The Honeymoon Chronicles: Trees of Mystery Edition.

The drive up to Washington was relatively quiet after our great freeway adventure. We did manage to have a few adventures, though...Including driving along and suddenly passing a giant statue of Paul Bunyan. Let me repeat that for you: A. Giant. Statue. Paul. Bunyan. PAUL BUNYAN! Perhaps you knew that this existed, but we were not aware. We were just driving through Kalamath minding our bidness, when BAM! PAUL EFFING BUNYAN!

Hmm? Just a couple of bros hangin.

Hmm? Just a couple of babes hangin...haha. Heh. Shut up.

One of the best parts is that Paul Bunyan was full on animatronic. His hand would wave at you, and there was a guy doing the voice, so yeah, I've full on talked with Paul Bunyan. I talked to Babe the Blue Ox too, but he was less chatty.

Afterwords we drove through the Trees of Mystery and drove through the famous hollow tree. And look, if that isn't a little piece of honeymoon Americana, I don't know what is.

If you were wondering, yes. It was very difficult fitting the Clampett Mobile through the tree. But we did it!

Stay tuned next time when we steal from the National Steinbeck Center!

I Command You to Read This/(these) Book(s)

Internet, I would like to discuss a book. Specifically this book: "Okay for Now" by Gary Schmidt. But here's the tricky part, I want to discuss the end of the book, and I have a strict no spoiler policy, so I don't feel like we can discuss it right now, because I would like you to go read it first. But here is the other tricky part: I feel like before you can read the book, you have to go read this book: "The Wednesday Wars", which is the companion book to "Okay for Now", and while they can each be read as stand alones, and there aren't major spoilers, I also have strong feelings about books being read chronologically. Like, sometimes I have people tell me that I don't have to read a series in a particular order (mystery series for example), and I have to do my best not to give a withering glare, because YESTHEYDOHAVETOBEREADINORDER, but that's a little rude, and also apparently you aren't supposed to impose your values on other people even if you are right and they are wrong amen. Here is the third tricky part, I am not even supposed to be writing this post at all, because I promised Nano that the next post I wrote would include pictures of my apartment! You can see that I'm kind of in a pickle.

So here is my proposed solution: I will give you all two weeks to read the two books I want you to read. (They are both fairly quick reads, I promise!) And then we'll all meet back here, say September 6th? And then we'll discuss the book, and I'll get spoilery in my post, but I'll also do the thing where you have to click a link to view the post so people who don't want to read it don't have to. Or maybe that's too demanding. Should we give it a whole month? Ok: so your assignment is to read the two books, and also comment and tell me if you want two weeks, or a month to do so.

Also, this isn't mandatory, unless you are Lauren, Liz, Liz, Liz, Amanda, Emily, Julie, or actually, anyone related to me at all. And also, just because I didn't list your name doesn't mean it's not mandatory for you too, it's just that I started running out of steam, and not everyone has a blog anymore, TIFFANY. So just assume if you are reading this, you have to do what I tell you. I mean, you are invited to the book discussion. It's also mandatory for Rachel, but actually she already read these books, and in fact I read them because of her. Maybe you did too! That would make this a lot easier. You can read her reviews here and here, because she does a lovely job of showing why the books are wonderful without telling the whole story.

Also, I will post pictures of my apartment tomorrow Nano, I promise!

The Cake Before Time

In my many many internet forays during wedding planning, I came across a picture of felt dinosaur cake toppers. There are a lot of things about that sentence that make me really excited even now. I'm going to write it again with emphasis on the best words:
"I came across a picture felt dinosaur cake toppers."
As you can see, cake is the best part, but dinosaur and felt come right behind. My love of the amazing work of Rachel Knecht, felter extrotinaire is well documented. I love nothing better than commissioning felt creations to my own personal Da Vinci. This time she truly outdid herself.

COULD YOU JUST DIE??? They are--and I say this without bias--the greatest cake toppers that ever existed in this land or any other land ever.

Notice the bow tie. Super fans will recognize this as the fabric that lines my Spock computer case.

Check out the veil. And the necklace! She made dinosaur me a pearl necklace. Oh Rachel. You get me. You really get me.

And the glasses. She even added felt square frame glasses. PERFECTION.


Elliot, our above averagely cute ring bearer and fellow dinosaur enthusiast was duly impressed.
Elliot: There's dinosaurs on that cake!
Me (proudly): Yup.
Elliot: It's a stegosaurus and a long neck!
Me: Well, yeah. Close enough.


Elliot (pointing): That's you?
Me: Yup.
Elliot: And that's Alex?
Me: Uh huh!
Elliot: *thinks* Hey! I think it's time to eat this cake!

Kid...this might be the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

Needless to say the dinosaurs were a huge hit. People kept telling us things like, "it's so great because your kids will be able to play with them!" And Alex and I would exchange glances and say: "Yes. Our kids..."

Thank you so much Rachel...I adore them and I adore you!

*Pictures by our amazingly talented photographer, Marcello Ambriz.