Tree

Ok. So i didn't get a picture of my tree in my aparement. However my mom managed to snap this one of me taking it out the woods behind the farm house.

the new color

"the dress is dead" she cried. yes, dead. the beautiful dusk colored dress is no more. pause for a moment of silence... Another bride's maid call the House of Brides to confirm a payment only to discover that the color listed was wrong. After a phone call to Ann-Marie and a few with the House of Brides, Ann-Marie had another appointment on Saturday to view dress colors and confirm. Saturday afternoon Ann-Marie, her mom and I drove out there. Shortly after arriving at the store we were told several of the dress colors, including the one Ann-Marie had chosen, were being discontinued. There was a discussion and viewing of other dresses to come to the conclusion that "the dress is dead" and we want our money back. A quick leave and a pop over to David's bridal for another look, led to the decision to go back out on Sunday. After church and a bowl of tomato soup the three of us headed out. We drove down Harlem Avenue, stopped in a few stores, and passed by a few more. Ann-Marie ended up deciding on a David's dress that we originally looked at in a different color. We are now going to be wearing a beautiful color called Peridot. It's kind of a greenish-sage color. It's going to look great next to Ann-Marie's dress.

The couple

I realized I've written about shopping for a bride's maid dress but never wrote about the wedding.

David Frisk and Ann-Marie Olson

here are a few highlights...

The big day is June 9, 2007. Ann-Marie and David met while filming a movie together. Honestly. Ok well not complety true, they really met before the movie but really got to know each while working on a movie together. "say hello to Clive for me" The movie belongs to David and Steve Luce. It's a great movie. We are just waiting for the dvd release date to be announced. But the movie is another story... They got engaged this past November at Tre Kronor. Ann-Marie found her dress a couple weeks later. Now that the dresses have been found they can plan the rest of the wedding.

It's amazing how much goes into planning a wedding. I must admit i'm glad i don't have to make the desicions.

Congrats! to two wonderful people. May God Bless you with a long and happy life together.

Cookies

This year Anders and I baked cookies for Christmas. Baking with a 2 and a half year old was a new experience for me. It was definitely fun but you had to work at his pace and keep an extra eye on him so that he didn't eat too much of the dough.

"the color"

How easy was it to find one dress for five different women? well it was eaiser than it sounded until it got complicated. Four of the five bride's maids for Ann-Marie's wedding went with her to find a dress this past saturday. Within minutes... ok maybe not minutes but it didn't take long to find a dress style that we liked. Amazingly we found two styles that we all could wear. That's where the easy part ended. Neither of them came in the right color. On to the next store. A lot less organized but a lot more choices. After several hours of sorting, looking through, waiting, and trying on... well just Melissa did lots of trying on. A style and material was agreed upon. Now the big question, what colors did it come in? drum roll please... DUSK. There it was "the color". The right color. The perfect color. It's going to look georgous next to Ann-Marie's dress. All the painstaking searching and near famished conditions were worth it. The bride's maid dresses were bought. It only took three and a half hours. Ok and four months until we get them.

Darkness

I took down my tree last night and plunged my apartment into darkness. Every year i cut down my tree in the northwoods of Wisconsin over Thanksgiving. As soon as I get home, it goes up and gets covered in lights, 300 of them this year. I never realize how bright the tree is at this time. The shortest day of the year is still a few weeks away. I set my timer to turn the lights on and off as the sun sets and rises. Then once January first has passed, it's time for the tree to come down. The Christmas season is over. I take off the ornaments first. I'm a bit paranoid about throwing out an ornament with the tree so have to examine it carefully from all angles before the lights come off. One by one i unwrap the strands, unplugging each one as i wrap it up. In the middle of the second stand, i found a silver bell that i missed. This morning on my way to work, I took the tree with me. It was still so fresh that there was no trail of needles left behind me as i took it out of the building. Tonight when i get home I'll be greeted with a dark empty corner, one once so illuminating that it made me smile each time i walked into my apartment.

real life

These stories never seem so real until they happen to your family.

Sacramento Bee News Paper reports...
Two women -- one of them the mother of two small children -- were found dead in a south Sacramento home early Tuesday, Sacramento County's first homicides of the new year.
The victims were a 19-year-old woman and her 49-year-old mother.
Jose Barrera, who fathered a child with the younger woman, was arrested on suspicion of killing both women. When deputies went inside the home, they found a 4-year-old girl and an infant boy, both of whom were unharmed. Both were children of the 19-year-old mother, but only the infant was fathered by the suspect.
Deputies also found the 16-year-old brother and son of the victims, who said he was asleep during the attacks. He was detained and questioned by deputies, but he is not a suspect, Curran said.
Deputies found the bodies of the two women in a rear bedroom, he said. It appears the victims had been bludgeoned to death, Curran said. Deputies recovered a weapon, but gave no details about it.
No motive has been determined.
Deputies had been called in August to the home in a neighborhood of modest ranch houses southwest of the intersection of 47th Avenue and Stockton Boulevard, Curran said.
At the time, the 19-year-old woman had asked to have Barrera removed, but he had apparently since gained permission to visit his son, Curran said.

favorite pictures

Of course have to include Wrigley in here somewhere. Hi! Scoreboard workers. This is taken from my seat behind homeplate, just up the first baseline a bit in the upper deck reserved seats.