cindy's world

Some months ago, I was pushing the shopping with Mr. W at Costco, admiring the early Halloween decorations that were already on display, smiling at the thought of a cool-weathered fall season in our new home, when I suddenly froze and gasped. “What?” Mr. W asked.
“I just realized, we’re gonna have to buy SO MUCH candy this year!”
Mr. W and my mom had been laughing at me since we moved in about how karma has come around to bite me in the butt, since it’s no secret I don’t do little bratty kids, and we happened to move onto a block where in our culdesac alone, there are like 20 kids. Two or three of our neighbors have twins. “Don’t drink the water,” they’d joked with us, as it seems all the neighbors got pregnant around the same time.
So at Costco, Mr. W realized I was right, and we steeled ourselves and prepared to buy lots of candy for little ghosts and goblins who’d come threatening to trick us if we don’t treat them. Mr. W bought a giant Costco bag of fun-sized Kit Kats, Snickers, Almond Joys, peanut and regular M&Ms, Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, Crunch, Butterfinger, and Baby Ruth bars. Halloween Friday at work, he got paranoid at the giant bag not supplying enough candy, and bought another giant sack of variety candy from his coworker, this time of Super Bubble gum, SweetTarts, Smarties, Jawbreakers, Tootsie Rolls, Now And Laters, and lollipops.

I didn’t dress up. I sat in the living room, watched Two and a Half Men and only got the door twice. Mr. W is the little-people-person between the two of us so he had candy duty, and some of the kids sounded really cute. All the moms who walked with the kids made sure to tell them, “Say the magic words!” The magic words were, to my delight, “Thank you!” Mr. W was giving out candy by the handfuls.

And Saturday morning, the day after Halloween, this is what we had left:

What the hell happened? Who’s gonna eat all this crap?! *scared*

Mr. W’s gamer brother and wife drove here this afternoon from Vegas and the three of them left about half an hour ago to attend Shipwreck 2008 at the Queen Mary. I didn’t go cuz I don’t do events where scary things jump out at me and I can’t hit them back. I hate that we’re all funneled through like sheep and just victimized. I hate the element of surprise in attacks, unless I’m doing the attacking. So they’re gone till, like, past midnight at this terrorfest party and for the first time EVAH, I get this house all to myself. (Stepson typically doesn’t stay with us on weekends.)

WHOA, what do I do with all this freedom? If I were a guy I’d pop in a bunch of pornos and jerk off all night. Woohoo! But since I’m ME, I’m apparently BLOGGING. Cuz I love you guys. So love me back by leaving some comments. =)

I took today off cuz my judge is off attending a criminal law seminar, so I didn’t feel like going to work to float. I remember what happened last time I was floated out, although I apparently made such a great impression that that judge remembered me months later and invited me to transfer to his courthouse to be his clerk through that courthouse’s administrator (which my judge did not appreciate). Of course I declined, cozy as I am presently. Never needing much of an excuse to play hookie himself, Mr. W also took the day off work. Here’s what we did today.

That’s right. We went SAILING. It was our first time EVER. And it was at our lake. Here is our sailing instructor and his wife.

It’s my high school German teacher, Mr. Finn Englyng and his wife, Kirsten!
He taught us what parts of the boat and actions of sailing are called…

…about wind direction and how it affects our movement…

…and about who has right-of-way on the water in given situations and crafts.

Most of it, especially the terminology, went over my head. I must’ve looked the exact same way I did when my dad tried to teach me chess. That glazed look used to piss my dad off and cause him to walk away from me. But Mr. Englyng is a professional (retired) teacher and he was good, patient, and I did control the rudder part of the trip and the sails another part of the trip. And of course the company was hard to beat.

Hmm. 7:19p. Where’s my anime porn?
I am kidding, of course.

…

Look who’s back to his old self…!

Whose back is this? Is it…is it…

*gasp* it IS!@#$

On our day off Tuesday, the vet called and did a followup phone interview. I told him that Dodo was still rubbing his eye on stuff and actually scratched his right eyelid bloody. He said he had time if we want to bring Dodo in for Plan B: cortisone shot. I asked what the side effect would be and he said that cats tolerate this steroid very well; if there are any side effects whatsoever, it would be Dodo drinking more water and going pee more, and that’s it. So we brought him in. Dodo was NOT happy to be back in his cat carrier, and even madder to go for another hated car ride. He was SO loud complaining in the car that I recorded him yowling and sent it as a voice message to Jordan and Flat Coke & Flies. (If you have Verizon cell service, I can send it to you, too. Just ask or email me.) Jordan was like, “What did you do?!”
So anyway, a quick shot later, he came back in the carrier and we were instructed that this isn’t a magic shot so to not take the cone off cold turkey; we were to do it under supervision in small increments. If it does work, the vet said, we’d notice it between a few days to a week, and the effect should last from multiple weeks to 6 months or so. I hope so, because my court reporter told me today that these things tend to be damaging to kidneys. Today is day 3 and Mr. W noticed Dodo seems less interested in having his face scratched. So we tried taking the cone off for the first time since the shot. He did clean himself quite a bit, but this time, even though I still feel the attention he gave his eyes were more brutal than a normal cat, he didn’t scratch himself bloody! YAY! We may have found a temporary solution. I’m so happy he looks like a normal cat now. Mr. W can stop with the stupid martini jokes finally.
He is drinking a lot of water, tho. Hope his kidneys are gonna be okay.

Isn’t he bootyful?

Mr. W is VERY excited to have a normal cat, as you can see.

Yup, that’s what he’s doing next to me as I blog this.

Mr. W had an appointment this morning with Body Scan International for a full-body scan. It’s like a giant 3-D animated MRI of your body from the trunk of the neck down to the pelvic region. He thought it’d be useful for me to take the day off and go along with him, as a second set of eyes/ears during the consultation. He first had to remove all the metal from his body (there’s quite a bit of it), then he went into a little room where I couldn’t follow, but when the radiology technician gave instructions and operated various scans, I could feel a powerful generator humming along. After the images were taken, we were told to return in 45 minutes for the consultation with a doctor.

We watched an animated x-ray image on the screen travel down the inside of Mr. W’s body, like how food would probably see him as it’s being swallowed, if the food were a tiny living Superman with x-ray vision. The radiologist explained various things on the screen as she paused to point out a few things. This is his stomach. It’s normal. This is the large instestine. No visible polyps, no abnormality, which is good for his age. Those black areas? That’s poo. Yay for poo. These are the spinal vertabrae. This is L1 through L5. There’s slight degeneration at the end of L5, which compared to a scan he took 5 years ago, had worsened slightly. This is the liver, spleen, kidneys. Nothing remarkable, no kidney stones or gallbladder stones. This is the heart, it’s normal-sized. This is the aorta. Uh-oh, see those white things along the edges of the circle? That’s calcification of plaque build-up. Let’s travel down and follow this aorta. See the white stuff here, and here, and also down by the pelvic region it reappears, here and here.

What’s that mean? Is that bad?
This is hardened fatty deposits in your blood vessels, and this is what may cause a heart attack. Your dad had his first heart attack symptoms your age, but after his bypass surgery he’s fine, so that’s good news for you. There’s an assessment score for the level of plaque build-up; yours is 66. A normal male your age should be at 33. You have twice the level you should have, and the rate of increase since your last body scan 5 years ago is high; 65%. You should really only be increasing about 15% a year as you age. But it looks like it’s genetic, since you’re in great shape and you exercise regularly and looking at your diet, you eat better than most people on restricted diets.

Cuz my husband looks like this (he took this picture about a month ago and thought it’d be funny to sneakily import it into my cameraphone pictures):

You have to ignore his messy head. He’d just gotten up.

So anyway, the radiologist said it looks like time that Mr. W got on high blood pressure and/or high cholesterol medication, and to take the scans to talk about this with his regular doctor. She suggested he start taking baby aspirin daily starting immediately, so that if a hardened area of his blood vessel ruptures, there’s less chance of a clot forming and causing a stroke. Mr. W is the last member of his family NOT on cholesterol medication; his parents and all 4 brothers are on it. =P

[Getting on my high horse] I noted to the doctor that he’s been eating a diet high in raw fruits and veggies and has dramatically minimized his fast food and soda intake in the last 2.5 years that I’ve been with him, and in the last 2 years, have started weightlifting regularly at the gym. He also does yoga once a week (rec class at the gym). So how could it have gotten this bad in the last 5 years?
Well, apparently, it would’ve been A LOT worse if he hadn’t done all that to curb it 2 years ago. Yay, me. Yay, organic. And I’m totally glad I haven’t had fast food in almost 3 years, and I’ve probably had 1 serving of soda in that time.

[Getting on my soap box] Somewhere in between high school and college, I pictured myself right where Mr. W found himself today. With my vivid imagination, I saw myself at a doctor’s office, gripping the edges of the armrest, as I was told that I have long-term damage to my body based on 40+ years of doing little things wrong. Years of refined white carbs, cookies, bleached white bread, fast food, excessive sugars in sodas and candy bars. I asked my imaginary doctor what there is to be done. “Nothing, except surgery if you have a heart attack, or baby aspirin to mitigate the effects of a stroke you’re very likely to have in the next couple years.” Crap. Crap. How could this have happened? What’d I do? “It’s nothing you did yesterday; it’s years of eating this and not exercising enough.” I need to go back in time, say to my late teens, early 20s, and stop eating those things! And then popping out of my day-nightmare, that’s exactly what I did. I joined a gym in 1994, cut down the fast food and junk food, virtually stopped the soda intake, didn’t pick up smoking or drinking (much), dramatically reduced sodium intake. As I got into my 30s, I stopped fast food altogether. I really don’t miss sodas or donuts, and don’t remember what was so great about them, cuz the former now burns my mouth and the latter burns my stomach. The more studies I read on newfound negative effects of junk food, fast food, artificial foods and sodas, the more it confirmed that I had been doing the right thing.

[Grabbing the loudspeaker] It’s not too late to not ruin the rest of your life. You don’t have symptoms now, but it doesn’t mean that stuff isn’t happening inside. My husband’s heart plaque is asymptomatic and if not for the scan, he wouldn’t have known about it. Thank goodness he didn’t have a heart attack first! All those problems you see in people in their 60s, where they’re struggling, popping prescription pills daily, always going to the doctor to be monitored for this or that problem, that didn’t start in their 60s. That started in their 20s and 30s. If you’re my age and you’re feeling healthy, make it last by NOT selling your future health for a greasy fried manufactured item today. It’s not worth it. PREVENTION IS KEY. And it’s cheap, WAY cheaper than daily meds and doctor visits and treatments and surgery.

[Stepping off my soapbox, putting away the loudspeaker] Of course, *I* didn’t get a body scan…

This is a catch-up post. I finally got some time on the computer without being shooed off by Mr. W, so he could play his 20 hours of some combat PC game. Yay! So at long last I’m uploading the recent cell phone photos.

Some time ago I made a penne alfredo with mushrooms, zucchini and grilled chicken. I thought it would go well with bruschetta, so I toasted some mini bagels with white cheddar chunks, and mixed chopped tomatoes, fresh sweet Italian and spicy basils from our garden, fresh chopped onions, and red and orange bell peppers. Tah-dah!

I’m really glad that Mr. W will eat whatever I put in front of him, because that gives me the freedom to experiment and get creative. Friday nite I made a chipotle roast beef in the oven, garlic mashed potatoes, and stir-fried green and yellow zuchinis with onions and string beans. It disappeared from the plate equally fast.

On Saturday morning, we made an appointment at a local animal hospital to get a third, fourth, etc. opinion on Dodo’s eye condition. Six years ago he had a corneal ulcer, probably brought on by stress as I had left him to go to Canada for a week. The vet made me put triple antibiotic ointment in his eye, which didn’t do anything for him except create a compulsive rubbing situation in him so that now, even though it’s been years since his last corneal ulcer outbreak, he still wears the cone because he’ll keep pawing his eyelids until they’re swollen and bloody.

We were hoping that maybe his eyelids are just itchy because of some allergy, and if we could isolate or determine the allergen, we could keep it from affecting him. So I had to wake up the poor sleepy cat from his afternoon nap and gently force him, claws and legs outstretched, yowling his complaints loudly, into his cat carrier.

He protested angrily the entire way to the vet, and as usual, was the perfect kitty when in front of the nurse and vet. The female vet was a very nice woman who took some bloodwork, reviewed the thick Dodo healthcare file that I’d brought, examined my cat, and determined that as far as eyeballs go, his are fine. It’s just a skin reaction that the cat’s been going at, and she suggests slowly weaning him off the cone. For the half hour at the vet, the cone was off Dodo (the first Mr. W has seen his step-cat without his pink halo) and Dodo was fine, exploring the little examination room, walking up to me and caressing me with his tail. But as soon as he came home, after eating some lunch and cleaning his chest and face with his tongue and paws, he dug into his right eye with his right paw. I suggested putting the cone back on. “Just wait,” Mr. W, the non-cat owner, insisted. Dodo rammed his right eye into the back of a shoe, rubbing away.
“NOW do you still want me to wait?!” I demanded.
“DODO! NO! See, he stopped. Just wait, he’s fine. He didn’t do it very much.”
Dodo arched back to the right, and his right hind paw started scratching at his face. In seconds, his right eyelid was swollen, hairless and bloody.
“What about NOW?!” I said smartly as Mr. W leapt forward to hold Dodo’s hind leg down. The cone went back on. *sigh* Plan B: regular cortizone shots.

After a nap, then dinner at an Incan restaurant, we explored a hiking path near our home. Mr. W had researched all the various hiking and biking paths and found that this one leads to some red rocks in a moderate 4-mile hike — 2 miles up to the red rocks, and 2 miles back. It was about 5:30p when we set off on the path in an area called Whiting Ranch, which had been in the news some time recently for its mountain lion attacks on people. (Yeah. I know. But it wasn’t my idea.) After Mr. W stepped into some poison oak, then hiking through a canyon between a high neighborhood where the back yards of houses were visible above us on both sides, we left civilization behind and went on some slight hills. The sun started getting lower. I noted that unlike most recreational areas in our city, this place has no cute bunnies popping out at dusk. Mr. W informed me that the lack of bunnies is a sign of the presence of mountain lions. As if I needed any signs in addition to the ACTUAL signs with photos of cougars and warnings about how to ward them off if we come across any.

So it got darker and darker, and we weren’t even at the red rock point yet, meaning we weren’t even halfway done with the hike. I started asking if we should turn back. Mr. W ignored me and moved forward. I decided it’d be a good idea to call some people and let them know where we are in case we were forced to give back to the wilderness as cougar food. Mr. W rolling his eyes at me, I called Vicky and explained the situation.
“Do you have a big stick?” she asked me.
“For what?”
“That’s how that woman beat the mountain lion off her husband. The lion had the man’s head in his mouth and she was hitting it with this big stick she found and finally fought off the lion.” I think this happened in the same area we were at.
“I’m not really game for hitting a big cat with a stick,” I said thoughtfully.
“But that’s your HUSBAND.”
“…”
“Well, then maybe you should get a big stick to defend YOURSELF at least.” That was when my phone lost reception and cut off. I again urged Mr. W to turn back. He said we must almost be there and trudged on. I asked if he had a survival pack in his backpack, and he said of course. I asked if he had a flashlight. He said no. Great.
Going forward still, I found I had enough phone reception to send text messages, so I sent some to Jordan and college roommie Diana telling them where I am. Mr. W looked absolutely disgusted with me. “SOMEONE needs to know where to send help,” I explained.
“What’s JORDAN in FLORIDA gonna do if we’re missing?” he snapped.
I took another picture. Cuz if a rescue team finds my cameraphone, they could at least see what we were facing in the end, right?

I KNOW, RIGHT?

Mr. W finally broke down after my 15 minutes of whimpering about having to walk back in total blackness and how giant predatory cats have night vision and we don’t and we’re gonna in the minimum blindly stumble off the path and fall in poison oak, which was everywhere. I also pointed out this is how EVERY HORROR MOVIE starts: lost in the woods, no cell phone reception, ignorant man insisting we’ll be fine and to keep moving forward. He insisted, “We’re not lost!” but grumblingly turned back.

If you can barely see him on the bridge doing the boogie woogie dance, you know how I felt. But we made it out, and not a moment too soon. It got DARK just as we exited the wilderness. Mr. W is going to go back on Sunday without me so he doesn’t have to hear me be “paranoid.”
“Paranoid people don’t DIE,” I spat at him.
So on Sunday next weekend, while I’m at my cousin’s garden bridal shower, my husband will be running around in the woods by himself, hopefully avoiding mountain lions.

This morning, I made turkey curry, wrapped spoonfuls in croissant rolls, and baked curry croissants while Mr. W played a game on his computer.
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First, chopped onions are sauteed with ground turkey. Then curry is dissolved in hot water and stirred into the mixture, and simmered.

Then spoonfuls of the turkey curry are rolled into the croissant dough.

Then the croissants are ready for the oven, which has been pre-heated at 375 degrees F.

15-20 minutes later.

Really. Who needs an actual camera anymore when the cameraphone is easier to grab, click, and load? I just take my 2gig card out of my camera, stick it in the computer, and here are the photos.

After I was done baking 4 pans of the stuff, he was still playing his game, so I got bored and fell asleep in the La-Z-Boy next to him. Then I woke up, he was still playing his game, I complained once again about being bored, and as nothing came of it, I fell asleep yet again. The next time I woke up I was totally stir-crazy so I went upstairs and got dressed to go to the gym. When Mr. W saw me about to leave, he suddenly decided he wanted to go work out, too. But in the garage he somehow convinced me to take a bike ride first.

Turns out, we’re a 2.5 mile scenic bike ride from Cook’s Corner! I was too exhausted by the time we got there (hills, man) to enjoy it, and I also didn’t want all the bikers to snivel at our idea of “biking”, so I declined Mr. W’s offer to drop in for a drink. Instead, I chugged from the water bottle I had on the bike and we went back home.

We’re going to the gym next, because this morning Mr. W realized we don’t have hot water. As in, when you turn the hot water portion of the faucet, nothing comes out. Cold water runs fine, tho. Weird. The plumber for our home warranty isn’t available till Monday, tho, so that means showers will be taken at the gym. Yay. This reminds me of when Diana and I didn’t have hot water at our senior year apartment one day because the building was working on the boiler, so to get ready for our morning class, we brought our toiletries and went to a restroom in a building on campus. While brushing our teeth, she paused and looked at me through the mirror and said, “I feel like we’re homeless.”

Last nite’s dinner: Caramelized Onion and Mixed Wild Mushroom Soup with Blue Cheese Toasts

If this doesn’t look appetizing, blame my cell phone cameraphone. But it was crazy-savory! I used 6 hand-picked wild mushrooms: shiitake, black, oyster, wild boletus, and porcini wild fungi! I also finally got to use my cooking rice wine. The toasts are made from broiling sliced fresh French bread with gorgonzola cheese on top, a little sage sprinkled atop the cheese (after broiling so it doesn’t burn; I had to stop Mr. W from sprinkling prematurely, trying to be helpful).

I am slowly learning that making dinner for 2 is not enough to feed the husband. So today’s project: curry turkey croissant rolls. I’m making 32.

This Saturday, I went to a Garden potluck hosted by a retired coworker. (I made a spinach veggie dip and brought Ritz crackers.) It was nice to catch up with my coworkers, old coworkers, and make new friends. These are the new friends:

This is TK. As a skinny stray, he’d wandered by the house when the hostess was nursing her ailing husband, and the two decided to keep him because all he wanted to do was cuddle with the husband and purr their worries away. TK walks around the house purring, kinda reminds me of Dodo.

When I opened the door to exit the bathroom, TK was waiting for me on the other side. I’ve never seen a 20-lb cat leap straight up in the air so gracefully, but that’s how he ended up on the sink, urging me to give him a drink with the faucet. So I did.

I forgot this big boy Himalayan’s name, but he was a sleepyhead. He’s also at least 20 lbs.

At the end of the evening, he looked up.

He wasn’t as crabby as he looked. I think.

The hostess’s gorgeous fairlyland back yard was full of planters that depicted fairy scenes, like this:

All her fairies had pets, like bunnies and deer and kitties. Some of them were fishing in a pond, others had friends, like the girl fairy above with the boy pixie looking in. I don’t know why the garden photos turned out so blue. All these photos were taken with my new enV2 cameraphone, maybe I haven’t figured out the setting quirks yet.

On Sunday while visiting my parents, Mr. W and I were shooed by a phone call over to my aunt’s house, where apparently a bunch of my relatives had gathered to share photos from our wedding. My mom said the wedding was all the talk at her office all last week (as she’d invited a handful of her closest coworkers and their spouses), and that it had inspired the friends to plan more regular get-togethers. And it’d apparently been the talk in the family circle, too. I feel so special! Anyway, thanks to the marvels of modern digital photography and data storage, I got some CD roms from my aunt and cousins, and when I go to work today, was delighted to find another CD rom of photos from my coworker. Thought I’d share how the wedding looked from the guests’ perspectives. (As with all my photos, rest mouse pointers over photos for captions.)

PEOPLE
My adorable cousin Jennifer and her wonderful new fiancee, Bradlee, helping me at the guest table:

My mom and dad:

Some family members:

Jordanabanana and James:

I know who took the now-famous photo of Thee Fantastic Four!

My gym trainee with her son:

See the handsome man in sunglasses in front of them? Apparently his mysterious presence created quite a stir among some single women. He reappears in many photos taken by my coworkers.

He sat alone through the ceremony. Did we have secret agents protecting us?

Did the CIA want to keep an eye on us?

Who IS Mr. W really, and why is the CIA here at our wedding? The world may never know… 😉 But I will tell you that the handsome man is as pretty without sunglasses as with, and if the seating were divided into groom’s side and bride’s side (which it wasn’t), he’d be on bride’s side. The plot thickens…

THE VENUE
before guests:

with guests:

THE KEY PLAYERS
My beautiful new stepdaughter sang Kelly Clarkson’s “A Moment Like This” to open the ceremony:

I think you can see us smiling from BEHIND:

I don’t know what I was doing in this photo. I know I hugged my dad before he walked off at some point.

Handing my bouquet to MOH Vicky. I could be wrong, but it looks like Sandy’s holding back tears.

Making eye contact with my guests:

Judge made a funny:

My judge told me at work today that during the ceremony, he’d looked up from his reading material at Mr. W a few times, and that Mr. W had an expression on his face that looked like he’d hitched his carriage onto a star and was just delighted at his good luck. Isn’t that the sweetest…?

Daughter sang our closing procession recessional, too.

The new Mr. And Mrs.:

Walking down to the koi to do our crowd presentation:

The koi are making puckering faces at us. They’re trying to tell us something, I think.

Ya gotta do what the koi say. When in Rome…

THE RECEPTION/CAKE CUTTING

Yup, dress #2:

I’ll have to say that Mr. W did good at the cake cutting.

By that I mean that he did not smash any cake in my face.

Apparently my earlier threats for instantaneous annulment worked.

Oh yeah. My #2 dress has a keyhole opening back; no, I didn’t forget to zip it up.

BOOGIE NIGHTS
Bride & Groom’s 1st dance, with dress #3:

We waltzed to Edwin McCain’s “I’ll Be.” My 2nd choice would’ve been foxtrotting to The Temptations’ “My Girl.”

A shot of our awesome DJ whom I’d recommend to anyone.

Okay, those of you who know me KNOW that the real reason the above photo is in there is cuz I get a kick out of Mr. W looking like Godzilla about to shoot laser beams out of his eyes to attack Tokyo. And I’m not just knockin’ his size.

One of my favorite guest photos — entering the dance floor with my dad for the father-daughter dance:

Mom and Dad gettin’ DOWN:

My mom’s happy that my dad’s actually dancing with her. As opposed to not dancing at all, I mean.

My normally ultra-conservative uncle, gettin’ DOWN:

My aunt and uncle, gettin’ DOWN:

My relatives, gettin’ DOWN!:

Still taking it all in:

This isn’t captured in the photos taken by my family, but JORDAN danced, too. On a high bench platform. With TWO MEN. At the SAME TIME. I can’t wait for my professional photographers’ photos.

It’s been a few days after the wedding now, and I’ve spoken to a ton of wedding guests. Recurring comments:
* Bridesmaids are TOTALLY HOT. Beautiful girls, beautiful dresses. All of them. Hot. Not just 1 pretty girlfriend…one after the other as they walked out alone…all HOT.

* Daughter is one hell of a singer and should be on American Idol.

* Venue was incredibly gorgeous. How in the world did we find this place? (*giving credit to Busykitty Vanessa*)

* Perfect weather, perfectly conducted wedding, entertaining, not boring, not too long.
* Great classical music selections for the processional (thank you!), very classy musical choices overall with Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett, Babyface, Michael Buble, Stevie Wonder, Sting, Temptations, Brian McKnight/Luther (“Never Too Much”). Even the dancing in the end didn’t get too ghetto as the DJ brought the tempo up with disco and not gangsta rap.
* GREAT food, beautiful cake.

* We have GREAT friends/wedding guests, people loved the people they talked to and sat with.

* Loved my dresses. I was surprised at the detail people remember about each of my dresses. Even men refer to the color of each dress, where I thought only women would notice. Actually, it was mostly men commenting on my dresses and my bridesmaids’ dresses.

* Fun, fun wedding.

One of my favorite comments from yesterday: “I’m never getting married again, but if I come back to this earth in the future [in reincarnation] and want to get married, I want to have a CLONE of your wedding.”

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