Cherry Blossom Fever

This weekend was a reprieve from the boring, cold, miserable weather that we Virginians have experience for the last 6 months. After the rain clouds lifted on Saturday afternoon, the F and I meet up with Jenny S. for a sit on the National Mall. We watched the kite festival as we waited for one of Jenny's friend's, Maria, to show up. We nearly got clipped in the head by some low flying kites flown by tots. Fortunately (for them cuz I would have so kicked their ass) no collisions occurred. Once Maria joined us, we strolled over to the Tidal Basin and observed the cherry blossoms and the sun setting. Four hours after we left the Tidal Basin someone jumped into it and drowned. Freakish, and sad. After leaving DC we had some Mexican dinner in Shirlington where we were joined by another of Jenny's friends, Cathy.

Sunday we drove back into DC. This time the National Gardens for some engagement photos with our wedding photographer. This was followed by a nice leisurely drive home in DC traffic. It wasn't as bad as it could have been. It was nice and warm outside and the sun roof was open. Who could ask for more?

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I Want To Be A Producer

Eh, Wednesday. Nothing to get excited about. I went on a video shoot for my company today. We videotaped a stand-up interview at the tidal basin with the president of the National Parks Conservation Association. I was billed as a 'Location Manager" but really it's a just a fancy term for "Producer". I was in charge of coordinating the freelancer photographer we hired, making sure our permit papers were in order in case the Park Police harassed us, and coralling everyone onto the same page. In the middle of all this I realized that I enjoyed being in charge of things. I don't get to do it much at work, which would explain why, sometimes, I'm unhappy with my current position.

Of course I should probably not write such things while at work. See, I was too lazy (i.e spent too much time playing video games) last night to type up my blog yesterday. On to other topics....

I've rekindled my, and F's, desire to drive her car, which is a standard. I did amazingly better than my first attempt. This time I actually went from 1st to 2nd without stalling AND drove it around our neighborhood. Cheers!
Tonight is the Broken Social Scene show at the Black Cat , which I'm sure I will write about in the next post. Until then...

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Cakes By Madonna

With both the F sick and the F's mother in town it was a low-key but (none the less) good weekend. One of the more exciting events this weekend was the double-feature of "Tremors 2" and "Jaws" on late night television. More exciting than that was the free cake we had for lunch.

Our cake decorator / designer / maker - Stephen - made a house call for the cake tasting. The cakes were very good and the price was right so we signed a contract and threw down a deposit. When I wrote Stephen the deposit check I noticed that his last name was 'Ciccone'. Jokingly I ask if he was related to Madonna. To my surprise, he said 'Yes' and explained that he and the Material Girl share a great-grandfather.

So when y'all come to the wedding this July you will be eating a cake made by someone related to a famous person. I have now set the bar for weddings considerably high. If the rest of your crazy bachlor/ettes don't have at least one famously-related person provide a service at your wedding I might not come. Just thought I'd give you fair notice.

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Sick Chickens

March has not been a good month for the fiancé ("F" from here on out) and I. I started out the month of March with a cold/cough thing that took me two weeks to get over. Then, right as I get better, F gets ill. Ill in a way that requires out patient surgery and lots of 'off-your-feet-bed-rest'. Looking back across our relationship we have been sick chickens for a majority of the time. In fact, right around the time that we began dating I was sick for a month. Then I developed a rather painful stomach condition that requires medication. Then the F (girlfriend at the time) was sick with a cough for almost four months. Skipping ahead, both Thanksgiving and Christmas 2003 were cancelled when one of us got pneumonia.

I'd like to think that we are just getting all the sickness out of the way so we can enjoy the rest of lives without illness. However I doubt it.

For the people that have known me for a while (ie. all that read this blog) me + constant sickness = a given fact. However, for the both of us to be constantly sick that's just strange. I 'axe' you a question: What's up with dat?

Escape From New York

The weekend in NYC was wonderful, sometimes hurried, but still wonderful. We arrived in Hoboken in time for lunch and a showing of Jumanji on my sister's cable network. Then we cleaned up both the kitchen and ourselves for the showing of "The Producers", which was very good. It was amusing to watch Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick out-crack each other up on stage and break character. After the show as we exited through a back alley we saw Richard Belzar walking backstage. Being the "Law & Order" freaks that my fiancé and I are, we were very, very excited.

Sunday involved shopping and subsequently purchasing paper for our wedding invitations at Kate's Paperie which was a cool stationary store despite it being an actual stationary store. Big ups to Jen W. for crawling out of bed and meeting us downtown for lunch 12 hours after throwing a raging birthday party for her fiancé.

And now....back to the grind.

S-M-A-T

This week has not been a banner example of how I am a smart human that can function in society. On Monday I went to the dry cleaners to pick up two shirts. I paid the woman behind the counter and promptly left. 4 hours later as I was cleaning up from dinner, I realized that I had walked out of the cleaners and left my shirts there. D'oh. So the next morning I went back and explained this to the gentleman behind the counter, who responded with, "Oh, yes. Your shirts are right over here. [The girl working last night] told everyone about you". Sigh.

And then tonight my brain decided to ask my fianc? what she wanted for dinner in this fashion: "Honey, what do you want for pizza tonight?" We are however not having pizza for dinner. Instead we are having shrimp salad. Not nearly as fun, but healthier for us.

Maybe a weekend in the big apple will cure me of my stupiditis.

(I love the valley OH!)

New York, New York, It's a Hell of a Town

My company has a policy that its employees should spend 80% of their time on billable projects and 20% of time on training. This past week I completed some percentage of that training at the ShowBizExpo in NYC. I walked through the trade show, drooling over expensive lighting equipment and sat in on some training workshops for lighting. I learned some excellent tips on how to light subjects dramatically and quickly for video, which I hope to put into practice at work soon.

Work paid for the train ticket to NYC and the admission fee but we were responsible for our own lodgings. I chose the casa de Monica and Dan - my sister and boyfriend’s place in Hoboken, NJ. They had send me explicit directions on which trains to take and where to gets cabs in order for me to get to Hoboken NJ at 11pm. They did such a great job of explaining how the transit system work that I actually understood it this time!!! My previous two attempts at riding NYC/NJ trains have ending in horrible disasters of me getting hopelessly lost. Buoyed a day of successful train riding, I took the on the '4,5,6' and went 'downtown' (important things to know when riding their metro) to Manhattan for shopping at one of my favorite record stores, Other Music.

So, all in all, it was a great week. I learned lots of new and useful things about my profession, I got in some records shopping, I got to see my sister, and I got to read (and subsequently finish) the book "Our Band Could Be Your Life".