Welcome to 2000, Anna

Last night, while enjoying having disposable income, Ben bought a Playstation 2. Since he went out of his way to get games that I would like to play, like We Love Katamari and The Sims: Busting Out, I have been forced to play it. It's weird. It has two analog sticks. It's three dimensional.

I like how we get a PS2 when it's going to be outdated in a year or so. As Ben said to the clerk who checked us out, "Why would I buy a two year service plan? There won't be any new ones in two years."

Oh well, it's probably better than getting a N64 and being really outdated.

It's official - well, almost

So, the wedding will take place on July 29, 2007 from noon until four at Newton White Mansion. Well, it's official in the way that we still have a hold on it and my mom is faxing over the rental agreement on Monday. So, three wedding things down (getting engaged, setting a date, and picking a place) and so much left to do (caterers, cake, favors, dj, invitations, photographer, videographer, flowers, table settings, my dress, bridemaids' dresses, jewelry, shoes, tuxes, officiant, rings, etc).

Great Falls Grange

Today I was going to go the the American Horticultural Center and Great Falls Grange to look at two more wedding sites. Well, the AHC lady emailed me the cost for renting River Farm - $5,700 for Sunday. That's a lot of money. So, after my mom got her about forty minutes later than she should have been due to massive traffic (right now, the beltway is backed up in BOTH directions outside our apartment), we decided to nix the ridiculously expensive locations, both the American Visionary Art Museum ($2,000 or something like that for the outdoor garden and $6,000 or so for the third floor reception place) and the AHC. So, we drove over to Great Falls for some lunch and location viewing.


On the Fairfax park site, the Grange looks a lot nicer. The stairway shown here seems really big, and not like half a flight of stairs. However, it does have a lot more trees out front. However, it is RIGHT next to Georgetown Pike - a relatively busy road, so, no out door ceremony in the front.


When my mom saw this place, she knew it wouldn't be my style. Well, from the basement, it's not. This really looks like someone's basement in their house. As you can see from the people in the picture, the ceiling is low. The floor is actually nice and there is a fairly large kitchen (the guy giving the tour said you could even cater an event here by yourself!).


Here is the upstairs. It's nicer. It smells like new paint. It has this neat stage and nice floor. It also has a fairly nice piano in the back. It also has a complete sound system and theatre style lights. So, playing with that could be fun. We really wouldn't need a dj as long as we programmed someone's laptop to play whatever we wanted. However, it's not that big and we couldn't fit everyone and dancing up here.


If we rented the Grange, there is a historic schoolhouse next door that we can add to our rental for only $100. Yes, that's right, $100. It's actually a pretty neat old building with absolute lovely wood work. The windows are old glass. However, there is no air conditioning which makes it not so nice a place. This location on its own is too small to have the wedding in, but could make for some lovely pictures or ceremony or a nice place to get ready before the wedding. This whole package is a steal at only $1300 for the Grange, schoolhouse, and liquor liscense. However, Newton White is much nicer and I think that's where we're going to have the wedding. It really does seem like a steal for $2800. 

Want to hear some stimulating conversation? Listen to Tyra Banks interview Carmen Electra.

Jack's New Method

Jack's new method this morning to wake me up and feed him was to sit on my back, bite the straps of my tank top, and snap them against my skin in rapid sucession to get me up. It's probably the most annoying thing he's done so far!

I missed it yesterday. I was lounging in bed and Jack came in a laid down next to Waffles. They were cuddling. Well, Jack was sleeping right next to Waffles and she was tolerating it. It's the most affection you can hope for from two unrelated cats where one isn't playing parent to the other.

Now Jack has decided to come and sit with me again. This is how I got nothing done yesterday. It's hard to get up when you have a soft kitty cat cuddling with you all the time.

Cats - Take Two

I don't know if I hit the wrong button, or what, but I wrote this post and now it disappeared. Grr. Now, again, in shorter form.





Kramer - still big, white, and nippy.


Squeekie - she's getting older, her coat is getting duller, and she's getting even more starved for attention.


My fluffy princess actually acknowledged my existance. She is looking better - her fur looks good, but I think her thyroid is still not functioning properly.

Toby was quite grumpy when I cleaned her ears out with Q-Tips. However, she was nice and did sleep me with on the bed.

Ben said my apartment kitties were a little distressed by my absence. I think they were afraid that they wouldn't get fed. Ben never feeds the kitties - it's my job. So, when I wasn't there in the morning, Waffles got a little frightened that she wouldn't be fed again. Never did it cross the cats' minds to bug Ben for food. For example, this morning, I told Jack to wake Ben up instead of me and ask for food. The cat didn't get it. Ben started to pet him, but Jack would have none of it and came back, sat on me, meowed in my ear, and started poking me in the face. Stupid Ben has trained them well. 

Newton White - Part 3

More on Newton White. Here is the view from the side porch. This is where they suggest serving drinks and munchies during cocktail hour. But, this is also a good picture to show the view, again.


Here is the patio where the ceremony would take place. It is quite lovely. The mansion also has cute, white folding bistro chairs for people to sit on during the ceremony.


Here is a larger picture of the patio. It's quite spacious. I have a hard time picturing what it will look like in the summer with the trees actually all green and lovely. However, for an outdoor spot, I think it'll be fairly cool and shady.


Here's a picture of the fountain and the mansion. I rescued a frog from the fountain. It was stuck in there and not looking so lively. So, I got a stick and tried to have it climb on the stick. Well, it was too tired to do that, so Ben's mom got it to hold on the stick and then I reached in and pulled it out. Hopefully it'll live.


This is a view of the side of the mansion. The big window is that bay window in the ballroom. The white windows on the left are to the large porch.

So, I guess I like Newton White mansion. And, the price is a lot better than what it's advertised on the website (there's like a $900 county resident discount for people who live in Montgomery or PG counties). This makes the price for seven hours on a Sunday $2800. That is a lot more reasonable than the $4000 quoted on the website.

I don't know. When I saw this place online I loved it. And, it is quite stunning. However, I don't know if I don't like it because I've talked myself out of it because I thought it was ridiculously expensive. I don't know. I want a just gut reaction that says that this is the place. It is so odd for me to go out for a day and not know what I want. I kindof make up my mind really quickly on things like this once I actually go and see them. For example, I went to go look at cars one day and ended up driving off with one that day. Ugh. I kindof need to figure this out before my courtsey hold on July 29, 2007 expires on April 20th. I think I'm going out with my mom again on Thursday or Friday to look at more places. 

Newton White - Part 2

Here is the atrium at Newton White. They are breaking it down from another party. The trees in the room are put there by the caterers, but the atrium is so lovely with its picture windows looking out on the golf course and it is so full of natural light. It would be a lovely place to have brunch on a Sunday.

The woman in the left of the picture is another woman whose daughter is getting married in June of '07. Oddly enough, she is from Olney (which is right next door to Ben and mine's parents' houses) and she went to Chevy Chase Women's Club the same day as us, but before us. It was weird. Her daughter is also having a brunch wedding with an omlette guy. Weird...


Here is another picture of the atrium. This looks out onto the trees next to the patio.


This is the ballroom. It is fairly large and the woman showing us around said this is where people usually have their cocktail hour. However, my feeling is that this could be our bad weather location for the ceremony in case it's raining or the air quailty is teh sux. So, this place does seem to have a lot. It has a really nice place to have the reception. It has a lovely patio to get married on. And, it has a built in rain location. Also, it has a bride's and groom's room. The bride's room has a large three way mirror, lounge, and bathroom complete with bath tub. I don't know why you'd need a bath tub, but, whatever. The groom's room has a shower. But, I guess that's nice because Ben and I can arrive there when the vendors do an hour or so before the thing starts to get ready there.

Here is the bay window in the ballroom. What a lovely place to get married, if it's unbearable outside. 

Newton White Mansion - Part 1

Okay, so when Ben showed me this on the web, I fell in love with it. This is a mansion is in PG county next to a golf course and a park police horse place. I am going to do two posts on this because I have a lot of pictures.


The posts on the columns near the entrance have chickens on them. They are bricks, mortarted together. I think that's neat.



This is looking down into the entrance. The mansion is nice looking. There are nice things like lamps, tables, carpets, etc. The mansion would require little extra decorating because it is so lovely.


I don't know why I have more pictures of the entrance, but here's another picture of the entrance.


I forget what this room is called -- maybe the dining room? Anyway, it's one of the many extra rooms in the mansion that we may not use. But this room does have lots of places like this corner that need decorations, maybe. So, either I'm going to go to a lot of thrift stores to purchase decorative things or make a lot of things to put in places. 

Sandy Spring Ballroom

The very first place we (my mom, Ben's mom, and I) went on Monday was to the Sandy Spring Ballroom. This room is in a fire house (it oddly works out well for my mom because she said alot of the people in her family got married in fire houses). It's a really nice room. It looks new, it has lots of fake plants already in it, already lit up. It has sconces on the wall with greenery. You have to use BJ Pumpernickles (Shwartz Catering) with the place, but I really liked them. The people at this place were by far the nicest and most bubbly we met all day.



One really nice thing about this location is that it's pretty much already decorated. We would have to spend a very minimal amount (and effort) on decorations.


Here is an example of a nice element of the room. The florscent lights do, in fact, turn off and there are other light sources (I think).

Here is a larger picture of the ballroom with my mom and Ben's mom.

So, there are only a couple of draw backs to this place. 1.) We can't have the ceremony here (I refuse to actually get married in a ballroom -- it's like getting married in a hotel - it's just ugly). Since the ceremony is going to be short -- like fifteen to twenty minutes -- it seems a bit stupid to go somewhere far. My plan was to get married at Brookside Gardens and then get pictures taken there, but it's like $500 for just an hour of rental time. So, that means that this place would be about $15oo and would be in two different locations (which is not so appetizing to me). However, I can look at different ceremony locations to see if we can find one closer and cheaper. 2.) There is no choice in caterers. We have to use Schwartz Catering. Not that this is a bad thing, I really liked the people and Ben says their food is awesome. However, there is no room for negotiation and playing different companies off of each other. But it would be a good thing because they pretty much do everything. Clean up, decorating, set-up, everything. So, that's nice. If we went here, there would be nothing to worry about (hopefully). 

The Lodge at Little Senenca Creek

The last place we went yesterday was the Lodge at Little Senenca Creek. This is a neat, rustic cabin with a beautful view of a large, open lawn and trees. It is a log cabin and therefore looks like a log cabin. The walls are made of wooden boards that fight nicely together. However nice it is, it's not the place for my summer wedding. I don't want to go in the whole rustic-campy-log-cabin theme. This would be a nice location for a fall or winter wedding, and I would probably choose this place if I were getting married in those seasons. The $1600 Sunday price tag and free one-hour rehersal make me wish that this place worked out better.



This is the back wall of the cabin. It has lots of windows (but they have ugly blinds - wood veneer blinds...). One big drawback of this place is the amount of decorating required to make it look nice. It would need some sort of swags above the windows and a lot of plant life to make it feel fresh for the summer. Also, notice how rustic even the lights look on the ceiling.


I really wish I were getting married in the fall/winter because this fire place actually works. See my mom on the left for help in scale. The woman who showed us around said a lot of people actually have the fire place cleaned out in the summer and put and light candles in the fire place. That would look lovely.


Here is the back poarch and lawn in the back of the cabin. This would be a lovely place to have our short ceremony. This location also has white picnic chairs that we could set out on the lawn for guests to sit on (yay for not having to rent things!). One big draw back at this place is the wood-boring bees. They are the size of unshelled double peanuts. THEY ARE HUGE! The lady said that they don't bite people, and they didn't seem to be interested in us when we got close to them, but they still freak me out.

Here is the front entrance to the cabin and my mom.

So, no Lodge at Seneca Creek. This disapoints me because I was looking forward to not spending lots of money here. 

Wedding Location Search - Chevy Chase Women's Club

The second stop this morning was the the Chevy Chase Women's Club in, you guess it, Chevy Chase. My mom picked this location to look at for a couple reasons: 1. It's where she got married almost thirty years ago (yay for sentimentality). 2. We thought it was relatively cheap (not so, it turns out to be $2200 to rent the place for eight hours on a Sunday and that's all it covers -- renting the building, using the ugly tables and chairs). When my mom got married there, it was actually nice looking and a relatively nice place. However, while a lot has changed in thirty years, it seems like the people at the women's club have not. 1. All the members there were OLD. Like great grandparents old. 2. No updates have been made to the facility in the past thirty years. I found a pile of old Christmas cards from the sixites in a pile in the upstairs "Board Room." The place smelled like and looked like my grandmother's basement. So, this place is definetly out for us. Also, the building manager is a crazy old man who kept raving about how these kids did grafitti on stickers and put them places. Not only did he mention this to us at noon when we arrived, but he also mentioned this to another lady we met later on who had an early appointment there today.


Okay, I'm doing this without actually being able to see the pictures I'm uploading, so here goes my guesses about what each picture is about. I think this is one where it shows the chairs the place provides. Yeah. They look pretty bad. The scary thing: my mom pulled out her wedding album from 1977 when she got married there. They're the same chairs. As Ben says, it doesn't look like they've been cleaned since my mom used them.



I think this is a picture of the main room - the auditorium. This could be a really neat place to rent. The room has columns and a nice stage. However, it needs lots of decoration to make it look updated and inviting.


Okay, this is the back of the auditorium with my mom and the old codger who kept yelling at the janitor to do better and clean faster and answer the phone.


This is the library with one of the fire places. There are some cute aspects to this place, but it's just not worth the money to rent it at all. 

Ugh. Sinus pain is so extreme that I feel like I'm going to barf. This is icky. Also, the cats are going CRAZY and running around the apartment full blast.

Four more days until spring break! WOO HOO!

After we get back from spring break, only two months and a week until the end of school! Too bad I have a lot to do before the end of school. I can't wait until it's over, but I don't want those deadlines for papers, presentations, and units to come up.

I think the cats just broke something sticky. Nope, it was Ben. He balanced GLASS BOTTLES on tofu in order to press it. Bottles of sugar free flavor syrups....

I'm going to take some drugs.

Kitties

Okay, remember how I said before that I was probably going to take lots of pictures of my cats, well, I did. Here are three of them. Spotty (Waffles) and Jackson.

 
 
  

New Toy

So, I bought a new digital camera today. It will be helpful for school and all those crazy parties I'm always going to. Okay, I'll probably take a lot of pictures of my cats and things for school, but, whatever.
Here are various pictures of my ring.