Buffalo is #1!

Buffalo is known for many things:
1. Home of the Original Buffalo Chicken Wing (AnchorBar)
2. Sending a football team to the Superbowl fours in a row and losing all of them.
3. Lake Effect Snow
4. The Brain Drain (http://www.wgrz.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=46452)
5. The "October Surprise of 2006."

And I am sure many of you can keep adding to this list. But the most recent addition to this is list is "The Buffalo Sabres rank No. 1 among 122 pro sports teams based on what they give back to fans who invest their time and money in the organization.

This does not come as big surprise. I have spent the last seven years in Buffalo and have found that Buffaloians live or die based on the outcome of a favorite sports team. There are plenty of sports teams to chose from: The Buffalo Bills , Buffalo Bandits, Buffalo Sabres, Buffalo Bisons, University at Buffalo Bulls, Niagara Purple Eagles or Canisius Griffins.

This year the Sabres have been the hottest team in the NHL and are looking to get back to the Stanley Cup Finals and bring the Cup home to Buffalo. (Can you all believe I am becoming a hockey fan, especially now that MLB's Opening Day is next week?!)

We had visitors!!

Last weekend my parents came to visit us. It is a visit that had been cancelled a few times due to snow storms here in Buffalo or back in Horseheads. Instead, it rained while they were here. Then I got thinking about it, I think it rains every time my parents visit Teresa and I.

We had a pleasant weekend with the folks. They arrived in Buffalo on Friday evening after spending the day in Brockport as my younger brother was inducted in to a National Honor Society group at SUNY Brockport.

While here, we were able to visit the house Teresa and I were going to be purchasing. Yes, I said were going to be purchasing....We had some concerns with the foundation in the beginning and after seeing the house again with my parents we discovered more potential foundation and drainage problems. So we have been released from this house and are starting over again. We are very glad my parents saw the house and helped us look at what in important in a house. Teresa and I had fallen in love with the appearance of the house, which then made us blind to the structural problems (notice the steel I-beams reinforcing the position of the wall, these were on three of the four walls in the basement).

This visit was my dad's first time being at our place in the city. I think it was good for him to see what part of the city we actually lived in. I think when we said we were moving to the city of Buffalo and not living in Amherst or Grand Island, my dad was a little concern. After spending the weekend at our place and showing him around the Elmwood Village area such as Mansion Row, the small mom and pop eateries and shops and the surrounding neighborhoods full of old Victorian houses, he seemed more comfortable of our location and made reference to Greenwich Village. We also introduced my parents to some good eating at Fat Bob's Smokehouse for Pulled Pork Sandwiches and their awesome Mac and Cheese and then Sunday morning breakfast at Pano's.
All in all, we had a great weekend hanging out with the folks and hated to see them leave. Thanks for visiting!

How's your bracket doing?

(Click on image to view bracket)

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY!

This past weekend we had a blast celebrating St. Patrick's Day with our friends. It was even better since St. Patrick's Day was on a Saturday this year. Madden and Kittner made the trip up from Corning, NY to celebrate St. Patty's Day Buffalo style.

We kicked off celebrating with some cold Guinness pub style at our place and watching the NCAA Tournament. After some dinner at Casa Di Pizza and a short, brisk walk (okay, maybe it was longer walk than I thought...1.5 miles) down to some local watering holes, we met of with our Buffalo friends and had a great night of celebrating being Irish.

On Sunday, we attended the annual Downtown Buffalo St. Patrick's Day Parade. This has become an annual tradition the last couple of years for me, but this year was Teresa's first time. The parade is nothing like a Macy's caliber parade, but it is a good time to see everyone out having a good time, no matter what the weather is like.

It is too bad that St. Patty's weekend if over and now we have to face the reality of Monday and be at work. Seems like the weekend was a blur, but only 364 days until next year.......

A Wonderful Wedding

So yeah Dennis enough with the sports. Onto more pressing topics like weddings. Last Saturday I was lucky enough to act as matron of honor in my very good friend Kristin's wedding (although I prefer to call myself maiden with a wedding ring!) I have known Kristin since meeting her freshman year in college in our dorm and we have been great friends ever since. She even put up with me as a roomate for 4 years. She married her college sweetheart Mike who is also a great guy and very lucky to have her. The festivities surrounding the wedding have been great as well.

Here are the girls in Canada for the bacelorette party. It was a great weekend filled with good food, good drinks, surpises, and of course good clean fun....

Here's the bride walking down the aisle with her father. It was a very nice ceremony.

The best man had it really rough walking two women down the aisle. That's me and my other faithful old roomate Jodi.Unfortunately my camera died before all the crazy dancing and shenanigans started, but here's a nice picture of the lovely ladies at the reception. It was a wonderful day with lots of love and laughter and it was great to be a part of it.

Duke sucks!

It is almost that time of year for March Madness. Like many others, I don't start following college basketball until about this time of year. I do follow how 'Cuse and the Tarheels are doing and tend to follow my alma mater UB to help through that dead time of no football and no baseball, but not to the point where I need to see every game.
The other day, however, UNC was playing their ACC rival Duke, and I had to watch this great match up. Actually, any game between Duke and UNC is a great game to watch because of the rivalry between these two teams. It is the college basketball version of the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sucks. Anyways, at the end of the game UNC's Tyler Hansbrough, was fouled by Gerald Henderson in the final seconds of the game:



Hansbrough insists there's no bad blood between him and Heraldson after this. I think Hansbrough should get his revenge on Heraldson in the ACC tourney as UNC begins their surge to winning this year's NCAA Tournament.
Selection Sunday is this Sunday, March 11th. Check back for my bracket.

Running

Shamrock Run 2007

Yesterday I started my 2007 Road Racing season with the annual Shamrock Run in South Buffalo. Even though it is March, this race is known as the race that gets the season started. This year over 2,200 participated in the race.

No matter what the weather is like, there is always a huge turnout. Not only are there thousands of runners, but there is a huge number of spectactors. One would think this was more of a block party. The course is a simple out and back loop and winds through some of the local neighborhoods. Many of the locals, while drinking some cold beers, sit on their porches dressed in green and cheer the runners on as they complete their 8K (4.97 miles) journey back to the Old First Ward Community Center for free beer and tasty corned beef sandwiches.

This was my first race since the Turky Trot on Thanksgiving day. With winter being here and not running much at all, the Shamrock Run was a good indication of how I need to get back in the swing of things. My offical time was 43:10, compared to 38:53 last year.
As the weather gets nicer, my running naturally picks up. I am hoping to race in at least 20 road races this year, beating my total of 14 races last year.

The Most Active Road Runners In The Buffalo Area 2006
Runners Who Ran In 10 Or More Local Events During The Year
(courtesy of www.buffalorunners.com)
Rank Name Races
1 Bridget Pawelczak 60
2 Sandy Bunn 59
3 Ted Sullivan 54
4 Mike Curry 50
5 Fat Burns 47
6 Linda Gerbec 46
7 David Barrett 45
8 Patty Hastreiter 43
8 Chuck Tokarz 43
10 Paul Hassall 42
197 Dennis Hall 14

Of these 20 races I plan on the Buffalo Marathon Relay (to defend our Corporate Division title from 2006), the Grand Island 1/2 Marathon and a Full Marathon (TBD). I am trying to get Teresa to run more races this summer. She is hoping to get to more 5K (3.1 miles) and I am still trying to get her to run a 1/2 Marathon.