Wedding News

I loved my sister's wedding.

To start, her dress was beautiful. Next, City Hall in San Francisco turned out to be a fantastic place for the ceremony. While I had no idea what to expect, all of the details were touching, laid-back, and fun. The civil ceremony included simple, meaningful vows. The groom's two sons were the official witnesses--I didn't know you could have witnesses who are under eighteen years of age!

Dinner was wonderful. I didn't take the limo to dinner, but I heard the limo was lots of fun. Our family has a lot of kids and all of the ones at the ceremony and later at dinner were well-behaved. My sister and her husband picked out wonderful almond champagne for dinner. (They also provided red and white wine.)

Then, a smaller group of us (those without kids) headed over to jazz at Yoshi's. My parents love Yoshi's, so I've been there for jazz before, but I found out Friday that my new brother-in-law did the acoustics for Yoshi's, so he's got the inside track. We had great tables reserved for our whole group and we stayed for the second show of the night too. (You can always do that if they have room.)

Finally, my parents put on brunch the next morning at their house for the bride, groom, and groom's parents. It was nice to have even more time with them, particularly when we could kick back in jeans and sneakers. Of course, my sister was still wearing her wedding bling, but other than that, everyone was casual.

All in all, a wonderful weekend.

Yard Work...Manicure...Wedding!

It has been a long week of tough physical labor, psychological stress, and severely limited compensation, but it is here: Friday. Oh, yeah, and my sister's wedding! I am psyched. The line-up is: ceremony at City Hall, dinner at Kincaid's, entertainment at Yoshi's. Then, brunch and errands on Saturday.

The Neverending Story: More Hard Yard Work

Learner's mom has been staying with us since Saturday. There is a ton of yard work that needs to be done and that is why she came. Of course, it's so hot here that we have to start working early every morning and work until we just can't stay out in the sun anymore. She's planning to come back next week for another five days and maybe the next week after that.

I can't believe we're not done yet. We've weed-whacked, weed-pulled, cut, and raked enough weeds and branches to fill up our huge green bin for yard waste probably five times over. Maybe six. There's still more to do.

It feels good to work out in the yard, though, It's good exercise.

Hard A** Yard Work

I'm weed-whacking and raking out in the back yard in 87 degree heat. It's only 9 am and it's already 87 degrees. Of course, it's only 9 am and I've already done a ton of work. So I think it's been a good day.

My Sister's Wedding: T minus six days

My sister is getting married this coming Friday. Woo!

14 Years, 5 Months, 13 Days

14 years, 5 months, 12 days excluding the end date

Alternative time units
5278 days can be converted to one of these units:
456,019,200 seconds
7,600,320 minutes
126,672 hours
754 weeks

Walking Update: Knee Problems

Today is one week after my run with major knee problems. I walked three miles. I thought the 100+ degree heat would be the problem. Unfortunately, my knee bothered me more than the heat. Damn.

Friends are the jelly in the peanut butter of life.

That would be my paraphrase of an old Peanuts comic. I was just talking to one of my oldest friends about what's going on with her life and what's going on with my life. It had been a while since we caught up and the last I talked to her, everything at her job was going well. The situation has changed...drastically. Even though I couldn't really help her, I could listen and sympathize, just like she always does for me. Still, it brings me down a little bit when my friends (and family) are going through tough times, and I wish I could do more.

Running Update: Major Knee Problems

On Sunday morning we ran. My knees do okay on dirt and pavement but asphalt and gravel are another story. I'm recovering from some major pain now. Here's hoping I can run/speedwalk the half marathon at the end of this month.

My Poor Baby

Learner had surgery scheduled yesterday. Then he was groggy. This morning, he was still groggy...and didn't remember anything we talked about yesterday.

The waiting room was decent, though. A bunch of nice people befriended me and complimented my knitting. I finished a hat and started a new scarf.

The highlight of my day was early on: when we arrived, the "surgery information" volunteer checked us in and asked if I was Learner's wife. When I said "no, just girlfriend," she said, "That's just as good. Sometimes better!" That made us laugh.

Heat Exhaustion

Heat exhaustion is scary. We are experiencing triple digits here. Learner felt ill for half the weekend because of the combination of high temps and running.

My knee hurt too much to run. Lucky me.

If you're running, you're winning.

I bought a running book and it says, if you're running, you're winning. So, I'm winning!

Boogers of the sea

Learner and I went to the Arcata Oyster Festival this past weekend. (We stopped at The Sea Ranch on the way up and back.) First we stopped at a stand that had grilled oysters with garlic and butter. I tried to swallow a whole oyster...unsuccessfully. But later, I cut up a fried oyster and doused it in coctail sauce and managed to eat one bite. There are no photos of either of these incidents because they happened too quickly.

Basically, oysters are gross, y'all. But Learner had so much fun, the trip was worth it. He ate 30 oysters, I ate 1/30th of an oyster. It's all good.

Running Off the Berries

4 miles this morning felt great. Must be the fueling up on chocolate dipped berries. Wooo.

Mmmm...

Instead of watching her show, I pretended to *be* Martha Stewart today. It turns out that making chocolate covered strawberries (and rasberries) is easy. You don't even need wax paper. Just a bag of chocolate chips and a microwave. The only trick is that the berries must be absolutely dry when you do the dipping or the chocolate seizes up and becomes useless.

In case anyone is interested, here's a list of all you need: a bag of chocolate chips, a carton (or two) of berries, a sheet of wax paper OR saran wrap, a platter or cookie sheet, a glass bowl, and a microwave. Line the platter with the wax paper. Wash the berries and then dry them very well. Microwave in increments of 30 seconds to a minute. Stir the melting chips. It is better to microwave less than you think and mix than to overdo it. Dip the berries and place on wax paper. Refrigerate.

I highly recommend making this treat.

Running Update: 2 miles...2 miles...4 miles...4 miles!

After quite a hiatus, I am back to running at least a few miles at a go. Cross your fingers for 13.1 in just six weeks!

Kitten Update: Still Cute

Explosion of Roses

Baby Pomegranate Fruit

Muffin Tops

So Learner and I found ourselves in L.A. this weekend. We had a great time at Venice Beach---I haven't been there since I was a kid. First, we had an excellent breakfast at the Mercedes Grille. Then we saw a great group of acrobats called the Calypso Tumblers. They were hilarious in between jumps. I wish I had taken a camera. There were tons of vendors selling knick knacks, sketches, henna tattoos, and fortunes. There were also a huge number of police officers patrolling the beach.

We were also taken in for two days and one night by one of Learner's good friends from college. She rocked. She was the best hostess ever. And she's the one that told me that in L.A., if you have a little bit of a tummy, it's called a "muffin top" by (her words) "L.A. bitches." Then she gave me a tiny tee shirt with "busters" written across the front and encouraged me to wear it to the beach.