Crap, I published without a title

I figured I'd treat myself this evening (which, for some reason beyond my comprehension, includings blogging).  There's a few reasons for this.  First, Mom and Dad are in Seattle, so I have the house to myself and can thus get rat-assed (or shit-faced, take your pick) in peace and not feel like a twat/loser/15 year old/bad daughter.  Second, the last two days have been a pain.  Yesterday, I had to clean out the junk/gadget drawer in the kitchen because it was filled with ants.  Oh, and the dog barfed at some point--don't know when--and I had to clean it up.  I don't cope well with slimy bodily excretionsToday, I walked into the main bathroom (which I rarely use, particularly when I'm alone and don't feel a particularly pressing urge to bathe) only to find the sink and counter, AND part of the wall black with ants.  Also today, I went to a pilates class.  Very little mat work, but plenty of leg work (and core--probably more if I'd chosen to, you know, actually engage my core) and so now my calves feel like, well, like they do when I jog.  If you care--which you don't--I don't get shin splints from jogging because I run on the balls of my feet.  Instead, it affects my soleus muscle (one of two? muscles in the back of the calf).  It's less painful by a long shot, but possibly slightly more annoying.

And now I have to interrupt my drunken blogging (hey, I could be calling you, don't complain) to say that LOST is wrong.  Well, it's not, because the writers have had this planned out from day frickin' one, but if Jack is on the plane--Oceanic flight whatever that crashed on the island--Desmond can't be on it, since he was on the island pressing a button--or not--when the flight crashed.  And oh fucking god the island is Atlantis.

And now I'll stop my drunken probably not because they're probably very wrong spoilers, but will say: Adam, if you don't like it, don't read it (I love you honey :) ).

So yes, go back two paragraphs--wow, didn't know Steve Martin could tap dance (seriously, I shouldn't blog and watch TV at the same time)--between all of that, writing more thank you notes for wedding gifts since I haven't written any for probably two weeks, and well, I dunno, I wanted some champers.

Specifically, I'm drinking the final bottle of Domaine Meriwether's Brut Discovery Cuvée.  This is also know as "the sparkling wine you drank if you came to our wedding reception."  

Can a jumpsuit be slimming if you're above a specific size?  Or has Jorge Garcia lost weight?

(Fucking simultaneous timelines)

For those who are curious, according to Lisa at Territorial, most private parties average about 3 drinks a person.  We averaged about 4 drinks a person, though to be fair, I don't remember if Lisa averaged in the case (12 bottles) of sparkling (that which I am drinking now).

(I think we're up to 4 different timelines now, but maybe only 3.  To be fair, I doubt sobriety would help)

Part of this is because Kellie, Dylan, and a couple of other people I don't remember kicked our average WAY the hell up.  Very few people drank beer (Carol, Adam, and myself are the only people I know for certain had a beer or two), and we were under our initial price limit.  For those who don't understand--which would include me, had I not set this up with Lisa's help--we rented the winery (shockingly cheap), and then told Lisa how much we wanted to spend.  She also offered a figure, to be fair, but we stayed under it.  Also note that that figure did not include the sparkling wine.  We had three bottles of that left, and now we have none.

And in a roundabout way, this is why I shouldn't blog while drinking.

And and randomly, Adam said the last post sounded like bragging, so I'd like to point out that I'm reading Harry Potter and the Socerer's Stone instead of EVERYTHING back on the side of my bed.  Yeah, I'm lame and tired of reading new things.  I'm also tired of Faith kicking me in the middle of the night.  Her nails/clawns are sharp and pokey, and have a lot of dirt on them to boot.  Man, I remember when our backyard used to be green.

Dude, back to LOST.  And if you care there are 4.5 champagne flutes worth of champers in a standard 750 ML bottle of sparkling/champagne.

EDIT:  It's not Jacob and Esau, it's Ram Dass and Timothy Leary.  Whatever the fuck that means.  For all my love of this show, I really, REALLY hate it.  Gah.

Also, Morgan Freeman narrates everything these days (minus CNN; James Earl Jones isn't dead yet) since Walter Kronkite died.

2010 Reading List: January

Unlike last year's list, which was non-comprehensive (Mom just reminded me of a new book that I most likely read in 2009 but never hit my list), this list endeavors to be complete.  I'm actually starting each post when I finish a book and adding to it that way, so I should be better off.  It will also be more in order of completion, but not totally, as it will be sorted by author primarily.

EDIT:  I'm going to change my notation system slightly.  I will place a number before the book which denotes the order in which I finished the books (not necessarily started).  If I've read a book before, it will still be denoted by an asterisk (*), but it will be at the end of the title.  Series books or recurring character information will be noted in parentheses.  This is mostly to make it easier for me--if I can't remember my notation system, how can I expect you to?! (assuming you care, of course)

Agatha Christie

 1.  The Tuesday Club Murders (Miss Marple; a series of short stories--good intro to character)

 2.  The Labors of Hercules (Hercule Poirot; a series of short mysteries with an overarching theme)

Margaret Truman

 3.  Murder in the White House (Capital Crimes novel: no recurring characters, but sort of a "set")

Isaac Asimov

 4.  The Caves of Steel (A Lije Baley & R. Daneel Olivaw novel)

 5.  The Naked Sun (A Lije Baley & R. Daneel Olivaw novel)

Since my goal for the year is to read 26 books that I haven't read before (not necessarily new books, just new to me), I'm well on my way.  Five in a month isn't bad.  I'm starting on John Berendt's Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil now, but I think I'll probably be re-reading something shortly.  Not sure what, however.  Part of my unofficial goal in all of this is to read some of the "greats," some of the "classics," and some of the recent bestsellers.  To that end, I've got a stack next to my bed--the other side of my bed, actually, since Faith now mostly occupies what was once my side of the bed--that includes Thomas Mann's Death in Venice, Frank Herbert's Dune, George Orwell's The Road to Wigan Pier, Michael Crichton's The Andromeda Strain, Margaret Mitchell's Gone with the Wind, Isaac Asimov's I, Robot, Jane Austen's Emma, and Earl Stanley Gardner's The Case of the Stuttering Bishop.  Mom says Dune and "Wigan Pier" are boring (I've read Animal Farm and 1984), I've read two Asimov novels so far, I'm unfairly prejudiced against Gone with the Wind, Dad says Death in Venice lacks a plot (but has good writing), I'm not a huge Austen fan, and I have no desire to read Crichton.  That leaves me wth Gardner's Perry Mason mystery.  So I started Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil.

I think mostly what this all means is that I'm a freak.*

Also, I'm always soliciting suggestions for things to read, so please, comment away!  (Just don't suggest Catcher in the Rye)

*You might argue that I need a job, but I do most of my reading at night before bed.

Part One is Done

No, not of a book.  I'm ashamed to say that I haven't written in months.  I should, but you try planning a wedding and applying for a visa and the like and have the desire to write a book.  Yes, I know that part of what makes an author is sitting down and writing and working even when you don't want to.  I plan on remedying this shortly, but that's because, well, Part One of my visa application is done.

I got the paperwork I needed from Adam on Thursday, and so on Friday I spend 4.5 hours filling out a form.  Note that this would have been much easier and faster if I could have filled it out by hand.  There are two reasons for this.  First, there was a character limit (100 or so) in all the answer boxes, including the more open-ended questions.  This is a problem, particularly on questions like

"You said you've travelled to the UK in the last 10 years.  Please list all visits and details below."

"You said you've travelled outside of your home country in the last 10 years.  Please list all visits and details below (excluding the UK)."

Hi.  Have we met?  Do you know how many times and places I've travelled in the last 10 years?  I've been in and out of the UK a dozen times--I just counted--in the last ten years.  Additionally, in the last 10 years I've been to Canada three times, Mexico once, Paris three times, Germany three times (Freiburg/Munich/Stuttgart, Berlin, and Hamburg), Copenhagen once, Italy once (Rome, Florence, Orvieto, and a fuck-ton of hill towns), Brussels once, and Dublin once.  Needless to say, this information does not all fit in a short form.

It is also a problem when trying to answer the question "Is there any other information we should know about in your visa application?"

Yes, your form isn't big enough to list all the pla

The secondary problem with the form was that the following pieces of punctuation were not allowed.

$

£

&

(

)

:

;

'

A couple of these make sense in light of the questions and for clarity purposes.  However, most do not.  I also assume that other pieces of punctuation were not allowed.  These are just the pieces I tried to use.

However, the application is done.  I have to go to Portland on Tuesday to be biometrically scanned.  I'm not thrilled about the prospect, but I understand it.  Then I have to mail in the online application (yes, I noted the irony) and all the supplemental paperwork that proves that a) Adam and I can support ourselves, b) we are not lying about anything, c) this is a marriage of love, and d) we've paid our (substanstial and non-refundable even if denied) fee.

Note I said that *I* have to mail all that stuff in.  Yet in addition to the fee, we had to pay $12 for postage.  I presume this is so they can post it all back to me.  Somehow, however, I feel that I've been screwed with my pants on.

Oh well, this is all so Adam and I can be together without harrassment.  And that's well worth it all.  Hopefully, our time apart is coming to a close.

Wedding Details, Part 2

Additionally, I also have a reminder link for you: Wedding Photos.  And now I present

The Wedding Reception (or until I get tired of writing).

The general plan--such as it was--for Saturday was to head out to get my hair done, where all the girls met me (except Kat, who had to work Friday night).  Kellie even came bearing a bottle of Asti and some plastic wine glasses.  I'm not sure how kosher that was at the barber shop/salon, but no one said anything (though one of the hairdressers was snotty and ignored Kellie, who was trying to get her hair cut).  So the girls kept me company while Clint spent over an hour curling and pinning and spraying my hair.  The final result:

A bitch to comb out

After that, I sped home, to find that the three restaurants that were cooking for us had all called.  Two of them more than once.  Mom and Dad, bless their hearts, offered to go pick up the shrimp and lox platter from Newman's Fish Market, as well as the curry from Gateway to India, and a giant bag of ice.  That left me to go up to Tasty Thai (thank you Barbara, for that suggestion!) and Long's Meat Market, which are conveniently a block apart.  After getting all that to the house, I headed back to Tio Pepé to grab all the Mexican food.  Turns out it was good that I got some of the stuff out of the car, since Tio Pepé sent us two trays of cheese enchiladas, a giant tray of tortilla chips, two containers of sour cream and two of salsa, and a thing of green onions.  What a deal!!!

Also that morning, I put the in-laws to work.  Between Pam, Tony, and Mom, they got all the quiches and puff pastry thingys done, as well as getting the fruit sliced for the (slightly failed) chocolate fountain.  Fabulous!!  To be fair, I was a bit...crazy...by this point, so it's not totally beyond the realm of possibility that the quiches and puff pastries were done on Friday.  Don't think so, though.  Either way, Mom and Pam rocked the oven stuff, and Tony rocked the fruit.  So when I got home, I shovelled some food into my pie-hole, and started getting dressed.  This was not an easy feat, what with trying to get my seams straight, my corset on and centered, my shoes buckled (thank you for touching my feet Adam--I couldn't bend over with the corset on).  Then we piled into the cars and hit Territorial, and Dad headed over to pick up his mother, my Grandma Marie.  He didn't have to drive up to Scappoose to pick up my mother's parents, so quite honestly, it made his day easier, though I was sad that my grandparents weren't able to be at my reception.  Stupid weather.  It also knocked out 5 other relatives and 6 people from Seattle/Tacoma.

Overall, the reception was a lot of fun, though we hit a few snags.  First, the coffee pot didn't work.  At all.  Mom tried to fix it, Lisa--the awesome woman who works at Territorial and did so much for us--tried to fix it, and Wade Watts, my awesome chiropractor, tried to fix it.  Actually, he went McGuyver on it, and it still didn't work.  The second snag was the chocolate fountain.  This is something Adam and I have always wanted, but have never gotten the chance.  Didn't really this time, either.  Not because the fountain didn't work, but because I couldn't be arsed to read directions, and so didn't melt the chocolate in advance (actually not a huge deal--the internal heater eventually melted it).  And I didn't bring any vegetable oil (Lisa only had olive oil).  So we had less of a fountain, and more of a...bowl.  But it was tasty.

Otherwise, it really was fun.  My only stress really came from the insistence that someone had to toast us.  This specifically came from Pam and Tony.  You know, it's our day, so we should get the veto.  The other bit was that Adam wanted us to say something/toast everyone.  First, no, we weren't married yet, so no one did have to toast us, and second, we never did figure out what the hell we wanted to say.  I had no beef with Adam and I saying something, but that's a little tough when you can't figure out what you want to say, even after several weeks of thinking about it.  Beyond that though, people seemed to eat, drink, and be merry, though there was a distinct lack of dancing, which made me very sad.  I danced with Adam but once or twice, and with Rob (or was it Levi?  No, I wasn't drunk) once, whilst Kellie danced with Levi (or was it Rob?).  Still, I had a great time, and I sincerely hope that all our guests did.

I know this came to a rather abrupt end, but I really did run out of things to say.  If guests want to add to the comments, that'd be cool :)  And next up, Wedding Day!

New Photo Blog

So I started a new blog, this one simply for photos from Adam's and my reception and wedding.  The fail on this, however, is that I haven't actually posted any photos there yet.  Yeah, I suck.  However, for future reference, the blog is located here.  I hope to get some photos up in the next day or so, but I do need to check with the photographers first.  Additionally, I'll endeavor to write more about the reception and wedding and honeymoon and such tomorrow.