Wine & Carols

Matt and I were able to use our free weekend to get caught up with our friends, Clair & Kevin. They're still here actually, but since we were all up a little late, I decided it was better to just sequester myself with the computer for a little bit while everyone continues to sleep.

The whole evening events started when Clair and Kevin dropped by to give Matt his birthday gift. We were getting ready to go out for dinner and decided to invite them along. About an hour later, we met up at The Watermark in Mayville, NY and had some delicious prime rib, Edizione Pennino Zinfandel, scallops (for Kevin), and strip steak (for Clair). I found out recently that this restaurant used to be the office building for the agency I now work for in Dunkirk. The building I work in now was a former brewery.

Our moving party then stopped by Hadley Bay for dessert, coffee, and beer (for the guys). The restaurant sits on a hill above Chautauqua Lake, opposite Bemus Point. Before I moved here the property was called The Good Morning Farm before the barn part of the farm burned down. People still call it by its old name and were forever confusing to me about what they were talking about. Interesting note about the restaurant: it's in an old house that is, of course, haunted. We know the owner and he says that the stairway that you see as you walk in the main entrance has had a peculiar effect on patrons and staff of the restaurant. He says that there have been several occasions where people walking up or down the stairs have become so nautious that they thought they were going to be sick.

So after those drinks and sweets, we temporarly parted ways so Kevin and Clair could pick up more beer and wine and we could get home to see if Buddy had torn up the house. We left him outside his cage to see if he could be good and not have any accidents. The good news is that he "held it" until we got home, but we have to find a better way to keep him out of the kitchen. We tried to block the swinging door that goes in there, but he stll managed to push aside the chairs we set up and carry bags of pasta, boxes of chicken broth, and a bag of rice into the dining room. Fortunately, nothing was punctured or even drool-y feeling.

The rest of the evening involved more imbibing, watching Elf, singing holiday carols as part of the special features of the movie, and then breaking out the wedding video so Clair could see our ceremony (in fast-forward) since her plane was literally landing at the Buffalo Airport during our wedding. We also zoomed through parts of the reception so we could see how drunk all our friends and family got. They looked like they were all having quite a bit of fun!

Well all that excitement kept us going until 4 a.m. I'm still wondering why I'm up! But the coffee has been grinded and brewed, so I think I'll go have a cuppa and start the slow recovery from a fantastic evening.