The big fat Greek wedding was great fun. The actual wedding took place in a beautiful Greek Orthodox Church that had brilliant stained glass windows and many icons. The groom, Tyson Wisbrock, was truly handsome and his bride, Effie, couldn’t have been lovelier. She wore a strapless cream colored gown with an overlay sheer shirt that was trimmed in taupe ribbon. There were 23 attendants so it was a big wedding. I would guess there were about 400 guests. In the Greek tradition, the couple does not exchange vows. There were at least six priests officiating at the service. Some had minor roles and other major roles. There was lovely chanting throughout the service. All parts of the service have symbolic meaning and a handout was given to each guest to explain the symbolism. All in all it was a wonderful experience.

The reception took place at a beautiful country club about 20 minutes away. Oh my goodness the food was truly incredible and oh so delicious. There were hot appetizers of spinach wrapped in filo dough, skewers of chicken and beef, stuffed cherry tomatoes, mushrooms and pea pods and a table with hot suckling pig. The meal was lemon-egg soup, salad with goat cheese, poached pear and walnuts, the entrée was surf and turf with a thick beef filet and shrimp with a twice baked potato, carrots and pea pods. Dessert was wedding cake, ice cream and chocolate sauce. Then there was this table that was the entire width of the room that was stacked with about thirty different choices of sweets: fresh strawberries the size of your fist, pineapple, watermelon, grapes, chocolate cups with fresh raspberries (my favorite), and too many pastries to describe. I used incredible restraint. After dinner a Greek band played wonderful Greek dancing music and it went nonstop until we left at 10:00. I never saw Effie and Tyson sit down. They danced the entire time. And they were dancing as we left.

We got up at 6:00 on Monday and drove to O’Hare, almost two hours away. We had plenty of time to get checked in and board so there was no stress. We were eager to be home so were grateful when we touched down in Portland and caught the shuttle as soon as we got our bags. What luck. It was a sunny, warm day when we returned. Our yard looks so lush if not overgrown. All I could see was a zillion projects but knew each would get done with time. Our first task was to sort through 82 days of mail. Yikes! The newspaper goofed and restarted the paper March 7th instead of May 7th so I had two months of the Oregonian sitting on my kitchen counters. I had food in the freezer so only needed to pick up juice for breakfast and salad greens for dinner. It is so good to be home.

Today we spent a lot of time in the office, working on bills, sorting through paperwork and getting organized. This afternoon we took a bike ride after cleaning off our bikes that had been sitting for a year and a half. Tomorrow we start our exercise program as we both put on a few pounds eating in restaurants three times a day for almost 90 days..

Thursday
Ron went to our CPA today to pick up our 2006 tax return. Fortunately we only owed a small amount. That’s always good news. We are getting back in the groove here. We get up when we wake up, a great benefit of retirement. We do stretches, exercise, shower and have breakfast. Then we start our day. We try to do a little each day in the yard as the weeds have almost taken over. We are making progress. We had massages today and Ron worked in the office all day. I made out a menu for the next few days. We are eating healthy and that feels good. I have already dropped a couple of pounds. Does that mean I can have dessert? Oh guess not…we leave on the 21st to go see Ron’s mom and back here on the 30th. Then I take off for a weekend with girlfriends on the Umpqua River. And life goes on. Our next planned trip will be to Sri Lanka in July, our final trip there unless the proposal Ron wrote comes through. We may try to go to Thailand since we will be so close. Too soon to plan. I also want to go to SC to see my family there this summer. So our travels will continue. I don’t plan to do another blog unless we go to a new place. But will notify you if I do another one. This concludes the blog. Thanks for your readership.