:15, :14, :13...

Underappreciated solo effort by fellow attention whore Geri Halliwell/Ginger Spice

Things happen in threes, right? Like...celebrity deaths? And...the Holy Trinity?

Something interesting happened in triplicate recently. Over the last three days, my husband and I have been in three big news stories!


BREAKING NEWS ITEM #1: Landing gear problems on our flight from ATL to KC

On Saturday, Nick and I flew up to Kansas City to visit my darling grandmother in northern Missouri. Neither of us are crazy about flying but we considered the 14-hour drive for a weekend trip to be a bit egregious even for us. Our Delta flight (1163) was pretty unremarkable until we started our descent. We got near the airport and then...flew past it. Alert people on the plane started to look a little alarmed. One by one the copilots strode purposefully toward the back of the plane and opened a small hatch. For a moment it felt like the cabin was losing pressure. The flight attendants started to look a little nervous. We flew past the airport again, and then again, so low and close it seemed like we could just jump out, thank you. They finally said over the intercom that there was some issue with the landing gear. People shifted nervously in their seats. After a few more loops past the airport, they finally put the plane down on a runway lined with police cars and ambulances. Turns out it was just a problem with the landing gear sensor and not the the gear itself, which they apparently ascertained by flying right past air traffic control so they could see if the gear was down. Is that seriously the emergency procedure? How much could they really see when we're whooshing by at 400 miles an hour? Whatever. I'm just glad we lived to tell the tale. Nick and I were a little rattled but had already mostly forgotten about it when we heard a report about our flight on NPR national. Which was weird. And cool. Read the boring AJC article


BREAKING NEWS ITEM #2: My husband is in the SUNDAY NEW YORK TIMES!

Have I ever mentioned that I am married to a genius? Nick programs robots. His research is particularly focused on human-robot interaction and the way robots and humans learn from each other. Apparently the New York Times came to his lab at Georgia Tech to check out Simon, the robot he's been working on with his colleagues for the last two years under the watchful eye of Dr. Andrea Thomaz. The article is pretty interesting, but what I like most of all is that a PHOTO OF NICK AND SIMON LEADS THE ARTICLE!



Incredible, incredible. There's also a blurb about the Media Lab at MIT, where Nick will be starting in the fall. By the way, if anyone has a copy of the Sunday Times laying around, PLEASE hold onto it for me! We were in the middle of nowhere on Sunday and couldn't find a Sunday Times to save our lives. Read the article!!!


BREAKING NEWS ITEM #3: Our wedding is featured on Offbeat Brides!

Aaand on Monday night, I got word that our wedding was going to be featured on Offbeat Bride! I absolutely adore this website--it features unusual weddings of all stripes and it is hands-down the best website for wedding inspiration, as far as I'm concerned. As soon as we got our incredible wedding photos back, I wrote up a profile and submitted it to Offbeat Bride. Now, almost a year later, here it is! And I have to admit, I really enjoyed reading it! Click here to read it for yourself.


lol check out the tags: BRIDES IN GLASSES, CANDY, CHURCH WEDDING, HAT, NON-MATCHING BRIDESMAIDS, RECEPTION DRESS, SECULAR, TENNESSEE WEDDING, TUXEDO

So I think our stock is up. Think I could parlay all this publicity into a guest spot on Law & Order: SVU?

Discussion question: Discuss your brushes with fame. Links encouraged.

sojurn to cincinnati: biiiiiiiiitch, please!

Today's blog-readin music comes to us courtesy of Flogging Molly, the only band Irish enough to appear in this post.



A couple of weekends ago, still completely wiped from our whirlwind trip to New Orleans, I packed up and set off on a 48-hour, 1000-mile road trip to witness the blessed union of my dear friends Meghan and Ryan.

Meghan started off as what you might call a second-hand friend. Joe, my roommate/bff from my New Orleans days, was Meghan's bff in high school, so Meghan came down to NOLA to visit Joe pretty often. It wasn't long before I claimed her as a friend of my own.

Ash and Joe and Meghan and I have a lot of fun stories from those days. Actually, that's a lie. Those nights are mostly a smoky blur in my mind's eye. (As Lanier and I like to say, "Ah, those were the days. Wait...when were those days?") But a really FUN blur, and that's what matters.

Exhibit A:



Circa 2004 in Joe's bedroom. Friends don't let friends wear maroon lipstick.

So when the gorgeous vintage postcard save-the-date came in the mail, I did not hesitate to pencil the date in on my calendar. Knowing Meghan and Ryan and their rowdy Irish roots, I knew this wedding was not to be missed. Nick was super busy with school, so I decided to go solo. I packed up the old Spruce Goose and I was on my way.



It looks exactly like this except there's a disembodied baby doll head on the dashboard and an unsightly dent in the driver's door. The Spruce Goose!

Being far, far too cheap to pay for two nights in a Cincinnati hotel, I opted instead to spend Friday night with my parents outside Nashville. I drove up to Nashville on Friday night after work, got in after midnight, and spent approximately 20 minutes visiting with my parents in on Saturday morning before I had to keep on driving on to Cincinnati.

I planned the whole trip out very carefully, making a list of items to pack and printing off Google Maps directions to and from every place I planned to go. However, in my careful planning, I somehow neglected to pack any shoes except the brown Aileen Wuornos boots I had selected to accessorize the trucker-chick outfit I was wearing to drive in. I got to take a short detour in northern Kentucky to the Target to grab a pair of heels. I must have looked really strange.



Do these pumps come in a 10?

Things started to look up after I got into Cincinnati. On a whim, I tried my hand at Name Your Own Price on Priceline and ended up with a room at the Cincinnati Westin (4 stars!) for $70. It turned out to be hands-down the most pleasant stay I've ever had in a chain hotel. Check out this room!



just like the pictures!!



I was in Cincinnati for less than 24 hours, so the trip was kind of an open-bar, old-friends blur. Joe fetched me from the hotel, and we fetched Ash and Dave, and just like that the old crew was back together again.

The ceremony was held at Meghan's high school's chapel and it was gorgeous and appropriately Catholictastic.



After the ceremony, Ash and Dave and Joe and I headed up to the Something Heights for a couple of rounds before the reception. Joe and I adjourned at one point to go to the scenic overlook and appreciate the frozen, gray landscape of Cincinnati.





Joe and Dave sporting matching ties



yay weddings!

After a few rounds, we headed over to Krohn Conservatory for the amazing reception. I probably shouldn't say anything, but...things got a little steamy.



Meghan and Ryan rented the whole place out, so we got to explore the rainforest room and the cactus room and all of the neat ecospheres. Here's Joe and I enjoying Meghan and Ryan's signature Rainforest Cocktail in the rainforest room:



The whole thing was wonderful. So much talking and laughing and food and dancing and merriment.



family portrait!





gonna slap him if he's gettin too drunk drunk



amazing cake topper and homemade cake!

I would be remiss if I did not mention the quote of the evening, taken straight from Ryan's father's toast:



Here's to the heat!
Not the heat that burns down shanties--
the heat the brings down panties!



48 hours, 1000 miles, and more old friends than my heart can hold. Laissez les bon temps rouler, Erin go bragh, and Here's to the heat!

La Photographie Nashville contest!

The absolutely wonderful Stephanie Saujon Baltz of La Photographie Nashville sent me word this week that the photo above won her blog's Best Wedding Photo of 2009 contest! That might have been influenced by the fact that my ~550 facebook friends and hundreds of girls from Stay Sassy took the time to vote for it. I appreciate it so much!

Anyway, the prize for winning is a 16 x 20 print, and Stephanie surprised me with the news that I could pick any of my wedding photos to have blown up! It only took me a moment to choose. I had to go with the amazing group shot of everyone at the reception (which is best seen great big but which I will thumbnail here anyway):



and not just because it is awesomely reminiscent of the scary old picture of the hotel patrons from The Shining:



and not just because it makes me want to sing this song when I see it:



white people, havin' fuuuuuuuun

This picture is heirloom-quality wonderful. Stephanie had to climb a precarious ladder to the DJ booth to take this picture! She really was absolutely the greatest wedding photographer a girl could ask for. She was sunny and friendly wonderful to work with, and most of all, her photos came out amazing. You can check out some of the best shots here.



our wedding in 50 photographs (a flickr album)
May 16, 2009
Nashville, TN

you'd think I was done posting my wedding photos all over the internet but you'd be wrong. you'd be so wrong.