Various small things.

Welcome to our viewers from Grove City who are here by way of the e-mail I sent out earlier - also some other non-Grove-City types who got the same e-mail.

No major topics to write about today, but apparently LaBosseuse doesn't feel my previous posts were worthy of her comments, so I must write another one for her to comment on.

I went to a wedding this past weekend that was absolutely beautiful. All my congratulations go to Ben and Jen, aka Bennifer, aka Mr. and Mrs. Robert Benjamin Allums. I wish I had some pictures to show you, because several very beautiful things happened at the wedding.

First, actually, I got invited to the rehearsal dinner - they opened it up to a lot more family and friends, rather than just the wedding party. You see, Ben's family is from Louisiana, and then Texas and then Chicago. So they threw us a big New Orleans style party, complete with beads and masks and cajun food and all sorts of fun stuff. I got to see some wonderful grover types who I hadn't seen in months (at least). Sharon and Brian, Susan and Faith, Amy(!) Paul(!!!) and of course Ben and Jen. Dinner was great, then we had toasts and it was awesome fun - Amy and Paul both made excellent speeches as did members of the bride and groom's family - I got to see Ben's relationship with his family for the first time, and it was really touching - he's such a standup guy and he proves it again and again every time I see him. And Jen couldn't have looked more the blushing bride - usually she is quiet, but not shy - Friday night she seemed shy and nervous a bit, but it fit perfectly with her wedding weekend. Then we went out for the bachelor party, but you Grovers will be glad to know that we 'creeked' Ben first - carried him on our shoulders out to the driveway and then Paul poured a cup of water on his head!

Bachelor party was to be at Molly's - a bar downtown - which was a cool place but with the band playing there it was too loud to just talk, which is what we wanted to do. So we had one drink each and hit the road to the house of a family from Jen's church (I think). I ordered a Colorado Bulldog but she mixed it differently than I'm used to - it was still really good though so I didn't complain. One of the guys actually had a glass of Merlot. What a champ. At the house we retired to, not much happened before the party broke up for the evening (it was after midnight at that point) but in the driveway of the house was a car that I absolutely drooled over.

I will take a break here to talk about Initial D (see earlier posts or google search the name) - of the main characters in the anime, two of them are brothers, one who is older and more cerebral, the other younger and passionate. They both drive Mazda RX-7s, which are great cars. The older brother has an older model RX-7, and the younger brother drives the newer model. These cars are the predecessor to the RX-8 that you may have seen all over the roads these days. Anyhow, in 1992 the RX-7 changed to a new body style and a new chassis. The chassis code up til 1991 was FC3S and after 1992 it was FD3S. In Initial D (and apparently in drift racing at all) the drivers refer to their cars by the chassis code. No other car besides a Mazda RX-7 would have a chassis code of FC3S, so if you say that then everyone knows what you're talking about. And it's easier to say "FC" or "FD" than "1991 Mazda RX-7" or "1992 Mazda RX-7". So anyhow these brothers and their cars - the famous FC and FD - are legends in the story of Initial D.

Back to the wedding story - as I left the house Friday night to drive to the other house where I would sleep, I took a closer look at the car in the driveway, and it was an FC! Bright red paint with silver decals - a bee or wasp with a big ol' stinger, and silver stickers from the manufacturers of the various parts the guy had put in it. A nice big silver spoiler. It had a sticker on it that said "Drifted Daily" I was so happy to see that car you have no idea.

Got to the Hutchinson's house at 1 am and crashed in their basement - woke up and met their three beautiful girls: Ciara, Brieanna, and Rosalee (Rosie). They were the most excellent hosts I could've asked for, despite the fact that the three girls had to get ready to be flower girls, they still managed to make me feel right at home in their wonderful house. Drove to the wedding, watched an absolutely beautiful ceremony that I can barely describe. The key parts were that Jen and Ben both have pastors for fathers, so they chose a third-party (the associate pastor from jen's church) to do the officiating, but their own fathers did part of the service as well. The reception was nice with lots of food, a little dancing, a slide show of pictures of Jen and Ben growing up.

Then I drove Carolynn back down here and we met up with Beth her college roommate and they spent the night and then went off to church the next morning.

And at that point I guess life returned to "normal" for me. Normal = dote on my nephew. Cute little monkey-frog. He's awesome.

So look at that, I guess I did have something to write about after all. Now LaBosseuse will really be happy.