Spoiler Alert

Last night we watched the Johnny Depp version of Alice in Wonderland. At the end, when her not-to-be father in law invited her to be an apprentice, Karen said, "That wouldn't happen."

Oops, Wrong Tea Party

More and more, the Alaska Tea Party's assault on reason sounds like they wandered in from the wrong tea party. I'm pretty sure Ronald Reagan wasn't endorsed by the Mad Hatter.
And another thing; who is funding Al Qaeda? I can barely afford to buy ink cartridges to use in my printer, and they can just throw them away?

Let's Lock The Door And Throw Away The Key

Our back door lock didn't work very well in the cold which made it as Danny Bhoy says, "No ----ing good at all." I went to replace it this past weekend, but the existing one used two holes in the door, and the new lock only used one. Installing the lock, and covering the extra hole required numerous trips to Lowe's and Home Depot buying lock molecules one by one, but last night I finished the job all by myself.
This morning I was still strutting around, puffed up by my own genius. Until on the way to work, I realized that when I gathered up all the left over parts, I threw away the keys.

FW:

Subject: Family Photographer

Hey guys, I know it's early, but my friend (and future wedding photographer) Emily was teasing me saying she'd come to Alaska (July 3, 2011) for our Alaska reception if I could line her up some photography gigs.I said I'd totally ask my friends and family (and ask them to ask their friends and family). I asked if she'd give us a deal and she said for mini-shoots in Alaska she'd be willing to do the session for $100 and include a cd of all the photos she took (look around, I think this is a GREAT deal).

Here's Emily's main website: http://emilybwilson.com/?load=flash and here's her blog: http://emilybwilsonblog.com/  (you can contact her through her website).

She's done a lot of children/family photography and in the last year or so has branched out into wedding and engagement shoots (I love this engagement shoot: http://emilybwilsonblog.com/weddings/brett-elyse-engaged-nj-wedding-photographer/ ) She's also done some great mulit-generational photo shoots for family reunions.

I definitely think you should consider booking her if you're going to be in Alaska around July 3rd, 2011. Even if you decide you don't need photographs of you and your loved ones (and why you wouldn't is beyond me ;)), would you please consider passing this information on to your friends and family who will be in Alaska?

Sarah

"Sun, Moon And Stars In Their Courses Above Join With All Nature In Manifold Witness"

I ordered a tee shirt to wear on my fall foliage bike tour. I expected it to come before I left Anchorage, but production delays pushed it back. They said they'd mail it right to Boston, so I'd still be able to wear it, but it never showed up.
Now we're home, and I honored Karen's birthday eve, as I always do, by opening a celebratory bag of Doritos and then eating a big meal, and then a big dessert, and then making sure there weren't any Doritos left over to tempt someone with less will power than I have.
Things all work together, and in sequence. Today, my Team Fatty tee finally arrived.

If I had 10 friends, I'd tell them

Breaking News! Latest CNN poll shows Lisa Murkowski tied with Miller at 37% while McAdams drops to 23% Tell 10 friends that we are making history!

Sent from my iPhone

Just Teesing

Oh, oh, I meant to include one more picture. Karen had the idea that for the rehearsal, and rehearsal dinner, we should have t-shirts made, so that the pastor and anyone, really, could keep track of who was whom (sorry, Mignon if I got that wrong).
We downloaded, legally, two pictures and put them on tees with names and wedding roles played. Unfortunately, we couldn't find the groom's until after the rehearsal, and in fact, not until after the wedding, so I'm going to show it to you here.

Tomorrow Never Comes, But The Day After Tomorrow Must, Because, Here We Are

Sarah's wedding day dawned picture perfect. Here's a link to my photos, but, really, don't waste your time. Here are a few from Sarah's professional photographer, and they're much, much better. After looking at those, I shouldn't have to mention that a little girl, seeing Sarah walk towards the staging area for the processional, said to her, "You're beautiful."
The wedding was held at the Franklin Park Zoo, as was, simultaneously, a qualifying half marathon for the Boston Marathon.  Parking was, again, at a premium; so much so that I had to enlist the police to clear interlopers from our reserved parking area. Just arriving at the wedding at all was a challenge since, because of the race, streets all over Boston were barricaded. Karen was to dress and be made up at the Bridesmaid's House, but after driving an hour and a half, we had to abandon that plan and agree to all meet at the restroom in the zoo's administration office. Even so, everyone looked resplendent in their dresses, and I was sporting my pith helmet again to practically universal acclaim (everyone except the bride, her mother and sister, oh, and her friends, liked it).
The marathon began and ended at the zoo, so I'm sure there is some cheesy metaphor that could be drawn about running a race through life together. I would have spent some time that day developing one, but there was actual cheese in the form of a cheese fountain(!)  that pretty much monopolized my time and attention. Although I did spare a little time for Whoopie Pies (also known as Big Fat Ones; it's like I have a twin), hot dogs, pretzels and custom-labeled root beer.
The ceremony itself, was lovely, but all of this is like trying to describe a dream. The sky was blue, the decorations were clever riffs on the circus theme, there was cotton candy and popcorn, and all of it more intense and colorful than I can convey.  The couple had chosen an unusual text, Isaiah 58: 1-10, but its emphasis on feeding the hungry reflected how they had met, and what their mutual passion is.
After the ceremony, photo shoots, and overeating,  I took Karen back to the hotel so she could rest, and I could get out of helping dismantle the wedding decorations.  Later we regrouped for an after party at a local cafe that had a cameo in Mystic River. Our waitress might  have played the surly extra.
The next day there was a brunch downstairs in the hotel where many of us were staying. There was great food provided by Sarah and Sean's friend, Christina (who has a lot better pictures and descriptions here), and the circus theme continued.
Then a quick drive to the airport and here we are back home, like waking from a dream.

Home Again, Although That Turns Out To Have To Wait For Another Post

The bicycle tour continued in a blur of exhilaration and great scenery. That's a link to my photos, but I hope to have some pictures soon from people that actually know how to use cameras.   Most of the riders rode about 45 miles a day on average, but Rich and I often took little scenic diversions by missing the arrows painted on the road. The last day included a ride a across the Lake Champlain Causeway, the eighth wonder of the world according to the tour guide in  what is only slight hyperbole. In the middle of the causeway, a washed-out bridge has been replaced by a bike ferry. Absolutely amazing.  A strong wind was blowing, making it hard to control the bikes, although, it wasn't like wearing Skechers on a Segway, which might have turned out to be my new phrase indicating a complete lack of control, if I hadn't gone on to see Boston drivers.

Rich, my ride partner, has always had a strong sense of right and wrong. He once told me that laws were meant to be enforced. There were no gray areas. One week of driving in Boston completely destroyed his moral code. Based on his new driving style, and its complete disregard of traffic markings ("They're just paint,") he could be an assassin. To be fair, defensive drivers in Boston are called, okay, I can't tell you what they're called, but it's not very nice.  It seemed that some of the chaos couldn't just be random. There appeared to be cars deployed in the center of traffic circles ready fly out at right angles to the flow of traffic to exit the circle and then (Leah saw this) pass on the right, run red lights, and then make a U-turn and come back to base to prepare for another mission. I don't think I'd be so willing to trust my life to the reflexes of strangers. 

We were driving around Boston attending events related to Sarah's trendy 10/10/10 wedding.  First there was a rehearsal at the Franklin Park Zoo, where a collegiate track meet was being held. Parking was at a premium and I ended up dropping Karen off at the gate, and then going off to look for a place to leave the car. Karen was in a lot of pain, and furious with her sense of being abandoned. "I'm going to just stand there and rattle a cup, and tell people I need fifty dollars to get home," she hissed.  She didn't, though, and she was still there when I walked the mile back from where I eventually parked the car. At the wedding rehearsal I learned my total involvement in the wedding would be to say, "Her mother and I do," and then to sit down. I don't want to write my own review, but, when the time came in real life, I nailed it. The rehearsal was followed by an indescribably good meal at the Midwest Grill in Cambridge. Leah and I had to walk quite a ways from the rehearsal to the car, and then follow cryptic GPS prompts to the restaurant. Part of what must fuel Boston driver's rage is that there are approximately no street signs, and no intersections with just two streets,  so any instruction to, "Turn right onto Washington St," for example, is meaningless since there are multiple spokes coming out of the intersection, and nothing distinguishes them. They could only make it harder by making you drive through infinite mirror rooms. Sarah called after we'd been driving for awhile to ask where we were. "I don't know where the ---- I am," I replied reasonably. The meal was worth it, however. Endless meat on sticks.
More about the wedding tomorrow.

Dreams Come True

Rich Living The Dream

We have arrived at our first stop on our Fall Foliage Tour around Lake Champlain. Today started with a six mile ride to a ferry. The ferry took us to New York state and then we rode forty six miles along the lake, ending just inside Canada. You may recall that I once said that our ride was in the Adirondacks, so I was hoping there would be chairs. I'm telling you, dreams come true as you might see in my next post if I can figure out how to post it

Sent from my iPhone

E Is For Eating

We arrived in Boston on Wednesday afternoon. We slept a lot on the plane, and went to bed early to gather our strength for the Big E, The Eastern States Exposition. One of the main topics of exposition was the various regional foods such as Vermont's Ben and Jerry ice cream, and poutine from the nearby state of Canada.

They also had pork in various formats, from on the hoof,

to the conceptual,

Although, eating them is a strange way to say, "Thank you."

There also was a judging of llamas and alpacas. I can never remember which is which, but I think the alpacas are the ones that never got over the disco craze,

I wore a pith helmet. Here's an interesting side note, different cultures express  meanings in different ways. So, in Iraq many people were killed at checkpoints because in the West, a raised hand means stop, and in the East, it can mean, approach. In the same way, I saw foreigners look at me, and then shake their heads at each other in a common expression of admiration.

Today, Rich and I went for a Segway tour of Boston. I was wearing my Skecher workout shoes that are designed to keep you off balance in order to strengthen leg and core muscles by constantly forcing tiny adjustments in balance. Which the Segway interpreted as commands. I had to get off during the first moments of practice due to nausea. The trainer commented that he'd never had a student get seasick on a Segway before, so I was the first! Barefoot, I eventually got enough control of the machine to go on the tour, even though they made me put my shoes back on.

 Because of the Skecher heel, I was constantly standing on tiptoe, so by the end of the tour my feet were quite sore. Other than that, it went pretty well, except for one little debacle going up a steep hill against a headwind. The machine and I could not achieve the speed necessary to keep going up, so we started to drift back down. Backwards.  I clutched at a bush and then held onto it until the guide came and towed me to the top. He kept calling me sir, in order to show that he was showing respect which emphasized how hard it was to show me any respect. Good thing that bush was there, though. By the way, props to the guide, who took this picture. Remember, that like an electron, well, an electron wearing Skechers on a Segway, I could never remain in one place, but was constantly drifting forward and backwards.