Michael (aka Lonewalker) ...

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    Friday, September 30, 2005

    In Theaters Now



    Joss Whedon's Serenity opens today. W00t!!

    (If you're one of the poor few who haven't heard of Firefly, I'd recommend checking your local video rental for the first couple episodes. Better yet, just buy it from Amazon!) ;-)



    More after the weekend.

    Tuesday, September 27, 2005

    Less Than Three Weeks

    The reality of what we're getting into is starting to weigh on me and Kate. We do still very much want to get married, but it's jarring to realize how much our life is about to change in just a couple of weeks.

    I think I'm holding up pretty well...just a spot of anxiety that crops up now and again. Kate's keeping things together fairly well too. She mentioned to me that the hardest part of this time period is having to listen to everyone (family and friends) telling her, "Oh, you HAVE to do it this way!" or "You CAN'T do it that way!" or so forth. I want to tell her to just yell at everybody to shut up and let her enjoy HER wedding....but that's not an attitude either of us really want to have set in so for now we just keep muddling through.

    If anyone pushes her too far though...I swear I'll lose it. Gotta defend the sanity and happiness of my girl, y'know. :-)

    On to happier subjects!!!!

    The bridal shower that Betsy organized for Kate last Sunday went off without a hitch. It sounds like Kate actually enjoyed being the center of attention this time, which was nice. We also realized that we have quite a few seriously generous friends! Our sincere thanks to everyone who contributed to the fiesta!

    In case you're interseted, you can click here for some pictures that my mother took at the shindig. (Please forgive Kate; she has a tendency to blink when a camera is pointed at her.) ;-)

    As far as other preparation details are concerned, we're actually in good shape. I've had more than a few folks ask me if we're feeling overwhelmed by all the details. To which I cheerfully respond, "No, most things are just falling into place." And get this: Most people don't actually believe me!

    Let's see...we're meeting with Father Larry on Friday to discuss the final details of the ceremony. We FINALLY got around to picked out the readings that we liked so we're ready for that. Once we hammer out the procession of the ceremony, we can e-mail our sister (Aileen and Dianna) and give them the readings that they'll be doing for us. We may need to track down a couple more volunteers for additional readings but we'll see about that on Friday.

    We picked up the wedding favors that we're going to put together. Now all we need to do is bake up a big batch of fudge! That's planned for this Saturday.

    Kate made amazing progress on the centerpiece candles and finished them all! We still need to stop at Michael's and pick up mirrors and rose petals and we should be in good shape there.

    I talked to the manager at Walrus Ice Cream and it sounds like a large order of ice cream cakes shouldn't be a problem. Kate and I need to figure out what flavors we want and put the order in at the end of the week. I'm leaning toward cake batter flavor plus some kind of berry...but Kate would prefer some chocolate thrown in somewhere. Also, my folks gave us a cake server and cutter for the wedding that we can use. Yay! No need to borrow anything from the church or the caterer!

    Kate and Tammy are making good progress on Kate's veil. Monday night they finished the trim (whatever that implies), which was apparently a time-consuming job. Kate also recently picked up the ballet slippers that she wanted to wear for the ceremony so shoes are done. She also just dropped off her wedding gown for a professional cleaning.

    Kate got the musicians for the ceremony handled. She went with the string group that was organized by Carla, her former landlord. Since I was fairly indifferent as to the musical pieces playing during the ceremony, Kate went ahead and picked out the three major pieces that she liked. She played a CD for me tonight so I could hear them and I do like them. We won't need the musicians for the reception since I'm putting together some CDs for the incidental music there (which I really ought to get going on).

    Bill and I went into Mister Neats Formalwear last Saturday to get our final fittings for our tuxedos. With any luck, we should be a couple of stylin' fellas. :-)

    Here's what we still need to get done:

    1. Bake fudge (lots of fudge).
    2. Order ice cream cakes.
    3. Make appointment for rehearsal dinner at Beaujo's Pizza.
    4. Burn music CDs for reception.
    5. Design programs for ceremony and reception.
    6. Finish wedding favors.
    7. Buy gifts for wedding party and parents.
    8. Pick up marriage license.
    9. Design guestbook.
    10. Place final order for flowers from Palmer House.
    11. Write toasts for rehearsal dinner and reception.
    12. Organize seating chart for reception.
    13. Get final guest count to Lopiano's.
    14. Confirm wedding day appointments (photographer, hairstylist, etc).
    15. Confirm travel details (train, hotels, etc).
    16. Confirm sandwich catering for Saturday get-together.
    17. Pick up unity candle from St Walburga Abbey.

    There may be other details that I've forgotten but these are the major events. Most of the running-around-town details we're going to try to do this Friday before our work shifts. The stay-at-home stuff we're going to do on Saturday and Sunday. I guess there goes our weekend. :-)

    So, we're doing pretty well, all things considered. I think we're just really, really ready to take that three-week vacation to the East Coast! :-)

    Thursday, September 15, 2005

    Thirty-Two Days and Counting

    It recently dawned on me and Kate that we could pick up our marriage license anytime after tomorrow (Friday)! They say the license is only good for about 30 days and we're coming up on thirty days before the wedding! Yeek!

    We had also sat down to plan our menu for the next few weeks and realized that the week before the wedding actually fell into our meal plans. Wow, it's almost time!

    We haven't started panicking yet but we are starting to feel the "crunch" as we calculate how much we still need to get done versus how much free time it looks like we're going to have. I expect some bouts of insanity ANY time now. ;-)

    Updates:

    On Friday August 26th, my boss in Circulation organized a get-together and pot-luck called NewWedFest for me and Kate as well as two other couples who were married earlier in the summer. It was a relaxed and enjoyable evening with lots of yummy food. Some folks even got us presents!! It was nice to just sit and chat with our co-workers without having to worry about actually getting some work done. :-)

    I took a few random pictures of the event, which you can look at my clicking here.

    Kate has a shower planned for Sunday the 25th. It wasn't her idea, of course; if she had her way, she wouldn't have any bridal parties at all! ;-) But Betsy insisted and went ahead and invited a number of lady-friends around town. Betsy even sent invites to my sister and my mother. My mom and dad are definitely coming up. Since it's a "girls-only" shindig, I guess I'll have to keep my dad occupied. Maybe I can con him into helping me with some minor house repairs I've been putting off around the place... ;-)

    Kate was also informed that she's to attend a lunch with her co-workers in Loveland in celebration of her upcoming marriage. She complained to me that she going to be over-socialized well before the wedding!

    Let's see, how about some rapid-fire updates as to what we've been doing:

    1. We talked with Lopiano's regarding the final details with the reception catering. It sounds like they'll handle most of the setup and cleanup. They'll serve the food and pack it away when we're done. They'll even bring out the ice cream cakes and do the cutting and serving for us. They'll even take care of dishes. Yay! We need to check in with them in early October with the final head count.

    2. Response cards have already started coming in. Not as many family and friends will be attending as we originally thought but everyone's sending their well wishes. We ought to still have a nice turnout.

    3. We started looking through the Bible readings for the ceremony. Hopefully, we'll get a few picked out in the next few days. Then we can talk with Father Larry at SEAS Parish for the final details.

    4. We ordered a unity candle set from the Abbey of St. Walburga, though I haven't heard back from them yet. Might have to give them a call here soon.

    5. Our wedding rings are engraved and ready!

    6. We've started hitting up our friends and family for party games that we can borrow for the reception. Kate's folks already handed off two boxes of games for us. I'll need to check with my family too.

    7. My aunt Karen sent me a copy of my grandmother's fudge recipe. Kate and I are going to use to make wedding favors for the wedding.

    8. Tammy and Kate got together to do work on Kate's wedding veil. This was an unknown and mysterious event since I wasn't there, but I assume things went well.

    9. We bought a number of disposible cameras from ShopKo (which was having a going-out-of-business sale).

    10. We posted a general invitation and announcement to the staff at the Fort Collins library. I've only gotten two responses so far so I might send out a reminder in case folks just haven't noticed the posting. Surely there's nothing they'd rather do on a Sunday night than watch me and Kate get hitched! ;-)

    So here we are in the home stretch (so to speak) but not quite to crunch time. Stay tuned, true believers...