Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Behind the Bachelor/Bacehlorette

Except for possibly some quick notes (like the one below about Restaurant Week), this will probably be Nate's last pre-wedding post. So now let's take you "Behind the Bachelor and Bachelorette" as Nate and Allie count down the final days before wedding week.

The story starts on a sunny Thursday morning, much sunnier than the previous night when groomsman Mark and Nate went to the Orioles game and got rained on (but scored free pennants). Luckily, it was the 25th anniversary of the Orioles last World Series championship, so former catcher Rick Dempsey was on hand to entertain the fans during the rainout with his patented antics.



Wedding attendee Andrew "A-Con" Conrad (seen below) also helped pass rain delay time by engineering a new travel bottle technology (patent pending, you'll have to see if he'll shares his secret spice).




After Nate dried out the next morning, he was ready to start his day. He started with a hearty bowl of generic Lucky Charms, while Allie opted for a more healthy breakfast. Or maybe they made pancakes with blueberries, either way they ate breakfast and were then ready to clean up the basement.

It seemed to be a mighty task, but they were able to conquer the disorganization. (Even though there was an argument about whether spiders should be killed because they are gross or whether they should be saved because they eat other pests.)

Basement before cleaning:



After:




Later that evening, Allie was off to bridesmaid Lindsay "the Canton Hillbilly" Thomasson's house to design programs and place cards. As Allie and Lindsay pored over the details (and poured a little wine), fellow bridesmaid Becca and Nate were in the west Baltimore suburbs helping the Nighthawks improve their seeding in the Maryland Media Softball League playoffs with a 17-16, extra-inning victory keyed by a five-run seventh inning.

So, you're saying "Five runs in the seventh for a come from behind win? What a fluke. That could never happen again."

Wrong.

The Nighthawks followed up that performance last Thursday with another come-from-behind win on Tuesday, with a five-run, two-out rally in the seventh that resulted in a 7-5 playoff victory.

Let me tell you, if Accomac Caterers double-booked Preston Hall on Saturday and it came down to a good 'ol game of softball, I think the Sandstrom-McLeod wedding would go on as scheduled. I think Tessa is bringing the eye black to the wedding in case we have to rumble.

Several Nighthawks will be at the wedding but please allow them to finish their dinner before asking for autographs. Their Wednesday night semifinal playoff game will be on MASN3 at 6:15 tonight.

After the game last Thursday, Nate went over to Canton and approved of the programs drawn up by Lindsay, who has barely helped at all in getting the wedding ready. They were finished on Tuesday night. (Jeez Hillbilly, way to finally pull some weight).

With so much done on Thursday, you could hardly expect much to get done on Friday, what with Nate up at the crack of dawn to make sure the good people of Baltimore have an ample supply of Corona. Meanwhile, Allie was on the double shift at Phillips so the good tourist of Baltimore could have Filipino crabs. Not much else happened Friday, except Nate and Best Man Phil's Badger tickets came in the mail (see Friday's post).

Oh yeah, Friday was also possibly the day that Nate and Allie's new bamboo fencing was shipped from California. They bought it from a nice hippie named "Wavy Gravy."

The next day it was back to power shopping. After Nate and Allie finished fighting over the best way to get to the Towson shopping center on Putty Hill (definitely taking Northern Parkway to York to Stevenson), they purchased the final accessories for their bathroom. Sadly, they much-loved map shower curtain was retired in favor of a more so-called "matching" one. The Homer shower curtain hooks have also been put out to the pasture.

After Nate finished his Saturday night shift he also got to practice his dancing at a Christmas in July party hosted by wedding attendees Ken, T.J. and Pat. After Nate lost some money to Greg Dean gambling on beer pong at the party, he headed home, only to be defeated again by Mark and Angie at video bowling at neighborhood drinkery Taps.

Nate was ready to get over his bowling/beer pong losses on Sunday and head to the O's game, but he opted instead to go to Allie's parents' house to paint the bathroom, which now looks something like Michaelangelo's Sistien Chapel ceiling.




On Monday night, Nate practiced cooking for his fine guests while Allie was at work. He perfected the arts of making pork and beans as well as mac and cheese, so if you would like some at either the Sunday brunch at Nate and Allie's house or the dinner at Robert and Karen's (Allie's parents), make sure to let him know.

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