Centennial, Colorado

Sort of a splintered day, with everyone off doing their own things, mostly trying to get ready for Saturday’s wedding. After dropping the kids off, Laura and I started the day off at Cherry Creek Mall, looking for wedding shoes (me and her), a belt (me), and some other miscellaneous stuff.* Shopping success on all fronts.

Laura to a play date with Amy, Kendra, Holly, Rox, and their several children. I stopped for a quick lunch at Garbanzo, what I know now is a very boring middle eastern fast food place. Falafel sandwich and a booth to myself. On to Barnes and Noble and Panera to do some work online/kill time. Worth noting the several tables of old people playing/learning what I think was the card game Hearts. Must be nice to have all that free time, right? Right.

Met my parents at 4:30 to see a movie called Splice,** a modern day Frankenstein tale starring Adrien Brody and Sarah Polley. Sufficiently creepy and thought provoking. After the movie, dinner at Los Dos Potrillos with my parents. Good food (esp. the salsa and the green chile), fast service.

As you can tell, the touristy activities have pretty much ground to a halt. We (mostly LVL, I’m ashamed to admit) are in wedding planning mode.

Still need to work through several important things, including:

What we need to do for the wedding license, etc.

A trip to the County Clerk scheduled for Wednesday.

What the actual ceremony is going to look like. We know it’s on Saturday, we know that Rox will officiate, and hope to have it on the deck outside of the house we’ve rented, but don’t have much more than that. Any ideas would be great [Ed. note: Except that as anyone following our trip knows, they'll be reading this at least a week after the event if over]. With some regret, we’ve ditched the idea of writing our own vows. At this point, neither of us have the time or the energy to do it. We’re planning to flip through books together at some point soon to find the right language. There are also rumors of a Neruda poem.

In fact, as I’m writing this, LVL is typing furiously on her own computer while referencing a list of to-dos on her phone.

To wit:

Marriage license
Candles
Ceremony plan
Flowers
Makeup
Hollywood tape
Bracelet
Info for ordaining Rox
Camera lens

Though it feels like we’re pushing “casual, low-key” to the definitional limits, we have two-plus days to finalize everything and high confidence that it will all come together. Ultimately, we’re both so excited to get there, the details are of less importance than having our families together for the big moment.

*If you’re worried about our last minute rush, you’re not alone. The shoe guy at Nordstrom thought we were crazy for waiting as long as we have. He’s probably right.

** They spent the day in Boulder and LOVED it. There was quite a bit of (very surprising) talk about what it would be like to live there!

I started the day “babysitting” Hannah and Helena while Ron was at work and Laura, Mary, and Rox went for mani-pedis. After some negotiation, we agreed on a breakfast of scrambled eggs with cheese and strawberry milk. Helena in a rascally mood, seemingly trying to take advantage of the substitute teacher. More respect by the day for parents and professional child care people.

Filled the rest of the morning on the deck playing more “Go Fish” and a modified version of “Old Maid.” H/H surprised me in the middle of one card game by belting out the theme song from Rent. “528,400 Minutes…” [Ed. note: Or "525,600 Minutes…." But who's counting/singing?] is far less grating when sung by two hilarious kids.

Met Rox, Banks, and Laura at the Original Pancake House for a late lunch (of breakfast-only choices) and then on to run some wedding-y errands. Before getting there, we ran back to Ron/Mary’s so that I could change pants after squirting half of an over-medium egg on myself. Classy.

Also had to pick up Ron’s SUV so that we could drop our car at a Subaru dealership for an oil change/50 point inspection. After dropping the car we headed to Target. Trip/wedding essentials, Father’s Day cards, and so on. For some odd reason, Laura was not charmed by my Nerf football routine. Weird. [Ed. note: Silly me for not liking getting pegged with the "soft" ball when I had other Target goods in my hands.]

My light and playful mood came to a grinding halt as Laura heard back from the dealership. The hour long, routine check-up turns out to be wishful thinking. The front boot (???) is cracked and is now “flinging oil everywhere,” according to the mechanic. Car also has some electrical problem that repeatedly shorts out our rear brake lights. Clearly, both need to get fixed if the show is to go on. Damage: Approx. $1000. Timing: Not very good.

Maybe worse than the money is that the car will have to stay overnight, essentially making impossible our planned evening trip to Boulder. Apologies, Shens, Grabons, Van Loons,** and Everlaters. Huge downer for us. Hopefully we’ll catch up soon.

Flagging a bit, we trudge to Michaels, the depressing craft store. Wedding prep waits for no one. Found: Lots of candles for the ceremony and some other stuff like ribbons for the flowers and thank you cards. I’m now (almost) convinced that this store serves a purpose beyond entertaining retirees/stay-at-home-parents.

Stopped for a beer at J. Alexander's. Funny scene, including the several post-work ladies drinking fancy stuff from martini glasses; the guy next to us announcing that “he’s back to his regular,” some very boozy thing with cocktail onions and then proceeding to get pretty blitzed in the 30 or so mins we were there; the bartender talking about a trip to AK and bemoaning the no-bear-spray-on-the-plane policy.

Ultimately, spirits lifted a little by (1) time away from driving/planning/car repair frustration; (2) beer; (3) bases-clearing double by the Flyin’ Hawaiian, giving the Phils a 4-0 lead over the hated NY Yankees; (4) fact that we weren’t the ones getting hit on by Mr. Cocktail Onion.

From bar to Mike’s Camera, where I splurged on a new lens, a Nikon 35 mm/1.8f. Hope this will be the antidote to our mild frustration with portraits and lower light conditions. Details to follow.

A quick stop at Dillards in Park Meadows Mall for some wedding day accessories. I stayed in the car to play with the camera, but LVL reports some success.

Hustle over to Big Bill’s NY Pizza joint to meet Ron, Mary, H/H, my mom and dad, and sister Zoey (in town from Seattle as of Tues night) and her old Peace Corps pal, Kelly. So great to finally see Zoey and to have some time hanging out with everyone together. We worked through the menu-related challenges in twenty mins or so, settling on a bunch of salads, garlic knots, a large pepperoni/mushroom, a large veggie delight, and a small Hawaiian.

Faces stuffed and hearts content, we said our goodbyes for the night, with lots of stuff to do before heading to Steamboat on Thurs pm.

** Did manage to speak on the phone with Mike Van Loon long enough (approx. 8 minutes) for him to wonder aloud, "You're bald as a cue ball. When did that happen?" Excellent query, Mikael.

More prep for Steamboat and the wedding this morning. Our moms spent their time between Costco, Omaha Steaks, etc., getting supplies. Dads, siblings, and nieces spent their time working, chilling, playing.

All errands all the time for us. We started off at the Arapahoe County Clerk’s office, picking up our marriage license. Our timing was perfect: we walked in and out in about twenty minutes without much stress. A few signatures, some wedding-y small talk with the clerk. Up next, a drive-through breakfast burrito order. I’ve completely given in to egg/potato/cheese/smothered green chile and cheese. Too much to pass up.

The burrito sat in my lap as we journeyed to Target for the second time in two days. I wolfed the food in the little Target café as Laura starting shopping for the stuff we forgot to get yesterday. Exciting times. A quick stop at home and then back to Go Subaru to pick up our car. Brief sparring with a smart-ass smoker’s-voiced cashier and then back home to pack. $670 in repairs. As you might imagine, heavy car repairs in the midst of a road trip and two days before a wedding: not awesome.

Four cars, lots of supplies, several helping hands. Approx. two hours of mildly stressful team packing. Zoey and I in the Subaru; Laura, Mary, and the girls in Mary’s Car; my parents in their rental; and Ron in his Rodeo. All packed to the gills. 2 pm ETD to Steamboat.