anagram of brat

Got our wedding pictures back from Lesley today! (I told her I needed them in time to put on the iPad for Christmas so there would be no West Indian Fussing about them.) Dear fates. There are EIGHT HUNDRED AND TWENTY SEVEN OF THEM. And they're all beautiful, hilarious, adorable and squeeful and schmoopy and occasionally a little sad (pictures of Barbara are rough) and sometimes a little awwwwwwwwwkward (at least one couple present at the wedding is at present divorcing) and goddamn, cell23 looks FIIIIIIIIIIIINE in a tux. I don't clean up half bad myself.

After going through the album several times, I think I've decided this one is my favorite:



Oh lil'Beast. *cracks up* There are at least three pictures of him GLARING evilly into Lesley's camera. There are many more pictures of him looking perfectly angelic and cute and mini-suave too, but it's this Damien from The Omen picture that absolutely murders me. I can almost hear Ave Satani in the background.

I suppose I ought to include one of me and my groom or something. Pretty hard pressed to pick just one, though. (remember... 827 pictures.) Do I go with the one of us jumping the broom?



Nailing the twirl during our first dance?



Whatever's going on here?



Smooching under a sunset?



Or do I just go fuck it, decide all of the above are irrelevant: here's a picture of cell23 about to eat a flaming marshmallow?



Anycrap, they're all over yonder, if you wanna poke through (One slightly NSFW warning: there are a couple of pictures pre-ceremony of me giving zero fucks about hanging out in my bra and petticoats in the presence of friends and a photographer, so if your browsing environment objects to that sort of thing, be advised.) I think the main thing I love about all of the pictures, official and otherwise? There was so much damn love in that hotel, everyone was having a good time and we look like the two happiest, dorkiest schmoops that ever did schmoopily schmoop. Eeeee.

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In other news, the main accomplishment for today was getting almost all of the Christmas shopping done, which was a HARROWING experience. One of the reasons I wanna try to stick to budgeting this coming year is so I can splurge like fuck online on Cyber Monday and completely avoid all of this shit next year. Seriously, nothing worse than having to maneuver your increasingly homicidal husband through tightly packed retail environments, and lets not even get into the unexepected run-in with about the 2nd to last person I ever want to see ever or the parking situation. Oh gods, the PARKING. Northampton, sometimes I hate you. But between Northampton and a brief and terrifying foray to Holyoke to brave the Mall, we have pretty much achieved all the christmas shopping, and it is wrapped and ready to go under some trees or something. Tomorrow we get up early and pack, then drive across the state, park River, and take the ferry to the Vineyard, where the 74th annual Hunger Games friendly family hazing of my husband shall begin. Yay?!

Wellp, least no one can fuss at me about my lack of wedding pictures. Eight Hundred and Twenty Seven. Lawd.

Had a little online downtime this morning, so since I have a craft project percolating in my head I've been poking around on the net for things like, oh, personal hot wire cutters and scroll saws, and stumbled onto a workshop listing for a local school for architectural woodworking. Yeah IDK either. I occasionally get the "crafting with power tools" lusts, and know from personal experience that the best way of dealing with it is just riding it out until the shakes and the need to BUY ALL THE THINGS at Home Depot go away.

You'd be proud of me, btw. I had to go inside HD yesterday because we are out of picture hangers and I have two freshly framed things to hang (slowly gaining ground in my personal war against the whitespace in my house). I went in, went straight to aisle 16, checked straight out. No detours into paint, lumber, pvc pipe, rope, lights or any aisle prominently featuring words like DEWALT, DREMEL, or BLACK&DECKER.

...can I put power tools on my wedding registry?

Only vaguely related to all this is happening to glance out the bus window yesterday in time to note the presence of a library card catalog sitting in the window of an antique store we were passing. I have all sorts of FEELINGS about this. Mostly "LUST" and "COVET" and such. I have no earthly idea what I'd do with it, but I love tiny little drawers in things almost as much as I love blank notebooks, which is to say I have PROBLEMS. Seriously, if I had an entire wall of little tiny card catalog drawers, I'd be a very happy woman, but again, no earthly idea what I'd keep in said drawers.

Course I don't know why I'm even thinking about more craft projects; I've got creative stuff in the fire that I haven't touched that needs attending to. Beadwork. SQWRRL. My ongoing hair stuff. Writing. Not to mention I've been camping Donna Meijia's website like a Horde rogue over an Alliance corpse waiting for her to announce that she's teaching belly dance classes again. And then there's the stack of games I got last week for the SNES and the Wii that I need to find time to play, this damn wedding to plan, work, and a house to keep up with which is currently winning on the chaos front (2 kid weekends back to back probably isn't helping in that department). I need to give up either sleeping or The Internet to get everything I already have to do done. Probably both. Feh.

Little less exhausted now, lol.

I started yesterday morning by sending cell23 off to his 24 hour D&D adventure with the usual suspects at the Fortress of Atramoria, then finished up both my hair and the second season of Luther. Mmmm, Idris Elba... *drool* I am no longer unkempt; my hair is now shot with threads of a glorious cherry cola fire type dye lot, though this time it was definitely a case of the color being pretty over the yarn being easy to work with. Lighter, softer yarn = smaller twists = more time. Ow, my hands. I really need to just stick to worsted weight, no matter how pretty the color.

Yes, I took a picture. I don't particularly like it, but hey it was taken at 2am after a fun but exhausting night, bite me. (The one on my facebook is better.)



Dear gods, I have a giant forehead. I think actually that qualifies as a sixhead, actually. Really need to stop yanking my hair back in between yarn stages I think. Also, my actual hair has gotten all kinds of long. I usually don't tie off the yarn until a half inch or so after my actual hair stops when doing this, and so now the twisty parts of my hair fall a bit past the shoulders now. I still can't wrap my mind around the idea of my hair actually growing without snapping off into split end hell around my chin, but I'll take it.

As an aside, if anyone out there (and this better be all of you) is a Muppet fan? Even if, like me, you hate Elmo with the passion of a thousand fiery suns, check out the Kevin Clash documentary on netflix, Being Elmo. It's great. You may even cry.

After hurr was done, I met up with aersi for skirt shopping adventures, which were fairly short in the end because I found a perfectly fluttery, too-short skirt for burlesque at Goodwill, which was the first place we stopped. I found a more respectable work/interview skirt as well. I'm weirdly elated that from the waist down I'm still comfortably fitting into L sizes. There are limits as to how tiny I can get and still retain my sanity, plus I LIKE having a booty, thank you! After that we hit up Old Navy and then went to McD's to indulge a mutual mcnugget and shake craving and also so aersi could get herself the My Little Pony happy meal toys. I swear, pony fandom has completely eaten my friends list, lol. (It is an adorable cartoon for the most part.) We also drove up into the wilds of Deerfield in search of the Bridal Barn*, since they also carry my dress brand and I wanted to comparison shop. Fleh, $200 more. Course, 200 more vs driving all the way ass down to CT. *whine* decisions. Oh well. It wasn't an entirely unfruitful trip - I now have a business card with swatches of my wedding colors stapled to it, and aersi and I spent about half an hour alternately squeeing, giggling, and recoiling at various tuxedo styles. Man, I tell you what, Western tux styles. Yeah, I got nothin'.**

Caught a nap, overslept, then hauled somewhat scantily clad ass to Northampton to kitten/"whore" at Bon Appetit Burlesque, which was just as much if not more fun than just attending the show. Basically the MC, Hors D'oeuvres‡ has "Hors Whores" that set up props for each performer and clean up the stage between acts as well as occasionally help the performers out if they need it while they're on stage. Backstage? It's pretty much stage managing, which I haven't done since high school drama and wellp, I found out that I actually miss the backstage theater running around shit. (There are reasons why Noises Off is one of my favorite plays.)

While running around in extremely impractical boots (yes the same ones I posted earlier - dear gods, my feet today!) I got to fangirl squee all over my favorite performers, including Dot Mitzvah and Nikki LeVillain, help out with a couple of acts, buy drinks for Hors, and freak out all over the cue and stage setup books. At the same time, while most of the squirekids were either held up at home due to Sunday work commitments‡‡ or the 24 hour D&D session†, this was one of those shows where I saw a crapton of people I don't usually see, so there were drinks bought for me by grinninfoole, squee and hugs from Hobiecat Kitzmiller, and best of all, a completely unexpected appearance by The Cute Girl. (leather jacket? fishnets? yes please!)†† I also made a little bit of money - didn't realize kittens got a cut of the tip buckets, so that was a bonus. I helped run around and clean up after the show and drove home, enjoying the now-rare luxury of a nearly deserted I91 and some good music on the radio.

I overslept a bit again this morning and had to rocket out the door to make bell rehearsal on time. We sounded good, even if I picked up the wrong bell right at the end of our piece (D'oh!) and then I came home and crawled back into bed with an unconscious cell23, where we slept in until 3 instead of doing the running around we'd planned. *womp womp* Oh well. Sometimes decadently lazy Sundays are needed.

tl;dr, it's been something of an excellent weekend. And WTF 6:30 and still being daylight out? This better not mean it's pitch black at 6am again, damn it...


* which I unfortunately conflate in my head with the Bedding Barn. That makes interesting imagery, let me tell you.

** Also zoot suit styles. You know, in case your ideal wedding is a recreation of the Smooth Criminal video, in which case I say your wedding is invalid unless you can get your entire party to do this.

‡ Pronounced kind of like if you were saying "Whores Divorce" in a very snooty Park Avenue accent.

‡‡ Though consider, one of the guys from Sirlesque not only had to drive back to Boston after the show (and I know they didn't hit the road until a bit after midnight), he had to be at work at 5am the following morning. That is some dedication to the craft for you.

† I may have to sit down and compile a post of tweets from that - they were wheeze inducing, especially starting around hour 13.

†† *shifty eyes* we may have a date to see The Artist on Wednesday night. Eeeep! Also I need to find more footnote symbols. Or just number the damn things next time.

Well, that was certainly... an experience.

I kid. I think I was expecting it to be a lot worse than it was. Towards the end deliriumdeva and I got a little twitchy but this was after 3 hours of walking around and being constantly accosted by people providing wedding services and contests. AAAAAAAAAAAGH lol.

Aside from that I think it was a useful trip. I have a bag full of business cards, some less than nebulous ideas about what I want out of this shindig, some ideas around the valley as to where to have said shindig and a strip of silly pictures of me and Kidzilla trying out one of the four photo booths that were there. Also Kidzilla surprised everyone by having a very good time - she got to climb in and out of the various transportation vehicles on the floor (various limos, including a Hummer one, 2 buses and a trolley. Yes. A trolley. With a bell and everything.) Also everyone at the expo had bowls of candy or cookies on their tables so she basically trick-or-treated around the entire convention floor and filled a bag full of candy as well as ate most of what she got so she was, um, sugared up and VERY bouncy by the time we left, lol. She's still coming down, actually.

I think one of the better bits of it was that the three of us stopped on our way out to watch the tuxedo fashion show. In addition to the older gentleman who came out and basically Fred Astaired his way down the runway looking very classy in his gray tux and cane, the hot bald guy, and the scarily clean waxed guys who pranced out at the end in their shirtless red-accented suits to the whoops and catcalls of the floor, there was one adorably grumpy little boy about Lil'Beast's age in a ringbearer tux who had clearly had it with the entire process and spent his time on the runway scowling at everyone before his dad finally convinced him to at least halfheartedly wave at the crowd. Adorbs.

So yeah. Profitable but scary.

Attended two major shindigs today - the first being Scott and Juli's wedding, which was beautiful and classy and fun and all the food was delicious and holy crap fastest actual ceremony ever. Like, short short version fast. O_O like for serious, bridal party walked in and three minutes later they were recessing and cocktails had STARTED. But yeah, fun and wedding like and wow okay the whirlwind season of holy crap three weddings in two months is OVER and while I love weddings, oh man am I glad.

Second all that need be said are three words: "Halloween at Atramoria."

I will say that both my planned outfits worked out splendidly, especially since I was aided in the second by bringing my own, er, rabbit to the party. Rabbit being cell23 dressed in white thermal underwear and a t-shirt with bunny ears, a tail, a cigar and more than a little surly. I had a very pleasant and at turns drop dead HILARIOUS evening and at some point tomorrow I will dump my camera drive when I'm not freezing and exhausted out of my mind. But now, crawling into my nice, pre-toasted bed, dear gods.

Oh by the way? no I am not drunk. Designated driver back from the wedding, didn't feel like more than one cocktail at the party. I will say this though - orange soda, vanilla vodka and Rated X coctail? Decadence. Nom.

Congratulations again to Jon and Aura. Not that they read this or anything, but hey, considering most of my day has pretty much been all about their wedding, it needed to be said again at the end of it.

Have I mentioned I love going to weddings? How could I not, really, at their best, and I've only been to two or three... I won't say bad, but I will say drama-filled ones, you get to see two people who love each other start the rest of their lives together, and then attend a party afterward where you don't have to pay for the food and if you're really lucky you can get drunk on someone else's dime as well. What's not to like? ;) No, seriously, I think I like attending them because while they're all a means to an end (actually getting married) no two are the same and it's always fun seeing what sort of spin each couple takes on the whole idea, what traditions they follow, which ones they do not, what music they firmly tell their DJs not to play, that sort of thing. This one was a pretty traditional white dress church wedding with the standard reception afterward, and oddly enough, it's actually the first wedding I cried at since I was a kid, though I managed to hold off until the father/daughter dance. But yeah a good time was had by all, including myself, which was something of a feat as cell23's +1 at a Geoffroy wedding, though I am getting the hang of a few of chirping_monkey's cousins at least.

Moment of hilarity for the night: Aura and Jon's officiant said a blessing right before dinner was served (by the way, the Look Park Garden House? I now understand why it's so damn expensive. Swanky.), which apparently confused the hell out of the Lovebug, as right after everyone said "Amen" he exclaimed rather audibly, "but this is not church!" Oh, three year old boys. Both he and his sister were dressed up all super cute, and other than that outburst (which had me laughing hard enough to hurt my sides), were both reasonably well behaved. Also? Dancing to the B-52s while holding a giggling little boy is really REALLY fun.

You know what else is fun? Dancing with said little boy's Daddy. *blush* Gah, my facial capillaries got themselves a workout this evening. Eeek. Combination of the usual reasons and it being a super rare thing for me to actually be dancing with someone else like that - my exes might as well have been Quakers given their attitudes towards dancing, so I just never really expect to be asked anymore and I get all giggly and awkward and high school and eeeeeeeeek. *shakes head* I think that man likes me or something....

So yeah, good times. I tweeted some color commentary on it earlier, I'm sure that'll get posted later on. And now two of this fall's weddings down for cell23 and I, one to go in two weeks, then thankfully we're done with that for a while. Like I said, I love weddings, but three in two months is a wee bit much for anyone!

So verbena76 and aersi tied the knot yesterday.

I left the hatemonger home yesterday, but, much as I suspected, there were others on hand besides the person actually getting money to run around with a camera, so here's one of extrajoker's pics:



Seriously, I haven't seen verbena76 look that happy unless there were eviscerations involved. ;) And aersi was just radiant.

I've spent most of my weekend being an extra pair of hands on this project. Which, as anyone who has assisted with a wedding knows, is by turns exhausting and hilarious (This wedding clearly tended to skew towards the hilarious.) I made some new friends this weekend, including aersi's cute, chatty and interested-in-everything niece (gods I want to lock her and Kidzilla in a room together just to see them bounce stuff off each other). And at the end of the day? I got to see two close friends walk into the rest of their lives arm in arm and glowingly happy.

Things I also got to see:

- coureton shaved. What.

- cell23 in a pinstripe suit. He really can rock the the young republican look like nobody's business.

- A good third of Squire looking significantly less scruffy than usual. There really should have been a bus or something down from here, when walking to the reception from the sanctuary, I was mentally going "oh, I know that car. I know that car. I know that car. That one got a new bumper sticker. Know that car too..." I mean, considering how long verbena76 has lived here it's not exactly surprising - he's one of the Kevin Bacons of the Valley anyway - but yeah.



Today, I'm alas, not feeling well - honestly I've been at 70% or less for the past few days, so it's a bit of a blessing in disguise that Hanzo is still kinda stuck. However there isn't much rest for the wicked available, just cause I'm home spanking my digestion into submission doesn't mean that I'm either off the clock or don't have a three million mile long to-do list, so no really help for it but to gird the loins and get it done. But you know, also on the agenda is taking some care of me, which I admittedly haven't really been doing. Also maybe getting a few of the book boxes unpacked too, cause I'm tired of looking at 'em.

It's a Monday. It's a week. Gonna try to make it a good one.