Hiking On thursday Night
I have been complaining to (e:Terry) about him playing warcraft so much - so today after work he surprised us by whisking us off on a short hiking excursion to 18 Mile Creek in Hamburg. It was nice to get outside and run around. I brought only the iphone. Neither (e:matthew) nor I had a real camera with because it was so spur of the moment.



The iphone takes the shittiest close ups and sadly there was the cutest froggy I ever saw. It was like the size of a small raisin.





In general the rest of the pics are nice. It does fine in perfect light from about six feet away or more.

So that does not include these cute little blueberries. (e:hodown) - do you remember eating these?


Okay so for the not close up pics.

What are thes epurple bug study things about. I keep seeing them everywhere. What bugs are they catching and who is doing the study?


At the top of the waterfall


Walking along the creek was so beautiful. Its amazing that this place is only a 20 minute drive from home.




What kind of animal is this


I call this tortoise rock.


here is (e:matthew) catching some frogs.





Evidence of the iphones



There were these awesome patterns in the shale at the edge of the creek. I thinki t looked much cooler in real life.



(e:terry) and (e:matthew) having fun near the water






Afterwards, we came home and I went to the gym for a good workout and the eye candy. Then after that I cooked some rack on lamb on the grill using my new smoke box filled with pear wood chips from one of the dead pear trees we cut down. It gave it a really nice flavor.

I looked up what (e:jim) was talking about and here is the beatle itself. Its kind of pretty. I am sure they are bad.

work
Well, I got the new job. I am offically the Programming Standards Architect at Roswell which is a much better job than my old one althought the duties kind of overlap. Today, however, was a very challenging and stressful day. I hope that doesn't last, lol. Not good for the Crohn's.

The Gym
I sucessfully went tot he gym anothher five days this week. At this rate I will be buffer than (e:terry) in no time. Unfortuantely, the Crohn's makes the massive eating plan not doable but I am gaining weight and eating lots of yummy sea things.

I started using the sauna. It really makes your muscles feel better afterwards and seems to make my skin pretty nice, however, it is really damn hot. Like 200+ degreees hot.

Getting Our Photos Taken
(e:matthew) saw this ad in Craigslist about a photographer named Scott Pasfiled doing a photo book of gay couple and was looking for some in Buffalo. I thought we would make an interesting story so I wrote to him and he is coming to take our pics tommorow. Seemed like an honest guy, has an nice portfolio and blog.

I am willing to try and find out - then again I got this weird email from some random stranger:

Hi u should know that some NY City photographer guy is forwarding emails you apparently sent to him. The guys seems like a flake. Thank you Jim

The strange part is that I have not shared anything personal that is not on my blog in public with him - so I have no idea what that stranger is talking about.

Every once in a great while I have to use windows instead of Linux or Mac for something and I remember how truly awesome it is. It is so hard not to switch back.

I mean where else can you paint with crashing windows like this:

Matthew's Mom's Birthday
I will start with dinner because it is a prettier picture. Tonight was (e:matthew)'s mom's birthday dinner. Happy Birthday Krista! We headed over to Betty's on Vrigina. It is such a great restaurant. The atmosphere was excellent, as was the food. I had yummy apple glazed pork chops.



(e:terry) had chicken pot pie. The rest of the food all looked so good too but after I started eating I forgot to take pictures, lol. I think everyone had a nice time.



The dead ?

So the dead thing? I was walking down Allen today with (e:enknot) and (e:hjon) and as always I peered into this old store that looks really abandoned at what I think is 14 Allen St.



Not sure what the deal with it is, it is such an eyesore on the street. However, the really crazy thing is there are now like about 5,000,000 big fat flies inside - which mean someone or something has died. The only time I have seen that many flies was when I have seen dead. So may latest idea is either a cat, a dog or the former owner has died. Does anyone know anything about this place? Should I call the police or is that redic? Maybe the non-emergency line as whatever is dead is dead.

They are relaly huge flies. I wish I brought my real camera so i could have gotten a pic of the inside where most of the flies were in bunches.



On another note, this house on Allen is for sale. I always wanted it. I wonder how much it is going for, the realator does not have it on their site. I don't know if I could ever really live on Allen. It would have to change a lot, like the fly shop would have to go, lol.


Claire has a question - Can anyone help her?

Hi,
My names Claire and I live in Wales, UK. In January 2000 I did a student exchange to Buffalo and I helped out in a shop on Elmwood Strip called Octopus Garden. The guy who run the shop was called Lou and I am very fond of him and have fab memories of working in the shop. I just wanted to know if he is still there and if he's ok? Thanks, my hotmail is claireyg1 AT hotmail.com .

Thanks,
Claire

So today I had a three panel interview for a new job at Roswell. Right now, I have a 5 minute pause. It is nerve wracking. I wore a tie.