Then and now

Yesterday was our nine year "dating" anniversary and tomorrow is our -1 wedding anniversary ... you know, a year to go until the wedding! When we finally get married June 28, 2008, we'll have been together for 10 years. We've been trying to come up with ways to tie the whole 10 year/decade thing into the wedding, but maybe the fact that our wedding is taking place almost 10 years from our first date in 1998 is enough. I'm open to ideas.

We're celebrating with our annual camping trip on the St. Croix River with friends. I also got T a few 99-cent ties from Savers during my trip to collect more "shabby chic" dessert plates for the reception.

A quick note about my dress: it finally arrived and I tried it on yesterday at the bridal shop. I hated it. Luckily, I can start over and use the money I put down on that dress toward another at the same shop. I have an appointment Monday.

Here's the dress I WON'T be wearing.

I'm blogging ... just not here

Head over to www.startribune.com and read what I have to say on Ka-Blog. I'll be there all week, so come say hi.

By the way, the dress has arrived. More on that later!

Quick update

Wow, it's been an entire month since I've posted here. Oops. But I did warn you, all four of my loyal readers, that when the weather gets nice it's hard to keep me at the computer. I haven't accomplished a thing wedding-related. I returned the bamboo plates that arrived. They were too small and they weren't re-usable like I thought they would be. It's cheaper to rent white china plates, so we'll go ahead and do that.

I've been home sick for the past few days. Not sure if it was some kind of flu or what. All I know is that I was bored. So bored that I watched "The Devil Wears Prada" on DVD last night right after I watched "Mean Girls" on TV.

We've also been busy with house guests, having fun and working hard to get the house in order for an appraisal. New door, new paint, a wipe here and a wash there. The house is looking lovely. Last week we had to call Roto Rooter to deal with our clogged toilet. If you haven't experienced that, I highly recommend it for personal growth.

I did call the bridal shop to ask about my dress earlier this week. The woman on the phone said, "Hmm. I'm guessing it will be here by the end of June." Glad I'm taking care of the dress right away. Who knew it would take four months to get it ordered! Everything else (bridesmaid dresses, decor, colors, etc.) is pending on the dress -- I won't be 100 percent convinced on the dress until I have it on in my size.

Also a head's up that I'll be filling in for Star Tribune columnist Kara McGuire on her personal finance blog, "Ka-blog." I'll be writing about money-related wedding issues. Boy, do I have a list. Any suggestions? When I write, I'll let you know. And I'll try to post more frequently.