How Google Maps Saved My Marraige

So, I'm back. Where did I go? Oh, you didn't miss me while I was gone on my honeymoon? That's alright, I didn't forget about you guys... just taking some chill out time with my new wife @Andrea915 now Andrea Self (as soon as she gets her new Social Security card). We had a great time and got to visit all the cool places that I mentioned below (Outer Banks, NC; Washington DC; and Philadelphia). Now we're getting everything moved in and starting to plan for this new "together" thing. Other than the fact that she wants to throw out all my cool posters and collections, I think we're getting along fine.

Thanks to everyone who came to the wedding and contributed to our new life. We got alot of great gifts and got to see alot of friends and family that we hadn't seen in a while.

There was one thing that really saved a lot of fights during our honeymoon. Believe it or not it was a little piece of software from a little company called Google called Google Maps. I used Google Maps every day during our honeymoon to navigate and find our way around the strange an large cities that we were visiting. The version I used was on my Blackberry Curve 8330 and it worked perfectly every time updating in almost real time with the GPS function as to what road we were on. The only time it even tried to flake out for a second was in the rural town of Legget, North Carolina where we stayed at our friend's plantation house called Cedar Lane. (Check out some pics of this awesome historic house on my Flickr page) And I assumed that we only had one tower in the area so it couldn't triangulate my position. I also actually set up Google Latitude on my phone to follow us around so people could see where we were real time during our expeditions around the east coast.

After that, we used Google Maps and my Blackberry to navigate the streets of Philadelphia (isn't that a Bruce Springsteen song?) flawlessly. I looked like I knew where I was going and my wife believed I was an exellent navigator for the week. So, thank you Google. You've saved another marraige (yea, they're in the business of saving marraiges too... didn't you know?).

Its The Final Countdown! (to our wedding)

Some of you may have been wondering why its been so quiet this month. Well, I don't want to give you some lame excuses, but there have been some other things on my plate this month, the biggest one being my soon to be up and coming wedding on June 27th 2009 to my best friend Andrea. I'll refer you to my earlier post about us if you want to read up a little.

So, I've been working on wedding stuff with her. I designed my own wedding invitations, RSVP's (see above) and programs, planned and booked our honeymoon roadtrip and helped her in any way I could (without getting in the way). So, we're in the last stages of doing that stuff and trying to finish up the little things that are left.
Things we still need to do:

• new springy looking engagement pics (this Sunday)
• final catering order
• get fitted for tux
• get a haircut
• get marriage license

I'm sure there's more stuff that she has to do but she seems to have it handled. I'm just gonna sit back now and... (yea right!)
I've gotta say, Andrea has done a great job organizing and putting together this wedding. We sent out over 150 invites and have gotten almost 90 RSVPs back. Right now we are looking at a little over 100 peeps coming to our little shindig and we are still waiting on about 50 RSVPs.

Its just been exhausting emotionally, worrying about all these little things we need to do. We both can't wait until June 28th and we head out on our roadtrip to have some fun. Oh, yea, and I know your curious about our honeymoon plans so here's where we are going:

1. Tutwieler Hotel (Birmingham, AL): historic hotel in Birmingham, on wedding night (I don't know whats going to be happening then... probably watch some TV and order room service ;-)
2. Outer Banks / Nags Head (North Carolina): Checking out the Wright Brothers memorial and the best beaches on the East Coast.
3. Washington DC: staying in Arlington, VA actually, which is right across the river, I want to see the National Archives and Library of Congress, she wants to see the boring monuments (JK!)
4. Philadelphia, PA: staying in another historic hotel in Center City (about 5 blocks from Independence Hall), checking out the Franklin Institute, Liberty Bell, Independence Hall, eating some Geno's cheese steaks, fancy dinners and doing our own M. Night Shyamalan film location tour (a film geek idea I came up with that she reluctantly agreed to). Then we're gonna go see a Phillies game. The grand finale will be our last day (July 4th), so we'll be downtown for the festivals, parades and fireworks over the museum and then head out at about 8 or 9pm and drive till we're tired back to Bama.

So, you can see, I've been working like a maniac trying to save up some money for this trip. So, please forgive if you don't hear from The Horse for a few more weeks. Thanks for reading guys and I'll be back real soon with more fun geek info for ya!

My friend Natalie provided me with the title to my blog today (and got that dang song stuck in my head! Thanks Natalie!)

Wedding registries and recent happenings

Photo by legos+dream on Flickr
Well, you know its getting serious when you spend almost 4 hours at Bed Bath and Beyond and actually have fun. Yes, Andrea and I were registering today for our wedding gifts that we will hopefully receive from our generous guests this coming June.

For those of you who haven't heard... yes, I'm getting married on June 27 to my best friend. I talked a little bit more about her in my previous post "Ahh... Engagement, Wedding Planning and Getting Serious". Anyways we had a blast today registering and I think we picked out some cool stuff.

For those of you who haven't quite gotten to this step yet, never fear, The Horse is here to help ya out with some advice for how and when to register.

• Most wedding planners and websites say to register a good 4-6 months in advance. This gives you a chance to change and move things around or delete items that were "impulse registers".
• Stick with one store for the majority of your registry and a maximum of three stores or you run the risk of spreading yourself thin.
• Your main store should have a wide variety of home goods. Some great stores to register at are places like: Bed Bath and Beyond, Pottery Barn, Macy's, Target, and Wal-Mart.
• Many couples are also choosing to register at internet storefronts. Sites like Amazon, Etsy, and Ebay have either actual online registries or shared wish lists.
• Try an online registry compiler like MyRegistry.com.
• Be sure to check your store's return policy. Many, like BBB, have a very liberal return policy. They will even give a cash rebate for anything that you decide you don't want after the wedding! (very nice!)
  

The store employee will usually tell you to register for more than you need and try to push the more expensive china on you. These days many couples on a budget are not registering for expensive china that they will probably never use, and in its place, registering for more useful items like small electronics, or high end pot and pan sets from brands like All-Clad or Calphalon (we chose the latter).

But, after all is said and done, don't get caught up in the technicalities of it all. This is the time for you guys to have a fun day with each other getting to know each other's tastes and likes. Make it an afternoon when you don't have anything else planned... oh, EAT BEFORE YOU START!

Ahh... Engagement, wedding planning and getting "serious".

Well, I finally decided to get up early this past Sunday and go take our engagement pictures. I think the wedding planning website (The Knot) that my fiance Andrea is using said that we were "not on schedule" with the engagement pictures, so I needed to appease the website!

We actually had a really fun day. We played hookie from church and went to Cheesecake Factory (why in the world would I want to go to work, you may ask?) for brunch. I love our brunch and I never work Sundays so I figured it couldn't hurt. We got the French Toast Napoleon (Three Slices of our Grilled Brioche French Toast Stacked with Strawberries, Pecans and Chantilly Cream) and split it with a side of scrambled eggs and hash browns. Its pretty huge just like everything else there.


After that we headed out to my favorite filming and picture taking place, Morris Avenue in downtown Birmingham. We took some shots at the famous Peanut Depot then down the street in front of the red caboose where "The Station" club is.
After that we raced down to Hoover's Aldridge Gardens to take some in a more nature type setting. Needless to say, all of them turned out really good considering they were all taken with a tripod and a timer on the camera. I was sweating from running back and forth so much when we finally left.
(Sappiness Alert below!)
I've been really enjoying this whole engagement and wedding planning thing and I've really loved getting to know my awesome, kind, forgiving, and pretty darn hot fiance Andrea. I love her a ton and she's the best thing that's ever happened to me. She keeps me in line, makes sure I don't become a slob, she loves me even when I'm an annoying nerd that won't stop talking about computers and blogs and Star Wars. She even likes to cook and clean! (She is Miss Organization!) What else could a guy ask for? I just know we're going to have a great life together and just looking at these pictures confirm that for me. Now onto the fun part! The next 6 months are going to start getting crazy but I think we can handle it. She's already got her dress, the flowers are ordered, and we've decided on a bunch of little stuff. Today I just ordered our "Save The Date / Christmas Cards" from VistaPrint which some of you may be receiving shortly. So, as you can see, its getting "serious" now, and its going to stay serious for the rest of our lives.
(Shoutout alert below:)
I love you Andrea! I'm so happy we're together! Let start our adventure together...

(To be continued...)

Friends at my Bday Party

Some of you may have heard, I had an extra crazy Birthday party this year. This is probably the only picture to survive. I found it on my Berry a few days later. That's Samantha, my hot fiance Andrea and Lauren. Thanks for all of you that came out to celebrate me getting "old as the hills". Next year is gonna be a secret...

Andrea (Betty Boop) on Halloween

Andrea magically changes into Betty Boop for Jennifer West's awesome Halloween party. I was Popeye.

Andrea posin'

New Andrea pic for my phone. We were eatin' at Salvatore's tonight and we sat out on the patio and discussed smells at grandmother's houses...

Andrea=Hotness

I took this last night with my new Motorola KRZR K1m cell phone.

1.3 megapixels of "ridiculous" beauty right here... I hope she never stops looking at me with those eyes. I guess you can tell I've fallen. And an angel has found me and picked me up.

"I can see a lot of life in you.
I can see a lot of bright in you.
And I think that dress looks nice on you..."

- Sufjan Stevens, (from Seven Swans)