1/10th of a century.

3,650 days.

5,256,000 minutes.

That is how long ago this was:

It was the best day of my life to that point, and it has only gotten better since then.

The truth is, not that long ago, I wasn’t sure we’d make it to this point.  We hit a really, really bad patch about two years ago, including a betrayal by someone I trusted and considered a friend.  Kris and I had lost our connection to one another, and it left us open to that betrayal.  It wasn’t easy getting it back.  We almost gave up a couple of times, but thankfully we took the hard road and worked on our marriage, and our relationship now is better than it has ever been.

Kris, I love you more than anything on this earth, and I can’t imagine what my life would be without you by my side.  I cannot wait to see what the next ten years bring us.

And now, for the wedding meme I stole from Morninglight Mama, who married her silly man just a week or so before I married mine.

5. Did you have a long or short engagement/courtship?

Heh. Met in August of 1997, dated once in September and then briefly in October. Started dating for real in November, got engaged and moved in together in February, and got married in June. You tell me.

6. Where did you get engaged?

Depends. Sort of in my apartment, sort of at Penn State. We had already decided we wanted to get married, and we had actually gone shopping for a ring. That evening, we were sitting in my apartment, and he looked at me and said, “You know, I never actually asked you!” He got down on one knee and proposed. It was so sweet. And I made him call my dad to ask permission. (Dad said he could have me for a dozen golf balls.)

A couple of weeks later, we went to State College for a weekend to see a touring production of Damn Yankees and so Kris could show me Penn State. That was sort of the “official” engagement trip, since my ring was ready by then (The jeweler was setting the diamond and making the wrap fit the shape of the stone).  Also, Kris found a bunch of logo golf balls for Dad’s collection while we were there, so it was legit.

7. Where did you get married?

We were married outside of Old Main on the quad at Westminster College, my alma mater. That’s Old Main in the background of the first picture up top. Our reception was at a restaurant (The Tavern) where Mom and I used to go when she’d come up to visit me.

8. Any disasters during the special day?

*sigh*. This is a tough one. A few weeks before the wedding, my mother called me, and told me that Kris needed to call his parents. She had called them to ask if they wanted to be included on the invitation and, if so, how they wanted to be listed. At that point, Kris’s mother told her that they did not want to be on the invites and that they would in fact not be attending at all. Kris had no idea of this. He called his mother, who told him the same thing. They felt that Kris and I were marrying too quickly and were not willing to be a part of it. When it happened, I told him that if he wanted to postpone the wedding, I was totally ok with that, but he said no. He wanted to be married to me, and he was ok with them not being there, if that was the choice they wanted to make.

So, yeah, his parents not being there? Kind of a disaster.

9. Most special moment of your wedding day?

Honestly, the whole day was pretty damn amazing. I can’t say that there is really one special moment above any others.  My brother’s toast was pretty cool, though.  I thought for sure that he’d say something to tease or embarrass me, but he was very sweet and just talked about how happy Kris clearly made me.

10. The song from your first dance?

We didn’t actually do the full reception dance thing – it was just dinner and chatting, because we only had about 25 people there. But we did play “Storybook Love” from The Princess Bride when I walked out for the ceremony.

11. If you were to do your wedding over, what would you change?

I loved having a small wedding, but I do wish that there had been some people there who were from Kris’s life. We weren’t back in touch with the Penn State crowd yet, or I would absolutely have wanted them there for him. (Would have made the bar bill a bit bigger… ) It has always made me a little sad that I had friends and family around me, and he was alone. Happily, my wacky family has wholeheartedly adopted him, and he has adopted them as his own as well. I just hope he’s ok with that.

Tags – Hmm… ok, anyone reading this who has or will hit ten years this year – you’re it! (And Hugeness, this means you, too!)  Let’s hear it, class of 1998!    And please leave me a comment if you’re going to answer – I want to see!

Anyway, to refresh your memory, that’s the Knit Picks Palette Fair Isle Cardigan. I’m in the LAST stripe of the body. I’ve got 7 rounds to go on the body before I bind off and tackle the first steeks (the sleeves). Strangely, I’m looking forward to it. Clearly, I’m twisted. My goal is to finish this by the end of February, since I started it in February of 2007. 13 months for a sweater… that’s not too embarrassing or anything. **sigh**

This afternoon, I met my cousin and her ridiculously adorable kids at the Tyson’s Corner Mall for lunch, shopping, and Joey’s favorite part – the play area.

Beth and Anna (19 months)

Joey (5-1/2)

When I got home, I discovered that my hubby bought himself a new toy:

Send earplugs. (I’m totally kidding- he’s actually doing pretty well so far.)

He has always been very artistic. He has done some amazing work through the years (Some of it can be seen on his MySpace page), and if I can ever figure out how to get one of his canvases here from Vegas, I want one.

Anyway, I got a call from him shortly before Christmas, letting me know that he had lost track of time and that he wasn’t going to be done with the gifts he was making for Kris and I in time to get them shipped to us. We talked about it, and decided it was going to be simpler for him to just wait until after New Year’s, when the shipping companies would settle down a little. He did email both Kris and I pictures of our gifts on Christmas morning, and this Saturday, the much-awaited box arrived.

He hand-tooled and painted this gorgeous leather bag for me! It’s a perfect size for all of my daily basics (plus a knitting project, of course), and I switched to it the instant I opened the box.

Check out the knitting needles on the front! Clearly, he knows me pretty well.

Under the flap – I need to make a “hand made original” tag for my knitting. I like that idea!

The skull and “One OV” logo also refer to the clothing business that he and an old friend of his have started – they do handpainted leather jackets, and have sold some to a clothing boutique in Las Vegas (Two of which have been sold by the store!). The next time we go visit, Kris is going to do a photo shoot of the stuff they’ve done, and finish building their website.

Just wait until tomorrow – Kris is going to get some shots of his Christmas gift tonight (a GORGEOUS painted leather jacket), plus I will have pics of my completed (and currently drying) Sursa.

Tom, thank you so much – I really, really love this bag, and I can’t WAIT to show it off to everyone!

Wrong.

It all started on Wednesday, when I got a text message from my brother, asking when Kris and I were leaving for Pittsburgh. Since he and Janelle were not due to fly from Philly to Pgh until Monday (the 26th), I thought this was an odd question. However, I am used to oddness from Tom, so I told him we were heading out Thursday whenever Kris got home from work. And then I asked why. Apparently, Janelle and her mother were having some issues, and they wanted to see about getting out of there before Monday. Did I mention that they were in NJ, about an hour from Philly, and that I am in MD just outside DC? Being the amazing big sister that I am (and a massive sucker), I got in the car at shortly after 7PM and headed up to rescue them. I pulled into her grandparents’ place (Very sweet people, and not at all the source of the friction) at about 20 minutes after 10. We loaded their stuff in the car, and Tom got behind the wheel for the drive back to Bowie. We stopped at the Wawa for some caffeine, and got on the road.

It was awesome to finally get to meet Janelle (Oh, yes, I hadn’t met her before this, since she and Tom live in California), even though she dozed off partway home. Tom and I got to talk, which we don’t do all that often. He told me more of the saga of their trip to NJ, which all started with landing in the Newark airport and going to pick up the rental car. Tom gave them his license and credit card, and that was when he found out that his license had expired. He has moved a couple of times in CA, and never remembered to send in an address change. So, no car. Hello $200 cab ride. (And I did NOT know this when I agreed that he would drive the return trip to MD)

We were on Route 3, just outside of Crofton, and therefore about 10 minutes from the house, when we passed a police car that was about to turn onto Rt. 3. Tom was (amazingly enough) doing the speed limit, so no big deal. A minute or two later, the red and blue lights start flashing in the mirror. Tom pulls over, and we are a little worried, since he does not have a valid license at the moment. The officer comes up to the window, and says “You weren’t doing anything wrong.” (At this point, Tom and I are both wondering why he pulled us over) He continues, “I ran your plates, and found that your registration is suspended.” This is news to me, since I drive that car just about every day. Apparently, my car was due for an emissions test, and I never got the notice. So, it went past the due date on the test, and they suspended my registration. He had to ticket Tom, but told me that as long as I get it taken care of before the court date on the ticket, he would be willing to drop the ticket at that time. All in all, a little freaky, but the officer was really very nice. He could have been a real jerk about it and towed my car, but he didn’t. He also did not notice that Tom’s license was expired, which was a big “whew!” moment.

So, we get home, and I get Tom and Janelle settled in the guest room. It is now 2AM, and Janelle has an 8AM flight from BWI, so we needed to leave the house by 6:15 at the latest to get her there. My alarm goes off at 5, and I drag myself out of bed, get ready, and we get in the car and take her to the airport. Happily, that went really easily, and she didn’t have any problems.

Tom and I come home, and find that Kris has decided to play hooky from work, which means that we can get on the road to Pittsburgh much earlier. We still had a couple of errands to run, so Kris got dressed and we headed out to Target, etc. Tom decided not to tell my parents that he was coming early, but thought he would warn my mother that Janelle had to go home early to work (which was why she flew out of BWI that morning). So, he calls her from Target and tells this story that he was still flying in as planned, but that Janelle would be leaving from Philly for San Diego instead of coming to Pittsburgh. She tells him that she will probably call to let me know that, since Kris and I were supposed to meet her that weekend.

We finished our errands, and were having lunch at DuClaw so that we could fill the growlers to take home for the weekend when my cell phone rang. It was Mom – telling me that I was going to have to wait to meet Janelle. I was of course terribly disappointed at this news, or so she thought. (Thank you, theatre degree) We hit the road at about noon or 12:30, excited at the prospect of completely surprising my parents with Tom’s early arrival.

We were on the PA Turnpike about a half-hour from home when it happened. Kris was behind the wheel, and the red and blue lights appeared in the mirror once again. He was clocked going 80 in a 65MPH zone. (Now, I am the first to gripe at him about speeding, but I honestly don’t think that he was going 80. 70, maybe 75, but not 80) I am panicked, because I am afraid that the Trooper is going to know that the registration on the van was suspended. (Yes, we were in that car – Kris’s heat is broken, so it wasn’t really an option) He was not apparently able to do that, and he was nice enough to write Kris up for “Exceeding the maximum speed posted” rather than a specific speed, so the ticket was less than it would have been.

We made it to my parents’ house, and Tom stayed in the backseat of the van while Kris and I went in. We asked them to help us get a few things out of the car, and they both put their shoes on and went outside. Kris opened the side door of the van, and Dad spotted Tom. Mom was in the garage, not really wanting to come outside (It was cold!). So, Dad says “You’d better come out here and grab something.” Mom was not pleased with him, until she got over to the car and realized what he was talking about. She said later that the first thing she saw was Tom’s shoes, which are these red Michael Jordans, size 14, and are pretty distinctive. She couldn’t figure out why we had his shoes. Then she looked up and saw him and thought for a split second that it was a dummy, until he grinned at her. She immediately flipped out and started asking me “Where did you get him? Where did he come from?” It was awesome. She and Dad were both completely surprised and were thrown off a bit for the rest of the evening. =)

We had a great weekend, and a really lovely Christmas with the family, although we did miss my cousin and her husband and son, who stayed in California this year. And we managed to avoid getting pulled over on the way home last night. I’ll be going to the emissions place tomorrow morning to get everything straightened out.

I did get some knitting done on my legwarmers while we watched the “Christmas Story” and Law and Order marathons on Christmas Day. I’m about halfway through them, and I should have them done before New Year’s, I hope.

Hope everyone had a safe and happy holiday, and will be having a wonderful New Year, too!

Thursday was the typical Thanksgiving – I cooked, Mom got yelled at for trying to clean up, and Kris sat outside babysitting the turkey in the vat-o-oil. We brined the turkey this year, which was new. It worked quite nicely, I think. Next time, I might brine it longer (like overnight, instead of just 4 hours), and I think I will rinse the brine off the bird before we fry. The skin got really dark, but that may have been a combination of the honey in the brine and the oil having been used before.

Friday morning we got up and went to breakfast. Then Dad and Kris went bowling, while Mom and I watched. I think they really had a lot of fun together. They had to head home around 2:00 so Dad could get to work Friday night, so it was a short weekend.

Thursday night, Julian and Betsy had called to say that they were coming through Bowie on Friday on the way back to Florida, so they stopped here and we had dinner and hung out for a while. It was really awesome to see them. We miss them. Of course, Betsy is now trying to convince us to move to Florida so she and I can open a yarn store.

After J and Betsy hit the road, Saturday was pretty quiet around here, which was nice. Sunday, Kris had another World of Warcraft LAN party, so I hid in the kitchen and played with Kool-Aid, working on the yarn for Nora’s purse (the commissioned piece I mentioned before). I also got a fair amount of knitting done through the weekend.

So, the current status on the Christmas gift list:
I finished Jessica’s purse last week. I’m happy with how it came out – it actually looks like I planned it to look. The miracles of swatching and measuring! The inside suffered from an over-abundance of Fun Fur, so I trimmed off the fuzz once it was felted. The handles (It’s hard to see in this picture, but there are two, honest) are each two icords that I twisted together after felting and let dry that way, so they seem to be holding their shape nicely. The purse is about 10″ across the top opening, and about 8″ across the base. I felted (OK, fulled, technically) it for longer than I have with the other bags I have done, so it’s pretty firm and stands up on its own.

Janelle’s purse was completed while Julian and Betsy were here, and it went in the washer on Saturday.
Before felting, it looked like this:After about 3 ten-minute sessions in the washer with a pair of jeans, it looked like this:

Closed on the left, and open on the right, obviously. The base didn’t come out quite as square as I had hoped, but it’s very close, and I think it still looks pretty darn cute. The icord handle pulls through an opening on the front of the purse to close it. There was a woman in Stitch DC one day who had something like this (only smaller), and I used her purse as a jumping-off point for this one. I also have some pretty green Cascade 220 that I picked up the weekend before Thanksgiving with the intention of making a Fun Fur-free version of Janelle’s bag for myself at some point. I may eventually write up the patterns for both of these bags, once I have time to sit down and do it. I took pretty good notes, so I should be able to recreate them.

I finished two more squares on the afghan for Kris’s grandmother – 3 down, 9 to go.

So, while the geeks were having their day in the computer room yesterday, I broke out the Kool-Aid and got to work on the purse I am designing for Chapman to give to Nora for Christmas. He decided he wanted red, purple, and blue, so this is what I ended up with:
All of them were dyed together, but for some reason, the ones in the center took the blue Kool-Aid much better. I’ll save those for the actual bag, and use the other two to start the swatching process.

A closer shot of the yarn:
From left to right, that is Tropical Punch, Berry Blue, Grape, Ice Blue Raspberry Lemonade, and Cherry Kool-Aid.

So, the plan for today is to wind the dyed yarn (which is now dry – yay), and start swatching it and figuring numbers for the purse. I also want to get started on Kris’s gift. As soon as I have Nora’s bag done, I’ll start on Dad’s Satchel. And theoretically, I’ll get this all done by Christmas. I hope.

And just for fun, I decided to see what Simba would look like in my Clapotis. He was incredibly patient and stayed put while I got the camera.

Quite dashing, isn’t he?