Ew!

I am so making this "swamp juice" for my kids one day. Gross!

Read it and weep (for real)

Raising a Princess Single-Handedly, by Simon van Booy, in The New York Times.

This author was just selected as our next book club pick. I think I will like his stuff...

Noooo!

First of all, Jeopardy seems to have changed the sounds they use to fill out the board.

Second of all, they just let a kid answer "asterisk" with "asterik." That mispronunciation is one of my pet peeves! And the fact that Alex Trebek considers it "an acceptable alternative"? My dislike of that man grows only deeper by the day. And I've been watching Jeopardy for years...

Yeah, I may only be 25, but I became a crotchety old lady quite some time ago. ;)

D'oh!

Just violated my own vow to never look for shoes in a shoe store ever again. Kinda bummed I wasted 1.5 hrs. bopping around town looking for a sizes 5.5 - 6, when there is such a thing as Endless.com with free overnight shipping.

NOW, officially, I will not shop for shoes in stores anymore. (Trying to get my mom to stop wasting her time, too—she wears a 5!)

Holy crap, my friends are cool

Finally caught up with my recently engaged friend Steph and found out that she's booked her wedding venue: the Newport Aquarium near her hometown in Kentucky. If their guest count falls within the accepted range, she and her fiancee David will be tying the knot in front of the shark tank. Awesome.

Life inspiration boards

Y'know those online collages of photos known as inspiration boards? Typically, they show ideas for decorating a room with shades of red or putting together a cool outfit or matching wedding elements. They are pretty nifty. Just came across this idea for life inspiration boards...to put in visual terms things that inspire you, things that you want to do, etc. Love it.

Genius idea via apracticalwedding via blogconqueso.

21 days

Whoa, 21 days til the wedding! Lots of stuff is done, done, done. At this point, I'm a little worried about leaving work for so long. There are only 2 of us...so my poor boss will be drowning in the madness on her own. HR still hasn't posted our internship description, so I'm gonna start talking to colleges myself. (And if you know any terrific editorial, early childhood ed., and/or graphic design types in NYC, who also happen to be full-time college students, puh-lease let me know!)

It's been a good week, even though we were rained out at the US Open. (That was sad, but I did see Rafael Nadal play tennis in real life for 2 sets, which was not sad. The speed of the ball and the players' remarkable reflexes just don't fully come across on TV.)

Next weekend, I get to try on my wedding dress (yet again). I think at this point they are finished altering it and may let me take it home. There is something so weird about putting a lot of time into looking for a dress and then not having it in your possession until 2 weeks before the wedding. I wish they'd change that—how are you supposed to dance around in it when your fiancee is not home and/or pick matching earrings and the right length of necklace?

Anyway, off to Book Club and to do city errands. I shall leave you with a SNEAK PEEK of the dress...

Friday dorkdom

I get so much satisfaction from Clorox-wiping my desk, phone, mouse, and keyboard on Fridays. So much.

How I know I am a wimp

I like to try to combat wimpyness in myself these days. I am not one for watching reality cop shows, but I recently caught some of the new TLC show, Police Women of Broward County. And then I realized how wimpy I am.

Exhibit A, Andrea Penoyer:

She's one year older than I am, and can't be much taller than 5'4" or so. Yet she tackles criminals to the ground and takes absolutely no crap. She keeps it together under extraordinary pressure. She's the only woman in her elite unit.

Also, she is raising her 8-year old son to kick as much butt as she does and is studying for her B.A.

I don't plan to start fighting crime, but I hope that I can someday be a fraction as un-wimpy as someone like this!

One month

The "one-month-til-the-wedding" card I got from Jenn. A nutter-butter day on the work front. A kind of stressful day on the wedding front, too, when I got sticker shock looking at our revised caterer contract. (But Chris did the math and we figured out that there is still extra stuff factored in and that it is fine in reality). Just looked back at this card and I cracked up!

Pre-wedding fun

Seems like we're in wedding overdrive lately, but there is a lot of fun leading up to this!

Exhibit A, drinking with my mom and aunts in Providence:

Exhibit B, Waterfire in Providence (through a slightly drunken lens):

Exhibit C, Cats love early wedding presents wrapped in paper.