heat wave, we're having a heat wave!

Ugggggh. Soooooooo hottttttttttttt.

I decided to try out a paid LJ for two months. We'll see if I find it worthwhile.

Happy Fourth, everyone!

Have I mentioned it's hot?

Went to Wisconsin for Jeff and Paige's wedding last week. I had a big mini-con report all written up for CJ, and then the server went away. I was planning on posting just a short commentary here, but since I have *no* idea when the server's coming back up, I'll just post the long report here. I only know of a couple CJers who even read my LJ, but hey, whatever.

*****
This past weekend, Rogue and I attended Jeff and Paige's wedding-- not in Vegas, alas, to the dismay of many (including the groom's mother!). Though it was a nice, intimate wedding, there were people from many different areas of their lives there-- relatives, high school friends, college buddies, etc. We quickly became known as "the Star Wars friends." ;-)

We arrived Friday afternoon after an amazingly trouble-free flight, and were picked up at the airport by Jeff and his mom. Jeff's parents were gracious enough to make space for us to stay at their house, even though they already had plenty of extra people with Jeff's out-of-town relatives. After meeting said relatives, Jeff took us and his cousin Terry to Summerfest, Milwaukee's big 11-day festival of food, concerts, and various other forms of entertainment. It was fun, but we headed home relatively early to get some sleep, since we'd be leaving for the wedding at 7:30 am on Saturday morning.

Saturday morning, we all piled in the big 15-passenger van Jeff's parents had rented. It was about a 2-hour drive to the campground, which was in a lovely, wooded area. The wedding took place outdoors, with the vows exchanged inside a gazebo and the guests seated on chairs on the grass outside. Things got started a bit late, as the campground was a bit tough to find, and quite a few guests, as well as the photographer, got lost on the way. ;-) But everyone arrived eventually, so all was well.

The wedding was lovely. Jeff and his groomsmen looked very sharp in tuxes, and Paige had a gloriously poofy white dress. :) Her attendants had either silver or navy blue dresses. The ceremony was performed by Paige's grandmother, who is a judge, and a junior pastor from her church. It was a very touching ceremony. I cried. Rather a lot. After Paige's grandmother pronounced them married, they recessed down the aisle to "The Throne Room" track from ANH. ;-)

The reception was held in the campground's large cafeteria/rec center building, but before we could eat, the wedding party had to take a seemingly endless amount of pictures. Thankfully, the building had a nice stock of board and card games, so Rogue and I, along with Jeff's friends Nick, Mary, and Katie, amused ourselves by playing This is Podracing-- err, Mille Borne. We discovered that a five-player game takes *forever*-- we were still playing when they opened up the buffet line. Rogue finally won, though, and so we all filled up our plates with roast beef, ham, and mashed potatoes.

After the food and a best man's toast in which Jeff's brother Dan, in a shocking turn of events, couldn't remember a single embarassing story to tell about him, we adjourned to the next room for dancing and the traditional tosses. Jeff's 18-year-old cousin Terry caught the garter, much to his chagrin. Paige's first try on tossing the bouquet landed about four feet short of the group of women, so she tried again. This time it landed-- plop!-- right in my hands. I got to keep the bouquet, as it was the "toss bouquet," since, as Paige put it, "My real bouquet probably would have killed someone."

The bride and groom then shared their first dance to Shakira's "Under Your Clothes" (I think?). And merriment ensued. The music for the dancing was all on an mp3 playlist, so we could pretty much listen to whatever we wanted. Naturally, one of the first things to be played was the Chicken Dance. ;-) Then Paige taught people how to play carpetball, a favorite pasttime at church camp, and someone broke out the wedding bubbles, so we blew bubbles all around the room.

Finally, around 6 pm, we all headed back to Milwaukee. Paige and Jeff opened a few wedding presents at Jeff's parents' house, then left for the hotel where they were spending the night before flying to Phoenix on Sunday. Rogue and I had a fairly early flight as well, so we got some sleep before waking up at 6:45 to head to the airport. And miraculously, we had no trouble on our flights on the way home, either! Must be a Con thing. :)

So. In sum, the wedding was lovely, the reception was fun, and it was a great weekend. I felt privileged to be able to be there. We took lots of pictures, so hopefully they'll be up on the web soon.
*****

*sigh*

Did I mention it was hot?

heat wave, we're having a heat wave!

Ugggggh. Soooooooo hottttttttttttt.

I decided to try out a paid LJ for two months. We'll see if I find it worthwhile.

Happy Fourth, everyone!

Have I mentioned it's hot?

Went to Wisconsin for Jeff and Paige's wedding last week. I had a big mini-con report all written up for CJ, and then the server went away. I was planning on posting just a short commentary here, but since I have *no* idea when the server's coming back up, I'll just post the long report here. I only know of a couple CJers who even read my LJ, but hey, whatever.

*****
This past weekend, Rogue and I attended Jeff and Paige's wedding-- not in Vegas, alas, to the dismay of many (including the groom's mother!). Though it was a nice, intimate wedding, there were people from many different areas of their lives there-- relatives, high school friends, college buddies, etc. We quickly became known as "the Star Wars friends." ;-)

We arrived Friday afternoon after an amazingly trouble-free flight, and were picked up at the airport by Jeff and his mom. Jeff's parents were gracious enough to make space for us to stay at their house, even though they already had plenty of extra people with Jeff's out-of-town relatives. After meeting said relatives, Jeff took us and his cousin Terry to Summerfest, Milwaukee's big 11-day festival of food, concerts, and various other forms of entertainment. It was fun, but we headed home relatively early to get some sleep, since we'd be leaving for the wedding at 7:30 am on Saturday morning.

Saturday morning, we all piled in the big 15-passenger van Jeff's parents had rented. It was about a 2-hour drive to the campground, which was in a lovely, wooded area. The wedding took place outdoors, with the vows exchanged inside a gazebo and the guests seated on chairs on the grass outside. Things got started a bit late, as the campground was a bit tough to find, and quite a few guests, as well as the photographer, got lost on the way. ;-) But everyone arrived eventually, so all was well.

The wedding was lovely. Jeff and his groomsmen looked very sharp in tuxes, and Paige had a gloriously poofy white dress. :) Her attendants had either silver or navy blue dresses. The ceremony was performed by Paige's grandmother, who is a judge, and a junior pastor from her church. It was a very touching ceremony. I cried. Rather a lot. After Paige's grandmother pronounced them married, they recessed down the aisle to "The Throne Room" track from ANH. ;-)

The reception was held in the campground's large cafeteria/rec center building, but before we could eat, the wedding party had to take a seemingly endless amount of pictures. Thankfully, the building had a nice stock of board and card games, so Rogue and I, along with Jeff's friends Nick, Mary, and Katie, amused ourselves by playing This is Podracing-- err, Mille Borne. We discovered that a five-player game takes *forever*-- we were still playing when they opened up the buffet line. Rogue finally won, though, and so we all filled up our plates with roast beef, ham, and mashed potatoes.

After the food and a best man's toast in which Jeff's brother Dan, in a shocking turn of events, couldn't remember a single embarassing story to tell about him, we adjourned to the next room for dancing and the traditional tosses. Jeff's 18-year-old cousin Terry caught the garter, much to his chagrin. Paige's first try on tossing the bouquet landed about four feet short of the group of women, so she tried again. This time it landed-- plop!-- right in my hands. I got to keep the bouquet, as it was the "toss bouquet," since, as Paige put it, "My real bouquet probably would have killed someone."

The bride and groom then shared their first dance to Shakira's "Under Your Clothes" (I think?). And merriment ensued. The music for the dancing was all on an mp3 playlist, so we could pretty much listen to whatever we wanted. Naturally, one of the first things to be played was the Chicken Dance. ;-) Then Paige taught people how to play carpetball, a favorite pasttime at church camp, and someone broke out the wedding bubbles, so we blew bubbles all around the room.

Finally, around 6 pm, we all headed back to Milwaukee. Paige and Jeff opened a few wedding presents at Jeff's parents' house, then left for the hotel where they were spending the night before flying to Phoenix on Sunday. Rogue and I had a fairly early flight as well, so we got some sleep before waking up at 6:45 to head to the airport. And miraculously, we had no trouble on our flights on the way home, either! Must be a Con thing. :)

So. In sum, the wedding was lovely, the reception was fun, and it was a great weekend. I felt privileged to be able to be there. We took lots of pictures, so hopefully they'll be up on the web soon.
*****

*sigh*

Did I mention it was hot?