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)
  

Mmmmmmmmmmm .... dresses.

I have a strong affinity for lovely lacy dresses. Target has really pretty ones now (in their bridesmaids section - eek!) for cheap.

French lace, just $30 ...
For just $5 more, I like the lace of this one better (and, in fact, sent it in pink to a friend for a themed wedding) ...

And of course, those bastards at the Gap had to bring back the dress I wanted desperately last year (I'll pay your stinkin $55! I'll never dawdle again!!) but have already sold out in my size.

Let's give a big hallelujah for today, good karma, and things not going south.

• I encouraged someone to be nice and give someone else the benefit of the doubt. Not become best buddies, but just extend an olive branch of sorts. Surprise of surprises, it actually kind of worked out. Good karma abounding!
• I marched in to a local bridal store after yoga class (nothin' but good karma there) and asked to see my dress, in multiple colors. Lo and behold, she took me right to it, in the color that I wanted. I'll be purchasing it tomorrow, although I really could/should have today. In the meantime, cue frantic excited call to mom. Emily: 1, wedding industry: ... ok, we'll not go there.
  
• While on said phone call, I loaded my email in the off chance my grades were posted (they weren't). But, I had an email from the professor teaching my summer session class that the class will actually start June 3rd, not next week. That means: one more week of summer vacation!!!

Oh, the grand plans I have for tomorrow (videographer, dress) and next week (photographer, harpist, rehearsal, perhaps coordinator). Honestly, the past week has been just exponentially increasing stress and random things-going-wrong. I'm going to wish my good fortune on to you, because everyone deserves to have a totally awesome day like this.

Dear MSNBC.com,

If you want to encourage teens to donate more blood, this is not the way to do it.


Just a friendly heads-up.

Wow, and what a weekend.

Friday, of course, was the going-away party. Since that went pretty late, we didn't get up any too early Saturday. By the time we did, it was super hot. We went for lunch at Chik-fil-a because we'd gotten coupons in the mail. It was really good, and the people that worked there were incredibly fast and nice. It was almost a surreal for a fast food place. Then we went over to Redondo, only to discover that most open houses are on Sunday. So many of the places looked far out of our price range, but we stopped and toured one condo that was absolutely beautiful. I think we both loved it enough that we could have moved in right then ... but, alas, the credit crisis is hurting even us responsible people. The realtor was a riot, and gave us a handwritten recipe for a Chinese mix of cereal that's supposed to reduce your blood pressure and help with constipation.

We came home and started grocery shopping at Sam's, and stocked up on wine and filet mignon, then took a nap. It was so hot, it was impossible to stay awake. But, we headed over to the new Fresh & Easy for the rest of our groceries, since we had a coupon for that also. What an experience - it certainly wasn't a full grocery store. They did have a lot of nice looking meat, and a stand giving away all kinds of snacks. On the other hand, I needed to go to the ATM, which they didn't have, and they only had self-checkout that obviously wasn't calibrated. At all. It was angry we used our own bags, we had to have the attendant unlock us each time we scanned something, the coupon got stuck in the reader, you can't use your credit card without having to be unlocked by the attendant for anything over $50, and even though they carded me, they neglected to take the security cap off the Kahlua and it looked like we were trying to steal alcohol. Won't be back!

We spend the rest of the night drinking cold white wine, eating filet mignon, and watching the Office. I think it was the season finale; I'm so disappointed!! (But, I won't spoil it if you haven't seen it.)

Sunday was Korean barbecue day with some of my classmates. Andy got to meet them, and my friend's adorable baby (who's a model now!), and I got filled in on all the gossip. Really, quite a bit of drama in graduate school. Afterward, we went back to Redondo to look at a condo, but ran out of time to see any more. We came home, did laundry, ran, and tried to stay cool the rest of the night (unsuccessfully). Why is it always cool during the week, and miserable during the weekend?? I guess to make us look forward to work, and the free and effective air conditioning...

As we were house hunting this weekend, this came up on Andy's latest Paste magazine CD. At first, it seems so innocent ...

Yay! A royal wedding!

It's absolutely beautiful from what I've seen so far, and it looks like it'd be worth picking up a copy of Hello! to see the details.

I'd make a bad British citizen, since I kind of assumed William and Kate would be the next royal wedding. I can't wait for theirs either!