Operation Wedding

We're full steam ahead here and with a date of June 4th, we need to be. For those of you who do not know, Jessica and I have decided on a place for the Wedding pretty quickly. The Gamble Mansion is an amazing Boston Mansion, which is just steps away from our home and the beautiful Boston Public Gardens.
For those of you who won't be traveling there till the wedding, I put a few of the pictures we took tonight in an album to the right. While the planning for the wedding seems to move ahead of schedule sometimes, the planning for the rehersal (aka welcome) dinner is starting to run in circles. Our first choice, The Barking Crab, could not guarntee an outdoor space which pretty much put the breaks on that place. Next on the list is the Boston Community Boathouse. Jessica and I also walked there tonight, however, due to the lack of light, all outdoor shots were blurry. The views from here would be awsome, as you can see on their website, but the backup, if there is rain, looks like a school room. There are also a few resturants we are looking at which I can link later on in the process.
Anyway, need to help out cleaning the apartment up so I have to run. Let up know what you think of the place.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Hope everyone reading this is having a great day so far. We are currently at Carrie and Sascha's house with Anja. She has grown so much since the last time we were here (you can see her pictures on Carrie and Sascha's page).
To fill you all in on the happenings with Jessica and I, I'll toss in a brief history of this week, later on this weekend I am going to post a 'wedding update' which will basicly detail the plans for the wedding thus far.

To catch up, last weekend Jessic and I went to out friends Kiki and Ted's for the annual 'Lansdale Thanksgiving'. Ted's a pretty mean BBQ'er which means this years turkey was cooked on a webber. From our conversations with Ted, the brickets/chips he used were from the rain forest, well maybe not ;), but it was a real nice hard wood which gave the turkey a fantasic smokey flavor. You can find pictures of the night here.

Anyway, on to the rest of last weekend. Jessica and I have been thinking about snow ever since it started getting cold up here in Boston. Since we can't get it out of our heads and since there was a ski & snowboard show in town, we decided to check it out and see if they had any deals there worth taking. Well, long story short, we both bought a set of skis. Both K2's Jessica bought last years modle of these, 'True Love' while I picked up these, 'Omni 5.5', also last years model. Actually, I really like the colors we got as opposed to the current year colors.

This now leads me to today, Thanksgiving Day. Jessica is playing with Anja, I am writing this, Jax is probably drinking from the pool and Carrie and Sascha are talking about something in the kitchen. As soon as that turkey goes in the oven, we are all going to go outside for a nice neighborhood walk. Hope you all get to eat as much Turkey as it looks like we are going to today!

Operation Engagement; Success

That's right ladies and gentleman, I proposed to Jessica on Saturday morning in my not so smooth, rather awkward, on the brink of throwing up sort of way. To my surprise it was a resounding success! Mind you Jessica tells a better story than I do but I'll try and write it down for you kids reading (please talk to her for the 'better' story).

It was a typical Saturday in Boston, Jessica and I woke up to the dog pacing back and forth by the front door like he's been holding it in for a year. In usual fashion, we both pretend to be asleep so that the other has to take the dog out. But this morning wasn't usual, at least not to me.

My car was parked in a metered spot which meant that by 8am I needed to move it or get a ticket. Knowing this, Jessica was more than happy to move it with me assuming I was ok with going to Charlie's for breakfast. This had not been my plan, my plan was to surprise her with the trip and walk out the door as fast as possible (knowing she couldn't follow me down the street in her PJ's).

We'll my plan was falling apart, I was now looking for 'new' ways to propose because the goal all along was to come back (after parking the car) and ask her once I walked back in the door. Instead, she joined me in moving the car and eating at Charlie's, not knowing the ring was in my pocket.

We come back home and plop down on the couch discussing the weekend chores. Cleaning, laundry, washing the dog, moving the winter cloths into the closets, etc. I reminder her that Star Wars is currently at the Science museum which got little to no response.

The chores begin, it's been 30-40 minutes since breakfast and 1-2 hours after I thought I would have already asked her. My head is racing with ideas and I am getting more and more nervous. While she's digging in the closet, moving in her winter sweaters, I screamed from the living room 'You might as well pack a bag while you're in there.'

'WHAT! WHAT? WHY?' Was the reply.

This ensued for 4-5 minutes @ which point a smarter, more suave man would have pulled out the ring and answered with something like 'to celebrate, will you marry me?' (while taking a knee).

Nope, this gentleman is no Rico suave, more like Elmer Fudd. Instead, we talk about where we are going, look-up things to do with the dog on the internet, I tell her about our 80 minute massages @ 5pm. All the time knowing that I needed to propose at some point here.

And there is was, I saw my moment, my laptop batteries had died. I shut it down and ran into the living room with fear, returning it to my bag. I approached the bedroom with a slightly less than good feeling in my stomach and noticed her in the spare room. I quickly go into my pocket, reach for the ring and put it around my pinky. And then..........UGH! I hugged her instead of asking her and she went into the bedroom to put some sweaters away.

Following quickly, I put the ring in my back pocket and approached her. 'I've got another surprise for you' Looking away, knowing that if I did hurl, it would be best to not get any on her. I pull the ring out of my pocket, look at it (making sure the lint from my jeans isn't on it) and approach her, 'will you marry me' or some phrase like that, the details are a bit foggy here. I am not sure if a 'Yes' or a shaky hand came up first but it was clear to me what the answer was. Yes, and she was a nervous as I, thank god for those 5pm massages.

It is now Sunday night and the weekend is almost over. I hope that everyone had as great a weekend as we did.

PS - If you don't believe me, the pictures are posted to the right to prove it!