Also, I haven’t shaved my legs since early January. We are headed to FL on Monday. I wonder if anyone would notice if i left them fuzzy… It isn’t like I have anyone to impress down there and I don’t give a damn what the pedicurist says. Mostly.

Anyways, Teh Smitten and I are getting married.  Next month.  This is how it happened:

My sister calls after our Labor Day staycation at the Hotel Palomar in Arlington (we had a suite with a Japanese soaking tub for two – it was kind of fantastic) to see if we had gotten engaged yet.  She expresses deep disappointment that we had not gotten engaged in that I’m-kidding-but-not-really sort of way.  (She has been a little panicked that we might get married on the upcoming cruise in November despite my telling her repeatedly that we would not do so as it costs $2500 for a very dinky sort of to-do.)  Anyway, her concern tickles me to no end and I tell Teh Smitten, who later says something like, “Well… I guess I could ruin the surprise…”

It turns out he was planning to propose on the cruise, buy the ring in St. Maarten, etc.  He thought I wanted a wedding with the dress and the people, etc.  Except I don’t.  I want the marriage.  I suggested we just go ahead and do the civil wedding thing next to file cabinets and then use the cruise as our honeymoon.  He countered by suggesting a party for our friends and family in a few months and I happily agreed.

But planning the civil wedding and a small dinner with our family has ballooned a little.  First, I found a dress:

$198 from Nordstom.  No lie.   So, I thought I’d order it and if it didn’t work, it would be a very simple thing to return.  Except, it fits.  Beautifully.  I think it could use a little tailoring around the bust area to make sure it doesn’t gape shamefully and all.  $198 and I LOVE it.

Tomorrow, my awesome minion from work, who really has become a good friend more than anything, will be headed to Nordstrom with me to meet with my personal stylist to work out a wrap, sufficient undergarments (finding a plunging bra in my size is going to be fun, and by “fun” I really mean a fucking nightmare because they don’t make plunging bras that actually provide support in a 40F), shoes, maybe a bag…

I swung by the store on my way home last night and, with the stylist’s help, picked up an ivory dress shirt, a very lovely Armani tie and pocket square for Smit, and then moseyed over to the shoe area to see if I could improve upon his current dress shoe dilemma.  Why must men hold onto awful worn-out shoes? He has been quite devoted to his Bill Blass wingtips, which have seen better days.  Anyways, there were a pair of Cole Hahn Nike Air technology wingtips on sale for $129.  Now, if I can just convince him to “retire” the old pair.

Teh Smitten and I met at the Arlington Courthouse yesterday to pick up our marriage license and have lunch at a potential dinner venue.  Getting the license was pretty painless.  If Virginia allowed gay marriages it really would be a great state.  We dropped the license off at the official Arlington County celebrant’s office afterward so that he could have the certificate prepared on October 23rd.  He is a lovely fellow – an older gentleman who estimates he has officiated the weddings for about 54,000 couples in the last 45 years or so.  Wow.  His offices, not so lovely.  When people say they’re getting married next to file cabinets, they’re not kidding.  The officiant’s conference room is decorated in what I’d call Early 80′s Legal Office Banal.  There’s a very sad looking silk flower arrangement in one corner – a nightmare of red roses in a white basket. Truly awful.  At least the chairs aren’t folding chairs.  And his office itself is a maze of stacks of paperwork.  I can’t imagine how shocked my sister and brother-in-law will be when they compare the venue to theirs, but how much better can you do for $100 cash?

Despite my negativity towards the Wedding Industrial Complex, I find myself buying wedding favors and place cards.  I’m trying to find that fine line between simple and special.  It is very very hard when you have a shopping addiction.  I totally see how this gets out of control very quickly.  Teh Smitten gets this nervous look every time he hears me say, “Oh guess what I found today for the wedding!”

So, even if we’re only having our parents and maybe a couple friends in addition for dinner, don’t we need to have a favor of some sort?  No.  But I’m not letting reasonableness stop me.

I’ve ordered travertine tile magnets, sample photo on the left, from Etsy.

But it was all so easy!  And then I got completely mired down in the wedding craftiness parts of Etsy, that seem to go on forever in a very Gormenghast sort of way.  Its pure evil.  There are personalized antique handkerchiefs, specially handmade invitation suites, apparel, headbands…

And that is when I ordered the place setting cards, as seen in the sample photo on the right for our party of approximately 15 people.  So cute!!!  And so very unnecessary.

We’ll be doing cupcakes instead of a wedding cake.  I hear that cupcakes are passe but I don’t care. The wedding cake business is a total racket and they’re usually a dry tasteless mess. DC’s Red Velvet Cupcakery is our running favorite, and they do lovely decorations.  I’ve ordered a disposable cupcake tier thingy of Amazon for it.

As for rings, we bought mine – an Art Deco estate piece circa 1925-1930 – last weekend from Pampillonia Jewelers in Dupont Circle.  It is exactly what I wanted.  We’re now searching for its partner for Smitty, who would also like an Art Deco look.  Hopefully we will find what he wants before the wedding.

The jeweler, Richard Pampillonia, had just taken the ring out of the “cooler”, where all estate jewelry must sit for 30 days before it can be sold.  He overheard that I was looking for an antique look and brought it over for us to look at.  Here is a photo of me wearing the ring before it had even been shined or cleaned. It is a platinum setting with a mine cut diamond in the center, baguettes on two sides, and then about 20 teensy diamonds sprinkled around the rest of the setting.

I’m not getting a band.  The ring is enough.  And, yes, I’m wearing that sucker before the wedding.  My mom and I had a fun 30 second argument about that until she conceded, good naturedly.   It is the precious and I have become Gollum.

So, yeah.  Its not really real yet.  When does that happen?  The night before?

No, I’m lying.  It was just the butler service.

Fun friend – she needs a nickname – called back and I shared my bit of reckless abandon.  FF liked the cut of my jib and proceeded to take notes on the benefits of upgrading.  She reported that she would check with her husband and get back to me.  She thought she could sell him the idea purely on the merit that a larger balcony = more room to get it on.  Well, this is true, but it also gives the folks on Deck 14 a show they ain’t paid for…

On the way home, Teh Smitten, knowing that I have the impulse control of an 8 year old boy, quickly guessed my surprise.  Since I also cannot lie to save my life, I fessed up.  He approved.  He likes it when I giggle foolishly and encourages me to no end.

Then FF and her husband call, while on another phone with a Celebrity agent.  They are booking the suite, but on Deck 12 and not Deck 10, where the balconies are HUGE.  Like 179 square feet instead of 69 square feet.  Also, there are potentially huge benefits to not being the deck under the pool or grill.  We (okay, I) panic, thinking they are on to something really awesome that we might miss out on, and call Celebrity simultaneously to try and improve our balcony situation.  I’m not an outdoor nookie sort of person, mind you, but there wasn’t a difference in cost between the decks and I like the idea of not competing for a deck chair.

I do, however, suspect that I am a butler person.  FF reminded us that there was good rationale to making the upgrade:  you are given first chance to disembark at ports, get better service, the little spa therapy pool is free to us, etc.  I’ve now spent the last 2 hours trying to find photos of our suite’s bathroom to no avail.  Neither the cruise lines or previous cruisers have posted photos of bathrooms. So annoying.  I need to know that the bathtub is Lush Bath Bomb-worthy.

In related news, I cannot save money.  This does not bode well for my old age.

The real beast of a job is still waiting on me.  I don’t know about the rest of you neatniks, but I like to cram anything I’m not currently using (or might need desperately someday) into the closets.  This results in my maxi dresses and pants being a little wrinkled.  It also means that I now fear said closets-which-can-no-longer-close.  And don’t even get me started on all the damn shredding I need to do.  Alas, all further work is on hold with the start of the social season (see below).

We commence the social season this week through Memorial weekend.  I hope I can keep up.  It will be good to see old friends and meet new ones.  Smit and I celebrate the 3rd anniversary of our 1st date on May 18th, so I’ve arranged for a weekend at one of the new Kimpton hotels in Old Town.  The Lorien Hotel and Spa is pretty new.  I signed up for Kimpton rewards long ago and got a rate of $153 a night for the King spa tub room.  I’ve also gone ahead and made massage appointments for us both and Smit has made reservations for Restaurant Eve’s tasting room.  I’m counting the days.

And because nothing makes me feel better than planning a vacation, a couple days after my surgery we made our initial down payments on a 12 night cruise on the Celebrity Mercury in November.  We go right out of Baltimore, spend three days at sea, then hit St. Thomas, St. Croix, St. Kitts, Antigua and St. Maarten, and then have another 3 full days at sea before returning to Charm City.  After dragging the boy all over hither and yon (Spain and France) last November, he stated a preference for just unpacking once while visiting several destinations.  Fortunately, Baltimore has three different lines operating out of its port, and we both love the concept of being able to drive directly to the port instead of having to fly to FL.  I think this will be my 8th or 9th cruise, but its been quite a while since my last.  I’ve booked a stateroom with a balcony and concierge service, which will both be firsts for me.  Woo!!!  196 days and counting.  You know what else is fun?  Shopping for cruise wear and gear.

I was smart and bought a ticket to go see the fam in Miami a few weeks back.  I leave on Thursday night and return on Monday.  Its a short trip, but hopefully will help boost vitamin D and mental health back into better ranges.  The fam is all, “I hope it is warmer when you get here.”  Um, 60 degrees F IS warm compared the DC frozen tundra.  I’m bringing sandals regardless.  Teh Smitten is staying home and will probably spend it watching awful horror movies and playing video games in utter filth.  Good for him.  You gotta do what you gotta do to stay sane.

Tonight, Teh Smitten – after having been locked in the house with me except for a short excursion yesterday or to shovel – gets this devlish look on his face tonight, pulls up his t-shirt, licks his finger, and dips it lasciviously in his belly button.  Thus, “belly buttons are the new nipples”.  Now wouldn’t that have been an awesome FB status? Except I can’t say ‘nipples’ knowing that my 10 year old nephew may see it while he is hanging out in Petville or Fishville.  Not to mention an elderly relative and numerous self-righteous family members/sorority sisters.  And people from work.  Gah.  People are RUINING facebook.

I’m thinking it might be time to renew the blogging.  I’ve spent the last few days in pj’s like some filthy blogger and I think I kind of miss it.  Nobody reads it anyway; at least nobody that I don’t care about offending.

While we’re at it, Pat Robertson – who said that Haiti invoked this earthquake by being in agreement with Satan – needs a full-body punching and a nice long rest in some rural and poorly-funded mental hospital’s dementia unit.  I think Pat might be from hell, so figure he should actually be punished while here on earth.

Its the photos of the children in Haiti that really get to me.  Deceased children, wounded children, children in terrible shock and fear.  If there’s anyone out there with access to that fame-whore, Sanjay, please please please punch him in the throat and tell him to do something useful.

Before I shoveled. Ouch.

I think I’ve posted no more than 10 times over the past year.  It’s been pretty busy and FB is a major time-waster.  Fortunately, DC is in the process of getting a foot of snow.  We’re not completely happy about this at Chez Allezoop as it means we don’t get to go to a very fun holiday party with excellent friends who always have the most amazing treats.  It may also impact our ability to see Teh Smitten’s family tomorrow and exchange gifts.  I hate that since I’m pretty excited about what we got them.

On the other hand, the forced home arrest forces me to reflect and catch up on others.  That ain’t so bad.

Vacation was great.

My favorite photo of us from the trip.

I was a little sick the whole time and it really took a toll the last two days when we were in Toulouse.  Fortunately, our B&B was AMAZING and we didn’t feel too badly about spending extra time resting.  We both came back with colds/severe sinus ick.  Hopefully we’ll have most of the problems tamped down by the time we depart for Miami for Christmas with my family.  It is 75 and sunny down there.  I’ll be ready for that by Tuesday.

Barcelona was wonderful.  We had great weather and didn’t really need our coats for our first 4 days.  Teh Smitten loved the Pinotxo Bar at La Boqueria, and we had an amazing meal at this place call La Vinateria del Call, also in the Barri Gotic.  We never really left the gothic quarter except to see La Sagrada Familia and Gaudi’s Casa Batllo – which were both fantastic.

Unfortunately, the world famous El Bulli was not open when we were there, and it is nearly impossible to get reservations anyway.

Appetizers at Comerc 24

We were able to get into Comerc 24, which subscribes to the molecular cooking philosophy which is so in vogue.  We had a pretty good time there, but it does not come close to the glory of Komi here in DC.  I did not feel sorry for all the other (non-Komi) foods like I did at Komi, where we celebrated Teh Smitten’s birthday in November.

We got to experience a French rail strike, which delayed us from getting into Narbonne on Thanksgiving day by a few hours.  We took the bus instead.  Narbonne was nice, but I’m glad we just spent one night there.  It was worth it for the Roman Horreum (an underground warehouse – kind of a cool thing to visit) and the bit of the Via Domitia in the main square.

Carcassonne was my favorite.

A view of the old part of the city from the keep itself

We stayed in a Best Western.  Well, it was a 14th century building that Best Western bought and it was great.  We had a nice room, very medieval in flavor but not comfort, and a lovely large bathroom.  It was low season there so not everything was open, but we were there on a weekend so got to see and do plenty.

We had lunch our first day at the Auberge de Dame Carcas.  I had foie gras to start and cassoulet, of course.

We spent most of the first day walking around the old city and checking out the wall surrounding it.

Teh Smitten on the outer wall of medieval Carcassonne

I love this photo of Teh Smitten.  Am I right about how beautiful this place was?

More to come…

Vacation is looming large and I’m beginning to panic a little about not having practiced my Spanish more.  I need to do a little research and download a conversation Catalan and French podcast.  Teh Smitten and I purchased our train tickets a couple weeks back and only spent a total of $220 to get us from Barcelona to Toulouse – pretty happy about that.  I’ve started to tab interesting places and cafes/bars for us to visit.  I should be more concerned with various deliverables due with my leadership program, but its hard to focus when I know that happyfuntime is so close.

We have commenced Teh Smitten’s birthday weekend.  The celebration (kinda) has kicked off with Ghirardelli brownies and this lovely Rias Baixas Vizconde de Barrantes albarino.  We have a Clatterford dvd in the player and are idly flipping channels. Right now, teh cutie is happily watching some blow hard talk about weaponry on history.com.

Also, I am nearly done with Christmas shopping.  Took care of the niece and nephew via Amazon.com this afternoon.  The boy gets xBox 360 games (Madden 10 and Brutal Legend) and the girl gets the latest glam barbie vacation house with matching pool and convertible (to be released in mid-November).  Best. Aunt. Ever.  My brother in law is getting an haute couture t-shirt from Alexander McQueen.  The boy loves t-shirts so he’s getting the best.  Srsly.  Gilt.com has saved my ass this year.  (And so has ruelala.com, hautelook.com and ideeli.com – bless them every one!) The Marc “mother effing” Jacobs handbags for my sister and me – still reeling over that find.  I need to stop spending money so I can buy myself a car at the end of the year.  I’m not sure that Toonces is going to pass the DC inspection in January.  At the current rate, it is going to be a Toyota Yaris or Hyundai box of death instead of the Honda Civic.  Alas, alas!