Man and Wife! Say it!

We could not have asked for a more perfect day. Rain and clouds gave way to a beautiful, sunny afternoon and a gorgeous sunset.

There is not much I can say about the day other than it was everything that I had imagined. It was perfect.

Let me in the sound!

Last night was just amazing. AMAZING. Nearly perfect, in fact. There's not much that can top a perfect dinner at the new Cava on Capitol Hill followed by an incredible U2 concert. (Well, we'll see if something can top it in, oh, 10 days.)

I think I'm pretty much convinced that I will never, I mean NEVER get tired of seeing Bono, The Edge, Larry and Adam in concert. They are just so amazing live, in Arenas Stadiums, small spaces and large. They are just incredible performers, and Bono really knows how to work a stadium crowd.

They played about half of their new album throughout the show, but there was so much previous and classic material played, much to everyone's joy (they played, for the first time since I began seeing them in concert, "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For," which I had only seen "live" on Rattle and Hum). There really is nothing like you and 20,000 of your closest friends all singing in unison while Bono stands on stage taking it in. It was cool.

The stage was HUGE! And FedEx Field is not that big, so our seats were great!

Oh, Bono.

There were only a couple of odd things in the evening*. There was a woman passed out in a bathroom stall before U2 came on stage... We never figured out what happened there. And the guy next to me seemed very irritated with the political and social messages throughout the show - HELLO? It's effing U2! What the hell was he expecting?

But those were little things. It was all amazing. The dinner, the show, the company. Amazing.

*Oh, and Turg fell asleep during the middle of the show for about 4 song. Fitti, B_Cat and I were very amused by this. It was actually quite impressive. But he was sad he missed the acoustic "Stuck in a Moment" - a song he likes a lot. I tired to wake him up, really.

Ambush Shower!

Crazy, Dr. Lim, Miss Nancy and I went out for a "Girls Lunch" today, because Dr. Lim said in her email "I want to go to lunch and I never see you guys." I found this funny, because I feel like I see Dr. Lim all the time, but as we are only in the office one day a week all together (Tuesday), I didn't think much of it. Well, apparently, this was part of a ruse. When we returned from lunch, and were walking back to our offices, Dr. Lim turned around all of a sudden, followed by Crazy and Miss Nancy. Curious, I followed them into the conference room.

I entered the room, seeing much of my softball team and other friends and workmates sitting there... then hearing "SURPRISE!" And, me, not getting it, asked, "What's this for??"

Duh.

It was quite a lovely and sweet surprise. I'm not big for show, and really have been only telling people of Turg and my upcoming nuptuals when people ask, or when it comes up in conversation. So it really was a surprise to see that many people sitting there.

Of course, there was cake:

Can we tell that Crazy and Dr. Lim picked up the cake?

Again, hanging out with people I like and having good conversation. What a lovely surprise.

Perfectly showered

This past Sunday, I was showered with much love and joy at my bridal shower. Magenta* and Clio did a wonderful job planning and executing a shower that perfectly suited me. There were no games, I did not have to embarrassingly sit in front of everyone and open gifts, no ribbon bonnet, no toilet paper bride. A very un-showery bridal shower. In other words it was perfect. And very me. A gathering of some of my oldest and closest friends and family (I was quite sorry that my sister and niece-in-law could not make it), chatting, laughing and having a wonderful relaxed time.

Here are some of the highlights!

Lovely Ladies

Me with a very stylish CawfeeGuy and CawfeeMate

I felt Chewie needed some libations too

Sis-in-Laws

The former MzHines (now MrsSwan) and Trish

Two Muses and M

I want to thank everyone for coming and celebrating with me. I had such a wonderful time and felt so incredibly loved. Magenta commented after everyone left that everyone who came were the people we would be sitting in the corner talking to at any larger party. She was right. The corner was the whole party. Again, perfect.


*Magenta, I completely agree with Clio's assessment regarding your party planning/cooking/hostessing skills. Get over yourself. :)

Super-duper Cutest Nephew. Ever.

Getting this by email yesterday morning just brightened up my day. Andrew is now my desktop on my work computer... I see him peeking around my log-in window. It's fantastic. Thanks for the pic Jay!

Recovering (naughty) puppy

Thor continues to recover nicely. Strange looking but recovering. However, because he's been recovering so rapidly, he's beginning to get antsy - wanting to do all the things he's not supposed to in the first 2 weeks of his recovery (jumping, running, twisting...).

The other problem is that, because his movements are supposed to be restricted, he's being spoiled. We have to carry him up and down the stairs. In the beginning, we would carry him back if he got tired on his walks. He got to eat chicken rice with his food for the past week because the medication necessitated a bland diet. Spoiled. And getting naughty.

So last night, Turg and I are hanging out with Thor in the basement, watching TV and eating spaghetti for dinner. Thor is looking at me sitting on the floor, with my food, with longing eyes, because he's always hungry and we never feed him (in his mind). Anyway, I leaned over into his pen to grab a toy for him. He took this opportunity to pounce - face disappearing into my pasta bowl fast as lightning. When I yelled for him to stop, his face emerged, a load of spaghetti dangling from his mouth. I wanted to be mad. I really did. But he looked absolutely hilarious and I could not stop laughing. Hysterical.

*This is not Thor

*sigh*

Well, apparently discipline has gone out the window along with getting spoiled. We have a lot of work to do once he's fully recovered...

Office Moving Day

Well, the day that many of us at the office have dreaded for years is finally here. It's moving day. We (and all our stuff) are moving in phases to the new snazzy facility... much further away from here.

Some history - this move has been planned for years. I mean YEARS. But, life moves at the speed of government, and because of budget cuts, etc., the move date kept getting pushed back and back and back. When I started 4 years ago, we were supposed to move within a year. Then the date got moved. Then moved again. Wolf was cried so many times that we (hoped) that it would never happen. But when the final announcement came that today would be the day, and our moving crates showed up 2 weeks ago, well, we knew there would be no more denying it.

So we've been packing over the last 2 weeks. And yesterday was the final frenzied push by everyone. I mean the place was a disaster area. And today, we're all working at home while our stuff gets moved. And (theoretically) everything will be there, computers hooked up and everything, when we get there on Monday.

They kept telling us to make sure to label everything (including our keyboard and mouse (seriously)) or it would not get moved. So, just to make sure that nothing got left behind...

*Thanks to my friend Timmy who came up with this idea and took the picture.