Wedding Wednesday

The plans are chugging along, so there’s really not much for me to talk about there. The reception is booked, and the deposit has been paid. My dress has been ordered. I ordered these shoes yesterday. (I figure that gives me plenty of time to make sure they’re what I want…plus, I know that I love the shoes, so chances are I’ll wear them regardless.)

Things I haven’t really thought about yet…colors. We’re not doing the full-on “wedding party” thing, instead involving our friends and family in other ways. I love them dearly, but I really don’t see any need to ask them to buy matching dresses. We are going to involve my goddaughter and Rand’s nephews…so Brandy will need a dress, and I need a coordinating color anyway. I’ve considered going with red…or maybe a mauve-y or rose-y color. I dunno…I just want it to look good with the dress. And then there’s flowers. Lots to think about, of course, but I’m not really freaking out. I’m just kind of taking it as it comes.

I got to thinking about this post, written way back in February 2006, prompting many people to ask if there was news they didn’t know about. No, no news. Just the random meanderings of my brain…recalling the past and musing about the future. I ended that post with this:

I couldn’t care less about being a princess for a day. What I do care about is being his wife…his love…his partner…for a lifetime.

I’m glad to know that now, with the ring on my finger and the plans steadily moving forward, that this hasn’t changed. There was a small amount of freaking out while we were trying to find a place and set a date…but once that was done, I calmed down considerably. And now, every now and then, I look at Rand and think to myself, “We’re getting married.” (Sometimes I even say it out loud…I’m such a dork.)

And I smile.

hugs

Tuesday Tidbits

Hrm. I’m having a hard time finding note-worthy things I want to blog about. So today’s gonna be the all-Sasquatch edition of Tuesday Tidbits.

This whole bigfoot sighting was near enough to my hometown that the locals were all abuzz with the news. A local hunter had put up a stationery motion-triggered camera and picked up…well, something.

Here’s the article from the Bradford Era.

Here’s a video from MSNBC:

And another from WTAE-TV in Pittsburgh:

The story also made the AP wire, as seen here.

And it’s gotten mentions on various blogs and message boards. Here’s one.

What do I think? Dunno, really. It is pretty bizarre, and I’m not sure I’m buying the “it’s a bear” line from the PA Game Commission.

What do *you* think? 😉

Weekend wrap-up

Rand and I went to Pennsylvania over the weekend for my cousin Meghan’s wedding. I’m waiting for my dad to post some actual photos of the ceremony, because I wasn’t in a very good position to get them…

On kind of a whim, we stopped for dinner at Blasdell Pizza in Springville. I’d never had it before, but Rand had. I heartily approve. 🙂

Friday night was pretty mellow. We went to the reception hall to help with some last-minute decorating things. Saturday morning, I finally had the chance to cash in a massage gift certificate I received last Christmas. Ahhh…very nice!

The ceremony began at two, and we headed over early. My brother needed to be there to hand out programs. The photographer was one of my old high school teachers, so I chatted with him briefly about my becoming a teacher and teaching eighth grade. He told me that when he made the move from teaching middle school to teaching high school (after 14 years), he found that his 40-minute lesson plan only took 15 minutes. I laughed. Everything takes three times as long with middle schoolers because you’re constantly saying things like “be quiet,” “don’t touch that,” “put that down,” and “stop it.” 😉

While I couldn’t take any actual ceremony photos, I did get a couple of interesting shots during the ceremony:

window

colten and daddy

Amanda (Meghan’s sister) was the matron of honor. Her son, Colten, was the ring bearer. I caught this cute shot of Colten resting on daddy.

My cousin Scott (Meghan’s brother) sang Ave Maria quite beautifully. I continue to be impressed with his talent. 🙂

The reception had a sort of garden faerie theme. This was their cake:

waterfall cake-front

waterfall cake-side

cake cutting

There was, of course, the obligatory cake-smooshing. I was assured that there will be no cake smooshing at mine. 😉

We posed for a family photo, which I think is pretty nice…but for the redeye I can’t remove and the slightly crazed expression on my brother’s face.

family

Then I posed for a couple of shots with my “double sister.” (Leslie, my sister-in-law, and I were in the same sorority…)

double sisters

There was much drinking, dancing and general carousing. The reception was huge–around 400 guests–and *everyone* was there to party. I did the chicken dance, which I have to admit that I like. I did not do the hokey pokey. The electric slide was not played. As is usually the case, I was unimpressed with the DJ.

Later, my aunt showed me some pictures I had drawn for her way back when (I’m guessing I was somewhere around ten). My repertoire consisted mainly of unicorns and Care Bears.

unicorn

other care bear

Later still, we enjoyed the adventures of Dudley, the Highly Energetic Shih Tzu. Here’s Dudley with his new most favorite toy, a Swiffer duster handle.

dudley

We went out for breakfast Sunday morning, then said our goodbyes and headed back to Buffalo.

All in all, a lovely weekend. Congratulations to Meghan and Tom!

Sunday stuff (and a meme)

So while I was at home over the weekend, I learned that Bigfoot has been sighted in Elk County.

I also attended my cousin’s wedding. More on that tomorrow, but for now, some photos are up here.

And now, a meme, courtesy of Samantha.

First, the rules:
There are a set of questions below that are all of the form, “The best [subgenre] in [genre] is…”.Copy the questions, and before answering them, you may modify them in a limited way, carrying out no more than two of these operations:

You can leave them exactly as is.

You can delete any one question.

You can mutate either the genre, medium, or subgenre of any one question.
For instance, you could change “The best time travel novel in SF/Fantasy is…” to “The best time travel novel in Westerns is…”, or “The best time travel movie in SF/Fantasy is…”, or “The best romance novel in SF/Fantasy is…”.

You can add a completely new question of your choice to the end of the list, as long as it is still in the form “The best [subgenre] in [genre] is…”.

You must have at least one question in your set, or you’ve gone extinct, and you must be able to answer it yourself, or you’re not viable.

Then answer your possibly mutant set of questions. Please do include a link back to the blog you got them from, to simplify tracing the ancestry, and include these instructions. Finally, pass it along to any number of your fellow bloggers. Remember, though, your success as a Darwinian replicator is going to be measured by the propagation of your variants, which is going to be a function of both the interest your well-honed questions generate and the number of successful attempts at reproducing them.

Got it? I think I do. Here goes:

My great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandparent is Pharyngula.
My great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandparent is Metamagician and the Hellfire Club.
My great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandparent is Flying Trilobite.
My great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandparent is A Blog Around the Clock.
My great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandparent is Primate Diaries.
My great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandparent is Thus Spake Zuska.
My great-great-great-great-great-great-grandparent is a k8, a cat, a mission.
My great-great-great-great-great-grandparent is Monkeygirl.
My great-great-great-great-grandparent is DancingFish.
My great-great-great-grandparent is Dr. Brazen Hussy.
My great-great-grandparent is Addy
My great-grandparent is MommyProf
My grandparent is Dr. Curmudgeon
My parent is Samantha Says…

The best television series in SciFi is: Firefly
The best cult movie in comedy is: UHF
The best romance novel in classic fiction is: Pride and Prejudice
The best recent movie in comedy is: Knocked Up
The best non-recent movie in romantic comedy is: When Harry Met Sally…
The best pop cover of a hip-hop song is: B*****s Ain’t S**t by Ben Folds

And I guess I have to tag some people…so how about Stephanie, HillaryEnsie, Caoimhe, and Mark.

Technical difficulties

Toasted Cheese is down.

We’re not quite sure what’s going on (it’s a problem with the host), but we’re hoping for a resolution soon.

Reading, watching, listening

Reading: Well, this one will be short. 😉 Student essays. Lots of student essays. Um…last book I finished was Beige by Cecil Castellucci. Quick, enjoyable read. I liked it even better than The Queen of Cool.

Watching: I’m pretty far behind on my TV watching as well…tivo’s got a bit of a backlog going. Heroes, I have to admit, has been sort of letting me down. I was so excited about Kristen Bell, and I’m not even sure that’s enough to hold my attention. I haven’t watched Pushing Daisies in a couple of weeks, and I’m a week behind on Chuck.

So what have I watched? Well, I’m up-to-date on The Office and Scrubs (but a week behind on 30 Rock and two on My Name is Earl. Last time I watched Earl I was a little concerned that they’re out of ideas. Two episodes in a row that didn’t advance the plot at all…)

OH! and I’m continuing to love Dirty Sexy Money…but didn’t watch this week’s episode yet. Like I said, behind. If you had asked me if I thought Dirty Sexy Money was going to become my new favorite show, I would have laughed. But there ya go.

Listening: Not much new to report musically. Rand and I have been on a comedy kick lately. I’m quite enjoying Lewis Black, Hugh Fink, Elvira Kurt, and a whole host of others that I was already familiar with.

Of course, I listened to lots of music last weekend at OVFF! I was happy to get to see Michael “Moonwulf” Longcor, who is very entertaining and has a fantastic voice!

That’s it. Look for more next week, and tell me what you’re reading/watching/listening (to)!

Friday photo

adam eats guitar

Adam and Rand were waiting to perform “Home” during the Pegasus Awards concert at OVFF last weekend. “Home” is, of course, a lovely song…but it was up against some pretty tough competition. 😉

I was trying to be stealthy with the camera, but if you get a camera within ten feet of Adam, well, this is what you get! There’s just something about the composition of this that I like…

This is also a good moment for me to congratulate all of this year’s Pegasus winners:

Best Filk Song: Rich Fantasy Lives by Rob Balder and Tom Smith
Best Classic Filk Song: Falling Down on New Jersey by Mitchell Burnside Clapp
Best Performer (tie): Dr. Mary Crowell and Seanan McGuire
Best Writer/Composer: Talis Kimberley
Best Dorsai Song: Shai! by Steve MacDonald and Steve Simmons
Best Song of Home: Emerald Green by Michelle Dockrey (vixy) and Tony Fabris

This was a difficult ballot, and I thoroughly enjoyed the concert. Lots and lots of good stuff. I didn’t know any of the Dorsai songs before last weekend, and although it did not win, I have to admit that “Green Hills of Harmony” was my personal favorite…

Tony and vixy’s performance of “Emerald Green” was stunning, and I’m sure it sent more than a few votes in their general direction! Also quite impressive was Seanan & company’s performance of “Still Catch the Tide” by Talis Kimberley. (aside–I think my favorite Talis song is “Small Mended Corners.” Does anyone perform that? I don’t think I’ve ever heard it, other than on the CD.)

I had the good fortune to sit with *three* of the winners (Seanan, vixy and Tony) at the banquet, plus two nominees (uh, that’d be Ookla, of course). Great fun was had by all. 😉

2007 Dead of Winter contest now open!

The 7th Annual Dead of Winter Writing Contest is now open.

Dead of Winter is a fiction contest (any genre) for stories with supernatural elements or themes. This year’s theme is: Urban Legend.

Deadline for entries is December 21, 2007.

Full contest rules.

Thursday Thoughts

Well, it’s the first day of NaBloPoMo, and the thing that’s been most on my mind this week is the general asshattery that is to be found on the Internet.

As you may recall, my good friend Eden has gained a certain amount of notoriety over the whole YouTube/Universal Music Publishing Group/Prince kerfluffle (aside–I luuuurve the word kerfluffle…). You can read the Washington Post story here, or the ABC News story here (or you could read about it on her blog, if I could get the darn thing to load…).

For those not in the know, here’s the quick sum-up…Eden posted a 29-second video of her son dancing on YouTube. Said video had the song “Let’s Go Crazy” playing in the background. Universal ordered YouTube to take down the video. They did. Eden filed a counternotice, and the video went back up. Eden got the Electronic Frontier Foundation involved, and a lawsuit was filed.

I’ve spent more time than I really should have this week reading comments on the various websites the story has been posted on. Many of the comments boil down to “prince sux!” Others are somewhat more intelligent. Many of the commenters are siding with Eden, but every now and then…

People have criticized her for posting a video of her child on YouTube at all. People have accused her of being a famewhore, of “just being after money” and even worse. Some of the trolliest comments have attacked Eden’s and Baby H’s looks. But that’s not even the worst part…the worst part is the other people who clearly don’t know how to deal with trolls.

I desperately want to put everyone with a keyboard and an Internet connection in a room and say, “Listen up, people. Do not, under any circumstances, feed the trolls. Stop it.”

So, trolls annoy me. People who think they know everything about everything and can’t be stopped from posting on public websites annoy me. Actually, lots of things annoy me, but that’s neither here nor there.

Before I ramble on any further, I just want to point out how proud I am of Eden for standing up for her principles this way. She shows so much more grace and courage in the face of asshattery than I ever could. Go Eden!