And So It Begins

It was a dark and stormy night.

No, that's not just Snoopy's standard novel opening, it really was a "dark and stormy" night. "Dark and Stormy" is the name of a drink Jeri and Phil love, made with beer and rum. But not just any beer or just any rum--A.J. Stephans Jamaican Style ginger ale (made in Boston) and Captain Morgan brand Puerto Rican rum. You blend these two together in a tall glass over ice and enjoy.

Being an only occasional drinker, and a light one at that, a Dark and Stormy is more booze than I want, and I had to participate in an on-line conference anyway, so I left the three with their drinks and I sat at my comoputer for 40 minutes or so before I made dinner.

Hey, you guys! Jeri and Phil are here! The bride and groom!...and you know what that means? It's time to get serious about wedding plans, which seems only logical since the wedding is next weekend.

I don't know why all weddings aren't planned like this. Of course it might all fall apart, but since this is a casual wedding there isn't much to fret about. I was actually going to go out and buy something to wear until they told me that it is evolving into a Hawaiian themed wedding and that (some) women are wearing muu muus. Well, I have a perfectly good muu muu that fits and looks less horrible than a lot of things I wear, so I've just saved myself the price of an outfit and will wear the muu muu. The father of the bride is wearing an aloha shirt.

They arranged music with the Preoccupied Pipers group after the gig Saturday night. My mother is going to fix Jeri a bouquet of flowers. Several people have volunteered to bring food and/or drink to share at the picnic. Tom, Alice Nan and I are going to do a huge shopping at Costco for food later next week. I'll be making the cake at Alice Nan's house.

And Jeri got to try on the "fertility veil" that she'll be wearing. Char wore it for her wedding, Pat wore it for hers, I wore it for mine (and we had 5, 4, and 5 children, respectfully) and then Char's daughter wore it for hers. So now it's been passed down to Jeri...or rather loaned to Jeri.

It seems like somebody should be panicking about something. Isn't that what you do the week before a wedding? But it just all feels very calm and organized.

Tomorrow I'm taking Phil and Jeri to the Yolo County Courthouse to get their marriage license (hopefully from recorder Freddie Oakley, who married Ellen and Shelly). There's a shower planned for Saturday at Ned & Marta's house and then we all take off for Santa Barbara for the final phase of this happy, happy event!