Running out of time

Posted Thursday, March 04, 2010 11:18 PM

I am very quickly running out of time.  Much of January and February was devoted to getting our house. Which we did! I am so happy.

But with the house came a lot of work.  Since the house is a new construction, I have had to spackle, paint and clean the place.  And because we're looking at 2500 square feet of house, all of which needs to be painted I have my work cut out for me.

 The good news is that our property taxes will be low because it is a new construction and we got our occupancy permit after the first of the year. 

The bad news is the wedding is slowly creeping up and I am running out of time.  Saturday I go back to Los Angeles and I feel like I haven't done enough.

I also still have to contact my DJ and make sure we can get a screen for our photo montage and send him my letter work for the gobo projection.

I am so tired I am not sure I am remembering everything I have to do.

I hope my FI doesn't try to get the house painted while I am gone, since I only know all the colors I want and I don't think the painters would be as conscientious about it as I would.

Platinum Brides: If you're so rich why are you so dumb?

Posted Sunday, January 24, 2010 7:30 PM

I hate to be a hater, but since I am in the middle of wedding planning myself, I do like to watch the junk tv shows the bridal industry likes to put out in order to dupe women into thinking that spending a gazillion dollars on their weddings will somehow make them a happier, better and a more fulfilled human being.  

Why? Because it's all a bunch of gilded bullsh*t.  I could actually do more with real cow droppings than some of the stuff they put on shows like these. I could take manure and put it all over my garden and grow lots of pretty flowers, whereas all these shows are nothing but a bunch of baloney that isn't good for eating.

 Here are 5 logical reasons why Platinum Weddings does not portray anything remotely realistic, even if we are talking about couples with a gazillion dollars to spend.

1. Virtually all of the shows have their brides pick out their cake like 1 week at the earliest before the wedding.

If you're a real bride, you're bs meter should be going off.  I mean this seriously.  What kind of clueless idiot gives their baker less than a week notice for their wedding cake?  How many bakers are actually willing to work on that timetable without a horrendous mark up?  I don't care if you have one dollar to spend or a million dollars to spend.  Let's just assume the baker can get XYZ cake that you ordered even if you paid as much as three times the cost just because you ordered it at the last minute like a dingbat.  What's the likelihood that given that short timetable they are going to mess something up?  The probability is much higher with that kind of short notice.  Think about it.  If someone gave you a complicated and intricate task with a deadline that is supposed to be done in less than a 1/3 of the time wouldn't you be more likely to make a mistake?  Not exactly condusive to a perfect platinum wedding is it?

More like it's unrealistic and just plain old dumb.

2. Virtually all the episodes have their brides see their flower mock ups two days before the wedding.

Excuse me???!!  Brides, newsflash: your florist orders your flowers from the importer about 2 weeks before your wedding.  Two days before your wedding, if you see your flowers and you don't like them, there is little if anything that florist can do about it.  There isn't a snow ball's chance in hell that when the couple went in, they were seeing their first mock up.   It's totally and completely unrealistic, and if it is true the rich couple looks even more idiotic if they change their minds.

3. Pointless repetitive non-sense: florists gushing about how each flower was imported from a different country.  

In almost every episode I watch they cut to the scene where this ridiculously festive and out to lunch person talks about "the Vandela Roses were imported from Ecuador and the Hydrangeas were imported from Holland."

Here's a little dose of reality: almost all the flowers sold in the retail industry are imported.  The same flowers you buy in the supermarket are the same flowers you bought from Joe Schmoe in the super tight latex pants.

Yeah, your flowers are just as special as if you would have gone to the grocery store and bought them there. But you just paid twice as much for the guy in the pants, and you don't even get to wear them.

4.  Retail Mark up. Whenever you buy flowers from a florist you are paying a retail mark up.  So all those couples who pay $40,000 to $75,000 worth of flowers are actually only getting roughly $20,000 to $38,000 worth of flowers at the most, if they are lucky.  What's that like in real life, ladies?  Going to the Mercedes dealer and driving out with a Toyota[not to mention a big fat dunce hat that should be nailed to your forehead].

Looks pretty dumb on paper doesn't it?

The one couple in particular that I am going to pick on is Andrea and Glen found here:

http://www.wetv.com/platinum-weddings/episodes/andrea-and-glenn

On the show Andrea's bouquet was quoted as costing $1200.00  Yes, that's what they claimed it would cost.  It was this dinky little nosegay with black magic roses and cymbidiums.  It must have had like 12 black magic roses and maybe like 10 cymbidium orchids in it at max.  The bouquet also had some filler of some kind and lots of rhinestones.  

Let's do some math here:

Industry cost of a rose per stem is $0.80 per stem.  So her roses were like $9.60.  Industry cost of a cymbidium blossom is roughly $3.00 per blossom, although they are around $14 per spray with approximately 10 to 12 blossoms per spray.  Let's say for fun the florist paid $3 per stem.  Let's also assume for fun that those cheap looking rhinestones were $25.00 total.  So we're looking at a bouquet that cost approximately  $64.60 to make being marked up to $1200.00.  For those of you that know some math that's roughly a 1,850% mark up in price.  That's approximately 1,750% over industry standard recommended mark up.

And this couple paid for it.  

5. The divorce statistics on marriage are the same no matter how much money you spend on your wedding.  So you're chances being a platinum bride and getting a divorce are about the same as the gal who got married by Elvis at a drive-through wedding chapel in Vegas with change she dug up in the cushions of her couch.  But when you consider that conflict over money is considered to be one of the primary causes of marital strife ending in divorce in the United States, a big 6 or 7 figure bill at the start of your life with your significant other can't exactly be guaranteed ticket to sweet marital bliss the wedding industry likes to paint it as.

Again I hate to be a hater. The old adage goes "If you're so smart, why aren't you rich?"  I am going to echo the famous words of the Laureate Paul Samuelson "If you're so rich, how come you're so dumb?"

Chances are you won't rich for too much longer if you're going to throw you're money away like it's going out of style.

 Better a smart bride with two cents in her pocket than a platinum bride with a million dollars spent and not one single brain cell in her head.

Under Contract and Spoken For

Posted Wednesday, January 20, 2010 7:21 AM

Last time I was bemoaning the house hunting process.  FI and I actually decided to go for that house after seeing a memo that they would be grading the terrain in back of it to allow for 20 to 25 feet of flat land.

Things have been quite a blur, but we managed to put down a contract and now we have a bank lined up to back us up.  My advice to couples looking to buy a house while engaged: if you have a good handle on the engagement process and all the wedding stuff is well in hand(vendors done, everything else ready to go), then go ahead and take the plunge.

Here is what we have learned so far:

1. Before buying a house, get your house in order. By this, I mean: know your finances backwards and forwards in your sleep. Between you and your husband/wife to be you have to know your assets and liabilities, how much each of you make, and what your major expenses are.

2. Make a budget.  I don't care how much money you make,  if you are the type of person that has never bothered to look at a tag on something because you know you can afford it and you have never bothered to sit down and figure out a plan on what to do with your money, chances are you probably won't be in that position forever.  Know how much you spend. Know how much you can spend.  Figure out the things you spend your money on.  The things you need, the things you don't need and the things you can't live with out. Hammer out priorities and stick with them.

3. Have a nest egg.  Even if you don't know what you're saving for.  The power of a large amount of money squirreled away in a bank account for many years is not to be underestimated.  When you are ready to buy the house of your dreams, think of your savings as a concentrated keg of gunpowder you can throw around to blow other buyers and other obstacles out of the way.

Being able to put a large percentage of an asking price of a house down on an offer not only sends the message that you mean business and that you are more competitive to a seller, but it also shows the seller that you will not have a hard time coming up with the rest of the money.

Banks, at least the smart ones[yeah banks and smart in the same sentence, I think I am going to puke], drool over clients who have a lot of money to put down on a loan.

4. Never, ever EVER neglect your credit score.  Your credit score is another important friend. If you're like me, you probably got your first credit card in college.  And even if you did get into some debt over the years, you have always made your payments on time.  Establishing a long history of payment will boost your credit score.  But be wary: never use all of your credit unless it's an absolute emergency.  By absolute emergency I mean life and death.

5. Be aware.  House hunting is a lot like planning a wedding.  The poker face that you had to give your vendors when booking has to be the same as when you're shopping for a house.  Don't look too eager!  It will cost you $$$.

6. Nitpick everything.  Ask lots of questions.  You want to find out as much information as humanly possible.  When you are under contract you have to go through with it unless you want to loose earnest money. Look before you leap.  You didn't agree to marry your FI without seriously seeing the kind of person they were.  Same thing for a house.

7. When you put in an offer, be mentally prepared to walk away.  Just like when you were planning your wedding and you had to deal with vendors.  The house buying process is very much a vote-with-your feet environment. This gives you more negotiating power.

8. Real estate agents, selling agents in particular, can and will use dirty tricks to get you to plunk down more dough than you want to offer.  They tried a bait and switch tactic on us.  After 5 months of a house being on the market, we decided to put down a serious offer.  Two days later we hear back from the selling agent saying there was another offer and that we may want to "rethink" our offer to go about $1000 above any other offer.

Agents, especially if you're a first-time buyer, will assume you are scared, stupid and inexperienced. Don't play their game.  Gee, yeah after 5 months these people had the audacity to tell us they got another offer one day after we put our offer in.  Yeah they viewed the house in the middle of a snow storm, baloney! 

House prices are still falling.  They are projected to drop a nation wide average of 11% in the next year.  That means even if the selling agent's phoney baloney other offer is true, you NEVER want to get into a bidding war.  In a bidding war buyers always loose and the only people that win are the seller and their agent(who is getting a big fat commission off your naivety).

9.  How to get out of the bait and switch:  Tell them you will not entertain an increase in price UNLESS it is in the form of a counter-offer.  Which translates in everyday speak to "look, cut the bull and tell us how much money you want for the place!"  And make an off hand remark to your agent(not in writing) that if they don't counter offer and then they call you up a week later telling you the other offer fell through asking if you are still interested, you will lower your offer by a couple of thousand dollars.  They'll totally do a 180 on you.  Real estate is just as cut-throat as the wedding business.  Being nice will get you burned. Be civil, but don't be a washcloth.

10. Once you are under contract, research and look for several banks.  Don't use just one--you can easily get burned if you're on a deadline.  In fact, it's better to have the bank you plan to use all lined up before you even start looking for your house or even on a contract.

11. Make copies and keep track of all your paperwork and deal in person if possible.

12. Remember everything is negotiable. Most houses go for a couple of hundred thousand depending on what kind of area you live in.  When that kind of money is thrown around, as a buyer you want to take advantage of any and all little extra perks the seller will throw at you. Yeah, nickle and dime them to death if you can.  Every little concession you get will save you money in the end.

13.  Finally remember to be careful what you wish for. Home ownership is not for everyone. Since the real estate market bottomed out, gone are the days where you can invest in a property and hope it's value will grow exponentially.  Buy a house if you plan to live in it and know you have the time and money to maintain it. Just like a car can take time and maintenance, a house is even more time consuming.  You have to clean it,  pay taxes, periodically change fire alarm batteries etc.  

Sometimes you may find yourself having to do maintenance you don't even know how to do, and yet because of money being tight as a result of buying the house you won't be able to hire a professional to do the work. 

For those who are the Do-it-yourself and make-do-with-what-you-have type of people the experience of actually sitting down and learning how to do something that you initially wanted to pay someone else for can be extremely gratifying(especially once you see how much money you saved).  But sometimes the experience is not that gratifying, especially if you don't have any hardware or tools during the first couple of home maintenance projects and you have to purchase them on top of the cost of your materials. 

That's pretty much it from here right now.

House Hunting is Overrated

Posted Monday, January 04, 2010 10:09 PM

The title of today's entry is self-explanatory. Fi and I have been house hunting.  Although we have found a place that we like, there are still potential concerns and questions we have about it that are preventing us from putting down an offer.  Mostly, we're not big fans of the current back yard of this current prospective listingt.  And we're not sure what can be done, if anything.  Moreover if something can be done, exactly how much will it cost over and above what the seller wants?  I am not particularly fond of the idea of buying a place with the immediate need of $20-30K of extra landscaping to be done, but even that is pure speculation at this point.  All I can do is sit and wait for the answers as they become available.  It's frustrating the heck out of me. While I understand that in terms of ideas, things can be grey area, when it comes to something that requires the exchange of money I prefer that things be clean cut, documented and transparent.  

But it isn't.  There's all sorts of lovely games to play, like seeing what the seller of the house previously accepted for a house with a duplicate floorplan as an offer.  And then trying to figure out the cost of the terrain versus that one.

Then there is the possibility that we may not even want this listing altogether depending on how much landscaping is needed, that we may look into having a new house built completely from scratch on terrain of our own choosing.  But, that leaves more variables and an even bigger gray area to deal with.  It doesn't lead to any kind of definite answer, just more questions and more riddles.  All of it comes with the  wedding looming over the horizon just a little over 3 months away, along with the impending first time buyer tax credit deadline. 

Part of me thinks: "Okay, we like it, we need a place let's just get it already!"  The other part of me is like "omg there is a huge chunk of cash being spent here, lets be cautious."  And then the part of me that is frustrated and want's to have a place to decorate is like "Can we please just fast-forward to the part where I get to the painting and decorating? Please???"

On top of that is the fun part of talking with banks about financing options--and that they are calling me and my FI and all hourse of the day. Given last year's financial crisis I am not exactly fond of the prospect of talking to banks.  As far as I am concerned the Wall Street riff-raff that caused the financial melt-down are akin to Ben Kenobi's den of scum and villainy, and should be strung from the rooftops not given a slap on the wrist and a free hand out(which is what our government did).  On top of the fact that deep down, I think alot of these banks had a major hand in causing the current recession, the act of applying for a loan is very reminiscent of going to the gynecologist.

There is a major parallel in it.  There is all your financial information, laid bare to be judged, critiqued, poked and prodded.  The difference of course ending with the fact that gynecologist usually isn't trying to screw you over and get as much money as possible out of you.  Although there are some who do.  In my humble opinion banks in general try to take advantage of every single piece of information you don't know so they can get more money out of you.  They will even go as far as twisting certain figures in order to intimidate you into going with needlessly more expensive financial services from them--like one bank did today.  I won't mention this bank by name, but suffice it to say they are the largest bank in the country and I am not pleased or amused at their latest shenanigans. Yeah, if you work for the largest bank in the US and are reading this blog post, I hope you duck your head in shame.

The only good news in all this has been is that my recent experience in hiring and interviewing vendors has steeled and prepared me to deal with the loan application process.  Putting them in the perspective of "okay, Vendor X, how high are you willing to jump for my money?" instead of the perspective of most people who apply for a loan have "Ooh, won't you please except my application, Mr. Banker.  Here I'll even bend over for you to make it easier . . ." has helped maintain at least a semblance of sanity.

Like I did with my vendors, I plan on pitting this brood of vipers against one another until a clear snake--um, I mean bank, emerges with the best deal.

Groomzilla

Posted Saturday, January 02, 2010 10:20 AM

The bridal industry with its disdain for women who are pretty much left alone and abandoned by their prospective fiancees to navigate the often unfriendly and scrupulous world of wedding vendors, talks endlessly of Bridezilla.

But when it comes to the groom they often think of him as the poor bastard that got stuck with the horrible monster for the rest of his life. He is depicted as the completely innocent victim, rather than the perpetrator who had a hand in turning an otherwise completely normal loving girlfriend into a a raging monster from hell.

So today on my blog I will do a case study of Groomzilla.

Unlike Bridezilla which is typically hands on, micromanages everything, has high expectations, and is completely frazzled, Groomzilla is her alter ego.  He is aloof, hands off, either doesn't care or acts like he doesn't care.  He is the picture of calm when dealing with other people.  He maintains friendly relations with other people, but when it comes to being his bride's best friend he is non-existent.  In many ways Groomzilla is like what in office-political terms is the sea-gull manager: he doesn't communicate, but assumes you know what to do, lets you do what you think is the best way to handle a project and then when he finally remembers to ask you how the project is going(without you bringing it up--that is, if you have to remind him he'll roll his eyes and pretend he's late for a root canal), he either shoots it down, complains how it is too expensive, or just tells you you're flat out crazy.  Then he walks out, more than likely back to his office to play solitaire while you're left picking up the pieces, and if you're the more sensitive type of person, probably trying to find a large enough rock to crawl under so you can cry your brains out.

This particular attitude becomes more acute if Groomzilla has a greater financial contribution to the eventual marriage than Bridezilla currently does.  If she is not working, he may tell her in a condescending tone that while it's all fun and roses for her in Wedding Land, he's taking on "real responsibility" by bringing a paycheck.  So basically, he's belittling any of the work that she has done even if she is under more stress than he is.  Sometimes, he'll throw her a bone and acknowledge that she is more stressed than he is.  But that bone also comes with a slap in the face of him saying that it's her own darn fault for being the sole cause of her stress.

Groomzilla is also marked by his self-imposed cluelessness.   He may erroneously think he has no say in anything wedding-related or that he just doesn't care enough to have a say.  An example: he may think he doesn't have to go try on tuxes because he's waiting for Bridezilla to pick one out for him because "she cares more out it than I do."  To the bride that is already trying to herd her bridesmaids which is often akin to herding cats, that is equated with him pretty much not caring enough about the wedding as much as she does.  To her, she cares about the wedding because she sees it as a way to express how much she loves him.  When he sends the message that he doesn't care, Bridezilla becomes an even bigger monster.  She will become more vocal and more difficult to please.  She may even go as far as to make more extravagant wedding plans with the hope of getting Groomzilla interested, or at least interested enough to talk to her.

While many Bridezillas are case studies for poor time management skills, Groomzillas are often the culprit: He'll think "the wedding is 1 year away, all I have to do is get a tux and show up."  Six months away from the wedding he will say to himself "the wedding is 6[he's still thinking 1 year away] months away, all I have to do is get a tux and show up."  Almost two months away from the wedding he'll think "the wedding is 2[still thinking 1 year away] months away, I have plenty of time to get a tux and show up."

So while he is thinking he has plenty of time to get his tux and show up, Bridezilla is dealing with: invitation mailings, final dress fittings, last minute additions to the guest list, decor and anything else under the sun that her vendors can throw at her.  

And when she tries to talk to him, all she can talk about is wedding-related items because she is so stressed and frazzled about the whole thing that she desperately needs his reassurance that things will be okay, that he cares about her and appreciates all the work that she's done.  But all she gets from Groomzilla is a roll of the eyes or a grunt.

And although Bridezilla is the one who is hiring and dealing with the vendors who are more than eager and willing to call her by that name, they are quick to jump to Groomzilla's aid and use sexist cultural stereotypes to justify his behavior such as "Men aren't into that type of thing," or "that's normal for the Groom not to be involved--most guys that are super-involved in wedding planning are gay anyway!"  Yes, ladies and gentlemen, that last phrase was a little gem I heard from a florist. 

 So remember, whenever you watch that show on WEtv, that focus on how crazy a Bridezilla is during her wedding planning process, they are filming to get ratings not to tell the whole story.  For every Bridezilla that walks down the aisle, there is an equal and just as bad, if not worse, Groomzilla waiting for her at the altar.

Honeymoon Plans Postponed

Posted Tuesday, December 29, 2009 6:44 PM

So Phil(my FI) and I were kicking around the idea of a European honeymoon after our April 17th wedding.  Phil wanted to go to Rome(since he lived/studied there for about a month) while I wanted Paris(since I also lived/studied there for a month also).

The two of us both know our way through both Italy and France.  His Italian isn't great, but having 3 romance languages under my belt, I can pretty much understand what people are trying to tell me.  And as for France, well I lived there for a month without knowing any French prior, and I seemed to have gotten along just fine. I will say this to anyone who is going to go to Paris.  Central Paris is awesome! It's like being at Disneyland.  You cannot get lost.  No matter where you are in the city you are always like 50 feet away from a metro stop. So you go down to the metro, look at the map, figure out where you are and where you want to go and there you go!

 But the issue is the funds for our honemoon are coming from his main general savings account which will also be used as a down payment for our new home.  Right now, we are trying to hurry through the process because we NEED to find a place to live before the wedding.

 So we sat down together and discussed priorities.  What was more important?  Two weeks in Europe or nice place to live in for the next 50+ years(hopefully).  

At this point after seeing all the money that is being spent on the wedding, I don't blame any of the girls that choose to have a destination wedding with only a few close friends and family members.  The great benefit to that would be to put all that extra money into our down payment.  We're looking to put down $50k on our new house.  If we had done the destination route for the wedding it would have been more like $70k.

The main reason we didn't do that was because we have been together for so long, we figured we deserved to have a big party(not really that big, our guest list is roughly 100 to 120) people. 

NWR: Recital Woes

Posted Saturday, December 19, 2009 5:05 AM

As a classically trained singer with 10 years of one-on-one training, I am used to having to perform in front of an audience, sometimes on the fly. My teacher is like mother to me, and vocally, she knows her stuff.  But one thing about her that really, really gets on my nerves is that she can be extremely disorganized(almost to the point where it's inexcusable)

Case and Point:  I told her that I would be leaving to go and see Phil, my fiancee, this December(just like I have done every December for the past 6 years) for the Holidays.

Now sometime mid November it dawned on her to have a recital sometime right before Christmas.  And I told her in advance, I want to see my fiancee and that she better have it before I go because otherwise I am not going to be singing.

I even had to book a plane flight that was twice as expensive that what I usually fly out to St. Louis on the 20th of December, two weeks later than when I usually leave.  I told her on the phone before Thanksgiving that the latest I could still make it to the recital was the 19th of December.

 Well, guess what date she picked:  you guessed it, today, the 19th of December.  The dieting that I have done to fit into my dress(I'll get to the dress later) this week has affected the richness of my voice. My tone is a little thinner than it was, and my stamina is a bit lacking in order to give it the smoothness I like to have.

I am performing 3 pieces from my repertoire this afternoon:

Panis Angelicus  by Cesar Frank

The Trees on the Mountain  by Carlise Floyd

Mein Glaubiges, Herze, Frohlocke  by Johann Sebastian Bach

The Panis is a fairly straightforward piece that almost anyone with a half-decent voice can perform.   But it sounds better when a singer with great technical know-how and vocal training does it.  You can look up Luciano Pavarotti on Youtube.  Just type in "Pavarotti Panis Angelicus."  The difference is night and day when compared to a more contemporary and less experienced tenor like say Andrea Bocelli.

Trees is right now the hardest aria in my repertoire.  It is hauntingly beautiful, the first time I heard it it made me want to cry.  The melodic line is deceptively simple.  The combination of 1 1/2 octive jumps, high tessatura, and wide notation of this song(going from a d flat above middle c to a high b flat just below high c) make it treacherous even for an experienced singer.  There are many songs that sound nice no matter who sings them, and then there are songs that are so technically difficult they expose every single flaw in a singer's voice.  This song is one of them.  Look up Renee Fleming on Youtube: "Renee Fleming Trees on the Mountains," it should be there.  In my opinion though her voice is too thick for the song, it looses a lot of its purity and sultriness when sung by a dramatic soprano.

Mein Glaubiges is a piece I know from singing in choir,  it translates to "My heart ever faithful."  It's a fast song, from the Baroque period, it goes up high and requires a great deal of flexibility and breath control. Because it is Baroque the beat must be followed perfectly(those darn Germans and their clock-like exactness) which is tricky because the melody again is so delightful it is easy to get ahead of the beat.  If you look up Kathleen Battle on Youtube using "Kathleen Battle My heart ever faithful," you can see she falls into that trap too and is not exact on the beat. Even though she has the voice for it, she's being sloppy. The reason I know is that I tried to sing it the way she was doing and my teacher was like "What are you doing?  You are totally ahead of the beat.  It's wrong. All wrong!"

On top of these songs, yesterday, we had our dress rehearsal.  Due to poor time management and all sorts of drama on my teacher's part, we didn't finish until almost 10 pm at night. And we didn't go over every song, we didn't even get our programs.

One thing I TRULY HATE is that I am forced to do ensemble work(sing with other singers).  I have been there; I've done that. I know how to do it since I've sung in choirs for the past 17 years--I don't care for it anymore.  Well she subjects me to singing with other singers who cannot harmonize to save their lives. On top of it all, even though I have the strongest soprano voice of all her students with the highest range, I am relegated to sing the alto parts because I can pull off harmonizing against the melodic line without getting lost like the others.  And what is worse, that an hour of the 2 hour lesson that I get from her each week was devoted to stupid ensemble work!  Seriously, I am not paying her to learn how to do choral work.  I could learn that elsewhere for free!

This recital will be my last with this teacher, and more than likely I will not have any more lessons with her when I get back to Los Angeles.  When I move to St. Louis, I will have to find a new teacher, hopefully one I jibe with better.

The thing that really worries me is that I made the mistake of putting her into by bridal party.  And I have a sinking feeling she's going to be more of a hindrance than a help. My fiancee was very upset at me for asking her since he thinks she's very self-absorbed and has not done enough to help me develop professionally as a singer.  He keeps harping on it every day, and I have to snap at him and tell him "okay, enough already!"

I have to pack after the recital, put my invites together, and then decide if I want to bring Clovis along on this trip out to St. Louis also.  My plane leaves at 8:00 am on the dot on Sunday from LAX.

On a side note: I have no idea why I was selected Knottie Blog of the week.  Much of my blog has been a way to blow off steam, some of it wedding related and other parts not so much.  I try to be informative with major issues like gown shopping, and reception venue shopping(both very important issues when planning a wedding).  They can both be easy money sinkers.