Blue and white and displayed all over....

Such was our venture into downtown Buffalo on Friday night.  Our football team is in post-season hibernation; the Sabres just officially got put out of their misery with two horrible losses to Toronto and Montreal; but the forgotten sport of the Queen City, gone from the pros since the 70s, has come back in a big way: UB's basketball teams, men and women, are both in their respective Big Dances, and both won their opening games that tipped off late Friday afternoon as I drove back from Rochester.

I'd never seen City Hall lit up, Empire State Building style, to honor a sports team, but they've apparently installed the technology to do it, and while this photo was taken for a Memorial Day installation and may have included red someplace, this is what we saw on the skyline heading down the 33:

 
Both teams play again this afternoon with hopes of advancing to their respective Sweet Sixteens.

But that's not what we came there to tell you about.

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Never having had a piece of her artwork at a juried installation before, the obvious question was, how was Eleanor feeling Friday morning?
 

"Airplane! _ Nervous" (Watch on YouTube)

(That's June Cleaver, btw. She also speaks Jive.)

Eleanor wound up begging out of work for the afternoon, partly because of said jitters but also because her bad knee picked this day to start acting up again. She was on crutches again by the time I got home, but managed to get to, into, out of and from the gallery without too much difficulty.

The opening was well attended. My brother-in-law came in from Rochester to see it, and a couple of friends from Eleanor's Buddhist group stopped by, as well.  We met the artist who wound up winning the Best in Show award- also a Rochesterian, she works in 3D and had a couple of creative box pieces on display.  We also met a friend of Wendy's- the artist who got Eleanor into this group- who spoke highly of her selected piece.  Our evening ended at a beloved Italian place on Hertel, and the excitement was about as much as we ever get around here.

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The weekend so far, far more ordinary.

Yesterday, I just ran a bunch of errands, including a scary male foray into Bed Bath & Beyond, or as I call it, IHoP- the International House of Potpourri.  The place is famed for bombarding all of its customers with endless, never-expiring, and never-quite-the-same-deal coupons, and this results in slow lines as everyone plays Five Card Coupon with the cashiers.  Two of them, at the time I got in line- both slowed by assorted arguments over the definitions of "percent" and "item." Finally, just when I got to the head of the line, they open a third- and the Stepford Wife behind me and her sidekick (whose name, oddly, must be "Michael Kors" because it was on everything she was wearing) jumped ahead of me and placed their items on the counter.

 

I responded the way I always do in these situations- by saying to the person behind me, "Do you want to go ahead of me, too, or are THEY the only rude people in the line?" No reaction. I should know better. But the best part? They of course got into an argument  with the cashier over the percentage discount, and Frau Blucher's and/or Michael's husband got dispatched (no doubt from the extensive section of Bills and Sabres pillowcases) to join the fray. They were still there when I was done being quickly and painlessly cashed out. They may still be there. Unless they actually died in the fire I wished on them on my way out.

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Today was a little better. Dog park is still closed for spring thaw grass seeding, so Pepper checked out a trail very close to home. Just now, I returned to near that very spot to get my hair cut. In between, though, I had a little loss of mind at my Sunday morning workout studio. Here's THAT sequence of events:

-Book class
-Show up on time for class
-Grab bag from trunk
-Check in
-Clear up data error that was giving me too the wrong numbers of calories/points (the latter based on time spent in a high-percentage heart rate) because the new monitor they gave me last week had defaulted to me being a 78 year old male;
-Take bag into changing room
-Only then, realize “bag” is my computer bag from work and not my gym bag.

Hey, give me a break. I’m almost 79.

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Movie time! Last night, Eleanor had a Buddhist event, so I finally checked out Captain Marvel, the first released after Stan Lee's death and which had me near tears before the end of the vanity card, turned into a homage to their founding father.  The rest of it was also marvel-ous fun, as well, including a damn fine cat. Tonight, we have Mary, Queen of Scots awaiting.

Is this the one I'm talking about? "No, I'm not."
 

"Death Of Mary Queen Of Scots" (Watch on YouTube)