Greetings for the land of cheese, e-strippers.

I come to you live from the most unexotic of destinations....wait for it......Milwaukee. The occasion, the annual gathering of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums. After flying from Buffalo, via some vintage aircraft of Northwest and cheap shuttling my way to my hotel, at least I'll be confortable. I drew a room at the Intercontinental dowtown. A single suite with multiple flat screen tvs, posh all mighty.

The show gets seriously going tomorrow, but I trekked the six blocks to the convention center to get the ubiquitous tote bag and name tag that says "Hey, I'm a tourist!" Every screen I pass shows today's depressiing financial news. (e:jim) writes of being able to buy a house and save fore retire. I think I had my one shot at the house and am stuck thinking of more imaginative financial wonders with a kid supposiedly off to college next year. After some tough academic sledding in recent years, I'm beginning to think it might be better for my darling daughter to go to ECC for free for two years and get used to the workload and then transfer to some place to truly set the world aflame.

Meanwhile, my jaunt today is pretty benign by estrip standards. The second plane landed in Milwaukee and I would have sworn we landed at the Boulevard Mall. The route to baggage claim is lined by an Auntie Anne's, Borders, Spencers and a Starbucks. I know that is the way of the world but the layout was too similar.

Off to a marketing meeting at the Harley Davidson Museum.

I don't know if it is omen for the week or not, but given that I have a five minute commute with the lights to work. It was a little odd to see accidents at Gates Circle, Delaware & Rumsey and Delaware & Nottingham this morning. The last one was the worst, with both cars looking not unlike twice baked potatoes. One was a Yaris and that isn't much of stretch. But still, awful lot of bumper cars in a short space. First full week of school has the area driving crappier than usual.

Watched the Bills game yesterday from a much better perch than the previous three years. Instead of standing in the rain at the stadium, I sit in a comfy chair at my Dad's with drink and snack. Whereas I didn't get paid, I much preferred that vantage point.

Loved getting to Tropic Thunder with a gaggle of (e:strip)pers and other admirers of (e:imk2). It was a good time. I wimped out on Fugazi as I think I'm getting a little old and boring, not to mention a little too comfortable at old man bars.

Current user pic is from when I was young and boring. A college friend of mine joined on facebook and posted a gang picture of the 1984 staff of WSBU-FM. We were trying to look tough and it came out that we looked mostly silly, but there you go, a window into when my hair was a unified color of brown.

Wish the democrats would stop giving a shit about the spew coming forth from Sarah Palin. There is a pattern to convention bounces and by so much kvetching over the weekend, the Republicans are getting a little more bounce than they should. Still got to beat McCain, guys, focus.

I'll vote for the first assemblyman candidate who quits filling my mailbox with useless 9 X 13 full color, laminated piles of accusations. If there was a none of the above, I'd go for him/her just because they haven't given my mailman a chance to work on his anger issues.

Sick of the "spend a moment with Dale Volker" commericials. The attempt to paint somebody as warm and fuzzy when they are cold and crumudgeonly ain't flying past this little marketer.

My DVR was working overtime this weekend with a free HBO and Cinemax weekend. May have to connect up for the duration of Entourage.

Off to Milwaukee for work on Monday. I wish I was a little more jazzed for it. I used to travel for work all the time back in the proverbial day, but this is my first work trip in some time. Any get together that has an opening night reception at the Harley Davidson museum can't be all bad. Too bad I'm built more for Vespas, but that could be cool to look around, otherwise it's like flying to Buffalo from Buffalo.

Just walked into the Zoo break room and found a stash of Hershey's Dark Bars -- hopefully, that is an omen.

Okay, I know that's not her first name, but that might be more than John McCain knows. According to one report, he met his running mate once before calling her to ask her to be his Veep. Two weeks ago, he was saying that this is the first presidential decision a candidate can make and took another gratuitous shot at Obama's experience level in the same breath. His answer to the Dems' Denver Woodstock was to turn to somebody who just got elected to her first ranking office. Can almost hear the thinking: "Hillary's people aren't happy. I know how we can get them. Quick, get me a uterus under 50!" I wish I can take credit/blame for the line, but given that there are a lot of smart accomplished Republican women (yeah, I actually admitted that) like Kay Hutchinson, it's a little odd to pick somebody so thoroughly under the radar when you've invested considerable time picking on the Democratic candidate for rising up. It doesn't bode well for Gov. Palin when the NBC news tonight broadcast a four week old interview of her admitting that she doesn't know what the Vice President does.....

Course, it doesn't say much for my recent social life that I caught all the big speeches from Denver as they happened. Best line of the week came from Jon Stewart (no surprise) when he said "Course, the Republicans love America too, they just hate half the people living there."

Almost makes me wonder if McCain is throwing it. His folks can't be relishing the thought of debates with Obama after his speech at Mile High on Thursday. Dude worked the large crowd well. Maybe he studied McGovern too closely.

As I write this, I just got an email saying New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin just ordered an evacuation of the city. That is just awful. New Orleans was one of my favorite cities to travel to for work as there is lot to explore. You can't help but discover new sounds, new foods, even if they were centuries old. The shameful neglect ("Heck of a job, Brownie.") of the city after Katrina still has numerous sections still in ruins and if Gustav doesn't turn soon, it's gonna get it again. Say a prayer for them levees down there.

I get dispatched to Milwaukee in two weeks on Zoo bidness. I couldn't be less thrilled. It's like going to Buffalo with the lake on the wrong side. Despite the beer heritage, it isn't a trip I'm looking forward too.

Got to work on Monday so I'm going to get out tomorrow. Young son just wanted to hang today, and I can't blame him. He's been "camping it up" all summer. I'm off to a nice little leftist picnic tomorrow afternoon, and then to buy school supplies.

And now for something completely different.

Looks more like Jacob Dylan

I actually watched a little of the convention coverage from Denver last night. After running around, I arrived at the tv just in time to see Ted Kennedy. Given how sick he is, he can still work a room. He didn't saying anything groundbreaking, but it was impressive to see the rabble get roused. The pundits and wannabe pundits are tripping over themselves looking for something to say, when there isn't much. It's terrible, but I preferred a new episode of No Reservations at ten.

The Hoyt nonsense seems to be falling by the wayside. I'm reluctant to wade in too much as our kids hang together, but the timing of the revelation smacks of typical New York State power politicking. Given that the assembly was in the middle of budget debates and a primary election for Hoyt, I can't help but wonder if the blogger got a little extra help to notariety from entitles that Hoyt has pissed off along the way in the hopes of getting the easier to beat Kavanaugh on the November ballot.

Redesigned my manga. It's little more accurate and mood representative.



And so it goes...