Disappointment

Is there any more disappointing moment in a young woman's life than when she discovers that in reality, people never, ever break into a synchronized dance routine?

Wedding photos!

Just wanted to drop in real quick to give y'all a link to the wedding photos. I keep getting more in, so there may be more added to the Flickr set , but I wanted to get something up fast for those who couldn't make it to the party.

Also, you might want to watch our first dance. :)

Enjoy!

The final countdown

We're in the home stretch...and we now have about a hundred people coming! Oh. My. God. And weather.com is predicting rain on my wedding day. One hundred people standing around in the rain. Great.

Guess what I did last week? I caved. I bought a veil. I was absolutely positive that I did not want a veil but then I changed my mind and bought a veil from a very nice seller on Etsy. So I'll look like a very traditional bride with my flowy white veil, my hair in an updo, my big white dress, and my white bouquet of tulips. I'm even wearing pearls. Can't get much more traditional than pearls on your wedding day.

Final to-do's include:

• finish up the shawl
• practice dancing! (He's great, but I suck.)
• make, frost & decorate the cupcakes on Thursday & Friday
• finalize wedding ceremony details with officiant (tonight)
• clean the house! (We've got family coming into town on Thursday, including my future MIL, so the house has to look good.)
• get nails done on Friday afternoon
• pick Sister & baby nephew up at the airport on Friday night
• pick up last minute items: more bottled water, plates & silverware (plenty of napkins & cups, I think), special cupcake ingredients, burger & hot dog condiments (tomatoes, onions, lettuce, cheese - already have mustard, ketchup & relish)
  

In fact, what the heck am I doing blogging? I need to finish up that shawl post-haste!

Two weeks

We're two weeks out now. Most of the stuff on my to-do list is done, but I'm a bit worried about my wedding shawl. The border is taking a LOT longer than I thought it was going to. I've jut got to keep plugging along with it and hope I get it finished in time. I'm planning to spend most of the day tomorrow knitting; I hope I'll be able to get the first end finished (I'm about halfway done with the first end now, and truly, it takes forever to knit this part).

I got another RSVP today, and this brings our total guest count to EIGHTY-FREAKIN'-FIVE. Oh my god you guys, I cannot believe it. I can't believe that my tiny 30-people-max wedding has morphed into this enormous party. I am so excited, though! A whole bunch of people are coming that I truly never expected to come; people I haven't seen in years are showing up! And about a third of our guest list is kids, which I think is awesome. What could be more fun than a bunch of families playing in a park for the day?

We are totally planning a bunch of fun activities, too. We've got hula hoops, frisbees, bubbles for the little ones (including a battery-operated bubble machine), coloring books & crayons, and a "guest book" that is a big blank sketch book where people can write advice, draw little pictures, whatever. We're bringing some other games for the adults & older kids, too - cribbage, liars' dice, etc.

I just can't wait for the day to get here!

Mirena

Anyone out there used Mirena before? I just got it, uh, "installed" on Tuesday. I had discussed it via email with my gyn a couple of months ago, when I was still employed & still planning to get married in October. I was hoping that the lower dose of hormones, delivered locally rather than systemically, would eliminate some of the things that I hate about birth control pills (the moodiness, the monthly bloat, etc.). I figured I'd get Mirena when I went in for my annual exam, which falls in April. Even though we've moved up the wedding I still thought it would be a good idea to get it now.

I'm rethinking that decision.

I've had it for three days now, and although the spotting has basically stopped, I am still getting intermittent cramps. Some of them are really bad, much worse than I get with my period - and they're mostly in the lower-right quadrant of my abdomen, not generalized in my abs/lower back like period cramps usually are. It's definitely worse when I am driving or have been driving recently. Something about sitting up in that position, instead of the semi-reclined position I'm usually in on the couch, is really aggravating things.

So I'm wondering: if you've had Mirena before (or have it now), how long did the cramps last? Should I be concerned?

And another thing - we've been waiting to resume, ummm...relations. The doctor said to wait three days. It's been three days. But quite frankly I'm a bit scared because I'm worried that any jostling or, you know, rhythmic abdominal contractions (*cough, cough*) could result in serious abdominal pains. It would be ironic to get 99+% effective birth control only to find out that it acts as a deterrant to the one thing that could result in pregnancy.

So...Mirena. Discuss in the comments, please! Or email me, if you prefer.

Cupcake extravaganza!

I've been MIA for a while now, I know. But in my defense I 1) got engaged, 2) lost my camera for a while, and 3) got laid off. So my wedding, which was initially planned for October, is now taking place the first weekend in May. I'm a bit overwhelmed. :)

Today I did a trial run for my wedding cupcakes. I'm not much of a baker, but I figured i could manage mini cupcakes for the shoestring-budget potluck BBQ wedding we're planning. So I bought three boxes of cake mix and got them all gussied up:

Spicy Mexican Chocolate Mini Cupcakes
1 box milk chocolate flavor cake mix
water, eggs, oil as per directions on box
1 1/2 tsp good cinnamon
1/2 tsp cayenne powder
1 Tbsp excellent cocoa mix (I used Sharffenberger cocoa mix)

Mix it all up and bake in mini-cupcake tins lined with paper liners for 13 minutes at 350. Frost with ganache:

1 c heavy cream
1 pkg good semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1-2 Tbsp orange liqueur

Put the chocolate chips in a heat-proof bowl and toss with the cinnamon. Heat the cream in a small saucepot over medium heat, stirring constantly, until the cream just reaches a boil. Pour the cream over the chocolate chips and walk away for 2 minutes. Then slowly whisk the cream and chocolate together until the chocolate is completely melted. If you still have bits of unmelted chocolate, put the bowl over a pan of simmering water (making sure boiling water does not touch bottom of bowl) and whisk slowly but constantly until the chocolate JUST melts. Whisk in the liqueur. Chocolate should be smooth and glossy. To frost cupcakes, turn them upside down and dip the top in the chocolate, swirling a little bit to coat completely.

Pina Colada Mini Cupcakes
1 box white cake mix
3 egg whites
2 Tbsp vegetable oil
1 small can pineapple chunks in juice, pureed in small blender
1/4 c white rum
3/4 c shredded coconut, plus 1 cup for toasting

Put cake mix in bowl of stand mixer and add in 3/4 c coconut, and mix together. Prepare the cake mix as directed, substituting 1/2 c pineapple puree for 1/2 c water and 1/4 c white rum for 1/4 c water (you should end up adding a bit more than 1/2 c water to the mix). Save the rest of the pineapple puree for the frosting. Bake in mini-cupcake tins lined with paper liners for 13 minutes at 350. Frost with pineapple cream cheese frosting:

1 8-oz block cream cheese, softened
1/2 stick butter, softened
1 box powdered sugar
reserved pineapple puree from cupcakes (about 1/4 cup)
reserved 1 c shredded coconut

Beat together cream cheese and butter in stand mixer until fluffy. Add in powdered sugar and pineapple puree, beating until completely mixed and fluffy. Toast shredded coconut in 350 degree oven for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally to ensure even browning, then sprinkle on the frosted mini cupcakes.

Lemon Mini Cupcakes
1 box white cake mix
3 egg whites
2 Tbsp vegetable oil
4 lemons

Zest the lemons and add to the cake mix in bowl of stand mixer; mix together. Juice the lemons. Prepare the cake mix as directed, substituting 1/2 c lemon juice for 1/2 c water. Bake in mini-cupcake tins lined with paper liners for 13 minutes at 350. Frost with passionfruit buttercream frosting:

1 stick butter, softened
1 Tbsp meringue powder
pinch salt
1 box powdered sugar
2-3 Tbsp passionfruit puree
1-2 Tbsp milk

Beat butter in stand mixer until fluffy. Add in salt and meringue powder. Gradually add powdered sugar and passionfruit puree. Add in a tablespoon or two of milk at the end to get frosting to proper consistency.

Bearing fruit

You may recall, a few years ago I spent a full autumn day planting over 250 spring bulbs, in the hopes that I'd wind up with a garden full of my favorite flowers to cheer me up during the high hay fever season. Unfortunately, I didn't realize at the time that gophers LOVE tulip bulbs, and not only that, but they can easily get into my planter boxes. I ended up with a few hyacinths and daffodils, but only ONE lone tulip escaped the gopher feast.

This past fall, Mr Wonderful cleared out my designated "cutting garden" planter box (we have several huge boxes), laid down plastic netting, and filled it back in with fresh, happy dirt that was left over from our new lawn project. Then I spent a day planting spring bulbs again, hoping that this year, they'd escape devastation.

Obviously, from the picture on the right, you can see that they did, and our labors are bearing fruit at last...dozens and dozens of tulips and daffodils, and scores of grape hyacinths (the little purple flowers in the mid-ground here, also known as muscari) and crocuses. This is the garden I hoped for.

Click the photo to go to my flickr feed, where I have another shot of the planter box, showing off pretty much the entire thing, and a picture of our beautiful lilac bush as well.

Testing, testing...1...2...3...

This weekend I did some cupcake trials. I bought a couple of mini cupcake tins, some liners, and a few boxes of cake mix (because I am lazy and don't want to make everything from scratch).

First I made a batch of lemon cupcakes - I added lemon zest to the plain yellow cake mix, threw in some lemon juice in place of some of the water, and then made a simple glaze of lemon juice and powdered sugar. The mini cupcakes turned out great - they cook in 13 minutes at 350, and cool in about 5-10 minutes, so they're ready to frost quickly. Unfortunately the frosting didn't hold up very well; it kind of melted into the cupcakes by the second day, so they looked all patchy and odd. I think I may have to switch to a buttercream frosting (ugh), but if I do that I'm hoping to find some passionfruit puree to use as flavoring. Mr Wonderful & I went to a catering/wedding fair event a while back that had a lemon/passionfruit cake sample we both loved, and I'd like to be able to reproduce it. It would require a bit more work though, as I'd have to pipe the frosting on the cupcakes.

I also tried making chocolate mini cupcakes. I used a Devil's Food flavor of cake mix and when I made the "plain" chocolate cupcakes, they tasted like nothing much. Even the kids didn't like them. However, I did also spice up some of the batter towards the end of the batch, with cinnamon, orange liqueur, and a bit of chili powder. The cinnamon flavor came through, but the orange and chili powder were completely lost. I think I may need to use cayenne instead of chili powder and only use the orange liqueur in the ganache. The ganache was a whole other story - my first try (with half the chocolate chips) turned out grainy & gross; I used Barefoot Contessa's method of melting the chocolate & cream in a double boiler. The second try turned out perfectly; in this instance, I heated the cream just until it boiled, then poured that over the chocolate chips and let it sit for a couple of minutes before whisking together. The cupcakes were super easy to frost with the ganache, too - you just dip them in and swirl a bit, then pull them out and the frosting is beautiful and glossy and smooth. Even better - they still look beautiful the next day. :)

A couple other updates: I found the perfect shoes on sale at Kohl's, ordered my bouquet & Mr Wonderful's boutonniere from a local florist (yay, white tulips!), and we figured out the music situation. Tomboy has a boombox that is battery-operated, has detachable speakers, and has an auxiliary input that accommodates an iPod. We tested it out last night, with batteries & everything, and it worked beautifully.

Wedding & job update

Oooh boy, things are in full swing now!

Still no job, but I've been doing some contract work for individual clients and for my old supervisor, who quit working for The Boss and is now opening up her own consulting business. So there's some money coming in. In fact I'm hopeful that I'll be able to just do consulting, as that would solve my issues with telecommuting quite nicely.

The wedding is set for May 2, at a large regional park. We've reserved a lovely picnic spot with a bunch of picnic tables, BBQs, a small deck for dancing, and a beautiful flagstone patio area that will serve quite well for the ceremony. I built a wedsite & found a free web host, and then sent out email invitations. We're doing a potluck BBQ reception, telling guests not to bring presents, but to bring food instead. I'm actually really excited; this is just the kind of wedding I would have wanted originally - something fun and laid back that we could invite all of our friends & family to. We're getting a great response - most of people we've invited are coming, I think.

My dress is in, and it's gorgeous and needs almost no alterations - just a bustle and maybe to tack down the sleeves to the elastic underneath. I made a beautiful silk flower hair clip for about $10. Mr Wonderful is renting a jacket for his tux, and we're getting some of the more esoteric accessories (sporran, hose, etc) at the Scottish Games in Woodland on the weekend before the wedding. And the kids? Well, Kohl's had an enormous sale and we ended up getting Tomboy a dress and Rugrat a pinstriped suit for less than $100. Awesome.

We got our rings too. Mine is a just simple white gold band, so it doesn't compete with my engagement ring. I already had a tungsten ring purchased for Mr Wonderful, but then he lost about 20 pounds and it ended up being too big. Unfortunately you cannot resize tungsten, so we bought another tungsten ring for him (one full size smaller!) on Overstock.com, for about $50. So now if he gains weight, he can wear the bigger one, but if he stays all skinny like he is now, he can wear the new smaller one. They're very similar; just the celtic knot pattern in the center is different.

There's not much left to do -- find a solution for music (speakers or boombox, battery-operated, that will accommodate an ipod), get a bouquet (Grandma has graciously offered to pay for my flowers!), decide on shoes (whether to buy some new ones, if I can find something good and cheap), find someone to do my hair, and figure out the cupcake situation. My wedding shawl is well on its way, and if I continue knitting a full repeat each day, I'll have it done in plenty of time. I'm working my butt off at the gym, so I should be in better shape than I have been in years when I walk down that aisle. Oh, and we have to get our marriage license.

Things are falling into place, and I am so excited! I'm not nervous at all about marrying Mr Wonderful - there hasn't been any doubt in my mind about him. I just can't wait to make things official, and to celebrate with all of our friends and family. :)

Post-panic

OK, so things aren't quite as dire as they seemed last Saturday. Mr Wonderful chatted with his supervisor at work on Monday and discovered that I could be added to his insurance as a "domestic partner." It won't be free, but it will be MUCH cheaper than COBRA and it doesn't require us getting married immediately.

So now our plan is to wait three weeks and if I don't have a new job by then, we will schedule the wedding for sometime in May. My dress is coming in within the next few weeks, but Mr Wonderful wants to wait until he's able to get the rest of his outfit (sporran, jacket, dagger, what-have-you) at the Scottish Games in Woodland in late April. We won't be getting married at a winery with fancy catering, of course, but we can get married in a park on a sunny Saturday and have all of our friends and family there. And we can have a potluck BBQ "reception" at the house afterwards (probably on Sunday).

And of course, if I get a new job within the next couple of weeks, we can still have the wedding in October as planned. But this way we've got an alternative solution that we can pull together quickly, while still preserving some of the things that were most important to us.

In the meantime, be sure to let me know if you hear of any available web developer positions! I'm scouring the interwebs, but the more eyes & ears on the lookout, the better. :)

Life, rescheduled

Yesterday morning I met with Boss and was laid off from the job I've been at for the past five years. Of course he said he was all broken up about it and felt terrible, blah blah blah. But I'm pretty bent that he's keeping our SysAd on staff. SysAd left the company to work for someone else and was doing "on call" occasional work for my company for about a year. Then a month or so ago he got laid off from that job and he's been essentially working full time at our company again. So I feel like I got dumped so that my boss could keep paying the SysAd -- you know, the one who hasn't been working loyally for the company for FIVE YEARS straight. Am I pissed off? Hell yes.

And of course, looking back over the course of the past week I can see how they were trying to finish up outstanding issues in which my expertise was required. And it really pisses me off that I got ONE day of notice before the end of the month, which is effectively the end of my health insurance. Meaning, if I want uninterrupted health insurance, I have to do COBRA for at least a month. I cannot be without health insurance; I have too many issues, between the high blood pressure and the cholesterol and the skin cancer and everything. I also can't get individual health insurance; I've been denied coverage before, and that was even before I got diagnosed with the skin cancer.

And this brings us to the rescheduling portion of our program. Because Mr Wonderful works at a hospital, he has excellent health benefits, and I will be covered by those same excellent health benefits as soon as we're married. So we're moving up the wedding; we're getting married this week, at the county courthouse. This is not the way I pictured my wedding. This is pretty much the OPPOSITE of what I wanted - although we'll be keeping it very small, I wanted something that was more personal and meaningful. And now we are having this rushed wedding, done as cheaply as possible, with possibly NO family there (my father might be able to make it, but that's it). This is not what I wanted, and it's definitely not what Mr Wonderful wanted. I am pretty depressed about it, actually. I've got this beautiful dress that hasn't arrived yet, but is totally paid for, and I won't get to wear it to my wedding. We were going to get married at a beautiful winery, with amazing food and flowers and our family surrounding us. And we may still have some kind of ceremony and reception later, after I get a new job and we can afford it, but it's not going to be on the day we get married. And that just makes me want to curl up and cry.

Mmmm...fooood.....

Mr Wonderful and I are now at the point in the wedding planning where we need to make a decision about a caterer. And the best part about this is that you get to run around meeting various caterers and tasting free food.

On Sunday, we went to a caterer-sponsored "wedding faire" kind of thing, where there's a few vendors hawking their wedding-related shit (like photographers, officiants, etc.) but mostly it was a way for the caterer to get a bunch of people in one room and show how awesome their buffet can be. And I gotta say...not so impressed with the food. The problem with a buffet is that it always feels like you're at Bob's Big Boy smorgasbord, and the food has been sitting around for a couple of hours and picked over by a few hundred people, even when there's only like 50 people in the room and they are constantly bringing out fresh food. It still LOOKS ghetto, no matter how much you pretty it up with fancy table linens and stuff. And it still pretty much tastes like cardboard, because they are serving food for the lowest common denominator. You know, you can't make anything too spicy, because people have varying levels of spice-tolerance. So everything ends up tasting pretty much the same.

We really only liked two things about the event: one was a table setup (flowers, napkins, etc.) that I took a picture of on my phone, and the other was a cake sample that was absolutely delicious: lemon cake with passionfruit buttercream. It sounded like an odd combination, but it was so light and bright and uplifting - really an excellent flavor combination.

Tonight we're heading out to Concord to meet with a caterer & do a tasting, and I'm in discussions with a couple of other caterers as well. It's difficult sometimes to schedule the meetings because Mr Wonderful works swing shift and when he's got the weekend off, we have the kids. So it's a bit of a shuffle, but the catering is the most important part of our wedding, as far as I'm concerned, so I'm willing to spend extra time and actually go out of my comfort zone and talk to people on the phone (gasp!). Truly, I hate talking on the phone. I'd so much rather email - you always have the option to revise your statement before the person actually sees it. I just feel so stupid when I have to talk about something - I can never get my thoughts straight before something dumb pops out of my mouth.

Anyway, so...caterers. Anyone have a caterer they've used for a special event and thought was absolutely fantastic?

Schwingtown

I broke down and ordered Swingtown on DVD from Amazon. I just love that show; watching half-naked Grant Show and his glorious porn 'stache was one of the things I loved best about last summer. So now I can watch this horribly underrated show whenever I want, even if I never get to see a new episode again. Stupid CBS for sucking me in to an awesome show and then dropping it like a hot potato.

Speaking of weird show cancellations, WTF with Pushing Daisies, y'all? I cannot believe they've dropped that show. Didn't it win Emmys last year? And this year, ABC just unceremoniously drops it...without even airing the final three episodes! ARGH!

In fact the only show that I absolutely adore that's still on the air is LOST. Yes, I watch a bunch of other shows, but nothing else gets me as excited as Wednesday evening. And I'm trying SO hard to unravel all the mysterious crap that's going on, that I've decided to have a LOST marathon. I watched season one this past weekend, and am a bit more than halfway through season two now. I've got all four seasons on DVD and the fifth season (so far) is stored on the DVR.

So tell me, what shows do you adore? What should I load my DVR up with? Because Grey's Anatomy is boring as hell now, and even Ugly Betty is tiresome this year.

Free

Nothing better than free stuff, right? Well, today, I got a FREE tooth whitening kit from my dentist. Not just any crap-ass whitening kit either; he made custom molds of my teeth and gave me the good stuff. This is like a $300 tooth whitening kit that he just gave me.

I totally love my dentist. And that is saying a LOT...my dentist phobia is near-legendary. In fact, I won't go to the dentist - even for a routine cleaning! - without sedation anymore. I have had countless dentists dismiss my fears for years, and guess what? I would go once, and then never again. It would be literally years before I would get up the guts to visit a new dentist. Once I had a dentist who gave me nitrous for a cleaning and that didn't help at all. But this dentist prescribes me valium before each visit, no questions & no hassles, and I happily lay there in a fog with my ipod blaring while he scrapes & polishes my teeth.

I know, it seems extreme. But this is what makes it possible for me to lay down in that chair once every six months, so that's what I do. I'm just glad I found a dentist who's willing to do what it takes to make sure I get regular checkups. So if anyone in far east CoCo County needs a new dentist, hit me up in the comments. I'd be happy to refer you to the best dentist in the world.

The sky is falling

Am I the only one totally freaking out about California's complete inability to pass a fucking budget? I'm not sure I'll ever see the $1300 that California owes me as a tax refund this year. And frankly, if it means keeping the schools open, and police and firefighters working in our communities, that's a sacrifice I'm willing to make.

But I'm starting to think California is going to declare bankruptcy before this mess is over. And THAT scares the hell out of me.

All you need is love

If you haven't seen Across the Universe yet, you really should. Beautifully made, with AMAZING covers of Beatles songs that are integrated seamlessly into the story. I just bought this movie on Blu-Ray; I had already rented it twice from Blockbuster and just had to have it.

In other news, we opened up savings accounts for the kids this weekend. They will be able to deposit & withdraw money using their very own ATM cards and we can automatically deposit their allowance into the account. How easy is that? :) Plus they love the idea of having their own ATM cards (even if they won't have the Visa logo and therefore cannot be used for point-of-sale purchases).

Mr Wonderful and I also opened up a joint checking account. This will be used for wedding purchases at first, and then will be our joint household account afterwards. I deposited the unexpected escrow rebate check I got from my mortgage company last week. The good news is that my mortgage is going down. The bad news is that my house value has dropped so far that I'm now upside down in my mortgage by about $100K (including home equity line). Stupid economy.

Dad & Stepmom visited yesterday. I made them watch the movie. :) I also made a healthier version of the Yum Yum Chicken Enchilada Casserole which was quite tasty, although it needed more kick. And cilantro. I was out of cilantro.

Aaaaand lastly, I started on my wedding shawl (stole? scarf? I never know what the proper terminology is) on Valentine's Day. I thought that was fitting. :) Mr Wonderful's Bad-Ass Cabled Hoodie is not yet finished but I'm getting worried about time now, with only 7 1/2 months left before the wedding. I don't want to be rushing to finish my scarf in the last week before the wedding. The pattern I'm using is Canterbury Bells, and I'm knitting it with Malabrigo Lace in Vaa (a dark green/blue color).

Gin 'n' Juice: redneck version

One of my favorite cover songs, like, EVER. Imagine a country band covering Snoop Dogg. This is worth the price of admission, folks.

Darth Vader

Seeing James Earl Jones in a movie other than Star Wars is just so surreal. I keep hearing Darth Vader's voice coming out of this big black man and it's totally freaking me out.

One more reason why I love him

Because he once had a dream in which he was the ShamWow guy.

Lost & found

I was convinced that the car had a black hole which had consumed not only my ATM card (lost immediately after renting movies) but my camera, as well. Turns out the ATM card was stuck between the driver's seat and the center console. Which would have been good to figure out before I called my bank and told them the card was lost and to please send me a new one.

The camera was a little tougher, but I finally found it in a Target shopping bag near the front door, mere moments before Mr Wonderful & I took off for the annual very-belated "Christmas" retreat with my company. The bag also contained my amazing, scary longline bra that I bought to wear with my wedding dress. This bra is unbelievable. It looks like it could safely corral a couple of watermelons. Are my boobs really that big? Jesus.

So I finally have my camera back, and can start foodblogging again. I even have the pictures of the yummy lentil soup on the flash card.