October Happenings

So many wonderfully exciting things have happened in October, so I will take a break from the honeymoon tales.

Emily's birthday was at the beginning of the month, so Maxwell made a sign for her.


Kristy "Little Spoon" Spoon's birthday was the next week so we met for lunch at Bloomingfoods, where I played with the dog pictured below. This was the kind of dog I wanted before I met Max. When I petted him I quickly realized he sheds fur like crazy and made my hand smell like butt. Pretty face though.



Boss's Day was on the 12th, so I planned a grand Boss's Day Fiesta in honor of a certain Scott Ortega. Here is a picture of the Sunrise leadership team in sombreros. Special thanks to the Andrew Hartman Funtime hat collection.


My dad also has an October birthday, and Courtney happened to get a job the same week. My mom wanted to have a party to celebrate both accomplishments, then threw my new job into the pile of things to celebrate. Andrew mentioned that he also had reason to celebrate, as he had just received Platinum status in the Delta Skymiles program. My mom ended up making the cake pictured below, and we all got to blow out the candles. In case it is hard to read, the cake says,"Happy Birthday Dave, Congrats on Jobs Courtney & Michelle, Flyer Platinum Miles Andrew, Bunghole of the Year Geoff." This is why I love my mom!

Last but certainly not least, we celebrated the birth of Jenny Mack. I came home from my Fall Outlet Shopping Extravaganza last Thursday and was greeting by the scene below. I arrived just in time to join the party.


As I was cleaning out my new office space, I found a coupon for free mozzarella sticks at Applebee's. Three hours later:
Lastly, I organized a team for the Jill Behrman 5K. As always, team Sunrise Greetings had poor participation, but those who were there had a great attitude. Thanks to my Mom, Aunt Cheryl, Dad, and Andrew for tripling the team size.

Honeymoon #2

Okay, so I was going to detail every day of our honeymoon, but that seemed like a daunting task so I will now describe the rest of the honeymoon in a nutshell. The day after we arrived, I went for a jog with Chad and Dan's dog, Eno, and got a bit turned around. This happened the last time I visited Chad also. Eno and I roamed the streets of Santa Barbara for a couple of hours. It was a lovely city to be lost in, and we wandered through a park, walked a labrynth in a churchyard, visited an old Mission, and eventually asked numerous yard workers how to get back to the right street. That dog was no help at all.

Andrew and I had a delicious breakfast at the Cajun Kitchen, i spilled my water on the counter, and we made our way up the coast a bit and then inland toward Fresno. It was a completely different landscape in the desert and we were really glad we veered off the path. We stopped at a couple of wineries and stayed the night at my aunt Kate's house in Visalia. I love seeing familiar faces when we are so far away from home. She had pizza waiting on us when we arrived.

On day 3 we visited Yosemite, and it was one of the prettiest places I have ever seen.

We did some hiking, did some tour bus riding (stinky!), and ate dinner at the Happy Burger diner. That evening we rolled into Monterey later than late, couldn't find a hotel with vacancies, and ended up staying in the Discovery Inn for $54. It was a pretty cute little place, and I couldn't stop laughing as Andrew checked us in through a window with bars on it. I guess the area was so dodgy they couldn't let people into the lobby. This happens so often; Andrew has to do all the talking because I can't compose myself long enough to handle anything.

Honeymoon Day 1

I've been meaning to write about our honeymoon adventures for a while, so I'm going to break it into parts so it's not such a daunting task. On our first day, we got up early and flew to Los Angeles. I had been looking forward to trying Pinkberry for months, so we claimed our baggage and lugged it across the airport in search of celebrities eating frozen yogurt. Apparently you have to be departing from the airport in order to patronize the LAX Pinkberry so, tired and dejected, we headed to the rental car shuttle. We picked up our shiny blue Mustang and headed to Chad and Dan's house in Santa Barbara. We stopped for some In-n-Out burgers on the way, and arrived about an hour before sunset. We took Chad and Dan's dogs, Oprah and Eno, to the dog beach and had an enjoyable barefoot sunset walk on the shore (the picture is of me and Chad on the beach). We had arrived in California! On the way home from the beach, I told Chad about my fruitless frozen yogurt mission and he told me they had a Pinkberry in Santa Barbara but he knew of a local place that was way better. I ended the day with blueberry cheesecake yogurt from MacDonald's frozen yogurt, which is partonized by even hipper celebrities than that pretentious Pinkberry.

Girls' Night & A Job Offer

Tonight was my monthly girls' night with Kristy, Amanda, and Melissa. Mandy usually joins but tonight a certain David Sedaris was in town. We have been trying to find a replacement since Laura moved to South Korea but no one has come along that meets our requirements; fun group of witty ladies seek pretty-eyed, foul-mouthed caver type for once-a-month dinners. Tonight was Amanda's pick so we went to Japanais, ate sushi, drank wine with pink polka-dots on the bottle, and laughed at each other's jokes. You know it's a good night when you put 3 hours worth of change in the meter and you still get a parking ticket. (modeled by Maxy-poo)

Other noteable events of the day: 1) I had a very nice lunch with James and Tania at Smokin' Jack's Rib Shack and smelled like smoked meats all day. 2) I got OFFERED A JOB in the Finance department at work! I will accept in the morning.

Pendant le Weekend

When I was in French class, we always had to write about what happened Pendant le Weekend. Pendant last weekend, I made caramel corn puffs courtesy of Ashley's recipe. These things are like caramel -covered crack and they contain a stick and a half of butter, so I was happy for any excuse to make them. I took them to a tailgating with coworkers event, which was a lot more fun than it sounds. I don't think I ever tailgated in college, so now I need to make up for it. I was introduced to the "paloma," which is basically made by mixing Fresca, tequila, and lime. At one point in the day I announced that I would never drink anything that was not a Paloma ever again. Don't trust me though, I'm fickle; I've said the same thing about Manhattans, Pomegranate martinis, and PBR. Someone gave me a youth ticket to the football game, so I participated in my first college football game too. After several Palomas, I enjoyed this to the fullest. Let me tell you, I made some friends. I think. The night ended by drinking lots of water and going to the Irish Lion with some great friends.

On Sunday, Maxy and I went to the dog park, where he made several new friends. He especially likes Great Danes, and I always worry that they will accidentally step on him. We hiked around Lake Griffey and he scruffled until his fur turned brown and filled with burrs. Then my brother and I went to my cousin Brandy's housewarming party, where we met Trixie, my aunt's sweet new Westie puppy. She was inspired by Maxwell's sweetness and had to have one of her own. This puppy picture begs the question; would it be weird if I tried to contact Maxwell's original owners and asked for some baby pictures?

Andrew & Michelle's Funtime Wedding

I'm a little late reporting this, but Andrew and I got married! We planned, directed, funded, and executed the most outrageous wedding we could ever dream up, and it turned out to be everything we dreamed it would be and more. We got engaged in November and had meetings almost every Sunday afternoon until every detail was planned. We started off wanting to have a play in which couples we know play the roles of us through various stages of our courtship. This resulted in us having to do a lot of writing, and realizing that our dating story is not that interesting as a stage play. We decided to invite our wedding guests to perform a talent show in honor of us. In the end, we had our nieces dance to a Hannah Montana song, Laura ride on a bicycle with Maxwell in a basket, Ashley do a reading from the Velveteen Rabbit, my mom sing a childhood lullabye, Scott & Sandy dance a sexy tango, Chris play the guitar and sing, and Andrew's cousin roast us! Then we opened the curtain and had a 2-minute sweethearts forever ceremony that I thought was just darling. I will keep this as short as possible, but the details I was most proud of included keeping everything within a reasonable budget; bridesmaid dresses from Target clearance, Kristy designing and letterpressing the coolest invites ever, Emily making flowers, flags, and pinwheels, and hiring some locals to create a marching band that lead a parade of our loved ones down Kirkwood. Then the Dynamics played a wonderful reception with some very tasty Chick-fil-a foods. In retrospect, we are so glad we planned everything we ever wanted in a wedding, even the far-fetched ideas. I couldn't have imagined a more perfect day shared with all of our favorite people!