The (Mystery) Honeymooners

pontoon_dinner

I can guarantee you this will not be happening on our honeymoon. How is the waiter going to bring me more bread? Or refill my Diet Dr Pepper? This lack of service is going to be reflected in his tip, I can tell you that much.

Planning Megan and my June 29 wedding has been… exhausting. Much to my surprise, I’ve discovered that I have very passionate opinions about things I never thought I’d care about. ”Marrying” our two tastes and traditions into a cohesive ceremony and reception hasn’t been easy, but we’re in the home stretch and we’re more than ready for the big day to get here.  But in the midst of choosing napkin fonts and colors of roses (there are literally 300 shades of red), there’s one planning task that I’ve thoroughly enjoyed, and not just because Megan has left it to me: our honeymoon. Continue reading

Meet Todd’s Fingers

todds fingers

Originally written 12/15/2011

(For other Ring Buying Diary entries, click here and here)

Dear Future Megan:

Yesterday I took the afternoon off from work and my initial idea was to go to the shooting range, then go home and take a nap. Then I started feeling bad, since you were stuck at work, so I figured I would do something “for” you with my free afternoon. Then I went to the range.

Megan Edit: Not like I could have stopped you if I wanted to… I hate you always have vacation to burn this time of year! Jealous! Continue reading

[Wedding] Registry Error

Alas, Megan’s plaid does not count as a bar code.

(Disclaimer: For a blog entry about wedding gift registries, the following spends a surprising number of words discussing hatchets.)

I take it back. All those time I privately thought to myself, “Why are these people making wedding planning so hard?” I take it all back. Wedding planning is hard, and not just because you have to remember to figure in the 18 percent gratuity to your catering budget*. But there’s one area that I thought would be blissfully simple and nothing but fun: gift registry. Turns out, even that can have its moments of bewildering frustration. Continue reading

Bowling Ball Yard Art? Bowling Ball Yard Art.

To get to my parents house from Missouri, you have to drive through Nowata, Okla. It’s a small town, and there’s not a whole lot going on there. There’s a post office, a gun range, and “Taco Town.” Oh, and don’t forget a small sign off Highway 60 beckoning visitors to Bowling Ball Yard Art.

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Brian’s Burning Olympic Questions

Sometimes, curiosity overwhelms hatred of NBC and their nefarious time-delay shenanigans. To wit:

Why do the team jackets, uniforms and general swag for nations like Russia and Japan bear the athlete’s country written in English characters spelling the English version of the country name? Shouldn’t “JAPAN” read “日本” or at least “Nippon”? And shouldn’t Spain get to refer to itself as “España”?

These professional commentators who are experts in badminton, ping pong and fencing… where do they come from and what do they do the three years and 11 months their skills are wholly unmarketable? Are they just fifth-string NBA announcers who have read the Wikipedia page for women’s air rifle a few times? Continue reading

Bing!

Part two of the loooong engagement process picks up here. In case you’ve forgotten, this an adaptation of a log I kept preparing to propose to Megan. You’ll find Part One here. Unlike our last episode, I’m not leaving out the name of the store I visited in this entry. They were courteous and helpful, so I feel like they deserve a plug. Continue reading

Sparkily

When I started the process of buying Megan’s engagement ring (and it was a looooong process), I took notes and wrote a little diary to chronicle the experience. I couldn’t share my observations with her at the time, so I thought this was a fun way to share it with her later.

Flash forward a few months: Not only did she love her ring and say yes when I proposed to her June 29, but she loved the letter and wanted me to share a version of it with the world. I thought it may be a little too “inside baseball” for the average Joe to appreciate, but this is only the first of many times in the next few months that she will be getting her way :-).

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