Congratulations to Ken & Carmen!

Monty and I attended their wedding today at the Thousand Oaks Baptist Church in Berkeley and their reception at Hs Lordship's at the Marina. It was not one of those quickie weddings that I hate (think The Simpsons episode where an officiant in Vegas says, "Do you *bop sound with finger-pointing* take *pop sound also with finger-pointing*...?"); instead, there were songs, hymns, stories, prayers, vows, and a few special words from family members. Neither Monty nor I were too crazy about the religious stuff, but it was important to the bride and groom, and the ceremony was quite nice.

The reception was a blast! There was a whole entertainment program that lasted pretty much for the duration of the reception. Both Ken and Carmen are very involved in church activities, so there were special tributes from a bunch of their church friends: song parodies, regular singing performances, both slide shows and video clips that roasted the couple and that were romantic and sweet, and some words of thanks by the bride and groom to their friends and family. The funniest skit was probably this video called "Normal vs. Ken & Carmen," where they showed how normal people do things like express excitement or parallel park vs. how Ken or Carmen do the same things. There was also a very cleverly written parody of "Surfin' USA" about Ken's life. It was really quite fun and we also learned a lot more about the couple.

And, of course, I must write about the food -- which was quite good. :) We all had salad and bread to start. I got the filet mignon entree, which was served with steamed green beans and carrots as well as roasted red potatoes. The meat was very tender. Monty got the vegetarian entree, of course, which was an Alfredo pasta with grilled asparagus, squash, and red bell peppers. Slices of their wedding cake were served for dessert. The cake was very moist, and the filling was a mix of cream and fruits (my slice had peaches and lychees, but there may have been other fruits as well).

A few people recognized Monty and came to say hello -- mostly residents of Unit 2 of years past. I also ran into an old dorm floormate from my sophomore year in college, as well as a student from the undergraduate pre-law class I taught a couple of years ago.

When we got home, we took a big long nap. Then the evening was spent filling out a bunch of paperwork for health insurance, proofreading our wills, making copies of some important records, and getting other administrative stuff ready for our upcoming trip. There is still so much to do, and time is running out -- the movers are coming on Friday!!