Wind Me Up, Chuck!

It's been a week of perks. Today Chris and I got to see Chuck Brown aka "The Godfather of Go Go." (According to wikipedia, "go go" is a subgenre of funk music that originated in the Washington, D.C. area. ) If you live in DC, you may recognize Chuck from a DC Lottery commercials otherwise you may have heard his song "Bustin' Loose."

The Godfather was awesome. All I can say is that it don't mean a thing if it don't got that go go swing.

Halo Launch

It's finally here! No, not my wedding date. Halo 3 is here. Granted we have yet to buy an Xbox 360, but we are hoping to get one soon.

One of the few perks of the job was to be invited to the D.C. Halo 3 Launch Party on the roofdeck of a Chinatown office building. I got to play the multiplayer function with a couple of strangers and for a few minutes with Chris.

After finally realizing that we were playing as a team and not against each other it made the game a bit more interesting. There are a lot of the same weapons from Halo 2, but a few more interesting ones that I sometimes couldn't figure out how to shoot. It seems as if the Xbox 360 has a few extra buttons that I wasn't quite sure how to use. I still think I am better than Chris though. To top off the dorkiness: the Master Chief helmet that comes with $130 game is mighty tempting.

I'm very lucky

I went away this weekend to Pensacola to finish some wedding planning. I thought Chris would be having the time of his life without a thought about all of our to do lists and plans. I was wrong. Here he is in a fuzzy picture taken with a camera phone in a bar with our wedding planning book. Now what other girl can claim their fiance has done the same?

Lelaine's Vineyard Tour

A trio of awesome friends organized a Wine Tour for one of my wedding showers. Jenn, Christy and Heather rented an Econoline van and got 8 women to wake up before 10am on Saturday morning to join me to see the best and worst (explained later) of Virginia's wine country.

Our first stop, shown on the left, was Corcoran Vineyards. It was a small vineyard with great personal service. The owner Corky was very nice and even gave me a souvenir tasting glass. I bought a bottle of their 2006 Viognier-- the most popular choice among our group.

Our second stop at Hillsborough Vineyards is where it gets rough. Looking back it was the prettiest vineyard we saw, but I would NOT recommend this place to anyone despite the picturesque view. To make a maddening story short there are three reasons why to avoid this vineyard: 1. Health/sanitary reasons 2. public safety 3. sexual harrassment. What makes the visit most unfortunate is that we received this treatment from the owner of the vineyard, not some lackey. I can't say it enough. Avoid this vineyward and the owner below.

To make-up for the bad experience we went to the Doukenie Winery. This place had the best wines. Our group spent over $400 there (take that Hillsborough) and had a nice time looking out into their ranch with horses. Doukenie has the perfect wine with chocolate. We only had a dark chocolate Hershey's kiss and a taste of their Raspberry Merlot and it felt like you just had the best gourmet raspberry and chocolate dessert.

We end the day at a wine festival at the Breaux Winery. I believe they had good wine, but we were all so hungry that we lost focus at our tasting and soon headed for the cheese fries and hot dog stand. The little guy below also stole the show.

Overall it was a great day and we were blessed with great fall weather. For us city girls it was nice to breathe fresh air and see homes that aren't attached to each other.

répondez s'il vous plaît

It is so fun getting mail! We have nearly 1/3 of our RSVPs in... have you sent in yours?

Just in case you are wondering they are due September 20th.

Strictly Ballroom

As the big day approaches we find ourselves handling the tasks that we have tried to avoid. Today's post is about one of those tasks: the first dance. I love dancing. Bigelow is best at very slow marching and counting out loud.

In one of the greatest examples of compromise before our marriage, I agreed that we wouldn't take ballroom dancing lessons if Chris could find a good DVD so we can learn a few steps for the first dance and other dances during the reception.

You can see snapshot of the so-called good DVD. I can only hazard that this was filmed sometime when I started to walk. Margot Schultz is the teacher and according to an "unbaised" review on Amazon she is among the best. However when I googled her name with the term ballroom the I only returned one good hit on the first page. I have a better google name than that!

All I have to say is Fred and Ginger will not be at the reception.

I went to see King Tut and all I got was this picture

I did get a great experience looking at the exhibit, which was last in the U.S. in 1977, but I admit I was disappointed that no photography was allowed. I would definitely recommend you see the exhibit while it is still in the U.S. if you have the opportunity.

My favorite comment about the exhibit was made by Allen who said that this 5000 year-old wood furniture is in better shape than some of their furniture.