We're still alive.

So as most of the world knows by now (with my big mouth), my stupid car doesn't work. The damn thing won't start. So today I spent my entire day calling auto shops, to finally decide to take it to the dealer, 15 miles away. But then I called my insurance (who by now hates me and will probably drop me) and found that my "emergency roadside assistance" will only pay to tow my car around 5 miles in the city because there are shops everywhere - too bad a lot of them are ghetto and you don't want to use them. Anyway, so then I search for a closer shop - only to find one but they're booked until Monday and have no where to store my car. So I have to chose whether to pay to have the car towed to the dealer (all but 5 miles which the insurance will cover - hopefully before they drop me) or sit over the weekend in the garage where it was just broken into - just what I need it to leave it there and get stuck with another $500 deductible when it's robbed again. Cody said I should just leave the windows down (then they can't break them) or put a note up that the car is unlocked (they can't steal it because it won't start) so they won't bust up everything.

Anyway, we decided to pay the extra and have it towed today. So I called to have it towed - only to then have work cancel before the truck got there. So I canceled the tow and got a ride home from work from a co-worker. Unfortunately this co-worker, who I will not name because this whole thing is not his/her fault, had rear-wheel drive and it was insanely icy outside, not to mention we have to go over a significant number of bridges to get home (for those southerners, bridges are bad in the winter because they ice really bad really quick). So, as we were pulling onto the interstate and go to accelerate the car starts spinning and spinning and spinning. The whole thing probably took about 30 seconds but it felt like minutes. Anyway we spin all the way from the right lane, across at least 4 lanes of traffic, into the far left lane of traffic, heading the opposite direction and plow into the bridge wall. Everyone is fine. We're all okay. No one is hurt. It was just scary. The worst part of it was spinning and then knowing we were going to run into the side of the bridge on my side. I swear I thought we were going to hit the bridge wall and go over the side of the bridge - and then we'd really be dead. But the bridge wall held up and we didn't go over the side - it was just a bit scary for a while.

So, now we're home for the duration. With any luck work will be cancelled tomorrow and I can do even more wedding planning - but that might be just a bit too optimistic. :) Tonight we might try to run out and get a tree once/if the traffic dies down and we can have a cozy night setting up our decorations. I love Christmas time, but man do I hate snow/ice/etc.

Three years running - pretty impressive!

November 30th 2006

November 30th 2005

November 30th 2004

Check out these weather pictures above- note the dates, specifically the years. This is my third winter in St. Louis and every year since I moved here we've had our first snow on November 30th (which also happens to be my friend Mike's birthday - happy birthday). Kinda weird, huh? Not first real snow or first big snow, but every year we have had the first snow flakes on November 30th. What a coincidence. I really think this is incredibly strange.

We're in the white now.

Yes, I am obsessed with the weather. I seriously check weather.com at least 15 times a day - less so in the fall and spring when the weather is nice and relatively predictible - but at least that in the winter when I need to see exactly how freezing it will be each day. So today the "winter storm" finally arrived. See the white stuff over us now? Around lunch it was just freezing rain. Then they told us all to leave work at 2 pm (the ONE perk of living where the weather sucks - you may just get to leave work early - but then you can't do anything because the roads are a mess and well, the weather sucks) and there was funny baby hail coming down everywhere. It really stung when it hit your face but it was cute baby hail. By the time I got home from work around 3 pm (yes, I only live 5 miles away but see next post for an explaination) it was full fledged snow and the roads were a mess - really a mess - slushy and gross. We're supposed to have soccer today (at 10:30 pm) but hopefully they cancel it so we can just stay in - though I would like to go get our Christmas tree so we can put that up while we're stuck in. :)

The pink stripe has arrived!

We're right in the middle of the pink stripe now. Nice and icy outside - they're already putting salt on the sidewalks outside our building. The white is coming our way now - the forecast says 8-10 inches of snow tonight. Maybe they'll cancel work . . . . not a chance.

The pink stuff is coming our way!!!

Yup - that's ice! Rain is okay. Snow is annoying. But ice is horrible. You can't walk, drive or do just about anything with inches of ice everywhere.

Today I purchased a wedding gown.

Yup. Everyone thought it would never happen, but today I FINALLY purchased a wedding gown. One more thing off the list of wedding-crap-to-do. :) Too bad I'm not telling which one it is. :)

In other news, I have my car back, again, and now the dumb thing doesn't work. Yup, that's right - we took my car in yesterday because it wasn't fixed right from the break-in and got it back last night - yippe - until this afternoon when I got to the garage (in a rush to make my wedding dress appointment) and found that the stupid thing won't start! AGGGG!!! Stupid stupid stupid car! I HATE this car! I can't wait to get a better job so I can afford a better/different car! I'm so tired of dealing with this thing breaking on me all the time (so far this year - O2 sensor, new battery, 3 new tires (thanks to nails), clutch slave cylinder and now random thing wrong causing car not to start (it's NOT my battery)). I'm so tired of dealing with this car. Oh well.

So much to write about -Thanksgiving trip, wedding dress, etc. but not tonight. Tonight I sleep and try not to have nightmares about my broken car and it sitting in the same garage it was broken into last week.

Why boys are like cats - or vice versa.

So tonight I cleaned the cat litter boxes since we're leaving tomorrow and I noticed something I've noticed a hundred times that I always forgot to blog about. Boys are like cats - or vice versa. We have three cats and thus three cat boxes because one of them (The Fat One -that's not an insult to the cat, it's her name) decided that she got angry when we only had two. Anyway there is one "igloo" one with a lid (they walk in and you can't see them) and two open ones. Sure enough, just like boys, they have no problem peeing in front of each other, or us, but they always go poop (yes, I just said "poop" in a blog entry) in the igloo one - apparently they like their privacy when they poop - just like guy bathrooms. Hmmmm.....
I'm not saying I spend a lot of time in male restrooms, this is all hearsay. :)

Car is back - sort of. . .

So yesterday evening I was FINALLY able to pick my car up from the repair shop. $500 later (that's my deductible) I was on my way home in my own set of wheels again. I was thrilled - finally I can drive again and not have to hitch rides all the time. Until this morning . . .
So this morning I was on my way to work and I kept feeling this cold draft in my ear. Seeing that it was about 32 degrees when I went to work this morning, that was not a fun feeling. So I put my hand up to where the wind was coming from, only to realize that while they replaced all the trim and sealants around my window, they apparently didn't do a wonderful job of it because I could practically stick my finger out the window from inside the car - with the window up. Why can't anyone these days do anything right the first time?
So as if that wasn't annoying enough, I later discovered that when you shut the passenger side door you can hear the broken glass inside the door. Yup - not only did they mess up the sealant but they forgot to vacuum all the glass out of the door when they put in the new glass. So, we were considering taking my car to Florida this weekend (better gas mileage and it goes faster - at least when I'm driving) but it looks like instead it will be going back to the shop tomorrow. I just don't get why places can't just do good, guality work the first time around.

On another note, we're going to FLORIDA tomorrow! Growing up in Florida you don't think much is special about the place - Disney is no big deal and you see the ocean enough to love it but also find the annoying things annoying (like sand and wind). But now that I live in Missouri, Florida holds this almost mystial quality that I never apprecitated before - it's Florida. Sort of like Hawaii is Hawaii and California is California. Sort Nebraska just doesn't hold the same mystical quality. :) Anyway, in addition to it being Florida, and thus at least theoretically warm (at least warmer then our frozen tundra), there's family. It's funny how as you age you appreciate your family more. When you're under the age of 13, family is everything. Then you hate family and want nothing to do with them for several years. Then you move away and realize that you're really lucky and you were a selflish brat back when you didn't appreciate them more. And then you get even older and move even farther away, and realize that when it all comes down to it, family is really all that matters in the world (and when I say "family" I also include close friends that you consider "family") and that if you lost them or even lost touch with them your life would never be the same ever again. Oh, and somewhere in there you meet a boy who you fall in love with and you become part of his family too. Bonus points if he also has a family that you cherish and love - and miss when you're away (like me!).

Anyway, we head to Florida tomorrow - a long, relatively boring 13 hour drive. I bitch and moan about the drive for weeks ahead of time - I bitch about how our entire "vacation" is spent running around and not sleeping and then we just have to drive back - I complain about how we always end up sick when we come back because we're so run down - but you know what? I wouldn't trade it for anything. Absolutely nothing. The mere thought of getting to see our families makes it all worthwhile - because there will come a day when we won't be able/willing to make the drive anymore (I assume we will probably never end up back in Tally -sorry to burst anyone's bubble) and we'll be happy for the memories we make now, visiting our families and seeing our nieces and nephews as they grow and visiting with our folks.

Can't wait to see you all!!!

Music Download Question

Okay, I'll admit - I have about 5000 songs on my computer and the vast, vast majority of them (okay, all but about 15) were downloaded for free. I'm not specificially admiting to downloading to pirated music for fear that those psycho record labels will one day use my blog against me in a civil suit. Anyway, as a maturing adult, I've decided I want to at least make an attempt to get some legal music downloads. The only problem is it's driving me crazy.
So I downloaded a few songs from Walmart.com since it was the cheapest I could find (88 cents), but then I discovered the songs downloaded as WMA (Windows Control Monger Format). So I figured that wasn't the end of the world - even though my ancient cheap MP3 player doesn't support WMAs, only MP3s - I would just convert them to MP3s - then I could use them in my MP3 player and burn them on CDs to use in my car (as WAVs). Nope - can't do that either - there is some stupid anti-piracy lock on the song (DRM or something) so I can't convert it to MP3 or WAV! Okay, so I OWN this song -I PAID for it - but I can't use it except on a new MP3 player or on Windows Media Player (which I hate and had thus deleted from my computer and had to reinstall just to hear my song). I want to listen to it in my car - but I can't because it won't convert to WAV. I want to listen to it in my crappy MP3 player - but I can't because it wont' covert to MP3!
So, my question is, after incessantly babbling, is there a music service where I can download songs that I OWN onto my computer that I can then convert to either MP3 or WAV for personal use on other devises other then Windows Media Player??? I looked around and could only find sites where you could get WMAs -but do they all have this lock on them? How can I just download my song for a buck and do whatever I want to it??? Any ideas? I don't want to stream music or listen to the radio - but actually download and own a song that I can then burn to listen to in my car. Thoughts?

Happy Anniversary!

One year ago today, Cody proposed. We had decided to go paddle boating at the lake in Forest Park since it was actually above 50 degrees (which it was not near today) so we rode our bikes up there to get some exercise. We paddled around the lake, all the way to the Art Museum and Grand Basin and were on our way back, checking out all the bridges, when he leaned over, got the ring out of his pocket, sort of got down on a knee, and asked me to marry him. It couldn't have been more perfect - outside, on the water, having fun. So, here we are a year later, still planning this damned wedding. :) We've made major strides though lately - we have the officiant down, got the engagement annoucement in the paper in Tally, I think I picked out invitations, I got the first round of Save-The-Dates out (if you don't have yours yet, don't sweat it -but let me know because it may have gotten lost in the mail or I have a wrong address), we're working on a photographer and DJ, and I'm down to two dresses. :) Hopefully we'll get some final details worked out with the hotel/reception site over Thanksgiving - menu, rooms, etc. Fun fun. I think I would enjoy wedding planning a lot more if my life were not already totally full with fulfilling things I enjoy (besides work -don't even get me started on this mess), but alas, we do what we can and then the next day comes and we do some more. :)
So, yes, it's official - we're going to Tally for Thanksgiving. We're hoping to leave here by 1 or 2 pm on Wednesday so we get to Tally around 3 or 4 am. Then on Thursday we hope to see my dad and his family in the morning, then Cody's family in the afternoon, and my mom's family in the evening - what a day - good thing we don't have kids to drag around to all this - they'd be even more exhausted then we would. :) Friday I hope to look at dresses, meet with the hotel/reception guy, work out some more wedding details, and work on registering - I still have to blog about what a disaster that was. :) Saturday is FSU v. UF which we hope to find tickets for and Sunday we drive back. If you're reading this and either live in Tally or will be visiting, please let me know where everyone is planning to go out or meet up - I'd love to see everyone!!!
In other news, we did a great job this weekend of getting the house cleaned pre-Thanksgiving. One of my biggest pet peeves is leaving for a trip and the whole time knowing you're coming back to a dirty/messy house. If we can keep it up for two days we'll be comign home to a pretty clean and tidy house - for once! :)
And no - we still don't have my car back - it still wasn't ready on Friday.
Have a good Monday!
p.s. I still think I like green on the blog.

Why Women Rock

I think women are amazing beings - and not just because I am one. They manage to juggle careers, homes and self seamlessly day in and day out. Tragedy hits, crisises occur and more often then not women take the hits and keep moving forward. Anyway, today one particular nugget occured to me.
Women can stand at the top of a set of basement stairs and can tell from about 40 feet away if the washer is running, even if the dryer is loudly spinning - we can tell the difference between the way the washer and dryer sounds from 40 feet away and can even tell, on occassion, what cycle the washer is in. I think that's amazing. Sorry, guys, but there's not a chance in hell you can stand at my basement door and tell me if my washer is running over the sound of the dryer. Pretty cool.
We can also tell you, while standing at the grocery store, just about how much milk and bread and cheese we have left, even without going home to check first.
I'm not being sexist, I'm just sending a props to all the women out there that manage to take care of everything in their lives so wonderfully - and I'm not talking about me, just all the ladies in general. :)

Still no car.

Yup - still don't have my car back. Supposedly it should be ready tomorrow afternoon after 4pm - the only problem is they're only open until 5pm - which gives us an ever-so-inconvenient ONE HOUR in which to pick up the car or miss it until Monday - oh, and add to that we only have one car right now for the both of us and I will have it in Poplar Bluff until about 7pm (I have to go there to take a deposition tomorrow afternoon and it's 3 hours away). Ahhh... the joys we go through just so some dumb thief can get a kick out of breaking into my car.

In other, not so bitter news, not much is going on. Yesterday I was in Mexico . . . . Missouri. What a place. I was up there for work and got to drive Cody's baby, the Jeep. It's odd driving an SUV when you're so used to a tiny car. And boy does it blow with the wind. I was quite concerned that it might tip over, but it didn't and I made it home safe and sound in our one remaining vehicle . . . because the thief messed up our other one, leaving us with one. Lest I digress.

It was supposed to snow yesterday - 2-3 inches at least - but it didn't. Just lots of cold rain. For the past two years I've been here the first day of snow has always been November 30th - we'll see if that holds true again this year.

Yesterday I got to babysit the most amazing one-year old (almost one - next week). My friends were going out so I got to baby-sit their adorable one year old daughter, Elizabeth. We had a blast. I seriously had a great time with her - and no, that does not mean we're going to be popping out babies any time soon - it just means that I got very lucky to be able to spend a decent amount of time with such a great kid. I have no pipe dream whatsoever of having a kid half as good as she is, as I'm convinced I'm going to be cursed with the worst demon child ever - since I was one myself - seriously, ask my mom, I was a serious demon child. Anyway, Elizabeth was wonderful. We hung out on the couch playing with cloth letters and books for about an hour. Then we crawled around on the floor a while - playing hide and go seek (sort of - the one-year-old version) and chase. Things were going great and she started to get a bit fussy - not bawling or anything - just fussy. It took a few minutes to figure out what she wanted since at first I thought she was just getting tired - but then she didn't want to lay down - her diaper was clean - and she didn't want any juice. But then I hit the jackpot -Cherrios. She was in love - and happy. She had the greatest time eating those Cherrios - it was almost the most fun part of the evening watching her pick them up one by one and shoving (not placing, but shoving) them into her mouth. Then she would debate putting one in my hand for me but would always take it back and eat it. She was adorable. I had such a great time with her and could only imagine how great it must be to have a kid that good (again, I will never know because my kid will be a demon child). But again, no we're not having kids any time soon - too much to do first!!!

In today's news, we had our second soccer game of this "season," or better termed, "session." We lost 5-1, but it should have been 5-2. The other team was good and we had a good time playing. Cody really rocks - I wish I could play 1/2 as good as him or the other folks on the team - but I'm learning. It's fun nonetheless. Unfortunately I thought it would be a good idea to get in a quick work-out before soccer so I rode the stationary bike for a while - bad idea - my legs were like lead weights during the game. :) That was the lesson learned today.

Well, off to bed to wake up, take Cody to work, go to work and then to the metropolis of Poplar Bluff. :)

Tuesday's Gone.

Well, I got my CDs back today from the parking garage. Sure enough, the moron thieves didn't take any of them. So today at work I listened to Peter, Paul and Mary Campfire Sing-Along songs all day - needless to say I got little work done because everyone kept stopping by wondering what in the world I was listening to. Apparently "Puff the Magic Dragon" isn't on the popular radar these days. Maybe it should be. :)
In other news not much happened. I FINALLY mailed a portion of my Save-The-Date cards. Not all got mailed - because not all addresses have been compiled and not all cards have been made -but I got at least some made. I've been majorly stressing over this wedding thing lately, thinking about Vegas more and more every day. My biggest concern is keeping the guest list within reason and keeping the amount of people within the space we have - this is much tougher then one would think because so many of our guests are from out of town. It sort of goes like this - anyone who wants to come I would love to have - nothing would make me happier then to have everyone I care about want to be there and for us to share the day with them - on the other hand, I don't want anyone to feel obligated to come and make the trip if they can't afford it or don't care to make it. I'm just guessing it will all work out. :)
In even other news, we're forecast for snow tomorrow. I hate the winter. Snow is beautiful but it's a pain - not to mention cold. I hate it getting dark at 4:30. I hate feeling like my eyeballs are going to freeze. I hate not being able to dial my cell phone because my hands are covered in mittens. I hate the way my hats/caps mess up my hair so it's not even worth it to bother to do my hair. I hate getting into my car with 10 lbs of clothing only to crank the heat and be burning up in five minutes and trying to wiggle my way out of hats, gloves and a huge coat while drving down the interstate. I sure can't wait until spring -and this wedding is over.
In other news, I found out today that Cody really hates buggers. I mean, really hates them. Just news for thought.

Green.

Ask Baylee (our cute three-year old niece) - I really have no favorite colour. She's very into whose favorite colour is what and has memorized the entire family's favorites. Very impressive since I certainly couldn't remember that. Anyway, whenever she asks me mine, I always tell her "the rainbow." I really do like all colours - they all have their purpose and place. I'm not sure I ever had a favorite but if I ever did have one it would have been blue or black. I tended to like groups of colours - like earth tones. But lately I've been attracted to green. I've never really particularly liked green before - certainly no more than any other colour - but lately I have a thing for green. I even bought my first real green shirt last week. I'm experimenting with green lately.
The reason for this green tirade? I'm trying out a green blog to see how it fits. We'll have to see.

I'm a statistic.

I'm now a statistic in the lovely City of St. Louis. They say St. Louis is the "most dangerous" or "least safe" or something like that, city in the US. Okay, I can buy that if you're in certain parts of the city - parts we don't live, work, play or travel into - so that has never been a huge worry for me (knock on wood).
We're also number 1 for car related crimes. This I totally buy. Until now, Cody and I have been lucky - we have not had our garage/his car broken into, nor mine messed with while parked on the street (I park on the street because I drive a clutch and they are less likely to be stolen). That is, until this weekend.
Friday night we had a rousing happy hour after work, one in which I drank the better part of a caraffe of maragritas. Being the responsible citizen I am, I called Cody to pick me up. So we left my car in the work garage downtown and he drove home. We never quite made it back downtown to pick up my car over the weekend(we only live 5 miles from my work/downtown but we were just never heading in that direction) - usually this is not a big deal. I leave my car in the work garage when we go to Florida for Thanksgiving or going out of town for a long weekend - it just seemed safe.
So this morning Cody drops me off at work at 7:45 and I sit down for a long day at work. Then I get a call. It was our garage saying my car was broken into.
So I rush down to the garage (only 1.5 blocks away) and find my car completely assaulted. The moron thieves had apparently tried to break in the front driver window but didn't manage to actually bust out the entire window - only tear up my weather stripping and chip at the window all along the top. Apparently the geniuses then moved to my back driver window which, in a sporty car with two doors, is only about a 1.5x1.5x1.5 foot triangle. They busted it out, only to discover there was no way to unlock the door from that window - left glass everywhere though. Moron then moved to the passenger front window and finally hit the jackpot - glass everywhere, car open. The thief person then ransacked my entire car, thowing everything around, emptying the glove box and console, climbing into the back seat, messing with the trunk, etc.
All in all, he remained an idiot. The two most expensive things in the car where my new jacket (the warm one I blogged about) and Cody's Gator coat - together over $200, though not a ton of street value, I suppose. Next was my parking pass which could have gotten him in and out of the garage whenever he wanted - nope, left that. Then there was my building pass - he left that too and that would have given him unlimited access to a 22 story office building 24-hours a day. He really blew that one. He DID take my owners manual to my car (go figure) and all my non-burned CDs. He left the four packs of ripped/burned CDs and took the one pack of real CDs I had. His only problem was he robbed the wrong car - my CDs have ZERO "street value."
For instance, all day we were joking that some thug is driving around St. Louis listening to the Peter, Paul and Mary Campfire Sing-Along Songs (yes, I really own that CD - it has "Leaving on a Jet Plane" on it and I really like that song). We were joking that he was riding around singing "Michael Row your Boat Ashore." And then he's going to try to sell my Alladin soundtrack - good luck with that one buddy. And he's not going to know what to do with half the CDs in there - a ton are obscure bands no one in STL has heard of so the only person he could possibly sell them to would be ME! Then there's the entire collection of Bad Religion and They Might Be Giants CDs - good luck selling those on the black market too! What a moron thief!
Anyway, so after the police reports were filed and the insurance was called and the half dozen body shops were compared, Cody picked me up in his car (I had a doctor's appointment so I needed his car) and he took mine to the shop. The thing that really gets me is that he might have gotten $20 worth of stuff but did $1200 worth of damage to my car to get it! No one wins here except the body shop - thief dude loses because he got a bunch of lame CDs, I lose because I pay a ton of money and have no car now and the insurance loses because they pay out (though I'm sure they'll raise my rates for it).
I think I'm going to either (a) put a note with $20 on the car and just say to take this rather then break in since there are no guns, drugs or cash in my car - EVER or (b) leave the doors unlocked and windows down so if they want to fish around they can be my guest but it won't cost me a week with no car and a ton of money for breaking all my windows - good luck finding anything of value in my car.
So of course now I have to file a claim, because my back window alone is over $500 (which also happens to be my deductible). This is now the second claim I have ever filed and NEITHER were my fault - the first is when my car flooded at FSU parked in the bowl during a heavy rain. That's insane! Not only do I have to pay $500, my insurance will have to pay $1100 but my rates will go up - all becasue this moron wanted some CDs. . . but it gets better.
So, after all day joking about how this guy is a moron for stealing the worst street value CDs ever, I got another call from the garage and apparently the guy broke into another car and left my CDs in that guys car! So the theif figured out that my CDs were so bad that he wasn't going to get any money for Peter, Paul, and Mary and Aladin that he LEFT them!!!! So I get my CDs back tomorrow! All that damage to my car for what? An owners manual??
So what a Monday! Now Cody and get to carpool for the rest of the week and I get to deal with the body shop to get all my windows replaced and the weatherstripping fixed. AGGGGG... This week had better get better.

Sorry to offend any male readers for refering to my thief as a "he" but no woman would be that stupid to break into a car as messy and dirty as mine - she would have known I had nothing in there - just a bunch of shoes and trash. :)

God hates the Gators.

So here we all, good Gator fans, patient and loyal, but this week I'm done being patient. As everyone knows we have a RIDICULOUSLY hard schedule. And thus far we have managed to make it through with only one loss. So we fell in the polls after our loss and have slowly been working our way back up.
The week before last we made it up to number 4 - only Ohio State and Michigan (who still have to play each other and since one will lose presumably the other will drop below us) and West Virginia were above us. And then West Virginia lost! Yippee - we got to number 3, right? Nope. We won our game vs. Vandy and stupid undefeated Lousiville jumps us to #3 (they were the team that beat West Va.).
Okay, so we pouted a week but moved on. Then Louisville losses on Thursday! Yipee- we should go to #3! And to top it off, #5 Texas, #6 Auburn AND #8 Cal all lose too! We should be set for #3. So we play South Carolina (coached by our old ball coach, Spurrier) and barely sqeak out a win but a W is a W. We should be set!
Until we checked the polls today and we're number FOUR! What??? Who in the world does these things? USC (last week #7 to our last week #4) JUMPED US!! That's insane! I swear God hates the Gators.
So now we need to win big, need Cal to beat USC and then USC to beat Notre Dame (just in case some pollsters vote them to jump us next!). Football season. Gotta love it. Gotta hate the voters.

Dedicated to Chris

What a weekend - and it all started with a great night out with our friends Chris and Rachel. Yup, that's them in the picture at our party a few months ago - unfortunately I forgot my camera Friday night or I'm sure I would have had more photos. :) Anyway, Chris mentioned that for some reason he has never made the blog so I promised that I would put him and Rachel on the blog and rave about how great they are and how wonderful they are as a couple and as people. Good things it's all true because I'd really hate to lie on my own blog. :) Anyway, we went out to the Central West End, which is lovely, in addition to being close to our house. We had a great time hanging out with them and had fun meeting Rachel's sister and her gang (her sister's getting married in January in Key West - only a few more months to go for her). Can't wait to hang out with them again.

Insane.

It's been a while since I last posted. As usual, things have been insane. I won't bore you with details, but we did have a great trip to Nashville last weekend to watch the Gators beat up on the SEC whipping boy, Vanderbilt. I swear there were more Gator fans then Vandy - it was almost like a home game. Good fun was had by all - pictures will be up soon.

Upon returning to STL it was time to get serious on this wedding. When we got engaged I thought I had all the time in the world to plan the best party of my life. Then we spent the entire spring planning the Germany trip. Then we went to Germany and I came back crazy sick so that took almost a month. Then it was full blown summer which you just can't let slip by you here - you have to enjoy every sunny moment of it. Then it was fall and trips. And now it's winter - and less the FIVE months from the wedding! Needless to say I'm freaking out. But this week we've gotten quite a bit done. Cody has been working on the DJ situation and the officiant and I've been hard at work on the photographer and Save-The-Date cards (which I thought was funny has an acronym of "STD"). The cards are almost done but I still have to finish up some addresses, put on stamps and get them in the mail. It's coming along slowly but surely I suppose. I made out a master list of things to do so that should streamline things a bit hopefully.

In other news, we had our first soccer game tonight of the new season. We have some really nice (and good soccer player) new people which is always nice. I'm getting better - slighty- still not good but just not as crappy. I'm enjoying it though.

We decided we are going to try to make it to Tally for Thanksgiving this year. It's an insane trip - absolutely insane - 13 hours on Wednesday night/Thursday morning, three Thanksgiving meals in one day, a super busy Friday, hopefully FSU v. Florida on Saturday and then drive back on Sunday. And while it's insane and I bitch and moan about it there's just somethign about being home at Thanksgiving that just can't be replaced. Plus there's wedding stuff we need to do there. :)

Sorry for the break in blogging -blame it on the insaneness - now that the internet and computer are all working great I should be back to normal with blogging. Take care.

It's Alive!!

We finally have internet back! I haven't been able to do any blogging, emailing or looking up of websites all week because our stupid cable internet has been down. When I talked to them yesterday they actually admitted that "It looks like the problem might be on our end." Wow! Amazing - the first time I've ever heard a cable/tv/phone/internet/water/electricity/gas/etc. provider say anything was THEIR fault! I was shocked. Anyway, they sent someone out and we now have internet back. Yipee.
Now that I'm home from work to wait for the cable guy, I should go pack, as we're leaving for Nashville in a few hours to go watch the Gators play Vandy! It should be a blast! The Music City Gator Club puts on a huge party tonight for a pep-rally type thing. It's quite a good time - I'm sure I'll have lots to post about it on Sunday. :)