The Cult of Ellen

( Waffley-McWaffle )

Anyhow, in celebration of the occasion, and because ravenlas and I have singularly failed to have a 'hey, we got married!' party, and because I haven't thrown a party in ages:

You are cordially invited to my birthday/wedding bbq/party!

When: Saturday 7th June
Where: My house
What time: 2pm onwards for barbequeing and for small people who need a garden to run around in. Probably going on until midnight, or until the comestibles run out.

I will provide: a couple of barbeques, charcoal, some food and booze, and (with luck) a gazebo for if it rains and a large medieval tent because it's really ace and a good excuse to put it up. Also, yanno, paper plates, plastic beakers, etc etc.

You can provide: your own good selves and anything specific you want to eat or drink, and anything else you think is a Good Idea^TM.

Also if anyone wants any bamboo (I recommend planting it in a pot because it spreads and takes over, but very slowly), I can provide you with a fork and a spade and point you in the direction of my bamboo grove which needs digging up. Help yourself. Please. *whimper*

I got a review!

*squee*

And it was good! *happy dance of much frog-in-blenderness*

Okay, it might not be such a big deal for the pro writers on my f-list. Still, it's a review of the second story I've ever had published. ( It makes me happy. )

The rest of Hub's flash fiction special is reviewed too, with decent reviews going to our rhube and stevecooperorg, and the best review going to our very own alasdair1076. Hurrah!

I can has MacBook! Courtesy of the love of my life, I have a very sleek matt-black 13" 2.2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo 4Gb 667MHz DDR2 SDRAM laptop sitting beside me. Called Armitage (points for spotting the reference). I freely confess I am an Apple fan. I love their stuff, especially on the rare occasions when their stuff becomes my stuff. I love the attention to detail, the little touches which make things, all in all, a joy to use. In short, I squee.

This... is gorgeous. And one of the very first things I did - right after running software update and turning on the firewall - was to buy a copy of Scrivener. This morning, I began work on the import of Squirrels In Space. So it may finally get the edit it needs! And then there's Thunder Moon to finish in first draft, and several short stories to complete, and a couple of reviews to write.

Oh, and just because I can, I've set up a project for keeping track of wedding stuff. How sad am I? Very! And I don't care. I have lots of squee today, so if any of you are feeling short on squee, give me a shout and I'll send some over.

Counting down: hen do - 10 days, flight out - 22 days, wedding - 30 days.

Squeeeee!

Well, nothing more than the smile on my face,

I am getting married in 60 days.

Hurrah!

Ooh, and Argos are selling Acoustic Solutions 1Gb MP3 players for £9.99. I've bought one for a friend. And it's not half bad! These things have come on a very long way since I last had a generic mp3 player.

Very shortly, I shall be heading off home, trains permitting. Thanks for helping make my 2007 such a fab year. Just so's you know - it was very much appreciated, and you guys are awesome. Much love to you all. Have a fantastic New Year's Eve, peeps, and I hope that 2008 brings you a lot of what does you good, more of what makes you happy, and huge amounts of love. Also: lottery wins would be nice for you, one and all.

I know I've been a bit lax in wishing people happy birthday lately (doh!), so here goes (in date order):

Belated Happy Birthday, thirstypixel, spindr, Fleur, and for last Saturday, Kate and ravenlas! And just to be on the safe side, Happy Birthday makyo for tomorrow!

My apologies if I've missed anyone...

Last week? Busy. This week? Even more busy. This weekend? ravenlas' birthday treat is a trip to London to see Wicked and Spamalot. Yay! Next week? Almost certainly busy again. Ho hum.

If you want to see me, I am hereby declaring Thursday nights 'open house night'. I'll be home some time between 6 and 6:30, barring train problems. You're welcome to come round and visit. And if you tell me in advance you're coming, I may even be able to provide biscuits, sandwiches, hot drinks, mulled wine, yada yada.

No, I'm not available to come visit you, not this week or next week, and maybe not the week after. Sorry, that's just the way it goes. I have a Chinese exam coming up, a dressmaking course, and a writing/proof-reading career, outside of my full-time job. To say nothing of 4 siblings, several parents and assorted friends to make presents for. And that makes the run-up to Christmas rather busy.

Oh, and I have a wedding to plan. Btw, anyone coming to my hen do? ayrton_nix needs to know numbers, I think.

I just wanted to let y'all know that (for once) I have PMS. It's making me snarky, and words coming out of my mouth sound sharper than they should do. It's nothing personal. Really. Unless I let you know otherwise. With pointy knives.

*heh*

I attended st3v3 and cfw's wedding on Saturday at the Merchant Taylors' Hall in York. It was a great venue, and more importantly, it was a beautiful wedding. It was very amazingly special to be there as witness to their marriage, to sit in company with friends and their families, as part of their community, and to know that in the years to come, we'll all be there to support them in their commitment to each other.

That's what ravenlas and I would, ideally, love to have for our wedding. However, given that our guest list currently stands at around 300, and my lottery numbers have so far failed to come up, we've had to devise a different plan...

[Poll #1023641]

No, really. This way we can invite *everyone*, and you can all either turn up (surprising the heck out of me, and delighting the airlines), or watch on the live web cam feed. Seriously. Unless I do a bank job, I'm just not going to get the huge party that I'd love to have, where you all get to turn up and have lots of food and lots of booze and enjoy yourselves immensely, and just spend the day with me and ravenlas. I reckon we'll have a party in Northern Ireland, and another party here in York, and maybe a family do in Huddersfield (or wherever), and we'd even be able to show the dvd, unless begged not to. *evil grin*

So how does this sound to you, my friends one and all? A really good compromise that won't leave me in debt unto the seventh generation, or the height of folly? Please let me know.

And yes, you are all invited.

A 6.5 hour train journey, assorted wedding-related mad panics, a wedding, a reception, a barbeque, a wee shopping trip, a 5.5 hour train journey and lots of bubbly later, ravenlas and I are home. We have survived the rigours of my twin's wedding, which went very well. ( Photos later... )

So more tomorrow. Yay!