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Wow, so I maybe had too much sugar today and can’t sleep… Or excited about getting married. Hard to tell.

I only got 1 plate of food, so sampled about half the options, had a snow cone, drank root beer for the better part of 6 hours, and then had 2 pieces of tasty, tasty cake. So I mostly had sugar today. :)

I’ll post up more stuff when people start sending it to us. I know someone took a video of the ceremony, so I’ll hold off on posting the text of Sonny’s ceremony for us until I get that. Here’s us just after the ceremony with Best Man & Best Woman.

After Anna’s months of test cakes for us and the last week(s?) of prep… The final cake came out beautifully. And delicious too! The top and bottom tiers were nutella frangelico cakes and the middle tier was amaretto with almond pralines.

Then, the other confection that was a far second in comparison, but also a huge hit: Snow cones! I thought it’d be a good idea since it’s July and we were going to be outside in the heat… but the demand was pleasantly higher than I had expected. My sis even tried to start a snowball fight, but it seemed that people really were much more interested in eating the snow cones.

And last picture that I’m swiping from my cousin (thanks, Katie!) is of the back of my head. I’m just fascinated. I had my friend’s hair person come do my hair and I have some action shots that might better explain my fascination. But my hair is held in place by ~50 bobby pins and ~half a can of hairspray. And when she started, she teased my hair into a big ‘fro and it ended up all neat and wrapped up like this. I physically do not understand how she did that.

In any case, the day turned out fantastically. The weather was great — hot, but with frequent breezes. And the rain didn’t start until most of the guests were heading out anyway. We have so many people to thank for how smoothly everything went… but mostly, I’m glad so many of our friends and relatives were able to come out and celebrate with us. :)

Alright, so I’m a little late to the game on this one… But my bro & his wife got their upgrade a couple weeks ago.

I’m still waiting to make my judgment. The original is still reliably cute and entertaining, but shows signs of the terrible twos coming on. The new baby doesn’t do much, but is surprisingly agile and I’m not as scared of her head falling off as I was with the previous model.

In any case, all is well. Mother and baby were home just hours after delivery. Hope to have more pictures soon!

Thursday started out with breakfast with Ian’s parents. I got my first stocking and have plenty of Christmas candy to last me until the new year. :)

Thursday afternoon was with Ian’s extended family. The big differences from previous years was the musical extravaganza and birthday cake for dessert. We sang happy birthday to Jesus. It was a fun day.

Did Christmas with my family on Boxing Day. There was dancing, more snorking, and bingo! Plus, Anna had a chance to enjoy the activity book I received the day before.

Mac & Cheese (I made this for Thanksgiving too, but forgot to link the recipe. Thanks to Anna for sending this to me!)

INGREDIENTS
For topping
1/2 stick unsalted butter
2 cups panko (coarse Japanese bread crumbs) or 3 cups coarse fresh bread crumbs (from 6 slices firm white sandwich bread)
1/4 pound coarsely grated extra-sharp Cheddar (1 1/2 cups)
1/2 cup grated Parmigiano-Reggiano

For macaroni and sauce
1 stick unsalted butter
6 tablespoons all-purpose flour
5 cups whole milk
1 pound coarsely grated extra-sharp Cheddar (6 cups)
1/2 cup grated Parmigiano-Reggiano
1 pound elbow macaroni

DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 400°F with rack in middle.

Make topping:
Melt butter, then stir together with panko and topping cheeses in a bowl until combined well.

Make sauce:
Melt butter in a heavy medium saucepan over medium-low heat and stir in flour. Cook roux, stirring, 3 minutes, then whisk in milk. Bring sauce to a boil, whisking constantly, then simmer, whisking occasionally, 3 minutes. Stir in cheeses, 2 teaspoons salt, and 1/2 teaspoon pepper until smooth. Remove from heat and cover surface of sauce with wax paper.

Make Macaroni:
Cook macaroni in a pasta pot of boiling salted water (2 tablespoons salt for 4 quarts water) until al dente. Reserve 1 cup cooking water and drain macaroni in a colander. Stir together macaroni, reserved cooking water, and sauce in a large bowl. Transfer to 2 buttered 2-quart shallow baking dishes.

Sprinkle topping evenly over macaroni and bake until golden and bubbling, 20 to 25 minutes.

NOTES: Add a tablespoon of mustard to the roux. I’ve been using progressively more pasta each time and I think for my taste, about a pound and a half of pasta with some ham mixed in was a good cheese ratio (can reduce final baking time to ~15 mins). I mixed whole wheat with regular rotinis and started that when I started the sauce and let it sit in the water to overcook the noodles until the sauce was ready.

Went over to Lenny’s place last week to have a sibling potluck for the brothers’ birthdays. I pulled out my camera at one point and Eliana just started dancing. I was told that she learned from my brother…

Anna made General Tso’s chicken from scratch. We were all thoroughly impressed with her cooking skillz. Sooo good!

And a belated happy birthday to Crit!

Woo! Lots of fun family time last night and much more planned for this weekend. And, of course, GTC. :)

And an update on yesterday’s post — Apparently I paid my taxes where I live, but Fairfax County thinks they get a cut too. So now I have to prove I don’t live in Fairfax County, even though my legal residence that they have on file isn’t in Fairfax. Good work, guys.

Somehow, Myers-Briggs Craptastic dvd download Becket dvd came up at Thanksgiving #3. The past few times this was mentioned, there was discussion as to whether I was truly an INTP. I realized recently that a lot of my opinions have changed in the past few years. It’s especially noticeable when I think back to opinions I held in high school about relationships, socio-political issues, religion, and many other things. I have developed a lot of grays where they didn’t used to exist. So, in light of my intellectual transformation, I was open to the possibility that INTP no longer best describes me.

I re-took the test today and I came out as an INTJ

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. Very introverted still. Moderately intuitive, which I think is consistent. I’m moderately thinking, which I think is a decrease from before. I am learning the feeling thing and there were a few questions that were obvious to me that I would have answered differently 13 years ago. And moderately judging. That’s completely different for me and I have no idea what that means. I’m going to need to do more research.

EDIT: Added some links to descriptions. Item of note: Gandalf and Hannibal Lecter are INTJs.

The open-endedness (from Perceiving) conjoined with the need for competence (NT) is expressed in a sense that one’s conclusion may well be met by an equally plausible alternative solution, and that, after all, one may very well have overlooked some critical bit of data. An INTP arguing a point may very well be trying to convince himself as much as his opposition. In this way INTPs are markedly different from INTJs, who are much more confident in their competence and willing to act on their convictions.

To me, this sounds more like I’m INTP. I’m really not understanding this change.

Strength of the preferences %
Introverted 78
Intuitive 50
Thinking 25
Judging 56

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I’ve been getting kind of antsy lately, which is definitely unusual for me. And with the weather finally turning to fall, it’s nice enough that I would want to go running outside. I haven’t been running in weeks, so I decided yesterday that I would go after work. And then I ended up staying at work (yes, on a Saturday) until well after sundown. I got home around 8:30 after a quick stop at Giant for cake supplies. Just a 10-hour day. At least I get paid overtime, though.

Anyway, I woke up earlier than I intended this morning, so I had plenty of time before heading over to my parents’ for lunch. I went over and mapped out a route for myself and I was off! I’m loving the pedometer thing. I’ve been using a treadmill for a while and that keeps me on pace. But I always end up making deals with myself, like if I can run through the next half mile, I don’t have to run for a full 30 minutes. If I just go this far, I don’t have to finish my workout. It’s kind of bad. I have no endurance or motivation. ;)

Previously, my running routes were to places I knew were a set distance away. I would run there and back. And every once in a while, I would convince myself that I was too tired to go all the way there, so I may as well turn around early. So I definitely need a loop. By the time I try to convince myself I should turn around, it’s not worth it. It’s closer to just keep going. And I know that it’s just a cheap psychological trick I’m playing on myself. But it works, so I’m not going to question it.

After the run, got cleaned up and headed over to my parents’ for my mom’s birthday lunch. Almost everyone was there. Yenny had to miss this week because she’s a workaholic. Sonny called just as we were finishing up and got passed around to chat with everyone. That was pretty cool. He and I usually don’t have much to say to each other on the phone. We usually IM or talk in person when we have anything going on. But I was able to catch him up on all the excitement at the house today. Juniorita is a total technophile. Steph’s mom was there and I brought my dad’s laptop over to show her a picture and Juniorita crawled across the room to come push buttons for me. At least she had motivation.

That’s about it for the weekend. Exhausted from being awake over 12 hours now. So heading to bed early tonight!

I arrived early for my family 12:01 lunch today, to find some strangers at the house. My parents have finally decided to replace their front door. The issue? Apparently, their door is from the 1980s

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Right.

So far, I’ve been here for an hour and a half. They’ve been here for 4.5 hours. The frame is not yet in place. No door knob, storm door, or molding back on. I’m guessing they’ll be here until 4, at least. I’ll let you know how it goes.

Ahh…

Sonny’s back in town for almost a week, so everyone planned for a big Fantasy Football Online Live Draft tonight. And even though it was online, a bunch of us gathered at my parents’ house. There was a huge dinner (my mom and SIL cooked so Distant Drums download

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much good food!), awesome cake, and so many laptops.

Then, we ended up with an odd number of participants and Yahoo kicked us off.

So we did a “live” draft over IM. And I wasn’t really paying attention after the first few rounds. I mean, I wasn’t really paying attention at all, but I tried during the first few rounds at least. But, um, I ended up without a kicker. Oops.

So, that was 3 hours of my evening. Time for bed.

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This weekend was fantastic! I’ve been craving birthday cake for months

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. Seriously, since like January. I got some cake on Ian’s birthday, but it just wasn’t the same. Maybe it’s the getting old part that makes it taste so good.

I spent Saturday afternoon at the parents’. There was tons of food, but, specifically, yellow cake and Godzilla dvd brownies. I mixed together a mandarin orange topping, varied from the usual pineapple topping I make for my dad. I preferred this one — it was a little sweeter and had a better texture. He still prefers the pineapple. Oh well. Wasn’t for him this time. :P

I kind of regretted not taking any desserts home with me afterward, but that’s ok. I’ve been trying to cut back on all the bad food I’ve been eating lately anyway.

Which, of course, leads us to Saturday night dinner at Sweetwater Tavern. Ian let me order my two favorites: Drunken Rib-eye and Chicken Fingers. We swapped plates about half-way through, and then swapped back. Soooo good. And at some point, Ian told the waiter it was my birthday, so he came out with their Flourless Chocolate Waffle on a plate that said “Happy Birthday” in chocolate syrup. Mmmm.

Then, on Sunday, Ian’s mom made a chocolate cake with chocolate frosting and

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Beowulf & Grendel hd sprinkles! So good! And for the second year in a row, Ian’s grandma informed us when the cake was served that his cousin has a birthday too. And we had to explain that, while that was true, her birthday was 4 months ago and Ian’s birthday isn’t tomorrow.

I spent part of Saturday doing homework, but I also re-finished book 6 of Harry Potter. Which meant that I was finally

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ready for the last book. I shouldn’t have waited so long to start book 6, but whatever. I don’t need to buy into the craze… as much as everyone else. Yeah, Ian and I still got the last book on the Saturday it came out. Whatever.

I’ll try not to give anything away here, but if you don’t want to hear anything, I guess don’t read the rest. Overall, I thought the book was good. But holy cow. The boring part was slow. I was up stupid late on Sunday finishing the book because halfway through Sunday afternoon I fell asleep during the boring part of the book. It’s like a hundred pages of the characters being bored. Yeah, that’s interesting.Titan A.E. dvdrip

Went up to NY yesterday with Ian, my parents, and Lenny for my cousin’s chinese style reception for his wedding. Overall, it was pretty fun. Got to see a bunch of my cousins and relatives. And I chatted with my cousin’s wife for the first time really. We’ve met a number of times, but just never had a real conversation. She seems pretty cool. And their daughter is one of the most pleasant children I have ever been around. It was nice getting to see them for an evening.

Lots of family drama/discussion/whatever in the car. But the thing that stands out most about the car ride happened around 1:30 am. We were passing through DC and my dad was telling us where the XM building is. It was a completely surreal experience — it was maybe half a second that I saw him. I noticed as our car was passing and I could see his face clearly, but it took my brain a moment to register and figure out what I was seeing in the darkness. A homeless man was on the other side of the guard rail in the overgrown grass and weeds. He was asleep in a blue armchair. I wonder if he covers it up with garbage bags or something when it rains so the cushions don’t get soaked.

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Cousin’s wedding last weekend. More wedding festivities this weekend.

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yesterday and today. I’ve also been trying to get some work done in the interim, scraping together about 3 hours of actual work time. And for some reason, I usually receive 3-5 emails a day that need (would like) immediate replies and the past two days have greeted me with a couple dozen emails. What’s up with that?

Going to get a MacBook Pro.

Need to make a doctor’s appointment to get different drugs. Nothing seems to be working lately. And I know I’ve been hitting REM because I’ve been having all kinds of dreams. One night I had 3 really boring dreams. Another night, I was “at work” but work was outside on a hill covered in snow.

17 unread messages in my personal email inbox. That’s practically unheard of.

Haven’t updated my netflix queue. Haven’t read Ask Amy in 5 days. Haven’t read Sunday’s Carolyn Hax or Weingarten’s column.

Back to work tomorrow. Should be back to goofing off by late tomorrow afternoon. Then class. And homework.

Homework due Thursday. Maybe no goofing off.

Went with Ian yesterday to get a haircut.

Need to go to CVS to pick up meds that don’t work.

And today… Went down to Winchester with the family and some of Sonny’s friends to see him off. The buses were late, so we had a few extra hours to hang out and make the most of our quality time. Anyway, he’s off to Mississippi for a few months of training, followed by the remainder of the 12 months in Iraq. *sniffle*Noelle pspThe Weekend trailer

The whole family got together yesterday for an early Mothers’ Day. Did lunch, ate too much, and took a nap. Good times…

Today, had brunch with Ian’s family. Pretty much the same. Ate a bunch and took a nap. ;)

We did stop by Home Depot to pick out new faucets though. Got one for our second bathroom. Once we get that installed and see how hard it is, we’ll get one for the master bath and one for the kitchen.

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Hey, Enjanerd! What are you doing tonight?

Going to a baby shower.

*Awesome.*

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Woo! Family time.

Ok, for last week:

Happy late birthday to my Mom!
Happy late birthday to my big brother!
Happy late anniversary to big bro and wife!
Happy [American] birthday to my gramma!
Happy late birthday to BFF’s sis!
Happy late birthday to my future sister-in-law[-in-law?]!

And for next week:

Happy early birthday to my second brother!
Happy early birthday to Crit!

Ok. Yeah, apparently January’s a busy month… *cough* Anyway, spent the morning at Ian’s family’s brunch thing. Picked up NewGirl and baked up some chocolate-chocolate-chip cookies. Then rushed over to my parents’ place with a mud pie for the birthday people. Hung out for a bit and watched some football. And then caught a ride home with my sis. (She gave me a present! A chunk of the old Woodrow Wilson Bridge. *AWESOME*)

Time to go work off this sugar high! :) (Most exclamation points ever! I mean for me. For my blog. In one blog entry. I think. Woo!)

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