This is a picture I took while we were driving in to our wedding venue.  After you enter the campus, there are several miles that look like this.  It's almost my favorite part about going there.  

So, we paid a surprise visit to Ben's mom so that Ben could try on tuxes, we meet up with my dad so that he could see our wedding venue, and we could see one of Ben's best friends while he was in town for Labor Day weekend.  It just so happened that we picked an amazing time to come.  We were able to crash a superb dinner at which we got to meet Ben's stepbrother's lovely girlfriend.  It was BYOB.  We brought 6 bottles, but we definitely had at least 1.5 bottles left..... 

There were many things I wished I had a camera for in the course of the day.  I went with my dad and his girlfriend to Ogunquit, and on the beach we saw two pretty cool scenes:

1. A little girl was playing with a little ping pong ball and paddle.  A seagull swooped down and stole her ball.  She stood there shocked as we passed by.  Then the bird kept dropping the ball about half a foot and swooping and getting it with its beak.  About a minute later, it swooped over to where the girl had returned to her family and dropped the ping pong ball right there for them.  

2. Some people on the beach designed a small minigolf course out of sand.  They were constructing some features the first time we passed by, and when we came back, they were actually golfing on it.  It was very cool.  

Ok - so the actual post is what we did when we came home from the beach.  We all played with our Wii.  Dad and K are just getting the hang of tennis in this picture.  It was a hilarious evening.  

We went to Freeport for the Patagonia Labor Day sale.  We got there half an hour after it started and it was CRAZY.  I'm very used to going on the 3rd day.  Anyway, this is a picture of me modeling almost all of my new clothes.  Skirt, tank top, sweater, micropuff (with the stuff sac I'm holding), even underwear!  Ben tried to tell me to just model one outfit, but I refused.  Also, it seems he must have told me to smile.

I spent most of this week facilitating off site, and carting props back and forth.  I tried to take a good picture of my car packed with all the props, but you can't really tell how ridiculous it is.  Ben had already removed a whole bunch of noodles from the car, which certainly made it look even more fun.

So, when I got back to the house, I discovered that a couple of fruit flies had begun to frequent our kitchen.  As I started cooking and eating here again, it get worse.  I've been smacking and clapping them to their death as well as scrubbing and trying not to keep any food things out, but they seem to really like our house now.  A friend gave me some advice on a trap for them, and I attempted to make it, but seem to have forgotten to take the label off the bottle, which may or may not be very important.  In any case, I'm utterly exhausted and wish that I had actually let this week be a vacation instead of accepting offers of work almost every day.  

I almost always take showers in the morning rather than at night, but today I am quite sure that I won't be awake or motivated enough tomorrow morning, so I just did it tonight.  Then I sat in my bathrobe with a towel on my head for an hour or so.  

Ben is home!  We're sitting on the couch and I'm trying to do some work while we watch Weeds.  This is one of my 15 attempts at a good self portrait of us.  We're good funny face makers.

This is the freezer.  Though I bought some fresh vegetables a couple weeks ago, I had to throw some out because they've gotten bad.  I've been relying on the freezer's contents to meet all my nutritional needs, and I think they've been doing pretty well.  

So I opened a package today that arrived at the house a few days ago.  A few months ago, Ben and I discovered Jyoti, a brand of pre-made Indian food that we actually really like.  So I found it online and went a little crazy.  Don't tell him.  It's kind of sort of a surprise.  

So I decided today that I urgently needed to drive to Buzzards Bay to decide about flowers with Ben's mom, and on the drive over something accidental happened to my car.  You know how you see those tires that look like they just peeled off some truck laying around on the highway?  Well, I didn't really have a good idea of exactly how that happens.  Now I do -- and it went directly from the truck to under my car.  So the plastic part in the front of my car was scraping the ground and I didn't know whether or not stuff was leaking out of the bottom.  This is my stepbrother in law to be checking out my car to see if he can tell whether anything serious is wrong.  Later he tied the plastic thing back on with wire.  It seems like there's nothing too serious wrong, and I keep forgetting that I actually have to get the plastic thing fixed and can't leave it connected as it is forever.  

I read by the pool for a few hours this morning.  I almost felt like I was on vacation... 

A good summary of my night: discs 2+3 of Freaks and Geeks, the second half of a bottle of Starborough, and a Kashi bread pocket sandwich.

Who knew that I, the person who sincerely didn't care what her bridesmaids were going to wear and still doesn't care whether or not we have champagne at the reception, would be this incredibly particular about stamps.  It started out innocent.  I looked at stamps and fell in love with the Yosemite ones on the left, which just came out on Friday, so I pre-ordered them, and then came just in time to make it onto the response cards.  This morning, I went to the post office to weigh an envelope and pick out a stamp that had the appropriate postage, though I already kind of had my eye on the dragonflies (on the left).  So, at the post office, they weighed the envelope, and I needed $.59, so they immediately took out the (in my opinion) ugly "wedding hearts" stamp.  My mother had mentioned this stamp when I showed her the ones I liked, but had realized that it would be more fitting for us to have Yosemite on our stamps than ugly hearts.  Anyway, I declined the ugly hearts and suggested the dragonflies even though I'd end up spending $.03 more per envelope.  Unfortunately, they only had 17 of those stamps, so I had to go to another post office to get them.  At the next post office, they, of course, once again suggested hearts, but I quickly explained to them that I could afford the $3 extra for stamps I liked.  Then I realized I needed to mail a couple of international envelopes too.  In that process, she suggested many stamps that I really didn't like, two of them being hearts(I don't actually thing that that one's too bad.).  I ended up going with St. John and 2 Yosemites for those... Anyway, this was a lot of text simply trying justify to myself that 3 minutes I spent turning down all of the woman's stamp suggestions for the international ones...  Now that I'm looking again, I really wish she had suggested 13 Mile Woods, the Okefenokee Swamp or Mt. McKinley.  Oh well.  (I tell you, I think I went crazy today.)

Today I finally came home for good, and it turned out to be a full day of wedding-ing.  It took me an hour and a half before I could make the printer print anything, and once I got that going, I struggled to print all of the response card envelopes and then individually printed the outgoing envelopes.  Then I stuffed everything that was ready... Tomorrow's project will be revising, printing and stuffing information cards and getting an envelope weighed so I know the appropriate postage.  And hopefully mailing really soon.... The invitations are BEAUTIFUL.  I get so excited every time I look at them.  (Many thanks to the imaginary twin sister of a friend for designing them and to Vistaprint for being good for the budget)  What you see in the foreground of this picture is my most recent ebay purchase (not the evidence of a wine habit) which will be used to complete the next artsy do it yourself wedding project.   

I meant to take a picture in the morning, when I met up with one of Ben's good friends from college to go canoeing on a river near where I'm dogsitting.  It was a really lovely morning. Perfect weather.  We had fun! Her family invited me in afterwards for a glass of juice and were so nice to me!  But anyway, I didn't take a picture.  Afterwards, I fed the dog and headed to Somerville, to my friend's house where I spent the first few weeks of the summer.  We ate Thai food from a place that says on the outside that it's vegetarian, but definitely is not, and shared a Peak Organic Pale Ale, which is one of my favorite beverages.  This is a picture of the best piece of furniture in the apartment.  As soon as I sat down in this chair, I knew I had to go home immediately or I would fall asleep and never get back to take the dog out.  

On the last day of camp, we stay to clean up for a few hours (Our goal is to make it look like we were never there.) and then we have a really nice dinner all together.  So, a few summers ago, we started the tradition of "the golden chicken," which gets passed from staff member to staff member, and is presented to a new person each Friday.  For the end of this summer, the director had this plaque made (by the amazing Wood Shop and Arts and Crafts staff, and of course with the donation of one of Adventure's rubber chickens).  So.... The staff member who was handing it off had lied to him about who the golden chicken was going to this week, and it's actually the director's very own name that is going to complete that plaque in the lower right corner.  Very fitting for the last day of his last summer as camp director.  I cannot say enough about what an amazing job he did creating this extraordinary camp and running it for the past eight summers.  It's lucky that he'll still be around to advise as his successor's boss.  

This is a picture I took from the top of our climbing wall today. Notice our wrap belay system. If it confuses you and you care, you can ask me about it.  Moments after I took this picture, I heard over the radio, "It's about to start pouring." Then, "It already is."  I said something to the people on the ground and we couldn't figure out what they were talking about. It was completely dry. Then we looked across camp, about 150 yards away from us, and it truly was pouring over there.  Then we heard thunder.... By the time I started rappelling down the wall, it was pouring by us too.  It was sooo bizarre.

I got home from work around 7, having already eaten leftovers from some luncheon that had been on campus.  I took the dog out, fed him, sat down to watch the Olympics, and the hardest decision I had to make all evening was which one: light coffee ice cream or key lime pie frozen yogurt.  I chose both (but not at the same time).  That said, I have no idea how I'm as extremely stressed out as I am.  

This is the dog I'm taking care of while housesitting.  A few minutes after I took this picture, I tried to eat a piece of pizza and he cornered me, barking and staring me down.  I climbed over the ottoman and put the pizza back in the refrigerator.  I tried a couple more times and it was basically the same thing.  After I took the dog for an extra walk, I came back and sat at a high counter to eat my piece of pizza.  It was ok.  My sister said I should let the dog know who's in charge, but I think I already did.  It's clearly him.  

Not quite as small a coordinator as the last one... I did a brief photo shoot of E in the attempt to get him to follow my blog.  "I'll look at it if you put a picture of me on it!" he said.  Well, here you go!

bonus post

So there was some noise outside my house that seemed strangely like fireworks, and when I looked outside, I realized it was.  So, I tried my camera with them, and it was actually remarkable.  These are pictures I took from my porch, not using any zoom.  Yep. They were close enough that I was actually at the fireworks (or I would have been, had there not been those trees there).  So I guess Old Home Weekend is a big enough holiday for fireworks, and fairly good ones, even if it was only about 5-10 minutes worth.  (Edit:  I just looked at the website, and fireworks are scheduled for 9:30 and it's only 8:50 now. I guess that was just a test.)

I feel like construction follows me wherever I go.  Does this happen to anyone else?  For a couple of months of our time here, there was no construction in Newmarket.  It seems like it'll be years until that happens again.  Same in Concord, where I'm working.  Once they finish with one bridge, they just start on the next one, and it always impacts my commute.  

I got a haircut and facial today and when I got home it felt like a good day for a mirror photo shoot rather than a camera timer photo shoot.  This is the last of about 40 pictures that I took, and it's clearly the best (read: most ridiculous).  Notice my new Patagonia tanktop and the fact that I'm not wearing glasses.  When I mentioned to Ben a couple weeks ago that I'm going to get contacts soon so that it won't be weird for me to not have glasses for the wedding, he made me take my glasses off for a little while to practice.  Then he said, "I only see you without your glasses when it's bed time.  You look sleepy."

This is my bed. I've only gotten to sleep in it a handful of times this summer, but I just wanted you all to know that I love my bed.  It was actually a free bed, found on freecycle.org, rescued from a couple who was moving in together and didn't need the extra guest room bed.  Anyway, I love you bed, and I'll miss you again next week.

We had a small coordinator gathering after camp today.  Pictured here is the littlest coordinator.  I spent some quality time with her on the ground spotting her head and keeping her away from the small dog that she would have loved to "pet."  

Crazy hair day at camp.  I spent 30 seconds when I got to camp putting 4 clips in my hair, and from the front, it looked cute enough.  But, to tell you the truth, I never really saw much of it until it had been through a day in the rain and Ben took these pictures when we got home.  Having funky hair like that made me feel a little like I was in high school again.  What a funny feeling!

I took these pictures from the top of the climbing wall today after two of my amazing staff members arranged helmets, noodles, bases, ladders, harnesses, ropes, bandanas, ramps to the climbing wall, and of course, themselves.  Incidentally, Dead Bug is a game that Ben would not allow me to play, so I introduced it to the staff at camp so that people would play with me.  Basically, when you say "dead bug" to someone, they have to lay on their back and wave their arms and legs around like they're a dead (or more accurately: dying) bug.  There are a couple of basic rules: You can only be dead bugged once in a day and you can't dead bug someone back in the same day.  Anyway, my staff and I undertook this project today for reasons I cannot at this moment share, but it was superfun, and as you can see - it turned out quite lovely.

I took Ben's pots and pans when I went camping a few weeks ago.  I washed them there, but not that well, then I dropped them off in the kitchen when I briefly visited home.  So when he came home, he washed them all.  I'm a little spoiled.  The first time he visited me at college, we had been dating about two months, and when I went to a half an hour rehearsal, he cleaned my room.  (I may have known right at that moment that I would marry him some day.)  Right now, he can't get over my car.  Since I haven't really had a home base for the past couple months, my car is FULL of stuff.  So, now he's turned to saying "Why do we drive in squalor?!?"

because i love to break the rules

I'm posting a few pictures today, all of our tv screen while we were playing with our Wii!

That's Ben playing golf.
That's me playing golf.
Here's a Mii parade.  We got bored one day and made miis of some people we know and love.  If you can guess who any of these people are, you get a bonus.  Other than Ben and me, there's only one that's REALLY obvious, I think.

I took this picture of Ben and me coming home to New Hampshire.  I am trying my hardest to master the art of taking a picture of myself without looking completely stupid.  I'm not there yet.  After stops at Ben's mom's house and REI, we reached home and we're getting to spend our only weekend at home of the summer:)  
 

We went straight from work to the place where we're getting married to talk about food and other details.  By the time we got there, it was almost 7 and we left there around 8:40.  It was dark and we were exhausted, but on the way to the car, I remembered that I wanted to take a picture before we left.  So I took a picture in the dark without a flash while moving.  Literally 30 seconds after I started taking the picture, my camera finished, and this was the result.  We were so tired that we just continued walking.  We then got into the car, went to Applebees for dinner, and stayed at a hotel right next to the Applebees for the night.