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.

Nothing like a little (ok, a lot) of wheeling and dealing to lift the spirits:


After rebate, I spent 11 cents! Heck, since there's no bottle deposit in NJ, we can take the empty 2L bottles up to NY next time we visit Ryan's family and get 15 cents back. So I made 4 cents :D
4 gift bags
4 body wash
1 Lysol wipes
3 2L of soda
6 pumps Softsoap
dozen eggs
2 small dish soap
2 deodorant
2 CVS pain reliever
2 lip balm
1 nail polish for the wedding

Boo yeah!

And I recruited two new wedding guests from Penn, with the possibility of several more. I'd held off on inviting Penn people because if there wasn't room for all of them, I didn't want to hurt anyone's feelings. But now there's room to invite away.

Aww, this is sadly appropriate for the wedding. Even has the right color blue ribbon.

Good grief. I was never much of a Peanuts fan, but Charlie Brown's catchphrase seems to be the first expression to come to mind. Oy. That's the second one.

I called my mom to see how she was moving along with wedding-related stuff. Mainly: 1) has she bought a dress yet (and if so, is it appropriate, or is she attending a wedding on some distant planet?), 2) what hotel is she staying at, and 3) where's my response card? And 4), I also figured I could use some filler material for my next therapy session (reminds me of the Geico commercial where the caveman puts his mother's call on speakerphone so his therapist can hear).

1) Hasn't gone dress shopping. Hasn't even browsed to see what's out there. Now come on, I'm sure she's been to the mall in the last few months. Would it be that hard to at least walk past the special occasion section at Macy's or Penney's?

2) Hasn't booked hotel yet.

3) "Oh, didn't look at it that closely." The invitations looked like something corporate. Back in my day they had scrollwork and frilly edges." Maybe she's referring to the block lettering? I don't know, to me at least, pearlescent paper with bright aqua doesn't look too corporate. Our names were in script, at least. I decided to just say, "What do you want to eat?"

I guess I should just be glad that she at least has a plane ticket. Oy.

I mentioned that while Ryan's mom was down last weekend, she said, "Cat, your mom must be really excited!" (My response was, "Uh, yeah, I guess...well...I think it hasn't really sunk in yet..." but I didn't mention that to my mom). My mom said, "Well, I'm not a big party person."

That's golden fodder for my therapist. Hello? Earth to Cat's mom?! Come in! Do you copy? I think the point is that your first child and only daughter is getting married. You know, the whole big trip across the country to witness the big commitment/starting a new family/sacred covenant and all that jazz. Not whether or not you're big on social gatherings. Good grief. It's not just lack of enthusiasm, it's lack of most interest at all. You'd think she was attending a wedding of some distant in-law who she'd met once at a funeral.

I admit that the reason that Ryan's mom's over-the-top-ness makes me feel bad (see stress last weekend) is the disparity with my mom's attitude. Ryan's mom won't stop asking questions: "Do you know what you're wearing to the rehearsal dinner? What is your first dance song? What song are you cutting the cake to? Are you having any readings during the ceremony? etc... With a lot of the questions I just smile and say, "It's a surprise," secretly hoping that it will reduce the number of future questions. I can't think of a single question my mom has asked about the ceremony or reception. I mean, I volunteer information and she sometimes comments ("Outside? You'd better hope it doesn't rain."), but there's not much anticipation.

I have some heavy therapeutic gardening to do tomorrow!

Just posted a crapload of garden pics on Flickr. In addition to everything pictured, I have potatoes, soybeans (mmm, edamame), and green beans planted that haven't sprouted yet.

Thinking about the wedding has me :( right now. We're getting more "can't attend" response cards than we estimated, and our current projection is only 56 guests. The space we have at the aquarium is huge (would comfortably fit 250 people), and I'm worried that it's going to feel empty and the dance floor will be empty. Not to mention the amount of money the whole wedding is costing...the per person cost is pretty ridiculous. It all has me feeling that the backyard barbeque should have been the reception itself.

Ryan's mom and little brother were down for the weekend. She bought all the alcohol ($300 worth!), paper goods, and non-perishable food for the Friday night house party and Sunday BBQ. Now, she always overbuys, but this time she really got out of line. There are over 300 paper/styrofoam plates. That's not including the 160 bowls and 160 small plates. That was the most ridiculous purchase, but there will also be enough food to feed a large army. There is really no persuading her to scale back. And to exacerbate the situation, what if only a few people show up to the house party and BBQ because of the small number of guests and travel plans? I know you're not supposed to look a gift horse in the mouth, but it's really unnecessary and I don't want to be wasteful. After all, we're going to be on the honeymoon all week, so all the perishable food will go bad. And most people have long drives or flights, so what are the chances that they're going to take 4 pounds of potato salad home? Not to mention that neither Ryan nor I likes potato salad. Or pasta salad. She ordered 5 pounds of each.

I only lost one pound last week, but that's actually a good thing because I totally went off my diet on Friday and Saturday. Saturday especially. Why? The stress of Ryan's mom and the ridiculous amount of food that she bought us just for the weekend. My diet is easiest to stick to when I don't have sweets in the house, but she brought home two cartons of ice cream, a cheesecake, two boxes of After Eight mints, a half pound of fudge, and a pound of saltwater taffy. Fortunately I don't eat cheesecake, but I had trouble resisting the rest. Don't worry, I didn't eat all of it and I got back on the wagon yesterday, but it's difficult knowing that it's around. I'm trying to fit little bits of it into my daily calorie budgets and encouraging Ryan to take generous portions. So if he looks a little pudgy at the wedding, that's why.

Another thing that we all did over the weekend was eat lunch at a possible rehearsal dinner restaurant. We decided that it was too casual of an atmosphere, but Ryan's mom decided that she'll host a dinner there for the people who will be in town on Thursday night. All 16 of us. The atmosphere was on the casual side, but it's still a fairly pricey restaurant because it's in center city Philly. She's paying for all of it, then also paying for the rehearsal dinner (25 guests!) on Friday. We went over to the Chart House after lunch and decided to have the rehearsal dinner there (we all ate dinner there once last year). So I guess I'm a little relieved to have that booked, since it was the last big thing that I'd been putting off. It's a little crazy that the people at the rehearsal dinner comprise nearly half the wedding guests. Another weird thing about not having many guests.

My garden is an oasis of serenity. I wish there were more weeds so I'd have more to do out there. It's therapeutic to pull out weeds. It makes me have a sense of control over something.

Soooo. We've been up to a lot of work on the house and yard, with a little CVSing thrown in. Our formerly office-style tiled ceiling laundry room now has a nice real ceiling with attractive recessed lights. And soon some cute shelves as well. And the side of the yard has a stepping stone path from the driveway to the back patio. And we put out grass seed to fill in some patches, including the huge bare spot left where the tree fell down. I love working on the house. I find it amusing how a year ago, my favorite store was Arden B, and now it's Lowe's. I may pinch pennies almost everywhere, but at Lowe's and Home Depot I start drooling and throwing things in my cart.

Only lost one pound this last week, but I've been "good," so hopefully that will just mean a bigger loss next week. And I haven't slipped up in 21 days, which is supposed to be the amount of time it takes for a new behavior to become habit.

I'm going back to school in the fall. It took me a long time to decide, but I'll give it another try. And I can meet up with Jen for lunch if she ever gets breaks. There are parts of the program I like, but a rather long list of things I don't. I might make a short trip or two to Maine, and can probably collect as much data as I did last summer, just more efficiently.

Monday weigh-in: I lost three more pounds! Or rather, somewhere between 2.5 and 3.5. I have not slipped up on my eating one bit and have continued gardening and home repairs, plus a little walking. My favorite walks are on the nights before recycling day so I can "help out the recycling crew" by taking some of the coupon inserts out of papers. So only 5-10 pounds to go! I might be able to have my first dress fitting in two weeks or so, it seems.

I've been having bad wedding dreams every few nights. Last night I had one where I was so behind in getting dressed/hair/makeup done that I walked down the aisle in jeans and a t-shirt and messy hair. I felt so dumb that halfway down the aisle I announced to the guests, "Just kidding, I'll be back in a little while." Then I left and it took me over an hour to get ready. I came back and walked down the aisle again, and when I got to the altar it was a different officiant because the first one got tired of waiting for me and left.

The RSVPs are rolling in. Meal count so far:
Filet: 19
Chicken: 3
Veggie: 1

I have to put a plug in for the chicken. You know how much I love filet, but I'm actually getting the chicken. You can get filet at most any nice restaurant, but the chicken was something different and very yummy. But don't worry, I won't shun you if you want the filet anyway.

I went to a party rental store and ordered chairs for the ceremony. That leaves the last big to-do item of reserving a rehearsal dinner spot. We've put it off so long because we haven't been to any appropriate restaurants in this area. We have one in mind and should probably eat there this weekend to make sure that it's good before booking.

I'm still waiting on the state to process my background check for substituting. As soon as the letter arrives in the mail I can start the following day. At this rate I'll only get in three or four weeks before the wedding and summer vacation. Hmph.

My seedlings have mostly emerged. I hope they look luscious and impressive by the time everyone comes for the wedding. The spring bulbs look very cheerful in the front of the house.

And your random cat picture of the week:


Nom, nom, nom, indeed.