Mr Pibb + Red Vines = Crazy Delicious

DJ contract sent in: Mike Staff Productions, which comes recommended from a few pals.

Halloween costumes: TBD (Mark's not so into the creative costume route).

Party night: ON! Friday we went to game night at our friend Angela & Andrew's apartment where my "grown up" friends now realize what a terrible sport I really am. Tonight we are celebrating Heather & Ken's upcoming nuptials, hopefully there are no games in which I will argue and/or pout.

Izzo corn maze: 2, Christa/Sara: 1 Unfortunately after more than an hour we had only moved one section over in the maze...however when we gave up on both the hard and medium difficulty mazes we DOMINATED the easy maze. Dominated.

"i was runnnnnnn-innnngggg"

We made it! Mark plowed through the Detroit Free Press half marathon and I took what I hoped would be the easy route by keeping with tradition and running the marathon relay with my family. I didn't train enough and then I had too much wine for dinner. It was a tough 5-ish miles for me!! After giving my knee a week off I'm going to go back into my regular running routine so as not to be outdone next year.

Mark did great, I'm so proud of him for finishing! He didn't train either but assured me he is half-Kenyan so running long distances comes naturally to him (must be half albino Kenyan). He only walked once up a hill, which was better than I can say, and now he can barely walk at all. Must be the German half that has the sore legs...

Regardless of the tough run we are both looking forward to next year's race. I'm sticking with team RunShine and Mark might up the ante and run the full thing. Let's see if we make it through this year's Turkey Trot first though ;)

play that funky music, white boy

Saturday we met with Kurt at Mike Staff Productions to get an idea on music. They come highly recommend from our friend Moose (Nicole) who is using them for her February wedding. Prices were reasonable, it's a very professional operation and we were given a selection of DJs to choose from. The interesting thing is they are mostly WRIF folks who would DJ on the weekends and it just blew up into a full time gig. And then we saw the Killer Flamingos again, I hear they are "reasonable" for a band and while we love watching them I am not sure how they would translate to a multi-generational gig. Looks like we will stick with the DJ route...

another girl beats me to becoming a Zuerner

Well everyone, I've been upstaged. By a babe. On the afternoon of Saturday, October 10, 2009 another female became a member of the Zuerner family. She's beautiful and instantly loved and adored by the entire family. If she didn't poop herself I'd be insanely jealous. I am, of course, referring to Liz and Josh's baby girl Isabella Marie! The little bundle joined the family around 2:30 in the afternoon--Mark, Taylor and I were able to see her Sunday morning at the hospital before she was even 24-hours old. The raven haired beauty weighed in at 8lb 6oz and was 20 inches tall.

Here's a little snapshot of the booger sleeping comfortably at home:

And one of the happy family, Hallmark style:

I really SHOULD call ITT Tech

Well we've been without home Internet for a solid two months. I was sure there was an issue with the connection. Or my work computer was showing signs of age. Neither were correct. I unplugged the wires to the router as instructed by some technophiles. I unplugged the cable box on three separate occasions before I realized it wasn't the router. After a full day I plugged the appropriately disconnected router cords back in, but no lights came on. "Hmmm, that's weird," I thought but "shut up Pancakes" is what I said since she seemed to be smirking at me.


Only one thing NOW I thought, a plug obviously slipped away from the back of the router and it's been swallowed by the dust bunnies behind the TV. At this point I attempted to move our non-flat screen TV away from the wall and I followed an absolute labyrinth of cords to see what must have slipped down. Nothing. "Hmm again!" And then I saw it. SOMEONE (ahem Markers) didn't properly plug the router power cord into the socket, they only got one prong in. Unplug, properly re-plug and voila! INTERNET!

As I type this I'm on hold with everyone's favorite local company, Comcast. I'll give them some serious kudos if they reimburse me for the non-usage for the past two months. Fingers crossed team.

Official bridesmaid dress update. Official.

I've posted some dresses I liked before. Then I went to Miss Kate's Maids in Birmingham to see the dresses I had previously posted. It was there I found the color "smoke." This luxurious, funky dark gray is the official color and THESE are the dresses Caitlin, Liz and Jennifer will be selecting from

Option 1 (in smoke) strapless with a sash that ties in the back, simple cut with figure flattering pleats:

Option 2 (in a color where you can see the detail), semi capped sleeve with pocketssssssssssss:

And Option 3 (again in a color that you can see the detailing); also strapless with amazing pleat detail and pocketssssssssss:

And let's not forget about our rocking junior bridesmaid Taylor. Here is the dress she picked out of the three options she had, adorable "tip of the shoulder" neckline and flower detail:

Food prep

On Tuesday (black Tuesday for all you Tigers fans) the Grosse Pointe War Memorial hosted a tasting party, complete with an assortment of appetizers and entrees. Since Mark had to work my mom filled in as the carnivore taste-tester. The event was helpful and Mark and I will be able to go through our menu selection process much easier now that I've actually tried a few things.

There were vendors there as well; linens, flowers, cakes, chocolate fountains, dress makers, photographers. They should really blow that out and have more vendors in for couples to meet with.