Invitation Day

Wow... Brain... Numb. We spent all day making our invitations. Heidi had already designed them, and they look freakin' fabulous, but we had to print and cut them, create response cards, create directions sheets and lodging information. Whew! It was heavy duty. We started at 10, broke for a little bit to go to Chinatown (partially to test the route, partially to get lunch), and finished around 6:30. And let me tell you, it's a darn fine choice that we tested the route to Chinatown, because the route I had originally planned would have taken all our out-of-town guests straight through scary-ghetto-Chicago. Not such a good idea.

In any case, we're in a lot better shape than we were, and I just found out that doing this one day saved us about $700, and our invitations look FAN-TASTIC. So get ready folks (at least those reading this who are on the invitation list... but most of this blog's regular readers are). Prepare to be pleased.

Travel Plans

Heh, as I'm writing this, the statcounter is reading 666 on this blog.

Anyway, today I got the tickets for the honeymoon. I had hoped to get a long layover in Brussels (mmmmm, Beer! Chocolate!) on the way back from Italy, but those tickets were way too expensive. Instead, we're getting an extended layover in Madrid, which is less of a draw to me, but it'll be no less of an adventure. I like the idea of having a mini-vacation on the way back from the big vacation, and it'll be good to check out a city I know nothing about.

I've also started learning Italian, using the Pimsleur audio course. It's an excellent way to learn the spoken language, but it's complete crap for learning to read/write the language. I just have some very basic terms down (variations on "I/you do/do not understand Italian/English" and some basic greetings), but those I have pretty well. When I'm working on it, I pause, not because I'm trying to translate the words from English into Italian, just that I'm trying to remember what the Italian is. Considering I'm two days into the course, I'm doing quite well.

This, of course, makes it much more "real" for me. I'm doing things that have a direct impact on me going to Italy, which means I'm going there on my honeymoon, which means I'm getting married really soon. A few months ago, that would have freaked me out a little bit. Now, I'm thinking 4 1/2 months is too darn far away.