kitchen logic

If you want to make buttermilk ice cream, you will have a dozen leftover egg whites. So then you'll decide to make angel food cake, which is oversold as a fat-free dessert. Of course you will start thinking that cake would be delicious with buttermilk ice cream.

Also, you might not own a tube pan (nor really want a tube pan) and decide it might be fine to try a silicone bundt pan instead. Inadvisable. We may be having angel food french toast for breakfast tomorrow.

words of love

During our ceremony, two of our friends (a happily married couple) will read letters that DJ and I have written to/about each other. She will read what I wrote, he will read what DJ wrote. We are not sharing our letters with each other before the ceremony, so it might be a very nice and genuine moment.

But then we had this discussion over e-mail.

Me: I’m excited to hear what you wrote. Unless you are going to have {friend} get up there and yell WHO FANCY NOW! Because that would be stealing my idea.
DJ: You can have “Who fancy now.” {Friend} is going to holler “Who gonna check me, boo?” and do the head shake thing that goes with it.

We are a very romantic couple.

yes, we have no bananas

This morning I was wide awake at 5:30. Like a kid on Christmas. I must be excited about today - hair trial (still seems funny to have a test run for hair), last dress fitting, and tonight is my bachelorette party!

I was dressed and ready to go by 6:15, with two hours to kill before leaving. So I cleaned the kitchen, top to bottom, and I have my eye on dusting the living room next. I could really use some of this productivity in my everyday life.

There was a minor hitch in the plan this week, when I found out that the garden roses I ordered from Fifty Flowers aren't available this week. The same thing happened to Abbie, I believe - probably the same roses, too. Flowers are always iffy, so I wasn't really surprised. They offered me my pick of the other flowers, and when I couldn't decide between two varieties, they split my order into half of each kind. Which was nice of them.

I care less about the substitution than how difficult it was to get an answer - it took about two hours on hold, four separate calls, two e-mails, and over 24 hours to find out whether my second choices were available. Maybe not their fault, but it was frustrating. All will be forgiven if the flowers show up on time and pretty, though.

for clean sheets or dirty dishes, as long as we both shall live

You all had fun weekend plans, thanks for sharing. If you have fun Monday plans, I would like to know about those too - but I think most of us are less excited for Monday.

Today I ran three miles in twenty six minutes. That's pretty quick for me. But it also means that I had only twenty six minutes of exercise. So am I fast or lazy? I asked DJ, and he said fast. But I think he's biased.

Before that, yet another makeup artist tried to give me a "smoky eye." This was the best one yet, but I'm uncomfortable with it. On me, it feels like trying too hard. I don't like trying too hard (or at all.) I forgot to take a picture before my run. Now it's definitely not a good look.

I've also been writing our ceremony. It's difficult, since "Do you take this man to be your beneficiary" doesn't have the most romantic ring to it. True, though.

tradeoffs

On the one hand, running 25+ miles a week goes a long way towards nice legs (and good cholesterol, and reasonable blood pressure blah blah blah).

On the other, my feet are hideous and no pedicure can really fix that.

Weekend: DJ and I are going to eat French food and see about that spun sugar cake topper. Then I have a hair appointment. Then we are going to teach Kid B how to shop for groceries, since apparently he's been living off fast food for seven months. Oh, to have the metabolism of a 21-year-old; then I wouldn't have such ugly running feet.

What are your weekend plans?

Bloomers, Again

Remember that time my mom gave me bloomers at my bridal shower? Well. There's more to that story.

If you need context, Harriet the Spy is one of my dearest imaginary friends. I've known her since the days of Diaryland, where I called myself Fairlywell. (You know, as in: How are you? I am Fairlywell.") Years and years ago we made the leap from imaginary to real friends, and now we bike together and (apparently) tell stories about each others' underwear purchases. I have no shame; this is absolutely the funniest thing that's ever happened to me.

things that work

As soon as I wrote about the things that were bothering me, they stopped bothering me. They haven't gone away, and probably they'll bother me again. But thanks for the free therapy!

I do have one more small problem. I've been really good about getting to the gym for a while now. My treadmill jaunts are showing the effort, too. Today I ran my four miles after work, and it was a good one. Everything felt good, I kept my pace without getting tired, no shinsplints.

Then I came home to this. DJ grilled burgers (with bacon and gouda and stone-ground mustard) and asparagus for dinner.

I have a dress fitting on Saturday, but I was helpless to the burger. I can't resist DJ's cooking. My life is sooooo hard.

more down than up

Liz asked how I am feeling as the wedding comes closer. Well, Liz. To be honest, this is not the easiest week. Saturday was the deadline for RSVP cards, and there were several disappointments. Several people I have considered dear friends never replied at all. Which has made me feel a little delusional about the state of those relationships.

(I realize that I may be taking it all too seriously. Don't worry, I am not doing anything about it. Compounding awkwardness is never the answer.)

We did hear from my grandma, finally, after five weeks of waiting. My estranged father's mother. We have been close in the past, until I stopped speaking to my father - although she did come to my bridal shower. For the wedding, she checked "decline." No note. I know exactly why, and it is a sad thing. All of it.

Things are still difficult with my mom. It's sad and embarassing, and I'm spending all kinds of time trying to schedule the wedding day so the difficulties won't be apparent to everyone else. Because I don't want to feel difficult and sad on my wedding day.

I'm having a hard time reconciling those relationship woes with the happiness and excitement of having rings, a marriage license, and exactly the right person for me. That's how I'm feeling.

license, rings, ceremony

On Friday DJ and I went to the Lake County courthouse to apply for our marriage license. There were two other couples ahead of us in line, one obviously pregnant. They asked how the Saturday courthouse ceremonies worked. The sheriff behind the desk replied that first everyone arrested Friday night posts bail. Then the judge is available for marriage ceremonies. There is a little bit of romance in that, I suppose.

My wedding band arrived last week, and I tried it on for fit. It's perfect. DJ's hands are so large that he's ordered his in the largest size available, and is still having it made nearly a full size larger. His great grandfather, so they say, wore a wedding ring big enough to pass a quarter through the center - although he was only five foot five. I love family lore.

We went to my boss' wedding on Saturday, under the first sunny skies all week. Between ceremony and reception we wandered Lincoln Park, where a woman offered to take our picture. Well, most of our picture. I like it anyway.

I was a good guest and a terrible wedding spy, observing more than snapping my camera. They are sweet together, and it was a good party. I meant to take pictures, but it didn't seem right at the moment and I really enjoyed just being a guest.

Yesterday the project that has been slowly killing my soul for two years (but especially the last two months) finally wrapped. Reports signed, party attended, files archived.

It worked out neatly at the 30 day mark - but I had nothing to do with that, I would have loved to have been clear of it a long time ago.

Anyway, what I'm trying to say is - hey, internet! I've missed you! I have so much to tell you!

Kid B turns 21 and learns an important lesson

Last night we celebrated Kid B's 21st birthday. He is a trusting kid - he left his Facebook open during the party. Bad move, Kid B! Several of us took advantage of the situation.
Fortunately he was too busy enjoying his birthday cake to be overly concerned. Happy birthday, Kid B! May you never again forget to close your browser!

I feel bad

I feel bad because I don’t really need these shiny wonderful gifts, but I really really want them. I would like to make a rule (arbitrary, of course) that any household with less than two full incomes may not give wedding presents with monetary value, because I feel bad.

I feel bad because after a hard-knocks sort of childhood, my mom is lavishing me with gifts. I don’t need gifts, but I am happy to have it all going in the right direction and the gifts are a tangible indicator. Still, I want her to spend money on herself and have the things she never had, so I feel bad.

I feel bad because everyone is buying new clothes because of the wedding. I want to tell them that it’s okay, they can come as they are. Of course they are excited and want to be shiny and new and they can make their own adult decisions. But I feel bad.

I feel bad because my single friends are celebrating my extraordinary luck in finding DJ. Which is great, it was amazing luck. But I already have the prize, and it would be okay to celebrate something that was not a line in the sand between us, so I feel bad.

Anyone else feel bad? I’m too cheap to pay for therapy at the moment, but some commiseration would be nice.

burying the lead

On Saturday DJ and I went back to the place I lived when we started dating, to buy paper and lunch. Trivia: DJ had never eaten Pad Thai until I carted it across the suburbs from this restaurant, and now he's a convert. They also have watermelon freezes that are utterly worth the sugar buzz and treadmill penance. A few years ago DJ was helping me to repaint my single-girl apartment during a May heat wave, and we drank two each in a single day. Isn't it funny, the things that become fond memories?
Also, we mailed the wedding invitations today. I packaged, DJ sealed. (He washed his tongue first. Go on, laugh. I did.) I'd resigned myself to machine cancelling, because a) it doesn't really matter and b) it wasn't worth the PO fight. But the post office lady loved the envelopes and calligraphy, so I didn't say a thing when she started hand-cancelling.

It was hard to let them go. I am a saver and a keeper, so it was hard for me to hand over Amy's envelopes. Even if that was the whole point. Go on, laugh. I did.

al fresco birthday

I had a birthday over the weekend. Maid of Honor Katie took me (with my mom and DJ) to Ravinia to see Pink Martini and Michael Feinstein.

The menu was incredible.

-Dark and Stormies (dark rum + ginger beer + lime wedge over ice: all to taste)

-Cocktail Caprese bites (basil + mozzarella + cherry tomato)

-Veggie bites (on toothpicks, to dip in hummus)

-Roasted tomato garlic cinnamon jam

-Chianti hard sausage

-Soft, wonderful wheat bread

-Cakes in jars (eight-yolk yellow cake + lemon curd filling + Swiss buttercream frosting)

My mom brought eight kinds of artisanal cheese. See that smile? That's what I'll look like when I'm ::mumblety::, more or less . This, I think, is why birthdays are still fun. Katie even brought candles for our cakes-in-jars.

You know how there's that vicious story about brides choosing ugly bridesmaids' dresses so they'll be the prettiest? That wouldn't work for me, Katie makes everything look good.

She also brings pink champagne with raspberries. It was divine.

I still worry about having parties where no one shows up. But, lesson learned, small parties with just the right people are the best.