Monday, January 30, 2006

So we have a bit of a wedding gift dilemma. Because everyone was incredibly generous, the gift management got a little out of control. I did well keeping up with the thank you notes for the gifts we received before Christmas, but since then it became a hodge-podge of invoices/notes for things shipped to us that I keep in my daily tote bag and the neat list that my mother wrote when we opened the gifts received at the wedding itself after we got back from the honeymoon. I thought all gifts were accounted for, but they are not. Fortunately, I think we’ll be able to sort it out but here’s the confusion:

1. One lovely gift at the wedding that either had no card or got separated from its card.

2. Two cards with no gifts attached at the wedding.

3. An email notification of a gift purchased from a registry. We never really knew if that gift arrived because…

4. Several gifts were shipped to us that had no gift enclosure cards or any other indication from whom they came.

From that list we’ve only got 2 or 3 unreconciled things - the lovely gift with no card at the wedding and the two cards with no gifts at the wedding. However, I just nailed down a gift with one of those cards, which was part of item #3 - a phone call to that registry to inquire about that notification verified that we did indeed receive that gift. But it opened another question about the quantity received of that particular item because I know we received some of that item from more than allows for what we have. Are you confused yet? Anyhow, the mystery of item #1 is now clarified some because I’m pretty sure the other lone card from the wedding actually goes with item #1.

And we have so many thank you notes to write. If there is one piece of advice I can give to engaged couples and brides especially it is to keep up with your thank you notes as you receive gifts - don’t let more than a couple of weeks pass before you get them out because it won’t take long before you get behind and it seems overwhelming. You do not want to have to do all of your thank you notes after you’re married - you’ll be dealing with adjusting to your new home routine, which is fun but a huge time waster. But that’s another post for another day.

Funny related note: We attended a wedding in August and just received the thank you note from that couple last week. So I’m feeling pretty good that we may be able to get our notes out a little quicker than that.

Anyone else started to get inordinate amounts of spam recently in your Gmail accounts? For almost a year I got maybe a dozen spam total. Then in the past couple of months I’ve started getting about a dozen a week and now it’s getting to the dozen a day point. Weird.

Two very different things to share:

1. Dr. Sanity was the NASA crew surgeon for Mission 51-L 20 years ago. I neglected to mention the sad anniversary on Saturday, but her first hand memory of that tragic day is better late than never. [via Dean]

2. LOTR: The Musical - previews begin. [via Lawren]

We had a good weekend despite my cold. The coughing was the tough thing that kept me up each night, but it’s much better today. I’m thankful and tired. The amazing thing is that Beau says the coughing didn’t bother him at all. Weird.

We had planned a trip to H’burg for church yesterday, but decided against it because of my cold. So we met up with Dad at the early service at our church (Mom was up north babysitting CootieGirl and CootieBoy while their parents were exploring and closing on their new land in South Carolina). After church, Dad came over to our house for a lunch of leftovers from the turkey dinner on Saturday night, which was fabulous.

After Dad left, we cleaned up and I started a pot of turkey stock with the carcass and leftover veggies (onions, carrots, celery) that I had roasted in the pan with the bird. From the stock, I made a pot of turkey soup and then split the rest of the stock into three quart-sized ziplock bags for freezing.

While the stock was simmering we watched the last disc of the Firefly DVDs. I am officially a Whedonerd. I ended up watching Serenity later, too. It was as much fun as when we saw it in the theater, but I caught more of the insider things this time from having watched the Firefly DVDs.

So now it’s another work week. Joy.

Saturday, January 28, 2006

I just noticed that my 9/11 ticker says that we were attacked 1600 days ago.

Doesn’t seem like that many days. Then again it seems like eons ago.

We must never forget.

UPDATED to add the pictures and another vendor that I forgot to include. Check the links in the post.

I thought I’d give a plug to a few of the vendors we used for the wedding/reception. All were excellent:

1. Groom’s Cake - Allie’s Cakes - I plan to post a picture soon. This cake turned out much better than my wedding cake, to be honest. Although my wedding cake was delicious. I was very pleased with how this one looked and tasted. Allie took my design desire as well as my request for a black forest cake and made it happen.

2. Celtic Band - Celtic Wedding Music - these folks were fantastic and I’ve gotten a lot of good feedback from guests that they enjoyed the band a lot. Since I missed most of my own reception, I only got a small bit of their talents while we did the receiving line. We had the bodhran, guitar, flute (and I think she played the tin whistle, too, which was a bonus), hammered dulcimer, and fiddle.

3. Limo - Prime Transportation - I will post Here is a picture of the car we had, too. It was not the normal limo, but rather what they call the London Executive Sedan. Very fun.

4. Photography - A Click in Time (no website) - ECD’s friend (and her fabulous father) outdid herself with the photography. From the engagement photo shoot to the candids they got at the rehearsal dinner to the final shots of the happy guests as Beau and I departed (more pics to come - there’s a great one of our mothers celebrating), each picture tells the story of our wedding day. Because of my friendship with ECD, she got us some extras that the average bridal couple do not get and I am exceedingly grateful. If you’re in the Charleston, SC, area, you should look them up for your wedding photography.

5. Chocolate Fountains - The Chocolate Chick - Mom found this vendor early in our engagement and since Beau and I are such chocolate addicts this was a must have for the reception. Judging from the table when we eventually got to it, which was picked clean, it was a hit. We had dark chocolate (his favorite) and white chocolate (my favorite).

I’m feeling much better today, so Beau and I are going to work on cleaning up the house today. I want to get more boxes unpacked, too. Plus I have a huge pile of clothes that need to be put away.

Then I need to make some jewelry for Joan so that I can get it to her for Valentine’s Day shoppers.

We plan to roast a turkey with all the trimmings for dinner - practice for Thanksgiving at our house this year? Maybe. Depends on whether or not we head west to visit his family for that holiday.

Light blogging this weekend, as is now the norm.

Have a great day!

UPDATE: I’ve faded and I’m done with heavy work for the rest of the day. I did manage to unpack a few more boxes and we rearranged the living room now that a wall was freed up. Beau cleaned the kitchen floor and the bathrooms while I vacuumed. Now I’m headed for a shower and a nap.

It’s a good day.

Friday, January 27, 2006

Via the comments, Denis linked to this article from CNET.com:

Annoying someone via the Internet is now a federal crime.

It’s no joke. Last Thursday, President Bush signed into law a prohibition on posting annoying Web messages or sending annoying e-mail messages without disclosing your true identity.

In other words, it’s OK to flame someone on a mailing list or in a blog as long as you do it under your real name.

Interesting and I’ll be interested to see how this plays out in the b-g-sphere since “annoy” is pretty loosely defined by most people.

The Trinity.

I haven’t shared the linky-luv in quite a while, so I thought I would plug a few of the blogs that have posted interesting things of late.

1. The Llama Butchers - Robert and Steve are always good. They have such differing writing styles, with Rob’s intellectual wit and Steve’s channeling of Dennis Miller’s style of pop culture laden rants.

2. The Thinklings - theology, pop culture, monkey pics, and Gatorade. What more does anyone need?

3. The Fire Ant Gazette - content free, as admitted to by Eric, but strangely addicting nonetheless.

4. Dilbert Blog - speaks for itself, no?

5. Out of the Bloo - Thinkling Bill’s solo blog is a great devotional read that blesses me daily.

I managed to make progress on the DVR viewing yesterday while I lounged in the recliner. I caught up on Invasion, E-Ring, and NCIS. I still need to watch episodes of Close to Home, Without a Trace, and Numb3rs. Then there’s every episode of the new season of Dancing with the Stars, too. My thoughts follow (***spoilers***):

Invasion was starting to lose me until this week’s episode. To go back to Tom’s plane crash survival was good, made him more sympathetic. And the “hope” thing makes him seem less manevolent, but the hybrid secret army camp makes us remember that he’s not necessarily a good guy. Larkin annoys me. I love the kids, especially Jesse.

E-Ring has been bold with the killing off of JT’s love interest, the needless resignation of Algazi, and now the promotion of Sonny to ASDef-SOLIC. If JT gets that promotion and back into the field full time, then I wonder how the show will change focus away from the politics of the Pentagon to more about his antics around the world’s hot spots. It’s a cheesy show, but it’s pro-military, which I appreciate.

NCIS is another cheesy show, but Mark Harmon makes it worth watching. And not just because he’s easy on the eyes, but because his curmudgeonly character is interesting. The thing that drives me batty about this show is that it’s set in northern Virginia and they mention local places and roads all the time, but they fictionalize it all. This week’s episode took place all around where I live in Fairfax, but there was little reality in the locations they mentioned except for road names.

Still feeling terrible, but I’m at work today. I have to pay out the last vouchers today since I have monthly close-out next week. Stinks.

Oh, and there’s that no more leave available thing since I took it all for the wedding and honeymoon.

Day-Quil is my very best friend today. At least I hope so...I’m still waiting for it to kick in.

Thursday, January 26, 2006

I’ve been tagged to complete the meme by Bill. So here ya go:

4 Movies You Could Watch Over and Over
1. The Lord of the Rings
2. It’s a Wonderful Life
3. You’ve Got Mail
4. Deep Blue Sea - yes, I realize it’s a really bad movie about genetically altered sharks. I can’t help myself.

4 Places You Have Lived
1. Virginia
2. Washington (state)
3. England
4. New Hampshire

4 TV Shows You Love To Watch
1. 24
2. Lost
3. CSI
4. The Amazing Race

4 Places You Have Been On Vacation
1. Disney World
2. Sedona, Arizona
3. Scotland
4. Home, wherever that has been

4 Websites You Visit Daily
1. The Thinklings
2. Cootiehog
3. The Llama Butchers
4. FoxNews.com

And a bunch of other ones.

4 Of Your Favorite Foods
1. Chinese - General Tso’s Chicken
2. Mexican - pretty much anything, but I love the fajitas at the Rio Grande here locally.
3. Italian - gnocchi that melts in your mouth
4. Indian - Tandoori chicken

4 Places You Would Rather Be Right Now
1. Normally I would say at home. I am at home right now, so that’s great!
2. Wherever my new husband is
3. Back on my honeymoon
4. Home

4 Bloggers You are Tagging
I won’t tag anyone. If you want to do this, trackback or let me know in the comments.

I could get onboard with this idea.

[Via Dean]

Ran a low fever last night and I think it has returned now that the cold meds I took last night in order to sleep have worn off.

Going back to bed now.

Toodles…