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.

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.

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