Posts Tagged ‘restaurant’

Yesterday Matt and I took a drive up to Avila Beach, about an hour north of us. We went to Pismo Beach together once, before we started dating, and that was the last time either of us visited a beach. We were to meet my friends from school, Missy and Brian up there (well, and quite a few others that either said they would join us or told me maybe then never got in touch!) Matt and I walked around the town, waded in the waves, and played on the rocks for an hour until they showed up. We shared some dragonblood and passionfruit shaved ice while the two of them took a dip in the ocean. We sort of just hung out in the sand and chatted about school before deciding to take a walk to the pier. It was about a 45 minute walk to the Port San Luis pier, but it was such a beautiful day with a wonderful view. There's a fresh seafood market, lots of fishing, a couple restaurants, an inn, and a bunch of cute sea lions! We stopped off at Fat Cat's for some dinner and admired all the pictures of very large (one 46 pounds!) cats people display on the walls. I had a delicious breakfast and Missy had some creepy looking squid, complete with crunchy tentacles! Avila Beach is a really cute town and Matt and I will definitely have to go back sometime soon! Friday night we went out to see The Lake House. Neither of us generally likes sappy love stories, but this one was really neat (sort of Memento-ish?) and awfully sweet! I think this one's purchase-worthy. Go see it. Bring tissues! Today we've mostly just been playing WoW (our hunters, Matt's level 12 [Moochi] and my level 13 [Ponzu]) and packing for our trip. We fly out of Santa Barbara at 1:30 tomorrow, but need to leave early to run some errands, get Matt a haircut, and run by work to sign some things. Matt's quite pleased to get an 11-day weekend and I'm psyched to go "home" for a few days! It will definitely be a great and hopefully relaxing time! More about that later!

Last night was Girls Night Out. Missy and I had a little belated birthday bash for Carol. We went out to AJ Spurs for some yummy steak and pasta, then went out to see Last Holiday. It was a cute, fun girl movie. It's good to hang out with Missy, since we don't get up her way much (she lives almost an hour north of me). At least I'll see her at school starting on Monday (I think we'll have three classes together). Unfortunately, Carol's counting down the days until she leaves California for Nebraska. I'm happy for her that she'll be leaving the service and reunited with her husband, but I'll miss having a friend around. Melissa and I hung out today. We found a yarn shop listing in Lompoc on the internet, so we drove around town searching for it today, just to find it had empty window. Oh well for outdated websites. We went back to Walmart anyway and went on a little shopping spree. We picked out yarn to make our own crochet tote-bags, yarn to make a baby blanket for her 1-month old niece (though she'll probably be much older by the time it's finished :-\), a set of hooks and a case of her own, some cute buttons, and more random yarn, as well as more beads and a set of earring wires to make more jewelry. We spent way too much money, but it should keep us super-busy with craftiness for months! Melissa's been practicing her chain stitch this week and today I taught her to single crochet. She's catching on. I loaned her a beginner's book with good pictures in case she gets confused practicing this week. We'll be making awesome projects in no time! Melissa got a laptop for Christmas, so she brought it over today and we played around on there. She's never really been on the Internet before, but had heard of MySpace from kids at school. She was all excited about finding people online and putting up her picture and all. I think it's cool she's getting interested in the Internet, but we had to have that "there are creepy guys out there that like to talk to little girls" talk, because no one's really had it with her. We just got back from the theater; we went to go see Hoodwinked. It was goofy, but cute. She loved it. So Matt and I are heading out to Santa Maria to visit Best Buy and Michael's and have some dinner. Ciao!

Last Thursday morning Papa flew in to Santa Barbara from Dallas. Not much else happened that day, we just kicked back and caught up. It had been a long morning for him. He took us out to dinner at Saletti's as Matt's belated birthday gift. I had the fettuccine alfredo again and it was superb as usual. We had a bottle of 2002 Beckman sauvignon blanc, which was okay. We're still experimenting with different wines. Matt and I haven't really found much that we like yet, though. Friday Matt had to work, but Papa and I ventured out to the Solvang area. We had a pastry breakfast at the Danish Mill Bakery and picked up a box of goodies to go. We explored the town a little. I got to visit two yarn shops, but I didn't purchase anything. I figure I'll get $18/skein yarn when I've graduated from the learning & mess-up stage. Papa thinks I should spin my own yarn rather than buy it. We saw quite a bit of spinning materials, but I'm not going to buy a wheel! It would be fun someday. We had lunch at the Solvang Restaurant, which is really the only place I eat in town. Yummy Tilsit cheese sandwich. Our reason for going out that way was to visit the wineries, though. We headed up to Los Olivos, which is a short but gorgeous drive. We passed vineyard after vineyard as well as orchards and a farm of miniature horses. We decided to go the Beckman vineyard since we had a wine of theirs at Saletti's the night before. There aren't any grapes on the vines in January, but the vineyard was really pretty anyway. We hung out in the tasting room for about an hour, trying six different wines and learning all sorts of facts about wines. I learned about growing vines: clones and rootstocks; how all sorts of flavors can come out in wines even though nothing is added: tobacco, vanilla, strawberries, chocolate; and that wines have nose and legs, too! It was fun and educational. We stopped by the Babcock vineyard on the way to pick Matt up from work. That one wasn't quite as exciting, as our host was kind of "okay, let's get this over with" about that whole thing. We pretty much just stood in silence sipping bit after bit then headed out. Overall, I think it was a very interesting first time in the tasting rooms. The weekend was really mellow, though. We didn't go out anywhere to do anything exciting. We rented a lot of movies, played on the computer and [I] crocheted. It's nice to just sit and visit, but I always felt a little anxious, that I should be entertaining more. Matt and I are getting used to saving our money and just sitting around inside, but I don't want to appear lame and boring to my dad. I don't think it bothered him, though. I made my chicken parmesan dish for dinner on Saturday and it was a hit! I'm glad someone other than Matt enjoys my cooking. We took him down to Santa Barbara Monday afternoon to catch his 6:30 flight. We went early so we could cruise around State Street and go out to dinner. Matt and I received Chilis gift cards for Christmas, but there is only one Chilis anywhere within three hours of us and it's by the Santa Barbara Airport. So we had a nice, although rushed, Chili's dinner. I had forgotten directions and thought I'd just feel my way around town, so after driving around in circles for a while, we were a little pressed for time. But Papa made his flight and we returned home. Everything's pretty much back to normal, now. Matt's been playing World of Warcraft, I've been crocheting, and we've been watching quite a few movies. My dad and I moved melandmatt.net from my friend in Fort Collins' server to a DreamHost server. They offer tons of space and goodies. Matt and I have moved our blogs off of Xanga and LiveJournal to keep them here. We installed a new photo gallery and I've spent hours customizing and editing that. It's all been fun. I picked Melissa up from school on Tuesday. We worked on her math and vocabulary homework. Doing homework often takes up a lot of our time for the night, but I enjoy it. I like helping her out, sometimes re-teaching it, but not just feeding her answers. I suppose that's part of why I'd like to be a teacher someday. Melissa and I have a good time. We picked up Subway for dinner. The employee making our sandwiches always gawks at her whenever she orders a bread-and-meat-only sandwich. They have to ask her a few times just to make sure she doesn't want any mustard or vegetables. She gets all embarrassed about it, but hey, she can have whatever she likes. I was crocheting granny squares while she was doing her vocabulary homework. I had picked up some yarn and a few hooks for her the other day in case she wanted to learn. She was all excited to get to crocheting! She'd been bragging to her friends and family that I can make scarves and hats and whatnot and really wanted to be able to for herself. So we got her started with holding the hook and yarn and making a foundation chain. It's … really cute. I figure the first lesson is that and she took her yarn and hook home to practice. Saturday we'll do the single crochet stitch. I'm just glad that she's all hyped to learn. I'd like it if we can sit around and crochet cute purses and hats together. I feel accomplished, having only been learning to crochet for three weeks now. I made that ugly scarf that Matt apparently likes (but I don't think Tal does much!) I've been making coasters, since we needed them for our coffee table anyway. I have two afghans going right now, but I think they'll take some time. I made my first hat, but it's really strangely shaped and looks ridiculous on Matt (and to a lesser degree, me). I have all these creations that are kind of ugly, but I am very proud of. I'm working on another hat right now. I want to start making chemo caps and donating them through Head Huggers for people with cancer. I guess they're in high demand and aren't really all that difficult to make. There's no better way for me to practice my crochet than for it to benefit someone else! I set up an album in my gallery to keep a photo-collection of all my projects. Well, Matt's off at work and I need to do chores. I've been lazy since my dad left, so the apartment's gotten a little wild.

Well, happy 2006! Yah, it doesn't feel too different. More laid back, I guess, but that's because I'm still on my super-break away from school. (20 Dec – 23 Jan break, woohoo!) Last weekend my mom and Ron flew out to Santa Barbara. On Friday they came up to see the casa de Conklin. We went golfing on base (Ooooh, I am so terrible! It's only my second time out playing 9 holes, though. Matt promises he'll really teach me.) and then out to a nice dinner at Lompoc's finest, Saletti's. Mmm. They returned to Santa Barbara and we drove down Saturday morning to join them on a whale watching expedition. Well, it's been ten years since my mother or I have set foot on a boat, and Matt's never been ocean-bound (Ron practically grew up at sea). The four-hour tour took us out to the Santa Cruz islands and three of us spent most of it asleep or on the verge of losing our breakfasts. We were so miserably sea sick and no one even saw a single whale. It was pretty stormy and rainy out, so maybe the whales were afraid to come up (and get wet??). It seemed like a great idea and we were all really excited about it, but just couldn't stomach it. No worries about not seeing whales though; we got four free, non-expiring passes to go do it all over again (this time, with Dramamine)! (( Whale boat pictures are up here! )) Saturday we also celebrated Matt's and Ron's birthdays. After recovering from the boat trip, we perused the (closed) stores on State Street until our 9pm dinner reservation. Still raining. The restaurant was great, though. We had a classy band and were seated on the patio (it had stopped raining by then, thankfully) and a terrific dinner! Matt's first experience with lobster bisque or filet mignon. Neither of us care much for lobster. Anyhow, it was an experience for Matt, but not really his style. We decided to celebrate his birthday Matt-style on Monday. Sunday was mostly just sleeping in, kicking back, hanging out. My mom and I went out to see Fun With Dick and Jane because the boys just wanted to sit in the hotel room with their new books. :p That's all right, it's nice to hang with my mom! Despite unfortunate weather and motion sickness, it was great to see her and Ron! Since then Matt's gone back to work and I've been playing it lazy. Well, sort of … I took down all the Christmas decorations and reorganized most of the apartment. I couldn't just be a total bum all week! Mostly I've just been crocheting, though. Last weekend my mom got me a Crocheting for Dummies book, and I've been yarn-wild since! Yesterday I finished my first project: a scarf. I didn't go by a pattern, just flew by the seat of my pants with it. It's hideous and I think I'll mail it to my sister. All day today I've been working on an afghan. I think it will take some time. I ordered the spring semester's school books online rather than bother with the bookstore lines. The arrived today and got me all excited! I have a piano book, a physics book, and a linear algebra book and they just get me all giddy to jump right in! It's not that I don't like sitting around at home crocheting and watching movies, but I'm just psyched about school. I looked up my fall grades yesterday. Bragging time. All A's! Well, I'm just pleased because it's my first 4.0 college semester. So now I want to see if I can do it all over again! I really need to work hard to bring up my horrific CSU freshman GPA — at least now my cumulative has broken a 3.0! =\ That's about all in the wonderful world of Mel. Today ends my "weekend" (so what if it was nearly three weeks?) I have to work tomorrow and Sunday. Really, my job seems interesting, and I'm sure it will be someday, but guard drills are the most boring things ever! I can't wait to get my security clearance and go to school this summer so I can actually do work and not just sit around once a month trying to look busy. Argh! I hope you all enjoy your weekends! :p Ciao!

Yesterday Carol and I went out to lunch at Sugar Magnolia's (mmm). It was really nice! I think we found our common link. She works the boring 12-hour night shift all week every other week, so she's been inhaling a lot of books recently. I'm just trying to get in the habit of reading more and should have a greater opportunity to, given I'll be on a bus for about two and a half hours each day. So we pretty much just discussed books the entire time. I borrowed The Great Divorce from her and finished it last week. We discussed that for a while then decided to go out and get some more C.S. Lewis. Right now I'm working on Mere Christianity and she is reading The Screwtape Letters, then we'll switch next weekend. We went to three bookstores together after lunch and each picked up a few things. I got another Frank Peretti book, The Oath, which Matt was all excited about. I loved This Present Darkness and Piercing the Darkness and Matt has read a few others by him. He's just awesome! Anyhow, things with Carol are great. She'll be coming over next weekend (her non-work weekend) to go see The Brothers Grimm and hang out at home playing Diablo II and Age of Mythology with us (she's never really gamed much, so this will be fun!). Matt invited his friend Donny over for dinner tomorrow. I don't really care for most of the people in the shop, but Donny's really cool. He was Matt's old MMORPG buddy back in the dorms. So tomorrow evening will be all about CoH, anime, and chicken parmesan (my new specialty!) Matt and I got Memories a few weeks ago, a collection of three shorts. We loved the second one, "Stink Bomb", and I'm sure Donny will get a kick out of it, too. It will be nice; we don't often have visitors. So Matthew, my little brother, is up in Fort Collins now, all settled in to his dorm. Classes start Monday and I'm all psyched for him! Neither Andrea nor I did so well our first year at college, I hope Matthew breaks the streak! He hasn't "checked in" with me or anything yet, I just know from my dad that he's up there and a little bored right now. Bored?! Bah! I sure hope not. Maybe my buddies up there can help him out, find something fun to do. *wink wink, nudge nudge Tim* :p This semester will be busy. Melissa and I are trying to work it so Monday is our day to hang out, which means I'll pick her up as soon as I get home, we'll make dinner and hang out, then I'll take her home and go to bed. Then Wednesdays Matt and I are planning on attending a Bible study group in the evenings. The bus only runs from Santa Maria to Lompoc every so often, that's why there's a big gap there as I wait for the second bus. This should give me a lot of time to do homework and study before I get home, though. I am pretty excited. Although it's nice and relaxing, I'm getting tired of just bumming around at home, cleaning up and putzing around on the computer. Hehe.

Man, I am so craving some of those peanut butter and oatmeal nobake cookies. I want to just go whip up a batch for breakfast! :-} So the news today is, well, slim. I was all hyped up about spending time with Melissa yesterday, but it turns out she got some viral infection (hopefully not from some infected animal at the zoo on Saturday!) and is miserably sick. Melissa and I have had sort of a rocky relationship, not because of how we get along, but just because of time and dedication, I guess. I "adopted" Melissa in March '04 and things started out really well: we'd see each other every weekend, went camping, did schoolwork together, etc. A mixture of her family events, my night-classes and unpredictable work schedule, as well as my laziness pretty much destroyed what we had and we ended up hanging out maybe once every two months. It stressed me out a lot because I care about her and want to spend time with her (also, in the BBBSA you sort of sign a "contract" saying you'll spend such-and-such amount of time together per week and I had my case worker calling up constantly to check on me … guilt!) but it just wasn't working. I almost tried to quit the program a while ago because I felt so bad, that she deserved a better, more devoted Big Sister. Well, I'm not saying everything's the way it should be right now, but our hopes are higher and our schedules are clearer! Not working in the squadron while trying to go to classes at night anymore will really help. We planned a little schedule sort of … she comes over at the same time every Wednesday and we'd also try to get together once in a while on the weekends. Well yesterday was our first Wednesday and I was all hyped for making chicken parmesan and beading necklaces together! Anyhow, long story with little point: I was just sort of bummed out. Heh. I'm meeting up with my pal, Carol, today for lunch. We used to work together until she moved sections and I moved out. It's kind of a strange relationship. When I first showed up on base she hated me completely. I don't know if it was a territorial thing (there is such a small percentage of girls to guys where we worked) and I was hogging her boys' attention or if it was just something else about me. She was all tough and frankly, just scared the snot out of me. It really upset me whenever she was rude to me for no reason and I'd whine to Matt about it after work. I don't know what happened. Her friend, Denna, and I eventually became better friends, so then it was sort of the three of us. Tension just disappeared one day. I don't know if it was that I was hanging out with Matt and she saw this as a threat (they were okay friends in tech school before I came along), but I proved myself over time? I held a grudge sort of for a bit, but there's really no point. Things have seemed pretty fine for a while. Anyhow, Denna, Carol and I used to go out to lunch together at Sissy's, a cute, colorful cafe in Lompoc, every two weeks or so. Denna moved to Italy and Carol and I were left with each other, pretty much the only girls either of us knows around here (seriously in the shop right now there is one girl and 44 guys … poor Anya). She works strange, unpredictable hours now, so we get together for lunch when we can. Today we can and I'm looking forward to it. We found another Lompoc restaurant, Sugar Magnolia's, which I just adore and sort of became "our place" to go out (Sissy's was more her and Denna's place hehe). I think Carol's sick of Sugar's today though, so ohwell, I don't get their awesome natural smoothies and pasta salad. Well … I like Carol enough, she's a sweetheart and Matt likes hanging out with her, too. But seriously, whenever we go out I feel like we just talk about the same things: work gossip (ugh!), her relationship status, or how Denna's doing in Italy. We get along, but I don't feel we really have anything interesting in common. Since I was thirteen I struggled in the girl friend department, but hanging out with all the guys didn't really bother me so much anyway. Now I just sort of feel desperate, I just want a girl to talk to every now and then! You know, a girl kind of like me, heh. Matt is wonderful, don't get me wrong, but I'm sure you understand … I think he does. I think I'm just feeling a little holed-up lately. I'm an inside, introverted person and hanging out with Matt is great, but every now and then I think I miss my childhood girlfriends. I don't want to be surrounded by a lot of friends or anything, I really just want one and for her to not live across the country. I think that's part of why I want to hang out with Melissa more … maybe it reminds me of when I was in middle school hanging with the "Chicklets" … but you know, she's thirteen. There's certain needs in that relationship that can't be met, either. Well, enough of that. Lunch today will be nice, but I guess I'm going into it feeling like the friendship is all ready sort of empty and it just bums me a bit. Yes, it's another morning where I just babble, so sorry. Yesterday I got a ton of schoolwork, errands, and housework done that I didn't expect to (due to my Melissa date being called off, wahh!) so I'm a tad ahead of schedule and can spare the thirty minutes of babble! So I think I will go whip up some no-bake cookies for later (not for breakfast, ick) and play with crazy Tal. He sure is going to miss me when school starts up in the Fall. The spoiled cat has a big toy all day long every day who is just going to disappear for the semester. Poor guy. >:-)

Well, this might be incredibly boring for some, but I'm not sure I have anything that much more interesting, so I'm going to tell you what I had for dinner! Woohoo! Actually, I'm just now learning to cook. I know, I'm 22 years old and really all I've ever cooked is grilled cheese sandwiches and really bad scrambled eggs. Now I have my own kitchen and I really want to give it a whirl! I'm actually having a blast! I haven't tried anything too fancy yet (I just have two small cookbooks and a kitchen with limited supplies), but I'm having fun. My mother gave me a cookbook called "Recipe Please: Favorite Recipes from Colorado Restaurants". (Sidenote: Please pray for her, if that's your kind of thing, as she was admitted to the hospital for a ruptured appendix the other day. She was supposed to be sent home today, but I guess things have taken a turn for a worse and they're now projecting she gets released on Tuesday.) I don't believe I've found an entry in the book of a restaurant of which I've been to, but the food sounds really good! Tonight I chose my first meal from the book: Bravo! Ristorante's Lemon chicken with Penne. I modified the recipe a bit, taking out the ingredients which we don't have on-hand (asparagus and oregano) and fixed it so it only fed two. So, I'll post my interesting "Meals for Two" recipes which I attempt! Here was tonight's chicken: 1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil 1/2 clove garlic, minced 1/2 small shallot, chopped 1/4 cup white wine 1/2 pound skinless, boneless chicken breasts, cut into strips 1 cup heavy cream 1/4 cup crumbled Gorgonzola 1/2 cup freshly diced tomatoes 1 tablespoon grated Parmesan Pinch of mixed fresh or dried herbs (thyme, rosemary, parsley, and chives) 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice Salt and pepper to taste 1/2 pound penne, cooked and drained Fresh basil for garnish Serves 2 Heat oil in pan, add garlic and shallot and saute for 2 to 3 minutes. Deglaze pan with white wine and reduce. Add chicken strips. Saute for 3 to 4 minutes. Add heavy cream and Gorgonzola and reduce liquid by half. Next, add asparagus, diced tomatoes, Parmesan, fresh herbs, and lemon juice and heat. Add penne to pan and let it cook just until heated through. Add salt and pepper to taste. Garnish with basil and serve. Served with a 2003 Lucas and Lewellen chardonnay. I give it two thumbs up, but Matt didn't care for it at all. It seems he doesn't really like creamy-sauces (it's not all that creamy, though) so I packed up his for my own lunch tomorrow. I thought it was awesome, but that's okay. I'll cook it when he's not around. Check it out! Oh yes, and I'll have another culinary adventure soon to tell you all about! Now moving from the kitchen to the driveway … Matt and I have been cleaning the car. It's really quite the nightmare. It was such a cute paint job that Jason, Matthew, Jen, and Carol did for us last weekend, but they used the wrong kind of paint I think! We've used Goo Gone and soap and water and rubbing compound and have exhausted all those kinds of products at Autozone. It took me over two hours and tons of elbow grease to rub the huge LOVE off the hood. I considered a whole new paint job, actually, but that's out of the question now that I've looked at our checking account. So, if anyone has a suggestion on how to get this crazy super-paint off our car, it would be greatly appreciated! I'm going to see if my brother can find the bottle they used (two different brands, actually, and neither one of them is easily removed) and get me a phone number to call the manufacturer for a recommended solvent! Ick, my arms/thumbs are so sore. Anyhow, that's all for tonight. Try that chicken!

Phew! I know it's all cliche and whatnot, but seriously, last weekend was the best weekend of my life! Everything was so beautiful! *tear!* I'm currently working on getting all my favorite wedding photos up at my gallery. The biggest thanks ever goes out to Aaron and Alex! I invited them as friends and they went to work as photographers, taking hundreds upon hundreds of photos. I couldn't ask for better friends! So, here's how it went: Thursday Got up kind of early to drive to Fresno. Listened to all our wedding CDs in the car on the way up (no DJ, just a bunch of our faves burned to disk). Met up with my father and brother around noon, waited to meet up with Matt's family a few hours later. We all trooped down to the Fresno mall to pick up tuxedos then all headed to BJ's for pizza. Matt's family had been up since 3am New York time and nearly everyone was exhausted, hungry, and a bit grumpy. It was still awesome to get together for a meal and meet/catch up. My brother (Matthew) and Matt's brother (Jason) … well, it's absolutely uncanny! It's like they're twins. Very creepy. They just met and hit it off quite well. They sat all through dinner drawing physics problems and anime sketches on napkins and discussing little-brother random things. My mother and Ron were driving in from Las Vegas (the long way!) and got in later than expected. They met up with everyone at the Picadilly Inn, where most of us stayed the night. Friday This is the day that I had most of my wedding-stresses. This was mostly because I had only been up to Yosemite during the off-season and had no idea what a zoo it would be. What is a 30-minute drive in November is more like a 90-minute drive in June. So I was late all over the place and frustrated and got lost a whole lot. Jen was in the car with me when I was near tears and was a blessing in the way of emotional support! Thanks, Jen! *hugs* My mother and I met up with the banquet manager at the Wawona Hotel that afternoon to discuss the reception. This eased my worried a lot as I just got more and more excited about how beautiful it was going to be! That evening Dave and Diane invited everyone down to the Pines Resort's restaurant, Duceys, for Jazz on the Lake. This was awesome rehearsal dinner (though there really wasn't much to rehearse)! Papa Bear and Company played while we buffeted and danced out on Bass Lake. Carol (from work) met up with us at the last minute, too, and stayed with me and Jen in the Wawona that evening. The three of us and my mother stuffed birds nests and ironed dresses late into the evening. Saturday I couldn't stay asleep past 5:00 and was pretty surprised I got that much rest. Wedding morning is worse than Christmas morning! Jen, Carol and I got up and got ready to go to Revive Day Spa with Mama and Diane. I sat down first for a manicure/pedicure, which was so relaxing! Then Andrea showed up! Andrea was originally going to be the Maid of Honor and she lived in Monterey, which isn't far from Yosemite. But she just transferred to Texas and we canceled her dress and flowers and just accepted that she wouldn't be able to attend. At the very last minute she got approval to fly out to California (you can't usually take leave in training, but this is a special occasion!) She got in very late on Friday night, went out and found a dress in Oakhurst the day of the wedding, and I got an extra bouquet for her and it all worked out! Yay, Andrea!! After we all got prettied up at the day spa, the girls headed off to the Wawona to get dressed super-speedy like. Then off to the chapel! My mom is so cute, she played Bette Midler's "Chapel of Love" on the drive up to Yosemite Village while Jen and I danced in the back seat. We left for the chapel really early because I was afraid of the 2 mph traffic into the Village that my father experienced, but we ended up arriving early after all. We met up with Aaron and the guys in front of the chapel to take photos then went down by Superintendent's Bridge to take more. It was so horribly buggy out by the river we had to leave and return to the chapel. Everyone was being eaten alive. We waited around for the pastor forever and he finally showed up and we went back to the bridge for a gorgeous, mosquito-y ceremony. It was so pretty, but I felt horrible for Matt. Every now and then I'd just tune out the pastor and watch the four or five mosquitoes on Matt's face suck away and I just wanted to reach up and slap him. That's probably not the best thing to do in the middle of your wedding, though. Matt drove me to the Wawona for the reception and from there everything just seemed to go too quickly. Guests dinged on their glasses so we'd kiss five hundred times and Chris Nail threatened to keep dinging until we "did it like we mean it!" After that, Matt threatened to be rolling around on the floor with me at each ding. The food was good, but I didn't really eat much. The cake wasn't exactly like I'd imagined, but so so cute! And really, I didn't rig the bouquet toss, it just happened to go right for Jen! And when Jason caught the garter, that just didn't seem right and we did a redo (which is horrible! So sorry, Jason!) :p I had worried so much about which songs to play and what would make people comfortable and what wouldn't put them to sleep and all that, and I think I heard maybe a few seconds of two or three songs. All the things I worried about really didn't matter or even present themselves as a problem, but I'm sure most brides learn that. The whole day was really much better than I had dreamed and although it's corny, it truly was the best day of my life thus far! Sunday Matt and I stayed Saturday night and Sunday night at the Houndstooth Inn in Oakhurst, which is absolutely adorable and we highly recommend to anyone staying the night in the Yosemite area! All the rooms there are so awesome, but we decided to have the entire summer cottage to ourselves! We're going up to camp in Yosemite around the Fourth of July, so we didn't really get out around the area. I know it's boring or whatever, but we just stayed inside pretty much the entire time. We were both exhausted from a whole week of stressing and traveling and excitement, so we just crashed all weekend. That's fine with me though! We opened gifts (which just made me bawl; the people we know are so sweet!) and got out for dinner and Star Wars: Episode III. Matt doesn't have too much more leave saved up, so we had to get him back Monday night so he could return to work. What an amazing weekend! As for me, I don't have to plan a wedding, go to work, or study until Monday, so I'm just bumming around this week. Cleaning house, shopping, cooking — all the domestic stuff a wife needs to do, I guess (sleep in and eat leftover wedding cake, really!) Oh, and thank you notes. So many thank you notes! Life is good. It's nice to be back with Tal, who I think was pretty lonely without us for five days. No worries, we had a sweet cat sitter come and spend time with him! Sorry for such a long post today, but I needed to catch you all up! And go check out some pictures!