Friday, June 30, 2006

100 days!

100 days until the wedding!

Wow.

Well a bunch of things are moving:
- bought our bands
- received first shower gift (taking to shower to open, although it'll be fun trying to keep Murphy from getting into the not so greatly sealed box!)
- shower RSVPs coming in, travel arrangements being made
- bit of nailbiting over budgets - we'll be revisiting this weekend
- intensifying the workout(OK, I fell off, but I'm getting back to it)

With the shower and J's parents coming the next weekend, we are trying to step up the perpetual house cleaning efforts. Hopefully we'll get real progress made this weekend.

Another big and upcoming project - stationary. Shower thank yous and invites need to be designed and go out nearly in sync.
Then the programs and timing can follow a bit later.
In between will be favors, discussing Sonny's contribution (can't talk to him until after July 15), and tidbits for guests.

AND - Congrats to Sonny on the Arts Council grant!!!
:)

Expect more soon - will definitely share shower details!
100_0792

Wednesday, June 14, 2006

Slacker, skulker, funny guy

So blogging about the wedding hasn't been going too well. I keep saying "maybe by next week" I can get up to date. We'll see. Have to work until roughly 9:30pm next Tues, so maybe I'll get a bit of down time next day to recoup....

Last night, we took Murphy and Molasses outside for the first time (one at a time). As with Molson, they will be harness cats, allowed outdoors for supervised jaunts in the backyard only -or maybe the deck at Grandma's.
Murphy was first and as much as he likes open windows he was pretty nervous and confused. He skulked - belly low to the ground - sniffing carefully in a small little bit at the back corner of the house. J called him from further into the yard and Murphy, instead of turning to see, did this backwards skulk so that he could face J without putting his back to something he hadn't sniffed yet.
Molasses was a bit less nervous, though he still didn't venture far.
Of course, Molson had a few years on the balcony at our first place and time on the back "deck" of our second place before I ever took him to the yard.
We'll try again tonight and I'll give J a camera, jic.

I don't watch Last Comic Standing regularly, but last week we caught Josh Blue and he was awesome. While many comics, with jibes at serious and painful issues like rape and abuse, made us wince - Josh had us falling off of the futon, almost in tears. Highly suggest you check him out and watch for him as Last Comic Standing moves into the house.

And, I've started in on my summer indulgence - Hell's Kitchen. After the finale last season, I find it fascinating, even when he's pretty much a jerk. Last season, the nice tattoo'ed guy made it to the final 2 and had to run a kitchen. He started by being very polite, asking nicely, not shouting - and in return people were slower, less motivated, and screwed up a bit. He saw at least a partial justification to Ramsey's coarseness - started yelling and pushing and ended doing an awesome job and winning....
Not quite sure what I think yet of this year's crew.

Thursday, June 01, 2006

Holiday weekend reading

Book #8 - Night by Elie Wiesel. Wow. Powerful stuff. So much of it stays at the back of my head, too. One particular quote that stuck with me a bit more, possibly because I deal with proportions so often - as they arrive at Buchenwald: "A hundred of us had got into the wagon. A dozen of us got out - among them, my father and I." While I had read elsewhere about the Holocaust, I had not previously seen the perspective at the beginning - how the Jews of Sighet dismissed the warnings, not thinking it could ever be so bad for them... As I type, I'm reminded a bit about Outwitting the Gestapo by Lucie Aubrac - it's been a while since I read that. May need to again.
Thoughts also on perspective on religion, to be saved for a later date, when 2 more books are finished.

Book #9 - The Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren. I started this in January as a sort of tag along for the 40 Days of Purpose activities at the church where I play bells - it took me a bit longer to read. I will not begrudge those that found this powerful their experience, but for me - well, it gave me an opportunity to flesh out what I do NOT believe. To clarify what bothers me about many approaches to faith in the Christian world today. I don't want to rant to strongly on religion here - and in large part because a good deal of what I believe is that one's belief system should not be imposed on others - so I'll leave it at that and we'll revisit this (briefly), along with Night when I get those other 2 books done.

Book #10 - The Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C.S. Lewis. Still rereading the series and reliving things I enjoyed deeply when much younger. Was grateful not to have Susan nagging in this one, and enjoyed the many adventures they had, though each adventure could have been fleshed out more....

More wedding stuff tomorrow, hopefully. Have a whole list to catch up on!