Ewww, cool, ewww.

Coming into the apartment building from Sierra's walk I ran into a cicada. Bugs make me ill, especially when they are the size of my thumb. All the same, I gathered up the courage to scoop it up with a couple flyers and release it outside.

I can haz sharp knife!

It's been forever since the last journal entry.

Let's just catch up and write about what we did today. This is a very special weekend as it's the first one I've had off since starting a new job two months ago.

We went to the bank to sign our mortgage papers so we are officially in a huge debt!

*cheers & applause*

We finally went knife shopping with (best man) Matte at a culinary implements supply boutique. He promised us we'd find something so amazing we'd throw all our other blades away. With his guidance, we walked away with this beauty:






Oh wait. Oops. That was our grocery shopping trip to find stuff to chop. Here she is:




It has more layers of folded steel than I can count (one, two three, four, five, huh?). Matty let me have the first cut so I sliced the unfortunate vegetable and we both uttered, "WOAH..." and got all giddy. This thing's so lightweight and SHARP. We then decided such a significant event in our lives had to be documented on film. This is me slicing cucumber:

And this is Matty slicing cucumber:

Matty's opinion on the new knife:

Molly & I

We went over to Matty's brother's place today, had dinner -- yummy kebabs -- and met their new Golden Retriever puppy Molly. She's almost twelve weeks old.

One week anniversary...

...permission to vomit granted. Matty was itching to bake so who am I to stop this nice man from making a few batches cookies and cupcakes. We spent the evening munching on pizza and decorating the baked goods. Mixing colours for the icing brings back memories of elementary school. Don't remember the last time I've done something yummy and creative like this... aside from March 31st, of course.Piping is a lot harder than I thought... the day before our wedding I only played with sprinkles and found that challenging enough... Now we have some chocolate and butterscotch chip cookies and chocolate mint cupcakes with Kahlua/coffee/cocoa/mint icing.

Matty may have married a hippie

Rude awakening this morning. In fact, anytime I'm awoken by anything in the morning is rude. Loud noises... that don't seem to stop... I stumbled to our living room window to see this:

Wipe eyes again to make sure... ughhh.
Do. Not. Want.
Aaaand the audio:

Matty was getting ready for work, i.e. surfing the 'net. I wondered aloud if those guys out there would let me take a piece of the tree trunk. I get so sentimental over trees, especially when they're being sacrificed for condo construction. (This one in particular is a fruit tree... don't remember what type but Joan, our downstairs neighbour and most senior resident, has been living in our building for the past fifty years and remembers that tree, and now it's gone. This upsets me... and probably Joan to some extent.)

Matty and I agreed if I were to ask them, they would likely say yes, so I asked my husband to please go ask them to spare me a couple slices of tree trunk. Now that we're married, he's more likely to do whatever I want him to do... within reason... I suggested if he were to tell the men his wife asked, it would go over better. Somehow, I like how the phrase, "my wife wants blah blah blah..." makes a bizarre request seem much more reasonable. Try it sometime...

SUCCESS!

Yeah, the trunk chunks were a touch larger than anticipated. Guess who had to carry them up three flights of stairs? I guess it's fair since he helped me by doing the talking and he had to rush to work. HEAVY. Each one had to be at least seventy pounds (Sierra, the dog behind the trunk section, is about fifty-five pounds), and the workmen were hefting them into the wood chipper like it was nothing. The tree was very much alive, too, and full of sap as the wood's damp to the touch. RIP tree...

Pics of the Big Day

Terri's sister posted some pics on flickr.

Matty's mom, Nancy Fradenburgh, blogged about the wedding and posted some pics.

We've also set up a group on facebook so feel free to join!

We did it!!!

Pics to follow, once I figure out where and how to upload them.

What to wear???

We have received a few questions regarding "dress code" for the reception. Hope this gives you a better idea of what to expect...

Bride's attire: black strapless knee-length dress with heels;
Groom and Best Man's attire: tailless tuxes with black shirt and vest. Peacock blue ties.
Maid of Honour (Best Woman): uh...

This probably falls into the more casual side of semi-formal. Shirt & tie for guys. Girls, this is a chance to wear a dress if you want. All in all, neither the bride nor the groom have any preference regarding their guests' attire as your (possibly naked) presence is what we will cherish.

If still unclear, please feel free to ask us for a more confusing explanation.

Time to get some sleep.

About the ceremony no one is attending b/c they were not invited and Clergy Ontario can stuff it.

Some bad news but our general reaction now is more on the "meh" side as we know what and who is truly important to us: Emily B., our dear friend whom we look up to, cannot be registered with Clergy Ontario as the latter does not recognize the Universal Life Church as an ordaining church.

This means we need to seek another officiant in order to make our marriage official. We wanted to have someone we know perform the ceremony to add a more personal touch so we had Em get ordained on the 'Net. She wrote this beautiful speech for us and I've already wept as I read it. She is still so totally going to marry us.

The "official" part will take place, oh, whenever we can book something at North York City Hall on Apr. 1st. Hopefully it will be first thing in the morning and we'll just go over in jeans and t-shirts and drag my sister and her bf over to be our witnesses.

The official ceremony -- in our eyes -- will be the one conducted by Emily on the (hopefully) grassy hill between York Mills and Lawrence at 3pm. Only family members and wedding party will be present, I think (we are humouring our parents and grandparents by including them to witness the ceremony but I refuse to wear a huge taffeta wedding gown. Reception guests, however, are more than welcome to wear those pouffy white gowns to the restaurant). Really, you won't be missing out as we say,


-------------------- SPOILER ALERT! --------------------



"I do," to each other and get pronounced husband and wife and smooch. It's a fifteen-minute ceremony. We've already picked up our rings and we couldn't wait to wear them so we're wearing them now. Matty looks very sexy wearing his. Terri is always sexy.

We promise to take lots of pics and maybe videotape it so we can post it on facebook. Now how much more intimate can it get?

Dear Vegetarians, Vegans, Non-Chinese and Picky Eaters...

Matte and the resto have created a vegan menu. More info to follow. Soon. Promise.

Five more Days!

The day is almost here, and we could not be more excited.  My work place actually got the whole office to sign a card for us!  I have no idea how they were able to get that done since I'm practically there all the time, and all over the place.  Such a nice touch.

If you haven't RSVP'd yet, please call us when you can, or else... we will just call you anyways.  Other note, please let us know if want the beef ribs as your main.  It's not typically on the menu and it will just make things even eaiser for this awesome restaurant.

See you all soon!

Here is the menu!

~ANTIPASTI~

FERRO ANTIPASTO

Seasonal vegetables individually prepared, served with Italian cold cuts and cheeses

~INSALATA~

Roasted butternut squash on romaine hearts served with grape tomato, red onion drizzled

with a white wine vinaigrette.

~PRIMI~

(A choice of…)

LEMON SAGE CHICKEN

Linguine with chicken sage in a lemon sauce

SEARED SCALLOP

Served with a saffron risotto and julienned snow pea

~SECONDI~

(a choice of…)

SHORT RIB

Barolo braised short rib

GALLINA

Baked crispy supreme cut chicken with a caramelized onion sauce

 

FILETTO ROSSO

Grilled red pepper glazed Atlantic salmon

--ALL SECONDI WITH A CHOICE OF GARLIC MASH POTATO, SWISS CHARD OR

ROASTED MINI POTATO

 

Vegan Option to follow soon.  If you can, please let us know what you would like in advance so it's easier on the restaurant.

Just a few more things left to do...

... I think I know what I'm going to do with my hair! Still need to find the perfect pair of shoes and the perfect flowers. Not used to being the girl in the relationship...

Map to Ferro

Hello everyone,

If you are a fan of maps, like me, please enjoy the lovely map that our friends at google kindly provided in a blog post friendly format. Just so you know, street parking shouldn't be a problem, and there is a green P (municipal parking lot) about 200 feet to the west.



View Larger Map

-matty

Reception

Reception will be at:

FERRO bar & café
769 St. Clair Ave. West, Toronto
hors d’oeuvres 5:30p.m.. to 6:30p.m.
dinner 6:30p.m. to 9:30p.m.

We'll be hanging out at the back of the venue. It's super cozy and intimate and the food is to die for. Menu to follow in a later post...

In the meantime, feast your eyes on their website!

http://www.ferrobarcafe.ca/

***** Please let us know if you have any dietary restrictions (vegetarian, vegan, kosher, carnivore, cannibal, etc.) or food allergies. We will try accomodate your needs as long as you let us know before March 26. *****

STD

Oh hey. So you likely received an invitation to visit this blog and find out more about our wedding, that is the Matty + Terri nuptials. We wanted to keep everyone updated in case there were any last minute changes, etc.

Maybe you can help us figure out how to set up this wedding stuff.

Anyway, here are the deets:

APRIL 1^ST, 2009.