Wow, I haven’t written anything since May? The saddest part about that is that my archives will always skip over June 2008, as if it’s the month that time forgot, or as if I don’t know the order of the months. “Let’s see, April, May, July… July? That’s not what’s next!”

June had weddings and stuff. Work was pretty hectic too, and is even more so now that it’s July. Ash and I have been watching a lot of HGTV, and I even tried my hand at some “Hidden Potential” inspired makeovers using Photoshop.

Ilse is sad every day while Ash is at work. She just camps out by the front door waiting, or she sleeps in her Sherpa bag all day. Oh, the poor neglected puppy. Of course she wouldn’t be neglected if she were willing to play with me, but noooo… she wants her “mommy” instead.

As thankful as we are for the wedding gifts we received, I was a little worried that we wouldn’t have room for all of these new kitchen appliances, dishes, cookware, and servingware in our tiny, itty-bitty New York kitchenette. If you need some perspective: Our kitchen has one drawer.

Ashleigh apparently has a previously-undiscovered talent, however, for finding a home for every single thing. Granted, there are a few strange placements (like a mixing bowl on top of a serving tray), but for the most part everything is either cleverly tucked away in a cabinet or else artfully displayed on the counter. I’m very impressed, and proud to call this clutter-conquerer my wife.

The board games, incidentally, fit neatly inside of our coffee table. Thank goodness for smart storage.

I’m getting married in a couple weeks. It’s not as stressful as it should be, thanks in part to the fact that we did as much planning as possible and as much preparation as possible months in advance. Because of that, during the week leading up to the wedding, we only have to do one day’s worth of errands. Oh, and several hours of wrapping things.

A friend of ours who used to work for a florist volunteered to do our wedding flowers, which was incredibly nice of her, and it’s going to save us a lot of money. She usually gets the roses from Costco (which is a good idea for anyone who needs a lot of inexpensive but high-quality flowers), but we want a specific variety of rose that Costco doesn’t carry. The bridesmaids’ dresses are dark red, and Costco only carries one shade of red, and Costco’s shade would clash horribly with the dresses. So Ashleigh and I went to Chelsea Flower Market one day with a swatch of fabric, and we decided that we wanted Black Magic roses.

I’ve been put in charge of finding wholesale Black Magic roses for the wedding. The best way to get roses is direct from the farm, it seems, because then they’re fresher (they last at least two weeks) yet cheaper. I’m pretty sure I’m going with Margareta Export Flowers (flowersandfreshness.com), because they have the best deal I’ve seen on Ecuadorian roses. NuSabana has a good deal too, but they’re Colombian, and Colombian roses tend to be smaller than Ecuadorian roses. Also worth a mention, if anyone out there is shopping for bulk flowers, is 2G Roses (FreshRoses.com), which is a grower in California. In the end it’s possible I’ll order from them instead, even though they’re more expensive, just because I won’t have to worry about the weather in Miami (where South American roses enter the U.S.) or about customs. Oh, and there’s also RoseSource.com; they sell Ecuadorian roses, and they have great customer service, but they’re a little more expensive.

If we didn’t care about the exact color, I’d consider Sam’s Club instead. They have the absolute lowest price for roses online, and they’re farm-fresh from Ecuador to your door, unlike Costco’s roses which are shipped to Costco first.

Wedding planning is going well. Ashleigh has taken on the role of “bride,” which makes sense, and I’ve taken on the role of “wedding planner,” because I’m actually really good at organizing things (a trait I got from my mother, so thank you, Mom). We’ve done most of the work we need to do already, and we’ve still got a little over three months till our wedding. I read some advice that said it’s better to get done whatever you can get done ahead of time, even if it seems like something that can wait, because you don’t want additional stress right before the wedding. So although we could have waited to get table name holders, we got them last week. And although I could have waited to get a cake knife and server, I ordered one yesterday. The less we have to worry about in the days leading up to the wedding, the better.

I understand that your pricing structure may be complicated, and that everything’s somewhat negotiable. But if you refuse to put prices or price ranges on your web site–or even worse, if you refuse to put prices in your “information” packets–then I don’t really want to do business with you. Clearly you think you’re too expensive, because if you were a good value, you’d want to advertise that. And anyway, you’re just wasting a whole lot of my time and your time, because then I have to call you, and you have to dedicate time to coming up with a price quote for me, and you have to keep following up and inquiring with me, even though your location is far too expensive in the first place. If you’d just tell me up front how much it’s likely to cost, I could avoid wasting everyone’s time. Do you really think that by making me talk to you, you’re going to convince me to spend twice my budget? Not a chance. Instead, you’re going to get a shitload of people calling you to find out what you could have easily posted on your web site. And the people who could afford it will, and the people who can’t won’t. You’re not going to convert anyone, you’re just going to piss people off.

I’m at my grandparents’ house watching “Wheel of Fortune” and playing with my new laptop.

I just finished buying a wedding gift for my uncle and soon-to-be-aunt at crateandbarrel.com… I like the fact that I can do that from my laptop instead of having to use my grandparents’ computer. My new laptop is ultra-cool. It’s bright silver in color (though made of plastic, of course) and it doesn’t have a touchpad. I hate touchpads. I always end up doing weird “mouse pointer olympics” inadvertently with my palms when I’m typing. It’s terribly annoying. So I specifically sought a laptop with an alternative pointing device.

I’m just an alternative guy like that.

The keyboard on the laptop works really well with my hands. It feels very natural. The only thing that’s weird is the “end” key. I apparently use it quite a bit, and it’s in a weird spot on this keyboard, so I have trouble getting it without looking.

Anyway, I think I’m being antisocial by typing instead of visiting with my grandparents. So my laptop will just have to sit in that lonely, dark bag. Sad laptop… I’ll have to bring it out later when I go for coffee with my friends.