Maggie and Wray

Dancing at Meegs and Travis's wedding reminded Maggie and me of when we practiced dancing together as kids. This is probably the first dance we have had since that time.

Cycling Redux

OK, I confess that the photo I ran with the first posting on our bike trip was not really of Ian and me. I think it might have been Lance Armstrong and Floyd Landis. Here are a couple shots that Susie snapped right after we rolled into my place. We were tired but pretty jazzed at this point.

This also made me smile!

NJ ruled barring same sex marriages is discrimination:

HELD: Denying committed same-sex couples the financial and social benefits and privileges given to their married heterosexual counterparts bears no substantial relationship to a legitimate governmental purpose. The Court holds that under the equal protection guarantee of Article I, Paragraph 1 of the New Jersey Constitution, committed same-sex couples must be afforded on equal terms the same rights and benefits enjoyed by opposite-sex couples under the civil marriage statutes. The name to be given to the statutory scheme that provides full rights and benefits to samesex couples, whether marriage or some other term, is a matter left to the democratic process.


Woohoo!! Go New Jersey!!

This made me smile.

Watch the whole thing (and make sure your volume is on), it's worth it.
And (((hugs))) to all the HeGoHas.

now i need my updating...

So I never did get to hear a recap of all the fun that was had on Saturday at the Schnecksville household...

Anyone care to fill me in? :-)


Also, if anyone is interested, I posted the full text of our ceremony, including vows, here. I know some of it was hard to hear.

honeymoon

The honeymoon was absolutely wonderful... and I'm having a little trouble switching back to work mode. So here's a rundown!

We arrived on Saturday night, and settled into our hotel. We had grabbed some brouchures and started looking at what we wanted to do. Sunday we picked our first winery, Rutherford Hill, and went on a tasting and tour. It was beautiful and the wine was delicious. I discovered a new love... Port! Mmm. Since we had time to kill between when we finished our tasting and when we started our tour, we asked some of the locals what they suggested and they sent us to a wonderful store that we never would have found on our own. Olive oils, mustards, dressings, balsamic vinegars... and you got to taste everything! Two trips around the store, and we didn't need lunch! We did pick up a bottle of delicious parmasaen and garlic infused olive oil.

Monday we went on a limo tour, and were taken to 5 wineries. First was Andretti Winery (yup, Mario Andretti), then Cosentino Winery, and then to V.Sattui (http://www.vsattui.com/). V.Sattui was one of our favorites... they purposely timed it over lunch so that we could take advantage of their store with meats, breads, and dozens of types of cheese! It was amazing, and after a great lunch and tasting, we ended up buying 4 bottles of wine there and a Port! In the afternoon we continued on to Merryvale (with their beautiful cask room) and the Miner Family Winery. It was an amazing day.

Tuesday we took it easy. We drove around downtown Napa a bit, and to kill time before heading to our sushi dinner, we headed to two wineries: Renold's Family and Luna.

Wednesday we started off early and headed into San Francisco! What a great city! We drove across the bridge, visited Alcatraz, walked along the water front and checked out Pier 39. Travis' uncle then met up with us to lead us up some (humongous) stairs and show us Telegraph Hill, and gave us great views of Russian Hill and the waterfront before taking us to the Mission for dinner at a cute Italian place.

Thursday was our last day to tour around, so we headed to Sonoma, which we hadn't really checked out. It is a neat little artistic and historic town, and we walked around checking out the old mission and some of the other historic buildings. We then did a tasting at the Castle Winery tasting room... where we sampled about 15 wines!! We also got 4 bottles of wine there, and I got a gorgeous pair of earrings by a local artist. Next we checked out some shops and ate a leasurely meal at the Sunflower Cafe, before heading to the hotel.

Friday we got up early, ate breakfast and packed the last of our stuff. It was time to head to the airport. It was quite the adventure getting home (plane pushed up, then delayed making us rush to our connection, which was then delayed!)... but we, along with our 7 bottles of wine (we bought about 9 or 10, but only 7 made it through the week!), made it in one piece. It was an amazing time, and I recommend it to anyone!

Jim, I heard that you and Chris also went to the Napa area... what did you think?

Sporting News

Ian and Wray complete 2-day 100-mile bike ride from DC to Purcellville, Virginia and back!*

*In response to popular demand, here are more details: We pedaled for five hours Friday, into 20mph winds and 40mph gusts. We made it 40 miles and stopped in Leesburg, pretty worn out psychologically from fighting all that wind, but otherwise feeling okay. Since we had just been eating astronaut food on the trail, we went to Red Hot & Blue and had an enormous meal of baby back ribs and sweet potatoes and corn muffins. We also has a big-boy breakfast on Saturday morning and hit the trail early. It was cold, so we pedaled pretty fast to Purcellville, the terminus, had something hot to drink, then pedaled pretty much straight through to home, about six hours, or 11 hours total over the two days. Not bad. Susie was waiting for us at #117 with a wonderful meal of comfort food, beef stew, bread, salad, and Krista joined us to celebrate the Herbert boys' triumph. We're hoping to make this the first annual Herbert October Century Ride.

good to be home...

As wonderful as the honeymoon was (thanks Jim!!!), it's always good to be home. I had to add a few of my own to the picture montage.

Here are some teaser pics from my plum colored bridesmaid, Lauren:

Megan helping me with my necklace.
I'm so happy... but the wait is killing me!
Babs and I...
The big kiss.
My husband and I!
First dance.


I can't wait to see the pro pictures!!
How was Saturday?

another pic

nice couple

My Turn

I have never posted a picture, so I am going to try.

Here is Travis before the ceremony.





This is my fav pic of Drew and Meegs. Even though Drew already posted it, I wanted to see if the quality was better from my work computer ... it is :-)

More Herberts and Gosses . . .

I think this will be the last of the October 13-14th photo op

A few more wedding pics

Solving the world's problems

And some of my personal faves . . .

Gathering(s) of Gosses

The Cousins

Ian and Jess at the wedding.

Jimmy, Christi & Ethan

Here are a few more from the weekend.

Meegs is beaming, Drew is dancing

July 14, 2006

Here is the first of many photos from Megan and Travis's wedding weekend.

The Education of Shelby Knox

If you can catch this documentary on video, you should definitely do so. I think it only runs about 70 minutes, so it is easy to fit into your day. Shelby is an amazing young woman (high school student) from Lubbock, TX. Although she takes a "vow of purity" to remain celibate until marriage, she fights for a change in the sex education in her school, which has one of the highest rates of teen pregnancy in the country. You will be reassured by this very unique southern Baptist teen.

short timers

soon gone and best forgotten

Amos Lee

This is my latest musical find. This and Ray Lamontagne. You XPN listeners probably know these guys, but highly recommended to anyone unfamiliar.

clean up pretty well...

New color, freshly trimmed... and all made up with a little help from some friends. I clean up okay, huh?


ps. this is mostly to show mom the new color... but who doesn't like to flaunt it a little bit sometimes. :-)