LolaGeek

It’s been a pretty boring weekend so far. Pretty average. GG’s been out all day, first at a paintball bachelor party for our friend Ed, then home to shower and change, then out to dinner with the paintball guys, then off to his show for the night. I’ve been in and out, too. Jess and Rob stopped by earlier because they were in town looking at houses for sale. I rode around with them and pointed out some places I’ve seen for sale around here. Later I went out to run some errands. Since then, I’ve been cleaning up and doing laundry at home.

Also, we got our ring sizers from T.R.S. in the mail yesterday. They recommend wearing the sizer for 24 hours because your size will change throughout the day, as your finger swells and stuff. So I wore the 6 1/2 yesterday afternoon and evening, and I’m wearing the 6 today. I guess I could go either way, though the 6 is probably better for me. I’m just not used to wearing rings at all, so I want to make sure that what I get will be comfortable. Also, they say the titanium rings cannot be sized larger (and it costs 35% of the price of the ring to have it sized smaller). So I want to make sure I get the right size the first time.

Speaking of getting married (!), I called the courthouse yesterday to find out more about this “self-uniting” license. The woman on the phone goes, “Are you of Amish or Quaker faith?” Um, no. So that’s why no one’s ever heard of that before. So we’ll have to find a justice of the peace after all. And say vows. And bla bla bla. I was kind of not into that because I hate having attention focused on me, and GG isn’t into that because he wants the least amount of fuss possible for this whole thing. But I guess we’ll have to do it, like normal people. (Or else convert to Quakers real quick.) The lady I spoke to said we should get the license first and then call a judge. She said there’s enough of them that we’ll be able to get the date that we want. Considering it’s a Tuesday, I’m sure we won’t have a problem.

This week’s SPF assignment from Kristine is all about perspective. We were to photograph something big, something small, and half of something… but keep in mind that, for example, up close, something small could appear big, etc. Here we go!

Something Big: It’s just a little sewing needle (the squares in the background are 1-inch, for perspective), but look how huge it seems! Haha..!

Something Small: This is the view out of our upstairs hall window. It’s the only window we have on that side of the house and it’s tiny, which is a shame, because it’s a pretty interesting view. Anyway, look how small that smokestack seems in comparison to my thumb. Thumbs up!

Half of Something: This one was tough for me, but I decided to go with half of my pair of slippers. I wear them pretty much from the moment I walk in the door, I hate wearing shoes at home. But obviously they’re always together, whether they’re on or off my feet. This guy misses his slipper mate.

Did you play??

Well, our workshops today were very successful, but now I am so tired. We had two sessions, with 20+ kids in each one. I first asked the kids what some of their favorite websites were. Then I explained how our company has an intranet that can only be seen from within the company, and asked if some of the kids knew what department their parents were in, and we found the department’s website. Then we had them draw their own imaginary web pages on paper, with markers, while they came up one at a time and gave me some information to put on a real website I had started. Heather and Jess walked around and talked to them, and Jess snapped a few pictures of the kids at work. At the end of class, they got to share their drawings, and then I showed them the website I’d put together, with all their information and photos on it. The workshop really depended on the kids being interested and wanting to draw, and luckily they were all really into it, which was great. And really, they were all very well-behaved children. During the second session, a photographer came in to get pictures of me presenting and working with the kids, so maybe those will turn up somewhere. After we were all finished, I e-mailed the parents from each session and sent them a link to their child’s session’s web page.

Overall, I think everything went really well. I’d probably volunteer again next year, it was fun, even if I do hate children.

First of all, thanks for the congratulations everyone! We’re excited… even though I think GG is trying not to be. He wants to keep everything as simple and low-key as possible, with as little change in our lives as possible. My mom called to ask about taking us out to lunch or dinner afterwards, and he started freaking out because it was becoming a big event. So I haven’t really even told a lot of people. (Well except I’ve told the entire internet. Whoops.)

Secondly… I can’t post to my blog from work anymore?!?!?! Or even view my website! I would guess that my company’s blocking it, like they eventually do with all my favorite websites, but usually when a site is blocked I get a message with the company logo and the reason why they’re filtering it (like “Humor/Profanity” or “Entertainment/Streaming Media”), but when I try to get to my site I get an MSN search with no results..? I can get to it from home (obviously), so I know it’s not a problem with my server or anything… weird.

Today was an exciting day at work because we finally launched the massive website I’ve been working on for months! Tomorrow is take your kids to work day or whatever, and Jess and Heather and I are giving a workshop on making websites at our company. It’s really my workshop, but I’ve enlisted them as kid wranglers. We’re actually doing the workshop twice, 11-11:45 and 12-12:45. In return, they gave us a bag of goodies (pens, magnets, flashlight, etc. with our company logo or our products on them) and we get free lunch tomorrow. Should be interesting. I’ll give my report tomorrow I guess. I’m pretty sure this whole event will just reinforce my decision not to have kids.

[Edit - 7:21 AM, 4/27] Oh happy day, I can get to this site from work again! Maybe they sensed that I was complaining. [/Edit]

GG and I are getting married.

Tuesday, June 6, 2006.

We bought the rings tonight. (His. Mine.)

I told my mom on Saturday. She’s going to be one of our witnesses on the certificate. GG will get one of his parents to be the other. Now I just have to call the courthouse and find out a) if this “self-uniting” license really exists, and b) if not, how I go about getting a judge to marry us that day.

I truly can’t believe that nobody has a comment about this?!

I had a pretty good weekend. On Friday I cooked dinner for me and GG (a Rachel Ray-esque oriental chicken salad) before he had to leave for his show… which was faaaaar away. He got home at 5 AM. Saturday I went to Costco with my mom to pick out a very cute pair of glasses that I’m supposed to avoid wearing.* GG’s show Saturday night was 11 PM to 3 AM in Atlantic City, and he got home around 6 AM. (That included a 45-minute nap on the way, so it’s okay.) Yesterday we checked out the new brunch buffet they’re having at the Italian restaurant that we like, which is walking distance from our house. When we got home, I wanted to nap while GG watched DVDs, but I ended up being able to stay awake so I got to see The Exorcist for the first time. It was completely non-scary to me, so I really don’t understand how everyone can say it’s the scariest film of all time and this and that. I cleaned the house some, vacuumed and such, before we went to Ed and Linda’s for dinner. Turns out they didn’t really have dinner planned, which was pretty fun, actually, because we ended up just pulling out whatever they had in the cupboards. I made a salad with whatever fresh veggies they had (ended up being red pepper, tomato, carrot, and onions with olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt, and pepper). GG mixed up all sorts of sauces and spices to make what turned out to be a very tasty barbecue sauce, and we used it to grill some frozen chicken. We also had couscous and corn on the cob. After dinner, we watched a bunch of DVDs GG had brought (Chapelle’s Show [Popcopy and Rick James sketches], Wonder Showzen [Birth and Diversity episodes], and Ali G [Borat only]). We left around 11 PM and I went right to bed because I was tired and had a headache, which I blame on the wine we brought.

All in all, a good weekend. This promises to be a completely insane week at work, with the launch of the Toolkit (hopefully!) and Take Our Children to Work Day on Thursday.

* I think I forgot to write about it (?) but I went to the eye doctor a couple weeks ago to see about my declining distance vision and frequent headaches. Turns out my vision is fine, still better than 20/20, although it is declining. She wrote me a super-weak prescription for glasses and said I could decide if I wanted to get them or not, but if I did, I was to wear them extremely sparingly. So of course as soon as I told my mom, she flipped out and wanted me to get glasses right away. So I’m getting them, but I’ll probably never wear them.

Well, if 6-6-06 does happen, GG might be looking at this guy on his finger. (Lacewood is his favorite wood. In fact, it’s the top of his current, custom guitar.) I haven’t picked my favorite yet, but these titanium rings are definitely awesome.

OMG, this is, like, for real!!

Feels like I haven’t done this for a while… Anyway, this week’s assignment from Random and Odd is to take pictures of things starting with your initials. I was having such a hard time thinking of anything, and then suddenly I found all three items and got everything done in like five minutes. I am awesome.

L: Something I have a whole lot of… I can count seven of them in this picture. …Lotion!

V: I was having the most trouble with this one, and then, I saw it GG’s Video Camera! (If that’s not good enough, there’s also a VCR in the background…)

G: One of the kitties’ favorite treats, and practically a permanent fixture on the dining room windowsill is Cat Grass.

[Edit - 10:52 AM] I am getting a lot of questions re: cat grass. It’s not the same as catnip. It’s actually wheat grass (which humans can eat – you see it in a lot of health shakes and stuff). I’ve had cats all my life and none were ever into cat grass until we got Ivan and Katrina – they can’t get enough of it. Especially timid Ivan, it’s the only thing that’ll get him to come out when we have company over. [/Edit]

Did you play?

I wish springtime could last a little longer. It seems like the weather jumps straight from cold to hot, with only a week of “comfortable” in between.

A nice thing about our house is that this is the view from our bedroom window. Too bad the tree only flowers briefly, because it’s beautiful:

I probably shouldn’t write this here because I’ll end up jinxing it, but…

GG and I will probably get married in June!

If we do, it will be probably the fastest and cheapest wedding in Pennsylvania. We can go to the Montgomery County Courthouse and for $40 get a “self-uniting” marriage license, which is like a regular license, except two witnesses sign it and you don’t need any sort of officiant to perform a ceremony.

I think the thing that will really make up GG’s mind is the wedding date I suggested: June 6th (or 6-6-06).