Now I know perl and purl!

My knitting instructor had to go Russia this week, so I am attempting to teach myself the second knitting stitch, the purl stitch. I got yarn in a color called Rose Camo, and it looks like a rose garden all mixed up. It is also the softest yarn they had, I love it!


I started with 26 stitches, and somehow ended up with a hole (bottom, to the right of center) and 27, but it's good practice!

Ben's scarf is coming along nicely! His is made using just knit stitch, but I like the wavy pattern it gets.


His is very soft and fuzzy too. I spent most of my time this weekend trying to figure out how to purl, so haven't gotten much further on his, but I'll do more of it this week.

The Kitten, keeping with her reputation as a strange cat, pretty much ignores the yarn but is fascinated with the knitting needles.

Wedding Updates!

My dress is in! I had too many dreams where I was walking down the aisle wearing a bathrobe, or jeans, or my high school prom dress because I never picked out a wedding dress, so I ordered it possibly a bit early. But it's getting the bustle put in and I will get to take it home soon! Now I just have to figure out where to keep it in my apartment, and how and when to get it to Jersey.

My shoes are also in! They are incredibly awesome and I have to restrain myself from not wearing them all the time, I love them so much. I wore them when I tried on my dress and it is the perfect length with them on!

My brideswomen have picked out their dresses! I wanted them to be comfortable and feel attractive in their dresses, so I gave them a color and asked them to pick out whatever dress they liked. They ended up all liking the same dress, and it looks awesome on all of them!

We also (finally finally finally) have a wedding ceremony location! We will be married at the General Greene Pavilion in Washington Crossing Park, next to beautiful old trees and a green grassy field. Unless it rains, in which case we will be married in the Riverside Ballroom in the Inn at Lambertville Station, next to the rain falling on the Delaware. Unless something terrible happens to the Inn, in which case we will be married at the courthouse. Always have two backups, my father always says!

Because even if it rains and the food is terrible and the music sucks and my centerpieces are uninspiring and the cake falls off the table and people have to wait in line to use the bathroom, as long as we end up married at the end of the night, I will be happy. That is the goal, I have it written across the top of my wedding spreadsheets so I won't forget it.

The frost is on the pumpkins...

...if by "frost" you mean 91 degree heat and "pumpkins" you mean the complete LACK of any sort of pumpkins whatsoever. Or apples, or anything else generally evocative of Fall in any way.

I went to North Carolina last weekend, and it was a wonderful trip. We drank apple cider and incredible peach cider and got lost in a huge corn maze and got pumpkins, it was a very nice way to enter October, which generally means Fall in most places.

Not Texas, though. It's definitely not Fall here. No pumpkins, no leaves turning, not even any apple cider in the grocery stores. The 91 degree heat and the humidity which makes it feel like 101 degrees (seriously) mean it might as well be July here, and you'd never know it wasn't by looking around.

I miss Fall. I miss apple cider and cool, crisp days with the vivid blue skies you only see in October in the north, and leaves falling and crunching under your feet as you walk along in your jacket, hands in your pockets and nose getting cold as you breathe the cool air. I miss the inexplicable smell of leaves burning even though no one burns them anymore. I miss the spooky feeling of being outside at night in October, an electric feeling no other nights have. I miss the nights cool enough to need an electric blanket, and the cats attracted like magnets to the warmth. I miss needing flannel sheets on the bed and extra afghans which hold me safe as I sleep.

Stepping outside into the wet-sock weather of a humid Houston is just no replacement.

We have a wedding posse!

We finally got to officially ask everyone we wanted to stand up with us at our wedding, and they all said yes!

My brideswomen (I don't like the "maids" in bridesmaids, all of mine are grown women and that sounds so undignified to me) are my sisters and B's sister. When we thought about our wedding party, my sisters sprang to mind immediately, they are my best friends. I'm very excited to be getting a new sister out of the deal, also, and I can't wait for them to all meet!

B's groomsmen are his best friend from high school, a very great guy, his best friend from college whom I'm excited to finally meet after hearing so much about, and my sister's husband! B said that he was so welcoming and accepting of him as a new member of our apparently somewhat intimidating-to-new-people family he would love for him to stand up with him when he becomes an official member. He's so sweet! That must be why I'm marrying him :)

Our ringbearer will be my nephew and our flower girl my niece. They will be both be so adorable no one will be able to stand it! And my mom is going to hand-make the flower girl dress! Isn't that awesome?

Altogether they are our wedding posse, and they rock!

Cute email story

From a weddingbee.com post:

This story is TOO cute not to share with every woman I "know"...

Recently, in a large French city, a poster featuring a young, thin and tan woman appeared in the window of a gym. It said: "THIS SUMMER DO YOU WANT TO BE A MERMAID OR A WHALE?"

A middle aged woman, whose physical characteristics did not match those of the woman on the poster, responded publicly to the question posed by the gym.

To Whom It May Concern: Whales are always surrounded by friends (dolphins, sea lions, curious humans). They have an active sex life, they get pregnant and have adorable baby whales. They have a wonderful time with dolphins, stuffing themselves with shrimp. They play and swim in the seas, seeing wonderful places like Patagonia, the Barren Sea and the coral reefs of Polynesia.

Whales are wonderful singers and have even recorded CDs. They are incredible creatures and virtually have no predators other than humans. They are loved, protected and admired by almost everyone in the world.

Mermaids don't exist. If they did exist, they would be lining up outside the offices of Argentinean psychoanalysts due to identity crisis. Fish or human?

They don't have a sex life because they kill men who get close to them, not to mention how could they have sex? Therefore they do not have kids either.
Not to mention who wants to get close to a girl who smells like a fish store? The choice is perfectly clear to me; I want to be a whale.

P.S. We are in an age when media puts into our heads the idea that only skinny people are beautiful, but I prefer to enjoy a treat with my kids, a good dinner with a man who makes me shiver and a have an ice tea with my friends. With time we gain weight because we accumulate so much information and wisdom in our heads that when there is no more room it distributes out to the rest of our bodies. So we aren't heavy, we are enormously cultured, educated and happy. Beginning today, when I look at my butt in the mirror I will think, "Good gosh, look how smart I am."

Wedding planning

Is all I can think about! Apparently most people start planning their wedding when they're about 3, but I never planned to get married, so I'm making up for all that time now. I'm trying to spread out my excited wedding talk over several people, so no one gets so bored with it they break a window jumping out to escape it, but it's difficult.

The planning is going well, though! I have the reception site booked, the photographer booked, the pastor booked, the save-the-dates ordered, an appointment with my dressmaker, and my shoes bought! I'm deciding between a few outdoor sites for the actual wedding ceremony if the weather is nice, if it's not we'll have it in the reception hall.

We still need a DJ, to pick a place for the ceremony, and flowers! I'm basically planning a huge party, and it will be so much fun!

Well, hopefully. I want everyone to have fun, but either way, as long as we end up married at the end of it, it will be perfect!

He's back!

My future husband is back on the continent! Yay! 3 weeks is a long time to be apart, especially if you were only engaged 2 weeks beforehand. But he's back now!

He got in on Saturday right on time at 4 pm. His parents were on the same flight, and since they had to pretty much exit the airport to get through customs and had a 4 hour layover, I picked them all up and we went out to a lengthy dinner. It was very nice to see them and they had a very nice trip, it sounded like. They told me all about where they went and how London was, which was very cool.

His sister had taken another flight home, through Chicago, but unfortunately the airline lost some of her luggage! Hopefully she'll get it back quickly. That's very annoying, especially if she had souvenirs from her semester in France packed in there.

After dinner we said goodbye to his parents and went home. I managed to keep him awake until about 10 pm, to try to get him readjusted to Central Time. It's so nice to see him again, we texted each other while he was in England but weren't able to talk on the phone, and I missed his voice and smell and hugs so much. I'm so glad he had a nice vacation and enjoyed spending time with his family, but I'm glad he missed me too.

He said he even missed the Kitten, though I'm not entirely sure she missed him. She ran under the bed when she first saw him, but was quickly convinced that he had all kinds of new things for her to sniff every inch of.

And he brought me back toffee! Toffee from everywhere he went! It's awesome! I had no idea there was so much variety in toffee, and it's all delicious. One of the toffees is in a gorgeous blue square tin, and another is in a red phone booth tin that converts to a coin bank when emptied!