Project Life 2013: Space Needle Wedding Letterpress Style

I finished this layout last night and it was hard. Nothing was coming together the way I wanted, my handwriting was terrible, and I messed up some journaling cards that I loved. Sigh. That's the way of creativity, right?

I've learned that if something is bothering me on a layout (or any creative project) that time won't fix it. That thing will *always* bother me, every time I see it. So now I know to listen to my intuition and fix it. Maybe that means I have to completely re-do something, but it also means the end result will be pleasing to me.

So last night when I was working on it, I struggled. I was anxious to get it done before bed so I could blog about it today. But I wasn't in a state of "flow". Every pocket was hard-won. But I'm fairly happy with the results.

I used the lovely letterpress invitation from Allison's baby shower as inspiration for the color scheme, then gathered up matching journaling cards from Studio Calico, the new Me and My Big Ideas line from Michael's (love those things!), and the new striped vellum paper I got at Daiso, the awesome Japanese dollar store we have downtown.  I've also been making a more conscious effort to use my stamps rather than just collecting them.

These pages cover our Big Outing to ride the Seattle Monorail and go up to the observation deck on the Space Needle, our friends M & T's wedding, and multiple trips to local parks thanks to our stunning weather.

I made some progress in figuring out my printing issues from Adobe Lightroom - I set Lightroom to manage the color instead of the printer, and now the photos are brighter and more true to what I see on-screen.  I still need to tweak the settings, but am much happier with the results now. (Click for larger images.)

Apr 22 - May 5: Wedding, Space Needle, Parks

Apr 22 - May 5: Babies & Penguins

Here's a slide show of my 2013 pages, including close-ups.  If you can't see it, click here to view my entire 2013 Project Life gallery.

Crazy 8

Today TJ & I have been married for 8 years.  Our marriage is the same age as a 3rd grader.  He explained to T that an anniversary is "the birthday of our marriage".  His simple yet accurate explanations are just one of the many things I think are awesome about him.

I made a little photo collage and discovered that I don't have a single photo of us together in 2008.  (Click for a larger version.)

In true tired parent form, neither of us remembered our anniversary until a few days ago. Since my parents will be in town soon, I'm looking forward to planning our first date night since BabyM was born.  Yes, it's really been that long since we went out alone together.  It's complicated when BabyM will only nurse to sleep. At least now her bedtime is fairly predictable, and she mostly can settle herself back to sleep if she wakes before midnight so we may be able to squeeze in a nice dinner somewhere fairly close to home.

One of the things I loved about M & T's wedding last weekend was how they involved all the guests in the hand-fasting, and asked us to affirm our support for their marriage.  It was similar to the Guest Affirmation in our own ceremony 8 years ago.  

In honor of 8 years, here are 8 things I am grateful for in our marriage:

1. He is an equal partner in our home life.

2. We made some nice babies. 

3. He will watch the crappy TV shows I like (Law & Order, Gray's Anatomy, Glee)

4. We are both introverts, so we understand each others' need for alone time.

5. Babies love to sleep on him.

6. He fixes things when they break, when my "solution" would be to throw it away and get a new one.

7. He's always up for a trip to Canlis.

8. Our travel "personalities" are well-matched, ie. we're homebodies who enjoy a big trip every few years.

I still marvel to myself how lucky I am to have found someone who suits me so well. 16-year-old me would have thought it was crazy if you said she'd marry that "mysterious older guy" she was crushing on.  

Life is pretty amazing sometimes.

Love and happiness

Yesterday we went to a wedding.  This was the first one we've attended in 7 years, unbelievably. I guess we're just in that phase of life where everyone is already married, has decided not to get married, or elopes.

T was very excited about it - we got her a new dress and matching hair clips, told her she could wear her dress-up black shoes, and said she could dance.  I prepped her for the part where she would need to sit quietly and listen to the ceremony.

The invitation said "aloha attire" and BabyM was the only one who had anything vaguely resembling that.  TJ and I settled on ocean blue, and T's dress had flamingos, which I figured was close.

we honestly didn't plan this level of matchiness!

It was a perfect day for a wedding by the lake.  Both girls were in remarkably good spirits despite interrupted naps.  The room was filled with love and good wishes for the happy couple, as all weddings are.

But this wedding was different from all the others we've attended.  This one had two brides, who have been together for 14 years and married for 10, but are only now able to make it legal.  It was an honor to be invited, and I am *so* grateful to M and T for the opportunity for their wedding to be the first one my girls experienced.

T asks a lot of questions, and yesterday she asked *why* people get married.  I told her that people get married when they find someone they love very much and want to spend the rest of their lives with that person.

I love that T never got the memo about marriage being only between a man and a woman.  I hope that when she and her sister are grown up, they'll be incredulous that it was such a big deal for two women or two men to get married, just like I am still surprised that my own marriage would have been illegal in some states a few decades before I was born.

As expected, we had to leave a bit early due to missed naps and early bedtimes, but it was a wonderful, perfect, lovely way to end our weekend. 

How do I know when it's love?

Stephanie commented on my last post asking how to find a good family photographer and I figured it deserved a post of its own.  I'm sure the Internet has made this task a LOT easier, because most pro photographers have nice websites with portfolios of their work, and you can browse at your leisure (or at 2am when everyone in the house is sleeping!).  I thought I'd also include some other helpful tips for the shoot itself.

The Search
When I was searching for a wedding photographer, I had no idea what to look for or how much it would cost.  I started with one of those local wedding resource pages and just started browsing other photographers' work.  I found one I completely fell in love with, but alas, they were already booked for our date. 

However, I found out the style that I liked so much was called 'photojournalism' - less emphasis on posed pictures and more on just capturing the event and the unexpected details.  So I started using that term in my web searches and found more photographers, and also found a site for the Wedding Photojournalist Association - bingo!  This site gave me a lot more options in my area, within the style I was looking for.

I then browsed a LOT of photographers' sites.  My method isn't scientific - it couldn't be, because what I was looking for was *art*.  So I simply sat back and browsed.  Looked to see whose pictures jumped out at me. 

Some photographers had a style that just didn't do it for me.  Others had a few pictures that caught my eye.  But there were a few where nearly every photo in their portfolio was a WOW shot.  Of course, these portfolios are heavily edited compilations of many events, but I felt confident that if nearly the whole portfolio wowed me, then that was a pretty good bet that I'd like their work at our wedding.

If forced to articulate what I was looking for, here are some of the characteristics:

• Interesting small detail shots, like trim on a dress, or a closeup of a shoe
• Capturing shots with a definite "vibe", almost like you can *feel* what the subjects were feeling
• Few posed shots, but if there were posed shots, ones where the subjects look like they're having fun with each other and not looking *at* the camera.
• Both black and white and color shots, but more importantly, choosing which shots looked better in b&w and which were more suited to color
• Pet photos that capture the "dog soul" 

Since this is an artistic judgment, it's like trying to outline what I like about a piece of music. I can't say for sure, but I know I like it when I hear it.

Some photographers have the gift of being able to capture pets well on film, and some don't, even those with mad skills with people-pictures.  So if you want to include your pets in a family shoot, make sure the photographer you pick has samples of pet photos in their portfolio and that you love the style of those too.  This is why I love Nicole's work.

First Contact
So the next step was to review the prices (if posted) and then reach out and contact the short list.  Because I'm lazy like that, I eliminated anyone who didn't have a way to email them. I asked a few key questions:

• Rates (if not posted clearly) and whether there was a print order minimum $
• Availability for the dates we were considering
• Whether we could get all of the pictures on a DVD and if that was an extra charge

Surprisingly, in this digital age, there are photographers who *won't* give you the digital files or charge ungodly amounts to give them to you.  You need to order all prints through them, and you don't have copies of the pics to share on Facebook, websites, etc.  We're social networking kind of people, and we don't print a lot of photos so this was a deal-breaker.  Obviously, I respect intellectual property and copyright, and try to give credit to the photographer, but I want those pictures in digital form.

Making the Decision
Once I got the answers back and have narrowed the list based on availability and budget, we had to make the big decision.  For things like weddings, or family portrait shoots on weekends, you need to book early and decide fast because the good photographers are BUSY.  We got around this for our family portraits by booking them on a Friday afternoon and thus could get Kristi on relatively short notice.

That first wedding photographer whose work I fell in love with sent me a short list of other folks with similar styles, which was super helpful. In the end, I chose one of those and we were REALLY happy with our pictures.
Depending on the significance of the event, you may want to *meet* with the photographer in person before deciding who to hire.  After all, for a wedding, this person is going to be following you around for most of the day, and it's a pretty big responsibility you're entrusting them with.  There are no do-overs. 

We did this for our wedding photographer, and meeting with Bradley was what really sealed the deal for us.  He and TJ talked about motorcycles, he talked to us about his philosophy of work, and showed us some recent wedding photos he'd taken.  We liked him, and really got the sense that he was a professional.  We also felt he wasn't going to be intrusive, which was a big deal for us.  We didn't want to be constantly aware of the photographer, or worse, interrupted by him to "look here at the camera!" or "hey, can we recreate that moment?  I missed it."

On the other hand, we met with another guy who was starting out in the business, and he was sort of timid and shy, and didn't give us that confident "I can handle this" vibe.  He might have done just fine, but our wedding was not a time for experimentation.

Most photographers have you sign a contract and put down a deposit once you've made your choice, and that holds the date for you.  This is especially important for weddings - you don't want to get close to the day and then find out the photographer wasn't really holding the date for you.  It's really hard to find a great photographer on short notice.  For a summer wedding in Seattle, the good ones book over a year in advance.  Crazy, I know.

Your Homework
So you've decided on a photographer.  Some people think the work is done, and you just wait for the day and look good, and get some pictures taken. 

But I picked up a tip from one of those ubiquitous wedding-planning magazines:  make a list of the shots that you want for sure, both candid and posed.  Now, you've hired a professional so you're not trying to micromanage their creative process, but if you want a shot of you in your wedding dress holding your beagle, you need to let the photographer know.  And on the big day, you might not remember the list.

For our family photos, I emailed a short list to Kristi, and asked for her feedback because I wanted to be clear that I wasn't trying to micromanage.  I made the list fairly vague and just discussed the subjects, not the style:

• All five of us (people and dogs)
• Baby and each dog interacting or at least looking at each other :)
• One good chubby baby arms and legs and bare feet shot
• Baby and mama, and baby and daddy
• My husband and Peanut

It's also helpful to ask the photographer what you all should wear (unless it's for your wedding, duh!).  Typically solid colored shirts are good because they're not distracting, and Kristi recommended that we wear shirts in the same color family so they don't clash. 

We also asked her if she needed any 'props' and she suggested a neat idea where we'd all be wearing white, in our bed, with a white comforter and sheets, snuggling with the baby.  That worked out really well, even though it was the last set of shots so we didn't change T back into her white onesie:

For family shoots, ask your photographer for locations if you don't have your heart set on one.  Some people like outdoor shots.  We love our house and wanted to capture that as part of the photos, so we chose to do our family shoot at home.  It made it easier to change T into different outfits, and keep her happy, as well. 

We did my pregnancy shoot at a local park with our dogs, because the lighting was better outside that day (though it was 98 degrees, but that's another story!).

If you're getting pictures done at home, make sure the areas you're using are clean.  You don't want piles of dirty laundry or dog hair-covered blankets in the background of your shots.  Photoshop can only do so much :)

The Big Day

For our family shoot, Kristi advised me to choose a time when the baby was fed and well-rested.  (One out of two wasn't bad!)  This sounds obvious, but really think about it.  If your baby is asleep when the photographer shows up, do you really want to wake her?  How will she be if you do?

Have all the outfits and props, plus any additional payments ready to go.  Once the photo shoot is underway, you don't want to disrupt the "flow" by trying to deal with business details.  Of course, if a baby's diaper needs to be changed, or the dog needs to go out, you'll deal with it, but it's best to get everything else ready ahead of time.  Then again, I'm a planner like that.

And then just do your thing.  Try to ignore the fact that there's a photographer there and go about your business.  Eventually you'll stop noticing him/her, and that's when the magic happens!

You make me happy when skies are gray

I can't get enough of the pictures that Kristi Lloyd took of us all last month.  I've got them as my slide show screen saver at work, and every now and then I'll catch myself staring at them and missing my sweet baby, who is, of course, at home with her Daddy and having a Fun! Daddy Day!

We used to marvel at how Peanut and Spike were so happy to see us at the end of each work day. Even their happy tail-wags and licks pale in comparison to the way BabyT's face lights up when I come home from work, or when her Daddy comes home for lunch. It's pretty freakin' awesome.

For me, good pictures are important. If money were unlimited, I'd get a great photographer to come out here every month and photograph us. It's not just about snapshots that record moments (though of course, we have plenty of those), nor is it about posed photos of different family permutations.

I like the artistic shots that capture details I might not think of. I like that with a certain kind of great photographer, you can just be there and hang out, and that person will capture the whole essence of an event or group of people without us really noticing.

This is why I spent hours poring over websites for wedding photographers in 2005. Other than the dinner at Canlis, we spent the most money on our pictures, because we wanted amazing ones, which we got from the awesome Bradley Hanson.

I spent more hours poring over photography sites to find someone to do T's 6 month pictures. But when I found the right person, I got the pictures I had envisioned. And actually so much more, because a great photographer has that special artistic eye, and of course the mad skillz to turn that into reality.

I met an awesome photographer via Etsy but she lives in Maine. I'm still working on getting her to come out here but she needs 3 or 4 families in Seattle to make it worthwhile.

When I was little, we had lots of the obligatory JCPenney or Sears portrait sessions. Heck, I still get coupons from them, which tempts me to go. But it's not what I'm looking for. I disliked having to get dressed up and go to the studio and look happy while the photographer poked and prodded us to get in exactly the right position (turn your chin a little this way, put your hand on his arm, etc. etc.). To me those pictures look too staged, without any sense of love or life.

But our wedding pics and the recent family pics? Woo hoo! We were actually having a good time. We mostly forgot about the camera being there. T got to wear a few different outfits. And now we have a (digital) stack of images I enjoy looking at over and over again.

So we're definitely going to hire a professional again, to capture BabyT as her life unfolds.  Then when she's 16 and doesn't like us, we'll still have cute squishy baby pictures to pore over and remember :)

Back home again

So I signed up for the fancy new Blogger Beta because I was curious about the new features. I like that you can label the posts to put them in categories. But due to my random posting nature, I guess most of mine would fall under the label of "random crap". At some point I'll go back and categorize the old posts.

Since I haven't posted in a month, I guess I have some catching up to do. Lots of stuff going on around here. TJ and I just got back from Pittsburgh this morning. We went there for the weekend because Kristine was getting married. So I'll dedicate this post to Kristine and her wedding.

Kristine and I met in Mrs. Rockwell's Biology II class my senior year in high school. We hit it off immediately, especially when we found out our birthdays were the same day (a year apart). She definitely made high school a better place for me (senior year was a tough one for me, for a lot of insignificant reasons that seemed monumental to my hormonal teenaged mind). She and I were two of maybe 5 Asians in our ENTIRE school of 600 people. Looking back on it, I am so glad to have had a good friend at school who had a similar background.

We did all the usual teenaged girl stuff together: movies, mall, school football games, hanging out with friends, etc. We also went on each others' family vacations and shared the same goofy sense of humor. Since I was a year ahead of her in school, I went off to college first. She came to visit me there a few times, but I wasn't the best at keeping in touch (especially since email was very new at the time).

But we stayed in touch, sporadically, over the years. Kristine went to college in Boston, then moved to Philly to work, and later, attend dental school. That's where she met Mike, her fiance. During those years she visited me in Seattle and Arizona. I saw her a few times when I was in Delaware for work, though now I wish I had stayed in better touch with her since that was the closest we had lived to each other in years. We caught up on big events via email, but that's not the same as talking and hanging out often. (Sometimes growing up sucks.)

When TJ and I got married last year, we were planning to invite only family and 1 friend each (Maid of Honor Kristin & Best Man Dave, both of whom we met at Caltech). But something just didn't sit right with me. I couldn't imagine my wedding without Kristine being there even though we hadn't talked in a long time, and were sketchy with email. So I invited her and she came, bringing her boyfriend Mike, who I hadn't met before. Since we had a very small wedding, I got to spend some time talking to them, which was great. As it turns out, it was a good trip for her, too. Mike proposed to her the day after our wedding!

We saw each other again in Las Vegas the next month and spent nearly a whole day together wandering that strange (and fun) city. It was great to catch up with her. A few months ago when she asked me to be a sponsor at her wedding (a Filipino tradition), of course I said yes.

So TJ and I made the trip to Pittsburgh this weekend. It was the first time I had been there in 8 years and the area where I used to live is a *lot* different, with a mall, tons of restaurants, and more strip malls than you can imagine (think Lynnwood).

I finally got to meet Kristine's friends from college and dental school and her cousin Manher, whom she always talked about. I guess we haven't changed that much since high school, since I *loved* meeting her friends, and thought they were really nice, interesting, and a lot of fun. As one of her bridesmaids pointed out, "Kristine's friends are so cool!" We had a grand time at the rehearsal and dinner (Buca di Beppo, Station Square).

The wedding itself was lovely. Kristine truly looked like a princess (and I hope she felt like one too!). Attending Catholic Mass was like hearing an old song and still remembering all the words. While I am not a fan of religion in general, the rituals of the Catholic mass are somehow comforting to me - the "audience participation" parts, the order of the ceremony, and the fact that the prayers and words are always the same, no matter who is conducting it. The homily the priest gave was pretty funny - he was a young guy and talked about loving the Steelers and root canals (you just had to be there).

I had some anxiety about my role as a cord sponsor, but my "cord buddy", Amor, was Filipino and knew what was going on and what we had to do. We managed to drape the cord around Kristine and Mike and remove it without incident.

At the reception, TJ and I sat with Brian, Heather, Darren, and John, some friends from high school that I hadn't seen in about 10-12 years. It was neat to find out what people have been up to, and try to picture the same kids I knew in high school now with kids of their own. Weird.

By far, the best part of the reception was the music (though TJ thought it was the steak dinner). Not sure if it was the DJ's contribution, or someone in the bridal party, but there was *lots* of bhangra. And people loved it. There were several Indian-Americans in attendance, but *everyone*, including Mike and Kristines' families were bustin' a move to the bhangra and having a *great* time. There was also a lot of hip-hop, which I loooove for dancing.

That was the most fun I've had at a wedding (besides my own, of course!). We met a lot of great people and invited them all to visit us in Seattle. I got to reconnect with Kristine, and will definitely keep in better touch now that my work schedule will be reduced (more on that in my work blog).

We didn't get much sleep this weekend but it was definitely worth it. Congratulations Mike and Kristine!

She goes on curating your domestic museum

What I've been listening to: Vienna Teng, Dreaming Through The Noise. It's a *fantastic* album. I can even appreciate the songs I usually skip through (the more jazzy, experimental sounding ones), but there are only 2 of those, and the other ones are so good that it makes up for it.

I drove to Seattle today for the last day of my class, and it was amazingly traffic-free both ways. I think I actually got there quicker than I do on weekends! Handy tip: if you get to downtown early, park at Pacific Place - it's reasonable, compared to other parking garages and nearly empty before 9am. I paid $18 for about 6.5 hours. On weekends, or for 4 hours or less, it's much cheaper.

I said goodbye to Buddy the Espresso Dog and his coffee-making person Scott. They seem to have a sort of friendly strangers coffee club - anytime you go to his cart there are a few people sitting or standing around talking to each other about various interesting things. That's what I like about cities, or at least accessible ones like Seattle. I don't really feel threatened or afraid (like I did the few times I was in NYC) and it's got a well defined, fairly clean downtown (unlike LA). Again, another thing about Seattle that reminds me of Pittsburgh.

Which reminds me - I'm going to Pittsburgh in October for Kristine's wedding. YAY! I can't wait - I haven't been back there since Karthik and Maya's wedding 8 years ago. Thanks to Deloitte Consulting, I got us free first class tickets to Pittsburgh and a 3 night stay at a nice hotel. Consulting was the job that keeps on giving, I guess.

I did some shopping today but nothing terribly exciting. Replenished my stock of Aveda shampoo with the nice big liter sized bottles, and got a free tote bag. Since I buy so much stuff there, I joined their rewards club for $10 and got a little makeup bag of samples (I'm such a sucker). But they send me cards for free samples every month, and I got a free regular sized lotion for my birthday. I love that store.

Today I got a pair of nice jeans at J. Jill to tide me over the next few months, in a size I really prefer not to own. Quel horreur. But at least I'll have something decent to wear.

This week I finally went back to the gym for a free "bhangracize" class. It was really fun, more like a dance class than exercise and the hour went by pretty quick. I've learned my lesson signing up for series of classes (I never make it through the whole thing) but if they offer single sessions again, I'd definitely go. The class was *packed* and the music was fun. Exercise is so much better when it doesn't seem like a chore.

So where is everybody? I haven't gotten too many comments lately.

If the sun refused to shine

People actually commented on my blog. Woo hoo! I'm not sure how folks are coming across it. Or why people who don't know me find it interesting at all? But that's so cool.

We got some kitchen stuff today from our registry (thanks Debbie and David!). Always nice to come home to a large UPS package. Debbie and David bought us a salad spinner (i've always wanted one!), measuring spoons, a spatula and some other Oxo things. When I went to a software design class last month, the instructor pointed to the Oxo line of products as good design that made people "feel good" about the product even though they are ordinary kitchen tools. I guess it's the same concept behind all the lovely Apple designs - make ordinary electronics "cute" and "lovable" so people will want to own them. That is why I got sucked into buying a Saturn 6 years ago - ever since I saw the first commercials about people loving their cars, etc. I was totally hooked. (Too bad the car is falling apart on the inside. I guess what counts is that it's still running.)

Oh, and even more good news from this morning. I weighed myself at home (I try not to do this more than once a week since it fluctuates so much) and I *finally* reached my first major goal, which was to lose 10% of my total weight. Never mind that it took 6 months to do it... (Or 3 years, depending on how you look at it!) Of course I celebrated at lunch with Irish whiskey bread pudding at a new Irish pub in Redmond (awesome, but not as good as Andre's Eurasian Bistro banana bread pudding). And pizza this evening at Frankie's. If I could just curb my eating out this would be easy, I think. But all the new kitchen stuff should motivate me :)

I was a dieting model citizen this weekend by shopping for groceries and portioning the snacks and fruit into baggies so I could grab them for work. Though annoying, it really makes it easy for me to be lazy and still eat right. I think the new way of eating (more protein, no refined carbs - it was whole wheat bread pudding, right?) is kind of sinking in so it doesn't seem so *hard* anymore. I'm optimistic about it. And more patient. Even if it takes me until the end of the year to reach my goal (or longer), that's ok. The slower it is, the less painful it will be for me in the short term and also I'm more likely to keep it off. So yeah!

I've also been walking to work 2-3 days a week now. I love it. It's about a 20-25 min walk, and the weather has been perfect. It makes me so mellow on my way to work and is a nice way to wind down on the way back. I've been very anti-gym lately so it makes me feel like I'm getting *some* exercise. I have an 8am appointment with Nelson tomorrow so I need to be prepared to work hard. But I only meet with him twice more so I can deal with it.

Poor Peanut is so itchy that I think the warm weather allergy thing is starting again. We spent most of last summer with one or the other dog on medication and/or recovering from various allergic skin ailments. I think we need to take them to the vet and get them on some kind of long-term, low dose Benadryl sort of thing before the problems start. Though Spike's new food may be making him less prone to allergies - I guess we'll find out when it gets really warm out. Poor guys - I really want them to be comfortable and it's sad to see Peanut so itchy. We've tried everything, several different shampoos, soothing creme rinse, change in diet, flea protection, etc. but Peanut is still itchy and somewhat dandruffy. Which makes me feel like a bad dog parent. So if anyone has any ideas, let me know. I want my boys to be happy and skin goo-free this summer :)

At this point in my life

Short post tonight as it's already late and I should get to bed so I can start my week off on the right foot.

Lots of wedding stuff sorted out this weekend. Program finalized and printed (yay Kinkos), ceremony script finalized with Susan and sent off to photographer and videographer so they can plan their shots, wedding day schedule outlined with Susan, seating chart finished up and sent to Canlis, directions to Canlis left with Regent Bakery (sure hope the cake gets there!), dress tried on after alterations.

Ooh, yes. The dress. I went back to Cicada on Saturday to try it on. I did have one of those revelatory moments. It was *perfect*. They did an amazing job with the sari border my mom brought back from India, and the alterations made the whole dress fit perfectly. The hem is "ballet length" which means it's not dragging on the floor and you can see my cute red shoes. (Yay Zappos.com online shoe store). The dressmaker found some weirdness she didn't like about how the lining was attached to the dress and wanted to fix that, so I didn't take it home. TJ is nice enough to pick it up for me sometime next week or the week after. Reason #26 I'm happy to be marrying him. Since he helped me pick it out, I'm not too worried about him seeing it before the wedding. (Marriage is probably going to be hard enough without throwing in silly superstitions at the same time.)

Not too many major items left - meet w/ the florist next weekend since she was sick this weekend, final conversation with Kellie at Canlis, figure out the "must-have" posed pictures, pay the final bills, and then just sit back and wait for people to show up.

Talked to my parents briefly and it seems like plans are coming along for the reception in Savannah as well. They have a harder job, with almost an order of magnitude more guests to deal with... I'm looking forward to that party. I'll be wearing a pink silk sari that my grandmother bought me when I went to India last year. I've never worn it so this is the perfect occasion. It's only too bad she won't get to see me in it - occasions where I wear a sari are definitely few and far between.

We went to the park TWICE today. Both boys got a bath this evening. The weather was lovely all weekend and reminded me why I live in Seattle. Fingers crossed that it'll hold up the weekend of May 7!

The End Game

Only 2 more weeks until the wedding. Woo hoo! I think I can knock out most of the final details this weekend. TJ had a brilliant idea - rather than printing the programs ourselves, why not just send the file to Kinkos and have them make the copies. I have already designed the program, I was just putting off the tedium of printing 40 double sided copies and folding them. At this point I'm willing to pay someone else to do it.

Reason #n I am glad to be marrying him.

Next weekend is the last one before the wedding. TJ will be gone most of the day both days at a motorcycle track day. People seem amazed that I "let him" go. He was nice enough to ask me, but there's no way I'd tell him not to have fun and relax before all the wedding hoo-hah starts. I'd want the same from him. I think we have pretty similar ideas on that stuff - there are things we like to do independently of each other, and we're not too particular about it being a long time apart, etc. It seems to be working well for us.

We went to Claim Jumper for dinner. I was craving their spinach salad (no crunchy noodles, no bacon, dressing on the side) and their giant chocolate cake (bring it on!). For the first time in months I didn't feel guilty about eating something "forbidden". I guess it helped that when I weighed myself this morning it's one of the lowest numbers I've seen in the last 5 years (woo hoo!). I started counting Weight Watchers points just to see how I'm doing, and it's difficult, but doable. I've got a couple more appointments with Sarah, then I'm on my own. I think my last appointments with Nelson will be next week. (Whatever will I do with all that extra cash and no one yelling at me to work harder!) I'm kind of looking forward to having a lot fewer "appointments" each week. Those guys were really helpful but I want to settle into my own kind of routine, with the new job, once the wedding is over.

I walked to work the last couple of days. The weather here has been lovely. Makes me really glad to live here. Plus the walk is almost all uphill on the way to work, which is a pretty decent workout and gives me time to figure out what my plan is for the day. I'm trying to walk 2-3x a week, since it's good for me and only takes about 25 minutes. It's also good for my car and good for my wallet since I almost never have to buy gas when I walk that much.

Well, this should be a mellow weekend. I pick up my wedding dress tomorrow. I guess that means I shouldn't lose 10 more pounds in the next couple of weeks. There's probably no danger in that since it's taken me the better part of a year to lose 16... But it makes me feel confident about keeping it off as I'm not working too hard to maintain it. Getting it to go lower is another story, though.

Next weekend there is a beagle play date at a dog park I haven't been to, near Lake Washington, south of Seattle. I will probably take Spike so he can socialize with other beagles and I can get my share of beagle lovin' since Spike isn't all that cuddly. Plus it's something I know TJ will be glad to miss. Hopefully Peanut won't be too sad to be left at home.

I've been up since 4:30am with only an hour's nap so I'm ready to get some zzzz's. Peace out.

Where are we going, so far away?

I started a blog for work-related stuff (see link at right). I can't figure out what to write there. I've been in my job for about 3 weeks now, so I don't really know enough to tell the world about anything. Oddly, that blog has made it to Google, while this one still doesn't come up when I search for it.

I'm really hungry. But I've eaten my calorie allotment for the day, and thanks to being sick, haven't really exercised much in the past few days either. So chowing down on mango tofu snax or whatever else is in the fridge is probably not a good option for me at 11pm. But I'm also not tired enough to go to sleep either.

A family friend sent us an Amazon.com gift certificate for the wedding so I just bought us a George Foreman grill (woo hoo) and The Princess Bride on DVD. I'm betting that the grill will help me keep my protein intake up after I'm no longer under the watchful eye of Sarah the dietician. And I had The Princess Bride on video, but since we haven't yet unpacked the VCR since moving to Seattle in November 2002, I think it's just time to move to the 21st century and get it on DVD.

I watched "Supersize Me" yesterday. Yikes. Having talked to a lot of people who saw it, I kind of knew what to expect, but it makes a pretty powerful (if biased) statement. That's about all I needed to stop eating fast food forever. Except Kidd Valley, a local Seattle burger chain, which I think isn't as processed as McD's, etc. And In N Out, which to my great pleasure, was deemed free of fast food evilnesss in the book Fast Food Nation. I love that place. Though their "made from real potatoes" fries suck. After watching the "extra" segment on the "Supersize Me" DVD where the McD's french fries did not decompose after 10 weeks of being in an unrefrigerated glass jar, I'm pretty sure I can do without those. But good french fries are still one of my favorite foods ever. (Thanks Amma, for passing on the salty-deep-fried tooth, instead of a sweet tooth!)

I'm trying to convince myself to get up and go to 8am low-impact aerobics. They do weights on Friday and it's a pretty good workout. I feel out of place because there are not too many people under 50 years old in that class. And they all know each other and have inside jokes and stuff. Kind of weird for a group fitness class, but at least they're having fun. I've never really understood the idea of socializing at the gym. I'm smelly and wearing fairly ratty clothes, little makeup, and my hair's all over the place. Doesn't make me feel like introducing myself and making new friends, that's for sure! Plus I really don't want to spend any more time there than I have to, so let me just get my 1 hour workout in and leave. But maybe I'm just antisocial...

Speaking of antisocial, I think I'm done blogging for today. A shout out to Kristin who is spending the weekend in sunny Florida. Drink a mai tai for me!

Been a long time

Busy weekend! On Saturday I had my hair and makeup "trial" along with a mandatory workout to pre-empt the major off-plan eating I was going to do at Canlis that evening. I spent about 3.5 hours at the salon, getting my nails done and then having my hair and makeup done by Lindsay, who totally rocks. She curled little sections with a curling iron, then loosened it up and pinned some of it up on top of my head. She even managed to work in the sun pin I found at Macy's. She did a really nice job, and the hairstyle held up pretty well all night. Having someone else do my makeup was interesting, especially the eyeliner and mascara parts. (Yikes). But that looked good too, very glamorous. It was a lot more than I usually wear, so I might ask her to do a little less next time, but then again, it has to survive about 10 hours that day, and also get me through a lot of photographs...

Dinner at Canlis was YUM. Menu choices for the wedding: Misty Isle Petit Filet Mignon, Washington Chicken, Potato Napoleon, and some kind of vegetarian Israeli couscous dish suggested by the chef. Our server that evening was awesome, and brought us a sample of the Napoleon, the chef brought over samples of the hors doeuvres, and the server even brought us creme brulee for dessert, and a fruit plate when I told her I wasn't allowed to have dessert. All free of charge. So nice :) TJ and I decided we needed to come to Canlis more often, so we made reservations there for my birthday in June. Woo hoo!

On Sunday Jasmine and I went "power shopping" at Bellevue Square. There are only a few people in my life who I'm able to do this kind of intense shopping with - Kristin, Jasmine, and my mom. We spent about 5 hours, and only got through Nordstrom, Aveda, Arden B, and Banana Republic. Pretty impressive. Jasmine found some clothes to wear to the ballet (see previous post) and I got a couple of tops to match some skirts I already had. Plus a cool white poofy peasant skirt. I've been coveting this item for a couple of years now, ever since it came back into style and I finally broke down and bought one at Nordstrom.

After that much shopping, I was exhausted. We took the dogs to the park and I did some grocery shopping and attempted to plan what I was going to eat during the week.

Yesterday we went back to Canlis and met with Kellie, the dining coordinator, and Sean, our video/music guy. Most of the details have been sorted out. Kellie brought up some things we hadn't thought of, like when were we planning to do the toasts, and who was going to come and get us in the small private room we've booked to tell us to start the ceremony. She said someone from Canlis would be there to help us out with that stuff. Yay again for Canlis.

I then spent the rest of the day sleeping off a horrible sinus headache which is still lingering. Yuck...

Bottle of Red, Bottle of White

Ate dinner at Tropea. Yum! Discussed catering with owner. Made arrangements and paid him money. Sunday lunch ready to go. Woo hoo!

Meet you anytime you want, at our Italian restaurant

More wedding stress today. I called Frankie's House of Pizza and Pasta to get the catering set up for the Sunday lunch after the wedding, now that I finally know how many people are coming. Apparently Frankie's doesn't deliver lunch on Sundays since they don't open till 4pm. I didn't even think to ask - I guess we've gone there for lunch on Saturdays but never on Sunday so it didn't even occur to me that they might not be open. Bleh.

So tonight TJ and I are going to try out Tropea Italian Restaurant, also in Redmond. Since I had a truly nasty piece of fish for lunch I am really looking forward to a nice dinner. I have been trying to like fish ever since I started this higher protein diet - it's a great lean source of protein. But unless it's sushi, I don't want to eat it. I read somewhere you should try a food you don't like three times before deciding. I'm way over that, and I think I'm done with cooked fish. Shellfish is a different story - I could eat shrimp, crab or scallops all day.

Spike is poking around alternately at the garbage can (which has my leftover fish in it), Peanut's empty food bowl, and his empty food bowl. I just fed that beagle 20 minutes ago and he acts like he's starving. He carefully licks his entire empty bowl just to make sure there are no food crumbs. And then repeats the process for Peanut's bowl. (And before you start feeling sorry for him, we took him to the vet and he's about 5 lbs overweight, which is a lot when you only weigh 29 lbs!) We were told to feed him canned green beans in place of 1/4 of his food. He seems to really like them, which is good. Sadly, he's gained that weight since he's been living with us - his previous owners took him running, plus he was probably more active as a puppy than he is as a middle-aged BeagleMan.

Pogi left us today - that makes me sad. I think it makes Peanut sad too, or maybe he's just relieved he can get in some good napping now that the Woolly Mammoth has left us. Cara, Pogi's aunt, came to pick him up this afternoon. He was really happy to see her. If you started to pet Pogi and you were sitting on the floor, he would come and sit in your lap. (And he weighs 90 lbs so you weren't getting up!) We really enjoyed Pogi's visit. Peanut and he got in a couple rounds of "bite your ear" today, and were getting along famously. So maybe next time John and Jenna go on vacation, they will leave the Pog-ster with us. Goodbye, Pogi!

Sad Toasteroven Blues

Yikes, so I've already broken my promise to write here every day! But Blogger was acting weird on Friday so that's my excuse.

Yesterday I went down to Cicada and had the first fitting for my dress. It needs to be taken in at the waist (YAY!) and at the shoulders (YAY). There was a mixup and they had just gone ahead and made the whole dress, rather than waiting for the sari border my mom was going to bring back from India. They thought I was supposed to call them about it, while I maintain that they told me just to bring it to the fitting. Anyway, I didn't have to pitch a hissy fit - they offered to re-do the sash if I wanted, but it turns out the border actually looks good on the material they used. So it'll be just fine. While I love the dress, I didn't have any weird revelatory moments when I tried it on. Don't get me wrong, it looks good, but I guess I was hoping for some kind of magical effect. The fact I wasn't wearing any makeup at all and had to throw my hair in a ponytail probably didn't help either. At least I had time to take a shower after going to the gym. I suppose the hair and makeup on the wedding day will do it.

TJ and I finally dug out from under the pile of accumulating wedding presents in the entryway of our house. Boxes arrived every day last week, thanks to our generous relatives and friends - fun fun fun! TJ managed to break our new toasteroven on the first try yesterday. So I took it back to Macy's today and got its replacement, Toasteroven II. Many people at Redmond Town Center were impressed I could carry it all by myself (?!) - it only weighs about 10 lbs... It's much bigger and nicer than my trusty old Black n Decker that I bought 5 years ago in Tucson.

Peanut and Pogi are *finally* playing nice together. They got into a rousing game of "jump on your head" yesterday on the hardwood floor in the living room. They seem to be much better friends now, and Peanut isn't as upset about another big boy dog in the house. It's too bad Pogi is leaving us on Tuesday. Spike and Pogi have had a few faceoffs, usually with respect to the mailman toy. Spike will grab it, Pogi will chase after him, then Spike starts growling ferociously and barking like he's big. This disturbs Pogi greatly so he starts whining and yelping too. Oddly, though Pogi weighs at least 3x more than Spike, he won't take the toy from him. Peanut won't either. It's like Spike has some sort of secret ferocious power over the big dogs. Go BeagleMan!

We took all three boys to the park this morning. PARK PARK PARK! (I can say it here because the dogs can't hear me...) The ride there was interesting - Peanut and Pogi fussed at each other in the backseat and stuck their cold wet noses on us while Spike hung out with me in front and tried to shift gears for TJ. Needless to say, TJ wasn't very happy about this. We found 2 other Airedales at the park who wanted to play with Pogi. Peanut also tried to drown another dog in the river by climbing on him. TJ (lucky guy) had to go into the water in his jeans to get him out. That pretty much ended our day at the park. Everyone (including the people) came home and took a nap.

I got an outfit (well, half of an outfit) for the rehearsal dinner on May 6. Ann Taylor has a lot of lovely spring green items - my favorite shade of green, but unfortunately, nothing fit (and I tried on about 20 things). That made me sad, so I went over to Eileen Fisher, one of those stores that has more open space than clothes hanging inside. I knew it would be expensive, but after finding nothing in either Macy's or Ann Taylor, I was feeling belligerent. I ended up buying a very sheer white linen sweater with a lilac camisole. The skirt I want is being transferred next week from the downtown store (size Medium - woo hoo!) and is lilac silk, very floaty and long. A lot of the clothes in the store seem suited for older women (or maybe just people who hate bright colors and anything fitted) but after a lot of trying on, I found this outfit. And heck, I gotta buy something at a store where I can fit into a Small. Now I just need to make sure not to spill any of Shamiana's yummy Indian food on my outfit that day.

Since it's not raining, I'm going outside to tame the ivy-like jasmine plant thingy outside our front door. It creeps TJ out, and it's trying to take over the roof of our garage. You can hack it with the clippers and it just grows back. That's my kind of gardening.

32 Days!

In 32 days, TJ and I are getting married. I can't believe it's so close. We got engaged on March 9, 2004 and it seemed *so* far away. I'm hoping to get the details wrapped up by April 20 or so - I'm so sick of wedding planning now!

This Saturday I have an appointment for my first dress fitting at Cicada Bridal in downtown Seattle. I've lost about 10 lbs since they measured me so I'm curious to see how the dress fits. It's being custom made, but it's based on their Karina dress.

We're still waiting for a few RSVP cards to come back but have heard from almost everyone. Looks like there will be about 35 guests, which is perfect - we wanted an intimate wedding where we'd have the chance to talk to everyone there. Both the ceremony and reception will be held in the Penthouse at Canlis, a 50-year old Seattle restaurant.

We're going to Canlis on April 16th to have dinner and try out different items from the Spring menu, so we can select the choices for the wedding. That same day is my hair and makeup "trial" - who knew you had to have a trial run? So it'll be a nice romantic evening for us before the crazy wedding stuff starts a few weeks later.

We're still working through the details of the ceremony with our officiant, Susan Waterworth. She's great to work with, and will also be our wedding coordinator on that day, just to handle all the little things so we don't have to worry about them.

Well, back to work - I've got meetings all afternoon so I should attempt to get some work done in the meantime...