exit, pursued by bear

veiled musings ...

Have no clue about veils, or really most anything bridal or having to do with weddings. Challenging, I know, seeing as I am planning a wedding ...

I do, however, love birdcage veils ... I probably would look completely ridiculous in one, not like this charming young woman:

How chic is she??!

get fit.

Ever since we got our beloved Wii, I've been wondering when they were going to come out with a fitness/workout type game.

I think a few "bees" over at Wedding Bee are using their Wii's as part of their wedding-ready fitness regimen.

Apparently the wait is over ...

Wish I was at E3! :: pout ::

posters!

Jeremy received a gift certificate to AllPosters.com for his birthday a few months back -- and we're still facing the dilemna of what shoud adorn our walls. While we both share a love of vintage and vintage-inspired posters ... we have yet to reach an agreement. Here are some of my contenders:

Oooh! Very similar to one we already own:



Love this ... doubt he'll ever go for it ;o)

The New Victorians.

Can I just say -- despite all the detractors at Gawker -- I thought this was a great article.

Okay, great may be pushing it -- but I thought it was interesting and it made me giggle. A lot.

The New Victorians
They Fall in Love, Dear Reader, Buy Strollers, Hire Cooks — Heath, Michelle, Liv, Nicole Join Prissy New Bourgeoisie! ‘We’ve Leaped to Our Parents’ Level of Success Right Away’
By Lizzy Ratner
July 10, 2007
The New York Observer

... But recent years have seen a breed of ambitious, twentysomething nesters settling in the city, embracing the comforts of hearth and home with all the fervor of characters in Middlemarch. This prudish pack—call them the New Victorians—appears to have little interest in the prolonged puberty of earlier generations. While their forbears flitted away their 20’s in a haze of booze, Bolivian marching powder, and bed-hopping, New Vics throw dinner parties, tend to pedigreed pets, practice earnest monogamy, and affect an air of complacent careerism. Indeed, at the tender age of 28, 26, even 24, the New Vics have developed such fierce commitments, be they romantic or professional, that angst-ridden cultural productions like the 1994 movie Reality Bites, or Benjamin Kunkel’s 2005 novel Indecision, simply wouldn’t make sense to them.

When I moved back to Saint Louis after graduating from NYU, I was dumbfounded by the number of people my age who were getting married and thinking about starting a family.

That fall I started an internship -- out of my intern class of, oh say 15 recent college graduates, five were married/engaged and a vast majority of the rest were at the very least well on their way to being so (living with someone, dating long-term, etc.).

Me? I wasn't even dating someone, let alone contemplating china patterns and preschools. I felt like such an outsider, a failure at an apparently predetermined destiny. None of my friends from college were even remotely contemplating marriage at the time. It seemed like such a midwestern pursuit. So I dismissed it as such.

Clearly the times they are a-changin' 

Eminent New Victorian couples can be found all over New York these days, puttering about their brownstones (original detail carefully restored), or pushing babies with names like Beatrice, Charlotte, Theodore and Henry in gigantic prams to the local playground. Some of them are famous. Actors Michelle Williams, 26, and Heath Ledger, 28 (himself named for Emily Brontë’s brooding hero!), swan about Boerum Hill with daughter Matilda; authors Jonathan Safran Foer and Nicole Krauss, both kissing 30, snuggle in Park Slope with son Sasha (with its turrets and trimmings, the Slope is a New Vic neighborhood preserved in aspic). Down in the West Village, we have Liv Tyler, barely 30, the daughter of Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler and legendary rock-star muse Bebe Buell, who’s now contented wife to Royston Langdon and mother of 2-year-old Milo. “I’ve always been super-responsible and hardworking and kind of a worrier,” she recently told Allure. Even former rebel Angelina Jolie has turned somewhat New Vic on us, what with her adopted brood and her causes and empathetic emaciation. Yes, the wasting disease!

Well I'm glad that now my little nesting self isn't leaving my New York counterparts behind. Apparently I've stumbled into some sort of fashionable pursuit. Or at least I'm part of the joke and can be justifiably mocked.

The Prophet

"Then a woman said, 'Speak to us of Joy and Sorrow.'

And he answered: Your joy is your sorrow unmasked.

And the selfsame well from which your laughter rises was oftentimes filled with your tears.

And how else can it be? The deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain.

Is not the cup that hold your wine the very cup that was burned in the potter's oven?

And is not the lute that soothes your spirit, the very wood that was hollowed with knives?

When you are joyous, look deep into your heart and you shall find it is only that which has given you sorrow that is giving you joy.

When you are sorrowful look again in your heart, and you shall see that in truth you are weeping for that which has been your delight.

Some of you say, 'Joy is greater than sorrow,' and others say, 'Nay, sorrow is the greater.'

But I say unto you, they are inseparable.

Together they come, and when one sits alone with you at your board, remember that the other is asleep upon your bed.

Verily you are suspended like scales between your sorrow and your joy.

Only when you are empty are you at standstill and balanced.

When the treasure-keeper lifts you to weigh his gold and his silver, needs must your joy or your sorrow rise or fall."

- Kahil Gibran
The Prophet - "Joy and Sorrow"

Oooh!

Y'all I totally need this apron! How awesome would it look with my super-swank reception linens?!

Can you wear an apron with a wedding gown? Eh. Probably not. Could come in handy though, knowing my propensity to dribble food all over myself.

(via Hostess with the Mostess blog)

Dino comics!

Hmm. I'm totally guilty of frequent emoticon use in most (OK, fine: all) of my correspondence. Seriously, I even write out smiley faces.

(click to make bigger/readable)

Derby time.

From Bostonist:

We have a confession to make: we didn't pay a lot of attention to last night's Home Run Derby. Our tolerance for Chris Berman yelling "back back back" is low. Our desire to see kayakers crashing into each other in San Francisco Bay was present, but not overwhelming. And without Papi, what's the point?

Heh. We actually did catch most of the Home Run Derby last night ... well, up until Pujols was eliminated. I maintain that his failure is due to my sheer (largely unfounded) hatred that I direct towards him at all times.

Tho' to be honest, most of the home run derby players are pretty obnoxious about the whole thing. C'mon! Get out there and hit some damn balls -- it's like pulling teeth getting players to join. I love how Pujols "agreed to participate." How generous of him.

Idiot. Don't you tip your hat at me mister!! (Cute kid though!)

Do people pay money to watch this thing played out from the stands? Huh.

Berman was in rare form. Not that I would really know, but hey -- I can still be annoyed.

Can't believe we missed out on this drinking game!

the Norm.

We can't have a Louis picture without a Norman picture! The Norm demands equal picture posting opportunities!

This is my favorite picture of the Norm, for several reasons. It was taken last October during our trip to the Smoky Mountains, while driving through Cades Cove right before we headed back to Saint Louis. Norm had previously slept in his car seat the whole way to Tennessee and during most of our other driving excursions over the course of the trip. This photo documents pretty much the one and only time Bubba showed any interest in what was going on in the world outside his car seat.

He's sporting his little blue hoodie, since the Norm does not like getting chilly. Note the white portion is not a fur collar, but rather his neck chunk. The Norm is a little bit of a stuffed sausage in that hoodie. Also please observe his tongue in its natural position: sticking out of his mouth.

This pic shows Norm's true "Bubba-ness." The reasons why Norm is a Bubba are vast and varied -- we'll just leave it at that for now ;o)

The Lou ... is a menace!

Just had to post this picture today of our little menace. This was taken last month at our June French Bulldog Meetup.

The Lou is very proud of himself here. Look at that grin. The puddles all around him are the result of his menacing behavior. His favorite activity is "going swimming" in any available body of water, including communal water bowls.

I love him to bits.

Also - a big hello to my foot that's also making an appearance in the top left corner.