I feel like a food post

It is absolutely beautiful here! 74 degrees and sunny with a nice warm breeze. I have tomorrow off and it's supposed to be even nicer. I am going to go laze around in the park, after stopping by the library for something to read.

Jeff and I went to lunch at a little Italian place on Broughton and MLK called Constantino's, and I have to say it was really good. Mary at The Nursery told me to check it out. The price was right, about $6-8 a plate and Jeff and I both had really yummy sandwiches. I had the Tuscany which was fresh mozzarella, pesto and tomato on a thick and chewy French roll. Jeff had the Italian Burger which had mozzarella and Kalmata olives on a thick medium rare burger. Apparently, they have good house wine too, but we didn't check that out. They haven't been open very long, but they are already buying out the store next to them to expand. I'd rate it right up there with Sweet Potato as one of my favorite places to eat in Savannah.

I saw Lasagna on their menu, so when I went to the store I decided to get the stuff to make Jeff's Mom's Vegetarian Lasagna. It's very tasty, even if it is a bit of work and it is one of the few dishes of Jeff's Mom's that when I make it, Jeff doesn't say, "my mom's is different," (aka better). I'll put the recipe in the comments.

Pre-Cana Classes

So last weekend Jeff and I did our Pre-Cana classes. This is basically what the Catholic Church makes you do, so that they will marry you. It was a magnificent waste of time. We went from 6:30 - 9:30 Friday night and 8:00 to 6:30 Saturday. That's 13 hours of sitting in hard metal folding chairs having people talk about how communication is important, you should trust your partner, and it's a lifetime commitment. All things you should know before you got engaged. The day was broken up into hour long sessions on certain topics.

The most useful was the financial section, mostly because the couple that lead the section. He was a financial planner and she was a stay at home mom making ends meet. What I learned from them is that Pre-nuptial agreements are sometimes necessary if your family or you own a business or if your family has a lot of property that shouldn't be divided. They made some good arguments for it. Also, in GA once you are married everything you own would be split 50/50 where as, most other states, like Iowa, if you divorce you keep what was yours before the marriage and split only what was accrued during the marriage. Another thing they mentioned, was writing wills. Apparently once we get married we should make up a simple will listing each other as the benefactors. It just makes things easier if something should happen.

We also learned about Natural Family Planning, which I thought was really interesting. I always assumed it was very similar to the rhythm method. It’s a little different because it takes into account temperature at the cervix and how the cervix sits (soft, open, high, wet). I think I might try the charting part of it, just to understand better how my body works. Maybe I should add an instant read thermometer to our registry…

At the end of the Saturday we had to go to mass. It wasn’t a bad mass, I always feel a little weird when everyone goes up for communion, and I just sit there. But we did find a song we like for the wedding:

Chorus:
'Tis the gift to be simple,
'tis the gift to be free,
'tis the gift to come down where you ought to be,
And when we find ourselves in the place just right,
It will be in the valley of love and delight.
When true sim-pli-ci-ty is gained,
to bow and to bend we will not be ashamed,
to turn, to turn, will be our delight
til byturning, turning, we come 'round right.

Love is a gift within us all,
we need to learn to answer its call;
and we can live in harmony and peace once again
And will share our love and our joy with all men.

Chorus

'Tis the gift to be loved and that love to return,
'Tis the gift to be taught and a richer gift to learn,
And when we expect of o-thers what we try to live each day,
Then we'll all live together and we'll all learn to say

Chorus

Tapes

I purchased our card stock and envelopes today, from Treecycle.com. They should be here in about a week. I hope the paper is as pretty as it looks on the website. Even if it isn't, at least it is 100% earth friendly.

Jeff confirmed today that the church ladies will help serve our wedding reception. They have the coffee and tea set up, as well as the serving table linens. So all I will have to find, is somewhere to rent table clothes and cloth napkins. They also have champagne flutes, so I guess I will stop looking for vintage glasses to etch.

However, I still drive by two thrift stores on my way home from work, so I need new things to look for. Right now I am looking for cassette tapes. I still have a tape deck in my car, and taking a cue from my lovely sister I have started collecting tapes. So far I have collected some Indigo Girls, Credence Clear Water Revival, Paul Simon, Grateful Dead, AC/DC and some others I can't think of. Since the radio stations suck in Savannah, this has been a most entertaining way to get music for dirt cheep. The tapes are usually fifty cents to a dollar.

I have also been collecting plus size linen dresses in pretty colors, which I plan on remaking into aprons, so far I have the pattern cut out for one, but when I went to sew the first two pieces together, I accidentally did it reverse so now I have to rip that seam out and start over. I was so disgusted with myself, I haven't made a second attempt, maybe I'll try again tonight. I am basing my pattern on this lovely apron, however, I made it simpler my not doing the scallops edges.

Wednesdays and Saturdays

Some how I wound up with Wednesdays and Saturdays being my days off. It's wierd, it's like I have two week ends, each Tuesday and Friday I get all exciting because I have the next day off, but then it is over so fast. I miss having lots of free time. Now I actually have to plan what we are going to eat for several days in a row. I am hungry when I get home and I don't want to run to the store on a whim, it takes up too much of my time. Which is why Jeff is at the store right now getting chocolate chips and brown sugar to make cookies and I am sitting here.

Also, we don't go to the store together much anymore, we used to make it kind of a weekly excursion, but since I drive past a bunch of supermarkets to get to work, it just makes since that I do the shopping on the way home. When we shopped at the Super Wal-Mart it took us about 20 minutes to drive there so there was some built in chatting time. Now that I won't shop at Wal-Mart anymore, well you see that problem.

I guess what I am getting at is, having two jobs, and one I drive a ways to get to, really changes how I spend my free time.

Well that wasn't a particularly entertaining post, so here's something I find increadably repulsive, but laughable and I am sad to say it comes from Iowa. Sicko Marriage Contract.

Creepy Foot Guy

I worked all day Sunday at The Gallery. While I was sorting the stacks of prints, a guy came in. He was in sweats, not the velour fancy sweats that I some times see people wear, but the heather gray, bunched elastic at the ankle kind of sweats. The kind you wear to do yard work, or schlep around the house in. I asked if he needed help and he said he was just browsing. Then he told me he didn't mean to be out of line, but I had something on my foot. I looked down at my sandal and sure enough there's a piece of tape stuck to the bottom of my shoe. I pulled it off and walked over to the trash to throw it away. Then he told me he thought I had something in my shoe. So I looked, saw nothing and started to walk back towards the stacks, but he got in front of me and said it was still there. He said it was under my foot. So I took my sandal off and looked, nothing there, as I went to put my shoe back on he bent down and started touching my foot and then when I tried to pull my foot back he started massaging it. I pulled my foot away and told him, I thought he should leave. As he left he said, he didn't mean anything by it, I shouldn't be offended.

Creepy! Really creepy! I feel like my foot was violated.

I plan on wearing closed toed shoes to The Gallery in the future.

Valentine's Day

I worked at both the nursery and the gallery yesterday. So Jeff and I had dinner reservations at 8:45 at Garibaldi’s. It's a little Italian place that had been recommended to us. We'd never been there, but it was really beautiful inside, lots of mirrors and plants, it had the effect of being outside. We brought a bottle of wine with us, Cabernet Sauvignon, from the Chaddsford winery. Garibaldi's has a house rule that if it's not on the wine menu there is no corking fee. Which, I have to say, is the way to go. You don't have to pay the outrageous price for a glass of wine or risk getting a whole bottle of something you won't like. We already knew we liked this wine. So, we sipped our tasty wine and ordered the Rack of Lamb and Beef Tenderloin, then split them between ourselves. Really very good, the tenderloin was amazing, as was the potato cake that came with the lamb. The lamb was also quite good, but it was still on the bone, so it took some effort to eat. The mint chutney drizzled over the top, made that dish. For dessert we had a chocolate Belgium tort and coffee - so good! Also the service was wonderful, our waitress was lovely, prefect timing, and forgot nothing.

This is one of the nicest Valentine's Days I've ever had. I wasn't all tired or cranky from working at the flower shop nor were we in different states. Plus, I got to wear a pretty dress and pretty things under ... well you don't need to know that. Let's just say it was a good night as well as a good dinner.

I won my dress!

I won my dress, I won my dress, I won my dress! *squeals like a little girl*

No one else even bid on it. It's mine for $69.99 plus $10.00 shipping.

Now I must go get ready to work at the nursery, then I work at the gallery, then Jeff and I have really late dinner reservations. I am going to wear the beet dress. Too bad it is cold out, I'll have to cover it up with something to stay warm.

Happy V-day everyone!

New Color Swatch

I still like my first color swatch. I think soft colors are good for a morning wedding, but I came across this picture and I love the flowers and the clematis in Jeff's Mom's back yard will be in bloom, so I could use them. I won't be using hydrangeas though. They don't hold up out of water and they are so common these days. Clematis are actually quite expensive, think around $13 a bloom. Plus they would be organically grown and special, because they'd be from Jeff's garden. And we used the same Clematis in Sarah and Tom's cake flowers and center pieces.

So the colors will expand to include this darker purple.

Registering

So, on the long list of things to do for the wedding. I can now cross off, register at Bed Bath and Beyond. I did most of it online with the aid of my Cooks Illustrated kitchen equipment recommendations. The Calphalon pots and pans are generally very highly rated. Then we went to the store and picked out some more things. It was kind of fun, but we kept asking, "do we really need this, where do we store this if we go to Peace Corps for a year?" Then we registered for it anyway. They give cash refunds, if the item was off your registry. If we decide we really didn't need that, then we'll just return it. So no one get creative and buy something we didn't tell you to buy for us!

We are probably also going to register at Target because it is in Ames. Although I have heard returns can be troublesome and that we should wait until a closer date because Target tends to have a lot of seasonal stock.

Where else could we register that we be good for the Ames crowd? There are surely some local stores that would do a registry type deal for us. Worldly Goods? Kitchen Emporium? Outdoor Store? I bet Sears does registries, probably J. C. Pennies and Yonkers too, but do we want anything from there?

I found my dress!

As most of you know I have two dresses I've been looking at for the wedding. The Sophia by J. Crew and the Mary L Couture Shirred Bodice Gown. I have the Mary L Couture, and the Sophia, but the Sophia is the wrong size. The 10 was too big. I've been waiting for the 10 Petite to come up on auction for months now. Then one day I saw the same dress, but calf length and "Beet" colored, in a 10 Petite come up. I bought it and it fits perfectly. Now I have a dress for Valentine's Day and I know that I need a size 10 Petite for my wedding dress. I've been watching since before Christmas and never seen a 10 Petite in a Sophia Long Ivory apear on Ebay, but yesterday low and behold it did! So now I am anxiously awaiting the end of the auction and hoping no one else is. 10 Petite is kind of an odd size, so maybe no one else wants it, but 10 Petite is also a weird size because it never comes up. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I can get if for under $100. You keep your fingers crossed too.

Etch Stationary Camera

I have etched all the wine glasses we have. It took two nights to get them finished at about 3 minutes per glass. They look nice. It took me almost 20 glasses to get to the point where I could make them look right every time. We have a ton of etching stuff left over. If anyone needs some glass etching stuff, let me know. Now that I have two jobs, I'll be working a lot more so I don't know how much free time I'll have, it's nice to get it out of the way.

Today Jeff and I went on a hunt for stationary. I wanted it to be recycled and pretty and cheap. We didn't find anything that fit the bill at Office Max, Michael's, Office Depot, or Party Time. But I did learn about how thick certain types of paper are, as well as get rechargeable batteries for our new digital camera (more on that in a second). I looked around online and I found this paper that I really like by Genesis that is made of 100% post consumer waste and it comes in Cardstock and many sizes of envelopes. I think we'll use a plainer hemp paper for the enclosures (map, and website info). My favorite color is the Milkweed. We have to order at least 250 sheets of the cardstock, so I should have plenty to do the Thanks Yous, RSVP postcards, and programs (if I decide I want those, at the moment I could care less about them). All the stationary should be $52.00 or so. Then Jeff will have to create the image and layout for the cards. We have plenty of time to get this done, but again, I want to get as much out of the way before we get busy and suddenly realize it's three weeks before the wedding and Jeff is graduating and we have to pack up and move.

As for the new camera, I kept an eye on eBay and we got a Canon A95 Powershot. Our main reasons for getting this camera are: it's last year's model so it's cheaper, it has a screen that flips out, we can use our existing memory cards and you can use it like a point and shoot with out the LCD screen if you want. It's kind of a belated Christmas present that we both chipped in on for ourselves. Right, now the batteries are charging, so hopefully it all work perfectly in the morning.

My new job is awesome

I really like my new job at H&Z nursery. They have a main location that is actually quite close, but I work at their satellite place out on Wilmington Island. It's a nice little place and the people who work there are nice and interesting and laid back. It's a super low stress job, well at the moment, it's not really Spring yet, so it's not really busy. I like it and they are paying me well. Even though I have to drive all the way out there, it's about 25 minutes, I drive by two Good Wills, so I can also stop at two Good Wills, which is awesome!

Why not to live in Savannah GA

1. My car window was broken out
2. The drug dealers on the corner
3. The cop who told me I shouldn't file a report because my car window wasn't a big deal
4. The fence in the backyard that was ripped down to see what was on the other side. The answer was trash.
5. The plastic that covered my broken window was broken out
6. Bikes belonging to roommates stolen off the chain link fence in front of the house
7. The guy who broke into Daniel’s car and tried to steal her CDs, but she caught him she and told him she hoped he like Phish CDs because that's all he was getting. He put them back.
8. The guy who got shot and killed at the BP on the corner - and it turned out to be mistaken identity
9. Susan’s bike was stolen off at bike rack while she was in class
10. The "warning" shots that were fired across the street in a "domestic disturbance"
11. The guy who offers to "highlight" me whenever I walk to the library
12. Andy’s computer was stolen out of his house
13. Molly's bike was stolen out of the root cellar
14. Marigold’s review mirror was broken off, most likely by some kids with a baseball bat.
15. Marigold and Steve's apartment being robbed over Christmas
16. This afternoon, while I was home, someone stole two of the bikes off the bike rack in our back yard. They didn’t take mine because I have a U-lock and their bolt cutters couldn’t get through it. We think it was Phil’s and Chris’s bikes who were taken. They were nice enough to leave the cut locks on the bike rack though.

All of this has happened in less than two years to people we know directly in our neighborhood.

Etching

The etching supplies arrived yesterday. Jeff and I tried them out. Our first attempts were terrible. As you can see in the left picture, the etching cream bled outside the lines. We tried it several times and they were all equally as bad. We were contemplating calling the company and complaining, or maybe ordering a more horizontal stencil, so it would fit the curve of the glass better. Then I decided to check and make sure that the company had advertised their product for use on wine glasses. When I looked that up, I found out there is an entirely different procedure for etching wine glasses/coffee mugs. That method was much different. It involved a hair dryer and only leaving the etching cream on for 30 seconds as compared to the 15 minutes the directions in the box came with. Now I can consistently get nice looking etches. Yeah! Although, we did ruin four of our glasses with the original attempt. This annoys me, the person we talked to when ordering the supplies knew we were going to use it on wine glasses and never mentioned their was a different way to do wine glasses, nor did they include those instructions in the package.