Birth Mom is fertile.

Sarah's mom, Pam, got her "Save the date" seeds to grow!

Hers is the only success story we've heard. Redwood and Sequoia seeds are notoriously difficult to grow, and we know several people put a good effort in but had no luck. Pam planted her seeds a few months ago, and ended up with six Sequoia seedlings. An unexpectedly hot day withered three of them under the glass in her kitchen window, so she has turned them over to us to care for because she was "freaking out" after half of them died. But she did a great job: I only got two to grow from my pack (see earlier posts).

If you still have not planted your seeds, now is a great time because late winter and early spring is when they would start to grow in the wild after hibernating through the cold. If you have no interest in growing the seeds, or no green thumb, just sprinkle them in a semi shady patch of dirt that might get some water and leave it at that. Seeds in a pack will never grow, and this way, at least if nothing happens, they'll return to the soil as nutrients.

Jason

PS: If you've tried — whether you've succeeded or not — we'd like to know. Post a comment here.

Change of venue.

So — the story behind the mad dash to Eureka ...

As most of you know, we had originally planned to have our wedding reception at the Moonstone Beach House, located (as you might expect) on idyllic Moonstone Beach: a half-circle of sand that stretched long out to the ocean with redwoods stacked high on the cliffs above. It was a great setting, but the venue itself was a bit rustic — which we knew and had accepted from the start. However, a few things happened over the last few months that tipped the scale toward finding another venue.

The first, our excellent wedding planner, Sarah, took part in a wedding at the Beach House in October and e-mailed us soon after to express her concerns. Apparently, screens and sliding glass doors were falling off, the kitchen wasn't working properly, the bathrooms were unkempt, and there was just a general poor condition about the place. In short, a bit too rustic. Some of these problems we knew of, but some the owner had said he would fix before our wedding in June. Shortly thereafter, Sam, the owner, said he was raising his price by 25 percent over what he had quoted us, and he said he would not be making any of the improvements he had spoke of. Then he went missing for several weeks right around when we were trying to firm up all our arrangements in December. Then when Sarah found him again, he raised the price by another 25 percent — so double what we were originally quoted, and still no improvements.

The final straw came when, while Sam was missing, Sarah found a vacation home surrounded by trees on the bluffs above the beach that would allow a wedding reception. My Sarah haggled with the property manager and was able to get the place for the reception and arrange for her and I to stay in the house the night of the wedding — all for no more than the Beach House would now cost us. The new venue is called the Bluff House, and consists of four acres of trees and a little cottage that overlooks the ocean.

Ultimately, we like it better than the original venue.

How does this affect you? Not much. The Bluff House is located in Trinidad, which is where the reception was originally to be held. And the new place is actually easier to find than the Beach House. We will distribute directions the day of the wedding that will get everyone from the ceremony site to the reception, no problem.

That's the news.

Jason

There and back again.

Four days ago we were standing in the Redwoods at our wedding site. It was one stop on a whirlwind trip that began in San Diego Thursday night, swept through Eureka Friday, paused for a wedding near San Francisco Saturday, and then ended back in San Diego Sunday afternoon.

The original occasion for the trip was the wedding of Sarah's college roommate, Stephanie, but as her wedding neared several changes and loose ends in our own wedding plans made it hard to pass up one last chance to visit Eureka before June. So we tacked on an extra day and an extra 10 hours of driving.

The trip turned out to be well worth it. The main change to our plans comes in the form of a change of venue for the wedding reception (more on that in a forthcoming entry). This was also the impetus for the extra effort in the road trip: We couldn't imagine planning a reception for a site we'd never visited. We checked out the site, met the owner and the property manager (both chill northern Californians), and came away quite happy with our decision and ready to plan with tons of pictures in hand. We also double-checked the ceremony site, confirmed our reservation for the rehearsal dinner, and met with our caterer to finalize the menu. We did all this in about three hours, then crashed.

The wedding was a blast. We got to hang with Brian, one of our favorite Northern Californians and a friend of Sarah's from Davis. It was the sixth or so wedding we've attended together (and the last before our wedding), and as always, we took away ideas for our own.

After leaving Eureka, we basically spent three days in the rain, which followed us all the way home to San Diego. As we came out of the redwoods on Highway 101, we ran into a fairly heavy snowstorm that forced us to try out the chains we had bought Thursday night before leaving. Sarah is the master of putting on snow chains. We passed at least a half dozen cars that had slid off the road as we made slow but steady progress through two hours of constant snowfall.

Quite beautiful, though.

Jason

PS: Pictures, from top: A view from the trail that leads to our ceremony site; us after fixing chains to Sarah's Vue; the scenery as we made our way through the snow storm; and us at the wedding with Brian.

Lime it up.

We have decided on a theme for our September 2008 San Diego event. It will be a lime.

A lime is basically a chill party, casual, light — but a damn good time. The idea of the lime comes from Trinidad and Tobago, where we traveled with eight other people and had a blast for 10 days in March 2005. Definitely one of our best trips, mainly because of the great people we met in Grande Riviere. The time we spent hanging with Nigel Tinto, Nigel, Troy, and Gideon at Nigel T.'s pub Jamesy's came to characterize for us the spirit of the lime, which has a lot to do with meeting new people and enjoying their company. With good beer. (I'd trade a case of Jack Daniel's for a cold Stag beer, the beer of choice in Trinidad.)

Anna will be helping us put this huge event on as one of her many contributions to the wedding as a Groomsman. Sarah and I will be coming off a busy summer of getting married, remodeling our new house, and moving into our first place as homeowners. We will also be in the first four weeks of our hectic fall school/work schedules, so Anna's help will be essential to making our lime happen. Check out the updated San Diego Lime page on the wedding website for more info and pictures.

The San Diego Lime will likely number in the hundreds, so there will plenty of new people to meet over a beer. Now we have yet another event that we can barely wait for, and this one's farther off than the wedding.

Jason

PS: Below is Chris and Nigel T. at Jamesy's Pub.

One of my groomsmen is marrying a dude.

Anna is engaged!

My sister and Frank got engaged a few days ago. They spent the week hiking around the Yosemite Valley, just the two of them for the most part since many of the trails were deserted in the winter snow. On the last day of the trip, he asked.

Sarah and I are thrilled; we couldn't be happier: We love Frank, and think he and Anna are great people. Some of Sarah and my best times since we've been together have been spent traveling around the world with Anna and Frank, and Chris and ... various women. Particularly our trip to Trinidad in 2005.

We look forward to spending our future trips, holidays, and lives with them.

Jason

Done and done.

The web site is finished!

After six months of construction or so, our last new page has been loaded. We've put together our web site as we've put together our wedding, one discovery at a time.

With the addition of the Wedding Party page — which is one of our favorites — every link on the site is active. Watch the blog now for major developments. Much is in the works.

Jason

Party people.

We are excited to announce the people who will be standing with us at the wedding ceremony. Many of them have been helping us behind the scenes for months as we've been planning and will continue to do so as things really get busy during the next six months (actually less than that).

On the bride's side:
Amy Ranallo (maid of honor)
Edra Davis
Sara Steen
Jennifer Tate

On the groom's side:
Chris Williams (best man)
Paul Reams (officiant)
Evan Weinberger
Anna Williams

Actually, these are people who have stood with us through much for many years, and we're honored to have them with us and happy to introduce them to you. We're working on the Wedding Party page for the web site, which should launch soon with pictures and notes about each member of our party.

Jason