Currently browsing: Meetup

Thankfully I am ‘me’ again

Well, I am FINALLY starting to feel a bit better. I came back to work yesterday and lasted pretty well (half the day). I had another doctor’s appointment yesterday afternoon. It seems the flu gave birth to a sinus infection.

Lucky me … it’s the gift that keeps on giving! ??:

So I got a shot and more pills. Meh. Oh well, at least now my head is clearer and though I’m still coughing up a lung quite a bit, I do feel a LOT better and have gotten most of my voice back. (much to Jim and Jessie’s chagrin I’m sure! )

I read that the Lunarpages crew are having their final 12 vote. None of mine were included, but two of my design submissions are now featured in their WordPress Theme Gallery, so that’s pretty cool in itself. Entering the contest was more about testing the waters and getting some (hopefully) unbiased feedback on my designs — so all in all, it was a good learning experience.

Though 5 years of free hosting WOULD have been nice … LOL!

Being at home by myself this week, I was reminded of why I stopped working from home and went back to work in an office environment — it’s boring! ;P The quiet time was nice, but after only a couple of days, I was wishing I was well enough to go in to work. Don’t get me wrong, I got a good bit of work done, but by the end of the day I was running out of things to do to entertain myself until time for Jim and Jessie to get home. I watched stuff on YouTube, I played online games, … in fact, this was the first time I played online Backgammon. I used to play Backgammon a lot when I was little with my Gramps. I think if he were around now, he’s probably love to hit up some Backgammon online.

I also spent some time working on a mockup Blogger design for the lovely ladies in the Cotillion that I had started a while back:

It’s based on an earlier design that they used at a previous location (on mu.nu I think). Overall, I’m very pleased with how well it turned out. I’ve still got a few bugs here or there to tweak. It’s harder than designing a WordPress theme, but I think that’s because it’s been such a long time since I’ve played around in Blogger code … so much of it has changed since I last had an account there.

Moving on … anyone got anything exciting planned for the weekend? Jim and I are planning on meeting up with Captain Fantastic and the lovely Miranda tomorrow and heading to the gun show in Bessemer. My Ladies Night Out group is also meeting up tomorrow night, but I don’t know yet if we’ll be done in time to go.

In all honesty, I don’t care what we end up doing. I’m just happy to get out of the house!

Spotted on the way back from lunch

I had walked down to the Purple Onion to grab lunch and on the way back, I was reading the bumper stickers on the cars parked along the side. One of them caught my eye immediately:

“Not a piece of (meat)”

I was introduced to this amazing group via Jen, of my Ladies Night Out meetup group. It’s great seeing support here and there like that!

I don’t think they have a “real website”, but they are on MySpace if any of you locals are interested in attending and/or supporting one of their events: www.myspace.com/notapieceof

Getting off to a good start

I left work yesterday to join my Ladies Night Out meetup group for some good food and good times. We all met at the California Pizza Kitchen by the Galleria. I discovered a new favorite drink — Caramel Apple Martini! I wish I had thought to snap a pic before I started drinking on it, but trust me, it was pretty! Take a sour apple martini and add butterscotch schnapps and decorate by drizzling caramel sauce around the glass. YUM! :grin:

I did manage to snap off a few shots before I left:

As you can tell, Jennifer enjoyed her dessert a little too much!

Jocelyn prettied herself up (she left us to go out man hunting, lol)

This first one’s a bit fuzzy, but here’s the rest of the group getting a kick out of Jocelyn and enjoying dessert:

I headed home shortly after that to find that one of my favorite shows was on and about to start with a new episode. (Perfect timing!) Also, Jim had gone by our favorite Cajun place and picked up some red beans and rice (my favorite dish there!) so I could have them for breakfast this morning. Isn’t he sweet?

So yeah, the weekend is indeed off to a good start!

I love ‘people of the net’ *

* I proudly smurfed that phrase from Mara’s post earlier today.

“People of the net” — that’s you guys ‘n gals, and I love every last one of ya’s!

A couple of days ago I reached out to many of you asking for a vote for my theme in Lunarpages’ WordPress Theme Design contest. Several went beyond that and did some reaching out of their own: Beth and Father Luke, each posting on their blogs on my behalf; several of my MySpace friends sent IMs and emails to their friends and groups requesting votes for me; my coworkers each voted and even emailed their SO’s requesting they vote as well; Jen, the lovely leader of my Ladies Night Out meetup group, emailed the group asking everyone to go vote.

I’m very grateful to you all. When last I looked, I was tied for first — I don’t expect to win, but it would be nice.

If you haven’t voted already, please consider taking a moment to do so here.

Bridal Shower pics up

Saturday’s event was a LOAD of fun! My eternal thanks to Jen and Wes for letting me invade their beautiful home and to my best bud and maid of honor Teresa and my friends in the Ladies Night Out meetup group for giving me such a wonderful shower. We had lots of laughs. I think I turned as red as my tshirt several times, hehe. We had food, games, and even karaoke. (next time I’ll bring drinks and limber up first!) This is definitely going to be one of my favorite wedding-related memories.

Pictures

Since I was a goober and did not have my camera, I took pictures on my Helio Ocean. However, Alison did have her camera, so her pictures are combined in this photoset with mine:

Note: these pics are work-safe … I only uploaded the clean ones ;P

I’m an official event!

I received the following via MeetUp announcements:

YAY! I’m an official Ladies Night Out event! LOL :mrgreen:

Something tells me it’s a shower I’ll never forget, so I’m sure it will be a fun meetup! This has been a very LOOOOOONG exhaustive day, and unfortunately, I have several more of them planned before the wedding. (Plus I did promise a friend that I’d go automotive detailing supplies browsing with him one weekend … dunno WHEN that will be!)

Happy, happy, … tired and busy as all fsck, but happy. :cool:

Monkeys’ Night Out!

Or rather, Ladies Night Out at The Monkey!

Any ladies lurking about town, in condo hotels, extended stays, or around the city in general, please feel free to join us at the Blue Monkey Lounge tonight to celebrate Jocelyn’s 30th birthday and Jen’s “departure from Hades” (sorry, Angie ).

I decided to go another way…

Had a lovely time at the Ladies Night Out meetup last night. Woke up with a splitting headache though … lousy bugger has stubbornly stuck with me all damned day. I put in a call to my Dr’s office, but the earliest I’ll hear back from her is Monday (if I’m lucky).

Jim and I were out most of the day. This morning I went by Merle Norman and got my first trial makeup run. Jim really liked what they did and I’m happy with it overall, but I don’t care for the color of lipstick they chose (was BRIGHT red) … I think I’ll definitely go darker on the next run to see how it turns out.

What can I say, I’m a sucker for a good burgundy or crimson!

We hit up several stores around town looking at various wedding supplies. We’re looking for a good photo album, but most of what we’re seeing either aren’t big enough or aren’t practical. We hit up the Hobby Lobby in Gardendale and perused the spacious crafts, paints, and so on … but not a whole lot of wedding stuff. (bummer)

We tried the local Wal-mart, and while they didn’t have a whole lot of photo albums, they did have a lot of other things. We looked at their silk trees and flowers section … I’m thinking of making my bouquet of those instead of real flowers. It would definitely keep longer! Still haven’t found a decent flower girl basket for Jessie yet. I take that back — there were several “decent” ones, but nothing I liked.

We booked around the Galleria a bit and I found my wedding jewelry:

I hate that I didn’t get those other earrings, but after seeing these I couldn’t pass them up! They were a bit more, but were nicer quality crystals and are much fancier.

What do y’all think?

Too tired to argue

Had a MEGA busy day today. Booked my ceremony site — and got lost on the way there, LOL! I took a ton of photos … the pictures up, but Zooomr’s smartset feature doesn’t seem to be up at the moment so you’ll have to maneuver around my pics manually, sorry! (Tip: Start here and use the navigation menu at the top to view each following pic to the right.) I seen a couple prospective reception sites. One I didn’t care for and will most likely send a polite “I think we’ll go another route but thanks for your time” email; the other I absolutely LOVED but am not sure we can afford. (ARGH!)

I’ve caught up on most of my RSS feeds, read about other friends who are marrying over the summer months. Caught up on my sister-in-law’s site and read about their recent dealings with a real estate agent who’s captivated her dogs. LOL!

There’s a Ladies Night Out meetup tomorrow night. I plan on going and quite honestly NEED the time away. Clients at work have been driving me batshit crazy all week and I think I am due at least ONE drink! ??:

Jim’s driving me batshit crazy right now because in his eyes WordPress is imperfect. He’s frustrated because WordPress is blog software instead of a CMS — uh … YEAH? :lol: I know he’s not frustrated with me, but he thinks I’m mad because he’s mad. I told him I’m not, but that I’m just too tired to argue.

Wedding planning is hard, but we have great friends

Over the course of the past year I’ve gotten invitations, brochures and all other kinds of printings for everything from bridal exhibitions to destination wedding packages to luxury home. We’ve firmed up the wedding ceremony spot and will probably have the time picked out tomorrow. I’ve got to go tomorrow to pay the deposit and finalize the booking. (as well as find out all of the particulars: how much time we’ll have for setup/tear-down, what’s allowed and what’s not, etc.)

Reception places are still being reviewed. The place I originally had envisioned wasn’t at all like we expected and wouldn’t meet our needs. I’m off to review two places tomorrow and am kind of excited. It’s a headache because it’s a lot of money we’re putting down, and it’s a LOT of hassle; but when I sit still long enough to think about it, I’m almost breathless with excitement because I think it’s just now hitting me that this wedding is FINALLY happening!

I’ve contacted several alteration places about having my dress fitted and one wants me to come in Saturday — which is good because they are just down the road from Merle Norman, where I’m having my makeover done this weekend.

We’re going to be doing a lot, IMO. Part of me wishes we could do a lot more, though. We’re skipping (and skimping) on so many things so we can focus just on the really important parts. For instance, neither Jim nor I will be having attendants. As much as I would LOVE to do this, we simply can’t afford it. Also, we’re not doing a rehearsal dinner … which I don’t know if that’s a bad thing or not yet. If anything, we may just meetup somewhere with our folks and Brother Carl and go over the details if it’s REALLY necessary. We’re doing wedding favors, but will be skipping the groom and bride cakes. I don’t plan on having a luncheon or a bridal shower (unless someone insists on it).

We aren’t renting a limo or some fancy car service like many people do for the send off. (Jim has a VERY nice new sports car, but I don’t think I can fit me AND the dress in it! LOL!!!) We won’t be doing the “wedding night” thing, but if things go according to plan, we will be on our way to Disney World that night or the next morning. A lot of the things we are skipping will be to pay for that too.

We have a friend who’s agreed to DJ for us. We have a couple of friends in mind for the photography. Another friend has expressed interest in videotaping the wedding for us. Jim’s mom is helping me with the decorations and will be planning a “party” for helping me put the wedding favors together with a group of friends and Jessie. My very wonderful friends in my Ladies Night Out meetup group have already “threatened” to throw me a Bachelorette Party, so how I could I say no to that? *grins widely*

We really ARE blessed to have such great friends.

Next Page »