'sup party people?

Official wedding pics are online! There are A LOT; it took me an hour to watch the slideshow on medium-fast speed. There are some really cool turtle ones near the end :) Get thee on over to:

http://www.collages.net/

Username: Dickerson

Password: 14927

A grown-up haircut: I has it.



Kinda reminds me of this, 5 years and more of a double chin ago:

Hehe, Ryan and I weren't even a couple yet; just happened to be sitting near each other.

I'm FINALLY getting over my honeymoon sickness. I went to student health yesterday and they gave me some antibiotics. One plus is that I didn't gain any weight despite the all-you-can-eat and all-the-alcohol-you-can-drink at the all-inclusive resort. Gotta look on the bright side of things, right?

The sub teaching jobs have pretty much dried up. I know of at least one school that's in session until next week, but there are a lot of subs vying for only a few spots. I did get two days in last week. Easy days too- everyone is watching movies and letting the kids sign yearbooks instead of doing real work. So it'd be nice if I could score another day or two.

I love my garden. Yesterday I harvested about two pounds of green beans, and in another two or three days there will be another two pounds. With all the fresh produce and leftovers (frozen) from the BBQ, my post-honeymoon food budget for June is $20 :) That's just to fill in the cracks; if we reaaalllly wanted to, we could get by without any shopping. For example:

June 11: Spinach salad with chicken. Spinach, snap peas, broccoli, and green onions from garden. Chicken and salad dressing from BBQ, bacon bits (guys love bacon!) and croutons from stockpile.
June 12: Chicken stir-fry. Chicken from BBQ. Broccoli and snap peas from garden. Rice and sauce from stockpile.
June 13: Hot dogs (from BBQ). I forget if we had side dishes or not; probably misc snacks leftover from the BBQ.
Etc... Tonight is burgers and tomorrow is another stir-fry.

Being married feels the same as before, just with more rings. I'm still waiting on the marriage certificate to arrive so I can do all the official name-change stuff.

Oh, and I forgot the mention: for the honeymoon we flew US Airways because they were the cheapest and the only ones with direct flights. For the first time in history, both flights were on time (one even landed a half hour early!) and no bags were delayed. Amazing!

Pretty much the funniest thing ever: http://failblog.files.wordpress.com/2008/04/taxonomyfail.jpg?w=360&h=480

I'm still sick from the food poisoning :( Not nearly as bad as the first day or two, but I still wish it was over.

The cat that Jib got into that scuffle with? It's a she, and she has KITTENS!!! They look maybe one and a half months old. Our neighbor told us that they were in the woodsy/brushy backyard of the next house down, so today I did some investigative reporting. I saw all four of them, then put out some wet food so I could help them out and get some pictures.



I already picked out the one I want. The black one with the white stripe on its nose (as seen in third picture). That's if I can't have all of them, of course.

But seriously, I think once they're a little bigger we might try to trap them and take them to the animal shelter. Two of them might have eye infections, I think. Plus, as much as I like kittens, it wouldn't be good if the homeless population grew exponentially.

My garden grew a ridiculous amount while we were gone. In addition to most of the broccoli being ripe and a couple of pounds of snap peas, we should have ripe green beans by the weekend. Not to mention everything else is just a whole lot bigger. The zucchini and soybeans are even starting to blossom. We won't be buying very much produce this summer, just a few things to fill in the gaps and maybe a few fruits that I love like cherries and grapefruit.

We're back! The honeymoon was pretty good for the first four days, but then I sprained my wrist playing beach volleyball, and the next day I got food poisoning/24 hour flu (no, I didn't drink the water), which meant Friday was one of the worst days of my life and Saturday was mostly spent inside watching TV. Before the mishaps we did get two dives in, and saw sea turtles, a nurse shark (6'-7' long!), a huuuuge moray eel, and plenty of fish, of course. It was too bad that we had to scrap our two other dives because of the sickness, but hopefully there will be other tropical diving trips during our lifetimes.

So, how was the wedding? We were cool as cucumbers until the last minute. I didn't start getting nervous/butterflies until the procession music started. I didn't trip on the stairs, yay about that. Several people said they thought the ceremony was more memorable inside than it would have been if the weather was predictably nice and we did it outside. I spent too much of the reception worrying about the dance floor being too empty. The DJ had sent us a .pdf of "last minute tips" for receptions, and among his instructions was to dance as much as possible so that the guests would follow suit. I guess that's the case at "normal" weddings, but of course our guests wanted to take advantage of the amenities such as the turtle tank and patio. Well, since I always worry too much about what other people think, I spent more time dancing when I really would have rather been elsewhere.

Anyway, Jen took some great pics, which you can see here. If anyone has more, I'd love to see them, especially since we don't get the professional proofs for another week or so.

We asked our neighbor, who we don't know that well but chit-chat about cats with (he has one), to "check in on the cats a couple times" while we were on the honeymoon. He did an awesomely over-the-top and hilarious job (and even left us a bottle of real Champagne as a gift). The hilarity comes from his detailed cat notes. Apparently he came over every day and took note of what the cats were doing. It's especially funny to me because it sounds like the journal of someone stranded on a desert island (and the bad spelling/punctuation is endearing too). Highlights:

June 3rd Tues 7:00 PM
Jiblees & Gremlin met me @ back door. Gremlin bolted. Jibs layed on LR flr for a pet. No Cocoa siting. Food good, Liter good. Changed water. Jibs everywhere I am. Sitting on paper I'm writing on now. cute!

June 5th Thurs. 7:00
All cats on cat tree in L.R. got to pet them all. CHOCO is his/her name! Got it. Gave them can treat. They all came running & meowin. Now I know the secret!

June 6 Fri 4:30
Jibs on cabinet in kitch. Topped off food & Gremlin came in. Choco came down & let me pet him. Jibs is rubbin the pen while I write.

Yay, tornado watch for the big day! That's semi-sarcastic; a big lightning show would be cool once we're inside, but a tornado would be overkill. Too bad the ceremony will probably be inside, but the rain location is in front of the sting ray and sea turtle tank :)

Ryan and I are cool as cucumbers. We're just not the types to run around like chickens with their heads cut off. So it should all be good.

LOL! Ryan had a ball and chain padlocked to his ankle at work today. It's a tradition for all future grooms on their last day of work before the wedding. It was literally a bowling ball on a real chain, and he didn't have access to the key at all. Fortunately he didn't have to walk very far or give any presentations to customers.

So, yup, he's taking the next two weeks off, and so am I. Wedding stuff, then 7 days/6 nights in Cancun/Cozumel.

Only 8 days to go! Ack!

D'oh! Jib caught another bird again today. I hope he isn't getting really good at it; I feel bad for the birds. He did the exact same thing with the bird- brought it to the same spot in the living room and rolled around on his back viciously shaking it around in his mouth. I wonder what it is about that specific spot in the living room.

I have a cold, so I'm taking off from subbing today. It's just a little head cold, so hopefully it will be over in a couple days. Better now than a week from now.

Busy taking care of the little wedding details. There's a lot of them. I picked up my dress yesterday. Today I mailed the cake topper to the bakery (didn't feel like driving over to PA). I'm very interested to see how the cake turns out. The top will be whimsical, so make sure you get a good look. And also to pique your interest, you may place bets on what song our first dance will be. Here's a hint: it was performed on American Idol this season (although we had it picked out long before). Speaking of AI, my favorite won last night- yay!

Saturday, Jib caught his first bird! Ryan and I were sitting in the living room while the cattens were outside with the back door open. All of a sudden, Ryan cries, "Jib, NO!" I look over, and Jib is furiously shaking his head with a mouthful of feathers. It was, uh, normal bird size (some biologist, eh? about 4-5" long) and already dead. Ryan was my knight in shining armor and wrangled away the bird with a plastic bag.

Yesterday was our one year housieversary! Only 14 years left until full ownership.

Today I sub for "culinary arts." That should be fun. I'm going to force them all to make me baked goods, but no cheesecakes, or you get an automatic F.

12 freakin' days until the wedding, and 9 until the out-of-town guests arrive. Holy mother of hell.

New garden pics on Flickr. Stuff is getting big!

And for the very first time on Chapter Three, a movie! Hope Quicktime is okay with everyone. Excuse my silly voices, I can't help it when there are cattens involved. Also excuse the high-pitched background noise; it's my camera's fault. Spoiler alert: at the end, I die!

There's no such thing as a typical day of subbing. Monday I signed up for a full day at a middle school. At lunchtime they sent me home because they actually only needed a half day and had entered the job wrong in the Subfinder system. I confirmed my suspicion that middle-schoolers are a pain in the ass, so I will really try to pick high school jobs when I can.

Tuesday I drove 25 minutes to a relatively distant high school to find that most of their building lost power due to some downed trees, so I was sent home. The real teachers told me, "Make sure you sign in so you get paid!" So I signed in, of course, but on my way out the principal said, "I'm really sorry about this." I don't think he'd feel sorry for me if I got paid a full day's work for showing up and heading right back home, so the jury's out on whether or not I'll get paid.

Today was actually as normal as it gets. I returned to "actually not Dan's high school, but the new school that replaced his the year after he graduated." It was nice to not have to learn an entirely new school's layout/bell schedule/policies/general vibe. I did a whole day of physical science, which was all about the periodic table. Yay! Like, did you know that helium has two protons, two electrons, and two neutrons? Like, whoa. One guy seemed impressed with my knowledge: "Did you just learn all this stuff before we came in?"

Another guy: "How old are you?"
Me: "Take a guess."
Guy: "Twenty."
Me: "Older."
Girl: "Stop hitting on the teacher."
Guy: "Twenty-two."
Me: "Twenty-six."
Guy: "DAMN. That's crazy."

I gather that I look young for my age, at least when I have makeup on and my hair done (so I don't look too haggard). When I worked at the Lobster, the other servers usually guessed my age as 19 or 20, although I was only 23 to 24 at the time. No big advantage right now, but hopefully the trend continues as I get "really" old.

I haven't got back on my diet yet and pretty much have no motivation to do so. I know I should so that I won't feel squeezed all night, but willpower isn't something I can conjure up without this intangible spark. I'm at least planning/hoping to really watch what I eat the week before so I at least won't have excess water weight.

My peas have flowers and my strawberries have little green berries. You could conceivably eat fresh-off-the-vine strawberries when you visit the house for the weekend of the wedding. Except that I'll be checking on them three times a day and will probably eat them a couple days before they're fully ripe because I'll be so impatient and eager.

I substituted at Dan's high school today! The middle school job was canceled (thank goodness) so I got a high school one instead. I did environmental science in the morning (nature video) and gym/health in the afternoon (free time shooting hoops/jump rope/playing catch and homework catch-up time in health. Not every student was an angel, but they were sooooo much easier to deal with than the middle schoolers.

Just so everyone knows, I will NEVER be a full time middle school teacher. Totally rowdy/loud/horsing around. I don't get why all the classrooms had inflatable balls in them- it's like asking for trouble!

So I was in charge of four classes by myself and "assisted" in four other classes (i.e. sat in the back doing nothing). Three of "my" four classes were all eighth grade social studies, where they watched a film about the civil rights movement. The first group was awful. Maybe two of them were watching the film while the rest were socializing and goofing off, not to mention asking to go to the bathroom every five minutes. I did my best to take away the obvious distractions (inflatable balls, sticks they were hitting each other with, etc), but there was really no way to get them to sit down and shut up. I at least stopped the film every ten minutes to quiz them about what was happening, and at least a couple students contributed, so that should have at least informed the goof-offs of the main points they had missed. The second group was about 50-50 good and bad students, and the third was really well behaved (yay!). The fourth class I had was sixth grade social studies, and while they were pretty hyper as well, one of their responsibilities was to clean up all the room's art supplies and they did a really impressive job. After that some of them worked like they were supposed to, some socialized, but I guess they just have to finish the rest as homework.

I have another middle school assignment tomorrow (different school)...here's hoping that this school is better at keeping their students in line.

I start substitute teaching tomorrow! I have assignments for both Thursday and Friday, both at middle schools. I won't know what subject until I get there. I'm happy to have the jobs in advance, otherwise I get woken up by an early morning call and have to quickly get directions and get out the door.

I had my dress fitting today, and my predictions were almost correct: it fit like a glove but would be more comfortable if I lost a few more pounds (I've been off my diet this week). The ladies were very impressed that it fit so well; I guess most women get something taken in or let out, especially with such a form-fitting design. I don't even need it hemmed- it was the perfect length with my heels on. The one thing that the seamstress is doing is adding the bustle so I can dance without tripping; the train is longer than I remember, but it's all good. I pick the dress up in two weeks.

Garden salad, srsly!

I thinned out the lettuce bed a little, so there's baby romaine and looseleaf lettuce, as well as a bit of baby spinach, radishes, and green onions, all from my garden! Yay! It was yummy. Summer is going to be great with fresh salads every few days. There are enough plants that I will be able to just pluck a leaf or two from many plants, and as they grow they will replace what I've taken. So it's a sustainable resource :)

Still seeking additional wedding guests...if anyone would like to amend their RSVP to bring along another guest or two, let me know. Srsly.

Ryan and I had lunch with Jen, KW, and Ariel in Center City today, as well as going on an apartment tour for Jen. She'll be in Philly for the next five years for her and KW's residencies! I recruited Ariel (probably) as another wedding guest, yay! I was also reminded how nice it is for Ryan and I to have so much square footage and yard space; medium-quality studio apartments in Center City are more than half the cost of our mortgage, for about the size of our living/dining room. There is something to be said for the short commute, but I could never live in a large city; I think they're dirty and full of sketchy people. But to each her/his own!

Here are some pics to illustrate how fast the garden has been growing. "Before" were taken on April 22, "after" were taken May 3.

Radishes before:

Radishes after:

Lettuce before:

Lettuce after:

Turnips before:

Turnips after:
I could go on, but you get the point. Plants are pretty cool.

Grumble, grumble, grumble.

Despite recruiting probably 5 or 6 more guests who weren't on the original invite list, the estimated guest count is still only 56 people. Plus me and Ryan = 58 people, if you include the DJ and two photographers, we bring it up to 61. I'm particularly annoyed today because someone who responded very positively when I was soliciting addresses mailed in their card with a no. Nothing but a little x on the card. I appreciate when people who reply no take the time to put a little note on there, such as "Wish I could be there, congrats, have a great time," etc.

To reiterate, why no one comes to mai party :[.

I'm breaking all sorts of etiquette rules trying to round up more guests- email, Facebook... Maybe I could get a tax write-off if I invite in some vagrants off the streets of Camden for a free meal?

I'm getting married this month.

OMGWTFROTFLMAO!

Also, IDKMYBFFJIB?

That is all.

My little (22 year old) brother just got engaged! Now that really makes me feel old. I guess he took her out to the Oregon coast (they live in WA just across the border from Portland) and he wrote the question in the sand, with the ring on the dot of the question mark...cute! They are thinking next spring or summer, probably. Guess that means I will be heading out west again.

Meh. Last week it was sunny with highs around 80. Today it's cold and rainy. Now tell me, how am I supposed to be in a good mood, weather? At least one advantage is that I don't have to water the garden for a few days since it is getting such a good soaking. The plants are growing quite fast- I can see a big difference since I posted those pictures 6 days ago. I think I could start harvesting radishes by this weekend!

We broke down and bought sod to cover the big bare patch where the tree fell down. We'd tried planting grass but it only grew successfully in a few small subpatches. We also put sod between the driveway and the porch, and I'm delighted with how it turned out. The "before" picture doesn't capture all the crappiness because I was focusing on the flowers, but you get an idea.

Before:

After:
After a couple weeks the seams should grow together, I hope.

I lost another two pounds this last week. The bridal shop is closed Mondays, but tomorrow I'm going to call and schedule a fitting. I can already tell you what is going to happen- the dress will zip up fine and fit like a glove, but be a little too tight to be comfortable for 7.5 hours. Maybe they will have to hem it a little, but probably not much because I'll be 5' 10.5" in my heels. I'll lose another 4 or 5 pounds, visit the shop again, and it will be fit perfectly. And we'll all live happily ever after. The end.