Weddings

My baby sister got married last weekend. Since our dad died nearly 20 years ago, I had the honor of walking her down the aisle. It was a beautiful wedding - all the way through the reception. I could ramble for paragraphs about it - the events leading up to the ceremony that day, the limo ride between the wedding and reception (we'll talk porta-potties another time) and the fantastic live music. But, one thing nags me right now... Why Father Jim, who conducted the ceremony, didn't make it for rehearsal the night before.

I've been involved in my fair share of weddings (just once as a groom) so I have a pretty good feel for what goes on. The rehearsal is nice, though, so you are made aware of the little idiosyncrasies of this particular ceremony/church/religious leader, etc. You know someone will miss their cue and whoever's running the show will have to give a second, more noticeable, nod but you have a feel for what's going down and are much more comfortable about things. That is, of course, if the person conducting the ceremony shows up for rehearsal. Seems Father Jim only flies in for game day...

Even so, things went off just fine (they are married now, after all). Maybe Father Jim had an "away wedding" the night before.

Wasps

Why is it that wasp nests are always one foot further away than the wasp killer can will spray?

Decks

You can tell it's been a while since we've taken on a large-scale home improvement project. Don't get me wrong, we've done it before. Brick patios, fences, retaining walls, finished basements: did 'em. But, since we've been "off the market" for nearly a year-and-a-half since we decided to move, we're a bit out of touch with the typical project setbacks. Nothing major; things like extra trips to the hardware store, things taking twice as long as you thought, and budget overruns.

So, we're building a deck. A big deck. A big multi-level deck. A big multi-level deck made of composite deck planking. The stuff is great - works just like word which is nice for cutting and drilling and what-not. Plus, it's almost zero-maintenance to boot. But man-alive is it expensive! Did I mention budget overruns?

We're going to have a beautiful, no-maintenance composite deck with (relatively) ugly, high-maintenance treated lumber railings! Unless of course the Powerball numbers bounce our way...