Unlce jay explains the news

Reverend Jim

So at age 35 I have finally entered the world of alphabet soup. Though unlike most who have earned the right to put an acronym behind their name I simply had to click a button on a web page. As of a month ago I became a reverend with the Universal Church of Life. I joined the ranks of the clergy in order to marry one of my closet friends. Last weekend I spent the weekend in NYC performing the marriage of my good friends Molly Findlay and Steve Perez. An act I could not have been more nervous for. If it wasn't for the ceremony being broken up by readings my shaking hands might have made the balcony we were standing on vibrate.

The ceremony was quite fun at the end of the day, not to mention it was my first public speaking gig since working on Das's failed County Supervisor campaign. I always like public speaking, and I have to admit given the opportunity I would do another ceremony. I wonder if it would be as fun if I didn't know the bride and groom for more than 5 years?

Molly and Steve deserve a lot of props for pulling this wedding off on short notice. The combination of Steve taking forever to propose and an unexpected terminal illness in their family they only had 2 months to put the wedding together (Can you imagine!). The ceremony was held at Housing Works Bookstore Cafe at 126 Crosby St on the Lower East Side (I may have neighborhood wrong?), a store which donates 100% of it's profits to AIDS research. Other than the Jagermeister at the Bachelor/Bahelorette party everything went smoothly.

Shipwrecks

This is where we used to go surfing every spring (haven't been in a few years)

The name game

Since holiday and baby season are upon us, I thought I'd take a moment to answer the various name questions that have come up recently.

My name is still Jodi Segal. I did not change it when we got married. Jim is also still Jim Taylor. If you want to address a formal letter, I recommend Mr. Jim Taylor and Ms. Jodi Segal.

The baby will take Jim's last name. Segal will be her middle name. So, her full name will be Violet Segal Taylor. It's not likely, but still possible, that she is actually a he. In that case, we'll have to come up with something beside Violet pretty quickly!

Bathroom Ceiling

After 6 months of carefully tiptoeing on ceiling joists, Jim finally put his foot through the brand new bathroom ceiling...

Now it matches the new downstairs hallway ceiling. We had to hire an electrician to fix a boo boo and he ended up cutting a hole in the ceiling that we actually paid someone to replace.

At least you can see the newly refinished wood frames around the windows. The kitchen will have the same wood around the 1 window and 4 doors. What you can't see very well is that the primer didn't stick to the walls, so the pait is peeling off in big chunks.

29 weeks down, 11 to go

I made Jim take a couple of photos, so I wouldn't have crazy person hair like the previous pic!

Maddyisms

You can frequently find our 60 pound dog barking and growling at her basket of toys. For some reason she is afraid of the basket and afraid of the air return next to the basket. If you move the basket or dump out the toys, then she digs through them until she finds what she wants and goes about her merry way. I can't imagine what is going through her head!

Her other amusing habit these days is sticking her head in the corner by the kitchen sink in hopes that food will appear there. It doesn't matter if we are doing dishes, preparing food, or just standing around. If we are near that spot, her face is buried in the corner.