Sun

Mon

Tue

Wed

Thu

Fri

Sat




1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

25

26

27
28
29
30
31


Back to main weblog

Archive

2007
July
June
May
April
March
February
January


2006

December
November

October
September
August
July
June
May
April
March
February
January

2005
December
November

Amy's Brain is 47% Female, 53% Male
Amy's brain is a healthy mix of male and female
You are both sensitive and savvy.
Rational and reasonable, you tend to keep level headed.
But you also tend to wear your heart on your sleeve.

What Gender Is Your Brain?





Feel free to email me your comments, suggestions, and/or random thoughts.





 

August 2007


Comments (1)



Some good friends of ours threw us an engagement party a few weeks ago.  We had a wonderful time.  The food was wonderful, complete with homemade enpanadas and grilled steak tacos.  Our friends also got us some useful gifts like a bridal bargain book, and I've already read through the wedding gown chapter!  We also had our friends fill out my "Brian & Amy" Crossword Puzzle, filled with questions about us.  The first two people to solve it got Starbucks gift cards.

I also decided to throw Mr. BAW a surprise 33rd birthday party for him.  Since it was a few weeks prior to his actual birthday, he was completely unexpecting it.  He was also treated to his favorite thing in the world, chocolate cake.  But not just any chocolate cake, I got him the Midnight Delight ice cream cake from Cold Stone Creamery.  All in all, we had a wonderful time thanks to some good friends and very good food.




........................................................................................................................................................

We packed a picnic and dragged Toby down to the Trump Golf Course at Palos Verdes Beach to view the Perseid Meteor Shower on Sunday night.   It was a perfect night for viewing since there was a new moon.  Without the moon's glare, the meteors will stand out much more.  I didn't bring my telescope because there is no way to track the fast moving, unpredictable trail of a meteor.  The best way to view a meteor shower is just to look up at the sky.

It was also a warm night and we got to enjoy a great picnic of cheeses, ham, homemade samosas, pickles, grapes, and chocolate cake.  We even brought along Toby's dinner and evening supply of rawhide for him to enjoy while we star gazed.  Though Sunday evening was not the peak of the meteor shower, we managed to see around eight meteors between the two of us.  They were quick buggers so when one of us saw one it was gone by the time the other person turned to look.  But when you see one, it is simply amazing and beautiful.  Besides the meteors, we also spotted about 4 low-Earth orbiting satellites, likely GPS or weather satellites.  They look like a faint star but they are moving across the sky at a rather quick, constant pace.  They usuallyl travel from South to North (polar-orbiting).  Mr. BAW had never seen a satellite in the sky until this.  Once I pointed one out to him, he quickly saw several others.  It's amazing how many satellites are orbiting Earth these days!  All in all, a wonderful experience, even for Toby.

And for those who wonder:
Meteor = The light streaks we see when objects fall into the Earth's atmosphere but burn up before they reach the ground (simply because they are too small to begin with.)
Meteorite = The parts of the objects that fall into the Earth's atmosphere and actually makes it all the way to the ground.



........................................................................................................................................................



Ever since I got engaged, my friends have been asking me about wedding dresses.  I've only gone to try on dresses once since June.  I must say that my first experience has been less than stellar.  My friends have told me that putting on the first wedding dress in my life is an amazing experience.  Unfortunately I missed that experience.  All I remember from my first dress experience was that it was highly uncomfortable and I felt like I was in a costume.  I tried on about 7 dresses, none of which was terribly exciting to me.  I also spent hours searching the web for dresses that inspire me.  I must have looked through 500 hundred dresses and finally found two that I really love. 

The first one (left) is from Abby Jean of Style M Pretty.  This beautiful dress with lace overlay is from the Vera Wang Luxe Collection.  She luckily got it for %50 off, but anyone who have heard of VW knows that even at %50 off the dress was at least over $5000!  Yeah, I am only looking for inspiration...my budget is actually under $500 (dress + alterations!) :-)

The second dress is from someone named Ashley.  I found her while browsing for photographers.  I love her dress, it would be my dress if I could have any dress in the world.  But I have no idea where she got it and I'm sure it cost more than $500. 

So there you have it, two of my favorite dresses so far.  I will search the web for similar styles in a more affordable version.  I have already found a version of Abby's dress at this online bridal store.  Sure it's not not the same...but it's also way under $500.  In the next few months I'll go and try on more dresses.  But knowing that I can find something within my budget online is comforting. 


........................................................................................................................................................

I've been web browsing quite a bit of late, searching for all kinds of random stuff...many wedding related.  In doing so, I discovered a few amazing sites that I would like to share with everyone.

Hostess with the Mostest      -For those who like to entertain and look at beautiful things.  This site has it all.
Style Me Pretty                  -Everything wedding, talk about sensory overload with beautiful inspirations!
Outblush                           -For the hippest and latest anything.
Feynman Videos                 -YouTube videos of all Richard Feynman interviews.  Excellent site for nerds!
The Reel Man                     -Insightful movie critique from a writer in the show biz.



........................................................................................................................................................


There is something romantic about a lighthouse.  On our recent road trip down the California Coast, we visited the quaint town of Carmel.  There, we discovered the oldest active lighthouse on the West Coast, Point Pinos Lighthouse.

The view of the ocean from this little lighthouse is spectacular.  The day we visited, the sky and the ocean were at perfect shades of blue.  The little white house stood out against the background like it was straight out of a magazine.  The lighthouse is basically a tiny house with an elderly woman attendant who was very eager to share the history of this lighthouse with us.  The original attendant was apparently a single woman who lived in the lighthouse and was quite a socialite with the wealthy Carmel community back in the early 1900's.  Besides the abundance of black and white pictures from its early days, we also got to see the reflector mechanism that is still in use today as the light source. 

There is also a golf course right next to the lighthouse.  This place would be an adorable place to have a wedding.  The view of the ocean would make a beautiful backdrop.  The reception could potentially be held at the golf course country club next door.  I wonder if people have gotten married there.  It's too bad we don't live  in Carmel... :-)









........................................................................................................................................................


This is my rendition of Mr. BAW and I as South Park characters.  I'm thinking of incorporating them some how into our wedding. 

Speaking of wedding, we've been wedding-site searching for a couple of weeks now.  I must say that it's been quite depressing.  Unfortunatelly, we visited the most expensive site first.  So now, all the other places seem...well, not as pretty.  We've also got a few criterias the site must meet:
    1. We want the ceremony and reception at the same place so that guests don't have to drive in the horrible LA traffic twice.
    2. We want the neighborhood to be a safe place for our guests. 
    3. Plentiful parking is very important to us for our guests.
    4. I don't want to spend ALL of our wedding budget just on the site.

So where does that leave us?  Well, the gorgeous place we looked at was the Palos Verdes Golf Club.  This is a very exclusive golf club where only residences of Palos Verdes are allowed to play at.  The venue is absolutely gorgeous with a view of the ocean and coastline known to the locals as 'Queen's Necklace'.   But for about $25K (conservative estimate) you only get 5 hours for your ceremony and reception (5pm - 10pm).  An extra hour will cost you $1K!  Plus,  you are not allowed to step foot on the green for pictures!  Only a small patch of the green is available to the bride, groom, and photographer for photos.  You can't even have the wedding party with you!  And for being so expensive, the consultant we met with there was too busy to pay much attention to us.

We also looked into the Redondo Beach Historic Library, South Coast Botanical Gardens, Los Verdes Golf Club, Trump Golf Course in PV, La Venta, Luminarias, and Occasions in El Segundo.  When we visited the sites, none of them met all of our criterias above.  But after searching the web a bit, we found one venue that we both can live with.  I won't reveal it until we actually book the site, since Summer Saturday wedding dates are quite popular!  But anyone who knows me will probably think..."of course, how appropriate!" :-)