Honeymoon With My Honey – Part 1

Before heading out for our honeymoon, I want to share with you a couple of things a bit, off kilter, that we saw.

	This was at Pioneer Square in Seattle [POST]. My cousin came running over to me and told me I had to see this sign. In case you missed it, it says "PIGEONS TRANSMIT DISEASE. SO DOES YOUR MOM". Much funnier than the "crack" joke also found on the sign.
	I wasn't the first one to see this, either. When we were having dinner at BJ's [POST], someone at the table pointed it out. I hopped up out of my chair (plus about a blogging wife, she gets it) and took a bunch of pictures of the sign, and of the scenery, and then of these two freaks. If the cigarette would have ignited the fumes on her highlights, so she ran around like Michael Jackson in that Pepsi commercial, that would have been EPIC. (Note to teens: Word used correctly.)
	Grrrr… This is totally out of sequence, but I cannot leave that Michael Jackson reference hanging there without pointing out this porcelain beauty we was at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. I believe my exact word were, "Oh my GOD! That's the biggest Jack Daniels decanter I have ever seen in my LIFE!" How they got his skin so lifelike is EERIE!

We took our honeymoon just down the coast in San Francisco. We flew into the Oakland airport to save a little $$$ (Like $200. A flight. Each!) vs. flying into San Francisco. The distance to downtown via the Bart is roughly the same, and it's a smaller, easier airport to get around in. WIN! WIN! WIN! As this was our honeymoon, and first flight together, we popped "Forgetting Sarah Marshall" into my netbook's external drive, plugged in the earphone 'Y' splitter, and watched about half the movie on the 2 hour flight down.

We stayed at the Sir Francis Drake on Union Square. Great location. Great deal. Nice, old hotel. We schlepped our bags uphill from Powel / Market and as we got near, we could see the doorman in his "Beefeater" outfit. Cora started to get excited. When we entered the lobby, I could swear I heard a slight gasp. The lobby was very nice, filled with the marble and iron work and gold leaf that you would expect from a classic, fine hotel. But I hadn't exactly let Cora in on the fact that we were staying someplace like that. Gotta try to impress the wife any way you can, right guys?

Anyhow, we ditched our stuff in our room, and headed back out for some light sightseeing and dinner. I have been to San Fran twice before, so in general, I knew my way around. Plus, I had a map. Plus, I have GPS enabled Google Maps on my Blackberry.

We wandered around Yerba Buena Gardens for a bit, and while my wife was happily snapping away with her camera, it turns out, I only took one shot:

But, we started to loose our light, and our steam, so we had a bite to eat @ Johnny Foley's Irish House before returning to the hotel. (We stopped at Walgreen first to get some bottled water for the room. No way we're paying mini-bar prices!)

We're not old. No way. We just knew (well I did) how much walking we would be doing the next day.

Wedding – Party 3

So, after the wedding, it was time for the party. And what a great party it was. I know Cora has said it, and I will say it again, "Everything went perfectly." There were no last minute snags, or disasters like you hear about. Nope. Here are my top 4 things that didn't go right with the wedding and the reception:

1. I went thru the buffet line first, and had the wonderful grilled vegetables. But, I didn't know there was asparagus underneath the other vegetables. My pee smelt normal all night long. :-(
2. I didn't get to taste the chocolate layer of the cake, but as you can see, we enjoyed our slice quite a lot.
3. My vest was a little snug, and while dancing, I bent down to lift the flower girl, and I popped a button on the vest. Guess I didn't need the chocolate cake after all.
4. The garter was intercepted just before it got to the intended party.

That's it. That's my list.

As maybe you can tell from the videos, the DJ was awesome, the food was great (salmon and prime rib) the centerpieces looked great, and everybody had a great time. And I know that not from them SAYING it, but from me SEEING it.

Here's my best man Tony's speech.

"Never let the details get in the way of a good story." Yeah, but since it's my blog:

• Yes, it was a Commodore 64.
• I wrote the code. I didn't need to hack it.
• There were "weaknesses" in the code that could be exploited if you knew what you were doing. Such as, say, you wrote the code.
• The rats was not one of them.
• But if you fed your soldiers negative amounts of grain, it would subtract that negative amount from your stores, effectively giving you free grain. So, it mattered less what the rats did.

Here's a cake cutting with a twist that I'm certain that you've not seen before:

Cora's brother Craig's girlfriend Kristin's 30th birthday was that day. We figured that we aren't such divas that we can't share our day. It is a party after all. So we planned the birthday cake surprise. We managed to keep is such a surprise that even the camera man had no idea what was going on or where to aim.

Unlike at the wedding I went to last summer [LINK] there was little drama with the bouquet or garter tosses. Well, the girl who caught the bouquet caught it as it rebounded off her nose, and I was aiming the garter at Craig, but it got picked off by a 15 year old at the last instant.

Here are some of my favorite pictures from the evening.

Our First Dance. Hear the song HERE	I just love this picture.
The "Sweetheart" table…	My brother Tim and sister Karin
On my knees like a dog.	Never again to be surrounded by so many single women!
Cora dancing with another man.	Taking Gwen for a spin 'round the floor.
Okay, not technically from the reception, but I love this picture and I needed one for this spot nest to Tiffany, so I'm running it anyway. So there.	In the background, my mother mugs a guest. And the gal in the foreground, as I've been told, did have a 'wardrobe malfunction' before the wedding with one of those straps. This is not the only 'wardrobe malfunction' to occur in this little story. Stay tuned.

After the reception, Tony & Maribeth drove us into Seattle and we got these shots by the Space Needle.

Sorry folks, there are no pictures of the wedding night from this point forward, but I will pass along this little shot from the next morning:

And what was Cora doing while I was taking pictures like this, you may ask?

Yup, that's my wife! ;-)

It must have been while you were kissing me…

Yeah, another break as I edit some videos.  Here's a little something that has been rattling around in my brain for a while to start your day off.  Another little oral interpretation.  This time, it's Meat Loaf:

Assuming that has left you feeling a little skeevy, here's the original video.

Yeah, no mine doesn't suck nearly so much, does it?

Wedding - Part 2

I know what you must be thinking, "Stop clowning around, and get to the ceremony already! Gee whiz, you two can drag out a story!" Well, you tell you the truth, even though it happened over a fortnight ago, it is still hard to believe that it actually happened sometimes. Probably because she's in Seattle and I'm in Chicago.

But, I have the ring to remind me. And this:

Part 1 – Perp walk: The gal in the pink is Cassey, the event coordinator.

Part 2 – Sermon: I just can't stop looking at her. Or smiling. Or holding her hand.

Part 3: The "I Do" part: If you could hear the thoughts in my head during this whole section it goes pretty much like: "Kissthebride. Kissthebride. Iwannakissher. Kissher. Gettothekissingalread." But having been warned, Cora's ring did not want to go on, so I did not try to jam it on. And when she took my hand, I resisted every "pull my finger" urge that I had.

The videos were was shot by Callista's husband on Cora's flip camera. Due to YouTube limitations on video length, I had to bust them up into 3 bits so that they broke at reasonable spots, and were still under 10 minutes long. For those of you who are about to say "I can't watch video at work", well, here's some photos.

Scope's Perp Walk	Craig & Callista (2nd time's a charm!)
Tony & Gwen	My new niece & nephew (So serious!)
Reverend Beck Erb & "The Groom"	Guess who I espy with my little eye?

And with that, we were married.

Let the party begin!

And, on a different topic

Taking a quick break from all the wedding stories to bring you a little something different.  Fret not, I will be back to the ceremony soon.

Happy weekend, by friends.

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A man was driving down the road and ran out of gas. Just at that moment, a bee flew in his window. The bee said, "What seems to be the problem?" "I'm out of gas," the man replied.

The bee told the man to wait right there and flew away. Minutes later, the man watched as an entire swarm of bees flew to his car and into his gas tank. After a few minutes, the bees flew out. "Try it now," said one bee.

The man turned the ignition key and the car started right up. "Wow!" the man exclaimed, "what did you put in my gas tank"?

The bee answered, "Bee Pee".

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There's been all this talk about "BP" and "taking a serious leak in the Gulf of Mexico" and stuff, and I just had to use this joke my uncle sent me before the whole thing started down there.  Plus, I will now reuse my "AMECO" logo from THIS POST, because I spent WAY TOO LONG on that for just a single use:

Wedding – Part 1

Let me just lay this out here now. I won't be covering the whole wedding in one day. Too many pictures and video and stuff that I haven't even begun to go through yet. If you want to see pictures, I think the Facebook servers are GROANING from the uploads.

Friend me. Even if it's under a fake account to preserve your anonymity. ("Sandy Ann Coda", I'm looking @ you! ;-) )

Or to just see more of my pictures, check out my Flickr page.

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I woke up the wedding day feeling strangely calm. I tend to be a bit of a worrier, and I was starting to worry myself about how calm I was. I got dressed for the morning, and then met Tony downstairs at the hotel for some breakfast before running out and doing some errands. (Cora and I will see each other before the wedding, but not before a planned "first sight".)

Our first stop was back in Seattle at Pike Place Market. Tony's wife, Maribeth, had gotten a small bag of dried apple slices when we were down there the day before and LOVED them, so he returned to Simply The Best right there by the big brass pig, and picked her up a full sized pound bag. Then we hit up another vendor for some Renier cherries. Never had them before, but man oh man where those suckers good.

After that, Tony & I headed off to do the thing we came to do: Get me checked in at the hotel where Cora & I would spend out honeymoon night. No, we did not stay in the same hotel as all my family out in Renton. While we were there, I realized that we were a block or two from the Jones Soda Company, and that park where the guy couldn't get it up.

From there it was north across the river to Fremont. While there, we saw this bus stop,


As we were on our way to see the Troll, where Tony disproved the old saying:

You can pick your friends.

And you can pick your nose.

But you can't pick your friend's nose.

From here, it's back to the hotel to drop off Maribeth's dried apples, and then take her to the country club so that she can assist there with whatever needs done.

Right around the corner, really, from the country club is the apartment that Cora's mom is moving into. That is where the guys based their operations out of.

You know, it dawned on me, I've mentioned Maribeth a few times, but I'm not sure I've shown you a picture. Bad blogger! Time jumping a little bit, here's a picture of Tony & Maribeth, after the wedding. They drove Cora and me us into the city to our hotel. (Obviously, there is a similar picture out there of Cora and I, but you are going to have to wait.)

Anyway, while the girls were getting ready, and the photographer was with them, the guys just hung out for a while. It was me, Tony, Cora's brother, Craig, his girlfriend, Kristen, Cora's mom, sister, brother-in-law, the ring bearer, and the flower girl.

Eventually, the photographer showed up to get some pictures of us getting ready. The ring bearer was so cute. The instant the tux went on him, he became 'Mr. Serious Young Man'. He was one of the guys. Dressed exactly like all the other guys, not in some kiddie version. Cora has been watching him since he was a baby, so it was very important to me that he felt good about what was going on.

He did.

(Sorry, forgot to take a picture of him at the apartment. Here is a picture of him later in the evening.)

And for equal billing, here's the flower girl, ready to rock-n-roll!

To make sure we ate, Cora's mom & Craig's girlfriend ran off to get us sandwiches from Subway. (Turkey – NO MUSTARD!)

The ring bearer and the flower girl changed back into their street clothes to eat (we aren't that STUPID) and I put a T-Shirt on over top of my shirt/vest/tie combo, since despite the fact that I ordered a spare shirt to go with the tux, they didn't end up having a spare one in the right size.

After all the food and pictures were taken, it was time to head out to the country club. They made me wait in the men's room while they got Cora outside with her back turned. Then they had me cover my eyes while they led me out to her for the big reveal. Okay, it's probably not the best idea in the world to leave me in the men's room for an extended period of time, but this little move KILLED EVERYBODY! (Oh, and I was totally peeking under my hand to see where I was walking, but not peeking at Cora.)

But enough fooling around. It was then time for the big reveal where we saw each other for the first time, and then did all the pre-wedding photos. There are dozens, but I think this is the one you paid your money to see (you did pay the guy at the door, right?)

To borrow a line from Cora: Meet the Scopes

Warning: It will take me until at least Monday to get to the actual ceremony, sorry.

The Pre-Wedding: Part 3

The Rehearsal – Well, we got there.

For those of you reading this that are unfamiliar with the Fairwood Country Club (about 95% reading this, I would guess), let me tell you, it's stunning.

They had the tent up on the patio, with a little archway looking down one of the fairways. A fabulous spot. But I only had eyes for my fiancée. She looked divine in her little black, white, and red (our colors) sundress. I introduced her to the minister who would be doing the ceremony. Reverend Becky has been a friend of mine since early days in college, and I'd thought of having her marry me perform my wedding ceremony 2 decades ago. Then I introduced Becky to the on site event coordinator, Cassey. Becky had never worked with an on site event coordinator before, but was glad to give up some of the traffic cop duties to a third person.

After 2 quick run-throughs, (we had to make sure we practiced the kissing part, gee-whiz) the rehearsal was over and it was time to head back to the hotel for the rehearsal dinner. Since most everyone was from out of town, we invited all the guests to come as sort of a "pre-reception".

Now, you may remember from my LAST POST, how we ditched about a 13 people who were unfamiliar with Seattle and left them with instructions on how to get back. Well, after almost getting on the wrong bus, which would have taken them to the right town but NOT to their vehicles, they called us as we entered the hotel. Driving in their cars and lost. When asked where they were, they didn't know. When asked what they saw out the window, they replied seriously, with "Starbucks". Oh, THAT narrows it down a little. You are in Seattle and you are near a Starbucks! Eventually, they found a gas station, got directions, and made it back safely.

For the dinner, we had a bit of a potluck with pizza, pasta salad, and sausage rolls and plenty of beverages.

After everyone had eaten a little, but before they left, I had to make a little speech. I mean, I am the de facto host of this shindig, I should say a few words, right? (Note blogger names have been changed to protect the innocent guilty.)

I just want to way "Thank you" all for coming. I know many of you came a long way for this weekend, and Cora and I really appreciate it.

What you may not know is that you are at a historic spot for Cora and I. 441 days ago, that's 63 weeks for you trying to do the math), I checked into this very hotel on my first visit out to meet Cora. Give or take an hour or so.

And what a visit that was. I told the gal on the plane sitting next to me that I was flying 2000 miles for a first date. She couldn't believe it. After landing @ Sea-Tac, I walked through the security exit to see Cora sitting there with her nose in a book. Our first kiss was right then and there. Later that day, I met Gwen when we picked her up from school. She did the slowest walk ever from the school to the car. It was so cute. After that, I met Cora's mom, June and later, Callista & her husband when we met them out for dinner at the Cheesecake Factory.

Heck of a first date.

While I didn't know then that I would end up back here doing this 441 days later, I did know something interesting was starting. And I think Cora did, too. As Callista would later remark, "Cora shared her dessert; Cora NEVER shares her dessert."

So please, raise your glass with me… To new beginnings, may they never end.

After things wound down, I went up to my hotel room for the evening and crashed around 10:00 – 10:30 and slept like a baby (woke up crying every two hours, and soiled myself) awaiting the big day to come.

Next up: Trolls and a Pretty Princess