Paper Anniversary

A year ago today was pretty much the most epic day ever!

I heart my Silly.
Happy Anniversary sweetie!

To Whom it May Concern

Today is my birthday.

If you loved me, you'd buy this for me.

It's beautiful, shiny, and historically significant in it's own small way. I mean, why else would the Smithsonian be selling it?

Plus it has a hint of Art Deco, which I always love.

It would look nice 'round my wrist on my wedding day, don't you think?

Love you forever!
-Me

Silly Day

May is like a tidal wave of events in my family.

Today is especially special.

Happy Birthday Jason!

This'll be the last time we have to spend our birthdays apart, how exciting is that?!

We're moving!

...I just wish I knew where!!!

I know, I know, I've been a horrible blogger AGAIN. You think I'd learn my lesson by now, but no.

Anyway. It's been very stressful the past week. Yes, amazing things have happened. Jason got a job offer in CT! He also had three other phone interviews, two of which lead to on-site interviews.

So cue to last week when Jason realized his interview on the 11th in Schenectady might be cutting it close if he had to give his answer to CT by the 15th. Mad dash to see if they could bump up the interview, it was a no go but the guy did say since Jason has such a tight deadline he'd let him know the evening of the 11th if he got the job and he'd pressure HR to get right on sending him the offer.

Meanwhile there was a third possible on-site interview in Baton Rouge. Of course since this is the least ideal place to live it is the job Jason wants most. Of course even though I'm not really interested in living in the south I'm behind my manfriend all the way if it's what he wants to do. Of course since it's the job he really wants, they can't seem to get their act together and don't think they could possibly work with the 15th as a deadline. This is still up in the air.

I did some housing research both in the Schenectady area (which of course I already know a lot about housing in the capital region and Laura has moved so many times she knows the ins and outs of apartment complexes in the area) and I also took a look at the areas between Groton and the other major cities in CT.

It'd be killer easy to find a decent and affordable place to live, apartment-style, in the Capital Region. It's a little harder to find an apartment-style place in CT unless you're looking in the areas immediately surrounding a major city...which of course we're not. I haven't found any positions worth applying to in Groton but I have applied to things in New Haven and Hartford, and even Providence, RI. But all the housing between any of those two points is house rentals. We don't need anything more than two bedrooms, we can't afford anything more than two bedrooms, but that seems to be what's available in CT. Obviously the search will continue.

I told Jason my findings and asked him if NY gives him a comparable offer to CT where he would rather work/live. I wanted to know what he wanted. I already know what I want. The Capital Region is already home, we have friends there, we know the area, we're getting married there, it'd be everso convenient! Color me pleasantly surprised when he said he'd probably prefer the NY job if the offer was similar.

Yesssss.

Laura will be so happy to have me back :P

I'm not getting my hopes up. The CT offer is a solid offer and in my mind CT is WAY better than Louisiana any day of the week. (I don't like humidity, and I don't like bugs...so sue me!) I'd be content with Connecticut, I'd be ecstatic with Schenectady though!

We'll know by the end of next week where we'll be moving, and we'll be going apartment hunting next weekend. All I'm going to say is next week can't come fast enough!

It's almost like dancing...

DPF: YAY!

JASON GOT AN OFFER!

COMMENCE THE EPIC DANCING!

Well, maybe don't smack a flag. Old Glory has feelings too.

Hokay so, Jason got an offer for the job in Groton, CT. Which is fabulous and lifts a huge weight off of all of our shoulders, and I can also call Nanny and tell her to stop praying to St. Anthony to help Jason find a job.

He's still going to see if he can move up the interview for the Schenectady job. Just *sigh* I'm so freak'n happy that we can move forward and look for jobs for me and apartments and things and not worry about living out of my bedroom in my parent's house after we get married.

Half a Decade

They say a picture is worth a thousand words. I think this one says a whole lot more than that:

Happy 5 year Anniversary!
Sharpie hearts Silly

Deep Thought Thursday: Material Girl

I don't necessarily consider myself a materialistic person. There are some things that I believe are important, and others I do not.

Things I will always no matter what buy on brand:

1. Heinz Ketchup. There is no disputing this. All other ketchups just taste wrong to me and it doesn't make for an enjoyable condiment.
2. Q-tips. Gotta be the paper sticked ones. Gotta be Q-tip brand. I am very picky about water in my ears and Q-tips are the only brand that over the years have continuously kept me from shaking water out of my head after a shower or swim.
3. Underwear. There are two stores that I purchase panties from and two stores that I purchase bras from. Sure, Aerie, Victoria's Secret, and Lane Bryant are more expensive than say, getting my undergarments at Target or Walmart, but it's all about the quality. Winona said it best, A Good Foundation is Essential. And for the girls, I would spend anything to make sure they are happy and I am comfortable.

There are other brands that I prefer, but I can be swayed in certain instances:

1. Subaru cars. What can I say, I love them almost as much as I loved the Tank.
2. Nine West shoes. They make up about 85% of my current shoe repertoire. They're well made, comfortable (well as comfortable as heels can be), and I think good shoes are important. They are, of course, a foundation as well.
3. Nike Running Shoes. It took me about 3 years to find the perfect pair of running shoes. I plan on ordering an extra pair just to keep in my closet in case they decide to discontinue that particular shoe.
4. Coach Leather Goods. I know, I know, 'spensive! But there's something that makes me wonderfully happy about Coach. In high school I would go through $15-30 purses like mad. I'd kill them. I could easily go through 2-3 of them in a month. I decided once I hit college (although Laura was quite the enabler on this one), that I would invest in a few good purses. Since college I've only thrown out one or two purses that bit the big one. I now have a (near complete) collection of purses and only have my eye on one more (which of course is extremely hard to find). What can I say? My grandmother has been lugging around a Coach bucket tote for about twenty years now, I think I could do worse.

I don't think I'm a Material Girl because I honestly don't have money to spend on a trendy closet and I may or may not still have dresses left over from high school that I may or may not still wear from time to time. Nor would I necessarily spend money on labels if I had any to piss away. I'm not huge on labels. I appreciate them. Do I love my D&G sunglasses? Yes, but if there had been a cheap pair that looked that good on my face I would have snatched them up instead in a heartbeat!

So what's the point of this whole Deep Thought Thursday? I need a new dress watch. The only watch I currently own that works is my EOS Binary digital that I love but is no where near "classy". My problem is this: All the watches I really like are name brand watches that are overpriced just because of the label.

Would I love a Rolex? Hellz yeah, check out this beauty right here->
But would I ever actually spend that much on a timepiece? No, I'd much rather go on a nice vacation with Jason for a week.

My biggest problem is also that I just don't like the look of traditional watches. What I really really want is a watch that looks like a bracelet. One that unless you looked carefully at it, you wouldn't necessarily think it was a watch.

I'm not talking a watch with a skinny bangle band, or a charm bracelet that happens to have a watch as one of the charms. I mean a piece of pretty jewelery that also happens to be a watch.

In all my years of searching I've only ever found one. It just so happens that it's a Coach watch.

There's something about the snap-head look to it that screams at me. I've wanted it for years but couldn't justify spending $400 on a watch when I was working three jobs.

I love the silver tone. I love the toggle clasp. I love the snap-heads. And most of all I love the way it looks like a bracelet but is really a watch.

Sadly, this watch is supremely difficult to find now. Every once in awhile one pops up on eBay. Every so often you can find one for sale on a random fashion site.

Short of call Coach Customer Service and seeing if they have one lying around a warehouse somewhere I don't think I'll ever have this pretty little number around my wrist.

So who's gonna do it? Who's going to track down one of these watches for me and surprise me with it? Who loves me enough?

(Second Image borrowed from Rolex)

WW: e-session!

Back in the beginning of November Jason and I met up with our parents in Troy and had our tastings and spent some time together. Somewhere crammed within the weekend of festivities and eating delicious foods Jason and I snuck off for our engagement session with our photographer Heather.

This post is going to be pretty photo heavy but I just wanted to preface it with the fact that Heather is simply amazing and she's really friendly and fun and very calm. I'm not sure if Jason or I could have handled an in your face photographer so during the whole shoot it was nice to have a little quiet. We were anxious enough!

So without further ado...

The first few were taken in the Quad a stone's throw from Jason's old room

These next few were taken on Sage right outside the Quad



The Approach!





Somewhere on 8th Street


Back at the Approach, this time from the top



Downtown, an alley somewhere behind Franklin Plaza



This is one of my favorites from the whole day:



Back on campus, outside the DCC


Saying hi to Erik Jonsson, founder of Texas Instruments


A little bit of EMPAC



EMPAC SMASH!

No Dancing, Just Uncertainty

Oh joy of joys...



Looks like I won't be moving to Virginia.

Looks like we'll be trying to find Jason a new job.

Looks like we'll have to move Jason someplace new right in the midst of holiday traffic.

Merry Christmas!

WW: Ebb and Flow

I realize this whole getting married thing is going to be an adventure. What I didn't realize is that it's also going to be a long process in learning exactly how to: not only live together, but how to work as a team as well. Obviously I have no doubt we'll be able to do this. Ten, maybe even five years down the line we'll be one well oiled married machine and that'll be a wonderful day.

But in the meantime, we're still learning more and more about each other's habits and other little quirks...it's been...interesting...

This past weekend I unloaded three crates, one big box, and one enormous rubbermaid into Jason's apartment in Virginia, including various other items such as appliances, exercise equipment, and bar-ware. I'm not moving in yet, it'll be a few months before that happens but I wanted to use the long weekend to take a drive down and bring some things that were more fragile and needed more attention in the move OR were useful to Jason now instead of later when I move in.

Jason wasn't really interested in anything I brought down to make his life easier. I mean I didn't expect him to do a little dance out of sheer excitement over a few pots and pans, but I didn't expect the disinterest in it either.

Apparently Jason wants to rip the bandaid off in one swift pull.

Here I thought he'd rather me move in slowly in phases so he could get use to small changes over time but I couldn't have been more wrong. Jason wants a shock to his system. A big one.

He'd rather one day have his mancave all to himself and the next have me and all my possessions there at once.

Now that I understand that I think it'll be much easier in the future.

We did a little browsing for some other furniture but I think the china cabinet/buffet that I want to get will get tossed onto the back burner for now. So for now the only focus I have is buying the couch we picked out last year at Bob's and making sure it fits through the door.

Other than the couch I think the only other furniture we'll need are desks for the guest room/office and some bookshelves. Doesn't excite me that the closest Ikea is almost four hours away. I can't remember the last time I bought something from Ikea and didn't have to go back at least twice for spare parts or to replace a piece that was damaged.

In the coming months I think I'll frequent the GoodWill and Salvation Army around town. One of our GoodWill has an amazing furniture collection so if I can find bookshelves for $10 there then I'll be super happy with that. I'm all for re-purposing and saving some cash. Not really looking forward to the fact the Uhaul will probably be $600 to rent. Ick. Too bad we really need it to move couches.

WW: Moving

Tomorrow afternoon I'm leaving work early to head down to the Baltimore area and visit with my sister. We plan on going to the state fair and hanging around until I leave for Virginia on Friday afternoon for the long weekend.

I'm packing Lulu to the gills (imagine a Griswald Family Vacation for one!) and moving some things down to Jason's apartment. These are things I don't necessarily need in my house now but will eventually need in our home together when I move down there for good.

Basically I have a lot of kitchen supplies that Jason could be using. Right now the "mancave" supports a meager two pots and one frying pan, dollar store silverware, a bare pantry, and a dining room table covered in computers and papers.

We've already gotten a few place settings of Fiestaware(!) and after opening them up with me (and torturing me via phone by not telling me what colors they were), Jason has still yet to take them out of the box. He says that he doesn't want to use these things until I'm there and although it's very sweet that he considers these things "ours," it's going to be difficult enough unpacking a UHaul of crap when I move there permanently so I'd like to get some things unpacked in advanced.

Not to mention the plates Jason is eating off of now are easily 6 years old at this point and were bought for a grand total of about $15 at a Walmart. They have served their purpose well but it's time to say goodbye to the scratched up and mangled plates and make way for something nicer.

I would be lying if I said I wasn't nervous about moving away from home and in with Jason. I know we'll be fine, and I know it will take some time to adjust to each other's living habits, but it's juuuust out of my comfort zone and it will be different. I'm prepared for it to be an adjustment, I know it won't be totally perfect the second we're living together, but nothing in life is perfect anyway and we have our whole lives to make it work like clockwork.

Not very many of my friends are currently married. In fact I have three sets of family/friends who are currently married so advice is hard to come by. Not very sure what I even need advice on, but I'm just slightly baffled by the whole thing.

I knew this was all coming. I've wanted this to happen for a long time. This weekend is a big step in the whole "our lives together" process and I'm excited and terrified all at the same time.

We're going to go furniture shopping for some dinning room pieces and see if we can finally do something with the guest bathroom since Jason hasn't much decorated anything yet. We're thinking pirate theme...yeah, you heard me...I think it'll be awesome.

DPF: Talk Nerdy To Me

Sometimes I wonder if Jason really knew what he was getting himself into here.

Or rather, I wonder if he knew how much of a nerd I was secretly. Oh, I will be the first to tell you that I am a huge nerd and can hold my own when discussing video games, cars, card games, Pokemon, Star Wars, Star Trek, etc. But I don't spread it 'round often.

Today Jason and I had quite possibly one of the nerdiest discussions we've ever had. And to make it that much funnier, here it is as I retold it to Ashley:

Me: I am having quite possibly one of the nerdiest conversations I've ever had with Jason right now
Ash: is it about science?
Me: no
Me: worse
Ash: elise
Me: here I'll explain
Me: it's more fun
Ash: think about what you said
Ash: what is worse than science?
Me: IT'S SO MUCH WORSE
Ash: wait its more fun than science but so much worse to talk about?
Me: so it all started because we were talking about who he wanted in his bridal party and whether or not we thought everyone we wanted could afford it
Ash: and it got nerdy from there?
Me: just wait!
Ash: my mind is about to be blown isnt it?
Me: and I told him I'm not really totally worried because most my girls make a decent living
Me: and even though my sister doesn't have money to spend on my wedding when her's is coming up, we'd work it out
Me: and this is where it started:
Me: I said basically that it's not like my parents would let my sister go naked
Me: which in turn Jason asked in reply if they'd let me go naked to the wedding
Ash: dirty
Me: "Didn't Deanna Troi's mother (played by Gene Roddenberry's wife) show up naked to her wedding?"
Ash: WOAH
Ash: WOAH
Ash: mind
Ash: blown
Me: well actually I asked him if that solidified me in nerdiness
Me: BUT WAIT THERE'S MORE
Me: "yes that helped solidify whatever was still liquid in your nerdiness potential!"
Me: "Best TNG episode is still Rascals. I will always say this."
Me: "That the one when they got turned into kids? If so yea that was a great one. I will keep the time-looping/resetting/exploding episode as my favorite."
Me: "Is that the one where Picard is an old man on the planet that's spiraling towards a sun? Playing a happy tune on his recorder? Would you love me any more/less if I told you I know that song and play it on my flute sometimes?"
Ash: hahaha
Ash: elise
Me: I wonder if Jason knew how much of a Star Trek expert I am
Me: SURPRISE
Ash: i'm pretty sure that conversation went from average to mind blowingly nerdy to fucking hilariously adorable in no time.


And for those of you wondering:
"No, that episode you speak of, they find a probe and it 'downloads' or whatever into Picard, who experiences the planet's culture and lifestyle through living as one of them. Even though it is a lifetime for him, it was 15 minutes or so IRL. The sun was dying (i.e. - when a star starts to 'die,' the 1st stage results in the star gradually expanding. When our star dies in billions of years from now, Earth will be gobbled up during its expansion before it collapses and forms a white dwarf), so as a race without spacetraveling technology, to save their culture and whatnot, they made a probe and launched it, which did its intended with Picard.

The one I'm talking about is the one where the Enterprise blows up every commercial break before they get themselves out of the loop finally.

And you should play that song for me sometime, its a nice song!"

So in celebration of nerditude!

Silly Bday!

It's Manjoyment Monday! It's Jason's Birthday!
Coincidence? I think NOT!

Happy Natal Day to my favorite Silly <3


Also, here's a little something I enjoyed from a seller over on Etsy.


It reminded me of how I feel about Jason sometimes. You'd be surprised how annoying facial hair can get but I still prefer Jason with it as opposed to the way he looks 15 when he is clean shaven.

Even if I prefer him that way...it is quite scratchy.

In ALL Her Glory!

A few photos from our weekend of betrothed bliss...

I really wanted Mexican and our favorite new place Plaza Alteca wasn't lit up. I got really really sad that they might be closed and just as Jason said, "Maybe they forgot to turn the lights on." The lights turned on. I think he has ESPN or something.

Me enjoying my delicious margarita. Hey, we're not getting our Bomber's Birthday Margaritas this year, so I've got to celebrate somehow!

And, as promised. Here are some photos of Kayla.

This is how she looks on my hand. She is delicate and classy.

Straight on. She is quite the looker.

From the side. It took me ages to find a ring
with three stones clustered like that.
AGES I TELL YOU!

The other side.
I was so happy there wasn't some ridiculous added diamond
or an ugly tower like complex for Nanny's diamond to perch in.
Kayla's all streamlined on the sides.

The photos aren't the most amazing quality, and granted, they don't do the ring justice. But you get the idea.

Kayla is going to cause traffic accidents. I can just tell. She is wildly distracting when the sun hits her while I'm driving.

This just in: Apparently Nanny's diamond is even more special than I originally thought. After the war my grandfather used his entire GI Bill ($400) to buy Nanny's ring. THAT WAS A LOT OF MONEY back in those days. Seriously, my ring is perfect!

As You Wish

Oh sweet wounded baby Jesus do I have a story for ju!

I flew down to Virginia last night for the weekend. Jason picked me up and we had some dinner out but nothing special. We had Outback, for those of you who are truly thirsty for details. I had the Chicken on the Barbie with veggies (sans squash) and Jason had a steak with potatoes (he loves his meat n'taters) and we had a few margaritas.

Came home and Jason wanted to watch the Princess Bride. (Which in hindsight should have been a huge give away since he doesn't often volunteer to watch movies he'd rather play a game or go out and do something.) But I love the Princess Bride, in fact I can recite it word for word (I'm not proud), so it's not like I was going to say no to watching it.

He started the movie and said he needed to re-wrap his knee (he has a softball injury so this wasn't really odd). The copy of the movie he had though was awful, the sound was a good 3-seconds off and I was about to go find Jason and refuse to continue watching it but I figured I'd just wait for him to get back.

So cue to me, sitting in the living room watching the beginning of the movie well into the part where the kid is asking his grandpa if "This is a kissing book?", and somewhere along the scene this photo of us popped up. We took it in Canada when we were there on Spring Break. It's probably one of the only photos we have of the two of us on the day we got together (3/11/06).

At first I thought that he had been streaming the movie from his computer and his screen saver had turned on but then the song "Say Hey" started playing and that's kind of our song I guess. The first time I came down to Virginia to visit after Jason moved here we were stuck in traffic from Norfolk to Newport News (big shocker!) and the song came on the radio and we started singing it to each other. This turned into us txting lyrics to each other every once in awhile and it just developed from there.

Anyway...this photo montage started up of us throughout the years and he popped out of the bedroom wearing a suit and singing along a little to the song and that's when I knew I was done for.

After we finished watching the little photo show he took a knee and asked me to marry him. It was adorable. I'm still laughing (giddily) about it.

So those of you who are wondering, no I didn't cry. I was too busy laughing. But for those of you who know me really really really well, you'll know that when I'm excited or terrified I laugh. (It's kind of amusing to sit next to me on a roller coaster, I spend the whole time giggling like a school girl.)

The ring is perfect (ArtCarved Kayla) and has Nanny's diamond in it which Jason secretly got from Mom and Dad back in February! Apparently the weekend of his grandfather's funeral, after we drove to my house and we sent his three cousins off on the train, I had to get to work (gotta love that second job!) and Jason and I said goodbye so he could start back down to VA he didn't actually go anywhere! The sneaky little devil drove off at the same time and then doubled back after I was on my way to the store so he could ask my parent's permission.

According to Jason my Dad had Nanny's ring in his pocket because he "thought he might be asking for it". My Dad is almost as sneaky as Jason is!

A little additional backstory here: My grandmother's engagement ring was split between my mother and my aunt. My mom got the diamond and my aunt got the setting. My aunt has been proudly wearing the setting for years but my mother was waiting to reset the diamond until this year. In fact my mom has been really excited about getting that diamond into a new setting since her engagement ring has a chip in it and although I can't see the damage it bothers her and she doesn't wear it.

When my sister got engaged Mom thought I was so upset that Julibean (three years my younger) got engaged before I did. She knew that Jason and I were waiting till we were both financially stable enough which could be surmised as we were waiting for Jason to have a full time job instead of a contract position that could expire at any time. So cue to my mother and my grandmother worried that I was so upset that Julibean and Chris got engaged first. In reality (as I've mentioned many times) I don't take much personally. I was super happy for Julianne and Chris makes her happy and to me that's all that's important. If she is happy I am happy and I don't care if she got engaged first. But since my mother is someone who takes a lot personally, she thought I was upset.

Mom and Nanny both agreed (at the same time allegedly) that I should get Nanny's diamond so it was one less thing we had to worry about. I knew exactly how much this diamond meant to my mother. She was literally waiting for years until she lost some weight and got healthy again with skinny little fingers to get the diamond set into a new ring, so I knew it was sort of a prize at the end for her. The fact that she still wanted me to have it just makes me want to cry. And the fact that Poppy bought this diamond for Nanny is also really important to me given how close we were.

So Julianne and Chris also just happen to be around when Jason asked my parents so literally they've all be keeping secret what's been in the works for months. And apparently everyone else knew too! Laura and Chrissy knew, Casey would have known if she hadn't told my sister NOT to tell her anything because she'd probably say something stupid...even Jason's friend Shawn knew when we took him out for his birthday! THE INSANITY!

I love and hate you all for keeping this from me!

I had inklings. There were definitely instances where I thought Julianne was keeping something from me and after the last time I visited Jason the first thing my mom did when I got home was casually glance at my hand...like she expected there to be something there! *sigh* My family is special.

Pretty much after everything was said and done we called my parents and I told my Dad that Julibean and Mom could stop pestering Jason now. Again, the web of lies/secrets goes even deeper. Nanny was upset that Jason wasn't visiting for Easter and was in fact in New Hampshire and not at Zum's with us. Only after Mom told her Jason was in NH buying me a ring did she stop complaining that she wasn't getting to see him. (Jason is obviously very well liked by my family, Nanny adores him and expects him to be with our family for every holiday.)

So Nanny was calling like every few days to see if anything had "developed" and bothering my mom who in turn was bothering my sister who was forced to bother Jason lest she be publicly flogged by my family. Jason legit was getting the third degree from THREE generations of women in my family, but he maintained his resolve and did it his way in his time. I'm guessing if he can cope with my sister, my mother AND my grandmother, then he's a keeper :P

I also later found out his mother had told him to "do it properly" and wear a suit and make certain to get down on one knee. It made it even more adorable. I love his family and can't wait to be a part of it.

Actual photos of the ring to follow...eventually...

Basically right now I'm just giddy with excitement!
I'm gonna be a Koala!

A VA Weekend

Spent a wonderful weekend with Jason in Virginia.

Last time I was down there I realized how close he actually is to Williamsburg so this time around we decided to head up to Busch Gardens.

I've only ever been to Busch Gardens Tampa which I knew was an African Safari, so I had no idea what to expect out of Busch Gardens Williamsburg.

Once we got there I realized that I had been there once in high school as part of a band trip when we had a competition in Virginia Beach. In fact I vividly remember going on Apolo's Chariot with my friend Joey and it was his first roller coaster ever and he was so excited/nervous about it. But anyway...

We decided to just go for the annual passes. They pay for themselves after two visits and since Jason currently lives 20 minutes away from the park we figure when people come to visit us we can take them there for a day of fun. PLUS you get things like free parking, 10% off some merchandise and food inside the park and discounts on tickets for friends. We figured it was a win-win-win situation and didn't look back.

I totally forgot that Busch Gardens is more zoological/conservation type theme park and less adventure/rides type of theme park. I love animals. My parents took us everywhere when we were younger to go bird watching and I surprise myself sometimes when I spout information like, "Oh that's just a hooded merganser" or "Hey check out this kookaburra!" What can I say, we're nature people...

So seeing animals like eagles and wolves and other wildlife that have been rescued from shelters or from the wild is nice. All these animals would otherwise have died where they were so I applaud people (and companies) who adopt animals and help conserve nature.

We wandered about and enjoyed the European Pavillions. We joked how if we wound up in Germany for lunch we'd make sure Jason would stay away from any salmon he saw.

We did in fact wind up eating in Germany and got to see the show, which is one of the things I really wanted to catch while in the park. (Don't worry, Jason was safe and ate a turkey sandwich. Although he said that if he could do it over again he wouldn't have gotten it. The meat was dry and sort of bland. My combination plate with three different sausages - we all know how much I love those - was excellent.)

There's something about an oompah band playing the polka that gets me every time!

The stage itself was awesome. Or at least I thought it was. The gazebo had all of the music stands set up and the band marched in with the dancers. Then the band sat down and the platform of the gazebo raised them up above the rest of the structure.

You can see them sitting up there near the really cool ceiling. Das Festhaus is actually a beautiful building on the inside. All of the ceiling are these fabric ribbonesque panels that are woven into patterns.

It was just such a happy environment. Jason even turned to me and said, "Man, your people know how to have a good time!"

Gotta love z'Germans!

We continued to wander around and sat down to watch another show in Italy. The singers were excellent. A traditional group of minstrels I suppose you could call them.

A lot of the songs were sung in Italian so I had a very meager understanding. It's similar enough to the other romance languages that I can gather the gist of what they are saying, and the tunes of the songs were familiar but I would have enjoyed subtitles :P

The guitarists that accompanied them around was extremely talented and hilarious. He actually started following around people with trays of food and wandered off chasing children. It was wildly entertaining.

When we were in Scotland we caught a show of different animals doing trained acrobatics. It pretty funny. They mathematician birds and jump roping dogs. Even a pig!

That's all folks!

The weekend was nice, I wish it had lasted longer and my feet are still killing me from walking around the park all day, but I heart roller coasters and we got our fair share of those!