Engagement Pictures, Wedding Plans, and.....well, Stuff.

So,  I have some time during lunch....I think i will post a blog.

Before Melissa left when she was visiting, we got Emily Alianello to take some engagement pictures of us.  We kinda just went around Ellicottville and pretty much just let Emily take the reigns and take pictures of us wherever she wanted.  They turned out very nice.  We have many many pictures of us now. :)  Not only many, but many GOOD ones...if I do say so myself.  Here's a couple that i especially like:

I feel like the luckies man in the world to have Melissa as my fiance.  I'm super excited about getting to marry her and spend the rest of my life with her.  She is quite an amazing woman.  She has been doing so much as far as the planning goes...I have been here in NY working away at my job, and she has been doing so good with all of the planning.  She is also good about checking in with me when she want's my opinion about something.  Her mom has been such a big help too.  She is good at thinking about everything that needs to happen and making sure it gets on the calendar or schedule so it's not forgotten.

I've been breaking in a new pair of cowboy boots...my first pair.  They are doing quite nicely.  I think I like them and will keep them.

In other news, my car turned over 100,000 miles today.  I thought i would try to see when it happened and remember where i was and such, but i was driving...thinking about something else....my fiance...and before i knew it, the odometer read 100,002.  I missed it. Oh well.  I guess it wasn't really that important. lol  My apartment is so cozy these days.  The little gas heater in the corner does a good job of keeping everything warm.  I raised my shower curtain rod about 4 inches....the curtain was dragging on the inside of the tub and getting nastier than it needed to get...plus we might be getting a curtain liner soon and i wanted to have everything arranged so it would stay nice.  After looking at walmart for some drywall anchors, i found some that would work.  it went very smoothly and now it hangs quite solidly and higher too.  I always appreciate a job that goes as well as or better than was expected.

I woke up earlier than normal today because I had a dentist appointment at 6:30AM.  Yes.  I was in the waiting room of a dentist's office at 6:30...eagerly waiting to get two cavities drilled out and kindly filled with that white stuff that they cure with the purple UV light...  But not before I got a lovely injection of novacaine.  Well, it went better than expected.  No pain..although they are a little sore this afternoon.

Well, i will close for now i guess.  I definitely am counting the days to when i will be a happily married man. (52. days.)  In a lot of ways, March 19th is so far away, but in others, it is right around the corner....I was reminded early this week about the Bible passage, "be still and know that I am God"....I'm being still.  It's hard to be patient sometimes, but it's good for me.

Until Next Time....

Christmas Musings

Christmas has come and gone and January has set in good and proper.  I spent Christmas and New Years up in Maine with Melissa's family.  We did lots of wedding planning stuff.  Invitations, made decisions regarding decoration stuff, looked at the reception hall, checked out music, arranged musicians, registered at stores....etc.

Everything went pretty smoothly.  Melissa has lots of friends and family that are super willing to help out and stuff.  That makes it nice and less stressful in general.  We took a day to register at Sears and Bed Bath and Beyond.  We went to Sears first and were pretty disappointed with the service and selection available to us.  After feeling like we got almost nothing registered for, we went to Bed Bath and Beyond and were greeted and basically had a personal store guide the whole 3 hours or so that we were there registering for stuff.  She even offered us something to eat toward the end of our adventure.  SO, at 8:30 PM or so, we headed back home entirely exhausted.  It was after we got home that we decided we should register at Target since the selection was so poor at Sears.  We started a registry online and have yet to complete it.

Joel, Melissa's next younger brother, offered to help us get all of her stuff to NY and we decided that this last weekend was the time to do it.  We loaded up his Tacoma and single axle trailer with her stuff and headed for NY on New Years Day.  We laid over at Brad and Michelle's friday night and finished the drive the next day.  It went very well.  Nothing got wet, so i would say that our tarping job was a success.  Also, the tarp did not start flapping or anything like that so it was a success in that sense as well.  Joel headed back that Saturday evening and Melissa stayed at the Rabers house.

Sunday was nice.  We went to sunday school and church.  Pastor Doug, the senior pastor, said hi to Melissa and actually mentioned to the whole adult sunday school class that Melissa was visiting NY.  Not that I'm an attention hog, but it was cool.

Melissa and Laura spent Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday of the next week painting the apartment.  Jake and I helped them move furniture back into place...or to different places depending on whether the girls wanted to rearrange something or not.....we mostly moved stuff to different places. lol.  The apartment looks great.  new paint, some new furniture, nice things to put on the walls, and a new arrangement of furniture makes a big difference.

Melissa stayed at the Alianello's house most of the time she was here which was nice.  She and Laura basically spent the whole week together.  which was also nice.  they got to hang out and also since Melissa didn't have a car really, it ment that she could still go places...as long as Laura wanted to go that is. :)

I took Melissa to the airport Tuesday morning at 5:15AM.  she is now in Maine doing wedding stuff and being far away from me...  We will probably get to see each other the last week of January.  We are doing marriage counseling at her sister's church near Owego, NY.  We have attended that church numerous times since we started dating and we feel like we know the pastor there pretty well.  Also, it is kind of an in-between place for us.  And he agreed to do it for us. :)

Well,  that's the last month in a nutshell...err...blog i guess.

Until next time...

Snow and Wedding Stuff

This Week was an eventful week.....

Tuesday, winter seemed to have set in finally.  It had snowed a couple of inches over night and the forcast was for snow, snow, snow.  Lots of lake affect snow.  Also, on Tuesday, I woke up with a queezy stomache.  I went to work, proceeded to expell part of what i had to eat the night before, and promptly went back home to spend the rest of the day sleeping on and off, and NOT eating.  However, i drank plenty of fluids and by evening, after several checkings in by my lovely, caring fiance over the phone and email, I ventured to make some chicken broth and noodles. (it was very fortunate that i had both in the cuboard. :)  That went down ok and i was feeling better that evening although achey.

Wednesday, I felt better and went to work, still cautious of what I ate.  It warmed up significantly and RAINED for much of the day and evening, ridding the ground of any excess snow it had managed to keep from the little previous snows.  That night however, the winds kicked up to a heafty 60 mph gusts in places, bringing with it MUCH colder weather and SNOW to the greater buffalo area.  Most of the area north of us got pounded with snow. We did not get any snow, but the weatherman promised that the 'southtowns' and 'ski country' would get snow thursday night.

Friday Morning I woke up at 5:30 and talked to Melissa on the phone some...about wedding concerns and, well, whatever was on her mind.  I then remembered that it was supposed to snow...so, i rolled over, peered out the window, and to my delight, found LOTS of snow.  It had Indeed snowed as the weatherman promised.  The plowman had already come and it was still snowing...I went outside earlier than usual to start my car and brush the snow off.  There was already 3 inches of snow on the freshly plowed parking lot, and I had probably 10 inches on my car. :)  I do so much enjoy living up more northerly where we get more snow.  The Lake is also kind enough to grace us with lots of snow until it freezes over.  Thankfully, I had snow tires(nice and sharp) and I made it to work without sliding anywhere....I was very happy that I got to 'test out' my snow tires.  They are impressive :)

I learned later that day that areas north of me had gotten at least 27 inches of snow over the past 24 hours!!!  I left work friday to go home to visit Kerry and family and to deliver gifts that Melissa and I had gotten for them.  Again, thankful for those snow tires. :)

Saturday morning, I woke up to a 10 o'clock appointment at David's Bridal with Kerry so that she could try on different styles of bridesmaids dreses.  Melissa had been to the Bridal shop with her mom in Maine the day before and she wanted us to check a few styles.  The end of the day resulted in us deciding on a Style AND Color of dress.  I also walked next door and registered for the Tuxes too :)   A very productive day.  We also have a reception hall. 

This will be the third weekend that I have been away from my home church.  I kinda miss it.  I will be home next weekend, only to leave for maine for Christmas.  I am excited to spend the holiday season with my Fiance.  She is great.  I love spending time with her.  I like getting to know her more and I am looking forward to marrying her and spending the rest of our lives together.  I am looking forward to continually learning more about her and eventually raising a family with her.

Ok.  I guess that's all for now.

Until Next Time....

Engaged to the love of my life

So,  Big News.  Melissa and I are engaged to be married!  Living so far away from her and her family made it challenging to ask her dad for permission to marry her without Melissa finding out, but with the help of her family (as in, they kept a secret), i did it.  And this weekend, I asked Melissa to marry me.  It happened to be light-up-night in Owego, NY friday night, so it made the night special.  She said YES.  And I kinda feel like the luckiest man in the world.  Yes, it was a good weekend.  Here are a couple of pics of the ring...one in the box, and the other on her finger.  It fits and shines and she loves it and everything.

We are thinking March 2010 or August 2010....It depends on how things work out with her schooling and such.  We are excited about getting married and spending the rest of our lives together.  We are looking forward to what God has in store for us as well.

As at least some of you know...Scott, my younger brother, is getting married June 19, 2010.  I'm really excited for him and his fiancé.  I guess there will be a couple of weddings pretty close together.  I kinda like weddings. :)

So, there will be a lot of wedding planning type stuff going on between me and Scott and our fiancées. (weird how that word is spelled)


In other news, we have had our first significant cold spell up here in WNY.  We got dusted with snow all weekend and the ski slope are getting white as they are making snow now that it is cold enough.  Now i will get to try my snow tires out. lol

I also put my bike (motorcycle) away for the winter....last week I rode it down the street in the rain and filled it up with gas and put fuel stabilizer in it.  I rode it back to my place and put it in the shed on the property...the landlady said i could keep it there for the winter.  I will have to take the battery out sometime. so it doesn't freeze or anything.

Thanksgiving was great...we had nine total at dad's house for the eating....nine pies total too. :)  Dad got DSL internet and a network extender from verizon wireless.  The network extender used the internet and broadcasts a cellular signal for the cell phones to use...it allows you to use your cell phone in areas where there is really poor reception.  all you need is an internet connection and a clear spot to get a GPS signal.  The network extender has a GPS locating device in it that is supposed to be used for locating purposes in case of a 911 call.  Anyway, after 3 hours on the phone and a couple of service calls, he now has internet at home and is able to talk on his cell phone without getting super frustrated with constantly dropping the calls. :)

Melissa and I made some cookies this past weekend.  We made date balls...my favorite.  it's like a rolled up rice crispy treat except they have caramelish stickiness instead of marsh mellows and they have dates in them and are coated with colored sugar.  they are really good and are fun to eat right out of the freezer.  We also wrapped the presents that we have gotten so far.

Ok  i guess that about covers it..i hope to be snowboarding soon with this snow.

Until next time....

On my way home...

I'm going to be home for Thanksgiving.  Melissa and I will be heading to Dad's house this afternoon and staying there for feasting, socializing, airsoft wars, more feasting, and such.  Hopefully there will be plenty of pie to go around. :)

This week has gone by pretty quickly.  I did some much needed filing over the weekend.  Oh, which reminds me...I got an M&T Bank checking account when I moved up here, but over the past year, I have been disappointed that some of the services that I had become quite used to were not free anymore.  These include Web Bill Pay, No fee for using your debit card as a debit card at the store, and the ability to download your transactions into Quicken on my home computer.  M&T's policy is to charge fees for all of these things...all of which I want to be able to use without the fees.  Well, a few weeks ago, I did some checking into a more local bank..."Community Bank NA" exactly.  I found out that they offer all of these services free, and because I have my car insurance taken out automatically, I was even eligible for the 'VIP checking' that yielded a tiny bit of interest.  So, I switched checking accounts and have been pretty pleased with Community Bank so far.

Web Bill Pay is amazing.  You can send a payment to virtually anyone.  It all is done through the Banks website and they will even determine if the payment can be sent electronically or not.  If not, have no fear, they will mail a check...free of charge! :)  I pay all of my bills this way.  For instance, i have my rent payment set up so at the same time every month, they send a check to my landlord.  It's nice.  And it saves stamps and checks and envelopes and time. :)  I've even noticed that my Chase credit card has the option of sending payments much in this same way only it charges your credit card instead.  Interesting.

Interesting that it has become SO easy to spend money.  It's also interesting that statistics show that people spend approximately 12% more when they use a card versus Cash.  The internet can be a great thing, but it can also help you spend WAY more than you have, only this way, you don't even have to leave your home to do so.  Ebay, Amazon, iTunes, and countless other online stores will suck you dry if you don't have the self control to...well...say NO to yourself. lol.

I had my car in the garage yesterday.  It needed an idler pulley, a tensioner assembly, and a new serpentine belt.  The idler pulley would randomly make this pretty loud noise.  It has been doing it on and off for the past year almost, but i figured i should get it taken care of before it left me sitting somewhere.  I especially didn't want to get left sitting somewhere between here and Ohio this weekend.  That WOULD be inconvenient.

I got a new landlord and this winter, she is willing to let me keep my motorcycle in the shed that is on the property.  That will be nice...last winter, the snow came so fast and so hard that I didn't really get to put it away where I had intended to keep it.  Seein' as I had a storage unit down the road, but the roads were too nasty to get it there.  Anyway, I will put it away next week and take the battery out and bring it inside where it will be nice and cozy warm.  I might even put the battery tender on it for a little while.

One thing about snow not coming quite as fast as i thought it would this year is that I have had my snow tires on for almost three weeks now and still no real sign of snow.  BUT the roads haven't been hot or anything so i probably haven't put too much undue wear on them yet.  Never the less, i would like to have snow soon so as not to waste my wonderful snow tires :)  And so I can snowboard too.

Ok.  I should get going.
Hope everyone has a blessed Thanksgiving.
-Till Next Time

Quickly becoming a Significant Other in my life :)

For those of you who don't know, or that don't know much:

I have a girlfriend. :)  Her name is Melissa.  She graduated this past spring from Geneva College with a bachelors degree in Civil Engineering (yes, just like me). lol. Melissa and I spent two years roaming the Geneva Campus at the same time while not really noticing each other, but November of last year (1.5 years after i graduated, moved to Cleveland, OH and then moved again to NY) I found out that she was on the Student Steel Bridge Team (which interested me).  I quickly found out that Melissa interested me more than steel bridges.....and well, it's pretty much history from there.  We have been dating for 7 months now, and we have really been enjoying each other's company and such.

She is currently going to The University of New Hampshire (UNH).  She is pursuing her masters in Environmental Engineering.  Yes.  New Hampshire is far away from Buffalo, NY.  543 miles to be exact.  Even so, we have managed to see each other probably once every 2 to 3 weeks on average.  We have gotten quite good at using lots of forms of communication including: email, IM, letters, phone, and even Video Chat.  Personally, i think the 'In Person' form is the best. :)

Melissa's sister and brother-in-law (Michelle and Brad) live in Owego, NY which is like 3 hours from where i work in Ellicottville. They have been super nice in letting us hang out there on various weekends.  It works out pretty well since it is somewhere in between where we both live....not really half way, but it definitely makes the drive for both of us better than the full 10.5 hours would be if we had to drive the whole way just to see each other.  Brad and Michelle have 2 daughters.  One (Alison) is like two years and a few months and the other (Kaylee) is something like 6 months.  They are both QUITE cute and sometimes we get to 'babysit' them when we are there. :)  I am really glad that God has blessed Melissa and me in this way.  We have gotten to feel kind of at home there for the most part.  To the extent that we will cook meals sometimes (mostly for fun, but i imagine that it helps out some too).  Brad and Michelle are currently expecting their third child as well, so their house will be even busier come spring time.


Occasionally, airplane tickets are available from Buffalo to Boston for reasonable fares.  For instance, I got a round trip, non-stop ticket for $130 for Labor Day weekend. Melissa's family is in Limington, ME and I got to spend the weekend with her and her family.  They are very nice.  Melissa has 6 siblings.  She is the 3rd oldest, and the most recent to be 'out of the house'.  So, there are 4 still at home.  It was a nice weekend...We went wind surfing for the first time.  I guess a guy from their church invited us all to go, so we went out to one of the bigger lakes in Maine and tried that out for an afternoon...harder than i thought, but still very fun.

Ok...until Next time.....

Introduction Continued:

So, it has been a few weeks, but what can i say?  I'm a busy guy:  I have been to Owego, NY to see my girlfriend once since i was on here last, and we also went to a wedding in Cattaraugus since then.  We decided to start letterboxing, not like hardcore obsessive, but more as a thing to do if we can't think of anything else :)  There are letterboxes all over and since we kinda get to see each other in different places: Ohio, Western NY, Maine, NH, we should be able to find a letterbox to...well, find, just about anywhere we find ourselves.  Plus, it gets us out and about hiking and stuff, which we both enjoy, but need some extra motivation to do so. (ok, so reading over those last two sentences....and i'm not sure the punctuation is all right, but it's there.  oh well)  If you don't know what letterboxing is, you can google it.  it's like a scavenger hunt of sorts.

I also let myself wish a little recently.  I created an Amazon wish list.  Sort of for christmas, but it was fun to look at some stuff that is out there. :)  I seem to have interests in John Deere and Milwaukee tools and stuff.  Last year, i got a Milwaukee 12 volt Li-Ion driver.  It has a 1/4" speed chuck on it, much like a cordless impact driver, but the drill itself is not an impact driver.  It is small and quite handy.  It has amazing battery life and it is pretty strong.  It would be ideal for cabinetry work and mounting doors and stuff.  Anyway, I ended up getting the Impact driver that takes the same battery.  It's quite tough.  much heavier than the drill i have.  It will drive Lots of 2-3 inch deck screws and stuff.  Here's a pic of them if your interested:




They are the same size in real lif.  ANYWAYS, the reason i bring this up is because, it seems like the impact drivers are becoming the way of the future...except a lot of the bits aren't up to the 'impact' part.  I have been noticing that more and more companies are producing driver bits that are made for Impact Drivers...Including adapters that will drive 1/4 and 3/8 inch sockets too...real handy for mechanical work.  So, i've been kind of fascinated with the different driver bits available now and kind of find this urge to try lots of them out. lol.

Speaking of Mechanical work, I put new brakes on my car a couple of weekends ago.  I was going to just get it done somewhere, because i don't seem to have a lot of time and i didn't think i had the facilities, but it would have cost about 360 dollars.  That motivated me to look at prices of just the parts.  I ended up getting ceramic lifetime pads and rotors with a 3 year warranty for around 180 dollars.  The rotors were painted everywhere except the wearing surface and they said that they had a higher nickel content in them which helped keep them from rusting as bad.  I figure if they last even close to 3 years, it was probably a pretty good deal.  As long as they don't warp on me......  SO, when i changed them i noticed that one of the sliders on the caliper on the right side was stuck.  Fortunately, I was prepared with PB blaster and Anti-Seize compound.  I got it freed up and lubed up before i put them back together.  The old pads on that side were obviously worn at an angle because of the stuck caliper.  So, after a couple of hours, i had good brakes again.  The brakes seem about twice as strong as they were before i did the work.  Ah, a good feeling.

Monday, i got snow tires, an oil change, and an alignment.  My all seasons were not worn out so i kept them.  This place will switch them back and forth in the spring and fall for free because i bought the tires there.  At other places i checked  it would cost around 30 dollars for all four tires each time...so, this turns out to be a savings of about 150 dollars.  Makes me happy.

Work has been going pretty well.  I have been getting more and more involved in projects and my position has become much more interactive with the clients. I like that.  I attend Village board meetings sometimes, do inspections on our projects sometimes, and make a ton of phone calls throughout the day.

Ok.  I will conclude for now.  Maybe if i have time, i will write another one soon.