Saturday night, my father and I did a little shopping at the Arnot Mall, then we met my eldest sister, her husband, their heir, and her in-laws, and all went to Chilie's for dinner. The food took forever to appear, but was quite tasty when it did show up. The manager was suitably apologetic.

Then we went back to my Dad's place, minus the in-laws. Sis suggested that I come over to her house some time for game night, as her husband is not much of a board gamer. Hmmm… a little gaming is never a bad thing.

She also mentioned that she had been considering getting me Settlers of Catan for a birthday gift, ultimately deciding against it for fear that I already had a copy. It was a resonable fear, because I've loved that game for more than a decade. But I'm pretty sure I don't actually have my own copy. Enough of my friends had it, plus there was the club copy, so I didn't ever need to get my own set.

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A year or two ago, my Dad's septic tank needed work. He'd just bought the house, so they weren't sure where to dig. That is, they can look at the outlet pipe and know the direction, but to find the right location they probe with rods.

Except the primary crop around here is stones, so probing got them nowhere. The backhoe went to work, and after digging a trench a dozen feet long, they finally found the tank, and fixed what ailed it. Then the backhoe piled all the dirt back into the overly-large hole.

So today, in that whole section, there's little grass, as all the stones on the surface give grass no purchase. I got out a wheelbarrow and a shovel, and dug out a section to a few inches deep. The rocky soil got dumped in a low spot in a wooded section that doesn't have any grass anyway. Then I dug out a wheelbarrow-load of fine compost from the bottom of the compost heap, which was a garden before it was a heap. So we're talking primo soil.

I dumped half of the load directly, then was delivering the rest of the load one shovel-full at a time from the wheelbarrow. I tossed a scoop, turned back to the wheelbarrow to get another scoop, and saw something green. There was a big honking toad in the bottom of the wheelbarrow. He was ackwardly scrabbling up the side, trying to escape.

He was ackward because his back right leg was badly broken at the femur. It wasn't an open fracture, but it was still very much not good. So I carefully scooped him out, placed him back in the hole in the compost heap I'd been getting dirt from, and shoved a huge pile of leaves on top.

Last night was the first hard frost of the year. I figure the little guy was hibernating underground, when I shovelled him out, breaking his leg either then, or when I took a shovelfull out by the hole.

I dumped the rest of the compost I'd collected onto the low spot, then put away my tools. I feel terrible, and not inclined to dig up any more toads this fall.

I also am aware that me feeling terrible is kind of ironic, too. I mean, I did hurt that toad pretty badly. It's probably going to die. But I ate the flesh of a cow (or a steer) last night, and I expect to eat some other type of animal flesh tonight. Plus, I've killed human beings and felt no such remorse. But the suffering of this toad makes me feel guilty. The human mind is a strange thing.

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When we finished working on my Mom's attic wiring, I had to take a couple of photos, for posterity's sake. Or my posterior's sake. I get the two confused on occasion.

The old scary wiring: (Full size)

Stack of removed ceramic knobs: (Full size)

As I was writing this post, I realized that I didn't have any photos of the new wiring we put in. But I think we did high-quality work, so there's not much to see; just wires clipped along beams, meeting politely inside junction boxes. As opposed to the knob and tube spliced every which way.

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Kung Fu Panda is a computer-animated kid's movie, starring the voice of Jack Black as a panda that works in his father's noodle shop, but dreams of being a kung fu hero. Then, the call goes forth: the land needs a kung fu hero! Sadly for Jack, he's an overweight panda with masterful skill- in cooking. But he's got a fire in the belly, even if it's a fire for dim sum instead of training. Plus, he's pretty much indestructable, which is a good start for any martial artist.

I thought it was amusing, and there were a decent helping on in-jokes for fans of classic Hong Kong wushu flicks. It's officially a kid's movie, but I wouldn't take anyone really young, because the bad guy is actually rather scary, especially if you still believe in evil talking snow leopards.

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I went cruising around Buffalo today, driving along old familiar streets, going past familiar houses, and relaxing for an hour or two at Delaware Park. Then I went to UB's North Campus. I wanted to see three of my favorite professors, as well as a school employee.

Well, the employee had quit, one professor was now emeritus and only comes in on Fridays, one professor was on paternity leave, and one professor was now teaching in Texas or California (her former coworkers couldn't remember which).

Having failed at the formal reason for my visit, I found the gaming club office, walked in, and sat down like I owned the place. Which I do. I was freaking Convention Director twice and President once, which may still make me the most senior elected SARPA official.

Naturally, the place was full of kids that had never heard of me. How fleeting is fame. They did invite me to play Lunch Money though, so I showed them how it's done. The cards were battered and old, undoubtedly the same deck we had played with back in my day. It was thicker now though, as some expansion decks had been added.

During the middle of the game, the Student Union fire alarm went off for no reason. Just like old times!

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As I was driving from Albany to Buffalo, a cold front blew in. The wind and rain took most of the colorful leaves down from the trees along the NY Thruway. So I suspect we are not officially past peak fall color. Pity. I never did get a good photo day.

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I drove from Albany to Buffalo today. I took Paul's estimate of the travel time, but either he misremembered, or I drive a lot slower. (Which I doubt, my little car is zippier than his minivan. No offense, Paul.)

I'm out here to, among other things, visit my "Old Army Buddy" Raul. He joined the Army a few months before I joined the Corps, and shortly after I came back from Afghanistan, he went there. He was in the same area I was, and went to a lot of the same spots. So while we've been in email contact, it was fun to sit down, share photos, and tell tales.

Getting to Raul's apartment was a challenge, though. He gave me directions via streets I remembered: Parkside and Hertel. But when I got here, I realized that in the last six years, while I remembered the names, I could no longer remember how to get to them. That's OK, I've got a GPS navigation system! But Buffalo has a lot of redundant street names, and it took me to the wrong place. So I called him again, and we agreed to meet at Kosta's, a greek restraunt our circle used to eat at. Then I had trouble finding that, until I told my GPS to take me to the specific intersection. All's well that ends well, and Raul and I had a fun evening.

He's working as a stagehand for Buffalo concerts, as well as drilling with the Ohio National Guard. As is typical for Raul, he's broke, so I paid for dinner. He should have more money than I, as he was higher-ranking for most of our military careers, and he spent more time in a combat zone that I. But he has poor control over impulse buying, so that's probably where all his money went. He's living with Adam, another member of our circle, in the apartment that's the second story of Raul's parent's house. So I'm sure they get a good deal on rent.

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Today's drive up I-88 was beautiful. The fall colors are at peak or nearly so. But it was still mostly cloudy. I did get some photos during the occasional sunny patches, but it was mostly gray and not terribly nice.

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I had the blog time zone set to California Time ever since I was in Cali. Whoops. All my post times have been off by several hours, and I didn't notice.

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Last night I made chocolate chip cookies for the second time since I returned to the States.

The first time, a few weeks ago, was a fiasco. I'd forgotten how delicious chocolate chip cookie dough is. So none of that batch even made it into the oven. My brother-in-law would be annoyed about eating raw eggs. He's right, too, but the dough is so good!

As I was saying, last night I made a new batch, and managed to bake some by doing it right away instead of letting the dough cool in the fridge. I still didn't have much luck, though. The first sheet came out underdone, the second sheet was overdone, and the rest came out kind of mediocre.

So this morning I made brownies. Not that I'm going to throw out the cookies, mind you… but they're not good enough to serve to company.

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