October 25, 1999

I got my Disney pictures back. This is Terry goofing around in the Dinosaur Store at the Animal Kingdom. I love the look on his face - it kills me. I have a lot of goofy pictures of Terry from this trip, but I think this is my favorite. I think he also had another dinosaur nibbling his leg, but you can't see it. Terry is funny. I'm working on a little mini-site within a site for the Disney vacation, but it won't be done for a while. I'll let you all know when it is done. It's cool because doing that offers me the challenge of doing a whole new design without having to do a complete redesign, which takes forever. It'll probably only be like 5 pages or so.

I'm not going to be doing entries Thursday and Friday because I'm going home for a wedding. My friend Gretchen is getting married. Gretchen is two years younger than me, and she grew up across the street. Our dads were good friends in high school, and she's probably the closest thing I have to a sister. Her parents got divorced when she was in 7th grade. I used to walk over and pick her up every day on the way to school, and I remember that day she was really quiet. Then we met up with Brenda (like we did every day) and Gretchen just burst out crying, and then told us her parents were splitting up. Looking back, it seems so obvious that they were having problems, but at the time I was completely shocked. Anyway, after the divorce, Gretchen made some questionable life choices (which she freely admits) but in the past 3 or 4 years, she has really gotten back on track. She finished her B.A. in Business Management earlier this year, and her soon-to-be-husband just passed the bar exam! I'm so happy for her and proud of her.

Anyway, I'm in the wedding, as are Molly and Brenda and a few other people. We are having a stagette party on Thursday night. I have had nothing to do with the planning of it, and I'm a little scared. Friday night is the rehearsal dinner. Saturday is the wedding. I'm pretty excited to see everyone and hang out with my girls. I get along with all the women in the bridal party, and we all went to high school together, so it should be a good time. I don't know all of the guys, but whatever. You don't have to hang out with them as much. Jim will be at the reception anyway, as will my parents, my brother and a lot of other people I know and love. I got a hotel room for Jim and I at the reception place, because it's about a 45 minute drive from my parents' house. Molly had her reception at the same place, and I remember wishing we had gotten a room. Besides the obvious drinking and driving issues, we were just tired by the time the reception was over, and didn't feel like driving all that way.

I want to give props to Jim for being an incredibly good sport about all this. This will be my fourth time as a bridesmaid, and Jim has been to three of those weddings. It's really no fun going to a wedding where you don't know anyone, and your date can't hang out with you all the time due to obligations. Hopefully by now, Jim feels comfortable enough with my family that it won't be a big deal. But regardless, he never complains or pouts or in any way makes me feel guilty about dragging him along, and I appreciate that. If any of his friends ever get married, I hope to return the favor.

Speaking of Jim's friends, Justin made it to San Diego safely. We miss him already! He went to the Black Crowes/Jimmy Page show and said it was just incredible. I'm so jealous!

We went to see American Beauty this weekend. I'm still not sure how I feel about it. I liked it. I'm just a little uncomfortable with feeling such sympathy for the Kevin Spacey character, and not most of the other characters. I felt like he needed to take some responsibility for the fact that he hated his life so much instead of blaming it all on his wife. Jim felt that he did take responsibility at the end. I don't want to spoil the movie if you haven't seen it though. I just had the lingering feeling that there was something very woman-hating about the message the film was sending. But Jim and I had a really good conversation after the movie, and a movie hasn't caused that to happen for me in a while!

Warning: These links will open a new browser window. Previous days' links are archived.

I don't get how Amazon can claim ownership of the concept of One-Click ordering. The name, sure. But the whole concept? I don't see this suit flying, and frankly, it's just free publicity for B&N.

Howard Stern and his wife Alison are separating. I am seriously shocked. Why now? After all these years?

I heard Wasteland was getting cancelled, but no official word yet.

Check this review of the Rio 500. Jim is still enjoying his Rio, but more memory would probably be nice for him.

I always find color trends really interesting. I remember when the orange and green from the Microsoft ads looked so fresh, but now they're looking pretty dated.

Wow. The Best Man won the weekend box office. I never would have guessed it!

The official Edward Gorey site. Wing Chun had some Gorey quotes on Hissyfit the other day, which made me think of this site.

The Zen of Ask Jeeves: Fun with fuzzy logic.

Alta Vista is undergoing another redesign today. I think the upload time is like 11AM EST? Somewhere around there.

I love whatis.com. They never let me down. The design leaves a little to be desired though.