Ah, Spring!

Ah, spring...

while it may be a time of odd weather, it's been a time of not feeling too terribly good, dieting, chipping a tooth, staying busy at work, valentines day trips to wilmington, gorging on food at the front street brewery, road trips, and getting back our official wedding pics (make no mistake, the delay was on us, not Julie).

If you'd like to take a look, I'll post a link to our photographers blog:

Our pictures!

Her name is Julie and we worked together for a bit at the Coffee Xchange back in the day. I dig her photo-style and that's why we hired her.


As for the Valentines trip, Kristen and I took a long road trip from home to the aquarium at Kure Beach, had dinner at the Front Street Brewery in Wilmington, and milled around on the waterfront before returning home. All in all, one of the best 12-hour-long days I've had.

super-duper-mega-update.

Over the past month and a half, it's been a whirlwind of activities for my household:

We adopted a new kitten. His name is Charlie and he was a FCAP kid. Well, we call him Charlie.. but they called him Hughie. Yup, he had brothers Dewey and Louie. He was one of those "I'm going to stay under the bed for 9 days or so" cats, but has lately grown to be a bit more interactive. I say that because he's most likely climbing the curtains and taunting Bella the pug right now.

My motherboard burned out on my computer at home a while back. I build computers. I used to obsessively play games on said computers. I've spent a solid week and a half trying to get all of my components ported over onto a new motherboard (evga 750i SLI for you geeks out there) and then tucked into a newer and much smaller case (coolermaster 330, again for the geeks). It's been a constant tinkering. I don't really have a "shop" that I can work in. I'd love to build things for around the house and fulfill my stereotypical husbandly duties... everyone needs a crooked spice rack afterall. Instead, i'm putting together a computer so we can watch Netflix on our TV now instead of paying the time warner overlords.

A good pal stayed with us for a few days during the holidays as well. Joey came down from Elizabethtown, PA to hang out with us for a few days. We demolished other folks with a bit of online Mario Kart Wii racing, ate way too much, enjoyed the wonderful world of Harry Potter in HD, and basically wasted a few hours of time together every afternoon.

I was able to swing by and see Tom Gray and pick up a few Christmas gifts while there. Thanks again friend, you've added smiles to our Christmas. The salt pig is a permanent fixture now, and we've already made use of everything we picked up.

I'm going back to school as well. As much as I've thought about it, if there is no addition to my education field on my resume within the next few years, I'll be disappointed. Experience only speaks so loudly against those holding $40,000 piece of paper with "they're more qualified than you" on it, right?

We got a new coffee grinder for christmas. My old grinder died and I was stuck back into the world of preground coffee. I need to get back into roasting my own again. Small batch coffee roasting and grinding makes the world go round. Plus, I figure I'll need more coffee if I'm up working on a degree.

So let's see here, what else?

Oh, if you know someone that needs a PA System, let me know okay? Post a comment with your email address or some way to get in touch with you.

I should have my glasses in one day this week... and because my forehead is continually growing, I think I may dive again into the "no hair" phase. I've shaved my head a few times since 2004 and really like the fact that I don't have to shampoo in the shower. Plus, there's never any worry about how my hair looks.

I just wish I could come to the head-shaving decisions when it isn't 34 and windy outside.

I guess that's what toboggans are for after all.





Hurray for a new year, right?

Wedding Pics

So I put together this slideshow of some of our wedding pictures. Since things have, for the most part, calmed down a bit... I may be posting some older pictures that I haven't had the opportunity to until recently.

These pictures come from two of our friends who just happened to bring along cameras and snap away. I downloaded, sorted, and uploaded them through picasa. I love the simplicity of google.




Enjoy!

let's see here...

So I now have four nicely healing holes in my head. The wisdom teeth extraction was actually a breeze for me. I followed the recommendation of many folks and saw Dr. William Rabe here in Asheboro. There is an inherent and collective hatred for dentists between my sister and I, partially because our childhood dentist was a nutjob. That being said, I dig Dr. Rabe and his approach. The last part of the last stitch came out yesterday afternoon and I think the healing process is well underway.

Also, it should be noted that while I'm fawning over the care that I recieved, I certainly hope that my mouth doesn't need more services from the good surgeon... my wallet may not recover as well as my jaw has.

I'm happy though, I'm actually had a steak last night (Pittsboro General Store Cafe - local produce, great food, but the service can sometimes really suck) and I'm feeling good about food again.

Kristen and I adopted a new member into the family.. and as soon as he has adjusted, I'll get you some pictures of Charlie. He is an FCAP (feral cat societ) adopted cat and is taking home under our bed for the time being. Beautiful cat, he just needs to get himself acclimated.

...but at times, don't we all?

I hate it when I sit down to put together a blog and time gets away from me...

...I'm sure it's happened to the best of us though, right? October just passed me by without as much as a single update... but having accrued over 250 hours in overtime alone, I think I was a bit beyond busy.

Things have been going along swimmingly. After the election was over, I decided to take care of a few things I had been putting off:

1. Home repairs and improvements.
2. Matt repairs and improvemenets.

I still have a way to go on both horizons, but friday is a big day in the Matt repair field. I'll have my wisdom teeth hacked out Friday morning. No leftovers for me, eh? At least not in solid form anyway. I hate dentists, but after meeting up with my oral surgeon, I'm a bit more at ease.

Getting back into a healthier lifestyle is going to come next, and I figure if my ability to eat is hampered, maybe that will lend itself to me starting back over on a new foot? I can hope as much anyway.

Everything on the homefront is great though. We're preparing for the holidays, and trying to survive the "we must do everything with both families" syndrome that most young married folks go through. We're making it though... this will be the second year of trying to make everyone happy and still keep some time for ourselves to enjoy the holiday season.

I still haven't had a chance to get out to see Tom Gray... and I still have that bottle of Lizano for you. I've yet to find anything (within reason) that doesn't go well with Lizano either. I haven't had the opportunity to get any pictures off of my cameras and get them edited or uploaded. Last night was the first baking that we had really done in the house since... well.. it's been a while. I wish I could share it all with you... but we only made 2 dozen.

homemade (from scratch) cupcakes with a coconut custard filling, homemade butter cream icing to top it, a fresh ganache to top that off, and then slivered almonds.

I guess I eat these solid foods while I still can, right?

I'll update more frequently now that things have somewhat calmed. Here's to hoping that everything is going well for all of you.

so we didn't fall off of the planet during the honeymoon.

so I have SO much to tell you guys...

but it'll have to be later tonight.

as for the shorter update:

• the weather was beautiful for the wedding
• the honeymoon was great
• naps are wonderful things
• coming back to work after a week off sucks like life out of you
• people are annoying

that's about it. There's more detail to be added tonight/this weekend.

Tom, I have some Lizano for you. I haven't found it in asheboro yet, but I picked up a bottle of it in wilmington at the hot-sauce shop in the cotton exchange.

all the planning in the world...

So the wedding is this weekend. We're on deck on Friday and batting on Saturday. We've planned, for all intents and purposes, everything down to the "t." The food is prepared... photographer... attire... lodging.





The only thing we didn't plan on was Hanna. We didn't invite her either. It just looks like she's headed this way...

It's alright though... the venue we chose has an alternate indoor location. Believe me, we appreciate all of the updates (either by text message, email, myspace/facebook, phone calls), but trust and believe that we know she's coming this way.

The pessimism is the biggest issue for me though. See, at this point, there's absolutely 100% nothing that we can do about the weather. In fact, we knew it was going to be hurricane season when we picked the date. Our venue can easily host everyone inside if it comes to that. There's room for folks to change into dresses and tuxedos, mingle about, have some wine if they want... there's room for the food and dancing.

And when it all comes down to it, what's the most important part of the day itself? Is it the dress? the catered meal? the cake or pictures?

... no. It's the fact that I'll be married to the woman that I love. Come rain or shine, that's all that matters in the end.