Oof. Again, super-long silence here. Holiday season is always insanely busy for me, between baking the usual 20 dozen or so cookies, the crocheting everyone's gifts last minute/late, shopping with no money... good times.

But we did have a lovely holiday - I promise to eventually finish my post about Thanksgiving and Tom proposing. Really. Christmas morning, we chatted with his family via a Skype video call; Christmas afternoon/evening, we went up to Rochester to visit my family. New Year's Eve, we stayed in and ate cheese, the day after, we had a holiday party at Sam's, the day after THAT, we had the Paper Factory Christmas party, which was fun as always.

My birthday, I was off work and had a lovely lazy day, then went out to a less-special dinner, as yesterday, when we were both off work, we went out for a movie and a better dinner (all Tom's treat). We'd been looking forward to the new Tron movie for.. oh god, probably as long as it's been in development. Wanted to see it in 3D.. but we arrived at the theater (an hour's drive, to a theater we don't usually go to) only to find their projector broken. Buuut as the credits finished, there was a note that some scenes were 2D amidst the 3D, which means that despite the impression we'd had, the movie wasn't totally intended to be seen in 3D. This is very confusing for us, as we'd rather see it in whatever format it was originally meant to be seen in.

Either which way, I LOVED the movie. Tom was a little less than impressed, buuut.. The plot to the original is really pretty bad. I wasn't expecting much. What I was hoping-against-hope for, was atmosphere, and that, they totally nailed. The soundtrack is absolutely perfect and staggering. The visuals kept so true to the spirit of the original, that I couldn't be happier.

Dinner.. we wanted something different. Melting Pot is lovely, but, we've been so many times now. We were going to try out a pizza place, but, the location our gps took us to was closed. So, we went for sushi. Fuji Grill, up in Williamsville. The sushi? was deliiiiicious. The eel rolls we had for an appetizer were amazing. Tom failed to be impressed with the miso soup - "When I go out somewhere for miso soup, I expect something better than what I can get at home." "...maaaybe you should just accept that I'm a decent cook?" And, unfortunately, my suspicion about the sake was correct - we were brought the same bottle of (slightly cheaper) sake that we can pick up at our local small-town liquor store. I thought it was delicious anyway, though Tom was a little annoyed. He can be such a food snob. But the restaurant had a lovely, cozy atmosphere, and the sushi was delicious, and it was a really lovely time.


In wedding news.. Tom and I sat down and worked out some budgeting yesterday, and worked out what we'll be able to save, and thus be able to spend on it all. It's not a huge amount, but I think plenty enough to have a lovely day - so much of the pretty is going to be in the details, and those, I can handle. :) I have plots. And not only am I myself an artsy person, but holy crap have I built up local connections. ;)

We spent quite a bit of time yesterday looking at hotels in Kyoto - Tom's taking charge of the honeymoon plans. His parents.. I cannot even put into words how generous they're being with making that trip our gift. It's going to be amazing. I think I've convinced Tom to pick out a slightly more Japanese style hotel, and they all look really gorgeous. He's growing a lil terrified of taking a trip to a whole different country on our own, but I'm just excited. If I survived a trip to Italy as a 16-year old.. granted, it was largely super-supervised, but not every minute of it, and nobody in my group knew Italian (beyond "please", "thank you", "shut up", and eventually "exit"). We'll be just fine. :)

I have spent my morning up to my nose in planning again. Sifted through some more locations today, checked out a couple new ideas, revisited some previous ones. Sonnenberg Gardens, lovely as they are, the reception alone would devour my entire budget. Sooo that's a no-go. (Just as well - it was the farthest away of the places I was looking at.) The Buffalo Botanical Gardens are looking better and better though - Sunday afternoons are extra-cheap, and even the regular price is manageable. Also - I recently learned that Tom was originally planning to propose to me there. Which adds a little something, I think. :)

He likes my idea of maybe going as late as September with the wedding, and I'm liking it more as well. September is still gorgeous around here, it's still warm without being deadly, it's just off-season enough that costs might be a little less, aaaand it will maximize the amount of planning/saving time. ;p

Labels: family, friends, life in general, movies, storytime, wedding