Love in Cabo - the wedding

You don't need a lot of narrative, the pictures say it all!  (But since you know it's impossible for me to sit quietly, I'll insert some short-but-sweet explanations or comments where necessary!)

Coffee on our terrace.

Poolside...

A little niche 1/2 way between our room and the pool - J waited 2 days to take a picture of me in this spot!

Didn't he look great in that shirt and pants combo?!

I was so worried about being the "only one" in a short dress - 1/2 the guests were in short dresses and it was so darn hot, I'm THRILLED I was in a short dress!

The parents of the groom...

Here comes the bride!

Showing off their bling!  (The minister's words, not mine!)

They chose to do a sand ceremony, where they alternated two different colors of sand into a single vase, and the minister made reference to their lives being intertwined and inseparable:  "As the grains of sand cannot be separated, neither can your lives."

The happy couple...  Oh, I meant to put this caption near the bride and groom!  (LOL!)

They had couches and pillows and ottomans set up on the sand for the cocktail hour.

Their first dance as Mr. and Mrs.

Beautiful centerpiece.  Every other table had this centerpiece, or the other was a ball of hot pink flowers.

The place settings...

There were fire pits all around the reception area...

The bride cuts the cake, the bride cuts the cake!!!

We went to bed around 10:30/11:00.  The party went on until about 1:30am, apparently, but we needed a relatively early night.  Immediately after the wedding ceremony, J almost passed out from the sun and heat.  All he had to eat all day was 1/2 of an apple and 1/2 of a pear, a 1/2 slice of pizza, and some water.  Not much.  Some.  The resort was there with cool cloths and Gatorade almost immediately when they saw him sitting down, holding his head.

If only I'd thought to take a photo...  Yes, to hold over him every time he does something that dumb in the future...  Which we all know he will...

;-D

Love in Cabo - the pool and rehearsal dinner

We ran out to the pool as soon as we got our luggage, which really only took a few moments.  Although J wanted to get out and about so we didn't wait - he had to take a picture of me on the premises in my yoga pants/travel outfit...  not the most flattering clothes I own but comfortable for 6 hours on a plane...

We got our luggage and immediate went to claim some poolside lounges.  There are several pools on the property:  a few adult-only pools for those rich old fogies who prefer cigars, peace and quiet, and no kids.  Us?  Not so much.  We went right to the main pool where our group was hanging out and staked a claim on two spots.  J started to turn one of the lounges to face the sun and Ernesto ran over and told him not to move the chairs, that he was there to do that.  Of course J said, "No, that's okay" and Ernesto almost had a stroke making sure J didn't exert himself in any way...  "NO, Sr. Salvetta, I will relocate the lounge for you!"

We settled in, slathered ourselves in either dry oil #4 or a combination of that and SPF 15, SPF 30, and SPF 50 (for my face) and my clear zinc oxide.  They brought over a bucket of ice with water and spray Evian cans to mist ourselves if we became too warm...

I have vowed to never take a bathing suit photo with my sister-in-law and/or my niece.  You think TV adds 10 pounds?!?!?!?!?!?

At around 3:30 we went back to the room to shower and get ready for the reahearsal dinner.  It was being held on the beach at The Office, a restaurant P and B found the last time they went to Cabo.  Here are some photos from that evening's dinner...  The waiters were AWESOME!  They not only provided a high chair for the baby, but when they saw she was sleeping in her mom's arms, they put two chairs together, brought over 6 Mexican blankets, and made a little crib for her so she could rest until she woke up for dinner.  Look how cute she looks sleeping in it...

I need to learn how to pose - 9 times out of 10 I stand in THE most unflattering position...  Trust me when I say I truly didn't look that heavy in this new dress...

My sister-in-law on the left, mother of the groom, and mother of the bride on the right...

The table at the rehearsal dinner, on the sand, with torches all around us, too...

This was the "crib" the waiters created for E...

Here's a photo of the bride and groom - we love you, R!!   (And G, too!)

That was one GIANT mojito!

J and G (the groom) - they may not look alike, but personality-wise, they are SO much alike!

The baby and her mom - she was in a GREAT mood when she woke up from her power nap!  To be honest, she was an angel that whole trip - not a peep out of her on the plane, not on any of them, not in the airports when we were delayed, not during our layover, she's the BEST!

I'll do another post of wedding pictures...

Love in Cabo - upon arrival

On Thursday April 28 Friday April 29th we left for Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, to attend the wedding of our nephew.  They decided on a destination wedding.  I've never attended a destination wedding before but let me say here, I would SO do it again!  We stayed at Las Ventanas al Paraíso. 

We are a Motel 6 sort of traveler.  As long as the sheets are clean, along with the shower, and there are no critters with more than 2 legs sharing my space, I'm okay with the room.  A comfortable bed is negotiable, since we're usually there en route to somewhere else.  This resort, though, is beyond anything I've ever experienced in my life.  You're greeted on the open air reception patio with a shot of margarita, and then you're escorted to your suite.  We paide $575 per night, plus 25% tax.  This is so beyond anything we've ever spent before, and that was the wedding rate!!!  But as God is my witness, I'd spend it again!  The gentleman greeted us by name (we'd never introduced ourselves!) then took us to the room.  Here are some room photos:

Every single employee referred to us by name.  My sister-in-law is convinced we're videotaped upon arrival and when we confirm our identities, the employees then view the video so they know who's who.  How else can you explain that Ernesto at the pool called me Sra. Salvetta when I walked out there to sit in the sun and tan burn for the wedding???  How else can the gardener call me by name?  Not the two cleaning fairies butlers assigned to my suite; they know who's staying where, of course...

The next post will be photos from the pool, then the rehearsal dinner.  Then I'll post wedding photos, and finally pictures from our Sunday departure breakfast.

For the record, more than a few of us were overheard saying we could get used to this kind of treatment:  the white glove service, the coffee service on the patio first thing in the morning, the iced water bottles next to the pool, along with iced spray cans of Evian for when we sweat perspire...  Oh, I also have to tell you that our flight down on Thursday was cancelled due to weather.  THE HOTEL DID NOT CHARGE US FOR THE ROOM.  You're talking about 23 people who didn't make it to the hotel in time for the welcome dinner on the first night.  23 people paying, MINIMUM, $800 dollars per night.  Do the math!  And the welcome dinner?  They didn't charge my nephew for the peopl who didn't attend EVEN THOUGH FOOD WAS PREPARED FOR US AND THE AREA WAS SET UP FOR US.

THAT, my web-friends, is customer service.  I would HIGHLY recommend Las Ventana - click on the link above and take an advance look, if you'd like, but I'll be posting my photos tomorrow (or later tonight if we get home early enough)...

My Boyfriend Does My Makeup

Dooce thinks O should have his own show - I agree. They are so cute!

An amazing 3 minutes 46 seconds

I'm a fan of Dooce - she seems to find some of the most amazing music, a lot of which while it isn't my "style," is worthy of a few minutes of my time...

THIS?  This was definitely worth it - not only music from Yo Yo Ma, but dance by Lil Buck.

Have to admit, "Lil Buck" is not what I would have expected.  But I'm still picking my jaw up off the floor.

Yo Yo Ma and Lil Buck

Thank goodness it's over!!!

For the past two weeks I've been planning a surprise party for my husband - it was his 60th birthday and I thought that deserved something a little special...  To make it that much better, too, his friends D and A came down from Massachusetts for the party!  He teared up when he saw them.  I'm so grateful they took the time to come down for the party; the only thing that would have made it better is if we could have spent more time with them...

J and I talk about EVERTHING and for the last two weeks, since I last-minute-decided to throw this shindig, I've had to watch every word that came out of my mouth.  "Maybe I'll call T to join us for b'fast tomorrow..."  My instinct is to say, "Don't bother, he's in PA this weekend."  "How do you know?"  "He texted me to RSVP for your party."  Nope, that would have certainly spoiled the surprise...  "M called."  "Oh, where is she?"  "On Rte 3 en route to Bromilow's?"  "Why?"  "To pick up your chocolate motorcycle lollipops, the favors for your party."  Nope, probably not a great conversation starter unless I wanted to spoil the surprise... 

I HATE lying.  I know it wasn't really lying; it was just avoiding saying certain things.  Even his friend K struggled not to slip when they were talking.  D's birthday is a few days after J's - he wanted to call when we weren't home so HE wouldn't slip and he was planning on screening his calls when J called HIM so he wouldn't slip then...

That whole surprise thing is stressful.  Maybe had I started planning it earlier, I'd have been less stressed, just concerned with not slipping rather than worrying about every last minute detail...

Wish you all could have been there.  Rather than tell you all who was there, it would be easier if I just post some photos and add some captions....

Introducing... 

My handsome nephew J and my beautiful niece A... now if only he had smiled, with his eyes AND his mouth!

 My beautiful mom and J again

 My niece T and my darling daughter M

Our friends from Massachusetts, D and A

Our friends E and T - T was one of our best men at our wedding (we had 2!  Best men, not weddings!)

My sister C and her beau T - I think almost every photo I have of them is in a similar pose!

My niece C and my sister-in-law P

My great niece E and me - isn't E gorgeous?!?  She is SUCH a good baby - not a peep out of her and she was up WAY past her bedtime...

E and my daughter - how I wish the picture was clearer...

Me, J and M - nice family photo!

A and me in one of those self-portrait photos you take at arm's length...

E and her great uncle, the b'day boy himself

Courageous, the movie

Watch the trailer here:  http://www.courageousthemovie.com/

Apparently the Sherwood Ministry, from the Sherwood Church in Albany, GA, has produced several independent movies in an effort to expand their outreach, but I've only seen one:  Courageous is due in theaters September 30.  My sister got advance screening tickets from one of her sales reps and asked me to go along.  The screening was intended for local ministers and while I thought for a moment I might feel a bit out of place, the audience was a bunch of people from several walks of life, all who believe in the value of a father's place in the family.

The movie is about 5 men, 4 friends who are police officers, and one Hispanic man who's a manual laborer struggling to keep food on the table and a roof over his family's heads.  They become friends, the 5 men.  One of them suffers a tragic death in his family and struggles to come to terms with his loss.  During that struggle, he thinks about a quote by his sheriff:  that a high percentage of children without a positive father figure/role model eventually wind up doing drugs, committing crimes, walking away from their own children...

These men resolve, in a beautiful family ceremony, to be there for their children, to guide them, to teach them, to show them the way to God, to love them...

The movie follows their lives through loss, success, tragedy, and just the every day.

Sure, there were a couple of too-easy conclusions to some of the situations, but I LOVED THIS MOVIE.  I was lucky enough to have an awesome father, a tremendous mother.  I grew up confident in their love and support, knowing what was expected of me, what they hoped and prayed for me.  I have two sisters who will most likely agree that we had a pretty Leave It to Beaver/Father Knows Best sort of childhood.  We were loved, protected, guided.  I BELIEVE that not only should fathers step up, PARENTS should step up.

But the purpose of this movie was to show how important it is for a father to be there for his family.  It was an inspiring, powerful movie.  At the end we found out that the movie was created by the Sherwood Ministry.  The "stars" are not actors, the writer acted in the movie, people in church and in town donated a lot of the set props, the actors are "just people."  They did a tremendous job, and quite honestly, I'm eager to see some of the other movies they did, too.  Apparently their last movie, Fireproof, was the #1 independent movie of 2008.

Tomorrow is J's Birthday...

... so of course, in the grand tradition of our family, we extend birthdays at least one day, maybe five (of COURSE that's not a hint of any kind!)...  Here are some photos from our 1st b'day celebration...

Grand-niece E's mommy made b'day hats for Uncle J and for the baby...

The cutest thing is when he's in the room, she has eyes for no one else.  Well, it's cute, but rather annoying since I'm totally addicted to her smile and love when she looks at me!!!

Apparently since she just turned 9 months old, she can have sugarfree icebox cake with Cool Whip, but she can't have any ice cream to celebrate J's b'day...  No dairy until she's a year old.  (Because I suppose, you can be allergic until the 365th day, but on the 366th?  All clear!!!)



Keeping a Journal

Ali Edwards posted this on Facebook. I think, despite how much I love my husband, that I sort of fell for this guy...

I promised you a photo or two...

I promised you a picture of the banner J made and hung up in the doorway of our room while I was away...  I got home and there were hearts on the front door and on the inside French door, and this banner was hanging in our bedroom doorway...

And just 'cause she's too cute, I can't not post a photo of my baby grand-niece...  (Don't pay any attention to the bad grammar OR the bad photos of me - just look at how absolutely ADORABLE she is!!!)

Why Publishing is a Unique Industry...

Publishing: 'Not Like Any Other Business'


"When people say publishing is a business--actually it's not quite a business. It's part gambling and part arts and crafts, with a business component. It's not like any other business, and that's why when standard businessmen go into publishing and think, 'Right, I'm going to clean this up, rationalize it and make it work like a real business,' two years later you find they're bald because they've torn out all their hair. And then you say to them, 'It's not like selling beer. It's not like selling a case of this and a case of that and doing a campaign that works for all of the beer.' You're selling one book--not even one author any more. Those days are gone, when you sold, let's say, 'Graham Greene' almost like a brand. You're selling one book, and each copy of that book has to be bought by one reader and each reading of that book is by one unique individual. It's very specific."

--Margaret Atwood in an interview with the Globe & Mail.

I haven't read much by Margaret Atwood, but this quote will make me check her out!  It was published in Shelf Awareness on March 21st, and I had put it aside to post here, but I'm just getting around to it... 

When I first joined the publishing industry, after several years in the independent bookstore world, I learned that there were really only 300-400 people in publishing, and they all just moved around from company to company, position to position.  I clearly remember the day one of my sales reps changed companies -- I felt so much a publishing insider 'cause I could track him from one company to another!  I was working for a woman, at the time, who'd been in publishing for a few years and seemed to know everyone who was anyone, but it turns out that all it takes is a few years in the business and you, too, could "know everyone."

I've been in publishing long enough, too, to have seen how it changed from "publishing" to "a business."  Big companies swallowed up small companies.  Instead of moving up to an executive position from a lowly sales rep position, bean counters were hired from outside our industry to turn publishing into a profitable business.  That's when we lost a lot of the passion in publishing.  Back in the day, when there were a lot of small, independent bookstores, before B&N took over the world, the employees in those indies knew books.  They knew authors.  They knew their customers.  There were several employees in the small bookstore in which I worked.  We knew who to call when the new so-and-so came in 'cause that customer would be in the next day to get it.  We knew to put away all the new Harlequins 'cause Ms. XYZ would be in to pick them up, no matter the cover, no matter the author.  We knew if something would sell the minute it was pulled out of the carton, and we knew who would buy it.

Today?  Not so much.  Sure, if you ask B&N management if their store employees know books, they'll say yes.  And to a certain degree, I guess they do.  But they don't know me.  Hell, I'm in there once a week and the employees, not a one of them, would recognize me if they were about to run me over with the book cart.  They don't know who I read, they don't know who I won't read, they don't even know my first name! 

That's a business.

That's NOT publishing.

100 Titles I May or May Not Have Read...

I'm not sure where this book list came from, perhaps the BBC?  I found it on Jana Laurenes blog...  I'm going to boldface those I've read, and italicize those I've started but never finished, just like Jana did...  Thanks for the idea, Jana!

1. Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2. The Lord of the Rings - JRR tolkien
3. Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4. Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
5. To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6. The Bible - does it count if I've heard almost the entire thing in church over the past 50 years, and read so much more of it?
7. Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8. Nineteen Eighty-Four - George Orwell
9. His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10. Great Expectations – Charles Dickens
11. Little Women - Louis M. Alcott
12. Tess of the D’Urbervilles – Thomas Hardy
13. Catch 22 – Joseph Heller
14. Complete Works of Shakespeare - I've finished quite a bit but by no means have I finished the "complete" works!
15. Rebecca – Daphne du Maurier
16. The Hobbit – JRR Tolkien
17. Birdsong – Sebastian Faulk
18. Catcher in the Rye – JD Salinger
19. The Time Ttraveler’s Wife – Audrey Niffenegger
20. Middlemarch – George Eliot
21. Gone with the Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22. The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
24. War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25. The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – Douglas Adams
26. The Road – Cormac McCarthy
27. Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Fostoyevsky
28. Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29. Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30. The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31. Anna Karenina – Leo Tolstoy
32. David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33. Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34. Emma – Jane Austen
35. Persuasion – Jane Austen
36. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe - CS Lewis
37. The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38. Captain Corelli’s Mandolin – Louis de zBernieres
39. Memoirs of a Geisha – Arthur Golden
40. Winnie the Pooh – A.A. Milne
41. Animal Farm - George Orwell
42. The da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43. One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44. A Prayer for Owen Meaney – John Irving
45. The Woman in White – Wilkie Collins
46. Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47. Far from the Madding Crowd – Thomas Hardy
48. The Handmaid’s Tale – Margaret Atwood
49. Lord of the Flies – William Golding
50. Atonement – Ian McEwan
51. Life of Pi – Yann Martel
52. Dune – Frank Herbert
53. Cold Comfort Farm – Stella Gibbons
54. Sense and Sensibility – Jane Austen
55. A Suitable Boy – Vikram Seth
56. The Shadow of the Wind – Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57. A Tale of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58. Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time - Mark Haddon
60. Love in the Time of Cholera – Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61. Of Mice and Men – John Steinbeck
62. Lolita – Vladimir Nabokov
63. The Secret History – Donna Tartt
64. The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65. Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas - not sure if I ever finished it
66. On the Road – Jack Kerouac
67. Jude the Obscure – Thomas Hardy
68. Bridget Jones’s Diary – Helen Fielding - saw the whole movie, though...
69. Midnight’s Children – Salman Rushdie
70. Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71. Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72. Dracula – Bram Stoker
73. The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74. Notes from a Small Island – Bill Bryson - read other Bryson titles, but not this one
75. Ulysses – James Joyce
76. The Inferno – Dante
77. Swallows and Amazons – Arthur Ransome
78. Germinal – Emile Zola
79. Vanity Fair – William Makepeace Thackeray
80. Possession – AS Byatt
81. A Christmas Carol – Charles Dickens
82. Cloud Atlas – David Mitchell
83. The Color Purple – Alice Walker
84. The Remains of the Day – Kazuo Ishiguro
85. Madame Bovary – Gustave Flaubert
86. A Fine Balance – Rohinton Mistry
87. Charlotte’s Web – E.B. White
88. The Five People You Meet in Heaven – Mitch Albom
89. Adventures of Sherlock Holmes – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90. The Faraway Tree Collection – Enid Blyton
91. Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92. The Little Prince – Antoine de Saint-Exupery
93. The Wasp Factory – Iain Banks
94. Watership Down – Richard Adams
95. A Confederacy of Dunces – John Kennedy Toole
96. A Town Like Alice – Nevil Shute
97. The Three Musketeers – Alexandre Dumas
98. Hamlet – William Shakespeare
99. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory – Roald Dahl
100. Les Miserables – Victor Hugo

Home Sweet Home

I was SO darned happy to get home from my business trip, you have no idea!  I missed my husband, my bed, my shower...  Any my husband missed me, too.  So much so he put up a sign to welcome me home; I'll post a photo once I get it uploaded to my computer.

The trip home was tough - lots of turbulence.  It didn't make me sick, but apparently it really bothered my boss.  He commented the next day that he can handle turbulence that makes the plane rise and drop, but that side to side movement at the same time?  Not so much!

I came in on Wednesday evening.  Just in time for snow lightning and thunder and lots of icy slush on the ground.  And me in my flat work shoes and no boots.  Managed to step right into a cold puddle of slush outside the airport, and again outside the house.  COLD!

Finished the work week by working from home on Friday.  I had a doctor's appointment with a geriatric rheumatologist at 10am.  Yea, I didn't know he was a geriatric rhematologist when I made the appointment.  I was the youngest patient in there, and at 50, that's not saying much!  After a thorough review of my medical history and my symptoms, the doctor recommended a cortisone shot.  I know that J is anti-cortisone shot so when Dr. L. recommended one, I told him I wanted to call my husband first.  So I did.  And I explained that the doctor was convinced the injection would alleviate the swelling in my bursa that was, in his expert opinion, causing my hip pain.  Ultimately I decided to try the shot.

And OH.MY.GOD.  I'm walking almost normally again!  I've already made an appointment for the other hip, and if I need another shot, I'm going for it.  I haven't walked so comfortably or climbed stairs with so little pain in almost a YEAR.  I am going on the record right now:  this shot helped me.  I don't know how long this will last; the doctor thought this could conceivably "cure" the problem by reducing the inflammation.  I can't even imagine - but I'm going to give it a darn good shot.  Or two or three...

Well, have to go and update my iTouch - will be back later this week, hopefully with more photos...