stinkerpants design

Thanks to my friend Jenny at Geek in Heels, I have recently learned something about blog feeds.

I use Google Reader to catch up on my blog reading.  Some blogs really frustrate me by having only a tiny bit of the post listed in the feed, and then you have to click through to see the whole thing.  This mostly annoys me if the blog is generally very image-heavy, and I don’t even know if I want to read the post until I see the images.

For some reason, I thought I could fix this.  Jenny told me, though, that people actually set their feeds up this way, in order to drive traffic to their site.  Now I’m wondering if I should be doing this?  How else would you get to see my twitter status (which I know you would be riveted by) or my latest flickr image (you know you wanna see my dog and her new toy!)?

What do you guys think?  Are partial feeds annoying to you?  How do you read your blogs?  Do you come directly to my website, or do you have my feed through Google Reader, Bloglines, or something similar?  Please tell me.  My curiosity is killing me (although I have no idea why).

Earlier today my good buddy, the Blogger Formerly Known as Mrs. Gingerbread, sent me a little link.  This little link had some very big news.  The article is super short, so I’ll quote it in its entirety here:

TRENTON, N.J. — Online dating service eHarmony is adding another personality trait to its 29 dimensions of computability.

The California-based company will begin providing same-sex matches under as part of a settlement with New Jersey’s Civil Rights Division.

Garden State resident Eric McKinley filed a complaint against the online matchmaker in 2005.

Under terms of the settlement, the company can create a new or differently named Web site for same-sex singles. The company can also post a disclaimer saying its compatibility-based matching system was developed from research of married heterosexual couples.

Neither the company nor its founder, Neil Clark Warren, admit any liability.

In addition, eHarmony will pay the division $50,000 to cover administrative costs. It will pay McKinley $5,000 and give him a free one-year membership to its new service.

Pretty interesting, huh?  There’s also this link, here, which is basically the same information, but adds this information about the terms of the settlement:

• eHarmony, Inc. will post photos of same-sex couples in the “Diversity” section of its Web site as successful relationships are created using the company’s same-sex matching service. In addition, eHarmony, Inc. will include photos of same-sex couples, as well as individual same-sex users, in advertising materials used to promote its same-sex matching services
• eHarmony, Inc. will revise anti-discrimination statements placed on company Web sites, in company handbooks and other company publications to make plain that it does not discriminate on the basis of “sexual orientation”
• the company has committed to advertising and public relations/ marketing dedicated to its same-sex matching service, and will retain a media consultant experienced in promoting the “fair, accurate and inclusive” representation of gay and lesbian people in the media to determine the most effective way of reaching the gay and lesbian communities.

As you likely recall, I left Weddingbee after making a public statement about my disagreement with eHarmony’s discriminatory practices. I didn’t leave because I thought I’d have any impact on eHarmony’s practices.  I simply did it because I couldn’t sleep at night knowing I was making them money.

So how do I feel about eHarmony now that they’ve agreed to offer same-sex matching?  Will I be returning to Weddingbee?

My opinions about eHarmony haven’t changed–quite frankly, I think they stink.  This isn’t a decision that eHarmony made on its own.  They didn’t suddenly realize that they were being unfair by excluding gay people from their matching.  They didn’t even make the decision to go into same-sex matching for monetary reasons.  They did it because they were sued, and for no other reason.  I think it’s sad that they will likely get/take credit for being “open” and “accepting,” despite the fact that this wasn’t really their choice.  I still think the company sucks, and I’m still not wild about the idea of volunteering to make them money.

I also feel that they got off pretty darn easy.  $50k and the cost of one membership, all for agreeing to do something that will make them a crapload of money!?  I’m not single (obviously), but if I were, I still wouldn’t use their services.  They may start providing same-sex matches, but they’re doing it for all the wrong reasons.

I am happy to hear that the settlement worked out this way, though, and MAD PROPS to Eric McKinley for pursuing the lawsuit.  At least someone in charge (in New Jersey) seems to realize that excluding the LGBTQ community is wrong.  Now, if we could only get our government to realize that the LGBTQ community shouldn’t be excluded from marriage, either!

A few weeks ago, I got an email from one of my past clients, Kimra.  She and her husband, Pete, had a wedding “reception” with his family and hometown friends who couldn’t make it to California back in May for their wedding. Apparently Pete’s mom ordered a cake for the occassion and surprised them with this:

She’d given the baker the design I did for their photo reminder cards as inspiration!  How cool is that?!

Here’s the card I did for them (Kimra saw my photo reminder cards and wanted something similar):

Pete, holding the slice with his glasses on it!

How cool is that?!

Random story: At my bridal shower, we played a really fun version of 20 Questions, during which we watched Y reveal the 20 Answers on a videotape.  I proved that I am a very good listener by answering most of the questions correctly.  One of the ones I got wrong, though, had to do with Y’s childhood pastimes.  I was asked what Y’s first collection was.  The answer (I thought) was very clearly “baseball cards,” as we’d discussed his baseball card collection numerous times and I’d even seen them.  The correct answer, however, was “stamps.”

Stamps?! I had never heard Y so much as mention a stamp, let alone reveal that he had collected them.

I (obviously) got that question wrong, but to this day maintain that he never told me he collected stamps.  Thus, not my fault.

One day, I was looking through the loads of crap we have in our storage area (I am forever trying to clean that place out) when I ran across a box of–you guessed it–stamps.  I showed Y and asked him what he planned to do with them.  He said they weren’t worth anything, so I should throw them out.

The man knows me well.  I don’t like keeping useless crap around, and I will almost always make a good case for deeming items (including my own items) “useless” or “crap,” or sometimes a combination of the two.  He knew I’d be happy to get rid of something else.

However.

I am not going to force my darling husband to get rid of his first real collection!  It obviously must have some sort of sentimental value!  I can’t be an advocate for getting rid of something meaningful!  Not only is that cruel, but it’s a recipe for future resentment.  I try to steer clear of those types of recipes (well, recipes in general, who am I kidding?).  So I decided to turn his childhood stamp collection into something he’d be able to admire every day: a piece of art.

And thus began the massive project that became his 32nd birthday gift.

The first step was Sorting.  The sorting process took hours, but I was able to do it in front of the TV during Periods of Work Avoidance, over the course of a couple of months.  Not too painful.   I sorted the stamps by color and got to see what I was working with.  There were a lot of very colorful, awesome stamps.  Unfortunately, the majority of them were still stuck to envelopes.  I already had a plan for my project, and the stamps couldn’t be attached to envelopes.  Drat.

…which leads us to the second step: Detaching.  I gathered several bowls and dishes in our kitchen and filled them up with hot water.  Color by color, I submerged the stamps and let the hot water dissolve the adhesive.  The stamps then came off the paper relatively easily.

From there, I let the stamps dry on cookie sheets (or sometimes the granite countertop) and recycled the envelopes.  This process took FOREVER, and there were stamps EVERYWHERE.  I was beginning to see that I’d gotten myself into a project FAR bigger than I’d anticipated.

I developed a new routine, during which I became very thankful that I work from home.  I worked for a few hours, then took a half-hour break to peel dried stamps off the countertops and submerge a new batch.

Once I had all of the stamps sorted and detached from the envelopes, it was time for the actual project, which by comparison took about 10 minutes.  In reality it took almost an entire day, but what’s that compared with months of preparation?  At any point during this project I might have had the wherewithal to quit.  However, I really thought Y would appreciate this, so I labored on (slight dramatization, for effect).  I will also admit that it’s hard to give up when you’ve already dedicated hours to something and don’t have a final product to make it all worth it.

Anyway, so I had all of my dry and detached stamps sorted in plastic baggies according to color, and I was ready to start gluing.  I bought a nice frame at Michael’s (they were 50% off, as usual) and got to work.

Genius as I am, I forgot to take a picture of the work-in-progress.  I’m sure you can imagine what it looked like, though.  There was glue.  And a lot of stamps spread out all over our dining table.

This is the finished product, drying.  As you can see, I arranged the stamps according to color, then glued them down.  When you view it from far away, it just sort of looks like a bunch of color.  But close up, you can check out some really cool artwork (and by “really cool artwork,” I mean the artwork on the stamps, of course).

How beautiful are these?!  Seriously, these put the Forever Stamp to shame.  I really wish the post office would stop pushing those–or at least come out with more than one ugly liberty bell design! Looking through this collection, which included stamps from Hong Kong, Pakistan, the UK and more, I really gained an appreciation for stamps.  They’re pretty awesome, actually.

And the finished, framed project.  Unfortunately, I only used about a quarter of his stamp collection.  I cannot bring myself to throw the rest of them away, though!  It took me hours to sort and detach all of them…I guess I should have thought about how many I would realistically use.  I can see at least a few more really awesome projects coming out of them.  But really, how many art pieces made from stamps does one couple need?  We’re not even into stamps.

Y was really impressed with it, which was very gratifying.  After all of the sweat (there were no tears or blood, I’m happy to say), I can honestly say I’m glad I did it.   That’s love, right?  And dedication.

Or maybe just insanity?

 After I changed into my cheongsam (chinese dress) and we ate our cupcakes, our band leader approached me and asked if we’d like to start the Hora.  For those of you not familiar with Jewish weddings (or Bar/Bat Mitzvahs) the Hora is a circular dance we do at our parties.  It ends with the person/people of honor sitting in chairs lifted by the strongest people at the party.

I was really excited to see that the non-Jewish guests (including my FIL on the right!) joined the dancing even though most of them had never even heard of the Hora.  My FIL keeps talking about how much fun he had during the Hora.  “Such a nice tradition!” he keeps saying.

Here we are, sitting in the chairs.  Y is already starting to go up, and I’m next.  He looks terrified mostly because only two of the people responsible for holding him up have any idea what they’re doing.  Also, one of his cousins is notorious for dropping things, so Y was understandably a bit concerned!!

Totally terrifying.  Seriously.  I thought this part would be way more fun that it actually was (haha).

Y actually looks relatively content, doesn’t he?!

Thrilled that we survived.

The Hora was the last event of the night.  Sadly, things were winding down…

We’re almost done with the wedding recaps, sadly.  The only thing we’ve got left are the details!

::edit:: WOW, the mail works fast!  K & S received these before this post even went up!  hahaha.  Oh well, I’ll share them with everyone else.  :)

After looking at these photos, I’m realizing that my photo-taking skills are lacking, and I could probably use some Photoshop lessons!  But anyway, this isn’t about me, it’s about K & S!

K & S have a VERY romantic love story–but I’ll probably save that for the reveal of their wedding invitations.  They’ll be getting married next August in Denmark (S’s homeland), and needed a Save the Date with an RSVP-type function.  I set up their website with an RSVP form, and we included a link in the text.

Their Save the Date is a  two-sided postcard with a magnet.  One side of the postcard is in English (for the American guests) and the other side is in Danish (for the Danish guests).  The magnet can be affixed to either side with a removable glue dot.

One of the magnets on my work board!  I love them.  :)  Believe it or not, these are my first magnets!

I am totally thrilled with these, and so are K & S!  I can’t wait to get started on their invites.  :)

I know I said I wasn’t going to say anything else political, but I’m just going to say this one last thing.  Then I’m done.  I swear.

Last night Y and I were sitting watching Oprah (in his defense, he doesn’t usually watch it, but it was her post-election special), and we started talking about what it’s like now that Obama has been elected.  In our entire lives, we have never had an inspirational leader.  It’s really exciting!!  We also feel like we’ve spent the last eight years feeling oppressed, unimportant and dismissed by our government.   Before Tuesday, I felt like my vote did not matter.  All this time, we’ve been fighting for THIS.  We’ve got it now!  We’ve elected a kick-ass president who really seems to represent what I care about.

So now what?

For the first time in my life, I feel somewhat quiet, politically.  I don’t need to be marching in the streets, screaming at the top of my lungs about how the election was stolen and all the ballots need to be re-counted.  I simply don’t know what to do!

We were all pray pray praying to get Obama elected, and now that he’s elected, I feel like we’re all staring at him, wide-eyed and expectant.  Now what? Tell me what to do, President Obama!  I’ll do it!  I’m here for you, man!  Reporting for duty!

This is so cool.  I’m so excited.

On the other hand, I’m also waiting somewhat impatiently for someone to tell me what to do to repeal Prop 8.  I feel like Prop 8 is a battle we can win, though.  This country, on the other hand?  I was very hopeless about this country just a week ago!  And now I have newfound hope!  It’s very exciting.

 Last night we went to an election party at our friends’ house.  It was a grand lot of fun, and I have some photos to share.  However, I also have some words to share–and I’m going to share them first.

This is the last political thing I’m going to say around here.  Well, maybe not the LAST, but I’m definitely not going to be freaking out on a regular basis anymore, now that the election is over.

The results of the election are really bittersweet for me.  I am so, so thrilled that Obama won.  SO THRILLED.  This has been a long time coming, and I was really excited to be part of it.  It was also really cool to find out who the president was (*gasp*) on the night of the election.  I have only been eligible to vote in two other elections, and we all know how long it took to figure out the results of those elections.

My excitement about getting a brand-spanking-new president who is eloquent, intelligent and inspiring, however, was tempered by a major defeat in California.  I am really depressed about the passing of Prop 8.

I would like nothing more than to be dancing in the streets right now, but I really can’t.  I have a very bittersweet taste in my mouth, and I could barely sleep last night because I just knew Prop 8 was going to pass.  It’s really depressing and it’s hard for me to be happy right now.  There are a few things I know, however, that are helping me remain optimistic:

• It is only a matter of time before gay marriage is legal.  No matter how you feel about homosexuality, this is a fact, people.  There were a lot of white people who didn’t want people like Y and I to get married 60 years ago.  And you know what?  The Supreme Court overturned laws in states prohibiting interracial marriage, citing that it is unconstitutional to prevent marriage between two people.  And it’s the same for gay people!  Our constitution is gender neutral when it comes to marriage.  It doesn’t get much more simple than that.
• Lawsuits are already forming to appeal this decision.  It is not the right of the voters to decide what is or is not constitutional.  As Stefanie so eloquently stated, it’s the job of the Courts to protect the minority from the majority.  Let’s get on it, people!
• The pendulum is swinging the other direction, finally.  Over the past 8 years, we’ve been living in a VERY conservative country.  But with the green movement and a landslide of a win by a Democrat, I truly believe we are heading in the other direction (finally).  Which leads me to…
• Barack Obama is our rockin’ new president, and he opposed Prop 8.  Let’s see what you can do for us, Barack!

So that’s where I’m at right now.  I am sad about Prop 8, but I am trying to stay optimistic: we have an awesome new president, we made sure that young girls still have a right to privacy and we protected farm animals.  The feminist and vegetarian in me are quite happy.

And now, shall we move on to the election party, which was really fun and creative?

Y and I celebrating Obama’s victory!

Watching McCain’s concession speech (well said, McCain!):

One of the best things about this party were the beverages and foodstuffs, all of which were election-themed.  First, we have “Mav-rickies,” which were DELISH and very strong.  “After a few, you’ll see Russia from your house.”

Red and blue states Jello shots (I prefer the blue, duh):

Blue state cupcakes, courtesy of Marianne–each cupcake was a different state!  I ate Oregon.  Go ducks!

“Don’t &*%^ us, Ohio!” Swing State cookies, which I slaved over.  They’re peanut butter and chocolate, Ohio’s favorite combo.  Thanks for not $%#ing us, Ohio!  Very much appreciated!

Y, watching the results:

A few of my girlfriends and I:

And that is all, folks!  It’s over!  Finally!!  I am so excited to stop feeling anxious all the time.

Anyone else do anything fun for the election?  Or did you sit at home in your jammies and squirm until the results came in?

After a long hiatus (sorry), I am back!   I have been SO BUSY for the past week that I haven’t even had time to catch up on my favorite blogs!  But busy is a good thing.  :)  There are only two more posts (after this one) in my wedding recap!  Sad!  This one is about our cupcakes, which were DELICIOUS.As you might recall, my mom and I made the cake stands for the wedding.  I was totally thrilled with how they turned out; the display was delicious and quirky and totally perfect.

OMG how delicious do these look?!  We got our cupcakes through Sibby’s Cupcakery in San Mateo.  We did VERY extensive research before deciding on them (more on that below).  The folks at Sibby’s are super professional, and they definitely the most delicious cupcakes in the bay area. AND they’re the cutest.  I told them that I wanted the cupcakes to “look like a candy store, with lots of bright colors” and they really delivered.   So. cute.

We weren’t really attached to the idea of a traditional cake cutting, so we decided to feed one another cupcakes instead.  Lucky for us, Sibby’s makes an amazing GIANT cupcake.  Y ordered vanilla and I ordered chocolate (of course), and I made these little “his” and “hers” flags for them.  These giant cupcakes were on taller, smaller stands, so they stood out.

When it came time to eat the cupcakes, we were both very excited.  Actually, I think Y was more excited than I was (as a side note, I changed into my Chinese dress right before the Eating of the Cupcakes.  MAN I love that dress)!

He appears to have enjoyed his more than I did, too!

We’re a little weird:

The day of our wedding was also my cousin’s birthday.  He’s rather shy, but we decided that we HAD to humiliate him by singing him “Happy Birthday” and giving him a special cupcake.   His cupcake said “Happy Birthday Peter.”

Here we are, telling Peter he has no choice but to come up and get his cupcake:

And here he is telling us never to do this again!  He probably still hates me to this day (haha–I hope not!):

After the singing, it was time for people to enjoy their cupcakes!

We anticipated that people would eat a LOT of cupcakes, so we ordered a TON extra.  We had three boxes left over, and the next morning we shared them with the hotel staff and some of our guests while we waited for valet to bring our cars.  We gave my cousins Jeff and Peggie a box to take home, and they gave a cupcake to the lady who checked them in at the airport.  Apparently it was the best cupcake she’d ever had!  Here’s a (clearly non-pro) photo of Peggie and Jeff eating cupcakes at 9am the next morning!  So fun.

If you live in the bay area and happen to be interested in cupcakes, here’s a general overview from our cupcake tasting:

Sibby’s Cupcakery (San Mateo)–Easily the best cupcake I’ve ever had.  She doesn’t mark up her prices for weddings, which I appreciate.  However, they’re still really expensive at $39/dozen, $150 delivery and setup.  Sibby says that setup takes about 2 hours, which we decided to do because we wanted to make sure it actually got done!  She has really cute stands, if you want to go the rental route. 

Citizen Cupcake (San Francisco)–these cupcakes were so bad (dry and nasty) that we didn’t even make it to the cost part of the equation.  NOT recommended AT ALL.

Teacake Bakeshop (Emeryville)–we found these cupcakes to be a little on the dry side, but our main issue was the frosting, which was really waxy.  The cupcakes are $36/dozen, and as far as delivery…they apparently contract out for that, so they charge an unknown amount for delivery and don’t do any setup.

Kara’s Cupcakes (San Francisco)–I’m not going to lie, her cupcakes are good.  We enjoyed them very much.  When we tasted them, her cupcakes were marked up simply because it was a wedding–$45/dozen.  Now I see on their website that the cupcakes are back to $36/dozen (the normal cupcake price).  Delivery is about $30, but no setup.

That Takes the Cake (San Francisco)–I really liked Sara Lynn a lot when I talked to her on the phone.  She was super generous, giving us 8 full-sized cupcakes for our tasting, for free.  However, the frosting was way too sweet for me.  The red velvet was AWESOME, though.  Best red velvet ever.

Love at First Bite (Berkeley)–Their cupcakes were pretty tasty, for sure.  However, I’m not too wild about the fact that they charge $10 for a tasting, and at first I didn’t even want to try them because that irritated me so much.  $36/dozen, about $50 for delivery to the city.   Their customer service was the main reason we didn’t choose them.

American Cupcakes  (San Francisco)–I really liked these cupcakes a lot.  They aren’t quite as cute as Sibby’s, but they were very good–not too sweet.  We almost went with them, but at the end of the day, they weren’t very responsive to my emails or phone calls, which made me kind of nervous.  It probably would have been fine, but I don’t want to be worrying about that, you know?

Sprinkles Cupcakes (Palo Alto)–this place actually opened recently, so they weren’t an option for us.  We did, however, taste their cupcakes recently.  I thought I’d add my two cents!  I wasn’t a fan of Sprinkles, which is a famous cupcake shop in LA.  Their frosting was way too sweet, the cake itself was kind of dry and heavy, and it just wasn’t that great.  I do like their color-coding system, though!

Copy this sentence into your blog if you’re in a heterosexual marriage, and you don’t want it “protected” by people who think that GLBT marriage hurts it somehow.

On a side note, I know I’ve been sucking at updating recently.  I’ll be better, I promise!