Tuesday, September 27, 2005

Wedding pictures






I know this is grossly overdue but here are a few wedding pictures

Monday, August 01, 2005

Home again

Well we're home again!
We were able to catch an earlier flight back home from New York at JFK. It was the emptiest airport Ive ever seen in my life.
But they sold godiva sugar free chocolate for cheap so it was an all around good experience.
We got seated apart but I sat with a scowl on my face and nobody sat by me. Haha. So Tim was able to come back and snuggle with me for the flight.
Then home it was from dulles airport. Fritz was going nutty but the house was still in one piece. We promptly dirtied it up with all our crap which is still lying around for the most part.
We dug through the pile of mail on the counter in the kitchen and tried to be productive even though we were tired until our houseguests got here.
Aunts and uncles invaded the fortress and we gave them a tour and went out to eat.
Next day was the East coast reception. Tim took forever getting ready * I love you Tim! * and when we were going out the door after everybody else had already left we discovered 1- that the garage door had broken and 2- the car wouldnt start.
Soooooooo Tim gathered his patience, yelled at Fritz to stop whining, called Uncle Bobby to come rescue us and then started playing Tony Hawk on the x-box.
It turned out that the battery was just junk and now the car works just fine.
Somebody was nice enough to jumpstart the car for us so when we got back home yesterday it started and we were able to go buy a new battery.
Eventually we got to the reception and were greeted warmly.
It was fun! There was lots of good food, fun ATVs for people to try and kill themselves on in the fields, a pool table, the wedding video playing on the TV, a photo slideshow on the laptop, and tons of family and friends.
I did my best to be perky and ignore the fact that I was still sick and was wilting in the heat. Eventually it cooled down.
Jonathan caught my garter again. Geez!
How many wives does one person need?
He's cute. Im sure he'll find somebody good with all that garter luck.
Jim Higgins caught my bouquet. Oh my
We cut cake and I was far meaner than I was on the wedding day. This time I didnt consider being nice enough to spare him from the cake in the face bit, and I shoved it up his nose.
He looks cute even with cake all over his face. Go figure
Soon we had to say goodbye to everybody and it was just me and four men in the Swistock house.
We had some more champagne, cigars, and opened our gifts.
Tim got us electronic light sabers for a wedding gift. I got Darth Vader one and he got Yoda of course.
To his dismay his was shorter than mine (yoda sized) and I was easily able to kick his butt. Theyre really cool though! They light up and make noise and crashing noises when you hit each other. Mine changes from anakin blue to vader red with the touch of a button
Later Tim, Chris and I played pool. Chris beat us horribly, but I managed to win something. Woo hoo! They were nice enough to give me advice even though whenever they did I tended to actually get a ball in a pocket.
We spent the night in Becky Swistocks room where she left us a note on the bed basically saying that there was no babymaking in her innocent bed, and her dad was going to check in on us.
Nevertheless we enjoyed a good nights sleep and helped vaccuum up live flies in the morning.
After an interesting trip to the dump with Tim driving a conversion van pulling a trailer full of garbage we eventually made it home totally exhausted.
But alas there was no food in the house and we hadnt had a meal all day. Plus the car was waiting to be dealt with
So back on the road again!
Outback steak house take away filled the car with a delicious smell of cheesy fries. I fed Tim while he drove home.
He fixed the battery and we left. again. To go to target and take the old battery back.
Got some non stick pans, some movies, and returned something at Target and then went to rent a movie and get some starbucks.
Finally. Finally we got home again.
There ended our whirlwind trip and now we're trying to put everything away and get settled back in.
Tim is at work right now and Im waiting for him to get home. Its a nice feeling!
In fact, Im still grungy from house work and I dont want to look like somebodys wife when he gets home. Im 19! Im too young for that! haha

Until next time
-Tara Faul-

Thursday, July 28, 2005

So much for the Roof...

So much for the roof - ha ha. It's a big ballroom, but it was empty and kind of ominous for us to walk into alone. I started to think about the Shining as we walked empty hallways back towards our elevator and toward our room. Empty hotel hallways can be creepy. -- Ok, back to the Honeymoon while it still lasts :) - Tim

Kissy Face Picture and my 2 cents


This is us kissing at the Yankee game. Not a bad picture considering I'm holding the camera at arms length and trying to make sure it's aimed at our faces.

There is so much to do in NYC but at the same time it can be hard to decide what to do next. Next time we go, I'll do more planning so that we can see a few of the things that we'd like to see. Not that we're disappointed. We did it our way and at our pace. It's been a wonderful honeymoon and I'm so happy that she is my wife and traveling companion. Tara frequently is my eyes for stuff I'm not seeing... including easy to spot Subway stations. :) I feel like a real veteran now. I should be, I shredded the Subway map while staring at it. I guess we really looked like real Nyers, because somebody stopped us and asked how to get to Broadway! So I pulled out my map...

Well, it's time to see a little more of the hotel before we have to go home. When I fold this into the diary permanently, I'll add more pictures for you all to see.

We pray that everyone that is traveling to our 2nd reception makes it safely. And we're already enjoying the wedding gifts we've already received.

Gotta go, the wife is starting to fidget! Time to celebrate our 12 day anniversary!

Singing in the rain etc.

Greetings! I've got stories to regale you with so sit down and get comfy!
It seems like so much has happened because we've done quite a lot in New York City but I'll try to remember as much as I can.
Yesterday we took a walk in central park, which is really big by the way. And full of all different sorts of people.
Tim tried deciphering the map to the trails and we went in circles for a while before making it to strawberry fields where the Lennon tribute thing is, along with quite a few hippys and some impressive body odor.
Along the way we had fun being snuggly and holding hands, and pointing neat things out to one another. We saw a lake pond thing that had the neatest grime on the surface. It was this plant of some sort that looked like a sheet of green junk on the top of the water.
Thats me being impressed by the green slime.
We began hearing thunder and seeing lighting bolts lighting up corners of new york. There was talk of a thunder and rain storm. You might think that would be discouraging, but it wasnt. We were pretty amused with being doused heavily with rain in central park. Hey, it was hot out and the water felt good! Besides, its was pretty romantic standing in the rain together in a legendary park on your honeymoon dontcha think?
The rain bounced mud up onto our feet and legs, further grunging us up more than we were to begin with. We've been pretty grody on this leg of the honeymoon, with all the hot weather, no laundry washed, and more relaxing in the room than actual grooming.
We tried finding a horse and buggy to ride around the park but to no avail. All there was were these people on bikes with seats attached to the back. Yes. how romantic.
Can you peddle any faster?
Fast forward to today, and we slept in after a late night at the movies. By 11 we finally dragged our carcasses out of the hotel, put the privacy note on the door so we could bring some breakfast back, and walked down the street.
We came back with our loot and found a "maid inside" thing on the door.
What the heck?
We rang our doorbell and stepped inside to find a somewhat flustered maid trying to put the bed together and get out.
Tim and I waited in the bathroom while she finished.
We jumped on the subway with our starbucks coffee in tow to ride to Yankee stadium for the game. I had an unfortunate little incident regarding my drink on the way there. I think Tim wanted to explain that one as payback for the story I told about him and the womans shorts though.
We got to the game a little late and entered the legendary building. I got groped by a female ticket collector at the door as I went in after Tim.
She just reached right out there and grabbed me! How rude!
It took a few moments for it to register that I had just gotten my chest grabbed by a strange lady and then I got all offended. I told Tim. he didnt seem too phased. Apparently me being molested by a woman isnt as bad as if it had been man. haha
We had fun watching the game. Tim kept score on the score card, and I guzzled water. The lady next to us accidentally dropped part of her frozen yogurt with sprinkles on the guy in front of her. He didnt notice. I didnt say anything. New Yorkers are unpredictable!




We decided to hop on the subway and go somewhere else in the city so we went near times square to Rockefeller center and saw the big huge macys that boggles the mind and makes your head spin. We went through the home section and dreamed up stuff to do in our home.
We found one of those leg lamps like in a Christmas Story that I thought was pretty neat, at a tourist shop. Too bad it wont work as carry on
We toyed with going up the empire state building but the wait was too long so we just looked for a bathroom to use there and couldnt find anything.
We saw more of Central Park today. The water reservoir. Theres a guy they dubbed the mayor of central park. His picture was displayed on the wall of a building. Then we turned around and Tim noticed that he was sitting on bench behind us. Weird.
The Empire State building
The reservoir
Me in front of the business directory of the empire state building. Still looking for that bathroom...
So here we are. Sitting around in our hotel room. Tim wants to go see the starlight roof in the hotel tonight, and we still have to pack our stuff up for the trip back home tomorrow.
Its strange to think that the honeymoon is over! back to real life.
Thankfully the honeymoon trip ends now, but the honeymoon doesnt have to end with it.
I'm going to go see if Tim wants to see the starlight thing now.
See some of you soon!

Wednesday, July 27, 2005

Last minute Dash to meet the Phantom

It's Wednesday afternoon and we're lazily laying about our hotel room catching up on the blog and postcards. Yesterday was a busy and exhausting day for us as we walked and walked and began learning the subway system. We started by having breakfast at the Broadway diner down the street from the Waldorf Astoria... Let me go back a step and recount our travel from Maine into NYC.
I've done a lot of traveling in the last 4 years or so, but driving NYC does make me more tense than driving around Washington, so I was on edge for the last half hour or so while we made our way to La Guardia airport to drop off our Lincoln Town Car. It was funny driving around in this pimp mobile for a week, but it was comfortable. We took a cab from La Guardia to the Waldorf and as we deposited our bags on the sidewalk the doorman, gave us a ticket for our bags and said that he would take care of it for us. It was weird leaving our bags on the curb, worrying that we would never see them again. We are traveling with 4 bags and 2 backpacks and it's kind of a hassle. Blame me for that one. I always overpack. Tara has a better excuse because part of her clothes are the ones that she is bringing back to Virginia.
We walked in and were impressed by the opulence all around us. It's quite spectacular here. We'll try to get some pictures of the main lobby so that you can see what we see here. It's like Grand Central Station in the middle of the day. We got our room keys and found our way up to the 38th floor.
The hotel has elevators to different wings of the hotel and we found ourselves in a short hallway looking for room 38M2. As we walked around we couldn't find our room. We walked the hallway, not once but twice making sure that we hadn't missed it. We were beginning to think that maybe our room was behind some strange cabinet in a secret passageway and we began to try our key in every key pad in the hallway. We finally had a green light at an unmarked doorway. We're in a secret room! I'm happy that they know where the room is, since it's unmarked, but everyday our bed has been made, so someone knows we're here. It's an art-deco style room quite befitting our tastes and the way that Tara looks right now with her Audrey Hepburn hairstyle.

We ventured outside for dinner and I managed to pick a really expensive restaurant for dinner. I think it was called John O'Neills. Although our dinner was delicious, we resolved to eat more cheaply on Tuesday.

After breakfast we got on the subway toward downtown on our way to Greenwich Village. Our goal was to do some record shopping. We weren't disappointed by the number of record stores in the region. We probably visited over a half dozen of them. I didn't find much U2 to add to my collection but we did find some cheap used CDs to add to our collection. After having lunch at a cafe, I wanted to show Tara Washington Square Park, and as soon as we entered it, she recognized the chess boards from the movie "Searching For Bobby Fisher" and we saw men playing games with one another just like in the movie. For those who haven't seen it, I highly recommend it. It's one of the few films that I can watch over and over again. It's that good.

The heat was getting to us, but I wanted to check out the Guggenheim in Soho before returning to the hotel for a couple hours of rest before going to Broadway. Well, I couldn't find the museum and the energy was draining out of both of us, and Tara was getting sunburned so we walked all the way back to the subway station in the village and returned to the hotel.

We rested for a time and she asked me when the show started. I told her that I thought that it started at 7:30 PM but that she should probably check to make sure... It started at 7:00 PM and we had less than an hour before we had to be there. I knew that we would be taking a taxi getting there, but didn't realize that we weren't the only ones who would be hailing a taxi at 6:30 PM on a Tuesday night. As we streamed out onto Park Avenue we jumped on the Taxi stand line in front of the Waldorf Astoria and I began checking the time on my cell phone. We needed to be there at 6:55 PM to claim our tickets, and we were stuck in line. As I fidgeted in the line, I established eye contact with a guy in a non-descrepit black car who was offering us a ride ahead of the rest of the people on line, so I grabbed Tara's hand opened the door and asked him how much to get us to the Majestic Theatre? His reply wasn't encouraging, but it confirmed what I suspected. He said to pay him what I thought it was worth, and so we got into his car, and told him the exact address of where we needed to go. Traffic was crazy and backed up, and he drove through it like a pro NYC cabbie. As we were headed toward the theatre, Tara said, "Wow, I can't believe we got a cab before everyone else!" I bit my tongue for a moment , waiting until we departed the car to explain what I had already figured out. We got within 5 blocks of the theatre and we weren't making much progress in traffic, and I only had 5 minutes to get to the theatre. I told the cabbie that we were going to leg it the rest of the way, shoved a $20 into his hand and began knifing our way through the crowds trying to walk speedily to the Majestic Theatre. We were both praying that we would make it on time, as we squeezed through people on a crazy looping path through NYC. It's a miracle that we didn't get lost on our way there. It wasn't a straight shot to the theatre and we were given the vaguest directions from the cabbie, (who wasn't a cabbie). During the flight to the theatre, I told Tara that the guy who picked us up was running a Pirate cab. He wasn't authorized to charge fares, but we were desperate and we didn't have much choice.
We arrived at the box office at about 2 minutes before 7, and we had no problems picking up our tickets. As we walked towards our a seats, a woman looking like a scarier version of Carol Kane, particularly as she looked in The Princess Bride. She walked us down to our seats and thrust 2 playbills into our hands as we were seated. We were 2 rows from the Orchestra pit! We were in center section and had a great view of everything. It was very entertaining and some of the things that they did with the sets were really very cool! I'll let Tara talk more about the show since she could add much more description than I'm capable of. I can say that I was very impressed with The Phantom of the Opera and would definitely see another show on Broadway if I get a chance. Maybe we'll go again for our anniversary.

After the show we wandered around Times Square. It's quite cool to see all the lights, billboards and the people! It was very hot though, and we had a hard time finding a cab to return us to the hotel, so we found a subway station that would drop us off closer to our hotel. We had to walk 8 blocks back to our hotel, since I still haven't mastered the system yet.

Well, Tara is napping on the bed, so I'm going to cuddle with her for a bit before we finally venture out for our trip to Central Park this evening. Sadly we haven't really taken any pictures yet, but that will change tonight. Later! - Tim

Tuesday, July 26, 2005

Wedding photos




Heres a few photos from the wedding. We have a whole load of them waiting for us at home in Virginia but my dad sent us a few as a teaser.
Enjoy!
Im sure there will be many more to come. once I delete the ones I dont like *snicker*


Monday, July 25, 2005

Rub a dub

I'll kill some time on here while Timmy is in the shower. Did you know he usually takes longer in the shower than me?
Then again, he packs more than me too so it makes sense.

We're situated in the Waldorf now after a long day of travel. Tim was the pilot and I was the navigator. Thankfully I didnt lead us astray and he didnt crash the car in the terrifying NY traffic. Im sure it gets much worse but to a country girl like me anything is terrifying.

This hotel is really grand. The front lobby looks as fancy as I imagined and there really is a bellhop! I wonder if I could have my picture taken with him...

We got lost trying to get to our room due to a faulty elevator and an unmarked door. We're like undercover honeymooners. Theres no number on our hotel door. We resorted to sticking the key in random doors hoping to find our room.
Then ah ha! The mystery room is ours. We were beginning to think it was hidden behind a bookcase or something.

Okay, back to honeymooning.
-Tara

Off to NYC

Sorry we can't write much. It's checkout time at the Captain Lord Mansion. It was wonderful! I can't wait to celebrate one of our anniversary's here. We stayed in the Dana room and it was beautiful, romantic and extremely comfortable. We feel like buying weekend trips for all our relatives... ha, wish we could afford to!

We went to Boston yesterday and it was a lot of fun. We walked the Freedom Trail and then hopped on the Subway to Harvard. Harvard Yard has a lot of record stores so Tara and I were in Heaven. :)

Well, it's hot in this little computer closet they give us (my sole change for this hotel would be wireless internet), so I better go.

I hope that the hotel we're staying at in NYC has wireless... we have pictures! 4 More nights of bliss before we have to head home - Tim

P.S.
Hi, wife here.
Just wanted to share an amusing little story from last night really quick.
For an unnamed reason Tim decided that he really needed a peanut butter and jelly sandwich at midnight. Right o, hubby of mine....but there was no knife to do this with.
Bummer
So I sneak down the stairs...crrrreaaaaakkk
And into the kitchen where I shuffle somewhat loudly through about 6 drawers before finding the knife one. I was so excited that I accidentally slammed it shut! Oops
So I make my way back up the stairs. A few more creaks and begin to assemble my handsome husband a midnight gourmet feast like the last one I made.
He seemed pleased. I even gave it to him in bed!
Okay...the story ends there I think.
Bye!
-Tara
A view in Boston on the freedom trail
A building in Boston
Our feet on the subway in Boston. Isnt Tim's hairy leg cute?
Tim in front of cheers about to get sloshed. Haha. Just kidding
More buildings in Boston
Me feeling warm in Boston in front of a subway sign.
This is kind of out of order but its The Bush compound in Kennebunkport down the road from where we were staying
Our legs on the hammock outside the B&B. It was really hard to get onto that thing!

The hallway outside our room in Kennebunkport. Very elegant
View from a bridge going into the shopping town in Kennebunkport. Traffic sucked there like it does on the Oregon coast during the summer.

The entryway to the Captain Lord Mansion, shot from the hammock in the leg picture
Tim playing king in our room in Kennebunkport.

Sunday, July 24, 2005

Anniversary Dinner

I dont have much time since breakfast is soon and then we have to shove off to Boston to pick up an accent. Ha. Just kidding.
Baaawston
Anyway
We had a lovely evening last night. Complete with a date to the movies where we got to snuggle like teenagers. Wait. I am a teenager!
Then I had the privilege of making us an anniversary dinner
Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and merlot.
Classic
Those of you who attend Grace community should have a small laugh at that one.
Breakfast time!