One of my girlfriends and I went to a ballet class last. Now I know that spinning is not a full contact sport or anything, and I know I haven't danced in say -forever, but I've been pretty good about working out, and didn't think it would be that bad. Class went well! I had a blast, and the teacher was awesome. I didn't have to wear a leotard, and my friend's mom played the piano for class. I felt great afterward, all stretchy and loose. The feeling actually lasted through this morning. Let me tell you, it's seldom I wake up in a good mood, and even more seldom that I don't need coffee to fake said good mood. But this morning, I still felt amazing. I went to work all charged up and convinced that I need to go to ballet class every week.

Well, I sat at my desk all day. My thighs have officially rebelled. They told me, and I quote "You suck. You used us, and abused us. Now you shall pay." All I can say is Ow?

The fella and I have been planning a vacation for a long time now. Last October, we planned a cruise, only to cancel it about 6 months out because we were buying a house. Love the house, still don't regret the decision. So then we got married, and put off a honeymoon so he could start his new job. Also a smart decision if you ask me. We were finally ready to book tickets to London, when we made our list of things we wanted to see / do while we were there. Seeing a play at the Globe Theater was at the top of both our lists, and their season doesn't start until next year. So we decided to do a mini-vacation this year, and London next year.

We talked about Las Vegas, but neither of us like to gamble, and we don't do the whole club scene. We talked about camping in a national park, but the fella isn't an outdoorsy type. We talked about Gencon, but timing didn't work out. Enter John Stewart and Steven Colbert from stage left.

So yeah. There's this Rally to Restore Sanity in DC on the National Lawn. We kinda thought it was a good idea. Then Colbert decided to have a competing March to Restore Terror. We are going. To which, you might ask? Does it matter? I respond.

If we go to the John Stewart side, I will carry a sign that says "Insert Explicative Here." If we go the to Steven Colbert side, I will wear a pink suit, and pillbox hat and a button that says Sarah Palin for President, 2012.

Scads, I love Halloween!

Total happy gushing. Don't mind me.

Well, it happened. The fella and I are hitched. My black dress raised nary an eyebrow with my aunts. I think it is mostly because they were forewarned. It was a balmy 95 degrees F, in southern Indiana, and the sun shone all day. Our pastor was a very nice lady from a Methodist Church who smiled a lot. Our readings, after much negotiation between the fella and I consisted of: My Love, by Robert Burns, a piece from The Irrational Season, by Madeleine L'Engle, and the lyrics to Grow Old With Me, by John Lennon.

We got married on my grandparents farm. There is a beautiful area on the edge of a pond that has a natural bower of trees where we arranged our ceremony. I can't help but think that Big Pa Jack and Grammy Lillilan would have liked the fella, and would have been thrilled.

My husband (I almost wrote fiance there!) looked amazing in his tux. My brother was an adorable best man. My cousin made the cutest maid of honor ever. She dragged me kicking and screaming to get a manicure and pedicure, as well as having my hair professionally done. I don't mind admitting, there is a first time for everything. I actually had fun being a girl for a few days. That said, don't expect French Tips, next time you see me.

My dad cried while walking me down the aisle. I sniffled, and blamed the pollen count. My "something borrowed" handkerchief came in handy when in the middle of a prayer blessing our wedding rings, my eyes started suspiciously watering. I am still officially blaming the pollen count.

My mom made me a garter. It was made out of pieces of her wedding dress, and my maternal grandmother's wedding dresses. I cried. She sniffled. We both tried to blame it on allergies. I am "pretty sure" that is something I will keep.

Our Ring Bearer carried our rings which were wrapped up in a handkerchief that my aunt had made, which had Irish lace that my paternal great grandmother collected prominently featured.

My cousin baked our cake, which turned out beautifully. She designed it to look like hat boxes. It tasted darn good too! We told the florist to be creative. She was, and my flowers were amazing. My pots of Gerber Daisy's as centerpieces were splendid, and made great wedding favors.

The Nerf Guns and board games were an excellent addition to our reception, that I highly recommend to anyone having an outdoor wedding.

My friends and family turned out in force. I think my college buddy from Montana gets the award for most distance traveled. It was so great to see everybody.

My cousins challenged me to a game of beer pong. My college buddy and I totally won. I worry for the next generation of college students if they can't bear a pair of rusty old ladies.

In short, we had a great time. Our wedding was lovely, our reception was fun, and I can't help but think (If you will pardon the cliche), that for the fella and I, the best is yet to come.

Random thoughts on a Saturday Night

Tonight's blog entry is brought to you by the letter E.

Actually, I'm having trouble coming up with a story to tell. My kittens are snuggling, my flowers are blooming, I went and knitted with my girlfriends tonight, I managed to sleep past 7 AM this morning, and the fella made me eggs for breakfast. All in all, the report for the day is favorable. So I have decided to make a list of things I like and good things that have happened recently. This is, of course, mind you, in no particular order.

1. Babybell cheese as a snack food.
2. Trashy romance novels.
3. Knitting with bright colors or earth tones, or really any yarn that feels good.
4. Actually having a space to plant flowers or plants, and watching them grow.
5. Snuggling with the fella, and just enjoying his company.
6. A nice red wine.
7. Going out to wine tastings after work with nice co-workers.
8. Surfing Utube for funny videos.
9. Going to the library.
10. Playing Scrabble with my mom.
11. Playing cards and hanging out with my family.
12. Goofing off with the baby bro, who is not so much of a baby anymore.
13. Talking on the phone with folks I haven't spoken to in FOREVER!
14. Curling up under a blanket with a good book. Or a trashy book. Or a book about the rise and fall of ancient civilizations. You get the picture.
15. Spinning yarn, preferably yarn that is balanced. Ack, the last foray into the spinning world curled terribly. But it's a cute color?
16. Dancing.
17. Cooking something fun for dinner.
18. Playing with other folks kids. Especially when I can return them to their parents when their diaper needs changed or they throw a fit. That way, I'm just the fun "auntie".
19. Purring kitties.
20. Hanging curtains and doing small things around my house that make it look more like home.
21. Finding a copy of a book of poetry at a bookstore that I have been looking for, for over a year.
22. Goodwill shopping and finding an awesome article of clothing.
23. Being told I was doing a good job at work three times in the last week by different individuals.
24. Waking up to the smell of coffee and breakfast, accompanied by a good morning kiss.

That is probably enough for tonight. Here's hoping you all are having a good weekend too.

Cheers.

B

I'm a criminal!

Oh Jeez. So my neighbor around the corner is one of the sweetest people I've ever met. She has also had the misfortune of having her house broken into twice in the past year. A few days ago, she stopped by to say hello and drop off some tomato seeds for the fiance and I. While she was here, she mentioned that she was having trouble mowing her yard since her lawnmower had been stolen in the most recent break in.

Well, today, the fella and I were doing yard work. I was weeding, he was mowing. We talked about it, and decided that it would be nice and neighborly to go mow our neighbor's yard - since she didn't have a lawnmower and all. He made lunch, I lugged the mower over and mowed her front yard. I decided not to mow her back yard, because I didn't want to open her gate, or basically do anything to freak her out.

Fast forward a few hours... I checked my voice mail after having made dinner, and there's a call from my neighbor. She sounds panicked. Someone mowed her yard, she is afraid they are casing her house again, and has called all the rest of our neighbors. She also talked to a neighbor kid, who said some guy was mowing her front yard this afternoon. So she provided the description of said guy to the police. I'm guessing the description went something like this - about 5'10, blonde hair, jeans and a black T-shirt.

So of course we called her back and apologized for freaking her out and owned up to the great 2010 mowing caper. Poor gal.

I don't know what I'm more upset about - the fact that when she called the first time that she mentioned they didn't mow her back yard and did a half-*#$ed job, or the fact the neighbor kid thought I was a guy, or the fact I'm possibly being investigated by the police for trying to do something nice.

In other news! Half of our wedding invitations are addressed. We found a minister, flowers are ordered, and everything seems to be falling in to place.

Cheers.

B

Ack!

I totally fell in a creek today. I was hiking across it while wearing a pair of hip waders. My left foot got stuck in the soup at the bottom, and my right foot got caught in some aquatic plants. It was slow motion at its finest. I knew I was toppling over. I knew it was 26 F. I knew the windchill was somewhat less than that, and I also knew that I had only packed 3 pair of jeans for the week because I was going to be wearing waders.

Sploosh! Or whatever sound effect you envision hearing when a 6 ft tall brunette hits the water. I land in the water and somehow find myself sitting on my rear in water that goes up to the waistband of my pants. My arms are miraculously still dry at this point. I am still in slow motion and it takes me another minute to realize my right leg is still caught in the weeds, and my left leg is caught underneath of me. Enter the co-worker. "Stand up." Not, are you ok, do you need help, oh my you fell over, or really any of the expected statements. My brilliant response "I'm Trying!" I really wanted to say hey dummy, I just thought I'd sit her in the water in subfreezing temperatures for fun. Needless to say, I'm somewhat stuck. I don't want to stick my arms into the water, because it's the only coat I brought. Common sense starts to return as the water continues rushing into my waders. So down go the arms and I manage to stand up. Standing up doesn't equal able to walk, as my one leg is still stuck in the mud at the bottom of the river. It took falling over again, this time onto my knees before I was able to climb out of the water.

The vehicle was probably half a mile away. I might be exaggerating on the distance there, but it was a bit of a hike to get back. Luckily the hotel with it's hot shower was close by and I had dry clothes. Yay for work travel...

I love Holidays

I Love Holidays. Can anyone else echo that statement? I realize that my Turkey Day post is belated. Sorry. But!

The fella and I traveled down to Southern Indiana to visit with my family. My brother was not quite the Turkey this year. His birthday is the 27th of November. I sort of can't believe the baby bro is 27. Someone tell me that doesn't make me old. Happy birthday baby bro. I hope you like Turkey and family!

Anyway! The family visit was fun. We didn't make a catapult this year, but the girl cousins and I went wedding dress shopping. I'm somewhat convinced I look horrible in white, and that I don't want to wear white. Pale people don't wear white well. But I gamely tried on white and cream colored dresses, and my lovely bridesmaid cousin tried on pretty colored stuff too. It was a good time. We found pretty dresses for the cousin, and not so pretty dresses for me. Neither of us purchased anything. At any rate! My voice of reason (AKA my other cousin) continued shopping after bridesmaid cousin and I gave up the ghost, ate pizza and went home to go mudding, with her sister in law. I don't know what they were shopping for, but they found lots of stuff.

So the "Voice of Reason" and her sister in law, found several dresses for me. They purchased them and brought them back to the farm! The "Voice of Reason" brought in 4 dresses for me, based on what I had tried on, and liked. Lo and behold, some of them were not me, such as the skin-tight blue vertical striped something something, but! She found something beautiful.

It's a black bodice, with accordian pleating, that is purple and red! Hard to describe, but exactly what I wanted. It also happened to ring up as a man's necktie. The grand total of said gorgeous dress was about 18 dollars. It might possibly be the prettiest thing I've ever owned.

After the shopping trip, and the outfall from the opinionated german aunts that my chosen dress wasn't white, we went back to our new house and cooked Thanksgiving dinner for the fella's family. Actually, I should give credit where it is due. I cooked a turkey and told everyone else to bring stuff. It worked out well, and a happy holiday was had. Even if the jazz cats weren't happy about being locked in the basement.

Cheers and hope your holiday was happy.

Happy Wednesday

Hello Loyal Readers. I almost wrote down gentle readers, but decided that if I started comparing myself to Miss Manners, I'd have to stop swearing. And I'm just not up to that today.

It's been a bit since I updated this. I blame either the fact that too much has happened, or that I'm scared to death of what is going to happen and don't want to write about it because then it will seem real.

If things go as planned, and contingency plans don't interfere - the fella and I are buying a house. It was built February 17, 1910. If everything goes well, we're totally having a birthday party for the house. Consider yourselves invited. We are supposed to close October 1 - and I keep getting a sick-like feeling every time I think about it. The contingency plans scare me. They might be plan A), they might be plan D. There's too much in the air right now.

Work is work. Nuff said. I could bore you with stories about how I screamed when I saw a giant 8 ft long snake try to eat my co-worker, or with how we found multiple dead bodies on the second floor of an abandoned house, but I'd be slightly (just slightly mind you) exaggerating - also the bodies were mostly rats and birds, so don't overly freak out. I've decided I need to present a "Good Job" award at the next office party. My plan is to put the pictures of all the gross stuff my co-workers and I have seen while in the field into a picture frame and present it to someone. I've got more pictures of nasty toilets than pictures of nasty spiders.

Wedding planning still blows, and I still have a secret wish for the Vegas thing. Although, I have to say, I discovered the beauty that is Ebay. I bought the coolest hat. It has a brim, and feathers coming off the back of it in a spray, and a half veil. I fully plan on taking it with me when I go dress shopping and sending the "bridal consultants" into conniption fits.

In addition to the February party, I'm planning a Guy Fawkes Party this year. Any kind of invite that starts off with burning people in effigy and fireworks can't be overly bad. Right? Heck, I'm kind of a party planning fool. "Remember, Remember, the 5th of November!"

I'm also turning 30 this year. That's the first time I've written that, and boy - it just made me feel old. So I figure I should have a birthday party. My fella tells me I'm not allowed to plan it, and that he's going to do something. I sort-of threatened to invite a ton of people over and dress up as Death (It helps that sentence if you remember I'm a halloween baby) and set up the keg and stand over it with a sickle. I still think it would be fun.

Cheers.

B