Both of You Wear the Pants

You and your guy seem to have stuck the perfect power balance. It's not that you don't disagree - it's just that you've learned how to compromise well. You're both mature enough to know that you can't always get your way... And usually, you're both adult enough to reach an agreement - even if that sometimes means giving in a little.

So anyway...my very good friend told me yesterday that he was going to tinker around with some printing software in case we needed to print our invitation envelopes....since we may not have time for my sister to handwrite the addresses.  I hear him fiddling around....and out pops an envelope from the printer.  It is addressed to:

Tobiko (that's what he calls the hamster)

1 Dirty Cage

Phila, PA 19131

HAHAHAHA!  But we are in the search for a new quality printer.  We're still using the crappy one that came free with our Dell computers when we bought them like 7 years ago. hahahaha.  We don't want to spend TOO much money...but a decent printer that we can use to print our envelopes, programs, paper stuff....and possibly also photos.

Any suggestions?!!

Invitation translation....

So my very good friend's mom wants to include an insert of our invitation with chinese characters.  How do we go about doing this?  Is there someplace we can go to have it translated so that all we have to do it print it out?  We're not going to do anything fancy with it...just cut it to size and stick it in there along with everything else.

Oval tables....???? centerpieces...

Per request of Monchiki...these are some of the pics I've saved up for ideas for long oval tables.

Tall Centerpieces

I feel like single tall, round centerpieces look their best on round tables.  But if your table is on the shorter side...or if the centerpiece is big in diameter, you can get away with just one per table.  Otherwise, I like several smaller centerpieces down the table.  Even having two per table is enough...

Short centerpieces

I think with long tables, a single short centerpiece gets lost...unless it's rectangular in shape.  But having a few vases of similar hued or types of flowers on a table can look breathtaking.  Even a row of bud vases with a single flower in each looks simply elegant.  Adding candles on both sides of a single centerpiece lengthens the arrangement.

(this is my favorite one.....too bad lily of the valley isn't available in the winter....)

Candle Centerpieces

The non floral route is really pretty especially at night and in the winter.  Looks can be deceiving though since most people equate candles with cheap!  It takes quite a number of roses to provide enough petals for that lush layer.  And the price of pillar candles can add up really quickly when you have that many.

(I think this bride paid $10 for the candelabra at Walmart...then just added candlestick candles and rose petals)

(you can add fruit too!!!)

Floating flower centerpieces

This is an easy way to cut down on the cost of flowers...and it looks SOOO pretty...especially when it's uplit (well any centerpiece that's uplit will look amazing...unfortunately, that doesn't fit into our budget).  It has a very zen feel to it.

I hope that helped!

Studying hard....

Do you guys notice that the more I'm supposed to be studying, the more I blog.  Tee hee.  Anyway, I called my reception hall today to find out exactly how big our tables will be....because I've been thinking about the centerpieces based on assumptions.  I thought our tables were going to be 60 inches long....don't ask me why...that's not very long.  And i KNEW it had to seat around 14 people too..but in my mind, 60 inches made sense.  So anyway, turns out, our tables are 115 inches long HAHAHAHA...double what I assumed.  AND they have 16 seaters which are 132 inches long...but i don't think i'll need that, unless I run into seating issues and can't break up a group.

So that changes everything.  Now I am definitely going with what I wanted to do all along.  Having a floral centerpiece large enough for a table that long will cost $$$$$.  I mean, you COULD have one small one...but I think it would just disappear.  The other thing is that the tables are narrow...only 36 inches wide...so with place settings, i think it leaves less than a foot of space in the middle...and I don't want too much clutter on the tables.  So there will be no flowers on the tables (except for the LOVE table...tee hee).  There will be something though...and i guess if it really mattered to us that much, we could have done really nice, big floral centerpieces.  But we'd rather spend that money on treating our close friends to a few hours of bowling after the wedding ....that's more important to us....and/or possibly a day-after shoot (my very good friend suggested it...not me!!!!).

But thanks to Ms. Applekoo...the invites are almost finalized...and our printer is putting together the work order tomorrow.  We have discarded any ideas of gluing/cutting...so it will be fairly simple.  The gluing/cutting part sounded okay...until we started to sit down and look for glue and cutting stuff.....then we looked at each other and said, screw this.  hahahaha.  We put that money into the printing of the invite.  

So, techcnially, all my money saving, budget-bride ideas don't actually save me money....it just shifts the money towards something else. hahahahaha.

Now, my other issue is where to take pics the day of.  Because I'm having a day time wedding, i have free reign over my reception hall for a few hours before my wedding.  Normally, that would be great since the reception hall has a great garden in the spring/summer.  But, my wedding is in January...and I don't actually know what it looks like in the winter.  We can take pics anywhere indoors as well...but i think the # of backdrops is fairly limited.

My idea was to take some of the family pictures at my house in Queens, which i think is fairly nicely decorated.  Maybe some in the quiet streets of J.E. ....or I can walk over to J. for some ghetto/urban shots hahahahaha.  Then meet up with my very good friend and family at the reception hall and take the rest there (or even have him meet me at home in queens earlier). 

The other option is to rent out garden time in some of long island's garden/parks.  But I don't feel like spending money for that.  

Hmmmm....is there any place picture worthy in Queens in the winter?!

Cheaters never win.......and they screw everyone else over too...

So, I am no longer taking my NAPLEX (the national pharmacy board exam) on Sept 10 as planned...they have cancelled ALL naplex testing as of august 25.  Why?  Because there's this one professor in GA or something that gives this awesome review classes.  How awesome?  Apparently, (or so i've heard), he used to be on the national board of pharmacy...and so the material in his review classes were mysteriously somehow exactly like the exam.  I've never even heard of this guy before...or his review classes, I guess since I'm not from around there.  This guy was arrested for compromising testing integrity and now, they are re-doing the exam questions....I'm guessing increasing the difficulty. 

Do you know how freaking PISSED I am.  Basically, this affects more than just what i get to do at work...it affects my salary too.  Until I am licensed, I am only getting 1/2 my salary (this is everywhere...not just at where i work).   Luckily, I am able to live off of 1/2 my salary but still, i want it ALL.  So first, I get screwed over by the boards taking their sweet time processing my application.  When I finally get the authorization to take the test, I can't take it anymore.

The national board is very vague as to when we can start taking the exam again.   Basically, they said they have NO idea when they will reinstate the exam.  Great.  I will be a technician forever.  So, i already asked for days off for the exam...so i am going to try to schedule my state Law exam for Sept 10 instead and get that out of the way.  (The law exam isn't affected because each state gives it's own law exam since it's a combination of federal and state pharmacy law.  But the kids in GA have had their state law exam cancelled as well as the naplex).   I heard that was harder than the actually pharmacy exam anyway.  So now, I guess I will sit here...and read the law...all of it...and memorize every regulation.  Fun stuff.

But good news...I guess they like me as a technician at work since they've had me training other technicians and pharmacists in training (we all have to do tech training before we do pharmacist training).  And they asked me to be part of this ongoing project that they are doing. Yay!  Raise worthy material to put on my yearly evaluation.  Although the ultimate raise would be to get my FULL pharmacist salary...ARGH.

Gah...

The carnations are a no go.  My very good friend did not like them...he said it reminded him of a bush! Ugh...who knew he would even care.  But we did agree in the very beginning that we would agree on everything since it was OUR wedding.  Actually, the funny thing is, both of us could care less about the centerpieces.  It wasn't really a priority to us.  We just wanted it as simple as possible....because we knew that by next year, no one would remember what it was.

Unfortunately, we have parents who think that centerpieces are of utmost importance for reasons related solely to what other people (mainly their friends) will think of the wedding.  My row of bud vases, each with a single stem of a flower was met with a disgusted face and, "what?  only ONE flower?  It will look cheap".  And the ever so popular branch idea was met with, "BRANCHES?" and the face.  And then my beautiful floating orchids in tall vases was met with a melodramatic enactment of a choking person....hands surrounding the neck and all....and in between gasps, explaining that flowers inside vases make her feel like she's suffocating.  They sat around thinking of ways to make our wedding look "expensive"....as if that's what matters the most.

Yeah...so we don't really care.  My very good friend's centerpiece idea is his favorite....NO centerpieces hahahaha.  I acutally really really love how the tall ones look.  But we have camera crazy friends who we know will be telling the people sitting across from them to pose for pics...so we'd prefer something lower so there isn't a vase running down someone's face. 

At this point, we are probably going to just go with whatever we want....even though it's untraditional.  But whatever...everything else so far has been exactly what we wanted (except for the veil and the chi pao, but it's okay...those will only be worn for like 30 minutes) yay!  And out wedding colors are somewhat untraditional (although the parents don't really know it yet! puahahaha).  So don't be surprised if you show up at my wedding....and there are NO flowers on the tables .  There will be something though....but it's the ambiance we wanted to set for the room.  I just hope no one says anything to my parents about why there are no flowers...because that will only prompt the I-told-you-so speech probably for the rest of my life. hhahaha.  But I'm sure at least one of the adults will....sigh....gotta love them Taiwanese adults.

Stop picking on the poor carnation.....

So last week, I picked up 20 or so stems of carnations in varrying shades of purple and made this really cute arrangement.  However I forgot to take pictures, and the flowers died a terrible  death due to the shift of my attention towards bikes.  Anyway, afterwards, I developed a love love relationship with carnations.  They're pretty awesome...and totally don't deserve the reputation they've somehow attained.  They're fluffy, hardy and come in gorgeous colors....and they're CHEAP!  But then people start equating cheap with ugh and ugly, even though I've yet to ever see an ugly flower (just ugly arrangements).

But what I love about carnations is that once you bunch them all together with other carnations...especally if they're within the same color range, they become something else!  They become this beautiful mass of ruffles...I actually like how they look en masse better than roses do.  And hey, if they're good enough for Martha Stewart, they're good enough for everyone!!!

(The famous Martha Stewart carnation bowl centerpiece)

And another relatively cheap flower that looks amazing en masse is.....the sweet pea...ruffly and light...perfect for a spring/summer arrangement.

Ugh...i've been breaking out in hives really frequently lately.  I don't know why.  I've always been a hive-y person...if I were to react to anything, it would most likely be in hives.  But i find myself waking up with hives on my legs and neck almost every morning.  I thought maybe it was my sheets/blanket...since during the day i'm usually fine.  So i washed everything and changed my sheets...and it was okay for a few days, but now they're back.  Usually it happens along the edges of my clothing...so like where the neckline of my shirt meets my neck, or where my pants hit my ankle/foot.

anyway, my very good friend and I went out and bought mountain bikes this weekend!   There's a gorgeous park system not too far from us...and the roads that run through it are really wide (and paved).  During the week, it's a 4 lane road...but on the weekends, they shut it down to cars and it's reserved for bikers/runners/rollerbladers, etc.

But I had the hardest time finding a bike.  I couldn't even get onto some of the women's bikes!  How many women are THAT tall...I basically had like the crook of my knee hanging over the seat and that was as far as I could get.  And then some of them were really long, so i felt like i had to almost lunge for the handlebars.  It was really frustrating.  So then I decided to try kids/youth bikes...but then they were TOO short...and I had to crank the seat all the way up....I looked like those neighborhood kids who ride the way to small bikes.  So after we went to almost every sporting good store in the area (I did find one that I liked and that fit...but of course if was one of those high end ones and it cost WAAAAY too much)....we made our way to Target as a last ditch effort.  Well, I found my bike at good old Tar-jay.  It's a Schwinn...and it's purple...all over.  I call it my barney bike.  It was the only bike that fit.  I was contemplating a matching helmet...but I decided against it.  I splurged on the helmet and got a Giro (aqua blue) since I felt my noggin was worth it.  My very good friend was luckier and found a great deal on a nice Diamondback...it ended up being cheaper than my Tar-jay barney bike. 

But can i say how embarrassing it was testing out my bike at Tar-jay.  First of all, i had no room since people were shopping. UGH.  And I'm terrible on a bike since I never ride....and i'm especially horrendous as very low speeds.  So i'm like wobbling my way around the aisles (half of the time, just pushing my bike with my feet)...and trying to test out my gears at like 0.5 miles/hour.  And when people saw me coming, they didn't even move out of the way!  So i had to stop and make a series of really tight K-turns to turn my bike around and wobble back down the aisle. (think Austin Powers when he's on that machine and gets stuck in the hallway).

I can't wait to go riding.  We were planning to go this sunday, but then hurricane dean rolled in and it's been raining ever since.  I'm definitely going to pack a camera to take some nice scenic shots along the way....yay!

Honeymoon....check?

So because of the way vacation requests work, we can't take our honeymoon right after our wedding...we were lucky enough to get days off before the wedding.  We wouldn't want to anyhow since the places we wanted to visit would be experiencing winter weather as well.  But after debating between several European countries, Hawaii and Alaska, we decided on ALASKA!!!  The European countries got knocked out of the running based on how expensive the Euros are related to US dollars.  My coworker just came back from France and had to pay nearly $100 US per 3 course meal at an average restaurant.  Besides, Europe is something you can do at any age.  Hawaii was always an iffy choice...it was our last choice out of the three choices.  We aren't lay on the beach type of vacationers (even though there is more to see in hawaii)...we kind of like urban or adventure type stuff.  I hate being in the ocean...he hates being in the sand....and we both hate hot weather.

So...it was Alaska!  We're planning to do a cruise sometime next summer.  We LOVE cruises...and I can not wait to see the glaciers (might as well see them now before they all melt).  These are views that you can see nowhere else in the world....except maybe antartica.  And there are TONS of activities you can do when you land...like hiking, white water rafting, helicopter rides over the glacier...and the one I'm most excited about, DOG SLEDDING!

Hopefully we can find a cruise that starts and/or ends in Vancouver since I also LOVE vancouver.  It is the only city I've ever visited where I didn't find myself missing New York.  I can't  WAIT! I am going to pet every single dog there....and take a gazillion pictures...i totally want a digital SLR now.

OOOOOH!

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH!

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH!

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAW!!!

Ok...so 4.5 months to go...and I have a huge list of DIY projects that I haven't even started or thought about.  eeek.  I still have to do the invites, then the programs, table numbers, placecards, favor basket, sign-in book, guestbook and the blank blank blank (it's a surprise hahahaha).

OH....does anyone know of any good places to do my wedding day portraits either in queens or in nassau county?  It has to have an indoor availability in case it's freezing out...I'm still going to do outdoor pics no matter what...but I'll need somewhere to thaw!  I know old Westbury Gardens does it, but it's expensive.  Originally I was going to do them at home, but only our living room and dining room is nice hahahaha.  The other thought was to do it at church and then take some urban ones on the streets of Astoria...maybe eating souvlaki (just kidding...i'd totally drop stuff on my dress).

OK...this exam is seriously stressing me out.  Everytime I try to sit down and study, I seriously get a migraine.  It's just such an enormous amount of info to cram into my little head.  I guess this is why people suggest studying over the course of a year...but really, who does that?

The thing is, I don't normally stress out about exams...I'm usually the complete opposite.  I don't study until the night before..and then i'm like...eh, whatever.  But it's different this time...it's the added pressure of people at work knowing i'm taking the exams.....knowing that if i don't pass, i have to wait another 3 months before i can take it again....and knowing that i'll have to dish out another $650 to take it.  That's right, my friends....$650.

Anyway...in a moment of panic...I went out and bought an expensive set of flash cards.  They guarantee that if you study them, you will pass.  Hey, can't beat that huh?  (don't worry, they sell very easily on ebay).  So now i have all 1300 flash cards sitting on my desk, just staring at me...waiting to be read.  So far I've made it through 2 cards and I'm ready to take a nap.

I have also started the bad habit of stuffing my face with food when I study.  As we speak, I have just devoured half a loaf of sourdough bread (THE best bread in the world)...which I ripped into 1 inch pieces, then topped each piece with an equal size of butter before popping it in my mouth.  Oh yeah, I also finished up a bag of Doritos and am pondering what else I should eat.

To counter that, I went jogging with my very good friend this weekend....only to realize (yet again) that I hate jogging.  I don't know why I try to kid myself into thinking that this time will be any different from the previous times.  The thing with jogging is that I feel like I'm running in the same place...just up and down.  I like running with my full stride, but obviously i can't maintain that longer than 1 minute.  So instead, my very good friend had me do sprint intervals...where I sprinted full speed for 20 seconds...then walked for 30 seconds.  Hey, sounded easy enough...until the 5th time or so, when I started to feel like I was going to vomit.  Fast forward to today......I am in pain and can barely move.