Cheryl & Chris's Wedding Blog
Friday, October 15, 2004
It is finished.
The bulk of the invitations went into the mail last night about 9:30PM. We had a mini celebration around the mailbox with Chris working the mailbox slot saying "Feed me Seymour" while I dumped in handfuls of invitations and sang conga songs. Fred was mostly perplexed, but he was willing to put up with anything to get out of the house. So basically what's left on the invitations is some clean up stuff - a few out of town cousins whose children's names I need, a few missing addresses, that sort of thing.
All in all, it was a super productive night.
We went to Men's Wearhouse to get tuxedo's taken care of. Let's start by saying that while Chris has been ok with going to get a tux, he's looked forward to it with all of the joy of a dental appointment. We walked in, and the first thing he noticed were some really cool sweaters next to the door. The next thing we noticed was a guy who pointed us towards the tuxedo rental department. He looked like he stepped off the set of The Godfather. The idea of his taking Chris's measurement made me worry whether it would be for a tux or for a coffin. But then once we got to the tuxedo area, we met the nice women who worked there. Poor Chris, after all this time in Pittsburgh, he finally finds the hot chicks that are his age and size while he's getting measured for his wedding tux. He feels that he hasn't been going formal as much as he needs to. So maybe he should rent a tux for Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year's, Valentine's....
Anyone, he picked out the tux that he liked, (No, I didn't override anything, he has great taste!) and got measured. We placed the deposit, and everything is completed. Tuxes will be ready to be picked up the Thursday before the wedding, and then get returned on Sunday. If you'd like to see what he picked out, go the tuxedo rental portion of the Men's Wearhouse site, Click on "View Wedding Album" and go to Charcoal Gray Cutaway, Gray Striped Slacks, Gray vest. It's going to be very nice!
Progress! It does my bridal heart good!
Thursday, October 14, 2004
I think I feel guilty about being stressed now. At least neither of us have to worry about life threatening diseases. Anyway, time for me to get over it, and move on.
Ahhhhhh…a new political low in Tennessee:
I think regardless of who you’re voting for, EVERYONE can agree this is tasteless and unacceptable.
Yesterday I officially melted down. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, after 6 months of relative bridal calm, I looked around my trashed house, realized my CPIM cert books were sitting untouched in the corner of the room with a test impending, and looked at the stack of invitations not yet finished that have to go out on Friday (aka tomorrow), and freaked the heck out. I got a hold of myself, somewhat, took the dog for a walk, bought some stamps, and sat down to work on invites with my loving fiancé next to me. That’s when I found out that the 65 invites that we had completed, and sealed, were all missing the little card that tells you when the actual reception is and where. (Immediately following, and at Royale Orleans. The map will tell you how to get there)
I’m sure you can imagine the next hour or two, and you can probably spare a lot of sympathy for Chris who had to put up with it. I attempted to steam envelopes. Not very effective, really. I got one out of three open cleanly before I gave up in despair.
Finally I called Mom, and God bless her for being soothing and coming up with a game plan. Basically, we’re going to fling ourselves on the mercy of those who had envelopes that were already stamped (about half, mostly from my family). The rest, I’m just going to tear open and re-address. So if you get a phone call from me, or from Mom, be gentle. It was a long night.
Wednesday, October 13, 2004
Well one real positive about the cooler weather is I get my living teddy bear back. Now that it's colder out (Pittsburgh temps have been lows in the upper 30s for the last week or two), Fred snuggles up at night. I'll wake up to find a dog's head next to me on the pillow, or a doggy body snuggled up adding to the warmth of the blankets. Of course, it also means that sometimes I find myself being scooted off of the pillow. He's a sly one and a king at hogging the bed.
As for wedding....OK! Ok! I haven't finished the invitations! ARGH! Sheesh people....breathe, breathe, breathe. Today's goal is to finish all of the addressing. Tomorrow's goal is to get to the post office so we can finish stuffing envelopes. And Friday's goal is to get everything in the mail. I think I can, I think I can, I think I can. Oh yeah, and we're supposed to hit the tux place tonight. No, really, this time we mean it!
Monday, October 11, 2004
This weekend was....exciting.
Friday, Chris took Freddy to the vet to find out what was causing the limp. It turns out Fred sprained his ankle and in theory shouldn’t be off the leash for 6 weeks. Humph. Right. Our two year old shepherd mix who’s used to a run, if not doggy play, every day is now going to quietly sit and wait for his ankle to heal. (Chris said the vets were amazed at how solid he is! After 6 weeks of sitting around eating doggy treats, that won't happen.) But we’re doing our best with him, and he wasn’t off the leash at all this weekend, so 2 days down, 40 to go.
Then Friday evening we headed off to Cincinnati for a weekend of races. Chris announced for the men’s elite UCI (that’s internationally recognized) race on Sunday. We arrived at the exit for our hotel around 8pm, and that’s when the transmission on the Race Taxy breathed it’s last. But even in our bad luck, we still had good luck. We were two blocks away from our hotel, and as Chris coaxed the car into the hotel parking lot, we went past a mechanic. Saturday morning we spent trying to line up a mechanic (didn’t want to get too crazy on prices if we could avoid it, so Chris called around), get a rental car, and get some sort of plan in place. Chris rode his bike to the rental car place, but I gave him wrong directions and his 6 mile ride turned out to be 17 miles. Then we flung all of our stuff in the car, and headed off to try to catch the race. Usually Chris rides the “B” race, but that started too early for us to get to. So we went with the next plan, which was Chris riding the “A” race. We got to the race at 2:00. The race was supposed to start at 2:00. People at registration were wonderful beyond belief, and the race was running a bit late. So he did get a chance to race, although I’m sure he felt hammered by the time it was all said and done.
Once the race was done, Fred and I went back to the car and mixed Chris’s accelerade. When Chris got back to the car, we started talking to the woman next to us, Ann, who not only turned out to be a friendly, wonderful person, she also lives near the race promoter for the Sunday race, Mitch. Since were staying with him that evening, it made things really easy. We followed her to a nearby restaurant for some munchies, the promoter’s girlfriend met us there, and then we followed her home. There we met Indy, the Jack Russell Terrier. Indy wasn’t pleased to meet Fred at all. So we kept them separated for a while, but eventually, tentatively let them hang out together. They seemed to do ok at first. After about 15 minutes, Indy had enough of this kindness to the intruder, and I can only describe her leap at Fred as resembling the rabbit scene in Monty Python’s Holy Grail. She leapt from about 6 feet away, it looked like a wire was attached to her back, and the dogfight ensued. Somewhat. They were the worst fighters in the world, thankfully, as no damage appears to have been done. Anyway, despite the dogs not getting along, the humans did, so with Freddy snoozing in a bedroom and Indy curled up by Mitch’s ear on the sofa, harmony was restored.
The next morning we were off to the cyclocross race. The weather was fantastic, the high hitting around 75 in mid afternoon, sunshine, crystal blue skies. I cherish these days because the very first cross race I went to after Chris and I started dating was 40 degrees with snow, sleet, and slush. That’s more fun for the racer, but not fun at all for the spectator. It was a really cool set up, with a fabulous course, some trials guys showing off their skills on a bike, free hamburgers, and lots of fans near the start-finish area. The course was fabulous, and we had a great time. Chris did really well, placing 4th, and then wowed the crowd with his skills on the mike. SUNDAY! SUNDAY! SUNDAY! Unfortunately I didn’t pay as much attention to my hydration as I should have, and I was pretty sick and dehydrated when I got home, leaving poor Chris to do all of the work, and bring me a bottle of Gatorade, while I crashed out.
Soooooo…as Chris puts it, after this weekend we’re on a really tight budget, which means no more going out to dinner, we can’t take Fred dog to the dog park to hang out, and we’re ditching the cable box this weekend, so no tv. If anyone needs us, we should be very easy to find.
