Just one of the things I've enriched my brain with today - Jack Black's School of Rock, hockey games, the Dog Whisperer (how does he DO that?) and other assorted sundries.

Yes we have power up here near the park.

I ventured outside today with el Chico just around the bend (which is where I'll be if I can't get out on the street soon - can you say stir crazy!!). Took some photos...one of them wound up on CNN.com on their "i-reporter" gallery!! woohoo! Pretty swell...

In any case, I can't tell you how totally deflated and depressing it is to see all of the poor trees in our neighborhood alone. I feel SO bad for them - I hope some survive, though I know many won't - like the one in our front yard that split through its trunk into three pieces, one of which is blocking the road.

The real issue is the giant tree blocking the entrance to the circle - we won't get out even if we were to plow from the inside out - it has to be sawed away.

Anyway, here's some photos I took from around Agassiz Circle near Medaille campus today...and from around the house where we live..



the 198 across from Delaware Park...


our landlord's son with a giant snow boulder he made. He is standing in the "street" in front of our house - you can see our tree in the street right behind him...


this is so sad...












Stay warm peeps!!

"The Buffalo Airport had officially received 3 inches of snow
through 8pm. This makes October 12, 2006 the third snowiest day in
October in 137 years of weather records. Six inches of snow
occurred on October 13, 1909 and again on October 31, 1917."

FanTAStic.

According to this article in the New York Times, kickball leagues have been sprouting up all over America:


I don't know if kickball is a big deal in grade schools in Buffalo, but I remember it as being great fun, requiring very little athletic ability, and maybe vaguely dangerous -- if a red rubber playground ball could possibly be dangerous. You do get to throw it at people -- sort of a combination of softball and dodgeball. You know you love it.

Anyway, it's a funny idea. I think we need to start a kickball league in Buffalo next spring. Let me know if you're into it!



Nationwide adult kickball association:


A kickball [league] grows in Brooklyn:

In my apartment, allegedly...

Well, actually, more like buffalo meat.
Chico made some buffalo burgers and made them in the grill pan on the stove and smoked up the whole freakin' apartment.

We opened the windows and turned on the fans - but to no avail.

Now we both smell like MEAT - grreeeeaaaaattttt.....

On a lighter note - today was the first day of the rest of my life - or at least at this new job at Roswell. hehe

It will be a LOT of learning and a LOT of politicking (my first vibes), but I hope it will work out. I'm a science geek by nature (and training) so I want to do what I can to make their research side work well and be profitable for the institute.

Also, it means I need to dress up a bit more than I'm used to - shopping spree!!
It could be fantastically fun except I haven't had a paycheck in a month, so....mix and match is the name of the game, baby! Hopefully no one will notice I'm wearing the same dress shirts and shoes week after week... ha ha!

Also, many happy returns of the day to all the birthday peeps! I know chico and I haven't been around that long yet, but we wish yuz the very best!!

Cheers!

Ok, so I just spent the last half of my afternoon trying to figure out what the HELL I'm supposed to do with this COBRA coverage issue.
And let me tell you - NO one makes it easy...

I worked in NJ and had NJPLUS, which is essentially BlueCrossBlueShield. Now I'm in WNY, where NJPLUS has no doctors. AH! you say, there are doctors in WNY that are in BCBS though. YES! You are right!

However, BCBS of WNY told me that I had to have a "guest membership" in order to choose a physician here. Otherwise if I use a doctor here and I don't have a guest membership, it's considered "out of network."

NJ told me three, count 'em, THREE different stories.
1. It's all out of network once I move out of the state.
2. The NJPLUS plan automatically converts to Empire PPO (which is not even the same type of plan - NJPLUS is an HMO)
3. NJPLUS is still the plan, but it will be administered through Empire Direct HMO, so I should choose a doctor from their HMO list. This one seems to make the most sense, but when I called Empire, they were like, "We won't cover that - you have to call WNY BCBS"

So I spent 2 hours on and off the phone and I still have empty COBRA paperwork that HAS to be filled out or I get NOTHING (like the Seinfeld Soup Nazi but for health insurance).

You know, I would just say "fuck it" and not do any of it, but there's that "you never know" thing in the back of my head, plus I don't want to have a break in my coverage lest it cause an "issue" with preexisting condition nonsense for my new insurance...aaaarrrrggh!!!

I can't even tell you guys how INSANE this is. Though you can guess. All for 2 months of coverage before the bennies kick in at Roswell.

So tomorrow I'm calling NJ Division of Benefits to find out about the COBRA stuff, hopefully once and for all.

On a happier note, here's a photo of me and my niece (Camille, aka, "Munchkin") at her 1st birthday party (right before we moved).
She is the sweetest thing going...I miss her a lot!