Auditory Amusements

Michael: I can't eat those Fiber One bars anymore

Me: Why? Do they make you sick?

Michael: No, they turn me into a ball of gas. I'm Jupiter. I'm a gas giant

Take Back the Beep

David Pogue is great. I only know he exists because I am marrying one of his biggest fans. Michael knows about his articles, books, and everything else the man does. In Michael's defense, DP is pretty cool. His story today (which I read thanks to Donald's facebook status) talks about "Take back the Beep" in which we, the consumers, tell the cell phone companies we don't need to hear their stupid automated voice recordings telling us how to leave a message after we hear our friend's voice telling us s/he is unavailable. Not only is it annoying, but it takes up minutes that we pay for! Grrrrrr. DP includes links on how to complain to each carrier. I love it! I strongly suggest reading the story. It's entertaining, brief, and quite relevant!

Are you serious?

I have seen the ad, below, in several magazines. It caught my attention, and I admit, I was surprised at first. It's kind of weird, don't you think? I mean, we know what a bikini trimmer does. Do you have to show us, too? It makes me think of Versailles or something old and European. And not in a good way. Admittedly, Europeans wouldn't think twice about such an ad. They would probably have a naked woman demonstrating the product. Truth be told, there is nothing weird about someone being naked, but a statue with a artfully groomed shrub strategically placed? That is weird.

Willpower

We've done it again. Plunged into the diet hell known as South Beach, phase one. Michael and I went on the South Beach diet about three years ago. The plan was to do two weeks of phase one, as directed, and then as many weeks of phase two as we needed. Unfamiliar with SB? Phase 1 is horrible. You are allowed unlimited veggies, low-fat dairy, and low-fat proteins. No bread or fruit! So sad. I hate eggs, so breakfasts get interesting. Anyway, during our first trial, we were very stoic, and after thirteen days of following it to the letter, we stopped. And I was skinny! It was great. But then we started to eat normal foods and well, you know what happens.

Here we are again, 8 weeks before the wedding, and Michael has decided, once again, to embark on the SB diet. Being the supportive soul that I am, I jumped onboard. But I like to think we're smarter the second time around. Instead of making all the weird recipes we found in the book last time, we're making more normal recipes in the "Taste of Summer" cookbook, that involves much less chopping and mixing and broiling, and a lot more grilling. Today's dinner of jalepeno turkey burgers (minus bun, of course) actually sounds pretty good. But lunch? Not so much. It's white bean soup with arugula and basil. It's GREEN. It looks like I threw in grass clippings and went to town with the immersion blender.

On the bright side, I have already used many many items I received at last weekend's showers. All attachments to the immersion blender, several prep bowls, the big spoons, etc. How utilitarian!

So this is really happening

So my first major accomplishment of the week was writing and mailing 46 thank you notes for all of my shower gifts. I know you technically have four weeks or some arbitrary time frame to send them out. But since I find it difficult to find an absolute acceptable time frame, and have always believed sooner is better than later, I wrote all of them. My hand was sore, but my Cross Morph pen stood up to the task. I should probably buy an ink refill because I'm pretty sure I wrote all of my high school graduation thank yous with this pen, too, and between my graduation party and recent showers, that's a heck of a lot of writing.

My second major accomplishment was finally sending out all our wedding invitations. Leaving them at the post office on Thursday morning felt a little odd. I mean, they had been sitting in the dining room in the hutch/credenza/big piece of furniture from IKEA for awhile and needed to go. But I don't really trust the post office. I left a huge shopping bag full of envelopes with the very tall woman behind the counter. I folded all the liners and glued them in all the envelopes. I numbered the reply cards in case people forget to put their names on them. I printed all the addresses and Al wrote all the inner envelope names. Finally, I carefully aligned the stamps in the top right corner. (A huge deal for me, most of the time they're crooked and hanging off the edge) What if the post office shoves the bag in a corner and they're never seen again? Cross your fingers for me.

And finally, to make it even more real, we ordered my wedding band yesterday. Michael hasn't picked his out yet, but his time will come.

With two months to go until the wedding---actually, eight weeks to the day tomorrow, which is a bit scary--I fear I will forever be stuck in detail mode. Ever since we walked through the country club in April I have been dreading the seating chart. Now that the invitations were (ostensibly) mailed yesterday, the RSVPs are going to start coming in, which means I will have to actually make the damn thing. I'm also worrying about gifts for parents and other important players. What do you give your parents, really? Is there anything that comes close to saying thank you for raising you and seeing you through every milestone in your life, and answering all 842 e-mails you've sent this week about the wedding? AND hosting the big party?! Not really.

Auditory amusements

Nana, after I pulled a rolling pin out of a gift bag at my bridal shower:

You'll need to use that in order to keep Michael in line!

Needless to say, she brought the house down with that one.

Recovering

I survived the trip to Ohio, thank goodness. Our venue is squared away, makeup has been practiced, hair has been finalized, and I met with the priest and photographer. The kicker is most of the vendors know each other! "Oh, Dan has photographed many events here" or "That is a great church to get married in" or "Dan? He's great. We've worked with him for years" or "The Club is so beautiful. I love to take a photo in that one window when the light shines in" Don't you love a small midwestern town?

Thankfully, there was a bit of a break from the wedding stuffs when Al decided to clean out the basement and donate a large chunk of our childhood to Goodwill (except Barbies and stuffed toys, of course). Why did I keep most of the Sports pages from the 1997 baseball playoffs? I don't know.

The wedding showers were quite enjoyable. Saturday's included 36 family members and close friends and featured delicious IGA cake and important players meeting each other. Namely, Michael's maternal grandma and my maternal grandma, both named Margaret. They are obviously very cute. And of course, Pannie meeting most of my family, but not having to take a quiz to remember their names. (Did I forget to mention Pannie drove in from DC?!) I was lucky to have 3 of the 4 bridesmaids to help me unwrap, record gifts, and create the ubiquitous ribbon bouquet. We missed Ash! (see incomplete photo, below) Sunday was a smaller gathering at Patti's house with a lovely brunch with ML's golf friends and other friends who don't spend time on the links. Everyone was very generous at both showers, and thus has resulted in me writing many thank you notes this afternoon. I took a break to type to 'rest' my right hand! Additional photos will be available in the next day or two at both the normal photo page and the wedding website.