David's Wedding

My cousin David got married to his long-time girlfriend Mary a few weekends ago, so the entire clan made the road trip to Greensboro and spent some quality time together. The northern and southern portions of the clan hadn't seen each other in almost ten years, so it was very nice to catch up with cousins, especially our super-fun cousin Kate. The extended family was the last to leave the reception (imagine that), and then we closed down the hotel bar. (Many thanks to my dad for picking up everyone's bar tab!) Kate was in big trouble with her husband for behaving badly, but for the record I thought she was pretty fun. And she was probably in better shape than my sister Laura, who -- while getting ready for bed -- tripped over her own pants, fell down and hit her head, and now requires a CAT-Scan to ensure that she's done no permanent damage.

The only permanent damage I did was to my digital camera, which I dropped at the reception. I took it to a camera shop to see if it could be repaired and they just laughed at me, so it looks like I'll be buying myself a new camera for Christmas. In the meantime, here are the pictures that survived:

J. Crew

J. Crew's late September catalog included about seven fur items, despite the cruelty inherent in the production of fur and a long-standing pledge on the part of J. Crew NOT to sell it. Real fur has been taboo for quite some time, and the fur J. Crew was selling came from China where the fur industry is largely unregulated and animals are often skinned alive. We all know how much I love J. Crew, but I love both animals and principles more. So I boycotted, threw around words like "unconscionable" and "reprehensible," then wrote some angry letters to J. Crew about how I was thoroughly disgusted by their promotion of cruelty to animals and by their implicit message that being fashionable is more important than being ethical.

However. . .

Steve just informed me that, in response to mounting pressure from PETA and concerned citizens like myself, J. Crew has abandoned its evil quest to profit from the pain and suffering of innocent coyotes and the like. Good news! This would have been nice to know yesterday when I was at the mall -- instead of walking by J. Crew and glaring I could have popped in and fed my cashmere sweater addiction. And the rest of you may now resume shopping at J. Crew with my blessing.

Thanksgiving Weekend

My weekend began around noon on Wednesday, when I headed over to Cogan's (my new happy hour spot with a Fats-like vibe) for some beer and pizza, and somehow got sucked in to playing air hockey with Steve. Needless to say, he totally kicked my ass. There are several factors that account for this ass-kicking: 1) Steve is VERY serious about air hockey, 2) my hand-eye coordination isn't even that good when I'm 100% sober, and 3) I SO don't care about winning.

Late Wednesday night I headed down to the beach for Thanksgiving with the family. Thursday and Friday were fairly uneventful. The most excitement we had was watching the cat and dog try to figure each other out. Sadie so wanted Luna to play with her and she kept barking at her, which scared Luna who hissed and ran away, thus beginning the cycle anew. I spent most of the weekend reading the 5th Harry Potter book. (I think Harry Potter should be grounded for like a year, by the way. What is his problem and why can't he freakin stay out of trouble?! I imagine it gets worse in Harry Potter #6.)

I came back up to Norfolk on Saturday with Brian in tow, and Laura drove down from Dean's to meet us. We walked across the street to my beloved Colley Cantina for some dinner and quite a few beers and were joined later by my oh-so-casual boy Dave, who had the pleasure of meeting Laura and Brian while they were on their VERY best behavior. There were definitely some stories shared that I was saving for later. It couldn't have been that bad though because Dave and I then had dinner together on Sunday night.

So that was my weekend.