The Merands

We’re getting excited about the wedding! You can tell from this:

Some people ride limos away from their wedding. We’re going to do something slightly different. Here’s a preview:

Walking Directions (~15 minute walk):

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(this is about a 10-15 minute walk)

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Back Bay on the Orange Line to PF Changs (this is a 5-10 minute walk):

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The 14th was my birthday. First things first, I opened the bag that had come in the mail from Rivendell Bikes, courtesy of my sister Rebecca. Inside was the amazing handlebar bag that I’ve been coveting for some time. Here it is on the sherbet-colored Bianchi:

I biked to work, where we had a contest to see who could drink 64 ounces of Hawaiian Punch in the least amount of time. As we stood in a circle outside, ponderous jugs of vile material weighing heavily in our hands, I believe that we each internally doubted the wisdom of our choice to participate. After about 10 seconds of drinking Hawaiian Punch, I know that we doubted the wisdom of our choice. I could go into more detail, but suffice it to say that after I started physically shaking, which was about 40 ounces in, I gave up. I came in third place. The first and second-place winners actually drank the whole thing. I understand that they still feel bad physically. But they deserve a place of glory at Explo.
So I did that, and then I biked to Government Center to apply for the marriage license with Sara! By the time I got there, the HP had worn off, and I just felt dehydrated and headachy – standard symptoms of sugary drink. The marriage license bureau is great – just walls of kiosks with government employees on the other side. You’ve got “parking tickets”, then “marriages”, then “deaths”, then “births”. I’m pretty convinced that out back they just throw it all into one big pile.
Then we ran a bunch of wedding errands, got some veggie dogs, went for ice cream and saw slugs mating.
We did some test pics for the wedding later. I’m fond of this one:

Um… and I got some contacts. Back to work!

We made a map of everything that’s interesting for tourists to do in Boston. It will be periodically updated, so check back.

Currently, wedding locations are in blue, hotels in red, points of interest in orange, restaurants in yellow.


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12 Days to the wedding, almost everything is prepared. Why does it feel like there’s still so much to do? Well, we’ve got the blog up and running, so you can track our progress with us! What a novel and exciting concept!

We’ve got cake, photography, chapel, rentals, food, diversions, invitations, maps, plans, hotels, honeymoon, those are some of the big things. Then there are little things like where do we get the flowers and when? Who’s going to clean up after the reception? Will people have a good time, will we get to talk with them? How much? Will everybody be on their good behavior? When will Sara and I start to get irritated at each other, because that’s supposed to happen, apparently.