Somebody's getting married, part the second

Oh, so you'd like a recap of our holidays?

Well, we spent several days in House of HulkRents, including a trip to Fort Fun for a beer tasting at New Belgium, home of Fat Tire. (Yes, I tasted beer, and even found one that I kind of liked. It was more like a sour lambic, though, not especially beery). Then we took Holla and Hollawife to the airport early one morning. We drove to Denver, braved the snow to find parking, and ran necessary errands while waiting to find out if the cabin trip was still a go. (Mutual decision was no: we were all concerned about the new storm coming in. Better not to get stranded in several feet of snow in rural Wyoming.) We drove back up to return the truck and got chauffeured back to Denver along with the kitties and all their assorted paraphanalia.

It snowed the next day, but only about 6 inches, not the 18 they'd predicted (QIR told me that northern New Mexico got the snow instead). My office was closed the following day, a Friday, due to the weather, so I ended up having nearly two weeks off of work (last day was the Wednesday before Christmas, sent home at 11:30 AM, then didn't go back in 'til yesterday). Despite my cabin fever and frustration at lack of exercise, we still managed to have a good time this break, and expected to have a quiet NYE with our kitties when our friends called us and told us they were coming down after all. So we had New Year's Eve with them (complete with going outside in the snow at midnight with our Champagne and toasting and watching the fireworks from downtown) and they stayed part of the following day as well, and then Hulk and I collapsed into sleep and I woke up to the alarm blaring yesterday morning.

So what did I get for Christmas from the Hulk? Several things, actually. Good chocolate (including Lion bars!) in my stocking. Earrings and a necklace. A birdhouse and birdseed for the backyard (now the trick is to figure out how to feed the birds without feeding squirrels). A book on dream symbology. This awesome t-shirt, depicting my favorite thing we saw in the airport in Tokyo (so much so that I took a picture of it, only to find out they were all over China as well). And a pottery bowl, the story of which I will have to relate in its own entry, because it is that amazing.

So whither this blog title?

Our best couple friends here in Colorado, the ones with whom we go to the cabin in Wyoming, the ones who (respectively) bestowed a strange nickname on the Hulk and plan childish birthday parties, got officially engagamafied on Giftmas in front of her whole family.

Not like we weren't all expecting it, or anything. They'd been talking about it for quite some time and it was just a matter of him getting her ring made. Hulk was actually the one to notice her sparkly new (amethyst) ring when they came over for new year's. Amber had to show me some fancy LOTR-type dresses she'd found on the internets, most of which were waaaay outside their budget (like, 3-5 grand), but so pretty and not at all white and poofy. Amber is not a white and poofy girl. They're planning to get married in either late August or early September and haven't picked a spot yet (my money's on "somewhere outside" - they'd like to do it at the cabin, but both have elderly relatives that would have a hard time accessing it, plus you kind of need a 4WD vehicle to get there).

So now I have two weddings to look forward to - Toph and Amber's this fall, and my sister's someday (she still refuses to even think about planning, and she has her reasons that I understand). And despite my lack of enthusiasm about going back to my dark basement cube, it's kind of nice to get back into a routine again. I just have to go to the gym at 3 PM every day in January until it quiets back down again, because lord, by 4 yesterday it was packed, and I'm sure the same at lunchtime (I went at 2:45).

Oh! the other thing that I have to look forward to is a trip to CA this weekend! I got an email from travelocity a few weeks ago advertising nonstop roundtrip to SF for $130 each (including taxes), which is unheard of pricing. So we're leaving Thursday afternoon and coming back Monday morning. We're going to spend some time with my mom and QIR and the Irish German and who knows what else? So stay tuned for more Bay Area stories.