Soooo. Where to start?
We're married.
The day was totally awesome and I have to say, is to date the happiest day of my life.
We're four months in now, and since my last post was before the wedding, a lot has happened.
1. The honeymoon.
A *ton* of fun. We spent a day or two here in Williamsburg at Wedmore Place at the Williamsburg Winery, and from there took the auto-train from Lorton to just outside of Orlando.
From there we drove to the keys and spent a few days there while we killed time until we set out on our cruise of the Caribbean!
While we were in Key West we stopped at this awesome pirate museum that had all sorts of artifacts that were recovered from piratical purgatory. I tried to get calamari any chance I got and ate my weight in shrimp.
The cruise started out well, and the first night we basically just sat on the deck and watched Ft. Lauderdale get smaller and smaller, and watched as the bars on my phone got fewer and fewer.
For dinners we requested a table for four much to my chagrin. I can't stand eating with people I don't know, and I was very hesitant to go to dinner that first night in anticipation that we would have the crankiest oldest people as dinner mates. That was so not the case. We had to have had *the* best dinner mates we could have possibly hoped for. I was racing Jen to dinner most nights because it was such a treat.
It was so relaxing and fun, and I won a bit of money at the casino too.
The only thing that was iffy was our first stop that was supposed to be St. Maarten. somewhere along the way we ran into some subtropical storm and that totally put us off track and they ended up cancelling the first port of call. Meanwhile, that meant an extra day at sea when both Jen and I could barely stand up for more than about 5 minutes at a time. Thank goodness they give you little packets of something called "Sea Calm" which is basically just something that keeps you from tossing your cookies.
There were daily sudokus and crossword puzzles, and on top of that with the stateroom we got, they had free movie rentals from their DVD library.
I actually got jen to watch a few movies! (she couldn't stand up, so how could she get away?)
We got home in time for Christmas and that was a really nice holiday.
2. Work.
Ok, so maybe not much has changed here. I'm still there doing the same thing I was doing.
It's good though, and most days I feel like I've helped somebody or accomplished something.
Still hoping for something more and keeping my fingers crossed.
3. Home.
I've actually managed to do husbandy type things. I constructed shelves that have been up in the attic for years. (One wrench-gouged thumb in the process.) I made one faucet stop leaking and tightened the handle on another. I've started putting up crown moulding in Jen's bathroom, and am doing a much better job than I thought I'd do, but not without some typical screw ups :)
Lowes has been our unfriendly go-to place for the moulding, with Home Depot picking up the slack on things like a non-digital normal old run of the mill angle finder. Lowes is out of stock at the moment on the moulding, and since I had to take two pieces down because I mauled one with a hammer, and the other one was cut too short to go up to the angle like it was supposed to, we can't finish the bathroom yet.
My injury list having to do with this project is rather short.
10 smashed thumbs.
1 claw-hammered thumb from where I was trying to pry a nail, the hammer slipped and the claw part got jammed between the nail and the cuticle.
This is impressive because I've been using a miter saw for most of the cuts, and a coping saw where needed since all the corners are inside corners.
We don't have a nail-gun yet, but we have been seriously looking at one because we are now planning on doing crown moulding for the entire condo, and there's no way I'm going to want to stand there and hold up the moulding and tap tap tap all those nails in. (Plus there's that added benefit of me not destroying the moulding as I hammer.)
4. Health.
Back in January I had one of those yearly physical things that I haven't had yearly in say... 10-12 years. One of the things I had a question about seemed to concern him enough to send me to a specialist. I had a mole-type thing on my back that has been there for at least a decade. Since it's in the middle of my back I can't really see it, and even with the use of a mirror I can't see details. Well, apparently the outer edges had gone lighter, and it was large enough that he wanted it seen by somebody who might know more about it. So I went. The dermatologist decided that it's probably benign (99.8% in her words) and it was probably just fine, but to be safe why don't we go ahead and get it off anyway, get it under a microscope and see what's what.
so about 7 weeks later I'm in the dermatologist's office on my stomach while they're slicing a mole off my back and talking about all the gross stuff that gets put into a hot dog.
I go to get my stitches out and they got the pathology from the lab and started to tell me that while yes, it was benign, it was still very abnormal, the cells weren't normal and that the cells were trying to change into something, but they just hadn't done it yet.
She also said the margins were clear, and that I only need to come back once a year to be seen, and that I should keep and eye out for new growths. Since I've had this one, I can expect to get more now.
That pretty well catches us up till the present.
I bowl in a work league once a week. Sunday nights. My team is in third place, and we're slowly rising up. We'd probably be in better shape if I made up some of my games. So I need to get out there and do it, maybe we'll be number 1 soon.
Here are a few pictures I've got. Not too many, I promise.
This is me chilling out in Key West by the pool at the Tropical Inn.
(in)Famous Key West Rooster.
LEEEEZARRRRD
On the way to Ft. Lauderdale we took a little side trip to The Fruit and Spice Park
Where we saw something called "Sausage Trees"
It was mind boggling. I will never be the same.
More pictures to come with the next update, which hopefully won't be so long in coming.
(We'll get to some pictures of the cruise too! :D)
This is a parade of servers during one of the special dinners. The guy in the chef hat in the bottom left corner was obnoxious. He announced at the end of the meal "Well I won't be back" or some such, and he never was. Incidently a few of their dinner mates didn't come back either.
Hanging crown moulding and preparing to whack the $#!% out of my thumb.
Hanging crown moulding and preparing to whack the $#!% out of my thumb.
This is where I messed up.
Where I messed up from another angle.
The cat helping from the ground.
A lilypad from the Fruit and Spice Park.
Dinner-mates Bob and Leigh.
Jen and Me at dinner on the boat.
We took an aerial tram through a rainforest on St. Lucia
This is off the coast of St. Lucia where guys in boats were floating by the boat shouting "HEY POP. THROW US A DOLLA, WE DIVE FOR IT!"
