I can totally see why people like a 9/80 work schedule. Three day weekends are pretty easy to get used to!

Thursday, after my victorious Wednesday, I went over to Jinny's Bridal to order my dress. They've been quite good to me, especially being mom-less (although there were two girls there trying on dresses with their fiances - what a letdown!). It happened to be the day of our thunderstorm in the OC, which is greatly unusual for folks like us here. The saddest part was getting measured; I seriously need to do something about the junk in the trunk. Regardless, I have a lovely dress and veil on their way!

Friday we spent the evening getting ready for the party. We'd intended on ordering some platters from the nearby Chicago for Ribs - but they'd closed down a month ago! I remembered seeing fully cooked ribs at Sam's the last time we were there, so we swung by to see the situation. We got a rack just to try, and they were so good we went back Saturday morning and bought six racks and two chickens.

The party Saturday was so much fun, I can't wait to do it again!! Aside from the barbecue snafu, one lost guest, and the bummer of kicking everyone out at 3 to go to the movie, it seemed like everyone had a good time. Lots of food, lots of mingling, and nice, comfortable weather rather than the heat wave we had last weekend. I think everyone was kind of disappointed by Indiana Jones. After, we even had people come back for round #2 of food, and the party didn't end until after midnight! I realized, though, that all of my friends live in Orange County, and we'll be moving to Redondo soon. They're already so far away that it's hard to see everyone aside from work ... and that will likely change in the near future too. Before, all of my friends were in the midwest ... now, they're all going to be at least a half an hour away ...

Sunday we could hardly be bothered to do anything. Cleanup hardly took any time at all, and aside from a short trip to Ikea for centerpiece ideas and a visit to the bunnies at Long Beach Community College (really, why are all those bunnies there?), we didn't leave the house. No school, no work, no wedding, no house shopping. A nice, relaxing, absolutely no-pressure day.

Monday we went for what was supposed to be a 9-mile hike in the Santa Anita forest. The day started out with no water pressure, which happens occasionally, but this time it was just terribly low. It ended up that something had happened to the fire hydrant outside (probably someone hit it, the way they drive through there) and it had exploded and flooded the street. The police and fire trucks had the street shut down, and the firemen were wading around in knee-deep water. The hike was close by and very pretty with lots of waterfalls; things were all going well until we had to climb the side of the waterfall and walk across a steep rock ledge to the rest of the trail. Unfortunately, the trails weren't marked very clearly, we went the wrong way, and got to an elevation that was in the clouds and much, much colder than I'd dressed. 13 miles was just too long for me, and evidently my right knee doesn't agree with that distance any more. We couldn't do much else the rest of the day, and went to bed super early. I didn't sleep much last night because I was too uncomfortable, and ended up having really crazy dreams.

This week:

• My last Rubio's taco Tuesday
• Meeting with our potential photographer
• Hopefully getting our videographer contract turned around in the mail
• Going swimming? Ugh, I shouldn't have signed up for a triathlon.
  
• Meeting with a realtor
  
• Ordering books for summer (sigh)