Toddbits – September 25, 2010

1.  The 2nd installment of Art Prize is taking place in Grand Rapids right now — which means that you all have the opportunity to see 10 years worth of dryer lint turned into a replica of The Last Supper.  (Thank you, Joel, for the photo)

Go figure: Joel met the artist and says that she’s a bit nutty.

2.  Over the past month, Kate and I have locked down the members of our wedding party – which falls somewhere in between asking someone to marry you and asking someone to go on a date with you.  We posted some pictures to our other website under the “Bridal Party” section.  Be sure to check out the picture of me and Leland.

3.  This morning, I participated in the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure, along with Kate, her family, and extended family.  I took first.  Kate took second.  Kate probably would have won had I not pushed her down right before the finish line.

The shirt backs say “For Lor.”

4.  As many of you know, I’m working on Justin Amash’s political campaign (don’t forget to vote on November 2nd!).  While you’ve probably heard about one of Justin’s opponents, PLEASE don’t sleep on Ted Gerrard.

5.  Looking at Ted Gerrard’s website reminds me of (by far) the most entertaining lawyer I’ve ever met.  The illustrious David R. Justian.  True story: after the judge granted summary disposition against his client (and in favor of mine), Justian retired from the practice of law.  This guy was not only hilarious, but also a true renaissance man.  How many people do you know who can provide both legal advice AND subtitles for your YouTube video?

A Perfect Fall Day

It is officially fall at the Neckers-Lautenbach residence.  I loved today so much.  That cozy, warm feeling that comes with the beginning of fall is abundant and a lazy Sunday at home was the perfect way to enjoy it.  Fresh apples and apple cider from Robinette’s, fresh baked apple cider-oatmeal cookies, homemade steak chili and a lovely carmel apple scented candle burning – so autumnal!  I love days like this.  Love, love, love.

Apple Cider Cookie and Fresh Apple Cider, Delish!

Fresh Baked Apple Cider Oatmeal Cookies

Homemade Steak Chili

New Holland’s Ichabod

Wine School

On Thursday night, I took Todd out on a date. We’ve been trying to be more frugal since getting home from Costa Rica since we have a wedding – and a life together – to save for. Because of that we’ve been eating at home a lot more so a night out on the town together felt special instead of routine.

Todd at Wine School

After a picnic at Wilcox Park courtesy of The Green Well take-out (they never disappoint!) and a quick ice cream cone at Jersey Junction, we headed to Mangiamo for their weekly Wine School.  Before this week I had no idea that Mangiamo held a wine tasting every week.  I also had no idea that they had an amazing wine cellar in the basement.  The wine cellar is set up with a few high tables, couches and armchairs and has a pretty homey feel.  The school portion of the night was minimal.  They describe the wine we were tasting, where it was from and then let us just sip it at our leisure.  We tried five wines in all, the theme of the night being “Uncommon Varietals” so it was fun to taste wine that we’d never had before.  Neither of us had even heard of any of them.

Wine and Tasting Sheets

As an added bonus they brought pizza in at the beginning of the evening so for only $25 per couple we could have eaten dinner and enjoyed five tasting wines plus one complimentary glass of wine to start things off.  It’s always fun for us to do wine tastings because neither of us have very refined palettes.  “It tastes like a red” and “All whites smell like dust” are very representative statements when it comes to our wine discussions.  We had a great time though and I’m sure we’ll be back again.

Tasting Sheets

Announcing kateandtodd.com!

We are very excited to announce our wedding website, http://www.kateandtodd.com!

What you’ll see now is a pared down version but as the wedding date draws near we’ll update the site with more information on the ceremony, reception and other wedding related information.

Please visit our page, sign the guestbook and make requests for wedding music if you want!

We hope you enjoy.

Sneak Peek – Engagement Pictures

Last night Todd and I had our engagement pictures taken.  We were very lucky to have my wonderful, talented cousin, Rebecca take them for us.  It was a great night and we were able to walk downtown by the river, get on top of the Oakwood apartments (thanks Dad!) and spend some time at the Frederik Meijer Gardens as well.

For a sneak peek, please visit her blog at: http://beccaelizabethphotography1.blogspot.com/

We had such a great time shooting with Rebecca and we hope you enjoy seeing the pictures as much as we enjoyed having them taken!

Cupcake Creations and an Engagement Celebration

On Sunday my parents along with Todd’s parents threw us a party to celebrate our engagement.  It was a really fun event.  My family is quite big which can be overwhelming.  It was really nice for Todd to be able to spend a little more time with them and also for his parents and aunts and uncles to have the chance to meet a lot of my family.

Celebration Spread

The spread of food was amazing.  Shrimp, lemon drops, fudge brownies, fresh fruit and cupcakes.  Now, let’s talk about these cupcakes.

Cupcakes and Cookies!

While we were still in Costa Rica, my mom began planning for this party.  One email I received asked me what some of my and Todd’s favorite childhood things were.  It turns out she was incorporating some of our favorite childhood things into the cupcakes, baked by Making Thyme Kitchen on Cherry Street, for the party.  I don’t think I need to tell you that they turned out amazing.

Here were the cupcake flavors:

1 – Chocolate Fudge: Based on our mutual love of Mackinac Island these chocolatey cupcakes were the perfect homage to one of our favorite childhood vacation spots.

2 – Rice Krispie Treat: One of my favorite childhood treats, these cupcakes were frosted with marshmallow cream and then topped with Rice Krispies and tasted just like the real thing.

3 – PB&J (minus the J): Todd loves peanut butter and hates jam or jelly in any form so these were just peanut butter.  The frosting was that perfect sweet peanut buttery goodness that can only be found in Halloween’s least favorite candy, orange and black peanut butter kisses, which I happen to love.

4 – Maple Bacon Waffle: Todd loved breakfast food as a kid.  This unique and most delicious cupcake featured a waffle flavored base iced with a thick layer of maple frosting and then topped with a touch of bacon.  The bacon was the perfect thing to temper the sweetness of the maple – unbelievable!

On top of these four flavors there were two types of mini cupcakes, carrot cake and champagne which were just decadent little mouthfuls.  Apart from the cupcakes, we were blessed with a gorgeous day and we had a great time seeing our family for (pretty much) the first time since we’ve been engaged.  We’re pretty lucky, indeed.

*Happy 30th Anniversary (yesterday) to my parents!  Love you both.  🙂

On Wedding Registries

Yesterday Kate and I spent a couple of hours at Target going through our first take at registering for wedding gifts.  With the wedding industry becoming a $40 billion per year juggernaut, there’s some competition for our registry dollars, leading to some very helpful changes (I’m assuming) in wedding registration in recent years.

First, the stores themselves have improved the registering process: you get a little gun and walk shooting items like you’re playing a giant game of laser tag, only you’re the only person with a laser.  Once you select an item, a touch screen pops up where you can edit the quantity (Todd: “How many bath towels do we need?”  Kate: “I don’t know, 6?” Todd: “Kate, you use 6 bath towels in 2 days.”), or delete an item (Kate: “No, Todd, we can’t register for a $60 toilet seat cover.”).  These features were great while we were in the store.  It wasn’t until we got home that we realized the ‘delete’ feature rarely actually worked, and Target has employed a family of monkeys to actually organize the items they sell (for example: our bath towels showed up in the games section, while our hand towels showed up under kitchen).  Thankfully, it’s pretty simple to fix (though rather time-consuming).

Second, the stores now give you gifts, just for showing up.  For example, at Target, if you register for a certain amount of various brands, you get bonus items of that brand for free.  The week after your wedding, everything on your registry is 10% off.

Third, and this one is legitimately genius, the big box stores now provide registry guides and checklists.  These come in handy when trying to answer the questions: “What constitutes the necessary items in a knife set?” or “How many turkey basters should one own?”

Below is a sampling of items we considered yesterday:

1.  The Shake Weight – AKA the most awkward-looking fitness device I’ve ever seen.  I love when infomercial products become so popular that stores start carrying them (see, e.g., the Snuggie, the Sham-Wow, and the Chia Pet).  Although I’m not sure how the business model works there — with informercials, you make a ton of money by charging exorbitant shipping rates.  Obviously, you can’t do that while selling your product at Target.  I guess the exposure alone must be enough.  No, we did not actually register for this.

Now just $19.95 (plus S&H)!

2.  Guess Who? True story: Kate and I nearly broke up over a game of Guess Who?.  For those of you who have played, you know that once you figure out the basic strategy (selecting the most common groups at the beginning, and then narrow it down), Guess Who? is a game of chance.  However, a few years ago I figured out a very clever strategy that has led me to claim myself as the greatest Guess Who? player of all time.  I’m not going to divulge my secrets, but let’s just say that I employed the strategy against Kate, defeated her, and she was furious.  She thinks it is cheating (which it certainly is not), I think it is strategic.  Thankfully, our relationship recovered – but we’ve never played Guess Who? again, so Kate wouldn’t let me register for this either.

3.  Mr. Coffee Optimal Brew Thermal Coffee Maker.  One of the 2 or 3 items (out of 50) that we registered for that I’m legitimately excited about.

4.  Turkey Roaster.  Someone told Kate that it is important to register for everything you will need to cook Thanksgiving dinner.  While this may have been good advice 25 years ago, it is a bit outdated.  First, these items will take up space in what is likely to be a cramped kitchen, wherever we live after we get married.  Second, if, someday, we are cooking Thanksgiving dinner, we can borrow the equipment from our families (who, presumptively, will be coming over for Thanksgiving dinner, unless 28 years of tradition breaks).  Third, and most importantly, it doesn’t fit with my newly created (and still being tweaked) “10 Times in 10 Years” rule: If we are not likely to use the items at least 10 times over the course of the next 10 years (excluding single/limited use items), we are not registering for it.  Seems like a reasonable rule to me.  What do you think?

On Men’s Fashion.

Today, Kate and I stopped at the Tangier Outlet Mall on our way home from Ann Arbor (happy birthday, Justin!).  I only made it into 4 stores: Nike, J. Crew, Banana Republic, and Gap.  It would have been 5, but apparently the Big Dog outlet no longer exists.  This was massively disappointing news as there was a Big Dog outlet in this shopping center as recently as 2006.

[As a quick aside: how on earth did Big Dog hang on for so long?  No Fear and the guys who made those awesome two-sided Looney Toones t-shirts went out of business (as far as I know) years ago, but Big Dog persevered…why?]

No, this isn't me. Yes, I did own more than one shirt like this in middle school. Yes, it had the backs of Taz and Bugs on the back of the shirt.

Back to the matter at hand, I realized a few things while shopping today:

Gap has been selling the exact same things for the last 10 years.  I’m not sure how they have an outlet store, since they could legitimately recycle everything in the store (minus the GAP sweatshirts from 1995 that they are still trying to sell) in 6 months and no one would have any idea if they had sold it last year.  I say this not to criticize Gap – because frankly I’m impressed.  They have not had to change at all.

All of the recent trends in men’s fashion are stupid.  Let’s go down a list of what I would describe as becoming “popular” for men in the last 2-3 years.

1.  Graphic T-shirts.  Probably the dumbest item on this list.  Every time you purchase a graphic t, you have to think to yourself “In about 6 months, there are going to be as many people wearing these shirts as there are wearing acid wash jeans.”

2.  Cardigans.  I have no problem with cardigans, they’re just not for me.  I’m not depressed/emo/indie enough.  Please note that by ‘indie’ in that last sentence, I meant “trying to be a punk while dressing preppy.”

3.  Vests.  Every time we see a vest while we’re out, Kate wants me to buy it.  She loves them.  I think they look like you forgot to finish dressing yourself.

4.  Big belt buckles.  While I don’t own any, these I can actually get behind.  Mostly, this item was an excuse to post this picture of Joel.

2 sarsaparillas, coming right up.

Thankfully, men’s fashion by-and-large doesn’t change, meaning I can still get away with single-colored sweaters and t-shirts most of the time — which is a good thing because I can only imagine how my graphic t-vest-cardigan-texas sized belt buckle look is going to go over.

Toddbits – Strange, But True.

We fly back to the United States tomorrow (are you ready for us?), so this will be my final post from Costa Rica, but don’t worry, the hugely popular Toddbits series will continue from the U.S.  With that said, here are a few things that have been on my mind lately:

1.  I can count the number of times I have shaved in the past 9 weeks on 1 hand.

2.  The  last time I went 24 consecutive hours without seeing Kate was in February, almost 6 months ago.

3.  The last time I went more than 2 (non-sleeping) hours without seeing Kate was at least 62 days ago.

4.  Last summer I watched at least the highlights of more than 100 Detroit Tigers games.  As of today, I have not watched 1 second of their last 53 games.

5.  I’ve had sushi more times with Kate in 2 months in Costa Rica (2) than I did with her in the last 18 months in Grand Rapids (1).

6.  My friend Justin Amash is running for Congress, and the primary election is tomorrow (August 3).  If you are a resident of greater Grand Rapids, PLEASE go out and vote for him tomorrow.  Click here for more information about Justin – but what you really need to know is that Justin is honest, hardworking, and cares more about doing what is right for West Michigan than any person I know.  Since we’ll be traveling tomorrow, I won’t be able to vote – so that means that you, proud followers of ToddAndKate.wordpress.com, are going to have to vote for me.  Please help me out here.  Thanks!

One Last Adventure

Today, Kate and I put on our tourist hats for the last time in Costa Rica and went snorkeling.  Ok, I guess they’re not tourist hats so much as tourist outfits (bathing suit, t-shirt, flip flops), which are actually identical to the typical tico outfit, minus the fact that Kate doesn’t wear her clothes 2 sizes too small.

After a bit of difficulty, we hooked up with Seabird Sailing in Playa Flamingo, and they provided us with a perfect snorkeling trip.  We set off for the Catalina Islands, along with a group of high school students, on Seabird’s catamaran.  On the trip over Kate and I were served snacks while we laid out on the boat’s hammock-like bow netting.  We were even treated with a front row viewing of 2 turtles mating.  Once we arrived, we geared up and started snorkeling.

Despite her illustrious career as a swimmer and swim coach, Kate is notoriously a ‘pool only’ swimmer.  She doesn’t particularly like lakes or oceans, as “you can’t see what’s underneath you!”  Nonetheless, she braved the open water, did a bit of diving, and ultimately declared snorkeling to be fun.  Though I hated competitive swimming as a kid, I’ve taken quite a liking to water sports over the years, and since learning to scuba dive a few years back, I’ve discovered that Sebastian was right: “It’s always better, down where it’s wetter.”

We had a great guide who found a lot of life for us to interact with: an octopus (don’t mess with the tentacles – they’re harmless but tough to get off you), a few blowfish (quite slippery), a sleeping turtle (it didn’t like our presence much once it woke up), a starfish, a few oysters (which I ate once we got back onto the boat), and a few scallops (which I also ate raw – while snorkeling).

The guide provided a real treat when he cracked open a scallop with his knife, and put it on the ocean floor — starting an absolute feeding frenzy.  There were easily 100 fish swimming around us pecking and diving at the scallop.  It was great to watch.

Once back on the boat we headed for home while they served us lunch.  An unexpected bonus to cap a great final tourist adventure.  Hopefully the pictures below will show how much we enjoyed this.