I was walking back from PriceRite today when I saw two old ladies struggling with their groceries on the way. I offered to carry one of their bags and they accepted my offer. We walked the very short distance to the American Cancer Society (ACS) mansion on the corner of Oakland Place and Summer.
I was surprised that they lived there. I always thought it was some kind of a regional office for the ACS. Apparently, they let patients and their families from all over the world live there while they are being treated for their cancer at Roswell Park. One of the women I met was from Florida and the other was from Canada. I also met one of their friends who had come all the way from Greece with her husband for treatment at Roswell. They were all praises for Roswell. I couldn't tell if they genuinely felt that way or were just saying that because I told them that I study there.
They gave me a tour of the mansion. You won't believe just how beautiful it is inside! I wish I had my camera with me. The mansion is wonderfully maintained. The massive polished door leads to a small foyer which opens out into a landing. You immediately see a wide generous staircase leading up. The banisters are gorgeous to look at, though I can't remember whether they were specially carved or not. I have such a fickle memory for detail!
The landing also leads to a living room - with nice furniture and very soothing curtains. The dining room is really impressive with a huge table and matching chairs. I could almost see a formal 18th century banquet there! Then there was a kitchen followed by a corridor which lead to bedrooms - that are given to the patient families. At the back there is another dining room/living room of sorts. The place is enormous - seemed like a endless cave mansion of sorts.
The mansion is actually similar to the 24 in so many ways. I remember mentally comparing it with the rooms in the 24. From several (e:Matthew) conversations, I think it must have been built around the same period in time. I have a feeling that (e:Matthew) would love it! I am wondering if I should take the ladies up on their "visit us again" invite just to snap photographs or better yet, go with (e:Matthew) so he can weave his magic photo-capture technique (and I can then get the scoop on that).
The ladies told me that they are given lodgings but they cook for themselves. In fact, a couple of the other people I met were sitting together and shelling peas (or maybe cutting cauliflower - I really can't remember!) in the back-dining room.
It was an interesting little revelation about that mansion. I wonder if they pay for their lodgings or if its a service that is fully/partially funded by the ACS. If its funded by the ACS, then they are doing a remarkable job!
Tinypliny's Journal
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08/06/2009 00:09 #49466
The American Cancer Society MansionCategory: buffalo
08/04/2009 20:07 #49460
Hilarious.Category: the odes
- SPOILER ALERT*****
I thought of this exact scene as I was watching the finale of the series. Hahaha. I can't believe someone else actually thought of the same scene in that movie!!
08/04/2009 13:01 #49456
Agnetha FaltskogCategory: music
Remember the songstress from ABBA? She is still weaving beautiful melodies...
dimartiste - 08/10/09 14:25
Yes, actually I do remember them! I used to dance around the living room pertending to be a rockstar. I think there is an old snap shot. I will have to look or it, but it was definately ABBA I was singing my heart out too! My mom and I were listening just the other day to ABBA Gold. We are in the process of learning how to record vinyl to cd.
Yes, actually I do remember them! I used to dance around the living room pertending to be a rockstar. I think there is an old snap shot. I will have to look or it, but it was definately ABBA I was singing my heart out too! My mom and I were listening just the other day to ABBA Gold. We are in the process of learning how to record vinyl to cd.
07/29/2009 14:41 #49408
A complete minimalistic reformatCategory: i-tech
I had a nice wake-up scare this weekend and lost some newer revisions of my dissertation. I am not sure entirely what happened but overnight, some of my revised copies went back to their earlier versions with all their glorious little ancient mistakes. It was a very painful weekend. My dissertation is now backed up in 4 more places. My laptop looks like this:
Source:
Yeah, it really does.
I am on a cleaning up and backing up mission and I think I want to go back to the bare-bones aggressively slipstreamed Win XP version that booted in 14 seconds in another life long long long back. I have so many programs here that I have no idea about. I have some piece of obscure software that simultaneously displays weather and forecast in 10 cities. For some reason that I don't have the faintest clue about, one of the cities is Kathmandu, Nepal. Really? What was I thinking??! That is insane, even for me. Did I plan an ill-fated climb of the Mt. Everest in one of my nightmares?? That .exe just went into oblivion trash.
I have no less than 6 Java updates installed! Innumerable re-installs of Firefox and Opera with stray shortcuts ALL OVER the place.This is a living nightmare.
I am whittling it down. Maybe I should just stick to these in the next install
Browser:
Firefox.
Documents
Word 2007
MikTeX
Books/Articles
Adobe Pro
CutePDF
PDF Unlocker
Citations
Bibtex4Word
Jabref
Statistics
R
G*Power3
Visual Media
MPC
ffdshow
Audio
Foobar2000
SRS Labs Plugin
RealAlt Plugin
Mp3Tag
Art
Paint.NET
ArtRage
IrfanView
IRC/Phone
Skype
Neebly
Utilities
Winkey
TaskSwitchXP Pro
7zip
CCleaner
FreeCommander
Do you have better alternatives? :)
Source:
Yeah, it really does.
I am on a cleaning up and backing up mission and I think I want to go back to the bare-bones aggressively slipstreamed Win XP version that booted in 14 seconds in another life long long long back. I have so many programs here that I have no idea about. I have some piece of obscure software that simultaneously displays weather and forecast in 10 cities. For some reason that I don't have the faintest clue about, one of the cities is Kathmandu, Nepal. Really? What was I thinking??! That is insane, even for me. Did I plan an ill-fated climb of the Mt. Everest in one of my nightmares?? That .exe just went into oblivion trash.
I have no less than 6 Java updates installed! Innumerable re-installs of Firefox and Opera with stray shortcuts ALL OVER the place.This is a living nightmare.
I am whittling it down. Maybe I should just stick to these in the next install
Browser:
Firefox.
Documents
Word 2007
MikTeX
Books/Articles
Adobe Pro
CutePDF
PDF Unlocker
Citations
Bibtex4Word
Jabref
Statistics
R
G*Power3
Visual Media
MPC
ffdshow
Audio
Foobar2000
SRS Labs Plugin
RealAlt Plugin
Mp3Tag
Art
Paint.NET
ArtRage
IrfanView
IRC/Phone
Skype
Neebly
Utilities
Winkey
TaskSwitchXP Pro
7zip
CCleaner
FreeCommander
Do you have better alternatives? :)
- NB: I think I might need to update this thread - I have so many random things on my laptop, its ridiculous.
- : Wow that image is so tiny, the font became unreadable... I thought the width limit for (e:strip) was 600 pixels. Apparently not...
tinypliny - 07/29/09 19:23
Here is the fun part. I write everything is TeX and then instead of sitting back and gazing at the perfection in formatting, I see a stressful email from my committee asking me what latex is - "is it a rubber-grip gel pen"?
Other comments I have got through these years include: "Where is the .doc?" "I can't 'track changes' and mark up that PDF you sent". "Can you send the [underline, italic, double stressed]WORD [/u,i,ds] version. "Do you know how to make documents in Word?". "I only use Word". "Word works for other students, why can't you behave and turn in a Word .doc?". "Long document work perfectly in word, what is crazy software you use?" "Your TOC is very nice, but where is your word document".
It's pretty nauseating really. I can't quite get into the mood to actually laugh the last laugh. :)
Here is the fun part. I write everything is TeX and then instead of sitting back and gazing at the perfection in formatting, I see a stressful email from my committee asking me what latex is - "is it a rubber-grip gel pen"?
Other comments I have got through these years include: "Where is the .doc?" "I can't 'track changes' and mark up that PDF you sent". "Can you send the [underline, italic, double stressed]WORD [/u,i,ds] version. "Do you know how to make documents in Word?". "I only use Word". "Word works for other students, why can't you behave and turn in a Word .doc?". "Long document work perfectly in word, what is crazy software you use?" "Your TOC is very nice, but where is your word document".
It's pretty nauseating really. I can't quite get into the mood to actually laugh the last laugh. :)
zobar - 07/29/09 16:36
Are you seriously doing your thesis in TeX? I learned LaTeX on a whim twelve years ago because I thought HTML [comp sci] and Word [everything else] made my school reports look ghastly. They called me a lunatic, but who's laughing now? Nobody, because we've all forgotten about it.
- Z
Are you seriously doing your thesis in TeX? I learned LaTeX on a whim twelve years ago because I thought HTML [comp sci] and Word [everything else] made my school reports look ghastly. They called me a lunatic, but who's laughing now? Nobody, because we've all forgotten about it.
- Z
07/19/2009 10:01 #49330
Noel Coward!Category: music
Indeed. Hahaha...
Wow! What an amazing story. It is so good that such beautiful building are being put to such a good use. I would love to see the picture update if you decided to visit again! That is so really cool! or kewl! depending on yur preference.