After the botanical gardens and dinner at Papaya, (e:paul), (e:terry) and I were talking about all these crazy things. This included scallops anatomy, St. James, Yiddish, and Ashkenazi (a group ofJews in Europe).
Paul sent me this amazing article about the last Jew in Afghanistan named Zablon Simintov. Apparently every Jewish person in Kabul, even his wife and kids, left for Israel during the Taliban and US invasion. There was even another Jewish guy in Kabul but he ended up passing away.

Despite a lot of people wanting him to leave, and the fact that his catering business is closing, he refuses to leave the country. he wants to maintain the synagogue and his heritage. In a way I can understand - he's already somewhat old at 55, his father and grandfather were rabbis in Afghanistan - why would he leave at that point? He's made it through well this far. It'd be giving up a lot if you asked me. I admire that kind of tenacity, even if I don't understand his religion.

Hoping to warm up and not waste away in bed, (e:paul), (e:terry) and I headed out to the Botanical Gardens today. It was so humid, warm, and nice. It made me feel better for a bit.
I busted out the Canon for fun for the first time in a long time. I can't say I've used it regularly since getting my first smart phone over a year ago. The best camera is the one you have with you, right?



The vanilla cabbage patch plant.

Cute




Roar

What does Terry want for Christmas?



Little Shea's



This tree looks like it has a face.



Lots of babies.




Mirror shot!




Not sure what this is, but it smelled weird.
[bgcolor]#30C4DB[/bgcolor]

On my way home from work, I stopped at this huge bonfire I saw at Silo City. Today is the 200th anniversary of Buffalo being burned by the British. Today we're burning british stuff including a book of British royals. Sorry (e:mike).

I looked it up later and it's pretty crazy. When the British attacked, everyone in Buffalo and Black Rock tried to flee to Williamsville. Anone who stuck around got shot, including a Mrs. Lovejoy who insisted on staying to protect her dresses. They even came back on January 1st to shoot anyone who came back.









The story of the burning

[bgcolor]#00ff13[/bgcolor]

(e:xandra), (e:paul) and I are all sick. I feel super achey and tired while Paul and Alex have terrible coughs and fevers. Paul and I napped half the afternoon away with crazy dreams. Mine involved bike routes, estrip, falling off rocks into the ocean, and college friends coming in for Paula's doughnuts. Weird.

(e:terry) was amazing and made us a delicious vegetable soup. I wonder if we just are a week late to what he caught last week. I hope it doesn't get worse, I don't want to take a day off and new years is two days away.

It's time for bed again, this can only help.


Edit for (e:tinypliny) : Paul told me you can change your post's background color! For future reference you just need a valid HTML color or color hex value in between like

[bgcolor]#1E90FF[ /bgcolor]

included in the post!
[bgcolor]#1E90FF[/bgcolor]

Today (e:paul) and I went to go shopping with (e:mike) and (e:libertad) out on the Boulevard, at Trader Joe's, Feel Rite and Michaels. We stopped at Michael's first to get the new years ball before heading to Feel Rite. Mike had to use his insurance card Supermarket Sweep money which ended up being a fiasco.

Feel Rite is kind of crazy to me because while they do sell a lot of good health products, they also sell a lot of bullshit supplements and therapies that are useless at best and outright harmful at worse. Some of the natural herbs and food have been scientifically proven to be useful and I consider traditional medicine. But the vitamins/cleanses and homeopathy section drive me crazy. The worst part to me is they seem to all appeal to some anti-traditional medicine sentiment. Sure, a few doctors may have a vested interest in profiting off you, but not most and they have typically have peer reviewed science behind them. Why would these snake oil salesmen be any better in that sense, when all they have are their own crazy specious claims? Water with herbs in the parts per billion having any sort of efficacy? I doubt it. Doesn't this undercut the credibility of a health store? Maybe its just buyer beware. So many studies about these products are available online now. If you can't even look it up on your phone like Paul I consider it your own fault. I always like to visit when it comes to quackery.

Then we ate at Red Pepper. I got the tofu stir fry with rice noodles which was really good. Last stop was Trader Joe's before we headed home. We failed to kick the candy addiction. The penguin gummies are amazing.


The Boulevard looks so rough these days. Maybe its just winter being ugly. A lot of run down vacant buildings and even a boarded up house.

Ying's moved into his ex wife's KCafe after his fiasco.


(E:mike) thought this was to kick a candy addiction. Yeast infection might be worse, lol.