Almighty Transportation

Hallelujah! I have a found an airline that doesn't feel like a death trap. Virgin America, thank you for making me feel comfortable and relaxed while flying through the air at 30,000 feet.  Your interior design, courteous staff, leather seats, deluxe TV screens, snacks, and adult beverages made our 5 hour flight pleasant. And I barely noticed any turbulence. I don’t know how you do it Virgin America, but keep up the good work.

And tell your competitors they need to get a clue. I probably spent $60 extra bucks on the plane between the movies and drinks. I would do this on any airline that offered such goods. I think it would be easy for other airlines to be more profitable if they had a better product. Hello! It’s not rocket science is it? You need to sell something that’s worth selling. A+ Virgin America. You restored my faith in the notion that air travel can be something other than a nightmare.

And National Car Rental, I’ve got a few positive remarks for you too. I love picking out my own car from the lot. I love it even more when the lot we reserved was sold out and we were told to pick any car from the “premium”, "members only" lot. Free upgrade? Thanks! Instead of a regular midsize sadan, Jay and I got to cruise through Sonoma in a sweet sports car. The 2011 Hyundai Sonata. I’ve been slightly intrigued by their commercials. Jeff Bridges is selling that car and making it sound awesome. And after spending the weekend with the car, I can say, I want one! It felt sporty, luxurious, roomy, practical, and fun. I even liked the white. And the black and tan leather interior and XM radio were another bonus.

All in all, our travels went very well this past trip. Woohoo.

My Suitcase...

and I have become quite good friends. I love my suite case. I got this one right before my first trip aboard, when I went to London. And we’ve been good pals ever since. We've been pretty busy this summer.

I thought my suitcase looked quite distinguished this morning while waiting for the metro. The morning light was pretty strong today. So I snapped a photo. A nice little portrait of my traveling buddy. He looks strong and proud, right? I do realize my suitecase has now been referred to as a person. And I think that's OK. I think I'll name him Eddie. A solid name, chosen after his creater, Eddie Bauer. Maybe Eddie can start a journal? Maybe.

And later today, along with Jay (my other favorite traveling companion) we’re headed to Sonoma. Woo hoo!

TOMORROW

Jay and I are off to Sonoma, California!

We are going to celebrate Jay’s good friend Eric’s wedding. Jay is a groomsmen and I'm so happy Jay gets to be part of such a fantastic love story. We’re excited for Eric and can’t wait to meet his bride, Christina!!! I stole this cute photo of them from their wedding website. They seem so happy and I can't wait to be part of their party!

I also can’t wait to see Sonoma and take in some of this scenery…

And I can’t wait to drink a lot of this….

And I hope I get to see some grapes on a vine. Not sure what season the grapes "bloom" or if that's what you call it when there's grapes on the vine, but either way, I'm pretty excited about it.

We can’t wait to get there!

Realization

So I realize the blog has been a bit heavy with wedding content. My apologies, but it’s kind of tough to get off the topic. As of today, were getting married in 157 days! Crazy if you ask me. But I’m getting excited and there’s lots of planning left to do. Due to the wedding planning, our home improvements, which I use to blog about, have slowed down quite a bit. But hopefully soon, we will get back to work on our home. We did buy new a over head light for the kitchen. Maybe we can get that installed this weekend.  And I promise that when we get back into our house work, I’ll be sure to put up our before and after photos and our stories of triumph over such things as electrical wiring and IKEA instructions.

But in the meantime, this is where we are. I get daily emails about things like this:

There is so much wedding "crap" out there. I got this in an advertisement this morning. First of all, they got our date wrong. We're getting married March 24, 2012. And not sure we’re going the whole “our names on napkins” route, but it is kind of cool seeing our name on stuff.

How great is this?!

http://www.bing.com/videos/watch/video/building-lights-assist-marriage-proposal/20o1jt86

I love the pop chips that he pulls from her hand! But it does make me wonder if this whole thing was sponsored by the great chip company. Hmmmm. Either way, I love it.

It also makes me think of the day when Jay and I got engaged. Probably one of the sweetest moments of my life. It's one of my favorite memories. Here's a couple shots from our day. We were painting in our new condo on a sunny Sunday afternoon, when Jay surprised me. It was very unplanned and natural and surprising!

And then he gave me the most beautiful ring in the world. No kidding. I couldn't be happier. I have never loved a material item more than I love this ring. It's very special because the center diamond belonged to Jay's great grandmother. I really like thinking about his greatgrandmother wearing this exact stone on her finger. I like thinking about how she got the ring, what her husband was like, and how much she probably loved this diamond too. I feel very blessed and I'm very thankful for Jay and everything he brings to my life!

There's a silver lining for you! :)



Our Engagement Photos!

Here are our engagement photos. We loved our photographer. Thank you Willa J Photography! I think the resolution of these photos on my blog aren't as great as on the CD but you can get the idea. All the black and white photos are also available in color and are lovely.

Thanks for looking!