UPDATE to Family: Check out Fun Pics for a new Nicholas page, Nov. 23.
The plans for last night changed but turned out great. The Murder-Mystery dinner was cancelled, maybe for weather reasons although it wasn’t too bad out. We still went to see Dave and Karen and young David to bring happy birthday wishes…. and by the way all family members, Karen has kept her birthday a secret for too long (or maybe I’ve just been out of the loop), it’s FRIDAY!
We caught a snap shot of the birthday boy: 
He is really happy, I promise. That’s Richard blinded by the light in the back ground. Karen and Dave are doing great. Some gorgeous new furniture. We didn’t catch a glimpse nor hear a murmur from Grace nor Gretchen. Grace had a school project that needed her attention and poor Gretchen was trying to beat a fever. The visit was fun as always. I snagged a pic of Lola who wanted to pose for the camera:
That’s Richard in the background again. He’s always around! Hey Richard?!!!
Ted and I were starving and had made reservations at Brae Lock – a Scottish Themed Restaurant Inn. What a fantastic pick. Ted had Haggis Purse as an appetizer. Haggis is a great Scottish tradition and this particular dish was made up of oats, lamb meat (goes with Ted’s Lebanese heritage – no wonder he liked it) liver, and scotch. Yes, Scotch. We are talking “Scottish” here. It was all wrapped and baked in pastry and drizzled with whiskey sauce. It looked great and Ted said it was out of this world.
haggis purse
I had a salmon dish – less the bacon from the original recipe, but it was topped with chunks of baked apple. It was super. The wine we shared were both from California, a Zinfandel and a Shiraz. The atmosphere was perfect on a cold, snowy night.
On to Sunday’s activities. I managed to sleep a bit better this morning. The 3 of us went for a walk through the parks. We were freezing during the first leg of the walk but warmed up a bit on the way home. It felt like the temp. had gone up quite a bit but actually rose only 5 deg. Guess 25 deg. is a huge difference from 20 degrees. Course the sun came out and that reallly helped.
Today’s paper had an article that backed up my comments regarding O’Scugnizzo’s pizza last Thursday eveneing… remember: 
It was chosen as best among 6 other pizzeria pizza’s tested in the Utica area. It is called an Upside Down Pizza because the sauce is on top. You taste the sauce first.
Ok – now for Sunday do’s and no do’s. I will make chocolate leaves for Bonnies cake. I have to make icing. Peruse the Thanksgiving “Leftover” Menu …Ted doesn’t like me calling it that because he gets the image of “used” food.
I hope to sit down in front of a warm fire today, sip some wine still remaining from Friday and cuddle with my husband while watching a good football game or two. Oh! Have to call my mother and try to get Ted out of the dog house because she’s been wanting him to give her Christmas gift ideas. Dad’s fault – he must not have passed on the email Ted sent. I’ll do my best to bail both of them out. Have a super Sunday! Whose your favorite team?
