Paul and Dana's Blog

Merry Merry Merry Christmas from the Gillins!

2011-12-16T18:26:00.001-05:00

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Plumber-tory

2011-09-14T15:56:00.002-04:00

By Paul

Want a nice Jotul gas stove?

We have one, but we may not need it. Our contractor has stopped responding to our phone calls and there's a hole in the (physical) wall where the project hit a (figurative) brick wall two weeks ago. Our dilemma illustrates an all-too-typical experience homeowners often confront when dealing with contractors who are good craftsmen but lousy businessmen. And this one took us completely by surprise.

Our contractor for this job was a plumber who has done several projects for us in the past. In every case, he has been prompt, responsible and reasonable with his fees. We'd been looking forward to enjoying the warmth of our new gas stove for a year, and finally had the wherewithal to purchase and install it. We called up Jeff and he cheerfully agreed to the job.

That's when Jeff became the plumber from hell.

AWOL

The week before the Aug. 7 start date, we called Jeff to confirm that all systems were go. Days passed without a response. The installation date came and went and no Jeff. When I was able to reach him directly a few days later, Jeff explained that his stepmother had died suddenly and he had been called to help out his dad. We couldn't understand why he couldn't also place a one-minute phone call to notify us, but Jeff had always been reliable in the past, so we let that detail go. We rescheduled for Aug. 17.

That day also came and went with no sign of Jeff. Two calls went unanswered. When I was able to reach him again, the explanation was bizarre. A bee sting had landed him in the hospital and he had been recovering for several days, he said. This time I asked the question outright: "Was it too much trouble to make a quick call to tell us?" Jeff had to admit that no, it wasn't. I read him the riot act: "Three strikes and you're out, Jeff," I said. We rescheduled for the Friday before Labor Day weekend.

This time Jeff showed up, two hours late, carrying a couple of hundred dollars worth of piping and towing Eric the carpenter. When they opened up the wall to cut a hole for the flue vent, a groan went up. A huge support beam blocked their way. There was no way to go around it and still meet fire codes, and nowhere else to put the stove.

We debated alternatives that afternoon and during a return visit from Jeff over the weekend. Bypassing the support beam would require opening up the whole wall and probably a day or more of labor on top of a couple of hundred dollars in materials. It would more than double the installation cost, and I wasn't comfortable with messing with support beams in the first place.

Out the Window

That's when we hit on the window idea. Move the stove four feet to the left, take out a large window and replace it with a smaller one. Build up the wall a couple of feet and vent through the wall. It was quicker, cheaper and didn't mess with the support beam. "Let's do it," Jeff said. He promised to pull some numbers together and call me in a day or two.

That was 10 days ago. Our calls are again going unreturned, Jeff has vanished and the stove sits in the family room staring at us like a cast-iron Cyclops. The flue pipe parts Jeff bought sit in a corner and one of his ladders is propped against a wall in the basement. We wonder if he'll simply walk away from the money he spent on the stuff so he doesn't have to confront us directly.

Three strikes, Jeff.

If only this was the exception, but it's more like the rule. So many contractors are good at fixing and installing things, but terrible at the nuances of running a business. They can sweat a pipe but not meet a deadline. I once had a plumber gave me a quote on a washer/dryer install, get the job and never be heard from again. I tried to dial up a general contractor who had done some jobs for us in the past and discovered his phone was disconnected. A Google search revealed that there's a warrant out for his arrest.

I've often wondered why the contractor market bifurcates into two business types. You have the very large general contracting firms and the small mom-and-pop outfits but very little in between. I think what makes these big businesses so big is that they know how to run a business. The sole practitioners never scale up because they can't meet commitments.

Price is one of my least important criteria in choosing a contractor. I want someone who'll give me an accurate estimate, show up on time and finish the job on schedule. Unfortunately, many tradesmen find these expectations far too demanding. I thought Jeff was different from the rest. Turns out he's just like all the others.

Crib #2, baby-approved!

2011-03-04T16:55:00.004-05:00

Today, Jannine sent me some great news -- Crib #2 is all done!!! She also emailed me pix of it, which substitutes the cherry for red oak and switches the walnut for the cherry/red oak in the pattern, compared to Crib #1. Take a gander at its beauty!

It just so happens that my parents had some friends over, who have recently adopted an adorable baby boy named Nouraiz. So, of course, the baby had to check the crib out to make sure it held up to baby expectations!

(Don't tell him there's a bear on his bum!)

The cribs will both arrive on Monday, delivered in person by my parents. They live 6 hours away, so this is nothing to sneeze at, but the cribs will be safe and they'll teach us how to set them up and move them properly. It'll be a good visit, but short, as my parents have to get home again to do all the things they've left undone in the several months they've been working their tails off making the cribs. They'll be back shortly after the babies are born to help out.

Weights of girls at 34 weeks

2011-03-04T16:49:00.003-05:00

We went to the perinatologist yesterday (at 34 weeks gestation) and got the usual once-a-month ultrasound, which measures key parts of each baby. We find out every visit here how much they weigh.

So this week, Lillian weighs 4 lbs., 2 oz. And Blair weighs 4 lbs., 6 oz. They are each compared to the singleton growth chart (there isn't really one for twins, which grow just a little slower than singletons), so they matched up at 18% and 21%, respectively. That may sound like they're totally small for their gestation and -- OMG -- what can be done?! But in fact anything over 10% is considered normal. If they were compared to other twins, they'd be closer to about 30%, so still small, but not AS small.

We didn't get any pictures to share, because both Lillian and Blair, who is usually a ham for the ultrasound pictures, had their heads turned away yesterday. But the weight was something interesting to learn about.

We have another appointment in 2 weeks, if I haven't delivered them yet, and that will probably be our last perinatologist appointment.

Crib #1

2011-03-01T17:31:00.003-05:00

Jannine sent me a picture last night of crib #1. It's GORGEOUS!! Crib #2 will be the same idea, just a slightly different pattern with the 3 woods. Crib #1 woods are walnut (dark), cherry (reddish), and maple. Crib #2 will be constructed of walnut, red oak, and maple. The walnut is from a supply from Jannine's dad, my Grandpa, who has been gone from us for about 11 years now. So that's kinda special. My Grandpa and Dad are both, obviously, woodworkers.

Dad and Jannine made both of them by hand and we couldn't be more grateful. They are truly made with love (not to mention time, patience, talent, etc.). The cribs both convert to toddler beds (with three sides) and then to double beds, so the girls will be able to use them for years to come. We couldn't be more excited to welcome these particular pieces into our home. Truly beautiful heirlooms in the making!

Dad and Jannine will be coming this Sunday to deliver the cribs.

Totally ready to meet our girls

2011-02-28T18:09:00.004-05:00

I'm 33w4d today and it's getting more and more "uncomfortable" (read: sometimes painful) to carry multiples. I still LOVE my big belly and I love feeling Lillian and Blair kick around in there, but there's almost no non-baby room left and sometimes their kicks aren't so much towards my belly as towards my ribs. Today, for instance, I've been on my laptop checking email and sitting slouched in my comfy chair. Well, the only place Lillian's feet fit anymore is right up in the right side of my rib cage. So there's this constant pressure there. Sometimes I push against her feet when they're lodged there, but I know there's really nowhere else for her to put them, so it's kind of futile.

The nursery is coming together slowly, as I can only do a bit each day before my back or my pelvis starts to hurt. But I have assembled (and played with) the Chicco playard, so I know where all the connectors/parts of the bassinet and changing table and activity arch go. It's really a marvel of engineering! There's even a corner unit that provides a night light, vibrations and music (with volume control!).

Over the course of a few days, I even decorated a trash can for the nursery with bunnies and little carrots on it. Paul and I also got curtains for that room and he put them up this past weekend, so that's all set. We just need a rug for the nursery and we'll be set. That and the cribs, which are arriving with my parents on Sunday. We simply cannot wait to see them!! All the love and hard work and looooooong hours that went into them will be appreciated every day the babies are in those cribs and afterward, when we convert the cribs to toddler and twin beds.

We have our now-weekly OB/midwife meeting tomorrow. And on Thursday we have another ultrasound with our perinatologist, when we see the girls again and find out how much they weigh now. We'll keep you posted. 4 weeks ago (when I was 30w pregnant), Lillian weighed 2 lb 13 oz and Blair weighed 3 lbs even.

50/50 bedrest

2011-01-19T15:24:00.005-05:00

My midwife, who works with my OB, gave me the thumbs up last week to go 50/50 on bedrest. That is, 50% of the time I'm awake, I'm allowed upright; the other half, I should be reclined. While this freedom definitely does my mindset good, the fact of the matter is that if I'm upright for half of my day, my back kills me.

But it's all a matter of degrees. I guess I was on some kind of self-imposed bedrest before my late-December hospital stay anyway, because of the back pain.

Paul picked up (with 2 nice coupons) our crib bedding sets the other night from Babies R Us (BRU). Now all the things we've gotten for gifts and picked up ourselves are just in the packaging in a spare room. Starting next Monday, we're getting the floors redone on the 2nd floor in the back section of our house (including the back room, which is the nursery). It'll look FANTASTIC when it's done (hopefully it won't take more than a week), but in the meantime, we can't set up any part of the nursery. It's an empty room with gorgeously painted light-mint-green walls (thanks to Paul, who painted the majority of the 2nd floor in November and December).

I can't wait to get in there and set things up. We have the changing table from Craigslist.org, a glider/ottoman from BRU, 2 cribs coming from my parents (my Dad is making them!), so the furniture is set. Check out this pic of the crib slats so far (mock assembly):

I can't believe how shiny that wood got with just tung oil! My dad did lots of research to make sure that both the wood and the finish he used would be safe for babies (especially when they teeth and could possibly chew on the rails, etc.).

I finally put the ultrasound pix (which have been on Facebook as I get more pix of our girls) and my belly pix on Flickr. Take a gander:

Girls' Heartbeats

2010-12-29T16:05:00.004-05:00

One of the great things about having four non-stress tests for the girls in the span on 26 hours in the hospital is that we got to hear their heartbeats a lot -- something that never gets old. This is true especially when the steady, just-the-right-tempo tells you that despite being in the hospital and worrying sick about them, they're doing just fine.

Paul even got to fall asleep to the sound of their heartbeats on Monday night, as he slept in the 2nd bed in our hospital room. I, however, couldn't move during the tests (the monitors are precariously positioned and would slip off the area of my tummy right above each girl's heart if I moved), so I just lay there enthralled at my girls' sounds.

Here is the recording I took on one of the Tuesday afternoon tests. The loud thumps are the girls (mainly Lillian) kicking the monitors. They're both pretty good kickers, but Lillian is definitely the more riley of the two so far.

Their hearts are pretty much in synch, except when they're not and it sounds like cacophony! But one suggestion of comparison is racing hoofbeats. I like that one. What do you think it sounds like?

The Changing Meaning of “High-Risk Pregnancy"

2010-12-28T09:38:00.002-05:00

24w5d pregnant
Framingham Hospital, Post-Partum room 357
Belly circumference: 42”

Until yesterday, our high-risk pregnancy meant that we got another doctor, twice the amount of doctor visits, and ultrasounds out the wazoo (7w, 12w, 19w, 23w so far.) Now it means something completely different. It's seemed a bit strange being in post-partum with no babies to show for it. The all-to-real possibility of having babies born way too early (each girl stands about a 50% chance of survival at this rate, according to several sources) at not even 25 weeks hit yesterday like we drove our car into a brick wall.

I suppose I got up about noonish and Paul brought me cereal for breakfast. I hunkered down in my comfy chair on the 3rd floor to watch some TV... all a normal day for me. I was contemplating having Paul bring the laundry baskets down to the basement for me so that I could get something productive done during the day, maybe wrap some of those presents I didn't get to before Christmas for people who won't show up for a week or two anyway. I had plans, albeit calm ones. My typical day lately (except for the Christmas rush when I was going to stores to shop a bit until my back hurt).

About 3:00 p.m. I went to the bathroom and found that I was bleeding quite a lot. I know it looks like a lot more in the toilet, but it was real blood and definitely a flow and a few clots. All the info I have says call your doctor if you see anything bright red or clots at all, so first I texted Paul, who was on his afternoon walk with Jacoby. I asked him – do I contact the old OB I'm transferring from or the new OB, with whose midwife I have my first appointment this Thursday. He said call them both, see who picks up. He was afraid they wouldn't be working normal hours because it was, in effect, Christmas Monday. Turns out my new OB, Dr. Jacobsen, called me back in less than 3 minutes and said I need to be checked out, so go right away to the ER and they'll be expecting me and send me up to Labor & Delivery. He said he'll see me soon. I was ready to go by the time Paul got home from his walk, so he drove me over, and dropped me off at the ER door to then go park the car.

Of course, the ER is never an immediate gratification type of place. I was about 3rd in line. Paul parked quickly and probably almost ran into the waiting room with me. I was shaking at this point from panic about what could be wrong with the babies. I had left the house thinking I wouldn't be back for several days. I pleaded with him to help me (he was a bit calmer than I was at this point) and asked him to get me in right away. Then I saw that the woman checking people into the ER was Dianne, a woman from my movie meetup who is actually a lot of fun to be around. If I ever knew she worked in the hospital, I had forgotten (I ask almost everyone in the group when I meet them what they do for a living, to break the ice) and was so happy to see a familiar face in such a scary situation. I told Paul, “See if her name tag says Dianne. She's a member of my group.” I didn't know if the woman looked like her or was actually her. So he says yeah, that's her. And I go up to the doorway of the room and pop my head in and say, “Dianne, it's me, Dana. I need to get in right away to Labor & Delivery. They're expecting me.” She goes, “Oh, Dana! Come with me right away!” and whisks Paul and I in the back, down a short hallway and puts me on a gurney and gets us a nurse, who wheels me right up to L&D. The whole thing happened very quickly, but I kind of felt like Dianne working here, at this exact time, was one of those things you tell yourself is coincidence if there's not a higher being in charge of things.

I don't really believe that God is manipulating us like pieces on a gameboard. I don't think he arranges our day for better or for worse. But I certainly felt something yesterday when Dianne was the one help us out at the desk and get us back and quickly wheeled up. Call it coincidence if you want to. I choose not to.

At any rate, when we got up to L&D and they found a room for me, Paul in tow carrying my winter coat, scarf, sweatshirt, purse and just as scared as I was, the resident OB, a very kind and gentle woman named Dr. Hernandez, and a very wonderful and calm nurse whose name I got in the beginning but was too panicked to remember, began right away to hook me up to some baby monitors so that they could run a non-stress test on me (ironic naming, considering I couldn't have been more stressed!) and the 2 baby girls. After some maneuvering of the sensors, normally meant for bigger babies, and some repositioning because both babies were kicking and moving around, they got both girls on and both seemed just fine. Heartbeats generally in the 140-155 region and as steady as you can expect with wonky monitors on them.

The atmosphere in the room was very calm, which helped Paul and me settle down a bit. I met Dr. Jacobsen shortly thereafter, or so it seemed, and it turns out he's super nice, funny, and easy-going. You can tell the man smiles a lot in his life. I had a speculum internal exam by Dr. Hernandez with Dr. Jacobsen peering in (all looked fine, I had stopped bleeding probably a few minutes after I got to the hospital), and then Dr. J did an internal manual exam that didn't hurt nearly as bad as he warned it could if I tensed up (I was sure not to!). He found my cervix to be tight, long and closed. All signs that are wonderful news. If pre-term labor had started, it would be thinning, shorter and starting to open. Just in case, though, he ordered a 2-shot, 24-hour-apart regimen on steroids to mature the babies' lungs so that if they were delivered in the next day or two, they'd have a fighting chance. I asked what would happen with the drug if the babies stayed put? Nothing bad. The drug would still take effect, but they'd just have a jump start on their lungs.

He also said that he'd want to keep me in the hospital overnight, until the next shot on Tuesday (today) at 5:00 p.m. The nurse later said that in the morning they may decide to send me home and then come back again for the shot.

Dr. J said I'm on “modified bed rest” for at least a few weeks, which means I can get up to go to the bathroom, but nothing else. I wasn't allowed to shower yesterday (too bad I didn't sneak one in before all this started yesterday afternoon, as one of the lovely side effects of this pregnancy for me is that the lush hair the other women claim during gestation just has manifested itself as oily hair after about 12 hours for me. Lots of ponytails lately!). I had to stay in bed. I'll ask about showering today when Dr. J stops by this morning at some point.

Paul asked about his trip to Florida next week, which is a belated trip for Alice's high school graduation. He's planning on leaving on Saturday the 1st, at which time my parents are coming up to help me, feed me, walk Jacoby, do whatever I need to get ready for the baby shower weekend, which is the next weekend. Paul was planning on returning from Florida on Thursday, but that may be bumped up a bit now. Then my mom's coming in Friday afternoon (the 7th) and will be staying for a few days into the next week to help me organize things like wash baby clothes, etc. We were going to shop for baby stuff, but that's out now. Thank goodness for online shopping, which may be my option now. At any rate, the doc kind of said, “Let's see how things pan out tomorrow.” That is, if the bleeding returns, maybe not such a great idea. He offered to write letters to get out of reservations, etc.

Paul and I talked today a bit about it and realized that as long as he gets Alice and her friend down there and checked in, he could come back like the next day or in two days and just tell them to ride the Disney buses to where they wanted to go. He would have served as chauffeur, but there are other options for their transport. I'd rather have him home than not now that something's happened, but we'll see what the doctor advises. At least I'll have all the help I'll need with Dad and Jannine coming up in Paul's stead.

The doc said that if I “behave” (I said it's the babies who have to behave!), this bed rest could get more lenient in the next few weeks, but he'd keep an eye on things and let me know. I think I'll probably have more appointments with him and his midwife than maybe normally, but that's not a bad thing.

I asked him, naturally, about the baby shower. I said it could just be a matter of me driving to the restaurant and sitting there for a while. He said that should be okay.

The nurse, in a calm moment, told me that they wouldn't necessarily be able to explain why this happened. They'd look, but sometimes there's no structural reason it happens. It appears that this unexplained bleeding is what I had.

She took blood, gave me the steroid shot in the arm (intramuscular – yay), and took a urine sample. All routine tests. So far, everything's come back okay, including the tests the docs performed. It's good to know they have a system in place for this scenario, that they know the routine even if I don't, that no one's panicking about anything. That's reassuring.

A bit into the evening, I got moved to a post-partum room, when it was apparent I wasn't going to be delivering these babies in the very near future. It's a double room with no roommate, so Paul slept on the other bed last night. He keeps running home (2 blocks away from the hospital) to walk the dog, get food for us, bring me more things. I just left with my purse yesterday, which I had packed with phone and charger and iPod and charger, but that's it. He's been trying to make me more comfortable (and less bored, as it's totally boring here without anything to do). He brought a few movies, one of which we watched last night (Flash of Genius with Greg Kinnear), my laptop (hospital WiFi!), stuff for a shower, should I be allowed to do that today.

I've been keeping all my parents up to date on what's going on. Jannine apparently flew down the stairs to Dad, who was in the basement working on the 1st crib, in a panic last night when I had time to call them. She goes, “Dana's in the hospital!” and they both sounded pretty freaked out. I had to tell them everything seemed okay so far and they seemed to calm down a bit for the story.

Mom listened calmly after I told her it all seemed to be okay so far. We all wish there was an explanation, but maybe no explanation means no real problem, too, so even that's not bad news.

I'm so glad I got to get through Christmas on my own two feet. I got to buy Paul's gift, we got to go to church on Christmas Eve, we got to celebrate Christmas Day like we normally do – a nice breakfast, present-opening, then a low-key day with a great dinner. True, I had a migraine most of the day, but that mostly meant that I lay on the couch (with Jacoby – that was cool!) by the Christmas tree and napped on and off while Paul did some house work that needs to be done. He feels crunch time now with only a week (as of Christmas) to get the projects done for the shower weekend. My dad will help with anything he can't get done.

I'm amazed every day how much Paul has gotten accomplished the last few months. It seems like his baby-planning isn't taking the form of buying things for the babies, and planning what we need, strategies for twin baby care, etc., like mine is, but rather he's nesting in a way that I can't – home improvement. I wish I could help with painting, and holding doors for him as he installs them and fixing up the 2nd floor bathroom (which has been transformed from something barely useable to something I'm actually proud of, baring the new floors we'll get done in late January). He's been completely busy from morning to night each weekend since early October fixing up the house. For our baby shower weekend (less than 2 weeks away!), when 3 of the rooms on the 2nd floor will be occupied by Jannine and Dad, Mom, and Sara (my sister-in-law) and little Reed. For our babies, who won't tolerate too well Daddy drilling the holes for the closet door in their room or down the hall or paint fumes.

Oh, some good news: My back won't hurt at all if I'm not allowed to walk anywhere! Looking for silver linings here.

Something nice about being in Post-Partum: It's comforting and wonderful to hear a baby cry down the hall. These rooms are surprisingly sound-proof. Or maybe it's just that there's no one next door to us. But Paul left the door open when he left to walk the dog and to shower this morning and I can finally hear a baby down the hall doing what babies do.

All the pain and discomfort of being pregnant with twins is made up each time I feel one of them kick. But I know that that joy is about 1% of what I'll feel when I finally get to hold Lillian and Blair and see Paul hold them, too. I think that's when the magic will hit. For all the trauma of delivery, the possible months of bed rest, the scary situation yesterday, the three and a half years of trying to make our babies, if we finally get to hold two healthy daughters, then it'll all be worth it.

---------------------

Dr. J just came in to talk to me. He had looked at my non-stress tests and said everything looks great, that he was really happy the bleeding stopped on its own yesterday, that it tends to happen again if it happens once (but not always). He said I should be on bed rest (with bathroom and shower breaks) until 32 weeks (7 weeks from now), then as the babies get more viable, I can do more things. He said at 36 or 38 weeks I can go play basketball if I wanted to. :-) At that point they try to make labor start on its own, so anything “risky” now would be welcome then. He also said I should keep all my doctors' appointments, including Garian, our chiropractor.

He was in no rush with me. He commented that he liked Paul, that he seems like a fun guy. I had to agree, of course! Paul is a fun guy! I told him how much he's been helping me out. About showers/bathing, the doc said they're good for me, that standing for 20 minutes wouldn't hurt, but I may be more comfortable with a shower chair (which, incidentally, we have because it came with the house and our steam shower) or having Paul help me in the bath. Both are good ideas. :-)

He vetoed sex, because it seems that any messing with my cervix makes it angry, even though nothing really bothered it yesterday. We kinda figured on that veto. He said it's time to get creative. I'm all for that! :-)

Dr. J is obviously a very personable guy! He commented on what a nice room I had, what a great view over the lake, which is beautiful with newly fallen snow.

He also said I should stay here until my shot at 5:00 this evening. Which I prefer, actually, because going home and coming back seems not exactly like bed rest to me.

So here I am, with Paul, in this nice room for the day. With nurses to come give us whatever we want. They really are wonderful here.

It's 2 girls!

2010-12-06T20:09:00.004-05:00

We found out 2 1/2 weeks ago, at our 19-week ultrasound, that we're having 2 girls! We couldn't be more excited, and I'm already picturing at least a decade of pinks and purples. Here is a picture a piece of our little angels:

Baby Girl A

Baby Girl B

Another Week in Paradise

2010-12-03T08:15:00.005-05:00

We're back in the Dominican Republic at the stunning Paradisus Palma Real. Like every other Sol Melia Vacation Club resort we've stayed at, this place is pretty close to paradise. Every detail of landscaping and decor has been carefully tended, and the all-inclusive plan is a great convenience. The food is unspectacular, but very well presented, and there certainly is plenty of it. I'm loving the bottomless Chivas Regal and Absolut Peppar vodka :-).

As great as the Palma Real is, we still give the edge to the Paradisus Punta Cana, where we stayed last year. We loved the beach service there, and the people we met were fantastic. We still talk about Miker, our beach waiter, who took care of our every need and entertained us with jokes and song. If we had it to do over again, we'd go back to the Punta Cana, but this ain't bad for now! See the slides below.

We're expecting twins!!

2010-11-18T01:08:00.000-05:00

We are thrilled to announce that we're expecting twins! The whole process of being pregnant so far (19 weeks today) has been an adventure, to say the least. Twins are an entirely different story from singletons, says everyone who's ever been pregnant with twins. I can safely say, though, I haven't gotten actual "morning" sickness, which I'll be forever grateful for!

I'm mainly constantly and completely exhausted, which makes even walking Jacoby (our greyhound, whom joined our family/zoo December 2 of last year) difficult with any regularity. I long for the days (and he does, too!) when I can walk with him again for 4 miles, but this time with 2 babies in tow! I miss those long, relaxed walks. We've been mainly walking just around the few blocks near our house lately. Paul walks him when he's home, and I tend to walk him when he's away, but I've been struggling to do so. I finally hired a sophomore student from the high school across the street this week to be his dog walker, and she just loves him. Today was his second day with Jennifer, and he already got the idea that she will happily walk him around and bring him home. Yesterday, he didn't know if she was going to dognap him or what, and made his walks very short because of his uncertainty. Today he got it and she commented about how happy he was on his walks. Which makes me happy, too, and grateful that I found Jennifer, who is a sweet, sweet girl who loves animals.

Anyway, as far as "symptoms" of pregnancy go, I've gone through several-week bouts with nausea, heartburn, incredibly itchy skin, headaches, and a few other "symptoms" (as if pregnancy was a disease!) that I fortunately forget. Backaches and pelvic floor aches and exhaustion have stuck around more than a few weeks, but I keep reminding myself that I'm a lucky, lucky girl not to have cuddled with the toilet for 3 or 4 months straight like I know a lot of women do. Paul's MUCH nicer to cuddle with, and I've been doing that whenever I can.

It's amazing how Nature preserves the species -- that you forget so soon (and are so willing to forget) the negatives of a process like creating and delivering a baby (or two!). Or else why would anyone get pregnant a 2nd time?! Selective memory is already proving to be a wonderful thing!

As for seeing the little nuggets, here are a few ultrasound pictures you may like:

Both little babies just starting out at 7 weeks; we saw their hearts beating like crazy!

Baby A at 12 weeks; amazing how much they grew and changed in 5 weeks!

Baby B at 12 weeks; they look like actual babies now!

Every twin pregnancy in our OB's practice is considered high-risk, which is actually great for us, because we get more monitoring and more ultrasounds and more doctors making sure everything is going well. The perinatologist (high-risk OB) complements our own OB and we have appointments with both. This afternoon, we're getting the all-important 2nd trimester/halfway there ultrasound, where they check that the babies are both growing all their little baby parts appropriately. We also get to find out the genders, which we're both really excited for!

After the gender discovery, we get to do things I've been waiting to do, like register (at Babies R Us and Amazon) and pick out things like curtains and rug for the nursery. The walls are a beautiful light mint green. If both babies are boys (a 25% chance), we'll decorate some accessories in pastel blue. If both are girls (a 25% chance), we'll decorate in pastels pink or purple. If one is a girl and one a boy (you guessed it, a 50% chance), we'll go with yellow and more green with splashes for each baby of pink/purple and blue.

So here's where I'm humbled by the hard work that people around me have put in or are going to put in to celebrate and welcome our babies to the world. Paul is working every weekend to paint the rooms on the 2nd floor of our house (and the hallway down to the 1st floor, which is no small feat), including the nursery (light mint green), the massage room (a cool light/medium blue; the room will become the play room when the babies require such an animal) and the 2nd floor hallway (all hallways are a very warm neutral brown to balance out the colorful rooms). He's also going to tackle the 2nd floor bathroom (light aqua with dark brown rugs) and do some much-needed work to make that not only usable, but also inviting and attractive. So Paul hasn't had a day off since about August. He literally works from morning until late at night every day on either work (PGC's 5th anniversary is today!!!) or the house. Since we're playing hotel to some family (parents, Mom, and one/two others) during the baby shower weekend, Paul's gotta basically get the house done and ready for entertaining by New Year's.

I'm humbled by his hard work day in and day out. Especially since when he's working on the house on the weekend, I'm mainly laying around and resting, as I don't have energy for much more. He works hard to keep the paint fumes away from me, which I appreciate because I've heard horror stories about how women have painted their nursery and the next day (I kid you not) have miscarried. No thanks to all that. Paul doesn't want me anywhere near fumes of any kind -- cleaning agents, paint, exhaust, whatever. Also, he lifts EVERYTHING for me. He's been carting the laundry baskets up and down 3 flights of stairs since July. He's been my short-order cook; whatever I want, I just text him and within 30 minutes, it's brought upstairs to me. He goes grocery shopping and gets me whatever I want. He's my angel and my hero and he treats me like a queen. And I have to say, I didn't think it was even possible, but I love him more now than I ever have before. He's stepping up in ways I couldn't have even imagined a year ago.

As for other people who are working for our babies, Carol Ann (mom), Jannine (stepmom) and Maggie (best friend) are busy organizing the party for the babies known as the baby shower. I can't wait to see what they come up with! We're having the shower at my favorite restaurant, Bullfinchs in Sudbury, which is where we had the rehearsal dinner for the wedding. There is simply no better restaurant in Metrowest. Family-owned, the place has never failed to completely impress me whenever I've gone there. And in the 10 years I've been living in the Framingham/Marlborough/Framingham area, I've been probably 20 times.

Last but absolutely not least, Foster (dad) is making us two cribs in his woodworking shop in his basement out of maple, walnut and cherry woods. He's researched safety measures galore, patterns, even which finishes are safe for cribs (kids tend to chew on the railings when they get to a certain age), and he's started cutting the slats this week. He'll bring one crib up and assemble it here when he comes on New Year's Day with Jannine. They're going to stay here for a week to help me out, which I'm really looking forward to!

The next week, my mom is going to stay with me for a few days to set up the nursery and get things clean and ready. I don't want to be caught with my proverbial pants down and not have the nursery ready by the time the babies come. If they come in the second half of February, they will probably have to spend at least a few days/weeks in the special care nursery (our hospital's low-level NICU), but at that point, I'll want to be with them as much as I can, so nursery prep will really screw up my available time. If they come in March, they may come right home. I'm not one to wait until the last minute for, well, anything, though, so I'll feel much more comfortable getting the nursery done and settled by early January. That timetable will also give me time to buy the things that the babies don't receive for the shower that they'll need. And I can only do a few hours' worth of any activity during a day (including sitting at a computer or at my table in my lair/craft room), so that stretches out the time I'll need for doing basic shopping.

Besides, the last trimester (for me, any time after Christmas, basically) with twins is a time of extreme discomfort. Many doctors want mothers of twins moving as little as possible and resting with their feet up as much as possible. Call it "limited bed rest" or whatever, but the more a mom moves around in the 3rd trimester in a high-risk pregnancy, the better chances for pre-term labor. We want to avoid that as much as possible.

I've already started getting a few things, care of my WONDERFUL local Mothers of Twins organization. When moms are done with certain things (gear, clothes, whatever), they give them or sell them to other members of the group. Well, I've gotten HUGE deals on changing table pads (the dresser/changing table I got in great shape from Craigslist), Boppies, a Fisher-Price swing and matching bouncey seat, a Peter Rabbit blanket, breathable crib bumpers. I'm hoping to grab whatever bargains I can from the group. Everything I've gotten is in nearly perfect condition. And most things are half to a quarter of the price of what you'd spend to buy them new. The women I've met through the group have been just amazing. Wonderfully nice and welcoming, genuinely excited to have more twins arrive and join the fold. I've been to one meeting so far (I'll go to tomorrow's meeting, too, to tie fleece blankets for an area NICU, if Paul is too tired to do anything after his red-eye and long trip to CA), and everyone is so nice. Genuine friendships are formed through the utterly unique experience of twin pregnancy and rearing and these women really rely on each other for advice and support when no one else in their lives truly understands what they're going through.

So it's late now and my back is hurting from sitting in my formerly comfy chair, so I'll sign off and try to get some sleep for my big day tomorrow. Not only the ultrasound appointment, but also our floor guy is coming in the morning to talk about finishing the part of the 2nd floor that Paul's been painting and we're getting a new fridge because ours has kicked the bucket. All before noon. :-) I'll try to update later today (I'm making an effort to get this blog going again, after more than a year without any posts!) to share the gender news, but I may let that wait until Friday.

Tour of some Disney World resorts

2009-09-15T22:33:00.005-04:00

On our recent trip to Disney World (we're proud members of Disney Vacation Club, so we go down a few times a year), we went on a bit of a resort tour (and stopped at a few pools to cool off, too). Here are our pictures from our stops at Pop Century Resort, Caribbean Beach, Port Orleans, The Contemporary, and All Star Movie Resort. Enjoy!

More photos of the wedding

2009-08-18T17:25:00.003-04:00

It's fun when almost two years after an event, you see friends who give you more pictures! Cindy and Rich Takvorian came over last night for dinner and were kind enough to give us a CD of the pictures they took during our wedding.

Thanks, Cindy and Rich! We really appreciate it!

Here's a slideshow of the pix:

Compost heap

2009-04-23T12:24:00.004-04:00

Well, we're finally starting a compost heap in a corner of what we jokingly call a back yard. There's a little section in back of Paul's office that we'll never use for anything else. And between the bunnies' litter boxes, their salads, and our gardening we're sure to have lots of material to make it a big healthy pile of goodness for our gardens (both flower, in front of the house, and veggie in back).

Problem is, neither Paul nor I have any idea about how to start a compost heap. So we consulted wikiHow's article on composting and now have a good idea.

Here's the video from wikiHow:

If you have any tips for us, please comment and share! We'd like to learn all we can about it!

Al Gore's Boston speech, March 2009

2009-04-23T12:19:00.003-04:00

Has it really been 4 months since I posted? Ugh.

The Al Gore speech/interview was just great! The interviewer wasn't so great, but Al was wonderful.

We recorded it so we could share it with you.

A very Harry Holiday

2008-12-22T16:24:00.001-05:00

Best concert EVER!!! Harry Connick, Jr. was ON! He was alluring and gorgeous and magnetic and fun and amazing. It was hard to believe it was the last show of his holiday tour, because he was on such a roll. His jokes were funny, his audience interaction was great (he couldn't get over some cookies that an audience member made for Harry and the band and Lucien).

He joked all weekend at this 3 Boston shows that he couldn't believe we came out to watch him. "If it were me, I wouldn't have come." A great stage performer makes jokes he's used for 3 days sound off-the-cuff. Harry is a great stage performer.

Happy Holidays!

OMG! OMG! OMG! We're going to see Al Gore!

2008-12-19T17:50:00.002-05:00

I just bought tickets to see Al Gore speak at Boston's Wang Theater on March 30, 2009, which is, incidentally, the night before his birthday! But he's giving the bday present to US! I've been waiting just YEARS!!!! to see Al speak. I'm so excited I can barely type!

Only slightly less exciting (and only because we've seen him before in concert) is our upcoming Harry Connick, Jr. holiday concert this Sunday night, which I got last-minute tix to. I'm a bundle of anticipation!!!

Harry AND Al! I just can't wait!!! (Only have 2 days to go for Harry!)

We Are the Merry Fiskateers

2008-10-31T12:22:00.005-04:00

In the first chapter of Secrets of Social Media Marketing, I wrote about Fiskars, the Finnish maker of fine cutting tools that uses a community of scrapbooking enthusiasts called Fiskateers to evangelize its products to specialty craft retailers. It's a perfect example of how to use social media to create street-level awareness.

Dana, wasted no time in applying to become a Fiskateer, and last weekend she attended a gathering of her fellow crafters in central Massachusetts sponsored by Fiskars. What a bounty of gifts they received! Dana counted no less than 15 raffles for the 28 attendees. She won four of them and carted home about $500 worth of swag. Above is a photo of the goodies.

Fiskars sent lead Fiskateer Kelly Jo as well as one of its "Fiskaneers," which is what the company calls its engineers There was also a representative of Brains on Fire, the media agency that conceived of the community. Fiskaneer Doug chatted with the group about ideas for new products, yielding great insight from dedicated crafters. The attendees were treated to plenty of food and a trip to the nearby Yankee Candle superstore. The spent the rest of the afternoon crafting together.

Did Fiskars overdo it with the sheer quantity of stuff it gave away? I doubt it. These 28 women have already declared their allegiance to the brand, and giving them more incentive to promote Fiskars through their online and offline social networks can only help boost word-of-mouth marketing. The group has been designated "crafting ambassadors," only it's clear that the brand they favor is Fiskars. By harnessing their enthusiasm, Fiskars can extend the value of a few gifts to a much broader audience. The cost of goods for this exercise is cheap compared to the value of good cheer the participants will spread.

Bandit's an inside kitty now

2008-09-14T15:34:00.000-04:00

On September 8, I brought Bandit to our vet to get her checked out and then brought her inside. No longer is she sleeping in open garages or under our back deck. Now she's got comfy rugs and cushions and toys and windowsills. And, remarkably, my allergies haven't flared up ONCE since she's been in our home. True, I keep her brushed and I wipe her every now and then with these moist kitty wipes to keep her dander at a minimum, but I also smoosh her and cuddle her and hold her and pet her like crazy and I don't react. Could this be a touch of fate, that I got a cat I'm not very allergic to?

To answer your questions preemptively, no, the bunnies have not met her yet. She's such a sweetie, though, that I'm confident she'll be appropriately pushed around by the bunnies. Especially the toughie, SweetPea! You want the predator animals to be below the prey animals on the pecking order in any house. Otherwise, you have a very dangerous situation.

Her name is Bandit not only because she needed a tough girl name outside, but also because she stole my heart. Damn cat. ;-) Thought you'd like some pictures, so here you go:

I maul Bandit (and she loves it!):

She looks like a very big cat here. She's like 9 pounds and actually a very small kitty:

Bandit's closeup:

My beautiful kitty:

Purrrrfectly happy (she hardly ever stops purring):

"I'm a model? Of course I'm a model. I couldn't care less."

Naptime (it's always naptime):

"Hey, whatcha doing? Is it playtime yet?"

"It's my house now!"

FramesByDana.com

2008-08-13T17:31:00.003-04:00

They say that many successful Internet voyages begin with family and friends. You tell your circle, they tell theirs, they tell theirs and before you know it, you've got a great audience. I'm hoping my blog friends will tell their extended family and friends about FramesByDana.com, which I've just spent 3 days updating. It now has a shopping cart, a wedding section, and a streamlined frames section.

Please tell people about the site. It's what I love doing. And I don't know what better thing you can say about an income stream than that.

If you're wondering why I redid the site this week, between 2 big vacations and while researching our book, it's because I've taken an ad on a local deli's paper placemats. There's 800 placemats, I think, which should last Kugel's Deli about 8 or 9 months. My ad is top and center, so should be very visible. I'm hoping to get real business from that investment. I've known all along that my site gets WONDERFUL SEO (search engine optimization) -- that is, Google loves me. But the lack of constant ordering is because I don't have what you expect at a commerce website: a shopping cart. Well, now I do. So with the site now at over 17,000 page views, I decided to add it and give myself a real chance at this.

I hope you'll help me by simply telling people about the site.

I still have much to add to the site -- a greeting card section, for one -- but I wanted to get what I've been working on the past year (the wedding section) online and also add the shopping cart. So stay tuned for more goodies in the months to come. And make sure to navigate all the pages/sections. There's a handy-dandy nav bar on every page so you don't get lost. Tell me what you think about the new and improved site!

Thanks for any publicity you can toss my way! Or feel free to order something... :-)

Gettysburg Tours are a Travel Bargain

2008-08-05T07:36:00.000-04:00

About six years ago I stopped by Gettysburg, PA with my son for a half day while on a trip to nearby Baltimore. I've wanted to go back ever since. Gettysburg is like no other historical attraction I've ever visited. The National Park Service has maintained the site and battlefields in a condition that mirrors almost perfectly their state on July 1, 1863, when the pivotal battle of the Civil War began.

This week I got a chance to go back with the luxury of some time for exploration. A full day at Gettysburg still doesn't do the place justice, but I discovered the history bargain of a lifetime: the private guides provided by the Park Service.

For just $55, you can hire an expert to accompany you in your car for a two-hour tour of the battlefield. After that, you can return at your own pace, armed with the wisdom your guide has imparted. With group bus tours running $26/person, this service pays for itself quickly. Our guide was Mike (left, explaining cannon ballistics for my kids), one of about 150 contractors who work in this capacity, and his knowledge was voluminous. There was barely a question we could throw at him that he didn't answer.

The great thing about tour guides is that they're unique. You can take the same tour with two different guides and learn entirely different things. The last time I toured Gettysburg, we had a group tour guide who was an expert at describing the scene on the battlefield. Mike was great at defining military strategy, and we couldn't have had a better setting for his expertise.

Standing in a wooded area, looking across an open field, we could almost see the Confederate troops advancing on Cemetery Ridge for the fateful Pickett's Charge, the tactic that nearly turned the war in the south's favor but ultimately forced Lee into retreat. The great thing about Gettysburg is that the entire six-mile battlefield is spread before you. You can survey the scene almost exactly as the generals did before the battle.

Mike told us how authorized tour guides have to leap tall buildings to gain NPS approval. He said he had to finish in the top 10 of roughly 200 people who took a written exam, then submit to an oral test and finally a tour of the battlefield with experts who fired all sorts of trivia and trick questions at him. All this so he could earn $25/hour giving tours (I tipped him a well-deserved $20). That is dedication. And the Park Service has no shortage of applicants for these jobs.

I also recommend the Eisenhower house tour. My knowledge of our 34th President was minuscule, and the self-guided 90-minute tour of his final home in Gettysburg gave me new respect and admiration for him. The Park Service guides punctuated the visit with bits of wisdom and skillfully answered all questions without being intrusive.

Podcamp Boston 3

2008-07-19T15:16:00.000-04:00

Some good quotes already from Podcamp Boston 3. Paul and I are here, trying to learn something new about social media.

Chris Brogan (in an impromptu talk in the cafe about old media vs. new social media): Now there's Twitter and that's what you do in the bathroom.

David Meerman Scott session now (just a Q&A, but he's great at that) gives us this video (1.9 million views of a toilet company video):
WARNING: NOT FOR KIDS!!

Now if I could just get the damn time to continue the BunnyBlab podcast series! =:-3 (The archives are still valuable, though, so get thee to the podcast series!)

PCB3 is crashing both the Harvard server and Twitter today. Go us!

4 bunnies and now one (outdoor) cat

2008-07-15T19:50:00.001-04:00

This weekend was kind of exciting around the Gillin house. It appears we now have a cat. We think it's a girl kitten and we've named her Bandit. And she's as sweet as can be -- affectionate and playful. She likes me a lot more than Paul right now because Paul tried to pick her up the first time he petted her. I think she felt a little threatened. She's beautiful, too...

Too bad I'm so allergic; I'd have her at the vet and in the house in no time if I wasn't. As it is, she hides out in our next door neighbor's garage (which is open) during the day and comes over for attention and pets and food. Day One was Saturday and she got 2 cans of tuna fish. Then on Sunday, Paul bought her some kitty food, so we put some of that in a dish every night. And there's a dish of water out there waiting for her whenever she wants it. She's been known to lay on our driveway and on our porch.

If anyone in Framingham wants to give this kitty a good home, email me!

Quebec City, une petite Francais

2008-07-08T14:14:00.004-04:00

Paul and I had the wonderful opportunity to go to Quebec City for the 400th birthday celebration of Quebec last week. Once we got there, we realized we were sort of reliving the beauty of our honeymoon in France, as the city is very french.

They're celebrating in Quebec City this whole summer, really, but the festivities were kicked into high gear last week, as July 3 was actually the birthday. We saw Van Halen, an amazing and extended fireworks display, and all sorts of fun receptions thrown by the Canada Tourism Commission, to which Paul spoke on Thursday afternoon. I spent the time he was speaking exploring the city and geocaching. It was rainy on Thursday in Quebec City, but I braved the wet and was rewarded in a few hours with lovely sun.

We stayed in the castle-like hotel, Fairmont Le Château Frontenac, and even had a room with a river view.

See our pix of Quebec City.

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

Will you miss Paris?

2007-10-25T01:39:00.000-04:00

Paul asked me this question on Honeymoon Day 5, I think. We had just sort of gotten lost and wandered around some little street that we thought wouldn't lead anywhere at all and come across a huge, old, beautiful church with an oddly modern sculpture in the courtyard in front of it.

My answer then, as it is now that I think back on the magical location of the first week of our honeymoon, is that I miss the surprises of such an old, sprawling city. Because you literally turn a corner, walk down some teeny alleyway, down some old steps linking two people's backyards (such as they are in a city) and you'll find yourself humbled by a centuries-old cathedral or palace that wasn't on the map you were trying to follow or in any of the guidebooks. It's just there right in front of you, looming and reminding you of history and architecture like people don't build anymore, adorned with gargoyles or tiny latticework.

I do miss the discovery. But it makes me look forward to traveling the world with Paul even more. Traveling has always been a dream of his that I've wanted to help fulfill, but, as happens when you truly love someone and devote yourself to their happiness, I've found that his dreams are becoming mine, too. His wanderlust is now mine. Which works out quite nicely, considering we're bound together now. And what a happy bind we're in, too!

Driving in France

2007-10-18T10:56:00.001-04:00

I concur with everything Paul said about the driving on our honeymoon. We remarked more than once about how surprised we were that there wasn't an accident every 5 miles. This applied mainly to the highways, which we learned to steer as clear of as we could, but also to the more country roads. I don't mind fast driving, if people are smart about it. But these people were just bad.

As is usually the case, I did all the driving (I get motion sick pretty easily). At times I was grateful Paul wasn't driving so he didn't have to pay attention so much to the other people on the road. With about 600 miles traversed in our second week there, most of that on back country Burgundy roads, we were only too happy to return our faithful (and surprisingly roomy) VW Golf at the airport on our last day. At least it was fun to drive -- I love stick shifts!

Honeymoon in France - Lowlights

2007-10-18T00:55:00.000-04:00

On the whole, our 13 days in France were wonderful, particularly the time in Burgundy. There were a few lowlights, though:

Crime - On our second day in Paris, my pocket was picked on a crowded Paris subway by a young gypsy girl. The wallet was in a double-buttoned pocket in my cargo pants, but the thief took advantage of the packed train and her tiny hands to undo the buttons and work her way in. She was skilled enough to take the money while leaving the wallet. This was a clever tactic because, while I could feel something rustling in my pocket, I checked and felt the wallet, which made me mistakenly think all was okay. I was carrying too much money and was stupid for leaving the wallet in a pocket in the first place.

This is the third time I’ve been the victim of crime in Europe. A videocam was stolen out of a latched camera bag in Prague years ago and more recently I had a digital camera swiped from a checked suitcase. I guess the lesson is that you can’t be too careful in Europe.

Cost – The Euro hit an all-time high against the dollar while we were in Europe and that caused some pain. As a rule of thumb, anything that costs $1 in the U.S. costs €1 over there. So pretty much everything was 50% more expensive. I don’t think we had a dinner for under $100, and that includes modest bistro cafes. Even wine, which is usually a bargain in France, was about the same cost as in the U.S.

The countryside was a little cheaper than Paris, but food was costly everywhere. The only bargains I found were wine in Burgundy and the ubiquitous pain au chocolat (chocolate croissant), which are about €1 everywhere. There’s no sign of the Euro falling anytime soon, so visitors to the popular destinations like France and Italy should be aware of that. I understand that Spain and the eastern European countries are still a pretty good value.

Lyon – We had read good things about Lyon, which is France’s second largest city, and had planned to spend two full days there. However, our experience was disappointing. The traffic into and out of the city was terrible, and our overall impression was that Lyon is a smaller version of Paris with all of the cost and traffic and none of the magnificence. If it was the first city we’d seen in France, we’d probably have been impressed. But I thought it was a pale imitation of its cousin to the north.

Drivers – French drivers are probably the worst I’ve ever seen, worse even than the Chinese. They change lanes without warning, don’t signal for turns and drive at high rates of speed punctuated by sudden stops. Part of the problem is the narrow, twisty roads, but other parts of Europe have the same characteristics and the drivers aren’t nearly as bad. I found the Italian drivers to be speed demons and borderline maniacal, but they were basically good drivers. French seemed to be Italians without the skill.

Rudeness – I expected Parisians to be rude and certainly wasn’t disappointed, but I didn’t expect to encounter the same experience in the countryside. The two other times I’ve toured the countryside, I’ve encountered mostly warm and friendly people. On this trip, however, we were treated coldly and even rudely. The most memorable incident was at Chateau Gilly (above), which canceled our dinner reservation when a large group of British auto enthusiasts took over the restaurant. We were offered free drinks in the bar, but after finishing a second glass of wine were presented with a bill for $40. We refused to pay and fortunately didn’t get a hassle, but the whole experience left us unable to recommend this chateau.

On the whole, these were minor things. If you do travel to France any time soon, bring lots of money. And keep your wallet where you can see it.

Very nice comments from Peggy

2007-10-15T14:56:00.000-04:00

Our friend Peggy said the following wonderful things to us about the wedding (published w/ permission):

It was absolutely the most fun wedding I've been to...ever.

Usually I go to weddings worrying before we even get there that we'll be "trapped until cake"...but you put the timeline for the entire day on your blog so I knew ahead of time exactly when the cake would be.

Sounds silly, but it helped me relax and really enjoy the day without wondering when we'd be leaving.

You should be a wedding planner. It was an amazing day for all your guests!!!

...

The thing that struck me most, telling people about your wedding afterwards, was how you made guests really feel like they were part of the celebration, not just attending a celebration.

Other things I loved:

The art projects for the kids, the carrots for the horses -- did you know the kids stole all the carrots off the shrimp table and fed them to the horses? (Yup. Turns out horses don't like celery.) Watching the kids play ball in the grass with the puppy, the dog that wandered in for a minute, the music, the cheesecake bar, the food, the homemade beer and wine...it was a dream wedding.

...

Jeff said he felt like he knew you, even though he'd never met you before. He's really organized and felt a kindred spirit from reading the blog. It's probably why he took over RSVPing. He's pretty conservative but I think he told your father he was in love with you. And he hadn't met you yet.

Your blog let us get to know your family before the wedding so when we met them (we met in the elevator and followed them to the wedding), we felt like we already knew them.

Thanks, Peggy! We're so glad you had so much fun! I think your comment about the timeline is especially interesting -- and probably relevant to other brides. There's a fine line between giving guests an idea of what to expect and ruining the surprises, but if you give guests just a clue, they'll usually appreciate it.

If you want to share your opinions of the wedding, please feel free to comment on this post!

Amy's pix

2007-10-06T02:10:00.000-04:00

Thanks, Amy! If you took pictures during the wedding and would like us to see them (and/or post them on this blog), please send them to us! (Zipped files are dandy.)

The bridal party before the ceremony

Dana, happy bride

Duey McCurley pipes the processional

PnD head to our quiet moment after the ceremony

Amy catches a butterfly

Chris feeds Tanah

Corinne spots a butterfly on her dress

Rinne makes a buggy friend

Meredith catches a butterfly

There's always something wonderful about nature

Michaela gets her own butterfly

This one's in the shadows, but you can see Corinne's hair and headpiece a bit

Meredith pats Tanah

Tanah's closeup

Duey's encore

Wedding Podcast Network

2007-10-01T12:23:00.000-04:00

Paul and I are going to PodCamp Boston 2 in a few weeks and I was just perusing the other attendees and found WeddingPodcastNetwork.com. Imagine the time I could have spent on this, listening to these podcasts about weddings and planning and everything having to do with the event.

At what point is information too much information? Dunno. I know that at the beginning of the process, lots of brides look for as many resources as they can. So here's yet another resource.

Modern Bride magazine article

2007-09-28T12:32:00.000-04:00

It's slated for the February issue right now, and you can bet Paul and I will be reaching for the newsstands when we get word it's in. I'm talking about the Modern Bride article I was interviewed for the past few days. It started out as an email inquiry from a journalist named Brooke Showell, who was writing an article for Modern Bride about the issue of borrowing other brides' ideas. She wondered, since this blog is so detailed and transparent, if I was worried about other soon-to-be-marrieds seeing my ideas and copying me. I told her, basically, that that's kind of the point; that I'd be more than happy to help other brides or grooms copy my ideas (and if they don't want to make the items themselves, of course, I'm here to help on that front, too!). My email response to her query is as follows:

Hi, Brooke!

So glad you found our wedding blog! I hope it is good reading...

One of the reasons we did post such detail was so other people could borrow the ideas if they wanted to. I find that in the blogosphere, the more territorial you are about ideas or such, the less it works. The blogosphere is all about transparency and sharing and conversing with people. So if a bride finds something I did and wants to use it for her own, I'd be happy and kind of touched to hear she did. No permission
necessary. I think that's kind of an unwritten rule among bloggers.

The only things I didn't post pre-wedding were surprises for the guests. I didn't tell too many people what Paul's and my first dance was going to be (Disco Inferno faded into I've Got a Crush on You) or that we were going to be releasing monarch butterflies. I didn't post surprises on the blog (but am working on getting all that up on the blog now, after the honeymoon) because I knew that several attendees were reading the blog regularly and I wanted to maintain that certain small level of
secrecy until the Big Day to them.

That being said, I just posted the entire playlist for the whole reception with the idea that someone may not have to do the 7 months of work I did to find, gather, and put into order the music for their "iPod wedding." I was looking for something like that list of songs when I was working on the playlists, so I hope someone does copy it if they like some of our selections. That being said, just because of music rights
laws and such, I can't actually GIVE them the music; but it's a start.

Also, I have to say, some of it is kind of self-serving. I'm trying to build up my Frames By Dana business, and I've added quite a few products in working through the wedding details. If someone wants to copy my guest books, for instance, but doesn't want to go through the work of making them themselves, they can contract me to do it for them. This is an angle I haven't made exactly obvious yet on the blog (frankly, because I didn't have a lot of time for that business while I was planning the wedding and it takes some FramesByDana.com
development), but I will now that it's all done.

Please let me know if you need anything else! I'm happy to chat about this with you! And please also let me know when your article will be published.

I hope my point of view helped.

--Dana Gillin

She asked then if she could call me to talk further. So we set up a time for yesterday afternoon and she gave me a ring and asked me some more questions. I told her about the idea I "stole" from Brett and Sara's wedding 2 months before mine -- to make the program a fan, which comes in handy on a hot summer day. TG for my brother's earlier wedding! Brooke seems like a wicked nice person -- truly interested and realizes how lucky she is to be writing about such a fun subject! She said the article is currently slated for publication in February's issue of Modern Bride, but we'll see how that goes. I know, having worked in the mag biz, how you sometimes have to push out articles for the sake of space or breaking news or something, so I'll keep you blog readers posted on the progress.

Who knows if I'll actually get quoted, but even being found by a journalist in the space and asked a few questions about the blog was a huge hoot! Thanks for the thrill, Brooke!

Now Paul's calling me his new influencer... I think he's kinda proud of me. :-D

What I put in our out-of-town wedding guests' welcome bags

2007-09-28T12:26:00.000-04:00

votive holders and votive candles (and matches) for the couples
a bag of snacks (TGI Friday's Potato Skins, or the like)
granola bars -- I think I tried for 2 for each person for each morning they were staying
bottles of water -- 1 per person
a bag of Pepperidge Farm cookies -- Nantucket and Sausalito, I believe
body lotion or shower gel or something "girly" along those lines
room/linen spray in some romantic flavor -- lavender or rose, I think I chose
a package of mints
a package of cocktail napkins

For the kids' bags, I tossed in anything I thought they'd like. Coloring books and crayons, activity books, glow-in-the-dark light sticks, rolls of paper to write on, stuffed animals, I can't remember the rest, but you get the idea.

Interesting Google results

2007-09-28T12:19:00.000-04:00

If you Google "wedding kiss with tongue," one of our posts comes up as the 11th result.

If you Google "funny wedding blog," one of our posts comes up 3rd. But only on Google.ca. On Google.com, it's 14th.

If you Google "things to put in wedding guest welcome bags," one of our posts comes up 6th. Which reminds me, I haven't posted about what was in those bags... Next post!

How do I know these things? Because our tracking system shows where people have come from and what searches result in visitors to the blog. Pretty cool -- this age of technology!

Blueberries in champagne

2007-09-25T22:58:00.001-04:00

One idea I had was to incorporate the blue theme into the champagne toasts with a few blueberries in each glass. It was a full two weeks after the wedding that I realized that we forgot to implement this particular detail.

Funny how the big picture just takes hold of you when you're in the middle of it and you forget all the things you had spent so much brain power on for so many months. What was I thinking when Bill and Maggie were giving the toasts? I was thinking about what good friends they are and how they both truly understand Paul and me and how fortunate we are to have them in our lives. I was not thinking about the missing blueberries.

Music we played for the wedding

2007-09-25T17:05:00.000-04:00

One of the last tasks I did the last week before the wedding was to burn CDs for all of the guests at the rehearsal dinner and then bundle them in ribbon. There were 7 CDs in all and included every song on the playlists, except for 2. Here's what the cover of the first CD looked like:

And here are the songs we played (each playlist was cut short bc of time, but I needed each playlist too long rather than too short, should the schedule for the day not fit exactly to the plan):

COCKTAIL HOUR:
Frank Sinatra -- Love and Marriage
Harry Connick, Jr. -- All These Things
Dean Martin -- Memories are Made of This
Jane Monheit -- Embraceable You
Louis Armstrong -- Fantastic, That's You
Michael Buble -- Money Can't Buy Me Love
Harry -- Just Kiss Me
Frank -- NY, NY
Ella Fitzgerald -- 'Deed I do
Dean -- You're Nobody Till Somebody Loves You
Michael -- Feeling Good
Harry -- A Blessing and a Curse
Jane -- I Won't Dance (or Ella and Louis)
Frank -- I am Loved
Tony Bennett -- I Left My Heart in San Francisco
Louis -- Give Me Your Kisses
Michael --You and I
Ella -- Blue Skies
Frank -- My Kind of Town
Harry -- Something You Got (from Oh, My Nola)
Louis -- Sunshine of Love
Dean -- That's Amore
Ella -- I'm Getting Sentimental Over You
Michael -- The More I See You
Jane -- Taking a Chance on Love
Frank -- You Make Me Feel So Young
Louis -- What a Wonderful World
Jane -- In the Still of the Night
Harry -- Come By Me
Michael -- Crazy Little Thing Called Love
Louis -- Dream a Little Dream
Frank -- I've Got You Under my Skin
Michael -- Fever
Harry -- On the Street Where You Live
Ella -- I'm Just a Lucky So and So
Frank -- -- Night and Day
Jane – Honeysuckle Rose
Michael -- You'll Never Find Another Love Like Mine
Harry -- Recipe for Making Love
Ella -- You're my Thrill
Tony -- Just in Time

FIRST BRIDE/GROOM DANCE:
Tavares -- Disco Inferno then
Frank -- I've Got a Crush on You

BRIDGE/FATHER OF THE BRIDE DANCE:
Celtic Folk – Blushing Bride

DINNER:
City of Angels Soundtrack -- City of Angels
Moonlight Sonata
Forrest Gump Suite
Beauty and the Beast Soundtrack -- Be our Guest
Mehndelssohn –- Midsummer Night's Dream
Mozart -- The Marriage of Figaro -- march
Fiddler on the Roof Soundtrack –- Wedding Dance
Glenn Miller -- String of Pearls
Pink Panther Soundtrack -- Theme
Vivaldi –- The Four Seasons
Harry Connick, Jr. -- Muskrat Rumble
Handel –- Music for Royal Fireworks
Mozart –- Eine Kleine Nachtmusik
Pink Panther Sndtrk -- It Had Better Be Tonight (instrumental)
My Fair Lady Soundtrack –- Embassy Waltz
Mozart -- The Marriage of Figaro -- Overture
South Pacific Soundtrack -– Symphonic Scenario for Concert Orchestra
Louie Armstrong -- Basin Street Blues
Harry -- Music, Maestro, Please

PRE-CAKE-CUTTING DANCING:
Corinne Bailey Rae –- Put Yr Records On
Abba -- Dancing Queen
Chicago -- Beginnings
Shania Twain –- From this Moment
Nat and Natalie King Cole -- Unforgettable
Glenn Miller -- In the Mood
B52s –- Love Shack
Earth Wind and Fire -- Got to Get You Into My Life
Chicago – Color My World
Billy Joel -- Just the Way You are
Iz – Over the Rainbow/Wonderful World
Stand By Me -- Great Balls of Fire
Huey Lewis and the News -- The Power of Love
Harry -- Only You
Frank -- The Best is Yet to Come

CAKE CUTTING:
The Beatles -- Birthday
Frank –- What Are You Doing the Rest of Your Life?
Harry -- I Only Have Eyes For You
James Taylor –- How Sweet it is
Faith Hill –- This Kiss

DANCING:
Grease Soundtrack –- You're the One that I Want
Haiducii -- Numa Numa
Big Bad Voodoo Daddy -- You and me and the Bottle makes 3
Billy Joel -- She's Always a Woman
Edwin McCain –- I'll Be
The Clash -- Rock the Casbah
Bobby McFerrin –- Don’t Worry Be Happy
Saturday Night Fever Soundtrack -- Stayin' Alive
Beatles –- Ob-La-Di
Augustana –- Boston
Neil Diamond –- Sweet Caroline
Fleetwood Mac -- You Make Loving Fun
Chicago –- You're my Inspiration
Frank -- The Way You Look Tonight
Steve Miller Band -- Dance, Dance, Dance
Swingers Soundtrack -- I'm Beginning to See the Light
Ready to Wear Soundtrack -- Here Comes the Hotstepper
Harry -- A Wink and a Smile
Howie Day -- Collide
Footloose Soundtrack -- Footloose
Big Bad Voodoo Daddy -- Go Daddy-O
Prince -- Little Red Corvette
Phenomenon Soundtrack -- Crazy Love
Billy Joel -- She's Got a Way
Abba -- Take a Chance on Me
Earth, Wind, and Fire -- Sing a Song
Forrest Gump Soundtrack – Sugar Pie Honey Bunch
Elton John – Blue Eyes
Harry – Jill
Swingers Soundtrack -- Knock Me a Kiss
Bodyguard Soundtrack -- Queen of the Night
Tower of Power -- (To Say The Least) You're The Most
Beatles -- Something
Billy Joel -- And So It Goes
David Bowie – Let's Dance
Cherry Poppin' Daddies -- Zoot Suit Riot
Devo –- Whip It
REO Speedwagon –- Can't Fight This Feeling
Jim Croce –- Time in a Bottle
Footloose -- Let's Hear It For The Boy
Steve Miller Band -- The Stake
Beatles -- I Want to Hold Your Hand
Stevie Wonder -- You Are the Sunshine of my Life
Harry -- She Belongs to Me
Bodyguard -- Lovely Day
Stevie Wonder -- Signed, Sealed, Delivered
Ready to Wear -- Natural Thing
Sound of Music – Something Good
Billy Joel -- To Make You Feel my Love
Steppenwolf -- Wild Thing
Paul Simon -- Father and Daughter
Chicago -- Color My World
Bryan Adams -- Everything I Do (I Do It For You)
Pajama Game Soundtrack -– There Once Was a Man
Beatles -- She Loves You
Earth, Wind, and Fire -– Reasons

LAST SONGS:
Harry Connick, Jr. -- Save the Last Dance For Me
Michael Buble -- Fly With Me
Harry -- It Had To Be You
Celtic Folk -- Here's to Time
Frank Sinatra -- The Last Dance

All in all, what's listed there is 9 hours of music. Like I said, the hardest part of this task was not accumulating all the possible songs, it was narrowing the list down. There's about 18 more hours of music that I didn't include that we had listed.

Deciding on an "iPod wedding" definitely entailed MUCH more work than if we had hired a DJ or a band or even, as Sara and Brett did, get a jukebox. But for all the work of selecting and ordering the music, it was worth it.

Honeymoon in France: highlights

2007-09-23T09:40:00.000-04:00

After spending many hours planning our honeymoon in France, it’s ironic that the highlight of the trip turned out to be a spur-of-the-moment choice. This was Perouges, a tiny walled town about 50 miles north of Lyon that is the best preserved medieval village I have ever seen. Perouges is so perfectly medieval, in fact, that I almost expected to peer behind the exposed beam walls of the tiny houses and find a Hollywood set crew.

We found Perouges quite by accident. We decided to cut short our stay in Lyon (see the upcoming post: France Lowlights) and selected Perouges out of our guidebook as a promising visit nearby. When we arrived, the town was swarming with tourists, but by 6 p.m., it was almost deserted. We elected to stay at the Ostellerie du Vieux Perouges, which is one of two small hotels in town, and we were glad we did. Our room was in a 14th century building. It was reached by climbing a long circular stone staircase. Venturing out into town at dusk, we were able to experience the delights of this historic town unfettered by tourists.

Perouges is so perfectly medieval that it has been used as the site for several films, including The Three Musketeers in 1973. What appears to be perfect preservation is actually the result of a century of restoration. The town had fallen into disrepair in the early 20^th century when a local benefactor made a commitment to restore it. They’ve done a remarkable job. While a lot of the appearance of the town today is the work of 20^th century craftsmen, many of the original buildings are still standing.

I took over 30 photographs, but no film can capture the charm of this remarkable village. If you are ever traveling through Burgundy, do make it a point to stop there. It is an experience you will never forget.

Other highlights of the trip:

Beaune is a bustling and beautiful old walled city that features many delightful winding streets and some striking architecture. The highlight was the Hotel Dieu, a 15th-century hospital built to treat the poor. Its brilliantly colored tiled roof is world-renowned and there is a very nice walking tour that takes you through many of the old facilities. In fact, part of the hotel is still in use today as a retirement home. We also encountered our best hotel value here: Hotel Le H ome. We rented a very large and comfortable room for only €75, and the proprietor and his wife couldn't have been more hospitable.

Sens is a lovely old town about 40 miles south of Paris. We had intended to stay overnight there, but were disappointed to find that all the rooms in town were booked. We would've liked to have spent more time there enjoying its impressive town square and cathedral. Instead, we put in at Joigny, which is a pleasant little town with a beautiful cathedral perched high on a hill. We enjoyed walking around the windy streets, admiring the beautiful flowers and the river which flows through the center of town.

Two hotels were also highlights. The Chateau d’Ige came highly recommended from Internet reviews, and we could see why. The hotel dates from the 12th century, although the original building was destroyed and rebuilt some 300 years later. There are three magnificent round towers and stone construction that is very reminiscent of a medieval castle. Our room was huge, with stone walls covered in a beautiful fabric that reminded us of the apartments at Versailles.

Our last night was spent at Chateau de Vault de Lugny, a huge country manor with a 14th century wall and real working moat. This is the closest I've ever come to staying in a real castle. At €225, the Château was the most expensive hotel on our trip, but some experiences are so memorable that they're worth the cost.

Speaking of expensive, our dinner the final night was at a restaurant that the guidebook described as the finest in Burgundy. We couldn’t validate that comparison, but there’s no doubt it was the best dinner we had in France. Of course, at €511, you’d hope it would be.

No, that’s not a typo. Dinner for two at l’Esperance in Vezellay cost over $700. That’s actually not uncommon for French haute cuisine and I have to say this experience was worth the cost. The nine-course meal was treat for the senses in every respect. A layered beef appetizer, for example, was topped by a thin disk of beef aspic and drizzled with a delicious sauce painted in a swoosh fashion. The soup was delivered in a tilted glass bowl and mixed at the table by the waiter. There were no less than nine desserts, all small and all delectable. Service was impeccable. A bonus was having the chance to meet the chef, Marc Meneau, who is a bit of a legend. He came out of the kitchen toward the end of the meal and visited with each of his patrons. Nice.

Some experiences are worth the price.

Coolwater Studios pix of the wedding

2007-09-21T15:51:00.000-04:00

If you haven't seen them already, they're up... Click on WeddingPrints.com -- the password is "Dana." You can order prints from there if you'd like. Enjoy!

Dad's homily

2007-09-21T15:47:00.001-04:00

It's not every day that a daughter gets to be married to the man she adores by her dad. My dad sure outdid himself with his homily for us on Sept. 1. Here is the closest approximation of it that my dad has:

I’ve had too long to ponder what I might say today! A father runs into that difficulty at his daughter’s wedding. This homily’s been changing every day. I finally came to comfort myself with the realization that a bottle of good wine will taste different tomorrow from today, and like a bottle of wine, this is what’s being served today.

I settled on a word, a name actually. “Thurber.” James Thurber. Until recently, Thurber was Dana’s favorite author and I recall reading a paper she had written on Thurber back in her college days. As for Paul, well, you did buy a house on Thurber Street.

One of the essays in The Thurber Carnival is called “The Secret Life of James Thurber.” He claims he wrote it just after dipping into the autobiography The Secret Life of Salvador Dali. Thurber admits his own life story is rather mundane and even boring beside the bizarre incidents of the celebrated artist. He does admit, however, to some excitement in what he called “my secret world of idiom.” Thurber describes the imaginations his mind conjured up when he heard a realtor tell his partner that the lock to a certain house is a common one and “can be opened by a skeleton.” He writes about the picture in his mind when hundreds of thousands of business men call their wives every day to say they will be late for dinner because they’re “tied up at the office.”

Just imagine the picture of Dana and Paul bringing family and friends together to watch them “tie the knot.” Or since we’re all here at a horse farm, to see them “get hitched.”

The trouble with idioms, of course, is that they are difficult for people outside a given culture to understand. Either they conjure up all kinds of strange images (ala Thurber) or they are completely incomprehensible. Idioms need not apply for entrance today.

According to the words Alice read us from Genesis 2, marriage is not unique to a particular culture or language or even religion. It’s for all humans, and therefore idioms won’t work. No matter what view you take about human origins, that ancient biblical story involving Adam and Eve is about meaning for humanity. Specifically it’s about human relationships, and it announces for all the world to hear that the first human relationship—and the one that’s foundational for all human society—is marriage.

The story, I think, is every bit as comical as James Thurber’s essays. God had just created Adam, and after watching him streak around the Garden of Eden all morning, God decided something was wrong. “Oops! Not good that the man should be alone,” God decided. “I’ll make a partner for him.” And then in Thurber-esque fashion, the storyteller informs us that to provide a partner God created the animals and paraded them past Adam to see what he would name them. But he named none of them “partner.” Another “Oops!” And so God performed this nifty surgical trick, and one of Adam’s ribs became the desired partner. Adam now could name her “woman” because she was made, he said, from “man.” Honestly, I think it’s a very funny story.

But beyond funny, this story of the first marriage is also a classic comedy! Dana, do you remember some years ago, I called you on the phone and told you I had just read how a literary critic defined “comedy” and I wanted you to tell me if it was accurate. Without my reciting it to you, you told me that comedy was a story that ended with the major character(s) coming together in a community. You confirmed my source.

“Not good to be alone.” Alone is a tragedy. God saw that clearly. Community is a comedy. And the foundational form of that comedy for the human community is marriage That’s the message of the humorous story in Genesis 2.

And 43 books later in the Bible, in the Gospel according to John, Jesus defines the content of community. Every relationship screams for content. Jesus was gathered with his community of disciples the evening before he died, and he wanted them to understand what would keep the comedy going, what would keep the community alive. He said it clearly, without idioms: “Love one another, as I have loved you.” It wasn’t funny, really! His love for them and for the rest of us would mean his giving his life.

Jesus was not talking specifically about marital love. He was talking about self-less love, giving love that sustains a community, that keeps the comedy alive.

But if that’s the kind of love we are all to give to one another for the sake of community, how much more is it the kind of love that holds together the basic form of human community, marriage. Today you vow to each other that kind of unconditional, self-less, life-long love. And when you do, you’re committing yourselves to a life of comedy!

Some years ago I spent a lot of time in the Upper Midwest. I learned from many folks up there about the typical Norwegian Valentine. “I told you when we got married twenty-one years ago that I love you. If anything changes, I’ll let you know.”

Now there’s another book I’ve been reading this summer. Perhaps you’re familiar with it. It’s called The New Influencers. There’s one word the author of that work uses over and over: “Update” At one point the author quotes someone else: “be willing to yield control of the message in favor of a rich dialogue, in which you learn by listening… and commit to updating as you learn more” (p. 129).

Yield control. Dialogue. Listen. Update. It’s all part of “loving one another, as I have loved you.” Now that’s good advice to hold any community together, the blogging community, the communities we live in, the communities we work in, the global community, and most especially the community you make today called marriage.

In fact, today you make your vows without idioms so that everybody understands. You decided not to make this event part of the secret life of Dana and Paul. You’ve invited a larger community of family and friends to witness the promises you make.

Now here’s the benefit to you of going public. All of us—friends and family—will make this promise to you: we will provide a constant updating of love and support to keep your comedy alive and to remind you to have some fun besides on Thurber Street or wherever else you might be.

It was actually a bit longer than that, but you get the jist... It was good! :-) Thanks (for the billionth time), Dad!

French Reflection

2007-09-19T17:31:00.000-04:00

Everyone should visit France if they have the opportunity. And by France, I don't mean Paris.

Dana and I spent most of the last two weeks in France on our honeymoon. It was my fourth or fifth visit to the country since the mid 70s and easily the most enchanting one. We started with six days in Paris, which is kind of obligatory. Paris is impressive for its sheer scale and the dizzying number of monuments, museums, public parks and magnificent edifices it presents.

I think a lot of Americans equate Paris with France, but the capital city couldn't be more different then be countryside. Paris is magnificent, but the essence of France to me is in the tiny villages, rolling hills, stark coastline and fertile valleys that began less than 30 miles outside of the capital.

On this trip, we spent seven days in Burgundy, going as far south as the city of Lyon. Burgundy is France's most prosperous and agriculturally rich area. Its vineyards stretch for hundreds of miles, producing arguably the finest wine in the world. There are ample opportunities to taste and buy these products, for the “degustation” cellars are located almost on top of each other in spots.

Burgundy is the most historic region of France, also, featuring many Roman and Gallic ruins and little villages in which time seemed to stop 300 years ago. In reality, this charming antiquity is the product of years of careful and expensive restoration. While many original buildings remain, the charm of these older villages has been perpetuated by generations of owners who have maintained and improved their property with an eye toward harmonizing and with the surroundings. The French have a marvelous respect for their history. Even in Paris, the skyline is almost unsullied by tall buildings. The business districts are clustered on the outside of town.

Another striking characteristic of Burgundy is its lushness. I joked to Dana that you could throw a handful of seeds in any direction in Burgundy and come back six weeks later to find a beautiful flower garden. In fact, the reality isn’t all that different. In every little town we entered, we found the buildings, parks and even public roadways spilling over with floral displays. The Burgundians must have some of the finest soil on earth. I hope they appreciate this blessing, because those of us who try to coax a few flowers out of the rocky soil of Framingham, MA were indeed green with envy.

I posted about 250 photos from the trip here. In the next couple of posts, I'll talk about some highlights and low lights. I’m sure Dana will have her own observations to contribute.

See the slideshow.

www.flickr.com

More of pgillin's photos tagged with france

Guests' favorite part?

2007-09-03T09:46:00.001-04:00

If you were in attendance on Saturday, you know the weather couldn't have been more perfect. It was the best day of my life, that's the short recap version.

I have exactly 7.4 seconds to post this, because we're a little busy before we leave for Paris (stay tuned after our honeymoon for more posts on things we couldn't post about before because we didn't want to ruin the surprises).

Anyway, if you were there, what was your favorite part? Please comment on this post and let us know!

Babe Ruth Summer Ale

2007-09-01T08:40:00.001-04:00

Some people might wonder why the home-brewed beer we served at the wedding is called "Babe Ruth Summer Ale." There's a legend there.

While he was a pitcher for the Red Sox, Ruth rented a house about 2.5 miles from the Arabian Horse Inn, where the wedding takes place. Sudbury has a special place in Red Sox history, in fact. As legend has it, Ruth got drunk one night and pushed his piano out onto the ice of Willis Lake in Sudbury. When the ice melted that spring, the piano sank to the bottom. The Red Sox didn't win a World Series for another 86 years.

In 2002, a group actually organized a volunteer effort to retrieve the piano, believing that a successful salvage might break the then 84-year-old curse. This demonstrates how desperate Sox fans were at the time. The group scanned the pond with sonar and identified what it thought was the submerged instrument. They made two dives but came up empty-handed.

Of course, the Red Sox won the World Series two years later and the salvage effort was forgotten. Thanks to the Web, though, the details are still available.

So the name of our beer is a tribute to Sudbury and to Paul's undying devotion to his beloved Red Sox. Does this all make sense now? :-)

Making extra work for myself

2007-08-29T15:10:00.000-04:00

I'm actually making extra work for myself -- on purpose. If I had nothing to do this week, I'd be concerned about what I'm forgetting. I'm checking and rechecking every checklist (that's a lot of checks!) I can find online, just to make sure I have all the things done I need to have done.

Speaking of a lot of checks, I'm going through money this week like it's water... or in my case, iced tea. The balances are all due or will be due on Saturday.

So I'm making extra little presents for the bridal party and helpers and immediate family -- those who will be at the rehearsal dinner. I don't want to ruin the surprise, so I'll post about it after the honeymoon. Shhh! :-)

We're not the only ones getting married

2007-08-27T10:03:00.000-04:00

Yesterday, Paul and I went to a wedding party -- kind of a reception for a ceremony that happened about 5 months ago. It was lots of fun and low-key. Colleen and Sergio are obviously very happy together, which was nice to see, even though we've seen them quite a few times this.

It was funny how Paul and I turned into celebrities, getting married 6 days from then (5 and counting now). People wanted to know about the wedding, the honeymoon, us. It was all very cute.

But the women, especially, all seemed surprised how calm I am, considering I'm a week away. They all expected me, I think, to be running around frazzled. I honestly don't have a lot to do this week until Thursday when I go shopping for dinner for 10 people. Pick up my dress, have a final catering meeting, that's about it.

I'm not-so-secretly wondering what I'm forgetting, of course... But at this point, I suppose, it'll only be Paul and I that realize we forgot anything if we have. I think we're pretty well set. Thank God for that organization gene I seem to have inherited!

Birthdays

2007-08-27T09:23:00.001-04:00

Many of you don't know this, but Paul and I had planned on having quite a big party this year way before we got engaged... See, on Wednesday, my wonderful fiance turns 50 years old. And for exactly one week every year, I can make cradle-robbing jokes to him, as he's 21 years older than I am instead of 20. It's always a good week, but I'm running out of jokes, so if you can think of any, comment and share!

Then, next Wednesday, when we touch down in Paris, I'll turn 30. We just managed to slip that wedding into my 20s, didn't we? It'll be an exhausting, jet-lagged day, but then again, Paul and I won't even see each other on his birthday, as he's keynoting a conference in Colorado this week (I'm so jealous -- I wanna go with him! He's staying at the Broadmoor!). This year, even though they're big birthdays, we have to put off celebrating pretty much both of them. Good thing we have that huge party between them to console each other with!

So don't be surprised, those of you who can attend the wedding, to hear a birthday song in the playlist around cake-cutting time.

Weekend o' fun

2007-08-27T08:43:00.000-04:00

So the schedule for the weekend is as follows:

Thursday
afternoon/evening -- Mom, Dad and Jannine, Liz, Leigha and her daughter Chloe come to town.

night -- Dinner for 10 at the Big Yellow House (BYH) -- Dana, Mom, Dad, Jannine, Liz, Leigha, Chloe, Maggie, Joe and possibly Mark. Since we're basically having a gourmet rehearsal dinner and wedding and brunch on Sunday, I find it fitting to serve the crew spaghetti and meatballs. :-)

Friday
11:00 a.m. -- The girls (Mom, Jannine, Maggie, Liz, Leigha) and I go for an earlyish lunch at Olive Garden (because I love OG, that's why!).
12:30 p.m. -- The girls and I head to TenSpa to get pampered for a few hours.
3:30 p.m. -- We should be done at the spa, at which point, I head home, get a quick shower to wash off all that luscious oil from my massage.
4:45 p.m. (ish) -- Stop by the Framingham Sheraton (which is where everyone is staying) to pick up Mom and whoever else wants to come and head to the Inn to decorate.
6:00 p.m. -- Everyone else involved in the wedding party/helpers arrive at the Inn for the rehearsal.
7:15 p.m. (ish) -- We all head to Bullfinchs for dinner.

Saturday (aka, the big day)
8:30 a.m. (you read that right) -- Dana, Leigha, Alice pick up Maggie, stops by Sheraton and gather Liz and Corinne and head to Inn, breakfast in tow.
9:00 a.m. -- Get to Inn, Jamie from TenSpa starts on hair.
12:30 p.m. -- Paul and the other guys arrive.
1:15 p.m. -- The guys and Aunt Gene toast downstairs.
1:20/:25 p.m. -- The girls toast upstairs. Julie Spilka (our videographer) is shooting both toasts, so they're offset a bit.
1:30 p.m. -- Guests start arriving.
2:00 p.m. -- The ceremony starts.
2:30 p.m. -- Cocktail hour/pictures.
4:45 p.m. -- Toasts and first dance and Dana/Dad dance.
5:00 p.m. -- Dinner starts.
6:15 p.m. -- Dancing starts.
7:00 p.m. (ish) -- Cake is cut.
8:30 p.m. -- Last dances start.
9:00 p.m. -- Paul and Dana head up to the honeymoon suite...

Sunday
10:30 a.m. -- Paul and Dana arrive at the Sherborn Inn for brunch.
11:00 a.m. -- Others start arriving, brunch is served. All out-of-town wedding guests are invited to this shindig.
1:00 p.m. -- Paul and Dana, Dad and Jannine, Mom, Scott and Liz and Corinne and Aiden, Brett and Sara head to BYH for a quick tour (for Scott and kids and Brett and Sara).
2:00 p.m. -- Gift-opening party with immediate family.
5:00 p.m. -- Paul and Dana start putting on their Parrotheadwear and shortly thereafter head to Foxboro to party with Jimmy Buffett.

Monday
Morning/afternoon -- Paul and Dana and Dad and Jannine go watch the golf tournament for which Dana won tickets.
Evening -- Paul and Dana head to Fenway for a Red Sox/Blue Jays game.

Tuesday
Paul and Dana pack/get ready for honeymoon. Leave in the evening for our honeymoon in France. Sucks to be us, eh?! :-D By the time we're on the plane, we'll be so ready to just veg...

The big drop off

2007-08-27T08:36:00.001-04:00

My "lair" (aka my craft room in the basement) is much emptier now that I brought about a dozen boxes of stuff over to the Inn last Thursday. of course, in true Dana fashion, every box was sealed and labeled with its contents. I even know where the extra super glue is. :-)

There was actually room to walk around in the room now, which is good because I needed a little space to wrap the presents for the wedding party and assorted helpers, which we'll give out on Friday night at the rehearsal dinner.

I know we're getting close when I relinquish the detritus (written with the best of intonations) of the ceremony and reception...

Some pix from my lair

2007-08-16T17:31:00.000-04:00

I've been in my craft room working and creating... Here are some pix:

Corinne's headpiece:

The program:

And the back:

A table name card:

Spa Day

2007-08-06T13:03:00.000-04:00

So instead of bar-hopping, I'm choosing to have a spa day with my girls (lunch beforehand, of course) for my "bachlorette party." I think I've talked about this before, but I just went this weekend to reserve all of our appointments. It'll be the girls of the bridal party and the moms. We're going to be spoiled rotten, which is exactly how women should be treated the day before a wedding, IMHO. Manis, pedis, massages, facials, you name it. It's gonna be GREAT! Thanks, TenSpa, for putting up with us!

The task that took our entire engagement

2007-08-06T12:52:00.001-04:00

I can honestly say that there has been one task that has taken from the day after we were engaged until, probably, a day or two before the wedding; and that task is music.

We've been listening to albums we haven't listened to in years, we've been ripping what we haven't ripped already (the benefit of which being, of course, that almost our entire music library will now be digital and stored on our server), we've been selecting songs for a few different playlists (cocktail hour, dinner, dancing, plus the shorter events like first dance, father/daughter dance, cake-cutting and last dances), we've been scribbling songs from the radio down on whatever teeny piece of scrap paper we could find so we would remember to download them later, we've been organizing and cutting and reorganizing. It's a monumental task, to be quite serious.

I didn't quite figure on this much work, musically speaking, when we decided that our wedding music would be supplied by our MP3 players. If we were engaged for 2 1/2 years instead of slightly over 7 months, I think this task would take 2 1/2 years. At some point (probably 2 days before the wedding), we will have to just finalize whatever we have ended up with at that point.

The hardest part, of course, is not selecting which music to include, but rather selecting which music from our vast list to NOT include. I've had to cut some pretty great songs because of time. The cocktail hour playlist, for example, is all classic love songs -- crooners and modern-day crooners like Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Michael Buble, and, of course, Harry Connick, Jr. We have easily 10 hours of wonderful music that I'd love to be able to play, but cocktail hour is only 2 hours long. Narrowing it down is hard. I have to keep telling myself that it's background music -- everyone will be talking. And just because we don't play it at the wedding doesn't meant we don't ever play it. But the choices are getting more difficult.

Wish me luck!

Welcome gift bags

2007-07-27T14:25:00.000-04:00

I don't want to ruin the surprise for any of you wedding-goers, so I won't give details, but last night I went shopping for things to put in the welcome gift bags for the people who are staying at the Sheraton. The kids have separate gift bags, which I hope will keep them pleasantly occupied during any downtime the weekend will afford.

I even stuffed the bags and so they're mostly set until I drop them off at the Sheraton a few days before the wedding. I have yet to write up the packet with local information (restaurants, Boston info, other things to do in the area, etc.), which I'll also put in the bags. Hopefully I can get that done tomorrow.

So far I have 8 rooms booked, although I'm expecting a flurry of RSVP cards in the next 5 days (hopefully!), so more will be booked shortly.

Then, next Thursday, Paul and I start individually bugging people and getting head counts and hotel info, if necessary, because we really need to know who's coming and who's not.

For those of you traveling in from out of town, remember, the Sheraton room rate is good only until Aug. 1, so I have to let them know you're coming by then. If you'd rather RSVP by email, feel free!

1001 Ways to Save Money...and Still Have a Dazzling Wedding

2007-07-24T10:12:00.000-04:00

I've also found a book very early on in my planning called 1001 Ways to Save Money...and Still Have a Dazzling Wedding.

100 Creative Ways To Cut Wedding Costs

2007-07-24T10:07:00.001-04:00

Paul and I love bargains, so I thought this article would be useful to our audience as well. (Thanks, Rich McIver, for pointing me to it!) They're coming at the topic from the point of view that you don't have to start your life together in credit card debt, which is absolutely a good point.

Flower girl basket

2007-07-23T15:21:00.000-04:00

And here's the flower girl basket:

Sorry the pic's dark... It'll be much cuter in the light of day. I wanted the basket to be a Nantucket basket to bring home the whole New England idea...

Invite package

2007-07-23T15:15:00.000-04:00

So I finally took some pix. Here are the invitations:

And here is the bundle of extra info cards (hotel info, RSVP cards, map):

Colors on the gentlemen

2007-07-23T14:13:00.000-04:00

This past week, I spent 6 hours shopping for wedding things. I'm not kidding. I shopped for hours for ties for Bill, Ryan and my dad. The good news is I got lovely light blue ties and . :-) Decision made, for better or for worse. They will all be in blue suits, which will go well with the light blue bridesmaids' dresses.

What a weekend!

2007-07-16T12:51:00.000-04:00

Paul, Alice, Ryan and I went down to Pennsylvania this weekend because Paul's and my shower was on Saturday at Scott and Liz's house. Liz, Maggie, Jannine and my mom did such a great job of making the party special -- from little pina colada-flavored wedding bell candies to printing out pictures of us and hanging them from windows with ribbon to making such a wonderful spread of food (it really was the talk of the party!). Maggie picked up her mom on the way down, and so Maria came from CT for the shower. It was just a really wonderful gathering of family, both actual and adopted.

The party had special significance to Paul and me, as it turned out, because on Thursday evening we found a new respect for life (specifically mine). Let's just say getting a new car is a more immediate concern than it was last Wednesday. I'm was in the car alone and I'm fine -- a few scratches and bruises -- but I was extremely lucky on many fronts.

At any rate, it was a wonderful party and a great time with family. Thanks to everyone who came and made us feel so special and loved. It really touched our hearts.

Extra invitations

2007-07-12T09:45:00.000-04:00

If your invitations to your spa day with the girls, rehearsal dinner, bridal brunch, gift opening party, whatever, don't match your invitation stationery, you're supposed to send them separately. I wish I could tell you I thought that much ahead. The real story is that I couldn't be bothered with the extra invitations in June when I was making the invitations.

That, of course, means that at this point I'm pretty much in the "get them made and delivered and move on to other stuff" mode. They're cute, but not cut-out. They don't match the invites to the wedding and it seems that every person got another set of invites. For instance, only the bridal party and immediate family and the wedding helpers are going to be included in the rehearsal dinner (otherwise it would just turn into the pre-wedding reception), only the moms and bridal party are in for the spa day (before the rehearsal -- kind of like my ideal version of a bachlorette party, since I've never really been one to go clubbing and get wasted), and all out-of-towners are invited to the bridal brunch the morning after the wedding. The gift-opening party is just immediate family, basically, because who else would even want to watch us open gifts, if even they do?!

So I made my lists (it helps to be a hyper-organized type of personality when planning a wedding!) and printed them all out yesterday afternoon and stuffed each envelope last night. Why did I do that when I really have enough to worry about this weekend, what with the wedding shower in PA this coming Saturday? Well, that's why. I'd like to hand-deliver each of the invite envelopes at the shower. For those who won't be there on Saturday, they'll get the mailed version, which will go out sometime next week.

Let's call it not so much "not planning ahead," but rather "a touch of personal attention" -- delivering the extra invites a few weeks late. I guess that's kind of the normal timeline, I just wanted to do it asap so people could plan their hotel requests appropriately.

Frames in progress

2007-07-06T15:00:00.001-04:00

For favors, I'm making a frame for each person (the place cards will be in them). Well, I put a first coat on 34 of them today. It feels good to make progress. 2nd coats of paint coming, well, whenever I can. They take a day to dry and some of them will probably need 3 coats of paint. Then the fun part -- decorating them! I've been stocking up on decorations for them for months.

I'll post pix when some are done. I hope they'll all be different -- it'll keep it interesting both for me and for the people getting them!

Big step

2007-07-03T10:35:00.001-04:00

On Saturday morning, I stood in line with about 39 of my closest friends at the Framingham P.O. so that I could get the invitations' stamps hand-cancelled so that they wouldn't have to go through the machine that does it and thereby be flattened. The guy at the counter let me do it myself, which was a win-win and now they're off. Actually, most of them are already delivered, which is nice. I've already gotten compliments from my mom and from my brother Brett (thanks, B!) on them.

Now to wait for the RSVP cards to come back!

Flower girl basket -- check; stuffing invitation envelopes -- check

2007-06-27T15:32:00.000-04:00

It seems I'm ticking things off our To Do list these days pretty efficiently. Last night, I decorated the flower girl basket (pic to come) and finished the word find rolls and stuffed the invitation envelopes.

Printing the addresses on the envelopes proved kinda tricky, seeing as how they're handmade (not by me personally) and thick. I did that yesterday, too.

Tonight I'll affix the little note about planting the envelopes (yes, they're made out of seed paper) inside the envelope and the stamps and maybe start on the wax seals if I have time.

The invites will definitely be in the mail on July 1. Or, rather, since that's a Sunday, probably by June 30, which is this Saturday. I'm pleased that I met this goal, considering all the work the invitations took. It was a tremendous amount of time, but it was very fun! I'm glad we went the homemade route and that I had enough time to do this.

Sara and Brett's wedding

2007-06-26T10:34:00.000-04:00

Two days ago, my brother Brett got married to his perfect woman, Sara. It was a beautiful day, both in weather and arrangements. Everything went off without a hitch, which is a testimony to Sara's and Brett's choice of vendors, location and their planning.

Congratulations, you two. It was a wonderful day.

The wedding set the bar pretty high for Paul and me to follow! Brett kept teasing me all weekend, "Don't steal too many ideas!" But I had to admit that I did steal one -- the programs were printed on cardstock and attached to paint mixers, thereby making a fan for each person. Which is a brilliant idea on a hot summer day. We're totally taking that one, B!

We got pretty excited for our wedding after being at Sara and Brett's. I feel our family getting bigger and bigger and I love it. The Maleys are truly wonderful people and I'm very proud to know them.

Thanks, Sara and Brett, for sharing your day with so many of your friends and family. It was very memorable in the best of ways.

Yesterday's excitement

2007-06-21T16:49:00.001-04:00

It was rainy and kinda junky out, but we had planned on a trip to the Bank of America Championship golf tournament yesterday and the rain had let up by when we wanted to go, so we took a chance on the weather and headed to Concord. And aren't we glad we did! Lunch was great (Thanks, Spire!), the weather even cleared up, and we got a golf lesson from Tom Kite.

Now, I know what you're thinking (if you know me)... "Dana, you don't play golf." And you'd be right. I went for the cultural experience and because it was different and I had no idea what I was getting into -- all good things in my book.

Now, after Tom gave his talk and lesson, there was a raffle of some pretty nifty prizes. A consultation and flower arrangements by some fancy florist (when they were reading that one, I said to Paul, "Watch, we'll win that one and we won't be able to use it!" because we already have Joan doing our flowers), a sommelier for an evening, and a few others. They came to the 2nd to last prize, 4 admission tickets to the DeutscheBank Championship over Labor Day weekend. You guessed it. I won. So we're going to go hit the links on Labor Day then head to the Sox game that night. Monday, the day we're going to attend, is the last day of the tournament, so the finalists will all be playing... We think Tiger's even going to be there.

Pens and envelopes arrived

2007-06-21T16:39:00.001-04:00

The blue pens for the word finds and the envelopes for the invitations arrived this week. So once I figure out how to print on the handmade envelopes, I can mail the invitations. I love how you can plant these envelopes and watch wildflowers grow! I'll be including the instructions that came with the envelopes.

Maybe after I send the invites, I'll post pix of them on this site. So you can see what Paul was raving about.

And once I have Paul and Maggie and Liz and my mom check the word find I made, I can roll them up and we'll be all set.

Then for decorating the flower girl basket and making all the frames. We're ahead of schedule in many ways, so getting away this weekend to attend Brett and Sara's wedding will be just what the doctor ordered for THIS engaged couple! It'll be nice to focus on Sara and Brett for a few days and get my head out of my own preparations.

Mailing approaches

2007-06-21T16:32:00.000-04:00

I'm hoping to get the invitations out on July 1. But, still, there's the problem with the stamps. Maybe, however, it's not a problem. If 2 oz. now cost $.58 (why did they DECREASE this amount by $.5 when the increased all the other mailing rates?), I can use my wedding $.63 for the invitations (overpaying by $.04 per invite) and then save the $.39 wedding stamps for the RSVP postcards (and overpay postage by $.13 per card). All in all, it's a waste of only a few dollars and my aesthetics will still be intact. PHEW!

Guest books, part deux

2007-06-18T09:38:00.001-04:00

I figured I'd throw a little French in there (that's about all I know!), seeing as how our honeymoon is two weeks in France.

If you wanted to know how I made the guest books, since Paul's detailed how I made the invitations (thanks, P!), check out the post about them on my fledgling (and back-burnered) FramesByDana blog.

Magical invitations

2007-06-17T09:36:00.000-04:00

Dana has done an incredible job with the wedding invitations. She printed the words on opaque vellum and attached each sheet to a lovely piece of seed paper, hand-deckled the edges and tied each sheet of vellum with twin blue ribbons. Then she punched patterns of dragonflies and butterflies into the seed paper to tie into the wedding theme. She's also printed reply cards and hotel directions and custom-ordered enveloped to hold everything together.

She's spent hours and hours on this project. The effort saved money, yes, but more importantly, it made the invitations distinctive and very personal. I hope the people who get them appreciate all the love and dedication that went into them!

I heart social media

2007-06-12T18:05:00.001-04:00

Thanks to this blog and the guest book associated with it (go sign it if you haven't already!), I've reconnected from a dear friend of mine who I haven't spoken to in a few years now.

Thanks, K.O., for signing the guest book! I've written you a snail mail card, which should go out tomorrow in the mail.

I do so heart social media... :-)

Word find

2007-06-12T15:42:00.001-04:00

I'm often torn between revealing too much in this blog so as not to have any surprises on 9/1 for the guests and wanting to share everything I'm doing.

I'll give it up this time.

I have created a word find with 75 words pertaining to our life together. Trips, hobbies, interests, you name it. Of course, there are also a fair share of wedding words that can really be used by anyone getting married. The leftover letters spell a message to our guests.

I've printed out the word finds on regular paper, which I'll roll up, tie with a ribbon and stand up in a tall glass or vase I have yet to buy. One bunch per table.

When providing things to write on, you must provide something to write with, so we've ordered 100 pens inscribed with our names and wedding date. These will, I think, be hung inside each word find. We'll have extras, as the guest list is right around 100, including kids.

Progress

2007-06-06T15:42:00.000-04:00

I've made mockups of the invitations. They're sorta cute, I have to say. All the invites are printed, but not yet assembled.

The RSVP cards are also all printed out. Cutting and a teeny bit of embellishment needed. TG I got a paper cutter -- I can't imagine doing all these with scissors. Totally worth the $12!

Printing out the hotel info cards as I'm typing.

Inn info next, although it'll be hard to figure out which directions to include... Maybe I'll just use the map that Joan gave me and let people figure out their own specific directions. No worries, I'll include the address!

Monthly subscription of printer ink, anyone?

2007-06-04T19:41:00.001-04:00

Me, me! Over here!

Today's printing project is the RSVP cards that will be included in the invitations. Inserts won't be the fun part of making them!

Next, I think, hotel info. Or maybe the map cards?

And when do we send out the agenda for the weekend? With the invites? Oh, we'll figure it out... in the meantime, this stuff swims around my head at 3:00 a.m.

Oh, and the $140 worth of pretty love/wedding stamps that I bought a few months ago? You guessed it, kinda worthless now that they upped the postage. I don't think I want to mess up the whole aesthetic of the envelope by adding additional postage. So I guess I have to go talk to the post office to see if they can exchange my $.39 stamps for pretty lovey $.41 stamps.

It's still fun, though...

Yes, Brett...

2007-05-29T13:15:00.001-04:00

...I made all that. ;-) And the save-the-date cards, too.

Guest books

2007-05-29T13:13:00.000-04:00

Instead of one guest book, we've decided to go with a book per table. They're all different, but here's one example:

Centerpieces

2007-05-29T13:06:00.000-04:00

This is a shot of the bottom of the centerpiece. A flat glass bowl will sit on top of it (with floating flowers inside the bowl):

Then this will hide underneath:

One person at each table will have first dibs on taking these home (because what are we going to do with 8 of each?!). I'll figure out how to designate that person later.

Slow progress

2007-05-29T11:32:00.000-04:00

Where have we been? Busy, that's where.

It's amazing how it takes 2 weeks to even get enough time together to discuss which envelopes we want for our invitations, but such is our life right now. We've settled on the seed paper. It's more us and worth the extra money. Now to figure out how to let people know they can plant it!

I've also been spending oodles of time not only on the road but in my craft room. Making good progress on those centerpieces. Have to post pix of the guest books.

I went to PA for Sara's shower last weekend, which was a good change. Planning a wedding can get you pretty self-absorbed and it was such a refreshing break to think about Brett and Sara's wedding instead of mine for a few days! Of course, my mom kept making the joke that we didn't consider the parents in our decision (well, Paul's and my decision) to get married a little over 2 months after my brother, but tough noogies, Mom. :-)

Pix of guest books and centerpieces coming soon...