My friend Sean forwarded this one, and I think it's hysterical:

"Boy, don’t you feel safer now that Martha Stewart’s behind bars? O.J. & Kobe are walking around, Scott Peterson's going to be soon, but they take the one woman in
America willing to cook and clean and work in the yard and haul her off to jail."
- posted by cam @ 1:03 PM (0) comments

 
Brain dump of a psycho bride…
-two somewhat distant family members (Dad’s cousin, Mom’s cousin) with cancer, one with complications from…mulching.
-4 invitations completed last night, only 9,999,996 to go
-wedding details…lots of them
-Funny article on boring meetings
-packing for a visit with my little brother this weekend. Since I’ve talked him into trying a cyclocross race, I’m hoping he enjoys it
-Sean is doing his first organized ride this weekend. I hope enjoys that as well
-so much work at work, so little focus
-my teeth suck. Any trip to the dentist becomes an exercise in maxing out dental insurance for the year.
-floor mats of the new car are dirty already. Sigh.
-my dishes seem to be breeding
-please let there be minimal casualties of either US/Iraqi soldiers or innocents in Fallujah
-weather here has been oddly fantastic the last few months. But right now it’s 30 degrees to go with the sunshine
-XM radio rules
-workout schedule has slid into oblivion
-this will be my first Christmas in my life that I haven’t spent with Mom & Dad. But I may get to see my brother, so that’s the tradeoff
-need to teach Fred to sleep at my back instead of where I want to put my legs. We’d both stay warmer
-Fred turned off the light last night, saving me from having to crawl out from under my nice warm blankets when I was done reading
-4 ½ weeks until sanity

- posted by cam @ 8:29 AM (0) comments

 
Busy Busy Busy!

I got a lot accomplished towards the wedding yesterday. First off, we have a limo. It’s a 10-person stretch, and now I’m trying to figure out how to cram as many people in as I can. What can I say, nothing says “class” like people hanging out of the moon roof. Then I called the portrait studio and made arrangements for an engagement portrait. I know, I know, it’s really late, but that it’s getting done at all, I’m attributing to a restful weekend and a sudden burst of enthusiasm. Then I called the bridal shop yesterday, and my dress is in. The dreaded dress fitting is now scheduled for next Tuesday night. I ordered shoes (ballet flats, nothing to write home about) which will hopefully be there in time. Hopefully. Fingers crossed. What’s the worst that happens, though, I stand in bare feet instead of 1/8” off of the ground? And last, but not least, the jelly bellys are in. (Chris, feel free to add jelly belly explanation here: ____________).

So the slow march to wedding completeness continues. Other than the thank you cards (no, I didn’t, don’t ask) and needing to finish up the ceremony details, I think I’m to the point where other women won’t point and laugh at me when we talk about our weddings. I can’t even begin to tell you how much I’m looking forward to a few quiet weeks at home with my hubby after the wedding. But on the plus side, whenever anyone asks, I’m still excited about the wedding. Even being stressed can’t take away from how much I’m looking forward to getting married.

Last night, I went to see a speaker named Terri Tempest Williams. She's an environmentalist and author. Since I tend to be sort of green (not as much as I probably should be...find me a roach, and I'll find a can of poison and hose the place down), I found her to be quite interesting. Alas, our politics parted ways from there, so as usual at Pittsburgh Arts and Lectures, the Q&A period had questions from the audience that started out with "Now that all of these fundamentalists want the earth destroyed..." or some such thing. I really ought to just leave the Q&A period. It's a shame, but it's most definitely a hostile environment for anyone who might not agree with the quite liberal politics of the folks sitting in the audience. The friend I was with, who's on the opposite end of the political spectrum, gets it, though. She considered asking "How does this translate from the person who can spend her days in the desert to the single black Mom working at Walmart". So we may disagree on where the priorities should be in addressing the woes of the country, but it's nice that at least she hasn't called me a redneck fundamentalist...yet. Wait until I tell her about the plans for the limo though.

Under the heading “perfect timing”, my next test for CPIM is supposed to occur in December. I think I’ll be able to pick the 5 most stressful periods of time from Sept 1, 2004-Aug 31, 2005 based on when these dang tests fall.

- posted by cam @ 7:47 AM (0) comments

 
Good morning all! First, we’re going to have to start with Garfield Ridge. No, that’s not the place where the FBI shot that survivalist family, that’s Ruby Ridge. Garfield Ridge is a blog that Chris found somehow, and this guy is really funny. Our favorite so far has been about hypoallergenic cats. Anyway, last week Chris was talking about a blog post (which he attributed to Garfield Ridge) he read about Bono, who is involved in world economic policy, starting Vertigo with Uno, Dos, Tres, Catorce (1,2,3, 14). I told him he was wrong, that the word was cuatro. Anyway…. Kids, I should just never bet. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve cursed myself for not betting on something because, darn it, I was right. But the minute the words “Ya wanna bet?” pop out of my mouth, well, I’m just wrong. And I was wrong about Vertigo, it is Catorce.

So Dave, since I’ve emailed you AND posted a link on my humble little blog, do I win now? Oh, and at the risk of souding like I'm sucking up...I like this post a lot too. No need to cross-link to my blog, though, this blog self-destructs in less than 5 weeks.

Which is a nice segue back to the topic…less than 5 weeks until sanity...

I took this weekend as a break from the wedding, but promising myself that I would commit to writing 2 thank you cards per day for…apparently the rest of my life. But for this gorgeous weekend, nothing wedding related. Saturday we did a day trip to Harrisburg for Chris’s race. This was a crowd pleaser for the whole family. Chris got to race and spend a whole day talking with fellow cross racers. Fred got to play at the dog park and enjoy his rock-star-dog status (complete with rock star tantrums anytime any of the million other dogs came within view.) He barked into the mike for the announcer, sucked up to the women, and in general worked the park. And I had a chance to catch up with friends that I haven’t seen much of this year.
After we got back, we took our Target list out and spent some of those gift cards (no dog food, I promise, Becky!) It’s amazing how much stuff kind of gets under the radar of the gift registries, and we put a nice little dent into the gift cards. In half an hour, we spent close to $200, with some ideas as to how we’ll spend the rest of it.

Sunday was far mellower. A quick run for me, a nice bike ride for Chris, a trip to the dog park for Fred, some general house cleaning, and then dinner at a new restaurant called Zyngs. (Very tasty – and, Erin, there are lots of vegetarian selections!) The best part is, we can now walk through the dining room without major injury. I hadn’t realized how oppressive that was getting. After the various trips, cleaning out the Cavalier, coats of all sizes (because of the transitional weather) hung over chairs, and wedding gifts, things were threatening to get out of control. It’s not clean, but at least it’s closer to reasonable.

So anyway, we’re both refreshed, and ready to tackle the week. Hope everyone else’s weekend went as well!
cb

- posted by cam @ 8:14 AM (0) comments