With this ring

This is my mother's ring. Not her wedding ring, or anything. I'm fairly certain my parents didn't have an engagement ring, and I'm pretty sure her wedding band fell down the drain when I was still a wee tot. This is the ring my dad gave her for their *mumblemumble* anniversary. I think its kind of rad. I love the pave feel of it, and while its not an eternity band, it goes pretty far down the ring. I always thought it would be a good ring to pass down. So when she died, I knew that I wanted to use it one day for my wedding. For a long time, though, we weren't sure what had happened to it. So you can imagine my delight when, just a few months ago, my dad called and told me it was found!

Now I have always had slender fingers, but let me tell you, my mother's were tiny. This makes sense, as she was pretty tiny all around. She wore something like a five and a half or six ring size. I wear a 7, which is probably pretty average, but makes it a little tricky for this ring to fit anywhere but my pinky. So, C is going to resize it for me, shine it up, and blam; instant wedding band. I think it will make a nice set with my engagement band. Neither of them are that traditional, and some of those stones almost match these.

Anna's Oven

I'd like to try something out here. No one really reads this blog, but I'd like to post more about the miscellaneous aspects of my life. Restaurant and book reviews, baking experiments, etc. I've already made a commitment to blog more often, so lets see if I can interest anyone else in what all I have to say.

That being said, this weekend I had the pleasure of dining at a fairly new place in my old neighborhood, 39th st, KC MO. It really was a pleasure. The place is appealing, and a lovely combination of "homey" and "romantic." The chairs and tables are mismatched in a very charming old world way, some for two, some for eight, some round, some square. No tablecloths. painted wood chairs. Even the wine display is charming.

I didn't have C with me, but I'm sure he'd approve of the menu. It is full of comfort food staples like meatloaf, lasagna, roast chicken, and six different kinds of macaroni and cheese. I think that last may be the main selling point of the establishment. The prices range from $6 or $7 to about $12 for entrees, and $2-$4 for desserts and sides.

I've never been good at deciding things, and this menu had me pondering for quite a few moments. I eliminated the macaroni and cheese first off - I wanted protein; and though they'll mix in several different meats, I've had enough bad macaroni and cheese experiences at Noodles and Co. that I didn't want to risk it until I discerned the quality of the place. I finally settled on the meatloaf, and a piece of chocolate cake. My friends ordered desserts and coffee, since they had already eaten dinner.

The women behind the counter were smiling and friendly, and very attentive. They seemed to be the only two people working, besides a cook glimpsed through the pass-through kitchen. But the food came out quite quickly, and was delicious! The meatloaf was average tasting, but quite substantial - thick cut and big all around. It came with real, lumpy mashed potatoes (which there could have been more of, they were so good), crunchy steamed veggies, and brown gravy over all. Oh, and a roll, all for eight dollars. The veggies were delightfully crisp, and everything was hot and tasty. They brought out my cake when I was about halfway through with dinner. It was awesome - it was almost a dark chocolate frosting, and the cake was moist with a nice crumb. Everything was served on sturdy crockery plates, adding to the homey, depression-era feel of the place.

Only a few complaints - the cobbler my friend ordered was made with nuts, which would have been nice to know. I don't think of cobbler as usually coming with nuts. Also, the printed menu they have for you to take with you is not up-to-date, and features items that sound great but they aren't currently serving - like beef stroganoff. Finally, the caramel brownie advertised is really more of a bar cookie. A good bar cookie, just not what we expected.

As an added bonus, 50% of the restaurants profits go to "supporting education in places where it may otherwise not thrive," which is not only nicely worded but a worthy cause. It looks like they change projects periodically, but right now, its the St. Anne's Girl's School in Kenya.

Overall, I loved this place, and I know we'll be back soon! I could see it being a good place for a date or a night out with friends. 4 stars, pending further exploration of their mac n' cheese.

6 months and 5 days

What. The. Heck. Wow, um, I feel like last month we were still looking at about two years here. How did things get this far along, without me having ANYTHING done?! Its a nightmare! Its like I woke up one day and it was my wedding day, and nothing was prepared. I actually had that nightmare the other day.
Where are my favors?
Where are my bridesmaid's dresses?
Where is my guest list?
Damn. I'm behind.

So, I guess this week I will really be getting my ducks in a row, starting some projects, getting things planned out.
I am such a slacker. I had planned to have so much done by this point, and so far, it feels like nothing. Which is not fair, as I have done a lot, including plan the whole thing out! Geez. They really mean what they say when they say planning your wedding is like taking on a part time job. And I'll be doing all this in addition to actually taking on a part time job, so we'll see how this all works out.

May I proudly present:

Our wedding colors.

Yes! I got him to agree to purple... ha ha ha, go State!

Things are happening...

Ignore the clutter.
Watch this space.

And so it begins...

Well, now is the time I plan to get really "wedding-y". It is now one year, less one day, to the BIG day, and we are getting excited! We can finally start on hardcore planning; actually start buying things for the wedding; and definitely start making things!

Case in point 1) We booked the hall for 4/28/2012.

James P. Davis Hall courtesy of Nate Hofer

Yeah, remember this place? Still gorgeous.

2)I got pieces of my first wedding project in the mail TODAY. Thanks, Ebay.

(photo mine)

What will it be? Guess away!

So I am ready to get into high gear. I am READY. And excited. And so is C. We've been reading The Smart Couple's Guide to Planning the Wedding of your Dreams: Planning together for less stress and more bliss. Its been amazing. Its like counseling in paper form, with the added bonus of making him really excited to plan this thing together!

Wedding Porn

That's what it is. Gratuitous photos of weddings, weddings, weddings. And just like real porn, they make you feel somewhat inadequate; ashamed and alone, sobbing into your pillows at night. Ok, not quite so dramatic as all that, but I spent last night scouring my google reader for inspiration on colors. I have also sent the last year emailing myself blog posts that I thought would be useful, and then filing them away into folders according to the topic. So I had that backlog to look through, too. My plan is to amass a quantity of pictures showing the colors I like, and then letting C look through and pick his favorite combinations, and we decide from there what our "colors" should be. Frankly, at this point, my eyes are bleeding and I hate the very idea of having wedding colors. What's wrong with just choosing whatever color strikes my (our) fancy at the time, so long as it goes fairly well with what we've chosen before? It seems to me like wedding colors are just a thing you "do" and I may rebel.