lions and tigers and gum grafts. oh my.

i knocked off work a little early yesterday and met mom and AWD at the national zoo.

i have been wanting to go to the zoo since i moved here, and have been thwarted many times, but yesterday i triumphed. naturally pretty much all the animals were asleep or hiding somewhere where we couldn't see them, but mom bought me a bag of cotton candy and AWD bought me a panda bear lunch bag, so the trip was definitely a success.

today we took mom to columbia firehouse in old town alexandria, where we'll be having our wedding dinner. she loved the space and i loved stuffing stuffed myself with my last solid food meal for a while. tomorrow morning my gums and i go under the knife.

so, unless i can find my way through the vicodin-induced haze, it might be radio silence around here for a few days. or it might be a lot of entertaining, nonsensical posts. i'll surprise you.

wish me luck!

engaging

it was a big weekend around here, my babies.

it all started when the mama bear landed on friday night. any day that the mama bear is in town is a good day no matter what.

on saturday, the ever-so-talented and always gracious and graceful dallas graham hit the scene to take our engagement photos. after emptying my whole closet and haggling all morning over what to wear, i basically never want to choose another outfit as long as i live. the good news is, once we were dressed it was all smooth and delightful sailing. we hit up the dairy godmother (scene of our first date) where all the passersby wished us well, the C&O canal in georgetown with some bikes in tow, and dumbarton oaks with everything gorgeous and blooming.

we did sort of run out of ideas for how we could hold hands or link arms or gaze at each other lovingly in new and creative ways, but it was also a totally fun day and i can't wait to see the finished product. we got a few sneak peeks and they looked pretty great. that dallas, he is like a wizard with a camera lens.

saturday night was the long-anticipated engagement party. we sent out postcard invites for the big event, designed by laura and EH. they were a big hit.


to give you a sense of how much of my time and energy this party has been occupying over the last week or so, let me tell you this. i baked on batch of cupcakes every day for a week for a total of around 96. all of which were stored in my freezer until they were consumed saturday night. i never, ever thought i would come to this point in all my livelong days, but i never want to bake another cupcake again ever.

AWD strung the trees with lights, we fired up the fire pit (debut) for some s'mores action and the backyard filled up with people we love. it was the best thing ever. and, i am pleased to report, totally worth all the work and the stress and the baking. dal-pal was on the scene to take pictures of that, too, so stay tuned.

we rounded off the weekend with an impromptu dinner with all the bennett cousins to help us polish off the leftovers (we almost did it!) and enjoy the gorgeous outdoor weather. i crawled into bed sunday night happy, happy, happy.

hope your weekend was just as glorious, and that your week is off to a good start!

i wonder if kim kardashian feels the same way.

planning a wedding has not been as fun as i wanted it to be.

i have enjoyed some parts of it, but a lot of it has just been stressing me out.

between the wedding stuff that has to be done rightnowthisverysecond, a totally crazy work schedule and my impending dental doom, i've gotten so stressed out that the thought of eating food makes me sick to my stomach.

upside: my wedding dress will fit for sure.

but, i am happy to report that things took an uptick today in the wedding planning department.

for one, my amazing wedding shoes came and they are perfect. even AWD likes them.

for two, we got our first wedding present! (thanks dana and dan!) and we love it.

for three, i found a bunch of crafty stuff and patterns that i had been looking around for. so now hopefully i can start the more fun, creative stuff.

for now, though, planning a wedding is not my favorite.

though getting married sounds pretty great.

how rare a possession, now with postscript!

i have been on my soap box for a while now about the broadway musical "the book of mormon."

basically, it leaves me fuming.

from what i can tell it is vulgar and rude and mocking and i like to think i would be just as offended if it was a play about someone else's religion.

i am particularly peeved that the creators claim they actually love mormons, which is why they wrote and produced a play that makes light of everything we hold sacred and dear. sort of like when you mom tells you that boys make fun of you because they secretly have crushes on you.

well, i am here to say that no boy who ever made fun of me turned out to have a crush on me and the creators of "the book of mormon" are full of crap. if they love us so much, why don't they just leave us in peace?

i also take issue with the media attention the play is getting, since every article written about it quotes a token, open-minded mormon who says there is nothing wrong with the play and actually it's hilarious! when actually those people are almost always a non-praticing unbeliever who just holds on to the title of mormon because it brings them notoriety and keeps them relevant and shocking in moments just such as these.

so, imagine how pleased i was when AWD forwarded me this article, media coverage and from a non-mormon no less, saying just what i think and feel about the stupid book of mormon musical.

nice to know i have at least one ally out there.

postscript: i would like to clarify one thing (thanks, julia!). and that thing is that there are plenty of people who are fully practicing, believing mormons who have no problem at all with "the book of mormon" and i don't think there is anything wrong with that, or with them. i just don't happen to be one of them. i still maintain, however, that there are some media mormons out there who are cashing in on the whole hoopla and making us offended mormons sound like leave it to beaver-era prudes with no sense of humor. and that's pretty offensive, too.

i probably should have also mentioned originally that i really liked the church's official response to the musical which was, basically, that "the book of mormon" musical might entertain you for a few hours, but the book of mormon the book will change your life forever. plenty of people with plenty of room in their lives for both, but i am just going to stick to the one.

postpostscript: i've never done a postscript before. how was it?

rain, rain, here to stay

we fell asleep last night to rain and lightning and thunder that were really close. it was lovely. and, since EH and i watched "the sound of music" last night, i sang "my favorite things" in my head and felt quite content.

we woke up this morning to sunny blue skies. it was perfect.

and now it has clouded over again and the rain is coming down, just in time to curl up for friday night.

this morning i made three to-do lists, one for today, one for tomorrow and one for sunday. there are lots of things to get done these days and i was starting to panic (my dad says watching me panic is his favorite spectator sport) but now i feel much better and i am gearing up for a productive weekend.

i hope yours is lovely, too, my babies.

hotlanta

after all that dental drama (still freaking out, btw), let us return to happier times, shall we? namely a recap of our memorial day trip to atlanta.

i have to say, my trips keep getting better and this was no exception. it was a perfect vacation. and here is how it went.

we started off with brunch in the hip warehouse district of atlanta, which we think is called midtown, at a place called west egg. it was delicious.

then we headed downtown.

first stop was the world of coca-cola. as you can see, the line was out.of.control.

question of the day: how come the coca-cola company can get a coke to anywhere in the world, but they can't manage a simple line?

once we got inside, it was all customer-worship brainwashing. what is the secret ingredient in coke's secret formula? you! the loyal customer! what is the best way to get through your problems and worries? buck up and drink a coke because you love coke and it loves you back! there was even a spot where you could write out your "coke story."

the tasting room was the best part (they have some good soda in south america), though all of asia was squirting out plain soda water, which was sort of a disappointment.

our souvenir was a fresh coke, bottled right there on the premises.

next stop was the aquarium, which is one of the biggest aquariums in the world. or has the biggest aquarium in the world. anyway, it's big. and full of amazing creatures. we even crawled through a tunnel for an up-close look at the penguins.























then we took a walk through centennial park. there were scads of little kids playing in the fountain. it was darling.




and then it was off to turner field for the braves vs. the cincinnati reds. i am pleased to report that my first-ever baseball crush, chipper jones, hit in the winning run. we will ignore the fact that it was in the 13th inning. and that it took that many innings because chipper kept dropping the ball. literally. either way, it was a perfect night for baseball.





saturday night we drove to athens, home of university of georgia, a sign that refers to the "war for southern independence" and a cannon that is always pointing north. you know, just in case.

athens is also not too far of a drive from stone mountain, a massive carving of general robert e. lee, stonewall jackson and jefferson davis, etched forever in a massive stone outcropping. stone mountain is 40 times bigger than mount rushmore. or something like that. put it this way: you can set up a table and eat breakfast on lee's shoulder. we walked around the grounds, watched a movie about the making of stone mountain, did our best to impersonate the carving and then took a tram to the top for a pretty spectacular view.
















and for monday, we saved the best for last. namely we fulfilled EH's life-long dream with a visit to the cabbage patch babyland hospital, where cabbage patch dolls are born.

this place is no joke. you walk through a door that says "admitting," you sign in, all the staff are dressed like nurses and every inch is covered with cabbage patch dolls. we even saw two deliveries while we were there! mother cabbage pulled through like a champ. we spent a lot of time walking around and cuddling our favorite babies, ahem, dolls. i even did a little children's hairstyling. it was a magical morning.

we finished up with a quick visit to the atlanta temple, and jimmy carter's presidential library.




and then we were off.

and that, my babies, is a perfect trip to atlanta.

i love you, too(th).

i had a totally terrible trip to the periodontist today, during which i thought i was going to be scheduled for a minor soft tissue graft but during which i was instead scheduled for a major gum graft with the very real possibility that one of my teeth will still have to be extracted and replaced with an implant.

i cried.

so, to cheer myself up, i came home and made a strawberry summer cake. which promptly overflowed out of the pie dish and all over my oven, then got too brown on top and then sank in the middle.

i wanted to cry.

instead i went to kitlit book club where we discussed my all-time favorite, "the search for delicious," which was luckily everyone else's favorite, too.

i felt a little better.

but, when we came home we were overwhelmed with the aroma of burned pastry dough, and then i got sort of sad again.

i think i'll just go to bed and see what tomorrow brings.

karma chameleon

i just remembered one other interesting thing that happened in minneapolis.

(unless you're into national guard resiliency and military budget cycles.)

i found someone's credit card at the airport.

there it was, just lying on the escalator.

so i picked it up and called the number on the back.

it was actually a big rigamarole (didn't know how to spell that word until now) because i had to type in the card number, which was fine because i had the card in my hand, but then the recording on the other end asked for the billing zip code and i obviously had no idea what that was. and the recording on the other end was not very helpful in sorting out the issue.

but, when i finally got a person, he was very helpful. he was also indian. and, let's face it, probably in india at that very moment.

i explained to him that i had found the card, and wanted to make sure it was cancelled and all that honest and moral junk.

and then the conversation took this turn.

"i am thanking you so much for doing this honest thing and turning in this card. most people would not do such a good and a moral thing. usually, when people are taking the card, they are going first to the gas station because there you do not have to sign when you use the card. then maybe they are getting some electronics or something like this from best buy."

ok, makes sense. i guess.

but he wasn't done.

"but you are a good and a moral person and you are not doing these things and so this card is going to bring something good to you."

for a brief, shining moment i thought maybe the marriott rewards visa card had some sort of reward for honest, moral people like me. but, it turned out i was just getting a lesson on karma.

it went on.

"it is probably not going to be a tit-for-tat. maybe when the good thing happens you are not even noticing it. you are not thinking, 'oh, this is because i did the good and the moral thing and turned in the card.' probably it is not related and maybe it comes in a long time, but this card will bring you something good."

as a person who has had my identity stolen twice, i can only hope that the good that card brings me is immunity from people who are not so honest and moral as myself.

but i would take a pulitzer prize, or maybe a pony, too.

meanwhile, back at the ranch.

i am back!

back from colorado. back from atlanta. back from minneapolis.

back.

and it is good. good to be back.

there are lots of pictures of atlanta coming soon (ever seen a cabbage patch doll "delivery"? you will!) and the only thing that you might find interesting about minneapolis (unless you are into traumatic brain injury research and advances in prosthetics technology) is what was possibly the most embarrassing incident of my professional life in which i meant to pull out a handful of challenge coins to hand to my boss to give out to the roomful of marines we were meeting with but instead pulled out a handful of coins and a tampon.

winning.

i came back to much nicer weather here than i left, so we've been grilling and strolling around the neighborhood and EH and i planted some flowers and a little herb garden. if you need mint or rosemary or parsley or cilantro, we're your girls.

i think AWD and i have also finally picked a place for our wedding dinner (worst.project.ever), and i had my third dress fitting, so looks like the wedding is still on.

winning.

i'll say it again.

it's good to be back.