Not Related to Wedding and/or Honeymoon!

Shocking!  A post about something totally unrelated to the theme of this blog.  But here it is...

As you may know, I like to read Young House Love every day.  I usually love most of the stuff they do over there, even if it's something I wouldn't do myself.

But this recent post has me a little puzzled!  It makes me upset actually.  The post is about how Clara, the bloggers' young daughter, has a Little Tykes basketball hoop of the red, white and blue variety:

From AmericanListed.com

I'm not necessarily a huge fan of it either, but Sherry, Clara's mom and the co-author of the blog, decided to spray paint it Oil-Rubbed Bronze (her favorite variety of spray paint) so that it wouldn't stick out so much in their carport from the curb.  Now it basically disappears, which makes me kind of sad.

Someone commented that the colors are probably meant to help kids learn coordination and to distinguish the background from the foreground.  Making it one color makes the object "flat", as this person said, and more difficult for a young kid to find the basket.

Now I don't think Clara will have any trouble with finding the basket, since 1) she's played with it in full color already, and 2) she's getting old enough to not have trouble with coordination as much.  But it still takes it out of the realm of "kids' toy", for me.

I probably would have kept the white backboard and maybe ORB-ed the red ring, but painted the blue stand yellow to match their front door.  I'm being really particular and it doesn't matter in ANY WAY, I know.

But it still bugged me that she just slapped ORB all over it.  It also feels invasive to me, like what if Clara liked it better with colors?  Sherry claims in the comments that Clara loves the hoop still and calls it her "shiny shiny hoop" (or something).  I'm sure she is just as thrilled with it as before.

But still!  What about the next child that comes along (if any), or what about donation or resale down the road?  Just seems short-sighted to me to slap ORB on everything just so that it's not visible from the curb.  Put it away or something, instead, if it bugs you so much!

/ irrelevant rant

Some Amtrak Updates

Good news, everyone!

Photo belongs to Futurama, of course.

Amtrak is holding a promotion where any travel September through November gets you double points!  So we'll be racking 'em up.

We have tentatively decided it may be most prudent to avoid Chicago Cubs traffic and take the Hiawatha line from Milwaukee to Chicago on Sunday after our wedding.  I've been hearing horror stories from coworkers, family and friends about unexpected Chicago highway traffic backups, and I cannot risk losing out on our tickets.  If we miss the train, it's a total forfeit.  They may allow us to reschedule, but I'm not sure.

So!  We can't be late.  If we leave Milwaukee at 11 a.m. on the commuter line, arrive at Union Station at 12:29 (if on time), we should have plenty of time to get on our 2:00 p.m. departure to San Francisco!

We're doing the whole mambo in reverse coming home.  We'll get off our train in Chicago and get on another one to head back to Milwaukee, where Super Fiance's mom will pick us up!  Hopefully all will run smoothly.  If something goes horribly wrong, we can catch a cab home (should be around $40).

The even better news is we have enough Amtrak points to get our second set of coach tickets for free - plus we had a free companion coach ticket from when we signed up for the trusty Amtrak Guest Rewards credit card.  That thing has seen a lot of mileage since March!

Rental Cars

Thank heaven for rental cars.  They're so much simpler than hotels!

Yet they manage to be confusing in their own right.  Which website do we start with?  Orbitz?  Travelocity?  My work's Adelman Travel Concur portal?

Which vendor do we choose?  Enterprise (they'll pick you up!), Budget, Hertz, Avis?

There were so many overwhelming choices... finally when it all came down to the wire, I decided to make some executive decisions.

1)  Which rental car agencies are closest to the Amtrak station in Emeryville?
2) Which rental car agencies give me a discount/special promotion?

At this point, I still had Budget, Enterprise and Hertz going on. The final question was:
3) Which rental car agency offers the best deal?

The answer was Budget, with 30% off the price in addition to quadruple Amtrak Guest Rewards Points.  Done and done!

We booked a Dodge Charger, just for fun.  We'll let you know how we like it!

Another item checked off our to-do list.  On to printing family day-of field guides, honeymoon itineraries/emergency numbers, and pet care paperwork!

Attractive, Attracting Attractions - First Installment

I'd like to start out by introducing you to my good friend, Trello.  Trello is a tool that helps you stay organized and collaborate on projects by creating boards and lists.  I started using it to keep track of all the stuff that still needed doing for the wedding, because I was losing my handle on things.

I made my bridesmaids join Trello so that I could keep them up to date on what kind of things needed doing,  as well as have everyone in a discussion space that wasn't Facebook, since my sister (and matron of honor) isn't on Facebook.  It worked pretty well, for the most part.  We got through the dress choosing, and the dress ordering, and they all planned the shower/bachelorette party together in secret.

Naturally I started keeping a running list of ideas for our honeymoon in Trello.  This evolved into a list for what to do before we leave (there is a LOT to do), what we need to pack, things we need to see, and so on.

I'll just tickle your fancy with one delightful attraction for today: Ghirardelli Square.

Source:  http://ghirardellisquare.com/

This is one that Super Fiance discovered the other day, and said something like "How did I not know this was a real thing?  We are GOING THERE."  (Okay, so I paraphrased him.)  But he was excited.

Located in the Fisherman's Wharf area on the Bay, Ghirardelli Square is home to great food, chocolate, ice cream, wine, and shopping.  Yes, it's a "tourist trap", but it has a longstanding place in San Francisco History, which is part of what makes it so interesting to me.  The location was in use from 1895 through the 1960s, until the company relocated.  The site was then purchased by developers who turned it into what it is today.

This intrigues me, because a similar project is planned for the old Pabst Brewery, a site near and dear to my heart (I used to be a scout group tour guide/teacher for the Pabst Mansion in Milwaukee).  I hate to see big pieces of industrial history get torn down, especially when they involve beautiful architecture or brickwork.  So something like Ghirardelli Square is right up my alley!  We will probably stop by here for a bite of lunch and some fooling around in shops one afternoon.

Stay tuned for more attractive, attracting attractions!

Bachelorette/Shower Post-Mortem Part 2

Sorry it's been a day or two!  Things have been busy at work.

I'm here to pick up where I left off.  After the shower, we did some scrap booking, as previously mentioned.

I'd like to take a second to further expound on this, because it actually has a lot of meaning for me.  I don't usually print out photos or keep albums, I just post them to Facebook and keep files on my computer.  But the shower and bachelorette party has got to be one of those 'best days of my life' kind of things.  The actual wedding has got some serious living-up to do after that!

One thing I've been sort of worried about in the back of my mind is what will fill the hole in my life left behind by the lack of wedding planning?  Once everything is over, will I be depressed?

I like the idea of having another "step" left in the process post-wedding and post-honeymoon: archiving the pictures in a fun way.  I feel that this will help me to re-live the events in a healthy way, and "put them away" where I can visit them over and over again.  Plus it's something I'm hoping that Super Fiance and I can work on together.  I encouraged him to take a camera with him today while he goes to a Cubs game with his brother, and I got some Cubs stickers and baseball-themed stick-ons from the craft store.

Long story short, I think it's going to be therapeutic and enjoyable, and leave us with a really nice final product.  To start with, we can bring the book with us to to the rehearsal dinner to show our families and friends, and after the wedding it can "make the rounds" along with our more formal wedding photo album, which I plan to have printed online.

But enough about that!  On to the rest of the story.  We got all dressed up, and hit the road for dinner.  The very talented Bethany made this crown that I am wearing, as well as a ribbon bouquet for the rehearsal!

We had dinner at Riviera Maya (you can see my Yelp! review here), then headed over to At Random for ice cream drinks.  I had a Pink Squirrel, which was delightful.  At first we thought they wouldn't let us in, since we ran into another rowdier-looking bachelorette party who told us they'd been informed it was an hour wait.  That didn't sit right with my sister, so she walked in and they seated her and a few girls with no problem, then the rest of us joined them.  Guess it was just that they didn't care for the other group's attitude! 

After At Random we moseyed on over to Koz's Mini Bowl for a round of bowling.  Super fun!

Sarah giving those pins what-for.

Our next stop was meant to be Cuvee, but it turns out they were hosting a wedding reception that particular evening, so we stopped over at Palms Bistro instead!  We were glad we did.  The drinks were awesome and the bartenders were wonderful.  Try the Door County Mimosa!  We had a great time here until it was time to call it a night.

Sarah, me and Kelsey, with a photo-bombing gentleman in the back!

But we made time for one final stop...

We had to make a visit to the Fonz!  It was a fantastic night (and day), and I wish I could hang out with all those ladies every day!  Thank you everyone for a wonderful party.

Bachelorette/Shower Post-Mortem Part 1

The wedding shower and bachelorette party were this weekend, and they were amazing!

My wonderful sister made all the arrangements.  She swooped into my house on Saturday, and sent me to go and amuse myself while she and my friend Kelsey cleaned and cooked and set everything up.

I went to get a shake from Lee's Dairy Treat, then hit a couple garage sales (found nothing), then drove over to the shopping center with World Market in it.  I thought I'd go there, but as I saw the other shops I realized I should get my ring cleaned at Gold Creations.  So I did that, took 5 minutes tops, then I went and sat on a bench near a fountain to finish my shake.  I walked into PetSmart after that, to look at the animals, and then it was time to head back!

When I got there, they had brought forth this wonderful, low-calorie, low-sugar California-themed spread:

The delightful finger food finery

There was homemade guacamole with chips, crackers and brie, white stilton with cranberries, apples, dried apricots,fresh berries and melon, chili-lime cashews, mini quiches, kale chips, popcorn, and chocolate-chocolate and lemon berry cupcakes from my sister's friend Beth, owner of Bethy's Cakes!!  Yummm.  I could have eaten about 15 of those mini quiches (I think they are from the Bisquick "impossible quiches" recipe).

People began to arrive: my mom, Super Fiance's mom, his aunt Juliette, and my dear friends Sarah, Caitlin, Bethany and Ali.  My sisters-in-law were unable to make it, unfortunately, but they had good reasons!

Once everyone was there, we played an ice-breaker game and then settled in for a round of trivia based on questions about me, Super Fiance, Milwaukee, and San Francisco.  Super Fiance had been a sneaky secret helper and had contributed some information about himself for this project.  It was very fun!

I opened the wonderful gifts they had all brought, and was dazzled by the array of San Francisco travel books, games to play on the train (mini Boggle and pocket Farkle!), financial assistance with which to feed/amuse ourselves, fabulous household goods, and a hilarious Journey Journal that asks the all-important question, "Do you like squirrels?"   You can tell a lot about a person based on their answer to that one.  Oh! And I was excited to receive my very own EOS egg balm (lemon flavor! delicious!) from my sweet and thoughtful sister-in-law Blair.  You can see her review over on the Irish Swedish Experience.  Those egg balms have become quite a favorite among the Larson women!

Here is me opening some gifts from Bethany!

After all the gift-opening, the mothers and Juliette had to get going.  The young ladies stuck around and busted out the scrapbooking materials!  Another surprise!  We all got to work making scrapbook pages to complement the photos from the night ahead.  The resulting pages are so lovely and I can't wait to put photos in with them!  After this I got dressed for going out and tossed my toothbrush in a bag...

... to be continued once my photographers for the evening have posted their pictures on Facebook so I can snag them all!

Through the Woods

Whew!  This week we knocked a lot of important accomplishments off our to-do list.  Aside from asking some dear friends or family to do readings, we have our ceremony pretty much all planned!

We're down to printing programs and selecting a reception playlist.  That's about it!

Of course there are some other things, like purchasing some napkins for our post-ceremony refreshments, and getting the bridesmaids bouquets on the day-of.  There are still things to be done, but the big hurdles are over!   Mostly we are feeling like this right now:

Photo from the London Telegraph

Now we can move on to the most important things in life, like watching every episode of Dexter, all in a row (thanks Heather) spending time with friends and family without being a giant stressball!

I'd also like to say, holy crap!  Over 300 page views!  Thanks everyone for checking in.  It's nice to know someone's listening on the other end of the coaxial cable.