Just got home from the 444, had a great time. Tired though, long week & month.













Thanks for the invite, guys.

(e:trollheim) and I went to le Metro Thursday for pumpkin carving. We were there from 7pm to 1am, and it was just about the most fun I've had in months.

I love the people that work there, especially the bartender Laurie. She was voted best bartender in Buffalo by Artvoice.

Here were my two pumpkins:



A skull, and a drunk puking one.

[s]Also, a crappy little 30 second movie: Quicktime.[/s]

More photos here on flickr.

This is clearly the proper way to carve a pumpkin.



Just ask (e:Trollheim).

My Mother died a month ago, on September the 18th, 2005. She was 51. I went out to Utah for the funeral, and stayed out there for a couple weeks. There's a memorial mass for her tomorrow at St. Paul's in Kenmore.



My Mom had a great sense of humor, and always made everyone laugh. I can't tell you how many of my friends that I run into years later, where the first thing they ask me is how my mother is. She really cared about everyone. She volunteered to work as a home health care nurse on he East Side. She was one of only a few nurses in her company who were willing to be assigned to that area. She was fearless.

She made a difference once she moved back to Utah, too. The church was packed for the funeral. There literally weren't enough seats. The priest said he'd never seen so many people inside of it.



She was from Buffalo, one of nine children. Her father died a few years ago, and they're together now, in whatever way really matters to us left behind. He and my mother were the funniest, most caring members of my family.



My Dad is from Utah, and my mom loved it there. I was born in Utah, but the family moved back to Buffalo when I was 13. My parents recently moved back to Utah, and my mother spent her time fixing up their house... she'd go to a rock quarry and break up rock, load the truck and then use it around their house. It's the desert, so she made rock gardens.



She went to the quarry a couple times a month. She went the day before she died... it was very sudden. She died of an aneurysm on her aorta. They never suspected. And to be honest: I thought she'd out live us all. She projected unstoppable energy, awake every day and out of bed at 5am. This was such a shock.



My Dad is wonderful. He is lost without her. They loved and fought and stayed together, worked things out. They really taught me all I that I think is good within myself. Hopefully I will do her memory well -- I know I've made a poor start in many ways. But I see clearer every year, and hope there is time to make a difference.



My mom loved this life. She never wasted a day. I miss her so much. She was my best friend, these past few years. We talked all the time, and I'm so lucky that I had a chance to know her as an adult and to really listen to her, after all those years as a kid where I was deafened by my own ignorance.