Is Married life different?

Hello readers. Just waiting for ladies figure skating short program (not kitty's favorite - he likes men's ice skating the best. He was cheering for Plushenko and was very cranky that a) we had to go to bed before Plushenko performed - why are the olympics on so late? and b) he was even crankier that Plushenko got the silver (Oscar is a Russian blue and still has loyalties to his mother country). We had a discussion the next morning about this - I told Oscar that Lysececk stayed true to fundamentals - nothing flashy like the quad. Kitty got really upset about this and he believes that daring and chances should be rewarded. No talking to him when he is like that. He then proceeded to chase his tail to show his example of the quad. not really impressive at all.

Anyway, married life. I must say that since Tim and I have been together for so long, and living together for a majority of our relationship, that married life really doesn't feel that different. while the photo suggests one thing - I must say, no babies (this is an old photo of us with our niece and nephew twin babies Nicolas and Charlotte - we're in love with them!) I feel a bit more protective - when Tim leaves the house I get a bit more worried about him. Maybe that's just me. And it's fun to look over and see his ring on his hand. But it didn't hit me until I was walking home tonight - and I thought that someday I might be a widow. It hit so hard (and I've only felt this way once before - the day that I realized that Oscar would someday die) that I felt my heart stop. So I wrote a Gogyohka about it:

Looking through the rain
I saw myself a widow
and my heart stopped.
I ran home
to feel his heartbeat.

Great thoughts, right? ugh. Some days, I wonder about my self. Anyway, loving life right now.

And, I realized that I haven't uploaded photos of the brunch. So, here you go.

So, this little bride decoration came from my office bridal shower. I placed her in my small tree - it's a weeping willow. I think she looks lovely there!















Here is the front of the apartment. We had flower garlands, paper flowers, paper bells, and this nifty Empire State Building ornament hanging from our chandelier. Many of these decorations will be on our Christmas Tree this year! Yay Christmas!

Here is a photo of the dining room. Our apartment is so little that it's really hard to get grand photos of it. This room was decorated more for Valentines Day. Lots of reds, pinks, purples, and hearts! And of course, paper flowers. It really did look pretty, this doesn't express it... Below you'll see the flowers - I made sleeves for the the vases (which were old sauerkraut jars!) Lots of carnations =good smells and lots of surface area. And they last - they are still on the dining room table. I make sure to stick my face in them ever chance that I get. I do the same thing to Oscar's belly and Tim's beard and chest... I heart them! More later!

Yeah, I forgot to take the butter dish off the table. That's my gift to you readers. Butter.

First week of wedded life.

Hello darling readers! Thanks for being patient. This week I hoped would be a recuperative week. It wasn't. Now I see the reason for honeymoons. Oh well. We'll do that later. Not a long post tonight, but hopefully more later. This is just a general thanks for all the wonderful well wishes that everyone has sent along. We are sending out announcements this weekend and will probably start the thank you cards next week. Or Sunday, who knows.

This is such a great picture of my men. One of which is quite jealous of the laptop and has just planted his warm purring gray-ness on my hands. It is quite difficult to type. I guess this is payback for tying a blue bow around the neck. But there we are! The Brooklyn Geaghan Family!


We were interviewed by the New York Daily News tonight. Not sure when the story will run, but I'll surly let you all know. Here is one of the pictures that appeared in the Daily News last Saturday:
Tomorrow I'll post some images of what the apartment looked like for brunch. But for now, it's time to spend more time with the men.

Just a few teaser photos of the day!

Good morning readers -

I'm going to post just a few photos - my friend Megan (who is getting married in the late spring) sent some photos last night! Thanks Megan and enjoy readers - I haven't had any coffee yet, so the commentary on the photos should be fun. Let's see:

The photo to the left was taken after the ceremony. I think, along with the official photographer, our family and friends taking photos, that there were quite a few tourists taking photos as well. This may be where I held the impromptu press conference.








Below, in no particular order are photos at the ESB as well as at the New York Public Library and in the subway. I love the subway photos! Thanks again Megan!

Time to change the blog name.

Hello my patient readers! Well, we are the Geaghan family. I sadly have no pictures of the actual event, as my camera was in a bag all day. But fear not, lots of you and other family members - not to mention the ESB people and the Knot people were total papparazzi. Not to mention lots of tourists in NYC. Once I get some of the photos from my friends, I'll post those pictures.

But an update on the day. First, here is a clip of what was playing in taxi cabs in NYC: olivia-tim-wed-taxi-news.mov I think this will work. Our beautiful friends Sam and Lynn sent this to us - Lynn is such a tech savvy lady - she asked the taxi cab driver to restart the fare counter? (I don't know - I've taken exactly one taxi in my life and that was with a cat on my lap). I guess this is the screen in the cab that entertains you while the cab driver maneuvers around the city. She saw this clip of me and the the other brides and pulled out her flip camera and shot the video for us!! She is great! Yay Lynn!

Saturday was really fun. Woke up at 6 - I think I posted a small write up about my lovely man in the morning (jipes, he's my husband now!!) and started to decorate the apartment for the Sunday brunch party. Only got panicky when the three train didn't come and I cursed myself for not checking the train schedule. But fear not dear readers, I made it to the ESB on time for hair, make up and bouquet/boutonniere stuff. Oodles of fun - once I get a photo of the bouquet, I'll post it. But let me describe it - first the flowers were beautiful. Lots of pinks and purples, and deep reds, and fuscias and stuff! There were hydrangeas - a purply/red color with blue centers. And I got them all!!! So, needless to say the bouquet was huge - oh, did I tell you the theme was birds and feathers??? EEEE! So, there were pink feathers coming out of my bouquet and about 10 birds sitting on top. The bird from Tim's boutonniere is in the top photo (Tim's boutonniere had a big pink aster and a pink feather with that bird!). They wrapped a navy blue ribbon with pink polka dots around the stems. It was beautiful. The ladies that helped with the bouquet were super nice and loved that they could use the hydrangeas in a bouquet! Hurrah! Happiness!

Hair and make up. I don't wear make up and I have thick curly hair. I just wanted an updo that was similar to the one in our contest entry photo. I described this to the stylist and for some reason he proceeded to blow my hair out straight. Oh well. But he had a little too much fun with my hair because it took him over 45 minutes to style it - so long in fact, that I was late to the wedding! The make up artist ended up working on my face (and applying fake eyelashes - the first time I've ever had fake eyelashes in my life - not counting the ones I drew on my face when I was Raggedy Ann in a dance recital). I looked up an suddenly there were several people with clip boards tapping their toes waiting for me - yeah, it's 2:00 and I'm supposed to be at the ceremony. Oops.

I'm leaving a lot out of this post - it's really long already - but the next 5 minutes of getting dressed, siging my marriage license with my upper body completely exposed (yeah, fun to talk to the officiant with bewbs hanging out...) and a few more photos before I actually walked out to get married and finally I see my dad. I do have to say that I didn't see what I looked like at all until we got to dinner - there was a mirror there. For a brief moment I thought my dad was crying because I looked terrifying. But it was because he was happy! And Tim didn't run from the marriage platform when I walked in so, I guess I looked nice.

I could tell you about the ceremony - but I'm hoping to get a copy of it to post here - if anyone wants to see it... I would love to see it. But it was beautiful. Our families were so happy - I'm just sad that it went by so fast. That's the sad part. I wish I could remember every detail, but I've got lots of the highlights.

After the wedding, we walked around the observation deck, took more pictures, were filmed by lots of tourists, held an impromptu press conference, and then walked to the NYPL at 5th and 42nd street to take pictures. We weren't allowed to take pictures inside, but lots outside with Patience and Fortitude.
Overall, it was a really lovely day. We took everyone on the subway to get to dinner - my dress was super poofy in the tiny subway seat. Oh - we also took a picture in front of the Pacific Branch of the Brooklyn Public Library! Ate dinner, went to Union Hall bar got exhausted and came home to kitty.

Tim was super sweet when we got home - this included him pulling the million bobby pins out of my head and unbuttoning the millions of buttons on my dress. He's such a sport.

I leave you with a photo of my shoes. They were a hit! I'll update you when we get photos of the event. In the meantime, I'll be thinking of a new title for the blog - perhaps, domestic bliss?

New Morning!

Good morning readers!

I started my day yesterday walking in snowy Brooklyn with my husband-to-be. I was singing Bob Dylan's song New Morning. I like to sing to Tim in the morning. He is so grumpy. It's wonderful. In case you haven't had the pleasure of seeing Tim in the morning, here he is. I don't get to spend a lot of mornings with him because I leave for work before he gets out of bed. But I can capture all his morningness on the weekends.

Also, I wanted to introduce you all to my dandy of honor. He was going to do a fun post, but he is a lazy dandy. This is John, best friend. He has been in our life since 1998. We've known him for a long time. Originally, we wanted him to get ordained to marry us, but since the Knot and the empire state building provided an officiant, we had to give johnny the title of wedding czar/dandy of honor. We practiced his duties last night - ie - handing me Tim's ring and not peeing himself. It was awesome.

As for Tim's best man - it's dave... sadly, I don't have time to upload any photos of him -boo me. But he's super handsome, covered in tattoos, and we've known him for all of our relationship - Dave and Tim were college roommates, and I was briefly Dave's roommate in the House that Jack Built! Yay Dave!

Ok. Time to decorate the apartment! Will post some photos the wedding (eeks, hours away!) and apartment later!

What a day!

Hello all my lovely readers! Well, I've finally made it home for the night. We've been going like mad since 8 this morning. Tons of photos, tons of fun, and now we're exhausted.

But, before I go to bed tonight, I just had to update all the wonderful people that read the blog. First, some of the long promised shower photos. My colleague Leslie uploaded the photos for me and sent them today. You can take a look at the full slide show by clicking on the picture.

Sorry about the weird

break in text. I had to copy and paste this photo. Anyway, awesome shower. More than I ever expected!!!

Next, today was a crazy day. I can't tell you about all of it - a) because I want you all to be surprised tomorrow (especially if you are coming to the ceremony) and b) I need to go to bed. But some highlights - I got to twirl around in my dress in the Empire State Building! This was so much fun - and bonus - I didn't have to drag my dress around - it didn't get dirty. The red shoes were a total hit - who knew I was kind of fashion-y? And finally, Tim looked awesome in his tux and we had a great time today.
When we got home, I arranged all of the flowers - which is to say, about 100 carnations. Super cheap and really full, and we made these cool sleeves to go over
rick's pickles jars. Tim's mom Linda (or, Linder, as I know her) gives me these lovely note cards every year. One year she gave me a box of kisses - which is to say, lots of couples in love in black and white photo note cards. We put a bunch together with tape to form this boxy sleeve and slipped them over the jars to make lovely "vases". They're fantastic if I do say so myself.

Ok. That really is all tonight. My eyes keep shutting involuntarily. Sorry dear readers. There will be more tomorrow. I promise.

Last night of being morales!

Big Letters, on the marqee, US!

Oh no! I meant to post this yesterday!! Got so busy - we revised a draft of the ceremony and then I fell asleep with kitty!!! More tonight!

Good morning readers! I've been given a gift today - a snow day. Most people would be grumpy about the snow that is falling and piling up on everything, but I'm so happy right now. First, I'm happy because Tim and I can get oodles of things done today, like get food for our brunch, pick up champagne, I can pick up my newly dyed shoes early (update - here are my shoes! - and I worried about the dress being a death trap!). And the library is closed today so I don't have to work! And that means we can tidy up the apartment and maybe start hanging decorations! Yay! I think I'll wear my festive crown!

I'm going to share a few more Valentines Day memories - these are more recent ones, since last post was about old Valentines Day stories. First, this lovely blizzard reminds me of our first Valentines Day in New York City. John and I had spent the previous Valentines Day here (2005) because I was looking at library schools. I had a terrible sinus infection so we went to Planet Thai and got some tasty Tom Yum Guy soup and then watched the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show together (and on the plane back to California). More about WKC later!

Anyway, back to VDay 2006. Tim had just moved to Brooklyn the first week of February 2006. He left California and 60 degree weather to come to Brooklyn and 40-45 degree weather. I found a Valentines Day midnight showing of Annie Hall and thought that would be really fun to go to! So we went, I think I fell asleep somewhere in the middle, but woke up for the end (I have a really hard time staying awake past midnight). Anyway, when we entered the movie theater, it was cold with a chance of snow. When we left, it was blizzard conditions. We couldn't find our way back to the subway. I remember laughing as Timmy grumbled "I left California for this??!! But eventually, he found our situation amusing and we eventually found the subway and got home and snuggled down in cozy jammies.

Still remember my mention of the WKC? Wondering about the title of this post? Can you name the awesome movie that it comes from? Well, let me tell you about it. I've been a bit obsessed with dog shows since I was a little kid. I watched dog shows like some little girls watch beauty pageants. When Johnny and I visited NYC and I found out that the Westminster Kennel Club dog show was hosted here, I just about lost it. While we didn't go to WKC dog show our first Valentines Day here, we've gone from 2007-2009. Three spectacular shows! We cannot have a dog in our apartment - sadly. But that's ok. I'm pretty sure that Oscar is a one animal kind of animal. He's lived with other cats before (and picked up some horrible habits from them - Leonore, I'm looking at you here!) and his first mom, after his birth mother, was a big golden retriever.

For our first WKC, we decided to go on Best in Show night. We had so much fun! And we dressed up and went to a fancy dinner! First of all, the day starts at 8am. We didn't show up until much later. When we did, we watched a few of the best in breed competitions, but soon discovered that we could walk around the 'benching' area. This means that we get to mingle with the dogs!!! It's so much fun to be surrounded by beautiful friendly dogs. And there were so many!!! I don't know how many we pet and played with that day but we were absolutely hooked.

For the past two years, we've gone on different days, to see the different groups. We've fallen in love with different breeds and have selected several for when we can finally have a dog. Tim's hands down favorite is the Chocolate Newfoundland. They are so friendly and fluffy and beasts of an animal- kind of like Tim. I think it was the second year (aught 8) that the scale might have been tipped when he fell in love with a beautiful little giant schnauzer. She kept putting her head on Tim's leg. I could see his heart beating through his shirt...it was adorable!

I love all dogs, but I've got four or five favorites. The beautiful little gentleman's dog - the French Bulldog, if my dog of choice, if the day ever comes. I had never seen one before I moved to New York. I instantly embarrassed myself the first time I ever saw one. I generally embarrass myself around dogs...except when I'm yelling at someone because I know they are using the dog for dog fights like that jerk in my neighborhood... moving on. We have a frenchie in the neighborhood - and I dog sat him a few months ago!! He was awesome!! His name is Tsunami. I love him. Next, I would love to have either a shiba inu or a Bouvier des Flanders! Great personalities and totally different. I do have a soft spot for corgies and newfies as well. No matter what though, I'm sure we'll end up at the local ASPCA and get a beautiful little mutt that needs a home.

During the dog show breaks, we would visit one of our favorite NYC restaurants Frankies. If you live in the NYC area - you should definitely go there. I've mentioned them before in the blogs I think. Anyway, they have an awesome little frenchie named Spuntino!! If you look at Frankies crest, you'll see the noble head of the French Bulldog. Oh wait! Spuntino is in the picture. Have you spotted him yet??!!

Ok. Time to make more flowers. Oh, and by the way, the quote that is in the title of this blog is from the movie Best In Show. One of our favorites!!

Valentines Day memories

Hello readers. I've missed you for the last few days. But I'm back tonight for a lot of fun news. First, I had a fantastic bridal shower today. But I'll write about that once I get the photos. It was great and adorable. The photo below is of one of the decorations now perched on my desk.

The last time I posted, I had just tried on my dress! Hooray! Jipes. It's been a while - I worked on Saturday and cleaned, made sour cream, and watched the Super Bowl on Sunday. Sadly, the midwestern team lost. But what can you do.

So, here I am again today. I thought, that since Valentines Day is next Sunday, I would share a few memories with you. When I was looking for photos of me and Tim, I found this pink Irregular Choice shoe box full of tokens from the last 12 birthdays, Valentines Days, just becauses and for some reason, the sash and neckerchief that I wore for the Bull run in Pamplona.

This box contains the first poem that Tim ever wrote for me. It also has the card that came along with the roses he first got for me. And the actual roses that he gave to me for our second Valentines day. There is also something that once was a rose - but taken out of the wrapper, was actually a pair of undies. Classy - this was a hilarious spontaneous gift from a gas station - Grumpy's maybe on Rte 213? I can't remember that. I just remember saying "Oh, this is so nice" as Tim was dancing around a bit giggling. Then he said "open it!" I did. It was cheap red undies. We laughed and laughed, and laughed some more. I found this great article today on what not to get your valentine. I'm just thinking that if you get some of these gifts for your valentine, make sure they have a sense of humor. To enjoy this slideshow, click on the bear. Tim once got me a bear. It was red with devil horns. It was called the sweet talkin' devil bear. It said several things, in a very gravelly voice, and I think my favorite saying was "the devil made me do it!". It was a great bear. I think my parents have it at their house. He also got me a red bathrobe. What a great guy. Maybe somewhere in the back of my head, I was thinking about our first Valentines Day, and that is why I decided to get my shoes dyed red! Who knows.

What else is there. Oh, well, if you know me, you know that I have a bit of an unhealthy (according to some people) obsession with the Harry Potter books. I love those books so much that when Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince came out, I had the book sent to Tim's parents house in Ohio (originally, it was going to be sent to our house in California since I pre-ordered months previous). We were supposed to be celebrating Tim's grandmother Mimi's 80th birthday. After the family photos were taken and we returned to their house, there was the smiling Amazon.com box waiting for me. The family barely saw me for the next two days. I don't remember talking to anyone after it came. And when we were waiting for our plane to take us back to California, I spotted another member of the fellowship of magic - a brief nod passed between us. He was on the same flight as us, a few seats in front of me. I was almost finished with the book, he was maybe half way through. I gasped very loudly at one of the most tragic moments in the series, and this gentlemen swung his head around an looked at me grimacing! I don't think I ruined anything for him... you know, I'm really getting away from the point here. I love Harry Potter and Tim loves me, so one year he got one of those little boxes of Valentines that school kids give to each other. 30 little cards all written on, with little sayings like "With all that Hair, it's hard to know, how she sees so much". It was a great gift.

There is probably a lot more that I'm forgetting, but will maybe get back to later. But for now, these are just a few thoughts. Tim does have a similar box - but it's a folder in our filing cabinet labeled "sentimental nonsense" or something along those lines.

More tomorrow. We are getting close readers!!

So this is quite real!

A bright and early good morning to you readers! This will be a rather quick post. Was going to write this up last night, but I was lazy, full of food, and totally sucked into the Office and 30 Rock. I love Liz Lemon. And Jack Donaghy taught some valuable lessons as well, as usual. Busily making paper flowers for decorations - as my husband-to-be displays the first one that I made. This one is a bit big. I've improved and made lots of little ones...

So, what is quite real you may ask? Well, I suppose I've just realized that I am, in fact getting married next Saturday. I love that we've had just a little over a month to get used to the idea of a wedding. But the full reality of a wedding hasn't really hit yet, and I suppose that is why people take a long time to plan a wedding. You get used to the idea that there is going to be a celebration. Like 9 months of pregnancy (or 10 since full human gestation is 40 weeks, or should be according to science, not each ladies individual body or lifestyle) - you get used to the idea that you are going to have a child in your life. Or people that prepare for having a new cat or dog. They get the litter box or leash, water and food dishes. Maybe a bed. They have time to prep for it. (Note: I didn't have anything ready when Oscar came into my life). Maybe that's a sign, that this is just the way my life goes. Things pop in and they just seem to fit.

And I'm not talking about the marriage here. I was asked last night about whether or not I was ready to leave single life behind. I am one of those people who is happy to leave the single life. If I were single, I would be a worse workaholic than I already am. And would probably just come home to kitty and he and I would watch his favorite movies. Kind of like we do when Tim is away on his trips. Yeah, I guess you could say, I don't even have a traditional single life in mind. Thank goodness for Tim or I would be a spinster minus the spinning. Unless we can call spinning the looking up at the sky and twirling around in circles that I like to do when I'm in a field...

So, marriage - yay - have been ready for that for a while. But the idea of a wedding, well, it really just caught up to me last night when I saw my dress. I don't especially fancy myself very girly. I mean, I like frilly sparkly things, but only to look at. I just started to wear eyeliner, but it is aquamarine in color. I don't wear make up, I barely do my nails, I get my eyebrows waxed, but out of necessity - no woman really wants to have two furry caterpillars taking residence on their forehead. So needless to say, when I saw my dress, my insides went "SQEEEEEEE"!!!!!!!

The dress is beautiful. It's sparkly and flouncy and flowery. And heavy. It stands up by itself. When I reluctantly took it off, I stepped out of it. And there was my dress, sitting up right on the bathroom floor (it was clean, don't worry). Kind of like the wedding version of R2D2. My accomplice in this wedding. The poor seamstress will have to take quite a bit up and quite a bit in. But, I think the funniest thing about the dress (other than the length as you'll see in the picture) is that there are mega fake boobies sewn into the bodice. I couldn't even feel my body through the bodice. I'll just have to be content with being chesty la rue for the day. And there is elastic that wraps around the ribcage from the inside of the dress. Who knew so much went into a wedding dress. I remember wearing the big fancy dresses for the Renaissance dinners - one dress weighed around 30 pounds. And I had to do jumps and turns and was lifted. All these things are complicated. Now add the wassail. How I danced with a 30 lb dress and I can't count how many glasses of delicious golden wassail...

So, this should be easy. All I have to do is walk. And talk. And not fall! More tonight I'm sure.
Look around you. Have you spotted it yet? That's right. Loft space. No, just kidding. The shortest dress is my dress. No death trap for me!

Help us build the House that Jack Built!

Hello wonderful readers! I'm blogging watching and listening to a program on PBS called Digital_Nation. It is talking about multi-tasking, using several technologies (cell phones, lap tops, ipods, tvs, etc) and how it really is not making us any smarter. It's all a bit overwhelming.

Anyway, I'm doing something much easier. I am talking to you all a little bit about the story of Tim and Olivia. Many of you have emailed me or talked to me about some of the photos I've been posting. They span the relationship - the whole 12+ years of our relationship. The photo that I post tonight may be one of my favorites. This was taken in May 1998, the summer that Tim and I lived in Ship Bottom on Long Beach Island, New Jersey. We had been together for several months and Tim's roommate Dave invited us to live with him and his then girlfriend. We would rent the first floor of a house from May to August. This was great! We kind of told our parents what we were doing - I had only met Tim's parents one time, and I can't remember if he had ever met my parents yet. They were all kind of shocked when we told them - or I suppose in Tim's case, discovered what our plans for the summer were. A two bedroom apartment for 4 people - both couples. HEHEHE! The house we lived in was called The House that Jack Built. We loved this little home and had one of the best summers of our life!

Tim and I both worked two jobs. I worked at a bagel shop called Bagel Eddies from 5am to about 1pm. I loved working at the bagel shop. The owner, Eddie Costello, a retired New York City police officer with wrinkly tattooed arms, lovely white hair, and a great New York Italian accent. This was the summer that Frank Sinatra died, and from every shop and every car, you could hear ol' blue eyes' music wafting lazily into the summer streets. Every morning when we finished making the varieties of cream cheeses, set out the pastries, and finished boiling and baking the bagels, at 5:50am, 10 minutes before the bagel shop opened, Eddie, me, Eddie's wife, and a few other workers would walk out to the tiny patio with picnic tables, put our coffee down, look at the ocean, breath in the ocean air, and turn up the Frank Sinatra and dance around for the last few moments before our customers came in for their morning bagel and schmear.

After the bagel shop I would go home, sleep for about an hour and head out to my second job around 3 in the afternoon. I was a server at a tiny seafood restaurant called Seven C's. I worked there until about 10 at night.

Tim worked at Mr. Movie, a video (we're talking VHS here!) rental store/car parts store. He watched movies and carved Tim is GOD into the counter. And brought home some quality movies like Hardbodies and Attack of the Killer Tomatoes . During the evening, he worked at the Gateway Restaurant as a runner. His boss, John Griffo, a big Italian chef, threw him in the dumpster one night.

For the most part, we worked 6 days a week. We were lucky enough to have the one day off a week and even luckier to have that same day off together. It usually started by either doing laundry or going grocery shopping and then heading to the beach and then out to a fancy pants dinner. We discovered food on Long Beach Island. A new restaurant every Tuesday night. We would dress up and walk to the restaurant. We ate several course meals and would walk home on the beach, beside the ocean. Always holding our shoes and socks (well, Tim wore socks).

The summer ended, and we went back to college. We took so much back with us - we discovered so much about ourselves and about each other. Food, cheesy movies, cooking, and how to live with each other. We also learned that we could work ourselves to the bone and still have enough energy to make time for each other. And we learned that we really didn't need too much to live. Food and happiness was enough for us.

We went back to Long Beach Island for our 10th Anniversary. Happily, not much had changed since our time there. We went to an old restaurant (the last one we went to together in the summer of 1998) called La Spiaggia. We thought it was so awesome the first time we went there. It wasn't so awesome after 10 years of discovering restaurants in Los Angeles and New York. But, it was fun to remember that we had brought a bottle of wine to the restaurant even though we were 19 and 20! We thought we were pretty awesome! We also discovered a great new restaurant called Blue. Delicious. I had a pumpernickel fried oyster for an appetizer. I've never had anything like it.

Ok. It's time to leave memory lane and remind you all (as Tim has just reminded me, this post looks a little long) how you can help us build our very own house that Jack built. Let's call it, the House that Tim and Olivia Built with the help of those who love them - their family and friends. I'm not very good at asking for things nor am I good at receiving gifts. But this would be something so special to us, that I have to try right?

I've set up a pay pal account in case you do not feel like writing a check or putting cold hard cash in a card. See, this just feels weird to ask for or expect gifts! Anyway, here is what you do if you would like to gift us this way. Go to PayPal . Click on send money. Type in my email address positivgal@gmail.com. Type in your email address. Type in the amount of money that you would like to contribute to the House that Tim and Olivia Built. Click personal and then click (or mark the circle next to Gift. Then click continue. It looks like you have to have a paypal account already to do this. So, if you've ever purchased anything from ebay, you probably have a paypal account. Once you've logged in, you can type in the subject, you can choose and if you wish to send a message, you can do that as well. It will be like your virtual ecard to your virtual, but very much appreciated gift. If you have any problems, you can always email me or Tim.

And finally, on a silly note, I'm going to leave you with this very appropriate photo from icanhascheezburger.com - appropriate if you read my post from January 31. Happy February everyone!!