what a week

The past few days have been a real treat for me.

Wednesday, Ryan's family helped me celebrate my birthday a little early. His wonderfully skilled-in-the-kitchen Mom prepared my all-time favorite meal: red beans and rice with blackened chicken. We had chocolate mousse for dessert, and since Ryan is not a chocolate lover, I ate his, too. His parents gave me a Chef's Illustrated cookbook and a set of Woodstock wind chimes (Chicago Blues tuned).

Thursday, Ryan, Kirk, Kristi, and I headed out to Letchworth at about 6 am for the birding trip we've been trying to put together for weeks now. We had a blast, though it's a little late in the season to see very many warblers and vireos. Nevertheless, we had some good sightings (see Ryan's post on this for a more complete list). Even thought they're a relatively common bird, I loved the Cedar waxwings, who were gorging themselves on berries in the tree right above where we parked the car for our bathroom break.

Yesterday was my birthday, which we celebrated by going to dinner at Shamrock Jack's with my parents. I was showered with gifts, which included a cute sundress from my sister, a digital meat thermometer and 2 more of the Audubon stuffed birds from Ryan to add to my collection (Cedar waxwing and Rose-breasted grosbeak), and a sweet new pair of Pentax 10x50 binoculars from my parents.

After dinner, Ryan and I met up with Kirk and Kristi for drinks and Foosball. After that, we headed down to the East End to Whisky to hear Mooch and see some other friends. It was a fun, fun evening.

It's now only barely 2:30 and I'm totally exhausted. I'm hoping we'll get a chance to at least test out those nifty binoculars sometime this afternoon. AND, we're supposed to meet up with Matt and Julia later this evening. Whew!