Countdown has begun...like, days ago.


Okay lemurs, this is it. Only three days to go. Can you say stress? I knew that you could. As some of you know, we are cooking 98% of the food ourselves. That process has begun steadily, but it's been several all-nighters while we prep everything, convert to the big freezer (big enough for several bodies in there...hmmm...have to remember that) and start again. If nothing else, the guests will be well-fed.

Having a wedding on Rosh Hoshana (sp?) is supposed to guarantee good weather, but we are hearing otherwise. No matter. It will be glorious, we have tents and other coverings. And the umbrella of our love! Big expansive drying (but not too dry) Umbrella Of Love! For all 120 or so who are expected to show! (But those of you coming might want to bring one of those more conventional Umbrellas Of Fabric! in case the love leaks a bit around the edges...or if there are typhoon style winds. The Umbrella Of Love is bubble like, but limited all the same).

I'm in HotLanta right now, getting ready to do my last bit of research before officially leaving for wedding and honeymoon. I am not distracted very much. Really, I am not. My clients may disagree, but what do they know? And they've already been invoiced so what can they do? Ha! Now THAT's customer satisfaction.

Okay, I may not have time to write again before the big day, but I will be memorizing each moment for careful retelling at some later point. And on Monday it's of to Italy for a Moon of Honey. Blogging might be short there as well. I suspect we will have other things to do. Ciao!




posted by MT at 3:01 PM |

John Scalzi laments (sort of) about the death of cool

Lovely turn of phrase, has this guy. Noted that here before, I think. Here he discusses the laws of time travel that prevent "minivan" and "cool" from occupying the same space, lest the universe implode. It's simple physics, people. No use crying over it.

With the purchase of a minivan, of course, comes the admission that our Days of Coolness are now officially behind us. We face this fact with nary a complaint; indeed, we have applied for the personalized plate "NOTCOOL" for our new mode of family transportation. Because, really, why fight it. Get Shorty notwithstanding, there is nothing cool about minivans, nor will there ever be. Minivans are relentlessly practical vehicles, and practical is the bitter enemy of cool. I suppose one could gamely try to advance the theory that practical is the new cool, but that is as likely to be successful as suggesting receding harlines are the new cool, or that adult obesity is the new cool. You can't change the goalposts of cool just because you've been shoved off the field.

Yes indeed. Just wait until Athena is old enough to form an opinion about how cool the folks' minivan is. Nothing like heel-grinding that all-but-extinguished flame of cool into the dust a little further, what?

Of course, the Camry yours truly is sporting around in is the very pinnacle of sedan cool (and how redundant is THAT!? I ask you). As Rabbit said recently: pot, kettle, etc.



posted by MT at 4:12 PM |

Getting nothing done...


Back finally from LA, on the red-eye as usual. People let me tell you that if you ever pass through first class on the way to steerage, glancing furtively or not so furtively at the fat sloppy businessmen languishing in those oversized faux leathery vinyl seats, wishing you could be they, don't waste your time. First class is meaningless. The only benefit is the cocktail or two you might order. Food comes shrink-wrapped (at least you don't have to pay for it, which is the only way you will eat on a plane in coach anymore. [Oh, and note to the airline industry: If you are going to force your passengers to pay seven dollars for a sandwich, you'd better be sure to at least have enough to go around. Running out at row 11 when there are 27 rows in the plane is about as lame as it gets]). And they will hang your jacket up for you. Which is totally worth the extra six hundred bucks you'll pay for that ticket.

Anyway, back in the office today, rummaging around in my brain trying to come up with something to tell my clients about what we did all week. I'll think of something, and it will DAZZLE! I tell you.

In the meantime, here's something that I found utterly hilarous for some reason. From Bill Maher's blog:

Protesters stripped this week to oppose the WTO meeting in Cancun, Mexico, because nothing exposes the exploits of global capitalism like a ring of saggy white asses. In my book, it’s not a protest when you’re doing what you do on your day off. And it’s not really a moral crusade when you’re one step removed from the naked LSU frat boy drinking the funnel in the cabana next door. So let’s just call it what it is, shall we? A vacation from Seattle.

On a more serious note, please please check out Baghdad Burning, a blog being written by an Iraqi inside Iraq (allegedly, since we can never really confirm these things, I suppose). Compelling stuff, and a nice measured look at what we have wrought over there. There is even less to be proud of than Dubya and company would have us believe.


posted by MT at 3:58 PM |

We should only be so lucky.

Lemurs, we have attended the wedding event of the century. For real. If we get close to that level of ease and elegance and the apparently supernatural cooperation of mother nature her very self, well then we will have something.

The entire weekend was idyllic, beginning with the drive. Well, okay, beginning midway through the drive, once we got past New York and started hitting New England proper. LK and I learned as we traveled through the hinterlands in June that we are good traveling companions, although I was a little anxious about arriving on time (and when am I not anxious about something? If I weren’t anxious about something, I’d worry). Not to be undone, however, the universe decided once again to let me worry for nothing, and we arrived nearly an hour ahead of schedule. Checked in to the charming little B&B, unpacked and napped a bit, ironed and walked over for the rehearsal dinner.

New England in the fall is a prize worth paying a great price for, even though we are not really in the full fall-ish ness of it yet. Temperate breezes, sunlight oozing from every pore, and water and yachts and seagulls, oh MY! It’s enough to make me forget about the desert, for at least a weekend. We spent Saturday tooling around on foot and via auto, although we both realized too late that a bike would have been a better way to go. Too many pedestrians (actually, too many cars; the pedestrians were not the problem). And the best of Newport is not found by whizzing past in a car, even at slower speed. We visited the mansions from the road, not having time to do the proper tour, and spent a few hours on the beach just soaking it in and trying to regroup.

Funniest moment I forgot to write down but remembered it anyway – while moving past one of the antebellum mansions along Bellvue, LK commented that the word that pops up when she sees that architecture is cerebellum, not antebellum. Most excellent lexical substitution! What would a cerebellum mansion be like? Kind of dark, the occupants would have very good balance and coordination but would probably be miserable conversationalists (gotta have that cortex, you know...) But balance is a good thing to have.

So the wedding. As I said, the world was conspiring with them. Brilliant sunny shore-side event, right at the water’s edge at the Naval Officer’s Club. Many bright young officers in pristine white, swords at the ready, to usher and guard the guests. Interesting about those folks, who seemed so horribly young to be standing so straight all the time – we noted that they were in complete uniform for the duration of the evening’s festivities. Oh sure, they put the swords down once or twice, when they weren’t knighting the guests, but no top buttons were open on the dress whites. Apparently, you’re either in uniform or you ain’t. Probably worth remembering that.

The ceremony was flawless and beautiful. The readings (even mine) were funny and appropriate and meaningful without being ponderous or sappy. The couple who married them played off each other fluidly, and both Wendy and Art pledged themselves to each other with careful thought and lovely poetry. (Actually, I have to assume that Art’s pledge was beautiful – he certainly seemed to mean it – because as he launched into his vows a military chopper flew overhead, drowning him out entirely. Neither of them seemed to even notice, but I suspect that this gives him a free “yeah, but you didn’t really hear me say that” when Wendy wonders why he hasn’t painted the house like he vowed to at the wedding. Or whatever he said).

After vows and song, we took a group shot at the water’s edge, and tossed smooth stones in the surf, guaranteeing the couple as many years of happiness together as there were ripples fanning out across the surface. Beautiful tradition, and a new one on me.

So now the ever important question: what do we steal from the ceremony for our own? Well, scattering colorful sea glass around the centerpieces at the reception seems a good idea, so we’ll probably do something similar, maybe with glass beads instead (we can’t really make good use of the nautical theme, unless we fill a wading pool with blue-green water and float paper boats while the guests drop gravel and count the ripples..) But we liked the idea of having a Master Binder filled with all the readings, vows, and so on, like they did. It eliminates the guess work and the requirement that anyone remember to bring (or memorize) anything. Efficiency is good. We were already going to have a ceremony filled with chamber music. The seagulls were a nice touch (they seemed to flock over us almost on cue – again, supernatural wiccan control over nature and the weather at work here) but we might have to settle for pigeons or maybe Gail’s chickens.

And of course, I’m all in favor of drowning out the vows where I promise to clean the garage or put the toilet seat down, just to give myself an out. And no, I’m not sure how specific the vows are going to be, but LK likes lists, so there you are…


Kidding, darling.

posted by MT at 9:47 AM |

Wendy and the A-Man!


Ahoy lemurs, it's been since August that I've written here! Well, only a week, but it feels longer, and it was technically last month. Remember when you were a kid and you would get ready for the Christmas break and one of your teachers who thought she was more clever than she really was would say "See you next year!" and for that split second, you had the thrill of thinking that you were DONE! for the year? And then the reality would sink in, and your little head would fill with sadness until you remembered all the presents in your immediate future, and then you forgot all about it? Anyone?

Anyway, I am taking an extended weekend to visit Newport, to attend the wedding of Dr. Wendy and Art ( I think we should develop a sitcom with the headline as its title. I would watch it! I would.)

Yours gregariously will be reading, with much flourish and fanfare, excerpts from Walt Whitman's Songs from the Open Road. at the ceremony tomorrow. [ha, it turns out it's Songs of the Open Road, but luckily Google doesn't care about that]. Excerpts, meaning the sexy parts. Just kidding...it's Walt Whitman people! What isn't a sexy part? Leaves of Grass, anyone? Smoking hot! Have to fan myself just thinking about it.

So I will hopefully have much exciting news to report. Art is a naval officer, which means that this will be the best wedding ever (prior to ours) because there will be an assortment of men bearing swords! Who hasn't fanatasized about having a little swordplay at a wedding reception, just to break things up? It can't just be me. Anyway, I will photograph the festivities with the spanking new digital camera that LK gave me as a wedding gift, and post some of that here, with the happy couple's permission. I'll be sure to get some shots of the duels, I promise.


Rate your music my ass

That makes sense if you know that "Rate Your Music" is the site at which I keep my comments, which have been acting particularly stupid for the past couple of weeks. They are offline a lot of the time and when online, they don't let the reader know when the comments have been updated. Where's the fun in that? I need to find another service. I'm thinking of Haloscan. More on that as I get this stuff together.

Okay, gotta go wake LK and hit the road. Think happy wedding thoughts, folks.


posted by MT at 9:57 AM |