1st goodbye

We made our trek out to Carmel for a funeral, actually. For those who don’t know, Andrew’s grandfather was diagnosed with Stage 4 brain cancer back in February of last year. He passed away at home Dec. 28.

20120102-184917.jpg
Andrew has a small family, some of whom live here in town, some in northern Indiana, and the rest of us in Western New York.
We’re at the wake right now, and the line of those who knew Bill is out the door with no sign of stopping.

20120102-185306.jpg
Andrew’s grandfather was a great man; he was a strong Christian, a wonderful father and accomplished civil engineer, who did a lot of work for the state and city. He was an avid golfer and softball player. He surrounded himself with great men, many of whom continued to visit weekly, even up until the end.
Andrew’s grandmother, Nancy, has always been a friend to me and has been so strong this past year as she cared for grandpa.
Andrew’s grandfather was a Mason, and 75 of them came to perform a short service and pay their respects. (Apparently a normal turn-out for this sort of thing is 8 or 10.) Many of them visited him often throughout the past year and spoke of him very highly to grandma.

20120102-191508.jpg
The overflowing line of his friends and acquaintances here is a testament to how great a man Andrew’s grandfather was.
The funeral will be held tomorrow morning–please remember Andrew’s family in your prayers right now.

Slovenian on the way home

We started our trip home this afternoon by filling up for the cheapest price we’ve seen since moving to New York!

20111127-185728.jpg

Because Andrew got the platter, he also got strudel to share with me!

I got the house schnitzel that featured a mushroom and sour cream sauce. It was divine with potatoes and sauerkraut! (I’m also quite proud of myself; I loaded half of it into a to-go box before digging in!)

He got a three-meat selection with sides; I enjoyed his sauerkraut with my dish.

We split a bottle of Lasko, a Slovenian beer and both had salads before dinner. Andrew chose a ‘family style’ platter, so he got a soup as well.

Thankfully, we were able to spiff up a bit in the car; Andrew added a sweater and I changed into jeans from yoga pants.

If inquiring minds want to know, we did in fact, stop for Jeni’s ice cream in Dublin, as well as some Starbucks. Both of those places get way too much of our money! In addition to the three pints of Graeter’s ice cream we already had in our cooler, I added Jeni’s sweet potato and toasted marshmallow and dark chocolate peppermint varieties. Cannot wait to dig into those!

Around dinner time, Andrew decided it would be an adventure to detour and try the Slovenia place he knew about outside Cleveland.

20111127-190214.jpg

20111127-190503.jpg

20111127-190659.jpg

20111127-190828.jpg

20111127-191047.jpg

20111127-191442.jpg