That was AWESOME!

We're married! After being together for 14 years and surviving two years of engagement, the big day has finally happened. Woohoo! The weekend at the inn was surreal, but we had an incredible time and we know at least a few other people had fun, too. There are various pictures on Facebook already and we should have the website for the "official" pictures in a few weeks. I'll also be setting up an account on a photo sharing site, so people can upload their pics. If you want to see the pictures from our "engagement session," then you can check them out here.

A huge thank you to all of our friends and family who made it out to celebrate with us. We're very lucky to have so many fantastic people in our lives. We hope everyone had as good of a time as we did.

We're off to Curacao on August 15, so expect some stories and pictures when we return. I may also be posting some random wedding memories on here in the coming days. But maybe not. This is one of my few remaining weeks of vacation, after all.

Food of the Outer Banks

This post is somewhat overdue, but I'm on vacation, so time is of little concern. Anyway, here is a quick review of the food that Briana and I ate on our Outer Banks pre-wedding expedition. Disclaimer: All photos were taken with the crappy cameras on our iPhones.

Friday Dinner:
Blue Moon Beach Grill
Matt ate the Mahi Mahi BLT and Briana ate the Voodoo Pasta.
If you are coming to the OBX, then you MUST come to this restaurant. It was fairly small inside, but the food was fantastic. The Voodoo Pasta was made up of grilled pork, veggies, and a slightly spicy marinara; it was very tasty. The Mahi Mahi BLT--see picture--had a big slab of Mahi Mahi, ample bacon, and an herb mayo. I had to smash it down in order to take a bite out of it. I will be eating another one of these when we head back to the beach in August because it was, in the words of Will Ferrell, scrumtrulescent.

In addition to great food, Blue Moon also had Fat Tire beer on tap. This was a wonderful surprise because before March of 2009, Fat Tire wasn't available anywhere on the East Coast. Even now, it's only in North Carolina. If you have never tasted Fat Tire before, then let me inform you that it is freakin' delicious. I'm certain that angels' sweat is included at some point during the brewing process.



Saturday Lunch:
Pigman's Bar-B-Que
No stay in the OBX is complete without a visit to Pigman's. We had the traditional lunch of Pork BBQ Combo Boats (pulled pork sandwich, fries, cole slaw, and hush puppies). Their BBQ is the North Carolina vinegar-style, so don't expect any sissy tomato-based sauce.
It's like a present waiting under a Christmas Tree.



I managed to pause long enough to snap a picture of the actual sandwich.



Saturday Dinner:
Kelly's Restaurant and Tavern
Since Kelly's will be the caterer at the wedding, we figured we would check them out. Briana ate the Fettuccine Alfredo with crabmeat and Matt ate the Tuna something-or-other (it was the day's special). The fettuccine was creamy, not too oily, and had some pretty sizable chunks of crabmeat. Since Fettuccine Alfredo is just macaroni and cheese for adults (according to Mitch Hedberg, anyway), it usually falls into one of two categories: awful and good. This was good.

The tuna was tasted fine, but it wasn't anything special and was a bit undercooked. I still liked it, but I've had better. Tom, the innkeeper at First Colony, says Kelly's catering is better than the food at the restaurant. We'll see if he's correct very soon... [Editor's Note: We forgot to take a picture until Matt had already eaten his tuna.]


Sunday Lunch:
New York Pizza Pub
Despite all those vacations to the Outer Banks, I couldn't remember eating at this place, so Briana and I checked it out. They had, of course, lots of pizza options, some pastas, and a bunch of sandwiches. We opted for the paninis; the Classic Italiano for Briana and the Pollo Mediterranean for Matt. Both paninis were excellent and the fries were good, too. I'd like to try their pizza on the next visit. Oh, and they had Fat Tire. It was bottled, which wasn't as good as on tap, but still like liquid sunshine.

Mmm... Fat Tire.


Sunday Dinner: La Fogata
We needed a cheap dinner on Sunday, so we hit up La Fogata, the local Mexican restaurant. It was what we expected: good Mexican food at a decent price. If you want Mexican while you're at the OBX, then this is the place. I honestly can't remember what we ordered and the picture is of little help. Not that it really matters because Mexican food is all the same: tortilla, cheese, meat, and vegetables. [Editor's Note: That's a Jim Gaffigan joke.]

Tortilla, cheese, meat, and vegetables. Yup.


Matt's final thoughts:

1. Eat at the Blue Moon Beach Grill
2. Fat Tire beer = incredible.
3. Patronize the local food establishments! If you eat at Outback or Applebee's while at the OBX, then you're a moron.
   

The Invitation Saga

Since the invitations have finally been sent, I figure it's time to tell the story behind them. The story starts like this: Briana and I found the perfect invitations, but they were going to cost $600. We--trying to stay within budget and sticking to the DIY theme of our wedding--decided we could make them ourselves. And so we did. Even with the assistance of Penny, Tamisha, and Brianne (our intrepid helpers), the invites took a ridiculous amount of time to finish. The following is a photo essay of the process.

DAY 1- Creating the sandal invitations.
1. Matt gets frustrated easily. Especially when trying to format text on sandal-shaped invitations.


2. Every invitation was handcrafted by our expert craftsmen. Matt's thumb still has nerve damage from the scissors. This is what the invitations looked like before the trimming process.


3. Brianne expertly folds the invitation prior to cutting.


4. Tamisha adheres the sandal strap using glue dots. (Side note: Glue dots are awesome!)


5. Penny manages to wound herself while cutting the ribbon for the sandal straps.


4. Everyone working at her respective post.


5. Brianne and Tamisha work diligently. Matt eats chips and queso dip.


6. The mess.

7. A stack of lovely invitations.


DAY 2-- Creating the FAQ sheet and RSVP cards.
1. The happy couple makes important decisions about the wording of the RSVP cards.



2. Matt gets frustrated because the FAQ page printed on two pages instead of one, thus wasting 40 sheets of paper.


3. Briana expertly stamps the backs of the RSVP cards.

4. Briana shows off her handiwork. Kona looks outside for squirrels.

5. Matt attaches address labels. (Side note: He was forced to do this job because the invitations he made looked terrible and had to be thrown away.)


6. Briana tests out her skills as an aeronautical engineer. (Side note: I witnessed the test flights and I wouldn't recommend flying in any planes that she designs.)


7. The dining room table serving as a drying area. (Side note: Make sure any ink is DRY before stacking RSVP cards. We learned this one the hard way.)


8. Done!

If you want to test your relationship before your marriage, then I recommend making your own wedding invitations. Not killing each other during the process is a sign that you were meant to be together.

We're really happy with the way our invitations turned out and saved a ton of money by doing it ourselves. I'll have to check the receipts for the total, but stayed under $200 for sure. And, of course, we couldn't have done it without the help of Penny, Tamisha, and Brianne. Thank you!

The Ben Franklin Incident

In case you haven’t heard the story yet, the authors of this blog—your favorite soon-to-be-married couple—almost met a tragic demise in Ben Franklin last Sunday. While I’ve done a lot of stupid, dangerous, and potentially life-threatening things over the years, I never thought that an arts and crafts store would be the scene of my near-death.

As we were perusing the wall of ribbon at Ben Franklin, there was a tremendous crash from the front of the store—about 20 feet to our right. At first I thought some shelves had collapsed, but then I heard the sound of a car horn croaking for life. It was then that I realized what had happened: someone had driven their car into the front of the building. Needless to say, Briana and I ran out to investigate and/or help. When we got out of the store, we saw this:


Well, when we first came out, there was someone helping the elderly driver out of the car, so imagine them in the picture, and then you can properly visualize what we first saw. The driver was disoriented but otherwise okay. Driving through that wall was no easy feat. There is a curb and sidewalk in front of the store and the parking lot attached to store is pretty small. She must have jammed down the accelerator to get enough momentum. Briana and I are lucky that the parking lot wasn’t any bigger; otherwise, she might have gone further into the store and smashed us.

The picture to the left is the scene from inside the store. Notice the employee who was experiencing the most exciting day of any Ben Franklin employee in the history of the store. Briana and I were standing just to the left of this picture against the far wall, which was directly in the car's path.

So, that’s the story. We almost died buying ribbon for our wedding invitations, thus proving that we should have just paid for the pre-made invites. Oh, and speaking of which, check back tomorrow for the full story on the DIY invitations.

My brain hurts

With the completion of the Freedom Fest invites, Briana and I decided we should probably get to work on our wedding invitations (priorities!). She, not surprisingly, loved the most expensive invitations we could find. Here’s how the conversations went:

Briana: These are my favorite.
Matt: Yeah, those are cool, but, uh, I don’t think we have $600 to spend on invitations.
Briana: But these are so perfect.
Matt: I forget, which kidney are you selling to pay for this wedding?
Briana: (angry face)
Matt: You know, we could totally make these ourselves.
Briana: How?
Matt: I don’t know, but I’m sure Tamisha could figure it out. She’s craft and whatnot.

Low and behold, Tamisha was indeed crafty and whatnot. She tossed out some ideas, we got to work, and it has since been a serious pain in my butt. This whole do-it-yourself wedding invitation thing is going to save a ton of money, and I’m sure I’ll have a warm, fuzzy feeling about the end result, but right now it’s making my eye spasm.

Briana and I spent 30 minutes last night scouring the Internet in hopes of finding cardstock with a hibiscus print on it. It couldn’t be just any hibiscus print, though; it had to a very light color so the invitation’s text would still be readable. Keep in mind that Briana was ready to settle on a different print, but I was being stubborn. I eventually had to go with the DIY route, taking this graphic:

And turning it into this:



Why I didn’t think of doing that in the first pace is beyond me.

All the pieces are starting to come together, and I’m beginning to think the invites will turn out really well. Plus, they should cost less than $100. Of course, we still have a long way to go before they’re ready to be sent out; I’m just being optimistic for once.

The End Is Nigh

In a sure sign of the impending apocalypse, Creed has reunited and is recording a new album. Why do I care? Because Creed represents everything that sucks about rock and roll. Specifically:

• Terrible lyrics
• Wannabe Eddie Vedder vocals
• Uninspired and unoriginal song structures
• An undeserved sense of self-worth (watch ANY of their music videos for Scott Stapp’s Jesus Christ pose)
  

I think of Creed as the waste product of a giant, music-eating monster that consumed all the elements of 90s hard rock, digested it, and pooped it out. The resulting steaming, musical pile of crap—named Creed—was the undigested remnants of great bands like Stone Temple Pilots, Pearl Jam, Tool, and Metallica. It was awful, yet they somehow sold millions of albums.

Creed is a lot like Nickelback (another bunch of no-talent-ass-clowns), in that no one ever admits to actually liking the band. No one, that is, except for the guy I parked next to last summer at a triathlon who was BLASTING Creed from his car’s stereo. I’m sure this moron will be calling Tickmaster the second tickets go on sale for Creed’s upcoming tour where they make tons of money that they don’t deserve.

In short, I hate Creed. Please do not support this terrible, horrible, no good, very bad band. Perhaps only then will they fester away into the obscurity they deserve.

Way Off Topic: The Extinction of the Dinosaurs

An asteroid didn’t kill the dinosaurs? Say it ain’t so! A recent article from The Journal of the Geological Society (Time reports on it here) claims that perhaps an asteroid wasn’t the cause of the mass extinction of dinosaurs 65 million years ago.

For those less familiar with the death of the “terrible lizards,” the common theory goes like this: 65 million years ago an asteroid hit the Yucatán peninsula resulting in a massive dust cloud that cooled Earth, thus killing the cold-blooded dinosaurs. There’s lots of proof for this theory, including a telltale 65-million-year-old, 112-mile crater on the Yucatán peninsula. There’s also a layer of iridium in the sediment layer at the 65-million-year depth; iridium is rare on Earth but common in asteroids.

Geoscientists Gerta Keller and Thierry Addate—don’t laugh, they’re Swiss—did some digging around the Yucatán and discovered that just below and above the layer of iridium were the same 52 fossilized species. These findings would indicate that there wasn’t an immediate, massive extinction caused by the asteroid. It was only after they looked at sediment 30 feet above that they found species disappear. According to Keller and Addate, that 30-foot layer of sediment would have taken 300,000 years to accumulate.

The research by Keller and Addate is controversial because it contradicts the findings of other digs from around the world. According to the article, theirs is the first survey that looks at the sediment record so close to the impact site. They claim that their research is more accurate because it was close to the impact, but, of course, other paleontologists say that its proximity makes it less accurate. Wait, the experts disagree? Shocking.

So what does this mean for amateur dino-nerds like me? Unfortunately, not much. Until there is further disproof of the asteroid extinction theory, it seems to make the most sense. Although I think Gary Larson figured it out a while back:

Inn Reservations

Ok kiddies, there are officially nine rooms left at First Colony Inn. If you haven't reserved your room yet, then you'd better better do it soon. The following rooms are still available: 3, 7, 8, 15, 16, 19, 21, 23, and 26. You can get the details about each room here: http://www.firstcolonyinn.com/Rooms/.

'Bout Time

The Sea Pig is back! You know it! It’s getting to be about crunch time in terms of wedding planning, so I’m starting to get motivated. Since I often rely on procrastination as a means of getting my work done, it’s only fitting that I would wait until the last minute for this as well. Plus I’m running out of things to do since my student teacher is essentially doing my job right now; all I have to do is come to school. My students aren’t happy about the arrangement, but I am.

After attempting to determine all the stuff we’ll need to rent for the reception, I quickly learned why couples hire wedding planners. I much preferred when planning for a party consisted of deciding which keg to buy and where to put Outkast’s “Ms. Jackson” on the playlist. In addition to those two crucial aforementioned elements, I now have to think about things like what size tables we’ll need and whether we have to provide our own trashcans. Apparently hanging trash bags off the poles of the tent is unacceptable—even if the trash bags are white. I mean, come on, they’ll match the tent! Maybe if I decorate them with flowers…

Snow!

Snow?!?! In Richmond? Surely not! Oh yes, my friends. It is a sign that all is right in the world.

We have about seven inches in our backyard and it appears that even dirty ol' Richmond is beautified by a blanket a snow.

Kona is having the time of her life. This is her first real snowfall and she has been spending as much time as possible outside. I'm pretty sure she would have enjoyed sleeping in it last night. We went to the dog park this morning where she roamed in her natural habitat. She is currently passed out at my feet; even sled dogs get tired sometimes.

Update

All has been quiet on the Sea Pig Front lately. Why, you ask? It seem that the main contributor--and I won't mention her name for anonymity's sake--has become addicted to World of Warcraft. That's right, I'm calling her out.

Please stand by because we may have to stage an intervention shortly. I'm getting worried. She has attached fake ears to herself to more closely resemble her Elfin character in the game*. Occasionally she will attempt to cast spells on me**, which, as of yet, have not been successful.

We may or may not be able to pull her away from the computer long enough to finish wedding plans. Stay tuned..



*ok, so that it hasn't gone that far just yet
**I can neither confirm nor deny the accuracy of this statement

This is America the Way It's Supposed to Be

All photos courtesy of the Huffington Post

"Allow the president to invade a neighboring nation, whenever he shall deem it necessary to repel an invasion, and you allow him to do so whenever he may choose to say he deems it necessary for such a purpose - and you allow him to make war at pleasure. "

"My dream is of a place and a time where America will once again be seen as the last best hope of earth."

- Abraham Lincoln

What Are You Doing Today?

Polling Place Photo Project

I'm kicking myself for not posting this earlier. The New York Times is doing a cool polling place photo project!



Here is a bit of info about the project from the NY Times site:

The Polling Place Photo Project is a nationwide experiment in citizen journalism that encourages voters to capture, post and share photographs of this year’s primaries, caucuses and general election. By documenting local voting experiences, participants can contribute to an archive of photographs that captures the richness and complexity of voting in America.

We are especially interested in photographs that document your voting experience, including what works and what could be improved. If you are wondering what to photograph, take a picture of that! We're looking of photos of interiors, exteriors and other views that are part of your voting experience. Obviously, you need to follow the rules at your local polling place, and you should be respectful of other citizens who may not wish to be photographed.

On a related note, if you have any voting related questions or need help, please visit the National Association of Secretaries of State website. This nonpartisan site was created by state election officials to help eligible voters figure out how and where to go vote.

Have fun voting tomorrow!

Photo to Comic Effect

Happy November! I hope everyone had a fun Halloween. Matt and I saved our energy for playing Rock Band tonight at a friend's house. I'm going to try making mulled apple cider. I bought mulling spices from Penzey's (warning: the store will convince you of the need for spices you've never even heard of). They recommend heating a pot of 1/2 apple cider and 1/2 cranberry juice with 1-2 tablespoons of mulling spices. You can also add a splash of spiced rum or brandy. I'll let you know how it turns out.

Let's jump subjects and talk about Photoshop again. I have the 7.0 version and I love it (thanks Dad!). I recently found a tutorial on how to turn a photo into a comic book panel. While I was working on it, I got to thinking how cool it would be to make a comic book with photos of how Matt and I met, and what our life together has been like. It would be a neat way for guests to get to know us better.

Then I mentally slapped myself (yes, I can do that). I think DIY has turned into DIYUYD (Do It Yourself Until You're Dead) for me. If I do all these projects I have sitting in my head, Matt and I will wind up having to get married sometime in 2088.

But that doesn't mean someone else can't do it. Here is the picture I used for the tutorial before the modification:



You can't tell, but Matt has black and red hair in this picture. These were his rock and roll glory days before becoming a responsible adult (no sniggering). Here is the end result:



Nifty, huh? Most printing companies should be able to take your modified photos and print them in a comic book format. If anyone winds up doing this, please let me know so I can look at it and feel insanely jealous.

Here is a link to another comic book effect tutorial for a slightly different look.

Oh, Young Love...

Ummm, I'm not quite sure what to say about the wedding I'm going to show you today. All over the internet, you can find elegant, beautiful, inspiring weddings. This is not one of them. I figured other blogs have the market cornered on those. Let's spice things up a little.

Meet 16-year-old Missy Quinn and her husband, 17 year old Thomas Moghon, both from the UK. Click here to read an article about them from Closer.





Her dress weighed 336 pounds!!!! This completely blows my mind. I assume it's due to the glacier attached to her rear end. Missy accessorized her dress with a £500 crystal bouquet, sparkling choker, tiara, belly-button jewel, hair clips and garter, plus fake tan, false eyelashes and body glitter. Whew, I'm a little impressed.

Oh, but it gets better my friends. Meet her bridesmaids:



This gives me all sorts of ideas... *evil smile*

Want to meet some guests?





Yes those are fur coats, Chris Hansen would be alllll over this.

Maybe you're wondering how these kids came to have this particular sense of style? Meet the parents:



I might have to copy that little boy's suit for Matt.

Want another example of why people should not get married at such a young age? Here is a quote from Missy, “Thomas might expect me to cook and clean, but I’m not going to. He can look after me as far as I’m concerned!”

Breaking News - Drop Everything!

Ladies and gentlemen, we have had a Palin sighting. Please keep your voices down and no sudden movements- she packs heat and has "palled around with" Cheney.



Here again is her best bud Obama:



Brings a tear to the eye...