Friday Fragments - December 21, 2012

Aha!  We survived the Mayan apocalypse.  So, are you disappointed or relieved?  Personally, I think we missed a golden opportunity to consume massive amounts of Mexican food.  We thought it was a grand idea at work but we had a whole buffet of food left over from the potluck the day before.  Maybe on Wednesday when we return we'll celebrate the Mayans.

Last weekend my older son got married.  It was a beautiful wedding and a very fun reception. 

After much coaxing my daughter got the teenager on the dance floor.

 

 Of course the star of the show was my grandson, the ring bearer

He promptly passed out

Daddy posing by him

Because our groom had been a ring bearer 20 years ago and also passed out at the reception

Movie suggestion for the Christmas Season - The Bishop's Wife.  I see it's scheduled to play a couple of times on TCM today (Sunday) at 7pm and midnight.  I thought it was a sweet film that captured the Christmas spirit very well.  Please make a point of looking for it.

My plan for the weekend is to make cookies!!!!  Hubby doesn't want me to go overboard, except of course, to make plenty of peanut butter.  I figured I will make the batters and probably use only half of each, freezing the rest.  Then I can have fresh baked cookies later on.  We'll see.  I might just go overboard after all.

May everyone have a very merry Christmas!

Friday Fragments - December 7 2012

How is everyone's holiday preparations?  Ours are kind of on hold as my son's wedding is next week.  I try not to think about things like this because I blow them out of proportion with anticipation.  It's really exciting but if I don't focus on it then I will be able to enjoy it even more.  The surprise of how the day will unfold will be a million times better than anything I could ever concoct in my head.  And I'm one of those people who gets disappointed if things don't go as I anticipate - so I've taught myself to stop anticipating.  It took a long time to learn that and even longer to make it happen.

Chicken strips seem to be the epitome of bad eating... hmm... maybe it's hamburgers... so chicken strips are a close second.  But I have to say I do like eating them.  What I don't like are the pressed meat variety.  I want a genuine hunk of meat, batter dipped, deep fried.  As we contemplated dinner one night I quipped I wanted chicken strips.  And that's what we did, but homemade ones.  They were fabulous and I want to make them again.  We used boneless breasts, cut into chunks, dredged and floured like regular fried chicken.  It was faster than traditional fried chicken, especially with these mutant huge chicken breasts available in the grocery store.   I feel almost brilliant for  making them.  It's the basic stuff, isn't it?

What was the last movie you watched?  It doesn't matter if it was in a theater.  In my book a movie watched in any venue counts.  Cable, online streaming, and movie rentals have opened a whole world of  entertainment to us.  For me cable is relatively new.  I didn't spend my teen years in the 80's watching MTV videos because my parents were sheer evil, denying me this basic NEED.  I do regret not seeing all of the videos my contemporaries saw, but I definitely appreciate the access now.  Instead of catching up with all of the videos from my deprived teen years, I'm now watching more movies than any civilized person should.  I'm watching the full gambit of Oscar contenders to crappy B films.  And I'm loving it.  It's only a phase which one day will pass.  Oh I will eternally love the film medium of telling a story, but this obsession with movie marathons will l eventually subside.

As I write this To Kill A Mockingbird is playing.  The Teenager is reading this for English class.  I suggested that if he wanted to boost his grade to ask his teacher if he can write a paper comparing Mockingbird to the Sand Lot.  He looked at me like I was crazy - more work???  He knows he needs to do some extra credit, but I added that teachers LOVE compare and contrast stuff like that.  Is that cheating?  Knowing how teachers think?  It's just bizarre enough he might do it.  We'll see...

I think this has been a fairly random post - definitely the stuff of a proper Fragmented Friday!

Friday Fragments - April 29, 2011

Good Morning!

I've been up for five hours now - got up early to watch the royal wedding.  It was gorgeous and every bit as spectacular as I had hoped.  So sad Diana never got to see her lovely boys grow up and get married.  It's impossible to look at William and not see his mother, he has her eyes.

It's been quite the week.  Last Friday closed out with horrendous storms ripping through northern St. Louis County.  Everybody I know has a story of where they were when the tornadoes barreled into town and knows someone affected.  We are all grateful and amazed no one died.   Then yesterday my friends through the south are reporting even greater damage and loss of life.  I don't know who did it, but Mother Nature is PISSED OFF and we had better start making amends quickly - hurricane season is just around the corner.

In geeky news, I will be reformatting a server in the not so far future.  That always sounds much more harrowing than it really is.  The key is to have decent backups of all of the data.

While I'm on the subject of backups, have you backed up your computer lately?  How about your blog?  It's been a little too long since I've done any of that myself.  But seriously, save your work frequently and have a reliable back up.

Okay, back to work for this chick.  I'm trying really hard to get back into the swing of visiting everyone now that I'm past the auction slog. 

Royal Watch

Is anybody going to voluntarily watch the wedding tomorrow morning?  Most everyone I know thinks it's all gibberish, but personally I love it.  Of course I love weddings and I enjoy seeing the royal family so it's all quite groovy in my book.

My plan is to get up early, curl up on the couch and be able to claim I watched it live.  Pretty much the same as I did when Charles and Diana got married.  I might even call my mom in the wee hours so we can share a little commentary with each other (think I came by this interest because of her?)

I'm not dressing up nor am I fixing anything special or British.  Nope, just snuggled up on my couch with the remote in my jammies with my eyes barely open.

So, are you in the group who doesn't give a hoot or will you be following the hoopla?

Friday Fragments - April 1, 2011

Happy April Fools Day!

If you're following me on Facebook you'll see this morning (April Fools Day) that I posted I'm due in November.  So far I've only gotten one thumbs up.  What will be funny is to see my family flip out over it even though they know my baby factory is CLOSED.

For those who have been reading my blog for a while you know that I have an ongoing prank war with a coworker.  So when a TOILET appeared in my front yard on Tuesday I immediately blamed Anna.  Sure enough, she was guilty.

Sooooooooooooooo... yesterday (she's not going to be at work today to enjoy the retribution) I set up a free email account, created a Craigslist single's ad and then configured it to come up in her email reader on her computer.  She called me in a panic about all of these weird messages coming in.  I put on my IT hat and got all serious investigating this problem.  I opened one of the messages, clicked the link to the posting and as she read it she burst out laughing.  She conceded I got her back.

Now I have to sit and wait for her response.

My other fragment for the day is to share that I spent Saturday with my future daughter-in-law viewing her wedding dress.  Her sisters and my daughter were also there giving their thumbs up before she put her money down.  It's a gorgeous dress and looks beautiful on her.  The wedding is next April and excitement is building.   Now I need to start looking for a mother's dress.  I will probably go for lavender, but I have no idea what style and non-shopper me is going to have to start combing the racks.  Woooo

Have a happy Friday.  Hopefully no one pulls a mean prank on you.

Incredible Cuteness

This is my two oldest children at their aunt's wedding.  My daughter sent it to me over the weekend and I cannot get enough of it.

I doubt my son remembers this day, but it truly sticks out in my memory.  He was such a little shit that day and in DIRE need of a nap.  This may be the only good picture of him from the wedding.  My daughter, on the other hand, completely soaked up the day, the pretty dress, and being near her precious aunt (still a favorite person in her world).  She had very little tolerance of her little brother's behavior and was hellbent on getting him to comply to the photographer's requests.

Sunday In My City - September 26, 2010 (anniversaries and weddings)

Today is my first wedding anniversary!

One year ago we tossed together a wedding in 24 hours, a small gathering in my mom's backyard.  It was intimate, but perfect.  My post a year ago is here, but there's a better run down here.   We don't have anything super special planned today.  I think we'll be doing steaks on the grill tonight - hopefully the weather holds out.

Last night I attended the wedding of a coworker.  It was a big, beautiful church ceremony in the afternoon and a reception several hours later.  The bride was radiant, smiling ear from ear.  The groom also grinned, but looked a little lost.  The bride jokingly referred to the whole ordeal as "Gale's Wedding" - Gale is her mom.  I remember the feeling as I tolerated my mom putting on my big formal church wedding 23 years ago.

Her reception was held at the 9th Street Abby in Soulard.  It's an old church renovated into a reception hall.  There's a little patio that is used for private parties which is where we gathered for hors d'ourves, then we moved inside to the old chapel for our meal.

I was agitated to see that people the bride wasn't terribly close to, but felt obliged to invite from work had accepted the invitation.  Her family paid a pretty penny for their meals and in exchange she received fake hugs and mindless greeting cards.  At least those who responded about attending actually came.  I was sad to see that several people came to the reception without attending the ceremony - that is total crap in my book.  Those same people also left the reception as soon as the meal was over.  Isn't that horrible?

I doubt the happy couple is aware of any of this, because a wedding day goes by in a blur.  Memories will be formed from pictures.

Already my wedding one year ago seems like it's been several years.  I don't know if that's because we lived together for a while or that my memory is bad or that we're getting older... or a little combination of them.

Join Unknown Mami and everyone else sharing their city:

And Then One Got Married

Yesterday was hard enough with my friend's daughter turning twenty-five.  Then wedding pictures of another young lady, one I've known since she was a pre-teen, popped up on facebook.

UGH!

Y'all need to quit growing up!!!!!!!!!

She was absolutely beautiful, radient.  The kiss at the end, sheer delight.  My eyes teared up looking at the picture of the father-daughter dance.  He had his eyes squeezed tight, clinging onto his baby girl.  It was just precious.

But the wedding party?  They looked like a bunch of teenagers taking off for prom.  Babies.  And then I wondered, did my wedding party look that young?  We had to, we were approximately the same age.


I'm happy for the bride and wish her and her husband a happy long marriage, but holy cow you people are making me feel old.

Wedding Day Weather

Yesterday I got married! We won't get into the fact that I married my first husband exactly 22 years ago on the same day, something he finds riotously funny.... well I do too. Maybe this time I can get it right?

The day started off with walk. I was immediately struck by the big fluffy clouds. Once I came in view of the seminary bell tower the sun was coming up and the most glorious beams were breaking through the clouds. It was something I call "Jesus Clouds" - you know those clouds with beamy sunrays that are on inspirational posters quoting Bible verses? Rather appropriate over a seminary, no?


As soon as I made my way back into the house rain started to fall. It didn't last very long, but ominous clouds filled the sky.

My plans for the day included the company picnic and I was on the planning committee. By the time I met up with a coworker the sun came back out and we figured we were safe for a picnic. Right.

After we unloaded the cars at the park pavilion I snapped a picture of the next set of ominous clouds.
We managed to hold a picnic with the rumbles of thunder in the distance, but the rain skirted to the north of us and we had a pleasurable day.

The moment I got into the car to begin my marital journey raindrops hit the windshield and the skies opened up. I haven't heard from my coworkers if they were doused or not, but it made for a wet ride.

Two hours later, when I pulled up to my mother's house, the clouds disappeared and the sun joined us allowing for an outdoor wedding. It was beautiful and perfect.

Once the paperwork was signed and the witnesses were on their way home the clouds and thunder rolled back in. Pretty amazing, don't you think?



If you want a rundown of the wedding itself, I blogged about it on another site, not exactly sure if my mother would make her way to THIS blog, but it is possible and certainly do not want her reading the other. The language is raw and not appropriate for those with delicate eyes.

The Flowergirl

The ideal age for a flower girl and ring bearer is somewhere between 3 and 10. Of course I didn't pay any attention to that advice, mostly because I didn't have any other children to pick from. I chose my best friend's two year old daughter. She had JUST turned two. Her ability to follow directions was limited and her ability to sit still even more limited.

She and the three year old ring bearer managed to go just as instructed down the aisle to the candy bribes waiting at the end. And so began the ceremony. The long, drawn out ceremony that would never end. I'm not Catholic and this was not a Catholic ceremony, but everyone compared it in length to one. Everyone, including the bridal party, was having problems not fidgeting. I don't know where to begin my apologies. It looked like a simple enough ceremony when I sat with the minister thumbing through his book of ceremonies. I vaguely recall that he mentioned that it was longer than the standard ceremony, but what did I know? He didn't throw out huge warning flags, he didn't knock me upside the head... how was I to know that this was an AGONIZINGLY long ceremony??? OH and then the song I chose? Well, actually my mother strongly suggested a duet from Phantom. I should have had plastic forks handed out to the guests as they arrived so that they could jab them in their eyes for amusement. Again, what did I know? I was young and stupid.

Some point while the minister was rambling about love and happiness the flower girl had managed to climb onto the wooden choir pews behind the minister. In her hard sole shoes, she stomped along the the pews, the sound echoing out through the church. Her mother was stranded as a bridesmaid and couldn't break ranks so her mom dashed up and swooped the flowergirl back to her seat.

A little while later, I was nudged by my groom and I looked over at him and then he looked at me with that silent "what?" And then he looked at me, thinking I nudged him. In unison we looked between us and there stood the flowergirl. She scooched over to a position between the groom and bestman and the scene repeated as they each looked at each other thinking the other was trying to get his attention.

Thereafter I never witnessed any more of the flowergirl's activities. It was reported that during the vow exchange she stood between us with a hand on each of us, like she was pulling us together - I had no clue, I was too busy trying to repeat my lines correctly. Later she evidently took a corsage pin and contently sat on my train trying to poke holes in it.

My mother-in-law was horrified. I thought it was hilarious.