…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.

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.

The Girl and I just returned from our nine day vacation with her family, and we had a wonderful time. Some of the views, and the activities, will be remembered for a long time to come. I just got the entire set of pictures onto Flickr, but you can see one of the better ones below, a view of our ship, from the beach on Labadee, Haiti.

The urge to smoke while on vacation was almost non-existent. As a matter of fact, I completely forgot to put on a nicotine patch a couple of days. Add that to the fact that cigarettes were, for the most part, completely unavailable, and the week was pretty smooth sailing, on that front. It also didn’t hurt that food was always available.

Hopefully I’ll have time to expound on our wonderful vacation in the next few days.

I don’t know if this will be the final design for the ‘Save the Date’ cards, but I had a lot of fun putting it together, so I thought I’d share.

Much thanks need to go out to our very good friend L, she of the photo-journalistic tendencies, for going with The Girl and I this past Sunday to take some engagement pictures. I really wasn’t feeling very good about myself on Sunday, hungover after a typical Rebel football Saturday, and really feeling like I just wanted to curl up on the couch and sleep my way through until Monday. We were going to take ‘a few’ pictures, and ended up with upwards of 700, but after seeing the finished product I’m so glad we did it, and I’m glad that L was taking the pictures. She helped pull us out of our initial awkwardness a bit faster than a stranger would have, and she had no problems giving us direction, and coming up with great ideas, and you can really see the care, and the love that she put into the finished product, and for that, The Girl and I will have to spend the rest of our lives trying to find a way to thank her, because these pictures are something that we’ll keep with us for the rest of our lives, and that’s priceless.

The picture above is one of my favorites of those that L has shown us so far. All in all, as per usual, The Girl looks much better in most of them than I do, but I’m alright with the idea that I’m the one marrying up. View the full set here, and thanks again to L for such a fun afternoon, and such a wonderful gift.