After what basically amounts to a year long sabbatical, The…Wife and I are finally back from our honeymoon and trying to get back to a normal schedule, whatever normal is. Over the last couple of days, I’ve felt a renewed since of interest, not just in my site, but in all of the small projects that I have my fingers in across the interwebs, and in the next couple of weeks I’ll get back in to all of them.

I find it interesting the way both she and I have handled the slow descent back to normalcy after the events of the afternoon of August 23, 2008. We definitely both have our own ways of doing things. I am excited. I think towards the end, I just felt completely burdened by all of the planning and small details, that I could no longer really even enjoy the build up to the big day. I don’t think I ever finally relaxed until we arrived at the church for the rehearsal. Dinner that night was wonderful, the wedding day was perfect in every way, and the honeymoon was so relaxing and fun, but the effort that went in to it all, while necessary, just did me in at some point along the way, and so I’m glad we’ve moved on to the next step, and I have much more respect for people who do this type of work for a living, like The Wife and her friends and co-workers. It is not a job I was meant for.

The Wife (wow, gonna take some getting used to) is a little more reminiscent about the events of the past year. She’s almost got a slight case of post-wedding-partum, fidgeting in front of the television, instead of just relaxing, when there’s no wedding planning to do, and waxing nostalgic when the next of our friends to get married sends out e-mails proclaiming, “19 Days To Go!”Don’t get me wrong, I definitely get it. But I’m also very glad to move forward. If the last two years of my life are any indication, this next year is going to be, in my mind, even better than the previous one.

To that end, as a wonderful wedding gift to me, but for us, on the big day, The Wife bought an incredibly beautiful Nikon D60. As a second part of that gift, she created a blog for us to post a picture a day for the first year of our marriage. As I am of a tendency to be a bit (how you say?) obsessive-compulsive, or anal, or even controlling, if you want to call it that, and you’re feeling mean and want to hurt my feelings, I had to tweak things just a bit, and build the blog for the site myself, as well. It didn’t really take long at all, either, and as of yesterday, our little pet project, what I’m just calling 365, went online.

I’ll be interested to see how we feel about this a year from now. The idea has been around for quite some time, and I’ve seen it in many forms and fashions. The Wife got her inspiration from one of our friends, but I’ve also seen it done by people who take a self-portrait every day for a year, or a picture of their pet, or whatever, really. Right now, though, I’m loving it. Twelve days in, and I say let’s not stop at one year. You know me, though, check back in a week and see if I feel the same way.

Other little projects will be started and completed in the coming weeks as well. They may not be announced, but keep an eye out for them. This site will, as always, change with the seasons. The Wife is due for an update on her blog, has been neglected. We will archive the wedding site, and blog, soon enough, but we’re keeping the domain, so watch for changes there as well. Most importantly, I think activity will pick up here and there, so if you put this site on the back burner in the past few months, get it out again, and dust it off.

I’m back!

…while I’ve been gone. Let me just say that I’m soo glad that I’m not one of those professional bloggers. Every once in a while, after a few weeks, if I haven’t posted anything on the site, I begin to get nervous and fidget a lot. I know that I need to post something, hell, I usually have something planned to post, but in my mind, for each day that passes, the next post has to be that much better. And I wilt, like collard greens in the pot, under the pressure.

I feel the need to be witty, and smart, and charming, or at the very least, relevant, but at this point,  I feel the need to simply publish something, anything, to let everyone know that I am, in fact, NOT DEAD. Additionally, so much has happened since I last posted that I’m not sure what needs to be discussed here, on the wedding blog, or not at all.  And I don’t really have the time that I’d like to devote to figuring all of that out, so instead I’m just going to put it all out there for you, and let you pick and choose what you’d like to concentrate on.

My car died, so I got a new one. It’s shiny, and pretty, and it makes me feel special. The Girl and I attended an engaged couples marriage preparation weekend. We liked it. We also went to a cooking class. We liked it, too. We learned new recipes, had a good time, and ate a good lunch. I want to blog about it someday, when I get more time. We had brunch with friends. The Mother and The Future-Mother-In-Law came into town, and The Girl had her wedding shower, and they all had fun, and I was jealous. Our two year anniversary came and went, and The Girl and I agreed that it did not get the attention that it deserves, and that we need to rectify such a situation when we can.

I believe that’s everything. It is neither witty, nor smart, nor charming, nor even relevant, but I am alive, and off the hook for the time being, and for that I am glad.

Happy 1st Birthday, Thing 1 and 2. Sorry that we couldn’t be there, but we’ll see you soon. My, what a difference a year makes.

The Girl is gone this weekend, having traveled to the West Coast for a weekend work trip. Usually, when The Girl goes out of town, I spend a lot of time cooped up in the house. We are homebodies together, when I’m alone I’m even more of one. And this weekend has had its share of that, for sure. But yesterday I left work early, bought a new phone, rented some movies, and went out to dinner with friends before retreating to the comfort of home, and I’d also gotten it into my head that I wanted to treat myself to a really nice dinner tonight (Saturday), as well.

Both The Girl and I can be real food snobs sometimes, and for me, tonight was no exception. Dean & Deluca is a really trendy, really high quality, really very expensive grocery store in Georgetown. I made the trip in to the city tonight in early evening to do some shopping for dinner, and breakfast and lunch tomorrow, which included some bleu cheese burgers, topped with prosciutto and pears, and some tomato, basil, and mozarrella and orzo pasta for dinner, while I watched basketball. Tomorrow, it’s fresh fruit and the remainder of the prosciutto for breakfast, and another burger for lunch (I told you I was a food snob).

The question is, when The Girl returns, will she be A) upset at me for spending so much money on so little food, or B) upset that I did so when she was out of town, or C) simply upset that I even thought about going to Georgetown without her? Guess we’ll find out tomorrow.

Last week, I set out to write about how easy it’s been to quit smoking, and how easy a time both myself and The Girl have seemed to have of it.  I took a couple of days, like I always do, to turn the post over in my head a little bit, and to get my thoughts on the subject collected. And then I took a couple more days, like I always do, putting it off, because I didn’t have time to write.

 And then a funny thing happened. After having to stay past midnight at my office, and spending the night critically thinking much later than I’m normally used to, and filling my body with fatty foods, and sugary soda, I had a huge craving for a cigarette on my ride home. It was gone as quickly as it came, and of course I was fine, but it served as a reminder to me that for some people, and The Girl and I are included in this list, the battle with smoking is never really over.

 My last scheduled day of using the patch is Sunday, and after that she and I are on our own. For that reason, even though our fight with this will continue on, this will probably be my last post on the subject. Ironically, my one disappointment in writing this series of posts is that I haven’t had more of a difficult time. Aside from my first post on the topic, there hasn’t been anything of note to discuss. As appreciative as I am of the comments of support from friends and family, I really hoped to have more insight to share into the matter, with the hopes that someone else trying to quit smoking may be able to glean some bit of helpful advice from my experiences.

I suppose though, that such a catch-22 is inherent in the entire process. Someone who has just quit smoking for the first time probably doesn’t have enough insight into what made their effort successful, so as to help others, and someone who has quit smoking multiple times probably isn’t giving out the best advice. With that said, I consider this topic having run it’s course, for now.

 On to bigger and better things.