Words that *Should* Exist

I remember doing some writing when I was a child. I wrote about a man, or robot, or something that was in trouble. At the most exciting part (in my pre-ten-year-old's opinion), I wrote that the character "jamp" out of the way. I remember showing it to my parents and having a lengthy "discussion" (they discussed, I argued), I finally gave in and changed it to "jumped."

I think I associated the verb jump along with other action words. After all, my character hadn't "runned" or "standed." Why in the world would my character have jumped? This is why English, for all its versatility, is a screwy language. Japanese is way, way, way better. :-)

Staff Parties

The Library's staff barbecue was tonight, and Amanda and I were there. It was a lot of fun, as we had a handful of people who all wandered over to see the bling on our hands from getting married. Most of them agreed that my ring is nice (I prefer the word "spiffy"), and that Amanda's ring is beautiful.

It's always kind of weird getting together with one of our groups of co-workers like that. One of us is really familiar and at-ease with the group, while the other is a little more on the outside of things. Next week, we'll be changing roles when we attend the staff golfing day for Amanda's shop. Luckily, I know at least two of her co-workers reasonably well (her dad and brother), so as long as I'm grouped up with Amanda, her dad, or her brother, I'll have someone to visit with throughout the day. ...That said, Amanda and I may have to cheat so that we're in the same grouping. I've never gone golfing with her before, and I'd really like to!

Time, Life, and Love

For the past few months, Amanda and I have been watching Doctor Who. We started with the ninth doctor, and have continued on with the tenth. Tonight we watched the two parter episode that introduced River Song. We've been thoroughly spoiled regarding River due to Pinterest and other things, but the whole premise of her life and how she and the doctor meet at different orders in their lives really struck a chord with us.

We haven't seen enough to know for sure, but if they were living their lives in exact opposite directions (as some of the spoiler material has implied), River would have known that the doctor's first meeting with her would be the last time she ever saw him. When Amanda and I talked it out after the episodes were over, I tried to put it into terms of our life together.

Just imagine if Amanda was experiencing our life together in the opposite direction that I do -- not minute by minute, but day by day perhaps. Today, she would see the wedding ring on her finger and know that our wedding was coming up for her, and in the past for me. In just over three weeks, she'd never be able to call me her husband again. Even worse, even a single reference to how long we've been together would leave her knowing the horrible truth that she only had a fixed amount of time left with me.

Two and a half weeks "after" our wedding, she'd hear me tell her how amazing our two years together have been, and would know exactly how limited our time together would be. A little under a year "later", and she wouldn't be able to call me her fiancée anymore. Two months "after" that, never living with me again. Just over a year "later", and never seeing me again. And finally, on July 10, 2011, receiving an e-mail that started with "Hi there. This website..." And knowing that the two of us would never speak to or see each other ever again.

It's an incredibly sad idea. It makes me want to grab my wife, hug her fiercely, and thank God that we're living our lives in the same direction of time, blissfully ignorant of when one of us will be stolen from the other. So if you'll excuse me, I think I'm going to wrap this up so I can do exactly that.

Short-Lived...

So our living room is a mess again. We visited Amanda's sister and her family yesterday and picked up some of the stuff she took home for us the day after our wedding. So for now it is all in our living room...

On the plus side, it's consumable stuff (leftover pop, beer and wine), and we have some people who will take the beer off our hands. It'll make things a little simpler than us returning things to the liquor store.

The Quiet Life

I thought once the wedding was done, I'd be back to updating this blog regularly. The stress of preparing for the wedding would be off, and I'd have more spare time to pontificate about various topics. It hasn't quite worked out that way.

Amanda and I have quietly been enjoying married life the past week and a half since we returned from our honeymoon. We were both home the past two days (Amanda was sick, and I had taken the days off) and while Amanda slept, I've been getting things done.

Since I moved out here just over a year ago, our place has been a mess. Amanda had an apartment full of stuff, I had a condo full of stuff, and there was an awful lot to fit into one apartment. The first major improvement happened when we set up my desk and bookshelves in the living room. A bunch of the boxes we moved from my condo were emptied and recycled in fairly short order. But our place was still crowded. Then we rearranged the storage room and added more boxes to it, and rearranged things in the living room somewhat. In spite of it, things were still really cramped... Until yesterday.

Last weekend, I saw that Target had bookshelves on sale for an extremely good price. I talked to Amanda about them, and we picked up two of them Monday night. So I cleared some space on the living room floor and assembled the yesterday. One is in the living room where a much smaller bookshelf (now moved to our entryway) was, and the other is in our bedroom. I emptied six boxes onto the new shelves, loaded most of our board games into the smallest shelf, and at the end of the day, we actually have a decent living room again. It seems incredibly spacious to us, and feels much better while sitting in there.

So that's what we're up to lately.

Working Weekend Again

[originally posted early August 2013 -- correcting a typo much later changed the publication date]

So how are Amanda and I planning to spent our first full weekend at home as a married couple? Well, I have to work, so she's going to hang out with her sister. :-(

Other than that, we talked today about a few changes we could make to our apartment to give us a little more space. Hint: more shelving may be involved. So even though I'm stuck working and we won't get as much time together as we'd like, we've got a project to think about.

Maybe we need to start thinking about code names for it. ...I like Project Delta Hello Kitty Fanta Mark III. Amanda's mileage may vary.

Honeymoon Part 5

Sadly, our honeymoon is now over. In less than an hour, Amanda and I will be asleep, and we'll be at our normal jobs at our normal times tomorrow morning.

It was an incredible week though. Our wedding went off without a hitch thanks to lots of help from our families and friends. Even the cleanup went fairly quickly and smoothly! Amanda and I had an exempt productive morning on Monday packing up for our trip, and then we were off to Edmonton.

We explored, shopped, and visited things each of us had hoped to see, and had an amazing time together. Together alone, I should say. At any rate, we drove home from Edmonton yesterday, and spent the rest of the day (and today) unpacking, doing laundry, and enjoying the last few hours of our honeymoon before the real world intrudes again tomorrow. Things will be different though. I've got a ring on my hand now. And inside the ring, there's a tiny affirmation for when things aren't much fun. It reads "I OK". (Actually, it's a label that means my ring is 10 karat gold, but I prefer to think of it the other way).

So, before I leave this to go to bed, here are a few more photos of our honeymoon. The first is of Amanda in front of the wall carvings on the front of the Royal Museum of Alberta. In the second, the Great One looks on and can't believe the Kissing Couple of Grande Prairie is taking a photo in front of him. Finally, the last photo is of Amanda in our hotel lobby, grateful to get off her feet for a minute (we did a ton of walking while in Edmonton)

Honeymoon Part 4

Highlight of the day: taking a great photo of Amanda next to a giant stuffed Scully in Toys R Us!