Wedding Bells x 2

Good news - my cousin Betsy is getting married! She'll make a breathtaking bride, and her manpanion ain't too shabby either... :-)

Passport Blues

We have both gotten our passports!. All things considered, Andy got his passport in pretty good time. In fact, he got his passport before he got his inquiry back from the passport tracking site. My passport took a little longer because my certified birth certificate was not sufficient, and I had to send in some official documentation that my parents really, really wanted to and did, in fact, actually adopt me. Never mind that they fed, clothed and in general put up with me for something going on 28 years. Anyway, said document was located and sent off post haste to Uncle Sam. I did have some reservations that, due to increases in the homeland security threats, I might be deported back to Korea. This would have been problematic, mostly since I'm just about as Korean as your TV. OK, bad example, your TV probably is Korean, but in your living room it speaks pretty much just English. Just like me! And although it is highly unlikely, I wouldn't put it past our lovely President to mistake me for an undercover North Korean agent, so deep undercover that I can't use chopsticks or do kung fu. But luckily, I must have slipped through the cracks and received my passport a few weeks after Andy. Mission, accomplished. Now all we need is a destination for our honeymoon. But it's good to know that once we pick a place, we'll be able to actually cross a border and get a purtty stamp.

Yummy Yummy in Your Tummy!

OK, my new favorite wedding thing to do is to go cake tasting. More correctly, cupcake tasting. After just having tasted 12 yummy mini cupcakes from St. Cupcake, I'm pretty a pretty happy camper. And I'm sure you will be, too! Extra fun: you can sit at the cupcake bar and watch the bakers make the cupcakes right in front of you. We got a glance at the recipe book and can now tell you that one of their frostings contains 6 lbs of butter. Well, actually pretty much everything contains 6 lbs of butter, which is why they had trays and trays of the stuff in the kitchen. And that's how kitchens should be!

Some of our personal favorites (flowery descriptions courtesy of saintcupcake.com):

toasted coconut cream (Andy's Favorite)

buttery vanilla cupcake with toffee chips baked right in, then topped our classic vanilla cream cheese icing and hand toasted coconut flakes. a written description will not do this cake justice.
if you are one of those people who “does not like coconut”, then great. more for us!

vanilla-toffee with chocolate buttercream (Jackie's Fave)

buttery vanilla cupcake baked with toffee chips right in, iced with our fluffy chocolately buttercream and sprinkled with crispy toffee bits. it’s for when you’re feeling sophisticated.

Registry

Andy and I have officially registered at Macy's and REI. I thought that running around with a laser gun would be more entertaining, but unfortunately the guns all make very annoying noises whenever you push a button. Entertaining the first couple of times, really grating by the time you've made it through all of the bedding, kitchen and bath departments at Macy's. It was much harder finding things that we liked than we had originally thought. We spent a decent amount of time discussing our philosophies towards bathroom decor. Seriously! I knew that marriage brought up new issues in relationships, but bathroom decor wasn't one of them on my list. But rest assured, we have come up with a bathroom color scheme that will be the foundation for a long and happy marriage. I hope... :-)

And on the REI registry, we have selected not one but TWO marshmallow weapons. A pump action shotgun and a bow and arrow. How cool is that?

Why We Love Portland: Beer Theaters

There are many reasons why we love Portland so much, but even we have to admit that the variety of cheap beer theaters is high on our list. Every town as the "dollar theater" (or at least, they used to be a dollar!), the cheap theater that is known for its sticky floors and uncomfortable seats. Well, let me tell you that nothing makes those seats and floor down right comfy than a few beers! The beer theaters, most of them run by the local dynasty McMenamins, offer local microbrew, pizza and goodies to make the three dollar experience even more enjoyable. And, to tell the truth, the floors and seats are pretty well maintained. In fact, the Kennedy School in NE Portland has couches and armchairs, nary a rickety movie seat in sight. With your beer and pizza in hand, even some of the worst movies put out by Hollywood have some redeeming value on a weekend night.

Sometimes, films are so bad that they are good. Point in case, our most recent beer theater outing was to the "Supertrash Film Festival", which was headlined by one of our favorites, "Big Trouble in Little China". Everything about this film was so entertaining that even the previews had us laughing out loud! The movie poster speaks for itself:
Thats quality with a K, my friends... Only in Portland would a B-movie from the 1980's headline a film festival (which, by the way, also featured RoboCop 2). All that I can say is, wish you were here!