The little things at a wedding

They say that no one knows the things that don't go as planned at a wedding. And that is amazingly true. My favorite moment was the realization as Michelle and I were walking back up the aisle after the ceremony, and I realized I had not told my brother about the music for post-ceremony. Thankfully the bagpiper my dad had gotten decided to start playing then. Whew...

It was an amazing day all told though, with so many friends and family, great weather, and so many cool events. We had a fireworks display that would rival any medium-sized town in the US, my nephew's rap performance, my uncle playing piano, and an armadillo cake thanks to Michelle's co-worker's extraordinary talents!

What happened with the pagoda

Wow is all I can say on this one. For every delay that could have happened. First I lose weeks by trying to negotiate price (nothing doing, not even my soon to be mother-in-law calling!) Then the vendor takes his time actually building it. Then when we finally get it on the ship (a ship we were likely to miss), the ship is delayed leaving China and misses its connection in Korea (of all places, it had to connect through Korea?)

Finally the pagoda is almost there and it is flagged in customs, which means another 2-5 days (unclear how many exactly). It turned out to only be 2 days, but we could not pick it up until Friday, which was 8 days before the wedding. So we were going to have approximately 5 days to build it.

My father and I drive down there (which was an exceedingly long day for him, since the goal was to be there by 9 am). We get there, only to find we don't have the right papers (our shipper's fault), and when we do, we move back to find not one 10 cubic meter box, but 6, and the largest was significantly larger than our pickup truck. Uhmmm....

The guys in the warehouse are helping us call shippers, and we manage to find one that will deliver by the following day. We drive off with the three smallest boxes, and prayed that it would literally arrive the next day.

When we unpacked everything, we discovered not ceramic tiles (which is what we thought we had ordered), but fiberglass. And fiberglass everything. With no instructions of course. So I was out helping my dad and his two workers, including using the sawzall to cut off pieces to make it fit, and the backhoe to lift the heavier pieces up to the roof. It was finished the morning of the wedding.

(and yes, it looks amazing, but WOW what a trip to get it there!)

Adjusting to life back here

It is strange to be back, some things are very easy, thinking about living in suburban NJ perhaps not as much, but in general the pace of life, the things that I am doing, all of that seem so different!

One amusing element. Wedding gifts are slowly coming in, and Michelle is SOOO happy to receive them, it is like Christmas every day here now (and next to impossible to prevent her from opening all of the boxes when they arrive!)