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Jan 9, 2011
Jan 8, 2011
Gloomy Run
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Cold and gloomy in Sacramento today. Great day for a run!
This picture makes me think of post-apocalyptic movies. Except that the power lines would all be down, and there'd be some sort of flesh eating creature roaming free forcing me to run, instead of me choosing to go out and run by my own volition. And I probably would have been listening to my own terrified screams instead of Ira Glass. Other than that, it is totally post-apocalyptic.
This picture makes me think of post-apocalyptic movies. Except that the power lines would all be down, and there'd be some sort of flesh eating creature roaming free forcing me to run, instead of me choosing to go out and run by my own volition. And I probably would have been listening to my own terrified screams instead of Ira Glass. Other than that, it is totally post-apocalyptic.
Jan 7, 2011
Why I Love Groupon
I love Groupon. As I'm sure anyone who has spent any time around me in the past year or so knows. I have gotten things ranging from food to car washes to cake to scenic train rides to photo books to teeth whitening from Groupon. All at huge discounts! I sound like an advertisement, but when a thing is great, it is great. So. Groupon. Much love.
Also a great thing was the experience Marc and I had with making our own wedding rings. (Not a Groupon purchase, unfortunately!) A few weeks later, Marc mentioned how much he liked "playing with fire" and that he'd like to do that again.
Aaaand. Voila! Groupon delivered!! In mid-November, Groupon had a deal for Elements Glass in Portland for glass blowing. The opportunity to blow your own glass float, to be more specific.
I don't know if anyone knows how obsessed I am with glass blowing. I have loved blown glass since high school, after I saw a special or article (I can't remember...) about Dale Chihuly, a renowned glass artist. Anyway. Groupon + Glass Blowing + Playing with Fire = The MOST PERFECT combination ever! All for $30.
So, later in November, Marc and I visited my family in Hillsboro, and took an afternoon to play with fire and molten glass.
Also a great thing was the experience Marc and I had with making our own wedding rings. (Not a Groupon purchase, unfortunately!) A few weeks later, Marc mentioned how much he liked "playing with fire" and that he'd like to do that again.
Aaaand. Voila! Groupon delivered!! In mid-November, Groupon had a deal for Elements Glass in Portland for glass blowing. The opportunity to blow your own glass float, to be more specific.
I don't know if anyone knows how obsessed I am with glass blowing. I have loved blown glass since high school, after I saw a special or article (I can't remember...) about Dale Chihuly, a renowned glass artist. Anyway. Groupon + Glass Blowing + Playing with Fire = The MOST PERFECT combination ever! All for $30.
So, later in November, Marc and I visited my family in Hillsboro, and took an afternoon to play with fire and molten glass.
Marc chose opaque blue and silver for his colors!
I chose translucent amber and opaque orange.
Our guide - getting the melted glass from the giant vat of melted glass (I can't remember what it was called, but it was HOT)
Turns out hot molten glass on the end of a hot pole is kinda scary.
But I managed to get it all the way across the room without the glass 'slumping' of the end of the pole! You had to keep the rod constantly rotating, or the liquid glass would have fallen to the floor.
Adding the orange spots to the HOT glass.
Into the "glory hole" - another really hot place. See how droopy the glass gets? I was constantly sure that it was just about to fall off. It never did, though.
I'm doing it all on my own!
And the actual blowing part!!! This was my favorite part, because I didn't have to be handling the hot glass.
Removing the float from the non-float part of the glass.
Still super-duper hot. From here, the float was put in an oven with other floats finished that day that were slowly cooled down so the glass wouldn't crack.
Marc's turn! He was a bit more confident with that whole hot, molten glass thing.
Into the glory hole! Marc looks even more Indiana Jones-ish here than normal.
He blew harder than I did, and ended up with a larger float. In the background is the next group that was waiting for us to finish. They sold over 1500 groupons, so they'll be making a LOT of floats!
So, the silver part of Marc's float needed to be super-heated to oxidize something or other. This little blowtorch didn't cut it...
Neither did sticking it back in the glory hole.
So they brought out the BIG blow torch! Marc was excited to really get the flame part of the experience!
Putting a flat bottom on the float.
Our finished floats! Pretty!!!Jan 6, 2011
Jan 5, 2011
Stop! Motion!
Mom got a plant cam for Christmas! It is very cool. The point of it is to watch your plants grow - it takes a picture at set intervals, that you can turn into a video. We had fun with it on Christmas day.
Unfortunately, I couldn't find anyone to do a full on stop animation movie with me. This was the best I could do all on my own! (starts at about 16 seconds in)
Jan 4, 2011
When Life Gives You Lemons...
...hope it is in the form of a Lemon Tree!!
A Christmas gift from one of the two best sisters in the world came in the mail today:
The box - who knew lemon trees c
Perish-Ah-Ble. Must be Italian.
Ta-da! Mini Meyer Lemon Tree. I don't know how long it will take until it actually makes lemons. Anyone else ever grow a lemon tree?
A Christmas gift from one of the two best sisters in the world came in the mail today:
The box - who knew lemon trees c
Perish-Ah-Ble. Must be Italian.
Ta-da! Mini Meyer Lemon Tree. I don't know how long it will take until it actually makes lemons. Anyone else ever grow a lemon tree?
Jan 3, 2011
A Thousand Words
They say a picture is worth a thousand words. Well, with today's picture, I would like to tell you exactly what (some of) those 1000 words are. Or were, as the case may be.
Grandpa: Yay! Picture time! I’ll just take a seat right here.
Mom: If I tilt my head and smile just so, it will totally look like I’m happy.
Dad: These red shoes were totally a mistake
Brenna: I don’t think I like this.
Grandma: Who is that over there? They look familiar.
Mom: And the blue shoes are light and breezy.
Dad: But at least I have my totally awesome calculator watch on*!
Brenna: I don’t. I don’t like this.
Grandma: Is that Mitch and Sylvia Smith over there?
Mom: And only happy people wear blue shoes.
Brenna: I. Am. Not. Happy.
Dad: Go ahead, anyone – ask me a math question. Because I can totally answer it.
Grandma: I thought they were vacationing in Florida.
Brenna: Noooot Haaaapppppy.
Dad: My calculator watch is proof that the future is going to be good.
Grandma: Man, I wish we were in Florida, instead of sitting by this dreary brown river.
Brenna: I want candy.
Mom: And the smile plus the blue shoes? That should convince everyone that I am happy.
Brenna: And a puppy.
Grandma: I’m going to demand we go to Florida next year. I’ve had enough of the Midwest, and these bugs.
Dad: Imagine all the other things we’ll be able to strap to our wrists someday!
Brenna: Put me down.
Mom: Very happy!
Brenna: Put me down.
Grandma: Oh, no! They’re walking this way!
Brenna: Put me down.
Dad: Like radios!
Brenna: If you don’t put me down RIGHT NOW, I am going to start screaming.
Mom: Never mind the frizz-inducing heat…
Brenna: I’ll give you ten seconds…
Dad: And televisions!
Brenna: Ten…
Grandma: I can’t let Sylvia see me with my hair like this. There are no reliable salons in Minnesota, so my hair is a fright. This bandanna was the best I could do.
Brenna: Nine…
Mom: ...the fact that my in-laws are in town...
Brenna: Eight…
Dad: And phones!
Brenna: Seven…
Grandma: No! Don’t look at me, don’t look at me!
Mom: …the fetus fighting for supremacy over my body…
Dad: And maybe even computers!
Brenna: Six…
Grandma: Oh, good, they’re starting to turn around.
Dad: No, not computers. They’ll never be small enough to carry.
Brenna: Five…
Mom: …this darn toddler, who I bet is going to go ballistic any second…
Brenna: Four…
Grandma: No, no, no! They’re stopping again! We need to get out of here before they see me!
Brenna: Three…
Dad: But how totally awesome would it be to be able to carry around a whole computer?
Brenna: I did warn you…
Dad: But for now, seriously? How cool is my watch calculator?
Mom: …or my husband, who has a crazy calculator strapped to his wrist.
Brenna: Three…
Mom: No, I am happy.
Grandma: Kris, you’d better make sure that girl stays quiet or surely they’ll walk over here and try to talk to us.
Brenna: Two…
Mom: See? I’m smiling!
Brenna: One...
Grandpa: Maybe if I keep sitting here, no one will realize I’m with them
*Disclaimer: I'm not certain that my dad actually has his calculator watch on here. But I know he had one later in my life, so I'm just going to assume this was it.
Jan 2, 2011
Coping Mechanism or Passive Aggressive Proclamation?
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Jan 1, 2011
New Years: Traffic and Resolutions
It's 2011!
Time for new resolutions to be resolutely resolved, or for old resolutions to be picked up, dusted off and put back on the shelf and re-resolved.
In the past few years, I've abstained from resolving, safe in the knowledge that I can't keep a resolution beyond about the time it takes me to say the words, "This year I will..." This year, however, I've decided to bring back the resolutions! Something about it being a new decade and all. 2011! It's almost the teens! Everything is new and different!
Resolution #1: Make Resolutions this year. DONE! See? How hard was that??
Resolution #2: Blog today. DONE! I'm on a roll!
Resolution #3: Post a picture to my blog every day. So far, so good (see below)
For a while (about 10 minutes, to be exact), I thought it would be fun to resolve to make a new resolution every day this year, and then keep track of how long I actually kept them. Then I decided that was a stupid idea. Then I proceeded to berate myself for having such a stupid idea in the first place. Then I resolved to stop berating myself for stupid resolution ideas.
Resolution #4: Stop berating myself for stupid resolution ideas.
I've about resolved myself out now. I think I will try to post pictures every day, though. I thought about doing it on Facebook - you know, the whole 365 days of pictures thing. But I felt that may be too much picture-posting on Facebook, and may make me come off as a bit... over-zealous. But what is the point of a blog, if not to be a place of self-aggrandizing hubris-ness? Hubrosity?
So, without any further ado, or any further resolutions, my picture of the day:
Time for new resolutions to be resolutely resolved, or for old resolutions to be picked up, dusted off and put back on the shelf and re-resolved.
In the past few years, I've abstained from resolving, safe in the knowledge that I can't keep a resolution beyond about the time it takes me to say the words, "This year I will..." This year, however, I've decided to bring back the resolutions! Something about it being a new decade and all. 2011! It's almost the teens! Everything is new and different!
Resolution #1: Make Resolutions this year. DONE! See? How hard was that??
Resolution #2: Blog today. DONE! I'm on a roll!
Resolution #3: Post a picture to my blog every day. So far, so good (see below)
For a while (about 10 minutes, to be exact), I thought it would be fun to resolve to make a new resolution every day this year, and then keep track of how long I actually kept them. Then I decided that was a stupid idea. Then I proceeded to berate myself for having such a stupid idea in the first place. Then I resolved to stop berating myself for stupid resolution ideas.
Resolution #4: Stop berating myself for stupid resolution ideas.
I've about resolved myself out now. I think I will try to post pictures every day, though. I thought about doing it on Facebook - you know, the whole 365 days of pictures thing. But I felt that may be too much picture-posting on Facebook, and may make me come off as a bit... over-zealous. But what is the point of a blog, if not to be a place of self-aggrandizing hubris-ness? Hubrosity?
So, without any further ado, or any further resolutions, my picture of the day:
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My drive to work this morning! Ta-da! NO traffic! Turns out working on New Year's day is pretty awesome. Well. Not the working part, per se, but the driving to work part. Everyone else is home asleep, missing all these lovely New Year's Wide Open Roads. And New Year's Rain. (Which, it turns out, is just as wet as last year's rain.)
Oct 5, 2010
4 Days to Go: How to Build a Photo Backdrop, the Brenna Way
Let me start this post by saying that I lost my wallet this morning. Lost. Gone. Well... That's not exactly true. I know where I left it, but it isn't there anymore. So I guess you could say that it was stolen. It just happens that it was stolen from the ground near gas pump number 9 at the Arco station in Vacaville. Cause that is where I left it.
Sigh.
I needed gas, so I went to the gas station. They had taken the little lock thing-a-ma-bob off the handle that locks it in the on position and I needed to readjust my hand, so I put my wallet on the roof. After the tank was filled, I put my gas cap on, got in the car and drove away. My sister and I wondered what that weird sound was as I accelerated away from the pump, but decided to ignore it.
Until an hour later, when I realized that that weird sound was my wallet falling off my car.
Sigh.
Anyway. This post is not about my stupidity, or the process of canceling all your credit/debit cards, or about my loss of a little faith in humanity since the wallet is totally MIA and not turned into the gas station. Or how totally inconvenient this is to be happening 4 days before the wedding. Nope. This post is about a photo backdrop, and how to build it. The Brenna Way.
Step 1: Decide you need a backdrop for your "faux"to booth.
Step 2: Wait until 4 days before the wedding to build it.
Step 3: Glance at some DIY Instructions online, then head to Home Depot*
* To fully experience the Brenna way, first lose your wallet, so you have to go to the bank and take out a wad of cash after convincing the teller that you are who you say you are despite the lack of ID.
Step 4: Buy supplies, including 10 foot long sections of PVC pipe.
Step 5: Carry supplies out to car, all nonchalantly like you are always going to Home Depot to buy 10 foot segments of PVC, what about it?
Step 6: Realize that you have NO IDEA how to lower the back seats to extend the storage space of your trunk.
Step 7: Try to pull really hard on the seats, hoping brute force will make them fold down.
Step 8: Realize that even though your arms are stronger after 4 weeks of boot camp, they are not Hulk arms.
Step 9: Pull out the PVC pipe cutter you bought at Home Depot.
Step 10: Despite reading through the two lines of instructions several times, be unable to make the PVC pipe cutter work.
Step 11: Go back into Home Depot (leaving your 10 foot sections of PVC pipe tucked in the shadow of your car) to complain that you got a dud PVC pipe cutter.
Step 12: Have the teenaged store clerk show you how the PVC pipe cutter actually works.
Step 13: Leave the store, shame faced. (It helps if during steps 5-12, there is a gaggle of school aged kids about 20 feet away selling chocolate bars as a fundraiser.)
Step 14: Kneel down in the Home Depot parking lot and start cutting PVC pipe.
Step 15: Have a very Nice Chinese Man (I'm not being generalistic about Asians here, I know he was Chinese because he had a plethora of Chinese doo-dads hanging in his car) rush up and tell you "No, no, no. Don't cut the pipe here! Extend your trunk!" And then show you how to do it. And, if you're lucky, said Nice Chinese Man won't even laugh at you.
Step 16: Fight back the urge to hug Nice Chinese Man for being so nice.
Step 17: Put your two 8-foot sections, and one 10-foot sections of PVC pipe in the back of your car.
Step 18: Drive home, unload car. Grab camera
Step 19: Wine.
Step 20: Follow the DIY instructions you saw online.
Step 21: Do the ONLY smart thing you've done all day, and label the pieces of the frame.
Step 22: Add the Ikea curtains you bought weeks ago when you planned on getting this project out of the way super quickly. Admire your work.
Step 23 (optional): Use the new photo backdrop to hide the mess in your family room.
(The mess before the backdrop)
That's it! Now you too can build your own backdrop. The Brenna Way!!!
Sigh.
I needed gas, so I went to the gas station. They had taken the little lock thing-a-ma-bob off the handle that locks it in the on position and I needed to readjust my hand, so I put my wallet on the roof. After the tank was filled, I put my gas cap on, got in the car and drove away. My sister and I wondered what that weird sound was as I accelerated away from the pump, but decided to ignore it.
Until an hour later, when I realized that that weird sound was my wallet falling off my car.
Sigh.
Anyway. This post is not about my stupidity, or the process of canceling all your credit/debit cards, or about my loss of a little faith in humanity since the wallet is totally MIA and not turned into the gas station. Or how totally inconvenient this is to be happening 4 days before the wedding. Nope. This post is about a photo backdrop, and how to build it. The Brenna Way.
Step 1: Decide you need a backdrop for your "faux"to booth.
Step 2: Wait until 4 days before the wedding to build it.
Step 3: Glance at some DIY Instructions online, then head to Home Depot*
* To fully experience the Brenna way, first lose your wallet, so you have to go to the bank and take out a wad of cash after convincing the teller that you are who you say you are despite the lack of ID.
Step 4: Buy supplies, including 10 foot long sections of PVC pipe.
Step 5: Carry supplies out to car, all nonchalantly like you are always going to Home Depot to buy 10 foot segments of PVC, what about it?
Step 6: Realize that you have NO IDEA how to lower the back seats to extend the storage space of your trunk.
Step 7: Try to pull really hard on the seats, hoping brute force will make them fold down.
Step 8: Realize that even though your arms are stronger after 4 weeks of boot camp, they are not Hulk arms.
Step 9: Pull out the PVC pipe cutter you bought at Home Depot.
Step 10: Despite reading through the two lines of instructions several times, be unable to make the PVC pipe cutter work.
Step 11: Go back into Home Depot (leaving your 10 foot sections of PVC pipe tucked in the shadow of your car) to complain that you got a dud PVC pipe cutter.
Step 12: Have the teenaged store clerk show you how the PVC pipe cutter actually works.
Step 13: Leave the store, shame faced. (It helps if during steps 5-12, there is a gaggle of school aged kids about 20 feet away selling chocolate bars as a fundraiser.)
Step 14: Kneel down in the Home Depot parking lot and start cutting PVC pipe.
Step 15: Have a very Nice Chinese Man (I'm not being generalistic about Asians here, I know he was Chinese because he had a plethora of Chinese doo-dads hanging in his car) rush up and tell you "No, no, no. Don't cut the pipe here! Extend your trunk!" And then show you how to do it. And, if you're lucky, said Nice Chinese Man won't even laugh at you.
Step 16: Fight back the urge to hug Nice Chinese Man for being so nice.
Step 17: Put your two 8-foot sections, and one 10-foot sections of PVC pipe in the back of your car.
Step 18: Drive home, unload car. Grab camera
Step 19: Wine.
Step 20: Follow the DIY instructions you saw online.
Step 21: Do the ONLY smart thing you've done all day, and label the pieces of the frame.
Step 22: Add the Ikea curtains you bought weeks ago when you planned on getting this project out of the way super quickly. Admire your work.
Step 23 (optional): Use the new photo backdrop to hide the mess in your family room.
(The mess before the backdrop)
That's it! Now you too can build your own backdrop. The Brenna Way!!!
Aug 27, 2010
43 Days to Go: Invitations - Now With Secret Spy Action!
Unless you happened to open our invitation near a Wood's lamp, in a skating rink, on Disney's Haunted Mansion ride, or some other place featuring black light, there was one part of it that was kept hidden to you.
It turns out that I'm spying on all of our guests. Or, tracking them, really. Because I learned from other brides, that one day, this would happen:
The guest who forgets to include their name, or whose writing is... difficult to decipher. I am inviting several doctors, so the latter is expected, right?
These RSVP's both came today. I was so excited! Time for my Spy Skillz!! Granted, I easily figured out who the top one was from, based on the cancellation location, and the fact that I recognize the handwriting from years of birthday and Christmas greetings. And I did eventually figure out the chicken scratch on the bottom card, too, it just took a few seconds.
Nevertheless, I was happy to get the chance to use my spy tools. During the invitation-making process, I got a pen that has invisible ink on one end, and a black light on the other end. I am trying to remember where I got the pen, but I'm having a brain freeze at the moment. It was a $2 pen that I bought from an online Chinese store. Hmm. I wonder if it has lead in it?
Any how, check out the pen at work:
Oh, yeah! Numbers 41 and 55 - you can't hide from me!!!
And for anyone keeping track: We've received about 25% of our RSVPs (our guests rock!) and we are at 83% acceptance rate. This is shaping up to be a big wedding, people. Bring your dancing shoes!
It turns out that I'm spying on all of our guests. Or, tracking them, really. Because I learned from other brides, that one day, this would happen:
The guest who forgets to include their name, or whose writing is... difficult to decipher. I am inviting several doctors, so the latter is expected, right?These RSVP's both came today. I was so excited! Time for my Spy Skillz!! Granted, I easily figured out who the top one was from, based on the cancellation location, and the fact that I recognize the handwriting from years of birthday and Christmas greetings. And I did eventually figure out the chicken scratch on the bottom card, too, it just took a few seconds.
Nevertheless, I was happy to get the chance to use my spy tools. During the invitation-making process, I got a pen that has invisible ink on one end, and a black light on the other end. I am trying to remember where I got the pen, but I'm having a brain freeze at the moment. It was a $2 pen that I bought from an online Chinese store. Hmm. I wonder if it has lead in it?
Any how, check out the pen at work:
Oh, yeah! Numbers 41 and 55 - you can't hide from me!!!And for anyone keeping track: We've received about 25% of our RSVPs (our guests rock!) and we are at 83% acceptance rate. This is shaping up to be a big wedding, people. Bring your dancing shoes!
Aug 25, 2010
45 Days to Go: Excuses for Extraordinariness, and the Most Extra-Ordinary Experience of All Time
As the wedding draws ever nearer, I find myself taking a step back to get a look at the big picture of this whole planning process. This is mostly out of necessity - I have had a lot of discrete projects I've been working on, and now I need to figure out how everything actually fits together!
One thing that I have come to realize is that I am using the wedding as an excuse. Much as brides use the "you only get married once" excuse to buy crazy expensive dresses. That is something I swore I would not do. But, I guess I was referring only to the dress part. Because it turns out, the wedding has been an excuse for a LOT of things.
But, well, I think that they are all good things. Things like:
- Inviting (almost) all of the coolest people I know to a giant party
- Having said giant party in one of the most beautiful places on earth
- Spending hours learning a new craft (working with paper and Gocco!)
- Using the honeymoon to explore an entirely new part of the world, as well as testing the limits of my physical endurance.
- Going to the dentist
- Working out more and going to Boot Camp (starting next month!)
- Getting microdermabrasion
- Learning the names of Marc's relatives
- Finally getting fitted for a bra
See? All good things! And though many things require money, I don't feel guilty about that. At least not as guilty as I would about blowing several thousand on a dress.
And, just this past Monday, Marc and I had the chance to do one of the MOST amazing things I have ever done. And, people? I have been sky diving.
After many hours debating it (mostly in my head), we decided to sign up for the Wedding Ring Workshop. This was started by a British jeweler. A friend challenged him to help a couple make their own wedding rings. And it worked. And now the experience has reached the US! There are a handful of places across the country, and luckily one of those places was in Oakland.
So, Monday morning, Marc and I met up with Alba Urbina in her workshop to MAKE OUR WEDDING RINGS. With our own four hands. Well. Six hands, because we really couldn't do the whole thing alone.
Wanna see some pictures? You know you do. I posted a ton on our wedding page, but here are some highlights!!
Getting started. We wore leather aprons because we were about to play with fire.
The gold! I guess this is what happens to all that gold that people send in to those "Send us your gold" places... We were able to include a small shaving of one of Marc's grandfather's rings in each bowl of gold.
That's me with a blow torch! And precious metal!
Pouring the ingot. For some reason, this part made me think of Lord of the Rings.
Both of our ingots. I made Marc's ring, and he made mine.
Milling the ingots - stretching them out, basically, by rolling them through metal plates.
After a little milling, we'd anneal the metal so it didn't get too brittle during the stretching process. The gold would get red hot. It looked like a Hot Tamale.
After several rounds of milling and annealing, we put the stretched out ingot into a "half round" mold slot on the milling machine and ran that through a few times, until we ended up with the basic design of Marc's ring! Mine stayed squared, and had an impression made in the center with a brass plate.
We cut off one end, to make one flat surface. Here's Marc cutting mine. That's GOLD he's cutting. With gold saw dust!
Then we used a rawhide hammer to bang that bar into a ring shape! It took a lot of concentration, apparently, if you believe the look on my face. After it was in a ring shape, we cut the other end to get the ring to the right size.
Then we soldered the two ends together! There was a lot of flame involved in this whole process.
Next came a lot of sanding and polishing.
And, voila! We're done! A mere 8 hours later... Phew. Alba told us this process takes her about an hour, and that's when she's making several rings at a time!
Close up of the finished product! Marc's on the left, mine on the right.
Here's the wonderful Alba, right before one tricky part on Marc's ring. We ran into a few snags, but she has been doing this for 20 years, and didn't break a sweat (at least not that we saw!) and did some quick thinking. In the end, we ended up with two amazing and totally unique rings. I love them!!
This was not an inexpensive experience, but, as I've already established, I'm willing to use the wedding as an excuse! No regrets for this one, either!
One thing that I have come to realize is that I am using the wedding as an excuse. Much as brides use the "you only get married once" excuse to buy crazy expensive dresses. That is something I swore I would not do. But, I guess I was referring only to the dress part. Because it turns out, the wedding has been an excuse for a LOT of things.
But, well, I think that they are all good things. Things like:
- Inviting (almost) all of the coolest people I know to a giant party
- Having said giant party in one of the most beautiful places on earth
- Spending hours learning a new craft (working with paper and Gocco!)
- Using the honeymoon to explore an entirely new part of the world, as well as testing the limits of my physical endurance.
- Going to the dentist
- Working out more and going to Boot Camp (starting next month!)
- Getting microdermabrasion
- Learning the names of Marc's relatives
- Finally getting fitted for a bra
See? All good things! And though many things require money, I don't feel guilty about that. At least not as guilty as I would about blowing several thousand on a dress.
And, just this past Monday, Marc and I had the chance to do one of the MOST amazing things I have ever done. And, people? I have been sky diving.
After many hours debating it (mostly in my head), we decided to sign up for the Wedding Ring Workshop. This was started by a British jeweler. A friend challenged him to help a couple make their own wedding rings. And it worked. And now the experience has reached the US! There are a handful of places across the country, and luckily one of those places was in Oakland.
So, Monday morning, Marc and I met up with Alba Urbina in her workshop to MAKE OUR WEDDING RINGS. With our own four hands. Well. Six hands, because we really couldn't do the whole thing alone.
Wanna see some pictures? You know you do. I posted a ton on our wedding page, but here are some highlights!!
Getting started. We wore leather aprons because we were about to play with fire.
The gold! I guess this is what happens to all that gold that people send in to those "Send us your gold" places... We were able to include a small shaving of one of Marc's grandfather's rings in each bowl of gold.
That's me with a blow torch! And precious metal!
Pouring the ingot. For some reason, this part made me think of Lord of the Rings.
Both of our ingots. I made Marc's ring, and he made mine.
Milling the ingots - stretching them out, basically, by rolling them through metal plates. 
After a little milling, we'd anneal the metal so it didn't get too brittle during the stretching process. The gold would get red hot. It looked like a Hot Tamale.
After several rounds of milling and annealing, we put the stretched out ingot into a "half round" mold slot on the milling machine and ran that through a few times, until we ended up with the basic design of Marc's ring! Mine stayed squared, and had an impression made in the center with a brass plate.
We cut off one end, to make one flat surface. Here's Marc cutting mine. That's GOLD he's cutting. With gold saw dust!
Then we used a rawhide hammer to bang that bar into a ring shape! It took a lot of concentration, apparently, if you believe the look on my face. After it was in a ring shape, we cut the other end to get the ring to the right size. 
Then we soldered the two ends together! There was a lot of flame involved in this whole process.
Next came a lot of sanding and polishing.
And, voila! We're done! A mere 8 hours later... Phew. Alba told us this process takes her about an hour, and that's when she's making several rings at a time!
Close up of the finished product! Marc's on the left, mine on the right.
Here's the wonderful Alba, right before one tricky part on Marc's ring. We ran into a few snags, but she has been doing this for 20 years, and didn't break a sweat (at least not that we saw!) and did some quick thinking. In the end, we ended up with two amazing and totally unique rings. I love them!!This was not an inexpensive experience, but, as I've already established, I'm willing to use the wedding as an excuse! No regrets for this one, either!
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