Almost Trip Time

Holy crap,  I'm going to Costa Rica next week!  I am feeling fairly unprepared at the moment in spite of the purchase of some new hot weather clothing (tough to find in November) and a pair of light hiking shoes (my hiking boots are waaaaaayyy too heavy and clunky).  Other than the newly purchased items I have no idea what I am going to wear.  I don't really have a wardrobe for Seattle summers let alone one for Central America.

I did get my suggested travel vaccinations for Hep A and Typhoid for a dollar amount that made me cringe and caused wallet pain.  They had better be worth it.  This also prompted a statement I'm not sure gets said a lot:  "For our honeymoon we really need to go to a country that has Typhoid."  You know, just to get my money's worth out of the deal.

I "know" a few of the people that will be joining me on this trip.  Through message board posts on the travel company's website I have learned that there will be a group of four "women of a certain age" who are docents at their local zoo and are primarily interested in the birds of Costa Rica.  There is also a recent female college graduate from New Jersey.  In my mind my trip now includes the Golden Girls and Snooki.  Let's get realistic though, ain't no way Snooki is a recent college grad.

As the time for departure nears I am getting pretty excited about this little adventure.  Still trying to decide if I am going to try and run when I am down there.  The hot humid weather and the unfamiliarity with the area is giving me pause.  Who knows, maybe Blanche and Sophia will want to join me for a run through the jungle.

So Glad I Am Marrying This Man

I recently sent Kevin a list of Portland bakeries that I have chosen as possible creators of our wedding cake.  I found six that I liked but we are trying to whittle it down to four.  Yes, wedding specialists advise only trying three vendors but dammit this is cake and we are trying at least four different places.

Today I received a response to my e-mail.  I expected him to look at the links, browse through the sites and pick a few he thought looked nice.  Oh no, he is too methodical and analytical and thorough for that.  He loves to spend time learning and researching things and I shouldn't have been surprised that that would include cake too.  Here is his e-mail:

I actually created a weighted matrix based on the below categories and rated each bakery.
Weight 5: Artistry
Weight 4: Flavors
Weight 3: Price
Weight 2: Reviews
Weight 1: Delivery & Web Site

White Rose: 73
Sweet Cakes: 62
Serious Cakes: 57
Laurie Clarke Cakes: 51
Papa Haydn: 42
La Joconde: 39


If you want a go at it I have a spreadsheet ready for you to plug numbers into. ;-)

How freakin' cute and awesome is that?  I just want to hug his little computer nerdness right now.  I absolutely love it. 

Squishy, Nasty and Gross

In less than 24 hours I have had to:

• Clean up everything under our kitchen sink after we discovered our garbage disposal was shooting nasty water from every direction.  This was after I had just taken everything out and cleaned under the sink about an hour before.
• Clean up strategically placed cat puke from the corner of our couch.  Ollie (and yes I am sure it was him) managed to hit all four cushions and a sofa crack. I swear that he tries to be as obnoxious as possible when he vomits.  Our next couch will be cat puke colored.
• Clean up and dispose of a pumpkin that actually liquefied.  It liquefied all over the floor and all over Kevin's antique Victrola.  I have never seen one decompose quite like that or that quickly before.

I only thought people with small children had days like that.

Running Growth

Sometimes recognizing change in yourself can be difficult.  Running makes it easy. 

Today I ran for an hour and 20 minutes straight and it didn't even phase me.  It didn't seem ridiculous or impossible or a stretch-goal or something I had to psyche myself up for; it just felt like something I do.  It wasn't too terribly long ago that running for the length of time seemed impossible.  Now, it just isn't that big of a deal.  I like that.  I like that a lot. 

Happy Halloween!

Here are some pictures from last weekend's First Annual Pumpkin Carving Party.  It has to be an annual tradition because we have so much Halloween and pumpkin carving infrastructure now that it would be a shame not to have it every year.  Besides, Kevin's family has held a pumpkin carving party back in Baltimore for over 30 years.  We are merely carrying the tradition to the west coast.  We even made his Grandmother's Hungarian GHOUL-ash for the occasion.

 The lineup in the light.

 The true test of a carved pumpkin.

Todd with the world's thickest pumpkin. 

My prize winning kitty-cat.

My prize winning kitty-cat anus.

Kevin and his creation.

Mike and Amber with, far and away, the best design.  Their Space Needle and witch just weren't deep enough for the light to shine through. Too bad, 'cause this could have easily walked away with it all.

Kim, Nellie, Patty and Paul hard at work.

Kevin giving his pumpkin a colonoscopy.

Pumpkin carving is hard work.

Everyone hard at work.

 I am always impressed with the quality of carvings people do.  Yes, stencils were allowed and most people used some kind of stencil but even with that in mind I thought the gourds turned out fabulously.  Unfortunately, Kevin and I won second and first place respectively.  You never want that to happen when you are the hosts.  We kept some of the goodies out of the prize bags but did give most of it away.  OK, not most.  I hung onto the movie tickets and some Seattle Chocolate truffle bars we bought.

I hope everyone has a happy day and gets rid of their mini-chocolate bars quickly.

What Would Colonel Mustard Do?

If my relationship goes south at some point I think you can solve the mystery of its demise much like you would a game of Clue:  It was Kevin and Ann-Marie, in the garage, with East Coast Swing.

Yeah, practicing went that well last night.

Wedding Update

I actually took a fairly long break from wedding planning towards the end of the summer but now am back into it full-force with the finding of the dress.  Here are some of the things we have decided on:

• As I mentioned, I found my dress!  That was a huge weight off my shoulders since I was pretty much convinced I would never find one that I liked.  Maybe I should have actually gone and tried on a few before I came to that "woe is me" decision.  It is fabulous and is completely me and is made to go with my fabulous wedding shoes.
• The wedding shoes have determined the color scheme.  I didn't want to be one of those brides that chooses colors for her wedding.  Somehow in my mind girls who had a color scheme were the same ones that sat around dreamily writing Mrs. Ann-Marie Doe and only ever dreaming of being a wife.  Yes, I know how asinine that sounds now but I have a lot of goofy bride/wife/girly stuff hang-ups that I am just fully realizing the extent of.  Dealing with those as I go.  Anyhoo, the colors are going to be bright yellow and navy.  That is for the reception only.  Not so much worrying about a color scheme for the invitations, ceremony or website. 
• We have found a new venue for the ceremony.  The location we were going to have it was the same as the reception location.  The venue wanted us to vacate the space for an hour to remove the chairs after the ceremony and we just couldn't see breaking up the flow of the event that way.  What would people do for an hour?  Besides, the space was never really pretty enough for a ceremony and has always been a bad fit for us in that regard.  We chose it for the whole "weekend of fun" thing for our guests and didn't really think through some of the logistics.  Since mid-May is a dicey month for anything outside (really, any time is dicey for that in the Northwest) we had to find a new indoor venue.  I had a rare moment of genius and remembered a place we saw a small concert at in Portland last year.  Lo and behold, they rent out their space and it is awesome.  The Oregonian called it a cross between a church and a bordello and that is a perfect description.  We are getting hitched at Mississippi Studios!
• I have come to terms with the fact that we are going to have to have chair covers.  I dislike chair covers a lot but the chairs are ugly black metal things and those are the only chair options for the venue so.....chair covers it is.  I draw the line at bows though.  There will be no bows on the back of our chairs.  
• I can't talk Kevin into wearing a suit so a tux for all the men in the wedding party it shall be.  I can't blame him.  I wouldn't want him dictating what I wear for the wedding any more than he wants me telling him what to wear.  I really do appreciate the fact that he is into this 100% and LOVES the planning.  I am lucky that way.  I still need to expose him to less formal weddings so he can drop some preconceptions though.
• The custom art we were planning on fell through so now we have to look for a different artist.   It was going to be so cool too.  :-(

 I want to get as much done as possible before the end of the year when marathon training begins so I don't have to try and juggle both too much.  Right now our weekend with the wedding coordinator to go over menu, linens and crap is the same weekend my 20 miler is scheduled.  Nope, no worries there.