Dickie

Yesterday was the most wonderful b-day ever! K was so sweet all day long...puurrrrrr......lunch, coffee, lovely gifts, a great dinner, roses, two heart-felt cards, and lots of time together. Last, but not least, we picked my wedding ring out yesterday! I love you K! You are everything to me...

Thanks to Joyce and David for the lovely books, map, and birthday singing....Erika for the eCard....Judith for the CD....Kathryn for the cupcake...all my pals at work for the card(s)....Lori for the movie passes...Jennifer for the chocolates, cookies, and card...Wayne for the gift certificate and card....Jimerson for the phone call (and for agreeing to watch Compass while we are on our honeymoon)...mom for all the phone calls....mom's 4th grade class for singing me happy birthday on the phone...Katey for the phone call...Oma for the phone call..Dad and Kathy for the card...Compass for being the coolest pup ever...Hartley for being Hartley...Winston for being always aloof....and the Universe for placing all you wonderful people in my life.

- A

Put That On Your Finger!

We picked K's ring on Friday! After a great deal of searching and disappointment the search is over...a wonderful ring K shall wear. A little jewelry store in downtown Portland was our store of choice. The woman helping us was great and I can't rave enough about the place. So, if you are ever ring shopping, or need some restoration, Malloy's in downtown Portland is your place! Now we just have to pick mine and we'll be done with the ring tasks.

We ventured down to Salem on Saturday and had a delayed Christmas / early birthday gathering with Mom and Larry. Good times. K went dress shopping earlier that day, with no success, and I taught a couple of lessons.

Another lesson Sunday, more dress shopping for K, again without luck, and a trip to Winco for the weekly groceries. We had seared Ahi tuna tacos for dinner last night - K loved 'em. We tried to watch "Happiness" but the movie was kind of slow and disturbing so we turned it off and went to bed early.

K has an appointment today to see about getting a dress made....

- A

You're Invited

We wrapped up the bulk of our wedding invitations last night and are quite pleased with the results. It certainly took a few trips to the stationary store to finally decide on a design but once we got rolling it was surprisingly fun. I wonder if people will actually like the invitations or if all the hard work will go relatively unnoticed?

We are dog-sitting for our friend Nancy so the house is full of animals. Compass doesn't seem to enjoy sharing the house with another canine...especially one that is always trying to romp, if you know what I mean. Poor Compass! The cats seem to be spending more time perched high above the floor looking down on the strange new resident.

We had sushi last night for dinner and it was quite splendid. It is interesting how certain foods make you feel like a champ after eating while others make you feel like a bubbling bowl of gunk. I always feel good after eating Japanese food.....perhaps I should get better at preparing it?

K received a package in the mail yesterday containing a potential wedding dress but decided she, "didn't want to wear a dark color." It would have been fine with me - the dress looked great on her. (Hardly a surprise....I always tell her that she could wear an outfit made out of toilet paper and she'd make it look good.)

Hasta luego! - A

K & A

72 days and counting!

In the Garden

K and I finished watching Garden State and Capturing the Friedaman's over the past couple of days - good flicks. Garden State was a sweet story, and Capturing is a sort of disturbing and fascinating documentary. Watch em!

We had a bad pizza last night for dinner. RANT: Delivered pizza and pizza "to go" suck a**. No good. Never. I suppose if one thinks about it there should be no expectation that delivered pizza should be good. When you make a nice plate of warm food at home you don't let it sit around for 20 minutes before you dig in, now do you? That is the fundamental flaw with delivered or "to-go" pizza....it sits around too long before hitting your pie hole. Bad idea. Waste of money. Disappointing culinary experience.

K and I are rolling along nicely on the wedding invitations. We completed the "prototype" last night and are pleased with the results. We are making "personalized" cards for each invitee, which will take a while, becase we both dislike the idea of sending everyone an identical card. For example, do Mama & Papa K really need to RSVP? Gee, are they gonna be able to make it? Plus, maybe one of my friends (I won't say your name, Bubba) is always late and we'd be wise to lie in the invitation and tell him the event starts a half-hour earlier than it actually does? Catch my drift here? It just makes sense to personalize each card....it take times, but what the heck?!?!

It's my Friday! This weekend is jam-packed....I have lessons on Friday, K is working an extra shift at Project Respond on Friday, we are going to my mom's on Saturday, have a gig Saturday night, lessons on Sunday, and then we have a work gathering from 4-8 Sunday evening. Whew! Sounds really relaxing....

Enough gabbing already....

72 days and counting!!!!

- A

Darko

K and I have been watching a lot of movies recently and found a real winner: Donnie Darko! It was great. My pal Berk gave me the video about two years ago and insisted that I watch it...and I never did. (Slacker....and I still have it!) We ended up putting it in the queue in Netflix...and then when it finally arrived it sat in the DVD player unwatched. We finally got around to it and loved it! Strongly suggest you check it out!

We shall pick up the stationary for our wedding invitations tonight after work. Picking the design, writing the text, and choosing the materials has been surprisingly fun. We didn't want to use some boring "stock" card that you see every day so we wrestled with different ideas for a while and finally settled on something. Perhaps one will end up in your mailbox? If not, don't be offended, we simply don't like you or your family.

Next on the agenda: finding my damn passport!

We found the best Thai peanut sauce ever at New Seasons. Wish I remembered what it is called...

Had a gig this past weekend with Terry at Biddy McGraw's. Good times! We are also playing this weekend in Albany - should be fun. K and I decided that I need to put off my next CD for a couple months....oh, the joy of being middle-class.

K rocks and I need to get back to work. - A