Clock Ticking Weekend

Friday evening our officiant Taylor came over to discuss the plans for the wedding – still some key stuff to figure out, but all going well. This week must see some milestones though. In the end we didn’t get much actual planning done, but it was good to talk things through and brainstorm a bit. We have a few nice surprises for our guests…

We had a pretty quiet weekend, although we managed to squeeze in a nice trip to the Chabot Space & Science Center on Saturday. We’ve been taking each of Cassie’s nephews out for a day trip. We took Bennett (Nephew #2) to the zoo a while back, and now it was Theo’s (Nephew #3) turn. The others will come later.

I’ll be honest, I really wanted to go here, because I’m fascinated with space and science and all that. I used to love the Science Museum in London, sometimes taking an afternoon off work to have a wander around. It was pretty good – although it would be even better to go in the evening, when the telescopes are open and you can take a look at some amazing stuff.

Theo enjoyed it, which is the main thing. There was also a big wraparound-screen movie show about Paleontology and Dinosaurs, narrated by Michael Douglas – some irony there? It was pretty impressive, although the CGI didn’t hold up too well compared to modern blockbuster standards. I guess academia and museums just don’t have the money. It was good to see dinosaurs represented with feathers, as is now the theory, and also to have the difference between dinosaurs and the ancestors of crocodiles explained (although the scene with a huge prehistoric crocodile eating a small dinosaur confused Theo, because “dinosaurs are bigger than crocodiles”). By 4.30 we were all knackered, so we headed back down the twisty hill road and back to Orinda, before sliding back over the Bay Bridge and home. I will admit I dozed off in the car (I wasn’t driving, obviously).

In the evening we debated going out, while lounging around on the sofa, before realizing the sofa was too comfortable to leave, so we ordered food in and watched Night Catches Us, an excellent film set in the 1970’s about a young man returning to the neighborhood where he had been involved in the Black Panther movement. Cassie wanted to watch it because a friend of a friend wrote and directed it, and it was well worth it.

Sunday was a mellow domestic day. I’ve been fighting off a mild cold for a week, so I stayed home while Cassie went out with her pal Chandra (aka the burlesque performer Ruby White) for brunch. There was the usual chores to do, laundry, dishes etc, mixed in with some episodes of House, and of course walking Gordon in the rain.

Handy Tip! If your vacuum cleaner makes the air smell stale, take a small piece of tissue, add a couple of drops of scented oil (Cassie is fond of lavender), and then vacuum it up. The scent will fill the room while you vacuum – very nice!

I’m getting more nervous about the wedding – more about how much we have to do (all completely voluntarily of course) than the prospect of actually being married. It’ll be fine though, with friends and family to help out. It’s Cassie’s bridal shower this weekend, at some country club in LA, hosted by some family friends. Very nice, and I’ll be down there too, having lunch with the male members of the clan. Integration proceeding.

As for being married, I guess we’ll deal with that later. First things first.