Tomorrow is our 28th Anniversary!!

But we celebrated it today since tomorow we are celebrating Dave’s birthday. Then on Sunday we will be busy with a wedding! So today was the day. Mark took me to La Provence a french restaurant here in town. 

We not only spent Lindsay’s birthday there last week but we are also shooting our Sunday wedding there as well  Here is a point and shoot shot of our dinner.

Mine was a really nice cup of seafood stew soup and then an open faced tartine of shrimp, avocado, and sprouts. It was all so yummy! Mark had striped bass on a bed of corn chowder risoto…which was also fabou!

Then we had a flourless decadent chocolate cake brought to our table with 2 forks.

Then we asked our nice waiter to take a picture of us…

After our wonderful lunch Mark took me to see GET SMART. I totally enjoyed it and my day. I was freezing in the theatre but once I got outside I remembered how hot it was today…

It was hot (102) but I am hoping that the weather reports are going to be right on Sunday. It is predicted to be alot cooler. I hope so!

When we got home Mark took some more pictures of me….which he is editing…man I wish we could really photoshop ourselves! lol

I’ll let him post them up later. 

Thanks for my fun day Mark, I love you!! May God bless us with many more healthy and happy years!!!

EDIT: Here are just a few of the pics we took tonight. I am so blessed to have a Kerri as my wife who has been on this wonderful journey for the past 28 years….I couldn’t imagine anyone better!!

My wife and I have been at war for most of our marriage, anduntil recently I never even realized it….It’s one of those quiet wars where nothing is said, but you can tell by our actions. It’s a very serious matter and I’ve wondered if there is counseling for this, and today I even Googled it to see if I was right or wrong. (Because as a guy that’s what it’s all about,right? Not what’s best but just to be right…)

It’s a very serious matter, and I’m reluctant to even postthis up on the blog for fear I may well start disagreements in what have been otherwise healthy marriages….

Ready?

Does your toilet paper go over the top or under the bottom (punintended…) I have come to realize that we practice a quiet form of resolving this issue…I change it when I use the bathroom and she changes it back when she does. (but our kids also use the bathroom, so I wonder if they have been pulled into this battlefield?)

So the question I have for you is which way does the toiletpaper roll in your house?

And even more telling of how deep a psychiatric issue thisis with you, when you use someone else’s loo and it’s not how you use it do you assume they made a mistake and fix it for them, or give them the benefit of the doubt and leave it be?

Do you change it when you use someone else’s bathroom?

Now I’m not saying that I’m right – at least not in print where it can be held against me – but all I know is that hotels, motels andoffices where the tp is changed by PROFESSIONALS – which way do they hang it? Why over of course. And who am I to challenge the knowledge of those who do this for a living?

What say you?

We shot a wedding yesterday at a winery in the foothills, and had an exciting ride home after. Highway 49 winds for miles and miles through mountains and a canyon that the American River runs through with many twists and turns, so, late at night it’s always challenging to drive home. Kerri always says how she hates driving it because there are numerous bars and vineyards with late night drinkers out driving around when we leave.

While we were driving home, we had some impatient drivers on the road right behind us who apparently had too much to drink. Kerri pulled aside to let one go by. then as we came to an intersection where the road ended and you had to turn right or left (see map where 49 crosses the river near Auburn) the car behind us zoomed around us at the stop sign using the oncoming lane to make the turn ahead of us. Then I guess he had to show off how cool he was and hit the gas.

What happened next seemed like we were watching a stunt scene in a movie. The car fishtailed left and right several times before finally hitting the side of the mountain.and bouncing off it so hard that the entire car was up in the air, breaking both axels as it came back to earth. How it avoided going the other way and rolling down the canyon we’ll never know, but it was scary to watch. As soon as it was safe we drove up to see if they were okay. Incredibly all three young men were not hurt! But they were scared and shook up. They are very fortunate to be alive as are we….as this accident was a little too close for comfort!

We are thankful that the car wasn’t near enough to us to involve us, and that no one in the car was hurt. The lesson for everyone is how drinking and driving don’t mix, and not to be in such a stinking hurry!! What a waste of a beautiful shiny new mustang! 

The vineyard we shot at was between Lotus and Placerville at the beautiful David Girard Vineyard….a lovely spot for a wedding. Love their gorgeous sunsets… which you will see as we have 3 weddings there this season. We already shot 2 with one more in a few weeks… we are busily working on the images of the last 3 weddings….

For those of you who have been rooting me on with my weight loss the journey has been an amazing one. I am so happy that I have finally found what works for me and now I am able to live a lifestyle that I can hang with. Gosh I wish I would have done Weight Watchers years ago! But better late than never. I shudder to think how I would be feeling now if not for all the health benefits I have had with this loss. I have to say that most of the three biggies for me were gone by week 2! That to me is insane. It tells me how much what I had was definitely diet- related.  I was suffering from heartburn from not just spicy food but from anything I ate. I also dealt with sleep apnea that seemed to be connected with acid reflux. All three of those kept me really sick. Plus I also had flare ups of fibromyalgia that just rounded it all off with overall body pain. I knew I couldnt go through another wedding season like that so after our last wedding of 07 I decided to do something. In Jan. I made up my mind to try Weight Watchers. I believe that decision saved my life. I am ecstatic that I have lost approx. a pound a week and it has added up to just over 25 lbs now but that my health is sooo much better! This year the weddings are not taking so much of a toll on me. Except when it is really hot. That is one area diet isnt probably going to change for me! lol….but having less weight does make it more bearable. I am a happy camper and just had to share with you all my exciting news. This isnt the best pic but I wanted to get something up. I’m headed for my next goal and will post up a better picture then.

Dane and Stephainie’s After Wedding Album is done!

Before Mark posts up our 1st wedding of the year slideshow I wanted to post up the last album design from our last wedding of 07. Very excited about it since the purchase of our new album design software. Now I can do the entire album without Marks help in photoshop. Yes, I feel such a sense of accomplishment when I get to say I did the album entirely without Mark’s help…

To see the album click here….Young Wedding Album