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September 23, 2005
IT'S FRIDAY, MY FAVORITE DAY!!
Since I got back from our anniversary trip to San Francisco, I have been busy trying to get things caught up. There were the usual things to do like laundry, grocery shopping, cleaning house and watering my flowers, but I also helped set up for the upcoming wedding celebration of Devin and Pinki Kahrs. The reception was to be held down at Devin's parents, our good friends, Des and Donna Kahrs' wharf. They were expecting about 200 people, so there was a tent set up and tables. I helped most of Thursday, Friday and Saturday.
The bride and groom were married by a civil ceremony the end of May and now they were having a formal ceremony on Saturday. But since she is from Hong Kong, there was a wedding tea ceremony that was part of the Chinese culture that we were invited to observe which was held first thing Saturday morning. Before the actual ceremony, the groom arrives and the bridal party prevents him from taking his bride until he has participated to their satisfaction in what is call "The Door Game". Some of the door games that Devin had to do were to have one of his groomsmen do push-ups while he declared his love to Pinki. He also had to create a song with the words "Pinki", "bride" and "love" in it. All in all, it was fun to watch. After this, the actual formal tea ceremony began. The wedding tea ceremony is largely silent, the motions and rituals speak more loudly than words. The bride and groom offer cups of sweet tea to their respective family members. When the guests receive the tea, a sip is taken and then a red packet called hong bao is then returned with money or jewelry for the bride and groom to wish them a blissful life ahead. This is considered a formal introduction of the families and they are actually considered "married" after the ceremony. The "American" wedding ceremony then took place later that afternoon and afterward, Dave and I were the first to leave the church as we had to head over to Kahrs' wharf to prepare for the guests. Dave was in charge of the music and was the MC. We had Chinese food and the tables were topped with goldfish swimming in glass bowls for centerpieces. After much celebrating and the usual rituals, cutting the cake, throwing the bouquet, etc. they provided fireworks. What an event that I will remember for a long time!
Unfortunately, by Sunday morning, I had come down with a sore throat and runny nose, so I took most of Sunday off and just hung out with a good book.
On Monday, Dave and I had to return the sound equipment that we had borrowed from the Trail Blazers for the wedding reception so we drove into Portland to do that. We stopped and saw Lara and the grandchildren and did some other errands while we were in town. We got back home late that afternoon.
The rest of the week, I helped Dave take the canopy off the boat and get it ready for repairs. We have to go to Seattle next weekend for a board of directors meeting and will deliver it to a boatwright in Everett while we are up there.
The materials for Leanna's double garage came on Wednesday so we will be busy with that project. It was so funny to see this huge truck arrive to drop off this small package of materials. Looking at the materials, you would think we were having a dollhouse built!
Another funny thing we observed this week was this fisherman trying to bring in this fish. As usual, when we see some action we yell "fish on!" and we grab the binoculars to watch. This man, who was all by himself in this small boat was just pulling on the line and trying to reel as fast as he could and the pole was almost bent in half. He worked and worked, but the fish wasn't going to give up! After a while, we began to suspect that there was no fish. Usually when someone hooks a big one, the critter will swim all over the bay, towing the boat upriver and down. This one just stayed right where it was. He was in an area where there are a lot of submerged snags and he undoubtedly got hooked on one of those underwater limbs. Because it was a flexible limb, it made his line bounce around like there was something on it. We said he either had a whale just sitting on the bottom of the river or just an old snag. He, however, was sure he had a prizewinner! It was comical to watch as he first thought he hooked a fish and was standing up in the boat. Then later, he had to sit down while he "fought" the fish. Finally, he was so tired he was almost lying down in the boat while trying to land that big fish. That's when the line finally broke and it's a good thing he was laying down, because if he was still standing when that line snapped, he'd have had a first-hand look at that underwater snag! All of this took about 45 minutes and the poor guy was dog-tired after that episode. I don't know if the guy every realized what really happened and I am sure he spent the evening at some tavern crying about the "one that got away"!
The weather has been so good since we got back. Yesterday was the first day of autumn and although it was sunny, it's beginning to feel a little like fall. Still, it was a great day to get some yard work done and I got the place looking halfway decent again. We capped off the day with another beautiful sunset. I never get tired of looking at those!
I am looking forward to this weekend. I am attending my 45th high school class reunion in Hillsboro. We have a casual night tonight and a dinner on Saturday night. I will fill you in on that next time.
I am sorry I don't have many pictures this week. You had plenty last week of our trip so that should do until we take more. We are hoping to get a new digital camera that is a lot smaller and less cumbersome than the one we have, but just haven't had the time to look for one.
Have a good week.
