Postcards
Wednesday, November 26th, 2008
I’m almost done designing the Save the Dates, so I hope to get those printed and mailed sometime this week. I’m not getting them out as early as I’d hoped so I need to call my aunts and uncle and remind them about my wedding next year before they make Thanksgiving plans.
This weekend I got a bunch more stuff cleaned up and reorganized at home. We need to pick up the wifi dongle that we think is at my future-in-laws place so I can relocate the computer desk.
We had a chance to go to Disneyland on Saturday, but as tired as I was all last week, and this weekend, and still some this week, it’s good I stayed home to rest. Plus I messed up and read my calendar wrong for one of my medications so I’ve been all hormonal last week and this weekend. Definitely not a good time to be traveling and dealing with crowds.
We had the Primerica guy out with our “FNA” Financial Needs Analysis. It was fairly interesting and we’re basically on track with where I want to be. The mutual funds and bond funds he gave us info on seem interesting, so we’re going to run that by my pirate’s dad and see what he thinks. Most of what I read online about them is that their products are fairly standard, but to avoid their “work part time for more money” offer since they’re basically yet another multi-level-marketing corp (like Amway/Quixtar).
Email cleaning:
July 3rd I got to hang out with MM, JL and a few other folks at MM’s new place. AP unfortunately had to work. We were in the bay for the Fourth of July, so we got together that night to play board games and hang out. Good times as always with that crew.
New Miyazaki movie to look forward to: Ponyo on a Cliff by the Sea, which will be released in Japan in July, 2008.
My pirate sent me this article June 27:
Explosive Art: Explosive Art Created With Rocket Fuel, Gunpowder, Propellants and Bullets
Someone I know happens to work at the SCAD, so I forward it to them and got this great response:
“I remember receiving his purchase requisition for that rocket fuel and a couple rounds for that uzi. It was fun explaining that one to the VP for Financing”
Now that’s what I call an interesting day at work!
Fourth of July weekend I think is also when we went to see the San Francisco Theological Seminary - really nice location but not one that would work for us. Great for an outdoor spring or summer wedding though! And I think this might also be when we stopped in SF and found my wedding dress?
Mom’s wedding shower was in June, I think I blogged about that already, but if not, my new step-sister helped host it and was really awesome. We had it at her place and she was a huge help in making it such a success.
My pirate’s cousin’s daughter’s (is that second cousin?) birthday was in June (I think?) and we put together a pot of colorful flowers for her. CE (his cousin’s wife) also started taking massage certification courses, so we got to be practice dummies, which was wonderful.
July my cousin JH was down for a martial arts convention (where he passed his black belt test!) so we drove to the bay area to meet up and hang out. We stopped by a Starbucks to get drinks and chat for a while, and then we decided to see Hancock, which I really enjoyed. It definitely had some interesting twists.
PSA: If you use Gmail - go to Settings (upper right corner) then scroll to the bottom and select the option to always use HTTPS and save your settings. This forces gmail to always use the encrypted https instead of http (which leaves it open to attack).
August 18th Cookie was constipated really badly (which can signal serious health problems in a cat) so we took her to the vet the next day and a few time afterwards for more test. Turns out that her kidneys are starting to fail from old age as she’s almost 9 or 10 and her breed (Snowshoe) on average live only 10-14 years instead of 18. 
So she’s now on a special diet and gets fed separately from the other guys. So she’s put weight back on which is good, and next month when they all go in for their annual check we’ll do a blood test to see how she’s doing.
September 20th was a bit crazy. I helped set up JG’s bridal shower (and then attended of course) then drove home to grab my pirate and we were off to the bay area for a BBQ and games with MM, JL, AP and gang. So super busy, but a ton of fun that day too.
Then the 26th both my parents and my brother came to visit and celebrate my brothers birthday. Then my pirates folks joined us for lunch on the 27th to meet my dad & his wife. That night was JG’s bachelorette party, then the next day was Peanut’s baby shower. Whew! Talk about a non-stop weekend.
I baked everything cookies (3 batches!) as birthday gifts… I was so tired by the last batch though that I forgot to add any of the sugar. And it turns out that the brown sugar is a key ingredient for the shape and texture - it’s what lets the cookies spread and stay soft. So the last batch came out as hard crumbly balls. They still tasted good, so I took some to the office and my pirate took some to the lab (and kept them for himself instead of sharing, hehe!). So I got two batches off in the mail and have one to remake still.
JG&BW’s wedding was Oct. 11. My pirate went there for the bachelor party on the 9th, and the bride and I drove up together on the 10th. We stayed at a nice cabin that is owned by the parents of one of my pirate’s former coworkers. Wedding was awesome, almost everyone danced for the whole time, the dance floor was packed - memorable moments: being Rick Rolled, the Conga line and the teenage boy hiding under a table to avoid participating in it. We hung out and had brunch buffet together.
The gang’s joint birthday bbq was the 18th. And as always, awesome food and great company. I almost forgot that I was just getting over a cold. I think maybe the tequila helped get rid of my sore throat. 
November 1 J&SP had a Halloween/Day of the Dead party, the monster finger cookies were especially tasty. We got in some zombie flux which was fun. Also earlier that day we checked out a possible wedding location in Fairfield, but we ended up deciding on the golf course in Santa Rosa.
And I’m down to 22 emails in my inbox finally. Yay!
Fun times! I stil love the dancing robots. 
