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

Invitations — out.

We hope everyone had a good holiday season. Some of you we saw, and some of you we didn't but wish we could have.

We spent some of our time off putting together our formal invitations, which we assembled ourselves. The invitations are handmade from the bark of a plant that is sustainably harvested. The envelope and card stock are made from 100 percent post-consumer recycled paper. All natural, and all tree free.

Because it is a destination wedding, there are a few things for you and us to figure out, including time off from work, travel arrangements, and a place to stay, among other things. If you have any questions as you make your plans, please feel free to contact us — or post a question here. We are asking for RSVP cards to be returned by February 20 so that we can then make the necessary arrangements that are number contingent.

The invitations are in the mail!

Jason

Carbon be gone.

In our effort to reduce the impact our destination wedding will have on the environment (50 or so people traveling hundreds of miles), and because we like the organization and the idea, we have made a donation through Trees for the Future. This nonprofit has been promoting sustainable agroforestry around the world since 1989.

We have adopted the village of Bethel in the community of Cabaret, Haiti, which has been devastated by deforestation and global climate change. The project we have sponsored will plant more than 5,000 forestry and fruit trees. The trees are fast growing and permanent. According to the non-profit's executive director, these "beneficial trees will protect the fragile lands and assure that families can continue to live in dignity. Each year, these trees will remove several tons of pollution from the global atmosphere [...] while protecting lands and assisting the natural return of past diversity." Only three percent of Haiti's original forests remains, leaving it brown and barren. Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, and the deforestation leaves its people vulnerable to flooding and mudslides, which kill many and wash away what little fertile topsoil remains. Eventually the hillsides turn to rock and cannot be farmed.

Trees for the Future fits its program to what best suits each community, teaching people how to better use the land by integrating the elements of their daily lives — trees, people, animals, agriculture — into a system that is self-sustaining. They also train people to spread the knowledge they have gained.

Since the idea is to offset all our upcoming (June 2008) travel, the donation is basically in the names of everyone attending the wedding — so, in a sense, it is your donation as much as it is ours. At 5,000 trees, that's roughly 100 trees per person. Check out Trees for the Future at www.treesftf.org.

Jason

PS: I had two trees survive my planting of the "Save the Date" seeds, a redwood (left) and a sequoia (right). Here they are at about 10 weeks. Anyone else have any luck?

Goodbye November.

Well, the last six weeks have kind of gotten away from us.

As is our custom in the fall, we took on way too many obligations at work and school, so in the lead up to the semester ending, we typically have no choice but to dig in — so if you haven't heard from us or seen us, we've been dug in. Sarah's been working on final projects for her classes in the evenings after work and on her days off. It's all due next week, so we're bowing out of two holiday events we wanted to attend this weekend to make sure that she has enough time to complete her work. I've been steeped in grading during this time. I've been conducting and grading finals and filing grades this past week, with everything looking to wrap up next week around the time Sarah finishes. I also took a French class, which had been going well until the last two weeks or so, when it had to take a back seat — that final was ... not my finest work.

Amid all this, we devoted our time to one more pursuit — we bought a house! We had convinced ourselves and come to peace with the fact that we would have to leave San Diego in order to afford a home, but with the help of Sarah's moms, we were able to become homeowners. We bought the house that we had been renting from Sarah's step mom, Kat, during the past year and a half. It is a 1950's two bedroom, two bath with a huge yard and a pool, located in Allied Gardens (a great neighborhood across the freeway from San Diego State University). Kat happily lowered the price to one we could afford, selling the property under value, and Sarah's mom, Pam, generously payed for our closing costs and our first month's mortgage. The purchase has special meaning for Sarah and her family because her grandparents on her mother's side lived there, as did her dad, Jim, and Kat — so it's a family house, which will now stay that way.

Progress on the wedding has been slow going (see above), but we did manage to get our wedding coordinator up north squared away. Her name is Sarah, and she's very cool. We also ordered the materials for our formal invitations (100 percent recycled, tree-free products — of course), and we will be working on getting those out over the Christmas holiday. There has been wedding dress and reception site drama, but all of that has quietly worked itself out.

From this point forward there should be plenty of activity, so check the site and the blog. We're at about six months out — starting now.

Jason