We went down to Harrow for the weekend to visit with my family and have a sort-of reception dinner thing. It was an eventful few days, as usual. Lots of running around because of the varying schedules that everyone is on, but more down-time than the last few times I’ve been down.

Strange appliances were discovered:

This toaster-looking machine cooks two hot-dogs in the centre, while at the same time toasting two buns. My brother loves this thing and uses it several times a day, as evidenced by how greasy it looks.

ETA: My mom called to tell me you can get one for your very own from the Regal Christmas catalogue. It’s on the last page, item #6455.

My grandma made us not one, but two cakes:

The first one was chocolate with the wedding date on it, the second was a white cake with cupcakes. They are a little hard to read, and say “Live, Laugh, Love.”

A close-up of the glass centrepiece:

It was custom-made for us by a local glass artist.

We also humoured grandma by doing the whole cutting-the-cake thing:

I really don’t understand the point of that tradition, but whatever. I actually asked if grandma knew, since it was important to her that we do it. Her reply? “I don’t know. Look it up on the internet.” This was greatly amusing to me since she’s never used a computer and has no desire to learn how.

Dinner was a lot of fun. I wasn’t doing a very good job at keeping a straight face:

I didn’t get to spend as much time with my dad as I would have liked since he was working, but work has been slow lately so I’m glad he’s been getting some more steady hours.

We also have a new kitten, since my sister found her and she needed a home:

Jo was calling her Estella, but I shortened it to Stella since it’s easier to say and easier for the cat to recognize. She’s very well-behaved for a kitten, though she does have to explore everywhere that she can. She was even trying to get to the bottom of the wood bin:

I also got my mom to section my hair and backcomb it for me. She didn’t know how to section in a non-grid pattern so we made things up as we went along:

I still have to tighten up the backcombing, and try to make some of the dreads less flat. You can totally see how flat they are in the side view:

Overall it was fun times. I got to hang out with Leya and made a new friend. We went to see Twilight, so I really should read the books now.