Mom's Birthday -- She's 83 Today!

The Birthday Girl
Today is my mom's birthday and although she swears she is turning 82, she is actually turning 83. Dave told her that she was 82 yesterday but today she was 83 and she seemed to get a kick out of that.

It was great to be able to get the family together to celebrate with mom ... we don't all get together often enough and I know she really enjoys it. Of course, I think as happy as she was to see us, the real thrill was getting to sip a vodka tonic. Oh, and of course, seeing William helped to make the day special.

We had a little cocktail hour with mom before opening gifts and having cake. Renee brought a clam dip (YUM!!) that is just like clams casino and we also snacked on cheese and crackers. I'm rather certain mom will not be eating much dinner tonight!

Anyway, here are a couple pictures from the day. We wish Daniel and Meghan could have been with us. That was the only thing that would have made it even better!



The Little Cowboy Who Came To Visit



Presents Are Fun ...

But Let's Eat Cake!

The Forgotten Post ... or ... Korean Food 101

I was looking over my posting list at blog central and realized that this post was still in draft form and I'd never actually posted it. Duh. Must be that hitting 50 is already affecting me. It's from back in February when Dave and I got together with Mark and Mary (aka The A-Team) to try Korean cuisine ...

First, we had to change our plans a bit and instead of going to The Korean House for dinner, we went to Young’s Korean Restaurant. As it turns out, they are practically across the street from one another and I guess it was just our good fortune that The Korean House was closed to the public last night due to a private wedding party.

I’m sure that gives you a heads up about what’s to follow — I LOVED Young’s Korean Restaurant! We had such a great experience. Our waitress, believe it or not, mentioned how we all look familiar and as it turns out, she works at the post office that is right up the road from where we live! She willingly gave us some great suggestions and information that explained the menu to us a bit better and we were all able to make dinner choices that we enjoyed. (In fact, I brought a little box home filled with yummy leftovers and just had it for breakfast!) On top of that, she had a great sense of humor and kept us laughing.

David and I both decided to have … argh. I can’t remember what it’s called in Korean. But it was basically a stir fry filled with meat and veggies and served in a spicy sauce — mine had chicken and David’s had shrimp. Mary had a beef dish that she thought was terrific and Markie had a seafood “Korean pancake” that was fantastic! (We all shared a bit.) Everything seemed so fresh.

We had a great time having a cup of hot tea and sampling all the banach — various side dishes such as kim chee, spicy cucumbers, fish cakes, tofu, bean sprouts — that were served before our meals were brought out.

Of course, the fun part was watching us all trying to use chopsticks. Mary had a little bit of experience having spent some time in Japan when she was younger and Mark seemed to know what he was doing. David seemed to be holding his own as well. Me? Well, I figured it was going to be one of the longest dinners of my life! I don’t remember another time when I honestly wondered if my fingers were working against me.

I hated to be the one to give in and ask for a fork, but eventually when our waitress came to check on us and I responded by asking how late they were open she took my hint and brought us all forks. As much as that was a relief, I was so glad that I gave the chopsticks a try. I secretly plan to keep working on perfecting (ok — improving) my abilities at home so I can WOW everybody next time we venture out for Asian cuisine.

Once we’d all finished our dinners, we headed back to our house and celebrated my upcoming birthday. Actually, our evening started out with a birthday treat — Daisies!!! Mark and Mary took special notice of my “25 Random Things About Me” that I posted in Facebook and surprised me with a huge bouquet of my favorite flowers.

Then — also noticing that I mentioned how much I love Mounds bars — Mary made me a Mounds Bar Cake! To say “simply delicious” is an understatement. And how touching to think that she took the time to go on the internet, search to see if she could find a “mounds-like” dessert and then to take the time to make it! I felt especially — well — special!

And then — there were gifts! Yes-indeedy. Mark and Mary never miss an opportunity to amaze me. This next part needs a little bit of set-up since I’m sure most people aren’t aware of my love for the comic strip “For Better or For Worse”.

A couple of years ago, knowing how much I loved the comic strip and my admiration for its creator, Lynn Johnston, Mary sent a blank unsigned birthday card to Lynn asking her to sign the card as a special treat for my birthday. Lynn went above and beyond and actually drew a personalized message to me (which I have since framed in a memory box along with pictures of me opening the gift, a copy of the letter Mary sent her, etc.) It was a thrill that I thought could not be matched.

Well — think again. To my absolute delight, Mark and Mary gave me a copy of Lynn’s book “The Big 5-0″ with — yep! — a personal wish from Lynn for a happy 50th birthday and another drawing on the opening page of the book.

How could anyone be so blessed?

Well, now that I’ve shared all the highlights of the evening, I should probably mention a few other fun things that happened as well.

Throughout the evening we were entertained with frequent text messages (that seemed to come at very appropriate times now that I think about it) that kept us informed about the much-anticipated arrival of Mark and Mary’s new grandson. (As of this moment, I understand that Tammy is pushing and Joseph’s arrival is imminent!)

And — we planned out several fun adventures for the coming year that will keep The A-Team busy, busy, busy as we discover Rochester and take in the sites, sounds, and culture of our hometown.

What a wonderful evening. Great friends, great food, great gifts, and the promise of more fun in the future. Doesn’t get much better than that!

Daisy the Stinkpot

Daisy has really been giving us a run for our money lately. When I emailed Dave today and mentioned the new hole she'd chewed in the carpeting on the stairs his reply was, "Maybe it's time for a trip to Lollypop Farm?"

Of course, he was kidding. With all our dogs we've had a favorite drop-off place that we'd mention when they were naughty. Quincy was going to Kendall, Rascal was going back to Delaware, and now Daisy gets Lollypop Farm.

Let's see -- what has Daisy done in just the past few days? Well, let's go back to a recent visit with William. Ever since William has had a binky, Daisy has been doing her very best to get it. Last week, opportunity presented itself and Daisy jumped at the chance. Literally. She jumped onto the unattended coffee table while Will was getting a diaper change. We later found the binky -- but the nipple was chewed right off.

Then poor Rascal got sick (he snuck up into Bree's room and devoured a bag of Twix candy bars she was planning to use for Easter baskets) and while Daisy was outside, refusing to come back, she managed to roll in a spot where Rascal had given up the Twix so to speak. So that meant an emergency bath.

Daisy after digging in the dirt

Easter Sunday was another one of Daisy's not-so-great days. William had received a cute little duck that quacked from Joyce Schultz and Josh and Jessica brought it with them when they came for dinner. Daisy wanted that duck and tried her best to get it. So we put it back in the tote bag for safe-keeping.

It wasn't long before I looked over and found both Rascal and Daisy on the couch with Duckie in both their mouths and her poor bill chewed off. Needless to say finding a new Duckie for William was on Monday's "To Do" list.

And now today she chewed a hole in the carpet. We're starting to wonder when it will end. It's a good thing she's so darn cute!

Afterthought: Hmmmm ... as I was reading this over for typos it occurred to me that Rascal hasn't been much of an angel either. I have a feeling Daisy is starting to wear off on him!

Easter 2009

What a fun weekend we had! It's finally starting to feel like Spring has arrived and with Spring comes Easter. The birds have been especially loud in the mornings this week (seems sweet now but I'm sure it will grow old soon!) and my daylilys and hosta are already starting to peek out from between the pieces of mulch. Buds on the lilac bushes remind me that in just a few short weeks it will be May and we'll have all sorts of blossoms to enjoy.

We had fun with William for a couple hours on Saturday morning. He was rather fussy -- our sweet baby is definitely about to pop a couple of bottom teeth and it's obvious it hurts and is making him a bit cranky. Still -- he was loads of fun and we saw lots of smiles. We read books and watched him crawl all over the house. Rascal and Daisy were his constant companions. It was nice that Dave was able to be home and could enjoy some time with William as well!


Will was missing his daddy. Thank goodness for Auntie Bree.



Daisy just had to have a taste of that little finger!



I can eat my socks if I want to! Socks are so yummy!



William and Papa.

Easter day was just gorgeous -- bright and sunny. We got a late start on getting the house ready (since we'd been out with Patty and Steve the night before -- dinner at the Dakota, taxes, and then lots of laughs while sitting at their bar watching their slideshow sales pitch intended to convince us to go on a Caribbean cruise with them in January) and even had a couple minor setbacks (who knew the leg to the dining room table would break off?) Still, it all came together. Dinner was yummy -- pork loin roast, red mashed potatoes, broccoli puff ... William even got to try some potatoes. And dessert -- when Bree and Jay came we had the unveiling of "the Easter cookie tray" which was scrumptious!



William had fun opening a bag full of Easter treats. There were some books (Mema made sure that the Paines had a copy of The Tale of Three Trees and William especially liked The Ten Ladybugs book), a personalized water bottle to take to the zoo this summer, and a rolly ball with a cute little monkey on top that we all loved. The best part though, was playing with the tissue paper!





We really had a wonderful day. It was nice to be able to spend time with Josh and Jessica, Bree and Jay, and mom. We were able to get a nice shot of William and GG Glennys ...



After dinner everyone settled in and started to watch the final round of The Masters. I finally left everyone and headed out to visit my mom. It was great that Dan, Renee, and Melanie were there too. We all were able to keep mom company as she ate her dinner and then we watched the exciting finish of the golf together. I didn't end up getting home until after 8:00 and was exhausted. Still -- Dave and I were able to watch "Celebrity Apprentice" together (it's one of those shows we can't believe we actually sit and watch but can't seem to pull outselves away from!)

It was certainly a wonderful Easter. We missed Daniel and Meghan but know they were having a nice day too. I keep thinking ahead to a wonderful Mother's Day weekend with them that's coming up and that makes it easier to be apart on special days like today.

AND we're all looking forward to a big family vacation together next summer!

Wednesday Babysitting With William

Bree and I were able to give Marie a day off and go babysit for William this past week. I went up to start the day and Bree came up later with lunch and much needed reinforcement (that little guy is getting heavy and my arms were ready to fall off by the time she arrived!)

We had a really fun day watching all Will's newest moves. He's crawling around, "wounded soldier" style as Josh calls it, and is definitely getting into things -- he already loves the DVD rack and the baskets filled with all the Wii games and books. He has lots of new toys, all of which seem to beep, sing, or talk to you (I love the car keys that say "zoom zoom!") And he's starting to pull himself up onto anything that will support his weight.

Will really puts on a show in his exersaucer and "sings" along and dances to all the tunes it plays. Bree and I sure had fun taking pictures of him at lunch, in his crib, and when he was getting changed.

Memorable moments were when I burned the fiber cookie I brought for breakfast in the microwave and stunk up the entire house with that awful smell reminiscent of burned popcorn. It was awful! I turned on the vent over the stove and opened the kitchen windows but it took forever to get the smell to a tolerable level. And then of course the kitchen window I'd opened got stuck and I couldn't get it closed for quite some time.

It was a fun, but exhausting day! Here are a few of my favorite pictures taken of our little sweetie pie.

An A-Team Adventure To Brewcrafters

We're already getting slack about posting all the good things happening in our life!

It's been a crazy couple of weeks what with Dave waiting to hear about the possibility of being laid off (Rohm and Haas had a downsizing last Friday which did not end up affecting him -- thank goodness!)and then subsequently getting sick (which I seem to now be coming down with -- geez!) Stuck in there was a day of babysitting (see next post) and a day out and about with Mark and Mary.

Last Saturday was our most recent "A Team Adventure" and this time we headed off to the Custom Brewcrafters microbrewery for a tour and sampling. The new location is in the Honeoye Falls area and is newer and much bigger than we expected.


When we arrived, they were just about to start a tour so we got lucky and were able to join in. We spent the next hour or so learning about the different ingredients that go into beer (malt, hops, yeast, and water) and the process that's used to actually brew the beer. Microbreweries are cool because they can create different recipes for all the different locations that they sell to. It was interesting to go into the cooler where they store the kegs and see the labels indicating the places these beers were brewed for (Duffs Anchor Bar in Buffalo, for example, and The Cottage Inn in Honeoye Falls -- where we ended up going for a late lunch.)

After the tour Dave and Mark bought tasting tickets and "bellied up to the bar" so to speak. Mary and I opted to stick with the Iron Man's Root Beer since neither of us are crazy about beer (and Mary was our designated driver.)

Dave had fun trying to decide which six beers he wanted to sample (tasting cards allow you to sample six different beers for $3.) Mark, on the other hand, dove right in and start taking notes for his beer sampling log and before long, our tour guide John had become Mark's best friend :) The two of them talked beer and Mark seemed to be catching a bit of a buzz ... hmmmm ... could that be due to all the extra samples that John was giving Mark to try?


They had a nice gift shop there and sold not only mugs, outerwear, books, games, and complimentary beer foods and mixes, but also growlers of all the different beers (and root beer). Great prices too -- $8 for a growler which could be refilled if you brought the jug back for $3. We bought a couple of root beer glasses and a growler of root beer to bring home and make Black Cows (aka root beer floats -- a childhood favorite of mine that bring back good memories of time spent with my dad.)

After running into Mary Bishop Partridge and deciding that the girl that kept staring at us was most likely one of our favorite Bugaboo waitresses named Precious, we headed over to The Cottage Inn located in the center of Honeoye Falls for a late lunch.

The restaurant was in an old house and former Inn. It has a very rustic, home town feel to it and I imagine it's a local hotspot in the evening as they have bands come in and a nice bar. Even though it didn't look like much, we were all blown away by the food. Yummy clam chowder for starters, and then one of the best burgers I've had in a very long time. Definitely worth a return visit if we happen to be in that neck of the woods again.

I loved the drive out in the country and being a passenger instead of driver gave me a chance to gawk at the beautiful homes and yards in the Mendon area. It was a beautiful day to be out with friends!