Accepting the Occasional Lack of Martha-ness

I like being a little Martha Stewart-y sometimes.

I give people homemade gifts - even if I think they're probably sick of them (sorry guys!)

I make Christmas cookies from scratch every year.

I like to quilt.

I am mocked by my husband, who explained tonight that for bake sales, they bought an Entemann's cake, cut it up and sold it by the slice, because "the kids wanted that more than any of the homemade stuff" (um hi TRANSFAT and cholesterol - my homemade stuff isn't exactly fat free, but have you looked on the back of an Entemann's box lately? sweet Jesus, that stuff is bad for you!)...but I digress.

Saturday is our church fair, and in the grand tradition of me try

ing to be perfect and having weird guilt about not pitching in to help out, I decided to answer the desperate call for "more cookies" by spending the night baking. I chose three elaborate recipes from the interwebs, and planned to make my famous sugar cookies in the shape of fall leaves, glazed with homemade confectionary glaze topped with fall leaf-appropriate colors....because that's how I roll.

You know what? I worked late tonight. I got f*cked over by some people on the left coast who sent me a document they wanted finished by the close of busine

ss (and yes, they totally understand that there's a 3-hour time difference, jerks). As I trudged out of work, I began to modify my plans. I'd buy three pre-packaged cookie mix

es and doctor them up, a cake mix, and then do just one elaborate, though advertised by Martha Stewart as "simple," cookie recipe, raspberry jam pastry cookies. YUM.

Oh, but I decided to clean the house first. Cause I'm crazy like that.

At 7:30, post-cleaning, pre-dinner, and starving, I decided to lay out my ingredients:

I tried not to dwell on the intense shame of pre-packaged ingredients....I had given up on making anything from scratch, even the simple cookie glaze. God, how LAZY!!!!

I got over it though, and ate 30 hershey kisses. Then I worked on melting some butter in a pyrex on the flame of my gas burner, cause we still haven't bothered to buy a microwave. Note the pyrex actually has the very words "Not for open flame or stovetop use" PRINTED on it. Note that I always take into consideration that the pyrex may shatter, covering my walls, stove, and maybe even me with hot melted butter and tiny shards of glass.....OK, moving on.

I didn't even get out the kitchen aid mixer last night. I was like "f*ck this, I am too tired" so I grabbed a whisk, even though manually mixing kinda goes against that "I'm so tired" thing. I made a few batches of cookies, called my dad to tell him that I wouldn't be coming over tomorrow with the goods, that I would leave them in the car when he came to fetch it (my brakes need addressing) along with the five Vera Bradley bags I was donating to the fair (yup, we're classy and have a Vera Bradley table). Around 9 I decided to eat dinner, spaghetti and two meatballs I bought already made at Shaw's. Fancy.

When I finished, I was ready for the piece de resistance, raspberry jam pastries, a seemingly innocuous recipe found here. I had read reader's comments and knew there was an issue with Jam firming in the freezer, the oven being to hot, the cutting process being

messy - I VOWED to outsmart every one of these cooking FAILURES! I turned down my oven, froze the assembled cookies for more than 30 minutes, then used the knife I bought from my neighbor the knife salesman (a deadly serrated Cutco that is so sharp I regularly slice the sponge in half while washing) to cut the pastry into 1/4" slices. SUCCESS! Because I didn't have any parchment paper, I used my silpat. Sh*t, I felt badass just having a silpat to use. Take that, Martha! I don't need your stupid parchment! I set my kitchen timer for the allotted time and worked on the dishes.

A few minutes later, all I had was this:

A glob of pastry/jam sticky messiness migrating across my one and only cookie sheet (my sister has the other one, grrr). I think I actually screamed because it looked so horrific. Then I was ANGRY ANGRY ANGRY because I could NOT bring these to the church fair - who would be dumb enough to buy them? And WTF Martha, I followed your recipe! Ohh....except the part about laying the cookies on their side to cook. Crap.

I ate most of the layers, then scraped the rest off the silpat, washed it, and went to bed. Not so subtle reminder that I am not Martha - but judging by how well my "from the box/bag" desserts came out, I guess I don't always need to be.

P to the S

I'm doing NaBloPoMo again.

Like I said, it's a sickness :D

I love my hair!

We're nowhere near having kids, but when we talk about it in that "our little biracial babies that will be born waaay waaaay in the future" type way, I feel simultaneously excited and panicked. Obviously the thought of being a mom is wildly exciting to me - I think I'd be pretty decent at it, I know Jamaal would be a fantastic dad, and um, hi, we have the most enthusiastic, awesome set of family and friends who would love the kid(s) to DEATH. Heck, my sister talks about spoiling my nieces and nephew, and she's not even related to them by blood!

The panic part actually isn't about being responsible for a tiny human - I'm sure being a first-time mother is completely overwhelming and even a little bit scary. What panics me a teeny bit is having a biracial baby. I totally skip the newborn and toddler years, fast forward straight to elementary when the kid comes home from school and wants to know why his or her skin color is different, why his or her hair is different, why the kids at school said XYZ to them. I mean, I'm sure I'll have answers, I'm sure Jamaal will have answers and we'll be able to soothe and reassure our child, but I worry: will my child see me as someone who can't relate to his or her problems because of my paleness, my different features, or because of my hair?

It's probably something to not worry about right now - at least, that's how Jam sees it. He is constantly reminding me how genes are funny and how it's impossible to know what our child will look like, what our child's complexion, eye color, or hair will even look like. People reassure us 'biracial children are beautiful!' I agree, but still, this nagging worry of being the "unrelate-able parent" sticks in my mind (and then of course, our kid will reach teenage-hood and just being a mother will make me unrelate-able lol).

Reassuring me right now are a couple of things. On our flight home from our honeymoon, I saw a news clip highlighting Sesame Street's newest music video, "I Love My Hair"- God love Sesame Street and their ability to tackle issues with song. Not only is this video adorable, it sends a great message to anyone with "hair situations" - and is geared towards black/biracial girls with naturally curly hair. I got all emotional when I watched it, thinking about how it's such a great self-esteem booster for little girls everywhere. Knowing that things like this will be around when my kids are little is very reassuring.

Then there are the forums -weddingbee.com proved to be a lovely, supportive community of (mostly) women during my wedding planning process. They've branched off into a "babies" board, and today (while looking for a hair produce for my own unruly mop) I found a post about styling biracial kids' hair. The women on the 'bee flocked to answer, sent product recommendations, websites, comments. Knowing that there's a community out there that will help a stranger is awesome. Which leads me to the internet - how did I worry about this so long and NOT google?! Via weddingbee and google, I found a TON of websites on biracial hair - information about products and styling, self-esteem when it comes to natural hair, etc. I even found a product line for mixed kids! It warms my heart to know (and gives me a swift kick in the ass as a reminder) that I won't be the first white mom going through this (duh) and that with the help of friends, family (though maybe not my mother in law, who told me about something terrifying called a "hot comb"!!) we'll totally handle any hair issues that come up. Anxiety relieved.

Of course, just by writing this post, you know the gods above have seen to it that I will produce only boys, right? Who won't have hair issues...who will probably just want fades like their dad....and all my anxiety will have been for naught...either that OR I'll have a daughter that has a different hair style for every day of the year. Oh my poor future children - your mom is already crazy :)

I wasn't going to do it...but....

Now that we are coming down from the madness of wedding planning, I thought I'd sit and relax. "Slow down" our minister told us...well, me, specifically.

Not having the huge event that is a wedding hanging over my head is glorious. Jam asked me about the post-wedding blues over the weekend. Mainly because I was freaking out over my new haircut, and I think maybe he thought it was more post-wedding blues than anything else. Sadly, it really was about my haircut, and how it was not cute and curly and bouncy, like I hoped. Of course that was after air drying. Luckily it is adorable after serious time with the hair dryer. I guess I was hoping for something more fancy-free....but I digress.

Gloriousness of no wedding stuff - yeah, there's still wedding-related things that need to be done. I need to have my dress dry cleaned and preserved. I don't know why I'm doing this - OK well the dry cleaning makes sense, but the preserved thing? I don't even know if I'll have a daughter, and even if I do, she probably won't want to wear my dress. My tailor promised to make a christening gown out of it, and I can see the possibility of an heirloom christening gown more realistically than I see the possibility of an heirloom wedding gown. Plus my gown had a few customizations, like that fancy lace hem, and lots of beads and lace. Even if my daughter or daughter-in-law didn't want to wear my gown, maybe she'd want a piece of lace from it to wrap around her bouquet, or turn into a hair flower or veil? Maybe? Point is, I'm going to get it done.

We have thank you notes to write. About 100.

I have professional pics to email our venue for their blog. They came out so well! I am making weird faces in only about 5% of them, LOL:

We have to open a joint checking account and deposit wedding checks. Because guests are starting to wonder.....ooops!

Then there's the around the house stuff to do - we have decided to resurface the kitchen floor. I'm actually super-excited and simultaneously dreading this project. Why? Excited because the tile Jam picked is AWESOME. It will make our kitchen look super-classy and almost refined. It will flow nicely into the pantry, which Jam also resurfaced. Dreading because it is time-consuming, meticulous work. I'm a control freak. I don't want to be bossing my poor husband around while we do this, but he argues that because of sewing and quilting, I have the skills to cut and lay the tile evenly. I also don't want to let him down by laying crooked tile! I am sure this will work itself out. Besides assembling IKEA furniture, this will be our first big home improvement task together. YIKES!

THEN

THEN

There's the holiday stuff.

I have this insane list. It makes me giddy to think about staying in the house as it snows, cozied up with our radiators hissing, drinking some cocoa and crafting the sh*t out of every spare moment of my week and weekend. But then I think "NO I am falling into the vortex of holiday overplanning! I am planning on making everyone a handcrafted gift and have set myself up for ultimate failure! OH NOES!"

Right now though, it's November 1st. And I'm still optimistic, even though I'm already kind of in the vortex.

Firstly, I signed up for freshlyblended's ornament swap. I wasn't going to do it this year, even though I had been a participant from the get go. I found swap-bot really freakin' irritating. It seemed to attract flakers more-so than the old swap method, which was signing up via email. I felt like my signature ornaments had had their day in the sun and everyone was so over them:

and whenever I considered making something new, I was uninspired. I put the swap out of my mind.....until I read freshlyblended's post about getting off swap-bot, going back to the old way, etc. I got all nostalgic for some mini mittens. I found yarn. I felt inspired. Today I signed up.

It's a sickness, lol.

Tomorrow, I plot out the rest of my holiday crafts. Let...the...madness.......BEGIN!!!!!!!!

Update!

Job update!

I did not have to go rogue!

I did not have to quit my job!

Funding was denied.

Great for me - ok, not so great, but good.

This means that everything is going to stay the same for the moment, and I have to opportunity to pitch my ideas again. I'm attending a huge meeting tomorrow - so huge, Jamaal actually helped me rehearse for it last night - and while decisions may not get made at this meeting, it's going to get the ball rolling, and it could mean that things

might start going my way in a good way, soon. Let's hope!

Meanwhile:

Honeymoon pic!

Mini-Vent

OK so I just need a mini-vent here.

The wedding. OMG. FAN-FRIGGIN-TASTIC.

The day was everything I hoped for and more.

But.

In planning for the big day, other shizznit got ignored completely....

Stuff like:

Laundry

Housework

Organization

All other craftiness

Fitness

Cooking (and therefore healthy eating)

and

to a certain extent,

My J-O-B

Ugh.

Overall, working here is good. Great benefits, love the work my institution is doing. But my actual job? I think my old boss is unintentionally sabotaging it. Basically, I have been doing the work of three people for about a year and a half now. The fact that this is unmanageable (unless I want to work 80 hour weeks) came to a head a few weeks ago. Old boss promised to figure things out while I was away. She came to me today with a solution. It's bad. I don't think it will work. It made me want to abandon ship. I'm not sure what to do because no matter how many ways I try to tell her that this is a BAD PLAN (and imagine those words in bright red blinky lights) she keeps saying "well. I think it's ok. let's wait and see!"

I have four options, in my view:

1. deal and go on and let everything self-destruct; clean up pieces in a few months

2. go rogue and do it my way anyways. I might get in trouble later, but it would be for the benefit of the project, and it would show that I did what I thought was best

3. go over old boss's head to the doctors (new bosses) - problem is, they hardly make a move without her OK and it will get back to old boss

4. start looking for a job

None are great options to me. Though I have to admit, I kind of want to go rogue. I'm not too afraid of getting into trouble. Well that's a lie, I'm not afraid to get into trouble with old boss. I definitely won't get into trouble with new bosses, because they'll just be happy to have to work done....I'm afraid of getting in trouble with the HBIC. That would kinda blow.

Ick.

In other news, I'm trying to channel my focus on catching up with other work things and that list of junk I've been ignoring. I'm so out of shape, I haven't eaten a decent serving of vegetables in weeks, and the only fruit I've had lately has been blended with a healthy portion of rum, LOL.

Our apartment is exploding with clothes (90% clean!) and wedding gifts and wedding stuff, mail, dust, bird seed, etc. Scary thing is, my sister cleaned our apartment while we were away! There's a whole other layer of chaos under her cleaning though, and that's what I want to get through. At least with the other stuff, I feel very very optimistic. That's good, right?!

Also, I can't tell you how happy I am to be able to focus on crafty fun that does not involve the wedding. The wedding craftiness was worth every (sometimes agonizing) minute invested, but, am I sad it's over? HELLS NO!

EE your gay quilt may be finished before your 30th bday after all!!

Back, Calm, Lovely

Helloooo world!

I am back from a fantabulous wedding and honeymoon.

We pulled it off.

The day was perfect, loving, heartfelt, and FUN.

The dance floor looked like a club.

Everyone looked beautiful.

Everyone was happy!

And then we got to go on an all-inclusive vacation to Jamaica.

BLISS!

Be back for more blogging soon :)

PS: I even finished the shoes!

T minus 18 insane days

So the wedding fast approaches!

I won't bore you with the crap I haven't finished...

but I will bore you with the things I have fantasized about in the past day in order to avoid dwelling on unfinished wedding things (or my chest cold, or my sudden gastro-intestinal distress...tragic, but well timed, because no one wants to be worried about (as my mom calls it) "running to the bathroom" in a wedding dress!)

Fantasies:

1. going to some random, rural locale in the Rockies with Jam where it's quiet and we don't know anyone. We find a quiet spot, near a creek, dip our toes in the water and have a picnic. Thanks a billion "Enjoying the Small Things" for putting that fantasy in my head!

2. Spending some time on a farm

3. Crocheting a blanket while snowed in, not moving from the couch except to pee and eat until it's finished

4. Making an apple pie (not an unreasonable fantasy, but no time)

5. Hiking/camping - ESCAPING! This actually might be possible, if I can convince the Jamonster. The subaru has a fixed muffler and I know this campsite in Western Mass....hmmm.

But yeah. I'm looking for some escapism I guess, but there is no time to be fantasizing! There is work to be done! I have menus to print! Escort cards to design! I must focus.....

....now the Grand Tetons must be lovely in the fall........

argh!

If one more flipping person tells me how our wedding is fast approaching and that I should "breathe and enjoy the day"...
I might have to strangle them! OMG!!!!

Foster Parrots

Most of you four or five readers (tee hee) know that I used to volunteer EVERY Saturday at a local parrot shelter. I know I mentioned that they moved to a wonderful facility in Rhode Island so they can set up a better "habitat" for the birds and care for even more abandoned/abused exotic animals. This means I only visit the sanctuary about once a year...which is sad, though pet-sitting for the directors helps me get my animal fix!

Apparently a project is in the works for FP and the PR person needed photos of birds that are "striking." He asked me to send him some thing and I thought "ugh, all I have is CRAP" but to be nice, I sent him what I thought were my "best," including this shot of Jane Goodall from the Grand Opening of the sanctuary:

The other photos were exclusively birds...and while looking at them I realized that 1. I am a halfway decent self-taught photographer 2. I love birds because they exude so much personality. People hate on birds - you hear it all the time. They cringe and say "why would I have a bird when I can have a dog?" or "birds freak me out" - whatever, birds are pretty damn awesome and SMART. Not that I don't totally love dogs, want a dog, and think most dogs are smart, it's just that science has proven that large long-lived birds are smart in terms of animal smartness - think monkey and dolphin smart, think toddler-smart. The birds at FP do everything from let themselves out of cages that I probably couldn't let myself out of, talk and say things in context (ie one of the "bad birdies" calling a volunteer a "f*cking c*nt" in frustration....we were shocked and horrified....then laughed) to learning how to manipulate people into getting what they want. Seriously! These creatures have big big personalities....I wish more people loved them as much as I and all the FP folk do:

My Sister's Tumblr

My sister has a rockin' tumblr page that makes me JEALOUS. I want a tumblr page too! I already blog too much at work though. Eek.

Anywho, she has a great Indiana Jones tumblr up.

It's funny because docking the boat at our grandparent's (Bear Island, Lake Winnipesaukee, sometimes big waves) can be the most dramatica thing ever when there are whitecaps and a stiff north wind. This weekend I took a flying leap out of the boat and watched it drift a little further and further away from the dock. Now I have a hard time remembering that it's a boat, and unlike a car, you have a ton of leeway for maneuvering and backing up and trying a re-approach is not really a big deal - it's not a car that you risk running off the road. Anyways, in my panic, I meet my dad's eyes and say "THROW ME THE ROPE!!!!!!" which he threw, two-handed at me, like a poisonous snake. Looking back, it must've been the most insane boat docking of all time. Luckily my sister has the ability to see the hilarity in just about any situation. She gets out of the boat and says "Gimme the whip! Throw me the idol!!!!" Of course I follow up with "Adios, Dr. Jones....mwhahahahahahahhahha"

We could be a traveling comedy show, I swear.

Still Moving

I can't wait to post pics of our apartment here.

But alas, it's still being unpacked piece by piece.

It's coming together though - the craft pantry? OMG, it's like a dream come true. I have what is described as a "super-legit" craft space. EEEK!

Other things - like where to unpack and put our clothes - well they're coming along at a snail's pace, LOL. My clothes are strewn about in two differe

nt rooms in multiple different bags and suitcases. DISORDER.

Lucky for us, we bought a bedroom set yesterday. Jam had scoped it out over the weekend and liked it, and I went in for the second view. After two nights of sleeping on an air mattress (yes I know that is nothing - but I am getting old and I'm a lightweight when it comes to sleep comfort and I have sciatica people!) I was ready to buy just about anything, but luckily we found something we both really liked, a queen-sized bed with d

rawer storage. We bought two dressers and a mirror as well (llllurve) and I'm looking forward to getting all our stuff put away. While we do actually have an embarrassing amount of clothes, we don't have a TON of storage. Ironic because we have a pantry and about a million cabinets in the kitchen - not so in the bedrooms. There's a bootleg closet someone built, but the built-in closet that came with the bedroom is this odd 2'x2'x2' triangl

e....which really threw them off of the room-planning scheme at the furniture store. Oh well, all is good now, we'll have tons of storage. Jam is worried a

bout TV placement, but I have assured him that we c

an put it on top of his dresser and we'll be fine.

Why his dresser?

Well. The hummingbird tray needs a home after all :)

I was so pleased to see it unwrapped and out of storage. I felt like Royal Tenenbaum did when he finally tracked down his beloved javelina: "There you are!"

Heh heh.

But I Need You to Know

That for every sad or heartbreaking memory I have of Africa, there are about a bizillion happy, beautiful, humorous, awe-inspiring memories....memories of "the first elephant," memories of happy little kids playing games with us at the school, field research, getting drunk in back of beyond little towns and stumbling home or to the cars, finding the most beautiful place on earth and having the "perfect day, standing over the "cradle of civilization," our safari vehicles breaking down, endless references to "The Lion King" and "Jurassic Park," inside jokes like "Science Camp," and of course, the wonderful wonderful staff that was like a second family to all of us:

Otieno

Maraka

Mboya

Featured last is Salaash. He is one of the most special people I know. He loves nature and all animals. He loves animals so much that he fought off a leopard that was taking down his livestock, one animal at a time. Yeah, I said leopard. Did I mention that he did this with a stick and his bare hands? Believe it. He has the scars and the detailed story to prove it. He took us to his homestead once to meet his family and to show us his bird-feeding station. He took us hiking in the Ngong Hills and snuck us into Kitengela so we could buy bootleg CD's (E-Sir's album. He had just died in a traffic accident, his talented life cut tragically short, so his albums were hot stuff). He loved birds and sometimes reminded me of one - especially when he was spinning around in the pool at Ngulia Lodge singing to himself. He was so proud that by the time I got back to Kenya in '06, he had learned how to swim. Salaash was in charge of getting us "home" in one piece when we had food poisoning, an agonizing 5 or 6 hour drive. He patiently pulled over whenever we had to hurl, while pointing out random herds of bovines. I remember my friend Rachel throwing up on the side of the road while Salaash yelled "Oryx!! ORYX!" When I was sick, Salaash drove, Kioko brought me juice, and Otieno brought me tea. They were my second family.

The funny thing is, when I went back in '06, they were all stunned I remembered them. Our lives were so intimately intertwined when we lived at the camps. The staff were our link to the outside world and we needed them for just about everything, from killing poisonous snakes in the middle of the night to hospital runs when we got sick or hurt to translating to getting us goods from Nairobi when we ran out of something. How could we ever forget them? I guess people must though...I remember Damaris, the secretary at one of the camps, kissed me when I said her name. "You remember me?!" she asked, incredulous. "You let me use the internet to email home so my friend could register me for college classes!" I exclaimed. I do not forget the smallest of small things....which in turn means that even the smallest victories or joys or happinesses or celebrations or humorous moments will never, ever, be overshadowed by the struggle, the sadness, or strife.

Oh, did I mention that I can't wait to go back??! Someday.

Africa Post

Today I remembered something.

I was in a hospital in Oloitokitok, in the back of beyond, in a pediatric unit.

It was filled with burned little kids. There were other kids with other problems too, but most of them were burned. The room was small. It was unsanitary, highly unsanitary for kids with severe burns. It smelled. There were flies. Some of the beds did not have sheets. I don't want anyone to think I'm sitting here saying that the doctors and nurses did not care, that they were not making the best of what supplies and resources they had. They cared very much about their patients. There were just not enough supplies, not enough staff - just not enough.

I read this boy a Berenstain Bear's book, one of the few children's books we kept at our field camp.

The only swahili words I could say to make him understand were "mama, baba, toto, toto" I would point to Mama Bear, Papa Bear, Brother Bear and Sister Bear and he would whisper the swahili words as I pointed.

This day was more than seven years ago, and today it just dawned on me that I have not the slightest notion of what happened to that burned boy. No clue. Did he live? Die? Die of burns? Die of infection? Does he have bad scars? Was he disabled because of his injuries? No idea.

Jam makes fun of me because he says if I ever win one of those multi-million dollar lotteries I'd be broke from giving all the money away. He's almost right - I'd make sure we'd have enough to live on. But I would go back to Oloitokitok and build a hospital - a decent, clean, sustainable hospital. With a burn unit, with a TB ward that wasn't corrugated plastic huts in the back yard. I think that's what I'd do first.

From Penn Museum's photostream.

We signed a lease!

Jam and I are moving to an apartment!

We signed the lease last week!

This is very exciting, but also very hectic.

I'll have some before/after pics of the interior when my painting crew (grandpa, dad, neighbor) finish. I'll probably be a bit absent from this blog and the wedding blog...but hopefully not too absent!

For now, here's the outside.

I'm spending my post-work hours today cleaning. Fun times!

OUTLANDER

Um. How did I manage to not read any of these books until now?

OMG.

I'm in a bookclub (think I've mentioned it before) where we alternate between fairly heady works of award-nominated fiction and sometimes dry

non-fiction. I love it. I love that the members can be very snobby about books, and find i

t funny when they rank on authors or series or even magazines and movies, because the generation gap is such that usually they're mocking things I love or at least enjoyed (and I have very low standards when it comes to books and movies. I'll read/watch nearly anything). I love my book club because they force me to read things that I might pass over at the library as too boring or too academic, and I've read a LOT of book

s that have been a challenge. But sometimes I need to escape. That's when I'll pick up stuff like

Twilight or some random brit fiction, a la Shopaholic series. I need the slightly trashy and highly entertaining!

I mentioned this to a woman in my bookclub. Two mon

ths ago she recommended the Sookie Stackhouse series. I needed a vampire break, so I wrote down the Charlaine Harris books to save for later and entertained myself with library books - you know, things I see at Barnes and Noble, write down in my iPod and borrow from the library because I am too cheap to buy books most of the time. This month she came in singing the praises of Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series. She's like "oh there a bit bodice-ripper-y

, but decent historical fiction....in Jacobite Scotland....

and there's time travel."

Um WHAT?!!!

I mean I'd heard of the book title and author but knew nothing about the series. How is this possible when:

1. I (mostly) love time travel books. TOTALLY addicted. Since Carolyn B. Cooney's Time Traveler's Quartet (and no, I did not know there wa

s a fourth book, and yes, I am totes going to buy them all and reread, young adult fiction categorization be damned!

2. Scotland! Those are my people! On both sides! We're septs of Clan Bruce and Clan Gordon! And probably others! GOSH.

Gordon

Bruce

I feel like I should be giving some sort of primal Clan shout right now....

3. Summer is the season for delicious books! I need delicious Scotsmen in my life (fictional Scotsmen, that is LOL)

So I planned to check Outlander out of the library. Buuut it is ALWAYS checked out in every library that owns the book. I felt the need to read it was too urgent to put myself at the mercy of the holds list. So I bought the Kindle edition for my ipod touch and began reading it on the train on Friday morning. It took me about a commute's worth of time to become completely addicted, so I ordered Outlander and Dragonfly in Amber on half.com for cheeeeap, because, as much as technology rocks and the kindle app is awesome, this was the kind of book I wanted to physically hold in my hands....

.....but then I couldn't wait. I couldn't stop reading. I thought I could get through the weekend on the Kindle app, then pick up another book and wait until the Outlander books arrived (it doesn't matter, I'll just reread them eventually anyways!) I finished Outlander yesterday at platelet donation and began Dragonfly in Amber on my way home. And let me tell you, it has me ANXIOUS. I want to sneak it at work, but I have too much to do :( Since there are five more books, I'm thinking that everything works out in a certain way, but the uncertainty is killing me! I see why people who are just starting the series now say they start with the first book and have to continue right through to the seventh. Books 1-5 are currently in the mail on their way to me :) because I can't keep reading these on kindle. And what better books to keep me entertained during our weekend getaway in New Hampshire, which is a bit rugged highlands-y...

The point of my post? hmm don't really have one except to say that I'm totally grateful to my book club friend for emailing me about the series, and that I'm loooving it. If you're looking for some adventure, 18th century medicine, Scottish history, romance, sexy time - READ IT! And if you're so inclined, imagine that sexy doctor from Grey's Anatomy as Jamie (Dr.Owen Hunt/Kevin McKidd) Oh HELLS yes.

Alright. Off to do real work.

Seriously though. Read Outlander.

Bridal Shower!

Posted from the wedding blog....cause I just had to share!

I knew my wonderful mom and MOH-sister and bridesmaids would be throwing a shower, but I didn't know when or where (well not really where...I had my suspicions). They surprised the heck out of me a week ago with a huge gathering of ladies in the back yard. They very craftily planned the shower on the same weekend as my 10-year high school reunion. This way, I'd be out of the house on Saturday and would be spending the night in Boston, the perfect setup for a sneak attack!

I knew that my mom and sister were putting a lot of work into planning, but I had NO idea how much they had done. They made a lot of the food and did all of the decorating!

My sister made a bunch of these pinwheels and had them all over the yard. She printed her own "Allison and Jamaal" paper - how amazing is that?!

I was so sad that these were only used for a day...until I realized that she craftily made them to match our wedding colors! I'll be dropping these in Middletown before the wedding so they can find a home at the Barns for our reception!

Every little detail was taken care of - the shower itself was a sort of brunch/tea. Favors were little teacups with a tea bag in them. The butterflies and flowers found on the teacups were an overall theme that carried over to everything from the signs used for the food to the cake.

Each teacup had a little butterfly- and flower-adorned 'Enjoy' card - my sister's handiwork:

She bought a couple Martha Stewart butterfly punches! Jealous!

Paper flower bouquets on the table for decoration

Amazing paper banner that said "Allison's Bridal Shower" The picture does it no justice at all, this thing was beautiful and was made out of coordinating pieces of scrapbook paper. I love it...and it's still hanging up there! Amy is going to help me make something similar for our chairs at the reception :)

Before I arrived there was a lot of prepwork. The tables were set and the fabulous hydrangea/rose centerpieces were put out.

My friend EE put together my "bridal chair"

My dad cleaned the pool. Everything must be perfect!!

The gift table piled up quickly (because I am a lucky girl!)

Guests gathered in the front yard right before I arrived (I wondered who Jamaal was texting)

Woohooo, surrrrprriiiise!!!

After a round of hugs, we moved into the backyard so I could marvel at the splendor:

There was even better stuff on the porch....FOOD:

Look at that spread! My mother had made almost 100 muffins in about 8 different flavors (yummmmm). There were sandwiches and quiches, seafood-macaroni salad and bean salad. Oh there were appetizers too (cheese, pepperoni, edible arrangement, veggies and dip), but I barely had the chance to eat them! Actually, I didn't get a chance to try the quiche at the shower, because a guest took the last piece, but that's another story ;) and my mother had the sense to put two in reserve!!

After eating (and sweating, it was about 100 degrees!) it was present opening time. I won't bore you with a million shots of me opening gifts, and I won't show you the shot of me with backsweat, but here are a few pics (I apologize for the cleavage, I had NO idea my dress was so boobylicious)

Some every day silverware - we can eat! WahoooO!

My sister designed and made me this cross stitch picture. It's a quote from "Across the Universe" by the Beatles, and it's beautiful. I wanted it on our aisle runner, but aisle runners are banned in our church. This is even better, now I can hang this in our apartment and see it whenever I want. The quote is: "Limitless undying love which shines upon me like a million suns, it calls me on and on across the universe."

Love.It.

Evelyn vase - beautiful

It's not a shower without lingerie! This was, thankfully, very tasteful!

I started to flag towards the end. People were insanely generous. I'm not going to show you all the pictures, or tell you everything we were given, but here's a basic sampling:

most of our "everyday dishes," baking supplies, tea kettle (the coveted one!), keurig, vases, 5 place settings of china, crate and barrel glassware, a silver chest, waterford flutes and goblets, the coveted charleston centerpiece bowl, a few pans, and....

last but not least, from all the bridesmaids:

A RED KITCHENAID MIXER!!! Yes!! I have already had one request for baked goods (future father in law, oatmeal raisin cookies) so I know what I'll be making first once we get our kitchen set up!

Of course I had to take a shot with the bridesmaids:

sans future sister-in-law, who had e. coli poisoning (how awful is that?!) I think this is a great bunch of good-looking ladies, and I can't wait til we're all dressed up and fancy :)

So that's just snippets from a totally amazing shower. I can't even tell you how perfect the day was - it went by like a flash though, it was over in what seemed like a blink of an eye - probably a good preview for what the wedding day will be like!