Don't Stop

(That's what I keep telling myself when I own up to my blog negligence)
And now, I've got the song stuck in my head..
Don't. Stop.
...thinking about tomorrow!
And of course, that applies to this post as well, because a lot of things are on the horizon!

First off, we celebrated Stephen's 29th birthday on July 13th with some friends at a Thai restaurant he likes called Lemon Grass. It was very tasty... and pretty, for that matter.



Here's us... from left to right we have:
Jon Kananen, Jeremy Kaneer, Sherry and Nick Tobin (freshly back from their honeymoon and on their way outta town moving to Washington!) Katie Kananen (lucky Jon's wife,) me and Stephen. This also served as some nice bonding time for the guys who have (due to marriage and moving) recently lost their status as roommates .



Stephen and I FINALLY found a place to get married! Whoopie! After much searching, we found this place, Riverpoint Park in Daytona Beach. It's just perfect and I am very relieved we can stop looking and start planning! Just imagine chairs set up facing the water and with an aisle in the middle.

AND we have also found a place to live!!! This is another big relief to me, as I will be moving in here mid-August. Then we'll have a nice long while to get everything fixed up and ready to go for when Stephen joins the party in January. This is a picture of our cute little place in historic Avondale (an area of Jacksonville on the river). We are really looking forward to moving and getting settled!

I was driving around downtown Jax a week or two ago, and I found this awesome tree. It's called the Treaty Oak and it's a Southern Live Oak Tree. They say it is over two hundred years old... and it's cool because most of the big limbs rest on the ground, they are so big! You could make a tree-mansion out of this place!

Anyone from Orlando will recognize this place... it used to be a Sports shop for Orlando Magic Memorabilia. And I guess they have new plans for it... to be used as a airplane hangar or something... no, I don't know what they're doing with it, but it always stuck out in downtown and no one really likes the Magic anymore... so hopefully it can rest in peace.

This past weekend, we went down to Tampa for Stephen's last former roommate's wedding. The apartment-mates were Jon (married June 30), Nick (married July4), and James (married July 29)! Whew! That's a lot of weddings. And next (and well, last) of the roommates to be married is...
Us!

Here is the new couple: Mr. and Mrs. James McCafferty! Lucky Liz- following the ceremony, James whisked her away to Hawaii!

And since I never posted pictures from Jon and Katie's wedding... Here are the Kananens:

So, everyone keeps asking me how the wedding planning is going... and well, it's going. At times it is fun and exciting and at times it is overwhelming and aggravating... And most of you who know me well know I'm not really a bridezilla-type girl. But, at the end of the day, it's worth it because I have this to keep me company:

(sorry, but I can't help but brag on how cute he is!!!)

While we were down near Tampa for the wedding, we stayed with my awesome former roommate, Casie and her very cute dog, Lucy. Lucy was extremely excited to have visitors and she seemed to like keeping Stephen company every chance she could get! Good thing I'm not very jealous...! Hahahaha.

And here's a little memento from our travels this past weekend. Just remember, you'e welcome.
Aw, dang it...

on the road again

not only is that a really great song (see above), but this post is also dedicated to Stephen, my partner in singing this song over and over again while driving... even though we don't know most of the words. (everybody with me now: awwwwwwww...)

Soooo, think real far back. Really FAR. Like back to my last lonely post. I was in Memphis, remember? Well, as soon as I got back from TN, Stephen picked me up and took me back to Lakeland (well, Plant City) to meet up with Casie, her dad and Stephen's brother, Dani, to go deep-sea fishing. Ooh. We left very early in the morning. See?

Once we got the boat in the water, we stopped en route to our "spot" to catch some bait fish. Although, it turned out to be more like stopping to let the poor, confused bait fish leap willingly onto our fishing lines. Seriously! Not to downplay the boys' skillz, but this kept happening as soon as they put the poles in the water! These lines had four little hooks on each line, so it didn't take us very long to stock up on bait!

We caught some other smaller fish and Dani had a little "heart to heart" with one to let his friends know we were coming for them. Mean, I know. ;-)

Once we got out to "the spot" (which turned out to be a shipwreck-reef where the fish like to congregate about 20 miles out) we turned our sights to the big fish. This was a fish Stephen caught pretty early, I forget what kind of fish it was though. We ate it later, so I'll just call it tasty-fish.

Yes, that's right, we strike fear into the hearts of fish everywhere.

This is the very pretty (?) grouper that Casie caught. It was about 17 inches long and they have to be 20 to keep, so he got to live to swim another day. But, not before his close-up.

After a while, Dani got something BIG on his line. Seriously, he is a really good fisherman and it was totally working him. But, of course, after a while Dani tired the fish out... and as he finally was able to reel it out of the water, we were shocked to see that it was....

a SHARK! It was just a regular looking sort of shark (grey shark? nurse shark? sharky shark?) that was about 3.5 feet long! Crazy! Well, we threw him in the ice chest with the others to join us later... for dinner! Mwa-ha-ha!!!

Then Stephen caught another BIG nice-looking grouper... Sadly, it was like 19.25 inches long- still just shy of the limit! We even tried to stretch him out to be longer... but no such luck. However, it turned out to be a tremendous stroke of luck for the grouper. He rejoined his friends in the gulf.

Aw! Isn't he cute?! I mean Stephen, of course. The fish just mostly looks scared... but then again I would look scared too, under the same circumstances!

Just to prove I was really there, here is a picture of me and Casie. And you want to know what I caught on our trip? I caught it all on film! Or, well, microchip I guess... Anyways, I fished for a little bit but did not catch anything. I was totally okay with this, however.

Now, the following Friday Stephen and I drove to Atlanta to visit with my sister. I think we took some pictures during this nice weekend, but they must be on someone else's camera. Then on Sunday after church, the three of us headed up to the mountains of Western NC for our annual family reunion. Woo hoo! It was Stephen's inaugural run, and it was so fun having him there. He played golf every morning with the guys and then we did fun stuff in the afternoon with my cousins. Stephen actually had the good idea to play croquet, and it was very intense... intensely funny, that is. Here is our official Dart family croquet photo. It's definitely one for the record books.! PS- I know I look very small, but this is just an illusion. I am standing on the downhill slope. I just wanted you all to know, I have not shrunken. Nor are my cousins giants.

Stevie and I at family dinner (all 20+ of us) at Fat Buddies. Yes, it's really called that. No, it's not named after us. :-P

The next day we went out to the stream where we used to go when we were kids. The water level was pretty low because of the drought, but we still had a fun time... even though it was raining most of the time. When I started moving stones around in the stream, Kevin asked what my objective was... and you all know the answer: dam it! (Har Har) But seriously, we spent a good 25 minutes working on our little dam (you can see the pool we were making just to the left of Stephen and me) and it would have been awesome except a storm came and brought some pretty fierce lightening and so we couldn't finish. But it was fun while it lasted.

This is Stephen as a younger, maler, nakeder, wetter version of Mary Poppins. Hahaha. But, you can tell he had definitely had his spoonful of sugar that day. :-)

After dinner on Tuesday, I needed a little consoling. Why, you ask? Let see if you can guess!

A. Because I got a really bad mullet hair cut.

B. Because Stephen is choke-holding me

C. Because I am full from eating family dinner at Granny's Chicken Palace.

D. Because no one believed me when I told them there was a place called Granny's Chicken Palace.

Well, the answer is C. Although D is often true and from this looks of this picture A is a possibility. But neither A or B are true in actuality.

For the reunion we all stay near a house my grandparents own in a lakeside community and it is pretty there. Exhibit A:

My family is pretty funny... especially Kevin. We were more than happy to make him a member when we figured out he is as nuts as the rest of us. NC was having a hot spell and Kevin was up for using any means necessary to cool off. (For anyone who can't tell, that's a fire blower/stoker thingy.... it pumps out air)

Yay for family good times! Dad and Shelly, looking sharp!

It was kinda of foggy and overcast this day, but the trees up there are just so lush (that's for you, Shelly) that they take good pictures anyway.

Then, on Thursday, Stephen and I drove back to Jacksonville where he met up with friends to ride down to West Palm Beach for his roommate John's wedding on Saturday. I went back to Lakeland to finish moving out of my apartment and then drove down on Saturday morning to meet up with everyone for the wedding festivities. It was a very lovely wedding and we all had a good time. (It was also very helpful to get wedding ideas while I was there!)

John and Katie Kananen- June 30, 2007!

Stephen was the best man, and as such had to give a toast. He did a great job, even though John is totally not paying attention. He's actually looking at the cake in this picture. Geesh, priorities people! Hahahahaha.

Cute man in a tux+ me= pretty sweet!

On Sunday, as we drove back to Jacksonville, Stephen and I stopped in the Daytona area to scout out a few potential wedding locations. Sad to say, we had no luck. You'd think for Florida we'd have more gardens... but no. Just jungle.

On my first day as a Jacksonville resident, it rained. And it has rained every day since then. BUT, on my FIRST day in Jacksonville, it also rainbowed.

One of the great things about being in Jacksonville so far is that I have been able to catch up on my sleep some. This is Olivia and she is MUCH cuter than me when she sleeps, so she can be my sleep-representative in this picture.

In another sign of good fortune, Stephen found a lady bug on my car. And he looks like he might eat it! Thankfully, he didn't. And then it flew away.

Whew! Just writing about my adventures has tired me out (TLC how do you do it???) but I hope you have enjoyed our travels. Also, I'd like to say a big shout out to two other friends who recently got married: Nick and Sherry Tobin! (Nick is one of Stephen's other roommates and they got married on the 4th of July!) Yay! Okay, TTFN!

Memphis, Tennessee

Now, I am sitting in my hotel room in Memphis (here for work) and really... there are just too many good songs with Memphis in the title.
There's the one above (Help me operator, get in touch with my Marie. She's the only one who'd call me here from Memphis, TN...)
There's "Walking in Memphis"
And then there's "Maybe it was Memhpis"
Goodness, they just keep coming.
Post your favorite Memphis-related songs if you can think of any more...

And to start, I will post a picture NOT from Memphis. This bird was hanging out in the pond behind our office. I named it pinkie. I spent some time looking, and finally found it is a Roseate Spoonbill. It was crazy!

Before I left for Memphis... actually, come to think of it, this was while I was on the way to Jacksonville for the weekend right before I left... anyways, it was pretty stormy towards the end of the week. But the clouds were cool.

It's always cool when you can actually see it raining from far away. Ah, Florida summers...

NOW... on to Memphis. So, on my first day here, I was out and about walking through the downtown area (where I am staying) and I happened into the Peabody Hotel. AND I happened into it a little after 4... AND then after spending some nice time talking on the phone in the beautiful lobby, all the hoopla started to see the famous ducks parade through the lobby, into the elevator, and up to their duck palace on the roof. This is a cool picture of them at home in the fountain. Then my camera died. Boo.

My camera came back to life a few hours later on my walk home. Just enough to capture this great sunset over the mighty mississippi, so at least that's something.

Beale Street. Home of the blues and great BBQ. It's more of a hang out place though... and since I am here alone on business, I just took a self-guided walking tour and went back to my hotel.

This is BB King's place. I bet it's cool. The sign is cool. However, nowadays BB King makes me think of that diabetes commercial he did. Strange...

Okay friends! Well, I head back home tomorrow... so yay for that! Stephen is coming to get me at the airport and then we are off for a fun weekend with my roommate and his brother in Lakeland- we are going deep-sea fishing with Casie's dad. Stay tuned for pictures! I'm sure it will be an adventure!

you spin me round (like a record)

a.k.a. Monster Mash 2007

Yes, things have been crazy. Yes, I have many pictures. Yes, they are probably out of order. Yes, you'll just have to deal with it. Yes, I know this is probably getting annoying. That's what you get for heckling me, TLC! Hahahaha.
Okay, I'm going to try to at least group these so they make some sense, but hopefully the pictures are fun enough to stand on their own. Enjoy!

First:
I found out a few of my friends from college would be in Florida visiting family, so I drove down to Ft. Meyers on a random Tuesday to see them and their cute little daughter, Violet. (They've already began her mentorship to be the next Vanna White- see what a fast learner she is?!?!)
: )
Yay for Bethany, Ben and Violet!

Now, here are some more pictures from NYC... Although there are still others that are on Stephen's camera that I haven't seen yet. So... maybe we'll have some more fun ones later...
In no particular order, I give you: NEW YORK!

Saturday morning we met TLC for brunch. Now, for those of you who are unaware, brunch is really just breakfast food served in the afternoon so you don't feel like you missed anything by sleeping in until 2PM. But the food was soooooo tasty that I didn't care what time it was. Gotta love NYC! and TLC! for you and me! stop rhyming and I meant it! (anybody wanna peanut?)

In the city, we were hosted by my awesome friends Will and Christian. Staying with them was super fun and we also enjoyed some hang out time with their cat, the Traveler, and their dog, Gringo. Goooooood times.

As usual, there are many, MANY construction projects going on in NYC during the summer. Stephen checked in on this one to make sure everything was up to code. And then I mugged him. Hehehe. JUST KIDDING!

On Sunday Stephen was brave enough to accompany me on one of my marathon Sunday afternoon walks through the city. Seriously, we walked for a few HOURS. However, it was pretty- pretty HOT, that is. Yeah, we brought some good ole Flawduh humidity to keep us company. In case you were wondering, this is St. Patrick's Cathedral in midtown. Very Niiice.

During our marathon Sunday stroll, I led brave Sir Stephen (or Super Supervisor Stevie, as my sister calls him) into the deep wilderness of Central Park. This picture was taken on the pretty bow bridge, we were quite pooped by this point, but still smiling...

Nice sunset view down 79th street towards the Hudson river. It was even more lovely in person... I wish I could have captured the real color on the buildings... but alas, backlighting strikes again.

Jump back to Saturday. In the afternoon, we met up with Stephen's relatives, Alex and Judy, and they were kind enough to treat us to a great evening on the town. First Stop: John's Pizza in the Village. It's home to one of the few remaining coal pizza ovens in the city. They are a big fire hazard, so building a coal oven is illegal. Good thing this one dates from 1929, cause the pizza sure is tasty!

After dinner we stopped next door to get gelato at a place called Scoop. The gelato was soooo good we forgot to take a picture. I definitely recommend it. Then, we were off to the Village Vanguard to see the Nino Josele trio play some latinish flamenco jazz. It was cool. Picture taking is not allowed so this shot (taken from the table with no flash) is the best I could do. I think it kind of lends to the ambiance, though.

Rewind back to before we met Alex and Judy on Saturday. Stephen and I went for a walk to Bryant Park and then stopped in to everyone's favorite Chipotle for a snack. Chips and Salsa faces- muy caliente!

Pretty, pretty trees in Bryant Park. Long and squiggly, just the way I like 'em!

Yay for Spring! Wait, it's still spring right? Well, yay for my birthday weekend trip to NYC and engagement celebration 2007!

Sunday night we went out in the rain to Little India for a farewell dinner with Christian and Will. We went to this restaurant that I really like called Panna II. You can see how understated and demure the decor is. Just like us. : )

Okay, now fast forward to last weekend in Lakeland. Stephen came to visit me and on Saturday we took a road trip to Center Hill to attend a family party hosted by Stephen's mom celebrating our engagement. AND Casie and Lucy came along, too! Super fun. Here Lucy demonstrates just how much personality she has. She's a good dog- even in the car.

Stevie was kind enough to drive and smile at the same time.

We took many roads that looked like this. It was a nice drive into the country... now if there was only a way to shield us from all those lovebugs... Seriously, my windshield was so gunked up at this point, this picture almost looks like an impressionist painting! If you don't happen to know what lovebugs are, count yourself lucky!

At Stephen's mom's house, Lucy demonstrates her impressive social skills. Dosen't she look like she's having a conversation with someone? Hahaha, too funny. She really does act like a person. When I move Casie and Lucy will be sorely missed... sniff... okay, no time for sad, we're nearly finished!!!

Pre-church Sunday morning after brushing our teeth in my bathroom. See? All clean. Seriously, are we a match or WHAT?! : D

And finally... we are caught up to now. Now, I am beginning the mammoth task of trying to plan a wedding. I went and visited a possible location with my mom and aunt... and this little chapel was soooo cute. Too bad it was sooooo small as well. But it makes for a nice picture.

And, I stopped in at the parent's house for a night and my mom opened up her wedding dress for me to look at. It was definitely too small for me to wear, but it was cool to see it because it had been packed away since she wore it. For a mid-70'd wedding dress, I think it's quite nice.

And here's one last picture- a close up of the lace on her dress. I like the flowers. So I will leave you all with a good representation of what fills my head these days... wedding dresses, lace, flowers.... good stuff. : )