I'm still alive, I swear. But it's not like my 10 glorious followers are sitting in front of their computers, like, "OMG WHAT IS SHE UP TO?!" I mean, I like to think one of you 10 lovely readers misses me, but reality says you probably didn't notice I was gone.

ANYWAYS.

After three weeks of working 5 straight days (horrible, I know), I should be back to my almost-normal schedule now. Except, my boss wants to take away my free Thursdays, and make me work. Effective immediately. Yay moneys! BOO no sleeping in!

Oh, and that's yet another day I won't have to work on wedding stuff. And we're 7 weeks away from the Big Day. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't freaking out about this.

Friday night was spent starting on veil construction. Oh yes, I'm making my own veil. Because I'm completely insane. Actually, it's because my step-dad's sister bailed on making a veil for me, and the prices people charge for these things is completely insane. $200 for some fluffy shit and sequins? I don't think so. I have hands and free time and hot glue... I can do this for cheap!

So after 30 tense minutes of wandering around Joann's in search of the right supplies... I came home with $29 worth of tulle, fishing line, and hair combs. I didn't get the sparkley rhinestones... Yet. If I can assemble the veil without it looking ghetto, then I'll tackle sparkles. I know I'm good at sparkles.

I searched the internets for the best tutorials, only to find that there are none. Well, there are tutorials, but they suck. I think tulle is just really hard to capture on video. It's like Bigfoot or Nessie or the Chupacabra. It's elusive. And I don't think there's one universal method to veil-making. So I kind of had to watch some videos, use my brain, and just go fot it.

Luckily, I bought like, 7 yards of tulle. That's like, 189 square feet of elusive fluffy crap. Which looks like a ghostly aparition when it's bunched up on your couch and you've had a few glasses of wine. But yeah, I had enough extra tulle to experiment.

Did I mention Skip hates tulle? Because he spent like a solid hour sitting on the couch yelling, "I F%$#ING HATE TULLE! OMG! IT'S ITCHY! GET IT OFF MEEEE!" And I was yelling back, "STOP MOVING! YOU'RE GOING TO SCARE THE GHOST AWAYYYYY!"

So attempt numero-uno was a bust.

But the second attempt was mostly a success. I think if I glue on some sparkly stuff, no one will notice my terrible fishing line sewing skills. But I'll need to do that sober, because hot glue is (duh) hot. And tulle is (duh) elusive. I don't need an ER visit in my life right now.

What I do need in my life is glorious wedding shoes. And Skip needs 3 inches of height in his life, so I don't look like a giant standing next to him at the altar. Seriously. Dillards had super glorious sparkletastic wedding shoes, but they would've made me look like an Amazonian queen. Which would be great, if Skip wasn't vertically challenged. Well, he's not challenged... He's just not gifted. We're like, the same height. So he's freakishly tall, but not tall enough that I can wear glorious heels.

So the other insane thing I'm doing this weekend... Is taking Skip out to help me find wedding shoes. Basically, I just need him there as a reference piece. So I can stand next to him and be like, "Yep, you're still short. These shoes are out." Or "ZOMG THESE ARE THE SHOES." Skip will probably hate this process, but it needs to happen. I can't keep buying and returning shoes like a crazy person because they're too tall.

That's all that's really going on right now... Well, there's probably other stuff, too, but nothing really interesting.

I promise I'll try to update this more frequently. For reals, this time!

Ghosts, goblins, and sparkles,

I'm still alive.

The last few weeks have been ridiculous. And that's an understatement.

Milo is now on an all home-cooked diet. Yes, you read that correctly... No, I'm not insane. After spending hours on the internets researching canine calcium oxalate bladder stones, I discovered Fuzzer Food... Which is basically like a hippie diet for dogs. It's pretty complicated. Everything has to be pretty meticulously measured, and supplements added. One of which is a crazy Chinese herb that I can't spell or pronounce. But it's supposed to make him not get bladder stones, which means no more surgeries, and no more stress on pup or pup-mom. So we're going full-on hippie.

I've also been working at our downtown office for the last 2 weeks... Which is really just inconvenient and annoying. I spend what used to be my days off feeling awkward and in the way, and then sitting in terrible traffic trying to get myself home. Oh, and getting up an hour and a half earlier than usual. That's awesome too. OH, and the extra gas I need to buy to get me down there. Yep, that's great too. Because the extra hours I work basically just cover the gas down there. Sweet deal, right?!

/sarcasm.

Did I also mention that our apartment got struck by lightning?! Did I tell you that it fried all three (!) of our TVs?! And a digital picture frame?? And our router?! AND SKIP'S EXPENSIVE CARDINALS LAMP?!

Yea. That seriously happened. One bolt of lightning murdered $1200+ worth of electronics. It busted the tuner in the tube-TV in our bedroom, totally fried the 32" flatscreen in the den (it doesn't even turn on), and it effed up the high voltage in Skip's big gigantic 40" flatscreen. So now, every time we hook the cable box up to the big TV, the high voltage just fries it. We hooked up the coax directly to the TV... So we have like, basic cable. Basic, low-def, no DVR cable. With spotty reception. On our 40" high-def TV. Awesome.

We're going to talk to the insurance people tonight... Thank God we have renter's insurance. But we have to take $500 out of the wedding fund to pay the deductible, and hope that they reimburse us before the first week of September, when like, all of our final payments are due. GAH. As if I wasn't stressed enough about the money for the wedding. Someone plant me a money tree orchard, mmkay?

Or like, send Ed McMahon to my house. That'd be super.

Did I mention I now have to find a veil for the wedding too?! 'Cause my step-dad's sister was going to make it for free, right... And then her sewing machine broke. So I'm gonna be all up on Etsy looking for veils like it was my job. 'Cause I don't have an extra $200 to spend on a piece of tulle glued to a comb.

I've been ridiculously tired the last few weeks... I don't know if it's the extra hours, the lack of healthy eating habits, the absence of my daily vitamins, or just general stress and exhaustion due to all the crazy in my life right now. I mean, the last month and a half has just been insane. Milo's surgery, his new diet, 3 dead TVs, wedding shenanigans... It's just insane. I'm trying to get back to a better eating regimen, more exercise, and my vitamins. Maybe that'll make me feel a little less like a zombie. Sleep would be good too, but even that's in short supply. Our weekends haven't even been relaxing... I didn't sleep past 7:30am this past Saturday or Sunday. I had dog food to cook, groceries to shop for, laundry to do, clothes to iron, and socializing to do.

...I know, socializing isn't important. But to us, it is. We have zero friends. So if we can go hang out with people and try to be their friends, that's gonna take priority over like everything else. I love Skip, but I need a female companion in my life. We don't even have to be like, BFFs... I just need someone to drink wine and go shopping with.

And on that note... I need to do something productive today. This is the last week of me working both downtown and up at my office. THANK GOD.