mad dash through the dallas airport ...

before holly's bach'ette, i had a meeting in dallas. as i was sitting in my seat on the plane, i realized i forgot something at security.

wait, scratch that. i can't even get my own story right. i was still at midway, but was on my way to dallas.

so, i realized that i left holly's fortune cookies at security. i was pissed. had i left them at work, i could at least mail them later. but someone else was going to chomp 'em instead. everyone was already seated on the plane, but the main cabin door was still open. what the hell are we waiting for, i wondered. i was so frustrated sitting there, knowing that the cookies were just sitting somewhere else. so i unbuckled and asked a flight attendant if we might be delayed. he put his sandwich down to tell me that we were waiting for our third flight attendant, whose plane was coming from boston. i asked if i could go get something i left at security and he said i would have to walk to the end of the jetway and speak to the gentleman who took my ticket. i thought it was pretty neat that i could get off the plane. i approached the jetway man and he told me that i could go, but if the flight attendant showed up while i was gone, they'd hit the road (tarmac? sky?) without me.

"i kind of want to take the chance, but my laptop and wallet are still at my seat."

"it's up to you."

"i'll have a hard time flying without my id, huh?"

"probably. but you can go back on and grab your stuff if you want to."

"it'll weigh me down."

i pondered a quick moment and furthered,

"so do we know exactly where the flight attendant is right now?"

he looks at his screen.

"her plane landed, and it's already at its gate."

"did it just get to the gate?"

"mmyah, it just updated that it's at the gate."

i was really considering it at this point.

"hmm, well, what gate?"

"B11"

ah-hah, we were in terminal A.

"i think i can run faster than she can get here."

at this point i was really hoping that he would discourage me if he really thought i might not make it. i guess i knew it really was a bad idea. it didn't help that when he took off he said, "yes, you really should run." my boss would have killed me had i missed the flight. and she never heard this story, by the way; she really doesn't need to hear about my bad judgment.

when i got to my security line i had cleared earlier, they shuffled me to some TSA desk. once there i pointed, completely out of breath, to the little brown bag holding the cookies and said "that's mine!" and the man says, "may i please see some id?" ok, does that make any sense? what, to make sure that i am ... a person?! "i left [gasp] it [gasp] on the [gasp] plane." all i had in my hand was my cell phone and ticket stub. he looked at my stub, meanwhile the lady next to him said, "geez i'll take care of it, hal, she's going to miss her flight!!"



obviously, i made the flight. i ran so fast. like a movie, over surprise suitcases jutting out in front of me from out of nowhere, and bursting through crowds of people. it was fun. but stupid.

back to the bachelorette!

the girls: joining holly on her bachelorette expedition were her maid of honor and high school comrade, carla of san diego; her high school and college classmate, andrea of lake tahoe; her post college pal, nichole of orange county; future sister-in-law and bridesmaid, kelly of sonoma; and me, of course.

the location: hard rock hotel, san diego!!

the gaslamp quarter

i forgot my camera ... so here are some bootlegged images of the sassy-modern hard rock hotel in the gaslamp quarter in beautiful and sunny (and mercilessly hot!!) san diego. a HUGE thanks to nichole for sharing with us:

above, a sampling of the suites
(hardrockhotel.com and tripadvisor.com)

the activities: so far, holly's post sums up the first part of the weekend perfectly.

1. slumber party

after andrea and i joined the ladies, who had definitely had their fair share of champagne, we grabbed pizza and salad and headed back to the suite. we had considered take-out chinese, but holly had eaten it for the past three nights in a row. after pizza, i provided chocolate dipped fortune cookies for dessert.

i tied two chocolate-dipped-and-sprinkled fortune cookies with ribbon to a little soy sauce dish for each girl. recall, we thought we'd be having chinese take-out for dinner. the cookies were customized with:

the next woman in the room to marry will have a lifetime of happiness and passion.

lucky numbers: 06 28 08

i am ever grateful to kelly the mixologist, who knows how to pour the perfect amount of pom and oj into a glass of bubbly. we all had so much fun gabbing and discovering just how well holly knows scott. kelly, scott's lil' sis, definitely had to cover her ears a few times.

2. pool time

the weather couldn't have been beat. i think andrea and i were the only ones who got in the water though. the others were sprawled on their day couch, perhaps in the spirit of the seen-and-be-seen vibe.

courtesy of my camera phone.

3. go padres

after holly tried on four different outfits, we finally provided her with her personalized tee.

courtesy of my camera phone.

across the balls on the front, it said, "just one set for the rest of my life." this was of course in reference to the set of balls. but holly took it to be in reference to her boobs. if that's what we meant, we would have put an image of a rack, hol! the tee was package to go with the 'chinese food' theme from the night before, but in the end we weren't allowed to give it to her until game time.

courtesy of my camera phone.

at the stadium, we got to know everyone around us. and the padres stadium even gave holly a bag of goodies, including hats and visors! how friendly! we stayed until the 11th inning ... and could see from our hotel balcony afterwards, the thrill of victory!

4. tapas!

i was in love with the tapas place we went to, sevilla. carla found it and we thought it would be PERFECT for holly!! we definitely ate tons, from the two kinds of spanish tortilla, to patatas bravas, octopus, shrimp, olive bread, and fundido. there was a pitcher of sangria, but we had much more fun with the perron con garabato (white wine, beer, and lemon-lime soda!?). yes, i completely spilled it all over myself, my chair, AND the floor. i underestimated the size of my mouth.

click here to see how it is supposed to be done!

5. shout house!!

the dueling piano bar was packed, with us at the front, and nearly-center stage. we were on the side with the most perverted pianist ... but also his tag-team partner, the most adorable pianist. the perv had a crush on andrea, and andrea had a crush on the cute one. aw, a love triangle thing. scream-singing the night away (i speak for myself there)... we saw both holly and andrea on stage at least a few times. a good time was had by all!

6. brunch and people watching

below is maryjane's, an old-school meets modern rock, diner where we had a lovely brunch on sunday morning, complete with dj spinning. the people watching was killer, and really almost better than in l.a. we didn't make it to "intervention sundays" at the pool, but we did see some shiny high-heel stomping, sheer mini-dress flaunting, bikini-clad, ladies who would have joined us. E! was at the pool, but i really don't need any more exposure in my swimsuit than i already provided with some of those h.moon photos, for sure.

after brunch, half the group headed out on their drive to oc. stan (andrea) and i had some time before our early evening flights, so we walked around and ended up at bondi, an australian joint. we took in the breeze on the patio and watched the san diego crowd stroll by. it was a perfect sunday afternoon!

bondi pods

happy eight more weeks, holly!

it might snow tonight.

Cloudy with rain and snow showers this evening. Partial clearing overnight.

larkin daly, llc (continued)

earlier i started a post titled larkin daly, llc. it was a post designed to give props to the cute email jo sent me after the wedding, asking when we might start larkin daly, llc planning and coordinating company ... of course, while i wish i was an essential ingredient – truth is that that girl could do the planning AND coordinating all on her own. As far as the "Day Of" coordinating aspect goes; it even looks like she's getting referrals!!! look what landed in my inbox over the weekend!

Hi Devon,

I was wondering if I could get the name and number of the “Day of Event” planner you used for your wedding? I wasn’t sure if it was just a friend of yours or an actual event planner. I have a client that is interested and I immediately thought of yours. She did a great job.

Thank you,

Nikee

Nikee Fellows

Special Event Coordinator/ Catering Sales

Hel's Kitchen Catering

happy bachelorette, holly!

just eight more weeks until holly ties the knot!! it was a great weekend ... more to come!

take the cake

saturday night, i made a cake. i'm obiously no amanda, nor leslie, and it has been few times in my life that i've gone the "from scratch" route:

fun facts: while i did just start reading it, the book is in the photo purely for scale (you see it's a small cake) , and those shamrocks in the background were left in our car for over two weeks while we were on our honeymoon. they seem to be doing quite well.

click here to see what else was left in our car while we were gone.

the book i used is quite cute, but truthfully i think maybe i managed it in rather TWICE the time:

i made the cake from the "lady baltimore white cake" recipe, but skipped the corresponding frosting which is studded with pecans, raisins, and figs (not feelin' it) and made a chocolate frosting instead. the frosting was the best part. i also must say that the vanilla i bought in mexico is quite delicious for baking.

unusual week in chicago

some of you guessed parts right! we sure made the news this week ... top 4 reasons it was an unusual week:

1. a cougar was shot in roscoe village [msnbc]

2. the blue line broke down in the subway completely shutting down the line ... and i happened to be spend an hour and a half bonding with fellow el riders sitting on the floor of our train car before evacuating through the dimly lit, dirty, musty underground railway tunnel. [chicago tribune, nbc, ny times]

3. and, of course, the earthquake to ensure it was in fact a strange week [l.a. times]

4. not to mention, i also had time to meet with friends after work this week - katherine and nicole at d4 in streeterville, and kristin/nikki/ali/shannon at flat top grill in the west loop

here is a photo taken with my cell phone from evacuating the blue line.

the evacuation was very slow, even once we were on the catwalk,

as can be gathered from the man's head tilting to the side to see if we would ever start making forward progress.

and my video (it is very dark, but there is volume):

the honeymoon, in review

our jaunt to the riviera maya was the blissful trip we needed to recover from the wedding and settle into a life of new adventures. we loved our trip and adore traveling together, designing itineraries that fit us as a couple. i'll fill in the posts below with photos to explain all aspects of our holiday.

as a basic outline of the trip, it was originally planned in three parts:

1) la tortuga hotel in playa del carmen;

2) gran bahia copa hotel in akumal;

3) the royal, back in playa del carmen.

we loved the first leg of our trip so much , that we extended our stay (they had one room left!) and skipped the middle part of our trip (!!!), staying in playa the whole time, across two hotel stays! while we are sure the middle part would have been wonderful, we were enjoying ourselves too much to be bothered with transfering down the coast half an hour and checking into another hotel. of course, had the extra room at la tortuga not been available it would have been just fine, but since it was, we could not have asked for it to work out any more perfectly!

instead of a day-by-day account (which would have been quite a repetitive "went to beach, ate, went to pool, napped, read, ate, had drinks, went for a walk, went to sleep" on more days than not), photos are organized by category below:

the beautiful caribbean sea and sand

how i dream of walking outside and into the sea. captions in slideshow still to come.

our hotels

a picto-tour of our two hotels:

pools, sun, and relaxation

by now, you're probably tired of h2o photos.

the town of playa

the snapshots aren't the best, but perhaps after scrolling through, you'll get a better sense of the town. we heard it is the fastest growing city in the world!! not sure, but there is construction everywhere.

the prices in playa (the shortened nickname for playa del carmen) are by no means the "mexican" prices we might prefer. bummer. yep, it's all jacked up for the tourists. the main drag, about twenty blocks along avenida 5, while very cute, was much more commercial than i was expecting. does it remind anyone of disneyland in some of the photos? like, adventureland, maybe?

had we been less exhausted by the end of the day, we might have made it out to the clubs, which are all open until 5am. next time! no, seriously! they've got a reputation for being fun, some with noteworthy salsa influence. but aside from that kind of nightlife, the streets are full until late in the evening, it is safe, and there are so many restaurants, sidestreets, and nooks to explore.

mayan cooking demonstration

our cooking demonstration was a blast. it was held at a restaurant called ajua (which means like, yahoo or whoopee). they have been doing large group demonstrations, with a minimum of ten people. i had been emailing with vaughn, the son of the owner, about whether "individual" or "non-group" signups would be available in march. they were planning to start them, but he wasn't sure when they would begin. and about a week before our trip he emailed to tell me they were starting the following wednesday. so we signed-up! and we were the only ones! so it was a private demonstration. vaughn, and his mom the owner and and their new wedding coordinator, joined us and were very warm. it was fun talking with ex-patriots. by then end of the demonstration, i tried to convince patrick that i should move to playa del carmen and he could visit me on the weekends. how's that for newlyweds!?! he lovingly said: no.

there was nothing outrageously complicated about the menu, just neat that the recipes had been passed down through their mayan kitchen staff's family, so we at least really were getting recipes from the yucatan peninsula, and a little education on what families who'd been living on the peninsula for a long, long time really ate. and the food, was so good and so fresh, and the lunch was just so fun!

Chaya, also known as Tree Spinach, is a large, fast growing leafy perennial shrub, native to the Yucatán Peninsula of Mexico. It somewhat resembles a vigorous hibiscus plant or the cassava plant. It can grow to be 6 meters tall, but is usually pruned to about 2m for easier leaf harvest. It is popular in Mexico and Central America as a leafy vegetable, cooked and eaten like spinach; raw leaves are toxic.

ps thanks holly & scott, this was the perfect gift from the vetterharthys!

dining out and eating tons!

chichen itza!

Chichen Itza "At the mouth of the well of the Itza" is a large pre-Columbian archaeological site built by the Maya civilization [notice that i say "mayan" which i have gathered is incorrect] located in the northern center of the Yucatán Peninsula, in the Yucatán state, present-day Mexico.

Archaeological data, such as evidence of burning at a number of important structures and architectural complexes, suggest that Chichen Itza's collapse was violent. (wikipedia)

note: chichen itza is pronounced "chee-chin-eat-za." when we got home we went to the very popular hot spot pizza pazzo, and had chicken pizza. i want to make t-shirts that say chichen itza and chicken pizza.

dinner in a cave!

it was very dark in the cave, so please excuse how terrible the photos are; they do not do the restaurant justice.

the name of the restaurant was alux (alooszh); it was days later that we learned what that means.

sr. tacombi & mezcal

i seemingly had a lot more ambition when i decided i was going to post these photos and blog about our little anecdotes. i lost that ambition.

first few photos are just of our favorite taco stand in a vw bus. the owner (not pictured) is a tall, tan, lanky, surfer-y looking, business savvy, super-friendly, but not over the top, younger (fewer than 40 years old) guy. great little gig right between two clubs, so he's busiest between 2am and 4am. great tacos of all sorts; from bean and cheese, to pollo, pescado, carne asada, to cochinita pibil (a traditional maya pork dish). super HOT jalapeno rellenos (umm, whoah, i like spicy food but i never hurt like that before!). loved the decor!

second set of photos is from a night out at a place called deseo, with rooftop lounge and movies showing. bartender, greco, offered us honeymoon shots. we took them. they were horrible!!! they were some kind of homemade mezcal from an unmarked bottle!!! holy moly, it was like an absinthe. the night turned hilarious, but probably only for us. needless to say, we did not feel so bueno the next day.

larkin daly llc

if only ... more to come.

back-blogging

check out past-posts below (apres february 18th's such a wonderful weekend post...through the groomsman down post) that have been waiting their turn in 'drafts' to finally make it to the big [computer] screen.

• also, HEY LESLIE ---> are you going to upload your lamb cupcakes to the martha contest?


• check out this girl's blog (i am in love with her? and she is getting married at a new leaf, albeit in the summer when she can use its gorgeous garden space) .... the second set of wedding bands she posted is [almost] exactly what patrick and i have!


• another one for les: you could SO make these with little hudsons on them!
  
  
  
  

we're back!!

between sips on pina coladas by the pool, we thoroughly enjoyed sneaking peeks at fellow bloggers' ongoing blog coverage and commentary on the wedding; definitely felt like celebrities!

patrick and i completely wish that we could have soaked in the riviera maya a little longer, but alas we are back despite my kicking and fighting efforts. honeymoon posts are definitely in the queue.

katherine's new blog template struck my fancy and i gave a go at switching my own. first of all, i can't figure out the html to allow my blog title in lower case. and, hello circus, it looks like we're a little too colorful right now. hang on a bit as the big top prevails; i have to get this loft of ours in order and the car unloaded (unloaded from the wedding!! we didn't have time!).