There are workmen in my living room

Chris and I decided, after getting married last June, that we'd take the money people gave us and have a fireplace installed in the lounge. The house had one when he moved in but it wasn't very good and, after he bought it from his landlady, he had the fireplace removed. Fast-forward to having someone with whom to cuddle in front of a fire and a better fireplace seems the thing to have.

We did some research, picked a design, had a consultation and made a down-payment back in September and finally, finally, today they're starting. I said I wanted a fireplace before it started to snow and the weather seems to be cooperating. Yay?

Anyway, there are workmen in my living room and it's rather nosy (understatement) in the house today. Ginger Kitty is hiding under the duvet in our bedroom but Princess occasionally comes just far enough down the stairs to peer through the railing and see what's going on.

Speaking of Princess, she's poorly again. We ran out of the last bag of food and started a new one (a different flavour, turkey - we always switch when we finish a bag) and she ate fine Monday night but then on Tuesday she stopped eating. The brand we use switches kibble shape with flavour so I bought different food (chicken) for her in case it was the shape she didn't like but she wouldn't eat that either (though Ginger Kitty decided that whatever Princess had must be better than what he has* and refused to eat until we gave him the chicken stuff but now he won't eat until he's sure there's not something better he could have instead). We gave them some tuna because Princess hadn't eaten anything all day and got her to eat a small portion.

The next day I suggested we feed her some of the kitten food (also chicken) we still have as it's small kibble and easy to chew and she ate a little bit but then turned her nose up the rest of the day, even refusing to drink tuna water when offered. Chris was beside himself at this point, googling symptoms right and left - never a good idea - and I bought a bag of fish-flavoured kibble in case it was the flavour she was objecting too and she eat a few pieces but gave up on that as well.

Princess is not a large cat to start with - only 3.3kilos on the best of days - and she's never been a good eater but she wasn't acting like her normal finicky self. She'd get excited any time we walked near the food bowls and bark encouragingly if we stopped to fill them up but then she'd change her mind and scoot away and look like the saddest, hungriest kitty in the world. Normal, finicky Princess would be completely indifferent to food.

I held her with her mouth open while Chris looked for ulcers or tooth decay but we didn't see anything. She still wasn't eating though, so I took her to the vet. She meowed piteously when I put her in her carrying case and the whole taxi ride over but when the vet let her go and she'd decided she'd had enough of a cuddle with me she hopped back in and was mostly quiet on the ride home. Poor Princess. The vet found some inflammation around some of her back teeth but no fever (Princess really didn't like that part), no pained reactions to having her tummy poked and prodded, and no signs of dehydration. We're unaware of anything she may have eaten or licked to cause problems (eating parsley, the vet said, is odd but not harmful). The vet gave Princess a shot each of antibiotics and steroids, scheduled an appointment to get Princess' teeth cleaned on Monday**, and sent us home with a couple tins of "yummy" gentle gushy food and oral antibiotics. The antibiotics, of course, have to be administered with food. "Just squirt it on her food!" they helpfully kept advising me, somehow missing the point of why were were there.

Chris tried her on the new gushy food last night with some success until she realized that Ginger Kitty was nowhere to be seen and came upstairs to find him, locked in the bedroom with me. We tried her again later, with tuna for Ginger Kitty, and he went om-nom-nom-nom but she wouldn't eat and kept looking at his food. I snagged a chunk of tuna from Ginger Kitty's bowl and offered it to her, but Chris smeared it with her gushy food and she still wouldn't eat it. I took Ginger Kitty's entire bowl away from him** and gave it to Princess who promptly face planted. I gave the gushy-smeared tuna to Ginger Kitty and he stopped giving me Saddest Kitty in the World eyes and ate with gusto.

That's about where things stand now. Princess doesn't want to eat the gushy food (or any of the kibble) but will occasionally deign to a small portion of tuna and sooner or later Ginger Kitty eats anything we leave unguarded. The vet suggested giving her a little ice cream as a treat; we'll pick some up when we go out tonight and see if that helps at all.

~ * ~

* a position he maintains even when have the same food.

** her teeth are in good shape, but some animals react badly to even the slightest build-up of plaque. We'll see if that helps.

*** I love my mellow Ginger Kitty so much.

Wedding Vendors: Atholl Palace Hotel

Today starts what will no doubt be a protracted (as I think of it) series about our wedding, focusing on the vendors and what an amazing job they all did (and they all did amazing jobs).


Atholl Palace Hotel
The biggest decision with regards to getting married* was picking the venue. I guess some people pick the date first and plan around that, but we chose to find the perfect venue and then select a date from their availability lest we find ourselves choosing between our perfect date and our perfect place. I imagine picking a date first is logistically easier if you're looking to get married a year or two out, but we weren't interested in a long engagement or paying to renew my current visa just to switch to and pay for FLR(M) a bit down the line. We spent a couple of weeks sorting through venues online - and ruled out a lot because their wedding information boiled down to "we do weddings! ask us how!" without any concrete details - and making appointments to visit our forerunners. APH was actually the first place we decided to see, after finding their advert in a wedding mag (scottish weddings? I don't remember), the only one outwith about 15 miles on Inverness, and the last one we visited. They were having a winter special on lodging, breakfast and dinner so we booked a mid-week get-away and went on with our search. Most places we visited were fine and would no doubt have resulted in an equally lovely wedding (and no doubt have done for many others) but we had a few favourites which were almost perfect.

When we got to APH we knew, we absolutely knew, it was the place for us. We love the town of Pitlochry (though previously we'd loved it from the train, this being our first trip there); we loved the hotel, and the grounds, and the proximity to so many low-key things to do. The food was wonderful, the staff competent and friendly, and I almost couldn't pry Chris out of the jacuzzi.

Fast-forward to the wedding prep - Gillian, the hotel's wedding coordinator, was very organized. She took detailed notes on our time-line for the day, who each of our vendors would be, everything. She was only in the hotel the morning of our wedding, leaving shortly after the ceremony, but everything ran smoothly. I didn't catch the name of the gentleman who MC'd our reception but he, and his staff, had everything in hand an under control. He also ran the restaurant outwith the weddings and service was markedly better when he was around (other times it was hard to find the staff or get someone to actually bring you a pot of tea or coffee, and when they did it was often the wrong hot beverage. The mice will play). But for our wedding everything was under control.

The food is wonderful, though a bit heavy (lots of cream, not a lot of salad options) if you'll be eating it for several days straight. We'd eaten there before, on several occasions leading up to the wedding, including the menu tasting, and know that the food is delicious, but on that particular day we weren't in a position to appreciate it. I didn't eat a single thing, all day, that tasted good. It was all just weird textures and muted flavour. This is in no way a reflection on the quality of the food - everyone else seemed fine - just an odd observation.

My bridesmaids and I did our make-up through the hotel's spa with mani/pedis the day before and make-up the morning of and everyone we interacted with in the spa was lovely and friendly. Chris got a facial and manicure on Friday and still talks about it in reverent tones. The staff all snuck upstairs to see us walk into the ceremony room, the finished products of their hard work.

Unfortunately it rained the whole day, from when I got up around 6am till we went to bed around midnight so we didn't get to take advantage of the lovely grounds for our photos but the pictures taken inside the hotel and from under the awning out front are still lovely - when you get married in Scotland you have to consider the backdrop for your photos if it rains and APH was brilliant on that score as well.

The only real problem** was the lodges on the grounds which are maintained by the hotel but not own or run by them - this is to say that they clean them between guests and check people in and out but otherwise have nothing to do with them. Trevor, the guy who owns them, was slow to respond to emails and curt when he did. He had no interest in being accommodating - my guests rented 4 of his units, two for a week each and two for the weekend, and none of the other units appeared to be occupied - but he refused to let my parents book a lodge from Wednesday-Tuesday, insisting on a Sunday-Saturday hire. They eventually talked him into letting them book it from Monday-Sunday (when they didn't arrive until Wednesday) so they wouldn't have to be out of the lodge by 11 and not able to check into the hotel until 2 on the day of my wedding, but he was ungracious about it. Then he let the Gatehouse lodge, the one my parents had originally inquired after, to my bridesmaids for the same Wednesday-Tuesday that he'd refused my parents. Needless to say, we were not impressed, and I'd strongly recommend against hiring a holiday cottage from him.

* the actual decision to get married was easy-peasy

** they did accidentally leave the hotel music playing during the start of our ceremony, so we almost got married to La Bumba (I think? Does anyone remember what the song actually was?), but it was soft while it was playing and turned off quickly enough when they realized

Our Wedding Vows

One of the (really, really, really) nice things about our civil ceremony was getting to customize the script to suit us. Our registrar emailed us a couple of PDFs, one a sample ceremony with the parts we couldn't change in bold (the registrar identifying herself, the legal definition of a marriage, identifying ourselves and our being free to marry) but most of it could be anything we wanted. The second PDF was a selection of alternate texts for the vows and optional handfasting. A third PDF was optional readings of a non-religious nature (the one restriction for a civil ceremony is that it can't be religious, though the readings included the famous Corinthians passage without attribution and a few Native American blessings, quotes from Confucius, and other things that made me question their definition of "religion") though we never got around to picking any of those so we went without. Minus the legal parts, our ceremony follows:

Your decision to marry is an expression of your love for each other, your faith in your future together and a sign of your commitment to one another. Marriage means developing and maintaining affection, co-operation, friendship and mutual respect. It calls for honesty, patience, trust and humour. Marriage requires both closeness and distance, the closeness of a couple growing together and sufficient distance to allow each other to grow as an individual.

Vows
Chris/Jennifer, do you promise that you will always protect Jennifer/Chris with your utmost care that you will honour and cherish her/him in sickness and in health, for richer for poorer and in all things you will be to her/him a faithful loving husband/wife?
I do.

exchanging rings
Traditionally, the passage to the status of husband and wife is marked by the exchange of rings. These rings are a symbol of the unbroken circle of love. Love freely given has no beginning and no end, no giver and no receiver for each is the giver and each is the receiver. May these rings always remind you of the declarations you have made to each other.

I give you this ring as a token of my love, wear it always and when we are apart, look upon it and know I am with you, let it be a symbol of our marriage and of the vows we have made today.

These rings have been given and received as a symbol of your love and commitment to one another; however, it is the solemn vows which you have made that will join you together for life.

In some ways tomorrow is going to seem no different than today, but today you have given and received one of the most valuable gifts of life, the gift of true and abiding love within the devotion of marriage. If there is one thing you remember from today, let it be that it was love that brought you here, love which holds you together and love by which your marriage will endure.

hand-fasting
Today you have chosen each other as life partners.
Do you vow to be a faithful husband and wife to each other?
We do.

Do you promise to walk by each other’s side, to love, help and encourage each other, to listen and to care?
We do.

Do you promise to always respect and honour each other as individuals and to be conscious of eachother’s needs?
We do.

I give myself to you as I am and as I will be for all of my life. Whatever may come I will always be there and as I give you my hand to hold so I give you my life to keep.

The knots of this binding are not formed by this cloth but instead by your vows. Either of you may drop the cloth now, for as always you hold in your own hands the making of this union.

Today, you have also given and received one of the most valuable gifts - the gift of true and abiding love within the devotion of marriage. If there is one thing you remember from today let it be that it was love that brought you here, love which holds you together and love by which your marriage will endure.

From this day, let your marriage be a partnership, created for your mutual happiness. May the love with which you have joined hands and hearts today never fail, but grow deeper and stronger with the passing years.

There must have been a veritable dust storm in that little room, judging by the number of people who reported that they, or the person sitting next to them, had something in their eye.

Nothing Much is Happening

Since last I've updated: I've reknit the left side of the baby sweater to include button holes and started the second sleeve; I've knit another repeat of the lace pattern for my first sock and have started the heel, though I'm not yet ready to turn it; I've been gifted a giant sofa doily/shawl (I believe it's a silk blend) and a bag of silk yarn in red (7 50g/124m balls and most of an 8th, and, oh yeah, I got married. You are now reading the blog of Mrs Christopher Aves.


Cascading Hearts Faroese Shawl - Jackie Erickson-Schweitzer
Misti Alpaca, Tonos Carnaval: Symphony Blue - 100g/400m - 50% Alpaca/30% Merino/10% Nylon/10% Silk
Pardon the extra large picture, but I've been wanting to crow about this shawl since I finished knitting it several months ago and this is the only picture I have of it blocked. Chris and I picked the Cascading Hearts pattern of off Ravelry and I had hearts embroidered on my dress to match. I also picked up a heart shawl pin to secure my shawl (not that you really need one with a Faroese shawl), and everything was done in blues to accent the tartan of Chris' kilt and, even though it rained all day, it was too warm to wear it. So this is the only picture (though another aunt took the same picture), when I modelled it for my mother and her sisters. I would be heartbroken that, after waiting so long to use it, I never put it on except the day was so amazingly wonderful that I can't be upset about the things that genuinely went wrong, let alone something as small as not getting to show off my shawl. The yarn was lovely to work with. I used about 2 and a half skeins and keep eyeing the remainder for a hat, mittens, or neck-warmer.