Busy, fun-filled weekend

The weather was beautiful, and we made good use of it.

Yesterday, Erich and I headed up to New Hampshire to visit Erich's dad. He moved up there a bit over a year ago, but between work hell, the insanity of weddings last year, and then our own wedding planning, we just hadn't been up there at all to see his new condo.

It's absolutely lovely. It's in an old Catholic boarding school - four stories high, and looking like all of those old academy schools you see in the movies - complete with the huge rolling lawn and gigantic brick facade. Erich's dad has about 1,500 square feet of living space - beautifully open and a great floorplan. On the main floor of the building, the front entrance hall has been wonderfully restored with white marble, columns and stained glass. And the original ballroom (with stage) was restored, as well as the side parlour room off of it, which now is a billiard room and public big-screen TV room.

I did quite well through two games of billiards. By the second game, my game was coming back to me. :)

We had a huge lunchtime feast of lobster bisque, three different types of lobster tails, and coleslaw (something to counter the mass quantities of butter). Added to that was a homemade pitcher of sangria, and we were quite happy people. :)

Around seven, we decided to venture out for dinner. We stopped at a little roadside pizza & subs place - very good (and just what was needed after the lunch, honestly), followed by ice cream. And then Erich and I did the two-hour trek home... finally arriving at our house at about 10:45.

At which time I immediately jumped online and watched The Sound of Drums - because I am a dork and am addicted to Doctor Who. (and this episode will be broadcast in the States the weekend of my wedding... so I'd rather watch it now.) The episode kept ideas brimming in my head until about 2:30, when I finally forced myself upstairs to get some sleep.

And then proceeded to have my first "wedding nightmare," in which the new aliens from the episode that evening attacked my reception.

Like I said - I am a dork.

*ahem*

Anyway...

Today we puttered around for the morning, and then headed out to reclaim the yard a bit. Erich caught up on mowing and some hedge trimming (our driveway was getting a tad narrow). I finished planting my impatiens in the front bed that's been weed-ridden since we moved into the house. I planted some hostas in it a couple weeks ago for permanent plants. There are four of them- all different varieties of hostas for textures and such, and they should get to about 2x2x2 feet by the time they're matured. For now there's a ton of extra space, so the impatiens add some color. I'm hoping that they'll become the absolutely lovely bushels of blooms that impatiens tend to become - although I'm worried the sun in that spot might be a bit too bright for both types of plants. We'll see. In any case, post-wedding this year I plan to put some bulbs in the ground in that bed for next spring. And possibly next spring we'll add a couple of smaller bushes behind the hostas for variety and height.

In any case - it's something, rather than the weed-filled patch that it was. :)

My hydrangeas are now blooming - mostly still those tiny premature green balls of blooms, but one is starting to hint that they'll be coming out a lilac purple again this year. Our dwarf lilac bushes are now in full bloom and smell AMAZING. They just have this incredibly sweet smell that fills the air without being overpowering... just little wafts of scent on the breeze. Except in the sunroom, where the smell is just everywhere and to die for.

So now I'm doing some direly needed cleaning on my computer - between Doctor Who, X-Files, and random David Tennant avi files, my 200 gig computer is about to burst. Writable DVDs are currently my best friends in the world. :)

It's been a good weekend. Productive, but fun. Can't ask for better than that!