mr. nye’s birthday, and other happenings

This post was originally supposed to just be about Mr. Nye’s birthday get-together (which was Sunday afternoon), but so much has happened since then! Note: This post is in no way chronological.

(Edited to add: Yet again, I’ve delayed a day… It’s now Saturday morning and mom arrived last night to visit. We already made a Bed, Bath and Beyond run for a couple small items–blast! Andrew took my coupons in the Pilot on his trip to Ohio this weekend–and are planning lots of house-y things today. We’ve already reorganized my small kitchen appliances and it’s not even 10 a.m.)

And speaking of the Nye’s… I took Hadrian on his first walk in the village yesterday–I can’t believe it’s taken almost a week–to their house to stop by their yard sale. I walked away with a well-loved cookbook of Mrs. Nye’s in which she marked some muffin recipes. Those are always the best kind to have–the marked-up and splattered ones.

Getting him in the shot was surprisingly difficult…

This…

…and this is what you see when you round the park (which is across the street) on your way to the Nyes’ house.

What a beautiful view! I started off in a sweatshirt (can you believe you can wear sweats and pants here in summer?! I LOVE IT.)

In other news, we put our bed together. (I use “we” loosely here; I mostly watched.) And in true pet-fashion, Hadrian had to be in the middle of everything. We had to force him out of the bed so Andrew could finish putting the slats in!

Check out this pint glass. I LOVE pint glasses with fun logos and things, except that I need to curb my habit of ‘collecting’ things I love; my mug, glass, scarf and Le Creuset collections are getting dangerously large…

Anyway, I bought two of these at Hallmark (I much rather would have liked to have found them at some neat store or Goodwill or something, but oh well, Hallmark does have cute stuff) LAST SUMMER almost as soon as we moved into the hotel. I couldn’t bear to break them out until we were in our “forever home,” so they’ve been living in a paper bag shoved in a bin ever since.

I busted them out the other night as we ate leftover pizza and celebrated getting both the extra fridge and freezer into the basement. (There I go again with this “we” business; I had no part in that victory. Andrew, his dad, and a couple other engineer friends from Moog graciously helped move our appliances this past week.) And a victory it was! They had to take the doors off both of them, plus the basement door AND doorframe, and even get a special tool. But I’m happy with them in the basement, which is all that matters 🙂

Now, onto the party!!

We’ve been ‘adopted’ by the Nyes, especially since Alex had to go and move to Pittsburgh, just as we moved back to EA. We find ourselves over there once every week or two–invited or not–and Mrs. Nye force-feeds us homemade cookies and Kone King ice cream she keeps stocked in the freezer. We have it rough, I know.

So, when we heard Alex would be in town for his dad’s birthday and that his little get-together would be Sunday afternoon–as in, the Sunday we were in the middle of moving–there was no question we’d be taking a break to attend. These celebrations are always ‘intimate’ affairs–late lunches in which family (immediate, cousins and grandma) and Andrew and I–crowd into the eat-in kitchen. This time we feasted on steak, pork, potatoes, green beans, rolls and fruit.

I know posting this picture of Andrew is dangerous–what with the Nye boys being loyal readers and all–but I had to. Let’s just hope it doesn’t end up on a blanket!

We sang and Mr. Nye blew out his candles before we enjoyed some of the best chocolate cake (or should I say best icing) I’ve had in awhile. Mrs. Nye, I’m (almost) ashamed to admit that I single-handedly ate all the leftover cake you sent home with us…in one sitting. Do you have more? I might need some soon.

And the event wouldn’t be complete without one of Adam’s ‘Andrew creations.’ This time, Andrew’s blanket presided over us, hanging from an upper window, akin to a poster of Kim Jong Ill or something.

You just never know what you’re gonna get with Adam. You just never know.

when in Buffalo…

…do as the Buffaloes do. Or, Buffalonians, rather.

And that would be to eat wings, of course.

It was a beautiful 81 degree day here yesterday and after a balmy walk with the dog, Mom, Josh and I met Andrew for lunch at the Bar Bill, a local watering hole and wing favorite. It gets pretty packed on weekend evenings (hey, it’s a small place), but summer lunches under the awning are just great.

Mom and I shared a beef on weck sandwich and we all enjoyed some of their wings. Josh is even more of a wuss than me when it comes to spice; I think he let a wing touch his lips and then announced he couldn’t go any further. (I will admit, my spice tolerance has gone WAY up since moving here–now I don’t have to ask the servers at Thai places to make my dishes milder–due to my wing consumption. I sure hope that’s the ONLY thing that’s gone up…)

After licking our fingers, I showed mom and Josh our new house–the owners were nice enough to let us come for a visit. I even did a little recon–finding out exact paint colors and eyeing sizes of things and such–and they’re even going to leave a couple pieces of furniture I’d had my eye on AND those cool house numbers Andrew and I had admired! SCORE (and what a blessing)! They are just the nicest people alive 🙂

We spent the afternoon in EA, walking the village. Mom popped into Vidler’s and was even able to find a couple things she needed (a single zipper pull, anyone?), as well as some things she “didn’t” (a pair of Birkenstocks from the place Andrew used to go as a kid). After refueling with some drinks from Taste, we headed home to await Andrew’s arrival after work.

We went back into the village a bit later to drop Andrew at a co-op meeting and I drove mom and Josh around a little to show them the high school and a little more of the village. After a quick visit at the Nye’s house, we popped into Fowler’s to see Abigail and so I could stock up on some chocolate (mostly as gifts, really) with my Groupon, before catching the 9 p.m. showing of the new Spiderman movie at the Aurora Theater. Andrew Garfield makes a great Spiderman–go check it out!

On the agenda today: Niagara Falls and Pasquale’s Pizza…what else?

family visit

Mom and Josh are here visiting!

(So happy to have them here, but I swear! I can’t catch a break this summer…it’s just one crazy day after another! When am I supposed to have that ‘down time’ I’ve been waiting for?)

We picked them up at the airport at 9:30 and went straight to church, where we heard Jim and Jill Kelly talk about her new book and their struggles and faith–very neat to see them and loved hearing their testimonies.

Then we headed to Elmwood to get some Saigon Cafe Thai for lunch before walking around and popping into different shops. Scored a major find at reimagine, a trendy consignment home-goods place–some small retro Pyrex/Corning saucers that match the teal-rimmed ones I found at Goodwill in Ohio! We also started eyeing this amazing black-and-wood two-tone long table for our new house…

We (well, more like Josh and I) wanted some ice cream and after seeing the wait at Watson’s, Andrew announced that he was taking us to Condrell’s, a local long-established ice cream and chocolate shop. We enjoyed sundaes and sodas before heading home to rescue the puppy (who’d been cooped up for 7 hours–thank you to Mom and Dad Layer for giving him a comfort break once during that time!) and start marinating dinner.

After a walk and a quick female-only trip to Target, we all settled in to watch This Means War (cute, but super predictable and a bit more risque than I anticipated), before turning in after midnight…

Andrew’s already off to work, I’ve been up since 5:30 working on an article and doing my morning thing, and our two visitors are still asleep! Although Josh did open his eyes and speak coherently for a bit while I was up putzing in the kitchen.

We’re off to the gym later this morning, then meeting Andrew for lunch at the Bar Bill for wings, then seeing our new house (!), followed by an afternoon in East Aurora. Sigh…I’m happy.