In addition to Snow Fun, my mom and I took Nephew to the Albright-Knox Art Gallery. I haven't been there in years! It was fun, but I think Nephew enjoyed the gift shop the most!
After Christmas, Ry & I traveled to Buffalo to visit with the family! As usually, we took Nephew out for some fun! Here's our day at the Snow Park in Niagara Falls on New Year's Day! -- it's actually open 365 days a year, and Nephew is already looking forward to another trip there this summer!
Uncle Ry at the bottom!
The boys going down in a double tube! 
Nephew's first time "Ice" Skating. 
I know that my audience has been checking daily for updates about my exciting life .... and let me tell you, life has been busy!
But soon ... so very soon ... I will post about:
So much fun in such a short amount of time!
Ry & I shuffled off to Buffalo over Mother's Day weekend, for no special reason except to visit the family!
We had a great time! My parents, lil bro' & Kel have purchased a new house and Ry & I broke in to check it out! It's awesome and I still can't believe my parents will be moving from our childhood home this summer (but I am very happy for them!)! We also saw Nephew sing in the choir at church and my sis-in-law made an amazing Mother's Day dinner for all of us! Oh, and Nephew gave me plenty of beautiful Mother's Day drawings and paintings and a plant! There's no official "Aunt Sneks Day", so I appreciated the thought! :) Our final visit was to Anna & Gorgeous to visit their new "baby" (AKA, Ziva the dog!)! SO CUTE!!
Can't wait for our next visit to Buffalo in July!
Ziva the puppy, biting my knee right after she peed on me!
Ziva!Yes, I am a Buffalo Girl, and proud of it! Being a Buffalo Girl means many different things, all interesting, and will surely be the topic of a post in the near future.
One thing I love about being a Buffalo Girl is that everyone in the world has some sort of Buffalo Connection. Seriously. I kid you not. And this has helped me out in many (little) ways, as I have traveled through this life. The Buffalo Connection, at the very least, allows me to always be able to make good conversation.
Two examples from the last week:
~When "Rex Manning" was in town, I brought him to breakfast. In conversation about undergraduate college, I mention that I went to a small, private college in Buffalo that no one has ever heard of. He says "Wait, you're from Buffalo?" and laughs. Despite now living in a southern town, he is a huge Bills & Sabres fan (he went to Syracuse for college) and is currently dating a Buffalo Girl!! We talk for a few minutes about T.O. and how this is the year for the Bills and then I make him tell me his Buffalo Girl's name, because I swear I know someone who knows her (which I am sure I do, somehow, but I haven't figured it out yet). Later in the night, after a few drinks and a 13-hour day, he laughs again and smiles and tells me he's not surprised I am a Buffalo Girl (surely meant as a compliment). Apparently, there's just something different about us!
~ Today, I am at lunch with a super nice local scientist who will be giving this week's seminar. She is very enjoyable, easy to talk to and the lunch goes on without any awkward moments or embarassing situations (as is usual at a science-people lunch). I really enjoyed the lunch and this great woman scientist! Then, I offer her a ride in my car to the very top of the mountain. She notices the dealer sticker on my car and says "Wait, are you from Buffalo?". Well, of course, I am a Buffalo Girl! So is she! She grew up in a neighboring town, her folks live around the corner from the place Ry & I are getting married, her dad teaches at the big university, her mom teaches at a Buffalo high school (my old "rivals") and we both are positive that we definitely know someone in common (though we haven't figured it out yet! But we will!)!
The Buffalo Connection just always amuses me and makes my day! These are just this week's stories, but there are many more! I know that my friends and family who live in Buffalo and have spent their whole lives there don't always realize just how special the place is! But Buffalo is a great city and I will always be proud to tell people that I am a Buffalo Girl!
T.O.
In Buffalo.
Please no.
(with secret hopes that we'll make it to the playoffs this year ...)
Though Christmas was weeks ago, I feel like Ry & I are just recovering from all of the fun!
The day after Christmas, we shuffled off to Buffalo to spend a week with my family and friends! In addition to the usual tiredness that comes along with a whirlwind trip home, I started off the week recovering from my sinus infection/bad cold. And then, just 30 hours into the trip home, I came down with another horrific cold! I was coughing like crazy and went through 3 boxes of my mom's tissues. Oh, and 2 bottles of mine/Kel's cold medicine. So, I spent the week in a drug-induced haze! But none the less, we managed to squeeze in some good stuff:
Can you believe we did all that and more? Even with our illnesses?? Crazy! Merry Christmas & Happy New Year everyone!
A few photos ... I think the illness made me less likely to take a picture! Probably too busy coughing or sneezing to get the shot!
... is certainly a different experience than snow back home!
With the (less than) 3" of snow/sleet/rain that we got today:
Despite living in the Little Town for 3.5 years and Philly for 2 years, it never amazes me how people in eastern PA react to a snowy forecast!
PS -- Talked to Mom at home ... they got 12" of snow and she was headed to the casino! No snow stops us Buffalo girls from having fun!
Ry & I had another wonderful, busy, quick trip home! I think we managed to spend 40 hours in Buffalo! The main reason for our short trip was Nephew's 5th Birthday Party, but we also managed to squeeze in some trick or treating, lots of errands and lunch with Mom & Dad, a great family dinner and some fun at the casino in the Falls, a spinning class (not Ry, just me and Mom and Kel, who both kick my ass at the spinning) and lots of fun!
Here's some photos from the weekend!
Someone got a few pounds of candy!
What's a 5-year-old's birthday party without a bounce house?
Kel, me and Ry snuck in while the little boys were distracted!
Why can't Ry hit the Transformers pinata?
Happy Birthday Nephew!!
I swear my Nephew will be some sort of scientist someday!
"Aunt Sneks, why do you always have to take so many photos of me??"
Baby Nolan is the cutest! He really like pulling my hair! It's not what the title leads you to think ...
My scientific laboratory is acutally in the men's room in the basement of the science building.
And, really, a converted bathroom/locker room/shower room without windows (and thus outside light) is ideal for a fish laboratory.
But lately, I have spent far too much time there!
This semester I am not teaching and I am my advisor's research assistant (or ... as I like to say .. I'm my advisor's bitch).
Most graduate students would be thrilled to avoid teaching and get to spend all of their time in the lab! And I am.
It's just a lot of time in a hot (92 degrees) room, alone, with only a couple hundred fish to talk to. And I need to be there at "dawn", which means I have to be to work and ready to collect data at 7am. And, because the rest of my depatment does not function before noon, most meetings are after 4pm, so I rarely get home before 5:30 (more like 6). Thus, the 10 or 11 hour days are starting to take their toll ...
So today I found myself especially cranky. And maybe not 100% nice to everyone. And maybe I just need to get out of the men's room ...
Good thing Ry & I are headed to the B-lo for Baby Ally's baptism! Yay for a whole weekend away from work filled with family and friends (including a visit to the zoo with my awesome Nephew!!!)!!
For those of you dying to know -- Shower Weekend was a massive success!!
BF Kimmy's Baby Shower was a wonderful event full of lots of green and lots of frogs and lots of fun!! I am just so excited that my bestest friend (for 20 years now!!!) is having a baby! And I am so happy for her and her husband Bill that they got so many wonderful gifts last weekend and so much love from everyone!
Anna's Wedding Shower (which began just 20 hours after the baby shower ended) also went fabulously! Lots of fun had by all and lots of gifts for Anna & George to start their married life with! (Umm.. however, I am a horrible MOH and failed to take ANY photos. I suck!)
I realized something though, that I had previously failed to notice as a shower-giving friend: Moms are crazy. The only real stress associated with each shower was with the Mothers of my girlfriends. Baby Shower Mom hated the ugly room we had the shower in and was upset about the lack of seat assignments. Wedding Shower Mom was in arms over the fact that we didn't buy those pastel mints (gag me) to put on the tables and that another bridesmaid and I kept telling her to sit down and enjoy herself rather than running everything. I always tried to be nice to the Moms, but ultimately I feel like my role is to make the mom-to-be and the bride happy. Who knew that showers could make Moms so crazy?? Luckily, I am sure my mother will be totally calm whenever I get around to having my showers. We'll just share a few drinks and have a good time (right Mom?)!
Cake from Kimmy's shower (made by Bill's Aunt, not a professional bakery!)
The 3 girls!
Hope you all had a very Merry Christmas! Ry & I enjoyed our time in WNY tremendously!
And we ushered in the new year in our pjs ... while I fought off a cold and packed for my field adventure!
Now I am off to Costa Rica for 6 whole weeks of fieldwork! I'll write when I can!!!
CHEERS!
Ry's Postdoc Building!
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Perhaps next time I won't give Nephew post-it notes
(or at least I will keep them away from Ry & Little bro)!
Nephew used them to make us all name tags (he even made one for the "Dog", "Cat" and each of the dozen "Fish")!!
So, another few weeks have flown by much too quickly for me to comprehend that the semester is half over!! Yikes!
These last few weeks have been filled with editing my proposal, working on a joint-presentation that a labmate and I are giving next Tuesday (on Jamaican fishes), working on a joint-publication that a labmate and I are trying to send off somewhere BIG ASAP (on the pupfish), working on actually starting experiments that are part of my dissertation (on Costa Rican fish), teaching genetics and trying to keep up with Ry's social schedule as he finishes up his time here in The Little Town (for awesome pictures of our latest fun in AC and hiking with friends check out his blog!!).
Lots to do lately, but it all seems to be going very well!
And -- on an exciting note -- Ry & I will be in Buffalo for a whole 20ish hours come mid-November after we spend a few days in a Small City (near Buffalo)!! YAY!
After my California adventure with RyGuy, I braved the airways again and flew to Buffalo to visit with family & friends (while Ry went to Alaska)! This was my longest visit since I moved away years ago and I enjoyed it!
For the 4th of July holiday, I hung out at my parents' house and we had a Sneks Family BBQ! LOTS of food, drinks and desserts (my sis-in-law makes fabulous desserts!)! We had some fireworks that my brothers enjoyed setting off (shhh! They're illegal!) and even drove down to the ghetto park to see some real fireworks.
I spent the other days of my trip buying a new car (YAY! More on that soon!), going to the wedding of two college friends (and seeing lots of wonderful friends there!!) and shopping and partying with the my favorite girlfriends (Kimmy & Anna) and their men (Billy & George). It was the first time that all of us were in Buffalo at the same time in years!
I was sad to leave Buffalo for the Little Town, but I had been away for about 6 weeks at that time and had no choice but to get back and face work! But Ry and I are looking forward to out next visit to Buffalo (aka Best Christmas EVER!)!
Yummy 4th of July drink at the Sneks' house.
Lil' Bro watches as Big Bro tries to set the place on fire for our amusement!
The fabulous wedding of Geoff & Steph (friends of mine from undergrad and a wonderful couple!)
Me & Cho! Even after years apart we are still the same!
Me & the girls!One of the things that I love about my "job" as a graduate student trying to get a PhD by studying the behavior of animals is the traveling!
I usually study my fish in a basement laboratory (that was previously a mens' room). And, back in the day, I studied whales and dolphins at an aquarium.
And while these studies teach us a lot about the specific animals and how they behave, nothing beats seeing the animals in their natural habitat. There is just something really exciting about going to an animal where it normally lives and watching it do what it does!
In just one week I start a whirlwind tour of scientific fun (and maybe some friends and family fun along the way too!).
For those of you interested, here's what my next 6 weeks look like:
May 24: Drive to Buffalo
May 25-27: Chicago for the wedding of Dancing Fish & V!
May 28: Toronto for a Yankees/BlueJays game with parents and awesome lil' bro and Kel
May 29-30: Jam-packed fun with family and friends in Buffalo
May 31-June 21: Jamaica* for 21 solid days of snorkeling, fish observations and rum drinking (I know it does not sound like it, but this really is HARD WORK)
June 21-24: Pacific Grove, CA for conference with Ry and company
June 25: 8-hour whale watch tour out of Monterey, CA (Too excited for this event! If I see a blue whale I will cry. Seriously cry.)
June 26-28: Monterey & San Francisco fun with Ry!
June 29-July ?: Buffalo (while Ry is in Alaska!) to recuperate, visit the family, and (FINALLY) buy a new car!
Pretty crazy start to the summer, huh?
* While in Jamaica I will have limited blog & email access. My cell phone will work down there, but it costs $1.29 a minute (darn Verizon Wireless and their international roaming charges!!), so please leave brief messages or text-message me (only 5 cents per text message received!)!
YAY for the new camera!
(And the 2GB memory card Ry won me on eBay!)
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And did I ever show you the BEAUTIFUL necklace Ry gave me for Christmas?
He couldn't wait until Christmas and he gave it to me after our awesome trip to Buffalo and our Black Friday adventures!
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The tree with all of our wonderful gifts from my parents!
Notice the comfy pjs, the cozy flannel sheets, and (sigh) Ry's new Met's blanket!
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Flannel Sheets -- I put them on the bed this morning!!
(After a nice washing at Dancing Fish & V's house!)
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Here's our favorite ornament on the tree!
Ry & I got it in Buffalo at Thanksgiving!
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Do my parents know how to have fun?
I think the beer-pong table set may come in handy for the Superbowl & Birthday Celebrations!
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Mom & Dad got me this awesome ornament with Santa riding an orca with a little dolphin friend!
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Speaking of whales, Dancing Fish found these awesome bookplates for me at One Good Bumblebee! They say "Don't be a blowhole. Return this book to:"
Seriously Cool.
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My labmate N gave me this cool green necklace and Hamster Grrl had spoiled me with lots of fun stuff -- a veggie steamer, mitten-shapped post-it notes, and a fridge-pack of Diet Coke!! WOOHOO!
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The Southern Yankee always amazes me with her Martha-Stewart-Skills and sent me this beautiful hand-made christmas decoration that looks perfect on my blue dresser (that is serving as a mantle this year!).
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Thanks family and friends!
I was completely sad about not being able to go home for Christmas this year, but all of the cards and photos and gifts helped to lighten my spirits!
And spending time with Ry and his family was nice too
-- though nothing can compete with a Sneks family Christmas.
Those of you in Buffalo know what I mean.
Here's a picture of the Sneks family house that I took last year.
(I know it just looks like the house is on fire ... gives you an idea how many lights are up!)
Hope you all had wonderful holidays with your family & friends!!!
