On Sunday I managed to get some things into the ground. Onion sets, radishes, peas and lettuce. Also put in some beet and carrot seed though it might be a hair early for those last two. We shall see. It was nice to be out in the blustery weather--I took advantage of the few minutes of sunlight that we were blessed with in the afternoon even though it was super windy and I got hailed on at least once. I love spring in the PNW because it is slightly unpredictable in an unusual sort of way. It is highly variable--as in 2" snowchunks falling Sunday morning, then almost 50 degree weather with 25 MPH winds in the afternoon and maybe some hail but definitely some rain. Even with this variance you at least know it will be unpredictable--you learn to always wear your raincoat because you just never know, do you? It can never make up its mind which I like. It does get tiresome though, when watering said seeds becomes an unpredictable schedule.

In addition to that, we spend a weekend on the coast checking out wedding stuff. We reserved rental chairs and dishes, which is great cause we can take that stuff back dirty and it's all reused and reusable. Also we reserved a picnic/kithcen shelter in a small state park with beach access for the actual ceremony/reception part. There are a lot of reasons this is good, the most awesome being that is a built in rain plan and there is a tavern up the street. Probably the only tavern for miles on the coast, which is awesome. We can't wait. Something funny has started happening--people will ask how wedding planning is coming and I say something like "oh you know, slowly but surely" and they almost invariably say "well, you still have lots of time" which is true, I technically do have almost six months still, but it goes by so fast, and a week can go by without doing a thing. On the other hand, which is that part that makes this sound really funny to me is this phenomenon: people will ask Joe if he is getting nervous because "the wedding is less than six months away and boy is that soon! " Like when you are the chick, the wedding can't come soon enough, but on the opposite side obviously the longer you wait the better. I think that is a total stereotype. I also think that I probably can do nothing to change it, so oh well.

I think that overall I had a pretty good year last year. There weren't any major disasters, I was healthy and my life just kept getting better. Joe and I got engaged, we bought a house, we elected an amazing person to the white house (finally) and I became an aunt for the first time. It was so great to have so many special things happen to me in one year, because for so many years absolutely nothing special happened. The special and amazing things have been picking up pace in the last few years and I anticipate this one to be a continuation of that trend--and hopefully not a peak.

Everybody is excited for this year. I must admit I am getting a little worked up about not feeling ready at all for the wedding planning. I have been steadily moving towards getting things done that involve planning. I ordered silk today for my dress and for a few other things that we are going to make. My niece's dress (she's going to be a very very small flower girl! I am so excited!) and neckties for the dudes and stuff like that. It has been an exciting process, this dress. My sister is a seamstress and so she is making it. We looked at lots of patterns and I decided on a reproduction of a 1952 ball gown that we are going to alter a bit and give some personal touches. It is going to be a truly one of a kind dress. Picking the colors was so much fun because they all turned out just perfect together and will be so good out there on the beach. It gives me butterflies in my stomach thinking about how soon it really is.

The next step is meeting again with out Rabbi. And we have to go to a pre-marital counseling session or two. That should be interesting because Joe and I communicate very well and our arguments are almost non-existent, but there are a few behind the scenes things that I guess we could use an outside opinion on.

Ah, 2009. How much 1t holds and in what shape, nobody can really say, but I thinks it's going to be a good year.