Time, time, time

Dear friends,

Many, many apologies for my negligence. It seems getting married, moving, working full time, and writing a dissertation have gotten the better of me. I find it an incredible challenge, staying on task and completing assignments; I write this as I'm working with undergraduates and trying to teach them about time management. Blerg.

We have, however, found a church, and taken care of the basic necessitites for a simple life. Hopefully, soon, we will also have our home in order, with enough bookshelves for our books and everthing in its place.

I hope to post more regularly as the weather gets colder and I want to come home and nest.

But for now, friends, I'd like to let you know that the (still messy!) room which functions as an office also has a full-sized bed. You should make use of that bed just as soon as you can.

Love,
e

Updates (not too-lates?)

Hi all,

I know, I know...I've fallen far far behind in my blogging duties. Please forgive me.

For those I've not talked to recently, or those who might just be reading for kicks, there's some big news! Last month, BF...er....F and I became officially engaged, and since then, it's been a race to figure out the wedding, plan a move, find a job, finish the dissertation, and write two articles.

Surely, I'm forgetting something.

That seems to be par for the course right now.

But it's been fun, if not crazy. Finding someone whom I want to spend the rest of my life with, who understands the craziness of life and also helps me keep perspective, who loves me and makes me feel safe, and who throws amazing pots to boot--I didn't think it would happen this quickly, or even at all, frankly. So imagine my surprise when I met someone who voluntarily waives his two-year dating requirement to get married.

I'll not be writing so much on this personal front--and not much about the wedding, either. Planning so much so quickly has been great, as there's not a bunch of time to agonize over every detail. It is, however, a bit like planning a major conference, and wanting all things to just go well and for all to leave fed and happy--and us legally and churchily married.

Thanks for your patience with me, and hopefully more over the summer travels included in these life changes to come.

In two months, I'll be writing you all from the Midwest, a place I never thought I'd live, but about which I'm happily optimistic.

More Little Things

I'm sitting at Bea's desk, Edward (she's kindly loaned it to me!), writing on a warm spring day. The front door is open, and light is streaming across my computer. Oh, how I love the spring (despite allergies!).

Here's my view:



What a wonderful ting to have my landlords' dogs looking after me.

And my inspiration on my bedside table, which makes my room smell heavenly:



It's the little things, indeed.

The Little Things

The last few weeks have sped by so quickly. Tomorrow, I'll get feedback on my final chapter of my dissertation (except for the introductory chapter, which I should be able to write in about a week) and hopefully learn that I only have about a month's more work to do on it.

In the mean time, I'm busy calling people, organizing things, and using my handy-dandy checklists/wikis for taking care of business.

To give you an idea of the details I've taken care of just this week:
-Figured out who is most affordable for tent rentals, plates, etc.
-Ordered samples for my mother's dress (and she's going to wear the sassiest little dress--I love how flattering these silhouettes are), which will mirror my own dress in terms of classic style, while still being conservative enough for her.
-Ordered the material for my dress
-Called our local pig roaster who was--I kid you not--down in a hole, digging, when I called. ("I'm breaking up--sorry, I'm in a hole right now") Who needs to sample his food, when it's clear that he's got the country pedigree necessary for roasting a pig?!
-Found folks to cater the dessert (yes!)
-Got quotes for printing invites (and an amazing friend who has already taken care of the design. Wohoo!)

Now, I think I'm going to stand by my assertion that a wedding can be organized in under 40 hours. BUT. (A huge but) I must point out that a good friend of mine got married at our church just a few years ago, and I'm able to go with her florist, etc, because I know they'll do a great job. I know it's also pretty quick because:
1. The ambiance of the party is important, not its perfection
2. My husband-to-be is incredibly easy going on this and is happy to let me make most of the decisions
3. I know what I want, and have plenty of friends who are helping with specific aspects. This makes my job SOOOO much easier.

Also a great help is the fact that one of my dreams, baking my own cake, will not be happening on the scale I thought it would. This is aided by the knowledge of how long it took to bake this one, which I won't write the details for, but simply show you what two days of work looks like in cake form:

set-up: the kitchen looks clean now.... (note the coffee cup--it was too early for wine)


what do you mean, 15 cups of batter will fill two 5-quart mixer bowls and then some?




quality / consistency control: all the batter in one bowl to help make sure it's uniform, after being made in two separate bowls

Wedding day: Assembly:


Joel cut off the top of one cake to make sure that it would make for a flat surface


The bottom layer: cut from the third, largest layer, as it would have been bigger than the cake stand.


Do the two mixers look familiar? Now they are making butter cream (about twice as much as there needed to be, since I had calculated for three, not two layers).




Now the assembly. Whipped cream and raspberry coulis between each layer. (I'm working so fast, you can barely make out my outline.)


Crumb-layer? On. What you can't see is Joel, the cake elf dancing a jig in the background. Best. Sous-pastry-chef. Ever.


The final result. A massive bride's cake (served with extra whipped cream and coulis) and the smaller, more modest groom's cake.

The bride and groom--I would much rather have used them as the topper!




Little Liam, who stole the show, didn't seem to want a try of the cake. What I don't have a picture of is him sampling the wares as we assembled. And of course, me, who slipped upstairs once the cake was done to put on something more party-appropriate.

Deadlines, line is dead

Friday deadline for a section of dissertation?

There's nothing like time running out to make the creative juices flow.....

55 pages down, another 20 to go?

At some point, I noticed that I had way too much on my plate.

Perhaps it's when I realized that I had gone over a month since reading a book.*








*Of course, I'm still reading parts of books for my dis. But actual books I sit down and read from cover to cover? It's been way too long. But don't worry. I almost-kinda know what my invites and programs will look like....

Checklists and Systems

It seems like most folks plan with pretty notebooks, clippings from magazines, and dreamlike visions.

Me? I've got a wiki-spreadsheet and document so that I can share with all those helping plan.

Who is the academic who plans events on a regular basis?