Wednesday, February 25, 2004

 
Another week, another day, another hour, another minute, another second. I'm tired today. I also ready for another vacation.

Last weekend a normal weekend. Saturday, I got my haircut for the first time in about four months. :) I always feel so absolutely beautiful after I get my hair cut. :) Afterwards, Bryan and I met Meredith and Skip for lunch at Victory's Banner for lunch. A very yummy lunch as usual.

Sunday, we were slightly lazy at home, more like we did a lot, but we were in our apartment doing them in our sweats. :) Bryan cleaned and I worked on getting my logo for Knitting Kitty Enterprises worked out. I also had done some knitting repairs so I had to create an invoice that I really liked. Then I set out designing my business cards - I really like them. Later in the afternoon we went to Bryan's dad's and gave Michael, Bryan's nephew, a very late Christmas gift - a KU Jayhawk t-shirt. Then we went to Whole Foods for groceries, then it was home to listen to 60 Minutes and watch The Simpsons.

I've been getting stuff organized for Stampin' Up. I became a demonstrator as of February 19! :) My first party is March 6. So in addition to knitting classes, I'll be doing Stampin' Up. I'm hoping that the two along with a part-time job will help me become self-sufficient by Labor Day! I went to a Stampin' Up meeting on Monday night and met some other demonstrators - I'm so EXCITED about this! We also made a scrapbook page that was gorgeous - it was similar to this page. We also started several cards. I haven't made many cards lately because I finished Valentine's Day cards and Brandi's birthday card and then taught two knitting classes last Monday and Tuesday nights. Wednesday night, I went downtown to Marshall Field's to order my bridesmaids dresses. Thursday evening, I stayed late at work and didn't get home until 6:45pm. So it was a very crazy week. I was so glad when Friday rolled around. This week isn't nearly as crazy, thank goodness. I go in on Saturday for a first fitting of my bridal gown! :) Things go in spurts - Mom & I are either really busy with wedding plans or we aren't doing a lot. I'm sure it will get more consistent as we get closer to the wedding.

Now onto the outrages of the week - there are too many to pick from. Misleader.org seems to have a new outrage each day! My current favorite is redefining McDonald's jobs to manufacturing jobs so that the job losses for manufacturing jobs don't look so bad. This isn't getting nearly the attention that the gay marriage ban is and in a way it's more of an outrage. The gay marriage ban is outrageous - like any straight married person feels their marriage is threatened by gay or lesbians that are getting married. I don't understand the right's arguments against it. It's such a crock but they are really playing it up like it's going to make the divorce rate go way up! Maybe we should concentrate on why 1/2 of marriages fail and not trying to take away people's rights. I heard a very interesting comment yesterday that every amendment to the Constitution grants more rights to people and this would be the first that actually restricts people's rights.

posted by erica Wednesday, February 25, 2004 []

  Tuesday, February 17, 2004

 
Valentine's Day has come and gone. I used to hate Valentine's Day. In fact, I feel bad for my friends that don't have someone to spend Valentine's Day with, not a pity feeling but more of I know how bad it sucks to be alone on Valentine's Day when the entire country is so consumed with love and flowers.

Bryan sent me flowers to work, but of course, receiving sent the florist to the other building and I didn't get my flowers until yesterday. I felt so bad for Bryan because he was fretting about why I hadn't received them on Friday. They are so beautiful!



It has white tulips, deep red tulips, little white with pink tip roses, little coral tiger lilies (I think that's what they are), little white with pink tip snapdragons and then the little purple flowery stuff that they always put in bouquets. The little roses are so wonderful, I think they are called Revue roses and I LOVE them. They are so precious! :)

We went out for dinner on Valentine's Day, the same place we went last year. Since we got engaged on Valentine's Day last year, I wanted to go back to the same restaurant this year. :) It was a very nice dinner and after dinner we went home and just relaxed. Bryan turned in early because he'd worked all day, so he was tired. I tried to stay up a bit later but ended up falling asleep on the couch about 15 minutes after Bryan went to bed, even though I didn't drag myself into bed for two more hours.

Sunday, Bryan worked on a collage and I worked on finishing up my Valentine's Day cards. I didn't really like them at first, but a few minor adjustments and a few additions really made them look nice. I haven't posted the one that I made for Bryan, but I think his card is THE best card I've ever made! I also finished up the birthday card for Brandi, it's also a great card. I can definitely see a progression of better cards the longer I do them. Just like they always say, "Practice makes perfect." Okay, not perfect but better!

My knitting classes are starting to come together. I'm sending out proposals to several continuing education programs, libraries, senior centers and a Michael's craft store. This could really help me get my knitting teaching business off the ground. I'm also involved with Stampin' Up!, so if these two things go well, I could be self-employed by the end of the year! :) Wooohooo!

George W. Bush continues to outrage, but I'm starting to really enjoy seeing what mess he's gotten himself into each day on misleader.org. In a sick way, I really find it entertaining, although it makes me sick that he seems to have little disregard for other people's lives. It's like, "Well as long as some of them think I'm just a down-home guy they'll vote for me. They don't need to know how I really am because then they won't like me." I was encouraged by the poll numbers on Sunday with Kerry leading Bush, but they said that Dukakis was leading Bush Sr. in 1988 at this time. We can only hope and spead the word about the real George W. to get him out of office. He doesn't seem to really care about all of the pink slips people are continuing to get in this "recovering economy," let's give him a pink slip and see how it feels!

I just watched the lovely, disgusting ad on the Bush/Cheney 2004 website about John Kerry and special interests. They show a figure of $640,000, according to misleader.org today that's really small compared to $6.5 million in one year! Heck, "the president accepted more in direct contributions from lobbyists in one year than Kerry did in the past 15 years" - Public Citizen. I love how Bush/Cheney are trying to say that they don't bow to the special interests - um, so does that mean that oil and energy companies, drug companies and every other Bush friend isn't a special interest. Maybe Bush needs to go visit WhiteHouseForSale.org to see what's really been going on!
My favorite quotes from another ad on the Bush/Cheney site is "he's our education president." What-freaking-ever!!! If you have the stomach to watch these ads, do it, they are so disgusting, but it's good to hear what they are saying and lying about!
posted by erica Tuesday, February 17, 2004 []

  Wednesday, February 11, 2004

 
I didn't realize that I haven't written anything for nearly two weeks until I logged onto blogger this morning.

January 29-31, I was in Lawrence meeting with florists and cake bakers for the wedding. It was fun for a while. I wasn't impressed with two of the florists after meeting with a florist who blew me away with his ideas. The florist that I really like and decided to go with is Bittersweet Floral in Lawrence. I loved their ideas and they are very familiar with Danforth Chapel and the Eldridge Hotel, where the reception is.

I met with two cake bakers. One of them didn't even have cake for us to try, how am I supposed to decide that I want to use a baker if I've never tried their cake. The baker I decided to go with, Helen's Cakes, I was very impressed by. And she could do the quilting that I love on the cake, it's gorgeous!




This is a photo of the quilting on the cake - it's not what my cake will look like - too many bows on this cake. (photo from Fancy Cakes By Lauren)


Last week, mom & I were busy making lots of wedding-related phone calls to reserve rooms, find reception musicians, find ceremony musicians and just other wedding-related stuff.

I had to leave Kansas City on Saturday, January 31, a day earlier than planned because of the snow storm that was coming. So that Sunday, Bryan and I went to two movies - Monster and In America. Monster was absolutely excellent. I was very disturbed by it, which was part of the point of the movie. I really think Charlize Theron was amazing in this movie. In America was also excellent.

This past weekend, we went to see Lord of the Rings, which was good, but a bit too long. I guess I'm just a bit Lord of the Rings fatiqued. Plus the theatre was freezing cold!
posted by erica Wednesday, February 11, 2004 []