Jumping in (although thanks to blogger you will read my comment *before* you read EJ's entry) that, although the plan was PERFECT, I did indeed almost ruin the surprise.
Go read EJ's post below, then come back. I can wait.
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Ok! So Thursday night the Jen half of J+B calls to invite us over to brew mead. We hang out all the time, so cool beans: we'll come over, do brunch + brew. EJ will make ableskeivers.
FRIday, EJ tells me John + Karen are going to join us for the festivities at J+Bs. Oookay; I *almost* started messaging Karen to ask about John's sudden interest in brewing. Thankfully I didn't, or she probably would have cracked and told me The Plan. (Karen is many wonderful things, but a secret-keeper she is not. More on that after EJ posts Part 2 (or 3 - no idea how many parts this will have!))
He's right that I can 'smell' when something's up - I've successfully missed surprise parties thrown in my honor TWICE because of this! But you'll get more of my freaky 7th sense later on...!
Friday, April 23, 2010
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
How I popped the question, Prt 1
Ok, so now its time to do a little boasting about how it all began.
The wedding thing, not the dating thing, that’s a story for later times. You see, thru no small amount of craftiness on my part, I managed to arrange for almost everyone we know to all be at the same place at the same time. And all unbeknownst to Nessa. This might seem like a small thing to most of you out there, but pulling one over on Nessa is harder than you'd think. She's good at reading people and can sniff out an line of BS from twenty paces. Hell, I don't even let her pick up her Christmass gifts untill its time for her to open them. She's that good. This was going to require finesse. Sadly I don't have much of that, so I went with deviousness. I have that to spare.
See it went like this...
First thing I did was to tell (not in any particular order) Mom, Jen & Brian, my Sister, John & Karren, and my Dad that I was planning to ask Nessa the BIG question. There were others I told as well, but they're not part of this story.
This was step one of a grand plan. A plan that hadn't been fully thought of yet, but grand none the less.
Second thing to do was decide on the When & Where. Jen & Brian's place seemed like the obvious choice for the "where", so I asked them. They said yes. That part was easy at least.
So then it was a matter of when. This was a trickier problem. First I had to figure out how to get everyone (save for Sister and Dad who just live too far away to be there) at J&B's, each with a reasonably believable story for being there. This took some thinking. Thankfully my best friend John is all shades of smart and into all shades of things, including (on the small scale) brewing beer. This is something that J&B are into (on not so small a scale) as well as my self. So Brian and I decided that that Saturday was going to be a BREWING day, wink wink. And since John was interested in brewing, we invited him and Ren to come down and help make a batch. Passed word along to John, and boom. Got four of the players lined up for the grand event. That was easy enough.
Now how to get mom down there. At the same time. Without seeming suspicious.
This took some thinking.
Not a lot mind you, as the Fates were kind to me. See while all this brew day planning was going on, my sister's friends Rachel & Dougie from across the pond were over here visiting with my mom and doing the tourist thing. Well as it turns out there aren't any wolves (or dogs that look like wolves) in England. Or not enough to speak of at any rate. So mom had the idea to use J&B's dogs (3 large wolf look alikes) as a stop on the site seeing map. J&B were cool with this. I was cool with this. Hell, this might just work.
Things were looking good. The stage was set, even if the script wasn't. Everyone knew their rolls.
Now all I had to do was set the hook, so to speak.
The wedding thing, not the dating thing, that’s a story for later times. You see, thru no small amount of craftiness on my part, I managed to arrange for almost everyone we know to all be at the same place at the same time. And all unbeknownst to Nessa. This might seem like a small thing to most of you out there, but pulling one over on Nessa is harder than you'd think. She's good at reading people and can sniff out an line of BS from twenty paces. Hell, I don't even let her pick up her Christmass gifts untill its time for her to open them. She's that good. This was going to require finesse. Sadly I don't have much of that, so I went with deviousness. I have that to spare.
See it went like this...
First thing I did was to tell (not in any particular order) Mom, Jen & Brian, my Sister, John & Karren, and my Dad that I was planning to ask Nessa the BIG question. There were others I told as well, but they're not part of this story.
This was step one of a grand plan. A plan that hadn't been fully thought of yet, but grand none the less.
Second thing to do was decide on the When & Where. Jen & Brian's place seemed like the obvious choice for the "where", so I asked them. They said yes. That part was easy at least.
So then it was a matter of when. This was a trickier problem. First I had to figure out how to get everyone (save for Sister and Dad who just live too far away to be there) at J&B's, each with a reasonably believable story for being there. This took some thinking. Thankfully my best friend John is all shades of smart and into all shades of things, including (on the small scale) brewing beer. This is something that J&B are into (on not so small a scale) as well as my self. So Brian and I decided that that Saturday was going to be a BREWING day, wink wink. And since John was interested in brewing, we invited him and Ren to come down and help make a batch. Passed word along to John, and boom. Got four of the players lined up for the grand event. That was easy enough.
Now how to get mom down there. At the same time. Without seeming suspicious.
This took some thinking.
Not a lot mind you, as the Fates were kind to me. See while all this brew day planning was going on, my sister's friends Rachel & Dougie from across the pond were over here visiting with my mom and doing the tourist thing. Well as it turns out there aren't any wolves (or dogs that look like wolves) in England. Or not enough to speak of at any rate. So mom had the idea to use J&B's dogs (3 large wolf look alikes) as a stop on the site seeing map. J&B were cool with this. I was cool with this. Hell, this might just work.
Things were looking good. The stage was set, even if the script wasn't. Everyone knew their rolls.
Now all I had to do was set the hook, so to speak.
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
Thrifting!!! Who Knew?
Ok, so we've spent almost every Sat or Sun (and once or twice it was both) of almost every week hitting the thrift stores trying to stock up. This has proven to have two significant results. First and foremost is our building pile (or is it now piles, and stacks, and mounds) of wedding stuff. Mostly plates and fabric. I'm sure you've heard about this by now. So this is not that surprising to any of us. It's what we set out to do. But the second and possibly scariest thing to come of our outings is this...
I found, I kinda like thrifting.
I know, weird huh?
This is odd to me because, for the most part, I don't like going to garage sales or swap meets. One would think that if I didn't like one side of a coin, I'd not like the other side of the same coin. One would be wrong.
Not too sure why one is so much better than the other, but I do know what it is that I like about it.
It’s the stuff!
People throw away (or donate) some real cool stuff, I tell ya. Now before I go too much farther, let me say this. I'm not as fond of hunting for wedding stuff as I am of just looking at stuff. Yes, I try to keep my eye open for plates and cups and all that, but there is just so much cool stuff to be looked at. We've found groovy antiques, vintage clothes, and some sweet furniture. Sadly, money being as tight as it is, most of the groovy stuff we've found had to be left behind for others to find it. That is the only thing that is not fun about finding cool stuff, is not being able to go home with said stuff. Though, I guess that's a good thing, seeing how we do only have so much room in the apt. And most of it is being used to store wedding stuff.
I found, I kinda like thrifting.
I know, weird huh?
This is odd to me because, for the most part, I don't like going to garage sales or swap meets. One would think that if I didn't like one side of a coin, I'd not like the other side of the same coin. One would be wrong.
Not too sure why one is so much better than the other, but I do know what it is that I like about it.
It’s the stuff!
People throw away (or donate) some real cool stuff, I tell ya. Now before I go too much farther, let me say this. I'm not as fond of hunting for wedding stuff as I am of just looking at stuff. Yes, I try to keep my eye open for plates and cups and all that, but there is just so much cool stuff to be looked at. We've found groovy antiques, vintage clothes, and some sweet furniture. Sadly, money being as tight as it is, most of the groovy stuff we've found had to be left behind for others to find it. That is the only thing that is not fun about finding cool stuff, is not being able to go home with said stuff. Though, I guess that's a good thing, seeing how we do only have so much room in the apt. And most of it is being used to store wedding stuff.
Saturday, April 3, 2010
"But I'm afraid to squeeze the mushroom!" *
Ah, April 2, 2010. Exactly six months before our nuptials. I spent the day crafting up mushrooms for our centerpieces, with our Flower Maiden. We actually did two (wedding-related) things yesterday: hit the Tall Mouse going out of business sale and scored LOTS of craft fodder for projects; and made the mushrooms. By the time we were crafting, however, we were pretty much punch-drunk on ...something - which lead to Karen making the statement that has become the title of this post.
In good blogger-tutorial photo form, here is the method for making these mushrooms:
We started out with a plan to make 40 (3 per table, 12 tables,with 4 extra) - then realized there was NO WAY we were going to make that many, EVER. And, that half the tables would not terrarium centerpieces, and we couldn't really justify adding mushrooms to Viking ships (the other centerpieces). Um, and we were pretty much exhausted and giddy - so we made 27. I think. or 28. Anyway, we have enough.
Now on to the 16 *other* craft projects on my list to complete...!
* I bought permanently squishy clay (Fimo and Sculptey were waaaaay too pricey to use for the centerpieces), so Karen was afraid to smush her handcrafted artwork. LOLZ!
In good blogger-tutorial photo form, here is the method for making these mushrooms:
We started out with a plan to make 40 (3 per table, 12 tables,with 4 extra) - then realized there was NO WAY we were going to make that many, EVER. And, that half the tables would not terrarium centerpieces, and we couldn't really justify adding mushrooms to Viking ships (the other centerpieces). Um, and we were pretty much exhausted and giddy - so we made 27. I think. or 28. Anyway, we have enough.
Now on to the 16 *other* craft projects on my list to complete...!
* I bought permanently squishy clay (Fimo and Sculptey were waaaaay too pricey to use for the centerpieces), so Karen was afraid to smush her handcrafted artwork. LOLZ!
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