Matrimoni

"Have you ever heard of The Walnut Room>?...............We ate there." -KCM

This weekend marks the start of 2 new traditions.

1) Kevin and I visited the 8th Annual Christkindlmarket in Chicago on Saturday. I had been to the first, in 1996, and this one was much improved from its first year. We, after a cash-obtaining adventure that is better told in person, enjoyed some "Gluehwein" (some of you experienced this at the Assumption Junction Christmas Party 2002), ate some "kartoffelpuffer" (potato pancakes) danced a little to a German band - complete with Lederhosen. We then had a nice, though a little rushed, dinner at the Walnut Room in sight of the Great Tree at Marshall Fields, across the street, checked out Field's Christmas Windows, which are Roald Dahl's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory themed this year. Finally, we went over to Daley Plaza and spent a few quiet minutes in front of the Nativity. Not only was the activity and the company good, but we met several very kind people that evening, and to cap it all off, got dusted with snow.
We had such a nice time that we (well I, but I think K concurs) have decided that as long as we live nearby, we would like to make a trip up to Chicago to do the same sort of thing each Advent :)

Note: We did no "shopping" on our trip, yey!


2)"It bums me out that there are all these wedding blogs and then they never post to them after they get married" (or something like that) -JHM (L)

This is all gonna change. Let's Just Elope Already, the world famous blog by the creators of Rosa Mystica and The Catholic Nerd is being resurrected! In hopes that it will be a continuing saga of wedding planning bliss, by our friends, for our friends, of our friends, K and I (well I, since K does not as of yet have so much access to the Internet) will begin posting our wedding planning. I don't know all that many people who are in the midst of their wedding planning, but hopefully we will find some when we are done. (B and K in Minnesota, it would be fun if you asked Chris to invite you too! Congratulations by the way!)
So, there you have it. Maybe in a coupla years, it will be world famous, and full of all sorts of tips and tricks and wedding planning anecdotes, that will be all the more entertaining, because you actually know the people, or were there!

yey!

That's quite enough for now, I think.

Unleash the power of the blog...
Petition to support Marriage Amendment

I know my blog is not as powerful as his, but I have long reconciled myself with being just a shot glass among all the pints God has created!

So I want to make my wedding cake...
I don't think that this is particularly crazy. I have 8 months left and I want to give my friends and loved ones a yummy torte that I grew up on for special occasions, instead of a silly cake that only tastes like sugar.
I have begun to consult with experts far and wide about how to go about this (all except for the actual cake recipe, which is a family secret.) My biggest consultants have been my sister Karin, and Robert, a man I met on the train from CU to Chicago who has made many a wedding cake and was giving me fondant tips, along with his email address, in case I have any questions. It is my love's desire to have a cake with pillars and a fountain. Fortunately, he is also an architecht, so I have faith he will a) be able to achieve this, or b) understand why it will not work, if, indeed, it doesn't, being that this Torte is heavier than most cakes, so he will not be mad at me, and hopefully not mad at God for making physics work the way it does. Maybe he will be mad at Wilton, for not selling columns reinforced with steel so that any cake, no matter how heavy, can be "lofted," so to speak.

Fear not. We will not be amateurs attempting such a feat. We hope to be equipped with knowledge and experience after both of us enroll in the Wilton school of Everything you ever wanted to know about cakes. Whatever happens, most of you know me, and know, that once I have decided to do something, this being one of the things I have decided to do, I will persevere to the point of utter failure before I give up and go out and buy a cake.

Pray K and I succeed, and more importantly, that our creative inspirations coincide, more or less, with each other.

I knew that Chris would post about this weekend!
It was so nice to see everyone. And nice to know that I am not as "old" as Chris: After I left with everyone's favorite animal science major, we arrived at her apartment to see her roommates had also been entertaining. We talked to those guests for a while, and after most of them left, continued talking to one particularly interesting guest. After he left, the dear animal science major and I continued to philosophize until the wee hours, so at 2, we said, "wow we really need to go to bed." At 4 we said, "ok, now we really really need to go to bed." The oldness showed up around 6 when I said, "I haven't stayed up this late since I was in college," and we really did go to bed.

Closer to the wedding...
I suppose it should have occurred to me that bridal stores would also have sales the weekend after Thanksgiving, but it didn't, 'till I saw an ad in the paper. (My ex-paper boy fiance says that everyone who gets a Sunday paper also gets a Thanksgiving Day paper, kinda like a "solemnity" in the newspaper world :) So I went, I tried on, I ordered! Only 158 things left to do (according to theknot.com)

So I still watch TV. But I try to stick to the "good" shows. So, the shows I watch are: Joan of Arcadia (The creator, Barbara Hall, is Catholic, a convert!); I admit, I watch the hokey 7th Heaven, there is just something that compels me to keep watching. I also recently realized that Life with Bonnie is still on the air, but haven't had a chance to catch it yet. I want to, bc Bonnie Hunt's "Return to Me" was amazing, and it is a near miracle that these Catholic creators have been given a shot by Hollywood. I suppose I should try to get a Nielson box in my house to make my choice of programming really count, but we might then inadvertantly end up with even more Spanish and Polish stations in Chicagoland, because for some reason, those are the one's my dad stops on the longest when he is flipping.

But really: So far, Joan of Arcadia is really good. Kinda like My So Called Life, but with God instead of Jared Leto, with a little CSI mixed in. Check it out!