Honeymooooooooners

(Editor's note: I ripped this straight from Jeff's blog. It's a guest post! He did such a good job explaining our honeymoon I thought I'd just steal it and repost it. Thanks babe!)

Brace yourself; I’m going to blog about something other than movies. Those of you who are my Facebook friends may have noticed a flurry of Honeymoon-related status messages.

For all of you scoring at home, there are only 40 days before what the press has dubbed the “Schaible-related Newport, RI social event of the season.” It’s very exciting.

The Plan (South to North):

(London to Chipping Campden to Liverpool to Edinburgh).

London, Liverpool and Edinburgh are all pretty self-explanatory. Chipping Campden is a small market town, part of the Cotswolds – an area characterized by its attractive villages, rolling hillsides and outstanding natural beauty… at least that’s what I’m told.

The Agenda:
London: All the touristy things… you know, ride the London Eye, dodge traffic at Abbey Road, visit Buckingham Palace and Big Ben, check out Shakespeare’s Old Globe, etc. Also, Emily and I have reservations at Gordon Ramsay’s place (remember: I proposed at his NYC restaurant), we have tickets to see Les Misérables and Emily’s pushing something called “high tea.”

Chipping Campden: This is supposed to be our “relaxation” portion of the honeymoon. We’ll be staying at a quaint bed and breakfast. We’ll explore the area, check out a few castles but generally, we’re going to just chill in the English countryside.

Liverpool: Rater than eating up a whole day of mooning with a drive straight to Scotland, we’re going to stop in Liverpool (home of legendary bands like The Coral, Frankie Goes to Hollywood and The Boo Radleys). We’ll be partaking in some Fab Four-inspired tourist traps, no doubt.

Edinburgh: Our final destination is Scotland’s capital city. We haven’t done too much planning for Edinburgh yet, other than booking our B&B (it’s centrally located). We’re going to be missing the world-renowned Edinburgh Festival by a week which is either really disappointing (it’s supposed to be awesome) or a great relief (apparently the population of the city more than triples), depending how you look at it.

I forgot to mention a source of much Werchadlo-anxiety… I’m going to be driving much of the journey. We pick up a rental car the last day in London and drop it off in Edinburgh. There are no guarantees but I’m hoping the vehicle looks a bit like this:



Yeah baby.

Hang ups

I promised you some movie reviews and I strive not to disappoint my faithful readers. I'll run through the rentals first, since none of them were particularly impressive.

He's Just Not That Into You -- This was one of those movies that I totally wanted to see, but didn't want to admit it. It also came out in February and since Jeff and I saw 11 movies in January, I think we were feeling the $$ pinch of seeing that many movies in one month. I'm a sucker for movie with star power, and since I wasn't expecting too much, I actually sort of liked this movie? Was it revolutionary? No. But it was a good enough rom-com with lots of leading ladies. They heavily ripped off plots from SATC (not surprising) and there were plenty of stereotypes to go around, but it was good enough. (Side note: I feel like people are always saying Jennifer Anniston isn't a good actress, but I sort of like her style. She has a niche, and it's always some sort of offshoot of Rachel, but I enjoy her in movies. There, I said it.) Final Ranking: Just under Three Werschaibles.

The Day the Earth Stood Still: Bwahahahaha. We just HAD to watch this. Even if this movie didn't have the wooden acting of Keanu (which I actually don't mind, it's his thing, ya know?) it had wayyy too much crap going on to work. I won't even go into the plot because it was so ridiculous, there was absolutely NO suspense, it was just stupid. But this movie had no chance for me because you can't take John Hamm and Kyle Chandler out of the little TV world I have for them and put them in a movie about an alien invasion. I kept wanting Chandler to say, "Now, if we can get Riggins sober, I think we can run him right at this giant glowing orb and we actually have a chance to win this thing!" and Hamm saying, "It's your future. It's your past. It's all you never knew you wanted..." while showing a slideshow of the aliens. Am I right? Final Ranking: One and a half Werschaible.

Valkyerie and Miracle at St. Anna: Unimpressed and didn't finish. Not worth ranking.

Which brings me to the movie that's all the rage right now...

The Hangover.

It's funny, if I had written this right after I had seen it I might have written something different. I could easily put on my feminist cap and temper my humor about bitchy girls with glasses and hookers with a heart of gold and the use of the 'F' word (not that one, the one that relates to people), but ya know what, I'm going to let it go in the spirit of eye-rollers everywhere because this movie WAS really funny.

Zach Galifianakis was as good as everyone said he is. I had followed his "Between Two Ferns" short on Funny or Die (which you can check out here) so I knew he had the goods. Ed Helms I love from 'The Office' although I'm not sure he fit in here. Bradley Cooper was ... hot. Seriously, where did he come from? We'll come back to that.

This movie has kept me laughing in retrospect, and we'll definitely rent, if not buy this movie. Doesn't knock 'I Love You, Man' off the top of the comedy list for the year, but it's definitely up there.

Final Ranking: Three-and-a-half Werschaibles.

My love affair with Bradley Cooper throughout this movie got me thinking about my Top 5. Of course, my fellow blogger Jessica just touched on this topic on her lovely blog today, breaking it down list style, so I had to bring that over here. I really had to think about this! In Jessica's words "it hurts to narrow down, it does! these imaginary crushes!" Touche, Jessica, touche.

Let's get started. In no particular order.

1. Brandon Flowers -- I've touched on this before, but I definitely had to pencil in B-Flo as the musician on this list. Even if I didn't love the Killers so much, which I do, I think he'd still be here. You rock that eyeliner, girl, I don't hate it!

2. Tim Riggins -- er, Taylor Kitsch. He's so perfect on Friday Night Lights that I sometimes feel like he's a real person and I want to transfer to Dillon HS. No, that's not lame. Hey, shut up!

3. James Franco -- I never noticed him until I saw Milk and yeesh. He's like the new and improved Johnny Depp, who would have been an entry on this list a few years ago.

4. Tom Brady -- I know, I know. This is not helping my sports cred (What sports cred? Yes, thanks, I'll make that joke for you). And I know he's seems a little too perfect, a little too 'All-American' but I was in the interview room with him after the Patriots playoff game a few years ago, and let me tell you, he had everyone in that room charmed. I saw a few 40-year-old sports writers swoon.  I'm serious. He's for real charming.

5. Bradley Cooper -- My top-5 always has a spot reserved for 'Guy I Find Hot Right Now." This is a fickle spot, but right now Cooper has it.

Jeff will probably be surprised not to see my man Brad Pitt on this list. It was a hard omission, it was. I fell in love with BP after watching 'Fight Club' and he's definitely honorary No. 6. It hurts to leave him off here.

Some other honorable mentions: The standards -- Clooney, DiCaprio, Depp. John Hamm, Josh Halloway. Robert Downey Jr. More that I'm sure I'll remember later.... Some offbeats: Michael Cera, Vince Vaughn, Jon Stewart.

Jessica reminds me that OF COURSE I have a true No. 1 and that's my husband to be (in 43 days). My future hubby is seriously good looking, and I say this all the time, he's even better looking now than when we first started dating. (He's going to kill me). I really am lucky... don't believe me?

Yeah, that's what I thought. So I'd love some comments on your top-5s but I believe I might be asking too much from my readers ;)

Jeff's card deserves it's own post

Xmas eve rundown

I wanted to get something up here, as the last blog post isn't much into the Christmas spirit. 

Here's what you need to know since we last chatted:

* Drove a little over 800 miles in a little over 13 hours on Tuesday with Jeff and my brother. The destination? Summerville, South Carolina a.k.a. my mom's house.

* Jeff's parents come in, via train (yes from upstate New York) at 5 a.m. I'm up by 6:30 to greet them.

* Everyone goes out to Charleston for historic carriage ride. I stay home and work. Scowling ensues. 

* We head off to church. Jeff puts me in a good mood by joking with me in church. Of course in between serious Christian reflection, we also admire the various haircuts of the residents of Summerville. Also -- clothing choices. 

I watch the man in front of me pick his wedgie a different way each time he gets up. The one leg slider-outer, the leg wiggle, the grabbing the back pocket maneuver. You ain't foolin' me!

Re: Jeff singing in church. He was really utilizing the falsetto. For instance:

Jeff: "I got the Amens here."

Me: ::Rolls eyes::

A-men. A-men. A-men.

Jeff: "Nailed it."

* Home for ice cream ... and for me a few more minutes of work. Wrapped a last few presents, signed some cards, felt sleepiness set in. Tomorrow: Christmas morning. Expect a full report.

Some pics:

The families merging. Blurry (left to right): My brother, Jeff's dad, Jeff's mom, Jeff's mouth.

Me, for most of Dec. 24. Working. Blech.

In front of the tree, before church. Love.

Merry Christmas!

*Contented Sighs*

Jeff just gave me an early Christmas present.

"Twas the Night Before Christmas" picture book.

He can't wait until we read it to our kids.

We read it to each other instead, for now.

I can't wait to be his wife.

It's just what I've always wanted!

Jeff and I spent the long weekend at Jeff's parents' house in Albany>Schenectady>Rotterdam, New York. It basically went something like this from Thursday night on: eat, work, eat, mall, eat, mall, eat, mall, eat. Yeah, it was pretty pathetic. It was nice to see Jeff's parents, his sister and his niece though. They are always good for a good meal and a funny story or two. My favorites from this weekend.

1. Jeff, his 10-year old niece Angel, and I are all driving home from the mall. In my head I'm marveling on how great Jeff is with his niece, seeing hearts and day dreaming about what a great dad he'll be. Then this exchange occurred:

Jeff: "Are you nervous about starting middle school next year?"

Angel: "Yeah, a little."

Jeff: "Well, it won't be much different. You'll just have periods."

Me: shoots Jeff a wide-eyed 'what did you just say to your 10-year old niece?' look.

Jeff: "Class periods! I mean class periods!!!"

He'll be mad I shared that story but oh well.

2. Jeff's mom ordering a take out salad without the lettuce. 

As you can see, it was an entertaining weekend. Saturday afternoon, Jeff volunteered to take his niece to a movie and I took the time to do quite a bit of shopping. Along the way I snapped these photos for you still looking for ideas.

How about stylish kimonos for your entire family? I laugh at this display every time I see it in the mall. And I'm not saying you have to be Asian to wear a kimono, but come on, you would laugh at these people in public for trying wayyyy to hard. Or maybe the Beckham's will rock this look in a few months and it will be all the rage. Here's your chance to be ahead of the curve.

What about a ceramic spikey tooth like thingy for your wall? Mantle? Hang off your rear view mirror? Carry in your purse to ward off attackers? Seriously, Pottery Barn, what is this thing?

And of course, mermen village people. If this isn't a WTF Christmas present, I don't know what is. 

What's my all time WTF Christmas present you ask? Well, I say this with all the love in the world, but one X-mas morning I woke up and unwrapped a present from my brother: "Grumpier Old Men." That's right, the sequel. No, my brother and I didn't share any fond memories of the first or second GOM movie. His response: "It's funny!" Oh, Mike.

I was on my way to meet Jeff and Angel after the movie, Gingerbread latte (for Jeff) and snowman cookie (for Angel) in hand, when out of the corner of my eye.... a blue dress at the Limited! In the color I want for my bridesmaids! Well... it's no harm to try it on right?

Well, I did. And I bought it. It was $62 and I checked online and it's only $59 with free shipping. I'm going to meet up with the girls and have them try it on. Hopefully they like it! Here it is on the mannequin: 

Is it the world's most amazing dress? No. Do I like it as much as the one that didn't fit? No. But it's under $60 and it's the color I want, so.... yeah! Let's see how it looks.

Thoughts? Hope you all had a good Thanksgiving!

November 18

You know when, after Halloween sometime, you walk into a mall and it's like Christmas threw up everywhere? There's red, green and silver every where you look and you're thinking, "Damn, when did it become Christmas time?" Then the commercials start soon after, and you're looking at your bank account, budgeting holiday funds, squinting real hard to find Christmas spirit among the ever decreasing number?

I didn't make it to the mall. Sometime last week, Christmas got sick all over my apartment.

My name is Emily, and I'm the wife-to-be of a Christmas fanatic.

He broke out the Advent calender a two weeks ago. He bought this thing last year and spent many nights crafting tiny crayon and construction paper "instructions" ... he didn't quite finish all 25 because they got increasingly complicated. He finished them a few days ago.

The Advent calendar.

OK, I sort of love the penguin. It's one of my favorites.

The snowman ain't that bad, either.

I had no idea he was such an artist! ;)

Apparently, this is what I'll be doing Dec. 18.

Last Thursday, after I returned home from urgent care, I passed out on the couch due to lack of sleep and a double dose of benadryl. When I woke up, I felt like I was in Santa's workshop.

I don't even know where he got some of this stuff! There are at least a dozen snowmen in my house, and I don't know how they got here. We have a tiny shovel on the wall that says "Snow Days Welcome" (they aren't) and Jeff came home a few nights ago with a Santa doormat. "It was only three dollars!!!"

We have stockings, too.

And then there it was. The Christmas tree stand. Empty.

"When do you want to go get the tree?" he asked, clearly excited. "We won't be here that long to enjoy it."

"We're not leaving to go to South Carolina until the 23rd of December!" I said.

Listen, I love Christmas. I get annoyed when people say it's a commercial holiday. I like spending time with the people I love. I commit a good deal of time to thinking about thoughtful presents. It's one of my favorite things to do.

But Christmastime starts, for me, the day after Thanksgiving. 

Jeff is making me feel like the Grinch. And I don't mean to be. It's just ... it's just too early.

It's one of the things I love about him though. He gets SO EXCITED about little things. It's cute. It really is.

But it will be cuter on November 28. Until then, bah.

What's the deal?

It's 11 days into November and I only have three blog posts. Although it's fun to get comments and know other people are reading, I mostly do this blog to keep my writing skills sharp -- even if they don't seem so at times.

It's not like nothing has been going on in my life, or I'm amazingly busy, but I just can't seem to find the time/motivation to write! I'm required to be at the the computer at all times for work and with a packed google reader, and the TV on, writing in my blog serves as one too many distractions to get the job done. It can be so hard sometimes to work from home!

(I should say right now I am in flannel pajama pants under my blanket, so ... it could be worse.)

So I thought, since I don't have any major blog topics on the horizon, I'd touch on a few things going on in my life, based off my tags.

• Work: For some reason, my work weeks seem to fly by, but at the same time, I feel like I don't get much time off. Is that weird? Maybe it's because, by traditional work week standards, I'm already at "Wednesday" by Monday. So today is already Thursday for me. The weekends don't really feel like weekends because ... well, they aren't. Fortunately, we're more than halfway through the college football and NFL seasons, so relief is on the horizon!
• Wedding: While last week was good because I booked the florist, videographer and super secret vendor, it took a step back when my bridesmaids got their dresses and they didn't fit! Two of them are busting (literally) out of the tops. This Thursday I am taking them to Sueno, a bridal shop in RI that's supposed to be the best at these things ... and also very pricey. I've offered to pay for the alterations, but I'm wondering how much I'm willing to pay -- where it's worth it over returning the dress and starting over. UGH!!!!

         I've also been majorly procrastinating on the STDs. I want to send them out so I can show them to you all!

         How could I forget: WE BOOKED THE HONEYMOON!!!!! Six days in England, two in Scotland. Will give you more details as time goes on, for now we just got the flights.

• Jeff: He's good. :)
• Sports: How bout them 6-3 Patriots?! This Sunday Jeff and I got a chance to go out to watch the game for a bit, which I usually can't do because I work. (I had the most OMG delish Buffalo Chicken Sandwich, that now I can't wait to have again. I'm so sad.) I'm optimistic about New England's chances to win the AFC East, but when did this become such a solid division? Jeff and I were seriously discussing the Dolphins chances of going 10-6. 10-6?!?! They won 1 game last year! A win over the Jets on Sunday should go far towards the push for the title, but losing Adalius Thomas didn't help. It feels like we are injury doomed this year. (Also: Whhyyyyyyy Ty Law on the Jets? Come on!)
• Weekend in Review: Friday night, Jeff and I went to the Celtics-Bucs game in Boston, using tickets Jeff's parents had gotten me for my birthday. It was dually entertaining because the Celts won, and these dudes in our row started a fight with each other. Entertaining stuff which led to the quote of the night: "I spent $175 on that jacket!!" Yeah, they were idiots. Saturday I covered a game for the Globe in the afternoon. I'll be covering a few things this month, as part of a series I'm calling 'Stories to Finance My Wedding.' It's high school playoff stuff, but I think it has broader appeal. As soon as my game was finished I had to drive to Bristol, getting lost finding my hotel, and ended up 10 minutes late for work. I got off around 2:45 a.m., decided I was awake enough to just drive back, checked out of my hotel and ended up home around 4:45 a.m. Sometimes, I just like being ... home. 
• Weight loss: Well Lord knows I'm trying, but I Lord knows I could try harder. I can't seem to hit this one GOAL I've had for months now. There's been weight loss, but not as much as I've hoped. Now that we're coming up on the holidays, my best hope is to lose 1-2 more pounds or at least try and maintain, then hit it HARD after New Year's. I *think* my gym offers a few classes at 9 a.m. each day for free, which I hadn't realized before. Part of that will be trying to push myself to go to bed earlier so I will have enough energy to participate in the morning. I'll keep you updated.

 

Downward facing doofus

Alright, well Yoga was utter FAIL this morning like you all might have suspected. But like the opposite of what George Constanza might say, "I was NOT raised to give up!"

So I arrive all early and stuff and quickly realize everyone knows each other = everyone has taken this yoga class before. Like I've said before, I'm not really concerned about what I look like in front of strangers, but it was still kind of awkward.

The class starts and the heat lamps are blazing and I'm trying my best to balance ... and it quickly becomes apparent that my wrists are not enjoying this class. Not one bit. Every time I go down on them, I feel like they are being stabbed with knives. Not good. 

Getting to about the middle of the class, we're still doing arm stuff and breathing work, and I don't think I'm doing it right because I have the overwhelming feeling like I'm going to either pass out or yack. (The teacher of the class had sent out an email yesterday saying "Yoga is best practiced on an empty stomach." So even though I KNOW that I get sick exercising without eating anything, I go without anyway. I spoke to her after class and she said I could eat a banana or something, just not a FULL meal. Point taken) I get down on the mat and start swigging water, estimating how close the nearest trash can is ... woah. Eventually I felt better and got back in the swing of things.

The leg work was a lot easier for me, naturally, and I actually think I was OK on the balance stuff considering it was my first time. About 2/3 of the way through the session though the AC kicked on full blast to balance out the heat and I ended up cold by the end of class.

So positives: I think I can get better at this, the teacher is really nice, and no one seemed to be visably snickering at me. Also, there were only two "OMMMMMM"s and one Namaste!, which is always fun to say.

The negatives: Wrist pain, wrist pain, wrist pain. Mild embarrassment. 

Overall, I'll definitely be back. Also, it seems the teacher wants to extend the class to an hour and a half for what I presume is no extra $$ so that's cool as well. Bonus! I'll keep you informed of my progress.

****

Back to last night, my berfday. Well, I got a record number of facebook happy birthdays, I am clearly one of the most popular people on the internet. Bummer was I had to work until 8, but then Jeff an I headed out to Applebees (not a lot of options around here) for a big margarita and a brownie sundae. And those are really the only three things I need in life :)

Oh! And he bought me this superfly jacket I had spotted in the Barney's Outlet store at Wrentham a few weeks ago. Even at outlet price it was still too expensive... but ch-check it out!

Oh yeah, that's me in the jacket... and my yoga pants. Did I mention I'm a fashion FAIL too? Oh well, I think the jacket's great! Thanks babe :)

Tonight my dad and my brothers are coming up from Rhodey to take me out to dinner, so that's cool and Friday night is more margaritas with my hubby to be! (Oh by the way, he bought be a birthday card 'To my wife' and plugged in 'soon to be' before every mention. Needless to say, it was a big AWWW moment for me!)

Flying by

So if you discount a brief ::cough:: respite taken between year 1 and year 2 ... today would be Jeff and I's five year anniversary. He told me last night he could probably stand me for another five years ... maybe four.

At this point in a relationship there are really no surprises, so it just comes down to someone you like to spend your time with. I'm still happy to see him come home from work, happy to go out to dinner with him, love going to movies together ... and still can't wait to be his wife.

So, Emily and Jeff, a retrospective (this would be more complete if I had more pics from the beginning on my computer!)

After the ::cough:: respite, we took a trip to Block Island in July 2005. It was amazing and the beginning of Emily and Jeff, the sequel, that is MUCH better than the original. :)

At a Tom Petty concert in 2005.

On my 22st birthday in October 2005!!!

At a Patriots-Bills game in 2005.

In March 2006, I bought two tickets for Jeff and I to visit California (as a Christmas present), to see if we wanted to move there. 

While we were there, we visited Sea World.

Well, we decided to move to California in May 2006, and on the way there, we stopped for an Indians game on Memorial Day.

We also stopped in Denver, to visit my friend Sarah (and have a giant margarita apparently).

Moved in to San Diego, I told Jeff, "There's this place here, called La Jolla, it's supposed to be beautiful." It was!!!

At Ocean Beach in February 2007, when Justin came to visit.

On Valentine's Day 2007, Jeff and I being goons.

For his 24th birthday in Feb. 2007, I scheduled a trip to Arizona for Jeff's first spring training experience!

In September 2007, Jeff and I went to this awesome hotel/spa in Palm Springs. It was so relaxing.

On May 25, 2008. Moments after Jeff proposed. In NYC.

In June 2008 at my cousin's wedding on Block Island. Where it all began?

That was a lot of pics, but I don't get sick of them. I can't wait to take more in more places around the country/world with him :)