the closest i’ll ever get to don draper.

this is how i would look in an episode of mad men. i think it’s pretty accurate, and not far from how i dress now. one of my biggest regrets about canceling cable is that we won’t be able to watch the new season of mad men.

set up your own scene here.

the tanbergs.

last weekend was audrey and erica’s wedding. i’ve been waiting for everyone’s pictures to turn up before reporting. the wedding was at craven farms in snohomish, washington. they were lucky to have an absolutely beautiful day.

the day started early for those of us in the wedding party who were also the setup crew. it took us a couple of hours to set up and organize the room. during this time i got to know erica’s friends, all of whom are awesome good natured people. after everything was set up, there was couple of hours of downtime that was interspersed with organizing caterers and last minute details. i do not envy wedding planners, their jobs are stressful.

once we were all in our tuxes or dresses, a million pictures were taken. the photographer had us jumping up and down under a tree, posing as pirates in a ship, and idolizing the couple while they sat in a barn door. all of the photographer’s pictures can be found here.

the ceremony was heartfelt and joyfully tearful. there wasn’t a dry eye in the wedding party or most of the crowd. audrey and erica’s love for each other was felt by everyone.

after some mingling time, the new couple came out for their first dance together. they had an delightfully adorable routine planned, it was so cute watching them. after their dance the wedding party did a square dance that was meant to be a surprise for the crowd. we had a lot of fun doing the dance, even if it was a little sloppy. video of the dances is here. sorry you need a facebook account to see it, i used morgan’s.

then came dinner, and some of the most loving and moving toasts i have ever heard. a highlight was audrey’s mom serenading them with “the nearness of you”. it is clear that everyone agrees that audrey and erica are a perfect match.

my crippling fear of public speaking kept me from doing a toast. here’s what i should have said.

i only have a small group of friends, it seems that i really try to collect a family. audrey has become a like a sister to me, and the daughter my mom always wanted. when i first met audrey years ago, we instantly hit it off. she proved to be a reliable friend, a great dancing partner,  an up for anything travel companion, and one of the best roommates. when i moved out to seattle and she moved to boston, almost ten years ago, i was a worried that we might lose touch, thankfully that didn’t happen. i was overjoyed when audrey moved to the pacific northwest, it was the magnetic pull of rachelle and i, she couldn’t stay away from us. it took audrey a while to find her footing in seattle, but when it did everything slowly fell into place, culminating with her meeting erica. i have never seen audrey so happy, something she deserved since she devotes much of her time to making other people happy. although i haven’t spent a lot of time with erica, i connected with her quickly, and knew that audrey had found someone special. i couldn’t be happier for the two of them, i love them both.

after the toasts there were cupcakes from trophy cupcakes and dancing to tunes provided by status. it was a wonderful and beautiful wedding. and a great start to audrey and erica’s life together. i hope they had a fabulous and relaxing time in hawaii this past week.

i have to let it seep in.

john hodgman gave a speech last night at the radio and television correspondents dinner in d.c. last night, he spoke after pres. obama. he gave a obama a witty nerd salute.

designed for the 13-30 age group.

some gems from the jctv channel that our digital converter box picks up. christian music videos can be mesmerizing. the first and last one you need to click on the video and watch it from youtube direct, jesus doen’t allow embedding on sundays.

showbread – mouth like a magazine (gospel yeh-yeh with a message)

kj-52 – kj five two (respectful rap)

norma jean – robots 3 human 0 (hardcore?)

a friend of twitter.

i’ve been a fan of twitter for a while now, i’ve done my best to recruit people. it’s hard to convince people that twitter is more than a time vortex, like myspace and facebook, which it’s not. unless you’re following hundreds of people, you can’t spend more than ten minutes reading and commenting on other peoples tweets (for some reason i don’t like that they’re called that). it is easy to get sucked into checking it all the time, but since i am not in front of a computer all day, that’s not a problem for me. then there is that whole “why does anyone care?” argument. i think that twitter is one of the best ways to keep up with friends far and near, especially since i never call anyone. if your following friends, you should at least be a little interested in what they are doing and what they are up to. as long as their not post every stupid thing their doing, which i may be a little guilty of. as keight once said in a tweet “life is often interesting”.

speaking of keight she recently posted a link to an article on her site that did a good job explaining twitter, in defense of twitter.

i wish he could bake flowers.

i have a lot of complaints about my job, but one thing that make work worth going to is that i know i’m appreciated. on my birthday several classed sang to me, a friend made delicious brownies and one of the preschool classes made me a book, that i just have to share.

something to smile about.

when i got this plant i was told that it would never flower, but it would be a great foliage plant. well seven years later, the plant defied the odds and flowered.

buy me a present?

i vaguely remember someone telling me about this before, and i quickly forgot about it till some internet stumbling brought me to this.

the instrument he is playing is called the stylophone and it would fit in nicely with my growing collection of instruments that i can only play when i am home alone.

not quite full of ennui.

i’m back to portland now and am in need of distraction so i hope to be posting quite a bit. i have a couple of drafts to finish, and a few ideas. plus i need to get used to the new set up of wordpress, they unveiled a new version during my hiatus. i would also like to do some design changes to the site.

winter 2008.

posts will hopefully resume sometime after the new year. life has taken several turns over the last two months. so keep an eye out for me.

i have been using twitter quite a bit, so check the link below and sign up.