Catching Up

Oops!  I seem to have neglected my blog!  I am sure that Those in the Know will understand that a busy woman like moi must prioritize her numerous tasks and responsibilities,  and naturally I have had almost nothing at all  several more pressing matters to attend to over the past couple of months!

The main excitement in my life this winter is the planning of our dear daughter's wedding.  Needless to say,  with Yours Truly capably at the helm,  the ship of marriage will be smoothly launched in June!  Although, I must admit,  I am slightly concerned about the ability of all others involved to stay the course and bring about a truly outstanding social event!  Not to worry, though.  In my own inimitable style,  I will whip everyone into shape patiently guide all concerned toward a joyous and beautiful culmination of all my carefully laid plans all the young couple's fondest hopes and dreams!

So far,  I  we have made tremendous progress, in spite of a rather daunting obstacle.  I am sorry to say that the representative of our original choice for the wedding reception venue wrote to us in December announcing that the management had fired their entire dining room staff - including the chef! - and had signed an agreement with a coffee and sandwich outfit in town to replace them!  We were assured that the new cafeteria (currently under construction there) would provide as elegant a milieu for our daughter's wedding as the serenity of the zen garden atmosphere and Asian fusion cuisine of the former Garden dining room.  :-/  

Let us consider this for a moment:  An ordinary, decidedly un-zenlike - let us be frank: very coffee and donut-like - sandwich shop will provide a "serene and elegant reception experience" for our daughter's wedding.  Our daughter and her new husband will (for an outrageous fee)  be serenely and elegantly surrounded by coffee-swilling and donut-dunking cafe patrons.  Possibly noisy and unruly patrons (not that I am easily annoyed, of course).  Our dozens of guests,  most of whom will have traveled thousands of miles to attend the nuptials, will (at great expense to us)  be granted the privilege of mingling serenely and elegantly in wedding attire with the ballcap-sporting hoi poloi who wander in off the street for a jelly-filled donut and a cup of joe.  The regular patrons of the cafe will have every right to be there,  of course,  but our daughter and her wedding party will have to pay (handsomely!) for the privilege and will,  to add insult to injury,  be the interlopers at the venue during their own wedding!

1. Casual cafe.
2. Casually dressed patrons.
3. Coffee and donuts and sandwiches.
4. Wedding party.
Three of these things just do not belong.
One of these things just does not belong.

We were assured that the new sandwich shop chef is top notch.  I am sure that he is.  I have no doubt that his culinary greatness has merely been stifled by the overwhelming demand for coffee, donuts and sandwiches in the hurly burly competitive world of the office lunch market to which he has heretofore been limited.  I feel confident that this transition to a wider market and a more varied and sophisticated cuisine will be an enormous success both for the sandwich outfit and for the Gardens and I wish the new venture every success.  However,  I am  not bloody likely!  unwilling to allow my daughter's wedding reception to be a test case for them to gauge the success of that particular experiment.

Let us not kid ourselves:  a coffee and sandwich shop is a coffee and sandwich shop,  no matter how these people tried to misrepresent it!  Needless to say,  I immediately lowered the boom sent them a polite reply expressing my fury disappointment and informed them that we would be making other arrangements for our daughter's wedding, toute de suite*.

A few frantic quick emails from Yours Truly and disaster was nimbly averted.  I We have made new and,  if I may say so,  far superior arrangements with a private country club here in town.  To be perfectly honest, this was probably the last thing on my mind last year  one of the first places I thought about last year!  I really ought to listen to someone else once in a while  my own inner voice more often!

After that little bump in the road to wedded bliss was behind us,  the wedding planning went along very nicely indeed!   Kiki has selected dresses for her bridesmaids and these have been ordered.  She has created a design for her wedding cake and she has chosen table centerpieces for the reception (with the able assistance of Your Humble Servant, naturally).  She and Dennis have also met with their officiant and are now planning their own unique ceremony. Although they have foolishly! sensibly declined my repeated offers of assistance in this area,  I suppose am confident that,  together,  they will create a beautiful and meaningful ceremony which will reflect their personal tastes and their hopes and dreams for the future.

We have booked a photographer, a DJ for the reception and some live musicians for the ceremony.  We have talked flowers, favors and fillings for the cake layers. We have sent invitations overseas and to Canada a little early to allow our guests more time to make travel plans.  In early April,  I plan to mail the invitations to local friends and friends in other states.

Things are coming together swimmingly!  It is all very exciting,  and,  thanks to Your Dependable** Reporter,  TITK will be able to follow every excruciating exciting detail from now until June 11!

There is other news to relay although obviously not nearly as interesting as wedding talk.  Those in the Know can depend upon me to update them if/when the spirit moves me  at my earliest convenience.  I am,  as always,  very busy and in fact I am being paged right now.

Good day to all!

* Another little French gem for TITK.  It means, "on the double, you fools!"  but expresses the thought with ever so much more sophistication!  A gift from me to you.

** "Dependable" is as "dependable" does.  Who cares anyway?  I am here now,  and that is all that matters!