Table Camera Pictures

I’ve put the pictures from the table cameras up on my photo album. There are a lot of great pictures there, here are a couple to whet your appetite:

Running off to Minnesota tonight — Grandma is auctioning off the rest of Grandpa’s farm equipment, the farm land and the farm house. It’s going to be a hard weekend, but I’m glad that I’ll have the opportunity to be there.

Wedding Pictures

My friends took a bunch of pictures with my camera while we were getting ready for the wedding and at the reception. I’ve posted these in on Flickr. I’ll post more pictures, for example from the disposable cameras, as soon as I get them.

First Wedding Pic…

I heard from the photographer today — I’d wanted to make sure that we had paid him for all of his hours. He’s been working on the pictures, and is hoping to have proofs ready for us in the next week or so. Yay!

In the meantime, he sent us this one to enjoy:

[Credit: Tom Madden, MPI]

Andrew looks a little embarassed to be with the rest of us…

Not Quite Married….

We came home yesterday to find out that we still weren’t quite married. The fill-in minister who performed the wedding didn’t realize that we would be in Virginia until just before the ceremony. She’s licensed in DC and MD, but not VA. Oops.

We had two choices — we could either re-say our vows in front of another officiant that she had lined up for us, but then our license would reflect the date and place where we re-took our vows, or we could go through some rigamarole at the Fairfax Courthouse. Andrew didn’t have strong feelings, but I really wanted our marriage to be recorded as the day we celebrated with our friends and family. So…we ended up at the courthouse today filling out paperwork. It should be official sometime next week.

Honeymoon

We’re back from the honeymoon…it did not last long enough, but at least we were able to get some down-time. We stayed at Creek Crossing Farm, a bed & breakfast in Lincoln, Virginia, just a couple miles from where the W&OD trail ends/begins. We took our bikes and went out a couple times, and we took our books and read a lot.

Tuesday

We started the day with a wonderful breakfast of fresh scrambled eggs, toast and fried apples. Then we hopped in the car with our bikes and went out for our first bike ride in a long time. Unfortunately we had forgotten that one of my migraine triggers is the sudden cessation of stress. Yup. About 3.5 miles out my vision started to fuzz out. We turned around, and biked back to the car as my vision fuzzed in and out. By the time we reached the car, the headache had started, though I did pop some Tylenol on the trail (I’m never far from a source of aspirin or acetaminaphen).

I was feeling stubborn, though, and only slept for an hour when we got back to the B&B. Then we went off to town to get lunch and check out the shops. In Purcellville, we stopped in a couple shops. One was a toy store with way cool toys, including some mint in-the-package toy sets from Raiders of the Lost Ark. There was also a full-sized Lego Darth Vader there (not for sale).

Then we went down the street to Final Draft, a used book store. I found a couple more books for Banned Books Week and Andrew even picked up a Bookcrossing book. When I mentioned Banned Books Week to the clerk, she looked up the website and list of 100 most challenged books of 1990-2000, and commented on how many of the summer reading books for the local school were on the list.

After the bookstore, we drove the ~10 miles to Leesburg to check out the shops and restaurants there. (We had almost exhausted the restaurants in Purcellville.) We went into a few of the shops on King Street, and then stopped for dinner at an Italian place, also on King.

In the evening we went back to the farm and vegged in front of the TV with the dogs and cats of the house.

Wednesday

Another great breakfast started the day — this time waffles and fried apples. Yum! The we packed up the bikes for our second attempt at the W&OD trail. This ride went better. We went 15.4 miles round-trip! Our longest ride so far. On our return trip we stopped at a picnic table in Purcellville for a picnic. I took lots of pictures of the ride, which can be seen in my photo album.

We went back to the farm after our ride, showered and napped for a little while. Then we walked up to the Goose Creek Burial Grounds, which were about half a mile up the road from the farm. There was a wide range of gravesites there, ranging from as recent as 2003 to as old as the 1700s.

In the evening we popped up to Purcellville for dinner, then back to the farm to veg out with the animals in front of the TV again.

Thursday

If we had many more breakfasts like we did at the farm, we’d be 500 pounds in a year! This morning we had buckwheat pancakes and more fried apples. Then we packed up the car, and started back home stopping in Middleburg on the way. Middleburg had a wonderful Main Street filled with shops. We shopped for a couple hours, had lunch at a deli just off the main street, shopped for a bit longer, and then hopped in the car and drove home.

Wonderful, relaxing few days.

Wedding Day Afterthoughts

Several people say that they forgot everything about their wedding day (though, coincidentally they were people who were either not happy with their wedding or their marriage), so after the ceremony Andrew and I sat in our hotel room just talking about the day. I didn’t want to forget anything. It’s hardly complete, but I came up with a list of things to remember about the day.

• The wedding grasshopper was hilarious. Sweetie, Suzanne and I walked out of Starbucks to find a grasshopper on the roof of the car. While this might not seem odd, it was still there after a 10 mile drive on the beltway at 70 mph and a bumpy ride through Old Town Alexandria. It was there after we’d spend a half hour in my Mom’s room, stayed on while we drove the mile to the salon, and might have even been there after we had gotten our hair done (I don’t remember…)
• “Bride sandwich” was shouted several times as we were posing for pictures.
• Mushi was quite happy that we waited for the ceremony to begin in the “tool room” of the planetarium. We all picked items we wanted to take home with us, though I can’t remember what I wanted…might have been the Mars globe.
• The stormtrooper in the back room was funny. I made the photographer take my picture with it, and then after the ceremony we dragged it out for a couple shots with the wedding party.
• There were 67 bobby pins holding my hair up.
• The girls made me cry before we left for the ceremony by saying their favorite thing about me. Suzanne said it was that we could just pick up where we were whenever we got together, whether it was a day, a month, or a year from the last time we’d seen each other. Sweetie said that it was that I say “Yay” whenever she calls with good news. Mom said that it was that I put up with her and something else, but I’ve forgotten. Mushi said that she’s as close to me as her childhood best friend, even though she’s known me for only half as long. I was already feeling great before we were going to head off to the ceremony, but that made me feel even better. I love my girls!
• At one point I noticed my niece, Kira, turned around in her chair looking at us, singing her ABCs. I joined in, and the head table grew silent as, I think, everyone tried to figure out if I’d gone crazy or what. When they saw Kira singing, the girls joined me in singing with her.
• Mom said that at one point she tried to sing with Kira and play with her, but Kira shushed her and pushed her away because she wanted to watch me. I did notice that almost every time I looked, Kira was turned around in her chair watching me.
• Monday morning we saw Kira when we stopped home before heading off to the B&B in Purcelville. She asked if we could go back to Auntie Barb’s wedding. Apparently she’d been asking all morning. I think she had a good time!
• I tried to give a toast after dinner — I’m not sure what actually came out of my mouth, but I had something really good planned in my head. I could hardly make it through, though, and when I was toasting my parents, I completely forgot how I was going to end it. Fortunately, this got a laugh out of everyone, and lightened the mood a bit. Mom said that she thought everyone needed it.
• I regret that I didn’t find a job for my nephew Brock. I asked his dad if he thought Brock would want to do something, but Kevin didn’t really know. I decided to just let him enjoy, but he asked once what his job was. We did give him a couple of the disposable cameras at the reception, and he enjoyed taking pictures. I think for the Minnesota reception in a few weeks I’ll either buy him a film camera and a bunch of film or put him in charge of my digital camera.

That’s all I can think of for now. Much of what I want to remember will be documented in pictures, so I look forward to seeing the photographer’s pictures and the pictures from the disposable cameras (which we’ll get back on Tuesday or Wednesday).

Mrs. Kuchling

The Goddess smiled on us yesterday. The wedding was perfect. I’m not going to write much now, since we’re trying to get out of the house for the honeymoon… Andrew and I woke up this morning around 3:30, unable to get back to sleep because we were thinking about what a wonderful day yesterday was. I’ll write more on the honeymoon, and post when we return (and should have some cool pictures…).

Wedding Day Reception

What a wonderful reception! I had the greatest time, though we left a bit earlier than planned because I started getting really tired.

The reception was at the Stardust Restaruant in Alexandria. We were greeted by a chalk message on the sidewalk.

We checked out the cake right away

And on my way back to the bar for appetizers, I ran into Kirsten, a friend from New Mexico, now living in Idaho, and I hardly recognized her! She looks too grown-up now!

(Mushi, Sweetie, and Kirsten)

I had put together gift bags for all the kids, and I think they went over fairly well. Here’s Kira playing with her Dad and the pinwheel, and another picture of Brock showing me the Star Destroyer Legos he’d put together:
  

I had also given Brock a Dover “stained glass” coloring book of rocket ships. He colored one for me, but I don’t have a picture just yet — the photographer did get a picture of him giving it to me, so I will have one later.

The Stardust usually serves their soft drinks with little plastic animals, which I love (in fact, I still have all of the animals from previous trips there). I found these fascinating, and started poking them in the cleavage of my dress. The waiter saw how much I loved the animals and brought me a glass full of them!

I tried taking a picture of the animals on myself, just to remember my view of them, but it didn’t turn out. Then Sweetie tried taking a picture, which was just silly, but she didn’t have any more luck. I think the photographer got a shot of her photographing my cleavage…

This picture gets the award for most bizarre — it almost needs a caption contest. Note that Andrew and my grandma both look like they’re shouting. Trouble with the in-laws already??

Wedding Day Ceremony

I hate to admit that I don’t remember a whole lot about the ceremony itself. I remember walking down the aisle with Dad, and negotiating the star projector a bit awkwardly. I remember thinking that I should look at Andrew, since I’d been concentrating so much on negotiating the aisle that I’d forgotten to. I remember looking around to see the stars during the ceremony, since we weren’t at the best place to see them, at the front of the planetarium. I remember crying like a baby through my vows. I remember Andrew struggling to get my ring on, since it’s a tight fit. I remember Suzanne jumping in a bit too early with her second reading (it’s okay, Suzanne, it really isn’t a big deal…in fact, I loved the way you recovered when you started again, “Finding Love, by Robert J. Doleby, Take 2” — that got a chuckle from everyone, and lightened the mood after I’d been crying like a baby). I remember hugging Andrew out in the foyer after the recessional.

We did pictures afterwards — standard shots with my family, Andrew’s family, and the wedding party. When the formal shots were done, Andrew and I walked around with the photographer and got a few shots around the planetarium with the two of us. I’m really looking forward to seeing the photos.

Wedding Day Dressing and Waiting

After we arrived back from the salon, the girls got dressed first. Here’s a great shot of Mushi’s hair as she’s zipping Mom into her dress.

The first thing I put on was my wedding tennis shoes:

Then the girls cinched me into my dress:

Once I was dressed, we realized that there would be wedding guests milling about in the lobby of the hotel, since there was a van waiting to take them to the wedding. Sweetie pointed out that this is considered bad luck to have the guests see the bride before the wedding, so we had Dad move his minivan to around the side of the hotel, and Mushi and I escaped out of an Emergency Exit (which was okayed by the front desk).

We arrived at the planetarium 20 minutes later, and I was wisked away into the back room to wait. Andrew was not going to see me before the wedding, so he and Greg were waiting in the planetarium director’s office. The girls and I were in the back storage room, which had cool tools and globes and things.

I have no idea what each of us was doing in this picture, but it looks like a study into the various stages of insanity:

Here’s a nice one of us girls, just about to go line up: