Updates...

Things are moving along nicely at this point in time. And by moving along nicely, I mean the following items:

1. My shoulder is getting better every day, although, there is still pain every day, it's just not as bad as it was even say, oh a week ago. I can actually roll over on it in the middle of the night and there isn't a shooting pain through my body that wakes me up. Believe it or not, this is progress my friends, this is progress. And I haven't taken a serious painkiller in well over a month, which is also a good thing. Therapy on the wounded wing continues to this day, and I will actually have another appointment on Monday morning with my PT Beverly. I haven't seen her the last bunch of times that I went in there, so I think she'll be surprised at the progress that I've made with the range of motion and all, there is still much to go though, as I still can't really reach behind my back that much, but even that has improved a bit. It's been a couple of months, and I still probably have another 2 months of appointments and therapy, at least. We'll see what my doc says at my next check up, which is in February.

2. Since the shoulder has been feeling OK, and since I have a new bike (see previous post about bike), I have been able to ride the bike in the great outdoors once again, which has been redeeming for my soul I think. I didn't realize how much I missed just riding outdoors (not for the fitness, or for training, or for anything like that) over the last couple of months, and in actuality, it improves my attitude a lot when I'm able to do this. So far, I've had a few 3 hour plus rides, which isn't too bad, but the pace and fitness is, shall we say, not so good, but hey, what do you expect? I haven't been able to really do anything for 2 months solid. Anyway, the legs are coming around pretty quick, and consider this. My first ride I did about 2 hours, and was wiped out. Only a week later, I did back to back 3 hour rides, and felt pretty good when I got done. A little tired, but not falling down on the floor tired. As I said, progress. I am still nowhere near where I have been in the past, but that shall come as well I hope. I plan on being able to do 4-5 hour rides within a few weeks, and start piling up training miles. Not so much because I need to ride that long to get fit, but because I like seeing the world from the saddle of the bike is all. Oh, and in talking to other folks before my accident happened, and talking to folks after, pretty much everyone has said that when they got back on the bike on the open road, they were very cautious about traffic and cars, and were wary of everything that drove their way. I'm happy to report that apparently I've suffered no such psychological scarring from this episode in my life. In other words, I just ride along sort of like nothing happened (except my shoulder sort of aches when riding), which I consider lucky for me in the sense that I'm NOT riding along thinking about if a car is going to hit me or not. I just ride.

3. It's been almost 1 month since I got married, and I've got to say, it's the best decision I ever made in this life. I love my wife more and more everyday, and I didn't think that I could love her more than I already did. Well, I was wrong. Sure we're still in the honeymoon phase of getting married, but hey, as James Brown said, I feel good.

4. After speaking with, and working with, the insurance agent for the young lady that hit me back in October, we've got everything taken care of that needs to be taken care of. Meaning, I got some estimates for him, some pictures, and some other documentation of the bike damages, and he has submitted it to his claims guy, and he has backed up basically everything I said, and or claimed, so they should be paying that off for me soon, maybe as soon as next week. Which means, I can now give Curtis his money for the bike that he sold me, although he hasn't asked for it yet, but I just need to cut him a check anyway. I feel good about the deal that they gave me for my damaged bike parts, and it should make everything OK in the end. So I can't argue with that. Now the rest of the claims that my lawyers are putting in is of course, and entirely different story, and a different channel. They're still working on that end of things, and apparently, they really need to wait until all treatments and appointments are over and done with before they can go and seek whatever it is they're going to seek out on my behalf. Basically, right now, they're collecting bills and documents. Everything should be fine there as well in the end. I'll save further comment on that until everything is over and done with.

5. The New England Patriots last night capped off the perfect undefeated season. 16-0 ain't too bad, and I'm pretty sure that they would kick the ever living crap out of the 1972 Dolphins easily. Randy Moss has become a new man in New England, and has toned down his asshole-ishness, and has become the really great player he was probably always destined to become. I guess Coach Bill seems to have a way with guys like that. I think he probably sat him down, and told him, hey, come play here, behave yourself, and you'll catch a record number of passes and touchdowns. Well, after last night, mission accomplished for that man, and for Brady, and for the whole team. It was fun watching them play this year, and it'll be fun watching them run amok in the playoffs. I won't jinx them by talking about the Super Bowl and all, we'll leave that talk for if and when they make it there again this year.

6. The last thing is that in a few more days, I'll be headed back to work for the first time in a couple of weeks. I have to say, getting married, and then having a bunch of vacation at the end of the year has done me well in terms of mental well being. That being said, another one of my co-workers has resigned, and she'll be leaving the company on the 10th, which will unfortunately place us back in the dark dark recesses of probably a lot of work, but I'm not going to think about that for right now. I'm going to just kick back for the rest of my vacation, and hang out until I have to go back to work on Wednesday, January the 2nd. Soon enough, I think, I'll start searching for another job. There are a couple of little things I need to take care of at work, and until I can get those couple of things cleared up, I need to just stay there for a short time longer. I can see the end of my reign of terror at my current workplace though, and I can't wait for that to happen. We'll see what shakes loose in the next few months for sure.

For some reason if I don't post again until after the New Year, Happy New Year to everyone! We'll see you on the frontside of 2008. Hard to imagine that it actually IS 2008 now. Seems like yesterday that I was just graduating from college, when in fact, it was 12 years ago now. Yikes. This kid is getting old, or something like that.

Who's the obstructionist again???

Think back if you will a couple or few years ago. There was a battle going on within the Senate over some of George W. Bush's judicial nominees. It seems that even though the Senate had confirmed a record number of judicial nominees for Bush since he took office in January of 2001, there were just a few more that he wanted in judgeships that were so out of what with mainstream America, the democrats in the Senate finally found what was left of their spine and put the smack down on the last handful of nominees. I think there were maybe between 5-10. This sent their republican comrades in the Senate into a tither. There was talk of a so called "nuclear option" which would change the rules of the Senate so that the republicans could basically ignore the filibuster that the democrats were throwing up, and force through Bush's nominees. The democrats were called obstructionists by the republicans, and Bush was yipping and yelling about this whole business as if the fate of the world depended on it. He was calling for the democrats to allow for an "up or down" vote on his nominees, which he knew would mean that they would be confirmed because the republicans still controlled the majority in the Senate. 

Anyway, with that little background information, take a look at this link here. Turns out, basically the same republicans that were yelling and screaming about the democrats being obstructionists have indeed become the masters of it themselves. Since they have filibustered the most legislation EVER in the history of the United States Congress, I think a round of applause is due to them, since now they have become the largest hypocrites (yet again) in the known Universe. The thing about it though, is not that they're using the filibuster. No, that is their right to do that in the Senate, that is how the minority party can control, and or how the minority party can have some influence on the proceedings. I'm not mad at them for that, or for how many times they use it. What really pisses me off, and takes the wind out of my sails is HOW this is portrayed, a majority of the time, within the media itself. Think back, democrats were obstructionists, and not doing the will of the people who had elected the President, and they were not confirming his nominees and were holding up some pieces of legislation. Look at the stories about Congress now, and stalled legislation. All of a sudden, it's not that the republicans are the all time leaders of obstructionism and use of the filibuster. Oh no. The stories read along the lines of how the democrats can't get anything done in Congress, and how the democrats are not doing what they promised when they took office and the majority back in 2006. Once again, the media are ignoring, and or are not reporting completely on WHY the democrats can't get anything done. That's what really makes me mad about this whole thing. It's not that republicans are hypocrites, we know that a lot of them are, and that is clearly shown a lot these days. And it's not that they're using this tool of the filibuster. It's how the media is reporting it that makes me really mad.

What Harry Reid should do, instead of just letting the republicans say, "You can't get cloture on this because you can't get 60 votes, so let's just drop it." What Harry Reid should do is actually make the republicans do a proper filibuster. Meaning long nights on the floor. Cots, long books, and things like that. I think if they actually made them do what they're supposed to do with a filibuster, then there is a good chance that they wouldn't do as many of them as they have been doing, and would show the people of the United States who is actually holding up what in Congress, and specifically the Senate. Of course, for some reason the democrats won't do this, and won't go running to the press talking about republican obstructionism like they should be, and for some reason, they just don't do it. I don't know why. If the shoe was still on the other foot, you can be sure that the republicans would be no holds barred, and would be blabbing about this all over the place. Harry Reid and the rest of the Senate democrats don't owe their republican friends in the Senate anything, they should toss them under the bus as soon as possible. 

The other thing that they need to do is when Bush threatens to veto something that they actually can get passed in the Senate and in the House, then they need to keep sending that same bill for him to sign, and make HIM the bad guy. Don't give in to that 20%-er. I mean, his ratings are so low, why do they keep giving into that guy? I don't get it. They send up a funding bill with timelines for troop withdrawal from Iraq, Bush complains that he wants a "clean" bill and won't sign anything with timelines attached to it, he vetoes, the democrats tuck tail, give him what he wants, and we're still in the same spot. If they kept sending him funding bills that he keeps vetoing, then it is going to be Bush's fault that the troops aren't funded properly, not the Congress'. My friends the democrats in the Senate and the House need to start being a little more hard core, and a little more venomous towards their counterparts, because again, it wasn't so long ago that republicans were accusing democrats of supporting terrorists, and "emboldening" terrorists, because they were speaking out against some of the things that Bush was doing. Take off the gloves girls and boys, and start punching. We're waiting for it, and we're tired of waiting for you to stand up to Bush.

A tale of 2 pictures...

First, the good. See picture to the side. The only thing I can think of when I see a picture like this, or this picture in particular is one thing; don't mess with The Badger. Sure, the man might be all smiles now when he is on the podium at the Tour de France these days acting as a sort of ambassador for the race and all, but I don't think I would have liked to have raced with the man when he was racing. He was mean, and brutal, and would do whatever it took to win. In other words, he was the ultimate and complete bad ass, and he was French. Hinnault was pretty much the man. I mean, he never raced Paris Roubaix before this race, and never raced it again after this race. Essentially, he decided, hey, I haven't won this race, and haven't done it, I guess I had better head out, ride it, and win it. I don't doubt, not for a second, that the man, if he had decided to, could have won it again, and possibly again, and again if he had so chosen. Instead, he won just about everything else out there. We just don't have bike racers like that too much anymore, which is a shame, as I know for myself, I'd love to see the top guys out there slugging it out throughout the season, but I also understand the whole "specialization" thing these days that basically Armstrong brought forth, but I don't have to like it. 

And now we have picture number 2. Now I know what people are going to say about this picture, that hey, at least they're out riding bikes and all. I don't care. I'm kind of a bike snob myself, and this picture just reflects everything that is wrong with large sized group rides out there on the roads of the United States, and why a lot of motorists hate cyclists. You've got 2 people on tandem bikes taking up the entire left lane of the road, not riding as far to the right as they can. You have a guy on a recumbent bike taking up the rest of the lane, plus various other riders behind blocking once again, the entire lane. Now look way back. You have a car, sort of crossing the lane, trying to get past these tool bags. Are they going to let this guy go around? Probably not. What is going to happen is that the person in the car is going to get mad after a short while of not being allowed to pass, and he's going to give the riders the horn as he moves past. The riders, in turn of course, will give the driver the finger, as if they have the right in this case to do that, and then they'll get mad because the driver speed past, even though, it's their fault that they made the driver mad for taking up, not just the entire travel lane, but the opposing lane as well (see picture again, you have people going across the yellow line, which is bad for business, very bad for business). Not only is going across the yellow line just a silly stupid thing to do, it can lead to something we like to call death. You see, it is the weekend warriors seen in this picture that make it harder for folks like myself (who often train alone on the back roads of where we live) to ride our bikes safely, and also it turns motorists into assholes against everyone who rides a bike. Drivers don't know the difference between some choads out for a group ride, and someone out training to be able to race their bike, and they don't care either. All they know is that there is another bicycle in their way. This, I think, is one of the reasons that we now have cyclists getting run over more frequently, and also we have cyclists getting run down on purpose. My whole point in this? Folks, if you're on a group ride, and you find yourself in a small group such as this, get your ass over to the right hand side of the road as far as possible, and stop impeding traffic. I know, and you know, that there are larger group rides where this isn't going to be possible because the group you might be in is going to be larger, but when you have a handful of people, play it smart out there. Get your asses over. You'll be safer, and in turn make the rest of us safer as well.

New ride...

Due in part to my friend Curtis and his willingness to sell me his race bike from last season, I now have a new bike to ride post accident. I finally was able to get it, and take it out for a spin yesterday, and I've got to say, I love this bike already. It seems to be a bit slower steering than say, the Giant TCR, but then again, what bike doesn't steer slower than the Twitch-master 2000 that the Giant TCR really is (which is one of the reasons that I loved that bike, and that frame design for many years now). Anyway, Pinarello, I think I'm hooked on it already. We'll see how I feel about in a month or so from now, but I suspect that I will feel the same way even next year at this time. Chances are good that even though I'll most assuredly get more new bikes, I might be keeping this one for awhile. I always need to have a spare, or find it a good practice to have a spare hanging around. I imagine that after serving duty under my butt this season, this bike might go into the "Sunday Ride" bin of use, meaning, keep it clean and super shiny, and only break it out once a week for a slow Sunday rider, where there will no doubt be a coffee shop stop somewhere along the way. Anywho, check out the picture of the new ride.

Now there are some of you out there (ahem, Jason) who will no doubt criticize the now existing Sram component group that is on the bike, and the future Dura-Ace components that will be going on the bike. Some will be yelling for Campy to be placed on the bike, mostly because it's Italian damn it all, and deserves, and actually demands Italian components. I would love to have a full Record group to place on this bike of course, but since I don't, and don't want to spend the coin to get said Record group, I will put the Dura-Ace group on there. Which in this case, I am assuming that it's going to be OK. Why you might ask? Well, let me tell you. This frame, even though it comes from an Italian company, is indeed built in Taiwan. So, technically, the Shimano Dura-Ace group, produced in Japan, is a lot closer to where this frame was made, as opposed to Campy components which are still made in Italy, at least for now. That being said, I wouldn't have a problem placing a Campy Chorus group on there as well. Another nice component group that is probably the equal of Dura-Ace as it pertains to performance, and about the same price, but it does have that Campy carbon look. One group that won't be gracing this bike will be SRAM Red, mostly, because it is incredibly and ridiculously expensive for a bike group. But hey, if you want it, and have the money, don't let me dissuade you from paying your hard earned dollars for the SRAM Red group. I think though, that unfortunately, the SRAM Red group falls into the same state of mind of Serotta frame purchasers, which is, more money than sense.

Yearly Christmas Video...

And here again, Steph and I present our yearly Christmas Video. Check it out when you get a chance.



Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all of our friends, family, and anyone else who might wander in to see this video.

Island Tour...

Today, we had the chance to take a tour around the island with a local driver / tour guide. I've got to say, this was probably the best money we've spent on this vacation so far as far as activities go. Buck Island was pretty sweet, but getting to drive around this island with a local guy for 5 hours as he explained almost everything to us was amazing. 

We made a stop at the local botanical gardens, at which point, he got out of the van, and walked around the gardens with us showing us different native and non-native plants, explaining the history of the place we were walking around (it was an old sugar plantation), and telling us what plants and trees we were looking at. Now, I don't know how long this guy has been at this tour guide business, but he basically told us about everything, and his depth of knowledge about the local fauna was pretty deep. I mean, the man knew everything. The different palm trees, the different ferns, the different plants, and so on and so forth.

Now, it was not just the plants this guy knew everything about. He knew everything about everything on the island. Buildings, when they were built, when they were re-built, when this thing happened, when that thing happened, and I mean, for 5 hours he pretty much talked to us non stop. Again, it was pretty great. Being a history kind of dork, it especially appealed to me. When we decided to come down here for this wedding and honeymoon/vacation all rolled into one, we were going to rent a car, and do this little tour on our own. That would have been a bad mistake I think. We would have missed about a million things that our driver was telling us about. Aside from that, driving on the left hand side of the road, with a left hand drive car, is still a little freaky to me, but I digress about that. I'm sure that I could handle it if I needed to, no doubt about it. I just have a hard time seeing cars coming towards me.

After the gardens, we motored over to the Cruzan rum distillery, where we got a quick run through of the rum making process, and like most alcohol making processes, little has really changed since people started making these spirits. Well, technology now makes it a little easier, but the process is the same really. Molasses, sugar cane, water, and yeast makes up the rum, and that's it. Sure there is some fermenting and cooking going on, but basically mix them all together, add some heat, and then let it sit. And by letting it sit, I mean letting it sit on wooden barrels from 2-14 years, depending on what kind of rum they want to crank out. The storage rooms for the barrels were pretty impressive. Large racks holding 10,000 barrels of rum, and that was just one storage shed. I think that they said there were 10 more on site somewhere. So, somewhere out there, there was 100,000 barrels of rum sitting around waiting to get un-bunged and bottled. The most interesting thing they told us was that a lot of the rum they make there doesn't even get bottled there. They take the basic alcohol mix, pump it into huge tankers, and then ship it to the US, where other distillers will age it, and then sell it as either Cruzan rum, or something else. Next time you're looking at a bottle of rum, check the back to see where it is made. If it says that it was made in the Virgin Islands, or the West Indies, then it was Cruzan who actually made it. Yeah, it's pretty damn good stuff. Best part of the tour of course, was at the end, where we get free drinks. Only one drink unfortunately, but hey, I'll take free drinks any day of the week. Also, if we had been so inclined, we could have purchased 6 bottles of really good rum, for $43 bucks. We don't have enough room probably to pack up, and take home the stuff that we DO have already, so we decided that maybe it was best that we didn't buy any rum at this point in time.

We made a sweep through Frederiksted as well. It's a much smaller town than Christiansted, but still nice. They do have a deep water port, so the big cruise ships can dock there, and belch forth their passengers onto the shores. There weren't any ships in harbor when we got there, so it was pretty darn quiet for the most part. Something else interesting about Frederiksted, and Christiansted is that they are preparing down here to basically refurbish the 2 towns completely, and to restore all of the buildings, or as much as possible, and to bring them back to their original or better shape than when they were built. I'm pretty sure that this is going to take awhile, but I think it would be great if they did. They have a lot of old buildings down here, that hold a lot of historical significance and it's kind of sad to see them crumbling and falling down all over the place, so hopefully, they can get that done over the years. 

There was also a tour through the rain forest section of the island. There was not a lot out in that section of the island, but it's plush, and green. And what was really kind of weird to me, was that there were bars out there in the rain forest areas of the island. We were driving along this sort of rough dirt/paved road, and we came upon a couple of bars. One where there were beer drinking pigs. Yes, I said beer drinking pigs. Apparently, what happens is that they start serving beers, and they bust the pigs out, and the patrons purchase beer for the pigs as well as themselves. From what our guide was saying, a pig can down about 2-3 cases of beer, each. Now that is some good drinking people, some really good drinking. That's almost as good as a frat boy on a Saturday night.

Anyway, the day was pretty sweet. The tour, even sweeter. If you ever come down this way, get a guided tour, it's worth the $45 we paid, and then some, and as I mentioned before, there were tons of things we would have missed had we not gone out with a guide, he was essential to the enjoyment of this little tour for certain.

Travel to Buck Island...

Today, we took a short hop over to Buck Island to do some snorkeling, and to hang out on the white sandy beach that appears over there. Also, the guys who took us over there said that on the far end of the beach, there were or are some lemon sharks that will come in, and grab food from the shore. Having just finished reading Devil's Teeth, a book about white sharks that inhabit just outside San Francisco for a good part of the fall, I was wanting to see some sharks up close, but not too close if you know what I mean.

The trip to Buck Island took about 40 minutes or so in a powerboat. Apparently, there aren't that many groups, or companies that are allowed to take people out there, and since it is a national monument, or national park sort of like Joshua Tree, and also since it is an island, you can't just take your own boat there. You have to be permitted to do so. We found a company called Caribbean Sea Adventures who takes people out there. We signed up, and rolled on out. This was the first time that I have actually snorkeled unless you count paddling around in my Aunt and Uncle's pool with a leaky snorkel, and a leaking swim mask, so this was a little adventure for me. 

I've got to say, and for people who really know me and know about my "fear" of all things in the ocean, this was a great time. Tons of coral, and coral formations, tons of brightly colored fish, the surf moving around, and seeing things on a living reef was pretty sweet. During the course of the snorkeling trip, I actually saw a barracuda. And while the guidebooks, and the guides themselves tell us that they won't really do anything to you, unless you provoke the barracuda, I gave this guy a wide berth anyway, just in case. You could see the sharp little point teeth coming out of his mouth, so I would not like to get chomped down on with those little daggers. We got to swim around the reef for about an hour or so, and then they loaded us up, and took us over to the beach. The best part about the reef, and everything there, there was a little path mapped out on the floor of the ocean with large blocks of stone, that had plaques on them indicating the direction, and different things that you might see while snorkeling around down there. If you ever come down this way, to St. Croix, I recommend taking a half day trip out there to see this. It is pretty damn amazing what you can see underneath the water over at Buck Island.

I almost never do this...

I almost never do this, but check out this link:

Do you know where your civil liberties have gone?

It's scary, because there are those among us who think, or who defend whatever the Bush administration has done to "protect" us post 9/11 and all, but it has been going on since before that time anyway. There are also those that constantly say that their personal civil liberties have not been infringed, so they're not worried about. Well, I'm pretty sure that once you infringe on one person's liberties, the others can't be too far away. This little timeline just makes it easier to read through what BushCo has done since about taking office, and trying to grab as much power as they can while shredding the Constitution while they've been at it. I ask those who would defend what Bush and his minions have done over the last 7 years this one question. What would your response be if it was Hillary Clinton was doing the same thing? I know what my response would be, and I'm pretty sure what your response would be, so why is it different for George W. Bush? It shouldn't be, should it? This man should have been impeached a long time ago, but yet again, my democratic allies in Congress are pretty much gutless, except for a rare few, and of course, they get no backing when they do bring it up. Kucinich comes to mind, which is why he's the horse I'm most cheering for in this election, but let's face it, for the majority of folks, he's way too crazy to vote for. For me though, he's just crazy enough. 

Don't you tell me goat isn't delicious...

Whilst walking around Christiansted today in St. Croix, we decided that we'd give local flavor a shot. Meaning, some West Indian cuisine, or some local St. Croix food. Driving into town from the hotel this morning, our driver informed us that this restaurant that we were passing, Harvey's, was the best food, best local food, in town. He loved it. Of course we were sold on this idea immediately. 

We found the place again after walking around town for awhile. It doesn't take too long. It's not exactly huge, sort of on scale with Wilmington NC, maybe a little bigger, but not much. We walked in, and there were a bunch of old kitchen tables set up for the eating. The menu for the day was written on a chalkboard outside the door, and the waitress re-confirmed the menu with us, as she had it written down on a piece of yellow notebook paper. Pretty sweet. There were about 5 or 6 dishes listed, and I can't really remember the other ones, because I was transfixed on the stewed goat. Yes, goat. Both the wife and I ordered that up, post haste. We were not disappointed. This is a place that looks local, and is frequented by the natives, so how could it be bad really? 

The goat looked like something that had been stewing in a crock pot all day long, in a brown sauce that had some hints of maybe saffron, or possibly cumin, or something like that, although the taste wasn't strong. The meat itself was tender and fell off of the bones that came with it. On top of the goat, we had some fried plantains, boiled corn on the cob, a salad with some cucumbers, and other veggies, rice, and some sort of sweet and spicy mashed sweet potato. All good stuff. To drink, I had a homemade lemonade, which considering it was pretty damn hot outside, and we had been walking for hours on end, tasted like a little slice of lemon tart heaven. 

Now look, if you're ever walking around Christiansted, and need something to eat, head over to Harvey's. The atmosphere is local, and all island, and they are apparently very proud of Tim Duncan over there as well (he's native to Christiansted). The food is good, the service is great, and the food local and flavorful. I'd say we'd go back again, it was definitely different, because where else can you get stewed goat? Not too many places around where we live that's for sure. Mmm, goat. So good.

Wedding pictures...

Hey folks, check out some of the pictures from our wedding down in St. Croix. Yes, it was a good time, no, make that great time for everyone (at least I think everyone had a great time). I know that this is the last thing many want to see, but hey, I had a beautiful bride, and a great time, and want to share that with some other folks, so sue me. So without further adieu, check out this truncated set of wedding pictures.

OK, I wanted to get some more on here, but Blogger is being uncooperative right now for some reason. Don't know why. Maybe Google doesn't like to work with Apple, or maybe they just need to fix this stuff, but I can't complain too much, since it's free, and they host my ramblings really. Anyway, check out the pictures, hope that you enjoy them. 

It's done...

Surrounded by our family, and a very few friends, we tied the knot yesterday. So I am now officially married. I'll have some pictures to put up here in a little while. We didn't have a photographer for most of the day, but my sisters who are picture taking fools it appears, took about 800-900 pictures between them, along with video, so we'll have those pictures for sure, add in the disposable camera thing, and everyone else who had a camera slung around their neck, we'll be fine with what our friends and family took of us yesterday. I have never been so photographed in my entire life, and I'm glad that I don't have to go through that all again (I hate having my picture taken).

Anyway, it was a beautiful day, and a beautiful ceremony. It was just a great day all around and now I'm married to the woman I love the most in the world. More later. Have to dash off to the post wedding brunch soon.