New post on Answering Oliver:
Celebrating Our Engagement in La Spezia
Huge — no, massive — points to Aaron for arranging all of these surprises. How did I get so lucky??
Month: November 2012
My friends sure know how to throw a lovely engagement brunch!
My former roommate Elisa hosted my closest friends and their boyfriends this morning and stuffed us full of everything from French toast to three types of quiche… and let’s not forget the mimosas.
After we ate, clinked our glasses in a toast, and retold the engagement story, Aaron took a group photo of the girls and I took one of the boys.
It was Aaron’s idea for them to hold hands in a sort of four-way bromance. Awww. : )
Are you feeling lucky?
Register for the Rock ‘n’ Roll Seattle Marathon or Half-Marathon today and save $13 with the code LUCKY13!
I just registered for the half and put 1:58 for my finish time. I want to PR!
Will I be seeing any of you there??
THE PROPOSAL STORY
Good news
Today, I went on my first run since September 27. Yes, I went more than a month without running! Shame on me.
The first half of October, I was in Italy and too busy sightseeing and stuffing my face with pasta to run (and I never planned to run on that trip).
The second half of October, I started my new job and began planning a wedding. After nearly a year of being on an adult version of summer vacation, working 40-hour weeks again took some getting used to. Now I’m ready to add exercise into my new routine.
Today’s run felt way rougher than it should have for only three miles. It just goes to show that once you lose your fitness, you always have to earn it back the hard way!
Don’t let the numbers fool you; I had to stop and hold my knees several times during this run (true life: I stopped my Garmin — the whole ordeal probably took at least 35 minutes).
The good — no, GREAT — number I have to share with you is my weight. I’ve been eating Paleo about 90% of the time since returning from Italy and am down to 142.6 — the lowest number I’ve seen since before I left for my big trip in February, and well within reach of my goal of 138 (my marathon-running weight, at which I felt healthy, strong and in the best shape of my life).
(I’m not sure who those random creepers are, or why they wanted their picture taken with me.)
I attribute the recent loss to having a solid routine again and being too busy to mindlessly snack. I’m not terribly strict, though, and ate plenty of candy on Halloween and will have a cookie at work from time to time. I’ll share a sample of my daily eating soon.
The LAST bit of good news that I have to share is, well, more of an introduction.
Tumblr friends… meet our wedding venue:
I’ve had my heart set on this venue from the get-go, and the second tour with my mom and future MIL on Saturday morning solidified it. They both loved it, too, and when I showed them the outdoor area where the ceremony would take place (in good weather), I began to cry. I could just see it all perfectly at that moment.
If the weather is terrible, we can have the ceremony inside in the beautiful chateau. I’ll have my fingers crossed for sunshine, of course, but I certainly wouldn’t mind getting married in the romantic, candle-lit room you see in photo #2, right in front of the fireplace. Either way, that’s where we’ll hold the reception.
Our wedding is just under two years away, so the bulk of the planning will take place later on now that we have the date and venue nailed down. If the bit of planning we did this weekend is any indication, there will be many more (happy) tears throughout the process, and I will be an absolute f—ing mess on the actual day.
I can’t wait.
Happy Caturday! Winston likes to help with wedding planning.
(Photo and cat-friend courtesy of my future MIL, Greta 🙂 )
Just wanted to say “happy one month of being engaged!” to this guy.
This is my favorite photo of him, taken on the day we celebrated his 25th birthday last year.
A month ago, we were poppin’ bottles to celebrate.
Tomorrow, I’m going to visit my dream wedding venue for the second time with my mom and my future mother-in-law.
In about 23 months, we’ll (hopefully) be married there.
(“Hopefully” in reference to the location, not the marrying. That part is a “definitely.”)
And tonight… we’re drinking Italian wine and watching Downton Abbey, the latter of which is like 95% of what has kept me from blogging regularly these past couple of weeks.
Damn, that show is good.
Anyway. Cheers!
Happy Halloween!!
It’s my faaaaavorite holiday! I’ve been busy enjoying all the festivities that go along with it and clearly neglecting to blog. I just decided to take October mostly off from the Internet and return in November… aka tomorrow.
Recap of the photos above:
1. and 2. I was a red panda for Halloween and Aaron was a horse head.
3. You MUST look at the customer images on Amazon for the horse head. Hardest I’ve ever laughed.
4. Aaron was a real sport at the pumpkin patch a few weeks ago. I’m a picky pumpkin-picker. The ones he’s holding aren’t even the ones we bought. You know.
5. Loving it.
6. Name that movie!
7. Aaron’s on the left, mine on the right.
8. The festivities at work today: A costume contest (yes, I wore mine), pumpkin-carving contest, festive decor and lots of pumpkin beer.
I’ve definitely eaten too much fun-sized candy today, and Aaron and I just got back from getting the bejeezus scared out of us at a haunted house. That means I’ve officially checked off all of my essential Halloween activities!
Hope you all had a great one. See you in November.
Dev on Running 