Lemongrass Sage

This is my new favorite scent.

When we stayed at the Brown Palace on our wedding night, they provided us, as do most hotels-luxury or not, with little vials of shampoo, conditioner and body wash. The signature scent the Brown Palace uses is from their spa. It is very refreshing. I brought home the small samples of the shampoo, conditioner and lotion and have used them every day since. Maybe it is a reminder of the wedding day and our nuptials, but it is also the perfect blend and scent, not too lemon-y and not too strong. The shampoo cleansed my hair quite well leaving it full of body and not oily or flat. It comes from their spa so you can purchase it there if you would like to try it. I have been trying to find an online link but they do not have it listed on the spa site.

New Phone: Samsung A-900 Sprint

One of the "benefits" of marriage is merging cell plans and taking advantage of the Family Plan. I have a 1000 minute plan and Christy the same, but when I looked at my total usage for the past three months, it was a staggering 200 minute average. That has decreased significantly since my single days. I remember sweating a few months towards the last 5 days of the billing cycle. Now, it is a no brainer. Christy uses Cingular (ATT) and I have been with Sprint for over seven years so we decided to stay with them. I think they both offer reliable cell networks, and a wide choice of phones. Christy, whose current phone is a very antiquated-looking boxy device that has no fun features like, color screen, or camera, does not like fancy phones and states "just get me the bare bones phone, I don't need the flashy." Well, I thought for her blog she would like to have a camera to snap spontaneous pics that may make good topics so we got her a newer version of my present phone. I opted for the new Samsung A-900. It is, as a new phone always is, confusing. There is a music player built in with controls on the top of the phone. The buttons are not as intuitive as my current, but I think over time it will be a much better fit for me. The 1.3 Megapixel camera takes crisper pictures than my last Canon digital camera. I was hoping to hold out for Apple's anticipated launch later this year or mid-2007 of an iPod slash phone slash camera, which you can see what people think they will look like, here. The A900 will do for now. I am going to try the music feature today and will give a report this week. For now, my hope is that once Christy realizes the potential her phone has, that she is not annoying people on the street taking their picture.

Every website since 2001 archived

Ever wonder what your old favorite site looked like back, say, in 2001? This company has been archiving the internet's every page for years. It is fun to type in your domain name, or a domain name you admire to see the evolution of design and content. Our good friends at Gui Galaxy

A must-have for Fall.

The new Koyono BlackCoat keeps your iPod plugged in and hidden but you can control it with the handy built in iPod controls. PLUS it looks dashing.

Keepin' it real wit da shiz nit on da radio, yo!

Dooce says it best

The Groomsman Cake

I had never heard of a Groomsman Cake before. Jinnie and Christy were responsible for it and it made my entire night. Thank you both SO much. What a stable reliable cake!





... crashed!

Nice finger. What was I thinking?

The gents all looked stunning and then there is me.

Three Wedding Photo Highlights

I think Trevor captured it best with these photos.

Mr. and Mrs. Team Gibson

Day 2: Parents and In-Laws arrive

Christy's parents and brother and fiance arrived last night. They had easy trips, from Korea and CT compared to the people who now have to deal with the joyous security lines due to the high alert placed on US Travelers since the foiled UK attacks. Good luck anyone that is coming in from now until Friday. Hopefully they will lower the level once a day has passed. My parents arrive in less than 3 hours. If I can just get over this cold, things will be perfect. Bring on the day!

Day 3: And I catch a cold.

Go figure. I woke up this morning with a sore throat and it has not gone away. It has escalated into a snotty cold. This stinks. I am powerhousing Vitamin C and green tea in hopes it will stave off any further progression. Christy's parents and bro arrive today. Pretty exciting given they have not all been in the same place at the same time for over 5 years. Party on wayne, and party on garth.

An Electrovert, on some level

CNN ran this story about couple-surfing, couples who communicate through blogs, IM-ing and other electronic virtual means. Some have gone on dates where they both listen to a shared iPod, write in their blogs about how one another is feeling at that moment and some, even tell their loved ones things via blogs they would not normally tell them face-to-face. I have seen this in my personal circle and happen to enjoy it. It's like overhearing someone, unbeknownst to them, saying good things about you that they normally do not relay to you, the person that needs to hear it most.

4 Days: A night like none before.

No, not THAT type of night, get your minds out of the gutter.
Last night was one of the best nights ever on Fillmore st. It was gorgeous outside with a cool 76 degree temp blessing us on the patio. I got out a bottle or red wine, put 90.1 NPR classical station on and lit some candles. Christy and I ( and the dogs) sat there for about 3 hours talking and playing ball with Gibson. We called her brother in Korea too, just to check in about his flight schedule. It was so relaxing. I guess we went through almost two bottles of wine, thanks to the help of shower gift that our friend Molly got us. Thanks Molly and Shaun.

____________________

In other news, here is a cool program for you geeks out there. GUI GALAXY posted this new program, Delicious Library, that allows you to catalog all of your DVDs, Books, Music, using your iSight camera to scan the barcodes. Fun easy interface. I tried it out and it is super easy and resourceful. The pay version is $40, but you can use a demo for a certain amount of time to get the hang of it.

Day 5: Time has come today!

Apple just released the MacPro desktop, which replaces the G5 PowerMac tower. Looks pretty awesome at first glance.

Day 7: Cleaning Cleaning Cleaning

I cleaned all day today. Yep, moved the couch out, vacuumed, swiffered and mopped behind it, performed all steps all over the house, under the bed, wiped down blinds with a swiffer cloth ( LOVE the swiffer), pulled out the windows and cleaned both sides and screens, rid the rug, sofa and chair of little bristley dog hairs, de-flea-ed the dogs with Christy's help, washed down the patio, pulled weeds, minor dusting and last but not least, soaked the vacuum tools and cleaned filter.

Yes it was an insane cleaning day and I did not even touch the kitchen or bathroom. There is still tomorrow.

See some of you next week.

Day 8: Outdoor Speakers: Ready for Rehearsal Party

(click on picture for larger view)

When the guests arrive on Friday night for the rehearsal dinner, they will be greeted with rich, crisp jazz music coming from the new speakers I installed this past weekend. People out on the new back patio will also be listening to the music compliments of the rock speakers.

In a post a few days ago, I mentioned the new Yamaha outdoor speakers I got online. Last weekend I mounted them into the brick walls under the patio overhangs. They sound incredible and add so much warmth and noise cover-up to the extraneous neighborhood cacaphony. I think the birds even like listening to Hoobastank and The Verve Pipe. On occasion they have requested some 5150 by Van Halen. Here is a panoramic picture of the speakers mounted on the patio.

Day 9: Composting 101

We actually figured it out that it is NINE Days until the big day. I asked somebody and they said you count the day you are on, plus the event day, so that would make it 10 days, but really it does not matter. Today is the 3rd, and the 12th is the big event, so we will just call it nine days.

When I moved in with Christy just about two years ago, I realized one of the reasons I was going to stay was that she was a composter. I grew up composting and this was a serious thing to me. I remember when my dad would "ask" me to turn the compost. It sucked, turning 3 - 4'x4' bins of manure, rotting grass clippings, fish we bagged from a lake kill, and any and all kitchen organic waste. BUT, as I grew older, and began to taste the benefits of prosperous thriving home-grown veggies, I cherished and respected the effort it took. Keeping a bin or coffee can to hold the kitchen waste was not the tidiest and appealing idea, but my mom used a used gallon ice cream container with no lid. When I was settling in to Christy's house, I decided we needed something similar only a little more presentable. The only thing I had at the time was this:



It was a $3.99 Folgers coffee "can". It came complete with a lid too, which worked perfectly for two years. But after my cubemate Erin and I were talking about how to feed and nurish her new compost bin, she went out the next week and found a canister like this. Not as ingenius as my Folgers can, but much more presentable and appealing, wouldn't you say?
Now we have one as well.

Day 11: iTunes Playlist

I began working on our playlists for the wedding. I have two playlists. One for the opening when people are arriving, and one for after the ceremony while we are drinking and eating. Making playlists is not what it used to be like. It is much easier. Remember back in the days of just cassette recorders? You would wait by the radio for your favorite songs with your recorder set to record with the pause button on so that when the song came on, you could quickly unclick the pause and catch the song on tape with no empty air space. You also had to give the order of your songs a lot more preconceived thought. And if that order did not live up to your expectations, then you would have to start all over. Then came the CD. Recording froma CD was awesome in iteself but there still was more of a discipline to recording from CD to Tape. Nowadays, with iTunes, you can make as many playlists as you want, rearrange the order, burn a CD copy and if down the road the CD got scratched or your buddy heard the CD playing in your car, well you just reburned the same playlist. Move on now to the iPod, it's even easier. You can make playlists for doing yardwork, BBQs, roadtrips, parties, for mornings, for afternoons sitting on the patio, and, for your wedding. Thank you Apple.

Day 12: Reminiscing about Burt Lake 2004

Today is Day 12 in the countdown. I remember the first three months of dating Christy. We started off pretty fast, with me asking her to my friend Kelley's wedding in Omaha after only our third date. Then, she asked me to go on a 9-day roadtrip to Michigan to stay with her friends, Jeff and Cynthia at their families lake house. It was an amazing trip. They are there this week. We miss them and we also wish we were there. It is gorgeous. It is relaxing. It is serene. It is inspiring to be around good people. We are hoping they are doing all of those things. And now, with a new addition.