Ok, so here's my post about Mike and Alison's wedding and subsequent events. I am really, really busy this week (as I'll explain later), so it is going to take me a while before I actually finish the post. So I'll keep adding parts as I get time, but don't hate me if I don't finish before Friday or Saturday. I'm also going to post some of the photos that were going to be on the slideshow and some of the ones that I took during the ceremony and reception. For now, go here and here to look at the pictures that were going to be in the slideshow. The ones of my grandparents probably weren't going to be included because they are my grandparents and not Mike's or Alison's.

Ok, so my week was already busy with classes and such because it was the end of a session, meaning my classes were coming to an end and I had to study for finals and final projects and such. The good news was that it meant that once I got done, I had some free time without (much) work to do. I also rearranged my work and class schedule so that I would have Monday and Tuesday off, meaning four day weekend. That was really nice. I borrowed a car to drive down to Dallas on Friday after my final and got there at around 10 or 11pm. I found the honorable Luke Probst who I would be staying with, and when he had to do work, I wandered off to Lovett to find some of my friends. I always thought that Lovett was about as 'uninviting' as possible if you don't include fire, gothic architecture, armed guards, or withering trees. But once again, Rice engineers prove me wrong. In their ongoing attempt to make Lovett more 'secure' they have construced large glass and metal gates to block people from going up the stairs. They already made the elevator inaccessible without a key or card, and now I couldn't even walk up to my friends' room to tell them I was here. Of course, the telephone was also gone, so calling wasn't an option. Thankfully I have my super secret entrance powers (waiting until someone comes in or out) and I managed to get up to sixth floor and completely surprise them all. Either they masked their anger/disappointment well, or they were actually happy to see me. I hung out with them for a while and then excused myself because I had to be up for the wedding, and I was hoping to print up some pictures beforehand. Of course, before I left, I had to borrow a friend's phone to call Luke because he's staying in the Grad apartments which are also 'Rice secure'. I've decided that moving between two secured buildings is a lot easier when you have a cell phone and can call people to let you in. Moral of the story: cell phones really are convenient at times. More to come.

In Other News...
Here's the link to conference where I'll be presenting a paper on Friday. I'm not prepared yet, but I still have a little time. I'm talking about cognitive linguistics in newspaper comics ;-)