Ooooh Fle Market

clipped from www.schenectadyny.info

Looks like there's a flea market happening a block from my house today. Awesome! Going to have to check it out. Good wholesome fun.

Friday Afternoon Fun

Work should be illegal on Friday afternoons.

clipped from video.google.com Cute crazy cats 1 min 11 sec - 26/09/2006

THREE WEEKS!!

Wow. Three weeks from today is our Wedding Day!! YAY!!!! :D

There is still a bit of work to do - details to tie together. We got our license last week - yep, we're "licensed to wed". I've finally finished up all the ordering of supplies that needed to be completed. (Now I just need to actually assemble everything that those supplies were meant for...) I confirmed everything with the Priest, videographer, photographer, and we met with the DJ and Wham and I met with the florist. I'll need to do final follow up/confirmation calls the week of to all the vendors, but we should be pretty much all set. The meeting with the DJ went phenomenally - he had some great ideas for the party and we're really psyched to see it all come together. I booked our hotel room for NYC when we return from the honeymoon - I still need to figure out how we're getting to/from JFK for the trip. Probably train/cab. And I still haven't booked any dinner reservations, etc for the honeymoon itself - though Meredith emailed me about a reduced priced tickets booth for theater tickets (rock).

Mostly what we have left to do are gift related (bridal party, etc), honeymoon detail related, and DIY detail related. There's a lot to do, but it doesn't feel overwhelming. I'm so excited!

In other news I had a dress freakout. I read an article that said that strapless dresses aren't for everyone and I totally started to worry that it will look weird and unflattering on me all night. My arms... oh, my arms. How icky! But then I thought, "who's going to be looking at my arms when my hair is going to look so fabulous!" ;) But I really do feel better about it. It's a fabulous dress and if anyone thinks my arms look nasty they can just screw themselves. How about that? ;)

Also, I've stopped losing weight. This is because I've started eating like a pig. Cake? Yes. Cookie? Yes. Goat Cheese Spring Roll? Please. Cosmopolitan? Two. Or three. Popcorn? Yep - with butter. Peanut m&ms? Of course! It's ridiculous. I don't know why I suddenly feel like I can eat whatever I want. Don't I realize that I'm getting married in three weeks? Maybe it's a subconscious thing... I'm worried that my next fitting is on my birthday, only 10 days before the wedding and if they have to take it in there will be too much stress to try and fit another fitting in between then and the wedding. Probably not. I think I'm just lazy. I like the way I look (well enough, anyway) and I want to have fun like everyone else! Hopefully I can reign it in a bit, though. I'm fine if I don't lose any more weight before the wedding, but I certainly don't want to gain any!

What if the Beatles were Irish?

Hilarious. I got to work today all bummed about having to be awake, etc, then Eric walked over to my cube and showed me this video. Got me laughing out loud. :D

Sucks.

clipped from en.wikipedia.org

Emirates Telecommunications Corporation

[edit] Blocking of Websites

Etisalat has blocked thousands of websites on the web due to various reasons; the statement on the "ban screen" states that websites may be banned due to their content contravening the political, religious, moral, social and economic values of the United Arab Emirates. These websites include:

• Pornography


• The entire Israel TLD (.il)


• Certain social-networking websites


• Certain media-sharing websites (such as flickr)


• Anti-Islamic websites


• Certain websites which cover aspects of the United Arab Emirates in a critical manner such as uaeprison.com, hetq.am and arabtimes.com


• Anonymous proxy sites


• "Some" File-sharing sites (torrents etc.)

Based upon the directions of the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of the United Arab Emirates, Etisalat blocks some websites, such as VoIP. Skype is one such service blocked by Etisalat. Many see this action as a move to protect the profits of the telecommunications industry.

Dad and I worked for about an hour tonight to get video conferencing working. We wanted to be able to easily communicate after the family moves to Dubai and it seemed like video conferencing over the web would be easy and more fun than a regular phone call! We tried a few different ways to connect, but settled on Skype because it proved to be the easiest.

I was psyched, but then decided to Google Skype and Dubai. I was shocked to discover that Etisalat, the only ISP in the USA, blocks access to Skype! We talk about the family moving and how it will be a big adjustment climatically and how it'll be harder to communicate because of the time zone difference - but there's so much more to it than that! There will be a huge social adjustment that will need to happen as well! I know that Dubai really caters to tourists and that it is much more free than many other Arab cities and nations, but there are still going to be some major differences. I was kind of freaked out by the unexpected restriction of freedom. I don't know if it's because it's Independence day or what, but the limitations on accessing web pages just seems so wrong to me.

I know that they will be fine and it will be a great experience and will all work out well in the end, but it really hit me tonight about how big a deal this really is. Dad is traveling back there tomorrow and so we'll have some time (hopefully) to test out some things - some workarounds I found for accessing Skype, testing to see if he can still access and post to Blogger, making sure that he can access our family photo album sites (I mean, even flickr is blocked over there!). It will be interesting to see what works and what doesn't. Hopefully we can figure out an easy solution!

Video Test

Just a crappy short little video that I shot to test how easy it would be to record and post in case the family was interested in doing that on Their Blog when they move to Dubai...

I. Love. Them.

clipped from www.katespade.com party dance your way from day to night. item comes pre-boxed. laser suede with crystal or light smoked topaz stones leather sole 1/4" heel made in italy $395.00

I don't remember signing up for the Kate Spade newsletter. It really doesn't make sense that I'd do that... I don't own anything by Kate Spade - though I'd really, really love to! I opened up my email this morning and saw the newsletter and thought, "well, I'll just take a look..." I wish I didn't! I love, Love, LOVE these shoes. They would be so much fun with my wedding dress!

They are completely impractical though - I'd likely wear them for my wedding and then never again. And look at the price! At this point in my life, with the debt that I am in and with the goals that I haven't met yet, there is no way on God's green earth I'd spend that much money on a pair of shoes.

The hunt for knockoffs begins...

ROCK ON!!!

Langan VW totally just made my day. They called me up and said that my car was all set and when I asked him what the charge would be, they said, "No charge - it's a covered repair." ROCK! I don't have any sort of warranty on my car anymore, so I don't know if it's a global VW decision to just repair the faulty windows at No Charge or if it's just a Langan thing but either way I'm psyched! That totally just made my day!!!

Rock!! :)

Because what I need right now is ANOTHER thing to worry about.

I was at home last night watching "What not to Wear" on TLC when I realized that my wardrobe sucks.  Unfortunately, it does not suck enough (I think) to warrant my being on that show.  I decided that I needed at least a new shirt and immediately left the house to go to Marshall's. 

 

It was a beautiful night, so I drove with my window down and sang loudly to the music playing through my iPod.  I pulled into the parking lot, hit the button for my window to go up and unbuckled my seatbelt.  I heard a loud snap sound - like metal hitting glass.  I looked over at my window to see if my seatbelt somehow cracked into the window.  The seatbelt was hanging innocently by the side, but my window had suspiciously stopped moving.  I hit the button again.  The window made a freaky grinding sound and then sunk lower into the door.

 

CRAP.

 

I remembered immediately that Beck had the same problem with her VW a few years ago.  She said - almost like a Yoda prediction - "One day your window might fall into your door."  Apparently it's an issue with Volkswagens so it was only a matter of time before it happened to my Beetle.  Whatever.  You know, if it's such a common issue, why wasn't it recalled.  Ewww. 

 

So my car is back at Langan today to have the window fixed.  Hopefully it's not going to cost me an arm and a leg.  Hopefully, it's just an arm OR a leg.  ;)