of bleach and broccoli.

Gozer investigated the dryer between loads.

Hey look, a list!  As promised.

The past few days.

• finished my stuff for Bizarre Market Holiday and dropped it off
• took the wedding dress to the cleaner
• made butternut squash, sage, and parmesan pasties for dinner
• attended my 10-year high school reunion (more on that later)
• worked
• went to church
• went to vespers (potluck dinner!) after church
• cleaned up after the cats
• swept the floor
• bleached the sink
• dusted all surfaces around the house
• rearranged items on downstairs mantles
• polished the silver
• worked
• attended Microbrews for Microloans
• migrated my Google Docs
• blogged
• cleaned up after the cats
• swept the front porch
• did three loads of laundry
• cleaned the downstairs bathroom
• put standing fans away for the winter
• revised the lighting concept in our kitchen
• cleaned tons of wax spillage off of our candelabra with the help of Jess’ hair dryer
• painted my toenails
• made scalloped potatoes and broccoli for dinner
• cleaned out / updated my Gmail Contacts
• got Christmas cards ready to go out
• moved my bulletin board to a better location
• blogged

And all of this without the use of ANY uppers!  Getting the Bizarre Market stuff done signified my first couple of days of “leisure time” since a week or so before the wedding…and of course I spent these days cleaning and taking care of alllll the things that needed to be taken care of.  And it feels great to be at least partly caught up.  Days of chores may not be physically restorative, but they are mentally…with just the cats’ antics to amuse me, and the sound of the rain on the roof, and good ol’ H.P. Lovecraft rumbling forth from my iPod.

Still soooo much to do — like getting ready for the next craft show — but I’ll think about that tomorrow.

since then.

Hello and welcome to this millennium’s episode of Catching Up With Tess.  Things have been non-stop crazy since we got back, of course, so I’m only going to be able to remember a few things we’ve done.  But I will dress it up with some pretty things and some links, and we’ll be all caught up.  Mmmkay?

oh hello. richmond by milan, via brandi.

My gosh, I missed this town while I was gone.  In fact, I still feel like I miss it since I haven’t been away from my desk much since we’ve been back.  The quickly-thinning calendar plucked us out of the airplane and spun me right to work with:

• Name-changing. Nothing says “I was supposed to rest these couple of days but I’m running errands instead” better than running errands.  Name-change errands, to be specific.  How I long for a day when errands will not need to be run in person, and everything can be done online in 5 minutes, freeing up the extra hour you would have spent in the DMV for activities such as croquet, video games, or learning Greek.  Anyway, henceforth I shall be known as “Mrs. Daniel Shebaylo,” or “Mrs. Shebaylo,” or “Tess Shebaylo.”  So far so good, though the signature is probably hard to get used to for any person getting a new name when they’re almost 30.  Luckily, for those of you who bristle at the first sign of change (I sympathize because I am one of you, usually cat-like in my hatred of a change to my routine), “Tess” still works too.  And “Dixon” still works if you’re Kathryn.
• Halloween.
  

  oh mr. todd / i'm so happy / i could eat you up / i really could

  When we landed in Richmond we had less than three days to come up with this.  And of course, being the Halloween lover that I am, I was acutely aware of this fact and it was stressing me out.  Thankfully everything came together effortlessly, Sweeney Todd with his razor and Mrs. Lovett with her meat pie.  The usual Oregon Hill festivities took place, and we ended the evening with an amazing party at Dave and Kristin’s, where Phil owned everybody with his Robot E. Lee costume.

• Work. They say that going on vacation doesn’t really help to make a person feel rested, because when they get back from vacation they have to work twice as hard to catch up.  This is true.  I have only just now gotten caught up with my responsibilities at work, but luckily the folks at the temple are sweethearts and the most gracious co-workers in the universe, and they probably figured it would take me a while to dig myself out of the confusion.  And now my desk is clear, I’m keeping up with things, and ready to take it all on again.
• Thank-you notes. I addressed and stamped all the necessary envelopes, and then chipped away at the pile of thank-yous to be written.  It took a few days, and Dan did help out a lot, and it felt so good to be done with the last official wedding to-do.  Things look pretty good on the other side of the wedding…there are a lot of things I can’t wait to get back to…
• Chores. You turn your back for five minutes, and things get gross.  I think our cats are determined to get little pieces of broken kibble into every crevice of our old, splintery house.  We have one of those old houses that never really looks clean, no matter how hard you scrub it.  So I settle for EXTREME ORGANIZATION.  Which always wins.  Still, it takes a lot of time.  When I’m doing chores, I’m stressing that I’m not writing or hot-gluing.
• RVANews. It takes me forever to get the articles I write for RVANews done, but it’s because of being a slacker and a procrastinator…once I get rolling, of course, they come very quickly.  Anyway, since it’s hard to battle writer’s block at the last minute, I try to stay ahead on my articles.  I’ve been VERY behind lately, though, so I spent several days’ free-time on that stuff last week and now I’m at least caught up.  Look for more of the same Richmond Proper goodness, as well as an upcoming holiday Etsy guide!
• Soup. I love fall vegetables and couldn’t wait to start cooking with them again.  And I also love making a big pot of soup and eating it for lunch for the next two weeks.  So I made a delicious acorn squash and pumpkin soup the other night and we all loved it, and now I’m armed for the cold with my containers full of soup.  Except that today it’s 70 degrees.  FAIL.
• Metropolis.
  

  o hai C-3PO!

  We finally watched the movie Metropolis, which is a silent film classic.  It was very good, and made us go “what the HECK?!” a million times, like all almost-a-century-old films should.

the REAL question

This weekend: New Moon and my 10-year high school reunion.  And maybe Megadeth (fingers SO crossed) if we get out of there early enough.  I am one happy girl.  Although I do live in fear that if we miss Megadeth, a certain redhead will show up at my door in the middle of the night, demanding my Biggest Fan card back.  The horror!

'ello guv'nah.

Some long-lost links…

• Guys, really.  TIGHTS ARE NOT PANTS.
• Zounds, I’ve been INTERVIEWED!
• Spats: it seems wrong that I still don’t have them, doesn’t it?
• Adoring these font-lovers’ note cards.
• I’ve been watching a lot of Enter Kazoo Man.  No big deal.
• I knew it.
• I agree with Phil.  I like life’s simple pleasures.
• Interesting to hear a different perspective on “fair trade.”
• Hooray for personal style!  I don’t believe that everybody should dress like me, but that they should dress in a way that uniquely reflects their personality, or their story, as this article puts it.  Down with the mass-produced uniform!
• Congrats to my girl Casey for making it into Style’s Top 40 Under 40.
• LBH: some of these bachelor/bachelorette party ideas are lame, but most are cool, and you can at least save yourself the embarrassment with not being able to come up with something less trashy than the usual.  Plus, being productive and learning a new skill never hurt anyone.
• Colonial Williamsburg’s photo collection: now online.  Go forth, and never be bored again, fellow historyphiles.  I’m sure I’ll be mentioning more about this later.
• Oops, I just blogged about Star Wars twice in one go.  At least it was for a good cause.
• I have a pack of unused doilies and am feeling inspired by Courtney’s post…

wintry.

http://www.ticketmaster.com/Megadeth-tickets/artist/735627

wedded bliss, etc.

So the wedding was perfect…certainly the best party I’ve ever been to, and judging by the number of our friends incapacitated the next day, the best party lots of people have ever been to.  There’s so much more to say, but not time to say it.  Just wanted to assure the blogosphere that I survived not only the wedding, but the plane rides from Richmond to Honolulu.  My gosh, it’s beautiful here.  Okay, off to reapply SPF 75.

In other news, Susan kindly let me know that Trent Reznor was also married on Saturday.  YES!

Today we hiked up to the summit of Diamond Head and got a spectacular view.  More comprehensive blogging later, of course.

a stitch in time.

There are moments, of course, when the grave importance of what we are about to enter into resonates in me with a profound gratitude. Most of the time, unfortunately, the daily management of details wins out over the mystery of love forevermore.
– Pinkofperfection.com

This week has been full of a lot of Dr. Mario, cleaning, Wii Fit Plus, laughing ’til I cry at work, and kitten-wrangling.  And last-minute things, which touch even me.  Yes, even me.  Ice: something that needs to be present at the wedding, in mass quantity, but NOT melted.  Scary stuff.  That wasn’t on any of the wedding checklists I looked at.  But I guess most people can afford to hire someone to think of these things for them.

Tonight Dan’s parents and brother get into town and are staying with us for a few days, so the fun is officially beginning and the preparations are officially over.  I love when Dan’s parents visit.  Let the museum trips, porch hangouts, and beer cans piling up begin!

In other news, I think we’ve decided on the name of “Gozer” for our little white kitten.  Because she’s hot stuff, but she’s evil.

LINKS — I HAS DEM:

• Well, I’ve been saying this all along.
• RVANews was…on the news!  Famous, famous.  Check it out here.
• WANT.
• And because I’m not quite done with Star Wars yet and never will be, pizza WIN!
• This is awesome…I’d really like to see more regular people in magazines.
• Poe wins.
• Loving the Smiths cross-stitches.
• I adore Advanced Style and I want to be like this lady when I grow up. The end.
• Last-minute Halloween costume?  Now you have no excuse.
• Dudes, this is an awesome trick-or-treating idea.  WHO’S WITH ME?!  Next year though.
• Still not quite sure who this “Kanye” is, but found this funny anyway.

And finally, some amazing color combinations to make a bride second-guess her own choices…from Little White Book.

of good times and gifts.

Some pictures from the festivities of the past couple of weeks…

the 2nd annual picnic of doom

the blue letter at empire, playing with hex machine and heks orkest

me being showered with gifts

one of the best nights in Richmond ever -- Nintendo and a movie on the roof of 319 for Phil's birthday

one of the best short road trips ever / long talks by the bay / amazing raging party for Diana's birthday (photo by the incredible Karen Seifert)

Things have started to calm down.  There’s almost nothing left to do in preparation for the wedding, so I feel like I have my life back.  Jessica moved in and was already settled with a beautifully-arranged room by the end of the day, and I followed suit by moving my desk out of limbo and into a proper location.  So it looks a lot better in the house and is more comfortable.  The school year started at work, and although things are still busy with late registrations trickling in and such, we are finding our groove again.  I’ve put away all my gifts from my first bridal shower this weekend and written all my thank-you notes.  My birthday is all done being celebrated.  This morning I went for a run and weeded both the front and back gardens by 8am.  A week or so ago I finally bought two jackets, which prepared me for fall (for the past several years, I’ve had only sweaters or a coat — no jackets.  This has been a problem and has made me feel like a character from Dickens, all shabby and shivering).  I’m about halfway through the mammoth David Copperfield.  I’ve got some things due soon for RVANews, but besides that I can finally breathe and do some reading, sewing, and cooking.  And maybe a little escaping into the country here and there…