He sings Fall Out Boy at the top of his lungs when he thinks I can’t hear him.

I’ve been meaning to post this picture for a couple of weeks now, but see below re: busy.

We bought a screen for our fireplace and have been enjoying fires. It’s very cozy.

All we need is a rug to go in front of it.

I have been MIA for a week or so and I appologize. I have just been flat out lately.

Work has been piled up. I’m not quite sure why, but by the end of the day, my brain has leaked out my ear and I go home and stare at the wall until it’s time to come back to work.

Also, this freelance proofreading project will never end. I mean, I’m happy to do it as long as they’re happy to pay me for it, but they keep telling me the project is over. And then sending more files.

I’ve been pretty good with the exercising, getting out the door only 5 or 10 minutes late. I did skip yoga last night because I was just that tired (and I had a pile of proofreading waiting for me at home).

But today is my birthday and I woke up in a good mood. I haven’t been looking forward to this birthday like I usually do, so I was glad to be happy (if that’s not too convoluted).

Someone advanced a theory that when things are good in life, you don’t mind getting older or dread the future. That’s a happy thought.

But work doesn’t stop for your birthday.

I got in and had to update my story on the high school volleyball team (No. 1 in the league!) and then write a profile of a prominant civil rights attorney who died this week. In the middle of that, James asks me to do him a favor. I blow him off till I’m done writing (and I swear, I have never heard my phone ring so much!) and ask him what he wants. He asks me to get something out of his glove box. I say fine, secretly wondering why he can’t do this himself, and go out to his car. In the glove box is a card and a packet of peanut M&Ms. I think my silly grin lasted about an hour.

And I just have to record, for posterity, the poem on the card:

I love your face —
I love your feet —
And all the rest.
My life’s complete!

James, wonderful fiance that he is, scanned the napkin rings for me.

I had a break through this weekend: I am basing the wedding decor on the napkin rings that I fell in love with in Somerset Weddings. This magazine was ridiculously expensive, but it has tons of great ideas for wedding crafts.

There’s no photo on the site of the napkin rings. I’ll have to scan in a pic when I get home.

Anyway, the rings are made mostly from copper. It’s a fall wedding (well, early September), and copper is a fall color that I like. I also like green (as does James), so I figured maybe copper and forest green as the main colors. That will make Mom happy, since she never liked the idea of brown bridesmaid dresses.

I also looked at some copper and brass tiaras. My dress is “candlelight” and there are some copper tones in it, so a copper tiara could work. And they’re cheaper. Dwarvesong has some pretty, plain ones for only $28.

I’m thinking of getting paint swatches to start to plan some stuff out. Especially since my wedding party is spread out across the East Coast.

But yay for making a decision about colors, finally.

James gave me a lovely little widget for my work computer that counts down the days to the wedding. It’s a blue orb and I like to move it all over my desktop and think about the wedding.

But lately, it’s been worrying me.

You see, instead of telling me that I have 13 months and 29 days to wedding, it is now telling me that I have 10 months and 24 days.

10 months?!? How did that happen?

We’ve gotten a lot of the big stuff — date, place, dress — out of the way, but there are so many things we haven’t done yet and James still thinks there’s tons of time.

Remember how I wanted to get save the dates out in September? See how it’s Oct. 12? Yeah.

We stopped at CVS at lunch time to pick up the rest of my antibiotics (stupid insurance would only give me three pills at a time — the prescription was only for five pills!) and as we’re walking out of the store, we pass an older woman struggle to reach something on the top shelf.

James stops and says, “Can I get something for you?” and proceeds to retrieve the item from the shelf for the woman, who was very grateful. James continues out of the store, thinking nothing of the exchange.

“What?” he says in response to my big grin.

“I love you,” I say.

I’ve been hearing from some people that they are reading this blog regularly, and James put in a new stats counter and is telling me of all the hits I get, so now I’m feeling pressured to update more than once a week.

I’m trying, really!

This week has been hard. I’m getting over a urinary tract infection that made my kidneys ache (yay for antibiotics!) and James is sick with some illness or another, so there isn’t a lot of left over energy. We haven’t even gotten around to adding more things to our registry.

We were talking the other day, though, about maybe setting up a registry at Sears so that we can get some tools. The drapes I bought for the living room are hidden in the corner behind the recliner because we keep forgetting to borrow the screw gun from work to get the rods up. We have an amazing dearth of tools.

But at the same time, I can’t really imagine adding anything else to a registry. We’re already got so much stuff! Who is going to want to look at all this stuff, much less buy it for us?

My new strategy on the weight loss front is to hang up photos of beautiful brides all over the kitchen to remind me not to eat so much. It was working well, until James asked me to bring him some potato chips last night because he wasn’t feeling well and wanted comfort food. I think I ate most of them. Sigh.

The weather has been dreary lately, too, which doesn’t help with the low energy levels. I’ve just decided to take the week off and start fresh next week.

James and I went down to Stamford this weekend, where our friend Kate works at Bed Bath & Beyond to set up our registry.

Let me just say, Kate was amazing. She stayed with us for three hours and guided us through the store, making suggestions and recommendations. She said that we did get some special treatment (she wouldn’t usually stay with a couple that long), but even if we didn’t know her, I would have loved to have gotten that much help. The store is huge and overwhelming without a guide.

The whole experience went pretty smoothly. James turned out to be the picky one. I liked just about everything, so it was mostly a matter of finding which things he likes as well. We agreed pretty easily on the china, flatware and pans. The crystal was harder, and finally James just let me pick what I wanted.

Kate complimented James on being so involved. She said most grooms get bored and hang back.

To find our registry, go to the site and enter one of our names in the registry section. It’s still a work in progress (do we really need a $150 toothbrush?), but I think the bulk of it is there.