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

James P Lewis Graduation Party

This past Saturday James threw himself a graduation party. Yes, he organized it and paid for everything. He said since he didn't get a high school graduation party, he was going to make sure his college graduation was twice as good. I was not allowed to have a say in anything, but I did give him some foam cups with a little saying on them. He rented out a pavilion in the Ellicott Creek park and invited everyone he knew, everyone he met and random strangers on the street. We had a good turn out but he definitely bought more food than we needed. Let's just say I will be eating hamburgers for dinner every night for about 3 months. To start off the weekend we went to the Bison's Friday Night Bash. The next morning James and the boys got up bright and early and went to breakfast while the girls went to the park to do the Race for the Cure. (And thanks to all my peeps who donated!). That afternoon the party started and went until about 9pm, when the park closes. (Only the creepy old pedophiles come out at night. Yes the park is a known "hang out" for them.) The next day we had a golf outing, which turned into a debacle for me and Kristin. I'm not a golfer by any means, and neither is Kristin, but we are learning. Normally, a good score in golf is about 80. Well I got that in one round, and that was the better of the two rounds. The first round I shot 91, so I improved my score by 11. I would call yesterday a winning day.

Mary Beth, Jonah and James

The "C" How many people does it take to light a BBQ? 7 apparently.

Me and Danielle

Tank's new friend Jasper

PC and his amazing bow tie

Holtsie and Tank

Getting ready for the pinata. Yes, he bought himself a pinata.

Team Plaid

Pub Crawl 2009

My friend Corinne signed us up for a Pub Crawl along Elmwood, one of the "hip" streets in Buffalo with all the shops and restaurants. We started at 3 and had to make it to 8 bars. We had a great time and made it to all 8, and then some. We stopped for pizza twice and had appetizers at 2 of the places. There were 30 people in all but most did not make it to all 8. Some stopped and stayed and some I guess went home. It was a really fun time and our friends from Boston who were in town even met up with us.

The Buffalo Zoo

A couple weeks ago me and James went to the zoo on a Sunday afternoon. The Buffalo Zoo is a hole in the wall but they have this new exhibit called "The Rain Forest". Its a new building that is supposed to imitate the actual conditions of the rain forest. It was a cool exhibit. They had an anaconda, an anteater and monkeys. The rest of the zoo is craptastic, but they are working on updating it.

Yes, this gorilla is scratching his ass. He was doing it for about 10 minutes.

The tortise in the Rain Forest exhibit The waterfall in the exhibit This anaconda was sleeping under the water. Creeeeeepy. The bear in the pool kept slapping his paw on the cement to get the other bear to play. He wasn't having any of that.

Tank's personality

So I've noticed that Tank has been developing his own little personality and has his little quarks that stand out. He lets his personality out and it's pretty funny. Here's what I've noticed:

He has what I call "his spin move". He will spin his body around when he gets excited. It's funny to watch. He will only spin counter clockwise.

He does NOT like the rain and will not go outside when it's raining.

He does not like being in water. I filled the kiddie pool with water for him cause it got hot one day and he did not enjoy being in there.

He likes to lay in the sun.

He likes to chew on ice.

He likes to eat carrots, green peppers, pepperoni and cheese.

When he is chewing on something he knows he's not supposed to he will run off with it and take it into his "bat cave" (under my bed).

Sometimes he just likes to lay in the bat cave.

He likes to chew on cardboard. I'm addicted to online shopping so whenever I get a box delivered he will run right over to it and work it.

He loves to play with anything that breaths such as Milo the cat and the other dogs at daycare and puppy class.

He stole a mouse toy from Milo and might think he's a cat.

He has learned to like baths since he can lick the water and the tub.

He licks everything.

He snores when he is in a deep sleep.

He will stick his head out the car window and try to bite the air.

When he is angry he will have a spaz attack and run in circles around the living room and on to the couch, including anyone sitting on the couch.

He has developed his man bark and likes to use it on the neighbors, the neighbors cat and his reflection in the oven.

He will not do the trick "down" on a hard surface, only on carpet, which makes me look like an ass in puppy class when he won't do it.

He likes to jump into laundry baskets and just sit there.

He has made me his bitch and will not do anything I say, but is a total Mama's Boy and has to lay on me and follow me wherever I go.

When he is being a sissy I will call him "Tanker Bell".

He loves to sleep on his back.

Doggie Daycare

So since James has been in LA for the past week, I had decided that Tank would be by himself way too much. We go to puppy class at this place called "Oh My Dog" and they offer a doggie daycare service. I called the owner to ask her a few questions about the daycare before I made the decision to take him there Friday. I was leaving work early and he had a vet appointment at 2 so I thought it would be a good day to try it out. In case he didn't like it, he would only be there half a day.

So Friday morning I took him there about 7:15 so I could see how he reacted before I left him there for the day. The owner had apparently talked to the girl working that day because she already knew who Tank was and that I was very nervous about bringing him. She kept reassuring him that he would be ok and that I could watch him on the webcam. Yes, they have a webcam. Since it was still early, the only other small dog there was a mini chiwawa and Tank loved playing with her. It was hilarious. The chiwawa would run circles around him and bark. Then he would run circles and bark. It was really funny to watch.

When I got to work I was very upset when I found out that my computer at work has Internet video blocked. I immediately called our MIS department and asked if I could get it unblocked so I could watch Tank. They thought this was quite funny so they also watched Tank for awhile. At one point I was watching the webcam and saw that Tank was humping another dog (from the side, mind you. What is that going to do?). I immediately closed the window in disgust. He hasn't had a humping problem since I threw away his stuffed gorilla that was the size of him.

When I went to pick him up at 1:00 for his vet appointment he was so full of energy that we had a spaz in the parking lot of doggie daycare. But when I got him into the car and onto the seat he passed out in a matter of minutes. He also kept panting and I figured he needed some water before the vet, so we stopped at Mickey D's and they gave us the water for free. He then proceeded to piss and shit on the floor of the vet (and James's mom works there, luckily she was on vaca). I think Tank loves doggie daycare so he will be going there probably once a week. Funny little guy.

Hilarious Website

Check it out! http://awkwardfamilyphotos.com/

Good Quote

A busy weekend

This weekend started off awesome since I took a half day off at work on Friday and James had Friday, Saturday and Sunday off for graduation. We went to lunch and then off to Friday Night Bash at the Bison's game. James got chosen for the on field promotion for the NY Lottery. He only made two bean bags in the hole though. I think he hit the girl holding the sign more than he made it into the hole.

Saturday we got up and did some yard work. We now have a "garden"! And by "garden" I mean a half assed piece of dirt that we put some stone around. That night we took Tank over to James's parents house so he could play with her dogs Moo and Toby. By the time we got home he was exhausted which was great.

This morning we got up early for James's graduation. He received his Bachelor of Science from New York State University at Buffalo. He had a double major of Communications and Psychology. Congratulations James!