Tuesday, March 25, 2014

4

Can I tell you I'd rather be out there gardening than anything else, but that it's far too cold to do so?  I hear tell there's supposed to be a nor'easter starting this afternoon with 1-3" of snow overnight.

Oh, and the forecast has 70% chance of rain on our wedding day.

Monday, March 24, 2014

5

There's still time to run, right?  KIDDING!  It's totally the last thing I'd want to do at this point.

Everything is falling in place, and it's going to be an AWESOME wedding!  Even if things don't go off exactly how I've envisioned, it will still be AWESOME because friends and family will be gathering together to celebrate our marriage, and that's the important part.

And the folks at work threw me a surprise bridal shower... totally surprised!  I hate surprise parties.

Wednesday, March 19, 2014

10

Trying SO hard not to be a Bridezilla, but I find that I'm getting rather anxious about small details that are not within my direct control.  If you have to deal with me at all within the next week and a half, please be patient with me.  It'll all be OK come noontime on the 29th.

Monday, March 17, 2014

12

12 is the number of times I went up and down the stairs to carry some disassembled furniture from Gene's office into the basement.  My knees HATE me.

12 is also the number of days until we get married.  The favors are done, all of the vendors are lined up - just have to finalize a few things with the officiant, DJ, and the venue.  We've got a beautiful guest book (thanks Barbara!) and the bird cage for cards (thanks Joan!), and the onerous task of peeling stupid UPC symbols off of 120 bubble bottles is nearly done (thanks Oriental Traders for putting your labels in the WORST places).

Thursday, March 13, 2014

16

16 is the day on which I discovered I was extremely wise in wearing my "portable comforter" and saw the inside of the Port Authority Bus Terminal on 42nd Street in Manhattan for the first time.  Not for the first or last time, NJ Transit receives my ire for not having a satisfactory response to service outages on the RVL.

The 1st degree burn I got on my hand the other day from the oven rack looks much more red in contrast to my pasty white skin, but it is not infected.  Maybe it will heal up by the time I get married.  I can hope, anyway.

17

"When I was seventeen, it was a very good year..."
"She's only seventeen.  Daddy says she's too young, but she's old enough for me..."
"She was just seventeen, if you know what I mean..."
"All alone on the edge of seventeen..."
"You are the dancing queen, young and sweet, only seventeen..."

It's also the number of days left until I no longer check the "single" box on a form.



Wednesday, March 5, 2014

Tree surgeon

BB took a photo of my dwarf laceleaf Japanese maple in front of the living room bay window, and it looks like the winter snows have split the trunk.  Can't get to it yet, but when the snows recede, I will try to do a bit of surgery on it to possibly save it.

If not, I may replace with a different shrub or dwarf tree, because this is not a low-maintence plant - the edges of the leaves on this one get very crispy looking in the summer, even if we have enough rain.  Maybe a red twigged dogwood (which Rutgers says is only occasionally damaged by deer), a gingko, or a Harry Lauder's Walking Stick.

If the tree is unrecoverable, I may re-envision the whole bed altogether - the edge along the walkway is in shade from the cherry tree, but the rest is in full south sun.  There had been a water feature in the center of a rocky oblong, which they replaced with the Japanese maple.  That rocky area is edged with azaleas, spruce, and a boxwood along the house.  The shady part has hostas (deer salad), along with lungwort and primroses that I added.  

If I take all the rocks out, I can totally re-do the whole area.  I'm sure I have enough plant material around the yard to make a good show of it, and BB's co-worker is always willing to divide a few things for me. BB hates the blue spruce shrubs, as they are seriously prickly.  I cut the azaleas way back last year as they were overgrown and I couldn't open the living room windows.

Monday, March 3, 2014

T-minus 26 days and counting...

Oh good heavens, it's getting CLOSE.  We're applying for our marriage license on Friday - THIS COMING FRIDAY.  I gotta get the favors and bubbles finished & start nagging non-RSVP relatives, not necessarily in that order.  My dress is home, sheet-covered and hanging in the disused half-bath off the master bedroom.  My veil was torn when I was there last week, so I pick up the replacement tomorrow.

Screw it if the house doesn't get cleaned before Aunt D. comes over to get her hair done the morning of the wedding.  Been feeling like crap three weekends in a row, and she'll just have to deal with it.  Mom offered to help, so I'm doing my best to get the clutter put away so that we can just clean, because the sorting of stuff takes too damned long.  Was hoping to paint the kitchen, but that shit'll really have to wait.  We did get the Christmas tree put away, finally.

The official start of Spring is a week before the wedding, I'm hoping the "out like a Lamb" really applies.  Honestly, I can deal with anything Skadi / Cailleach / [insert wintery diety name here] wants to throw at me up until the 21st.  After that, Lords and Ladies, please lay off Winter, even if it's just until April 1.