The Western New York Land Conservancy will host a fall birding hike from 9 to 11 a. m. Saturday at Kenneglenn Scenic &Nature Preserve, Wales.

Bridge repair on the Kensington Expressway in Buffalo this week will result in travel restrictions. Thursday and Friday, the entrance ramp to the Kensington from Elm Street will be closed from 8 a. m. to 3 p. m. In addition, the eastbound Kensington will be reduced to one lane between Elm and Jefferson Avenue. Saturday, the westbound Kensington will be reduced to one lane between Jefferson and Goodell Street from 7 a. m. to 5 p. m.

Efforts to turn contaminated land into shovel-ready development sites moved forward Tuesday when a city agency approved a budget that will earmark $3.3 million in state grants for brownfield projects.

A proud local father of a local Marine sends along this commendation his son received for not only helping to get medical care for an injured Iraqi boy, but for taking a small step towards winning hearts and minds in an area where that hadn’t been going too well.

“Personality goes a long way with everything ,” says Micah Weber when explaining his early successes as a small business owner. Still, the importance of talent and hard work doesn’t seem lost on him either.

In July the 29-year-old Tonawanda resident with a desk job at Ingram Micro decided to take his two talents, skateboarding and photography, and start his own business: Zen Seven Skateboarding.

“This year I really got back into skateboarding again,” Weber said. “So that’s when I decided to go for it. I started designing, started getting contacts, finding distributors and partnering with people that already do it.”

By using photographs he’d taken himself, Weber designed a pair of skateboards and started selling them locally. He says his photography has helped him quickly gain a following online and generate some interest in the boards he designs.

“I’ve had my photography website for the last five years,” he said. “A lot of that fanbase has transferred over because they see this new project that I’ve been doing, so it’s a really nice transition.”

Micah has used that online presense to his advantage early on. He set up a website, a Twitter account, Facebook page, and even an online store. Still, Weber says the most important part is meeting people face to face at local skateparks. “Social networking has done a lot of the business for me,” he said. “But I like actually going there and skating with people, people seeing the board, people seeing the shirt, and being able to talk.”

By talking with local skaters, Weber says he has been able to get people excited about the company and his designs. That communication has even resulted in a local skate shop, Phatman, carrying his boards. After meeting a friend of Phatman’s owner, Weber got the chance to pitch his idea to the store.

“I typed up a business proposal and I met with him,” Weber said of the meeting. “He liked everything he saw, saw a lot of potential in what it could be and it went from there.”

Weber currently has two designs for sale, with plans for a third design ready by the new year. His first design, a picture of an gas mask on a basketball court, came from a series of photos from his website. Micah says his second design, a Zen Seven logo money clip holding a hundred dollar bill, has been well received.

“People really love that design,” he says, noting that he thinks it will be more popular than the first. He sold out of his first design but is happier with how the second one turned out.

Weber says he was nervous about the quality of the boards and if people would like the ride, but the response has been good. Made by a company in Arizona, Weber said the boards are Canadian maple and the photos have translated well on the boards, which have attracted a lot of interest overseas.

“I guess boards overseas are really expensive, and I’m able to sell them at a cheap price,” he said, noting that he recently shipped boards to Ireland and Switzerland. People have purchased boards not only to ride, but to display at home or even in the office.

Still, Weber’s work is meant for the kids who have been so enthusiastic about his work. He said an order of Zen Seven tee shirts sold out in just over a day, and he’s even sponsored one rider, Shayne Witmer.

“He’s the type of kid that other kids will stop and watch,” he says of Witmer. “So I just throw him free boards and people see what he’s riding, then they buy them. It’s continuous.”

Weber says he is extremely happy with the growth he’s seen over the last few months, but he’s only looking up.

“People really dig the idea so I just want it to grow,” he said of the future. “Locally it’s starting, but I don’t want to stop there.”

Veterans Day isn't usually this nice in this part of the world. The National Weather Service promises lots of sunshine, temperatures in the low 50s and a bit of a wind -- a fine day for attending a veterans memorial service, cleaning up the yard or getting in one more late-season round of golf.

Phish is back in a big way. As if a 3 Day run at Hampton Coliseum , a sold out summer tour, Phish Festival 8 that saw 40,000 people attend, AND a sold out fall tour wasn’t enough Phish returns to Florida for a four-night run at American Airlines Arena in Miami, including a three-set New Year’s Eve show. The shows are the band’s first performances in sunny Florida since 2003.

The dates are as follows:

12/28 American Airlines Arena, Miami, FL
12/29 American Airlines Arena, Miami, FL
12/30 American Airlines Arena, Miami, FL
12/31 American Airlines Arena, Miami, FL

A limited number of tickets for all four shows are available directly through Phish Tickets’ online ticketing system at http://phish.portals.musictoday.com/. The ticket request period is currently underway and will end Sunday, November 15th at 11:59pm EST. Tickets will go on sale to the public on Saturday, November 21st at 10:00am EST.

A very limited number of tickets are still available for Phish’s fall tour, which kicks off next week at Detroit’s Cobo Arena on November 18th. See below for details.

PHISH FALL TOUR 2009

11.18.09 Cobo Arena, Detroit, MI – Limited Tickets Available
11.20.09 U.S. Bank Arena, Cincinnati, OH – Limited Tickets Available
11.21.09 U.S. Bank Arena, Cincinnati, OH – Limited Tickets Available
11.22.09 War Memorial at Oncenter , Syracuse, NY – SOLD OUT
11.24.09 Wachovia Center, Philadelphia, PA – Limited Tickets Available
11.25.09 Wachovia Center, Philadelphia, PA – SOLD OUT
11.27.09 Times Union Center, Albany, NY – SOLD OUT
11.28.09 Times Union Center, Albany, NY – SOLD OUT
11.29.09 Cumberland County Civic Center, Portland, ME – SOLD OUT
12.02.09 Madison Square Garden , New York, NY – SOLD OUT
12.03.09 Madison Square Garden, New York, NY – SOLD OUT
12.04.09 Madison Square Garden, New York, NY – SOLD OUT
12.05.09 John Paul Jones Arena, Charlottesville, VA – SOLD OUT

Related Articles:

• Phish Festival 8 Setlists
• Phish Fall Tour 2009
• Gordon Stone Band Live @ Nectars 08.01.08 | SBD MP3
• Phish To Play Acoustic Set At Festival 8
• Review: Trey w/ NY Philharmonic @ Carnegie Hall
• Mike Gordon 2009 Fall Tour & CD Giveaway
• The Goods: Phish 2009 Darien Lake 08.13.2009 | HD Video, Setlist, Photos, Downloads
• Phish: Festival 8 Announced 10.31.2009 CA

The University at Buffalo football team is taking on Ohio University at UB Stadium. Follow the action as Bob DiCesare blogs from the game.

Set aside for a moment the issue concerning purchasing a new license plate every year – a practice that was abolished in New York in the late ’60s.  I don’t at all hate this blue-on-orange plate.  Although New York used orange-on-blue when I was born. In 1973, plates switched to blue-on-orange and didn’t change until we got Liberty plates in 1986.

I like the blue-on-orange throwback colors, and appreciate the simplicity of this new plate.  I like that the DMV has moved away from blue-on-white for the first time in 23 years.

Now, what we need is a whole shitload of specialty and commemorative plates to help fill the state’s coffers.

And I’ll renew my request for a specialty European-size plate for foreign car enthusiasts. I’d gladly pay for the privilege to stick this on my car:

Well…this is odd. I’m not sure if I should virtually wave hello or spend some time making sure none of my personal contact information is available online, so if (when?) I (inevitably? If I haven’t already with that last post) make someone mad, they can’t come find me.

I guess what I’m trying to say is, hey, I’m Angela, and I’m pretty psyched about the opportunity to blog on this site. Actually, I’m just excited to have a way to direct traffic to my writing, instead of just putting it out there and hoping someone other than my friends stumble across it. Hopefully you’ll find what I have to say at least sometimes (I make no promises about ’all the time’) entertaining and insightful.

The posts that are in this blog so far were imported from my personal blog, which I’d kept since January of this year. I’d kept other blogs before it, but, trust me, what was in them isn’t worth noting. My mind works at a rate of approximately a million miles a minute, so there are plenty of thoughts and posts forthcoming. I hope you’ll keep visiting and enjoy them. PS–I enjoy a good conversation, so, despite what that last post might have you thinking, comments are much encouraged.

In the meantime, you can track me down on Twitter, MySpace, Facebook, etc. etc., or, if you’re interested in a little insight about what I think, do in my spare time, and some humorous background on my relatively short 21 years of life, you can take a look at this Facebook-popularized list of “25 Things You Should Know About Me” (complete with pictures! I’m such a dweeb!)

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1.) The only real reason I began keeping a blog – and why I still keep a Twitter, despite my best intentions to delete it – is because I’m fairly certain I’d go crazy and start talking to myself if I didn’t. I have so many thoughts spinning around in my head, all the time, so I need to either write them down or tell someone. The latter option isn’t really an option because I’d be incessantly calling/texting/talking to people, which I can imagine would be utterly annoying for both of the involved parties, so writing was really my only option. The fact that people read what I write (and, every so often, actually care) is just a nice bonus.

2.) Despite this incessant chatter, I’m actually quite shy. Maybe shy isn’t the best word – I just dislike small-talk. If I can strike up a conversation with you that’s not based around the weather, I’ll be talking your ear off in no time, and you won’t possibly be able to understand why I’d ever say I’m shy. But if I don’t really know you and am just exchanging pleasantries, I probably come off quiet, shy or stuck-up. It also doesn’t help that looking people who I’ve just met in the eye often makes me feel weird, so I often avoid people’s gazes without realizing it – which pretty much perpetuates the quiet, shy, stuck-up image. I swear that impression of me is the absolute opposite of what I’m really like.

3.) I also hate talking about myself. Don’t be fooled by the fact that I’m actually filling this out; I am honestly my least favorite subject. This, of course, means that interviews are a problem because they require you, in essence, brag about why you’re so wonderful. So while I may be a great interviewer, when the roles are reversed, and I’m the interviewee, it’s a struggle. If you don’t get what I mean, find a copy of Chuck Klosterman’s “Eating the Dinosaur” (and all his other books if you haven’t read them) and read the first chapter; he explains perfectly.

4.) I have been told I’m less awkward on the phone than I am in person. That’s probably true, but it also probably depends on who I’m having a conversation with, how long I’ve known them, what the relationship is, etc. People probably get that impression because they can’t see me on the other end of the line, where I’m probably using my hands to talk and talking the same way I talk in person.

5.) I love purses. Mine are usually big, bright, and from Target. I have a couple really interesting ones – one is made out of a license plate, and the other is shaped like a Chinese take-out container. And despite how big my purses are, I never seem to leave the house with just one bag.

6.) Speaking of purses, you will always find a few things in mine, besides the usual wallet and keys: my planner, a notebook, my camera, my cell phone and my iPod. You’ll also find a lint comb and lots of Chapstick (we’re talking like two or three sticks, at least). I often also have my voice recorder with me as well.

7.) I drive a 2000 Chrysler Cirrus, and I am absolutely in love with it. It’s not the sportiest car ever, and it’s not particularly special, but it’s really and truly mine, unlike the van that was just the family car I got to drive. I owe my parents money on it, but I still paid the majority of the cost, pay for the insurance and the upkeep, and it’s officially registered in my name. I registered it the day after my 21^st birthday, which definitely ranks as one of the milestones in my life so far.

8.) I am a Buffalo Sabres fan, but I am also a hardcore Boston Bruins fan, thanks to my year-and-a-half internship with the team while I was in school in Boston. It was – and will always be – one of the most amazing experiences of my life, and one of my most favorite jobs with some truly incredible people. I was more upset about leaving that internship than just about anything else, except my friends, when I came back to Buffalo; my last day at the Garden was the most tearful out of all my final days in Boston.

9.) I graduated from Boston University a year early because, to be honest, I stopped seeing the point of classes. Journalism is about doing, and you can only go through

Me after BU Graduation

so many assignments to “learn the technique” before you just want to get out in the real world and do that stuff for real. I wanted to write things for publication, not for grades.

10.) I do miss school a little bit. I’m not sure if I actually miss the homework and the classes, or if it’s just that now I have been forced to find a different “something” to organize my life around, instead of just organizing it around school like I’ve done for the majority of my life. I have considered taking a couple courses in video editing or graphic design because I would like to learn more, and taking a class, rather than just goofing around with Final Cut and Photoshop, seems like a decent idea.

11.) Most of my writing recently has been sports-related, but I originally wanted to (and still want to? I think?) be a music writer. For Rolling Stone, specifically. That dream is still alive, but now I know I can be happy with my career even if I don’t get a byline “on the cover of Rolling Stone.” I just need to get a byline on the cover of Sports Illustrated (kidding, sort of).

12.) I can thank my dad for the Rolling Stone dream. When I first started writing, he made me watch “Almost Famous,” and I think that’s what really solidified the writing thing. That movie, by the way, is my absolute favorite movie ever. My friends and I can quote most of it, and nothing but the “Untitled,” unedited, nearly-three-hour extended version is worth watching.

13.) If my mom hadn’t pushed me to apply to write for The Buffalo News NeXt during freshman year of high school, I’d have probably gone to college for law or something like that. I would probably have not made a very good lawyer. Actually, I don’t know what I would have majored in because up until that point, it was either law or becoming a vet, and I don’t like the idea of either of those. Sociology, perhaps?

14.) If I could bring one person back from the dead, it would be Jack Falla. He wrote a bunch of hockey books and pieces for Sports Illustrated, and when I started interning at the Bruins, all the BU-trained sportswriters raved about how great a teacher Falla was. My boss told me (jokingly, I think?) that I wasn’t allowed back unless I signed up for his class. Well, I did, and Falla passed away of a heart attack two weeks into the semester (on my birthday, nonetheless). My biggest regret is that I never got to learn more from him. If you enjoy hockey at all, you should read his work, especially Home Ice and Open Ice.

15.) My first big journalistic moment came in the summer of 2003, almost a year after I started writing for NeXt. The Goo Goo Dolls are my favorite band, and they were playing a concert that August at Darien Lake. I decided I was going to get myself an interview with them to publish in NeXt. Lo and behold, I dug up their publicist’s contact info, got in touch, and landed an interview with Robby Takac. We talked for almost an hour; I still have it taped, and I have a signed copy of the story framed in my room. That was when I proved to myself I could really do this.

16.) Another cool NeXt moment: in the tradition of the section’s “school swap” articles, a friend and fellow writer, who went to the all-guys St. Joe’s, and I shadowed each other for a day. He danced with a girl in our senior lounge, while I experienced an incredibly awkward health class – a room full of guys, me as the lone girl, and a discussion about childbirth – and it all resulted in two of the funniest, most fun days of high school I can remember. A serious thanks goes out to NeXt editor Jean Westmoore, for giving me a chance to take my crazy ideas and run with them, and for giving me some seriously awesome stories.

17.) My most embarrassing journalistic moment: I’ll be the first to tell you that, when I first started my Bruins internship, I knew very little about hockey, besides the basics of the game. One night, Andrew Ference gets in a fight with a player on the opposing team, and we decide that’s going to be my story. I’m talking to him in the locker room after the game, and I ask how the fight started. He tells me that during the previous face-off, he – get this! – ASKED the other player if they could fight. I thought he was joking, and I, or so my boss tells me, let out a rather loud, rather high-pitched, “NO WAY! SERIOUSLY?” that you could hear quite clearly around the whole locker room. I found out later, upon consultation with my boyfriend, that, indeed, it’s common knowledge that players do that to hype up the crowd. Many, many thanks to Andrew Ference for (always) being a gracious interview and not laughing at me at that moment, and to my boss, John Bishop, for not giving up on me at that point, and for making sure I will always remember the hilarity of that moment. I still have the interview taped on my computer.

18.) My top three concert moments, in no particular order, and with the understanding that the third moment changes pretty much daily and depending on my mood: The Goo Goo Dolls, 2004 Fourth of July outdoor concert – I was second row and stood in ankle-deep water for eight-plus hours, but it was totally worth it, because you can see me and my friends on the DVD.

Garth Brooks, September 1998 – one of my very first concerts, and still one of my favorites. The tickets were a birthday gift from a friend, and they were a total surprise because the last I’d heard was that her friend who went to get them had gotten out of line at the box office (this was when you still had to actually stand in line to get tickets!) and didn’t get them. We were on the side of the stage, second-to-last row in the whole arena, but it was incredible, amazing, and all those other words. I pray he does just one more tour, because I would go see him again in a heartbeat.

Any of the Klear shows I went to in high school – Back when Club Infinity was not just a place to host “teen night,” Klear still had their original line-up, and I was fully convinced they were going to be the next big thing out of Buffalo. They played a few of the best club shows I’ve been to, and they really knew how to involve an audience. I don’t know if anything will ever seem as good as that.

19.) For my 19^th birthday, two of my best friends at school and I took the Greyhound

My friends/former roommates and me in NYC

bus to New York City for the day. We did EVERYTHING – Times Square, the Met, Central Park – and kept running into totally random things along the way – a German Parade outside the Met, and Italian Festival in Little Italy, a farmers’ market. We also had the most amazing dessert I have ever tasted at Max Brenner’s.

20.) Unlike a lot of people, I really don’t have a favorite food, favorite color, favorite number, etc. I think it’s because I can be very indecisive. I also just don’t really think about those things all that much.

21.) I do, however, have a favorite season – fall. I love the weather, the clothes, the “fall” smell in the air, leaves, pumpkins, etc. I’m always grateful after winter to have spring, and I still get giddy when I see the first snow, but fall just makes me happy. It sort of reminds me of being younger and in high school, and I’m extremely happy that I get to spend fall in Buffalo for the first time in three years.

22.) I also have a favorite holiday – New Year’s Eve. I know, it’s a totally random one, but it’s because we had some really awesome celebrations when I was a kid. First, we had the New Year’s tradition of fondue – we’re talking cheese, oil AND chocolate; my family did it up right – and my sister always ate all the maraschino cherries. Then, for a few years, we rented out an ice rink at the Pepsi Center and invited, oh, about 100 of our closest friends. We began that night

Boyfriend, me, best friend, NYE 2005/06

at a different family’s house for dinner with everyone, then ended it ringing in midnight at our house with everyone after skating. For the past few years, I’ve been everywhere from Ellicottville to downtown watching the ball drop – this year, I’ll be in Boston for the Winter Classic – but I’m always with friends, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

23.) Two of my stupidest, strangest injuries have also occurred on New Year’s Eve. In fourth or fifth grade, I chipped a tooth on a friend’s head. It’s a long story and involves demonstrations so you can understand how something so weird could happen. Then, in sixth or seventh grade, I jumped from one of the last steps into our basement and smacked my head into the low ceiling I conveniently forgot was there. And, clearly, I was stone sober for both of these incidents. I’m just a huge klutz.

24.) I am a horrible flier. I absolutely hate take-off and landing, and any turbulence whatsoever sends me into a panic attack. I got a little better about it during college, when I was flying home for breaks and visits, but when I recently went back, I spent most of the flight with a death grip on the armrests, forcing myself to breathe normally. I also almost cried. I don’t care if statistics show you’re more likely to die in a car crash than a plane crash – I still don’t feel safe.

25.) That childhood stuffed animal/blanket everyone has? Mine is a dinosaur that I found in my grandparents’ basement. I lost my darling Sara (a triceratops, if you must know) in a store, and Dino (aren’t I creative with the names?) became my replacement. His stuffing is hard as a rock, and he was already pretty beat up when I found him – my grandpa is a pack-rat, like me, so Dino was probably a garage sale purchase – but he came home with us and has stayed with me ever since. For Christmas one year, my dad had a drawing done of Dino; it’s still hanging right above my bed. Dino came to college with me and made friends with my freshman year roommate’s Baby Pink Bear (no, I’m not kidding) and a new addition to my bed, a Build-a-Bear bunny from my boyfriend (I think they might secretly dislike each other and be competing for my affection; again, I’m not kidding). When I spent the night in a study lounge because of an oil spill in the basement of my dorm last year, I went back for a pillow and blanket – and had to grab Dino and Little Dave (the bunny) as well. Dino now watches over my room from a chair in the corner, but he will never, no matter how old I get, be one of those stuffed animals I box up in the basement.

It met today to do two things: 1. address the deficit; and 2. vote on same-sex marriage.

It accomplished neither.

Welcome to Albany.

Adam Mair's only plan overnight was to make sure his phone was on and within reach. Other than that, there wasn't much he could do regarding his hockey future.