the first of many weddings

Andrew and I were out of town this weekend for summer wedding #1: his cousin Hannah’s wedding to her longtime boyfriend, Taylor. I traveled down a couple days early and got dropped-off in Dayton, OH, to hang with this girl and the cutest baby EVER:

I hung with Jen and Aiden for a couple hours around our old stompin’ grounds (Beavercreek) before heading south to my ultimate destination.

We had City BBQ for dinner:

Kids’ plates and new outdoor seating! I can’t decide if I like it when things change while I’m gone, or if I’d rather them stay the same.

Then we ran some errands before picking up Graeter’s to-go:

Oh, black raspberry chip, how I love thee! ESPECIALLY in sundae form with real whipped cream, hot fudge and a cherry. Did I tell you I discovered their secret for melt-in-your-mouth chocolate chunks? MUST figure out how to replicate that at home.

And where were we headed that night? To Chez Wilhelm, of course! Emily worked late, so Dan and I power-walked for awhile, regaling each other about our recent house purchases. Well, I did most of the regaling; Dan politely allowed me to monopolize the conversation and inserted his own house comments when I paused to catch my breath.

The next morning we headed to Sugar Creek MetroPark for a trail hike, one of our absolute favorite things to do together.

OK, between the sunglasses and headband, do I not look like an alien cancer patient?? Not sure the angled glasses are my best look…

Afterward we refueled at EarthFare for lunch! We sampled Indian food from the hot bar, I couldn’t resist the emerald kale or broccoli cranberry salad, and we both got tea to drink.

And the highlight of our day? Laying out by her pool! (Don’t worry, Dad, we used LOTS of sunscreen.) In fact, I learned my lesson from Memorial Day weekend and reapplied multiple times; I was rewarded with a beautiful brown tan and no red at all 🙂

We cleaned up and dressed to the nines to go out to….wait for it….FIGLIO! Emily and I have been trying to fit this wood-fired pizza place into one of our visits for awhile now, and we just never seem to be able to. Funny story: Andrew and I thought it was a furniture store the entire time we lived in Ohio! Imagine our surprise when Emily and Dan informed us it was a relatively fancy Italian place…

We made it in time for happy hour, so we each got a mini-Martini and split a pizza as an appetizer. We ended up getting their signature Peasant side salads and cups of the shrimp and crab corn chowder instead of entrees, but it was hard to be disappointed since they were both so good!

After all, we had to leave room for this:

Rita’s! I went with a regular gelati (water ice with custard) with the chocolate peanut butter water ice. I knew Andrew wouldn’t be able to resist a stop on our way out of town the next day, so I figured I’d have one more chance to get my favorite, mango, before leaving Ohio behind.

And perhaps my favorite part of the whole day? Cleaning out Emily’s closet!

Oh, how I love a good closet clean-out! Ever since I had a trendy co-worker come over a couple years ago and help me purge my tired wardrobe, I’ve been going through my clothes regularly to get rid of what doesn’t fit, things I just don’t wear and anything old and tired looking. It’s cathartic, I tell you.

Emily emptied her closet of about five bags of clothes, a bag or two of shoes and a few purses. They’re moving in a month or so, so it’ll make that load lighter. I even got a couple items in the process–score!

The next morning, we headed to a nearby track for a self-designed circuit workout. We matched!

After our workout and bunch at First Watch–our favorite!–we headed to Emily’s office where she blessed me with a PHENOMENAL massage. Seriously. This girl is amazing. I had some majorly sore calf muscles from a workout earlier in the week, as well as some chronic neck and shoulder pain, and despite her working on those areas pretty intensely, I STILL almost fell asleep on the table! Talk about heavenly!

Andrew picked me up from there and we headed into downtown Indianapolis for the rehearsal dinner.

Saturday brought my usual run on the Monon Trail near grandma’s house, followed by errands (had to run to Crate and Barrel for their wedding gift! Too bad there wasn’t time to shop for myself…) and lunch at McAllister’s with the family (minus Abigail, who was in the wedding party and was already downtown getting prepped).

Here we are, all spiffy:

(Terrible shot, but it was the best I could do while Andrew was driving.)

Here’s the outside of the Scottish Rite, where the wedding was held:

(Disclaimer: this photo was actually taken on our way home from the reception, but I wanted to get at least a little of the outside for you.) They light it up at night and the colors change.

Andrew’s grandfather (the one who passed away this past December) was a Mason and spent time each week here. I’d never been inside before, but he’d given Andrew a tour once awhile ago.

They held the ceremony in one of the rooms and then we left for cocktail hour while they re-set it for dinner:

This picture is absolutely terrible. It was amazing in there! Better photos can be found here. (It’s a FB link; hope it works!)

Here we are, hanging out before the reception:

Those Layer kids really know how to cut loose:

(Really, it’s the girls who steal the show at every dance party they attend; Andrew gives it the old college try and does relatively well.) Ben, Luke (Hannah’s brother) and I grabbed some stretch of wall to chat and watch the ‘entertainment.’

Afterward, we all found our way to archive room to see if we could find grandpa’s pictures.

There he is, back in 1971 when he was first invited to join:

And here is a more recent picture of him we found:

It was really neat to be able to visit the archives–all of us together (well, Hannah was off being the bride and all)–to take tiny peek into part of Grandpa’s life.

And, look! Just as we were driving away from the church, who should we spy pausing for some nighttime photos? The bride and groom 🙂 (Very blurry, but the blob of white kinda gives it away.)

welcome, may!

And what a beautiful day it was here yesterday, for the first Saturday of the month!

The farmers’ market opened…

…and Carolyn and Abigail joined us for brunch at Charlie’s on the porch! Definitely one of my all-time favorite places. And only on the porch; inside is a little cramped when it’s busy.

Per my usual, I can’t NOT get the blueberry pancakes, but I also wanted some savory breakfast components, so I opted for a spinach and mushroom omelet, home fries and one pancake on the side. (The cinnamon toast was forced on me…too bad I couldn’t have gotten fruit instead.)

I’ll have you know that half of everything (minus the toast–I nibbled on a couple pieces, though) went into a to-go box as soon as I got my food. To-go box = more room on the table + more room in my tummy + more deliciousness to enjoy later = VICTORY! Therefore, following the previous equation, a to-go box = victory. (Obviously, the Chemistry is starting to go to my head…)

Speaking of Chemistry… As my test is beginning to loom in the distance (May 14th!), there was some of that going on yesterday afternoon as well.

Mid-afternoon, we met Regina and her kiddos, Kevin and Vivian, on Elmwood in Buffalo for some walking around. We’d thrown the idea out about getting margaritas (it was Cinco de Mayo, after all), but with the two angels that wasn’t going to happen…

We walked around for a bit, popped into Penzey’s Spices (I was in desperate need of cinnamon and powdered ginger–two of my staples–and also got some Za-tar spice and grinding salt).

Regina and I wanted ‘real’ food before we treated ourselves to ice cream (the kids and Andrew had already gotten cones at Watson’s, which serves Anderson’s Ice Cream), so she and I popped into the uber-crunchy (a.k.a super natural/hippie-ish) Globe Market for some bites. I ended up with tiny amounts of an Israeli Couscous dish and an almond and cranberry chicken salad.

After a bit of a run-around, Regina opted for some blood orange gelato–I had a taste and it was amazing–I ended up BACK at Watson’s for the same flavor Vivian had, White Chocolate Raspberry Truffle, atop some Chocolate Chaplin (chocolate with coconut, marshmallow and cashew).

OK, bit of a rant here: I definitely asked the lady for a small with two different flavors, but she obviously did not understand what I wanted, since I got a giant one. Now, the old Holly would have been super excited and used this as an excuse to scarf the whole thing because, after all, I had at least tried to order less. No, not the NEW Holly. My first thought was, ‘OK, now there is no reason to eat all of this since I didn’t want this much to begin with.’ This is growth, people.

And I’ll share the victory: I gobbled the top flavor–amazing, by the way–but realized somewhere half-way through the chocolate that I wasn’t enjoying it anymore. Into the trash it went! Hurray!

We got home around 6 p.m. and weren’t hungry for dinner, so back to Chemistry I went. Below is a page from my study packet from last semester’s ACS exam… Oh, did I mention THIS semester’s exam will cover both this AND last semester? Yup, it’s cumulative.

Quantum numbers, orbitals, wavelength… I don’t remember it all!

After just about pulling my hair out trying to at least get through a practice test, Andrew and I decided it was time to head out for some “dinner” at 8:30. I wasn’t thrilled to be eating this late, but a walk from our house to the village to the new mexican place for margaritas was sounding really good right about then. (I’ll say it again, it was Cinco de Mayo, after all.)

Well, long and sad story short: the mexican place was more than packed with no room at the bar and an hour wait (!!!), so with no where else to go, we walked back home, trying to brainstorm a solution. I had no interest in waiting and having a full meal handed to me somewhere at 9:30 at night; the truth was, neither of us were that hungry. This was one of those classic examples in which I have a definite need for a food “experience” and if that need isn’t getting met, filling it with anything else is pointless.

Sooo, I might have been a little grumbly on the way home. And then, it hit me! We had margarita mix in the fridge! I said I silent prayer that there was at least a little tequila downstairs… (gosh, I sound like a crazy person here…)

Three ounces of tequila (the last!) and nine of margarita mix later, Andrew and I were both enjoying drinks on the rocks (sad about no salt!) in front of the next season of Big Bang Theory on DVD. I even assembled some nachos with sweet potato tortilla chips, a little melted monterey jack cheese and drips of salsa.

Overall, it turned into an OK night 🙂 I treated myself to a couple bites–literally–of the chocolate I got at Watson’s earlier (a sample to compare with Fowler’s) and ended it there. Another victory, in my mind. I might have eaten later than normal, but I avoided going overboard by succumbing to a restaurant in desperation, or a popcorn-and-ice-cream-binge that would have been tempting had we not been in possession of margarita ingredients.

Happy May!

Easter weekend

Happy Belated Easter! I had all sorts of fun things to blog about this weekend, but kinda took the weekend ‘off’ and this is my first chance to sit down (Not really, I still have TONS of schoolwork to do, but this is somewhat time-sensitive, too. If I wait too long, it will be old news!) and type it all out.

There was LOTS going on this weekend for us, with Andrew’s grandmother visiting and Abigail home from school…

I ran in the Bunny Hop 5K…and scored SECOND PLACE in my age group! Holy smokes! Seriously…despite some of my recent PRs here and here, when I saw the 1,011-runner crowd lining up, all hopes of placing went right out the window. In fact, I was having a bad morning due to a sudden neck spasm and stress (what else is new?), so I really had to pep-talk my way through the entire (almost all uphill, if that’s possible) race.

The neat thing was that the course went right by Andrew’s parents’ driveway! I waved as I passed the first time… (I’m in pink and purple.)

Andrew’s family (and the dogs!) came out to cheer me on…

Here I am on the way back, just a 100 yards or so from the finish. LOVE my purple running pants!

Andrew was convinced I’d placed in my age group (based on the small number of ladies who finished ahead of me), so we waited around for what seemed like forever at the finish for them to post results.

At least the oranges were good and even the store-bought oatmeal raisin cookies were decent. Andrew ate my hot dog, but I caved and got another one and ate about half when the results still weren’t posted…

Sure enough, I DID place–I got SECOND! Prizes for the Bunny Hop are chocolate bunnies, which, despite their appropriateness, are (in my mind) a bit counterproductive. Carolyn had the brilliant idea to throw mine in the freezer and use it to bake with later. It’s currently crushed into small pieces and chilling with my other chocolate.

We spent the day relaxing at Andrew’s parents’ house and running errands on Main Street. We wanted to show grandma the new cupcake place, and while there, I picked up this little guy:

Perhaps the most memorable event was our dinner Saturday night, and, as usual, I got no photos. We ended up at a local hibachi grill/Japanese Steakhouse/sushi bar due to our large party (8) and lack of pre-panning (it was 6:30 and we were trying to find a restaurant without an hour wait). Can I just say the Layers aren’t big on change, ethnic food OR fish??

Let’s just say that if Carolyn’s face had frozen they way she was turning up her nose at the menu, she’s be one unhappy camper. In all honesty, Andrew and I were pretty nervous–we’d taken everyone here thinking it was akin to a Benihana, but it turned out to be about 95% sushi and sans-hibachi tables. Our table ended up with five chicken teriyakis, one beef teriyaki, one soba noodle and one edamame order with an Alaska roll. Can you tell which one was mine??

The night wasn’t a total loss; we ended up in a room of our own and had a few good laughs, and everyone got to experience a few things out of their comfort zone 🙂

Happy Easter morning! I got up early to cook breakfast 🙂

I made the Clinton Street Baking Co.’s buttermilk waffles (thanks for the book, Susy!), maple-roasted bacon and fruit. I even made the maple butter from the cookbook and it. was. divine. Even Andrew loved it.

As always, we did Easter baskets. Andrew’s is full of junk food and candy. I threw in a Bananagrams game, thinking it would be a good 2-person game for the house.

Andrew (as usual), went way overboard with my basket this year:

He collected all sorts of my favorite gourmet/health foods, like sweet potato chips, Luna bars, flavored seltzer, Starburst Jellybeans, Ritter chocolate with Marzipan (Heather introduced me to it before we moved last year)…

…brie and special topping…

…I’ve been DYING to try this chocolate bar since I saw it in a Food Network magazine like two years ago!

Dave sent me home with some Cadbury creme eggs last weekend, and I broke into it Easter morning! (I was good; I only ate half, though.)

Andrew particularly liked his tangerine-flavored Jelly Belly carrot. I had to force him to eat one before church… Seriously, who has to be forced to eat ONE jelly bean EVER? I wasn’t going to eat a bunch of candy all alone!

After church (we accompanied the Layers), we rushed home to finish our contributions to the meal and walk the dog before heading back to their house.

Butter ‘lambs; are a big deal around here. I saw them at the grocery store a week or so ago and wondered where they’d been all the other Easters of my life. Not where I lived, apparently.

I made caramelized pear, sage and orange biscuit bites, a recipe I found in a cookbook of Susy’s last time I was at her house. They were pretty darn good, but I don’t know if I’d make them again.

I also made Pioneer Woman’s Tres Leches cake for dessert. I. CAN’T. STOP. EATING. IT. Seriously. I had two pieces yesterday and two pieces (so far) today. Not good.

We spent the rest of the afternoon hanging out before Abigail had to head back to school. I studied for my Micro test (I have THREE tests and a quiz this week…say a prayer for me, people!).

The rest of the family played ‘bean farmer,’ which I believe is really called Bonanza.

Andrew taught grandma.

Carolyn opted out and instead searched for dishes on the iPad.

After a light dinner of sandwiches and leftovers–not that anyone was terribly hungry–Andrew and I headed home to rescue the puppy and prep for the week ahead…if only I’d had another day off!

I’ll be up for air sometime on Thursday!