Wedding reflections

Credit: Edy

First off, we had the best wedding ever. No, seriously. No slight intended to the many wonderful, touching, personal, genuine, heart-felt, loving weddings we’ve been to, but our wedding was the best one I’ve been to. 😀 And I think every single person who ever gets married should feel that way, so I feel lucky that I do.

So many components made it wonderful, but basically, it boiled down to this: Seppo and I love each other madly, seriously, ridiculously, committedly and our family & friends — basically all the people we love in the world — made it so clear to us in so many countless ways that they support us and our relationship. So many people did so much to help us, and so many people came so far to see us get married. We were surrounded by people who mean everything to us, and we were able to have the words we really meant said at our ceremony on our behalf. We only had eyes for each other, too far in the moment of getting married before man and God to notice anything that might have gone awry.

It had been raining buckets for weeks, but that morning, the sun broke out and we were able to celebrate our day in the glory of the sun and take some photos to commemorate the day. We had a great time. We laughed, we hugged, we cried, we kissed, and at the end of the day, we were left with great memories and horribly aching feet. Luckily, I was able to retrieve some pain killers in some deft covert action at the hotel, so we didn’t actually die from the pain.

Our lives, other than being on vacation, are the same as before. The wedding day was our day to dedicate ourselves formally to each other, but we don’t expect that that will be the best day of our lives by any stretch of the imagination. To the contrary, I hope it’s the worst day of our marriage. 😀 Because it kicked some major boot-ay.

For those of you who missed the wedding, we may post our ceremony and game card online at some point. 😀

A look back

Ah, reminiscing. So much fun. It feels like just yesterday that we were in London on our honeymoon. Ah yes, it was because we were.

Thanks to Becky, Edy, Eini, Anny, MJ, and Rye-Jin, we’ve been able to see some of the pics from the wedding, while honeymooning. And boy, have I mooned a lot of honeys in Europe! I have personally ruined the American reputation abroad. Just kidding. That’s already too late. 😀

Here is one for those of you who could not attend:

Credit: Edy

Yeah, aren’t we cute? Hee hee. ^_^

Personally, I am entertained by this one:

Credit: MacFadyen

Sorry about the jaggedness of the pics; I was lazy and just posted the pics as 90% of their real size just so they will fit on the webpage.

I am going to endeavor to do a blog-entry-per-day review of London & Paris, delayed by a week or so, so watch this space. 🙂

Thanks to all of you for making the wedding a fun, kick-ass, memorable, touching event for me & Seppo. We love you.

move it

I am supposed to move into my new window cube today. No, really. Ok, if not today, maybe in three weeks when I get back from vacation. Hee hee. Either way, I don’t care.

Speaking of moving it, Seppo and I have been going to the Y four times a week, except last week when we only went three times. Yesterday, I noticed that my heart was able to sustain a significantly faster workout pace at the range of bpm I was targetting than just three weeks ago. As a result, I was able to work out to the point where my body was actually feeling it. Up until end of last week, the limiting factor for my workouts was not my muscle strength or endurance, but my weak cardiovascular system. So I’d work out, work up a sweat, and keep my heart in the cardio zone, but not really feel anything in the muscles.

So I’ve reached one noticeable benchmark. It’s nice. Also, my calves have a lot more definition, and my legs in general feel more muscular. I’m planning to get HUUUUUGE so that I scare little children. Look at my Hulk-like shoulders! *rips through back of jacket* Roar!

Maybe not.

An AmIdol Brief

Most of this is from a message board posting I made just a few minutes ago. ETA: Just noticed that this is not actually very brief. Alas.

Lisa: Singing a KC song really illustrated her weaknesses. One of the backup singers had the same outfit on. Bad extensions in hair. Someone hates her. Thumbs down.

Kellie: Go home already. Thumbs way down.

Ace: Completes the Trio of Ugly Face Makers. Terrible. Looks really good in natural light though (in the video at the beginning). But the singing, no. Thumbs down.

Taylor: First performance since Hollywood that I liked. If he only sang songs like this to the end, I’d support him to win. Really suits him. And less spazzing! Less speaking! Yay! Thumbs up.

Mandisa: First week that I haven’t liked her singing. Weird at the beginning and shrieky at the middle and end. Someone hates her too and put her in the most unflattering pants ever. The trim at the bottom made her look like an ice cream cone. Thumbs down.

Chris: It’s like opposite day. This was my least favorite Chris performance. There was no subtlety or feeling or modulation. Bleh. Song sucked too. Thumbs down.

Katharine: Did she sing? I feel so shallow saying this, but the outfit was so hideous that I couldn’t even hear her. Why does someone hate her? Did she insult someone’s mom? I think she prob sang well, but again, totally unmemorable and disconnected. Thumbs down.

Bucky: Someone in tech hates him. Got drowned out for most of the chorus. He’s not bad, but it was very blah. Thumbs down.

Paris: Aloha did it better last season? The one before? At least it was age-appropriate for her (Aloha) and she knew how to project “sexy” without being… wrong. Was grossly like a child playing grown-up, because that’s what she is. Simon was spot on. Couldn’t get over the ick factor. Awful extensions on her too. Thumbs down.

Elliot: Thought he did great. Actually seemed memorable for me. Dancing does suck though, but he was dressed kinda nice, so no one hates him in costuming. Thumbs up.

Paula was on fire tonight with her super-inappropriate comments to Ace and Paris. Ick.

Should be in bottom three: Bucky, Ace, and Kellie.
Will be in bottom three: Bucky, Lisa, and Mandisa.

Should go home: Kellie.
Will go home: Lisa

Rock Star

Man, the other day, I looked in the mirror and vainly thought to myself that I look like a rock star… poseur, that is. It’s the hair. Then A & B came over and said the same thing. Bwahaha.

—

I read Up with Grups today, via Angry Chad, and it’s like *everyone* we know. Hahaha. I guess we are now “grups” or “yupsters” (although frankly, I’m not so much the hipster half of the yuppie-hipster mashup). I feel I can post about this here because the article casually mentions the “rock star-ification of America”. I get my themes where I can. Don’t judge.

—

I really enjoyed Rock Star: INXS last summer. Imagine my delight to hear that it will be back again this summer! Except without INXS, of course, which is sad because they were an awesome band, but it wouldn’t make sense for the premise of the show if they came back. This time, “the new season would focus on finding a lead singer for a new group entitled Supernova, featuring Mötley Crüe drummer Tommy Lee, former Metallica bassist Jason Newsted, and former Guns N’ Roses guitarist Gilby Clarke.” [via the wikipedia link]

The Final Countdown*

*I can only assume this entry title makes you slide around making grand “magic” gestures. If not, what’s the matter with you?

We have 11 days left until we get married. This morning, we obtained our marriage license. Dun dun dun! Thursday morning, we are going to pick up our rings. The seating chart is more or less finalized. Last night, we worked out some details for the reception. We picked up thank you cards and place cards yesterday as well. We have some interesting last details to pin down.

I guess we might start freaking out next week, but we are doing pretty well right now. 🙂

On a somewhat related note, I got my hair dyed & cut two Saturdays ago (in an attempt to — as Colin phrased it — get “dolled up” for the wedding), but wasn’t happy with the color. It was supposed to have some red and goldish highlights, but instead, my base hair color ended up an orangy red, with some lighter streaks. This Sunday, I went back and got it fixed, and now, there is more dark brown and the red is more intensely red. I like it.

Obligatory AI Post + Random Tidbit

Stephanie covered it really well here (for the record, I only disagree with 2.5 of the people 😀 but I’m all “Sing it, girlfriend!” over the rest of the people), but I figured I have to do my weekly rehash.

The problem is, I don’t see a real winner in the bunch, so I am just going to put them into three categories:

Want to punch:

• Kellie Pickler. I’ve always wanted to punch her.
• Taylor Hicks. I used to like him.
• Paris Bennett. I used to like her too. I mostly only want to punch her when she isn’t singing.
• Katharine McPhee. I only want to punch her when she isn’t singing, especially when she is talking or giggling with/hugging Kellie.

Don’t want to punch:

• Mandisa. I don’t think she’ll win, not by a long shot.
• Chris Daughtry.
• Elliot Yamin. Grows on me every week.

Can’t care enough to punch:

• Kevin Covais. Snore.
• Lisa Something. Can’t even remember her last name. Great singer, but does she have a soul? Any feelings?
• Bucky Covington. Nice guy, but snooze.
• Someone else. Oh yeah, Ace Young. Poor pretty Ace. If he were a little better, he’d be a star. If only he didn’t do the crooked half-sneer that scares the heck out of me while “emoting”…

In other news, I am going to get moved to a window cube! It seems like on days I go to the Y, great things happen. Hehehe.

Best Day Ever*

*Title and concept stolen from kerowack.

Yesterday was a great, great day.

We got up early and went to the Y. I had what I have to guess was a good workout on the elliptical for about 35 minutes, then washed up and headed in to work. I called the salon who worked on my hair last Saturday to get the redness fixed up, found out about insuring the engagement ring, found the address of the county clerk’s office to get our marriage license, and made arrangements for Seppo’s birthday. And all before noon, and while still getting a normal amount of work done!

Then I went to lunch with a friend, then worked some more, until I was pulled aside by the manager who is leading the current project I’m working on. Basically, he wants me to work in his team and also wants me to gradually roll off the things I’m working on, which is EXACTLY what I want and had written up on my yearly review. Woo!

Then I spoke to a couple of coworkers who are working on the same project as me, and the conversations went well, being both illuminating and productive.

My daffodils from my contribution to the ACS arrived in the afternoon, so I put out a little vase of daffodil buds in my cube. 🙂

My drive over to Seppo’s work was pretty fast! No accidents and no noticeable slowdown due to the rain. Strange.

Seppo and I headed over to his parents’ house to pick up the dog on the way home, and his mom had a wedding gift from one of her friends! Woo!

Then we went home to have delicious leftover braised short ribs. I drove by Alan & Becky’s house to drop off a couple of books (A Breath of Snow and Ashes by Diana Gabaldon and The Duke and I by Julia Quinn) for poor sick Becky. Then I sat down to watch the return of Prison Break.

Evening online-ness told me that one of my cousins won’t be able to make the wedding, which was the sole bummer of the day. But in my dejected websurfing, I hit upon A Truly Awesome Idea ™ for the wedding favors, which Seppo really liked too. Yay!

I hope today will be as good.

Y not

I wish I could control my urge to make punny blog titles. They are not very good, either. But maybe this will count as training for a future career as a crossword puzzle editor or a headline writer for The Daily Show. *cough*

Anyway, as Seppo mentioned, we joined the YMCA on Saturday. As a sidenote, I am somewhat weirded out that we joined, because of the C for Seppo and because of the M for me, but I suppose it’s open to everyone.

The facilities are AWESOME with a capital A. It’s really ginormous and and squeaky clean. It has a really big (but shallow — yay!) pool, several handball and squash courts, dozens and dozens of different exercise equipment on different floors, saunas, jacuzzis, and steamrooms (yes, different from saunas, apparently), a double-wide basketball court, and several rooms for classes.

Yesterday, instead of sleeping in, we went to exercise. It made my Sunday seem really long and productive. We went this morning before work too. We are going to try to go ever MWF, and on the weekends too.

da ladeez

I’ve been itching to blog about the bachelorette party weekend, for two days now, but I’ve been wondering what is kosher to write about and what is totally uncool with The Unspoken (well, sometimes spoken) Girl Code ™. And I just don’t know.

I will say this: I had a really awesome, kick-ass time. Everywhere we went and everything we did was really fun and/or relaxing. <-- Ok, that HAD to be sufficiently vague. I fully expect to get beat up by someone later if I screw up. Hmm, I wonder if I can name who was there. Yeah. I want to talk about all the stuff. No, must refrain. A few friends are looking at different career ops right now, and it's prob best to keep them ungoogleable for now. :D The cabin and food and “entertainment”* was all far better than I had anticipated, and my anticipation level was high! 😀 Ok, that was probably ok too. Everyone involved in the planning did a superb job tracking down and booking things. There are serious potential event planners here, yo.

The very best thing was being able to spend time with people I care about and feel like I either bonded or learned more about each person that was there. I honestly saw more sides to people I already thought I knew so well, and I am so glad for the opportunity.

This entry was brought to you by the word “friendship” and “love”.

* The word “entertainment” is in quotes to maximize the potential paranoia of our SOs. 😀