i've been reading two antarctica blogs, one by an englishman who is overwintering at halley, and one by a frenchman overwintering at dome concordia (the first overwinter there EVER!). there are many similarities between the two experiences: very cold weather, darkness, performing all kinds of jobs in addition to the one they're there for... there are also several differences, but the most salient, for me, is what they're eating and drinking. the brits at halley drink beer. and eat bacon butties. the french and italians at concordia eat snails and drink wine. lots of wine.

more wedding la la la

27 June 2005 - 8:27 pm

this, courtesy of boingboing, is hilarious: flickr photo set of tourists doing the classic "push the tower of pisa back up straight" photo illusion, but taken by 3rd parties, from an unintended angle. so they appear to be pushing up some imaginary/invisible object, rather than the tower of pisa.

in new birth control news (ha! because this is something you definitely want to read about on your lunch break): i'm currently using the ring. so far, so good. comfy, don't have to remember to take a pill every day (but i never had a problem with that anyway), definitely has a high "cool" factor. only possible problem will be remembering to change it at the right time each month. ah, but i just discovered that the ring's company offers a timer thingy for free. so i ordered one. cute little electronic hourglass! whoo!

in wedding news: you may or may not know that karl is english. so i'm trying to think of ways to incorporate that heritage into our wedding. upon googling "english wedding traditions" i find the following: "The English consider rain on a wedding day a sign of good fortune."

how VERY convenient.

in other wedding news, things that have now been done, in addition to those things described previously:

• rings: bought. karl chose a 6mm rounded, polished tungsten band. he likes that it will stay shiny and unscratched (tungsten is Very Hard). i chose a 4mm white gold band. i was all a-tizzy about whether to get a 3mm or 4mm band (engagement ring is 4-5mm), and chose 4mm in the end because the jeweler said that if i got 4mm and decided later i wanted 3mm, i could have the extra mm taken off the sides of the 4mm, but of course the same could not be done in reverse. so, 4mm delays the need to actually make a decision! yay! oh, and speaking of rings, here are pictures of my new engagement ring:
• invitations: designed, received, and half addressed/put together. the design and printing of our invites was a gift to us by a friend who is a graphic designer. she and i worked together over email and a bit in person, going back and forth (26 emails back and forth, it says beside that line in my gmail conversation with her) about the various details. they look lovely, if i do say so myself. they are written in red ink (to match the trim on my dress) on ivory vellum. the vellum is overlaid on a black&white photo of me and the boy, taken at the philadelphia museum of art where we got engaged, so you can just see the photo behind the vellum & text. (now that i have the invites in my hot little hands, i'd have prefered the vellum to be a touch more transparent, but they are lovely nevertheless). the two pieces are tied together with ribbon, some with ivory organza ribbon, some with red.
• cake: design is chosen. it is by truli confectionary arts. flavors are almost chosen; one layer will be devil's food cake with ganache filling (and possibly raspberry puree filling as well, we'll see if i can convince karl), and the other layer will be pound cake with lemon curd filling (props to the brits for inventing lemon curd!). here's what our cake will look like, except that the design will be in red icing rather than chocolate since karl's dad is allergic to chocolate, if that isn't the most depressing thing ever. also, no sugar flowes on top.

and then, of course, there's the list of stuff that hasn't been done yet, that is starting to stress me out:

• writing the ceremony. this is the biggy. benefit of being an atheist and not having church requirements about the ceremony: you get to write a beautiful, touching one of your own. problem: you have to write a beautiful, touching one of your own.
• figuring out music for the ceremony and reception. the plan is a string quartet for the ceremony and ipod'd music for the reception. needed: a string quartet (my violinist friend who could rustle one up isn't going to be in town), a playlist for the ipod, and PA equipment for the reception.
• flowers. i just don't want to face this one.
• hair, nails, make-up.
• guest transportation to and from the ceremony/reception.