All done with all that

It was said and done on June 20. We had a grand ol' time, but I must say, the best vignette of the day was the flower arranging melee out on the deck, with David's sister, Concha directing a slew of relations in a mad capped frenzy to get six large buckets of flowers whipped into shape...











Meanwhile, I ran about with my hair in curlers...


And despite the fact that my father was still in his grungy cooking clothes as the first guests were arriving....


...we managed to pull it off.

All told, it was exactly what we set out for it to be -- a fun, unscripted party without great hooplas of fanfare, without excess, without obsessive attention to detail and without undue encroachment of the Wedding-Industrial Complex.

Thanks to all who contributed: Cousin Erik and El Sid for the food... my god, the food....; Jimbo and Ann, who stocked us up on some unbelievably yummy Patz & Hall wines; Shiela L, who brought her engineer's mind to the task of coordinating volunteers; Sistah Concha for her creative eye on the flowers; The Right Reverand Lisa Gaines for performing the necessary ceremonials and overseeing the signing of papers, to say nothing of cleaning up the next day; The Divine Ms K for help sorting out the dress situation in my mind, suggesting a nice string of pearls to the groom for a wedding present and transporting the cupcakes down from Cupcake Jones; Nurse Susan for letting herself be directed here and there on the day and for helping with clean up the next; my sons and nephews, David, Bryan, Marcos & Gregory, for lending their youthful strength to the task of moving stuff around; Uncle Keith, Charlie B. and Marcos for shuttling guests from the park; Keith-Beat, Joseph, Aunt Suzanne and various others who took pictures; my parents, my sons, Stepson Logan, Sistah Concha and sister-in-law Mariana for "giving us away," so to speak; and to everyone who came and had a grand time.

Following the wedding, we headed to the coast on a family camping trip.


Yes, that was a little outside the norm, but we did go on a right proper honeymoon to Kauai in due time.


Since our return from that paradise for chickens -- not figurative chickens, as in people with no nerve, but literal chickens --

we've been trying to get our house in order between teaching a summer course down in Corvallis, and heading out on the annual pilgrimage to Santa Cruz, stopping to see various friends and relations down Californy way.

Now it's time to get back to real life and a new blog conceit. I'm closing down this one -- meaning, not making any more entries -- because I am so very done with the whole wedding theme. I only marginally got into it in the first place, to be honest. The blog, that is, not the marrying thing. I'm a happy camper as far as the marrying thing goes. I have the proverbial "sweetest man on Earth," by golly, and all said, it was a job well done.