Coles Tonight & A Drunken Pumpkin

We decided to go out to dinner tonight... it is a Thursday night. We wanted to go out to one of our regular restaurants and at first thought of some nice sandwiches at Cafe 59 but then changed our mind and decided on Coles to avoid the 5 o'clock traffic mess.

When we parked the car in our usual area on Bird Ave near Elmwood we were walking over Elmwood and saw that the new restaurant Mira was open. We had been watching in anticipation their renovation of the old Pano's restaurant which was one of our favorite neighborhood places to eat for the past 40 years. We walked over to Mira and went inside. It turned out that tonight was their grand opening and it was reservations only although at a little after 5 pm it didn't look very busy... yet. The folks at the front desk were very sorry that they couldn't seat us anywhere in the restaurant at this time and we said we were just there because we saw people going into the restaurant as we were walking by. 

So we walked back across the street and went to Coles where we had a wonderful dinner as usual. Becky had their Clancy roast beef sandwich and I had one of their specials...  a pork schnitzel sandwich. Very tasty. Great fries too. 

I had a Great Lakes Oktoberfest draft beer and then something special which I missed the first time I looked at the beer menu... A Drunken Pumpkin which was a Southern Tier Pumpking topped with a Guinness Stout. A Fall Black & Tan. It was wonderfully delicious.

Southern Tier Pumpking has been one of my favorite seasonal beers in recent years but I hadn't had one yet. This was a big surprise adding it to one of my overall favorite beers... Guinness Stout.

Overall a great night at one of our favorite places.

Safety Tape for Steps

I finally got some 3M safety tape to place on the front steps. They had been a little slippery the past few winters and I planned to get some tape to make the steps a little safer. We hardly use the front door and steps especially in the winter but the mail gets delivered to the porch every day and the mail carrier has to deal with those steps.

After Dietrich worked on the porch and put primer on the new wood he installed I needed to get over to Home Depot and get some new grey paint for the porch. While we were there I also got some of that 3M safety tape. After I put a couple of coats of paint on the two side ends of the porch I put the tape on the steps. It turns out I didn't have enough to do a real thorough job. It was 15 ft of tape but that was enough to do one side of the six steps. That works OK but I think I'll probably get more to cover more of the steps both front and back boards. And then the other side of the steps too although the gate to that side is almost always closed.

The tape does make a difference and I'm happy with it.

Al Green - Kitchen Listening

Kitchen Listening with Al Green. A nice set of his big hits plus following that with a live album.

• The Absolute Best, 2004 (2 CD)
• Tokyo... Live, 1995

Andrew & His Great Great Grandparents

Andrew and I were up on the 2nd floor kid bedroom cleaning up a big mess he had made with a big box of Lego toys when he was here last Saturday. It was kind of funny when I casually asked him to come upstairs with me because I wanted to show him something. The "something" turned out to be the mess that needed cleaning up and he exclaimed that I tricked him. But he did clean up the toys very nicely.

Then he wanted to know about the photos on the chest of drawers. There were three photos together in a group. My maternal grandparents on the left, my parents in the center and my paternal grandparents on the right. He wanted to know who they were. I first showed him my parents and that they were his father's grandparents. They would also be his great grandmother and great grandfather. 

Then he asked about the other two photos. I first showed him Mom-Mom and her first husband who was my grandfather I never knew. He died when my mother was a small child. But I knew my grandmother very well. I explained who they were and that they were his great-great grandmother and great-great grandfather. 

Next he asked about the other photo which I told him was my father's mother and father. They were also my grandparents and they were his father's great grandparents. They would also be his great-great grandmother and great-great grandmother. 

Then he asked about the third photo and I told him they were my mother's father and mother and would also be his great-great grandfather and great-great grandmother.

He became very excited about all the greats!! He knew that being great was something important and he said he wanted to meet them all because they were so great and they were family. I had to explain that they were no longer with us but he wanted to know about them. I could talk about my one grandmother but the other grandmother and both grandfathers had died before I was born. He was happy to know all four of his grandparents. 

Somebody's Crying - Songs 1995 FV

Somebody's Crying. More alt-country rock and indie rock. Not many hits but lots of great deep cuts and some of my favorites. All songs from albums in my collection released in 1995. 

Chris Isaak in the pic.

Somebody's Crying - Songs 1995 FV

1. Somebody's Crying - Chris Isaak
2. Girl In Green - Blue Rodeo
3. Fleur-de-Lis - Wondermints
4. I'll Make It Clear - Teenage Fanclub
5. My Own Way - The Rembrandts
6. Thirty-Three - The Smashing Pumpkins
7. Kitchen Door - Buffalo Tom
8. Trip Along - Tripping Daisy
9. We're The Same - Matthew Sweet
10. Love Tips Up - Catherine Wheel
11. Beautiful Girl - Aztec Camera
12. Here We Go - East River Pipe
13. Not A Pretty Girl - Ani DiFranco
14. Over My Head - Red House Painters
15. Itchyhead - Cat Power
16. Please Me Like You Want To - Ben Harper
17. All Over Now - Aimee Mann
18. What Surrounds Me - Vic Chesnutt
19. Hold On My Love - Buddy Miller
20. Oh, Atlanta - Alison Krauss
21. From Where I Stand - Kim Richey
22. No One Here But Me - Susan Werner
23. Summer Blowin' Town - Ron Sexsmith
24. Keeping Awake - The Innocence Mission 

Our Dark Street

We have a problem on our street. Two street light stopped working. The city knows all about it and an electric company crew came around and took down the malfunctioning street light post and all. They just left a cone over the place where the lamp post had been. The first one happened sometime in August. Then a week or so ago the same thing was done with another lamp post across the street and down a little bit. I took the photo of the downed lamp post from our porch.

Fortunately the light closest to us which is on our side of the street and directly in front of our next door neighbor is still working.

It's time to get back on the 311 number to report problems to the city. It is a little weird and very noticeable how dark our street has become. It was also a problem recently for Halloween trick or treating. It was unusually dark and we noticed it very much when we were out on the porch.

Our next door neighbors recently had a car ransacked in their driveway. Now it probably wasn't locked but the dark street didn't help. Now they are keeping their porch light on.

Andrew & Autumn

Sean and Ashley came in town for a Bills game and they brought the kids. The game was for scheduled 4:40 Sunday afternoon. They arrived at our house on Saturday afternoon. Sean and I went over to Saigon Bangkok for some take out dinner then we watched a World Series game on TV.

Sunday morning around 10 am we all walked over to the Buffalo Zoo and had a wonderful time with the kids. They really loved it and were great. The weather was spectacular and the zoo was not very crowded. Andrew was very well behaved and very interested in everything. Autumn loved is lots because Becky and I had taken her there a few months ago and she was very excited to be there again.

Then Sean and Ashely went to the game and we had the kids ourselves for a few hours. They were all tired out from the zoo and mostly wanted to sit on the couch and watch their shows or sit and look a books.

The Bills won the game over the Chiefs 28 - 21. Sean and Ashely left after the 3rd  quarter around 6:30 pm and were back at the house for the end of the game. Then they packed everything up and they and the kids were on the road by about 8:00 pm and home in about two and a half hours. They said the kids slept the whole way.

Edge of Forever - Songs 1985 FV

Edge of Forever. The last, at least for now, of the Songs 1985 FV mix series. 

15 mixes of songs from albums in my collection released in 1985. Each mix runs about an hour and a half. This set of music runs about 23 hours.

Dream Academy in the pic.

Edge of Forever - Songs 1985 FV

1. Edge of Forever - Dream Academy
2. Feeling Gravity's Pull - R.E.M.
3. My Darkest Light Will Shine - Felt
4. Influenza - Gene Loves Jezebel
5. Rich - Lloyd Cole & The Commotions
6. Hits of the Year - Squeeze
7. Show Some Emotion - Hoodoo Gurus
8. Man With Two Hearts - Men At Work
9. The Bottom Line - Big Audio Dynamite
10. Look Mama - Howard Jones
11. Hunting High and Low - A-Ha
12. The Big Sky - Kate Bush
13. Missing - The Roches
14. Fiction - Joni Mitchell
15. The Lady Don't Mind - Talking Heads
16. When All's Well - Everything But The Girl
17. King For A Day - The Thompson Twins
18. Love - The Cult
19. Marlene On The Wall - Suzanne Vega
20. Send Me A Postcard - Danny & Dusty
21. Are There Any More Real Cowboys? - Neil Young
22. Back Into My Arms - Patty Larkin
23. Spirit - The Waterboys
24. One More Night - Phil Collins

Mar-a-Lago 10/31/25

Mar-a-Lago, 10/31/25.

1905 illustration by William Balfour-Ker (1877–1918).

Little Honey - Songs 1985 FV

Little Honey. This mix was a lot of fun. Some hits, some deep cuts and some favorites. More songs from albums in my collection released in 1985. Starts with The Blasters and ends with X. 

The Blasters in the pic.

Little Honey - Songs 1985 FV

1. Little Honey - The Blasters
2. Bound For Glory - Neil Young
3. The Night Is Still Young - Billy Joel
4. Gone Ridin' - Chris Isaak
5. Love Shack - The Knitters
6. Seeing The Real You At Last - Bob Dylan
7. Nikita - Elton John
8. Small Town - John Mellencamp
9. Little Wild One (No. 5) - Marshall Crenshaw
10. White Line - Emmylou Harris
11. Big Train (From Memphis) - John Fogerty
12. East of Eden - Lone Justice
13. I Knew The Bride (When She Used To Rock and Roll) - Nick Lowe
14. I Ain't Gonna Drag My Feet No More - Richard Thompson
15. Lost Weekend - Lloyd Cole & The Commotions
16. Can't Ignore The Train - 10,000 Maniacs
17. This Is The Sea - The Waterboys
18. Disenchanted - The Church
19. Bittersweet - Hoodoo Gurus
20. So What! - Stevie Ray Vaughan
21. Make It Better (Forget About Me) - Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers
22. Little Honey - X