood at 7 tomorrow.

I just got the tickets yesterday. If anyone wants tomorrow @ the Starbucks on Elmwood to pick them up let me know. I would offer tonight but I'm staying late working OT.

Crap!

Ok here is where things currently stand. I was assuming that getting a 4th person meant that it was someone other than (e:mrmike) (e:janelle) and myself. (e:mrmike) indicated that he wanted another ticket and that would have made 4 total. If (e:janelle) drops out than I guess there's 1 floating out there. (e:metalpeter) weren't you interested in going?

I'm sorry for all of this miscommunication. I'll try to call the Bisons today and see if they can grab the envolope before it gets mailed to me on Monday to see if I can add/subtract people :-/

(e:janelle) & (e:mrmike)

We got our foresome & I just ordered the tickets.

I'm actually right with you (e:dcoffee)

I just loved the line "ultimately force you into an entirely government-run plan" Really? I just love how people love to make the government the boogie man. Seriously, at this point can it be really much worse than what we have now? The bookies that run the insurance companies? Really that's what they are all they do is take in the premiums and just make sure that they keep their "Vig" like some guy booking football keeps his 10% of the action.

Not to be influenced by Michael Moore but Sicko really did it for me. As it's just freaking sick that people get hosed for $10,000 for a non approved ambulance ride & have to choose what finger they want to save. But God bless our capitalist non Government run health care system which given Americans the right to poverty through bankruptcy. Because it's just such more uplifting to have some finance guru douche bag making your health care choices than some government bureaucrat.

If this falls flat on it's face which is a possibility I will always love my Mom for giving me the BIRTHRIGHT of health care by having me in Canada. Which really is always my backup plan if things ever fell apart for me. I'd be over the border so fast waiting me 3 weeks for a OHIP card in St. Catherine's it would be sick.

What gets me is "How are we going to Pay for it?" I don't know but seriously at this point we are past whatever pain threshold we ever may have had as a country it just doesn't matter. After the Bailouts and Stimulus plans it's like we just decided to go for broke at the Casino, there's no sense in stopping now all in the name of fiscal responsibility.

The only thing I can compare it is if you ever went to a Casino with say $100 to spend and you blew it even though you were careful and still wanted to play, then you hit the ATM once, Then Maxed out your card AGAIN after midnight when you had a fresh daily limit to blow.Then after you totally hit yourself in the head against the wall you hit up your credit card for a cash advance. At this point you may still have room on your one card or you may have another card to hit and drain. I'm not sure were we are but I'd have to say we're on the credit cards now. At this point stopping when you're down 3,000 isn't going to be that much different than if you stopped at 4,500.*

• I've never blown money like the above paragraph, but I have witness it many times first hand.