Here comes the bride!

Well, the wedding is over! It went so, so well! It was so great to see everyone look so beautiful. We had such a great time. There will be a longer update eventually, especially when we get the professional photos back.

But for now... thank you to everyone!

I love you, Jon!




(Thanks to my dear friend Amanda for the photo!)

Today's the day!

It's finally here, and we couldn't be more excited!

We hope to see you all there! Once again, here are the maps and directions, in case you need them.

German invasion

This weekend we hosted an international guest. I speak (well, actually type) , of course, of Philipp, our friend from Germany. Philipp has been a dear friend of ours ever since we met him in high school.

He was a foreign exchange student at the time at MacArthur HS and became friends with some MHS people I hung out with regularly. We got along well as fellow nerds often do, communicating through the international languages of binary and JavaScript. After he left to return to his homeland, we stayed in touch and he came to the U.S. to visit us again in the summer of 2004. Needless to say, we were surprised and delighted to find out that Philipp would be present at our wedding!

So after he flew into the States on Friday, he came to our house and we partied all weekend... and by partied, I mean played video games. But it was a lot of fun and we are definitely looking forward to everyone being there next weekend!

Speaking of which, holy crap the wedding is close! In a lot of ways, I feel like I'm ready for it; but I keep thinking there's so much left to do. I'm not sure there really is that much left to do, but it feels like it sometimes.

return to blogging!

It has been FAR too long since we've updated! Things are just so busy lately!

There is plenty to report to! My trip to California was great, and it is alos great to be back. The wedding planning is nearly complete, as it is less than a month until the big day! Things will hopefully calm down a bit afterwards.

Here is a photo I took in California after a difficult hike. More to come...

Bachelor chow

Allie's been gone to California for almost a week now. (I'm going to pick her up tomorrow, yay!) But I've managed to keep myself busy while she's been gone. Here are some of the projects/adventures I've had in the mean time.

Before Allie left for California, we went camping in a place called Graham Cave State Park. It was really pretty fun! Here's a photo I took of my knee and our campfire.


Then we hung out in St. Louis until her flight. We went to a Whole Foods for the first time, which was really awesome. Then we just kinda chilled at our hotel and Allie got ready for her departing flight, which was really early in the morning.

In the time since Allie flew away, I've managed to stay busy and take a few decent-ish pictures on my phone in the process. I rented and watched V from Netflix, which was interesting. A package came that Allie had ordered, which included these awesome items:

(whatever this thing is)

I also managed to do quite a bit of cleaning around the house that I'd been meaning to do for a long time. Ah, but I see the cat hair is already accumulating on our living-room floor once again. Oh well.

Today I went to the dentist and found out (not surprisingly) that I need a significant amount of dental work. I'm scheduled to get a root canal and a crown in mid-October and a small filling in November, then probably a few more crowns next year. Oh well... that's what dental insurance is for! While I was at my (new) dentist, I saw that he had proudly displayed the 2005 "Provider of the Year" award he received from CCHCC in the same office as his DDS diploma and Illinois state dentistry license. I was so excited (and wanted to show Allie) so I took a picture with my phone (You can almost read it):


Holy crap, the wedding is getting really close now... Eeep! I'm besided!


In geeky news, I've spent the past few days using Windows Vista Release Candidate 1 on my laptop. It is actually pretty good. I've only had it totally freeze up on me once, which is impressive for an OS that's still unfinished. The coolest eye-candy thing they've done is called Flip3D. Here's a video that gives you an idea of how it works. Aside from the aesthetic improvements, I looked through all the Group Policy settings today and noticed that a ton of stuff that I've always wished I could set by GPO (Power Options comes to mind) will be configurable in a Vista environment. Now that is exciting!

Other than that, I've just been watching reruns of Futurama, TOS, DS9, etc. all week

So tomorrow I drive to STL and pick up Allie. Hooray! The bachelor week comes to a close.

Muuur!

ALTHOUGH, there is something super important that I should write about!

We got yet ANOTHER kitty! This is it though! Our house is full!

We got this little one from my family in Oklahoma too, just like Edgar. Her original name was Abby, but that is my Mom's cat's name. So we have named her Joy because she is such a joy. She is SO sweet, she loves toes, and L-O-V-E-S Lenny and Edgar. They all get along really well. She's about 8 months old, but is only about as big as Edgar (4 months old).

One thing that has surprised me... its amazing how MUCH food three cats can eat!




Joy + Edgar = <3


Joy + Lenny = <3


Pile of Cats (tm)

biz

Super busy lately! No time!

But here is a cute picture of Jon and I.




PS. I go to California in SIX DAYS! A-w-e-s-o-m-e!

Plan B over-the-counter!

((I'm stealing alot of this text from my co-organizer Brooke's blog, but she wont mind! And besides, I couldn't have written it better myself!))

Wow, what a huge day.

This morning, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved emergency contraceptive pill, Plan B, for sale over-the-counter to women 18 and older. Emergency Contraception (or EC) is a special dose of ordinary birth control pills that can prevent unintended pregnancies if taken up to five days after unprotected intercourse, contraceptive failure, or sexual assault. It does not cause an abortion and has no effect if a woman is already pregnant.

EC is most effective the sooner it is taken, but previously EC required a doctor's visit and physician prescription, making it difficult for many women to get a prescription in time for it to be effective. So, women nationwide launched a campaign to get EC made available without a prescription.



My job at Champaign County Health Care Consumers is the lead organizer for the Campaign for Access to Emergency Contraception.

We have held rallies, hosted community forums, conducted pharmacy surveys, went on lobby visits to our legislators, got physicians to write advance prescriptions for EC and later to give away free EC on the spot, sent Valentines to the FDA, held house parties, spoke in classes, and otherwise worked our butts off to promote easier EC access. And it paid off! EC is now available for sale over-the-counter. It is lamentable, and a damn shame, that the FDA is too short-sighted to also approve the pill for non-prescription use by women 17 and younger as well, particularly after highly reputable studies show that young women are no less capable of taking the medication without a doctor's supervision, nor are they any more likely to engage in sexually risky behavior when they had ready access to EC. But, today's decision is still a huge advance for women!





Thank you Brooke and Claudia, for being my inspiration and all the women out there who made this victory possible.

It's great to feel part of something.

Important life events

Our car recently reached an important milestone...




YES, that is SIX (6) sixes - with a 1 in front.

True love.

Jon + Edgar = <3

Supastar!

Allie is on the radio!

Click HERE to listen. [below "This Week's Public Square]


I got to go record a 3 minute radio spot for our local public radio, WILL 580 AM. They have a segment each Friday at airs at 4:45pm and 6:45pm, and this week I was the featured speaker! Woo hoo. I got to do this for my job, of course.

Let me know if you want to know more about the issue!

Razzle-dazzle-good-time!

So, this weekend was the Decatur Celebration, and for the last few years we have volunteered for the Roving Characters. This means we dress up in outrageously hot costumes and walk around in the roasting sun to entertain millions dozens of kids! They hug us... we sweat... they dash across the street away from their parents safe grasp to see their favorite cartoon character... we sweat... sometimes they cry... always we sweat.

It's lots of fun, supporting the home town pride! Usually we have some crappy costumes (generic brown bear, odd looking bunny, etc) but this year we had all REAL popular characters! And every year for the last 4 years at least one of us has made it into the newspaper. Although this year we did not get the font page, Ashley still made it in as Blue!





Elmo = Allie
Sponge Bob = Jon
Blue = Ashley
Shrek = Jeremy

You're invited

We've sent our invitations out. If you don't receive one soon, and you think you should, let us know. (You can comment here and we'll get it.) We forgot to put return addresses on the first (and by far the largest) batch of them, so we're a little afraid that some of them may just vanish into thin air.

Check your mailbox for one of these:



As always, you can get up-to-date wedding info here on our blog, and on our website.

Spam ruins everything

So I have been forced to turned on "word verification" on our blog. What this means is that, if you want to post a comment, you'll have to do something to prove you're a human being. It usually consists of reading some funky-looking text, like this:


And typing in exactly what it says. This is something that's very difficult for a computer to do automatically, but relatively easy for a person to do.

I didn't want to use this feature, because it's annoying. But today we got comment-spammed (about 50 comments were posted in a 30 second period; all of them linked to shifty sales websites), so my hand has been forced.

Where's the food?

Edgar has a question.... or at least his tail does!

The times, they are a-shifting

So Allie and I have entered the world of 21st century television. Our TiVo (our first DVR) arrived yesterday, along with one year of the TiVo service. We set it up and I added a few "Season Pass" recordings (i.e., shows that the TiVo should always record) last night. We played around with pausing/rewinding "Live TV." It's really neat. Sure beats the hell out of the digital box we had from our cable provider.

They say it changes the way you watch television, but I suspect it will still mostly consist of sitting, snacking, and absent-mindedly browsing the web. :)

Muuuuur

Yes, my life does consist of me sitting around taking pictures of my cats.

Visit us on the intarwebs!

So Allie and I bought a domain (read: website). Right now we're focusing on putting information about the wedding up, so it's not terribly pretty. Eventually there will be photos and stuff too! Check us out here:
allieandjon.com

Look at me!

Attention people of this world!


Allison Jones has a new email address!

please remove: shna60(at)juno(dot)com

please add: allisonjones(at)juno(dot)com

xoxox

~ Allie

What if...

(from Saturday Night Live)

[EDIT] Apparently NBC has very uncool-ly instructed YouTube to remove this video. However, through the magic of the internet, you can still see it here.

Pttthhhhh!

He must be dreaming about eating!

Countdown!

WOAH!

Less than 100 days [96 to be exact] to The Big Day™!!

Pretty exciting!

wrist rest

Needless to say, the cats are getting along great.

Our new baby

WE GOT A NEW KITTY!!!

He is so cute and funny and playful! My Aunt Julie who lives in Oklahoma found him about 2 weeks ago just sitting on top of her tractor all alone crying! She has quite a few inside cats already, so we offered to take him. He's about 2 months old now, and SO PLAYFUL. He and Lenny are getting along great, although I think he's going to wear Lenny out very quickly. We've decided to name him Edgar - named after a character on a tv show that we really like.

"Nothing makes the earth seem so spacious as to have friends at a distance; they make the latitudes and longitudes"

Tonight my heart is aching a bit for old friends.

You are all loved.

Grow old along with me! The best is yet to be, the last of life, for which the first was made. ~Robert Browning

Well, 23 years ago today I burst forth into this world, pink and screaming, to the horror amazement of my parents. Soon to follow would be my (ever) late twin sister, equally loud I'm sure.

My mother groaned, my father wept,
into the dangerous world I leapt;
helpless, naked, piping loud,
like a fiend hid in a cloud.
~ William Blake



Its been a good 23 years, and I can't wait to see what the next 23 have in store!

Happy Birthday dear sister. <3


Also, thank you to everyone who wrote, called, texted, emailed, whatever. I felt very loved today. Thank you Jon, Mom, Dad, Grandma, Bill, Sue, Jenny, Cory, Jordan, Jamie, Ashley, Katie, Doug, Grant, Claudia, Jeff, Paulette, Sharon, Kim, Elin, Clare, Sharon, Sarah, Evan, and anyone else who sent me warm thoughts. You are all in my heart.

Laptop maintenance

Allie's laptop has been getting hot lately, so we took it apart to clean out the dust and (let's face it) cat hair. First of all, the documentation on HP's website (it's a Compaq) was really bad. We had to take out waaay too many parts to get to the CPU fan (which is something you usually need to do about once a year on a laptop). I know on most "business-class" laptops, there's just one panel to get to the fan/heatsink. Anyway, so we got it open and took out this little thing:

It's pretty much all cat hair. Except the quarter. I don't know how that got in there...

Oh, and my new job is going very well, thanks for asking.

P.S.: John Hodgman rules! I love PCs!

Photo-rama!

Finally! Jon got me a new gadget thingie - so now I can get my pictures off my camera! Thank you Jon!! I have too many good ones to post all at once, so I'll try to spread them out a bit.

Here is a cute picture of various family members. My Aunt Julie and cousins were up visiting from Oklahoma, and while they were here went to the zoo.



Also, a few friends of ours got married the other weekend. Here is a photo of a few of us ladies lookin' fine!

one fine day

I'm sorry we haven't been posting much lately. I left my camera cord in Washington DC back in January, and since then we've been using Jon's computer to get the pictures off of my camera card. However, about two weeks ago Jon's computer FREAKED OUT and is pretty much dead. So I have about three weeks of awesome pictures on my camera, just begging to be posted, but with no way to retrieve them.

Jon started his new job today! Woo hoo! Go Jon!

We went to our friend's wedding this weekend, though, which was quite fun. I'll be putting up pictures eventually!

In our own wedding news, we've been doing a good deal of planning, including picking the final bridesmaid dresses. So, here you go!

dun dun dun dun

The biggest news is....

I GOT A WEDDING DRESS!

It was the one I wanted, it fit very well, and was reasonably priced!!




And YES, I look as good as the lady in the picture.

They call me the Working Man

"GULLIBLE WHITE GEEK WITH EXPENDABLE INCOME" is right... At least the part about income.

I finally got a "real" job! I'll be working as a consultant with CITES Departmental Services. It's gonna be awesome! This page pretty much describes my job.

I start June 12. I'm going to miss working at MIE, but it will be real nice to have actual benefits.

Go me!

GULLIBLE WHITE GEEK WITH EXPENDABLE INCOME

Not much to post lately, I guess.

Work is busy, but good.
This week is going to rule, tv wise! Season finales of: 24, House, Lost
I get to hang out with my sister tomorrow.
I get to go to Ikea this weekend!

Woo hoo!

Happy Mother's Day!

Arise, then, women of this day!
Arise, all women who have hearts!

Happy Mother's Day to all those Mommies out there - those that were, those that are, and those that will be.

I learned today that the idea of Mother's Day in the US orginated back in 1870 as a call for peace and disarmament. Click here to learn more.


*****************************
Much love to our own mothers
*****************************

Being so cool.

A few random pics from the last week or so...


The awesome dinner I made for Jon the other day! We had vegi-chicken kabobs, big green salads, and baked potatoes with all the fixins. Mmmm...




Me and my CCHCC peeps at the bar across the street from our office. It was one of our co-workers last day in the office since she graduated college and is moving on!




And finally, a photo from the BEST afternoon of my life. There are people in this world who amuse me so!




Check out this video for more info!

Which ones are the animals?

A few friends and I went to the zoo the other weekend.
Enjoy!

Devlin gets eaten by a Lion!



Look at those strange creatures!




And finally... what is more mature than turtles doin' it!

Fun times

So a couple funny pictures...

Apparently, if your hot dog is tarnished, you can purhcase something at this gas station that will help rectify that problem.

Also, Allie and I went out to our favorite Mexican restaurant and I tried to feed this bird that landed near our table.
Upon closer inspection, the bird was actually painted on the wall. But that didn't keep me from trying.

It has been a rediculously long time since either Jon or I have posted - 2 weeks! I do love you blog, I promise. Work and life and everything has just been crazy. So, until something cool happens, I will leave you with a cool picture of four little eggs. This birdie built a nest in the wreath on the front of Jon's parent's door. You have to be really careful when you open the door to make sure you don't knock any of the eggs out!

Here's to your eventual hatching and flying away, little birdies!

Pixelated imagery

So now that I've had my phone for a couple weeks, I decided to do something with the pictures I've taken with it. Some of them weren't any good, so here are the best three.

Lenny loves to sit in our dining room chairs and play through the bars in the back. He thinks he's such a tough kitty... take a look:

This one's my favorite. It's from the Home and Garden show at the Assembly Hall a while back. There was a booth about (I'm guessing) sidewalks and keeping them even. They had this little sculpture on their table:


Heehee.