unlucky

Last week my brand new cell phone (a replacement for one that broke a month ago) fell out of my coat pocket and never to be seen again. This makes the official count for Sept.-Oct.:

~ 2 funerals
~ 2 broken cell phones
~ 2 delayed flights
~ 1 night stranded in Chicago
~ 1 evening stranded in a city housing project where I ran out of gas
~ 1 awful dentist appointment
~ 1 broken violin bow
~ 1 jar of pepper jelly stolen by airport security in an attempt to thwart terrorism
~ 1 massive power outage blacking out the entire city of Buffalo

Officially, the most unlucky month on record.

friday the 13th

On our way back from San Francisco, we got hung up in Chicago due to high winds and freezing rain. When we rolled into Buffalo the next morning, the weather was mild, raining lightly and all the fall foliage was out. By the afternoon the storm that had hit the midwest had moved over Lake Erie and into Buffalo in the form of wet snow. Despite what you might believe about Buffalo's weather, this is not normal for October.

The accumulation sticking to the leaves on the trees was so heavy that it snapped just about every tree in the greater Buffalo area in half. Thursday night I stood on my porch for about 3 minutes and saw 3 different branches break on Summer St. The next morning the power and heat were out. Oakland Ave. was inpassable (see above). Erin, Julia and I camped out in the apartment till we got cold then I trekked over to Kelly's place to get my modern ammenities back. After driving back and forth for half an hour in my driveway to unstick my car, I finally got on the road and headed back to my parents' house for overnight shelter. I camped out there for two days, watching movies, drinking and playing cards until my power came back on and I could finally go home.

san francisco

So Patrick and I took a mini-vacation to visit Laurie in San Francisco. The trip was fantastic - we couldn't stop staying how much fun we had. The first day we spent in the city enjoying the Fleet Week festivities: the Red Bull Air Race and the Blue Angels air show. Then we met up with a couple of friends, did some bar hopping and had a great Italian dinner in the north end. The next two days were wine tasting days. First we headed up to Napa Valley where we got to taste and tour in some world class vineyards, oo la la. Patrick and I joined the wine club at Chandon, where they make sparkling wine, so we've got bubbly coming our way in the holiday season. The setting was beautiful and we even had a classy picnic on the grass beside rows of grapes. The second day we went off the beaten path and hit some smaller vineyards near Livermore. Laurie took us out to the bar to meet up with her friend Josh, the Spam salesman from Michigan. We played pool and shuffleboard (Team Michigan won, yay), got down with the drinking and then got ourselves to In and Out Burger for some good late night food.

San Francisco, as always, is sunny and beautiful. Hoping to get back there in the spring -

bagunk

While traveling through Michigan I had a chance to visit with Jared and Steph at his new apartment / office in Okemos. Now's a good time to make a shameless plug for Jared's #1 project these days: www.bagunk.com

Bagunk is a social game site where you can play and post online games. Jared and a friend have been building the site for a few months now and it looks great. If you're looking for a distraction at work or have some free time to spare, check it out! www.bagunk.com