You might have seen some news coverage of Wines in the Wild at the Zoo. It was a pretty cool gathering, not often you can drink on the job, even pouring for the elite. I got the job of shoveling champagne for media and VIPs, operating fully on the principle of that's two for you and one for me for pouring.

I'm still whipped from the experience as whenever there is events, my office and the development folks are the principle "roadies" so from about 7AM till party time we were tossing and dressing up tables, tents, running supplies and whatnot. It's nice to know I can still do that, but damn it catches up with you. By the time the night was done, I must have walked 20 miles in stuff related to the gathering. For a work day that started a little before 7AM, rolling it at 11PM was a little weird. Woke up yesterday feeling like somebody beat me up while I was sleeping.

The ice cream, you ask, was the offering by Perry's at the big Zoo party on Wednesday night, but our Finance Director appropriated at tub on Thursday. Vanilla Ice Cream with chocolate chips and crushed cannoli shells all blended together. Three great tastes.....yada, yada, yada.

Tried to hang out at the Square last night, but had to be a parent and rescue a rideless child (my own), but I'm not sure I would have lasted through Spirit of the West anyway as my knees were calling me names, none of them terribly kind ones.

Number one Son wound up on the front page of the paper. Saw the electronic version, but it was nice photo op.

Can hardly wait till Sunday, a day off, a free morning, before a week with the youngins. One has work, the youngest has camp, and the middle child, has to babysit, all hail a week of kid centered relaxation after a zoo event heavy schedule. My lovely son decided he wanted to see the elephants on Sunday, this is after I spent all Saturday with them and talking about them incessantly. Got to love going to work when you don't have to.

Love the job, love the pending day off.

The thrill of live TV is always numbed when you are doing it at 5:30 in the morning. I did two segments on Daybreak today. You can see me whoring myself for the elephants behalf here.

The video link is off to the left.

Nearly lost my train of thought, but it didn't completely derail.

It's part of my job these days to be a bit of a media trollop. The first segment was on-air but not posted online (It was all me). I was worried that with the almost gone Bell's Palsy, I was going to look like the Hunchback of Notre Dame, turns out I just talk with my hands a lot for an Irish Guy.

It was early. I got a call from my dad after nine saying he thinks Mom was up for the first segment. What a whackjob. It went okay considering I was up at 3:30 and fighting with the Zoo security guard by 4:30. That type of segment used to be a little more second nature in the type of work I do, but it's been awhile. The first segment was up against the Elephants's railing where the eldest of the ladies was sniffing me and the interviewer up for treats.

Ah, the life of a star

A rare two post day...

It was staggeringly warm on Thursday so I peeled off the work clothes and headed down to Bird Island to just be down on the water. One of those days where breathing made you perspire...







It was a little windy...

There is something about Canal Fest in the Tonawandas that I can't quite put my finger on. I never went until I had to work it when I was still at Adelphia. Now I make a pilgrimage out to spend an hour or two watching people go by, munching on funnel cake and lemonade, listening to some crappy band and thinking the waterbikes look like a nice thing to be doing. It's like watching the parking lot outside the old aud before a concert in the 80s and early 90s where black t shirts and Miller High Life were the height of sophistication, but hell, sometimes a little funnel cake (no actual food in that food) can set you right.


I saw the ride below and thought absolutely no fucking way. I took the picture from my car. You are going round and round on that axis, while spinning on your part of the axis. I suddenly felt ancient as my stomach sent me a message "don't you fucking dare." I reassured my stomach that I don't do rides that are still attached to trailers. That seems wrong

More scenes of semi aquatic merriment.



Sadly delicious and not at all good for you.



Good cheap fun, I would have made it back for (e:Drew) 's movie at the UU church, but the latest Elmwood run, chase, 4k whatever the hell turned a usual 5 minute trip from Forest to my place into a friggin odyessy.

Chillin as best I can this weekend. Manipulated the media to cover the Zoo's elephant return on Thursday and have to do so again this week a couple times. Never dull, gotta love it. Stay cool ya'all.

Packed number one son off to camp this morning. It's his first time away from home, but after a week of talking him up it will be tougher on his mom and me than it is on him. He's a sensitive bugger but I think the week will do him some good. He should benefit from being away, but combined with his sister in the Adirondacks and him in Canada, it feels a little weird sending having the kids that far away. My eldest is running around saying for a week it's 1993 and she is the only child. I responded by putting her butt to work at the Zoo yesterday. Nothing like making 200 snowcones to keep you humble.

If you are sick of reading about me whining about Bell's Palsy, then move along, folks, nothing to see. But, despite sounding like I took a hard blow to the cheek, I got the nice pronouncement that full recovery is on the horizon. For the first time, I had to go to a nerve center. The Kaleida E.R. doc wanted me to go the Kaleida neuro center within a week of my diagnosis. The Neuro center said they could see me the week before labor day. The fucking point behind that escapes me. I called the E.R. doc back to relay this and he set me with the Dent Neurological Center--who took a look and with a refreshing blast of common sense, said another week and I should have it licked. I just have to get an MRI next week to make sure I didn't blow any other fuses. So, yay no more drugs. I've spent more than I can really afford on co-pays and prescriptions the past six weeks. Not a moment too soon either. The Zoo's regular p.r. person is going on vacation middle of this week, so guess who has to media guy for the next ten days. No big deal really, but the elephants come back later this week, so MrMike spokesguy will ride again. All praises to Dr.Pumpter at the Gates ER for being a good guy.

Facebook likes to screw with you. I got an email that told me that while I'm not real cool, I am nice, and I'm been voted a good guy to get stuck in handcuffs with, while I'm not very datable, I am kissable. That's quite a collection of mixed messages.

Blew a little spare change on Itunes on old bombastic stuff like Yes, Emerson, Lake and Palmer, Asia, & Mott the Hoople (there goes that uncool thing again), and it was a trip to have the acoustic version of "Roundabout" playing this morning. I guess not hearing them in sometime made these fm staples seem kind of new in a way.

My sprint contract is up next month, pretty sure now that (e:paul) and (e:jim) have done the necessary application trouble shooting, an Iphone may have to enter the picture before the summer is gone.

Thinking of writing one of my time honored grumpy letters to the Holiday Inn on Delaware for closing their pool club. You used to be able to pay 125 and swim as much as you want between Memorial Day and Labor Day. Thankfully, their bar would bring food and drink out if you wanted. We were members for the better part of 7 summers. The hotel had some issues last year and had no pool. I'm not sure of the mind set, but the pool club members basically funded the pool operations and this year, some Rhodes Scholar decided they didn't need the pool clubbers. Not sure why they decided to kiss off found money, but I'm not sure about a lot of things these days.

It's not too hot and rainy, maybe a field trip to the taste might be a good thing.

Enjoy Sunday folks.