Peace life and ideas

Last week I had the luck to travel to Buffalo New York. It is kind of what you expect, industrial , old, a little dated and dirty. The people seem wholesome, hardworking, love the Bills, blue collar, easy to talk too.

A woman picked out that I was a Canadian in one sentence.. how did she do that? I am always conscious about hiding my canadianisms from America.. I ask for the men's room not the washroom. I watch how I say "about". but she caught me. She told me she was a bartender and it was my accent.. Does John Roberts from NBC have a canadian accent.--- I think not....

Back to buffalo.. It is impossible to be on a diet. The portions are huge. I ordered chicken parmigiana and the side pasta was a meal by itself. I ordered a chicken ceaser salad and there was a half a chicken on a mound of lettuce and cheese enough to feed a family of four. The meals were very reasonable and the food was good if not spectacular, but it was the amount that slayed me. Do more sophisticated cities have smaller portions?

Of course I drove by the falls... I haven't been since I was a kid.. but I drove by. there is something that compels you to stand and watch the water go over..

Le Reve "the Dream" is painted by pablo picasso in 1932. It shows Picasso's mistress, Marie-Therese Walter. Obviously she was tickled pink by the lovely image of herself.

I have to tell you. its hard to understand. the split personality, the angel wing under the right ear. The lack of bossom. and the meaty arms.

Probably what tickles me most is the stark red of the chair, the shade of purple chin and the black "cleaver" that splits the personality. like two women in one...

Why this painting.. Steve Wynn of Las Vegas fame is having a dispute with LLoyds of London his clumsiness. It seems that he was handing the painting, showing it to friends and had an oops and put his elbow though the canvas causing a 2 in flap to be hanging in the wind..

They estimate that the painting was worth 132 million before the clumsiness and after being repaired its only worth 89 million. ah ha... I can see that...ok maybe I would only pay the price Steve paid for it..48 million in 1997. The Ganzes... bought it in 1941 the day they were married and hung it in their living room for 6000$ in 1941.

I like the painting. I like the colors I like the interesting look of the female face. They refer to it as an erotic look and you have to look for that but 132 million??? and if you can't tell it was restored...isn't its value in the view.

so..what do you think of Le reve... is it your dream?

Its back to the grind. The vacation is over. It was fabulous. I either skied or played hockey everyday for 10 straight days.

Normally I am excited about work. I dreaded it this time. The year will be tough, I have had this crazy job for the last 2 and half years and I am tired of it.

I even spent the week in NYNY for work this week and that was not enough to energize me. The grind is back. I have tried to roust myself by taking on an ambitious project to renovate my basement in my spare time but it is just a chore and I lack my normal enthusiasm for it.

I did set some new years resolutions. I resolved to exercise at least 5 times a week. I resolved to practice until I can do 25 good pushups without stopping.

The nirvana of making myself feel young again.

I need a new job. I need to start a business. I need one good idea....

I am way way way too much of an optimist to start 2007 like this.......