Blind Items: Vegas Continued

Blind item #3: Which former MLB player who is banned from baseball did B run into in Vegas?

Blind Items: Vegas

Blind item #1: Which one of B's friends forgot to pack any underwear?

Blind item #2: Which pair of underwear do I hope never gets returned to B?

PS: BC Hockey in the Frozen Four again! Maybe the third time in a row is the charm?

Viva Las Vegas

So B is in Vegas right now for a Bachelor party. And in what may be the Perfect Storm of Vegas, his buddy Bill is in Vegas for another bachelor party and it is the NCAA basketball games. So because all of this was happening, Bill and B's buddy Witz (I can pick him up if you want to know and don't challenge me to do it because the first time did not end well) decided to go to Vegas for the fun of it. I pray for their souls and their lives.

I sent B the locations of the churches closet to his hotel, anyone want to bet if he makes to mass on Sunday? I got a bookie taking the bets.

Gathering photos

In gathering up photos, I have been having a good laugh (even though I realize that there are not that many of me since I am the last of many). The styles of clothing, hair and even furniture (or accessories in Tim's case) is so dated. But sometimes I come across one picture and I can't even rationalize that the clothing choice was due to the trends at the time. See below.

I mean seriously - what am I wearing? Who bought it for me? And who dressed me in that? Did our home not have heat and I need to be bundled up? Can I hear through that hood?

Me and my parents - I remember that owl in the corner. I wonder where he is now. I guess he moved on and so should I.

My favorite picture

The picture below has been one I have loved since I was younger. My uncle sent it to me a few years ago but then my computer died and I didn't have any back ups. He recently sent it to me again so I could include it on the wedding web site.

Here with all the cousins (all at the time, about 25 years later Conor would join the group).

Karen, Jen, Ann, Billy, Kevin, Richie, and me on his lap

One of those trendy ideas we will not be doing...

Signature drinks are one of the latest trends and all the rage right now.

People pick the drinks based on color mostly and then flavor. You can even meet with mix-o-logists to find the perfect drink. A bit much in my book but if you want a unique drink then go for it. In my mind, a better idea would to have a drink that means something or pertains to you as a couple or individually. If we did have it, my signature drink would be some kind of Sangria. And most of you know why.

Don't do this...

I was reading some message boards on weddingbee.com and I came across a question that while I hope is an anomoly, I think may be more common.


"I'm just wondering if anyone is paying for their wedding by taking out any loans? And if so, what lender did you go with or do you have any recommendations for me? Thanks!"


Um what? Do not take out a loan for the wedding, do not put it on credit cards. One day is not worth any amount of debt. Seriously! There was another bride to be that said all her plans were ruined because her fiance did not secure the low rate loan and they couldn't afford the wedding anymore. Live within your means people. And don't spend money on the wedding with the idea that you will make it all back in gifts. If you are feeling financial pressures I bet some guests are too. And that is the gospel of Liz.


I blame the influx of bridal magazines, wedding shows and everything having to be big and over the top. If you can't stay within your budget, then cut back on something. No one is going to miss the candy buffet or the individual menus (we are not doing either so don't expect them). I sometimes don't like how the focus is so much on the planning of the party and not on the planning of the marriage. Maybe because it is easier to plan for the party than the marriage. And the party is fun and marriage, I guess, is not always fun.

The reason...

The reason I am having fun with scanners is that B bought a scanner/printer. So now I don't have to go to Kinko's afterwork and he can print his sporting tickets at home. Yay!

Here is the Canon Pixma MX310. Isn't she pretty?

Fun with scanners

My brother Tim might have had a small heart attack after reading the title (I scanned a picture from 1980 that looks very dated. Don't worry Tim - that picture will have its day) but this "fun time with scanner" brings us my first grade school picture. B and I were going to use pictures of the bridal party during their childhood but have since changed our minds. So below is a picture that contains myself and bridesmaid Kim.

Lonely letters

Here they are, all ready to go out but the save the dates have to wait. Someday soon they will go on a big adventure through the postal service to happy homes but not yet.

Trying to grow my hair and make it shiny

According to my doctor, taking prenatal vitamins does not make your hair grow faster and shinier. And yes I did ask her. And yes I am embarrassed about it. But I had to. I needed to know. She did say while it wouldn't hurt me, it also wouldn't help me. So I will stick to my Centrum.

Wedding nightmares again

Ok - my cousin emailed me that she had a dream about my wedding. And while she said dream, it sounded like a nightmare to me. It involved a scavenger hunt, a missing groom and no dancing. Yup - sounds like a nightmare. But what does it mean when guests are having these kinds of dreams and should this make me more nervous?

Chocolate Brown Envelopes...continued

It appears that you can send dark brown envelopes through the USPS without a surcharge but there will be a white sticker on the front. I am okay with that. So chocolate brown envelopes it will be - with a silver ink for the addresses. No inside envelopes because in today's day and age it is not necessary. And you should be lucky to be getting an actual invitation because B wanted to use evite. I tried to explain to him that people like my grandmother don't have email addresses and he told me "Tell grandma to go to the library and get one." I smacked him. (just kidding about that last part. Violence is wrong.)

Thank God B is not as pretty as me...

My cubemate at work sent me a link to a very interesting article. It appears that a study was conducted at the University of Tennessee where a team tested 82 newly-wed couples for facial attractiveness and the quality of their marriage. According to their results, pretty females with plain males had good marriages. So this is another reason my union with B is set up to be successful.

For the full article, click here.

Easter Walk

After dinner I made B accompany me on a walk around the 'hood. I wanted to show hi this rooftop view of Somerville and Boston I found at Tufts (the college right near the apartment). So we walked over to Tufts, climbed Memorial Stairs (pictured below).




From there we passed Goddard Chapel:



And walked out on the rooftop of one of the buildings (they are green rooftops meaning that vegetation is being planted on the rooftops to help ease the strain of the buildings on the environment). From the rooftop we enjoyed these views of Somerville and Boston.








If you come to visit us (we have a spare room) we can take you to this rooftop if you want.

PEEPS!

While I mentioned that I do not like Cadbury Eggs I do LOVE Peeps. Especially stale peeps.

The Washington Post has a Peeps diorama contest each year and here are some links to very creative peep dioramas.

Click here for 2007.
Click here for 2008.

Happy Easter!

I hate those Cadbury Egg things. The yolk inside freaks me out. What is it?

Let them eat cake...

This funny but also incredibly disgusting. It was filmed in Times Square and was a We TV promotion for last season's Bridezillas. I can't wait to see what they do this year.

Some lovely ladies for you to view

It is official...

Men are clueless!

An interesting article on Yahoo! found that men can't really understand non-verbal cues (a point I have brought up to B many times before) from women. Thus, science has deemed them clueless.

Chocolate Brown Envelopes...

That is what I want and I found the perfect silver pen to use on them for the invitations. But are they machine-readable and if not, does the United States Postal Service charge more. My plan is to go to several (probably two) post offices and ask. If I get the same answer about if there is a charge or not, I will take it as fact. If they give conflicting answers I will have to go to two more and hopefully I will have a concensus by then. If not, I will flip a coin about what to do. It has worked for me in the past.

Economic Stimulus Check

If you want to know when your check is arriving, click here. I guess it is based on the last two digits of your social security number. All I can say is thank God I did mine via direct deposit.

Sharing too much on the Internet

This is what someone posted on the knot. And this is what I think is oversharing. Keep in mind that she started a thread with this post, it is not in response to anything (and it is not my post).

"Today is 4 years ago that I met Metallica, my fav band of all time, for the first time. They were all so nice, and I had such a great time. It is hands down one of the best days of my life to date (along with the birth of my sister's son/Godson, the second time I met the band, and the day I got engaged).I was really proud of myself when I met them, because I even have a Metallica tatoo and I refrained from showing it to any of them. They all pretty much immitated my Brooklyn accent too, which I have to say I got a kick out of. They were just so awesome to be around, so much fun, so down to earth."

Save the Dates Held Hostage

We had an internal deadline of March 17 for getting the save the date cards out. We did not make the deadline. While we have all (except one because he won't send us his address) envelopes addressed and stamped, we ran into server issues the other night and have not finished the wedding web site. And while most things are up and as we want them we still wanted to add some pictures and travel information (We decided that even though we are not blocking rooms at a hotel and priceline/orbitz/etc are the cheapest ways to get hotels, we would list some hotels for consideration. I also want to add some line about approximate travel times on public transportation because Bay Ridge is out there on the subway.) So until we have some things settled, the envelopes will sit in the dining room anxiously awaiting send off. Luckily I have the Forever stamp on them so if it takes too long, postage won't be an issue.

Last vendor done

So we booked our last vendor - the guest transportation from the church to the reception and back again. Yay! We went back and forth about getting transportation but in the end I am glad we got it. If I was a guest at this wedding, I would appreciate the bus because I take public transportation most times and the subway ride from Bay Ridge to Prospect Park is not the most direct. The bus also takes some worry about drinking and driving off my mind.

A side note: Each year I forget how long and drawn out mass is on Palm Sunday - kind of like what they say about childbirth, you forget the pain.

Bovine marriage

"A village in Kochi was the venue of a traditional Hindu wedding between a cow and a bull amidst fanfare and gaiety."


Read more here.

Our mail box of sorts...

While out shopping last Sunday, B and I were discussing what we were going to use for our post card guestbook (read more here). While in Michael's we stumbled upon these miniature replica luggage boxes. So after looking at a bunch we found one that we thought was a good size and may actually get used again. The best part is that it was onsale and we didn't realize it until we were checking out. Yay!

Here is the box closed:


Here is the box opened and with our vintage postcards inside:

Passing of time

I was on the knot message boards yesterday and I saw in someone's signature there was a countdown to her due date. This is a member who I read posts from before she got married and then after, so it was weird to now see a countdown to a baby. Even weirder is that she only has 172 days left where I still have 246 days left. It doesn't seem like we have that long an engagement where people are getting married and having kids before we even make it to the altar.

Also, we still have to get through an entire baseball season (including playoffs and world series) before we get married - that makes the 8 months left seem like an eternity.

Shred! Shred! Shred!

Remember way back when I showed you my recycling bin full of bills dating back to 1998 (if you want to see it again click here)? Well I have a surprise for you! Really it is not that good but after hours (literally) of shredding, overheating the shredder, jamming it and all that fun stuff. I shredded all my past bills. It was FIVE garbage bags full of shredded paper. Crazy. Here are the before and after photos.

Before:

After:

We are family...

I accidentally dropped my phone in the toilet about six weeks ago. And while the phone began to work again, it was not reliable. So even though my contract was not up yet, I knew that I could reup. So we went to AT&T and got a new phone. And I got a new contract - a family plan with B. So according to AT&T we are family. Luckily if things do not work out, the contract is under his name so he would have to pay any fees to break the contract. I am a genius.

Daylight Savings

This weekend is daylight savings which means we lose an hour (Spring ahead, Fall back) and while this just sucks in general, it doubly sucks this year. Why you ask? Because March 9 is a sacred day in my house and one that should be 24 hours each and every year. So as a result, I am pretending it is March 9 starting tonight at 5 until Monday morning at 8:30. It is my weekend and I am the boss and B better have something wrapped to give me.

Chinese Lunar Calendar

Our manager is away today and so we are looking up which lunar calendar animals we are and yelling them across the office. So I looked up myself and B at this site here. And basically I am dark and gloomy and B is light and shiny. This stuff is crap.

Me:
DRAGON is the fifth sign of the lunar calendar.I am an unquenchable fire, the center of all energy, the stout heroic heart. I am truth and light, I hold power and glory in my sway. My presence disperses dark clouds. I have been chosen to tame the Fates.

B:
SHEEP is the eighth sign of the lunar calendar.I am nature's special child. I trust and am rewarded by trust. Fortune smiles upon my countenance. All things blossom in the gentleness of my love. I strive to find beauty in all I behold. I am fair of face and full of grace.

Live on the East Coast and want to be on TV...

From the Knot:
The [dreaded] swim suit season is approaching, sigh. If the couch, Ben, and Jerry have been your BFF’s this winter, OR if you just can’t seem to shake that cellulite no matter how many squats, reverse lunges with weighted ankles, or crash diets you try, there’s still hope for you! The Tyra Show is looking to road test a new product with 5 women who want to get rid of cellulite. The catch? The women must be friends or family that reside on the East Coast and are preparing for an impending event where swim suits are the dress code (think girls’ beach weekend, destination wedding, or sailing expedition). If this speaks to you or someone you know, question the beach gods no longer and contact us ASAP to be considered. We’ll have you asking, “which way to the beach?”
please send the following contact info to mbauer@theknot.com ASAP:
Your name:
Your age:
Your location:
Your contact info (daytime and evening phone numbers, and email address):

Yeah - I am goning to pass but have fun with that.

Oh Crystal Ball...

What will the weather be like on November 15? While really no one can tell this far in advance, there is a web site, Wunderground, that shows you the historical weather. Below is for November 15. And according to that web site there is a 31% chance of precipitation.

Coincidentally, there is only a 25% chance of rain on November 8...

Hairstyles

I am attempting to blog inbetween coughing fits and it is not easy. However, my latest research has me delving into hairstyles. To be honest, I have no idea how I want to wear my hair. Typically, my hair is in a pony tail, 24-7. So, having a down 'do would be a change for me. But I think there is something elegant and bridal about an up 'do. I am very confused at this point in time.

I started my preliminary research on the knot where they have been boasting about a gallery of the latest hair trends. I decided to look at the "hot knots" section. And there were several pictures of models with hair done up in knots, buns, etc. The only problem is that all the pictures were taken of the models face. You can't see the hot knots of which they boast. Seriously, didn't someone realize this? Click here to see the gallery.