cindy's world

If you were observant in reading the last post, you would’ve noticed a wedding invitation on the tabletop in the photo. That’s my cousin Diana’s wedding, which took place yesterday at the Marbella Country Club at San Juan Capistrano, which is truly a beautiful setting. And of course Mr. W forgot his camera, so I was the weenie taking photos with her cameraphone. Again. You can bring out captions by resting your mouse pointer on the photos.

I was on reception table duty, so I got there a bit early, and ran into the happy couple taking their pre-wedding photographs. That was what we did to reduce the time that guests would have to wait between the wedding and reception, which is the traditional photo-taking time. So I guess all four of us are more practical than superstitious about the groom seeing the bride in her dress before the wedding.

Ever the it’s-all-about-everyone-else gal, my cousin said as I walked up, “Wow, you look beautiful!” And I was like, “ME?! Have you LOOKED in a mirror today?!”

They talk about radiant brides, but wow, she had some glow going on! It was like she swallowed some stars and was now walking around illuminating everything around her. That included her almost-husband, whose eyes softened every time he looked at her and it seemed he could not stop touching and kissing her. Of course it could be stage directions being called by the photographers, but I’d like to think it was cuz he truly appreciated the moment.

~ THE SCENE ~
A shot down the aisle:

Overview of the ceremony set-up:

The altar (and yes, that IS a water trap with a waterfall at the golf course):

They don’t appear to have one theme color, but instead embraced all the rich jewel tones of the autumn: golds, burgundy, browns, oranges. Their decor was beautiful.

~ THE PLAYERS ~
Their aisle walk pairings were unique. Here is the groom with the bride’s paternal grandmother.

The groom’s father and mother. Wow, these two LOVE their new daughter-in-law. I’d never seen anything quite like it.

Bride’s sister (and maid of honor)’s fiance, Brad, walking bride’s mother. If he looks familiar, it’s because Brad welcomed guests along with my cousin, his fiance Jennifer, at my wedding’s reception table.

My aunt was so cute, she was all smiles and waved at everybody at the bride’s side on her entire walk down.
The best man, Russ (groom’s brother) and the maid of honor, Jennifer (bride’s sister).

And then, the flower girls, the daughters of my cousin Olivia.

The parents of the flower girls, my cousin Olivia and her hubby Eric.

Whoa, wait, who’s that? Who’s behind there?

All stand for the bride (with her father)!

Awwwwwwww! She’s beautiful! *sniffle*

Walking her to her almost-husband…

“Thank you, daddy.”

I swear, I was not this teary at my own wedding.

~ THE CEREMONY ~
So my uncle hands off his elder daughter…

…to be entrusted into the care of this waiting man.

On top of the world. Listening to their officiant tell everyone the story of how Doug proposed.

My cousin Jennifer was so happy for them.

My mom and dad. Awww.

They exchanged vows. He spoke touchingly of how much she meant to him.

She did the same, vowing to honor him forever in a quivering, emotion-filled voice. Both of them had to wipe at their faces up there. But they recited their vows without a hitch.

They also did a rose ceremony, honoring their parents by presenting each with a rose and a hug.

And then, for his parents.

Seriously, look at the way her new father-in-law is looking at her. To Doug’s parents, she’s already their daughter. (During the reception, Doug’s father gave a speech talking about the first time he met Diana, and how he knew within 5 minutes that she was someone very special and she was the one for his son. “I don’t know how long it took DOUG to figure it out,” he joked. And then he talked about calling Diana on her cell phone shortly after their engagement to get a hold of his son, since he knew that Doug never picked up his phone [the audience laughed knowingly], and recognizing the phone number, Diana had answered the call with, “Hi, Dad.” He said he was surprised and it threw him off for a moment, and after a pause, he realized and said, “I really like the sound of that.” Tears, man! All over their wedding.)

The ring exchange.

And the epic moment, the you-may-now-kiss-the-bride seal on the wedding vows:

Presenting, the new Mr. and Mrs.!!!

Walking away into the sunset. Or pretty blue cloud-laced sky, in their case.

See what I mean about the sky? It was the PERFECT day, and it RAINED that morning, too!

~ THE COCKTAIL HOUR AND RECEPTION ~
Upstairs in the cocktail area…

…a handsome man awaited me, too.

My dad chatted inside with his eldest sister while behind them, Mr. W…uh…I was gonna write that he was waiting for me, but now that I look closer at the photo…*looking closer*…I think I need to finish off this sentence with, “while behind them, Mr. W checked out some blonde chick’s back and legs.”

That girl was everywhere in my photos. It seemed that every time I changed direction to get a shot, she’d move in front of it.
This is a Chinese girl, so this is Dress #2, a pewter sparkly ballgown:

The flower girls playing with their mom, my cousin Olivia, and their cousin, as their dad looks on:

And then all of a sudden they all ran away from each other. What a strange game. =)

Everyone had a great time at the cocktail hour.

You know it’s a good wedding when I’m buzzing before dinner’s even begun. I had champagne, chardonnay, AND a lemon drop on an empty stomach. So I ate a couple of hors d’oeuvres. Their food was amazing.

At the reception, we were at Table 3 with the maid of honor and her fiance, and the bride’s parents.

The sweetheart table was right next to us…

…which made for great photo ops. Too bad I didn’t have a camera (aside from the cameraphone which took all the photos you see here).

I’d like to point out the loving looks my cousin Jennifer’s fiance is giving my cousin here. They’re getting married late next year. 🙂
The couple listening to a speech before dinner:

This happened a lot:

They had one of those storybook classic weddings where everything was beautiful and touching and loving and there were happy tears everywhere. You feel your heart swell to be a part of it, like you’re truly, to borrow a quote from Friends, “in the presence of love.” Made me almost feel bad for demanding that our wedding be all happy-happy-joy-joy and tearjerker-free. At the time it seemed like a great idea to have a unique non-traditional wedding style and I just told people that if I’m spending that much money on makeup, they’d better not make me mess it up with crying. I actually just am not that comfortable with being emotional with witnesses… Oh well.

During the cake-cutting, my mom, the bride’s mom (my aunt), and Mr. W thought it was BRILLIANT to take the photos from outside to get a truly unique angle.

Until we realize how crappy lighting was.

That was dress #3, the red Chinese dress. It was too darkly lit by this time to get a good shot of it, but she looked beautiful in it. This is Dress #3 during the dancing part of the evening, when the bride took photos of people dancing at her own wedding. Silly girl.

I don’t know HOW this picture happened, but it’s to my advantage. Now we can see the bride’s dress!

It was rumored that there was a Dress #4, but when I asked her about it, it was while we were already dancing the night away and Mr. W’s gold dress shirt had turned into a brown washcloth, and my cousin said that she couldn’t imagine how she could possibly peel the Chinese dress off her at this point and was thus bypassing the fourth dress.

And THERE’s my photojournalistic wedding story of my cousin Diana’s wedding to her new husband, Doug. Congratulations to the happy couple! 😀

It’s been a week since the itching has stopped. Dodo’s shredded right eyelid is healing and both eyes are growing his black hairs back. He’ll be wearing his full batman mask again in no time! The vet called me yesterday to check up on the situation. He said the best-case scenario he’s seen is one shot lasting 8 months. I’m HOPING that’s the case! At $45 a pop, it’s well worth a free-er Dodo, but I don’t want his kidneys to be unnecessarily strained. Now that Dodo can finally groom himself, he does a damn better job than me. He’s not shedding nearly as much, and he’s sooooo incredibly soft with all the dead hairs removed. The downside to this is that in the middle of the night some days ago, he spit up a hairball that can only be more accurately described as a hairlog. I jumped out of bed and got him onto the bathroom tile too late, and had to clean up the heavy log in the middle of the night. The sucker had weight. I was scared to let Mr. W see it but luckily nothing was waking him up.

In other Cindy’s World news, my college best boy bud Edgar (as differentiated from high school best boy bud Eric) had one of his annual birthday dinners this year. Dinner was at an interested Japanese hole-in-the-wall yakitori place, which is like shish kabobs in a miniature scale. We had chicken-n-green-onion, chicken-n-garlic, shiitaki mushroom, chicken gizzard, chicken heart, beef, pork, duck, quail egg yakitoris, and since we were in a Japanese restaurant, Mr. W and I could not resist sashimi. GREAT fish. GREAT food. The after dinner activity this year is not the usual bowling (thank goodness cuz I can’t bowl), but an outing at the outdoor bar of the beautifully landscaped Red Bar & Lounge at the Pacific Palms Resort. Now THAT would’ve been a great place to get married. It was great to catch up with old friends and meet new ones. Oh, and we didn’t drink at all. Maybe next time.

The birthday boy is blurry cuz he’s cutting his cake.

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.

…

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.

I’m very excited, for today is D-Day. What’s D stand for? Donnerstag? Yes, it IS in fact Donnerstag (Thursday in German), but more than that, it’s the night when, if you’ve been a very good girl or boy, you get a personal visit at home by Dwaine! It’s kinda funny when we planned this because we both woke up on the same morning thinking that we miss hanging out with each other. So he’s visiting what he calls our “Castle” for the first time. We’re gonna have dinner on the lake!

But as I’m a very nice person, to alleviate everyone else’s jealousy over my D-Day (I STILL have coworkers talking to me about how hot the twins are at our wedding!), here are some funnies to brighten up the rest of your quickly ending week.

Lawyer joke from my judge:
The prominent middle-aged attorney was walking in the woods when he heard a booming voice from above say, “You are going to live to be 100.”
That must be God speaking, the attorney thought. Immediately he began doing good deeds, figuring out that he now had ample time to make amends in order to enter Heaven. But as he left the homeless shelter where he had just volunteered an hour of his services, he was hit by a bus and killed.
Coming face-to-face with God, the attorney protested, “You promised me I was going to live to be 100. Instead, the very first day I did a good deed, I got hit by a bus and here I am. Why?”
“I didn’t recognize you,” replied God.

“Sharing Peanuts” from my coworker:
A tour bus driver is driving with a bus load of senior citizens down a highway when he is tapped on his shoulder by a little old lady. She offers him a handful of peanuts, which he gratefully munches up.
After about 15 minutes, she taps him on his shoulder again and she hands him another handful of peanuts. She repeats this gesture about five more times.
When she is about to hand him another batch again, he asks the little old lady, ‘Why don’t you eat the peanuts yourself?’
‘We can’t chew ’em because we have no teeth’, she replied.
The puzzled driver asks, ‘Why do you buy them then?’
The old lady replied, ‘We just love the chocolate around them.’
**Moral: It pays to be careful around old people**

This morning, I made turkey curry, wrapped spoonfuls in croissant rolls, and baked curry croissants while Mr. W played a game on his computer.
(rest mouse pointers over photos for captions)
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.”

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.

We had Mr. W’s male best friend/ex-bro-in-law, his adult son and the bro-in-law’s wife over Saturday night to see our house for the first time. Daughter came by, too, with her friend in tow. We all went down to the Lake for a jazz festival and a Taste of the Lake outing. Lots of local restaurant vendors had their best appetizers, meals and pastries available for tickets, which you buy at the front entrance. It was a lot of fun sitting on a blanket, hanging out with everyone, listening to various live jazz bands play. We also got to see the Lakeside clubhouse for the first time, as they had an art exhibit going in there. Daughter got some information about hosting her 18th birthday party there. All I can say is, if we’d had our wedding there, we could’ve cut costs in almost half.

Sunday being moon festival, my parents brought my maternal grandmother over and pretty much made it a potluck. My grandma made a pork hock dish and bought some other little dishes of chicken wings and sea kelp; my parents marinated and skilleted Korean sliced ribs; and Mr. W made a salad and a fruit salad. My contribution was just my appetite. Yeah, I’m pretty useless around here. But I supplied the parents who supplied most of the food, so that should count for something. After eating in the back yard, we all took a drive down to the Lake and ate moon cakes watching the full moon reflect off the water surface. Aside from the family letting their young boys kick red-hot coals around and into the lake (which was very annoying, I wanted to call the lifeguards on them), it was a nice evening. If you ignore the insulting presumptions my grandmother would constantly banter about me.

It’s been a busy week so far. Mr. W’s parents and gamer bro drove down from Vegas on Tuesday and have stayed with us till today. We had wedding rehearsal on Wednesday and dinner afterwards (for 14) at The Yardhouse in Shoreline Village. And also…

Jordan is here! I picked her up from Long Beach airport yesterday and we hung out in her old childhood home town of Long Beach, found a killer Mai Tai Bar on the upper deck of The Pike overlooking the waters and the Queen Mary, and she was a total tourist with a camera pointed everywhere. I’m gonna make her post. She was surprised to see her last post was from May (and let’s face it, that wasn’t much of a post), and I had said sarcastically on her chatbox that her next post would be from California. I’m gonna make sure she posts SOMETHING very, very soon. Even if I have to tie her down to this very chair I’m in right now. I’ll make sure to keep her hands free so she can type. *pause* It appears she’s upstairs in the shower right now. Gimme a half hour…

I’m loving this wedding thing, by the way, if for nothing else than to have so many people I love around at one time.

*** Update at 11:05pm: She POSTED! With pretty embarrassing photos of us being us.