The Belgian's Would Have Been Pissed

Wow..... THAT was a close call. I can't believe this much time has passed and we didn't notice before. I'm not sure married life would have survived if this error has continued on.

I'm talking, of course, about the horrifying and sudden realization today that we had not registered for a waffle maker.

Let me calm you down and assure you that we have since added an awesome waffle maker to our registry at Target (cough - click here - cough).

You see, Cara and I love us some waffles. Many weekend mornings are spent with me making us waffles and Cara brewing the coffee. It's become a thing for us. We alternate between the weekend waffle breakfast with eggs and turkey bacon breakfast and the occasional weekend breakfast where I eat cereal alone because Cara sleeps in like crazy and I get, to quote the philosophers of the east coast, wicked hungry.

So fear not my blog-onia friends. Wait, is that the correct statement if I am referring to this as a country? Blog-onia? How about Blogistan. Or The United States of Whatever I Want to Call it Because It's My Blog Suckers!!!

Yeah, I like that last one. But for the sake of time let's just continue to use the "regular" terms and call it a blog.

I will now finish my work day day-dreaming of making waffles in a fancy kitchen while Cara and Sadie play and laugh in slow motion.

Also, I have robot strength in this dream.

Bling Rings: Part 1

Yesterday Cara and I finished a task that took longer then it should have. We ordered our wedding bands. It took almost two whole weeks to order them, not for a lack of trying, but because the designer I went with for Cara's engagement ring does not have a vast amount of jewelers in the area carry the brand.

But let's back track some before all I talk about is Cara's ring and the journey to purchase the band.

I am an interesting breed of man when it comes to the ring I want. I really like a classic and stylish look. Case in point, my ultimate wedding tuxedo would be the Cary Grant Tuxedo from Hugo Boss. But that is another story all together.

Classic, to me, is what I am going to call "silver." There are many ways to better call that metal: white gold, palladium, not-yellow. You get the point. But I call them all "silver."

So I wanted a silver band. And a few months after we became engaged we strolled around to a few jewelers to try on men's wedding bands. I quickly locked in on the Scott Kay Collection. It was classic, it felt comfortable on my hand and it would look good with me dressed up or dressed down.

Fast-forward almost a year later. Wedding plans are in high gear. The concept of having a heavy dose of valium administered to me for the week leading up to the wedding is gaining more steam. Item's have started to be grabbed up on our gift registry in preparation for upcoming showers and the big day.

And now, in the midst of it all, it is time to get our wedding-band-groove-buying-style-of-dance and weekend activities on.

I was up first. The lead-off hitter. First to bat. The over-developed freshmen girl who gets asked to prom before the senior girls. The guy who has to get in the pool first and tell his friends what the water feels like. The... ok, you get the picture.

I knew that I wanted the Scott Kay Collection ring, but we (obviously) were going to get to a store and have me try it on again before any financial commitments were going to be made.

The great news is that there is a Jared's Jewelers (he went to Jared's!) just under five minutes from our place. This is one of the only jeweler's around that carry the ring I wanted. So we stopped in one fine day and found out that this particular Jared's did not carry the ring nor the brand.

So we had to trek down route 59 in Aurora/Naperville. If you are not familiar with route 59 in Aurora/Naperville, let me quickly give you the info:

1. every store you need to get to
2. everyone trying to get there at the same time
3. did i mention this is all just one road

Basically, it is just really boring to drive down because it is just one long road and it can sometimes be frustrating because it can cluster up real fast.

Lucky us, our adventure on it wasn't that bad. We got to the Jared's on route 59 and I went in, tried on the ring, had a few minutes of thinking and then we made the purchase. It will arrive sometime next week, fresh from the designer.

I put that last part in bold to give you a comparative approach when I have finished telling the story of how involved a process it was to get Cara's wedding band ordered.

It is so much of a process that I honestly don't have the effort to detail it all right now. I started to, but I just can't. I need coffee and some finger stretches before I tackle it. So I am breaking this post into two seperate ones.

Stay tuned for the thrilling conclusion to our story as I'll later present to you,

"Bling Rings: Part 2 - The Search for Curlie's Gold"

or, if you don't like that...

"2 Fast 2 Blingious"

"Bling 2: Collector's Fee"

"The Bling Files: I Want to Bling"

Legally Blinged"

"Illinois Smith and the Kingdom Of The Bling Skull"

"Bling Hard"

Superbling IV: The Quest for More Bling"

Geneva Love: Glory Be To Graham's

What you see before you is quite possibly one of my favorite things for Cara and I to do as a couple in Geneva. A Green Mint Chip Milkshake from Graham's on 3rd street in Geneva.

Let me explain the glory that is Graham's ice cream. This stuff is made fresh daily and once you have your first experience there is no going back. Oh and they top it off with shaved chocolate and whipped cream.

• Graham's Ice Cream and Chocolates: Two locations within a block of each other offers everything from fresh ice cream to chocolate items you can watch being made. In summertime they have acoustic acts play outside and everyone sits in comfy chairs and eats their desserts. Very relaxing stuff.

Geneva has been our home for just over two years now and there is a lot of great little things for couples to do here. I plan to blog about the various parts of our little slice of the world that Cara and I love. Pretty much a small list of great memories and things that we love to do in our neck of the Fox Valley.

Next in my Geneva Love series: jewelery

3 Months

Today is May 14th. Three months until August 14th. 92 days to be exact.

Because I Care

If you haven't figured it out yet, I like to write. Nothing jazzes me more then cranking the creativity dial to 11 and bringing something out of nothing.

In this regard, I also like to write poems. However, I have not written one in over four years. Last night that changed. Cara and I had a discussion over wedding plans and, as I know is essentially tradition and custom, we did not fully understand what the other was saying.

So I went and wrote a poem to her. Something to show my feelings and emotions in a fancy lad sort of way.

Here is my poem to Cara:

it is my crime because i care
to wonder how you'll wear your hair
to think and wonder about your style
a gorgeous white dress and you down the aisle

it is my crime to think of why
to ask who will make sure the flower's aren't dry
to research the seasons and know the tradition
to always be mindful of our wedding day mission

it is my crime to ask who
who in your life will walk down there with you
to bring you to the alter, your hand meeting mine
to have that feeling, knowing everything's fine

it is my crime because i am me
a lover of you and all that your bring
knowing your love and what it does to me
i can't be content to just let this all be

it is my crime to want this shared dream
to plan it together, our hips at the seam
it is my crime because i love you so much
soon my wife, our lives will touch

together we'll do this and then our vows
to hold and to cherish as far the law allows
planning this with you means the world to me
it is my crime, a life sentence for you and me

Minimoon Tournament: The Final Four

Behold, our mighty final four minimoon destinations!!!

I'll be blogging tomorrow to expand on these picks... and how we "moved a few things around" to end up this way.

The poorly thought out fashion plans of a man

The other day Cara mentioned something that I had never thought about. She said I should get a new set of clothes to wear for the wedding showers. This really caught me off guard as I thought my wide assortment of generic polo shirts and worn-out button down's were the way to go.

We looked a little bit for new stuff at Kohl's this past weekend whilst (oh yeah, whilst) on our plate adventure and I didn't really see much of anything different then what I had.

So I started to think of a look I could go for. I tried thinking of someone in popular culture whose fashion sent a good statement that I could embody. Then it came to me. A man who oozed awesomeness with whatever he wore. Let it be written, this can only be...

Ricardo M.F. Montalban.

Ricardo, although no longer with us, left a big bulge in the pants that are men's fashion.

Let's look at a few options I now have for my attire for the two wedding showers, in accordance with Ricardo Montalban:

OPTION #1:

This first look says it all, sort of a "I'm a business sort of guy but I know how to take it easy." This stylish number would work well for the Paris wedding shower as it will be hosted outdoors in early June.

OPTION #2:

The Fantasy Island apparel. From the white shoes to the ethnic mini-me dude this outfit is perfect for the Geneva wedding shower, which is being hosted in a nice restaurant. The all-white ensemble lets the crowd know who the groom and how damn classy he is. The ethnic mini-me can act as a buffer to hold off unwanted conversations or for impromptu games of keep away.

OPTION #3:

Khan... KHAN!!!

Yes! This is it! Ricardo Montalban as Khan in Star Trek from the 1980's! This outfit is the perfect tri-fecta! Paris wedding shower, check! Geneva wedding shower, check! Wedding day attire, oh yeah that is a sweet check!

I have to order this outfit on Amazon now. Mission accomplished. Just no one tell Cara.

Plates

Cara and I recently spend a lot of time deciding on what plates set to register for. It got me thinking about what the world must seem like to the plates, bowls and silverware in our life...

Plates.

They have a pretty thankless job in our daily routines. They get locked away in cabinets, in the dark and with only their fellow plate companions to comfort them in what I am sure is a constant state of horror alway's wondering when the next form of torture will come.

We, at our leisure, throw open the doors and quickly scan around for our next victim. We think carefully about this because we already know the form of torture to come and need the perfect plate for the job.

So we find what we need, pull it out of the cabinet and place it on the table. To them I'm sure this could be similar to an operating table. They look to their side and see the instruments of unimaginable horror. A side dish of steaming veggies to scorch the surface, a helping of garlic mashed potatoes to silence the screams. And to top it off, a hot slab of dead animal meat to really mess with their heads.

We then take our tools and scrape against their skin, pushing and pulling the instruments of unimaginable horror all over the victim's body.

And what do we do when we are finished? Well if you are as sick and demented as we are, chances are you leave the plate in a pit with no chance of escape. A shallow grave to him, a kitchen sink to us. Here he sits, for days on end at times. His body scarred with the brutality of what had happened.

And just when he thought, he prayed, he hoped for death... he is picked up and placed in a box. It's dark, he looks around and can see fellow victims. The bowls, the spoons, the cookie sheets. All mangled with their experience. Suddenly the door closes and switch is flipped. The box is dark and quickly filling with scolding hot water. I'm sure at this point the plate's heart is beating harder and harder. His thought's racing around. He wonder's what this new form of torture is, thinks of the saucer plates he will be leaving behind, wondering if the coffee cup he loves is doomed to the same fate.

The water and soap are churning faster and faster at this point. Digging deeper into his wounds, pounding against his body. And then the water drains and he holds out a faint hope that this demonic ride is at its end. But then he feels it start to come over him. The steam is building up more and more. It suffocates everything around him, clings to the water left of him and pulls it off with a slow force.

The door opens back up and a wave of fresh air and light hits him. He is grabbed and inspected end over end. Surely this is to ensure that this latest form of torture was successful.

The cabinet door opens back up and he is placed in his old spot. The door closes and he wonders...

What does this all mean? Why was he put through such hell for days on end if only to be placed back in his dark tomb.

But all he can do is sit and wait. And pray. Wondering when his turn will come again.