Hearing wedding bells again...!

The Mister and I drove up to South Lake Tahoe on Saturday so that we could be at a surprise birthday party for my friend and maid of honor Tina. Her boyfriend, Mat, had us all meet at a restaurant, and Tina came in and was very surprised, as planned, etc. Then we all drove up to the cabin he'd rented, and we walked down to the snow to take some pictures. The lovebirds were up first, and as we all got situated with our cameras, Mat dropped to one knee and proposed! She said yes (duh!). They seem very happy, the ring is very shiny, and just like that, the wedding bells are ringing again!

In other wedding news, Jess and I are also heading over to Philly at the end of the month for the wedding of his long-time friend, Ben. Ben's marrying his long-time partner, Margo, and I'm SO looking forward to seeing their little dreamboat son, Simon (almost a year old), dressed up in a little suit. So excited.

Being on this side of wedding planning ourselves (i.e. now that we're done) weddings seem exciting again. I'm really looking forward to helping with and admiring the little details, instead of deciding on and having to pay for them. ;) w00t!

Mr. and Mrs. Married

We've been getting honked at for two days now, driving around town in our "Just Married" mobile (thanks to Tina and Ry and Kody)! Lots of "Congratulations" and lots of smiles and waves. It's pretty nice to see the world get happy about something -- yay our marriage!

Jesse and I have been frantically shopping for the warmest clothing and accessories that we can find in California before heading off to Quebec. (Eep, cold!)

We've loved being married so far -- Jesse called the airline we're flying with, and I heard him say "My wife and I..." while I signed up for a membership at REI and used my married name for the first time. I'm sure we'll come up with lots of other fun stories in the coming weeks.. for now, we really need to pack for the trip, which we need to leave for in 5 hours.. everything last minute. =)

The Honeymooners

That's us! Can you believe it? We actually planned our honeymoon travel less than 3 weeks before the wedding. In fact, it was within 14 business days of the day we'll be leaving for the honeymoon -- that means airfare was slightly more expensive. D'oh! Oh well. We had other things to do first -- what can you do? =P

For those who don't know yet (that's probably most people), Jesse and I are going to Montreal and Quebec City for a total of 10 nights. I'm SO EXCITED!!! This will be our first trip out of the country as a couple (and we've been together for almost 7 years). We both studied French, so we should be able to manage signs and menus, but I'm a little worried about pumping out grammatical sentences in French during live conversations... eep! Wish us luck.

We're staying at some pretty francy hotels, thanks to Winter rates. One is a very famous landmark, one is a very schmancy modern boutique hotel, and the last one is where John Lennon and Yoko Ono had a 10-day "bed in" and recorded Give Peace a Chance.

Other than the dates and the hotels, we have no real idea of what we'll be doing in Quebec. Jesse did find an awesome snow park, which is very similar to a water park, only all of the slides are ice and snow instead of rushing water. You can also do some ice kart racing there (similar to go-karts, but colder and with more fish-tailing, I'd imagine).

So, my new tasks are as follows:
(a) find super warm clothes that will keep me dry,
(b) buy a guide book or two,
(c) get a good street map,
(d) extend my health insurance to cover out-of-country emergencies,
(e) pack -- eventually
(f) relax, relax, relax! Woohoo, honeyMOON!!!

Can't wait!

Tears of Joy

Shut up, no, they're not about my upcoming wedding. =P

(Yes, I'm excited about my wedding. No, I'm not unhappy... remember that this post is about tears of JOY!!! Read on...)

Jesse and I were just sitting around in our living room, and I made a comment about how he puts all of his grumpy thoughts down in his blog (which is true -- fans of Jesse's blog, he's really much happier in real life). So he showed me his latest blog post, and I chuckled at what he wrote, then I clicked through to my blog from his, and he asked me if anyone else had commented on my last post.

Uh...

Amanda: No, nobody reads my blog.
Jesse: Doo hoo hoo, that's so sad!
Amanda: I know, I don't know why I bother to blog anyway, because I could just call you to say, "Happy New Year, I'm sick, write an email to yourself."

So we start laughing at my pathetic blog, and I get a little teary-eyed so my vision blurs, and I scroll down to prove to him that no one but he comments anymore...

Amanda: See? Every single post has one comment, and it's always from you...
(one comment)
(one comment)
(one comment)
(one--woah, wait--that's a different shape digit!)
Amanda: Oh, this one has two! I guess I'm not so lame.
Jesse: [shifty-eyed] mm-hmm, that's great.
Amanda: Wait, oh no, does it say just one? D'oh I couldn't see it very well.. [frown]
Jesse: [look of love mixed with pity] Oh man, I can't lie to you.. it says zero comments.
Amanda: [bursting into fits of laughter] Oh god, I'm such a loser! Why do I even blog? I'm going to blog about this!

And...I did.

And Jesse will probably comment. (Thanks, Bug!)

Illness, the Wedding and Goals, oh my!

I'm sick and working from home today. I know I never blog anymore, but I do occasionally add info to Wedding Central. Does that count? I think I caught a bug from Jesse's sister while his family was out visiting us from Los Angeles and Philadelphia. My throat feels swollen and also burns after a while if I'm talking or swallowing. I'm staying home today to try and avoid talking (hurting myself) and spreading germs (hurting others). Boo hoo.

The wedding is coming along! We're up to our ears in our "To Do" list. It is in an Excel spreadsheet, and has a conditionally formatted cell that tells us how many items are remaining, and changes colors depending on how high a number it is. Seriously, folks, I'm in Project Management land now, remember? That's how I roll. Anyway, we're still very in the red. I just came up with another thing today that we need to do -- our (or at least my) rings need to be polished before the wedding, so I have to figure out when to do that.

I found a website where you can compose an email to yourself and have it sent at a future date. Well, you can compose an email to anyone, I guess, but the point is to remind your future self of things you're thinking of today. I just sent myself a halfway-there reminder of my 2007 goals. I should get that email on June 2, 2007. That way, if I mess up and don't do anything by then, I'll still have half a year to get 'er done.

I may need a reminder, since I haven't been thinking much about much lately, aside from the wedding and my waistline (that truly expensive dress better fit when it comes in!!!). Happy New Year, everyone!! =)

No Boots, No Camp

It's called "Boot Camp," but it's really just organized exercising outside at the crack of pre-dawn.

As you probably know by now, Jesse and I are getting hitched in January. You may or may not know that I've already ordered (and paid for) the dress. Since it's already on its way, I am doing my very best to make sure that it will fit when it finally shows up on January 10th. I still have a little ways to go and I have joined a Boot Camp to keep me motivated as we near the Big Day.

Anyway, the camp is on Monday Wednesday and Friday this week. I survived Monday, and today I'm very stiff and the ol' muscles are fairly sore. I guess that's what I get for basically never exercising prior to joining a BOOT CAMP. Tomorrow, we're meeting at a high school track -- I think there will be some bleacher-climbing in the near future. Wish me luck!

Out on the Bay

Jesse and I went out to dinner tonight at Skates on the Bay. Now, for those of you who are used to going out to dinner often, and who may even frequent upscale joints, maybe this restaurant would be "just another restaurant." For Jesse and I (we eat at home nearly every night and bring our lunches to work almost every day), it was really great.

I'll go into detail about what we had: Baked brie with macademia nut crust for appetizer. Caesar salad for Jesse, mixed greens w/Maple vinaigrette for me (with pears, candied pecans and bleu cheese). Then Jesse had the New York Strip for his entree, while I had something that would normally be considered his "usual" -- some parmesan crusted chicken with mashed potatoes and arugula. Yum! And we also had dessert -- Jesse had "original burnt creme" (custard) and I had the apple-walnut cobbler. Holy moly! Everything was really yummy.

The only thing I think I'd hesitate to order again is the brie... brie is really yummy on its own, and it didn't need all the extra stuff they added to it (the macademia nuts, plus balsamic vinegar reduction, plus honey, not to mention apple slices, all served with herb foccacia) ... anyway, it was a little overdone.

So, if you'll be in the area for our wedding in January, this place is located about 10 minutes from the reception site in Berkeley. If you're looking for a nice place to have dinner, this place was great. It sits right out on the bay, with huge picture windows in 3 directions (we couldn't see much at night except lights and water, so I couldn't tell you much more about the view than that). I'm sure it's lovely during the day.. not that there will be much daylight in January.

It's nice to see that a restaurant with such a nice location (including great views, presumably) still keeps up the quality of their food. So many places in the city let the quality go when the location is so valuable on its own (a disgustingly overpriced lounge called "The View" in SF comes to mind).

Anyway, don't go to The View. DO go to Skates on the Bay. Enjoy!

Presidential Tag Clouds

This came around in an email at work today, just as a "this is interesting" note...

Presidential Speeches Tag Cloud

And it did not disappoint! I think you'll agree.

Feeling like a human again

It's a good feeling.

1. Going to work feels normal again (after completely changing jobs within the company and losing two friends from my close social group at work -- yerks! Stupid grad school and stupid Taiwan). Anyway, I've settled into the new responsibilities, and the new group of people, and it's going ok, all in all.

2. Jesse and I have made a few decisions about the wedding, and that's nice.. the location, obviously, is set, and we've all but signed ourselves up with a caterer. Also, we've found a band or two that we dig, and still more are writing to us (from our Craigslist ad). I'm planning on ordering my dress this weekend, and Jesse has a tux appt coming up... oh, and "Save the Date" cards are in the mail, and people are receiving them all over the place. That's good.

3. There are games coming out over at Lucas which is awesome. Jesse has been working really hard for a long time now, and it's nice when things are completely done, and in the end user's hands... that means there are no more revisions, no more late nights.. for those games, anyway!

4. I'm back to eating better.. our house sort of turned into a junk food pit for a month or so there.. it was pretty bad. I just kinda felt mildly ill on a daily basis. I think part of my clarity and desire to sit down and blog today can be attributed to the fact that I feel healthier, after only a few days of eating better foods.

5. I bought a bunch of new clothes. This helps my state of mind because I'm not in a total panic every morning, running late and whining about having nothing to wear.

6. We have Tivo! This makes our evenings more calm -- we're not racing home to catch the TV shows we like, and we're not calling our friends in the middle of the day to ask them to tape things for us... we can just sit down and watch something whenever we want. It's so relaxing, and it's a nice burden to have had lifted.

Anyway, the overall change is that I'm just a little calmer. I guess that means that at some point, I'd lost my grip, but I've apparently found it again. It's really, really nice.

Holy Moses!

Oh my goodness, oh my goodness, oh my goodness!!!

Jesse set up our new old router just now (using the "Super Easy Set-up" button), and now we are both blogging SIMULTANEOUSLY. Amazing. Please welcome us to 5-7 years ago.

Next things next -- TIVO. It's waiting downstairs, our joint birthday present to each other. Suh-weet!

And now, just to prove that this is not a hoax, Jesse and I will click "Publish Post" at the EXACT SAME TIME...

For my birthday...

On Friday (my work birthday)...

1. my friendly co-workers took me out for lunch (awwww!)
2. our super-nice waiter sang to me and gave me free chocolate cake
3. after lunch, Sharlene surprised me by coming back to work (she quit(!) to go to grad school) and bringing me a homemade peach pie -- amazing! I was so touched. =) Aaaand it was yummy.

For my actual birthday (today), I...

1. got several birthday cards from: Tina, Jesse, Pip, my mom, my dad and my uncle
2. had a grilled cheese sandwich for breakfast
3. went on a picnic with Jesse at our favorite picnicking park (Vasona)
4. flew a kite (a flying stained-glass-like honu -- a sea turtle)
5. shopped for shoes
6. bought 2 new pairs of shoes (sweet! dress-casual shoes comfortable enough to walk in to and from the train)
7. went out to dinner with Jesse
8. ended up at dinner with Jesse and my mom, dad, brothers and uncle (Jesse surprised me!)
9. worked a little, so that my Monday would be less stressful
10. blogged

Jesse baked his first-ever cake today, and it was a total success. =) It's a pretty pink strawberry cake with fluffy white frosting.

Anyway, all in all, it was a really nice birthday, and I think 26 is going to be a good year. =)

Thank you, Technology.

I am so out of the habit of blogging. Good thing I told Teresa I would keep up with this thing, otherwise I might just quit altogether. Here's the problem (shh! don't tell): my old job allowed for more time to read funny articles online, emailing friends and blogging. Now, in my new job, I tend to be busy and slightly more tense all day. It's not that the job is stressing me out -- it's that it is made up of 100 tiny tasks to complete throughout the day, and I'm constantly worried that I've let something dropped, which would screw up a dependency and mess up the delivery schedule for some project... so I'm always "on." I have post-it notes everywhere, and Outlook reminds me of tasks I have to complete every 10-15 minutes. =P

So anyway... Life is good right now. =) I've been taking the train to work for pretty much the last 2 weeks. I love it. Although we sometimes have to rush to get to the train station, Jesse and I (I think!) are more calm in the mornings. The train schedule sets up a rigid go-to-work time and a rigid come-home-from-work time, and I am enjoying the routine. I also like walking a few blocks to work in the morning, then back to the train station in the evening, and the community feeling of travelling in the same direction as a large group of people at the exact same time. Although this phenomenon also occurs on freeways, I'd say that rush hour is not a community that I miss being a part of. =P My car also loves not driving 40-50 miles per day.

In other news, Jesse and I have cemented the date for our wedding. It's going to be on January 27, 2007. We have updated Wedding Central (2.0) with this information, and pretty soon, we'll get around to adding more text and pics to that website, so go there for wedding-related updates. Aaaand at some point soon, we're going to figure out the "save the date" thing, too. People (especially those with crazy schedules or people who have to travel long distances) should get either an email or a paper notice.. we'll see how that goes. If you're reading this blog post, you're pretty much one of the first to know the date. =) Congrats. Thank you, Technology.

Gah! My ring finger is naked.

Jesse made me do it! =(

I am without my engagement ring. It was too big. It has to be re-sized from an 8.75 (it fit easily on my thumb) to a 6.75. You may be asking yourself: Was I insulted to receive a ring that was that much too big for me? Not at all. It's not one of things that crosses your mind when your best friend gives you a diamond ring and asks if he can spend the rest of his life with you.

(w00t!)

Anyway, back to the point of this whole thing...

It's gone! I feel a little bit lonely without it. =( I won't have it back until Wednesday the 16th. That means that when I see two people tomorrow at Jesse's birthday party for the first time since the engagement, they won't be able to check out da ring. =(

Oh well... Apparently, when I get it back, it will fit tightly to the point where I won't be able to yank it off my finger very easily -- it'll get stuck at my knuckle. Does that mean I'll have to shower with it? Sleep with it? Will I ever be able to take it off, or will they have to cut it off of me to prevent the deadening of that finger once I've swelled into my 60s?

...the answers to THESE questions and more in 40 years, folks!

I think I'll go back to pining for my ring now...

Jesse is 30!!!!!!!

Run on over to Jesse's blog and wish him a Happy Birthday! Or better yet, send him a ridiculously sparkly piece of Happy Birthday animated web art on MySpace.

Have the happiest of birthdays, Bug!! I think it's going to be a great year!

Change of pace

I've been working at the same company for 3 years -- I started out doing orthographic transcription for just about six months, and I have been an analyst for the past 2.5 years. Now, on Monday, July 17, I'll be moving into Project Management. That should be a slight change of pace.

But the most important thing is that I am finally done interviewing and considering various offers -- I can just concentrate on transitioning out of this position and into the next one. As stressful as that should be, it seems totally relaxing to me after the past month.

And as proof of that fact, I actually went to bed before 11:00 last night, and I slept soundly until 8:00 this morning. It was awesome.

WOW we're busy.

This was a three-day work week for us. It was the longest short week I've ever worked. There was so much stress and anxiety crammed into those three little days. But it was quickly followed by the weekend -- sweet, we get to relax! Not quite yet.

Last night (Friday), Jesse and I went with a group of friends to see Pirates of the Caribbean 2 -- pretty good flick. It was the 9:40pm showing, and it was about 35 minutes from home, so we got in around 1:20 or 1:30am. Then we wound down a little and went to bed, just to get up early today to run to a Bridal Fair in downtown San Jose. It was supremely low-key there. We basically just entered a bunch of raffles, picked up some magazines, looked at a bunch of ugly dresses, and left.

Then we went out to lunch with my mom at the Spaghetti Factory. Yum! Jesse accidentally left his hat there. But we didn't have time to go back and get it, because we were already working on being late for the wedding we were supposed to go to today at 3:00pm.

So, we went to my mom's work and changed into our wedding clothes in their bathrooms there, then ran out and raced to the wedding. That was really nice. The happy couple had two ceremonies: one to reflect her Hindu background, and one to celebrate his Jewish background. Super interesting. We hung out with nice people, ate good food, and eventually left around 9:30pm.

At which point, we drove back to my mom's house -- because she'd gone back to the Spaghetti Factory and picked up Jesse's hat for him. So sweet. And we were so exhausted. We finally made it back home around 11:30pm tonight, and we're exhausted.

Tomorrow morning, I need to get up early so I can clean the house and hit the grocery store -- we're having a big group of people over for an ebelskiver breakfast at 11:00am.

Goodnight!

Down, down, down, down...

In general, I've been down for the past five days or so. I am working hard at work, and long hours. Jesse is also working long hours. We might come home late, or we might leave work early to rush across the bay to look at a potential wedding location, effectively killing an evening... we aren't eating altogether well, we aren't relaxing much, we aren't sleeping enough. In short, my (our) routine has changed drastically for the past week, and I'm none the better for it. Add to that a heaping helping of other stuff that's going on that I don't feel like discussing in a public forum, and you've got one very tired, stressed-out and down blogger.

Which doesn't make for an interesting blog... which is why I haven't been blogging... I just decided to say "hi" today to anyone who might be concerned about me. =)

Karaoke Night

Did you know that Comcast Digital Cable offers free Karaoke?

(I'll assume you said "no.")

Neither did we! So, last night when a commercial told me that tidbit of information, I thought to myself, "I've never felt so happy to have been informed by paid advertising! This is awesome!"

So I immediately stopped the show we were watching, and went surfing through Digital Cable menus (not pretty). Sure enough -- karaoke! So, Jesse and I had an impromptu karaoke night last night. You should've been there! (You could've stopped us...)

We sang such classics as:

"Somewhere Out There" in the style of Linda Rondstadt and James Hogan
"La Bamba"
and
"Pour Some Sugar On Me"

So, whereas at 7:00pm yesterday, I was totally ready to get rid of Digital Cable, by 11:00pm, I was sold on why we need to keep it. ;)

Wedding Central

We created our little Jesse+Amanda engagement space over at TheKnot.com. It's linked over there on the right-hand side of my blog. -->

There isn't much there yet, but we did write up a little synopsis of the proposal. It's in writing now, so we don't risk losing our voices from telling the story over and over. More details will be added as we, you know, decide on them. Enjoy! =)

"pop!" goes the question

... "yes!" goes the girl.

Most of the people who read my blog (Jesse, Jesse's friends & family, two of my friends) know already, but maybe I'll get a few surprise comments from other lurkers I don't yet know about, by informing the Blogger public that:

We're engaged!

That's right! On Sunday, May 14th, Jesse popped the question on the side of a Kona-Waimea highway (190). I had to de-code a numeric message, we were checkin' out a particularly awesome rainbow, etc, details... Apparently, he had already asked both of my parents for "permission" to marry me, and basically all of his friends and family already knew it was going to happen.. I was the only one in the dark. =)

...and none of my friends knew (not that Jesse's friends aren't my friends ... you know what I mean). So, if any of my friends are lurking, this is your sneak-peak at the news. ;) (Psst, let me know you're here, so I don't expect you to act surprised on Monday!) Otherwise, you'll have to wait for your email, phonecall, or glimpse of this near-blinding gem I'm cartin' around these days.

Any questions you have regarding our engagement or impending wedding will be answered tout de suite! Hopefully, we'll have one of those wedding announcement website things up within a couple of days.. We have lots of decisions to make, and people to keep updated!

Oh yeah, and we're back from Hawaii, too. Hello!