WEDDINGS WEDNESDAY

Wednesday weddings, well no. There were no weddings, and very few licenses were sold all day. I don't know where everyone was. I will have to think of some else to write about. Check back later.

DWTS and AMERICAN IDOL

I wrote last week about how disappointed I have been with American Idol and Dancing With The Stars. And then yesterday my friend Sue wrote on her blog about DWTS. She is loving the season, but like me, wants Buzz Aldrin and Kate Gosselin gone.

Last night was the result show for Dancing With The Stars. Sue and I are happy. Buzz was sent home. Now if only Kate is sent home next week.

Tonight was the result show for AI. One of my favorites, Big Mike, was the person with the lowest votes. He would have to "sing for his life". That means he was allowed to pick a song and sing one more time. The four judges would vote on whether he would be saved to sing again next week. The judges can only use this save one time per season. And the vote must be unanimous. They hardly ever use this save, so I didn't have much hope. Well, Big Mike was incredible and they saved him. Much happiness at the Appel household.

The down side of this, probably next week two will be eliminated. They have only so many weeks to do the show. They have to only have two singers on the last show, not three. Oh well.

YOU ARE SOOOO BEAUTIFUL

On this day:1937 Merle Haggard, American musician, was born

OK, I won't do any more. But I will be back with more. Love that app, On this Day. . .

The edit process is not working today. I keep putting in paragraph breaks, Blogger keeps leaving them out. Sorry about that.

Weddings. I did a few on Monday. The weather was so awful I didn't think anyone would show up. But around 3:00 the sun came out and so did the people.

The first wedding the bride had been married before and had her two children with her. Her 7 year old son was the official witness. That meant he had to sign the license in a tiny space. Adults get this wrong and sign all over the page. I explained to the little boy where to sign and how tiny he had to write. He could only print, he hadn't learned cursive yet. He painstakingly printed his full name, and it was in the tiny space. His little sister, 5 years old, asked her mother if they were married now. "Yes," her mother said. And the little girl became ecstatic and grabbed her stepfather and hugged him. She then told me that on Friday she had told her teacher that her stepdaddy and mother were getting married. "And now I can tell her they are married!" These children were thrilled with this man as their stepfather. This was a very special type of love in the room.

The next wedding was very special. The bride was in a lovely white chiffony dress and ready for the ceremony. But we had to wait on the groom. He was changing into his Naval uniform. He didn't want it to wrinkle, so he waited until we were ready, to change clothes. They had lots of family and friends with them. Everyone was dressed up and looking lovely. After the wedding I thanked the young man for serving in the military. He then told me his bride was also in the military. She is in the Reserves. A very special wedding.

We will skip the third and go on to the fourth wedding of the day. The couple were in their late 20's. When I met them the groom told me he was so happy to have such a beautiful woman marrying them. He kept talking about how beautiful I am. (Folks, I am well preserved, but beautiful? No one has ever accused me of that.) I just smiled and herded them into the elevator. Then he gave me one of the best left handed compliments ever said. To his bride he said, "When you get old like her, I want you to be just as beautiful." This is right up there with "For a fat girl you don't sweat much."

Men, never ever use old and beautiful in the same sentence.

Now there was something wrong with the groom, nothing that caused me to think of not doing the wedding. But was he close to drunk? Was he high on something? Was he mentally impaired? I don't know. He did not smell of alcohol, he didn't slur his words, his eyes were not dilated. But he kept listing to the side, his eyes kept closing, he was wobbly. Something going on there.

Who knows.

They are in love, they are married, and I am soooo beautiful.

I LOVE THIS APP

In February I wrote about my almost new iPhone. I love it, but there have been problems. I am a slow learner in certain areas. Others pretty speedy. I can take pictures, download them to my computer, and upload them to my blog. Pretty cool.

Unfortunately, I can not ever figure out how to down load apps the first time. And if I do get it to work the first time, I don't know how I did it. Saturday it worked the first time and I love this FREE app.

Did you know on this date (April 5) in history:

in 1614 Native American Pocahontas marries English Colonist John Rolf in Virginia

in 1827 Joseph Lister, English surgeon, was born

in 1949 Fireside Theater debuts on television

I love trivia stuff like this. The app list births, deaths, political events, religious events, sports stuff, etc. There are sometimes hundreds of listings. I can jump ahead on the calendar or jump back, I'm not limited to just today. This is so fun to use. I know, this is the sort of thing retired teachers would love. Well, that is me.

I am sure Marty will grow tired of this way before I do. He is not a huge fan of being read historical trivia. I will try to control myself. But some historical facts just cry out to be shared.

WEDDINGS MONDAY AND WEDNESDAY

I read a lot of pages this week waiting on couples to marry. Monday they were spaced out over the three plus hours. But Wednesday, no couples, let alone other people in the building until around 3:30. And still there were only three couples who wanted to marry.

Monday:
The first couple wore jeans. They told me the "real wedding" was going to be on Saturday. I explained that was a party, we were doing the real wedding. What was cute was the bride obviously had on her "real wedding" jewelery, chandelier rhinestone earrings and necklace. Maybe a little over the top with jeans and a tee shirt.

The second couple were Chinese and the bride had on a gorgeous red chiffon dress, with brown cowboy boots. A little strange to see. When we got in the Wedding Room she pulled out fancy strappy heels and wore them for the wedding. She told me they were pretty but hurt her feet. After the wedding the boots went back on.

The third couple I can barely remember. They were sweet, generic and OK. But I DO remember one of the guests. Not a Mother, not a sister, just a loud obnoxious woman. In the elevator she was giving orders at the top of her lungs. In the Wedding Room every time I said something she was talking so loud I couldn't be heard. When I asked the couple questions and they told me what they wanted to do, she told them what they needed to do. The couple seemed overwhelmed by her. So Miss Janet, the boss of the world took over. I explained to the obnoxious guest it wasn't her wedding and I only listen to the couple. And that I am the only one who gets to talk now. When the wedding was over she started in again directing the picture taking. Fine, I didn't have to be in there for that.

Fourth couple, I have no memory of except she was pregnant with two school age children ( maybe 6 and 9) and she was about 25 years old. Doing the math on that depressed me.

Wednesday:
The first couple, she was from Pakistan and he was from India. She was so lovely with her hennaed hands, arms and feet. The designs were beautiful. She had on a traditional red outfit and the gold bracelets. Instead of rings they exchanged necklaces. I hadn't had that happen before.

Couple two, my post it note on them only says boring.

Couple three, another one having a "real wedding" Saturday. This couple were so very much in love. The tenderness as he wiped her eyes during the ceremony touched me. And he cried from emotion. They just stood and embraced each other after I pronounced them married. I was moved by this couple and I had goose bumps the whole ceremony.

Some weddings are fun, or annoying, or embarrassingly lustful. Some weddings I am sure will end in divorce. But some weddings are incredibly wonderful, whether they are in full wedding attire or wearing Daisy Dukes and overalls. Love fills the room.

AMERICAN IDOL and DANCING WITH THE STARS

A friend emailed today and wanted to know why I haven't commented on AI or DWTS. If you remember last year I gave reports regularly. Well, this year I don't feel the love for either show.

American Idol:
I can not believe the good if not possibly great singers were voted off the first couple of weeks. And the awful, terrible, boring, just plain bad singers have stayed. This is a year of multiple Sanjayas. America just keeps voting for bad singers. The two or three singers we like are not really goose bump worthy. At least tonight all of the bottom three needed to go home. Too bad they could only send Didi home.

Dancing With the Stars:
Where do I begin? I guess with our American hero, Buzz Aldrin. Yes, he is an icon of space travel. Yes, we admire him. But he is 80 years old and it is painful watching him dance. He can't dance, and I bet when he was 25 he couldn't dance. But America won't send him home for a long time. Others dancers are really poor and they weren't even in the bottom two. We have reality star Kate Gosselin who is worse than Buzz. He at least is a nice person. After watching this week I can see why Jon left her. She is so hateful her pro partner quit the show and walked out. He later came back, probably couldn't get out of his contract. We have a football star (I guess he is a star, I don't do football) who looks clumsy.

It was interesting watching the tapes of rehearsal. Most of the stars were arguing and being prima donnas with the pros. I haven't seen this before. Think about it, people who can't walk and chew gum are telling professional dancers how to teach dance. And they are complaining about how hard dancing is. Well, yes, it is as physically hard as playing football, tennis, and most other sports.

We will probably keep watching. And I will keep bitching.

READING TO CHILDREN

One of my favorite things to do is to read stories to my first graders. To bring a book to life is a great experience. I love to hear the children laugh, groan, giggle, go ewwwww; it is wonderful. I do all the voices, I show the pictures twice, I ask questions about the pictures, I have as much fun as the children.

Today I read one of my favorite books to them Herb, the Vegetarian Dragon. Yes, that name is familiar to the regular readers. Click here for the link to last year's blog about this book.

This book amazes me ever time I read it or think about it. You can hear a pin drop while I am reading. The children are awed by this book. They also are tickled by it. They love the thought of dragons eating the crunchy knights in armor. They scan the pictures and find things I haven't noticed. And they get the point of the story: we all are different but we can live together in peace.

Last year my niece, who used to teach elementary children, fell in love with this book. She bought the book. BUT not for her children, for her vegetarian husband. Gotta love that.

TESTING ANOTHER RECIPE

Marty and I tested another recipe for Cook's Country Magazine last night. It was Reduced Fat Stuffed Shells with Meat Sauce. Above is the start of the project. The scale is to weigh the 6 ounces of ground beef. The beef was seasoned with soy sauce and then pulsed in the food processor.

Then diced tomatoes were pulsed.

Marty is getting ready to saute onions and garlic with herbs and spices.

Sauteing onions and ground beef.

I helped some and insisted Marty take my picture to prove I was there. I really do cook.

Tomatoes and other goodies going in. Hot pepper flakes are in the sauce.

Marty is stuffing the shells with the cheese mixture. I would eat this mixture on a cracker it is so rich. But it is really low fat.

Shells on the meat sauce and ready to be topped off and then into the oven.

Last bit before it goes into the oven. We froze the rest of the stuffed shells and meat sauce. In the future we can just pull out the shells and sauce we need and have an easy supper.

The finished product topped with melted Parmesan cheese, a Rubicon 2004 Syrah, tossed salad, and flat bread. The dish is delicious. We will be fixing this again.

WEDDINGS, WEDDINGS, AND MORE WEDDINGS

My feet are tired. I am tired. I work a 3 1/2 hour shift performing wedding ceremonies Mondays and Wednesdays. Today I did 10 weddings. Ten, one right after another. They were all lovely people, no weird ones. But there are several that stand out for different reasons.

One couple was from China. They had a big wedding planned in China later this year. But their student visas came through, and that wedding was off. They are at school at the University of San Francisco.

Another couple had the loudest screaming baby I have ever heard. The child was content until we started the ceremony. And he then screamed and screamed. Mad, not hungry he refused the bottle. He was just mad and got louder and louder. I had to almost yell to be heard over him. That is hard on the throat.

Another had a screaming baby. They would pass him back and forth, but he wouldn't calm down. I could barely hear them as I talked to them before the wedding. The groom held the baby throughout the ceremony. It turned out the baby wasn't theirs. He was a nephew. And the parents were not at the wedding. Why would you bring some one's baby to your wedding? Were they babysitting and decided to run off and get married? No, they were dressed up, their mothers were dressed up. Even the baby had a suit on. I don't know. I do know he screamed bloody murder the whole time we were upstairs. Again, the throat was hurting by the end of the ceremony.

Another couple was being remarried after many years and other marriages. The bride was very emotional. So happy and also crying. He was joyful and a little tearful at the same time. I gave them tissues, and he pulled out a handkerchief. Throughout the wedding he wiped her tears away. This was a goose bump wedding. So much love and tenderness.

My last wedding was just fun. She was a widow and he was divorced. They had met online on e Harmony. Such joy from this couple. They were dressed in bike shorts and tops. And they wore them well. They had ridden a tandem bike to be married from a town 20 miles away and would be biking home. They are in training for the Aids/LifeCycle Ride. It's a small world, they know a friend of ours who rides every year.

This was a very busy day. And it felt good.

KIEL TURPIN: REMEMBER THAT NAME

Back Story: Our nephew plays basketball. Lots of people play basketball, but few as well as Kiel Turpin. Kiel is tall, really tall, 7 feet tall. And he plays college basketball, really well. This is our March Madness story.

You all know about NCAA Basketball Tournament. That is for the 4 year schools. Well, Junior Colleges have as huge a tournament in March also. They have the NJCAA Basketball Tournament. Guess whose nephew went to the Nationals? Right, my sister's grandson, our great nephew, Kiel Turpin. Google Kiel Turpin and there are thousands of sites about him. Not just Facebook either.

Kiel plays for Lincoln College. Kiel did not have a lot of court time in high school. He grew over 6 inches in one year and was learning how to get that fast growing, tall body coordinated. Now he has it under control. And the young man can really play ball.

Last night was the final game in the NJCAA Tournament, and the Lincoln LYNX were playing in it. Marty and I were invited to a dinner party at the time of the game. We were excited and wanted to keep posted on the score since we couldn't watch it on line. When we walked into the party I told our hostess about the game. Then I told her we were going to be rude. We would be checking Facebook on our phones every now and then. A cousin was going to post regular updates for us on Facebook all through the game.

Our hostess understood. Pat and her guests were nice about our excitement. They were listening for the scores throughout the evening. And then the final post: Lincoln won, and Kiel was named MVP. We all cheered for him. This is a great article about him.

As I said, remember the name, Kiel Turpin. You will hear much more about him. And not just from proud Aunt Janet.