For those of you who were able to be there and those of you we sadly missed, our first photos are back from the wedding and are viewable on our photographer's blog at this link. They are so insanely beautiful and I am so grateful for Megan, the lady who took 'em all. She shot over 4,000 photos that weekend and she's still working on editing them down and I can't wait.

The whole experience deserves a much longer entry, and at some point I very much hope to share that with ya'll. But our house is still in major upheaval and we kind of haven't stopped DOING STUFF since the first of September. Hopefully things will slow down slightly soon and I can write about it. Suffice it to say, it was wonderful. I have never experienced such overwhelming happiness, and I shared it all with the most remarkable man. I am rich in friends and family and have spent the last few weeks counting all these blessings and feeling grateful and fortunate and so, so happy.

Two weeks from Sunday I will marry PDeinus. I don't really know how the last year leading up to this point passed so quickly but it did and here we are.

I am floating in this strange bubble of terror and anxiety and excitement. Terror and anxiety of all the things which could go wrong, and excitement because, well, I'm getting the privilege of marrying an incredible man. And a lot of people we love will be there. The hardest part about this whole undertaking is accepting the fact that not all of the people we want there will be able to make it. I have been grieving that more than I had anticipated. But a whole slew of our lovely friends and family are making the trek and no matter what at the end of the day on September 5th PDeinus and I will be married and that is the most important thing.

I have the strangest feeling that there are a million things I am forgetting and that the list keeps getting longer and longer, when in reality it keeps getting shorter and we've actually planned pretty well for the most part. Wedding planning dysmorphia? I suppose this has to be an incredibly common manifestation for pre-newlyweds but still. And all these really nice people keep offering to help and I don't know what to tell them to do. I'm sure I'll figure that out soon.

Things I need to do: vacuum the downstairs and clean our bathroom (incoming guests), make one last batch of wedding giveaway preserves and decorate the resulting jars, continue revising our ceremony with PDeinus and our officiant, wrap some presents, buy some presents for the people involved and a guest book and some ribbons and some blue underpants, eat, sleep, wake up and repeat until I wake up on the day of our wedding.

I would like to get into Dr. Who. What little I have seen I have enjoyed, but I am intimidated about where to start. I know I should probably just start from the very beginning (indeed a most advantageous place to start) but for some reason this seems silly to me with a series as long as Dr. Who. And the DVDs are not helpfully arranged by 'season' to really make this a feasible reality. PDeinus suggests I watch at least one episode from all the Doctors and go from there, as perhaps a way will reveal itself. Thoughts, my delightful and much more experienced in this area, friends? I await your wisdom.

Apropos of nothing side note: LJ Spell Check's first suggestion for PDeinus is "puddings". This is funny.

GENIUS. Required viewing. You shall not regret it.

I have an awesome job. I office manage for a veterinary practice. I get to cuddle a virtual non stop stream of puppies and kittens. Word. But there are downsides.

I don't know quite how I ended up with this tweak in my brain structure, but I love other people's pets. LOVE. Almost as much, and in some cases possibly more than, my own dogs. I get very, very attached very, very easily. I don't know why. This becomes a problem when those people go away and stop bringing their pets to me or worse, when that pet dies.

I had my first real rough beat a few nights ago when a client's dog passed away. He came to us with what looked like bloat, which is when the stomach inflates with gas and flops over, causing major issues. Turned out to be his bladder, which was blocked and swollen. The doc tried to correct it surgically, but the tissues of his bladder had deteriorated so significantly that we couldn't really effectively sew him back up again and his bladder ruptured a few hours later. He could not be saved.

He was a three and a half year old american bulldog named Mac. He had a ninety degree kink in his tail and a head the size of a watermelon. He liked to lean on you and pant in your face. He was an accomplished snuggler. He was always ecstatically happy to see everyone and his wag was a full body explosion. He was sugar pressed into dog form. He was a beautiful boy. I miss him very much and I am sad and angry that we couldn't do more. I need a goddam magic wand.

1) Plan your menus, as much as you can. Makes grocery shopping a helluva lot easier and removes the necessity for the stressful and annoying nightly, "We should eat." conversation.

2) Cooking meat is not that scary. Seriously. Grow up, Lady M.

3) Buy stuff when it's cheap/available and freeze it. We are buying a chest freezer as soon as ever we can, much to PDeinus chagrin.

4) Bulk spices are insanely cheap. Never buy the pre-bottled McCormick spices ever, ever, ever again. We now buy all of our spices at our slightly janky grocery store with an awesome bulk food section, or at a really lovely spice market up in the artsy fartsy neighborhood. A SPICE MARKET is still cheaper. Holy cats. Never again.

5) Cook lots of new things and build your repertoire. I feel as though I am just getting started here.

6) If after you bring the fresh basil home you trim the stems and put it in water like cut flowers, it will last a good long while, possible weeks, as long as you keep refreshing the water. Would've saved myself a lot of wilted basil. Still looking for a way to keep fresh cilantro from dying. Same trick doesn't work.

We are no longer poor, now that PDeinus is gainfully employed once again, however that is not say that we have the monies. We are trying to repair some of the damage inflicted during our six months of one paycheck and that eats up anything that might be leftover for us to kick up our heels a bit. Plus which, Laverne decided that now would be an excellent time to reveal to us that she has a hernia in her abdominal wall that is only repairable with surgery, so sayonara money I had ear marked for a possible plane ticket to Chicago! I miss Chicago friends very badly, and after months of mostly one another for company, PDeinus I are, while still very much in love and pulling at the same wheel, are very much in need of others. Had I but the magic wand I crave. We would also like to be able to afford a trip to Massachusetts this New Years. Fingers crossed for both, say I.

All the financial woes aside, Portland continues to astound. Beautifully dry and hot so far this summer. During the heat wave of four or five days of 100+, I went upstairs to climb into bed only to realize that the mattress had retained so much heat from the day that sleeping on the living room floor seemed like a MUCH better option. The dogs, panting upstairs at 10:30pm agreed with me. We bivouaced for the next few nights under the coffee table. Bizarrely, the dogs were still interested in snuggling and I was most assuredly not. We saw the Oregon coast for the first time days later and it was appropriately incredible and salty. We have had a coworker and friend of mine staying with us while she is between an apartment with an appalling roommate here and vet school in Corvallis, Oregon. She has been delightful and was responsible for our trip, being possessed of a car and appropriate wanderlust (currently she is traveling in Costa Rica and will bounce through here on her way to backpacking in Washington). Punk was ecstatic to see a large body of water and a beach for running as fast as she can, only slightly less so after discovering that when she puts her mouth in the water it tastes funny. Laverne was having none of this wet and cold business and yea she did pout mightily. Very funny.

Our tomatoes are starting to yield and our farmer's market as well. PDeinus has declared his intention to make a whole passel of tomato sauce for the next few weekends, and I am not at all unhappy about this. We will have jars full of summer saved up for the winter. The landlord stops by once a month to collect rent and always brings us something from his garden, peas, a truly huge bag of shallots, and basil. I look forward to it now. Our fig tree flummoxes us slightly with its overwhelming bounty, and there are neighborhood kids who stop by periodically and relieve us of bags of them. One attempt at fig jam went south, and the second featured the addition of strawberry which seems, so far, to have been successful. Also a batch of blackberry jam with fruit gleaned from our backyard bramble. Unbelievable color. Ouchy collection process. Only a matter of weeks before apple butter.

Lots of work, lots of Netflix, lots of walking dogs and laughing at their silliness, lots of worrying of one type or another. Mostly everything goes very well.

Made by jearl to accompany her delightful review of The Philadelphia Story. If you love that movie or Hepburn as I do, this should crack your shit up.

Since PDeinus outed us over here, I am charged with posting photos of the ridiculously adorable chihuahua who now lives in our house.

( Behold.Collapse )

Yup. I got whammied. She was hanging out in a holding area at the adoption event, and suckered me in with those big, googly brown eyes and the jaunty little tail. She isn't as yappy as you'd think, although people on bikes are pretty evil. Did you know that? Although she doesn't really know how to play with other dogs, she does seem to like them and is very happy to exchange wags and butt sniffs. She also really likes people, which is definitely a change for us. Punk is adjusting pretty easily to not being an only dog, and doesn't seem to mind. Even though Laverne snores like bejesus and snorgles like a truffle pig the rest of the time, and doesn't always share the chair nicely.

In other news, our garden is growing, and I still love my job. Portland in spring is INCREDIBLY beautiful. You should come visit. Seriously. Then you could cuddle the fat chihuahua. Think about it.

2008 The Northern Lights of Happiness
posted by CHARLES MUDEDE on NOVEMBER 5 at 4:53 PM

It’s the fifth day of November. It’s nearing 4 pm. I’m standing on the corner of 6th and Main. Behind me is a small beauty business, and heading west on 6th is a truck for a plumber. As it passes, I read on its side: “A way goes trouble down the drain.” An old black man is slowly walking down the steep hill between Main and Washington. Two white women in a red BMW (dented door, dirty windows) stop and let a very pregnant Asian woman cross the street. In the distance, cars flowing up to the freeway. Further still, a string of airplane lights. Then it seizes me. A rush of joy. It emanates from a warm area deep in my being and terminates with tingles on my flesh. To see the inside of my body is to see an aurora borealis on an arctic sky. Obama is the president of the United States of America.