Commentaire Musicale

Ok, so I'm at peace with the fact that every hunting season (which is now) I'll be subjected to at least 5 rounds with "da Thirty Point Buck" song (which I actually heard on the way home this evening.) It comes with the territory.

The new Justin Timberlake song would be ok if it weren't for the fact that he always sounds like he was kicked in the balls one time too many.

I don't give a crap why honey is calling you so late. Shut up already. I hate that song.

But I cannot deal with Christmas music yet. I heard the most awful song ever (I think I've mentioned it before. Has that obnoxious children's choir singing about "so this is Christmas. Aaaaaaaaaaahhhhh") today at lunch and I yelled "nooooo!!!" at the radio and hit another preset button.

And so it begins

Pictures

Tonight I get to have my picture taken. In 7 different poses, I’m told. Ugh. This one is definitely my mom’s fault. She wants a professionally taken picture for Christmas so tonight I get to head to the portrait studio and display my un-photogenic-ness. I hope it doesn’t take too long. I also hope the crop of bad skin that has popped up over the past few days isn’t too distracting. *sigh* The things you do in the name of “family.” (Just kidding…)

I also get to have more pictures taken in about two weeks. On a whim, we decided to set up our free engagement photo appointment in time to make holiday picture cards to send with our Christmas card/letter. It will do double duty as our “Save the Date” notice as well. Not particularly looking forward to that either, but the photographer is a nice guy and having Adam in the picture will take some of the attention away from me. I hope it doesn’t become some clichéd tradition though. I don’t want to be one of those people who send a picture of their family every year.

Did I mention that I hate having my picture taken?

Isn't he Handsome?

This Sucks

Literally.

Bwahahahahaha

So, before my mom came to visit a week or so ago Adam broke our vacuum cleaner. He was vacuuming (duh) and all of the sudden it apparently sputtered to a stop. Permanently. (He also knocked over a lamp which put it out of commission as well.)

Anywho, since our vacuum was broken we had to go get a new one. Adam was elated when he found this one since it has an adjustable handle so he doesn't have to stoop like the Hunchback of Notre Dame while vacuuming.

Oh, the joys of household appliances.

But you'll remember how excited I was when I first got the other vacuum cleaner. I posted a picture of it back then too...



Rest in Peace, Dirt Devil.

The Nativity Story

So there’s this new film coming out in time for Christmas. It’s called The Nativity Story. The plot might be familiar and I’m guessing the ending isn’t particularly surprising. Does anyone else have a problem with the fact that the actress who plays Mary (Keisha Castle-Hughes) is 16 years old and is pregnant by her 19-year-old boyfriend? Seems to kind of go against the whole “holy virgin mother” persona. True, she’s just an actress portraying a character in a film, but don’t you think the producers of the film would have chosen someone who was a little more on their side? Take “7th Heaven”, for example. When Jessica Biel started acting out and doing things that the producers of the show didn’t like, they wrote her out of the show. The whole thing just seems a little odd to me.

Oh No...

I just noticed that I am someone who says "eee!"

Moving On...

So I’ve really accomplished nothing this week. I don’t know where the time went. Adam was home on Tuesday night so we went to see a movie (The Prestige – it’s pretty good.) Wednesday he had off from Walmart but ended up having a dinner with some Cisco people so he was gone all night. I did laundry and I’m not sure what else to pass the time. Yesterday he worked so I was on my own. I cooked some food to create leftovers and then cleaned up the mess I made. After that, I’m not sure what I did. I didn’t even torture the furry guys. I think I probably fell asleep pretty early. Tonight he has off. Yes, on a Friday. This is rare so hopefully we can live it up a little. Unfortunately it’s been snowing for most of the afternoon and it’s supposed to continue doing so for a while. Right now plans are to go to a movie (probably Stranger Than Fiction.) Not sure what else is in the works.

Anywho, this next week will be the week of dropping more money on clothing than I’ve ever done before in my life. The kicker is it’s for something I’ll only wear once. Kind of ridiculous. So it goes I guess. I’ve gotta have the big white dress. I’ll probably head up to Kaukauna again on Wednesday to order the dress. How exciting. (No, seriously.) The dress is pretty much the defining characteristic of the bride so by (finally) ordering the dress I can kick into “Eeee, I’m getting married!!!” mode.

Now if any of you found that last sentence as preposterous as I did, you know me pretty well.

Yes, I’m a control freak and I’m over-planning and over-analyzing every aspect of this wedding. I’m probably driving Adam crazy. And if not, don’t worry, I will soon enough. I just want to get as many things squared away in advance so when August 17th comes, I can sit back and enjoy it rather than obsess over whether the decorations got to the reception hall or what have you. I admired the fact that Katie seemed so relaxed and calm on her wedding day. That’s how I’d like to be. Even so, I highly doubt I’ll turn into some kind of “Bridezilla” or the kind of person who says “eeee!!!”

If I do, punch me in the arm. Thanks.

A Visit from Mom

I think my mom’s visit was a rather successful one. We picked her up at 3:30am on Sunday down in Milwaukee. We were almost on time except the exit Jill told us to take didn’t exist (stupid Marquette construction…) so we had to overshoot and come back to the Greyhound station. We then drove back home and got in a few more hours of sleep. We went to the 9:30 mass, which was a huge mistake. It’s the “family mass” and there were entirely too many people there. And definitely too many people in the kid category. We had to sit way in the back but at least I didn’t have to let people climb over me to go take communion. This gave my mom an opportunity to see the church but unfortunately the service was accompanied by the piano rather than the organ so she didn’t get to hear that.

After church we stopped for a donut and then went back home. Having had part of her luggage stolen in Las Vegas, my mom and I went shopping to pick up some of the stuff she lost. I also found some new sweaters and a new bed-in-a-bag. (That’s another story that perhaps I’ll get to later.) While Adam watched the Packers get their butts kicked, I took a short nap and my mom surfed the net. We headed up to Appleton to have dinner at Good Company with Adam’s parents. This gave my mom the opportunity to see where the rehearsal dinner will be held and get a sampling of the food at our favorite restaurant in the area. I think things went well. Everyone seemed to get along and the topics that may have caused problems didn’t come up. After fighting over the bill we headed back to Adam’s parents’ house for awhile. He disappeared into the basement for quite some time while the rest of us chatted by the fire. After a few loud bangs he reappeared and joined in. We headed home early since we were all tired due to the disruption in our sleep that morning.

On Monday morning we got to sleep later than usual since I was on vacation and it was a normal day for Adam. I actually got up at 7 and watched my episode of 7th Heaven that I had DVR-d the night before. Then I went back to wake Adam up. After he left for work my mom and I sat around talking for awhile and then I finally got moving, took a shower, and we left to do some heavy-duty wedding shopping. I took her to all the stores I had investigated. Originally I had only planned to go to two of them but somehow we ended up at 4 (plus 2 shoe stores…) I guess we got caught up in the moment or something. We started downtown at The Brides. I tried on two dresses there, both of which were good choices. We browsed the veils and the mother-of-the-bride selections and I also showed her the bridesmaid dress I had chosen. We then headed out to Kaukauna to Bridal Staircase. I tried on a dress there and once again looked at the head accoutrements. We peeked in at the tuxes only to find that the area was overtaken by costumes left from Halloween. After that we drove back to Appleton and stopped for lunch at Mary’s. Since we were so close, we stopped in at Bridal Event after lunch (they’re right across the street from each other.) We got some good tips for the salesperson there about veils and what kind of veil would look good with the dress I’d chosen. Then we went across town to David’s to satisfy my curiosity as to whether the first dress I had tried on back in May was still there. It wasn’t. That didn’t surprise me, but they sure did try to find something else that I might like. The salesperson even ran out the door as we were leaving to tell me that Green Bay might have it. And the tux lady accosted me for the third time. We checked out the various MOTB dresses and veils and all that jazz at David’s just for fun. I also showed her the original inspiration for the bridesmaid dress I chose. She agreed that they were quite similar. To use up the rest of her film we headed to DSW so I could show her the shoes I was considering. After dropping her film at the one hour lab in Walmart (yes, she went to Walmart. She wouldn’t let me take her picture in it for proof though) we went over to the mall for a little to kill time. After an hour and a half we got her pictures back and went back home so she could pack her things. We watched a little Rachael Ray before setting off to Kohler. It was horrible driving weather – dark and foggy – and I always seemed to have some annoying truck tailgating me. But we made it pretty much on time to Mary Ann’s place. I stayed for dinner. We walked over to Quizno’s. I had never been to a Quizno’s before but I was very unimpressed. I ordered a chicken Caesar flatbread salad thing which was romaine, chicken, a three cheese blend, tomatoes, and red onions with a peppercorn dressing. I asked for it without the cheese or onions. What I got was romaine, chicken and bacon. There is not bacon on a Caesar salad. And I didn’t get tomatoes. And they tried to give me honey mustard dressing. *sigh* Not good. Anyway, I headed home around 9:30 and the drive back was a lot easier than the drive there had been. The fog must have burned off in those two hours. It was nice.

So, the conclusion to this long entry about the past couple days is this: I’ve chosen my dress and will be ordering it in the next week. I have to double check which measurements the store wants so I can get the Catherines’ dresses ordered as well. (Heads up, guys.) After which I can get color swatches and move on with the next set of tasks, including the flowers. I will also be ordering a pair of shoes soon so I can check them out. I can’t find them in any store so I decided to risk buying them on the internet in the hopes that they’re what I want. I’ll need to have the shoes and all the undergarment type things before the dress comes back so the alterations are accurate. Granted, the dress won’t be in until March or April, but I might as well get a head start since I’m the master of procrastination. I’m thinking I’ll wait for the veil and headpiece until after the dress is in but I have a pretty good idea of what I want already and I just need to find the right one in a brand the store carries.

Whew.

Bumper Stickers

Saw this one on my way back to work at lunch this afternoon:

I’m so glad Mary & Joseph weren’t pro-choice

Now, I have a problem with this for many reasons. I’ll try not to go off on some kind of political/moral diatribe here, but I did have that gay marriage rant awhile back (and let me say, I will be soooo glad when this election is over with!)

First I must state that I am pro-choice. This should come as no surprise to anyone who has any idea about my political leanings. While I am pro-choice, I myself would never practice that freedom. If I had gotten pregnant at any time in the past, I’d have a child with me right now. (Luckily, that is a bullet I successfully dodged.) That said, I have no problem with other people making the decision they feel is right, no matter what their situation is. In fact, I think there are situations that would have been much better had the woman taken that path. Some people should not have children. Enough said.

Secondly, I hate that people are using some fictional bible characters to support their side of the argument. Mary and Joseph aren’t exactly Jane and Joe Smith of the everyday person. If you believe the story, they didn’t even have sex and she got knocked up! I’m willing to bet that if every woman who found herself in that situation got a house call from God, they’d keep their baby too. Thing is, the average woman doesn’t have a choir of angels hovering over her while she’s giving birth. They don’t have rich kings giving them priceless treasures. Chances are most of them wouldn’t even have Joseph anymore by the time the baby came. It’s just so unrealistic to compare these situations.

We could sit and argue when life begins forever and no one would be satisfied. I think abortion is one of those issues that no matter what the law is, someone is unhappy. I also think I’ll stop now before I get off on some tangent and digress into something less friendly.

Cooking for Adam (and other things)

This past Sunday Adam started this new “Eat Healthy for a Week” meal plan thing. He found it on MSN.com and sent it to me last week, requesting that I cook the stuff for him to take along to work. I started on Sunday afternoon and cooked all the meals through Wednesday night. I planned to make Thursday through Saturday tonight. Last night he came home from work and crashed. When I woke him up for dinner he took one look at it and made this “how gross” look. It was fettuccine with peppers, asparagus, onions, and chicken. He told me that everything was starting to taste the same. And his pee was stinky from all the asparagus. He then gave up on the eating healthy plan and dug into the spinach-artichoke dip I had made.

We became obsessed with this particular dish when we went to Applebee’s a little while ago. It was so good we decided we needed to find a recipe so we could have it every day. I got a fairly simple recipe from FoodNetwork.com and tried it out for the first time last night. Aside from the problems I had keeping the spinach and artichokes in the pot as I stirred them and the cream cheese explosion in the microwave, it turned out great. Adventures with food are fun.

Tonight I get to foray into the world of stuffed pork chops. This pork was originally to be cooked as part of his healthy week, but with that out the window I have two huge, thick pork chops to do something with. I found a simple recipe without a lot of obscure, expensive ingredients. I’ll still have to stop at the grocery store, but since I wanted to go get some more cream cheese to make more spinach-artichoke dip anyway, that’s fine with me. I’m also tempted to make some more bacon fried rice. That’s vying for my favorite recipe spot right now.

Not a lot else is going on around here right now. We’ve got a whole lotta cleaning to do before my mom shows up on Sunday. I expect that to take up pretty much my whole day Saturday. Our big plans for the weekend include, uhm, cleaning. Then we’ll be going to Milwaukee at 3am on Sunday to pick my mom up from the Greyhound station. She says we can come get her whenever we want, but I don’t really want to leave her sitting in Milwaukee in the middle of the night. Then we have church and dinner with Adam’s parents. Woo! As for the rest of this week, nothing interesting will happen. Adam has tomorrow night off and he plans to get the insulation up for the remaining windows in the house and vacuum the stairs. We party hard, I tell ya.

I'm Considering Something Crazy

We went to mass this morning and for the first time I heard the handbell choir play during the service. They were actually pretty good although the pieces they played weren't particularly difficult. It got me thinking. I kind of miss doing that kind of thing - handbell choir, regular choir. I know I said I wasn't going to get involved with anything that was a church group, but it seems like that might be the easiest choice.

As fate would have it, during the announcements they said the handbell group is looking for new members. They meet on Monday evenings, which I can do. I certainly have a decent amount of experience! I'm not sure this is a good idea yet but I suppose I could always just show up tomorrow and see what happens. Their choir meets on Wednesdays, which I can also do, but I'm not sure how much I want to get involved with considering I'm not Catholic, I'm not a member, and I have no intention of becoming either of those things... I suppose I could write it all off as a social endeavor.

Honeymoon Update

Adam and I sat down this morning and took a look at shore excursions for our cruise. The prices through the cruise line are not unreasonable so I think we'll probably go through them since that way we're assured that they're safe and the boat won't leave without us. For now, this is what we've got picked out. We plan to head to the travel agent again tomorrow to talk with her about insurance and booking these excursions.

Juneau - Mendenhall Glacier & Gold Creek Salmon Bake. I'd also like to do the Whale Watching Adventure but Adam's not too excited about that so I might end up on my own for that one.

Skagway - White Pass Railway & Klondike Gold Dredge

Ketchikan - Lighthouse, Eagles, & Totems Excursion

Victoria, BC - Victoria Ale Trail & Pubs Tour (woo!)

All in all we'll be spending another chunk of change on these excursions, but I think it'll be worth it.

Eee! I love shoes!

There a very few things I like to shop for in this world. Kitchen appliances would be one. Shoes would be another. I like shopping for shoes because my feet are one of the only parts of my body that aren't fat. I can just go to a normal shoe place and pick stuff up easily. It's nice.

That being said, it's very hard to find the shoe I'm looking for. No matter what shoe it is, I can never find it. It's a lot nicer going on the hunt because I don't mind the shopping part. But it's annoying never finding what I'm looking for. Last year I went on a quest to find new shoes for work because mine were looking kind of sad. I went to pretty much every store in the Fox Valley that sells shoes. I finally settled on something from DSW. The shoes are still sitting in their box in the DSW bag in our closet. Unworn. It's so sad.

So now I find myself browsing shoes for something for me and the Catherines to wear at the wedding. I'm trying to respect my sister's request for no heel but there's pretty much nothing out there for flats that is anything like I want. I've found a couple cute silver/metallic type sandal-y shoes but they all have an inch or so of heel. Would an inch be so bad? For myself it's been even harder. It's not white shoe season and most of the shoes I see with a heel high enough for me to be able to slow dance with Adam are god-awful uncomfortable.

But I'll carry on. My quest continues...

The Wonderful World of DVRs

So we finally broke down and got a DVR. Our VCR had been getting more and more sketchy and seemed to randomly stop recording right before the end of shows and that was totally annoying. Adam thinks the cable company and our VCR were in on this together but I think it's just a cheap VCR...

Anywho, we got the DVR last weekend and I programmed it to record 7th Heaven, What About Brian, and Rachel Ray's morning talkshow. Adam programmed it for a few wrestling shows. So far, I love it. It works great and I can fast-forward through all the commercials and other boring crap. I also don't have to stay up to watch the shows that are at 9 since I usually forget about them or fall asleep in the middle of them. I know, it's sad. This way I can watch them the next day when I'm wide awake. I love technology.

Reason #562 Driving in WI Sucks

Wide-load Farm Equipment

On the Highway

Going 35 MPH

In front of you

Dresses (yes, again)

I checked out the remaining bridal shops in the area (I dropped the one in Fondy) and discovered that one of the three styles I liked is not available anywhere. All 5 places I went didn’t have it in stock. Oh well. That narrows the competition I suppose. I’ll need to go to at least 2 stores to be able to try on the two remaining dress styles. Both stores we’ll hit have both styles, it’s just that neither of them have both of them in a size that fits me. 8? Yeah right. Maybe in my dreams. Anywho, a week from Monday my mother and I will hit The Brides in downtown Appleton and then head to Bridal Staircase in Kaukauna. We might hop on over to David’s Bridal just for the hell of it too. I’m kind of interested to see if that (discontinued) dress I tried on back in May is still there. I really have no intention of buying it, but who knows what could happen.




Unless something really unexpected occurs, this is the dress that the Catherines will be wearing. In purple though, of course. I plan to order everything for the ladies at once so I’ll need to be getting in touch with them for measurements and all that fun stuff. Then I can concentrate on the important things. Like shoes.

Pictures as Promised

Pets are just like kids. No matter what you do, they squirm around and refuse to look at the camera...

Mo


Einstein


Howie


Gus


Barry

I had a "moment" this morning...

I’ve had to scrape the frost from my car windows the last few mornings. I hate that. I haven’t even considering getting out my winter coat yet though. I’ve been wearing the comfy Cisco fleece Adam got and my black knit hat to keep my head warm.

This afternoon on the way back to my car at lunch I even considered taking the jacket off. It was nice out and the sun was shining. I got to my car and checked the temperature reading on the dashboard. 45.

Wow. I’m one of those crazy Wisconsinites now, aren’t I. *sigh*

Dress Shopping

Yesterday I decided to head to the two stores in Appleton that carry Alfred Angelo dresses to check on size and style availability. I have three bridal gowns and one bridesmaid dress that I want to check out when my mom is here in two weeks. As fate would have it, each of the two stores had one of the bridal gowns in a size that would kind of fit me and another in a size nowhere near what I needed. There is one style that neither of them had. The store downtown also had a black version of the bridesmaid dress. I’m pretty sure it’s the one I’m going to go with. It is quite similar to the David’s version. It’s a little shorter (which I think is a plus) and it has beading on the edges of the layers on the bottom as well as on the straps and along the empire waistline. It’s a nice dress and I think it’s something that could possibly be worn in other contexts. I still have a store in GB, one in Fondy, and two in Kaukauna to check out. I’d like to find a store that has all three bridal gowns in a size I could try on but that’s probably not realistic. I’d like to be able to try all three on so I can make a better decision. When I actually make a decision I’m not going to post about it here though because I don’t want Adam to know which dress I chose. It’s been difficult having to go to these places with him or alone since I don’t have anyone else to do things with. That’s how it is though, and it looks as though things will all fall into place in a couple weeks. I should be ready to order the dresses by the end of November which is definitely within the suggested 6-8 month timeframe.

I was amazed that neither of the stores had any kind of computerized inventory system. At the store downtown the salesperson had to manually hunt through the gowns on the racks. At the other store they had to scan through a binder with handwritten style numbers and prices. It’s 2006. How hard could it be to get your inventory into a system of some kind? Just ridiculous. This has made me more likely to go to the remaining stores rather than call them though since I’m assuming they all will be this way so I’d end up on hold forever.

I also had a moment in the store downtown which makes me happy that I had already decided to do all the ordering and alterations out in Kaukauna. We had found the dresses they had in stock and as I was leaving the salesperson mentioned that they were getting a whole bunch of new dresses in everyday that I might want to check out - many more in plus sizes. Ok, I admit I’m not skinny. Yes, I could stand to lose a whole lot of weight. But I think it might have been a little insensitive for her to make those kinds of assumptions. It kind of annoyed me. *sigh* Perhaps I’m oversensitive to this kind of thing.

I want an organist

who can play this.

Good Things

A few good things happened this weekend:

1) I went to refill my anti-baby pills and discovered that they finally came out with a generic version of Seasonale. Instead of paying $120 for a 3-month prescription I paid $24. Gotta love generics! But this leaves me with the dilemma of having tons more in my FSA than I need for the year now. I guess I’ll be buying a lot of band-aids…

2) We went up to the casino in GB on Saturday. I put $10 in a 2-cent Monopoly slot machine and cashed out with $34. This is the first time I’ve won anything in quite some time so I was excited.

3) None of our critters died. *Knock on wood.* We’ve now gone 54 days without one of our guys croaking. Woo! I’ll have to take some new pictures and obnoxiously post them again.

I’m sure other good things happened (Minnesota won, for one) but these were the biggies.

Katie's Wedding: A Comparison

Adam’s sister is now officially a married woman. The rehearsal on Thursday night was both interesting and hilarious. The guys just couldn’t grasp the concept of not turning when they met the ladies as they came down the aisle. Each one had to go through the process 2 or 3 times. Then Chris (the groom) had a laugh attack when going through the mock vows. I think he was a little stressed… Other than that it went pretty smoothly. The rehearsal dinner was very informal. I thought what I had in mind was going to be informal but they had lots on me on this one. They kind of passed out gifts as everyone walked into Frank’s and then we sat, talked, and ate pizza. While this is apparently what they wanted, I think I’d like a bit more structure for our dinner. I also think there will be more people at ours. We’ll just have to wait and see.

On Friday, Adam dropped me off at his parents’ house and he went to be with the guys at Chris’ house. I sat in the living room with his dad as his sister and all the girls got primped and dressed. I rode to the church with his mom and she was obviously nervous. We had a few near-death experiences as she cut a truck off in a construction zone and then ran a stop sign. After making it to the church unscathed, I spent some time in the bride’s lounge before I headed upstairs to meet with Father Mike. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that one of the scripture readers crapped out and Adam volunteered me to fill in for her. Thanks, Adam! (Just kidding. I probably would have offered anyway.) In any case, I was seated next to his grandma and his aunt, both of whom are very spunky ladies. The music started and the ceremony began.

There’s not much to comment on ceremony-wise. It’s a sacrament and things go like a mini-Mass. Kind of. The girls came in followed by Katie and her dad. Father Mike said some stuff, Marge (the aunt) and I read our bible passages. The vows were exchanged along with the rings. Unity candle was lit. Poem was read. Kiss, blessing, ta-da you’re married. The end.

That was their version. Seeing an actual Catholic wedding has helped me picture what ours might be like since the form is pretty much set and you just get to pick some of the specifics. Our ceremony will be different from theirs though. Firstly, I hated all the music they chose. (Sadly?) I could even identify them all: The Pachelbel canon (the bane of cellists everywhere), Handel’s Water Music, Jesu Joy of Man’s Desiring, and The Lord’s Prayer. Booorrrrring. Adam has told me I pretty much have free rein on the music choices since “I know more about that kind of stuff.” I also have to decide who I want to be playing the organ. The organist Chris and Katie chose is apparently an older, retired woman who was a friend of the family. Saying this as nicely as I can, she wasn’t that good. I don’t want to be distracted by obvious blunders on the organ during the ceremony. And if they happen, I’ll notice them. I’m strange like that. There is another organist at the church and I’m not sure if I’ve heard him play. When he does Mass he tends to play the piano rather than the organ. If he doesn’t work out I’m going to have to try and pull some of my musician mafia strings. Ha ha. I figure between the people my mom and dad know I should be able to find someone who doesn’t suck. I’d also love to have this woman from the church sing something. She’s the one who was the song leader (or whatever they call it) the first time I went to church with Adam. We also happened to sit in front of her and her husband once. She has a beautiful voice. The problem is I don’t know her. I guess I’ll wait and see where that idea goes. It would influence my song choices though because I think I’d want some singing as the girls come in and then again when the candle is lit… I don’t know. I’m still thinking about all those kinds of things. Secondly, I’m considering letting Adam pick all the bible readings. I don’t really care what they are and I don’t know who we’ll have read them. They aren’t optional so I can’t just skip them, no matter how much I’d like to. Other than that the ceremony is kind of set. I’m not sure how flexible the wording of vows are but we’ll get to that when we meet with Father Mike again I’m sure.

Ok, enough of that. After the ceremony, pictures were taken for a loooong time. I’m hoping there’s some way to avoid that but I’m not sure there will be since we’re doing the traditional not seeing each other thing. *sigh* I took Adam’s car and went home to grab my ID since he told me they were carding at the reception. (They weren’t.) By the time I got back to Appleton, pictures were done and social time had begun. Then dinner was served with lots of clanking on the glasses. Then dancing began and we left shortly after the bouquet and garter tossings. This is another area where our wedding will be different. We’re at a much larger (and, in my opinion, better laid-out) location. We’re having a buffet whereas they had a family-style dinner. I’m hoping there will be more (or better) toasts. They didn’t even cut their cake (the catering staff did.) Their dance floor was teeny. Adam barely danced. In any case, I’m hoping for better things at our reception.

Perhaps it’s not fair to compare Katie’s wedding to what I hope ours will be. But it was kind of inevitable. I was interested to see what she and his mom had come up with. I think I can do better. :) Not that it’s a competition…

298 days to go. Not that anyone's counting...

Oh, Barf...

In the birth announcements in the paper this weekend:

Nevaeh and Heaven Hawkins, daughters of Shawnalisa Hawkins of Oshkosh, was born Oct. 10.

Ugh.

Halloween

My place of employment has decided to have a “safe Halloween” event wherein the children of employees can come to the office for a couple hours on two afternoons and “trick or treat” amongst the cubes. This means not only do I have to give candy away, but I also have to dress up in a costume and pretend I like kids. Ugh.

Luckily I’m pretty much prepared… except for that last part. I got a big bag of teeth-rotting candy last week when we were at Sam’s Club. The best part is it’s one of those variety bags and I don’t even like some of the stuff in it. This will make parting with it less painful. I’ve also decided what costume I’m going to wear. I happen to have cat ears and a tail at home (don’t ask…) so I’m going to wear all black and meow every once in a while. I’m still debating whiskers. Maybe I should get black gloves too for paws…

In any case, I’ve decided to be semi-good humored about this whole thing. I just hope the kids who show up aren’t too obnoxious. Otherwise it will be like when someone brings a baby in. It’s like the presence of an infantile being causes the entire office to stop and coo. It’s disturbing.

Today is Friday

It’s kind of fun knowing today is my Friday. I have both tomorrow and (the real) Friday off due to a combination of Katie’s wedding and using up vacation days. I don’t really have anything to do most of the day tomorrow and Adam doesn’t have the day off. I suppose I’ll find entertainment in cleaning or watching mind-decaying television.

There’s not really much else going on these days. Excitingly, Adam has many days in a row off from Walmart. Through Saturday. That’s a lot of free nights. Yes, a few of them are already occupied with the rehearsal dinner and wedding, but we’ve got tonight and all day Saturday together. He said earlier this week that he wants to go to the Mall of America again on Saturday. I’m resisting that suggestion. It seems a little much. And do we really want to spend 8 hours of our day together trapped in a car? I can think of lots of other things we could do in those 8 hours. And no, not all of them are dirty things. Just most of them.

Shoes

I’ve got shoes on my mind.

I admit I’m taking things a little out of order. I haven’t even chosen a dress yet (soon, I promise) and I’m already thinking about finding the perfect shoes. The great thing about being the one in the big white dress is that no one sees your shoes. The dress is so long and important that no one will be looking at my feet. Theoretically I could wear bunny slippers.

Then again, there’s that foot+ height difference to think about…

So far I’m leaning toward a white wedge of some kind. Wedges are generally more comfortable than your traditional heel because more of the shoe is heightened rather than just the heel. Platforms are another option to get me a good 4 inches taller. I’m thinking cheap – Payless or Target being my first stops. I also plan to buy them pretty early so I can parade around the house in them well in advance to break them in and make sure I don’t do an uncoordinated nosedive down the aisle. Well, I suppose there’s always that risk but I want to make sure it’s not because of my shoes. And anyway, if that happens I’ll blame my dad. :)

I’ve also started to check out shoes for the Catherines. They are a little trickier since the dress they’ll be wearing is knee/mid-leg length so people will see their feet. I haven’t decided which dress I’m going to go with mainly because I haven’t gotten my lazy butt out to the two stores to see if they have the Alfred Angelo version of the dress everyone likes. Motivation escapes me. The shades of purple are a little different depending on which designer I go with. But I’m not sure purple shoes would be a good idea anyway. I might just go with white or silver to keep it simple and something re-wearable. I also have to keep in mind that the guys are tall and the girls are not. And my sister hates heels. Aah, the dilemma. I think I told her she’s 99% guaranteed to be stuck with some kind of heel. I’ll try and keep it below 4 inches though. :)

Here are a few I like for me:



And for the Catherines:


Update: As fate would have it, I couldn't find any of these shoes when I went to the actual stores. Figures...

Cars

My car is over 50% mine! Last month was the half-way mark for my car loan. As of the 13th, I own 52.8% of my car. Woo! The best part is I haven’t spent anything on maintenance aside from the occasional carwash and a couple sets of windshield wipers. All my oil changes, tire rotations, etc. have been comped as part of the package I got when I bought the car. The first time I’ll have to pay for any of that is next month when I take it in for its next check-up. It’s a sweet deal. Even nicer is the fact that nothing has gone wrong with the car yet. It always starts, runs well, gets great gas mileage (average is now 31mpg), and is generally cute. A vast improvement over the various cars I’ve had before. If things go as expected I’ll own the car outright by March 2008. I plan to keep it for a while after that though. Save the car payment and all. It’s big enough that (when needed) a car seat or two can fit in the back with no problem. Eventually we’ll want to get something bigger that can get a hitch put on. That way we can quit borrowing his dad’s Santa Fe every summer. But that’s a ways off. And I’m not sure whether my car or Adam’s car should be replaced. We’ll see when we get there I guess. There are lots of things that will come before that.

It will be interesting to see how well my “life plan” works out…

Definately Fall

Well, looks like yesterday was “*whomp* day.” The parking lot is ankle-high with leaves of various colors and the trees are looking bare. Considering it snowed yesterday and has been snowing randomly today it’s only appropriate that things are progressing. Ugh. It has been windy enough that wind advisories have been issued in surrounding areas. Last night Adam put up the plastic insulation things to try and get rid of the draft we have around our bedroom windows. By all accounts it looks as though the fun is over.

FOCCUS, the Sequel

We successfully completed part one of our marriage preparation, Catholic style. And the nice couple from St. Mary’s didn’t look at us like we were crazy too often. That’s a good sign. There were a few uncomfortable moments (at least for me) when different items came up. For the most part Adam and I had anticipated there would be discussion points about certain things. We were pretty much right on. There was a question or two that showed up because I think one (or both) of us had misunderstood the question. The best way I can sum it up is that we don’t have many problem areas and those that were brought to our attention by participating in this process we were already aware of. Still it was a positive experience overall [and we got homemade pizza too! :)] We got our “diploma” last night and we have to drop it off with Father Mike. Next is the “Engaged Encounter” day-long “retreat.” We’ll do that early next year. St. Mary’s has it in January and April but Adam wants to do it through St. Joe’s for some reason concerning a certain Sister… I don’t know the story. I don’t really care where we do it through anyway.

Wedding planning has been at a standstill for a couple months. Intentionally so. It was our plan to get lots of stuff taken care of right away so we could enjoy some of our time together. My mother’s visit is fast approaching so dresses will be taken care of by next month. Flowers and candles will follow soon after and then it’s just the little stuff: favors, gifts, programs and actually mailing things and planning menus. Given that there are still 10 months to go, we’re in excellent shape. I went through our contracts and updated our budget on Monday. June through August 2007 is going to be an expensive time. :) We have deposits on most everything so we’ll have balances to pay on the reception, the photographer, and the honeymoon. We paid full upfront on the DJ and cake so that’s all taken care of. So far it looks as though we can come within the preferred budget with no problems. Granted, the budget didn’t include a honeymoon and that’s getting to be almost as expensive as the wedding itself. Oh well. You only do it once, right? (Oh god, I hope so!) The good news is we’ve got months to save up the money to pay for this spectacle. And we’re earning lots of world points! Yay for credit card rewards! It’s kind of annoying that our chosen photographer doesn’t accept plastic since we’re spending quite a chunk of change on that portion of the deal though. *sigh*

Nothing much else is going on right now. The weather sucks and it’s supposed to SNOW tomorrow. I’m getting a cold and I’m hoping it will do its thing before Katie’s bachelorette party on Saturday. Next week is her wedding and I was informed last night by Adam’s mother that I’ll be sitting at the “family table” at the reception. Sweet…

Progress

We made some progress over the weekend. Nothing too spectacular, but still something. We booked our flight to Seattle for our honeymoon cruise. We didn’t arrange for a hotel for the night before yet but we’ll get to that. Adam checked at Hotwire but didn’t like any of the locations I guess. We’ll see what we can find. We also got our tickets for the opera in November. We’ve got pretty good seats in the side loge with (hopefully) lots of legroom. My only concern is that perhaps we’ll be too close to the stage to see the subtitles well. Oh well. Not like you really need them…

Other than that the weekend was pretty much a success. We saw the movie Friday night (and it was as good as I'd expected) and then we heard on the news that the Big Picture Theater is closing next week. What luck! It’s too bad that it’s doomed. It was a nice place but it just didn’t have the attendance it needed to function well as a business. Saturday was pretty uneventful. I went grocery shopping, Adam worked most of the day and survived yet another Walmart bomb threat. Sunday we went to the zoo, Marshalls, Cooks Corner, and Beersten’s. Then we went to bed at 9:30. Yeah, we’re lame.

This week is unusually busy. Tomorrow we have our second (and last) FOCCUS meeting. Wednesday I have dinner plans with Uncle Kirby. Thursday Adam has the night off and we’ll probably find something to do. Then next week will be full of crazy with Katie’s wedding and the hoopla that comes with it. I’m still undecided about whether I want to go to her bachelorette party or not.

We'll also be getting tickets soon for a "Christmas Extravaganza" at the PAC. We plan to go to that with Tina and her husband. I'm not really the world's #1 Christmas cheerleader (I know, you're all shocked), but it should be fun.

This Weekend

This weekend should be an interesting one. Tonight we have tickets to see the second Pirates movie over at The Big Picture Theater. Batman Begins was awesome on the large screen and I have high hopes for this movie as well. And you definitely can’t complain about the $5 admission price. Then on Sunday we’ll be heading down to Milwaukee. We plan on going to the zoo for a while since we’ve been meaning to go there for a long time. We’ll also make a stop at Marshall’s (we’re hooked) and at the Marcus Performing Arts Center to get tickets for Don Giovanni which we’ll be seeing in November. If time allows we plan to come back up through Manitowoc and see if Cook’s Corner has any good going-out-of-business sales. The store up in Appleton appears to have been taken over by another company so we’re not sure it’s going to close and there are no clearance prices yet.

Unexpected Visit

Last week I got an out-of-the-blue email from my uncle Kirby informing me that he’d be in town (well, Madison) next week for some training. So we’re meeting for dinner next Wednesday. It should be an interesting time. I haven’t seen him since Evan’s wedding and even then I was in a perpetually bad mood so I probably wasn’t the best company.

Hand Horror

Last night was not a good night for my hands. I came home from work armed with a recipe for roasted butternut squash. We had stopped by the local farmer’s shed and picked up some apples and squash last Sunday and I figured I should probably use them up. I got to peeling, seeding, and cubing the first squash. After much frustration I decided it totally wasn’t worth it and just halved the remaining squash. I got them into the oven and went to wash my hands. This is when I noticed they were orange. I scrubbed at them with soap and water but they wouldn’t de-orange. They were also very tight and stiff. I lotioned them up good and put some rubber gloves on them while I cleaned up the kitchen. While loading the dishwasher I managed to slice the tip of my right pinky finger open with my huge (and awesome) knife. Right through the rubber glove. Wow, did that finger ever bleed up a storm. When I finally managed to get it to slow down enough that a band-aid (or three) would stay on, I kind of gave up on cleaning up the kitchen or doing much of anything. By this time my left hand had started peeling. I don’t know if it was a pesticide/chemical reaction, a squash reaction, or what it was. It was just uncomfortable. After the squash was done and removed from the oven I soaked my hand in soapy water for a while. This didn’t accomplish much other than make my fingers wrinkly. I donned gloves again when I scooped the squash out of its skin. After stowing the food in the fridge I took refuge in bed for a while. Then I tortured the guinea pigs with cuddling for a little while. Good times.

This morning my hand was pretty much the same until I took a shower. Then it started peeling like crazy. I showed it to Adam and he was kind of disgusted. Most of the loose skin rubbed right off though and now there are just little patches of flaky skin on my palm and fingers. My pinky finger is still all bandaged up though. When I removed the band-aid this morning it started gushing again. *sigh* Good thing I’m not squeamish about blood…

My question is this: what in the squash caused me to lose a layer of skin on my hand? I don’t think I’m allergic to squash but I suppose this is the first time I’ve ever prepared it myself. I was just not expecting this kind of reaction.

Creepy...

This is one building down from the apartment I used to live in.

(from the Oshkosh Northwestern)

A 36-year-old man is in custody in the Winnebago County Jail in connection with the brutal stabbing death of on Oshkosh woman whose body was found early Sunday morning in a west-side residence.
Barry Busby, Winnebago County coroner, identified the victim as Jodee L. Thompson, 48.
"It's one of the most brutal, vicious attacks that I have ever seen in 29 years in law enforcement and nine and a half years as coroner," Busby said.
Oshkosh Police Sgt. Steve Sagmeister said Thompson was found dead from multiple stab wounds at about 12:45 a.m. Sunday after officers responded to a report of a small fire at the residence at 1750 Taft Ave.
This is the fourth murder in Oshkosh this year, the most Sagmeister can recall in many years.
"Our largest number before this I can remember was three (murders in one year)," Sagmeister said.
The other deaths include a January shooting on Minnesota Avenue, a murder-suicide on Monroe Street in April and a stabbing in July at the Court Tower apartments.
The man was transported to the Winnebago County Jail until the Winnebago County District Attorney's office can review reports and issue charges. He has not been identified by Oshkosh Police.
Sagmeister said officers received information about the vehicle the man was thought to be traveling in Saturday night and were able to take him into custody elsewhere in the city. He said the suspect may have been intoxicated at the time he was taken into custody and police believe alcohol was a factor in the homicide.
"The Oshkosh police department did an excellent job of having the suspect in custody within a couple hours after the incident," Busby said.
As of press time, police said the relationship between the victim and the suspect was unclear.
The cause of the fire and the events surrounding the homicide remain under investigation.

Ooh! The Golden Key Society wants me!

Today in the mail I received a letter from the Golden Key International Honour Society. It congratulated me on my academic achievement, which to date apparently places me at the top 15% of my class at the University of New Orleans. This accomplishment is undoubtedly the result of years of hard work and an indication of my future success. It went on to offer me membership in the GKIHS, listing the many impressive benefits of joining this society.

I find this amusing for a couple reasons:

#1. I was a temporary student at UNO for 6 weeks when I did my study abroad in France. In 2003.

#2. This invitation is good for college juniors and seniors. I graduated almost 2 years ago.


Methinks their records got washed away by Katrina.

I have until October 25th to respond!

Sinuses

(wrote this yesterday)

With the change in seasons comes the evilness that is a sinus headache. Several times a year my nose rebels and decides it no longer wants to be part of my face. While unsuccessfully trying to detach itself it causes all kind of pain. It then generally gives that up and decides to torture other parts of my body like my ears or my throat. *sigh* My body hates me. It’ll go away eventually, but for right now I tend to go home from work squinting painfully into the sun, pop a few Sudafeds and lay in bed all evening with an eye mask on. Sometimes the invisible vice around my head loosens a little bit, but most of the time it just gets tighter and tighter. It probably hasn’t helped that I’ve been sleeping like crap the last few days. I don’t know what the problem is and I can’t blame it all on Adam. Well I could, but that would be unfair.

Tonight, by some unexplainable happenings, Adam has off from Walmart. He flexed his hours over at Cisco so we’re going to go out tonight. This is my idea, I planned everything, and I’ve refused to tell him what we’re doing. It’s fun. I like surprises when I’m on the giving end.

Fall

(wrote this yesterday)

It’s definitely getting to be fall. This morning was the first morning I could smell it in the air. It rained all night and was in the chilly 50s as I left for work this morning. The combination of the rain and the leaves that have already fallen on the ground gave the air a definite “fall” smell. Trees are getting yellow, orange, and red and pretty soon there will be that one really cold night that causes their leaves to go *whomp* and fall to the ground. It’s a pretty funny phenomenon, actually. One day the trees are prettily tricked out in their fall colors and the next day they’re naked. Aaah, the beauty of four seasons.

Yes, despite the numerous jokes about Wisconsin weather, we do indeed have four of them. Unfortunately, my least favorite is coming up next in the rotation. I dislike winter for many reasons, most of which involve a pesky white substance. I can deal with the subzero (literally) temperatures and scraping the frost off my car windows in the morning. I just don’t do well with the snow thing. I hate walking in it. I hate driving in it. I hate other people trying to drive in it. Ugh. Luckily my new morning commute is much shorter than it used to be and I avoid the winter death-trap known as the Butte des Morts bridge. Let’s hope this global warming thing will make this year the least snowy winter ever.

Anywho, I’m still making due with my Columbia jacket and, on occasion, the Cisco fleece Adam’s former team members sent him last quarter. I’m going to resist pulling the winter jacket out for as long as possible. And it better not snow before Thanksgiving…

More About House Hunting

This weekend we got an idea of what kind of house we’d like to buy when the time comes. We figure it will be easiest to get a buyer’s agent, tell him/her what we want, and let them find houses that meet those expectations. That way we won’t waste our time going to lots of holes. We’ll also plan to get pre-approved for a certain loan amount to make the whole process easier.

So far, this is what it looks like we want in a house:

Ranch style house
2+ bathrooms
2+ bedrooms
Split bedroom layout (master on one side, other bedroom(s) on the other)
Large kitchen, preferably with an open layout to the dining room
Partially finished basement
Two+ car garage

I have a feeling it’s going to be hard to find all these things in one house. The two we liked from this weekend didn’t even have all those things. They both had nice kitchens, but one didn’t have a basement and neither had a master bathroom. Adam basically wants a carbon copy of his parents’ house but I’m not sure that’s realistic given our budget restrictions.

Here are links to the two houses we liked:
In Menasha

In Neenah

Comedy and House hunting

This weekend was relatively eventful. As weekends go anyway. Adam worked Friday night so I didn’t do much. I don’t even remember really.

Saturday he worked 9-6 so we made reservations at the comedy club for the 8:00 show. I did some cleaning during the day to pass the time. I’m sure some animal torture in the form of cuddling took place as well. We stopped for dinner on the way to the club. We got seated way up in the front, close to the stage. We were totally early so we could fulfill our two drink minimum before the show even started. For the first time I can remember, a screen came down and ran some commercials before the host comedian came out for her set. Her name was Andy and she was the typical depressed, mad at everyone, female comic. She had some good jokes but for the most part it was just ok. Then the headliner, Jimmy Dore, came out. His new show is called “Pop and Politics” and it consists (mostly) of him showing clips of politicians saying something stupid, doing something stupid, or looking stupid. That said, it makes sense that there were a lot of Bush clips. Cheney got a few, the Governator had one, and some other well known politicians had their minutes of shame as well. It was a good show. It’s nice to go to places like this sometimes and have affirmation that I’m not the only one shaking my head at politicians these days. After the show Adam wanted to buy a CD but he didn’t have any cash. Oh well… Overall, not as good as The Untamed Shrews, but still enjoyable.

Sunday we got up and went to breakfast at Griddles for the first time in a long time. They had changed their buffet so I couldn’t get my waffles loaded with strawberries and whipped cream but they still had their little potato pancake things so it was ok. We then headed over to Adam’s parents’ house so he could walk through iPod operation with his mom. After that was done we headed to some open houses. I had looked through the paper early and made a list of 17 houses that were in a price range I thought was doable and had general things we were looking for. We ended up going to about 10 of them. We liked 2 of them. I think this is generally how it goes though. In most of the ones we didn’t like it was an issue of a small kitchen, a bad layout, or a bad garage/driveway situation. It gave us a good idea of what kind of houses are out there though. We’re not seriously going to start looking to buy a house for another year or so but I thought it would be fun to look at a few. After we looked at the last house we headed to Cranky Pat’s for lunch. This pizza place has a lot of good word of mouth. I don’t know if it was just because it was a Sunday afternoon during a Packer game, but the service was terrible. We sat down, ordered, and waited about half an hour for a pizza that was burnt. It was still ok and we didn’t want to sit around and wait for them to remake it. Overall, a bad experience though. We then went home, watched the end of the game (hey, they won!), and hung out for the evening. We went to bed pretty early too. Strange, since I’m tired today.

FOCCUS II

In all truthfulness, it wasn’t that bad. The fun part comes next time when we go through the test results.

We went to the couple’s house which, coincidentally, just happens to be right down the street from Adam’s parents’ house. It’s a nice place and they have a cute, friendly black lab named Maggie. We had the small talk for a while, getting to know each other. Then they pulled out the test. (Dah, dah, DUM!!!)

Ok, so it’s not a “test.” It’s an “inventory.” A 180+ question survey covering all kinds of subjects from finances to children to problem-solving. We got to do the special “Cohabitating couples” and “interfaith couples” sections. I think my favorite question on the whole “inventory” was the last one in the “cohabitating couples” section. It said, basically, “You know the church disapproves that you’re living together, right?” Bwahahahaha.

Some of the questions were kind of funny (“I think I’ll be uncomfortable being nude in front of my future spouse” – whoops, too late for that! “I have homosexual urges that I’m concerned about” – so if you’re not concerned it’s ok?) but there were some questions I had problems with. Mostly the religion ones. There were others that I wasn’t quite sure how to answer given that my only options were approve, disapprove, or uncertain. Sometimes I wanted to add comments in the margins but I guess that’s what the second meeting is for. I know there will be some areas that will be flagged. But I think it will be a good experience overall.

These test creators sure were trying to trick you though. Double negatives, a sneaky “un” which changed the whole question. “I am uncertain that I don’t not want to marry this person.” Uhm, what? Hopefully they didn’t catch me on any of the questions where I meant yes but filled in the disapprove circle.

It also brought up some things that Adam and I realized we hadn’t even thought about. Nothing earth-shattering or anything. Just interesting points that we hadn’t talked about.

We meet with them again in a few weeks. They’ll be making homemade pizza while we talk things through. Supposedly to make it a bit more fun and not so serious and scary.

FOCCUS

We have our first FOCCUS meeting tonight with a married couple from Adam’s church. I don’t really know what to expect. I’m not sure if we’ll be doing the 150+ question compatibility questionnaire tonight or if something else is planned. I’m not nervous, exactly. I just don’t like going into situations not knowing what to expect. With most of the other things for the wedding I’ve done some research before I show up so I know what I want and I know what to expect. This is completely foreign to me. The fact that it’s a church-based program doesn’t really alleviate any misgivings I might have either. I know this program is a requirement in order to get married in the church. I suppose in theory it’s a good idea to discuss things and work out kinks before you’re legally bound together. I’m just wary about the religious ramifications. I don’t think this couple, the priest, or Adam would appreciate me expressing my true feelings about certain things. But I can’t, with a good conscience, go along with things I don’t believe. But is the “smile and nod” approach the safest thing to do here anyway? I just don’t know. This is, by far, the thing I’ll struggle with the most. It will definitely get interesting when we go back to Father Mike and start planning the ceremony itself. *sigh* I think I’d better stop before I launch into another essay on religion.

Bad Drivers

I’m so tired of bad drivers. They’re everywhere.

Yesterday morning I was stuck behind a car from New Mexico (ugly license plates, by the way.) The two people in the car were passing a cell phone back and forth between them. Every time the woman who was driving reached for the phone, she reached with the whole car and swerved dangerously. Morons…

Today on the way home for lunch I was behind a van from Indiana. I don’t know what the driver was on, but they could not stay in their lane if their life depended on it. They were all over the place. Maybe they were drunk.

On the way back to work I was tailgated by an old guy in a blue Saturn. I was going fast enough if you ask me, but apparently not fast enough for him. I moved over to the right lane so I could get off on my exit. He zooms around me, cuts me off, and takes the same exit. Asshole. His license plate said “1 GOD.” Let me guess, sir. That god is you? *sigh*

On that same subject, why is it that almost all the stupid bad drivers have that fish or some other religious crap plastered to their bumper? Is it like they believe their faith is so strong that they can drive like shit and Jesus will keep them from being splattered all over the highway? *sigh* again

I’m in a bad mood. Can you tell?

A final note about one of my greatest pet peeves: Why do people who are going fast move from the left lane to the right lane when they know they’re going to pass people in the right lane again? I tend to drive on the fast side and unless someone’s coming up behind me faster than I’m going, I just hang out in the left lane. I don’t see the logic in going back and forth between lanes constantly. It’s annoying to watch. It’s even more annoying when the offender doesn’t use a turn signal. But that’s a pet peeve for another time…

IMA, Weekend, and Critters

The first IMA meeting of the year is this coming Tuesday. I’m getting the feeling that it’s going to be a doozy. I myself have 5 guests coming. Who knows what other members have been up to. *sigh* Add to that the fact that I’m implementing a completely new registration process, we’re at a completely new location that I’m not familiar with, and it’s a unique set-up with the PD session being a boat tour. It should be interesting. Luckily we eliminated the majority of the raffles so I don’t have to deal with them. Unfortunately we did keep the 50/50 but Adam has agreed to take that on for this meeting. Then there’s the whole issue of guest tracking. I’m kind of waiting to see what happens on Tuesday before I decide how I want to handle it. It could get messy if I don’t do it efficiently and easily on my first crack at it. Guess it’s a good thing I like organizing lists. I was born to do this job. Now if I could only locate the paper cutter so I could get the registration forms prepped…

No big plans for the weekend. No plans at all that I can think of. Adam works both days, pretty much all day so I’m on my own for entertainment. There’s not much cleaning to do at home. I can only torture the critters for so long before they get bitey. Maybe I’ll go shopping and check out the fall stuff. I need a few new sweaters this year. My office is like an igloo. Maybe I’ll go to a movie. I’ve gone to movies alone before. It’s kind of a strange experience, but it didn’t kill me. Or perhaps I should rent some. I’ve been wanting to see a few (that I don’t think Adam would be interested in.) Hmmm. So many choices. Of course, there’s a good possibility that I’ll end up laying in bed for most of the day watching the Food Network. I did get the new issue of Rachael Ray’s magazine today so perhaps some more experimental cooking is in order. I’ve really gotten lax on my cooking lately. With Adam working all the time it just doesn’t make sense. Helped keep the grocery bill down though. Hopefully there are some good recipes in the magazine to inspire me.

Speaking of critters, I’m almost certain that Mo has same-sex tendencies. He was looking forlornly at me from his cage the other day. He kept squeaking at me, looking at Einstein. I thought he was bored and wanted to play. So I set up their playpen and put them in it for awhile. I left for awhile to do some other things and then came back and turned the TV on. After a few minutes I heard what I’m going to call a “guttural moan” from Mo. Seriously, his whole body started shaking and he purred. Loudly. He then ran at Einstein, got up behind him and went at him, doggy style. It was disturbing. I immediately removed Mo from the pen and apologized profusely to Einstein. Poor guy looked shell-shocked. I want them to be friends and all, but not that kind of friends. Geesh. Hopefully next time they’re out in their playpen Mo can control himself. Perhaps I should set up the camera to capture it? Man, I’m such a pervert…

Red Tape Chronicles Article

There’s a Redtape Chronicles article over of MSNBC.com that is causing quite a stir. It involves freecreditreport.com, a website that, coincidentally, makes you pay for their product. Truth in advertising much? Anyway, I’ve browsed through the 300+ user comments and I’m amazed that I keep coming upon the same comment: “I was charged $12.95 for 6 (or 8, or 12) months and didn’t even realize it.” HOW COULD YOU NOT REALIZE IT?

Ok. So perhaps I’m the only one who awaits the arrival of my monthly credit card bill like a child waits for dawn on Christmas Day. Maybe I’m the only one who takes the statement out of the envelope and painstakingly matches all the charges to the receipts I’ve kept on the desk for the past month. I also get to balance the account in Microsoft Money. It’s the highlight of my month, I tell you.

How can someone be charged for something for a year and never notice it? Maybe these people deserve to be taken for a ride. If you’re so lax about your credit and where you money is going, you’re the perfect target for identity thieves and other scammers. I don’t understand people who pay bills without looking at the detail. That’s just stupid…

Signs of Fall

How do I know that it’s getting to be fall? A few things bring this to my attention:

1) I have to wear a jacket when I go to work in the morning
2) The leaves start to change to orange and yellow
3) The smoke alarm goes off when Adam takes a shower

Aaaah, cool weather is here once again…

Dresses Part Two Gazillion

I know, I know, I'm beating this to death right now...

So, taking into consideration the feedback I've gotten from people, Choice B seems to be popular. Unfortunately, Choice B is a David's Bridal dress and I've heard not-so-good things about the customer service and results from DB... So I looked around the Alfred Angelo website and found something similar. What do you think?





The reason I seem so fixated on Alfred Angelo is because the wedding dress I'll probably end up going with is by that designer and the place I'll probably end up getting it gives a discount if we order the same designer for both dresses. Just something to think about...

Dresses

So Catherine came up to Appleton today to try on the dresses I had picked out as possibilites. I think both she and I have some preferences but I'd like to get other peoples' opinions as well. You can view a larger version of the picture by clicking on it or by visiting the Wedding page on Photobucket. Choose your favorite(s) and leave a comment. :)

Choice A



Choice B



Choice C



Choice D (it's not really that poofy - she was holding it out from her body)



Choice E



Choice F



Choice G

Honeymoon Update

Ok, last post today, I promise.

We went to the travel agent this past weekend to get an idea of what we wanted to do for our honeymoon. Being the person I am, I had pretty much decided which cruise I wanted to go on and all we needed the agent to do is book it for us. I'm like that. So we went in and took at look at what was available. We did good. Not only did we book within the early bird period, we chose a cruise that was one of the group rate trips so we got a $100 shipboard credit. We went ahead and booked the cruise while we were there. We'll be on Norwegian Cruise Lines' Norwegian Pearl August 19th-26th, 2007. The Pearl is a brand new ship launching this December. It spends some time in the Caribbean before heading up to Seattle. We have an oceanview balcony room on deck 8. We also went ahead and ordered the honeymoon package - wine and strawberries, dinner for two, champagne, and some other goodies. Ports of call include Juneau, Skagway, Ketchikan, and Victoria, BC. We'll be looking at excursions and all that later on. We just wanted to get a good room at a good price. We'll also be keeping an eye on airfare starting next month.

Geocities Site

The following is an e-mail I got from GeoCities regarding the wedding site. I'm not sure what part of my site violated their terms. Anyone have any ideas? Adam thinks it's because I used photobucket to store the pictures...

***Begin Email***

Please do not reply to this message.

Dear GeoCities customer,

Usage of your Yahoo! GeoCities account was recently identified to be in violation of the GeoCities Terms of Service, and the site and GeoCities account associated with Yahoo! ID (marthaandadam081707) have been closed.

Your web site was identified as containing logic redirecting viewers to another site. The GeoCities Terms of Service states that you cannot use your GeoCities home page (or directory) as storage for remote loading or as a door or "signpost" to another home page, whether inside or beyond Yahoo! GeoCities. For more information, please see the Terms of Service at http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/tos/tos.php.

If you feel that your account has been shut down in error, please contact Yahoo! GeoCities Customer Care at geo-cancellation@cc.yahoo-inc.com.

Sincerely,
The Yahoo! GeoCities team

***End Email***

I think it was kind of rude to just delete all my files. This e-mail went to the junk folder of my account as well so I didn't even see it until a few days ago. Oh well. I'll have to decide how much I care to fight with them to give me the files back. :)

The New Critter Line-up

Adam went to Petsmart on his way home from work on Sunday and picked up a second guinea pig to keep Mo company. This one has been dubbed "Einstein" because of his whacked-out hair. Just look at him. It explains itself.



He's totally huge. And has a weird habit of hanging out on top of his house.



We had both him and Mo out in their pen and they did the same things Mo and Larry would do. Nothing. They just hover in a corner and freak out at the teeniest movement or sound.



They seem to be doing ok. Mo is making a lot more noise than he used to. I guess he misses Larry's loud squeaking when he was fed.

The other critters are doing well. Gus and Barry have their routines that they stick to: Sleep, run psychotically in wheel, eat, chew on house. Howie is... strange. He seems to sleep somewhere different every day. He attacks his tp tubes with vigor. But he's still alive so that's an improvement over some of the other guys. Ha...

Geocities Site

Somehow the new geocities site completely disappeared. All the files just went *poof* for some unknown reason. I'll work on redoing the site tomorrow maybe.

New Wedding Website

For the most part it's updated. It still looks like crap, but I'm ok with that. Look for lots more pictures and links in the upcoming months.

Take a look

Random Post

It’s been a rather boring week with a really bad moment thrown in for fun.

Monday was a busy night. I went to the third of four dress shops, returned library books that I’d had for three months and hadn’t read, and stopped at Erbert and Gerbert’s for dinner… at 8pm. I didn’t get back home until almost 9 because of stupid construction on 41. It’s awful. Pretty much at a complete standstill for a good mile or so around College Avenue. Note to self: Take CB.

Tuesday was Adam’s night off for the week. It’s the first weeknight he’s had off in what seems like forever. We went to Good Company for dinner, stopped off to pick up his tickets for next weekend’s game, and then went to bed at about 9. Refreshing.

Wednesday was the downer of the week. After whipping up some food for lunches for the rest of the week, the dead pet was discovered. On the positive side, Adam got to come home from work earlier than usual. I also finally got around to wrapping Katie and Chris’ gift. It’s going to be hard to carry now though. The handles are covered up. Hadn’t thought about that.

Thursday was a pretty low-key day. We did inventory at work. Adam called Kaytee and didn’t get a very satisfying response. I stopped at Sam’s club after work and resisted the urge to stop at Erbert and Gerbert’s again. Seriously, I could eat there every day and never get tired of it. They’re much better than Subway. I also began designing a new wedding website. I hate GoDaddy. It’s so obnoxious and hard to figure out. I’d much rather deal with the sidebar ads on geocities and be able to type my html in. You can check it out even though it’s not done yet. We also signed the contract for the DJ at the reception. Music in Motion. They did the Convergys thing we had been to so we’re familiar with their work. Reasonable pricing I guess and we get $100 discount for booking so early. Woo us.

And today is Friday. Really not much going on today either. I’ll probably work some more on the website this evening. Since Adam works until 10:30 or 11 chances are we won’t go out tonight. We might tomorrow though seeing as how he only works until 7. We plan to stop by the travel agent on Sunday afternoon and see us about a cruise.

Next week is a short week because of Labor Day so that’s always nice. It’s also closing and I’ll get to see how Rachael handles closing New London. I had vowed not to do any of the journal entries this month but I’ve already done two. Intercompany stuff she can’t do yet. Oh well. I’ll be getting to the last dress shop sometime next week as well since I want to have all that info worked out before Catherine comes up on Saturday. I have a “UWO Accounting Guys” group gathering on Friday up at HuHot (a Mongolian Grill thing) so that should be fun too.

And that’s about all I have for now. Hard to believe it’s September already.

349 days! :)

Tragedy Strikes Yet Again

We've got to be cursed or something. There's no logical explanation for why these things keep happening to us. Something evil lives in that room...

Last night I had the misfortune to discover that Larry had died. No warning, no sickness. Just walk into the room and see him sprawled in front of his house. Our best guess at this point is that he choked on a chunk of honey stick treat. Truly horrific way to go if you ask me and I'm feeling just awful about it for a couple reasons: 1) I gave him the treat. 2) I was probably in the other room reading while he was dying. Not that there was anything I could have done to stop it... I don't think the Heimlich would go over to well on a guinea pig. It's just so terrible.

Right now our main concern is Mo. He must have been right there, watching his friend struggle and die. That's got to leave a mark and it's not like there's therapy for your pet. Even though they had their problems when they lived in the same cage, they seemed to like each other. They would squeak to each other. They'd sit in their cages and look at each other. They'd poke their noses out at each other. I don't want Mo to be depressed and lonely now that Larry is gone. Perhaps I'm personifying the guinea pigs more than is realistic, but I don't want this to turn into a gay, guinea pig version of "Romeo & Juliet." He seems to be ok right now. He's still eating and emerging from his house every once in a while. We're just not sure if we want to get another one. Adam says we should. I'm not convinced yet. We'll see what the weekend brings.

Dress Site Updated

I stopped over at Bridal Event this evening so the dress website has been updated with a few more dress choices. Fun stuff... I have one more place to check out yet.

Choices, choices

There are so many choices to make when planning a wedding. Right now my focus has turned to dresses. I want to have the attendant’s dress picked out by the end of September so I can get the flowers and candles going. I am on hold with those items since I need a color swatch from the dresses to match things up. I plan to get my dress done in early November when my mom is here for a visit. Adam’s on his own for the men’s clothing, but he’s pretty much decided on the colors and is just waiting to see where he wants to go for them.

With that kind of thing pretty much under control I have started thinking about honeymoon options. Originally Adam had suggested a cruise but he later changed his mind and rooted more for a European trip of some kind. I had at one point suggested The Grand Canyon but he shot that one down. I was all gung-ho for a European trip as well until I started really thinking about it. Let me try and organize my thoughts here:

Choice 1: Trip to Europe
I’d love to go to France again and see other countries in the vicinity (Germany, Italy, etc.) My main apprehension now is that a honeymoon might not be the right time to do this kind of trip. Honeymoons are supposed to be relaxing times to spend with the person you love. You unwind from the craziness that weddings tend to be and you just want to spend as much time doing nothing as you can. Europe is not really conducive to being relaxing and you’re more likely to run around trying to see everything than spend time doing nothing. It would be a waste to fly all the way over there and then spend the whole time in a hotel. Even with a great travel agent there are so many opportunities for things to go wrong. The food is very different, the people are very different, and I think there may be too many chances for us to get completely pissed at each other. Not a good way to spend our honeymoon. Still, it has been a few years since I’ve been to France…

Choice 2: Alaskan Cruise
We had discussed this previously. He’s never been on an Alaskan cruise and I’ve never been on a cruise period. My mom and sister went on one this past spring and they loved it. I’d like to try one out and a honeymoon seems like it might be the perfect time. Once you get on the ship you’re basically taken care of for a week. No running around, no strange food, no potentially confusing customs. You’ve got a lovely room to hole up in. There are ports of call you can go explore if you want. If not, there’s still that lovely room waiting for you. Romantic spas, breath-taking views. As talented as we are, I think there’d be fewer opportunities to pick fights when things are basically taken care of and there’s no risk of getting lost. Of course people always say you eat too much on a cruise. It’s also potentially more expensive than a trip to Europe, depending on what kind of room you get and what is all included.

I think you can tell which way I’m leaning. To me it just makes more sense to do something relaxing and mindless. I haven’t really talked to Adam about this yet. I’m just kicking ideas around. I do know that there are four different cruises that go Seattle roundtrip leaving the 19th though… :) Perhaps some outside input would help?

Camping 2006 Attempt #3

Sorry for the major gap in blogland. I had a rough week.

Anyway, for our final camping trip we got a site down at Rocky Arbor State Park in Wisconsin Dells. We also invited Catherine and Tony along for the ride. You'll notice I titled this post a camping "attempt" and I think it's safe to say that we completely failed. Hold on folks, this is going to be a long post.

Adam woke up on Friday morning sick. Luckily he had taken the entire day off anyway so while I got up and went to work, he spent the morning throwing up, etc. This meant we left about an hour and a half later than we'd planned. We should have taken this as a sign that we weren't meant to go. *sigh* Anywho, we get to the campground, check in, and drive to our campsite. Which is the size of a shoebox. Seriously, when Adam backed the Santa Fe off the road the back of the car was over the camp pad. There was a drop-off at the back of the camp pad and no picnic table. There is no way two tents and two cars were ever going to fit there. So we called down to the office and asked if there were any other sites open for the weekend. Of course not. So Adam called Reserve America and talked to a lady there. There was basically nothing to be done. So I called Catherine up and told them the situation. They weren't sure they wanted to come up if we weren't camping. We did still have a boat reserved for Saturday though and we didn't want to lose the money on that by leaving. So we went back down to the office to see what could be done. Luckily another site had cancelled so we could have that one. Unfortunately it was about the same size as the first one. We decided the only thing to be done was to get a hotel room and enjoy the night that way. Tony was harder to convince. Eventually everything got arranged and we ended up at a Comfort Inn and they ended up at a Motel 6 across town. We met for dinner at Marley's, a caribbean inspired restuarant, and then went back to our hotel for a while. We played Snorta, a game where players try to confuse each other with animal sounds. It was actually pretty fun and I even won both times.

**Off topic** I've noticed that when I play games without my sister, I tend to win. When she's playing, I haven't got a chance. Odd... **end off topic**

We then called it a night and agreed to meet up in the morning at the boat launch.

The next morning we got the boat, loaded everything, and then waited an hour for Catherine and Tony to get there. They got lost... After we left the docks, we cruised around for a while on Lake Delton.

Adam fished


we watched the Tommy Bartlett Show from the water, we went swimming, grilled some food. It was a great day to be out on the lake. The sun came out for a while, it was a good temperature. Adam even fed the ducks:

We had the boat until 7:30, but we decided to call it a day early so we could go to dinner before we both headed back to our respective homes. The frosting to our great day was when we headed back to the docks and totally took the biminy top off going under a bridge. Nice... They should have signs to warn you it's not high enough or something. Oh well. We bought ourselves a nice, bent piece of metal. Woo. After unloading the boat and getting into normal clothing we went to Moosejaw for dinner. And some pictures:






We then parted ways and headed back home.

Where I proceeded to be sick for the entire week.

Woo.

So, camping this season is over. We have two dates reserved up at Peninsula State Park for next year though. We know they're good (and big enough) so hopefully they'll work out better than our three attempts this year did.

Dresses

Take a look at this newly created webpage for the current candidates in the dress race. It includes both attendants and my dress choices. I won't say which are my favorites yet. I want other peoples' opinions. Leave comments!!!

Happy One Year Until We're Married Day!

Yup, one year from now I'll be married... and probably a little tipsy. Heh. It's a strange thought.

In other news, Adam gave Mo a haircut the other day. His hair was just getting out of control. When he emerged from his igloo, he looked like he had been electrocuted. It was crazy. Now he looks so much smaller since the majority of his bigness was his hair. He left his mohawk alone so he's still Mo. Just a lot less hairy. It will grow back.

The two guinea pigs seem a lot happier now that we separated them. Larry's nose has healed nicely and Mo's ear is back to normal. All the other guys are doing just fine as well. Gus and Barry really go at their wheels all night long and Howie pops up from a random spot in his cage every once in a while. Everyone appears to be healthy.

What's the World Coming to?

This shocked me. I'm not sure if I ever knew him personally (his obit says he was a member over at 1st Pres), but I know his son, Matt. It's just terrible when things like this happen to people you know. Ok, yes, it's equally as horrible when they happen to complete strangers. It just seems so much more real when it's someone you know.

The same thing happened a few years back when the sister of one of my friends from elementary school suffocated her newborn baby girl after she gave birth at work. I was shocked. Granted, I hadn't had any contact with either of them in years, but it just seemed unbelievable that someone could do that. Especially someone I know. My friends are friends with her boyfriend and the whole situation was just unreal. The drama continues still today with her attempts to get a new trial.

I just wonder what prompts this kind of madness?

A Majorly Oversharing Blog Rant

All day today I've had a stupid song from Bye Bye Birdie running through my head.

"How lovely to be a woman,
The wait was well worth while;
How lovely to wear mascara
And smile a woman's smile.
How lovely to have a figure,
That's round instead of flat;
Whenever you hear boys whistle,
You're what they're whistling at."

Blech! Boys never whistled at me. Barked, maybe mooed, but whistled? Never.

Anyway, I've determined either the person who wrote this piece of crap must have been doing way too many drugs (it was the 60's afterall) or it must have been written by a man.

Hey, whadd'ya know. Lyrics by Lee Adams. Figures.

In any case, you might be wondering why this particular song is my mental soundtrack for the day. The answer should be obvious. Obviously it's not so great to be a woman like me right now.

I can sing the praises of Seasonale all day long. It's truly a great thing to go for months without the hassle of womandom. But when it comes, it comes with a vengence. I don't know if it's just me (I've always had a pretty rough time in this area) but it just seems kind of ridiculous sometimes. I'd like to add a couple verses to the aforementioned song, detailing the not-so-nice details of being a woman. They forgot to mention the week-long entire body ache. And the craving for salt even though you know if you eat it you'll retain water like Spongebob. I won't even go into the more obvious unpleasantries. Ugh. Menopause will not come soon enough in my opinion.

I was so pissed when I "became a woman" at the (relatively) young age of 12. It's been a monthly hell ever since. I actually had to stay home from school quite a few times because I could not move due to blinding cramping. I know I scared my dad at least once because of this. I also threw up in science class once because of it (on my birthday to boot!) It's just a miserable part of life. But this is why I'm so happy to avoid it 2 out of 3 months. Supposedly this Seasonale stuff is supposed to make it lighter as well but I'd beg to differ.

Anyways, I'll welcome the break that comes with pregnancy and I'll be so happy when the hot flashes I get are because I'm "going through the change." I do find it interesting how one's attitude towards this changes though. I was never really looking forward to it, but I'll tell you there were some times I was so happy to see it.

With that oversharing, I'll end this entire post of oversharing. Chalk it up to PMS...

Brat Days

***Warning: Lots of pictures!!***

We headed down to Sheboygan for Brat Days 2006 on Friday. We stopped at Cruiser's for lunch and struggled through the construction on hwy 28. After a stop at the GameStop store in the Target/Home Depot shopping center we checked into our hotel at the La Quinta. When Adam discovered the refurbished PS2 he bought didn't work we drove across town again, taking cty A this time to avoid the mess. We then hung out at the hotel until my dad and Cheryl came and picked us up for dinner. They took us out to The Bull, the golf course designed by Jack Nicklaus, so Adam was happy. The food was wonderful and the view was great too:



We had a picture of Adam in front of the entrance, but he went delete happy later on in the evening and accidentally deleted that one. Oops...

We headed back to the hotel, mentally regrouped, and headed down to Kiwanis park for the Firehouse concert. We actually parked relatively close to the park. We only had to walk 3 blocks or so. We picked a spot on the second tier of the hill, far enough from the stage to avoid any hoopla and retain our full hearing. Therefore the pictures are kind of blurry and psychadelic. I think Adam was kind of bored (and he had a headache) but I enjoyed the concert. They played a lot of newer stuff from albums I wasn't altogether familiar with, but they also played some classics from their earlier albums.



We then packed our chairs up and headed back to the hotel. It was a rough night, but we made it through. We got up early Saturday and headed to the free breakfast in the lobby. After we checked out we drove to West Side Bakery for a bit of nostalgic donut goodness and then headed back to Kiwanis. We got there just after 9am and staked our claim on the benches in front of the Johnsonville Big Grill truck. We sat about 5 benches from the front. Great seats if you ask me. Of course, the competition wasn't due to start until 11 so we had some time to kill. We got to listen to the announcer practice his speeches and yell at the music person who kept missing her cues. Her name was Kate. :) We also got to hear the crew's pep talk. We saw the two top contenders (Takeru Kobayashi and Sonya Thomas) when they arrived at the park after the parade. The park filled up pretty quickly after about 10:30 and there was a decent sized crowd. At least ESPN thought so. The competition was originally supposed to be done live to tape and then aired (edited for commercials, etc.) at 3. Apparently the people at ESPN like the energy of the crowd so well they decided to just go live. It was interesting. They had to do the entrances of the contestants 3 times.

I'm getting ahead of myself. The amateur contest was first. 16 local guys shoving brats into their faces. One guy barfed. A lot. Other than that it was relatively refined. The winner ate 14 total. The stage was then cleaned up and prepped for the professional contest. After a lot of hoopla and the announcer's speeches (which we had already heard once), the contestants all got up on stage. Then it was announced that ESPN wanted to air it live so they had to start over. They got three of the guys back up on stage and then had to send them back off and start over because they hadn't gone on air yet. *sigh* Finally they got everyone back up on stage and started the competition. It was disgusting, yet exhilarating. The world record set last year by Sonya Thomas was smashed in less than 5 minutes. Kobayashi, this tiny Japanese guy, plowed through 58 brats in 10 minutes. It was amazing. He lifted his shirt up at the end of the competition and you could still see his abs... this guy is ripped... Anywho, he won, the crowd went wild, and we went to seek out shade and water. It was incredibly hot and I got totally sunburned.

I can't find any video of the contest anywhere that shows us. There's nothing on the ESPN website, although the contest made #10 on their top ten moments on SC this morning. There's a two-minute (low quality) clip on YouTube, but that's about all I can find so far. If I find anything else, I'll post it. Trust us, we were there. :)


Kobayashi

The amateurs

The stumf fiddle battle to the death (don't ask... it's a Sheboygan thing...)

Sonya "The Black Widow" Thomas

The pros

My sunburn

Our brat "thunder sticks"

There are more pictures on my Photobucket site.