Great pic from Lisa

Thought I'd share, so everyone can have a great evening!

Went to the mall today...Walden Galleria Mall to be specific.

What the hell was I thinking???

The MALL???? on a Sunday????

Don't I know about the Canadian Invasion that happens every weekend?

Don't I know that getting a parking spot is almost hopeless??? Although, I did notice that there were hardly any Ontario plates in the upper level parking deck over by JC Penney. Hmmm.. perhaps they haven't found that place yet.

It's just crazy over there, what with the new found strength of the Canadian dollar and the close proximity to our friends in the great white north, the busses full of shoppers can't get over here fast enough. More power too 'em. Lots of sales tax generated. Bed tax from the hotels over there by the mall where the bus loads of shoppers stay. That Galleria addition will be paid for in no time.

There is a little problem with these invaders. Garbage. Here's the story from Channel 2 News.....

With the value of the Canadian dollar rising against the dollar, shoppers from Canada are spending big at the Galleria Mall. But, it's what they're leaving behind that's the problem.

Carla Avery is the manager for Hurley Corporation. They manage the trash at the Galleria Mall.

"It's just the garbage. The trash is unbelievable, keeping up on trash alone," said Avery.

She says the company has added 15 people in the last month to deal with all the extra work Canadians are causing. And you might be surprised at what they're leaving behind.

"They just change here, leave their old stuff here and put their new stuff on and leave boxes and bags and it piles up," said Avery.

2 On Your Side didn't believe it, until we saw it for ourselves. Canadians taking off their old shoes and throwing them in the trash. Then, wearing their new ones right out of the mall. Some shoppers even changed outfits and threw the rest away.

Canadian Robin Kostyscyn, "I think when they get to the border they're trying not to get busted there, so they take everything off. They wear probably old shoes over here and then change them out, put on their new shoes."

So we approached several groups of Canadians to find out if they're trying to avoid duty on the way home. Most tried to avoid our cameras, but one couple admitted it.

Reporter, "We've heard some people are trying to avoid paying the duty on it, so is that what it is?"

"Yes, that's true," the woman admitted.

Others say they just want to ditch the boxes because they're too bulky. With the value of the Canadian dollar rising against the dollar, shoppers from Canada are spending big at the Galleria Mall. But, it's what they're leaving behind that's the problem.

Carla Avery is the manager for Hurley Corporation. They manage the trash at the Galleria Mall.

"It's just the garbage. The trash is unbelievable, keeping up on trash alone," said Avery.

She says the company has added 15 people in the last month to deal with all the extra work Canadians are causing. And you might be surprised at what they're leaving behind.

"They just change here, leave their old stuff here and put their new stuff on and leave boxes and bags and it piles up," said Avery.

2 On Your Side didn't believe it, until we saw it for ourselves. Canadians taking off their old shoes and throwing them in the trash. Then, wearing their new ones right out of the mall. Some shoppers even changed outfits and threw the rest away.

Canadian Robin Kostyscyn, "I think when they get to the border they're trying not to get busted there, so they take everything off. They wear probably old shoes over here and then change them out, put on their new shoes."

So we approached several groups of Canadians to find out if they're trying to avoid duty on the way home. Most tried to avoid our cameras, but one couple admitted it.

Reporter, "We've heard some people are trying to avoid paying the duty on it, so is that what it is?" Yes, that's true," the woman admitted.

Others say they just want to ditch the boxes because they're too bulky.

Yeah...thats right..the boxes are too bulky. *wink wink* Maybe the Galleria staff could put out collection bins for all those old items and they could take the stuff down to the City Mission. Or GoodWill. Or Amvets. Damn...that's a great idea.

this kid had the best costume last night...

...looked even better in the dark as she was walking down the street

My pumpkin turned out pretty good too!

Happy Halloween!!

Full Moon Fever

Full Moon tonite. Everyone.. up off your butts and bark at the moon.

AAHHHOOOOOOOOWWWWWWW OWWWW OWWWWW OOOOOOWWWWW

Try it..it's very theraputic!!!!

I love this sign

On This Date...

...in 1985, Offspring #2 made her grand entrance!

Happy Birthday Shell!!!

On This Date in History...

...Offspring #1 entered our universe on this date in 1983.

Happy 24th Melissa!

Also...that pesky little storm came sweeping across Lake Erie one year ago today.

If you are a mom...or you have a mom...you need to watch this

Autumn?

What a glorious start to October!! Lots of sunshine during the day, temps in the high 70's, low 80's and absolutely perfect sleeping weather at night.

As far as the leaf change goes....its not been too spectacular. I dont know if its because of the damage from last year or from the relative dryness over the summer. Some trees have all but changed and some havent started yet. Perhaps when there's more of a crispness in the air the colors will begin to be brilliant, but I dont know. This time last year, two weeks before he big storm, there was crimson and gold and brown everywhere.

On a scary note, this time last year we were having the same kind of weather. I guess we should just enjoy it whilst we can, cuz in two weeks, who knows whats gonna happen. I'm just sayin.

Clever

Animator vs. Animation by *alanbecker on deviantART


Thanks to Scott for this one!

On This Date...September 20, 1988

....Offspring #3 made her grand entrance into our little universe.

Happy 19th Emily Kay!!!

One of the coolest things....

...that will happen around here is set for January 1st. The Sabres will be playing the Penquins in the second outdoor hockey game,(first one in the US...Edmonton being the home city in 2003) put on by the NHL. 74,000 people in The Ralph for an outdoor hockey game. Way cool!

Tickets went on sale this morning at 10:00. The event was sold out at 10:11. I guess they put out 34,000 tix for general sale. We got ours! Being season holders, Justin bypassed the line at the ticket office and went right over to Guest Services. The woman in the window said "how many you want?"...he says "40" hands over the cash, and voila!!..we're in. There's gonna be one hell of a tailgate party before this game. I'm giddy.

What the??????

I had to run into the mall this afternoon. Parked the car outside Penney's cuz I'm gonna dash thru their store to get where I'm going....and what are they doing in the center of the store???? Putting up friggin' Christmas trees and decorations!!! It's September eight-frigging-teenth!!! Halloween is, what, 6 or 8 weeks away??? Thanksgiving is 10 or 11???

Does it seem like every year the holiday prep starts earlier and earlier or what?

Criminey!!!

So..the monitor on the old 'puter got fried for some reason. Turned off my trusty friend the other night...Sunday I think it was, cuz of the nasty little thunder storm we were having. Next morning I go to power up..and NUTHIN out of the LCD. I hate when that happens.

On the bright side, it could have been a fried motherboard.

The Last First

Well..its the Last First Day of School. Offspring #4 started her senior year of high school today.

WoooHooo!

Brraawkkk Brawwkk brawk Braaaaaawwk

Offspring #3 and I went to the National Chicken Wing Festival yesterday afternoon. For the most part....YUM!! Neither one of us were big fans of the teriyaki or the 'jerk' sauces....and she had one of the 'hots' that was so hot we had to mosey over to the Chiavatta's stand to get a corn on the cob to put the fire lips out. There was a stand from NYC, if I remember correctly, that had a wing with asiago sprinkled on it...very tasty.

I do have to say however...of all the wings we ate, Anchor Bar's were the best...and rightfully so, I would think.!

Talk about shattered illusions

Apparently this whole 'Mars as big as the moon' thing is BOGUS!! I was just thinking to myself yesterday, as the news folks were going on and on about the Lunar Eclipse that happened this morning, I thought 'self, why have we heard nothing about the Mars thing' Well, we've heard nothing cuz its a falsie. Snopes.com sets the record straight.

My illusions are shattered. I thought everything on the internet was true *dripping sarcasm*

J.P. Losman is rolling up his sleeves to beautify Buffalo, and invites others along

How cool is this? Offspring #3 and her boyfriend are planning on participating. I would too but I'm working.

Here's the story from the BuffNews. I'm sure that link will only work for a short while...then it goes into the archives and you have to pay to get it.

In any event.. here's the link for the website for info.

JP is starting to be one of my favorite sports people around here.

So....

...It's my first day off in, like, 3 weeks. Got tomorrow off too. Feels kinda weird.

Bought myself an iPod about 2 weeks ago. Lovin' it. Uploaded all my old napster-fed-back in the day when tuneage was free- cd's back on to the old 'puter then down into the iPod. All those cd's rattling around in my car, now compressed into an, 'iiiiitty-bitty living space' *wow...did an Aladdin image just pop into your head right there? *

When the moon hits your eye....

Two moons on 27 August*

*27th Aug the Whole World is waiting for...*

Planet Mars will be the brightest in the night sky starting August.

It will look as large as the full moon to the naked eye. This will cultivate on Aug. 27 when Mars comes within 34.65M miles of earth. Be sure to watch the sky on Aug. 27 12:30 am. It will look like the earth has 2 moons. The next time Mars may come this close is in 2287.

Share this with your friends as NO ONE ALIVE TODAY will ever see it again.

You dont want this guy at your next card game

Happy Independence Day!!!!

Ok, so we haven't had any rain in weeks...I'll go so far as to say months *about 2*. When does it rain???? TODAY of course.

The festivities at the sis-in-law's cottage are cancelled for lack of indoor gathering space. Oh, well...thats the way the firecracker explodes.

We do need the precipitation badly, though. The grass really shouldn't crunch when you walk on it.

The Silver Lining

I was perusing Buffalo Rising Online today (where I swiped this picture from) ... http://buffalorising.com/ and came across this article . Nice to see this sculpture thing has taken off! Kudos to Carvings for a Cause.

Check this out...

...incredible

Thanks to Nina for sending it to me.

Devils 46 -- Legends 44

Wes and Nancy and Alan lower the Legends flag after the softball game Thursday night. There won't be a 2007 on that flag next year, so there'll be the big rubber match.

Quite fun, this game. A tennis ball with a hole punched into it...*to reduce bouncing* and the best part.....extra runs if you take the 'slip & slide' into home plate.

Click here to view a litte slide show of some of the pics from the game and here for the pics from after the game. Good times, good food, good friends. Thats what its all about

This is great

Uncle John sent this to me....

I'm gonna share....



Rick Monday Tribute 1976 - video powered by Metacafe

Thats right!!

I'm from Buffalo. We eat chicken wings, not buffalo wings. Jack Kemp is a quarterback, not a politician. We drink Labatt Blue and love it. Mighty Taco always has preference over Taco Bell. Pop, not soda and Pepsi, not Coke.

They are sneakers not tennis shoes. It's a sucker, not a lollipop. Bison Chip Dip, La Nova Pizzeria, Aunt Rosie's Loganberry, Chiavetta’s Chicken, Peter K's Potato Pancakes and Ted's Hot Dogs are all too familiar... not to forget Taffy's Shakes and Charlie the Butcher.

A fake ID is unnecessary, there is always Canada. But we have them anyway. Our bars don't close until 4 AM, and we DO sell beer in a grocery store (Tops or Wegmans), which always makes for early starts and late nights. Jim's Steak Out at 4 in the morning is calling it an early night.

We never cuss, but we swear entirely too much. We know that a 65 mph speed limit really means 80. We will cut you off, swear, and give you the finger if you are not keeping up AND do it all in the snow, while expecting nothing less in return. Driving in the snow not only comes naturally, it is fun.

We know what Artvoice and Nitghtlife are and we either love them or try to burn every copy we see. We start the weekends off right at Thursdays in the square enjoying beer, free music, and an interesting crowd.

We lived through Wide Right, The Forward Lateral, and No Goal. Dubbed by Dan Marino as "the meanest fans because no-one actually wants to live here." We all know he wouldn't stand one winter up here. We love the Bills (no matter what) and accept that it takes 2 - 4 hours to get home from a game.

Nothing closes in 3 feet of snow or -20 windchills. In fact, that's how we prefer to tailgate. The 2001 Christmas Storm that dumped nearly of 7ft of lake effect snow, we still think it's a mere 2nd to The Blizzard of '77.

We can correctly pronounce, spell, and identify Chippewa, Scajaquada, Lackawanna, Cheektowaga, Cattaraugus, Chautauqua, Olean, Tonawanda and Gowanda without hesitation. When giving direction it's not " take I-90 to Route 33 east" it's "take the 90 to the 33 east"..."the" is not an option.

We are 30 minutes from another country, one of the seven wonders of the world, and even a few beaches. It's the second largest city in New York.

I AM FROM BUFFALO, a drinking town with a sports problem, and damn proud!

LOVE IT OR HATE IT

Reshoot

Had some free time today to go out and shoot some follow-up pics of the TreeStorm damage.

Remember the weeping willow on Borden Rd.? I thought she was a goner. Arborists were saying any tree that lost 50% of its crown had to be destroyed. Well...she got all trimmed up and apparently was worth saving. We'll see what happens. The house in the backround didn't fare too well. Bigass fire pretty much destroyed it. Aside from the big burned out hole in the roof, this angle doesn't look too bad. The other side of the house is a different story.

I headed over to St. Matthew's Cemetery. They did a great job over there.

Then I was off to GardenVillagePlaza..the former staging ground for the debris. Now it's just a parking lot in a mostly vacant plaza. It looked better with all the sticks.

Why did I not have my camera at the ready????

I wish I had been paying more attention to my odometer...but nooooo.....so I missed this on 34567. Dang it!

I was mocked by The Spouse for posting the pic with all 3's. Apparently he thought it was stupid. I guess I'm even more stupider now!

It all comes down to your stuff.

In the end...its just your stuff...and where it goes. Temporary storage for the late Mom-In-Law's stuff that we inherited is now in the garage, waiting for its new place. The grill, lawnmower and garbage cans moved up front from their corner in the back for easy access.

Man..this is a rather macabre couple of posts, huh?

Who does this?

Is this bizarre or are we just quirky?

This looks like just another ordinary family picture, right?

Wrong.

This was taken after the funeral breakfast for the Spouse's Mom, who passed away last week. We've done it the last couple family funerals we've had. I dunno...weird or not?

R.I.P. Nancy

All that glitters blue and gold...

After the phenomenal season the Buffalo Sabres had, I'm pretty bummed that the season ended the way it did. But, hey....there's always next year. Man..I'm sick of hearing that every year. I'm also a little tired of Big Shiney Trophys being handed out on our ice to visiting teams.

Series Three Game Five

This is getting interesting!!! Its now 3-1..and after this afternoon, I think it'll be 3-2. I've got good feelings!!! Let's make this a series boys!!!

****starts a chant****
Let's Go Buffalo
*clapclap clapclapclap*
Let's Go Buffalo
* clapclap clapclapclap*
*sprinkles blue and gold glitter all over the place*

Check this out....

... It's pretty funny...

Series Three Game Four

This is for all the beans. Down 3-0. Now that we've lulled the Sens into thinking they're awesome, it's time to pounce. I know, I know...I'm grasping at straws whilst looking for shadows in the dark, but till it's over, I still have hope.

****starts a chant****

Let's Go Buffalo

*clapclap clapclapclap*

Let's Go Buffalo

* clapclap clapclapclap*

*sprinkles blue and gold glitter all over the place*

Not so good

Well.....the fat lady has entered the room....she hasnt stated warming up yet, but....

The optimist in me says to hang on and believe, so thats what I'm gonna do. I dont wanna hear the fat lady sing.

Series Three Game Three

Ok...they dont call them the Kardiac Kids for nuthin'!!! I need a few more grey hairs....lets kick some Senator ass tonite . I for one refuse to believe that we wont win this series. There..I said it..now lets get it done!!!

****starts a chant****
Let's Go Buffalo
*clapclap clapclapclap*
Let's Go Buffalo
* clapclap clapclapclap*
*sprinkles blue and gold glitter all over the place*

This song and video will now and forever remind me of the amazing ride we've been on this year.



This is also a really good read... click here

Series Three Game Two

They'd better show up tonite!!!!

****starts a chant****
Let's Go Buffalo
*clapclap clapclapclap*
Let's Go Buffalo
* clapclap clapclapclap*
*sprinkles blue and gold glitter all over the place*

Series Three Game One

Buckle your seatbelts......this is gonna be a hell of a ride!

****starts a chant****

Let's Go Buffalo

*clapclap clapclapclap*

Let's Go Buffalo

* clapclap clapclapclap*

*sprinkles blue and gold glitter all over the place*

Do I?....or..Don't I?

I've heard the best way to make a decision is to make a list of pros and cons. I believe that's what I'll do. The question....

Do I fork over $135 for a ticket to Thursday nights game?

Pro---They've won both series where I've attended Game One
Con---Can't think of one for that.

Pro---I have the funds
Con---Again..I got nuthin'

Ok...Ok..this is foolish...I'm gonna have a big fat 'nuthin' for any Pro I come up with. I believe I just need to rationalize this to myself.

There's its all settle...I'm going.

This picture says it all

Series Two. Game Six

****starts a chant****

Let's Go Buffalo

*clapclap clapclapclap*

Let's Go Buffalo

* clapclap clapclapclap*

*sprinkles blue and gold glitter all over the place*

Unfriggin Believable!!!!!

Another Friday night, another close Sabres game, another time I jet outta work, another Sabres win. Watch this to get a feel of the atmosphere from Friday. You'll notice there's a couple darker shots of people with the gold pompoms. Thats shots from the plaza outside the arena. There were over 4000 fans out there watching the game on the big screen they have set up. Offspring #4 was out there totally into the craziness whilst The Spouse was inside in my seats that I couldn't use cuz of the whole work thing.

I'm thinking the boys with come out today firing on all cylinders to put the Rangers away for the summer.

Series Two, Game Five

Well....here we go. Hopefully the extra day off gave the Sabres time to pull their collective heads out of their collective asses. There'd better be some passion and desperation tonite.

****starts a chant****
Let's Go Buffalo
*clapclap clapclapclap*
Let's Go Buffalo* clapclap clapclapclap*
*sprinkles blue and gold glitter all over the place*

Series Two Game Four

****starts a chant****
Let's Go Buffalo
*clapclap clapclapclap*
Let's Go Buffalo* clapclap clapclapclap*
*sprinkles blue and gold glitter all over the place

Oh, brother!!!

So..I get up Sunday morning and I'm all set to cast my Blue and Gold Glitter spell and SHAZAM!! no internet! Time Warner has chosen this particular time to switch over some servers from the now defunct Adelphia servers and we're without cyberspace till midmorning Monday.

What happens??? Sabres lose Game Three. Not cool. It's the playoffs, man....we need all the mojo working!!!!!