Brought to you by the number 2

We’re in the less than 2 month mark.  This means the following.

1. Things are crazy busy
2. I have a mini meltdown every few days
3. I have written about 1000 thank you notes
4. I am at once SUPER excited the big day is almost here and FREAKING OUT that the big day is almost here.
5. I am reminded seemingly every weekend of how much love and support we have around us

But this post, has been brought to you by the number 2.

2 Weekends

2 Families

2 Showers

for

2 People (that’s us)

Let’s face it.  I’m seriously slacking on the blog front.  Part of it is because I’m a busy little bee on all the details. And the other part is that a lot of those details are surprises – so not great to blog about if I’d like to keep it that way.  But because of the busy part I’ll give a quick recap of the beautiful showers that were thrown for me over the last two weekends.

First – my family.  My mom has had showers for all of her family when they got married or had babies.  Kind of comes with the territory when you’re the oldest of ten kids, but mostly it’s because she’s cool like that.  Also when you’re the oldest in a big family you are generally called upon to represent that family, so Sista and I found ourselves all dolled up many a Sunday afternoon to attend yet another shower.  With each and every one Mom would say, “One day it will be your turn, and they will all come for you.”  Moms.  What’s with them and always being right?

They did come, for the most part – it is the middle of summer after all. And we enjoyed one of the hottest days of the summer outside in the gorgeous sun…. until no one could take it any more and we headed back in to the glorious air conditioning. Heaven.

Highlights included:

1. Lots of help from my 2 fabulous little cousins with the opening of gifts.  They were so efficient Sista and I could hardly keep up.
2. Brownies made by my lovely little cousin Demi… who is not little at all anymore but the fact that she’s 16 makes me feel old so I just like to pretend.
3. Catching up with the extended extended family – showers are a much better place to do this than funerals I find.
4. Not crying during my thank you – is this a sign of things to come?
5. The lovely chocolate inspired gift from one of my aunts that melted in the sun when we thought the party would stay outside. And my cousin Olivia (3) dripping in Hershey’s kisses that were not in fact just soft but COMPLETELY melted (when I told her she was dripping and put my hand under hers to catch the drips she dumped the whole thing in my hand… I would have just licked it off but it’s amazing how classy I can keep it when all eyes are on me)
6. Cupcakes.  Oh the cupcakes.  Enough said.
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Last weekend we went to beautiful downtown Thamesford, where you can find the Boy’s parent’s new house for shower #2 with the new family. The Boy’s mom or FMIL (Future Mother in Law – for those not familiar with the Bridal lingo) threw us a lovely shower with all of the ladies from the Boy’s family and “the community.” To be honest – because that’s what I’m about here whenever FMIL talks about “the community” it makes me think of the movie Hot Fuzz with the whacked out little village with the cult neighbourhood watch that go around killing everyone that does anything that makes “The Community” look bad and justify it all with “It’s for The Greater Good – the Grea

ter Good.”  That may not make any sense at all to anyone else but it makes me laugh every time.  ANYWAY, I met “the community” last weekend and they don’t seem cultish at all – and there was definitely no strange disappearances.  (Seriously if you haven’t watched that movie you should – it’s awesome.)

Highlights included:

1. FSIL (Future Sister in Law for those that are a little slow) showing up 10 minutes before people were to arrive with unbrushed teeth and a hangover.  She quickly got herself together and most never knew of the rough shape of her dehydrated brain – until now. What?  It made me laugh!
2. When I introduced my mom to everyone in the room (most of whom I had just met) and  I skipped over one lady to try to buy myself some time my mom said – “Meaghan you missed her!”  Thanks mom way to point out my not so subtle effort. (It was actually fine and I was going in the order that they came in to help my overtaxed memory – I don’t think I offended anyone)
3. Meeting members of the Boy’s family who are huggers!  My family is slowly converting the Boys immediate family into huggers (they mostly high-five and fist bump) so when the extended family, who I had just met went to hug me I almost didn’t know what to do with myself!
4. All of the good country wife swag.  I don’t mind since I love to bake and cook but I thought it was really funny just how much of that stuff we got in one shower – complete with an angel bell – to call him for dinner I assume? Got to keep that man happy and full after all! 🙂
5. The 365 Vegetarian Meals cookbook from the Boy’s Grandma. I knew she was on my side!
6. The conversation that followed about how I will never be able to make my farm boy a vegetarian (for the record I brought chicken home last night and the Boy said, “Meat? What’s going on here? I thought you wanted to eat more vegetarian?” Love him!)

Yes all in all it was a whirlwind of not just one weekend but TWO! The Boy was thrilled that they were both girls only showers and his role in wedding celebrations both weekends involved golfing. Oh! And I didn’t cry during my thank you at the second shower either – I’m telling you I’ve got this under control!

I still didn’t remember to take pictures.  Blast.

Follow me on Twitter today and you might just get a surprise… I’m off for fitting number 1 tonight!

Related articles

• We’re Havin’ a Party! (gingerandgiant.wordpress.com)
• Showered with Love (gingerandgiant.wordpress.com)

If you can’t stand the heat – don’t cry at me in January!

Not sure if you’ve heard – Ontario Eastern Canada is seeing some record highs the last couple of weeks. In the last 26 days we’ve had 6mm of rain. We should have had 51mm.  Last year during the same period of time we had 121mm. That’s a big difference.

The other night I was making dinner and looked out the door to see a few drops fall from the sky.  I shouted at the Boy “It’s raining!” He moved at break-neck speeds to verify that I wasn’t lying, and brought his iPhone just to make sure that his eyes weren’t deceiving him. We both stared in awe and wonderment.  Rain.  If feels like forever since I’ve seen you old friend.  The Boy checked his phone. He loves the radar. Sure enough – it was raining.  There was a teeny tiny pocket of rain hovering right over our house.  Beyond that – nada.

Of course it hasn’t been that long since it’s rained.  In May we had the second soggiest weather we’ve seen in 20 years with 136mm of rain over the month. It was nuts and we thought we’d never see the sun again.

The weather network assured us we were in for a long HOT dry summer.  We didn’t believe them.  I mean, who believes the weather network?

Alas, here it is.  And I love it.  I love the heat.  I love the sun. I love the sanctity of air conditioning.  This is what we hope for not just in January but from November – April.  Fingers are firmly crossed for a long hot summer. 

Well, we got what we all asked for.

Here is today’s temperature map:

 

That’s us at the bottom.  Where it’s so hot it’s not even red anymore.  Toronto’s projected high today is 38C or 49C with the humidity.  (That’s 120.2F for my American friends)

Luckily we live in Northern Ontario – you know where the dot is. Our high is only 36C or 46C with the humidity. (That’s only 114.8F) I’m telling you it’s like the arctic up here! 

Seriously kids, enjoy the warm but make sure to take care of your animals.  And if you find yourself about to complain – take a moment…

And think of January.

Mmmm Veggies

The Boy and I had a really busy weekend.  It involved moving some great friends to their first home.  Celebrating Dad’s 65th birthday with delicious dinner. And another wedding shower – seriously we are too spoiled.

It also involved a lot of meat. Sista is currently reading Eating Animals and is seriously considering going full out veggie.  I’m scheduled to read it next and it’s something I’ve been giving more and more thought to. (The Boy is probably going to read this and send me a text message that says – “Ummm what?!”)  Anyway, we were both meated out by Monday.

So we’ve been going veggie so far this week.

I’m following some food blogs right now.  They are delightful.

When I see something good I bookmark it – I should really be using a social bookmark – but I don’t.  Although I did just read about optimizing my Google Reader (I follow Connie who guest posted about it, she’s a SITSta and hilarious) – so maybe I’ll start doing that.

Monday I made Macaroni Salad from 101 Cookbooks. I  didn’t have enough green onions so I subbed in some other onions.  The Boy wanted cold pasta salad so I cooled the pasta right down.  It was good.  It kind of tasted like a fresh arugula salad with pasta, in a good way. It was definitely summary and the next day – possibly even more delicious.

Yesterday I made two delicious recipes.  Well, I thought they were both delicious.  The Boy said the burgers were a little too “beany” still.  He doesn’t like the texture. But I think the next time I make them we’ll try to BBQ them and maybe they’ll dry out a little bit more in the middle.  But if you’re not a weirdo about beans like the Boy is – I think you’ll find these veggie burgers PERFECT.  Hey – it’s in the title  We had them in broken wraps instead of as burgers.  But they were REALLY good in this humble opinion.  The Boy thought agreed they were tasty – it’s a texture thing for him. These beauties were from Oh She Glows who not only has delicious veggie burgers but awesome looking Blizzard recipes too – just sayin’.

I also made my very first batch of Mmm Sauce.  All I can say is Mmmmmm is a VERY accurate description.  What made me extra happy? It tastes just like the mystery sauce at Rawlicious.  Pealightful Peas and Thank You!

What foodies are you loving these days?

YouTube Friday Returns!

I know it’s been a few weeks. But picking up from yesterday’s post on my love affair with my Sista’s  Blendtec blender I give you  – Will it Blend!

The Sista is coveting an iPad right now as Tom says, sure it can change your life but… Will it blend?

 

The Boy loves to golf.  And since he’s working at a golf course over the summer our stock pile of balls has no signs of running short.  But… will they blend?

 

We’ve also been ring shopping lately – the Boy’s is ordered and mine will be ordered next week.  They say diamonds are forever.  But… will they blend?

 

No wonder it can juice delicious beets and pumpkin seeds in just 60 seconds!

As you spend your Friday getting hooked into this wonderful, productive and educational video series, remember it was brought to you by The Twenties Roar.  You’re welcome.  Take a look around and let me know which one is your favourite. Can you think of something they haven’t tried?

Hope you enjoy a beautiful weekend. It’s going to be hot hot hot here!

Breakfast of Champions

Here’s a little update on how my Clean Eating Challenge has been going so far.  The Bizios is off having her baby – but I did get a passing grade at my last appointment.  The trick is not to fall off the wagon now that I’m not seeing her monthly for a while.

This Clean Eating stuff by the way – while it takes more planning – is pretty darn good. I may not have lost pounds per se but I have lost inches (SCORE!) so much so that I simply had to get a new sundress for the summer since the one I bought last year looks like I’m wearing  a potato sack.

The key? Two words. Limited*. Sugar.  Healthy snacks and/or healthier snacks like the Dairy Queen Blizzards the Boy and I had last night  the two dates and almond butter I’ve been enjoying lately are both filling, sweetly satisfying and don’t give me the sugar high or crash that afternoon cookies do. (*Note the last time I did an allergen free diet I had zero sugar (or as close to it as I could get). I’m not doing that this time because my digestive system is much happier than it was then and absolutely no sugar is a pain in the butt and feels really restrictive.)

The biggest thing that I’ve been doing since the beginning of July is juicing.  Not with a juicer, but with an insanely powerful blender.  Ladies and Gentlemen the Blendtec, made famous by “Will it Blend” YouTube fame has entered my life.  On loan.

Sista has moved home for the summer. Mom has a Blendtec of her own, which meant Sista’s Blendtec was sitting idly by not being used.  So I stole it.  The Boy caught on immediately and said “Why are you bringing another blending device into this apartment!”  He was not happy.  But since my little blender (still a very good one) won’t do what the Blendtec does – I ignored him and to his satisfaction found our new house guest a spot in our tiny kitchen.

Each day I start my morning with the following:

• 1 beet (this one was pretty big so I only used half)
• Some celery (about 1 stalk)
• Some carrot (about 1)
• 1 Lemon
• 1 Apple
• Some kale (or any other green – sometimes I just use the beet leaves)
• A few frozen strawberries
• 1 pear
• 2 tbsp ground flax
• Some pumpkin seeds
• 1 zucchini (this was the first time I’d used zucchini – made it kind of creamy)

The secret ingredient?

• 3 dates (remove the pits)

Everything goes in pretty much whole:

• I cut the half beet into about 4 chunks – those things are hard and no need to make the blender do all the work.
• Pit the dates
• Core the apple and pear
• Peel the lemon and remove as many seeds as you can.
• cut the ends off the zucchini

Jam it all into the blender:

You will notice it’s filled right to the top – add some water.

Turn the bad boy on to Whole Juice:

60 seconds. That’s right just 60 SECONDS later you will have this:

You could drink all of it all day.  But I don’t.  I have a glass in the morning at home and take my container to work to sip on all morning.  Then I’ve got about 24oz for tomorrow – and about 5 extra minutes in the morning – score!

It’s juicy. It’s delicious. The contents change every day (or every other day).  The Boy isn’t on board yet – too scared; but I am planning on convincing him through a fruitier concoction just as soon as we have a weekend at home… so August.

Blendtec – if you find this blog be a sport – send me my own.  This one has to go home to it’s owner in September and then I’ll be left with toast and almond butter. It’s just not the same.

 What do you eat/drink for breakfast?

Showered with Love

Thank you notes are officially out for this one – at least that’s the story I’m sticking to for why it took me two weeks to blog about it.

You’ve heard about my second family before.  They were there the night we got engaged and we were groupies when one of the band toured Ontario last summer.  I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again – there’s two types of families in this world: the one you’re given and the one you choose.  This party was thrown by our chosen family.  It was awesome and we love them so much.

Highlights of the party include:

• Coming into a house full of my parents friends, full of hugs and love
• Finding the Boy in the midst of the masses and having him ask me “Do you know all of these people?” Uhhh YES!
• The number of people who commented on our wed-site.
• My Godfather calling the Boy the wrong name in his speech about how much he has enjoyed “following [us] around these last few years”
• Not learning my lesson and forgetting to eat much during the day.
• Learning my lesson and making sure to get more than a few bites and cake – I can honestly report the food was definitely delicious!
• The Boy got over his fear of carrot cake (used to love it until eating 1/4 of a 9″ three-layered cake on the way home from Toronto to London 4 years ago – hasn’t had any since) But who could resist this?

Delicious carrot cake artfully decorated by a beautiful friend

 

Now let me tell you a little story about our lovely gift.  For this party our generous hosts chose to collect for one group gift.  I knew it would be one of a couple options. But the one they chose – well I was so overwhelmed.

When we went on our first big registering trip the Boy brought his grumpy pants.  He wasn’t miserable but he refused to get excited about it.  He kept groaning about the ridiculousness of the whole custom and “do we really need *insert pretty much anything we registered for here.“ One of the things he had the hardest time with was cookware.

When I pointed the registry gun at the beautiful beautiful All-Clad Copper Core Stainless Steel cookware set – he lost his mind.  This was our conversation:

Boy – What are you doing?

Meaghan – Choosing the pots and pans that I researched and chose.

B – This is ridiculous

M – No it’s not.

B – We have pots and pans – we bought them a year ago.

M – Yes, we do and we did.  But we paid $20/pot for what we have.

B – They work fine.

M – Yes. They do for now.  But they won’t last forever, and when they fall apart we won’t have 150 people looking to get us a gift.  These are beautiful, awesome and come with a life-time warranty

B – That’s fine. But who is going to buy us this?

M – We’re not asking 1 person to buy us this. And if no one does then we are no worse off.  We still have pots and pans.

B – Whatever. You’re crazy.

So we registered.  And we kind of forgot about it. So when we opened our beautiful beautiful cookware I immediately thought “I am becoming one of those people.  I am positively giddy about pots and pans.”

The Boy I think was floored – shocked that this group of people, people not even related to us, some of whom he had just met – came together and showered us with such love and such a beautiful and thoughtful gift.

This is how the Boy supports my blog. He had them all set up for their photo shoot when I got home from work the next day.

I mentioned in my 2 month recap there was a shower and there was crying.  Yeah.  I am my mother’s daughter. I tried to thank everyone. I practiced in the car for about 2 hours. I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t get through it without crying.  W-day plan – find a spot on the wall and stare at it. Do not look at anyone – especially my mother.

The sentiment got through though I think.  If in 35 years the Boy and I have a kid that’s getting married and we have such a wonderful large group of people excited to come together and celebrate that kid like it was one of their own.  We’ll definitely have done something right.

2 Months to go. For reals.

2.

Two.

Deux.

Dos.

That’s all the languages I know. Doesn’t change anything. OMG we’ve only got two months to go! TWO MONTHS! Less than 9 weeks.

Let me tell you a little story.  As I was going through the Blog history I came to realize what a crappy job I’ve been doing re: blogging all of this, at least for this month.  Sorry about that.  I also noticed that while I thought I was keeping on top of all of this stuff – I have not. There’s a lot of stuff on the “to do list” from last month that I still haven’t done.  I had a feeling this was the case – I am a procrastinator by nature and I knew it was only a matter of time before it caught up with me.

To combat this genetic nature of mine I spent some time this weekend making a master To Do List.  I called it “To Do Before I Do.”  Clever I know. I’m at 80 items and we’ve only just begun.  I’ll give you the final count once I get there and a little plug out to my new organizational friend TODOIST.com  but the short version is – I love it.

Let’s get right to it before I run out of time completely.

What we’ve been up to this month:

• We enjoyed our first wedding shower – I know I’m behind the 8-ball but stay tuned tomorrow and I’ll tell you all about it.  It was awesome. I cried.
• We had beautiful engagement pictures and ordered prints.  Beautiful I tell you.
• We sent out invitations
• We got our first RSVP from Sista’s manfriend – shout out!
• To date we have heard from 80 people (that’s just over half and they’ve got another week to go)
• I started thinking about music for the reception and started creating the lists.
• We made a wine decision
• I shopped for W-party gifts and other VIPs gifts – I’d tell you but then I’d ruin the surprises, so you’ll have to wait.
• Yesterday I ordered The Boy’s w-ring. It’s a beauty again – more to follow.
• We finalized transportation for our w-party and for our guests (giant yellow school bus will be taking guests from the hotel to the reception and home again – no drinking and driving at this wedding please!)

What’s on tap:

• Another 2 wedding showers (we are so spoiled with love it’s amazing)
• Bachelor/Bacheloretting
• Order my w-ring (like today!)
• Visit our venue with our florist
• Get the rest of those RSVPs back and start harassing people who have dropped the ball
• Dress visit (they still haven’t called – should I be worried?)
• Dress fitting #1
• Meet with our Priest (he keeps telling me – “yeah no problem whatever you want buddy” reassuring but I think we should write a few things down)
• AND about a million other things.

My goal all along has been to not have THAT much to do the week before. I’m starting to realize that if I’d like that to be the case – I better get on it!

How do you keep on top of things when life gets crazy

image from here

Engagement Pictures

They came, they finally came! Engagement pictures are here. Hooray! Okay, so it wasn’t actually long at all that I had to wait – our awesome photographer is cool like that.  But I’ve been so looking forward to them ever since we initially met with our photographer.  Before you get to see – no peeking until I’m done – I’ll tell you a little story about how we got to where we were.

The Boy is a country mouse and I am a city girl.  We live in the burbs ie. Northern Ontario but I would love it if we lived in Toronto, and the Boy would love it if we lived on a farm.  In the middle of nowhere. With animals.  And manure.  I would not like this. So we don’t.

When we looked at wedding venues you may recall we ended up at Waterstone Estate and Farm because it was a beautiful combination of the two of us.  The venue is an Estate Home – and it’s beautiful.  The grounds are a working horse farm complete with an old hay barn and acres of green giving the feeling that you’re in the middle of nowhere.

When I first spoke to David at West Photo we talked about our wedding photos and that they would have a largely country feel – being in a barn and all.  When we talked about engagement pictures I asked if we could do them in the city.  At first I was thinking about doing our photos in the alleys of Queen Street West where my boyfriend Rick Mercer does his rants. But then I had a brilliant idea.

Streetcars.

My Grandfather on my Mom’s side was a mechanic for TTC and worked on the TTC Streetcars.  My parents and brother and I think a couple Aunts have pictures of Toronto Streetcars in their homes.  I’ve always liked them.  But official art is not exactly in the budget so we made our own!

David thought it was a great idea and I put Dad on the case.  He crafted a well written letter explaining the significance to us and my family.  The TTC was very accommodating and we set a date for early June.  When we got there we had to sport some super awesome vests, for safety.

But then we were off to the races.  David had some concerns that the light inside the streetcar would be terrible, to be honest I had some concerns that the inside would be hideous.  We were both wrong.  The light was awesome and other than the no smoking signs (which will be edited out of the pictures we print) the inside was just as awesome as the outside.

The TTC let us use the PCC Streetcar circa 1950 for an hour on a Sunday afternoon.  The super old ones are also available (who knew) but since they are in heavy storage they require a fee to have someone take them out of storage and my guess is clean it off before you can use it.  Fine by me the PCC is what I had in mind.  Beauty.  Love it! 

After many, many shots inside – we headed outside.

Love.

When we went to see them The Boy was a little nervous that they weren’t going to turn out.  Never doubting David’s mad skills but rather his own complete and total discomfort in front of a camera.  He hates having his picture taken.  We had pictures done a couple of years ago and we had to reshoot because he looked so uncomfortable.  But this time it was just us (and my mom sneaking looks while my Dad learned all about the TTC from our friendly supervisor) and the Boy had a beer beforehand seemed much more comfortable. So when he nervously asked if they turned out okay, David reassured him.  “They’re awesome man, and in some of them – you’re not even just a prop!”  Sweet.

I’ve got plans for all these pictures because I love them. LOVE. Did I mention that? Don’t you love them? How can you not? David has offered to help me realize my vision once I figure it out entirely (more on that sometime).  But after seeing these and how quickly and easily he got so many amazing shots we are even more thrilled with our choice of photographer (I didn’t think it was possible but it’s true). 

 The Boy’s take on it all, “David is super quick and clearly loves his job.  I like that.”

What more could you want?

Did you have Engagement pictures done?  Where were yours? Was there a story behind them?

Photo credit where it’s due – all of these awesome shots are from West Photo in Richmond Hill.  Don’t take what’s not yours – it’s impolite.

Enjoying the ol’ ball game… seriously

The Boy and I spent Saturday at the Blue Jays game.  I may have mentioned this before – I don’t do baseball. I’ll go and I watch, and I’ll watch it at home because the Boy has it on and is terrible at sharing.  But mostly I go and I watch because the Boy loves baseball.  Seriously loves it.  Since I love the Boy, I watch far more baseball than I care to.

And hockey.

And golf.

And football.

I’ve gotten sidetracked.

This weekend the Boy went to two baseball games in a row.  TWO.  I did not.  I was not invited to the first one, which was fine with me.  But I did go to the second.  Better yet, I actually enjoyed it.  I spent some time thinking about what made it a great afternoon and have come up with a list of 10 required elements to make a baseball game from bearable to actually fun!

1. $14 tickets.  If we spend any more than the minimum on our seats I pretty much immediately have my grumpy pants on.  It’s the same game from wherever you’re sitting.  Why do we have to pay more? And when you’re sitting up top, it’s a great birds-eye view of the whole game.
2. Shade.  If you’re ever at a Blue Jays game in the SkyDome, and you agree with element #1 request these seats Section 530, Row 21.  You will find yourself at the VERY top of the 500 level and in the sweet sweet shade.  Not only are you not sweating like you’re sitting directly ON the sun, you also won’t leave looking like a cooked lobster.  This little redhead came out of the game as pale as I went in.  Brilliant.
3. A standing ovation for the opposing team.  The Boy wanted to got to this game because Roy Halladay was pitching.  He used to pitch for the Jays for years, was super awesome and completely loyal to Toronto even though he could have been traded somewhere else for WAY more money.  At the end of his contract he signed with Philadelphia and this was his triumphant  return to Toronto.  The crowd went nuts and as Phillie made their way to the outfield Halladay got a standing O.
4. A run in the first.  This is where the Boy and I differ.  He thinks a great game goes to extra innings with no score.  I like to be entertained every inning.  So if there’s a run in the first – the game is off to a good start as far as keeping my attention.
5. A home run by the home team.  Thanks Jose Bautista for knocking one out of the park just for me.
6. Keeping the pace.  We golfed in Kananaskis years ago and they gave us ball markers at the turn that said “I kept the pace at Kananaskis.” Halladay should get some kind of award for it as well.  No messing around with this guy. Pitch, Pitch, Pitch.  He flies through them which makes for a short game.  Love it.
7. A clothed streaker.  What do you call someone that runs across the field but isn’t naked?  I don’t know.  But it happened.  Top of the ninth (I thought you were supposed to do it when the other team was pitching?) some fool ran across the field.  He was tackled by security and then the police came in and cuffed him.  20 seconds of glory.  Months of court dates and some really wonderful fines I’m sure.  But hey – it kept me entertained so thanks foolish stranger!
8. A controversy.  Top of the ninth again, runner comes in to home looks like he’s out by a mile. Umpire calls it safe.  Catcher doesn’t disagree – which means he probably missed the tag (or so the Boy tells me) but the pitcher disagrees. Runs up to the umpire.  Umpire throws him out of the game immediately. Pitcher LOSES. HIS. MIND. Manager comes running out and is trying to hold back this monster of a pitcher – his jersey comes off, they eventually get him to go off the field and as he does he throws his jersey down on the field.  Classy.
9. Face to face screaming. Just when you think the controversy is over the Manager starts screaming at the umpire too.  Here’s what I love about baseball arguments – how close they get to each other.  Why do you need to be 2 inches from a guys face to get him to understand your point of view?  It makes me laugh every time.  It makes me think of that commercial that was on a few years ago where the manager comes out and gets right in the Umpire’s face and says “That was a very good call. I’m just coming out here because that’s what they expect me to do” I think it was for All Bran or something – they feel better because they’re regular (I tried to find it but couldn’t if you find it – send it to me).  Anyway, that’s what I think of every time. He got kicked out too.  It was again highly entertaining.
10. All wrapped up in 9 and another standing O for the opposing team.  Thanks Halladay.  Thanks for coming out.

The one part of the game I didn’t like – besides the price of all snacks etc., was when fans threw crap all over the field during the above controversial call and the booing that followed. First of all it, it slowed the game down while the staff cleaned it all up.  Second, it’s just poor sportsmanship.  Not nice. Let’s try and keep it classy Toronto.

So if any Toronto Blue Jays are reading, send me your email addresses or twitter IDs and I’ll send you a message or a tweet the next time I’m going to a game, and if you could go ahead and arrange all of these elements for each game I attend – you might just make a baseball fan out of me yet!

Go Sports!

Invitations and a secret identity revealed

Invitations make it real.  Invitations caused me a little bit of panic.  Mail strikes make invitations bit of a pain in the butt.  Online RSVPs make for super quick responses!

Let’s get started. I reworked a design from zazzle.ca or zazzle.com for my American friends. The price seemed right, but basically I loved the design and I loved how easy it was to rework and customize.  No unfortunately Zazzle has no idea who I am, I didn’t get any kind of bloggy discount or I would probably be singing their praises even more.  But seriously folks, $1.90 for an invitation and an envelope.  Works for me.

I ordered them on Wednesday evening and I got the notice from FedEx on Monday.  Left the “drop them at the door” note and got them on Tuesday – pretty good I’d say.

They came in a box.

Packed with care.

110 invitations.  110 envelopes.

Care for a closer look?

Okay, for reals this time.*

Okay, so it doesn’t really say The Boy, and I was going to leave the Boy’s name in and reveal it all.  But the Boy vetoed, he prefers to stay anonymous.  (Although if you zoom in you may be able to figure it out, or if you’re really bored at work today curious you can find the a past post where I revealed his secret identity) Doesn’t change anything. He will always be the Boy here.  So the identity to be revealed is our parents! You may also notice that our parents names are the same.  That’s not a typo, or a computer edit.  Dave and Carol and Dave and Carol.  I call them CD squared.

While I love the front – obviously.  The back is beautiful too.

If you can’t quite read it: Today I marry my best friend.  The one I laugh with, live for, dream with and love.  Mom and I saw this at a wedding show and she burst into tears.  It’s very true in our case.  Just less than 10 weeks to go!

*I know they seem very red in the pictures… they’re not.  They are orange and grey all the way!