There are two very simple reasons why I don't update wackycow.com very often anymore. The first is that nothing very interesting happens in my life anymore -- at least nothing that anyone else would find interesting. The second reason is that I am simply very, very lazy.

Hard at work preparing for the wedding.

Plans for the wedding are proceeding apace, mostly thanks to the tireless efforts of my wedding planner. I'm getting a very good deal on the whole wedding planning thing, due to the fact that my wedding planner is also my future wife. I have two very simple tasks to perform for this wedding. The first is to show up, which I'm pretty sure I can't screw up, since I have five people whose main purpose in the wedding is to get my ass there on time. The second is to get the limos and the transportation for the guests from the hotel back to the reception. The picture on the page was taken while I was working on that limo thing.

In the past few months, we've been to this restaurant in Enfield called Mi Pueblo a couple of times. Mostly we go because they have karaoke. Those of you who know me are aware of the horrors that occur whenever I'm in a place where singing is allowed (Jake Ivory's, anyone?). Fortunately, I seem to be surrounded by people who have one thing that I lack: talent. Phil, Amy, Dave, and others who are able to produce sounds pleasing to the human ear were able to drown me out for the most part.

However, all this is incidental to the real surprise of the night. At one point early in the night, the karaoke ringmaster (is there a title for that?) called out the name "T.J." as the next person who was supposed to go up and sing. I thought my cruel companions were playing a joke on me, but then this old guy walks up and takes the mike. There could be only one explanation, of course: I had returned from the future.

Future T.J. was cool, of course. From the state of his shirt, it's clear that Erin still doesn't iron my clothes, which was somewhat disappointing to me. Unfortunately, the evening had to end, and he had to hop into his DeLorean and return to the future.

One last thing I noticed. We went to Mi Pueblo in October, and then again in February. I appear to have suffered some ill effects from not working out since Thanksgiving (before and after). Erin made fun of me and pretended it was all a joke, but you could see the fear in her eyes. I bet she couldn't wait to call the wedding photographer and ask if it was possible to airbrush out about 20 pounds from her future husband.

I haven’t even looked much at wackycow for a while. Today I decided that I was going to use it to keep track of some stuff that I would like to use both at work and at home (a list of short Howtos – inspired by Matt Cutts). Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed that each one of the posts on the front page had over 200 comments. Since I don’t have any illusions on the popularity of this website, I knew that I had a comment spam problem.

Now, wackycow has been running more or less continually since 2001, and I’ve never had a problem with comment spam before. However, it now seems like the nefarious underbelly of the interwebs has decided to target this last bastion of free commenting. Currently, comments are hidden while I setup a spam filter and remove the spam. Anonymous posting will now require approval before it’s posted. Not that anyone ever posts non-spam comments, but you know – someone may someday, and I have to be ready.

As an aside, the spam comments really got pretty nasty. Most of them relate to a topic that starts with s and ends with x (I’d like to buy a vowel, please).

So yeah, Erin and I got engaged. I may have forgotten to mention that. We're in the middle of planning the wedding. I probably should say "Erin's in the middle of planning for the wedding." My current tasks are to get the addresses for all our friends so that we can send the save the dates out. The only reason I'm typing this right now is so that I can procrastinate on that. My mother also sent me the list of her "invitees," so I have to parse those out and get those on labels as well. I'm super motivated to do that, too.

We got engaged on May 8th. I tricked Erin into coming to the elementary school where we grew up together, and then I popped the question on the (remains of the) playground where Erin used to throw rocks at me. We then spent the rest of the week driving around and letting everyone know.

We initially wanted to have about 150 people. That pipe dream lasted about 5 minutes into making the guest list. We're at approximately 260 people right now, and we had to make some pretty difficult cuts. I'm told I need to get this stuff out by this weekend -- I didn't ask what the consequences are if I don't, but I'm sure it won't be pretty.

The wedding's scheduled for July 27th, 2006. Aside from getting the addresses for the save the dates, I'm also responsible for getting the limos. I shouldn't complain, I really don't have to do much, except write checks. It's incredible how much money it takes to throw a wedding. I'd much rather have flown to Vegas and gotten married by a chicken-ridding Elvis. Erin nixed that idea, though -- all seven times I put the idea forward.

It looks like I have one less person to live vicariously through. On Saturday, September 9th, 2006, Kevin Cash succumbed to marriage. He put up a fine showing, though, even going so far as to flee to California. It was no use, however. Fortunately, Melissa is pretty cool (for a girl). It was a great day for a wedding, and everything went off without a hitch -- at least from the point of this observer.

The mighty Jeep devoured the vast distances between Enfield, CT and Clifton Park, NY. The miles fell away, and we made it to the luxurious Comfort Suites in record time. Having never stayed at a Comfort Suites, we were very pleasantly surprised at how nice it was. The room was spacious and clean, and it had a refrigerator, which is always a huge plus in my book. If we have the choice, I'm definitely staying at one of those places again.

The wedding itself was great -- it wasn't too long, everyone looked great, and the Priests did an excellent job. Ever since Erin and I got engaged, I've become something of a wedding critic. If my wedding is as nice as this one was, I'll definitely be happy.

After the wedding itself, we went to some country club for the reception. There was a mountain of delicious cheese, which, as Erin will tell you, is a thing of incomparable beauty to me. The bar service was prompt and free, which is the greatest kind of bar service. There was drinking and dancing. After many drinks, and with much prodding, I was forced to dance to Like A Virgin. It's really retired now, though -- really.

Attempting to get back to the hotel presented some logistical problems, however. It turns out that there were some miscalculations, and we were one spot short in the cars. I tried to convince Jenn to let me ride in the trunk, but she must have had a dead body in there or something, because no matter how many times I said "pleassh, Jenn, I'm really not dat thunk," she kept saying no. So, Erin had to ride on my lap the whole way back to the hotel.

Once we were back at the hotel, the girls had some sort of devious plan for graffiti or something in the newlywed's room. With the help of an amazing hotel person named Stephanie, they were able to head up to the room while I managed the front desk. It's all about teamwork, people.

After a rowdy after party at Chili's, we all headed to Jenn, Nisit, Meg, and Steve's room. There, with the help of some bottles of tequila and Everclear, we were able to keep the other guests in the hotel up with out entertaining hilarity. However, there were some casualties that night -- Gwynne's eye suffered a...collision with Steve's knee. Gwynne took it like a champ, though, making her the true hero of the night. She even had the battle scars to prove it.

Currently on iTunes: Landing in London from the album "Seventeen Days" by 3 Doors Down and Bob Seger

It's a rainy day and I don't feel like playing World of Warcraft right now, so I decided to do some of this blogging that the kids are all about these days. The reason I don't post here much is that I don't really have that much to say. I did get a Jeep, so I guess that's something.

Rob told me to put pictures of the Jeep up, so I am. I've had it for about 2 months (almost 3000 miles) now, and I have to say, it's a definite improvement over the Subaru. I've taken it off-road a bunch of times, too, and it handles itself really well there. The only problem I keep having with it is that I forget to put the sides and back in when it starts raining, so then I have to dry it out. Fortunately, Jeeps are built with that kind of thing in mind, so it's not too much of a pain. I just pull plugs in the bottom of the body and dry out the carpets.

I can see why I'm so good at this whole blogging thing. It's now Wednesday night. I have Jury Duty tomorrow, which sucks because I have a ton I want to do at work. But who am I to turn down dispensing justice for fifty dollars a day. The threat of fines and jail time also add a certain modivation to the whole thing.

Erin has relatives up from Florida, and we're having the whole Maloney clan over tomorrow for dinner. Should be interesting considering our house only fits about 1 1/2 people comfortably.

Currently on iTunes: Because We Can from the album "Moulin Rouge" by Fatboy Slim