Meet the Officiant

For our second night on the road (Sunday) we had decided to stop for a visit with my aunt and uncle in Ponca City, OK. Since aunt Margareta was on her way back from Sweden, right after we arrived Kelly, uncle Herb, and I all piled back into the car to pick her up from the bustling Wichita Mid-Continent Airport. Her flight arrived after a minor delay and our little road trip gave us a chance to do some much needed catching up. Our brief visit also gave Kelly and I the chance to ask Herb if he would, in his capacity as a Universal Life minister, be the one to marry us. While there are some legal formalities to be worked out, we’re happy to announce that Herb has agreed. On a sadder note, we discovered that Head Country BBQ, our favorite eatery in the greater Ponca-Tonkawa-Pawhuska metroplex, is closed on Mondays. We consoled ourselves with a late breakfast at the Daily Grind before hitting the road for Oklahoma City.
(Photo - Margareta, Herb, and Ziggy)

Look Mom - Red Dirt!

Just a glimpse of the scenery we took in during our drive through Oklahoma. Heading toward Ponca City, it was raining so hard that we pulled off the road and sat for a while with everyone else. Except the truckers that is. And then we decided it was raining so hard that it would be better to be moving along with the truckers rather than being sitting ducks. After an hour or so it cleared enough for me to take the wheel, and poor Adam finally got to sleep a while. He missed the lightning storm.

Road Trip

After a false start at 1am -we had to double back 45 minutes because we forgot to say goodbye to the cats- we're finally on the road. For those who haven’t heard, Kelly and I are driving to Dallas (via Oklahoma) to visit with family and work on the planning for our wedding. I’m not fully appraised of the program of events for the week but I gather it’s going to be a whirlwind of photographers, bakers, DJs, and florists. Since I trust Kelly’s taste in these matters, I’ll probably spend most of the time nodding supportively. I hope we have to sample some cake.

Our Furry Children

In reviewing photos for inclusion on this site Kelly and I realized about half of the shots we take are of our cats (that's Nori in the photo above). Since we haven't been able to put together any other decent photo albums this will be our first test of our new Flicker account. Drop us an email if you run into any problems.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/9758236@N05/sets/72157600830093598/show/

PLANNING BLITZ

Early summer at the hacienda.

Since I am doing most of the planning from Rochester, we are taking 10 days in July/August to drive down to Dallas and meet vendors, etc. We had initially wanted to do this earlier in July, but Barnes & Noble wouldn’t let me take vacation time till after the Harry Potter Madness has died down (there’s still time to reserve your copy of Book VII!).

I spent the better part of last week sifting through Vendor Referral lists, looking at Vendor websites and begging for recommendations. I have managed to schedule consultations with the wedding planner at the hotel, three cakeries, two florists (I couldn’t believe one florist was already booked for our date, more than a year out!), three photographers, a hairdresser and a make-up artist (GOOD LORD!), one DJ (I still need two more), one pianist (I think). Oh, and we need to meet with our officiant - Adam’s Uncle Herb, in Ponca City, Oklahoma. And fabric for my dress. And reserve the room for the rehearsal dinner. And eat Mexican food, lots of Mexican food.

About Adam

I was born and raised in Montreal, Quebec, the only child of Prudence (Mors) and Jack Dean Rains – and, later, Jim Lewis. Jack grew up in Ponca City, Oklahoma with his younger brother Herb. Prue was born in Chicago and raised in Wellesley Hills, MA with her brother Chris. My step-dad, Jim, is a native Montrealer.

I attended Dawson College in Montreal before eventually moving to Sarasota, FL where I met Kelly and completed a bachelor’s degree in biology. After college, I returned to Montreal to finish my master’s degree in epidemiology at McGill University. I subsequently moved to Rochester, NY to live with Kelly and took a job with the University of Rochester’s Department of Community and Preventive Medicine. Working with an excellent group from the Division of Public Health, I was lucky to get to see quite a bit of the world in my early days at the University. Though I recently left the University and have started my own consulting business, I continue to teach on a part-time basis.

When I’m not writing stilted autobiographical sketches, I spend my increasingly scarce free time working on our house and watching murder mysteries with Kelly. To get an idea of what I do, and to see photos from some of the places I’ve been, click the link on the right to go to my personal website.

About Kelly

I was born in St Louis and raised in Texas, the only child of James Clark & Erlann Adams Clark (both born in Oklahoma). I attended New College in Sarasota, and then went on to Rochester Institute of Technology’s School for American Crafts for my MFA in Ceramics. I have been splitting my time between teaching/making pottery and a part-time job at Barnes & Noble (they pay for my health-care and subsidize my book habit) for over 10 years now. By the time I finished my degree here in Rochester, Adam had a good job at the local med school, and we decided to stick around for a while. We bought a house last summer, and have been fixing it up ever since. It was built in 1930 and is really lovely, BUT it seems like there’s always something needs doing. Plus I’m still trying to eradicate all traces of the previous owner (she had an overwhelming fondness for mint green paint). My big job at the house is the yard, which is an amazing English Garden. It takes a ridiculous amount of time and energy to maintain that overgrown floral splendor (no small feat for someone who once managed to kill a Ficus tree). I’ll include pictures occasionally so you can see how the seasons progress. For more info on my work, there is a link to the right that will take you to my personal website.