(e:terry) and I cleaned out and painted the former blue room and made it into the green room in honor of (e:twisted)'s arrival. I tried to style it in a way that I thought she would like. I am going to go get carpet tonight, finish painting and scarping the paint off the windows, and repairing a rather large hole in the way that the former owner's son cut in the wall to fit his monitor on his desk. Who does shit like that? I seriously spent about 30 hours scraping the texture paint, painting, and spackling this room over the weekend. You have no idea how much we have painted. (e:mike) helped scrape the crunchy texture paint off the main hall walls.





While searching for what caused some water damage in the past of the 3rd floor hallway we found that there is a trap door out onto the roof. We wanted to go out here yesterday but couldn't because of the high wind. It seems as though my vision of a third floor roof porch ay happen after all. There is a ~ 20 foot square flat area right on top of the roof. I had to get up there anyways in order to remove a baby tree that decided to try and grow in our fireplace.



It seems as though the trap door was leaking at some point in the house's history and the water cause massive damage before anyone noticed. It seems like such a simple problem to let get out of control, but I guess for anyone not spry enough to climb around in the rafters it might seem like a bigger problem. I cannot wait to finish the non-finished part of the attic. It seems capable of supporting an additional floor/loft as a fourth floor? The ceilings are about 30 feet high in the middle.



Here is where the damage was the worst, there were even some dried up mushroom like in the crack mansion down the street. Thank god it is all dried up and fixed. I wonder when the damage occurred and how long it took some one to notice. The problem caused damage two floor down. The damage all seems fixable.

Don't get me wrong, I don't hate the place referred to as the Elmwood Village, I just the new name. I think it expresses an aire of pretension by trying to exclude itself form the rest of the city possibly to align it with a more suburban flavor.

This doesn't mean that I am not going to capitalize on it like everyone else. Maybe I shouldn't even care now that I live in Linwood Shire.

I think the sign that says, "Welcome to the Elmwood Village" on the front of We Never Close is what did it for me.



Frankly, it is a strip - it is a straight street that goes from one end of the city to city center and business does not travel much in any perpendicular direction.

Is the point of the name change just to make real villagers more comfortable with shopping there? Or is to make the people that live there feel like they live in a village. Is Hertel/North Buffalo going to become the Hertel Village in it's footsteps?

It seems like it takes credit away from the City of Buffalo be declaring Elmwood to be a Village. "This part is revitalizing, but we are not really part of the city."

On a totally separate note but still in the Elmwood Village - Atak (e:trish,83) has officially gotten lazy?



Why has nothing become of the old platos at ELmwood and Forest Avenue? The new Platos in the Village of Kenmore always looks busy. Myabe it is because that part of elmwood is really in a village, lol.



The house where (e:iriesara) lived and the murder occurred. It was a spooky place, I will let her tell you about it.


The Indian Buffet is yummy as ever. I love that place and the tasty red chicken legs.


The old estrip house on Lafayette still looks like shit. I wonder if Jim Leong will ever paint the outside. I love how on the front there is that big area of white that has been there for about 3 years. Across the street from him it looks like the boarding house has turned into some commercial spot with luxury apartments? The dude that used to live in the back part of that house was insane. Does anyone else remember him. I wonder where he will go when it is luxury apartments?


Totally non-related - naked babies at Amvets.

This morning at 7am we woke up to go get a u-haul van in order to transfer 1.1 tons of trash from our backyard to the east side transfer station. The was lots of trash that was left in the hosue when we moved in, plus the walss of a room we took down, all the furnace pipes from the basement, and lots of other debris from the attic. Pretty much the whole house is emptied out of trash now.

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In buffalo, the first ton of trash is free for property owning residents. They let our extra 0.1 ton of trash slide. The eastside transfer station is pretty interesting. You drive up and they weigh your vehicle on the way in and then again on the way out. You are charged like $50 for each ton after the first one. That is so insanely cheap when you think how much trash is one ton of trash. I wish I had taken a picture of the before and after but I forgot. Basically it is like a quarter of our backyard full of trash.

The stone spot full of trash.









Notice the giant american flag in the trash. It was a crazy scene when the giant garbage compactor picked it up, swirled it around and then smashed it up. I wanted to take a video but I was afraid someone would freak out. This picture is taken from about 150 yards away. The flag was seriously huge.

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In the u-haul full of asbestos bags which all broke and leaked because our contractor ran out of contractor bags and decided it was a good idea to use doubled regular garbage bags. Needless to say, everyone ripped.

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We - (e:theecarey), (e:matthew), (e:terry) and I - went bowling last night.



It was pretty fun despite the fact I hate bowling and it is bad for my sensistive programmer's wrists, lol. Actually, I got to like it a bit. Man the bowling alley is a happening place. It was packed with people of every age.



Then ther was this pickup game.



(e:matthew) really wanted the pink panther doll from the pick up game and after several dollars we won it. Well I was the one to atcually pick it up!


Terry won me this orange dot doll. He is pretty cute although somewhat asymmetrical.





We ate lots more greasy food after I had already had lunch at anchor bar with work for the polish guys going away lunch - 100 wings - from which I only had 7.

(e:terry) got a strike. He won the first game and (e:matthew) won the second one.

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While my computer is copying databases, I will share this story. Last night at like 1AM the police showed up at my house. They seemed realy manic but maybe it was because i was tired. I woke up because I heard people talking loud downstairs and it was them. Apparently, some dude, opened our front door, reached into a jacket in the vestibule and stole (e:matthew)'s id. The police thought the house was an abandoned house they said. I think it happend are around 6PM. Some dude asked me and my brother for $4 to get to Medina. I had $.27 cents for him. Then we went up the driveway to the car and by the time we got down the driveway he was gone. I thought it was weird, but I never thought he was in the house or I would have gone back in the door and smashed his face. He never actually got in the house part because he (e:terry) and (e:matthew) were home probably.

According to the police Mr. Avery Leeper drug addict stole the wallet and then got busted on narcotic charges with our credit cards. They told us to report to the property offices in the morning and they would have the stuff. When we went their their was no record of the case or of the property. The property office sent us to the station and they weren't too sure either at first. Then some nice police officer looked into it further and it turned out the detective forgot our stuff in his locker maybe but he won't be in till next sunday. Weird. The whole thing was so bizaree. Next time homeless looking dude asks for money near my house I am going to punch him.

I was saying to terry I have no idea what I would be like if he was in the house and so was I. I really think I would keep hurting repetitively in some severe way.