I was going through our recent pictures, and here are a few pictures of the cornbread and chili we had a few nights ago. Patrick thought the cornbread looked like Pacman. I agree.

I know, overkill on the cornbread pictures, but I couldn't choose just one.

We drove down to San Jose today. I went to Trudy's, and Patrick went to Barnes and Noble. I didn't even go into the bridal section of Trudy's--I just wanted to try on bridesmaid dresses--but it was still pretty overwhelming. There were just a lot of women there and too many dresses to look at. The salespeople were nice though. I tried on about 10 dresses, just to get an idea of how the different styles look on me.

The saleslady who helped me didn't seem to understand that I was trying on bridesmaid dresses for myself, since I was the bride. Like it was unfathomable to her that I might get married in a bridesmaid dress. So I just let her think that I was picking out a dress for Tree instead (which I guess I should think about while I'm looking at dresses for myself--we should try to match at least somewhat, in terms of fabric and style).

I took pictures of myself in the dresses, and when I was on the last dress, a saleslady walked by and asked if I wanted her to take a picture of me. I guess she could hear the camera through the dressing room curtain. Turns out that you can take pictures in the bridesmaid area (phew!), but not the bridal area. That's too bad--it's harder to decide if you don't have pictures of yourself!

So I think I've figured out which styles are most flattering and comfortable for me, but I still need to decide whether I want to even try actual wedding dresses on. It might be too stressful. Trying on dresses today made me feel all unhappy with my body; too many chances to scrutinize myself in a full-length mirror. I don't usually feel that way though, which is good. Of course, trying on wedding dresses might be fun too, and I won't get another chance to do something like this. We'll see...I'd hate to get pressured into buying an expensive wedding dress though. I'll definitely have to bring Tree along with me for moral support if I go back :)

After Trudy's, we went to Valley Fair Mall. I don't know why, since I was all tired out just from trying on a few dresses, but it was nearby, and we'd never been there before. There were a lot of people there, and it was overwhelming. We grabbed some lunch at the food court, and then we went to a few stores, but we were both pretty tired, so we didn't stay long. But I definitely want to go back, since they have more of the stores I like than Hillsdale in San Mateo. I got a simple hoodie sweater and cute white shirt at Charlotte Russe. Charlotte Russe was full of high school girls, and I felt out of place, but they have pretty clothes for cheap, so I won't give up on them.

Oh, and when I was at Trudy's, I learned that if I do want a "real" wedding dress, I have 3 months to order one before I'll have to pay rush fees ($20 for rush, $40 for double rush, whatever that means). I guess if we don't care about being mainstream, we don't have to worry about deciding so far in advance. I just wish there were more stores that just had nice dresses that weren't associated with weddings. I don't want to help out the wedding industry any more than we have to (although if I do decide to get a wedding dress, it'll probably be at Trudy's since the people there were all pleasant).

Life is good. A few nights ago, Patrick made the Alton Brown ribs again, but he used ancho chile powder instead of chipotle chile powder, and they were much more my speed. Still a little spicy, but not overwhelmingly so. Yum, ribs! And I've been going to the gym every day after work, and I'm enjoying it, but I'm not sure if I've lost weight or anything. Not a big deal.

Tonight, we went out for dinner to Bistro Vida, a little French restaurant in Menlo Park (there are at least 4 French restaurants just in the downtown area!). We were originally going to go to the Left Bank, but it was really crowded, and Bistro Vida was able to seat us right away. I enjoyed my dinner--we started with tomato-mozzarella salad and crusty bread, then I had mussels and fries (not as good as at Left Bank, I'm afraid). Patrick had swordfish and was not impressed. We split a raspberry-strawberry crepe with creme anglaise and vanilla ice cream for dessert. It was pretty good--I think I would've appreciated it more if I weren't full of dinner. I can't decide if I like mussels or not. I like the little fork I get to use with them, but sometimes they're sandy and crunchy, which is unpleasant. I'm glad I'm able to go out for moules frites every so often though. It feels very luxurious to eat French food for some reason :)

I might do some preliminary wedding dress shopping tomorrow. But I'm going to stick with trying on bridesmaid dresses and prom-type dresses, at least for now, so I don't have to worry about making appointments and having strangers help me get dressed.

I had a wonderful day today! First I went to Juut and had my hair colored and cut. A pricey proposition, but I enjoy it, and I'm only planning on doing it a few times a year (once more in May, then again a few weeks prior to the wedding). The colorist gave me some chunky lowlights and touched up my blond highlights (well, he did more than just touch them up--I haven't had my hair colored since last July). I talked to Marissa, my stylist, about her doing hair and makeup for the wedding. I'm supposed to call her next week once she looks at her availability. I have a feeling she'll be way out of my price range, but I figured I'd ask anyway, since it'd be nice to go with somebody I have some experience with. She thinks I should grow my hair out for the wedding (I should be able to get about 4 more inches grown between now and then), so I'll work on that. If I end up not liking it, I can always cut it, as Patrick so sagely pointed out.

After my hair adventure, we drove up to Oakland to visit Tree, Andrew, and Erin. We went to a mystery location for lunch, and it turned out that Tree and Erin were taking me to Chez Panisse for a surprise bridal shower! That was a great surprise :) It was the perfect place to go--I've been wanting to go there ever since we moved here. And it was exactly what I would've wanted in a bridal shower (not that I was expecting to have one)--simple and small, just like our wedding. It was perfect :)

The food was awesome, of course. Erin and I both had boudin blanc (white sausage) with applesauce and delicious fried potatoes, and Tree had some good-looking chicken with chickpeas and harissa (there were a lot of words on the menu that looked famliar but we didn't know quite what they meant). For dessert, Erin and Tree both had bittersweet chocolate custard with Gran Marnier cream, and I had coconut cake with passion fruit ice cream. The waiter put a candle in Erin's custard, because he thought it was her birthday, since she was sitting next to the bridal shower presents (awesome presents, by the way!). It was a nice gesture, if a little misguided :)

I asked Tree to be my maid of honor during lunch, and she said yes! Patrick and I are going to have one attendant each, to hold our rings and do whatever else attendants are supposed to do. This is shaping up to be a great wedding, and hopefully it won't be stressful for anybody in the wedding party, since it'll be low key. It was a wonderful bridal shower today; I have good friends :) Patrick knew about it all along and didn't tell me! He's a good secret-keeper.

After lunch, we went back to Tree and Andrew's place because it was raining, and we watched the first season of Coupling (which I'd never seen before--I'd only seen the horrible American version) and ate a yummy dinner including olive tapenade that Tree made all by herself. Impressive!

It was a great day :)

We've got ourselves a wedding photographer! We ended up going with Moonfish Photography in Pacific Grove, because we liked her style and she gave us a good deal because of our small wedding size. Assuming all of our contract and deposit stuff goes smoothly, we'll have our location and photographer all set, which are the biggest things, in my opinion.

Incidentally, if anyone is looking for a photographer in the Bay Area or Monterey Peninsula, you should check out Barak Yedidia. He seemed really honest and genuine in his emails to me, like he cared more about being an artist and accommodating our needs than about money. I appreciate that.

It's been a good weekend. Yesterday, we went out for breakfast to Ann's Coffee Shop, an old restaurant in downtown Menlo Park. We'd always just walked by it, but the only other breakfast place within walking distance is Stacks, and they haven't impressed me in the past. Turns out Ann's is the quintessential neighborhood breakfast place, with regulars and tacky 70's art on the walls and everything. The food was good (not as good as Joanie's, but better than we can make). I definitely want to go there again. I want them to stay in business (they don't seem to be in any danger of going out of business; the place was packed yesterday).

We bought ourselves an AirPort Express for Valentine's Day, and now we have music in our living room (we're just using Patrick's old computer speakers for now, but eventually we'll get real speakers). Maybe today Patrick will hook up our printer to it too!

Last night, I made cinnamon buns (half recipe) all the way up to the cooking step, and then we popped them in the oven this morning. I made a few with walnuts for me, and the rest without. I baked them in our new silicone cake pan (a Christmas present, much appreciated), and it worked really well. I also used the big wooden pastry board we got at Cost Plus for kneading and rolling out the dough. It has all sorts of useful stuff printed on it, like a 9" diameter circle for rolling out pie crusts, and inch/cm markings on all the sides. Very handy.

Anyway, the cinnamon buns turned out well. We also had sliced up strawberries with sugar (I didn't realize they were in season yet, but Safeway seems to think they are) and some really good grapefruit. We're lucky for all sorts of reasons :)

I don't know what we're going to do today. We were thinking about riding bikes, but it looks like it might rain, and I'm a wuss. Maybe we'll walk to the farmers market. Or maybe watch more West Wing (Patrick's friend Mike lent us seasons 1 and 2 on DVD, and we've been working through them slowly). I'd intended to go to bed at a reasonable hour last night, but then the end of Season 1 was a cliffhanger, so we had to start watching Season 2 to find out what happened! I think after we're done with The West Wing, we might start watching earlier seasons of 24. I only started watching it this season, and I'm hooked, of course.

In unrelated news, Patrick has found New Belgium's Biere de Mars (a special release beer that we didn't think would be available in CA) at Safeway twice now. I don't know why I'm excited about that, since I don't like beer, but I do like New Belgium, since they're based in my hometown, and I want them to do well for themselves. So keep an eye out for it if you're so inclined and you live in the western half of the country.