Out with the putting green, In with the sitting area

There was a story in the Daily Collegian today about changes at the Nittany Lion Inn. Don't worry nothing major. They are removing the putting green and replacing it with a sitting area. There will be gazebo, a lot of new planting, a water fountain and benches.

The putting green was in the courtyard, but I can't remember ever actually seeing it. I'm not sure why they had one anyway. Both golf courses (Penn State has two) are (literally) right across the street from the NLI.

Plans are to have it finished by May 9th. Gina and I will check it out next time we're in State College. It might make a nice place for wedding pictures.

The Federal Disaster Area in Fairfax

Well today has been quite a day! I officially moved all my stuff into Jeff's house. It suddenly felt like Jeff's house shrunk to the size of a cardboard box, we have too much stuff! Two vacuums, two irons (and we don't even iron), two sets of mixing bowls, the entire cat toy aisle of Pet Smart, and more Mickey Mouse mugs than you can imagine (who knew Jeff had such a collection of Mickey mugs???) :) The movers showed up at 7:45am this morning and by 9:30, I was signing the credit card bill and watching them pull away, wondering where the heck I should even start with the unpacking. We are not even close to being settled and organized, but hope to be by the end of the weekend. And around 4:30, while I was trying to figure out if I should donate a sweater to Goodwill that I had not worn in 2 years, the doorbell rang and our wedding invitations arrived!! We are really happy with how they turned out! Look for them in the mail next month!

That's all for now!

Campus Tours

Penn State is adding a new system this summer that will allow you to hear information about locations on campus by calling a number on your cell phone. Sort of a self guided tour. It's supposed to have information about The Lion Shrine, Old Main, Beaver Stadium, etc. If you are wondering around campus this may come in handy.

I'm also planning on adding some information to the blog about things to do while you are in State College. It will list places on and off campus that might be of interest for our guests that arrive early (or stay late). Hopefully I'll get that up in the next week or so.

I may even give my own quick tour of campus the morning of the wedding. Depends on how busy things are. But I'm the groom how much could I possibly have to do? My main job is to just show up on time, right?

Here are some details on the new self guided tour system from The Daily Collegian:

http://www.collegian.psu.edu/archive/2009/04/21/campus_tours_to_be_available_v.aspx

Invitations Ordered!

Jeff and I accomplished a big task tonight - we ordered the wedding invitations!!! It was hard narrowing down all the choices, but I really like what we chose, and yes, Jeff had a vote in it too!

Look for the invitations in the mail the last week of May, we are getting close!

Also, as you will see in your invitations, Jeff and I have arranged a continental breakfast the Nittany Lion Inn on August 9 from 9:30-11:30. It will be very informal, freel free to stop by and share a bagel with us before we drive back to Philly to do our long run for marathon training. It will be a busy day!

That's all for now!

4 Months to Go

Less than 4 months now until the wedding. The time sure is going fast. All the plans are pretty much set now. As Hannibal used to say in the "A-Team", "I love it when a plan comes together!"

Food tasting!!

Well Jeff and I, along with our parents, traveled to State College this weekend to taste some wedding food. I have to admit, I went into this weekend not knowing what to expect. But all our expectations were exceeded!!!! The food was amazing! And being able to taste helped us finally decide on a menu. The grand ballroom was all decorated with various wedding linens and table setting options, and we got to talk with our wedding coordinator and decide on all the details. It was very productive!

For the cocktail hour, we will be serving mini italian paninis, pigs in a blanket, and little greek flatbreads. The paninis were a huge hit with all of us at the food tasting, everyone might have to try to outrun Jeff to get to the panini server.

The salad will be a mixed green salad with a tastey lime vinagrette. The soup will be a roasted tomato and basil bisque, and the appetizer will be a crab cake! These were also a big hit with the seafood eaters!

Guests will be able to choose between two entrees, a paprika dusted chicken breast with rice and mixed vegetables. The entree is pictured below, we are substituting the wilted brown looking mushroom things for mixed vegetables, the mushrooms were not that good. But the chicken was amazing, very moist and flavorful!


We tasted the grouper and the shrimp/scallop dish for the seafood entree. The grouper was ok, but was served with a very spicey sauce that was a bit too much. The shrimp and scallops, on the other hand, were so good, that we ate all of it before we remembered to take a picture. Ooops...but the shrimp and scallops were huge, and served with garlic mashed potatoes. I think this might be my choice, as long as Jeff promises to give me a taste of his chicken!

And I just HAD to sample all of the cake choices, I mean the cake is a very important menu item right? Well it was all so good, even the almond and I don't even like almond cake. We ultimately decided to do vanilla for one layer, and chocolate for the other two layers. Our cake will be the size of this sample cake:

But that is not quite how our cake will look, the design is top secret until the wedding day! There will also be three different flavors of Creamery ice cream that we still have to decide on.

And we talked linens with the linen lady - that's how I will refer to her because I cannot for the life of me remember her name right now. We are going to have to have navy blue napkins that look like this:


And chair covers and sashes that look like this:


Food tasting was fun! Here is a picture of the happy couple, mid tasting:


After the tasting, we picked out tuxes, got some creamery ice cream, toured around campus, and then we went to Hi Way Pizza for dinner, the rehearsal dinner location. Jeff is very excited that no one has to return tuxes on Sunday - we can leave them at the hotel front desk! The diet starts tomorrow after all the food I ate this weekend. Even though I had tasted food all day and ate lots of cake and ice cream, I inhaled my whole wheat penne with vodka sauce. And then it was time to make the drive home, it all went so fast. A final picture, Jeff and I at Hi Way Pizza:

We are getting excited!!! A little over 4 months until the big day!