I haven’t mentioned my dad’s bike trip lately, and a lot of people ask me about it.  Yes, he’s still on the bike.  He was in Texas for a LONG time (since September 20, according to twitter)…in fact, still is in Texas, though he is now very close to New Mexico.  There he plans to visit a cousin for a few days and then continue on to Phoenix, where my sister Leslie lives.  I think that might be the end of the road for him, but I’m not sure.

(Previous blog posts in case you missed them: Bike Trip, From South Carolina to Phoenix by bike, Cross Country Solo Bike Trip)

Some of my favorite tweets from him:

Other things people have asked:

Did he train for this?  Well, yes.  He’s been riding bike his whole life, and has been doing long trips for many years now.  Before this however, his longest trip was for a week.

Where does he stay the night?  He camps.  He has a little tent and sleeping bag with him.

Will he ride back?  No, most likely he will take a plane.

How will he get his bike back?  Ship it.  Or check it on the plane.  Evidently there are boxes you can put a bike in.

Any other questions?  Ask in the comments and I will answer, or perhaps my dad will 🙂

If he were riding this cross country there would be far more room for luggage…

I can’t wait any longer to tell you about my invitations!  I am sure a few people still haven’t gotten theirs, but maybe they don’t read the blog anyway.

We found our invitation designer on Etsy.com.  But it turned out she lived in St Louis!

She had done a similar type of invitation before, so we simply had to tweak it to our colors and exactly the way we wanted it.

I don’t know if you can tell, the purple frame is a different piece of paper and the invitation has three pieces put together.

I love them.  I love the skyline at the bottom.

Ginger did a fabulous job.  Though the post office doesn’t hand cancel.  They laughed at me when I asked.

www.serendipitybeyonddesign.com

These were the save the dates she did, if you recall.

We’ll have a few more paper products such as menus and programs still to come.  Wedding planning is fun!

Yesterday I was on television with Dana from Chamber Project St Louis.  We talked about the group and our upcoming season.  Well, she talked.  I didn’t say much…mainly I stood there trying to not freak out and figure out what to do with my hands.

Here are the links to the two segments of the interview, if you are interested.  I have NOT watched them.  I hate hearing myself talk!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LyieqXFP04Q

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kryrc5HZMzM

It wasn’t the same as being on FOX2 News like in January, but it was still fun, and hopefully some people learned about the group that didn’t know before!

I have a bad feeling about the next three months.  I just have this feeling I’m going to get stressed and overwhelmed over wedding planning.  I am suddenly aware that all these things we’ve been putting off NEED to happen soon, because the next three months are going to fly by…and before we know it, it’ll be January 2…

I think I found my wedding ring today though, and I’ve done a whole bunch of other stuff as well.  The best way to deal with stress is get stuff checked off the list, right? 

People are really excited about our invitations.  I can’t wait to share them on the blog here, but I obviously want to wait until my guests receive them in the mail.  I also want to tell you about my fantastic designer (found her on etsy, but she lives right here in St Louis.)  Soon!!

I’m recovering from yesterday’s race.  By late last night I could barely walk at all—my right hip and knee hurt so much I was worried I’d injured myself.  But today I feel much better, in fact, both legs are equally sore and tired, which is totally strange.  Maybe all my stretching, rolling, and icing paid off.  Or the constant ibuprofen is paying off?  Either way, the human body is a marvelous thing.

I’m waiting to see if there are any photos from the race yesterday.  Right now there are two posted for me, but neither is actually me.  I remember one being taken coming down a hill but what looked to be an official photographer, but maybe not.  I guess I’ll just have to wait and see.

Sunday is the three month mark until our wedding!

Today we had a big tasting and planning meeting at our venue, Moulin Events. 

Absolutely the quality of paper we want for the menus.

Chris was super excited (as usual) when I whipped out the pink camera.

They asked if we were sisters!  (We’re not.)  Also, that was the BEST photo of me from today.  All others are worse.

Some appetizers that will be passed.  We enjoyed all of them but sadly had to narrow it down to three.

Some soup options…I love soup!

Entree and side dish choices.  Just a note:  cheddar polenta and cheese grits are surprisingly similar.

In any case, we were absolutely stuffed after the tasting.  We barely made a dent in the side dishes.  Everything was delicious, and it was a challenge to pare it down. 

After the tasting, Dave and Laura left and then we spent a couple hours going over room setups, timeline, and decor options.  It really feels like this is coming together! 

We still have a lot to do—but now we know what the food will be.  And the invitations go out tomorrow.  (Mom, so check your mailbox on Monday then, okay?)

I get so jealous when I see "Wine Wednesday" tags on twitter.  I WISH.  I suppose I could, but I don’t get home until late, and when I’m already tired, I don’t really feel like drinking wine.  I guess I’m jealous around 5 pm, which is when it seems the "normal folk" are done working, and when I have to leave for work on Wednesdays.  We violin teachers have the opposite schedule of normal folk, since you want your children to have lessons when you are free to drive them.

Nonetheless.  Wednesday is quickly becoming my favorite day of the week.  Tuesday is my busiest teaching day (soon to be over 5 hours of straight teaching, this, my friends, is actually exhausting), but then Wednesday I only have 2 hours of teaching at this time. 

What do I do with my time?  Well so far today I attempted a run—my hamstrings were still pulling a bit so I turned it into a walk.  I would have pushed through except that this weekend I am still hoping to run the Mo’ Cowbell Half.

I will run/walk it at least—it goes to show that the best laid plans don’t always turn out well.  Stupid injuries.

Next I got my hair done.  I have never had my hair dyed professionally, but I wanted to have it done for my wedding.  My hairdresser suggested we do it twice, once as a test, and then again closer to the wedding, so this was the test.  I’m really pleased with how it turned out, plus it wasn’t nearly as expensive as I thought it would be.

(yes, I know it’s completely unrelated.  but I’m giggling.)

Now I’m going to get lunch with a friend.  Oh, I also did a little practicing, and I’ll probably do a bit more of that after lunch.  Are you super jealous of my schedule?  I love it!  Would I like to work more?  Yes, actually, I’d love about 6 to 8 more hours of teaching over the week.  I’ll get there.  I don’t want to teach in the schools and I don’t really want to teach in the mornings, so that means I’ll have to be patient (story of my life!) and wait for my schedule to fill up more.  Remember I often work all day on Saturdays and more often than not on Sunday afternoons.  And often late into the evening.  So it’s not as amazing as it seems.

Who am I kidding?  I love my schedule.  Kids, if YOU give up your childhood to practicing the violin, someday you too can be like me.  Just spend 1 to 8 hours every day practicing, all day Sunday in youth orchestra, your summers to music camps, and your afternoons/evenings to lessons, driving to lessons, driving home from lessons…or like I said, practicing.  And by 1 hour, we really mean to average 3 or 4 every day in high school.  Some of that might have to be before school so you can fit it in.  (My point is:  I did my time so leave me alone.  And if I need to practice 3 hours a day, I can do that with this schedule.  That was not always the case in the past.)

Wow, this is probably the world’s most boring blog post!  Or borderline.  See, I’m driving YOU to drink (I bet…are you thinking about what sort of wine you have in the closet/cabinet?  Then my work here is done.)

I’ll just leave you with this picture of an "in-bread" cat. 

Happy Wine Wednesday!