Shell was a beautiful bride

Shell got married last Sunday (5/21) and it was so beautiful -- she was so beautiful! Here are a couple pics ...



They look so wonderful! That's my boob to the left -- can't keep those things out of the picture, evidently!



This is such a pretty picture of Shell -- I wish it were lighter, but that's what the professionals were for!



I got under Shell's dress before Richard! Of course, he was left holding the bouquet ...



The happy wedding party ... before we got down and partied!

Sapphire bullets of Pure Love (aka The Vacation)

Sapphire bullets of Pure Love (aka The Vacation)

The vacation was awesome, and I'd let myself go on and on but I don't want to bore you with the details, so I'm bulleting again. If you wish for me on expound on anything, let me know! :)

-Sunday
**we left immediately after the wedding to get to Albany, GA, thinking it would take until 1-2am to get there but ended up checking into the Motel 6 there around 9:30pm. The room was clean but in a sketchy part of town, so while I slept rather well, Christen was up once an hour to check on the car. It was good to get a headstart on our trip though!

-Monday
**Montgomery, AL: First White House of the Confederacy
**Burmingham, AL: Downtown
the mini-Statue of Liberty
Boy Scout HQ (don't ask me why)
**Huntsville, AL: Monte Sano State Park -- very pretty for camping

-Tuesday
**Columbia, TN: Home of James K. Polk
**Nashville, TN: Belmont Mansion
Grand Ole Opry (drive-by)
Bledsoe Creek State Park -- the best camping place we stayed at the whole time

-Wednesday
**Nashville, TN: the Capitol -- grave of James K. Polk
the Hermatage and grave of Andrew Jackson
**Memphis, TN: T.O. Fuller State Park (the worst of the parks, but we weren't there often so it didn't matter)
Pat O'Brien's -- fantastic food - their fried zucchini was amazing!
The Tap Room -- awesome bar on Beale Street

-Thursday
**Memphis, TN: Graceland -- we did the whole tour - the mansion, the planes, the museums ... very cool.
Tower Records
Sekisui sushi
Pink Palace Museum
Rock n Soul Museum
Club 152 - Elvis impersonator
accidentally took a trip across the Mississippi River to Arkansas
sat outside Celebrities Cafe on Beale drinking Newcastle watching a guy named Big Jerry play the blues with his band on the street
saw a great Rockabilly band in one of the bars on Beale

-Friday
**Jackson, MS: Oaks House Museum
soda shop emporium
**Mobile, AL: Best Western (yeah, no campsite here)

-Saturday
Mobile, AL: Fort Conde - why did the guide books not say this was a repro?
Conde-Charlotte Museum- not open but we peeked in the windows
Brag-Mitchell Museum- not open either! what is it with this place?
USS Alabama - very neat, and huge!
Felix Fish House - amazing food - crab soup and shrimp and crab au gratin
Greenville, FL: Super 8 for the night

-Sunday
**home! It was fun but it's nice to be home. If only I didn't have to go back to work tomorrow!

Pure poetry for you

for autumn.

autumn is death

for the play in numbers

finding joy in places

of brilliant creation.

autumn is death

with a straight razor

at the throat of a plump gazelle

or boar, stealing life

from worthlessness.

autumn is life

within death

a voice of succulent

maliciousness

in her marrow

of midnight danger.

autumn brings me

dandelions and calla lilies

in fanciness

in happiness

and in death.

***********************************

unnamed.

humbles bodies bound to the sheets

and tablets

of my youth

I am setting them to

their freedom

drenched in the

dreary dances of martyrs,

tiptoeing promises by

way of thy

turquoise inkwells

and cranberry dreams.

Sangria in the sands.

************************************

Commune

Quiet rains on the little children

feigning stillness, their minds

running the quarter-mile track as

antsy fingers drum on pews.

They will know darkness once again.

Intangible knowledge of the

original love and death

roses and apples

red wine in little cups

for the little children bathed in white

before midnight comes

the midnight will come

the midnight has come

the white will turn to black

will turn to red

ruby blood in little cups

raining on the little children.

**************************************

Thunder Oath

Gin

rivers flowing upstream in the briskness

Gimme a light, he will scream into the wind.

I will hold him close, the small fire of ash burning

Deepness

Into me.

Forgive the moment

I wanted tonic

In my life

You were worth knowing too.

Creature hangs in midair

To choke retorts

In Greek to the masses

Gimme a light, he will whisper to the whore

But there is no light to be held

in her breasts.

Only death.

Christen the fortune

Of men who knew life in her arms

For they are spared in the ecstasy

Of dreams.

One who knows death

Can never know pain.

They will down in the rivers of

Gin

barreling upstream.

Culinary Pornography and Other Books read:

Love in the Time of Cholera: I finally finished this one, and it was fantastic. Utterly fantastic.

The Hours: I wasn't impressed by the book itself; I found it a bit dull. I was, however, very intrigued by the structure: Three Lives - the dreamer/reader, the writer and the living story. The end was an easy one to guess, not the actions but how everyone is tied together.

The Kite Runner: I only got 4 pages into this and had to give it back to Christen's mom, from whom I borrowed it on the Pensacola trip. But I will start it again next month, because the four pages I read were quite good :)

Garlic and Sapphires: I must say that I love Ruth Reichl. It's like food porn, her culinary memoirs. I've read two others of hers, Tender at the Bone and Comfort me with Apples, as well as a short story/excerpt book that she was featured in. This book is just as delicious as the others, and I can't wait to try some of the recipes (she always sprinkles her books with recipes instead of pictures).

Shower you with bullets

Long time no see,

So it has come to my attention that I have been neglecting my blog. I know I have; I just haven't the time for it lately. However, I was told that I need to think of my dear readers and put a couple lines up here so you know I'm not dead (yet) so I thought I would brief you in bullets (but not debrief you in bullets; that would be bad). Since last we spoke:

**Went to Pensacola for Christen's cousin Matt's wedding. The wedding was beautiful, the bar open, and the seafood delicious but mostly overpriced. The best place we ate was Peg-Legged Pete's on the beach, which had a fantastic fish chowder. There was a place named Crabs (we got 'em) which we didn't eat at but it lent itself to a barrage of jokes for the weekend.

**Went to the band reunion this weekend. It was so fun; I had an amazing time and caught up with so many old friends. Friday night was the concert, Saturday afternoon the picnic, Saturday night the banquet and afterward we overran Chili's and then went back to one guy's house for a party and I didn't get home until 6am! I don't generally party that hard, but it was so nice to hang out with some of the old crowd -- it was like no time had passed. I can't wait to start hanging out with those that I can soon :)

**Sunday was Mother's Day but my mom had to work all day so I took the kids shopping for her and to the mall, etc. We had an all around good time and Mom came over that night for dinner and to hang out for a bit -- I made shrimp kabobs and rice for us and chicken for the kids (they don't do shrimp) and Jamie made brownies for dessert. We ate outside on the deck and visited -- an all-around great relaxing night.

**Shell's wedding: coming up this weekend. I've made beach bags and painted wine goblets for the bachelorette party, and everything looks great. We are making our own flower arrangements on Friday morning for the wedding, and the bachelorette party is Friday night (we're doing a spa night with massages, manicures and pedicures, and wine and a beachfront hotel. Saturday is the rehearsal and the rehearsal dinner and Shell and I are staying in the honeymoon suite at the wedding location that night. Sunday she gets hitched!

**After the wedding Christen and I are going on vacation -- yay! It's well-deserved and well-needed, I think. We haven't decided where to go; we're supposed to do some deciding tonight. Usually I like going up to the Carolinas, but he wants to head more west, like Missouri, Mississippi and stuff. Please tell me what there is to do in those areas, and what the camping is like? I'm a little wary.

Well, that's all for now. If I'm not back again before June, you know it's because I've been busy not because I don't love you!