in españa

HI EVERYONE!!!!!!!!

Here we are in Spain.

We are in Fuengirola. It is on the Costa del Sol. It´s kind of like the Spanish Daytona Beach.

It was my idea to come here. Oops

Tomorrow we hope to escape. We will head to Ronda. Now Pete will type

I´ve enjoyed my time on the Costa del Sol, actually. Piloting our Peugeot up and down the Costa. We had an enjoyable dinner and some wine this evening by the port. Melissa hit the rooftop pool earlier. All is well, and tomorrow we head back inland.

And then some less formal photos

Photos and Congratulations

CONGRATULATIONS MR and MRS THOMSON!!!!

The wedding was fantastic, tons of fun, and everyone did an amazing job. I hope everyone had as much fun as I did. You were all beautiful and/or handsome. Safe travels back home!

At the reception

It's done--all I have to do is sweat my toast. I've already had the pleasure of bustling the dress.

Melissa looks beautiful. Well back to dinner. (This is why we don't get to eat!)

Update (26 hours later): Thanks again to BT and his c-berry, but I've removed his lengthy signature and its half-dozen contact numbers.

The tuxes are go

Dad, Mark, BT and I have been successful at securing all of the rental tux gear. Dad had to downsize his jacket, and he's trying on some new shoes as we speak. Off for some socks!

Updated (1.5 hours later): Photos added--thanks, MarkBM. Also: original post made live from the shop via BTz hand-held e-mail device.

Live from Charlotte

The wedding weekend is here. I won't say "finally" because it seemed to be upon us suddenly. Everyone is pretty busy, but having a good time. (Hopefully the bride isn't having too much of a good time at the moment, she has gone out for some last minute bachelorette "relaxation.")

Even though I'll spend most of my time running errands or spending time with family and friends over the next three days, I hope to post as much as possible. We started this weblog to keep tabs on the development of this very event, and after more than a year of effort*, I'll record as much as possible on the fly. So heads up for "mobile" posts (which are pretty ugly), and later this evening I'm going to slap up a fair amount of unedited video.

*Though generally not my effort.

Send in the Bride

I'll elaborate on my personal formal wear shoppe experience* later, but tonight the Bride brought those tuxedoed villains under control.

*Let's just say that at least one confirmation number was written on a fast food napkin.

FOUR DAYS

Move over, Jackie? Nope.

Melissa's birthday brought yet another baking foray. This year, however, I didn't use a 1:1 ratio of candles to years.

To create this butter cake with buttercream frosting, I used our new mixer (to mash up butter, of course), a saucepan to make syrup and a recipe from our new cake book. In lieu of a pastry brush, my silicon basting brush applied syrup to the layers--after a night of basting ribs. A fresh spatula came into play, as did our cake plate. And our cake server did the slicing. (It's probably pretty clear that I got into the baking a bit. A glass of red wine didn't hurt, though the box o' butter probably will.) Still, it wasn't quite pro grade.

Of course, I was slow to the punch: My parents sent flowers to her school, and her parents left her a little something special on her voice mail.