A 30th Birthday Party

Got a birthday coming up and it's hard to believe that his "Birthday Dance Party" was 44 years ago. I guess that means I'm 74 this week. 

So I came across this flyer for this party in that old box of "stuff" on the 3rd floor I've been going through recently.

I remember that 30th birthday party very well. We had a very large crowd show up at the Pastime Lounge on Grant Street for it on December 5th 1981. It was a Saturday night. The music for the party came through the bar's sound system from the sound booth where I was playing some mixes I made for the event. 

We wanted to have a party in a bar somewhere I we went around and talked with the folks at a few of them. We didn't want to rent a special event space somewhere because we really didn't have the money for it. Those rental spaces were expensive. We just wanted to go to a regular bar somewhere but we wanted to be able to control the music.

We also didn't want some fancy bar. A dive bar was preferrable. I did talk with a few places on Elmwood but that wasn't going to work. We also really wanted to do it on a Saturday night. I remember checking out a few bars on Grant street. They definitely fit the dive bar description.

I would end up working at the Pastime Lounge for five years.1982 to 1986. I had a lot of fun spinning records there and booking local bands. I even bartended a little bit... a very little bit.

The owner at the time was Bobby's father and mother. Bob worked there spinning records on Friday nights. That was their busy night and Bob's mother cooked a popular fish fry that night. Saturday night was always a slow night which is why Bob's father gave me the OK to come in with a party and play the music too.

Becky and I would have a few more parties at the bar including our annual 60's party and a couple of after art opening parties. I played the music for those parties and we had a good crowd. It was soon after that the family hired me for every Saturday night and eventually I also worked some other nights too.

In that old box of "stuff" on the 3rd floor I found lots of flyers for the Pastime Lounge that I made to promote the local bands playing on our stage and for the nights that I was the DJ playing music.

My Fall of Troy

When going through that old box of "stuff" on the 3rd floor I came across the old rolled up drawing I did in 2nd grade depicting the Trojan War and the Fall of Troy. I was really obsessed with ancient history like this at a very early age. Seven years old!!

I do remember making this drawing on that long piece of paper and rolling it up when I was done. I guess it was part of some class. Maybe a Friday afternoon art project at our school... St. Francis of Assissi in Germantown and located down the street from our house. So Mom kept that drawing for decades and it got passed to me somewhere along the way. 

I think this drawing was probably made toward the end of the academic year when we were allowed to do a lot of art projects so that would make it the late spring of 1958 and I was seven years old. I was trying to think back on who my 2nd grade teacher but I'm just not sure.

I do remember making this drawing on that long piece of paper and rolling it up when I was done. I guess it was part of some Friday afternoon art project at our school. Somehow over the decades that rolled paper made it from my mom's attic to my box of old "stuff".

I would go on to read many books on the Trojan War over the years and obsessed over Homer's Iliad and the Odyssey. I must have seen some movie that got me going with it.

I broke up the picture of the drawing into three parts to see it better. When I found the drawing it was rolled up into one little tube that was hard to know what it was. Then I unrolled it.

Escher Quartet

We had another wonderful evening in the Mary Seaton Room at Kleinhans Music Hall listening to the Escher Quartet along with flute player Carol Wincenc. We enjoyed the concert very much and especially the awesome sounding second piece Verde's Quartet in E Minor. The flute player was very good and with a distinctive sound.

The concert was very crowded too despite the potential bad weather which nicely stayed away. It turned out to be a very pleasant night to drive back and forth from Kleinhans on Elmwood Avenue. There was no expected snow. We also parked for the second time in a very good new location just across the street from the concert.

This was the last concert in the Buffalo Chamber Music series until late February. Then there are three more concerts in the series... February, March and April. But for now we have a winter and holiday break.

Glass of Beer - A Beer Named Duck

When Lizzie and Lewie were visiting us last Sunday while passing through Buffalo on their way to Cleveland for the holidays Lewie gave me a 4 pack pint cans of local beers from the Providence area. A finally got to try one tonight.

A Beer Named Duck. A New England Pale Ale from Mast Landing Brewing Co. out of Westbrook, Maine. A nicely hoppy crisp pale ale. Very good. Thank you Lewie and Lizzie. Looking forward to trying the others.

Eating Leftovers

Becky and I got some nice leftovers from the pile of Fat Bob's BBQ takeout from Clara's birthday party on Saturday night. We had some for dinner tonight but there's still more and definitely enough for dinner tomorrow night too.

Still very tasty too.

Fat Bob's Takeout

We had a dinner of Fat Bob's BBQ takeout at Clara's birthday party at Dick and Iris'. When we arrived at the apartment Dick was just leaving to go pickup the food from Fat Bob's which is nearby.

The food was delicious as always and there was a lot of it. A nice variety of sides too in addition to the beef brisket, pulled pork and ribs. There was BBQ baked beans, mac & cheese, grilled vegetables, cajun corn, collard greens, mashed potatoes, coleslaw and cornbread. Some fries too.

Dick gave us several boxes of leftovers to take with us. It's enough for a couple of meals.

We had some nice desserts too... birthday cake and pumpkin pie along with some of Donna's cookies.

Clara's Birthday Party

The family had a birthday party for Clara downtown at the Dick and Iris' apartment. We were originally going to have it at our house until I got sick. Although I'm feeling better we thought it best not to have everyone over to our house with the virus germs potentially lurking throughout the house. Instead we had the party at the hotel where Katie and the kids were staying. We met everyone down there at 5:30 pm. The next day they would be driving back to Phila. 

We had a wonderful time with the family and it was great seeing Dick and Iris again. It's been awhile. Clara had a great time with her big number seven balloon and she got some more very nice birthday gifts. Her birthday presents have been scattered over several days because of the drawn out birthday weekend celebrations.

We had a nice dinner of takeout food from Fat Bob's BBQ along with a nice birthday cake from Wegmans and one of Becky's pumpkin pies. We had also brought some leftover cookies of Donna's from her Thanksgiving dinner.

Clara had a great time opening her gifts from us and from Auntie Ashley which we brought with us. Ashley had sent it to our house.

I thought it was funny to see myself reflected in the window taking this picture.

Thanksgiving Dinner @ Dave & Donna's

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving Dinner at Dave and Donna's as usual. Dave did a fabulous job with the smoked turkey and Donna put on her usual fantastic spread.

I was sick this week but glad I was feeling much better for the family dinner. I rested much of the day and it was really a last minute decision as to whether I should go or not. I'm glad I went.

They had the usual regular crowd including Amy and Doug along with Elizabeth and Natalie. Tom and Diane were there but that's another story. Eric and Amy with little Ivy. Val came and she brought a friend Pete who was a close friend of Bobby's who didn't have anywhere to go for Thanksgiving. Doug and Amy's son Joey showed up with his girlfriend with their 3 month old baby girl. They just stayed for about an hour. And Katie, Todd, Henry, Clara and Violet were there too.

Donna had a wonderful dessert spread that included one of Becky's pumpkin pies. There was an amazing amount of Donna's cookies and lots of other pies too. It was a typical Gasper Special kind of night.

Sick Sick Sick

I got really sick this week. Mostly for a day and a half. On Monday late evening I felt a little off. It had been a beautiful day. Sunny but cold and I worked hard in the backyard. Monday night in bed I felt dizzy and had an upset stomach. I had some kind of bug.

Tuesday morning I woke up and threw up. I felt awful and the room was sometimes spinning frantically. I spent all day in bed. I did get up for about 20 minutes in the afternoon and ate a couple of crackers along with a cup of tea. That was it and then back to bed.

I slept for about 33 hours. The real issue was that Katie and the kids were coming for the Thanksgiving holiday and I was sick. They were driving to Syracuse on Tuesday. They left in the afternoon after school and planed to stay overnight at a motel in Syracuse and then driving to Buffalo on Wednesday morning arriving at our house around lunch. When Katie found out how sick I was they scrambled for an alternative place to stay. We weren't sure how that was going to work out because of the holidays. It turned out that they were able to book a large suite room at the hotel downtown where Dick and Iris have their apartment up on the 14th floor. 

So they spent time with Dick and Iris instead of us for the first couple of days. It took me awhile but I started feeling better. We still were very worried about having the kids over with active germs in the house so it was better for them to be downtown.

I plan to rest and sleep a lot today. I am feeling a little better. I'll rest tomorrow morning and then hopefully I'll feed better enough to go over to Dave and Donna's for Thanksgiving dinner. Then we can make some plans for the rest of the holiday weekend.

Katie and the kids are planning to drive back to Philly on Sunday but unfortunately the weather is calling for some snow. It may be a tough drive for Todd.

Happy Birthday Clara

Today is our granddaughter Clara's 7th birthday. Celebrating this little girl's birthday will happen over several days. She already had a party at school before they left for the long holiday weekend. Today she will have a little celebration with her other grandparents downtown at their apartment. We will celebrate her party on Saturday along with Dick and Iris again. Looking forward to it. I've been sick this week so hopefully I'll be feeling much better.

Lizzie & Louie

We got a text message from Lizzie earlier this week telling us the she and Lewie  (and Asiago) were driving to Cleveland on Sunday and passing through Buffalo in the early evening. They wanted to stop by and see us. They were also planning to stop at Sean and Ashley's earlier in the day too. They were traveling from Providence, Rhode Island.

They arrived at our house today at about 5:30 pm. We had some pizza for them but they were not hungry. They ate a lot at Sean's house where they spent two hours around lunch time. They had lots of leftovers from Autumns birthday party yesterday.

We had a great time with Lizzie and Lewie. They stayed and hung out for about two hours. The dog really liked being at our house but probably mostly was just happy to get out of the car. They still had three more hours of driving to get from Buffalo to Cleveland. They left our house around 7:30 which means they would be getting to Lewie's mom's house around 10:30 pm.

We did watch the second half of the Eagles-Cowboys game. When we turned it on at halftime the Eagles were ahead 21-0. Then they lost the game 24-21 in the 2nd half. The kids were upset.

I gave Lizzie some documents concerning her father I recently found in the box of "stuff" on the 3rd floor. Some of the docs were medical info about her father's aneurysm and MH from 1988. Much of it was highly technical and she loved it being the medical person she is. Lewie also brought me a 4 pack of some interesting beers local to the Providence area. I'll have them sometime over the holidays.

We hadn't seen these two in several years. Lizzie had not been in Buffalo since Sean's wedding and Lewie had never been here before.

Grandmother!

This evening we were on the phone having a video chat with Sean and the kids. Andrew was happy to see us as usual. Autumn was in the bathtub getting her bath and smiling at the phone camera as usual. She was all tired out from her 2 year old birthday party at the daycare center today.

While she was in the tub and smiling at us I asked her her name and she said "Autumn" and then I asked her my name and she said "poppa". I pointed to Becky and said what's her name. She smiled and said "grandmother" clear as a bell. All the other grandkids call Becky "grammie" but not this little girl. A couple of weeks ago when they were visiting us I asked Autumn what was my name and she said "my poppa". So cute.

Yesterday Ashely sent us to photo of Autumn. She is turning 2.

Another Bad Bills Game

Bills lost another bad game last night.  Buffalo 19 Houston 23. Too many interceptions, fumbles, fouls and Allen was sacked 8 times. Yikes. I watched the first half and then went to bed. I'd had enough and they certainly aren't worth losing any sleep. I checked on the score a couple of times while laying in bed and there was nothing happening that made me think I was missing anything. They were losing at halftime 20-16 but only scored one field goal in the second half while the Texans also only scored one field goal in the second half. Sounds like a really boring second half.

It doesn't look like the Bills will be getting into the playoffs this year.

Book Shopping, a Party & JT's

Becky and I went out a little after 4:30 pm for an evening of to do a little shopping at the Talking Leaves bookstore for the kids. Becky had already got a few things at Target earlier in the week. We always enjoy browsing through Talking Leaves and especially at the kids books. We got three books for Autumn and Andrew.

We had parked on Bidwell Pky because we were also planning to go down to JT's for dinner after shopping at the bookstore. After dinner we planned to go down to an art gallery on Main Street for an art opening.

When we finished shopping we walked back to the car to drop off the books and I remembered that tonight was the retirement party for Trish K. The party was at McGarrett's on Elmwood, the old No Names, across the street from the bookstore which reminded me as we walked by. I forget which date was the party and hadn't thought about it all week. So we stopped in to say hi. Eileen greeted us at the door along with Trish. The party was running from 5 to 8 pm. We hung out there for about a half hour. Then we walked down the street to JT's. It was nice talking with Eileen and we made plans to get together in a couple of weeks.

We sat at a table in the window overlooking Elmwood Ave and enjoyed another wonderful dinner. I had the Rigatoni Bolognese and Becky had the Chicken Milanese. Great food as always and we had some leftovers too. I had a glass of a Tuscan Blend which I usually have there. We took our time and spent over an hour at the table.

Then we headed downtown to the art gallery at Summer and Main to see the Bill Maggio show.

We got down there around 7 pm and discovered a large construction site on the street in front of the gallery. We couldn't find a place to park. It was really crazy down there. We drove around the block looking for a parking spot and still couldn't find any. There were guys working and cones everywhere along the street near the gallery and taking up dozens of parking spaces all up and down the street. Very weird. We finally gave up and drove home.

Then it was time to watch the Bills game on TV. 

Mycenae 1972

While going through some boxes of "stuff" on the 3rd floor I came across a photo album of pictures taken during my six month Navy Med cruise in 1972. 

You can see in the photo how the XO doing my evaluation came up with "Petty Officer Emery has a tendency to be lax about the need for a haircut and trimming of his beard".

This was also a time when sailors were recently allowed to leave the ship to go on liberty in a foreign port not wearing our uniforms. We were actually allowed to keep some civilian clothes on board the ship although there was not very much room to store them.

We spent a lot of time during that cruise conducting NATO exercises around Greece and Turkey. In June of that year we spent two weeks on an extended liberty call in Athens, Greece. Actually we were tied up to a pier in Piraeus which is the seaport for Athens and takes about 20 minutes to get there. We spent a lot of time in Athens itself but also took bus trips to the many tourist sites in the region. One of them was to Mycenae which was about an hour and a half bus ride.

Mycenae was an amazing place and worth the trip. I took a lot of pictures that day especially when we were going across the Isthmus of Corinth which was spectacular. 

Another amazing trip was to the site of the ancient Battle of Marathon which was about an hour north of Athens. 

We made several liberty calls in Greece and Crete during that six month cruise.

Thinking About Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is coming up next week and this is a nice meme to get someone to think about the meaning of this holiday. How it started. What it means. 

Betsy & Rita Polaroid

This is a Polaroid picture two of my sisters, Betsy and Rita, that I found the other day in that box of "stuff" on the third floor I've been going through. The group of photos were from the early 1980's and I think this may have been taken in 1984 when they were visiting us after the birth of Katie. I certainly recognized our apartment on Putnam. 

It's a very nice photo and they both look great. I posted it on Facebook and got lots of notices from their friends. Mine too. 

97 Bags

We had another banner year for black walnuts falling into our backyard along with the leaves. Last year I filled 74 bags of nuts and leaves and that was the record. This year when the leaves and nuts had all dropped from the black walnut trees in the backyard I had a new record of 86 bags.

Then something weird happened. The catalpa tree next door usually drops a lot of big leaves and seed pods over a long period of time that goes from the early fall into the winter. Then more in the spring along with those little flowers. This year all of the leaves and pods dropped almost all at once over about a week. That happened just after I finished with the walnuts. I don't usually fill any bags with catalpa droppings. I usually just clean up a little bit here and there and toss the debris into the trash containers. This time I had to pack the leaves and pods into 11 bags for trash removal.

That makes for a grand total of 97 bags of yard debris this year. A really big new record. The photo here is the last of the bags.

Becky and I were talking about all these bags and we decided that next year we will do something a little different with the bags. We'll get some paper yard bags and try them again. The last time I tried them the black walnuts caused the bags to tear apart and spill debris out. Maybe I can try again. 

There are also large eco-friendly plastic bags which are available and we will try them next year. No more of those regular green trash bags. Some of them were tearing this year too. Time for something different.

Bills Win Entertaining Game... Barely

The Buffalo Bills won a very entertaining game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers yesterday 44-32. The lead changed nine times throughout the game and up until near the end of the 4th quarter it was anybody's game. Josh Allen played a great game although there were too many interceptions, fumbles and fouls again. Fortunately the offense was on it... well except the running game was not very good.

Allen was also the only quarterback in NFL history with 3 passing TDs and 3 rushing TDs in a single game. He did it for the second time today.

This win keeps the Bills on track to getting into the playoffs.

Jurassic World Rebirth

Jurassic World Rebirth, 2025. I was browsing our streaming services looking for something to watch after getting burned by that mockbuster Alien Rubicon. I was still in the mood for some Sci-Fi and came across the Jurassic Park franchise film from earlier this year. 

Apparently this is a standalone sequel to Jurassic World Dominion from 2022 which I don't think I saw and is the fourth installment in that series. It is the seventh overall film in the Jurassic Park series.

Overall I was disappointed in this movie. Sure, there was plenty of action and lots of dangerous dinosaurs but the overall story was kind of boring except for the fact that the real villain of the film is Big Pharma. The acting wasn't bad but not very inspiring. I watched this movie in three segments. I just couldn't sit through the whole thing at once.

I guess I should stay away from blockbusters and their many sequels.

Paul McCartney in Town

Paul McCartney was in Buffalo this week and played to a sold out crowd at the Key Bank Arena. Most people there saw him from the TV screen. The tickets on the floor near the stage went for over $4,000 and all of the tickets on the floor were over a thousand dollars each. The cheap seats up high in the balcony sold for just under $500 each. From videos I saw of the show it looked like everyone in the building was recording McCartney on their phones and I saw many of the posted videos online. It was most the crowd or the tv screen and a tiny figure on the stage. People I knew who went to the concert and posted their videos were way up in the upper deck nose bleed sections looking down on the tiny little guy on the stage. They say it sounded good.

It was supposed to be a good concert according to the people who spent that much money to see the 83 year old ex-Beatle but damn... I'd much rather listen to the albums with the sound turned up.

Someone would need to give me the ticket price cash for me to put up with that crazy shit between all of the people and the craziness of an arena concert. All of my life I have loved going to see live music but I haven't been to an arena concert since 1976. You can't pay me enough to put up with that. I'd much rather see an up and coming band in a small club or theater type setting than the big arenas or stadiums. 

Burger & Beans

This evening we had a couple of delicious hamburgers from Dash's. They are always great. Toasted the rolls too. Becky made a salad but we didn't have any potatoes around for making home fries. So instead I went downstairs and got a can of Bush baked beans from the shelf. It's been a long time since I enjoyed any baked beans. They were always one of my favorite foods when I was growing up and for many years later. Just not lately.

The great burger and some nice baked beans made for a very nice cold day dinner.

Ranting of a Lunatic

It's so funny to see the way he sees himself. Pathetic too. As he says... the ranting of a lunatic. Every day he spouts out lies and bullshit.

Deer in the Backyard

This morning I was shocked and surprised to look out the kitchen window and see a large beautiful deer in our backyard. By the time I grabbed my phone and took this picture he had turned and ran to the back fence, jumped it and took off through our neighbors yard. This happens occasionally but not recently. 

It's been a few years since the last deer came through our yard, jumped the fence and ran out between the houses and then down Crescent Avenue. We occasionally get turkeys in our yard too.

I'm sorry I didn't get a better picture because initially that deer was looking right at me in the window but I was fumbling with my phone trying to get the camera ready. Oh, well. At least a got a picture even though it could have been much better.

Hunt Art Gallery Reception

Tonight we had a very nice time talking with lots of people at an art opening at the Hunt Gallery across the street from the downtown main library with a couple of friends showing their work. Both of them, Kathy and Cathy, had amazing works of art on display and there was a nice crowd.

We got downtown around 5:30 and it was hard to find a parking space. Even though it was early on a Friday night there were a lot of people downtown probably getting something to eat before a show. Paul McCartney was performing tonight and there was Wicked playing at Shea's down the street. A lot going on. 

We went to dinner nearby at the Streetlight Brasserie Restaurant and then walked over to the gallery around 6:30. 

The art show at Hunt was packed. We could hardly move around. We had conversations with many friends and met some new people too. It was so crowded I luckily found a spot at the bar sitting next to Gary and we talked for awhile. Also people kept coming over to us or mostly I should say him but we had lots more conversations and I at least was comfortable. Becky was talking with lots of people throughout the gallery and eventually came by and we shared the seat at the bar. 

There were a couple of other art openings tonight but we were shot and heading home around 8 pm. We had a great night.

Dinner @ Streetlight Brasserie

Becky and I had a wonderful dinner at a very nice downtown restaurant. We had walked by this place many times and always thought it would be a good place to check out. Finally we did... at Becky's insistence. I was ready to head over to Tappo. Anyway, we were glad we went here. The restaurant was very cool and a lot was going on. Lots of young people and older folks too. It was a happening place and we were very lucky to get a table. By 6 pm there were none.

The service was very good and I would say almost one of the best we've seen in ages. I had their Caesar Salad with Chicken. It was wonderful. Becky had a Fried Chicken Sandwich done Buffalo Style. It was delicious. She gave me some to try out. The waiter said we might want some French Fries with our order and he was right. The fries were great and we were very happy he suggested them.

I also had one of my favorite draft beers... Flower Power IPA from Ithaca Beer Co. Becky had a Peroni NA.

Then we walked a couple of blocks to the Hunt Gallery for an art opening and lots of conversations with friends which I wrote about here.

Highways Are Happy Ways

Highways Are Happy Ways. Found some old sheet music in that box of “stuff” that I was going through the other day. I was using this music 63 years ago while a member of the Uptown String Band. I had joined the band that previous summer and in November 1962 I was preparing for my first Philadelphia New Years Mummers Parade march down Broad Street. I played clarinet back then but would switch to tenor sax a couple of years later. Yep, I wore a lot of feathers too.