"hand cancel"

Who ever thought of such a thing as "hand cancelling" your own stamps on your wedding invitations. I read about this today, and it totally boggles my mind.

Instead of sending your wedding invitations or other important and pretty mail through the machine that stamps where it came from and all that jazz, you can ask to "hand cancel" them yourself, or sometimes I guess the post office will do it for you.

All of that to not get a little ink smudge on your MAIL that you are sending out. I saw a photo of each, and I suppose it does look a little nicer and cleaner. But HOLY COW GIRLS - is it that serious? Will I be a lesser bride if I don't do it? Will anyone notice???

How far am I willing to go, here?! I already have a chandelier, 30 paper lanterns in various sizes, a live funk band, and we're making a cd for our wedding favor. Enough is enough - I WILL NOT hand cancel my invitations. I won't do it! I'm taking a stand!

a chandelier?

It appears that I have been talked into having a crystal chandelier topped with flowers over my head during my wedding.

Now, nobody helping with the wedding actually *HAS* said chandelier. Nobody wants to *PURCHASE* the chandelier. And nobody seems to know where you *FIND* a chandelier.

So, today Mark and I made a valiant effort to find a vintage one at a really cool place called Rejuvenations where they salvage cool stuff from buildings that are getting demolished for whatever reason. They didn't have one.

We went to Larry's Lighting Repair, which as far as I can tell is a very tiny house that is never open. All we got there was a nasty look from a lady driving too fast in the empty parking lot.

Then I came home and looked online. The guy at Rejuvenations said to check out Globe Lighting - a chain that hosts a few stores in our area.

I may have found one! More on this tomorrow...

blog frenzy!

I've been reading so many blogs lately. It makes me feel a little inadequate. Especially this one: www.momquixote.wordpress.com - she is amazing.

Since I've been getting ready for the wedding, I've also been reading this cool wedding blog, which incidentally, there are very few Portlanders or even NWsters reading. It's weddingbee.com - send to all pre-brides immediately. It will save their lives as it has saved mine. And it also gives us fiances (or "Beyonces" as Mark and I like to call ourselves) a place to obsess without ruining all of our friendships and working relationships.

I read Randi's blog, but since she's really the only one who reads my blog, it seems silly to post it here. But just in case someone randomly reads this - she's very funny, and she's my bff from high school in Yakima, WA. Yes, back in the day when we had giant bangs and listened to Bel Biv Devoe. www.discorandi.blogspot.com

There are other blogs, but those are my favorite today. Please feel free to post and tell me your favorite blogs, oh mythical readers!

"Diet"ribe

Ok people. I have been on weight watchers since December and guess how much weight I've lost. 10 lbs. Guess how much I've gained. 10 lbs. That's right, I've lost NOTHING in over 6 months. I'm trying to decide if I just keep on trying with WW or if it's time to find a new diet. I'm leaning towards doing a complete meal replacement plan and seeing if it works for me. I've researched it online and I can't find a single person that has anything nasty to say. If you find something, let me know. So what I'm considering trying is called Take Shape For Life. It's kind of a low carb, low calorie thing, but it doesn't look any different than any other diet as far as I can tell. The one thing I've noticed is rapid weight loss and really happy people. I personally know 3 people that are doing it and they are ecstatic.

My WW Group are really really nice people, and I love the leader, but I just can't give them my $13 a week anymore and not lose weight. I just think I need to remove the thinking from this process and eat the prepackaged food (just like going through the drive through, only healthier) and take my sense of choice out of it. I'm a mess. I have to lose over 100 lbs and I'm just not doing it! Please help me TSFL!