Paul and Dana's Blog

Two zoos in three weeks

2008-06-06T23:21:00.009-04:00

A few weeks ago, Paul and I were in Toronto mixing business with a bit o' pleasure (like we do). I took his working day to explore the Toronto Zoo. The public transportation system isn't easy to understand if you're a newbie, but once you get to the zoo, it's worth it! (If you want my exact route from downtown to the zoo, email me.)

At any rate, I walked around the zoo for 5 hours (including one 20-minute break to massage my aching feet) and met a very nice zoo member at the reindeer enclosure. We walked around together after that for about half an hour and joked and laughed about the animals. Then I had to leave and he returned to the tigers. I did not get his name, but he helped turn the day from one in which I was enjoying the zoo by myself to an experience where I met a new, albeit temporary, friend.

Then last Friday, Paul and I flew to LA and hung out in Disneyland for 5 days. Ahhh. We stayed at the Grand Californian, which is a very nice hotel, and we stayed in a very nice room. Thank you, Disney!

I could get used to Southern California weather! The sun was hot and strong, the air was refreshing, the pool was delightful, the whole Disney atmosphere was wonderfully fun.

On Monday, Paul and I ventured down to the San Diego Zoo (we'll explore the Wild Animal Park during our next visit to southern California) and spent a glorious day seeing all the animals. We spent something like 5 hours there and only saw 2/3 of the park. It's definitely a multi-day excursion if your goal is to see every animal!

The famous giant pandas were sleeping -- one behind a tree and one with his bountiful bum pointed right at those who came to gawk at him. The okapis (my new favorite wild animal) were busy using their 18-inch tongues to get the very best leaves off the trees.

It was a great day. And Paul bought me a snowshoe hare (not a real one, don't worry!) to commemorate the trip. I didn't have any room for it in my luggage, so I took it on the plane home with me. It was funny watching the woman next to me figure out why on Earth a grown woman with a wedding band on her finger was carrying around a white stuffed bunny. "Is it a gift for someone back home?" (It's amazing how nosy people can be.) "It's a gift for me," I said. She didn't have a good answer to that one.

Again, we were mixing a few days of vacation with a business trip -- Paul spoke to a bunch of Disney execs on Tuesday after a morning visit to the LA Times with his new friend, Ed Padgett. The meeting was just too early for me, so I skipped it. I did want to meet Ed, but it would have meant getting up at 5:30. He sent a great dessert cook book back to me, though. Thanks, Ed!

It was a wonderful trip to LA. Anaheim was lovely. I'm about zoo'ed out, though. For at least a few weeks.

No hitter for Sox's Lester

2008-05-19T23:34:00.005-04:00

Just a year after chemo, Jon Lester tonight pitched a left-handed no-hitter. It was also the 24-year-old's first complete game in the big leagues. It was an amazing and electric game, especially during and after the 7th inning, when the buzz about a no-hitter really starts to get going. This kid's story is better than any Olympic Moment the networks can play during the Games. He's an inspiration. There were a lot of people very near tears tonight in Fenway. Paul and I were two of them.

Terry Francona, the Sox manager, apparently has taken a father figure role to Lester, especially during his cancer treatment and recovery and comeback. He said in the press room after the game, "I feel like my son graduated and my son threw a no-hitter." (Terry's son graduated from UPenn this morning, then he came up to Fenway for today's game.)

Jacoby Ellsbury, whom I'm madly in love with both because he's gorgeous and because he's a phenomenal baseball athlete, made what some are calling the play that enabled the no-hitter.

It's a great night in Boston. We're very proud of our Sox tonight.

I didn't marry him for his money. I married him for his Red Sox tickets. ;-)

Happy Birthday, Tech PR War Stories!

2008-04-07T13:27:00.003-04:00

Break out the cake and the candles -- well, we only really need one candle. Tech PR War Stories turned one year old (give or take) when Paul and David Strom recorded their 52nd episode of the weekly podcast last Tuesday night. Thanks to Lois Paul, Bill Frezza, Bob Scheier, Steve Hall and Ted Weismann for participating in the roundtable.

The recording/party was great fun. I'm officially the producer (and sound engineer, I suppose) for the podcast series, which focuses on "old and new media technology, ways that tech PR can learn from the mistakes of others and recognize leading-edge ways to communicate using both kinds of media." It's a great podcast series -- the report between David and Paul is great. They bounce perfectly off each other. I think every episode has a good hearty laugh in it by one or both moderators.

Thanks, Dave and Paul, for a great year! Here's to another!

Take a listen to the anniversary podcast!

The 4 Cs can help you save money

2008-03-21T14:09:00.003-04:00

Thank you to Abazias for sending us this article! We thought we'd like to help those of you looking at diamonds for engagements, anniversaries, or "just because" and provide you with some good advice for selecting diamonds.

If you’ve never shopped for diamonds before and you are looking for an engagement ring or fine jewelry, you will want to start educating yourself on the 4 Cs of diamonds. The 4 Cs stand for cut, clarity, color, and carat. It’s these four characteristics of diamonds that determine how much your stones are worth. Finding out about the various gradings that the diamond industry uses to help define the quality of diamonds is as easy as getting online. Some online merchants have software applications that allow you to pick your own diamond for an engagement ring by modifying the 4 Cs. You can instantly get an idea of how one choice affects the price of your engagement ring versus a different choice.

For instance, maybe you want a very large carat diamond. You typically pay more for a large carat diamond than a smaller one. However, not all large diamonds are alike. Some large diamonds have a poorer clarity or a different color that can affect the final price you pay. By understanding what choices help you to pick exactly the type of diamond you want, you save money. It may be you don’t care how big the diamond is, and would prefer a smaller stone that has a pear-shaped cut. Again, you can lose the carat weight in favor of cut and clarity. And, don’t think that just because you are picking a colored diamond that it costs more. There are fancy-colored diamonds like pink and blue that are much more expensive than white diamonds, but there are also fluorescent, yellow, and brown, diamonds that cost less. Figure what characteristic appeals to you more and then use the 4 Cs of diamonds to help you shave money off the bottom line.

The Stepford Mogul

2008-03-19T21:03:00.003-04:00

Old folks like me remember an early 1970s book and cult film classic called The Stepford Wives (remade in 2004) . The plot revolves around a Connecticut town where everyone lives in wedded bliss and all the women are perfectly submissive and attending to their husbands. It turns out that the husbands have actually been replacing their wives with robots who do nothing but cook, clean and attend to their every need.

After spending the last few months learning about Martha Stewart, I'm convinced that America's Homemaker is the embodiment of the Stepford story. Dana is very crafty and she cooks a good meal, but she's never been all that domestically inclined. A few months ago, however, she began watching a lot of Martha Stewart on TV and a change came over her. All of a sudden, she's baking cookies, sewing and offering to cook gourmet meals with startling frequency. I was at first a little stunned by these developments, but now I'm learning to love them.

So here's my theory: The Stepford Wives story is indeed coming true, only the instigators aren't men in a small Connecticut town but rather a female ex-con media titan. Whether intentionally or not, Matha has accomplished in flesh and blood what those sinister Connecticut husbands required high technology to do. She’s made women want to be domestic.

Martha, you rock!

Rings

2008-03-19T10:53:00.004-04:00

I think I forgot to post a picture of our wedding rings... (Yes, this is my wedding ring, not my engagement ring!)

George Carlin -- back in the funk

2008-03-17T21:36:00.004-04:00

For a Christmas present this past holiday, Paul gave me the complete George Carlin DVD collection, a wonderful present for when I need a laugh. Which, let's face it, is pretty much all the time -- laughing's good for the soul.

So we've watched a few of the shows from his early days and we've watched the show that I fell in love with (and memorized pretty damn quickly) when I was about 15 called Jammin' in New York. Every time we fly (except for a few times about a year ago when Paul got annoyed with the repetition, although he's back now to being a fan), Paul asks me to do the Carlin bit about the airline safety lecture. I can do it pretty much word for word, including intonation, if he gets me started. All other Carlin performances are based upon the extremely high comedy level of that show, IMHO.

At any rate, I've loved watching Carlin and laughing with him pretty much all through the '90s until he hit that rough "not so funny" spot when he came back from his post-Brenda-dying (his wife -- it hit him really hard; they were pretty much madly in love and inseparable their entire marriage, so I gather) when he was too angry and serious and lost that certain element that made him funny in the first place. For the last few years, however, he's been a lot funnier.

Until this last bit. Don't get me wrong -- there was one point in his show, which we saw live at Boston's Wang Center on Saturday night with Alice and Ryan -- where I couldn't so much breathe because I was laughing so hard. But this show was definitely more political and religion-bashing (read: atheist?) than I've heard him in a while. It wasn't, as Alice said, his best. He's funnier when he's playing with words and common experiences and the human condition than when he's declaring there is no heaven or hell or that bullshit is the glue that holds the country together. He's recently celebrated his 70th birthday and comes off now as an angry old man. Which stinks. I think he has a lot of comedy left in him, especially retrospective stuff now that he's older, but I think it's not coming out so much in his current tour.

Sometimes the second time you see someone, their act is funnier. I'll have to Tivo his HBO special, It's Bad For Ya, and watch it again. I was more entertained by the performance Saturday night than my three companions were, but was disappointed there were none of his famous lists.

George: Bring back the lists! No one does that better than you! And thanks for four decades of funny material!

Cute proposal video

2008-03-14T14:56:00.003-04:00

Paul's proposal to me was just perfect for us (he's a genius that way). But there are tons of wonderful proposal stories out there, like this one:

Comment if you want to share your story (or have found another proposal video).

Boston Flower Show

2008-03-11T14:09:00.003-04:00

Paul and I went to the Flower Show, as we have for the past few years, this past weekend. Go over to our slideshow and see the pix that Paul took.

Martha Stewart's 50 Wedding Reception Tips

2008-02-29T00:19:00.003-05:00

Since the wedding, I've been a devoted Martha fan. If I had gotten into her before the wedding, I never would have gotten off the Internet to do the actual planning and craft making! I would have been deciding on which this or that to pick. Sometimes more choices are not better. :-) Martha's Wedding section is just an amazing collection of ideas and crafts and tips. If you're planning a wedding, you may want to start with her 50 wedding reception tips. Feel free to explore from there. I promise it'll be hours of fun!

We heart Jane Monheit

2008-02-19T15:32:00.004-05:00

For our wedding reception, we played all standards -- good old love songs. The two female artists we played were Ella Fitzgerald and Jane Monheit. Well, this past Saturday, we got to see (a very wonderfully pregnant) Jane at Scullers Jazz Club in Boston. She was just amazing. She had two shows on Friday and two on Saturday, so she only played about a hour and a quarter (what with being pregnant and all).

Her voice can melt a glacier. She's so smooth and has a master's control. It was just great to hear her in person and to hear her quip with the audience. Thanks, Jane, for a great show! And good luck with the baby!

Merry Christmas!

2008-01-15T12:42:00.000-05:00

So, we finally got around to taking our tree down this past Sunday, but we wanted to take a picture of it before we disassembled so we could wish everyone Merry Christmas! (Even today, 9 days after Christmas has officially ended.)

Stealing ideas, or Wedding program fans

2008-01-08T13:56:00.000-05:00

Since the Modern Bride article is called "Wedding Identity Theft" and is all about stealing ideas from other weddings, I thought I'd come clean about where I got the idea about our wedding program design. I stole it.

My brother Brett got married about two months before I did -- to a wonderful woman named Sara. They were joking with me the whole day about stealing all of their ideas, but really I only took one -- the program design. There's nothing wedding guests need more during an outside summer ceremony than a fan to move the air around. I added ribbon, tried to be a bit more whimsical with what we called "The Cast of Characters," and changed the colors and theme to match our wedding.

The key is asking before you take. Let the person know you are really trying to flatter them by borrowing their very creative idea. And limit that borrowing to one idea per friend. If you borrow six ideas from the same person, not only will you look like you can't come up with an original idea on your own, but you'll also probably annoy the pants off the person you're trying to compliment.

On that note, on with the pictures!

Here is Sara and Brett's program:

Front:

Back:

And here are pix of Paul's and mine:

Front:

Back:

Modern Bride Feb/March issue hits newsstands!

2008-01-03T23:04:00.000-05:00

As I've posted previously, I was interviewed for an article in Modern Bride magazine. It's just a small mention, but it's not every day I get quoted in a national magazine. Check out the Feb/March issue's story called "Wedding Identity Theft" on page 526 for a familiar name. Thanks, Brooke!

Centerpieces, the final picture

2008-01-03T22:55:00.000-05:00

Months ago while I was making them, I posted about the centerpieces and the pictures of the each part. Here's the final picture, complete with floating flowers (a sunflower in the middle, surrounded by daisies). Underneath each was the little potted flower arrangement I had made.

Word find, part 2

2007-12-28T18:48:00.001-05:00

In May, I made the word find for our wedding. It was a LOT of fun to incorporate places and activities and people into it.

So here's the actual word find that we had at each place setting at our wedding. If you're planning a wedding or other special event and would like me to configure a word find with words that mean something to you, email me!

Happy Holidays, Everyone!

2007-12-26T19:52:00.001-05:00

To our friends and family and complete strangers who read this blog -- happy holidays!

We thought you'd like to see the Christmas cards we sent out this year...

Click To Play

Please let me know if you'd like me to make your holiday cards for 2008! (See my FramesByDana Christmas Cards page for more info.) I'd be happy to give this blog's readers an additional 10% discount (code:WedBlog)!

Invitations

2007-12-11T12:16:00.000-05:00

I finally got a half-decent picture of the invitation. I posted the extra invites on Nov. 17, but here's the wedding invitation I made:

And in the invitation envelopes were the hotel cards:

and the RSVP card, which we decided to do as a postcard just to be a bit different:

Here's the back with the info:

I think the butterfly/dragonfly cutouts held the theme together pretty well. The blue card stock I printed the hotel info on tied in the wedding's color, too.

If you'd like help making your wedding invitations, information will soon be up on FramesByDana.com, but you can always email me to see what I can do for you.

Thank you! (Finally!)

2007-12-07T16:22:00.001-05:00

I was waiting for inspiration to hit. Then I was waiting to feel better. Now we're not waiting. All but 3 of our thank you notes have been sent. Here's what they look like:

and the inside:

Our Wedding Podcast Network podcast

2007-11-24T21:44:00.000-05:00

Take a listen to our podcast. It's got pictures if you choose the enhanced version. Thanks Holli and Robert!

A Thanksgiving tour of devastated New Orleans

2007-11-22T14:33:00.000-05:00

We're in New Orleans for Thanksgiving and yesterday took a tour of the devastated 9th District and areas east of town near the levees. I'm like many Americans, I suppose, in that I had largely put the plight of New Orleans residents of out my mind two years after Hurricane Katrina. However, the extent of the damage here snapped me back to reality. Thousands of homes have been destroyed or damaged beyond repair. Even those that did survive are so badly riddled with mold that it's unlikely they can be repaired. Our hosts told us that hundreds of thousands of people have left the area, most never to return. Many of these people are lifetime residents who never conceived of having to flee and put down roots somewhere else.

There are signs of hope. Rebuilding is going on all over the city and some of the wealthier neighborhoods near the breached levees look almost back to normal. The highlight of our visit was stopping by Musicians' Village, a complex of 70 homes being erected by Habitat for Humanity with the help of musicians Branford Marsalis and Harry Connick, Jr. About 20 homes have been built and residents are moving in.

We ran into drummer Bob French, leader of the Original Tuxedo Jazz Band and a local legend of sorts. We rapped with him for nearly an hour on the porch of his new home in Musicians' Village. He told us about the resilience of the New Orleans musician community and the many local jazz legends who are now his neighbors. He gave us an armload of his CDs and invited us to come hear his band as his guest next time we're in New Orleans. You can bet we will.

Here are a few photos I took on our tour. You can see more on my Flickr album. For background on the story, see this excellent flash video by the Times-Picayune newspaper. Happy Thanksgiving.

The ASPCA scoured the territory, marking homes where live animals were found so the pets could be fed and sheltered.

This boat came to a rest in a tire store parking lot two years ago and hasn't been moved since.
Many people are living in trailers outside their devastated homes.
One family that returned to its shattered home scrawled a message of hope on the door.

The high-water line was still visible on the inside of this shattered home; it was about a foot over my head.

Signs of hope: some of the brightly colored new homes built by Habitat for Humanity.

Extra invitations -- pix and wording

2007-11-17T16:40:00.000-05:00

I see a good amount of people searching for wording for the invitations that go along with some "weekend-long" weddings and I wanted to post the images of our invitations, thinking it may help to see what someone else included on theirs.

First up is the Spa Day invite -- for the moms and the bridal party. We went out to lunch before the "treatments," but that was just communicated personally.

Second was the rehearsal dinner. People involved with the wedding (wedding party and helpers) were included, as were their spouses. I addressed the envelopes to the couple, hoping that would get the point across that both were invited. If I did it again, I would have made "significant others welcome!" more explicit on the actual invitation, as there was a bit of confusion the day of.

Third is the bridal brunch, which was held the morning after the wedding (some bridal brunches are the morning of the wedding). I wanted to include everyone who was invited to the rehearsal dinner as well as all out-of-towners (those who were staying at the Sheraton as part of our room block the night of the wedding).

Fourth and last was the gift-opening party, which was held immediately after the bridal brunch and included just immediate family. We invited only those people that we could feel like we could kick out at a certain time because we had a Jimmy Buffett concert to get to that evening.

Our Halloween pumpkins

2007-11-01T09:37:00.000-04:00

Paul makes great Jack-o-lanterns. The Red Sox one is free-hand.

P does the carving and I do the painting... We both decided to celebrate the Red Sox World Series championship in our respective pumpkins this Halloween.

In honor of our star pitcher from Japan this year... (He doesn't frown like this, I just needed the red lines for the baseball!)

And what's Halloween without some silly faces on pumpkins? (Not nearly as good as last year's creation complete with earrings and hair and bandanas done by my parents!)

Our house is horribly situated for trick-or-treaters (we got none last year), but we did get four visits last night. Then a wonderful surprise visit from Maggie and Joseph, who dropped off a bag of goodies for us.

Those were some Amazing Butterflies

2007-10-31T16:56:00.000-04:00

So, the word is clearly out (an old friend of Paul's contacted him through Facebook today and heard that we had released butterflies at our wedding. Here's Glenn's comment: "I'm still great friends with Rich and he told me about the butterflies at your wedding. I thought, 'that's the coolest wedding thing I've ever heard.' I want to read about the guy who runs that business."

So thanks to Amazing Butterflies for their 9 dozen monarchs, each individually wrapped and specially packed with cooler packs so that the butterflies stayed cool. They arrived the day before our wedding, as they should have, and the release happened just after Paul and I kissed for the first time as a married couple.

Thanks to Amy, our butterfly attendant, who carefully placed a box under each seat so the little critters would be awake and ready to fly when the ceremony ended.

The butterfly release was probably the most talked-about moment of the wedding to us so far. Sam Whitmore even blogged about it right after the wedding. Everyone seemed to just love it. I'm glad I found Amazing Butterflies (about 2 years prior to the wedding, BTW) and they did an amazing job for us.

Wedding Video, part 1 -- the preparation

2007-10-29T18:48:00.000-04:00

Click To Play