Yes, xkcd, this is SO FUCKING TRUE:




I HATE PAPYRUS

It's been three years today...

...With 66 days left to go before life changes.

Genealogy is annoying for one reason: I am not a patient person.

I find emails of people who have information on distant ancestors of mine, or I send off payment for some vital record of a direct ancestor, and I think "WHAT IS TAKING SO LONG I haven't received/heard from Person/Department", then I check my dates and it's barely been 2 weeks or something.

I am sure not everyone has constant, instant access to the Internet and of course sending off an application for a copy of a death certificate halfway across the country takes time, but fuck, I am so impatient. I want my information now!!! Sure, I found records that a William Mills from the area of Greene County was in the 8th Regiment of the Tennessee Cavalry Volunteers, but that's just a ton of coincidental evidence pointing towards HIM, MY RELATIVE--it doesn't list his city, or parent's names, or anything that proves he's MY relative--how are YOU so sure it's not just another guy with the same name and age from the same area? The evidence is 98% pointing towards HIM, but do YOU have the other 2% of concrete evidence?

Why, I don't know, you haven't answered my email. I'm sure you have a busy life and all, so do I, but FUCK I'M SO IMPATIENT.

But I love genealogy. It's a lot of sitting at a computer for hours a day (something I'm quite used to) or in a library (I also like that), and challenging (oh, the thrill of finally finding M.J. Ricker in the 1860 census after trying about eight billion different forms of her name).

Also, the day I got the death certificate for my great-great grandmother in the mail, I was grinning like crazy. It's so awesome.

95 DAYS TO GO AHHHHHHHHHH

Completed:

--Ceremony site: reserved
--Reception site: reserved
--Wedding rings: bought and resized
--Wedding party: chosen
--Wedding dress: in transit to Seattle
--Photographer: hired
--DJ: hired
--Officiant: hired
--Caterer: hired
--Florist: Discuss WHY flowers are estimated to cost $1220???????
--Registry: One at Macy's, still need to make one @ Target
--Save-the-Dates: sent
--Invitations: Supplies bought, need to print/assemble
--Rehearsal Dinner: Site chosen, reservations made
--Guest list: finalized
--Theme: dinosaurs

To do:

asdlkfh lawfhawlfbnal;wncbikjearba

To be non-cynical, I'm really excited about making our invitations. Our planner had recommended us a "good company!" to get them made and done, but when the proof was sent to us I balked--it looked really cheesy, like a beginning graphic design student had thrown it together really quick, and was basically just a flat card plus an RSVP card and a hotel card, and 50 of those was going to be $250+. We're definitely in the "I'm tired of doing shit, I want to pay someone else to do everything" mode, but I found renewed strength to make our own invites. As a result we bought supplies to make 60ish invites for around $180 or so...but they're going to look SO MUCH NICER than the premade ones. I'll have to post a pic when we're done.

So in lieu of going to Sakura-Con this year, we're going to meet Nobou Uematsu at the Final Fantasy concert in Seattle in July--not a bad trade-off in my opinion (what am I talking about, this will be far more awesome!). It actually ends up being cheaper than doing the whole Con tickets + Hotel + Buying Lots of Cool But Totally Useless Geeky Dealer's Room Stuff that we do every year. And the justification we gave ourselves was that our wedding is three weeks later so we'll be making back the money we spent in gifts XD.

Anyhow, last July, we met Hideo Kojima, creator of the Metal Gear Solid series, so I guess meeting Nobou Uematsu this year is the only thing that comes close to the Awesomeness of Hideo Kojima (although the only thing that could TOP Hideo Kojima would be meeting Yasunori Mitsuda, another legendary Japanese video game music composer who did Chrono Trigger and Xenogears and the like. At the rate we're going...maybe next year???). Holy hell I'm really showing off my geeky side in this post.

If anyone else is in the Seattle area, there are still tickets left for both the concert AND the meet-and-greet!

Completed:

--Ceremony site: reserved
--Reception site: reserved
--Wedding rings: bought and resized
--Wedding party: chosen
--Wedding dress: ordered, first payment made
--Photographer: hired
--DJ: hired
--Officiant: hired
--Save-the-Dates: supplies bought, need to make
--Guest list: finalized
--Theme: dinosaurs

To do:

--Design invitations
--Send out invitations
--Register for gifts somewhere
--Alter wedding dress/pay second payment
--Bridesmaid dresses--discuss
--Hire caterer
--Interview/hire cake people
--Wtf do we really need a florist?
--Reserve blocks of hotel rooms for guests
--Finalize times for ceremony/reception
--Look at restaurants in Tacoma for rehearsal dinner
--See if Dad still wants to do the Sunday brunch thing
--Figure out what to do with all our guests on Saturday
--Honeymoon: look at bed and breakfast places around Tacoma


THERE IS STILL SO MUCH TO DO WHY

Although I'm excited to design a dinosaur-themed wedding cake

Happy one year with us, Dreadnought!

One year ago today (Valentine's Day!) I brought home a skinny orange kitty diagnosed with Feline Leukemia who was given less than a year to live. Today is he a fat orange kitty who loves to eat, hasn't been sick once, and is healthy enough to attempt to hump us in our sleep. Here's to many more years to the cutest orange kitty in Seattle!

The very day I brought him home from the shelter I used to work at! Look at that skinny face!




Happy One Year Anniversary with us, Dreadnought! To celebrate, here's a little party hat and an Arby's Melt for you!




So much excitement...time for a cat nap :)

Happy birthday to you!
Happy birthday to you!
Happy birthday dear Dreadnought!
Happy birthday to you!

Out fat orange kitty is now 5 years old. Hurrah!

Also the words "The Obama Administration" roll off my tongue and make me feel happy inside.

1/8 - Meet with DJ #1
1/13 - Meet with DJ #2
1/14 - Meet with DJ #3
1/15 - Meet with officiant #1
1/18 - Meet with Photographer #1
1/20 - Meet with Photographer #2
1/21 - Meet with Caterer #1
1/25 - Meet with Caterer #2
1/28 - Meet with Photographer #3

As of today, there are 200 days left until our wedding.

Everything is crazy.

1/8 - Meet with DJ #1
1/13 - Meet with DJ #2
1/14 - Meet with DJ #3
1/15 - Meet with officiant #1
1/18 - Meet with Photographer #1
1/21 - Meet with Caterer #1
1/25 - Meet with Caterers #2 and #3?

And from the 23rd to the 26th, R-kun's sisters will be here and we're going to a Video Games Live concert again, so...this month is busy, busy, busy.

So very busy.

Only 208 days left oh shit

Completed:

--Ceremony site: reserved
--Reception site: reserved
--Wedding rings: bought and resized
--Wedding party: chosen
--Wedding dress: ordered, first payment made
--Theme: dinosaurs

To do:

--Finalize guest list
--Design invitations
--Send out invitations
--Alter wedding dress/pay second payment
--Bridesmaid dresses--discuss
--Interview/hire photographer
--Interview/hire caterer
--Interview/hire cake people
--Interview/hire live musicians (possibly for ceremony)
--Interview/hire DJ (for reception)
--Interview/choose officiant
--Reserve blocks of hotel rooms for guests
--Finalize times for ceremony/reception
--Look at restaurants in Tacoma for rehearsal dinner
--See if Dad still wants to do the Sunday brunch thing
--Figure out what to do with all our guests on Saturday
--Honeymoon: look at bed and breakfast places around Tacoma

I thought we were making decent progress but thinking we only have about 200 days left to do all of this (less, I guess, since it all needs to be in place/completed well before the wedding), makes me want to smash my head against something. However, we're going to the Seattle Wedding Show tomorrow so maybe that will help. I hope.

Dc was a FUN trip. I'll have to do a full update later, but basically Virginia so far:

--Actually got here. Wasn't expecting that, what with all the snow in Seattle--we were only 3 hours late!
--Christmas was good. I got a new camera! <3
--Went wedding dress shopping with my mom. I think I have one picked out now--we're going back tomorrow to try it on again and talk to the people some more.
--Went to DC and saw:
--------The Declaration of Independance
--------The Constitution and Bill of Rights
--------A copy of the Magna Carta from 1297
--------Dinosaur fossils
--------The Changing of the Guard at Arlington National Cemetary
--------Lots of other things


I have millions of pictures but I'll have to upload them when I get back to Seattle because there is no Photoshop on this computer so it's hard to resize and edit and all that jazz. However I will leave you with a picture of us in front of Stephen Colbert's portrait at the Museum of American History!


Shot with Samsung BL103 at 2008-12-29

So despite the Terrible, Horrible, No-Good, Very Bad Snowstorm Of Death that's hitting Seattle right now, our flight is still on according to every website I am F5ing right now. It better damn well be because I do NOT want to get all the way to Sea-Tac just to find out the flight was delayed, oh, and roads are in terrible condition so we have to spend the night in the airport. Blah.

It's snowing and I work at a school so I get snow days~~

I have decided I like my job.

Also, I have decided that I Like Hats. I hate hats, I think I look awful in them, but with temps at and below freezing for the last week, I bought a fluffy hat on Tuesday. Now it's snowing buckets and I decided to go out and walk a couple of blocks in the snow because I wanted to buy a bigger crochet hook, and WOW--I was MUCH warmer with a fluffy hat on my head, over my ears. Super cozy.

I'm so glad I finished knitting that scarf for R-kun last night, because he had to go to work because the university was open even though winter break has started and no one's on campus anyway. What the hell. It'll probably take him hours to get home because the buses are all rerouted and not really on a schedule right now.

I have changed my weather alerts to metric in order to feel better about bitching about the cold.

It's -2°C right now. Yeah, that's below freezing. Yeah, it's fucking cold especially without the heat on.

My Secret Santa at work gave me mittens with snowmen on them. Very appropriate since I've been wearing them around the house. I hope I get a sun in my Secret Santa gift today.

First snow of the season!

It's supposed to keep snowing and stay below freezing all weekend, which means I hope it sticks and stays icy and all the schools are closed Monday which means the preschool is closed which means I don't have to go to work.

SNOW MORE! MORE!

Completed:

--Ceremony site: reserved
--Reception site: reserved
--Wedding rings: bought (hee hee)
--Wedding party: chosen

To do:

--Choose theme (???)
--Resize wedding rings
--Finalize guest list
--Design invitations
--Send out invitations
--Look for/buy/alter wedding dress
--Interview/hire photographer
--Interview/hire caterer
--Interview/hire cake people
--Interview/hire live musicians (possibly for ceremony)
--Interview/hire DJ (for reception)
--Interview/choose officiant
--Reserve blocks of hotel rooms for guests
--Finalize times for ceremony/reception
--Look at restaurants in Tacoma for rehearsal dinner
--See if Dad still wants to do the Sunday brunch thing
--Figure out what to do with all our guests on Saturday
--Honeymoon?????????????

We have a little more than SEVEN MONTHS left to do all this. It seems like a lot of time, except that we've been engaged for almost six months already and all we have is the place we're getting married reserved, and the wedding rings. Hopefully by January I have my dress chosen (AHAHAHA), but the bulk of what we need to do is Interview/Hire people, which is very difficult to do when we don't have a car and most People to Interview/Hire are not in downtown Seattle.

Oh yeah, and we need to register at a registry so people can start sending us things. Although honestly I'm trying to see if I can set up a Honeymoon Registry (they exist!) since we don't need/have room for tons of shit in this apartment, and the honeymoon is the one thing (aside from the rings, which we just bought) that we're totally bearing the cost of and at the moment all we'll really be able to afford is that cheap-ass Three Day Cruise to Alaska That Doesn't Actually Go To Alaska. Yeah.

It must be pretty cool to go up to a polling place and see your own name on the ballot.

As for the rest of us lowly citizens not running for office, well...I, for one, am glad I have to go to work because otherwise I'd just be in front of the computer F5'ing all day. Since I get off work at 6pm and the first polls on the East Coast close at 6:30 Pacific time, I'll be home just in time to see the first results begin to roll in.

Also we got an HD antenna so we get basic TV now. Perfect.

Me? I voted by mail a few days ago. As cool as it would be to go to a polling place again, voting by mail was way easier. And I got to sleep in.

If you haven't voted yet, GO!

Twenty-three.

The year my parents got married.
The year my mom had me.

The year I'm going to get married.
Hopefully not the year I'm going to have kids. Still, it's set to be an interesting, eventful year.

Thanks for all the birthday wishes yesterday :).

Wedding date!

July 31, 2009
Point Defiance, Tacoma

Ceremony in the Rose Gardens around 11am
Reception in the Pagoda at 12:30 or 1pm

Now to work on the dress, invitations, catering, decorations, guest list, favors, etc....XD

I love making pizza. It's fun and tasty and better than anything you can buy.

If you're having trouble with too-chewy crusts (I like mine somewhat crispy), simply pat out the dough into your pizza pan and bake for 5-8 minutes, then take it out, add the toppings, and put it back in for however long it takes to finish cooking (about 10 minutes for me).

I'd make pizza a couple of times a week if I could. It's one of those foods that I can't really get tired of unless it's nasty greasy delivered pizza. Also while I can absently polish off an entire medium pizza from Dominio's or something, two slices of homemade pizza fills me up--probably because I put tons of delicious fresh veggies on it. Tasty.