The Home Bartender

There’s nothing like a breezy 100-degree day to let you know you’re in the middle of summer. Why not roll with it by making the following drinks to help you cool off?

Margarita: Our house favorite. There’s not really a wrong way to make a margarita and I think I’ve only been dissatisfied when it appeared after 3 or 4 glasses we were dropping $6.00 for sour mix. My personal recipe calls for Jose Cuervo with Margaritaville mix and triple sec on the rocks with salt and a lime. If you’re feeling lazy throw a pinch of salt in your drink instead of adding it to the rim. If I’m feeling creative I’ll add a splash of orange juice, coke, or club soda to smooth out the drink. Be careful not to add too much or you’ll ruin everything and you’re family won’t love you anymore. If you’re really looking to spoil yourself, add a shot of Grand Marnier.

Mojito: It really annoys me when something you consider your own suddenly becomes the hottest thing out there and I bring this up because we find ourselves in the summer of the Mojito. This drink can be slightly high maintenance to make at home because you not only need fresh mint leaves, but you have to muddle them in the bottom of your glass with some simple syrup or sugar. Add some ice, light rum, and soda water and you have yourself a refreshing cocktail for the evening. Fun fact, this served as Bethany’s drink of choice at Legal after the wedding.

Sangria: We have been partaking in our fair share of Sangria this summer after discovering a restaurant in the neighborhood with a delicious recipe. Once again there are several ways to produce this cocktail so you can cater it to your favorite fruit flavors. Start with a bottle of red wine, a couple shots of brandy, four shots of triple sec, 2 cups club soda, 2 cups orange juice, and add some fruit slices for fun. Please beware of the dreaded wine headache.

Life is Good: We picked this one up on our Nantucket honeymoon and I recommend not drinking this if you happen to be a single guy out at a bar because the drink will not help you meet women due to it’s pinkish color. Now that the disclaimer is out of the way order a Stoli Razz and Sprite with a splash or cranberry and a Red Bull floater.

Captain Morgan and Pineapple: I’ve been drinking my fair share of these this summer so I figured I’d slip it in. It’s particularly a treat if you find yourself at an outdoor bar.

Please pass along your favorite recipes!!

Closing the Book

As the dust settles and we begin to approach the month mark, I think we’re finally getting used to married life by becoming members of society not focused on building to a 13-month goal. I’m closing the book on the wedding related posts with some of my final thoughts and advice for those planning a wedding in the future.

• Enjoy it and be a part of the process! Bethany definitely led Team Somerville, but I knew what was going on and tried to help out where I could. I know some traditions have the bride doing most of the research, but I urge the guys to offer to chip where they can and at the very least be prepared to give pep talks. Remember there’s no we in me.
• Control the wedding and don’t let the wedding control you. At times you will get flustered (especially in the final month) so be prepared to recognize this and steady the ship. Also, schedule date nights for yourselves to keep your sanity by dedicating two hours to have a nice dinner, catch a movie, or watch mindless TV. I have to admit we found it ironic we chose to see The Breakup on the Monday before the wedding.
• Your guests will make strange requests and no one will be an exception. From family members to friends to people who have recently planned or are planning a wedding you will get questions that have no thought put into them. At some point people need to behave like adults and if they can’t keep up, leave them behind.
• The guest list will be one of the most difficult tasks at hand and we recommend preparing a full rough draft before consulting parental approval. We tried to move a single person to a new table after our list had been completed and after one hour we gave up because we could not make it work. Also, we probably gambled a bit here, but we wanted to promote intermingling at the wedding so we intentionally separated groups to promote socializing. During dinner, Bethany and I peaked at how all the tables were making out and much to our surprise everyone seemed to be doing great.
• Think of your guests. Personally, I think everyone involved with our wedding spent a serious amount of time and effort to make things special for our guests. Our mission statement strived to make everyone feel loved in order to create a positive energy that would take over the wedding. To be more direct, people don’t want to watch a 20-minute speech, a weird entertainment act, or only listen to music after the year 2000. Sure, it’s your day, but if you want it to be a great day you will need anyone’s help.
• If you like something you saw somewhere else, steal it. I think the only place you may want to draw the line here is for your first song, but that’s my personal opinion.

I could go on and on, but we’ll wrap it up there. If anyone has any thoughts or questions on anything we did feel free to contact either of Bethany or myself. I will be offering a break dancing class in August.

See you next post.

The Honeymooners

After thirteen months of intense planning, my beautiful bride and I finally found ourselves at a point where we could simply relax and enjoy our lives together. It’s an odd beginning because you spend so much time and energy hammering out all the details and then everything comes to a screeching halt the day after the wedding. You get so caught up in all the excitement of celebrating your love for each other with all your family and friends it doesn’t occur to you the deadline has arrived. And then you suddenly realize I don’t need to think about wedding planning anymore. It’s done, we’re married so let’s go sit on a beach and enjoy life.

As many of you know I strongly angled for our honeymoon to be the Pirates of the Caribbean Volvo XC90 SUV Treasure Hunt, but I could only swing a week off at the office so we settled on Nantucket instead. Neither of us had ever been to Nantucket and I have to warn everyone even though it can get a bit pricey, I strongly recommend it. This proved to a perfect destination for us because when it comes to vacations we’re pretty low maintenance, as we simply want to kick back, relax and have some good food. We spent our days on the beaches or walking through the picturesque town while at night we ate in restaurants we normally would decide we couldn’t afford followed by drinks around town where we met someone every night to talk to. Mental Note: This usually works very well on your honeymoon because people start buying you free cocktails. Try the local drink Life is Good the next time you’re out. It’s Stoli Raz and Sprite with a splash each of cranberry and Red Bull.

The Ships Inn served as our home for the week and we strongly recommend it to anyone planning a trip and I at least beg you to make a reservation at their excellent restaurant. It’s on Fair Street, the last road before the beginning of downtown Main Street (by the bank), has easy access to the shuttle, and is about a 30-minute walk to the beach. Bethany summed up the coolest part of this location when she indicated when you turn the corner onto the full view of Main Street it feels like you’ve stumbled upon a movie set. You’re on this quiet side street, walk fifty yards, and then you have cobblestones, storefronts, and a thousand people transported from a J Crew catalog.

There’s a large amount of cool people on Nantucket although I found it very intimidating when we first arrived. In the middle of a Sunday afternoon 30% of the guys wear pants in pants and I saw three T-shirts on all Main Street. That’s not a good sign for a Hawaiian shirt wearing lad like myself, but we both compromised as clothing in town became more casual as the week went on. There also appear to be plenty of Clints and Buffys floating around with the attitude of, “I’m rich, leave me alone and get me a Cosmo.” Float a friendly, casual line to a bartender within the first drink and you have a new best friend who will introduce you to the other locals in the bar.

So that’s our story. We’re officially an excited husband and wife and now that we have our perfect honeymoon sadly behind us it’s time to see what the future holds and we hope to have a few more tales in us.

Oh, and Nantucket urban legend says if you somehow find you’ve drank a bottle of wine, champagne, and several vodka tonics the pizza on Broad Street will be the best thing you have ever eaten.

The Wedding, Part II

After the pictures (don’t worry, they’re coming), we made our way over to the reception with the goal of greeting all of our guests as they arrived. As you all know, the first shuttle beat us to Club Longwood and we rolled with it by working the room as we stuffed our faces with scallops wrapped in bacon. After cocktails, our grand entrance and first dance lay ahead of us and we found ourselves ad libbing very quickly because the version of Some Kind Wonderful playing held a much faster beat than our practice sessions. One of my biggest fears for the wedding involved us tripping over each other during our dance, but we ended up hitting all of our spots. I guess practice does make perfect.


Everyone settled in their seats and we were honored to have three excellent speeches made by Bethany’s father, my brother, Chris, and my friend Chris White. In my opinion, all three of our speakers like to and know how to tell stories and sure it’s my wedding, but I feel we had the best group for any wedding I have ever attended. Thank you to all three of you because you each made us feel very special.

Next, we’re on to dinner and what a delicious meal it was. If you didn’t like it you must have some serious taste bud issues. While you were all dining, Bethany and I were sneaking peaks to make sure the tables we put together were talking with each other as planned. We spent a great deal of time arranging the seating with the goal of making sure that everyone would have someone to talk to and the two times we significantly looked all our guests appeared to be enjoying themselves.

Finally, it’s time for the dancing and we would like to thank our DJ, David O’Leary, for doing an excellent job hosting and for putting together an excellent play list even if I did throw him the I Want it that Way curve ball he thought I had been joking about. We did not want to have a fraternity party and the goal was to offer the opportunity for all ages dancing and I think we had everyone up there at one point or another. I am fairly confident of this because I spent most of the 8:30-9:30 hour of hunting out people who had not been out there and engaging them in some dancing.

Well, that’s a not so brief summary of what happened and I think I could even make it longer. When your wedding day arrives, enjoy it, but be prepared for extreme sensory overload and for all your memories to be in fast-forward due to the amount of people celebrating with you. Oh, and we closed down the bar again with my brother, my new father in law and our friend Kyle.

Thanks again to everyone who made this memorable day possible and for everyone who enjoyed the day with us.

The Wedding, Part I

And we’re back.

Once again thank you to all of our friends and family for making our wedding day one to remember. A good amount of people spent a great deal of time and energy to achieve our primary goal of making the day special for all of our guests and we hope you felt pampered. From the menu, the shuttle, the table names, and the booklet you received in the mail we spent a large amount of effort to try and make thing as perfect as possible while adding our personality to the wedding. Several of our guests arrived expecting to have a fantastic time and I think we lived up to the billing. You might not be able to please everyone, but we came pretty darn near close to doing so.

After a pretty controlled final week of errands and adjustments the wedding festivities kicked off with a Friday evening rehearsal followed by dinner at Henrietta’s Table in The Charles Hotel. This group set the tone for the rest of the weekend by bringing positive energy to the cocktail hour and carrying it over to our delicious meal. Thanks to my dad for delivering a meaningful speech and to everyone who met us out at the bar afterwards. And yes, Bethany and I did make it to last call with my brother, Chris W, and Kirsten.

As I walked home with Chris that night, my adrenaline kicked in at full strength which is not good for someone who naturally runs at a high energy level. I did not fall asleep until 4 and woke up somewhere around 7 tossing and turning for a couple of hours as my stomach did cartwheels. I found myself not to be nervous, but just ready to get the day going and the best elixir for this problem is of course to wake up the entire house by blasting The Touch from The Transformers the Movie soundtrack. In reality I still felt very antsy until I went for a walk to pick up our lunch and then a calmness came over me which got me through the day.

I’m fast-forwarding a few hours to the church and I think we had a wonderful ceremony officiated by Father Jack Howard in his spanking new shoes. Thanks to Aunt Liz and Johnny for the readings and most importantly to my cousin Danielle who took full control of the situation once she found herself dangerously close to being cut out of the wedding. The most amazing thing about the wedding is Bethany and I hit all of our spots (except when to kiss each other) because I thought we would forget everything from the night before.

Thank You

Thank you to all our friends and family for celebrating our wedding day with us. We had a wonderful time and hope you did too.

Give us the rest of the week and we'll post a wedding/honeymoon recap and begin to detail our first year adventures.

Pictures will be available in a couple of weeks and please send us anything you may have to share.

Finally, if you need a CD please let me know and I will make a copy although the fancy labels are all gone.

Thanks again and we love you all

Donny's Dance Grooves

Aided by the Boy Band era of the late 90s/early 00’s I have harnessed by own internal dorkitude to develop several signature dance moves. So many in fact, that I often leave an event realizing I forgot to break out all the items in my tool belt. For our wedding, I strived to find a new trick and thought I had settled on an idea after watching one of the best dance contests I’ve ever seen during episode four of The BC. I have no idea how college students pulled this one off, but when I tried to get down and whip my right leg around so it slid under my left I very quickly realized I would need CGI effects to pull it off and that’s a little outside of our budget. So you’re stuck with my same old moves and here’s a look at what you’re in for.

The Timberlake Drop: One of my favorite moves stolen from the ‘N Sync video when JT falls down the shaft. They key to pulling this off is the slow rise after hitting the ground

The Jump rope: Created at the The Burren during a Swinging Johnson’s performance of Eye of the Tiger, it captures the essence of all the Rocky movies wrapped in one. Please stand back for the double dutch portion.

Thriller: Reintroduced into the mainstream after a Donovan McNabb 2004 playoff touchdown, I threw this one down at a wedding that summer. A crowd favorite and works well with Outcast’s Hey Yeah.

The Showstopper: I dreamt this creation up in the shower on the weekend of good friends Ed and Shannon’s wedding. I had been deathly ill and the medication probably helped me with this one although I did have to practice it in the hotel room a few times to make sure I could physically pull it off.

In addition to these signature moves, I have several other standards available. Please let me know if I forgot one of your favorites.

Everybody Dance Now

After the wedding ceremony we’ll all head over to the reception for some cocktails followed by dinner and then the celebratory part of the evening will commence. Or will it? While we have dedicated a significant amount of time planning the reception it might not be the throw it down frat party you may be expecting. Now calm down, there definitely will be a portion of the night dedicated to the younger folks (if you call 30 younger folks), but we have a wide range of ages we need to entertain to make this a wedding to remember.

Hmm…did I use the right choice of words in my last statement? If I’ve learned one thing about my party planning its that you need to be cocky by working the guests to get their excitement level up as well as directly riding people for not attending. The truth of the matter is it takes a great deal of time and energy to put a celebration at any level together. Even then, up until the beginning of the night you have no idea if everything will pay off or if it will all flop like Emily’s Reasons Why Not. Fortunately, I’ve been very lucky in my parties and while I think I know what I’m doing, you never really know what’s going to happen.

So back to the wedding. We have the perfect DJ for our wedding because he’s a normal guy willing to have professional conversations with us instead of slipping into character or insisting we may be compromising his artistic vision. I had a wonderful conversation with him three weeks ago where we discussed the outline for the evening and strongly believe he understands what he needs to do to make this a memorable day for everyone.

We’re going to start slow…very slow at the cocktail hour. If you need to drink three bottles of wine in 30 minutes and pass out in the bathroom then go for it, but we’re going slow with the music so people can get comfortable and catch up with their friends and family. We’ll all then move on to the reception for the usual wedding party entrance, some speeches, dinner, cake cutting, and a couple of other things before opening up the dance floor. Be prepared because will not be opening with AC/DC’s You Shook Me all Night Long. The first portion of the evening will be reserved for what we will be referring to as “All Ages Dancing.” Yes, there will be some slower music where you may need to find a dance partner, but there will also be some quality oldies that definitely have some speed to them. The DJ will then have to gauge how things are going and while I don’t expect him to fix what isn’t broken he eventually will be fazing in to more of our favorite hits from the 80’s, 90’s and today. Maybe it will be sooner, or maybe it will be later, but I would guesstimate at solid 1 1/2-2 hours.

And there you go. Oh, we also will not be having any games, line dancing, an available microphone or campy songs we can’t stand so please don’t ask or badger the DJ if he turns you down. I think we’re in for a fun evening and I hope you are too.

Oh, and make sure you stay around for a very special final song for the hitched couple.

And Down the Stretch they Come

I have the week off to take on any last minute preparations and entertain the first round of arriving guests on Wednesday. We’re both very excited and hope you are too. Here’s a recap of what to expect for the week.

Wednesday BBQ: We’re breaking out of wedding mode and will be firing up the grill for the night. Please let us know if you can make it.

Rehearsal Dinner: Friday night, we will be having a clambake at Henrietta’s Table in The Charles Hotel for the rehearsal dinner. If my version of the legend proves correct we were actually dining at this restaurant when we decided to make Harvard Square our home base.

Legal Seafood Outdoor Patio, Harvard Square: If you’re in town Friday night please come out at 9:30-10:00 to meet us for a drink at one of Boston’s hidden gems. It will be a great opportunity to catch up with us, our families, and get to know some of the other wedding guests. Located at The Charles Hotel

St. Ignatius Church, Saturday 1:30: It’s time to break out the workbook you received in the mail and make your way over to Boston College to witness the culmination of the past 13 months as we finally become husband and wife.

Ballroom Veronique Saturday, 4:00: Let’s Get This Party Started!!!!!! It all comes down to this and everyone involved has been busting their tails to make it a special experience for everyone. The food will be excellent and I recommend trying as much of it as you possibly can. And yes there will be scallops wrapped in bacon. The guests will be excited and off course the music will be fantastic (stay tuned for a future post). And who know what sort of surprises we may have tucked up our sleeves?

This will be a special day for the two of us and we hope it will be a day for you to remember as well. Perhaps sitting at your table will make you feel the most comfortable, but our guests will be a welcoming group and I recommend you make your way around the room and introduce yourself.

This Here's a Jam for all you Fellahs

We’re going old school hip-hop this week with Young MC’s Bust A Move. If I recall correctly Young is what they call a “one hit wonder” although he did make one glorious attempt at a return to greatness with an appearance on this year’s Celebrity Fit Club.

This song’s a surefire hit at any event for children of the late 80’s and best of all it’s thematic as the fourth and final verse describes a scene at a wedding. Of course I’m not quite sure how someone becomes the best man at his best friend’s brother’s wedding. I would think that job would fall to the brother or the best friend of the groom, but sometimes I over think things. Regardless, this ditty will make for a good old-fashioned wedding dance off.

My most personal story involving this song revolves around me appearing in a karaoke style music video to Bust a Move filmed at Walt Disney World’s Pleasure Island in 1989. My parents have kept this video to sell to the E! Network once I become famous and I am sure you will all be dazzled by my guitar skills.

And Now Over to Don on Sports

If you’re a sports fan like I am you just went through an action packed four days including an NHL game 7, an NBA champion, numerous World Cup games, and some quality baseball. Here’s a recap of what I saw over this period


NHL Champion Carolina Hurricane: It’s great to have hockey back. Of course it never really left for Bethany and myself since we still made it to 20+ college hockey games during the lockout. An exciting finals saw the resilient Edmonton Oilers storm back from a 3 games to 1 deficit to force a decisive game seven. If you’ve never attended or watched a sudden death hockey game you have no idea what an exciting experience you’re missing. For next years, here’s to the Bruins not becoming the Clippers and the NHL getting a decent TV deal. This also marks my third Stanley Cup finals of not rooting for the eventual champion.

NBA Champion Miami Heat: The Heat appeared dead in the water after losing the first two games in Dallas, but stormed back to win the next four games of the series to give the “team built to win” the trophy. Jason Terry is a player, but Dwayne Wade channeled Michael Jordan by taking over in dominating fashion and appears to have a long successful career ahead of him. The NBA has returned and if you watched any of the Suns series or the first round Cavs/Wizards games you know what I’m talking about.

MLB/Red Sox-Braves Sunday Night Baseball: How the mighty have fallen. Baseball has commercialized a traditionalist game by heavily emphasizing offense only to have most of its stars turn out to be cheats or a bunch of jerks. Oops. Sunday’s pitching match up, however, between John Smoltz and Curt Schilling lived up to all the hype. Two guys who know how to pitch each throwing fantastic, intense games until the chaos of the bullpens took over (although I have to admit that was exciting in it’s own right). The problem with baseball is they have decided to not teach the fans the game and they have no interest in quality. You end with full stadiums cheering over pop ups because the ball’s in the air when you can clearly see the batter got out on his front foot and it isn’t going anywhere. I’m not really too sure what to make of the rest of the season just yet, although Ozzie Guillen really needs to go away. He kind of reminds me of that annoying, racist relative who ten minutes into Christmas you realize the act grew old in 1987 and he needs to leave.

World Cup: I will proudly stand up and admit I have watched too many World Cup games to count and have enjoyed all of them. The U.S. have proven their eight year initiative to match the rest of the world has flopped and needs to retool or more realistically recognize it’s not going to happen. The best athletes in every other country play soccer while the U.S. gets everyone after baseball, basketball, and football. So they came out and stunk it up against the Czechs. Big Deal. What stood out to me was after watching Ghana beat the Czechs and Brazil defeat Australia was that the boys in red, white, and blue did not even come close to matching the speed, skill, and intensity of those squads.

The Responses

D day has come and gone and we now have a locked guest list which will only change if people decide they cannot attend over the next 12 days. Brainstorming a list of our friends and family to invite served as the initial activity of our wedding planning process and I can’t believe it’s wrapped up. Well, almost wrapped up as we spent tonight in the mind-boggling process of the seating chart, but that’s for another day.


It’s a pretty exciting process finding out each day who has sent in their card and if they will or will not be making it. I’m always pretty bad at getting those response cards back in for weddings on time, but I was surprised to see how many other people end up in the same boat as myself and it crosses all demographics. I always act like it’s a major chore to write a number, seal the envelope, and drop it in mailbox. Anyway after a one-week grace period we had to put the screws to a few people and we’re good to go. I will say I have learned the importance of getting them in on time. Here are some fun facts from our experience.

Number of Guests Invited: 199
Number of Invitations: 108
Number of Guests: 143
Number of Yes Responses Before Receiving a No: 32
Number of Responses not Received: 15
Number of Guests we Never Heard from: 4
Number of Wedding Crashers Expected: 0
Number of Guests Lost due to the Holiday Weekend: 3
Number of Surprising Rejections: 4
Number of Wild Cards (Will they or won’t they Show): 14
Number of Awful Excuses (Seriously, just say you can’t make it): 3
Number of People who Better Show Up Ready to Party: 142

You are my Candy Girl

Sugar, Sugar by The Archies

I have to classify this one has a sleeper hit. You may not think of it often, but you will find yourself bopping along when it comes on the radio. Bethany uncovered the oddest aspect of this song a couple of years ago when she picked up a chant in the final 30 seconds or so of, “Pour Some Sugar on Me.” Is it possible this is where Def Leppard found their inspiration?

On a side not, I have a mega sweet tooth, but never really find myself interested in wedding cake. I’ve narrowed this down to two reasons. First, I’m a sucker for the homemade cake and the more chocolate the better. Weddings portray the cake as a work of art to be admired and this doesn’t appeal to me unless of course it’s a setup for a Three Stooges short. A discussion on cakes would of course never be complete without a mention of my utter hatred for carrot cake (commence eye rolling, my lovely bride). Second, I’m usually busting my moves on the dance floor by the time dessert comes out and at this point my table lies far away in the rear view mirror.


To close things out have you eve taken a moment to check out the number of Archie comics in your local supermarket? The artist who spends his time drawing the bodies of Betty and Veronica needs some serious psychological help.

Dream a Little Dream

The other day I added to my list of life dreams by deciding to create a time machine so I can use pop culture references from the future before they happen. Think about cool it would be for people to stare at me blankly and then understand what I was talking about a week or a month later.

For example, after a motorcycle cut me off last week I could’ve said, “I wish someone would Rothlisberger that guy.” This Monday people would have of course realized I was referring to the brilliant quarterback of the Pittsburgh Steelers who thought recklessly driving a motorcycle without a helmet was funny until he slammed into a car and spent seven hours in surgery.

On the flip side it would be difficult for people to know I am referencing the future when I note Britney Spears is a questionable parent. Today you may think I’m referring to her driving problems when in fact she ran out of formula and made her son a White Russian next Wednesday.

Also, when I say I dislike Derek Jeter you may think it’s because he plays for the Yankees. Truthfully, after making three ninth inning World Series errors an irate George Steinbrenner will trade him to the Calgary Flames and he will begin dating Star Jones who should return to whatever law firm she allegedly worked for and the rest of the country alone.

I’m beginning to think this is getting as confusing as the Linday Lohan/George Michael marriage (See August 8th, 2006).

The Stationary Agent

Zoiks!!

It’s been a whirlwind over here at wedding central. I thought we were in a good place in April and May, but then June rolled around and we’ve been doing something significant every day. To be honest, my beautiful bride organizes and manages most of the work, but I try to chip in when I can. Just last week I thought I had a night off and the next thing I knew I ended up on the phone with the D.J. for forty-five minutes. The sense of accomplishment you achieve when crossing each item off the list is refreshing not to mention it serves as a distraction from the reality the wedding is less than three weeks away.

One of the features of the wedding process that has surprised me involves the amount of stationary required including save the dates, wedding invitations, shower invitations, the informational tablet, programs, place cards, and the rehearsal dinner invitations. I think we single handedly destroyed a rain forest in Paraguay and I hope Al Gore doesn’t come looking for us for his next documentary. I guess we can only dream of the day when cars will run on corn fuel and Evite will be an acceptable way to ask guests to attend your wedding.

This weekend we attempted to create our rehearsal dinner invitations and some labels with mixed results. I have never had a good relationship with any of my printers as they always take great amusement in shafting me when I need them most by laughing at me with their flashing red and green lights to the less than soothing sound of jammed paper. It taunts me by saying. “Here you go lazy. I’ll print up the four step Mapquest directions to the nearest Fuddruckers you could write down faster on your own” and then refuses to print the four-page paper on Macbeth due in ten minutes. Am I the only one with this problem? I probably shouldn’t come into these situations thinking my personal printer has the power of an office printer capable of producing 150 pages a minute,

Sadly, this behavior continued over the weekend. After spending ninety minutes figuring out how to print the invites on the special paper we purchased, the printer randomly decided to change the colors of our ink after the third copy. Fortunately, several curse words, a drop kick, and a reboot cleared up the problem. Can I point this does wonders for the stress level of an engaged couple working on a project together in their pajamas?

The labels did not go nearly as well and I spent my time failing into the early hours of Sunday morning, failing to print a single one correctly. After a solid fourteen hours of trying to make it work merely on principle I folded my cards when Bethany refused to allow me to eat via an IV tube and decided to purchase them on the internet rather than waste any more time. I know it will disappoint everyone my TlC won’t be in each one, but I’ll autograph them for $5 a pop.

Come on Everybody

Let’s Twist Again like We Did Last Summer by Chubby Checker

No wedding can be complete without an appearance of the twist and who does it better than the distinct voice of Chubby Checker?

I give him mad props for two things:

1) He’s clearly a cool guy because rather than complaining about his nickname he decided, “That’s right, I’m fat and I’m going to use it to make millions.”
2) After coming out with the original Twist he somehow created a sequel to a song in the tradition of today’s summer blockbusters. Put that in your pipe and smoke it Coldplay!!


This is one of the wedding moments we’re very excited for so please join us out on the dance floor

All Bachelored Out

Well, unless there’s something going on against my wishes, I’ve elected to decline the offer of a Bachelor Party once I found out Vince Vaughn and the Hilton sisters had schedule conflicts. People may be surprised when they hear I’ve passed on this tradition, but I’ve found it very difficult to get excited or interested in such an event. For starters, I’m not in my 20s anymore and I really don’t think I could handle an evening full of drinking nor am I interested in feeling like crap for the next 10 days because of it.

We of course have the discussion of the Stag Party staple (ahem) the Gentlemen’s Club. I’ve only been to such an establishment twice and I probably never would have been if one of the guys with us in New Orleans wasn’t suffering a mental breakdown due to a recent break up. Did I have my arm twisted to attend? No. Did I have a good time? Yes. It always seemed to me this was a way for guys to compensate for the fact they can’t maintain a conversation with women and that’s not really a concern of mine.

Then we have the ‘ol “Last Hurrah with the Gang” theory which frankly sounds depressing. I spent several upon several upon several years living a Bachelor Party only going out with guys, talking to guys, and watching sports with guys. There’s only so many video games you can play together before you realize you’re on a path of being crazy old Uncle Harry and that things need to change.

On a final note I am going to relay to you the best Bachelor Party story I have and it happened to my father. My dad and his gang settled in at Primo’s, one of their favorite watering holes in Cranston, Providence, Johnston, or some other die hard Rhode Island Italian community. They maintained a close relationship with Primo due to their frequent visits and this ended up paying huge dividends because at the end of the night someone’s leather jacket turned up missing. So you’d think you’d be out of luck because some kid recognizes the attention of the whole crowd is diverted and heads off with a new gift for his brother. Not in Rhode Island. Primo calms everyone down, makes a few phone calls, and has the jacket back in twenty minutes. So while your favorite mimics that of the thousands of other guys who’ve been to Scores, I’m still waiting for another tale featuring mob intervention.

Top it Off

We’re down to the Fab Five in the song of the week wedding edition.

I’m riding into the weekend with Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch by The Four Tops because to me this song captures the pure essence of Mo Town. Four guys in suits singing their hearts out for the girl who crushed them. The best part occurs with the solo at the end and I dedicated the summer of 1998 to memorizing this part to perform at my summer camp talent show. I will cherish the fourth place ribbon forever.

Over the past year or so I’ve also developed a dance routine to go along with my exquisite singing voice. The whole pace remains slow enough to keep up with the song and involves full spins, half spins, foot shuffling, clenched hands, and the slow arm raise. Stay tuned for a sterling wedding performance

Congratulations....To Us!!

Monday marked the one-year anniversary of our engagement! It’s been an exciting year since we sat in my car outside a restaurant I used to work at calling our family and friends with the big news and I can’t believe we’re less than five weeks away from our wedding day. We can’t wait to celebrate it all with you and we’re working hard with our families to hopefully make everything as perfect as it can be possibly be.

The planning process is an interesting one because you would think getting engaged in May would provide you with all kinds of options before the upcoming wedding season. Oh no, because we ended up being late season call ups to engagement season we found limited availability for the 2006 campaign and had to push things to the early summer to coordinate a church with a reception location. I may be forgetting a detail or two, but once the date had been decided it was really nice to relax for a few weeks and relish in the engagement.

Then the fall rolls around and it’s time to pick through your numerous options. Meetings include, but are not limited to flowers, dresses/tuxedos, stationary, music, food, the ceremony, linens, hotels, and the registry. And I’m not only talking about organized formal meetings with professionals. There are meetings with each other and families to explain/make decisions. Ideas are tossed around, settled on, changed, switched back, and kicked to the curb. And I’m not even getting into our near disaster of the priest search.

So after batting these thoughts around for a few months you find yourself immersed in wedding kingdom. Your dining room could pass for a Crate N Barrel franchise (check out our Spring into Summer sale next weekend), there are papers/pads of all different shapes and sizes in every room with wedding notes scrawled on them, and when you even try to slip out for a few beverages on a beautiful Sunday evening you end up planning your reception over Mojitos and Captain Morgan (with a little help from the bar staff).

But you know what? Sometime around the middle of April most of the major decisions worked themselves out and while plenty of tasks still remain we find ourselves in control of what’s going on and are having fun with it. I’m sure it will be a frantic finish, but stay tuned for a great evening.

When You Wish Upon a Star

This week I picked up a tip from Bethany’s Aunt Cris and I checked out When the Stars Go Blue by Tim McGraw. I have to confess I’m not a big country fan beyond Achy Breaky Heart so after some initial skepticism I will give it my stamp of approval.

In the process of my research I stumbled upon a version from the TV show One Tree Hill by Tyler Hilton and Bethany Joy Lenz and I of course had to check it out due to the name. In addition, you may not know this, but Bethany the Bride loves One Tree Hill more than any other program out there and would probably drop the Gilmore Girls off the cliff if she could only save one of them. After checking it out, I’d go with the second one if you’re not a country fan even though they both have their merits. I also don’t really know how to fully describe this, but I enjoyed some of the lyrics better in a female voice and the song as a duet. Check them out and add one of both to your ipod.


Have a good long weekend.

Lost: Season Two

Season 2 of what I feel is the best written show on TV is in the books. All in all I enjoyed the season even though they had a few filler episodes especially after Michael killed Libby and Ana Lucia leading up to the finale. If I had to pick favorites from the season the first would have to be when Michael ran off to find Walt ending with a confrontation with The Others. The second would be the when Locke, Sayid, and Jack spent the entire show in the hatch trying to figure out what to do with Henry Gale because it featured some great dialogue. Also, the end of the episode when Gale was unmasked to be a fraud was a jaw dropping moment for me. Before I hit the finale here’s some other thoughts on the season.

-Things were much less supernatural this year aside from Eko coming face to face with the black smoke and Shannon seeing backward speaking Walt at the beginning of the season.
-I had a tough time reconciling Locke’s character this because he changed from this crafty all knowing shaman to having a childish sibling rivalry with Jack. I just can’t see him falling for the Gale trick. I assume we’re supposed to focus on his loss of faith, but I just don’t think it was done well
-Henry Gale Minnesota is an anagram for “See Another Man Lying.” Last year’s villain Ethan Rohm is an anagram for “Other Man” I did not find this myself
-And what’s up with Libby? We get two episodes each of Eko and Ana Lucia, one for Bernard, and no answers for the final Tailie except she did time with Hurley. I don’t know how they’ll do it, but I think we will get some valuable answers when they finally get around to it

I thought the finale set a good table in the first hour and they almost went with my Libby direction. So where are we? While the final scene didn’t make you jump out of your seat we basically find chaos all over the place. We have the potential of losing Michael, Walt, Eko, and Locke for next season not to mention whatever happens to the gang on the dock. Seeing as how the original script called for Jack to die in the pilot it would not surprise me if he goes, but I think it would be a mistake. Sayid’s way too crafty to not realize there’s a problem and will make the save. I also must commend the twist of Michael lying about where the trap would take place. And what’s up with Charlie refusing to tell Claire what happened in the hatch? He’s happy Locke’s dead? Seriously, he’s reached the point where I don’t care about his episodes. We also know why the plane crashed but why did it end up so far off course and I debunk that it could have been pulled there because none of the propaganda fake web sites (oceanicair.com) mention other plane crashes you would have to assume would happen.

All in all I commend Lost for not giving the song and dance routine of the X-Files which not only would flat out lie in it’s advertising, but dance around answers as it continued to introduce more questions. Sure, we don’t know everything, but we at least get closure on some issues while getting valuable insight on other matters.

Please feel free to contribute comments. You do not need to register to do so

Questions Answered

With the invitations in the mail I fielded some key questions from some of our potential guests over the weekend and felt this would be a good time to go over a few things.

Hotels: We have reserved rooms at three hotels in Harvard Square and the deadline to receive our special rate ends May 31st. Please click the Hotels link if you need more information. Also, if you’re a male flying solo you are welcome to stay at our apartment.

Church: We will be getting married at St Ignatius on the Boston College campus at 1:30 P.M.

Reception: The festivities occur at Club Longwood/Ballroom Veronique beginning at 4:00 P.M. and ending at 10:00 P.M. For those of you bad at math there will be a small window between the end of the ceremony and the start of the reception. Please behave yourselves.

Transportation: A shuttle service will be provided from the hotels in Harvard Square to and from the church and from the hotels to the reception because none of these locations are within walking distance of each other. VERY IMPORTANT: All wedding guests should PLEASE feel free to still use this service even if you are not staying at the hotels I know there are several people living in the area or staying with friends who do not need a hotel room, but let’s all have a fun and safe evening.

Street parking and a parking garage(fee required) are available at the reception

If you so choose the green line also has a T stop directly across the street from the reception.

Directions: If you do need directions to the church/reception we will put them up shortly.

Oh Baby, Give Me One More Chance

I’m giving myself a cupcake his week by going with I Want You Back by The Jackson Five. If you know me at all you of course recognize this as one of my all time favorite songs. My best story involving this song occurred during the Millennium New Year when the DJ at the house party we were at could not get the available 1992 boom box to read the CDs he had burned for the night. Fortunately, I had brought along some of my classic mix tapes and I have been credited with saving the New Year by kicking things off with I Want You Back.

I remember discovering the Jackson Five at an early age via their Saturday morning cartoon, which I do not believe, is currently available on DVD. I would like to check it out to see if my taste stand the test of time, but then again it may be best to leave my memories as fond ones. When you think about it, we all need to thank Joe Jackson for raising his children with hate and fear to give us one of the greatest musical acts of all time. I look forward to raising our children under the same principles so stay tuned for The Marco Seven and their number #1 hit Walk Me to School. I will be a proud father the day Little Melanie has a racial identity crisis, builds herself Disney Land, and lights her hair on fire on stage. Those will be memories.

I’ve heard this song at weddings and I do not always even have to request it. The thing that really burns me, however, is most DJs fade out during the breakdown near the end of the song. I assure you that will not happen to us so I want everyone to be prepared to take it all the way through.

Fun Facts, Part II

Here’s a new set of facts you may not know about us.


Favorite TV Show: Ed. Shortly after meeting we realized we both enjoyed the first season of this NBC program featuring Tom Cavanaugh as Ed Stevens, a successful New York lawyer who returns to his quirky hometown to win back his true love by buying a bowling alley. We regularly scheduled a date night around this show to follow the adventures of Warren Cheswick, Phil Stubbs, and the $10 bets. If you haven’t given it a chance, check out the first season on DVD.

Favorite Song: I can’t Get Enough of Your Love by Barry White. Yeah, I’ve mentioned it before, but truly a special song that will always have a place in our hearts as we dance around the kitchen table.

Living Situations: While I never changed my address, Bethany lived in four different homes with the last three never being more than five minutes away. The most exciting of which had to be the 2003-05 residence consisting of two rooms and guaranteed to make you go insane if forced to stay there together for more than 24 hours.

First Holiday: I’m struggling with dates here, but I believe our first holiday together was Easter 2002 celebrated at my parents’ house. My first holiday away from my family would be Easter 2003 and it was a weird experience to tell them I would be going away to Atlanta. I think we’ve done a fairly good job of staying as a team and catching up with both our families during all kinds of holidays over the past few years. The driving can be tough, but it’s a good feeling to see everyone and a part of growing as a couple.

First Time Family Merger: Unfortunately, our parents did not meet over the happiest of circumstances as it occurred during the passing of a family member in Bethany’s family. It was tough getting everyone together with her parent’s living on the other side of the east coast, but during the Thanksgiving weekend of 2004 we had everyone over for a very successful dinner Bethany and I prepared ourselves. We tackled everything from appetizers, salad, chicken, pork tenderloin, and several sides with everything turning our very well. I can never tell this story without giving kudos to Nick and Katie who graciously served as a buffer between the parents while we scrambled around the kitchen. Oh and thanks mom for doing the dishes. (-;

Special Delivery

There’s some beautiful weather out there!! Ugh, after a succession of warm, sunny days we’ve completed a week of gray skies and massive downpours. I don’t know about you, but once I hit the third of fourth day I begin to feel like I’m living in The Crow except with less gang violence and the ability to transform into animals. I’ve watched way too much canned television on the E! Network, the yard’s flooded, and everyone is getting antsy and a bit depressed. Sigh….

That being said we did have a successful weekend as we wrapped up our invitations. This process began on Friday night when we met our calligraphy dealer in the lobby of the Holiday Inn to make the pickup before she jettisoned back to Aruba. Bethany and I both packed heat and in a scene straight out of Casablanca we entered the hotel to the sounds of a 70 year old security card explaining to a group of twenty something concierges the technical aspects of Shemp, Joe, and Curley Joe filling in during Three Stooges shorts. Priceless. I used my letter opener to sample the product and we left as satisfied customers with a nice buzz.

Saturday morning we closely examined our merchandise to make sure we hadn’t been taken for a ride. There’s nothing like opening a box and smelling pound after pound of 100% pure paper stock and then sealing envelopes off a hooker’s ass. Now that’s a good night in Tokyo. We were shocked to discover in our own wedding induced euphoria that we forgot to carry a couple of ones on the thirty ninth version of our address list and needed to make a couple of adjustments. But with our dealer already lying on a beach what were we to do? After a quick unshowered team meeting in our pajamas we decided we still needed to get these fine 5 1/4" x 7 1/4" envelopes out on the street ASAP because our beepers wouldn’t stop going off.

We quickly organized our invitaion laboratory and began sorting through our ingredients to make sure each package received the right amount of reception information, response cards, and miniature envelopes. And as I’m sure you all know, if you don’t place everything in the envelope facing the right way there’s hell to pay as the etiquette police will sniff you out and we’re doing 15 years for illegal distribution. It goes without saying that’s a long time to think about placing a stamp upside down.

After a couple of hours we completed our task, removed the lab coats (Patriots sweatshirt), and raced though a driving rain to our local courier (code name USPS) to send what we had out there for Saturday night.

Enjoy and please let us know if you have any questions

Kick Off Your Sunday Shoes

Footloose By Kenny Loggins

Well, after last week's disaster of choosing not one, but two songs previously selected, I had my work cut out for me. I really wanted to focus on my choice for this week and what better way to accomplish this feat than by letting someone do the work for you.

Today, as I walked from my office to the train a guy listening to an iPod appeared ahead of me. He was really rocking out and singing loudly, but I couldn't make out the lyrics. Usually when I witness this occurence it's some brooding rock or heavy metal fan looking to share the message of their favorite act. How wrong was I. All of a sudden I catch his voice, "Everybody cut loose, Footloose" and I had to think now that is awesome. This guy could care less he's in a public place singing Footloose as loud as he can and damn it I wanted to sing along with him. Priceless

Marriage Retreat

Recently, we attended a marriage preparation retreat required by the Catholic Church. Would we have attended this course if it weren’t mandatory? Probably not. After attending would I recommend all couples thinking about marriage register for a similar event? Absolutely.

The setup for our class experience went along these lines. The moderator, Father Bob, would introduce a topic and one of the three couples assisting him would then further the dialogue on the subject. The future brides and grooms would then separate for ten minutes to undergo a personal reflection on the material aided by a series of provided questions. The couples would then convene to discuss their views and opinions with the purpose of understanding one another’s take on life.

Personally, I found a majority of the topics to be very important to all relationships. They included family, parenting, finances, sexuality, and religion and no, you will not hear how our discussions went. At the very least, we had already covered all of these issues at some level, but the retreat helped further our dialogue on them. One of the biggest concepts for me occurred when I needed to anticipate Bethany’s answers during the exercises and while I didn’t always turn out to be correct we definitely built on those ideas as a foundation for discussion.

We will have been together for five years at the end of the month and one of the things that struck me the most was how many couples would be getting married after knowing each other for a relatively short period of time. I used to have a very negative attitude about couples getting married after a brief dating period because I felt it would be impossible to know someone well enough to determine you would want to spend the rest of your life with them. My attitude has turned towards the positive after this course because it provided the opportunity for everyone involved to learn about their future spouse and we heard from a few people it had never occurred to them to discuss some of the presented topics.

Realistically, do I think this saved marriages that would not have worked out? No, but I think it’s very important to know who you are marrying and not think it will all just sort itself out. If you want to buy a home and start a family while your fiancé thinks you’ll be moving around Europe for the next ten years it’s best to know it before you’re at the altar. That’s an extreme example, but the point is it’s important to communicate and understand who your spouse is because it will make for a more fulfilling relationship

I like to Feel Good

Next up is the 1985 hit Walkin on Sunshine by Katrina and the Waves because after a period of constant rain and dreariness you should be reading this on a warm, sunny day if the weather prediction proves to be correct.

I also find this to be a perfect description of everyone’s wedding day. The couple should be happier than they’ve ever been without a care in the world as they celebrate with their family and friends. The hours should be filled with smiles, laughter, and hugs so they indeed feel they are walking on sunshine.

Editor’s Note

Funny story. I wrote my post on Wednesday night to get ahead only to randomly realize
when I returned home from work on Thursday my choice had been discussed in a prior post. So I guess you all get two songs this week. Or one and a half. Whatever. I’m very annoyed with myself right now.

I’m going with Miami by Will Smith because it’s supposed to be close to 80 today and the weekend is looking better than expected. A stretch, I know, but there’s something about the sprinkling of these super gorgeous days in the middle of a wet Spring that make me feel like I’m in paradise…with less models, Mojitos, and David Caruso.


Enjoy the weekend

Two Legit to Quit

As we hit the two month mark until the wedding here’s a recap of our administrative weekend.

The invitations arrived last week so we sorted through the contents and made last minute adjustments to the guest list. This entailed making sure we had accurate names, addresses, and making additions/subtractions for people with relationship changes. Thanks to all those who received last minute emails for responding. We would also like to offer great thanks to our dear friend, Mary, who will be addressing the envelopes.

Instead of watching yet another mildly amusing romantic comedy on Friday night, we decided to spend the evening working on the top-secret gift for our guests. I will admit Bethany made me see the light and while I don’t think my original concept would have been unacceptable, the revised version works well and adds focus to the wedding.

We rounded out our registry by making trips to Macys and Crate and Barrel. It served as a relatively painless trip aside from the metrosexual freak obsessed with finding a high-ball glass with just the right ridges on the rim. Dude, it’s a glass!! The most awkward part of this process occurred when I couldn’t figure out how to add Crate and Barrel to our prior registry listing. This forced me to repost the information in what may appear to be a shameless plug for us. Trust me, it’s not.

After our shopping excursion, we visited the Legal Seafood in Harvard Square to make them aware we would be patronizing their outdoor bar the night before the wedding. If you live in or will be in town that night, please make plans to meet us there to celebrate with a cocktail or two.

That’s all for now and have a nice week

Gift Registry

Bethany and Donny have registered with the following departments stores.

View the Crate & Barrel Registry



View the Macy's Registry




View the Simon Pearce Registry

Feel it, Feel it

Good Vibrations – Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch

When you think about it, the story of Mark Wahlberg breaks all molds. First, he rides brother Donnie’s New Kids on the Block coattails and somehow manages to produce a successful rap song that is way cooler than anything from NKOTB not called Step by Step. Fine, he succeeds where most has been relatives fail and it’s time to ride his one hit wonder off into the sunset to ask people, “Would you like fries with that?” But nooooooo, instead he transforms himself from a guy lifting a cinder block dumbbell in his music video to a legitimate actor landing lead roles in Boogie Nights, Planet of the Apes, and The Italian Job. Not to mention he creates the superb semi-autobiographical HBO show Entourage which becomes so hip A list Hollywood personalities beg for a role.

Truly an amazing feat, but he’ll always be Marky Mark to me. And if you’re lucky I may even perform the showstopper during this song.

This & that

Here’s some items of interest to me over the past week:

• Check out good friend and frequent Chuck E Cheese patron Chris White’s new video Guys Watching 24. It’s of SNL quality and a good laugh to email to all of your friends and coworkers.
• Bethany and I watched The Aristocrats over the weekend and we both enjoyed it more than we thought. For those of you who don’t know, this unrated documentary allows numerous comedians (Robin Williams, Bob Saget, etc.) to tell their version of an old vaudeville joke named after the movies title. Why is it unrated? Because it takes the dirtiest, nastiest story you know and multiplies it by 100. Needless to say it’s not for the conservative, but if you can take it there’s some hilarious material with Drew Carey, Kevin Pollack, Andy Richter, and the staff of The Onion.
• We made fajitas over the weekend and I encourage our loyal readers to make the chicken and vegetables on the grill the next time you make this dish. We found the food to taste fresh and have a better taste than the stovetop.
• It’s only a few more weeks until The Da Vinci Code makes it to the big screen and I look forward to seeing it even if Tom Hank’s looks foolish with that hairdo. I recommend reading The Rule of Four by Ian Caldwell and Dustin Thomason if you enjoy Dan Brown’s novels. I also read this week that the sequel with be called The Solomon Key and will involve the Freemasons.
• Speaking of reading, I’m in a big time, unsatisfying three books slump I hope to break with Amy Tan’s Saving Fish from Drowning. I was on fire with my selections in 2005, but I’ve made some recent gambles with a couple of non-fiction memoirs I found unsatisfying. Oh, I do urge you to read The Tender Bar by JR Moehringer and please let me know if you have any good suggestions
• For those of you who haven’t discovered Monday night’s newest sensation, How I Met Your Mother came out strong last night with a Barntastic episode. Fun fact, Robin’s date, Sandy Rivers, was played by Alexis Denisof who is the real life of husband of Alyson Hannigan who portrays Lily on the show. Why do I know this? Because they both played key roles on Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel.
• What’s the feeling out there on United 93? Personally, I still don’t have pleasant memories of that experience and have no interest in seeing it.
• In closing I’m posting a picture we took in my office/theme park as we tested out our new costume purchases. To answer all of your questions I am neither the coffee cup nor the donut because I am holding out for the Omwich.

Introducing....

We have this running conversation in the office regarding having entrance music for when people walk in the door each morning. The goal is to find something fitting for yourself as well as your colleagues. Needless to say we have quite a few laughs during this game.

Last week I came up with the idea to make the adjustment of applying this premise to our wedding by emailing some friends to come up ideas on how they would want to enter our reception. I have amazingly figured out how to make this work based on a Rolling Stone article Bethany read a month ago. People have been inserting computer chips in their arms for the sole purpose of storing their ID information so they do not bring it with them when they go clubbing because the bouncer scans them in. I am proposing everyone have these chips implanted in their arms and they will be programmed to play your entrance music when you walk in the door. Best of all you can order the insertion equipment on the Internet and don’t even need to visit a doctor!!!

Thanks to all who contributed and I had to do some editing so I apologize if I left anything out.


Brian: “Living in America” by James Brown
There is no doubt that I would reenact the opening
fight scene with Apollo in Rocky IV. I am talking the
music, fireworks, and the Red, White and Blue Boxing
shorts and one of the greatest songs of all time.

Nick: “Godzilla” by Blue Oyster Cult.
Classic 70s hard rock/metal tune, I just love the lyrics. "Oh no, there goes Tokyo, go go Godzilla."
With a purposeful grimace and a terrible sound
He pulls the spitting high-tension wires down
Helpless people on a subway train
Scream bug-eyed as he looks in on them

Katie: Mine goes without saying...”You Sexy Thing!” By Hot Chocolate

Chris W: “She Used to Be My Girl” by the O'Jays, because I want to enter in tears and give people something to talk about.


Stacey: “Let's Get It Started” - Black Eyed Peas...I'm thinking about setting it to play as my computer warms up in the morning...it's a peppy little ditty


Matt: "Hells Bells" by AC/DC because it starts slow and dramatic and builds to a completely rockin crescendo that juxtaposes traditional Christian iconography (the wedding bell) and its polar opposite,
I'm picturing lots of black leather, red lighting, and Goth makeup. And motorcycles--is the aisle wide enough for two hogs
abreast?

Sully: "Don't Stop Believin'" by Journey. It's just one of those songs I can listen to at any time.

Jennie: “Le Freak” by Chic. It would definitely have to be some fun dance song like that song that goes "Freak out!.....Le freak, c'est chic .... Freak out!" I think it has a nice build up that would be perfect for making a grand entrance :)

Cheryl: "Oh What a Beautiful Morning" the opening song from Oklahoma. Gordon McRae is riding his horse through a wheat field singing, "There's a bright golden haze on the meadow,/there's a bright golden haze on the meadow./ The corn is as high as a elephant's eye,/and it looks like it's climbing right up to the sky..../Oh what a beautiful morning/Oh what a beautiful day/I've got a beautiful feeling/Everything's going my way..."

Do you remember?

This week I’ll discuss September by Earth, Wind, and Fire. Ironically enough, last September I attended a wedding of a coworker and when this song hit the dance floor I began to wonder why I had not included it on my running list of surefire hits.

If you pay attention to the lyrics it has a certain appropriateness to it I think qualifies it as a love song. It asks do you remember the beginning of the relationship and how wonderful we felt being together. Those feelings continued to grow until this day when we’re still happy together and as the years go by we’ll all always recall that first month when we started this special thing called love.

I love you, but I don't think so, Part III

It’s time once again to return from my hiatus and provide my loyal readers with yet another round of some of my brilliant ideas that are apparently not so brilliant. We’ll call this one the food service edition.


Have you ever received a wedding invitation and been confused when trying to decide what you want for dinner in five weeks? I could barely figure out what I wanted to eat at six o’clock tonight. Why not include scratch and sniff stickers of the available entrees to help your guests decide? There’s nothing like opening a piece of mail smelling like sea bass.

True story. It’s the summer and we both love margaritas (you haven’t had one until I’ve been your bartender) so I think we should have a tequila bar. I think the response I received went along the lines of, “Absolutely not, someone will get naked.”


I love ice cream and cake so why not offer the best invention since chocolate and peanut butter decided to get together. Yes my friends, I propose we provide a Fudgie the whale Ice Cream wedding cake brought to you by our friends at Carvel.


During cocktail hour we offer nothing, but carnival food. I’m thinking formal wear will be the perfect attire to feast on cotton candy, kettle corn, fried dough, snow cones, and corn dogs.


Two words: Scorpion Bowls. We set two at each table and kick off the reception with a good old table race. Losers drink a second

Do You Like It Like This

For this week’s installment I’m selecting Do You Love Me by The Contours.

True story: When I attended high school this song played during the commercials of a Ted Danson and Macauley Caulkin movie called Getting Even with Dad. I never saw a second of this film, but I became obsessed with the song and resorted to buying the More Dirty Dancing soundtrack in order to own it.

Let’s be honest, any time you have the opportunity to do the Mashed Potato AND The Twist in the same song you really can’t go wrong. Also, you have one of those fake endings where the music slows down so you think it’s over, but then it picks back up. I call this the horror movie effect because just when you think the villain’s finished he always comes back that one last time.

Happy Easter!!!

Dinner Time(See Recipe Below)

One of the traditions we have adopted when we started living together is to have a family dinner every night at the dining room table and some of you reading this have even broken bread with us on a few occasions. This is a strong departure from my prior ritual of making dinner and sitting down to watch whatever sporting event, game show, entertainment news program, MTV reality show, or Seinfeld episode caught my eye on that particular evening. I can now count the number of dinner we’ve eaten in front of the TV on one hand and I’ve even resorted to eating at the table when I’m home alone. Normally, we plug in the iPod and enjoy our dinner while catching upon the events and news of our days.

In addition to spending time dining together we also employ the team method to making our meals. This procedure takes many different forms as it varies as to who will be in charge of the main dish or the sides and the role of leader can even flip around over the course of one food preparation. I think we have several delicious options to choose from out of our house cookbook and I would like to share one with you now. It’s a fairly simple pasta recipe you can locate at most restaurants, but now you can make it in the comfort of your own home. I also must add the disclaimer that do years of working in a restaurant I no longer measure anything which usually works out except for the fact I am now forbidden from making StoveTop, but I think I calculated amounts correctly. It also helps to entertain yourself by doing your best Emeril impression while working over the stove

Pepper’s Pasta

1 Chopped Clove of Garlic
1/2 Cup Of Butter
1/2-Cup Wine
1 Sliced Yellow (or your favorite color) Pepper
1 Cup of Chopped Onion
1 Cup of Peas
2 Sliced Portabella Mushroom Caps
1/2 Cup Sun Dried Tomatoes
1/2 lb of Penne Pasta (Feel free to Substitute)
1/2 Coffee Mug of Chicken Broth (Heat in Microwave)
1/2 Pint of light cream
1/2-Cup Parmesan Cheese

1. Add Pasta to boiling water and set timer for 10 minutes
2. Sauté the garlic and butter for 1 minute
3. Add all the vegetables and the cooking wine to Step 1 and cook for 2 minutes while being sure to stir the vegetables every 20-30 seconds. The basic point here is to try to keep the vegetables on the bottom burning and sticking to the bottom
4. Pour the Chicken Broth into the vegetable mixture and cook until broth has boiled off while continuing to stir vegetables every 20-30 seconds
5. The cream can now be added to our pan. Once all the cream begins to boil pull it off the heat after 20 seconds or the sauce may break. It helps to save a little cream because you can save a cream sauce by adding more cream. Right before you remove the pan from the heat, add the remaining cream for 10-20 seconds.
6. Strain the cooked pasta and add it to the pan with the vegetables/sauce along with the Parmesan cheese. Mix everything together and you’re ready to serve in your favorite bowl.

Enjoy and please feel free to substitute in all your favorite vegetables. Also, add a little water to the bottom of your pan to help with the after dinner clean up.

Operation: Costco

Yesterday on my bi-weekly trip to Costco I agreed to step up and to make one of those purchases that forever proves your commitment to a woman. Armed only with a hand scratched description of the box, I ventured into the health and beauty aids area to purchase some sort of lotion, spray, or cream whose purpose I will never understand. I now offer a how to guide for all you guys out there willing to perform all the shopping for your household.

Step One: When approached and asked to add this item to your list, sincerely agree to come home with this request. If you’re uncomfortable (which I can see being understandable) say so and don’t return with a lame story of how, “I meant to get it, but I didn’t remember until I was in line at the register for ten minutes and I just figured you’d be able to get it later. Love you.”

Step Two: All right so you’re at the store and you’ve prepared yourself mentally for the big moment so its time scout out the health and beauty aids section for your prey. First, walk confidently up and down the aisles like you know exactly what you’re searching for so as not to draw attention from a sales person looking to help/embarrass you. It also helps to not focus directly on every item because this will indicate you are searching for something specific. Take a wide view of your surroundings while carefully keeping an eye open for your target.

Step Three: Once you’ve found what you’re looking for there’s no need to grab it immediately. The true pros will walk right by without breaking stride while making a mental note of where they need to return. Now it’s time to engage in some recon by figuring out how many people are shopping in the area and what your best escape route will be. Feel free to pass by your item of choice two or three more times without showing your hand.

Step Four: Be prepared with an excuse of in case someone stops you. I usually go with, “I’m looking for the 20th Anniversary Two Disc Gold Edition of The Goonies and I think I’m in the wrong section” before running out of the store screaming “Abort, Abort” without making eye contact with another person until I’m home.

Step Five: In order to make the proper pick up you need at least two hundred and fifty yards of aisle space to build up the proper momentum to swoop in for the no look, knock the goods off the shelf into the cart without stopping finale. Warning: You must be good at weaving and offering rapid “Excuse Me” comments to complete this move.

Step Six: Now that prize lies in your cart it’s time to provide some cloud cover on the way to the register. I would personally go with a Dora the Explorer sleeping bag, a 350-piece bag of Buffalo wings, and a box of Scooby Doo fruit snacks.

Step Seven: It’s time for check out so try to find a guy working the register because you can at least make a few jokes about it. If you have to use a woman carefully place the bomb in the middle of all your items and NEVER look at it until it’s safely out of the store next to your car. Place it in the car and drive home ignoring all red lights.

Good luck and happy shopping!!

This One's For All You Lovers Out There

Hi all! This post represents our 100th entry in the blogging universe. Thanks for all your support and input.

This week’s choice of music to be danced to at our wedding is Can’t Get Enough of Your Love by Barry White. Of every option out there this would be classified as “our song” and we adopted it early on in our relationship by spending many moments in my bedroom practicing our dance moves. Now I know people out there think I cracked and gave away our secret first dance, but I am sad to inform you that would be incorrect. The soulful, sexy voice of Mr. White clocks in at a good 4:30(and feels longer) so we’ve opted not to dance by ourselves for 5 minutes in exchange for having our guests out there with us for this energetic beat. One of the things I like about Barry White is he presents material with fast rhythm, but he doesn’t stray too far from where he starts. People can enjoy the song because they grow familiar with the pace and don’t need to think 30 seconds in.

So be prepared to grab your favorite loved one to do some twirling to the voice of the velvet teddy bear.

Spring Into It

After last year’s wet and cold non-existent Spring, we received a gift from Mother Nature over the weekend with the first taste of warm weather in 2006. Things turned out better than expected as the temperature beat the forecast by climbing well into the 70’s and the projected rain for Saturday held off until late in the afternoon. No matter where I went I found people in a good mood with a little extra jump in their step as they spent the day running errands, exercising, or out for a stroll. The positive energy created by warm weather can be very contagious and really picks everyone up a bit.

Here are some of the ways I celebrated the weekend:

• I wore shorts for the first time in a non-party environment.
• I opened several windows to allow fresh air into our home
• The grill has made its way back into rotation for dinner preparation as I dined on some tasty cheeseburgers and BBQ chicken. Bring on the hotdogs, mussels, sea bass, and asparagus
• I worked in the yard cleaning up the remaining dead leaves and pine needles to the sexy sounds of a preview of the National League Central. My mission for the next month will be to give our backyard a makeover in a valiant attempt to make it green again. Sorry folks, the tiki hut will be retired to the big volcano in the sky
• I went out with Brendan to enjoy my first margarita (or three) of the season. The place we went shafted us on the tequila content in our drinks, but it still stands strongly as a symbol of things to come.
• The Final Four took two weeks of exciting basketball and reduced them to three awful halves. I think the UCLA-LSU game was over the second they tipped off.
• Baseball season kicked off Sunday night with the defending World Series champion Chicago White Sox taking on the Cleveland Indians. What better way to enjoy some nice weather than watching the Boys of Summer….until a third inning, three hour rain delay found me asleep long before this game ended.

I think that’s about it. How did you spend the weekend taking in the beautiful weather?

Now Waaaaiiitt A Minute

I’ll be filling in for a few weeks for song of the week and I’ve decided to dedicate my time to writing about music I would like to hear at our wedding. My first selection will be Shout by the Isley Brothers because it has a little something for everyone. You have a fast pace, a slow pace, jumping, taking it to the ground, and easy lyrics to remember. What more do you need for the perfect song and you only need to watch the montage to appreciate it. In fact, find it in your CD selection or download it right now and I guarantee you’ll remember why it’s such a good time. And don’t be embarrassed if you’re at work because my money’s on you invigorating your coworkers by playing Shout because I may have tried it myself. Bethany and I play it a few times during the week to dance off our work stress.

It makes me wonder why they don’t make songs like this anymore. Think about it, it seems like all the really, really good songs all come from the 60’s. If you don’t believe me, turn your radio to your local Oldie’s station and I bet you will find a song you love within ten minutes. I think it’s because musicians want to be considered “artists” so they add too much emotion to their writing instead of having fun with it and you end up with these drawn out stories of a broken heart. Shout’s a pure song. Some guy likes a girl and his feelings can best be described by letting it fly without thinking about it. The result is every wedding in the world playing this song and people race to the dance floor to get a little bit softer now

I would also like to put everyone on notice I plan on attempting to set a new world record for the most people doing the Turtle (a dance move made popular my Animal House) in one place. My official score sheet indicates you get credit for 2.5 people for each female who hits the floor so step up ladies

PS I did listen to Shout three times while writing this post.

March of the Penguins

We’ve taken some time over the past three weeks to scout around for the men’s attire for the wedding. One of the perks to marrying someone whose spent the last 45 years as a student is that they conduct a vast amount of research during the normal course of their professional life and it naturally extends to their personal interests. We never walk out the door on a project without Bethany knowing 95% of what her vision will be for each topic and as a result we have efficient visits to our vendors without wasting time.

From my standpoint, I’m a simple guy when it comes to clothing and don’t really look to keep up on the latest styles. My rule for the tuxedo came down to I am not going to wear anything I’m not comfortable in or will be embarrassed to look at pictures of in three years. Bethany does not want the traditional James Bond tuxedo as we set a goal to find something different, but not over the top while also trying to locate a comfortable material for a warm summer day. I assume all reading this can correctly deduce the perfect suit would be one covered in ???? the eccentric guy on TV wears to hawk some book about scamming the government out of money.


We headed out a few Sundays ago with a plan and our first stop at an unnamed vendor did not go so well. For starters, the sales person and myself did not get along as he apparently had dealt with a few too many spoiled, bossy brides so he assumed they all fell into this category as he informed me I would have no say in what I could choose. The meeting’s highlight occurred when the two of us almost came to blows over wearing pink. Aside from us not getting along they really didn’t have the style we wanted so we made headed back to the Internet for more assistance.

Our second stop in Harvard Square went very well and was conducted in a much more professional manner. We found exactly the style we hade been looking for and after a week of living on saltines and crack, I finally felt comfortable with my body to make my modeling debut. Everything looked great and we celebrated crossing yet another item off the list with coffee milk shakes and hamburgers. Sorry folks, we’re saving our choice for the day of the wedding so you’re going to have to wait a few more months to view our selection.

On a final note, I recommend viewing the actual vest you may be wearing after being turned off by some of the smaller swatches of material. I found I appreciated some of them better once I viewed them as a full pattern as opposed to a tiny 2 by 3 inch scrap of cloth.

The Wedding Tour Continues

Congratulations to our friends Brian and Denise who celebrated their marriage last weekend with family and friends. Thank you for an all around good time and we look forward to seeing you in the future.

This marked our second wedding of the season and proved to be a very welcoming evening as the new couple strongly encouraged a family atmosphere complete with games for children of all ages. This included a TV themed version of Name That Tune to decide the order of tables being able to visit the buffet. For the record, I nailed Saved By The Bell for our table in record fashion and to celebrate they dumped a Gatorade jug full of cole slaw on me.

I met Brian in September 2004 when he moved up from Delaware to live in our apartment while he attended a yearlong program in the North End. He only ended up staying with us for eight months and if you count his vacations it probably turned out to be more like seven, but we really hit it off. We bonded about living on the third floor, American Idol, Song of the Week, and Triumph the Insult Dog Comic. He’s a great guy and I’m proud to say I can call him a friend.


A little known secret is that Brian and I decided at about the same time we wanted the women we currently dated to be our wives. Believe it or not we had several conversations about jewelry and strategies for the perfect proposal. I found it to be a valuable opportunity to have a sounding board of someone with the same goals and best of all we became engaged less than a week apart.

Thanks again for the memories and here’s to many more.

Reception News & Notes

We’ve been going full speed on the wedding ship over the past seven days and I nearly forgot to document our meeting at Club Longwood to go over reception details. Bethany had traded emails and phone calls over the past few months regarding some of the finer points, but this served as an occasion to formally sit down for a good hour to ensure everyone knew the plan for July 1. 2006. For all you future brides and grooms, Bethany and I received an itinerary for this meeting and going over it the night before proved to be very beneficial especially in the food area. Here’s a recap of the meeting where I think we nailed down 80-90% of the day.

• The conversation opened by building off the food tasting from the prior month. While all the dishes tasted delicious we decided to narrow our main course to the filet and sea bass with an available vegetarian option. We also needed to sort through the twenty or thirty h'or doeurves and I think we came up with a diverse mix for everyone. There will be chicken, meat, vegetable and of course the scallops wrapped in bacon
• The always interesting bar decision loomed as the next topic. Personally, my vote went to the open bar based on my past wedding experience, but it’s not completely my decision. It’s nice to do it for the guests and I think everyone has reached the age where they won’t treat the venue as a fraternity party. After some discussions leading up to this meeting, it had been determined we will be offering an open bar and deciding on the wine/champagne service wound up being the major discussion. One of the cooler results is we will be having servers working the room during the cocktail hour with trays of wine to help alleviate the wait at the bar.

• Bethany’s father has a friend who will be decorating our cake, but the in house catering service will be providing the layers for him to work his magic. As most of you know, I despise carrot cake more than any food out there so clearly we would be looking at another route. I have to confess I can’t fully recall what we went with once I knew one of the layers would be chocolate. I’m sure it will be delicious and the cake will look wonderful
• The reception hours will be 4:00-10:00. As you may or may not know, we will be offering shuttle service from our home base of Harvard Square to the reception in Brookline so please make the appropriate plans by reviewing the hotel options at the top left side of the page. For those of you who will be returning home after the wedding, parking will be available with more details to come at a later date
• For the seating layout we will be sitting ten to a table and the tables will be around the very crowded dance floor. The DJ will be in the room, but we will not be banishing him to the balcony. It would be kind of amusing though if he dropped a bucket where we could send up requests or his dinner.

That’s a wrap for now and you’ll probably here some more on some of these topics in a future post