vegas

i still haven't seen any pictures from the party, but here are a few from our vegas weekend.

It's all over now

Successes - tables looked beautiful, food was delicious, plenty of alcohol, had time to talk to everyone, lived through giving my toast, didn't cry too hard during other toasts

Failures - lack of ashtrays (is smoking the new black?), overlooked the possibility of rose bush injuries, didn't take a single digital picture, though everything was vegetarian, should have had more vegan options

All in all, it was a really great night.

I hope the pictures turned out. If I can get my scanner to ever work again, I will post some here.

The party is in three days. Yesterday was the longest day in the history of recorded time. Officially. Started at 6:15 at the gym, then rushed home to shower, then off to Gymboree art class. Left art class early to go to Nordstrom to pick up my dress, to GapKids to pick up Hayden's pants, to Origins for Nicole's birthday present. Then, picked up my sister and went to tanning salon (those damn tan bikini top tan lines will not be undone!), then to Target, Henrys and Vons in "The Quest to Find all Ingredients in Chef Reid's Menu Selections for Party." I was mostly successful. Out of about 150 items, the only things I couldn't get were packages of "almost transparent" rice paper, and I came up a half pound short of shitake mushrooms (cleaned out Henry's and Vons), and a half pint of heavy cream MIA (lost it somewhere between the store and home). Did I mention I did all of the above with a two and a half year old in tow? The kid is a champ when it comes to marathon days of errand running. We didn't get home until 5:30 pm.

This week is so incredibly busy, it's like being in a hurricane. I've barely done any job-related work and I don't see how I'll fit any in at all this week. Oh well - it's all about the party now. Really, it's no wonder I have been married ten years. It's easy if you happen to have the best husband in the world. How many men in the world would volunteer to do things like buy my makeup at MAC, take my jewelry to Old Town for cleaning, search the mall for me for an entire outfit from a magazine picture (entire outfit, even shoes!), or drop my dress off for pressing? He's also picking up the flowers Friday and consulting with the floral designers as to what type of white flower will be the best to wear in my hair. I think that should just be my toast. That says it all.

The Times Are A-Changing

Prepare for long post...

The surgery went okay. I was fine over the weekend, but Monday - Wednesday were the three worst days of my life. Pain is painful. I'm feeling better today, so hopefully, the worst is over. I had to go back to the oral surgeon yesterday and he says everything is healing fine. Speaking of yesterday, I picked up my poor sister at 9:00 in the morning so she could come with me to the dentist, and to the florist, and to my Ob/Gyn appointment, and to the mall for assorted party stuff including special under-dress panties (got them), a necklace (got it), and an outfit for Hayden (still looking). Then, to Target and Vons. It ended up being a marathon of errands taking up the entire day. Then, I had to rush home and work for like three hours to try to get a manual done by this morning.

Now for the real news...

Neil accepted the job. The job is with Target and he will be running his own store. I never thought of that as being a comparable job to the one he has now, but he will be responsible for triple the annual sales of his current district, and will be directly managing 250 people. The salary nearly replaces my income, the bonus is big, the benefits are really good, there's a better 401K, and a pension. The huge downside of the job is the hours - one night a week, every other weekend, and long, long hours at the holidays. The good news is that they have agreed to keep Neil as a manager-in-training until the end of the year. That means he will be paid hourly and can't work over forty hours a week. That gets him all the way through the upcoming school semester so he'll only have one left when he will be working a ton. The other big possibility is that they said they already consider Neil a very strong candidate for the next level up, and that there will be a promotion available in San Diego in the next 12-18 months. And that job pays unbelievable money and has a schedule more like the one Neil has had for the last five or six years. Neil gave notice yesterday. His boss freaked out. He took Neil golfing today to try to talk him out of it. So, it's done. We actually made the change. I'm nervous, but excited. I know Neil is going to do great and it's a big opportunity for him.

Neil's working as usual through the 19th, then we go to Vegas for the weekend, then Target is flying Neil out of Vegas Sunday night to Minneapolis for a three day sales conference thingy. They unveil all the new products, show the new ad campaign, and Lenny Kravitz plays. Then, he comes home, has a week and a half off and starts working again on the 7th of September.

Aside from all that - we're getting ready for the party. We finalized the menu last night, we still have a few things to wrap up, but I think we're in good shape. I still have to write my toast, and I am having a hard time getting started. How do you sum up ten years on an index card?