Sunday, December 9, 2007

"What a Man, What a Man, What a Man, What a Mighty Good Man"


Here's how I know Eric is the one - such an awesome display of manliness.

We had a few memos last week about annual exterminations in the building. A few days later a new, more troubling memo said something about mice and "the problem getting worse for about two weeks before it gets better."

So my droogies, this filled my head with horrible thoughts of mice-rats and roaches dramatically death-marching around my apartment but I tried not to think about it. Until...the smell.
Eric and I came home on Friday and promptly declared, "It smells wierd in here." We independently came to a really gross conclusion-slash-guess: dead mouse in the radiator.
Eric slipped a note in the landlord's office. We figured we could hold out until Monday. About an hour later, the smell got exponentially worse, and I wondered aloud if we could open the radiator ourselves.
Eric retrieved his screwdriver and a ziploc bag, and I was being very helpful by reminding him to be careful while perched atop a chair halfway across the room. He opened the radiator, he coughed.

E: Step outside, I'll take care of this.
H: Oh my God! It really is a mouse?
(H steps outside, a minute passes, E pokes his head out of the door and shows me some tongs).
E: You weren't especially attached to these tongs, were you?

I wasn't. Eric told me to look away when he passed me in the hall to take the tongs and the dead-mouse-in-a-ziploc to the dumpster.
Eric told me the thing was "brown and squishy" and was definitely decomposing in our radiator.
Isn't that the manliest thing ever? I don't think I could ever do that. My hero.

Thursday, December 6, 2007

99 Problems [Edited for Explicit Information]

We're back on track, sort of. I'll be going back to Arizona at Christmas, at which point I hope to meet with my Grandma Mary and Aunt BJ to alter my Nana's dress. I need to have my mom get it cleaned beforehand. Here are a few pictures from my Nana's wedding - 50 years ago!





I thought this would be especially interesting to my bridespeoples - hereafter referred to as "bridespeeps" - whom I have given no direction whatsoever as far as wardrobe. I figured they'd like it better that way, because there's no way I'm picking out ugly, expensive dresses for them to buy. I'll have Amanda look at the dress when I'm in Arizona at Christmas, and I'll let her direct Bode and Elizabeth since she has an eye for these things. Poor Amanda - she asked for some direction for their dresses or accessories and all I could come up with is "my favorite colors are blue and green."
Amanda is thankfully handling my hair and makeup, which she always does gorgeously. I told her I wish I had a clone of her to also take photos, because she makes everyone look so good on film. Alas, I'll have to hire one. She's given me some advice on that, and I need to get on the ball. I'm budgeting about $1,500 for that, including engagement photos. My biggest issue with a photographer is going to be posed shots, because I usually loathe them. Especially since my intended is a ham/cornball, we don't do well posing. Smile totally unnaturally, slouch...cheese!
I have indeed started budgeting, which is horrifying. I have more of an idea what food and catering will cost, thanks to Alli. We're planning on Alli directing the menu, and friends of hers doing the actual cooking, running food to the buffet and cleaning. I was surprised at how cheap foodpeeps are to hire - $12 an hour. I'll have to ask Alli how much they're generally tipped. I'm guessing 20 percent. It's good to have someone around with insight into that world, otherwise I wouldn't have ever considered hiring cooks. I thought they'd be way more expensive.
I've decided not to send save the date cards, because of expense and trees and time. So look for invitations around February. Now, if only I could finalize the list. I'm sure I'll be updating a lot more from here on out.