Oh, what a wonderful Day(s)!

The much anticipated and absolutely super amazing Day/McClintock wedding was a great success. I am working on a presentation for my gifted endorsement class that uses pictures from the wedding to make de-inspirational posters. It's pretty funny... set to the tune of the "Always Sunny" theme with one-liners Kevin wrote in the car, but unfortunately the file size is too big to attach. Coming soon, though. I'll find a way.

Anyway, here are some pictures of the big event:

The rehearsal dinner...

Here is the happy couple on their last day as Day/McClintock.

 

The boys all got jerseys for their groomsmen gifts. They also got...

Floozies! They do exist! (Featuring "Gravy")

The wedding:

Kevin forgot to shave until half an hour before the ceremony.

The boys get ready...

Look at these handsome groomsmen...

 

Love this picture... her bouquet is beautiful. And heavy.

Aw, love.

The reception:

Loved their cake topper... it matched the Save the Dates.

Kind of a cool pic of the first dance...

Todd and his mom...

Head table...

Aw, love.

Boyles and... Boyles also newly married.

And then things started getting crazy... Colleen dances.

Burkey and his lady friend...luckily he brought more to the wedding than a contact case and a shirt.

Danny is "isolated"... but not for long! (wink, wink)

Kevin does not understand that I don't want to dance... but my hair looks cool.

Some kind of tough guy... PS. This picture is posed.

Tim.

Aw, love.

Wipe Out

Wipe Out part 2

Yellow Submarine dance

After party:

Sweats and a tie... priceless.

Official newly married guy shoe.

So, as you can, see, a good time was had. Coming soon: slideshow, somehow. Plus Wedding 2009 official awards!

Catch Up, Clean Up

Update: Healthy Living 101

Peace comes to the Raftery/Horbal household, as evidenced by our first fire (and the gradual decrease of the airshow practice jet noise):

Maddy likes it:

Raftery and I weigh ourselves every 2.5 seconds. So far we've lost a few pounds and really tried hard to eat healthier. Exercise was tough this busy week, but I'm relieved to see that Kevin is not rapidly losing and humiliating me. A sample of our new menu:

This has been a busy weekend. Friday night we went to the Funny Bone (on free tickets!) to see Jim Norton, a comedian from Kev's Opie and Anthony radio show on XM. He even got a picture with his idol:

Yesterday we celebrated Will's birthday (we got him an adorable leather bomber jacket), then met my cousin Brandon and his girlfriend in Newport News for dinner, before watching a 7 hour Yankee game. Today is dedicated to laziness and football. Maddy is happy to spend the day at home, as she had quite a lot of time in the car yesterday:

Now that we've recapped... we finally downloaded the pictures from Mikey's wedding. Here are our favorites:

The buds:

The decorations were done by Sarah's mom who is an interior designer. My favorite were these lights at the head table:

The ladies did a dance for Mikey and we had front-row seats:

This shot showcases Kevin's idea for an SNL sketch in which women dance in a club or at a wedding by adjusting their straps:

I absolutely love this picture of the ol' Ship roommates:

Aren't they adorable? One more wedding to go until the official awards ceremony. Get ready.

It's on

The Raftery-Horbal peace treaty has been lifted and all-out war has commenced at 1717 Cottenham Lane. The reason?

Enemy Number 1: Delicious Food

How could such a delicious looking omelet and sweet potato hash browns be an enemy, you ask? I'll tell you how....

Enemy Number 2: "Awl"

There was 1/4 cup of this vile liquid in said potatoes, which I discovered today is pretty typical in Kevin's cooking. I started tracking on Weight Watchers Online recently (my health insurance offers a discounted rate). I am allotted 23 points a day. That 1/4 cup of olive oil? 14 POINTS!!

So now I not only know why Raftery's food tastes so delicious (in my childhood, it was rare for me to see a food that didn't contain the word "lite" and I'm pretty sure I've only tasted real butter once or twice in my lifetime...) and why we've both gained weight despite a relatively active lifestyle. He tells me that I would kill myself if I knew what went into the chicken we had at Sandbridge the other night. Chalk this up to another reason why couples should live together before marriage: weight gain can be managed and maintained early.

Which leads me to my third and final enemy...

Enemy Number 3: Raftery

Sure, he cooperated while taking my measurements with a cable cord. Yes, he did convince me to go on a run with him (and by "convince" I mean he stretched in front of me with an arrogant look on his face until I couldn't let him exercise while I sat on the couch, despite my enduring cold). He did make me a wonderfully delicious breakfast. He does still weigh more than me and according to our BMI chart is less healthy than me.

But....

We have decided on a quest for 8%... reduction in our total body weight. This guy lost a half pound just talking about losing weight (true story!). We thrive on competition, particularly with one another, so this might just work. Bragging rights are the only thing on the table right now, but we welcome suggestions of tangible rewards. His status message on facebook right now says:

Kevin Raftery fatboy is taking fatty girlfriend down...or as a wiseman once said "no hubby 'til you lose the chubby"

Great. So it's on. I'm sure he'll drop weight with no problem and it'll take every ounce of willpower I have to even come close, but here's hoping this ends in two healthier people instead of two dead ones. Anyone care to wager?

The best thing about the beach in the fall...

We have been trying to spend as much time at the beach as possible in the evenings this month, but yesterday was our first chance to go during the day since Labor Day. It was glorious:


We brought Maddy, which is the greatest part about the beach in the fall. She loves to go, but is terrified of the water. We think it might be the sound, since she's so afraid of loud noises. (Yes, Kevin, I get it. Loud noises.) This is her typical stance when led too close to the water:


She loves it though, I promise. Look how happy she is here, with her Tater:


Haylie and Heard met us down there and brought their dog, Tetley for a beach play date. The dogs were kind of indifferent to each other, after the first few minutes of tussling. Tetley is much braver than Maddy, and actually got her paws wet:


We were hoping Maddy would succumb to peer pressure, but no such luck, despite much cajoling from Heard and Raftery:


All in all, it was a great day for some men and their dogs:


After all that resisting...:


Maddy sure was exhausted:


Leaving the rest of our Sunday to be free to just party and watch football.

It's been a long time coming...

It's amazing how much less time you have for blogging when you actually have a job and take classes again...

Mostly I've been working (which has been awesome), reading (constantly), and eating Raftery's fine meals.

Example:

Ricky liked it:

Difficult to trust a chef that looks like this:

Nothing too exciting has happened. We went to Mikey's wedding a few weeks ago, but I forgot my camera and had to use the Raftery's original dinosaur cam. The pictures have not been uploaded yet, but I will post them when we figure out if computers even had USB ports when this camera was created. I've been taking classes for my gifted endorsement, which have sucked up 2 Saturdays (from 8am-6pm) and Raftery went to Dodd's bachelor party in Atantic City. He got to visit all my family and friends...

However, we did have one important life event: Kevin's first U2 concert. We met Clark and his lovely lady friend at UVA:

Although we missed most of the opening act (Muse) we did get some pretty great stage pics that showcase our amazing seats:

By the time U2 came on, Raftery was in a daze:

This shot is the last evidence that Raftery even know I was along:

We tried our best with the stage pics. It was hard to capture the spectacle that was this concert, but here is our best attempt:

Some video footage:

The show ended sometime around midnight... that put us back in Virginia Beach around 3:30. That gave me about 2.5 hours of sleep before I had to get up for school. That was a little rough, but I only had one lesson (3rd grade), a one-on-one with my favorite twice exceptional student, and a collaboration with 4th grade before I got to leave for training for the rest of the afternoon.

So that's the life of Horbal and Raftery for the month of September in a nut shell.

Coming soon: Wedding Awards 2009