I am close to choosing my wedding dress

But which is it to be? Only you, dear readers, can help me decide.

I'm booking him

It was either the gorilla or the story about the visit to the gynaecologist ("Prince Philip isn't getting any younger!", says the nurse as she leads me to the examination room, "and I think Sunday's going to be a big night for Kate Winslet!"), but I was sent this by Dan (friend and previous contributor to this web-blog), and I thought it was funnier:

I encourage you to ...

...Look at The Letter, a lovely site that contains all sorts of interesting and beautiful things, including a link to a very clever person called M S Corley, who has redesigned the Harry Potter books in the style of Penguin Classics.

In other news, more people over the age of 55 use a social networking site every day than read a newspaper (you are nearly 40, and your parents are on Facebook: discuss); rum punch fountains still exist; I am addicted to profiteroles like a bear to crack honey, and working in an advertising agency is possibly not the most tip-top place to be in a recession, particularly when 85% of the people around you didn't live through the last one and think it is all happening to someone else.

But still, now it is possible to preserve our cheese properly, thanks to Formaticum Cheese Paper, and my wedding preparations continue apace. Topic du jour: wedding invitations. ("Why are we sending out wedding invitations?", mutters the pathologist I am to marry; " everyone knows when it is").

We will do them nonetheless; it makes it feel like it is happening, rather than a joke we made up whilst watching The Wire and eating $1 chocolate from the Dollorama in Boisbriand.

In my head, wedding invitations look like this:

They are engraved or thermographed onto plain white card, and come in a plain white envelope, and you word it the way these things have been worded since the Reformation. They are harder to find than you might think (if you're interested, try here); you may think they are boring, but I - I think they are very korekt, and therefore pleasing.

They are also not any of these. I am all for people being 'creative' and what-have-you, but often do I regret the casual and universal availability of design software. Still, there is something charming in the notion of a dress code that is "Neat Casual".

I give you a special Valentine's Day gift of love

And if you don't like that, you will definitely like Patti LaBelle singing the alphabet on Sesame Street. Look out for the bear.

I recommend a new website to all my readers

You may find it here. Watch out for the cat on the keyboard and the Storm Trooper on the highway.



In other news, wedding plans continue apace, i.e. I spend many hours looking on the Google for things that match the search terms "not twatty place to get married in Montreal that is not a church", and "venue needed for sugared-almond free party that does not only offer chicken or salmon". Things that are of no interest to me include:

- wedding photographers
- white wedding dresses
- outfits that cost more than $1,000
- bridesmaids, pageboys etc
- wedding cakes (esp. with 'both holding knife' wedding pic in mind)
- shoes dyed to match dress
- party favours (or "favors")
- confetti (hopeless - if people must, let it be rice)
- toastmasters
- first dances (if forced, there is only one song that will do)

Things that interest me:

- marrying a self-haircutting veterinary research histopathologist
- favourite people in world being there to see it/point and laugh
- excellent food
- excellent faine waines and other alcohols
- opportunity for dancing in a comedy style to this, or this, with perhaps a quick go to this and of course this.