Astronomers Do The Darndest Things

By the time you're reading this, I'll probably be on a plane... TO WEDDING LAND!!! :-D

So as I leave my adoptive country for my month-o-bliss, I'd like to give special thanks to my friends in La Serena - the ones Mr. Bear Cub and I live with (in a fishbowl of expats!), the ones we work with (in the same fishbowl..), and the ones who care about us enough to through us a surprise wedding shower!!!

Reelie?? I can haz party??

Our neighbors in expat-ville had invited us over to their home a few weekends ago ostensibly for "fried chicken". You don't get fried chicken in Chile. We were biting. Especially since we had planned to run 17 miles before hand! Anything fried tastes HEAVENLY after 17 miles on asphalt!

So we popped down to their home with party-food offering in hand, and this is what we saw:

Needless to say, I was quite shocked! And very happy :)

I couldn't believe our sweet friends here threw a party all for us! I'm not the easiest person to surprise! Mr. Bear Cub claims we must have been COMPLETELY oblivious to the plans the entire time. I've never been so thankful for good friends and my own spacey-ness. :)

There wasn't, in fact, fried chicken! But there were freshly-BBQ'd ribs! :-D

They're really that good. Plus they inspire sweet-n-smokey high-fives!

Astronomers are a friendly bunch!
Err... I mean.. We're a rather goofy bunch! ;)

But altogether, astronomers got your back when you need it!

Thanks, M!!

Mr. Bear Cub and I were super happy and relaxed all afternoon - finally a party we didn't have to plan! :) It was so nice to bask in the warmth of friends & camaraderie and celebrate! for once!

Let the celebration begin!

Was your "bridal" shower more of a "wedding" shower/celebration? Were you as completely shocked and elated as Mr. BC and I were??

Whether We'll Weather The Weather!

Hi Hive!

Meet Miss Bear Cub: Professional Amateur Meteorologist!

The forecast for the Pacific Northwest US over the next few weeks is:

...

I don't know. :)

But I do have a few tricks up my sleeve! Enter the Four Three Horsemen of precipitation and cold fronts:

Accuweather
As the name suggests, this must be the "accurate" weather forecast! I've been checking accuweather for their long-range (15 day!) predictions.

accuweather

So far, so good - sunny and clear! For coastal Oregon, this is a near miracle. But the forecast could change tomorrow!

That's why there's...

Weather.com
C'mon, you know you use this one. It's in the name. Even my dad uses this one. Standard, normal, not-too-daring in their predictions, yet just-enough of a sneak peak into next week!

weather.com

But meh... I wanna know about my wedding weekend now! Me! Me! Me! No! No! No! ... No Rain!

And sheesh weather.com - mostly sunny? Partly cloudy? Sounds like someone needs to grow a pair!

And finally, there's ol' reliable...

NOAA
This is the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. They know their poop. They're also really really conservative with their estimates. (7-day forecast? how passé)

noaa

This is good when you want accuracy (in your face accuweather!), but not-so-hot when you're a bride to be wishing to predict the cold fronts for oh, I don't know ... ROMANCE AND MARRIAGE! Gawh, NOAA!

Let's get real - no one can accurately predict the weather more than about 3-5 days out. That's why every day now I'm checking these three sites - one for reliability, one control group, and one to toy with my mood.

Have you gained a new hobby in forecasting the weather, conveniently near your wedding venue? What's your favorite hocus-pocus precipitation predictor?

Cover Up That Bear Cub Bum!

Bear Cubs are a bit shy - this little Bear Cub doesn't know the first thing about lingerie!

source

It doesn't help that certain other Bear Cubs also don't know a thing about lingerie - a Ms Bear Cub, in particular, needs to find "sexay" bum-cover-uppers STAT!

Luckily, in this forest of Oregon called "Stumptown" (the trees became stumps? Oh bother. At least there's good coffee honey.) there seems to be a preponderance of cutesy lingerie stores!

Oh Baby has gotten great reviews on yelp!

Plus it's located within walking distance of another yelp crowd-pleaser, Lille Boutique:

source

Aerie by American Eagle is quite cute, too - and definitely nicer on the wallet! The thing that's confusing this little Bear Cub so much is that her mister is really more of a sports bra kind of guy Bear Cub.

Patagonia definitely has some cute sports bras:

source

But $35 for a sports bra? And $20 for undies? Hmmm... it's all so confusing! (Plus that cute green is all sold out in the undies! Pooh.)

Do you ladies know of some relatively inexpensive unmentionables of the sporty variety?

While I'm in Portland next week (NEXT WEEK!!!! :) ), I'll try to hit up these two local lingerie shops! The only thing I don't know is if I should go alone or not. Do you think it's better to go lingerie shopping with a gal pal, or solo?

Tweet Tweet!

Remember way back when? When I had lofty plans for re-creating Lauren Alane's cutie-patootie felted birds cake topper?

Consider this project DONE suckah!

please forgive the crappy photography! I just discovered photobooth :) - and no tengo tiempo!

It took me a couple of tries, but I finally finished a pair of birdies I was happy with!


Mr. Bear Cub is obviously the taller red birdie! He always wears red, plus he's a ginger ;) (I love me some red hair - can't wait for the cute ginger babies one day!). My little birdie is actually a very light lavender color! Ha! I totally <3 the lavender.

Special thanks to Miss Poodle for supplying me with the correct wire for their legs! :) No hablo the spanish well enough to find the right crafting knick-knacks in my town. ;)

I've still got enough time to dress up the bridal birdie a bit! What do you think, should I go for a little hair flower? Maybe an über-tiny, über-cute bow in her "hair"?

How did you put your cake topper on your cake? I was thinking of just sticking the wire legs into the buttercream! :)

Too Much Bridal Glow

Wow, that was stupid.

Mr. Bear Cub and I were out on our weekly super-long Saturday marathon training run (you don't want to know how many miles), and Mr. Sunshine (not to be confused with Mr. Sunbeam!) decided to peak his little head out of the clouds.

Ladies, I have two weeks until my wedding. I now look like a raccoon.

ALWAYS

WEAR

SUNBLOCK

TWO WEEKS. TWO WEEKS!!!! I don't particularly want to be sporting the 'coon eyes on my wedding day!!!

...although, I am quite a sexy raccoon!

(sexy raccoon)

Seriously, these are about the worst burn lines one could hope for. If I was wearing sunny-g's, you'd think I would have thought to wear sunblock, eh?

comes with complimentary neck-burn!

It gets worse:
Halfway through the run, I rolled up my sleeves a bit. Ruh-roh! Bear Cub has sleeve lines! Sad Bear Cub. :(

I'm no stranger to burns - normally I wear SPF 50+!! The last time I got a bad burn (worse than this), the burn line lasted for about 5 months.

My wedding is in 2 weeks.

In the meantime, I'm slathering on the aloe, drinking lots of water, and taking some ibuprofen!

How long do you think it will take before the burn fades to my normal lovely pale skin?? What's your fool-proof method to reducing/minimizing burn and tan lines?