Getting the wedding ball rolling....

So, yeah, that's where I've been. Didge and I also managed to contract another cold, AND my mom went into the hospital yesterday for surgery, so things have been somewhat hectic.

I promise, I'm going to try to keep a lot of overlap from happening between this and our wedding blog, but sometimes it's going to be inevitable. If I'm learning anything about taking a DIY approach to a wedding, it's that you can very well expect to have most of your attention consumed with planning and projects from the words "will you marry me?" and "yes". The initial bout of calendar and to-do fun took up about a day, and then there was the slew of rough draft ideas combined with researching options, and...and...and. You with me? Even on the small scale Didge and I are planning, it's a large undertaking.

Didge hasn't even really been up to any of his antics, we've been that sniffly and busy. He did dance around with the dog for a while yesterday, which they both enjoyed, and they both caught a happy as I was assembling last night's pizza, trotting over to the counter in unison for samples of the toppings. (You want to talk about surreal?) But that's all. At least that's all I can think about right now - because floating in the back of my head is the issue of invitation wording.

See? It all goes back to the wedding, almost every time.

Bizzeee.....

I've been working on our wedding blog and wedding Twitter, and then got to work knocking out our invitations. To make up for the lack of writing, here's a blast from the past that just popped into my head at random....



Air bed's on the living room floor with lots of blankets, Ghost Hunters is on the tube, Didge is working on a model, Totsi the Dog is asleep, and I am going to chill the devil out.

Calgon!

I'll take the coat, the boots, and the private jet, thanks!

Exhausted, and recovering from allergies gone wild - - STILL. Sigh.

Letting things come together....

I'll admit, I have a touch of the control freak within me. I'm diplomatic, yet very attached to my ideas, and become afraid that someone might mess them up should I allow anyone else access. When planning a wedding, especially a DIY affair like Didge and I are embarking upon, that can be a bad, bad, BAD thing.

It's especially bad because I sweat things to a beyond the beyonds degree, to the point of making myself think it all has to be done right the hell now, and that if it's not the entire world is going to cave in and he and I will get hitched in a house that looks like one of those featured on reality shows dealing with horrible clutter, bird doody, and water-damaged boxes. But while helping my brain implode trying to gather and organize ideas in a way that will give me time to put the D in my DIY, I realized that opening up and letting other ideas come into the picture is a *good* thing. Jason isn't going to run through the house in his mask wielding a wedding axe if I (gulp) release total control.

The first moment came when Didge said he would be in charge of music - the huge wedding playlist and putting together the soundtrack cd would be his project. It was actually a relief; and I fully realized how lucky I am to have a groom who *wants* to be involved. But then the invitation thing happened. I had an idea that I considered sheer brilliance, one I was patting myself on the back over. He came up with another.

His was better.

And that's why I resisted a little at first, I'll admit. But realizing how cool his idea would be and deciding to go with that brought the whole concept of the wedding together - the next day, I had the decor figured out - and in a way that not only incorporated his ideas for it, but in such a way that lets our ideas enhance each others'. So the event won't just be about, "Oh, look at the cool little housewarming wedding with the pink and black and 80's", it'll be more along the lines of, "This is so Trey and Annalisa's wedding!"

Which is precisely what I was going for by being a control freak, contradictorily enough.

And on and on and on...

Since Didge is handling the tech stuff and prefers Wordpress, we secured a little chunk of their space for our wedsite today. No deets to offer just yet - it's all basic now, without even the first entry. But as soon as it's shiny and ready to go, I'll pop the link up so you can share all of our pre-wedding holy hells and fantastics. Since we're taking such a DIY approach, I have a feeling there will be lots of both.

I've been knocked all but flat on my back by some sinus/allergy nonsense - sipping hot water with lemon right now to soothe my throat, and wishing I felt like making my way to my yoga mat to stretch out all the kinks resulting from sleeping crunched up in a tiny ball. Ouch! Didge has a touch of it, too - we were both taking desperate shots of Triaminic in the parking lot of CVS yesterday trying to make...it...stop. We must have looked like two fools jonesing for a Robo hit.

I'm going to bumble to the kitchen and whip up another cup of this lemon stuff and ask Didge to go up to the linen closet to retrieve my favorite blanket in a bit. (He will. He's cool like that.)

Dashing in to show you something...

My friend, Eric, posted this on Facebook. Best. Dancing. Parrot. Ever.


Seriously.

All I need...

Allergies. I have them.

Consider me floored - took Thera Flu last night out of desperation, and that gave me a whopper of a hangover while the allergies continued. Ugh! So I hit CVS for some Triaminic - and why am I telling you this?

There is no good reason for me to fill you in on all the details of my sniffly state.

Make it stop.

Back to the planning...

I'm devoting a fair amount of time today to what will constitute the bulk of our decor - I know what I would like to do overall, and I know some things I would like to incorporate, but a clear plan has yet to gel. Since that's going to be a big undertaking, I've shelved working on our invites until I get this neatly labeled and stowed away for future reference.

So - gather the ideas, decide what goes where, work up a timeline, get the stuff together, and go. I should probably add to that to pace myself in order to avoid 'Zilla moments.

I am not a Zipper chick...

Rode this yesterday:



Freaked me the ever loving flip out (no pun intended). Didgeridoo Boy *loves* that ride, and I promised him I would try it, but as soon as I stepped out of that infernal somersaulting, tumbling, plummeting (backwards upside damned down plummeting, no less) hell trap I looked him dead in the eye (all six of them - he had six eyes for some reason...) and said, "I love you, but I am never doing that with you again."

Let me put it this way: You know you are royally screwed when the guy working the ride closes the cage, looks you dead in the eye and in a VERY serious (like, *dire*) tone says, "Hold on TIGHT to those bars."

Other than that (and the Zipper was the first thing we rode), I had the best time I have ever had at the fair - ate "bad" food (it's all relative), fell in love with The Scrambler all over again, played around with gravity, tilted, whirled, flying bobbed backwards, and came home exhausted and more blissed out than I ever thought possible. Can't wait to do it again.

Fair trade...

No heavy planning today. No lists (other than jotting down ideas if they hit), no calendars, no working on invitations, none of that.

We're going to the fair, by gods.

Back to it tomorrow!

No cannot not now that...

My very brain!

I cannot
list
another
thing
not
even
in
glittery
ink
in
my
beloved
Hello
Kittyfied
PlannerPad.
If I do
I will
scream
and
scare
the
neighbors,
then
the
cops
might
come
and
that
would
suck.
But
I have
to
catch
up.
Three
months!
Who
needs
six?

The countdown is on. 6 February 2010, 8pm.

Great gods...

Didgeridoo Boy and I were to have gone downtown to watch a carnival train unload today, but then the rains came, and came, and came and came andcameandcame...and CAME. Great day, it rained. Even when it stopped, it rained.

So what to do? Well, I dove into the wedding planning I calendared last night - an epic feat in itself, which I've totally coordinated between my iCal and PlannerPad and won't bore you with any further. Today, I researched cakes, cake toppers, tech stuff, non-floral bouquets, cool guest book ideas, and decor ideas. I also completely changed my mind about what kind of event seemed the most appealing - which means it's getting a little more "weddingy", but in a totally un-white-taffeta way. Didge and I put our heads together and figured out what we'll be giving out as favors (his gig!), what to do about our wedsite (ditto!), and what's going to be running as cool background imagery (tritto!), as well as assigning him yet another task as iPod mix master.

I'm in the process of compiling a "D.I.Y / B.U.Y" list....

...and I'm so tired I totally lost my train of thought. Sorry, darlings.

Before I crash, though, I do need to HIGHLY recommend Offbeat Bride - the site, the book, and the tribe (if joining online communities is your thing). If you're planning even slightly less-than-traditional nuptials and are interested in jotting happily away from the wedding machine, go there. I'm betting you'll be as happy a camper as I am.

So, other than weddingses...

Didgeridoo Boy and I went to see Zombieland last week, and *loved* it. If you're a fan of Woody Harrelson, it's a must-see - and if you're not, it could very likely turn you into one. I could carry on and on about the Woody-love associated with just that flick, but that's not what I'm jotting in to tell you about.

I had never been to a movie with Didgeridoo Boy, not even on a group outing twenty years ago, when he and I first became acquainted. You've seen what he does here through the pictures and videos I've been posting - - imagine that in public. Yes, it does happen, although he's a little more restrained - a very little. I was honestly worried about what he might do, but he was actually on his best behavior and the evening went off without us getting chucked out of the theater for a case of the sillies. There was an issue, though...

It took coming back into contact with each other for me to realize just how freakin' tall this guy is. I don't know how I'd missed it before - and I was a full three inches shorter when I first knew him. Didge is 6'3 - perhaps that got by me because he does have a tendency to coil himself up deceptively. And he was doing a lot of coiling, uncoiling, and recoiling in his theater chair. I remember looking over at one point and marveling at just how little space such a tall man could comfortably occupy. (He's walking around the house now - - towering in action...)

Anyway - at the end of the movie, Didge had to unfurl. Up he stood, turned to his left, and staggered like a drunk down between the chairs and over to the aisle, where he sat down, snickering, curling back up and rocking back and forth. He would stretch his legs out, and then curl them back up, and finally rolled to his side (laughing) and back up again. He plopped his legs out straight. I was all the way down by our seats, having stopped stock still in my state of wondering just what the hell had gone wrong with his ambulatory skills. It's not every day that your beloved staggers to a drop and roll in the cinema, now, is it?

He said, "My legs.....(laughter)...my legs are asleep. I can't walk." I started to walk towards him to help him up, and he rolled a little bit again. "It's because of how I was sitting....." I asked if he needed help, and he said he didn't know. A couple waiting to go down into the theater were finding it as amusing as Didge, who finally rolled and kicked his way up to standing and sauntered over, saying, "You ready to go, foo?" The perils of being tall....

(Oh, dear, he's fueling himself up with chocolate and Mountain Dew....)


As an aside, he was delighted with the size of the bucket that contained our popcorn, and announced his intention to keep it as a "prop". The wheels began turning well before it was empty, and when we got home, he made this of it:



All Disgruntled Tooth Fairies need crash helmets. I'll leave the image in reverse and let you figure out what he wrote on the brim.

Yesterday's news...

Since I dropped such a big, and slightly obvious, hint yesterday, I'll get the news out of the way: Didgeridoo Boy asked me to marry him yesterday morning, and I accepted. When it's right, it's right, and when you know, you know - this is the best thing ever. At this point, all we know is something small followed by a stop at the Sno Cap Drive In in North Augusta, SC. I've managed to get my head around an idea for announcements and thank you notes, and at some point I have to wrestle Didge into place to pick out rings.

Keep him in your thoughts, I'll be sure to be gentle.

And sometimes, life zings you nice surprises.

However, it is a surprise that I can't really talk about just yet. Just know that it's good, I'm happy, and I have never been more excited about swinging by the Sno Cap Drive In in North Augusta, South Carolina for lunch.

I would never have the nerve, but....

...this is just too damned cool:

Friday night at home...

Didgeridoo Boy and I are having a quiet night in, waiting up to listen to Coast to Coast AM. Why? Well, the moon thing - - it promises to render tonight's live call-in show all kinds of interesting. I've had some yerba mate to help me stay the course - cleaned, cleaned, and cleaned a little more today in an effort to de-gnome-ify my house. Frankly, I'm too damned tired to write, having done everything from scrub out a shower to clean out a grill and spruce up the deck. Something about Swiffers and trash bags....they numb my little brains.

In other news, Didgeridoo Boy decided he would like to be a pimp a couple of nights ago:




You set your goals, you dig your holes. It's so important to have clear-cut objectives.

Nighty night! I'm off to finish watching "Animal House" with Didge and Totsi.

Didgeridoo Boy busts a move...

That is all.

Having a wee bit of a stresser yesterday and today, but things are getting better. I'll be back with proper updates tomorrow.

More "monstrosity"....

No time to write a proper entry today, but here's another clip from the night Didgeridoo Boy consumed a 32-ounce Monster energy drink:



And there you go.

Monday...

Will they or won't they, that's the big question today. Will the gnomes come? Will they work? The gnomes, darlings, are the contractors - I've redubbed them because there's never any telling when they'll arrive or what they'll do when they get here.

Didgeridoo Boy and I didn't have the most terribly exciting weekend. The alarm clock on my mobile phone jarred him from sleep and scared him senseless on Friday morning, resulting in one of the most amusing Didge episodes to date, but shortly after he sprung out of bed, stalked down the hall, plopped my phone in front of me, and stood off in the distance looking completely frazzled, I realized just how sick he was. Poor Didge has bronchitis, which has settled in good and proper. I rounded up some cold meds for him on Saturday, which have had him knocked out ever since. I'm hoping he's on the mend finally, though, as we have passes to see Zombieland and he's rearing to get to the theater. (I think it's driving him bananas that so many friends have seen it and he has yet to.)

So - no fun, exciting videos or pics from the weekend, other than the two I posted from Friday night.

Zing some get-well thoughts (and good job hunting vibes) Didge's way, if you don't mind!

Two for one...

We both have a cold. Didgeridoo Boy is a day behind me with it, so today probably won't be one of his better days. If he does manage to feel better, though, we're planning on hitting a favorite Chinese restaurant for dinner and possibly going to an 80's night. And, of course, tomorrow or Sunday we're planning to take in "Zombieland" - he's been anticipating the release of that flick for aeons.

As if you haven't been able to tell from the pictures and videos I've uploaded thus far, we've been spending a heck of a lot of time hiding out in my house, which is in the process of being redone. We're not on the proverbial DL for any bad reason, we've just been in simultaneous retreat mode due to veritable fun bags of "real life" stuff that took a little time to digest. Since neither of us can sit still very long, and Didgeridoo's proclivity to silliness is downright epic, things like this are bound to happen:



I've never had so much fun on boring nights at home. And, yes, things like this (sans get-ups, natch) *do* happen now that we're beginning to explore the outside world again.

Enjoy your weekend - and zing us some sniffle-free thoughts if you can spare them.

And so it continues...

Operation Casa GKG is still in full swing, with the painters arriving earlier than I expected this morning. It's all good - the main guy is a close family friend, so seeing me stagger out of my bedroom due to a cold and the subsequent medicine is fine. I look like death, but I don't have to care.

I'm still settling on colors for the house. Since the decor is going to be so eclectic, it occurred to me that the colors are ten times as important - I don't want the decor to get lost in "OH MY! Your bedroom certainly is HOT pink!!", nor do I want the walls to seem like a mere backdrop. When my uncle gave me a yellow formica dinette from the late 1950's (it actually belonged to my parents up until about 1970), and I decided to set up a breakfast area with that at one end of the great room, I started rethinking some color choices. That table is screaming for a turquoise kitchen. It won't go with the red I'd originally intended, and the pink I chose later would result in a really startling Easter basket effect. But that means the downstairs bath can't be turquoise, right? You following me? And what if Didgeridoo Boy wound up here full time? I need to be able to work in the odd KISS mural and so forth. (Never, EVER plan your house in a way that results in your being a spinster. I'm very superstitious that way.)

Speaking of Didgeridoo Boy, here we are at Starbucks on Sunday afternoon:



And here's a short video from last night, when I popped into record mode again. I wish he would start carrying on when I actually look good:



And, frankly, I can't come up with anything to say in closing after that one. Off to dodge paint supplies and locate another cup of coffee...