Kristen Said Yes

Big day coming up this weekend; Kristen and I get to meet with the priest of the church where we're planning to "tie el knot".

I've been given strict instructions by multiple parties involved to keep my lips shut.

From the great philosophers in the movie Madagascar, as their fearless leader once said; "Just smile and wave boys, smile and wave."

I know I'm going to get asked if I attend church, and I know that part of me wants to say that God never intended for churches to exist, and I'll spare you my long winded explanation for why I know that.

But I'm pretty sure that would point me in the wrong direction, not the best way to start off a meeting with the priest.

Kristen says that the guy just wants to get to know us.

I'm hoping he has a sense of humor.

On our way back from visiting Mr. and Mrs. Matroni, we made a pit stop at Kristen's Aunt and Uncle's house.

Kristen ran in screaming at a higher register than I've previously heard, which convinced me that her ring gives her super powers.

Once little Connor Baby stopped crying (apparently dogs aren't the only ones that are effected by the high pitch squealing) and Kristen stopped shaking (apparent side effect of new found super powers) she was able to introduce the ring to the rest of the Bladel family.

The highlight of the visit, of course was Mr. Connor.

Kristen got to feed the little dude, and upon further review, he and I pretty much have the same problems keeping our food in the mouth.

Connor is quite the swimmer too; he manned a crab flotation device, officially making him King of the Pool.

The 2009 Bladel Pool Baseball Championship Game was played, with the home team of Uncle Jim, Momma Bladel, Sean, and Liz taking home the trophy thanks to a 5-1 drubbing over my team.

I don't want to talk about it.

Kristen's family surprised us with a little cookie cake celebration in honor of the engagement.

Apparently word has gotten out that we like cookie cake.

And I'm pretty sure that they know about our Chili's fixation.

Since I swore off Technology for the entire weekend, any of the following photos are courtesy of Kristen's camera.

I swear I didn't check a single email or voicemail or look at a computer.

Who am I kidding, I never check voicemail.

I had 48 new emails when I got into work this morning.

For those of you who don't know, Jimbo and Michelle were just married this May. I was lucky enough to be one of the groomsmen in Jimbo's party.

And now I can finally honestly say, that yes, It was the door that I was supposed to be guarding which the homeless guy used to enter the church.

Sorry, I kinda dropped the ball there.

Jimbo is slated to be in my starting rotation, so sure buddy, let all the homeless guys you want to just mosey on in.

So Jimbo and Michelle moved away from little old Hamden, CT to Margate, NJ. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the whereabouts of Margate, it's just two clicks south of heaven.

We headed to the beach for some grilling and swimming and drinking and horseshoeing and drinking and sun stuffs and fireworks and drinking and my liver still hurts.

I'm not sure what I was doing in this picture, but I'm pretty sure Michelle was frustrated with her husband's choice in friends.

Jimbo and Michelle were both lucky enough to keep their jobs. In fact, they both are now working from home.

Imagine that, two companies that actually trust their employees to work from home.

I know, I didn't think they existed either.

Right next to Santa and the Easter Bunny.

Kristen finally got to see fireworks this Fourth of July, as in past 4ths, I was either working at Annie's or we were in Philly watching the Mets get their heads bashed in by the Phillies.

In what is now becoming a "travel off" between Kristen's new shiny object and the Travelocity Gnome, the ring takes an early summer lead by hitting up Yankee Stadium today.

This was our third attempt at seeing the Yankees try to win in the new Stadium. (Actually we saw them win in an exhibition game, but that really doesn't count).

AJ Burnett was slated to take the hill against his former teammates; the Toronto Blue Jays.

One thing I hate about watching the Blue Jay; you have to sit through the Canadian national anthem.

And you have to watch the Blue Jays play. That sucks too.

As soon as we hit up the nose bleeds, the camera came out and the ring was introduced to the new Gem of the Bronx.

The game also happened to be Momma and Poppa Lima's first time at the New Yankee Stadium.

Momma Lima had a weee bit o' trouble making it up to the seats, as her fear of heights took hold.

We stayed until the eighth inning; the Yanks had a 3-2 lead at that point and we needed to get on the road to visit the Newly-weds, Jimbo and Michelle.

As we were walking out of the Stadium, the crowd erupted and the ground started to shake.

We missed A-Rod's home run.

Congratulations to Officer Bestman; my little brother graduated from the NYPD today.

Depending on who or what mathematical equation you listen to, Officer Bestman finished either second or third in his class.

If you go by sheer numbers and averages and all the things that determine grade point average and rankings, then he finished second in the class to Officer Butt.

Hehe.

According to the NYPD math gurus, however, Officer Bestman finished third overall. Apparently a 96 average beats a 97.6 average in New York City.

Pictures were take, of course. First stop was the Post Office around the corner from Madison Square Garden.

One of Officer Bestman's classmates made an arrest about an hour after graduating. Talk about a kiss ass.

The Lima clan then headed over to some insane BBQ place where I/we preceded to add thirteen collective inches to our waist lines.

Kristen was uber excited to show up to last night's Modsquad game.

You know, to do her scorekeeping and photography and lineup reminder duties.

And something about a ring thingy.

After bargaining with whichever god controls the weather for about 25 minutes, I eventually realize he-she was too busy to answer my calls.

Thunder, lighting, rain, high winds are apparently good excuses to cancel a softball game. If we had just waited two hours, we would have been fine to play.

Kristen comes from a family that excels in pool baseball, trust me, they could have played on that field last night.

So the team huddled under the bridge near the field, and my boss man surprised us with a bottle of Sparkling Wine. Our Number One Fans also brought cookie cake, which meant I'd have to find my spatula to peel her off the ceiling later that night.

We got some practice in with the whole "cutting the cake thing" but no, there wasn't any cake smashing incidents.

Yet.