MJ Tribute by the C

My good friend Jimmy C has become obsessed with Michael Jackson's music since he died. He bought the 20th Anniversary CD that was released and he keeps it in his car so he can bring it anywhere. On top of that, any place we go with a jukebox he will request all Michael Jackson songs. Last night at the Deuce I gave him $5 to play music and guess what, he played all MJ songs. It was a fun filled night that consisted of every MJ song available being played, accompanied by some outrageous dance moves and a hula hoop performance.

Mark & Mo

A couple weeks ago we had the pleasure of attending our friend's Mark and Maureen's wedding. The ceremony was at the Rose Garden in Delaware Park and it all started off with this...

It only got better from here!

Anthony Bourdain, you fool.

Last night on tv I watched Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations on the Travel Channel. I usually like him because 1) he's blunt, which means 2) he says whatever he feels like, 3) travels around with a drunk Russian who is funny and 4) usually visits some pretty cool places. Well, last night's episode was about the Rust Belt and included visits to Baltimore, Detroit, and Buffalo. I was very disappointed with the portrayal of Buffalo, even though I think the city is a hole.

And here's why:

Everyone knows, or should know, Detroit and Buffalo are comparable to 3rd world countries, at least parts of the cities are. Other parts can be ok (I'm not going to say nice) and yes, the "Rust Belt" is a good reference. This show did not show any of the "nicer" parts of the city. First of all they came in January, the bleakest time of the year. Buffalo has many, many huge trees that decorate the city but we did not get to see them. They showed the old General Mills silo that has been shut down for years, among other closed down buildings.

This is one of the reasons I dislike the city, the numerous empty houses/buildings. But on the opposite of the spectrum, there are many houses/buildings that have been preserved and are very nice. Such as:

Frank Lloyd Wright's Martin House

Louis Sullivan's Guaranty Building

Henry Hobson Richardson's Buffalo State Asylum for the Insane

Alfred T. Fellheimer & Steward Wagner's Central Terminal

Yes, most of the city is very old and run down. But some of it has been restored. Instead of showing these architectural goldmines, they show the dingy, beat down part of the city.

The next reason I did not like the show was because of the places he chose to eat. Yes, Buffalo is known for the Buffalo Chicken Wing and all sorts of pizza. There is even a Chicken Wing Festival every year. The birthplace of the Buffalo is the Anchor Bar, which in my opinion doesn't even have the best chicken wings in town. But Anthony didn't even dine on any chicken wings. Come on! The places he did choose to dine aren't even the best places to eat in town. He went to Schwabl's for Beef on Weck and Ulrich's for Liver Dumpling Soup. Really? This is what you choose to eat?!

He could have had:

A Chicken Finger Sub from John's

Wings from Duff's

Beef on Weck from Charlie the Butcher

Not to mention anything on the menu at Pearl Street

or Fat Bob's

And finally, the last reason I was upset with this show is the fact that the only reason they came to Buffalo was because some weird ass, washed out, rocker dude made a video telling Anthony Bourdain how much he loved him and wanted him to visit Buffalo. Wouldn't you find this kind of creepy? This dude, Nelson Starr (obviously a fake name, he couldn't come up with a better rocker name?) took Anthony and Zamir to Nietzche's on Allen Street to hear his band play. This could possibly be the trashiest/dirtiest bar/club in Buffalo. Nice way to show off the city you love. I was excited to see the show and in the end I was very upset with Anthony Bourdain. But, I guess I shouldn't be upset with him, he doesn't know any better. This rocker wannabe, Mr Starr, has ruined it.

Officially White Trash

Our downstairs toilet has always been a pain and in need of some serious repair. When we moved in it wasn't even turned on so I doubt the old bag who lived there before us was using it. This is because it barely flushes anything without clogging and afterwards you have to stand and wait for the tank to fill so you can turn off the pump or else it will run. Well one day a couple weeks ago I used the bathroom (just #1) and the water wouldn't go down. So I left because I obviously knew James had clogged it and he needed to fix it himself. The next day he decides that instead of plunging it, he'll just keep flushing it until it over flows. And that's just what it did. There was an inch of water in the bathroom and it was leaking into the basement. The only thing I could think to do was turn the water off at the bottom of the toilet. I told James he needed to have a plumber come while he was on vacation the next week. He had 7 full days of vacation, he did not go anywhere or do anything, but still managed to not call a plumber. This is pretty sick, but when I got home from Utah the bathroom had begun to stink. I was fed up with this so I made an appointment with Roto Rooter for later in the week. I guess this was James's breaking point because he decided he wanted a new toilet and was going to do it himself. I was very nervous for this but he insisted he could do it. After about 4 hours and 3 trips to Home Depot it was complete. It flushes, doesn't clog, and hasn't leaked, yet. But until the garbage gets picked up on Tuesday, we are officially white trash.

Tank! What the hell, man?

Tank has reverted back to peeing and pooping in the house. He has decided going outside is not for him. This has recently developed since I got back from Utah. There were some instances where he would sneak upstairs to poop in James's closet, but that is nothing compared to what he's been doing the past few days. What usually happens is in the morning I will let him out and he'll go #1 and then come back in, get a treat, run around and then stand by the door again and go #2. This is because fat ass knows he'll get a treat every time he goes outside. Then throughout the day he'll stand by the door to go out or I'll decide he needs to go out. In the past 3 days he has gone #1 three times upstairs, one time in the kitchen while the door was open so he could go out, and has also gone #2 twice upstairs. I've yelled at him (a few expletives here and there) but now I'm so appalled all I can muster out is "Tank! What the hell man?". James told me this morning this is all my fault because I baby him. I asked for examples of situations where I baby him. All he could come up with is "You pick him up". Ok, I won't do that anymore, what else? "That's all I can think of". Oh, ok, so it's all my fault but you can't tell me why. Thanks asshole. So how do I get this SOB to start doing his business outside again?

Sawing Logs

Pugs, because of their flat face and lack of a nasal cavity, tend to snort more than other dogs, may sound like a pig once in a while and even snore. Well my man Tank is no different. Usually, when Pugs get to be on the "fatter" side, the snorting and the snoring get much worse. My other Pug, Cieta (who was double the weight she was supposed to be), snored horribly loud when she slept. And Tank's girlfriend Bella snorts all day long. Tank is still on the "leaner" side, against the wishes of James who says "let's bulk him up so people just know his name is Tank". But instead, Tank enjoys eating green peppers with his breakfast as well as Weight Watchers string cheese and the occasional piece of lettuce. I don't believe Tank will be "bulking up" any time soon. Anyway, Tank likes to sleep on his back, which is just weird to me, and it causes him to snore quite loudly. I decided the other night to video this because one, I think it's hilarious and two, most people don't believe it could be that loud. The video starts off dark because I had to hide it behind the pillows or the sound of the camera would wake him up.

Sayonara Rick!

James's good friend Rick is moving to Boulder, Colorado, to attend the University of Colorado, to study Astro-Physics. Yes, there is such a major as Astro-Physics, although it's very rare. Hence, why he is going to Colorado. He's in to snowboarding so I'm sure he'll get into hiking and what not, since there isn't much else to do in Boulder. Farewell Rick! Here are some pictures from his going away party.

Circle for the "Key's to the move".

Kristin agreeing to be thrown in the pool after she won the dice game.

Jimmy "falling" into the pool.

Hats off

I just want to say hats off to all the ladies out there who clean up after their babies who are constantly puking and pooping. Yesterday, after Tank had puked in James's car twice (it wasn't just a little puke either), and after he puked on one of my throw pillows on the couch (which I threw away instead of cleaning), I realized that this is only a puppy who maybe pukes once in a great while. There was a time where I was cleaning up poop and piss on my carpet every single day, most of which has stained my carpet. Yesterday was no exception. After cleaning the car I came inside to find puke on my couch pillow. I then had to go upstairs to the bathroom before I peed my pants and he followed me up there and puked under the bed and all over James's bookbag. But it's no where near what people with babies have to go through. So hats off to you ladies who have babies, and double hats off to those who have multiple babies. I think I'm just going to stick to the puppies and dogs.

This is the little jerk on Saturday while I'm attempting to nap. Instead he wants to chew on the button on my pants.

The Iron City

This past week James had taken some vacation and we decided we needed to get out of Dodge for a while. Since I still had to work all week we made it a two day trip. We were planning on leaving early Friday morning after I took my final online for my first summer class. But when I couldn't access the final I began to panic. It was supposed to be available from 7am to 11pm and as of 9:30am it still wasn't available. So I e-mailed the professor, so there was record I couldn't access it, and brought my laptop with me in the car hoping the hotel had Wi-Fi. We dropped Tank off at James's mom's work, which so happens to be the vet's office. He loves Linda and has a great time when he goes there cause he plays with all the other dogs that come in, so I wasn't too worried about leaving him.

After about 4 hours, three bathroom stops and some missed exits we made it the Hilton in the Iron City. We got there and I was able to access the final from the hotel, which was crap-tastic. We decided to go down near the stadium before the game to check out the pre-game festivities. We could see the park from our hotel room but it was across the river so we had to walk up the river on one side to a bridge and then back down the other side to the park. Now we've been to some crazy baseball parks, such as Boston and Cleveland, and Pittsburgh was nothing like that. It was soooo dead down there before the game. They have a strip of sports bars and we were able to go to a few of them and have prime seating outside even an hour before the game!

We got into the game early and walked around the stadium before we went to our seats. Pittsburgh is one of the cheapest stadiums in the MLB. We got seats in the 4th row behind the dug out for $50. The face value of the seats was $32 so the guy made a nice little profit but they still were not that expensive. I guess when you sit that close the usher personally leads you to your seats, wipes them off and the seats are padded. We didn't catch any foul balls and we didn't get on TV, at least we don't think so. The next day we went to a part of Pittsburgh called the Neighborhood Strip and ate at Pamela's Diner. It was soooo good, I ate it all and didn't have to eat until that night at about 8:30pm. On the way home we stopped at some winery's, did a little tasting, bought some wine and got into Buffalo and picked up our little Monster, who had a fabulous time without us and didn't want to leave Linda's house. Effer.

Here are some highlights from the trip:

Blowing the fuse in our room with my hair dryer and having to call the front desk and explain.

The usher yelling at James to not lay on the dug out for a picture.

The nachos at Mullen's.

Breakfast at Pamela's diner.

The pesto bread we picked up at the Strip.

Laughing at James because he spilled on his jersey 2 minutes after he said he wasn't going to.

The hotel room being nicer than our entire house.

A man, a legend

This past Saturday I had to privilege to see in "concert" Lance Diamond. He is this older fellow who has been singing at the Elmwood Lounge for the past 30 years. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, he is a lounge singer. I've only been to the Elmwood Lounge once before and I loved it. It reminded me of a lounge that maybe Mike and Carol Brady went to hang out. I thought of it as a place where my great-grandma Rene would possibly go, this is probably because her apartment was decorated in the 70's style and that's how I remember her. The place is half lounge half diner and it is amazing! They have dim lighting and the old brown leather chairs and tables centered around a very tiny dance floor. I didn't know what to expect since I'd never seen Lance before (only heard of him since he does a weekly radio show on the local soft rock station). When they announced for him to come out he came out of the kitchen, which I find odd, dressed in a sparkly, possibly bedazzled, animal print suit. Yes a suit. Both the pants and the jacket matched, as well as his large, over sized, belt buckle, which also was bedazzled. When his band started to play (by the way the are called "24 carat gold"), he started to shake his booty. He probably is moving quite a bit slower than he did when his act first started many years ago, but he was still heating up the dance floor. Needless to say, this was one of the greatest performances ever! I can't wait to go back every Saturday night for the rest of my life!

Me, The C, Lance, Danielle, James