Monday, January 28

Free pretzels!

This Saturday, Auntie Anne's Pretzels is celebrating their birthday! Free original and cinnamon sugar pretzels from 10-4 at every location across the country.

Sunday, January 27

The weekend

I swear, the speed of weekends increases exponentially with age. They used to go by slowly, but now they fly by!

As with the previous few, this one was filled with wedding plans. Sarah and I purchased our wedding rings at the same location we bought her engagement ring. We're having them make one that fits her unique ring perfectly. Unfortunately, that requires for them to take it for a week to create a plastic mold and such. Her finger already looks weird not wearing it. Pretty cool how quickly we both got used to it!

This weekend we also made serious strides in our wedding registry. We picked out about everything we wanted to make a joint decision on in the stores, and now Sarah is going to finalize colors and a few random items online. We're pretty excited about some of the stuff...including an electric fondue pot and camping equipment! (for those of you chomping at the bit to buy us stuff, we're registered at Bed, Bath, and Beyond as well as Target...our registries are available online at both websites under either one of our names)

We also went to the annual Hope/Calvin rivalry game. Hope won of course, and we got to enjoy it with over 40 alumni from both schools out in King of Prussia. Our friends Alaine Cronkright, Erika and Josh Blom, as well as our new friend Mike Forbes were out there. Fun times!


Sorge family update: they've both landed part-time jobs for the time being. Jim will hear back this week regarding the results of his interview pursuing a more long-term career in research at UPenn. Teresa is working at Koresh Dance Company, where she doesn't get paid, but she is allowed to take all the free classes she desires to keep her in shape for Temple this fall (and learn more ideas for teaching). They have several leads in housing, but nothing that fits their immediate needs. Still, they're getting the hang of Philly and have driven more miles this week than I'd like to in a month.

Friday, January 25

Changes

My friend Chris Marlink sent this to me, and I thought it was pretty funny.

Saturday, January 19

New roommates

This past Sunday, Jim and Teresa Sorge moved into my house with me! Seth is on a trip to Peru until Tuesday, and Jim and Teresa are trying to establish residency for Teresa to quality for in-state tuition at Temple this fall (she's pursuing her masters in dance). Unfortunately, they're still looking for jobs and apartments/houses. So, if you know of anything available for a biology/chemistry/french/education degree or dance/education, let me know!

In the meantime, Sarah and I are really enjoying the fact that they're here and hanging out with us. They've made us dinner almost every night this week, which has been very delicious and appreciated.

Today, Scott, Brian, Lydia, Christen, Tony, Dan, and Krista will descend into Philadelphia to hang out with us this afternoon/evening. It'll be a HUGE Hope reunion of some of our closest friends! Can't wait...

Sunday, January 13

Wedding update, part 2

Also, Sarah and I booked our honeymoon! We'll be going on a Caribbean cruise from Miami. It'll be my first cruise, which I'm pretty excited for. The ship's description proudly broadcasts all the buffets and varieties of food available 24 hours a day. If you know Sarah and I, you know we'll both enjoy that a great deal!

Wedding updates

Yesterday morning, Sarah and I drove out to King of Prussia and met with our photographer, Jeff Wojtaszek. My roommate Seth (who is also a photographer and will be in the wedding) recommended Jeff since they shoot a lot of weddings together. Sarah and I loved the work posted on his website--he seems to artistically capture emotion in candid shots. He cut us a deal with his rates, and Seth volunteered to shoot some pictures on his camera when he's not in the pictures. Looks like it'll work out well! We're pretty excited. =)

Another accomplishment was picking out the guys' tuxes at Men's Warehouse. Woo hoo!

We also secured Trinity Orthodox Presbyterian Church for our ceremony location. We met with Reverend George Cottenden and put down a deposit for the use of their facilities. Trinity is exactly 4 miles of the reception site with a classic sanctuary and ample parking. Several of our friends at Liberti mentioned Trinity when we said we were getting married in Horsham, and God seemed to close the doors to all the other churches we tried contacting. Trinity was prompt, flexible, and available...so it made our decision quite easy! We took some pictures, which are available here.


Here's a map from the church to our reception site:

View Larger Map

Friday, January 11

My first day in court

Some of you may remember the ticket I received for illegally turning left at Girard and Ridge in Philadelphia in November. When giving me the ticket, the police officer said that it was a 3-point offense on my license, plus a $130 fine! Sarah and I tried to point to the extenuating circumstances surrounding the offense (a fire truck came by, forcing me to pull over and made the dark intersection even more difficult to navigate). The officer said that I should contest the ticket, yet when Sarah asked him why he should even give me the ticket, he said, "sorry, not tonight," and walked away. Well, three months later, I had my day in court to defend myself. It was quite the experience!!

First of all, I felt pretty intimidated. The judge certainly had a mission: to stamp out big and small crime in Philadelphia. Of the perhaps 20-25 cases that I saw transpire before I was called up to the stand, only 4 or so were found not guilty! The prosecuting officer said that the offense was a non-point citation, which is different from the original officer. Anyway, the judge heard my case, and said he understood my situation. The verdict? Not guilty. WOO HOO!!!

My joy was dashed--although only momentarily--by the pouring rain outside the police station. My shirt, pants, hair, and undergarments were soaked by the time I got to my car. I made it back to school in time for our staff meeting.

While listening to NPR today, I heard about this website called Politifact.com. They claim to be a non-biased organization simply interested in fact-checking statements, advertisements, and comments made in debates by presidential candidates. It's worth a look-around!

Monday, January 7

Another life goal accomplished

One of my goals in life was to see the musical Stomp. For Christmas, Sarah helped me accomplish my goal by buying me student rush tickets to the show. We made it back from New Castle in time to catch the last show in Philadelphia. The amount of household materials they used was very impressive! Everything from pots and pans to brooms to trash cans to tubs to their bodies to matchboxes...even the kitchen sink! Quite the show. The audience was very rhythmic as well--responding to call and response claps from the performers better than any I had ever been a part of. It made me wonder if they had gotten better during the performance or if they would have been that good at the beginning of the night. Overall, a fun experience. Now if I can just see Lion King the Musical...

(the show was almost a week ago, but I realized that I hadn't posted about it yet.)

Saturday, January 5

Wedding reception site

This afternoon, Sarah and I went hunting for a reception site, and we found it!!! One of the teachers at my school got married there recently, and she recommended it to us. The company is called Joseph's Catering, and they are located in Horsham, PA. They had about everything we wanted at a rock-bottom price. Horsham is a small suburb about 40 minutes outside of Philly.
Joseph's is located on the main street in town with a nice park (for outdoor wedding photos), eating options, hair salons, churches, grocery store, hotel, and other wedding necessities. We checked out a few places for rehearsal dinner and hotels for possible rates. Click here for the pictures we took today.

Tuesday, January 1

Ending break

Today is my last day of Christmas vacation. The past 2 1/2 weeks have gone by quickly, and they have been wonderful. I went to school this morning to start finishing up a few things before the kids come back tomorrow. Going into the building, unfortunately, wasn't the most energizing thing I've done this break.

Right now I'm watching Michigan play their final game of the season: the Capital One Bowl against Florida. Current Heisman Trophy winner and former homeschool Tim Tebow is the opposing quarterback, and Michigan doing an excellent job opposing them! Being able to take in a game like this with Sarah is pretty fun for me.

Sarah heard back from her professor today regarding our wedding date. We had hoped for her to get a day or two off...but she offered Sarah TWO WEEKS off--the week before and the week after!!! Praise God! So, now we'll just have to see how much time I can get off from Spruce Hill...