Marisol @ The Albright Knox

This morning Becky and I went over to the Albright Knox Art Museum to see the Marisol exhibition. Becky had already gone once already with her sister but this was my first time seeing the exhibit. The artist had donated a significant amount of her work to the Albright Knox because they were the first gallery to show her work.

It was a very large show of her amazing work. I was totally impressed and fascinated with her work that included sculptures, paintings, drawings, videos, dance and set designs.

It's nice being members of the AKG because we can go over there any time for whatever amount of time and check out show or exhibit. Today we went when the museum just opened at 10 am. Even though it was a Saturday on a holiday weekend it was not crowded at all and we enjoyed going through the museum. We left a little before noon and the place was quickly filling up. We did have a great time and I look forward to going over and seeing the Marisol exhibition one more time before the show closes in early January. Almost all of the work in the show is now owned by the AKG but it will not be shown in this large retrospective exhibit but rather in smaller groups of her art.

Maybe we can go again with Katie and the kids over their Christmas visit. I know Clara would really love this work.

Snow Clouds South

Last night Becky and I both got severe weather warnings on our phones that were focused on heavy snow in the Southtowns. Also the thruway was closing to truck traffic between Rochester and Erie. 

But here in Buffalo it turned out to be a beautiful morning and Becky and I went over to the Albright Knox Art Museum. From the ramp between buildings I snapped a couple of photos of the clouds that were dumping all of the snow south of us. We have a beautiful blue sky. It's cold but no snow.

Thanksgiving Dinner 2024

Last night we had a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner at Dave and Donna's house. The food was all very good as usual especially Dave's smoked turkey.

The regular Thanksgiving crowd was there and we were happy to see Jimmy and his little guy Sonny who is now 3. Cassie was her usual self.

We were sad that Katie and the kids did not come to Buffalo this year and we missed having them staying at our house this Thanksgiving. We did do a video chat with them during our time at Dave's and everyone enjoyed seeing the kids on the phone.

One thing that was a little different this year was not getting the take-out pack of leftovers that D&D usually give all of their guests each year. Now they didn't to Thanksgiving last year because they went to NYC for the holiday with Jimmy so maybe they forgot but in years past it was always nice to get some of those leftovers for a snack the next day and especially a little of those so many deserts. Oh well. 

We were the last ones to leave at about 10:00 pm.

Making Cranberry Sauce

Becky makes cranberry sauce every year for Thanksgiving dinner. It's always the real thing. She follows the same recipe each year which includes sugar, lemon zest, cinnamon stick and cranberries of course. Boil it all together and let it simmer for ten minutes to thicken. Then it's ready to refrigerate for tomorrow. She made this after our dinner at Coles tonight.

Coles for Dinner

We had a busy day getting ready for Thanksgiving although it was different for us without a house full of kids for the holiday. We really miss not having Katie and our grandkids here this year.

So we went out for some dinner at Coles tonight and had a wonderful meal as usual. I had their roast beef Clancy sandwich with their amazing fries and Becky had their Chicken Milanese. I had a couple of beers on tap... my first Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale of the season and also a nice Guinness Stout. 

Making Pumpkin Pies

For many years Becky has made a couple of pumpkin pies for Thanksgiving dinner. However, lately over the past few years Katie has wanted to make the pies. They were staying with us for the holiday weekend so it was easy for her to go ahead and bake the pies here in our house for the dinner at Dave and Donna's. This year is different because Katie isn't here and Becky wanted to make her pumpkin pies for dinner at Dave's house.

So for the first time in about five years Becky made her pumpkin pies.

Buffalo Rehab Again

Today I had my third visit of this physical therapy series that is focused on my lower back and left leg. Matt gave me more exercises which is the primary reason for doing these sessions. I'm doing my sessions in the morning now instead of the afternoon. My sessions begin at 10:45 am and it's a lot more crowded in the gym than it was at 2 in the afternoon. Lots of old folks too.

I start of with a heating pad and then Matt does some stretching exercises with me. Then I go over the exercises he had previously given me and then he shows me one or two new ones. One of the things I like about Buffalo Rehab is their online videos of my exercises where I can look at them anytime to make sure I'm doing everything right.

I also ran into an old friend... Bob Jones. It turns out that he is doing physical therapy as part of his recovery from a recent stroke. I had heard about his stroke a week or so ago from Dave so I wasn't surprised to find him there although it was interesting that he is there from 10:00 to 10:45 and is working with Matt too. So we had a brief exchange before he was out the door and I was starting my first exercises. I'm sure I'll see more of him over the next few weeks.

More Comfort Food

Tonight we had more comfort food. Becky put together some burgers from Dash's. The ground round that we like. She also made some home fried potatoes which is a specialty but this time she used some regular big potatoes that had a slightly different tasted and texture than her usual small multi-colored potatoes but still very good. I love putting that great Trader Joe's sriracha roasted BBQ sauce on the burger and potatoes.

And some great fresh salad of course.

Waking Light - Songs 2014 FV

Another set of songs from albums in my collection released in 2014. Lots of interesting deep cut picks.

Beck in the pic.

Waking Light - Songs 2014 FV

1. Waking Light – Beck
2. Road To The Sun – The Soft Hills
3. Oh Baby – Wake Owl
4. Sour Times – The Civil Wars
5. Close To Me – Minnie Driver
6. One Day – Winterpills
7. I’ll Be Alright – The Last Internationale
8. Making Believe – The Haden Triplets
9. You Know Me Well – Sharon Van Etten
10. Angel of Small Death and the Codeine Scene – Hozier
11. Capsized – you+me
12. When You Believe Me – Donovan Blanc
13. Over It – AgesandAges
14. All I Want – Dawn Golden
15. Here I Stay – John Hiatt
16. Someday – Eric Clapton & Mark Knopfler
17. Almost Like The Blues – Leonard Cohen
18. Tell ‘Em I’m Gone – Yusuf
19. Stars – Angel Olsen
20. Master Pretender – First Aid Kit

Waiting For Columbus - Vinyl Spins

Vinyl Spins. Little Feat – Waiting For Columbus, 1978. One of my favorite live albums. I got this double LP when it was released and later the deluxe 2 CD version. Saw them live in early 1975 at the Irvine Auditorium in Phila. Still love to spin it.

Comfort Food

Becky made some nice comfort food for dinner after a long day on the road coming back from Sean and Ashley's house and visiting the grandchildren.

She made chicken cutlets and a slightly spicy rice package along with a salad with some very good tomatoes.

This hit the spot after driving for a few hours and then relaxing at home.

Autumn's First Birthday

Becky and I drove over to Sean & Ashley's house for Autumn's first birthday party. It was a lot of fun and she was just the perfect little one year old for the event. Her brother was a little more wild but that is expected with a three year old at a birthday party. He wanted to open up all of her gifts. She'll know better next year. Her birthday was actually yesterday.

There were a few more three year old kids at this party who were Andrew's friends and the children of people Ashley worked with. Everyone at the party was nice, friendly and interesting to talk with. Well, except for Ashley's mother who was her usual weird grumpy self. It's amazing to see how she didn't interact with her grandchildren except for the 13 year old a little bit. Her and Morgan do like buying gifts for the kids though. 

Overall we had a great time. We drove back to the hotel and relaxed for the rest of the evening. We were very tired.

Mind Changes - Songs 2014 FV

This mix of songs from albums in my collection released in 2014 is a little different and focuses more on the neo-psychedelic music of that time. Well, for at least some of the mix. Not a lot of hits on this one and end with a few interesting cover songs. Mind changes indeed.

The photo is the band Van der Vous.

Mind Changes - Songs 2014 FV

1. Mind Changes – Van der Vous
2. Mesmerise – Temples
3. Inside A Dream – The Vickers
4. Velvet Antlers – Death Vessel
5. Pony Tails – The Sudden Death of Stars
6. Rimbaud Eyes – Dum Dum Girls
7. Night Tripper – Holy Wave
8. Wake Me Up – The Raveonettes
9. Shadow Inversions – Smoke Fairies
10. Diamond Eyes – The Black Angels
11. Eyes To The Wind – The War On Drugs
12. Don’t Want To Know – The Galileo 7
13. What You Isn’t – The Brian Jonestown Massacre
14. In Your Mind – Waylon Speed
15. Red Violins – The Gaslight Anthem
16. Ticket With No Return – The Orgone Box
17. Everything Infinite – Wunder Wunder
18. Sell Your Sell – The Pink Mountaintops
19. Heart Of The Sunrise – Electric Wurms
20. To Turn You On – Robyn Hitchcock
21. Satellite Of Love – Joseph Arthur
22. Johnny & Mary – Bryan Ferry

Brain Aneurysm Warriors - Family History

This is my introductory post to the Brain Aneurysm Warriors Facebook group. It was spread out over four separate posts. 

Thank you for welcoming me as a new member. I have a long involved family story of aneurysms across four generations. We’ve had several tragic deaths from sudden ruptures including my father and grandfather. We've also had many more lifesaving surgeries including my own in 1989, three of my siblings and recently my daughter. 12 members of our family have had brain aneurysms and we have participated in an international genetic study of brain aneurysms by Yale University. I’ve had 23 scans of various types over the years to monitor several untreated aneurysms.

I've been involved with brain aneurysm online support groups since the pre-web early 90's and ran a site on a local Free-Net around that time.
Mine is a long and complicated story and I will break it up into smaller digestible sections. This is Pt. 1. Photos are me with my post op scar in 1989 and the clip.

Part 2 of my new member post about our family experiences of brain aneurysms.
Up to date technology is important. I went looking for an aneurysm in my head in 1988 when I was almost 37. I convinced my regular doctor to send me to a neurologist to get checked out even though I was not having any symptoms or any problems. I just needed to find out for sure because I always knew that I probably had that ticking time bomb in my head. I had even told my future wife back in the mid-70s’ that I did not expect to live much past 50.

My father, one of his brothers and their father all died young from ruptured brain aneurysms. My father's aneurysm ruptured in 1970 when he was 47. I was 18 and our youngest brother was 8. I had only been in the Navy for six months when some fellow sailors told me the chaplain was looking for me which is never a good sign. When I went to his office he told me my father was sick and I should call home. I did and found out he had just died within that hour. I flew home on a two-week emergency leave for his funeral wearing a black armband on my summer whites uniform.

So then 18 years later in 1988 I went and had my first of 23 brain scans. It was a CATscan and they found nothing. I was also fortunate that my health insurance covered the scan. I was very excited and talked with my brothers about them getting scanned too. Back then we thought it was only a male thing getting aneurysms in our family. My youngest brother’s wife worked in the neurology department of Jefferson Hospital in Philadelphia and they recommended him getting an angiogram scan which subsequently did reveal a brain aneurysm. They said it probably would not have shown up on a CATscan. He had surgery to clip his aneurysm but he had an unforeseen reaction to the anesthesia drug in the form of malignant hyperthermia which caused a stroke. Fortunately, he recovered but it took a long time.

While that was happening in Philly I went back to my neurologist in Buffalo with that info and then had an angiogram scan. They found two aneurysms in my brain. One was considered at the time to be inoperable because of the location behind my eye. They recommended surgery to clip the other one but we put it off for a few months because my wife was eight months pregnant at the time and we had a toddler running around.

My surgery went well although I also had a reaction to the anesthesia but they were now ready for that possibility and I woke up from surgery packed in ice to control the malignant hyperthermia. I was home in a couple of days but spent many months recovering on the couch with our new son lying on my chest and our little girl staring at my stitches and scar. We never dreamed that she would one day go through the same surgery. It also turned out that my clipped aneurysm was ready to pop and I was fortunate we didn’t wait any longer.
Next post I’ll describe how my life changed after surgery… for the better.

Part 3 of my new member post about a family experiences of brain aneurysms. 

Moving On. During those months of being home recovering I worried about the functioning of my brain especially after seeing the long recovery of my brother from his aneurysm surgery related stroke. Prior to my surgery I had been working at my in-laws’ art supply store that was located near the SUNY Buffalo art school at the time. I had helped computerize the business throughout the 80’s and was very interested in personal computers but I wanted to do something different now.

I also wanted to test my brain so I enrolled that fall semester in a computer science course. I had a BA degree from Temple University in Film & Media Studies that I finished in 1978 after my four years in the Navy (1970-73) but then in 1989 I really wanted to work with computers but I also felt I needed to be in a work environment that was not stressful because I still had another aneurysm in my head that I had to live with and monitor. I liked the idea of working with computers in libraries which was becoming a new thing. Quiet and not stressful too. I then enrolled in the School of Library Science graduate program at SUNY Buffalo. I went one semester to try it out and loved it. I was good with the computers and the University gave me a Graduate Assistantship to run the computer lab for the MLS program. That meant I was going full time for a two year program and had no tuition plus a stipend. In addition to regular library studies I especially focused on the computer aspects of libraries and it being 1990 there was also that new thing called the Internet that became my specialty.

I graduated in 1992 as a librarian specializing in computer technology and online resources. I was immediately hired at the downtown Central Library of the Buffalo & Erie County Library System as the Computer Support Librarian for Reference Services. I stayed there for five years before moving to Canisius College where I worked as the Library Systems Coordinator. I loved working with students. I stayed at Canisius for 20 years and retired in 2016. During that time I had a brain scan every two years to monitor my untreated aneurysm and the clipped one. Over time as technology improved they discovered two more smaller aneurysms. We had then realized the girls in the family could get aneurysms too including my sisters. I tried to get everyone in the family tested including all the kids starting at age 18. Bu we also lost another non-tested family member to a fatal rupture. More on that later and my own librarian research into online aneurysm resources. Sorry to ramble on so…


Part 4 of my new member post about a family experiences of brain aneurysms. Recovering and A New Career. It took a while but I recovered from the aneurysm clipping surgery and then finished up graduate school with a masters degree in library science specializing in computer technology. I was also getting ready to turn 40, still changing diapers and starting a new career.

I also had to regularly monitor that other aneurysm behind my eye that the doctors said they couldn't operate on. The good news was they said it was non-fatal because if it ruptured the blood would drain away from my brain but into the eye cavity. The bad news was it would probably blind me. Some other good news was that my surgeon used one of the very new, at the time, non-metal clips which meant that after a couple of years of getting angiograms I was then able to get the new MRI scans which was much easier and non-intrusive. Technology was getting better and throughout the 90's I got regular MRIs every two years. Also this was long before coiling, micro-surgery and stents.

During the early 1990's I was worked at the downtown public library and conducted weekly public demonstration and training sessions in the auditorium on using the internet. I used my personal experience to research aneurysm medical information during those early pre-world-wide-web sessions. I also created a gopher site on a community free-net for aneurysm resources that people could go back and look at. I called it Brain Storm. It would eventually evolve into a website that I kept until 2004.
Later in the mid 1990’s I came across Dr. Bill Maples’ new aneurysm support group on the State University of West Georgia’s website. It was called the Aneurysm & AVM Support Page. It was a collection of many personal aneurysm stories posted to the site including my own which I first posted in 1997 and then updated several times over the next ten years as more of my siblings and cousins had surgeries or ruptures. There were many interesting stories to read on that site and was a great example of how the sharing of information on the Internet was developing some 30 years ago.

Maybe next post I'll describe our family participation in that genetic study of brain aneurysms since we had 12 family members with aneurysms.

Texas Flood - Vinyl Spins

Vinyl Spins. Texas Flood - Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble, 1983. I got this record when it first came out and I played it constantly at the Pastime. It was very popular in the sound booth. 

Forty years later it's still always nice to give this a spin. Glad I was able to see him live in a small club back in 1983 at the Rooftop Skyroom in Buffalo.

I first heard of Stevie Ray Vaughan when he played guitar on David Bowie's Lets Dance album. It was tragic that he died in a helicopter crash in 1990. I have 8 of his albums in my collection.

Back to PT

It took a while but I finally got scheduled and actually went to my first physical therapy session in ten months and this time finally to focus on my back and left leg. The last time I was going to Buffalo Rehab was for my dislocated shoulder from last Christmas. Then I had to end the sessions because of my scheduled eye surgery last March.

Last week I was back on Hertel Avenue with the same PT person from before... Matt. This time we are focused on relieving the pain and discomfort in my leg and back that has been happening because of the protruding disc in my spine that is pressing on the nerves in my back and leg. I'm also having a lot of pain in my left foot.

I've been to see Dr. Daye again. I initially saw her for my dislocated shoulder and then later made an appointment to check out my back and leg. I had scans done of my leg, hip, foot and spine. She saw no real problems that would require surgery but recommended shoe supports for my feet and to get some PT to stretch my back.

So today I am again at PT on Hertel. I'm scheduled for Tuesday mornings for the next four weeks with Matt.

Matt has a PT student intern working with him from Canisius who turns out to be from Philadelphia. So we had a conversation while I was working on my stretches and it turns out he is from the Mayfair section of the city and he went to Father Judge High School. We had a laugh when I told him I went to their arch-rival North Catholic High School and I was from the Germantown section of the city. And I was also a graduate of Temple University. He was also surprised to hear that I was a retired librarian from Canisius College. Small world.

Vinyl Spins on BlueSky

I discovered that there is a lot of activity on BlueSky concerning vinyl records. I have a lot of photos of records spinning on my turntable that I posted over the years in my Vinyl Spins series. Now I'm putting some of them on BlueSky.

I started out with Bruce Springsteen and described the album along with some of my experiences seeing him perform live around the time the album was released. I followed that with Joni Mitchell and then with that first Velvet Underground album with the peeled banana. People liked that story. I've got many more to share.

Joni Mitchell Again - Vinyl Spins

Vinyl Spins. It was Joni's birthday recently and I'm still spinning some of her albums. She has been one of my favorite musicians since I first saw her perform at the 2nd Fret folk club in downtown Philadelphia in 1968.

It's very nice to spin some of her vinyl records. I think this is probably the third time I did a Vinyl Spins post about her albums. I also posted this to Bluesky.

I'm also going to go back and reread the biography of her that is sitting on my book shelf. I went through it too fast the first time.

Saturday Night Adventure

With restaurants that is... it was only 5:30 and first we tried Coles. No go. 45 minute wait for a table for two. Then we walked down to Jack Rabbit which used to be one of our favorite places Bull Feathers. Too crowded. No table for two. Then back to the car and we drove over to Main Street and found some success at 6 pm with The Steer.

Now that was crazy busy too but we were able to get a table and we had a nice dinner. The kitchen was swamped and there were an awful lot of people that came in a little before we did and they got our order a little mixed up. The food we did get was delicious but not exactly what we ordered. It also took a lot longer than usual to get to our table.

This was probably the first time we were there on a Saturday night in decades. We go there a lot but usually on Wednesdays or Thursdays. Very occasionally on a Friday. Never on Saturdays.

It was funny that this was the second Saturday evening in a row that we went out for dinner. However, last week we went to JT's on Elmwood and first got reservations that afternoon. We didn't think we would need reservations for Coles at 5:30 but we were very wrong.

So we ended up having a nice dinner at the Steer and we were there until about 7:30. Becky had a Bruschetta Chicken Sandwich and I had a BBQ Fried Chicken Sandwich. Lots of fries too. I also had a couple of draft beers... a Harp Lager and a Peroni while Becky had a Stella.

Do The Right Thing - Songs 2014 FV

To me doing the right thing is making another mix. It's what I've been doing for nearly fifty years. In recent years I've been putting together my Final Version series of mixes of songs from albums in my collection released in various years. This one is 2014. It seems like a never ending process. So here is another one.

AgesandAges in the pic.

Do The Right Thing - Songs 2014 FV

1. Divisionary (Do The Right Thing) – AgesandAges
2. Down On The Bottom – The New Basement Tapes
3. The Gospel of John Hurt – Alt-J
4. The 84 – Black Prairie
5. You’re Tied – The Young Sinclairs
6. Torn Red Heart – Mark Lanegan Band
7. Land of Broken Dreams – Weyes Blood
8. This Is a Part of Something Greater – Orenda Fink
9. Zigzagging Toward The Light – Conor Oberst
10. Keep Some Hope – Wildbirds & Peacedrums
11. Novella – Ancient Cities
12. Cross Path – Centro-Matic
13. In Time – The Black Keys
14. Daydream – Ava Luna
15. Would You Fight For My Love? – Jack White
16. Julia – Ray LaMontagne
17. Lonely Richard – Amen Dunes
18. Real Life (Angel) – Elbow
19. Too Far Gone – Sir Sly
20. Do You Feel It – Holy Wave
21. Fortune – William Fitzsimmons
22. A Plan Too Far – Chrissie Hynde

Rigatoni & Sausage Soup

Becky made some really good rigatoni and sausage soup. We had some leftover sausage and it was perfect for a Fall soup.

Bluesky Signup

Last night I signed up for the social media message platform Bluesky. This has suddenly exploded in usage as a progressive alternative to the Musk X/Twitter. Thousands of people have been signing up over the past couple of days. It will take some time for me to explore this new online world. Several of my music friends have created accounts which initially prompted me to take a look.

They have you create a handle and I tried a few before coming up with the very simple geoemery51 along with G-Sphere Sounding Booth which is of course my blog name. This is where I will sound off on all kinds of stuff.

They ask for a self description in your profile and I took my blog about me as a starting point. There is a significant limitation as to how much you can write. Here is what I have at this time...   "A librarian, music collector, grandfather, political observer, reader, technology geek, Navy veteran, film major, history buff, beer enthusiast, sci-fi fan, brain aneurysm survivor, writer, traveler, obsessive mixtaper, former DJ and an artist's spouse."

Now I need to make a first post. An introduction of some sort.

Another Aneurysm Group

I recently became a member of another aneurysm support group on Facebook. This one is called Brain Aneurysm Warriors. I was welcomed into the group and asked to post something about myself and my aneurysm experience. Mine would be like writing a book or at least a pamphlet. 

The welcome post went like this... "Welcome Warriors Wednesday! Thank you so much for joining us. Please don't be shy. Tell us your story, share your wisdom, vent to us, and just be yourself. Have fun here, kick back, relax, and mostly importantly, rock on, Warriors!"

I wrote this comment to the welcome post... "Thank you for the welcome. I will soon post a more detailed account of my brain aneurysm experience but I will say for now that earlier this year I had my 23rd brain scan since 1988 which includes angiograms, CATscans, MRIs, MRAs and CTAs."

It looks like most of the people in this group are new to the aneurysm experiences. I think it will be helpful to hear from someone who has been dealing with these issues most of my life in one way or another.

So now I will put together something of an introduction of my aneurysm experience and I think it will need to be posted in segments.

Sausage & Rice

We had a very nice sausage and rice dinner tonight along with some tasty vegetables.

There was a lot of sausage cooked up so I'm sure we're going to have some nice leftovers this week.

Burgers & Home Fried Potatoes

Tonight we had some veggie burgers and Becky's great home fried potatoes along with a nice salad. Now I had some of that wonderful Trader Joe's sriracha roasted BBQ sauce on everything... well, except the salad. Yummy dinner.

First Frost

Last night we had our first frost of the fall season when the temperatures dropped to the upper 20s. We woke up to a beautiful cold morning. Lots of blue skies and frost on the ground.

We've done a lot of yard work over the past couple of weeks so we were ready for this cold spell in the garden. It was amazing how many flowers were still blooming in the past few weeks. Just yesterday we were remarking about how many flowers we saw in the gardens of our neighborhood during our daily walks.

The second picture here is our front yard garden taken yesterday. You can see the colors of the flowers blooming there among the fallen leaves.

Now it's time to get some bird seed and get the bird feeder installed. Just yesterday I got the bird feeder clamp and pole out of the shed and put them on the back porch. The feeders are in the sunroom waiting to get filled with seed and put on the pole. 

I'm looking forward to watching the birds at the feeder from the kitchen table. The start of our winter ritual.

3 AM Moon

Last night I woke up at 3 am. I know because I looked at my phone. I was in the back bedroom sleeping because of my restless leg and lower back pains. I've been sleeping there a lot recently because I can thrash around, stretch my legs and not bother Becky.

I was awaken from a light shining on me. The room was bright. I got up to go to the bathroom and I had also noticed that the moon was the bright object shinning on me. It was amazing. I picked up my phone and took a picture out the back window of the moon. Then I slept good until almost 8 am.

Monty Don

We've been watching a lot of the BBC gardening television series Gardeners' World and the various Monty Don garden from around the world shows. We started watching his shows regularly last year and suddenly it was part of our television routine especially when we would get tired of watching the news shows. Watching his programs have been a serious relief with all the election results news.

He is a very fascinating and knowledgeable presenter of all things related to gardens. It is interesting to note that he has never had any formal training as a gardener.

The last time Katie and the kids were staying with us we were watching some Monty Don and Clara liked it very much and wanted to keep watching while exclaiming how beautiful the flowers and gardens were. She loved it.

So the two programs I watch to get away from all the magat news has been this Monty Don garden shows and going to YouTube to watch classical or jazz concerts. With both of these alternative programs we have on the television while we are also doing other things around the house as a background. But of course there are moments when a particular garden or a piece of music calls to us.

Trump Circus

Just when the trump magat circus seems like it can't get any crazier it does... a lot. The so-called president elect continues to make everything harder for himself and the rest of the nation. Even for the magats although they don't know it yet but they will. 

Maga Nazis

Neo-Nazis groups are on the rise in America and it is directly related to Trump who appears to embrace them especially since winning the election. It's going to be a tough four years. America and in particular the GOP is full of racists white nationalist and we are seeing more of it everyday.

The photo here is from a recent march of maga neo-nazis in Ohio. The crowd was actually very large.

Salmon Dinner

Salmon for dinner. Becky always makes a wonderful salmon dinner and I really do love it. This time she also made some very nice fresh vegetables along with her amazing special home fried potatoes.

So good. 

Long Way Home - Songs 2014 FV

Here is another mix of songs from albums in my collection released in 2014. More hits and deep cuts making for some interesting listening.

Rosanne Cash pic.
  

  

Long Way Home - Songs 2014 FV

1. The Long Way Home – Rosanne Cash
2. You Are A Mystery – Orenda Fink
3. Supernova – Ray LaMontagne
4. Every Morning – J Mascis
5. Pretty Mess – Trigger Happy
6. Taking Chances – Sharon Van Etten
7. Never Gonna Love Again – Lykke Li
8. Wonderful Unknown – Ingrid Michaelson & Greg Laswell
9. Who Killed The Moonlight? – Nicole Atkins
10. Light Goes Out – AgesandAges
11. Down The Wrong Way – Chrissie Hynde
12. Stay With Me – Ryan Adams
13. You Keep Coming Up – Stars
14. Ones Who Love You – Alvvays
15. You Did Wrong – Reigning Sound
16. Shriek – Wye Oak
17. Yeah yr Right – Ani DiFranco
18. Waitress Song – First Aid Kit
19. Past Lives – Real Estate
20. Forgiven/Forgotten – Angel Olsen
21. Doves – Future Islands
22. Artifact – Allah-Las
23. Give My Love To London – Marianne Faithfull
24. The Long Way Around – Jackson Browne

Some Nice Leftovers

Tonight we had some nice leftovers for dinner. We like leftovers from previous meals and they are always a big part of our dinning experience in our home. I really do like to make sure we eat everything in the refrigerator. It has been my job to pack up leftovers from our meals in containers. We also make sure that if we don't eat everything at a restaurant then we have the leftovers boxed up to bring home to eat later.

This time tonight we had some of the leftover rigatoni bolognese pasta and a couple of slices of that delicious prosciutto pizza from our dinner at JT's. We also had some of the leftover alfredo pasta that Becky made earlier in the week. It made for a very nice meal.

Bowler's Prayer

I found this on a shelve down in the basement. I saw it and ignored it many years ago but this time I picked it up and brought it upstairs. I gave it to Becky to maybe sell on eBay after it got cleaned up a little. The frame is metal and it can hang somewhere. I wonder where it was in our house so many years ago.

Looking at this thing made me think about the time in my life when I liked to go bowling. The last time I did any bowling was probably at least 50 years ago and maybe more. I have to think about it.

I really don't think I ever went to a bowling alley in Buffalo. At least to go bowling. I think I did stop into Volker's Lanes one time for a beer. 

I remember that my mother was an avid bowler in her younger days. She went out bowling with the parish ladies league once a week back in the day. She really needed that time away from all the kids. When I found this thing I thought of my mom.

Dinner @ JT's

We don't usually go out to dinner by ourselves on a Saturday night but tonight we did. Yesterday we gone over to the Buffalo History Museum and decided to wait a day before going out to dinner. We did consider some of our usual restaurants but then remembered that we wanted to check out JT's Restaurant. We had gone there in September for a brunch meal with Dave and Donna and really enjoyed it. We put it on our radar for dinner sometime.

That sometime was tonight. We had reservations for 5:45 on this Saturday evening and left for Elmwood Ave a little early. We parked on Bidwell Parkway and first walked over to Talking Leave bookstore where we spend about 20 minutes browsing the books and also looking at potential books for the kids. We had a nice time there and then just a little before 5:45 we walked down the street to JT's. It's nice having this restaurant so close too.

We had a table for two along the front patio which was covered and had heaters overhead. It was very comfortable and we had a nice view of the Avenue plus a lot of the restaurant itself. The service was very good.

I started off with a glass of Antinori red Tuscan. Later I would have some Peroni on tap. The food at other tables looked delicious and we ordered Rigatoni Bolognese and from their wood oven we had a Prosciutto Pizza with pecorino romano, roasted garlic, lemon, and covered with arugula. The food was amazing. The pizza was great and especially the tasty arugula. The Bolognese may have been the best we've ever had anywhere. Well, except maybe in Florence. 

We're looking forward to going to JT's again and next time with some friends to share the enjoyment.