We took advantage of the warm Sunday to go hiking down at Chestnut Ridge. From the look of the parking lot we thought it was going it was going to be packed - but they all must have been on the eternal flame trail because we didn't see too many people. The shale-y creek beds remind me of Hunter's Creek.



I hadn't been to hike at Chesnut Ridge since elementary school, when a bunch of hippies showed us what weeds we could eat, and we had lean-to building contests. During (e:paul)'s time Ken-Ton elementary schools had camp outs - but at some point that became too risky for schools, and it turned into county park day trips.

My favorite part about the weather was the watching the snow melt run off into increasingly bigger streams. We walked through a path that basically became a creek.






At some point we came across this old chimney backing up to a creek. Nothing else was around it - I wonder what it was for. I climbed the top and looked down - it was full of garbage.




My photos for the day came out pretty good. I wish I could post a bunch of the time lapse pictures I took because I felt they get the streams the best, but they're in mp4 format and I don't feel like uploading them to youtube. Maybe estrip should support small file-size HTML5 video.












On the way home we stopped at Curly's for late lunch. It was expensive but amazing - I had the jerk tofu with sliced grilles vegetables and Terry had a mushroom mac and cheese. I need to figure out how to cook tofu that way.

On Saturday (e:paul) begged me to go to the mall with him, (e:mike) and (e:dave).

First we went to the Como restaurant on Pine Avenue Niagara Falls. My meal wasn't a decent deal - salad, cheese ravioli entree and a cannoli for $12. An old Italian man in the bathroom asked me if I was trying to hide my gun.

(e:mike) had the pops all lined up.


The outlet mall is as expected - pointless. Even Paul agreed that there's not much he actually wanted to buy. But I managed to block most of the consumerist orgy out by hanging out with Paul, Mike and Dave. Plus I got to do a lot of walking, even if it was inside.

(e:paul) trying to bring back the 90's




This sweater was $1395 marked down to $595. WTF?!

We went to a going away party for (e:keitht) and his buddy Miranda at the Maritime Center last night. She's built a boat they're taking down to Florida with them. It's pretty awesome.

There was an after party house party in West Ferry. We hung out a lot in the amazing attic with a loft/bed. (e:terry) wouldn't let me take his picture for some reason but I snuck one of him and Paul up there.

Good luck down south (e:keitht)!

I'm not a big believer in the medical campus construction, but I still like watching stuff get built. I feel like I can imagine myself putting my degree to use by thinking about how the construction is staged.

Look at these big girthy girders getting erected between Buffalo General and the new children's building. Gets me hot and bothered.

If we are allowed in the conventus (e:Paul) and I can almost walk to work entirely inside. Good for him in the winter.

We were in a desperate toothpaste situation, until I found out from Paul you can cut open the tube and scrape the last few uses out. He said his old East
German friend Jörg used to do this. I can't believe I never did it before.

Anyway I went to the coop and the price for the Toms toothpaste was ridiculous, $5. So I looked online and found on online grocery service called Jet. I was able to order it for 3.50 a tube, plus there was a 15% off coupon. I ordered $215 dollars of groceries for $180, including bulk laundry detergent and 30 packs of granola bars. (e:paul) says I'm hurting the local economy but it's way more efficient to have them drop shipped from the manufacturers warehouse instead of ten other warehouses and a big box store. on the downside they used too much packaging. Wtf. who cares if a dishwasher detergent box is dented.

I guess online groceries delivery is exciting for me now.

Yesterday we went to the new food court next to the Market Arcade. The food was pretty good but once again look at this packaging from Sun. I wonder how much gets thrown out.