(Meta note: This journal actually serves two purposes: a record of the important events in my life and a way for me to disseminate my technical knowledge to those who are interested in learning and discussing. This particular entry fits in the former category -- ignore it if you're not interested. And the same for vice versa.) Michael and Samantha got married in La Crosse, Wisconsin this weekend. I'm telling from my perspective, so I apologize in advance for any perceived bias. I drove from Ames and Laura flew from Omaha. Jack drove from Connecticut and picked up Morgan on the way. The rehearsal on Friday was pretty standard. Lots of introductions and a little bit of confusion. It was good to see Mike's family again and meet Samantha's family for the first time. As the best man, I actually had responsibilities as complicated as signing a sheet of paper and moving a kneeling pillow, so I started to get nervous (!). Laura's plane had been overfueled (and thus was leaking it out of the wings onto the runway) so she arrived later than expected. Then we went to Samantha's house to drink beer and eat food and talk. Hours and hours of talking. Samantha finally kicked us out and we went back to the hotel for a quick swim and sleep. Originally, we were going to try to have a mini bachelors party, but Samantha want to spend the night before her wedding alone with Mike (for some reason...) and Ben never showed (!). The groomsmen's tuxedos did not come with socks (unlike any tuxedo that I had ever rented (I know, I know, everyone has told me that they normally don't, but at least the last three I've rented have come with socks)) so we had to go to Target in the morning to buy some. We did actually make it to Target (Jack had to pick up his gift and Laura and I had to get some additional gift wrapping supplies), but we had forgotten about the socks until we got back to the hotel. Morgan was up at this point, so we had a "quick" breakfast of various fried starch, meat, and dairy products at Perkins. I went back to the hotel to shave and Morgan bought socks for us. We got to the church just on time. Some "snooping" women we hadn't seen before told us to go downstairs and see the bridesmaids. Jack wandered off and I spent a little bit of time exploring the Lutheran dungeon. I saw him open the door to a lit room down the hall and just walk in and start talking. Guess he found them. So followed him down, looked in the room, and saw that the ladies were dressing. Finally one of them said "Jack, get out!" So we went back upstairs and waited, embarrassed. Lots of shuffling about for photos, moving Mike to a secluded room, talking with various family members, etc. etc. I finally officially met Leigh and Dak, Mike's oldest sister and her husband, too. Cool people. Also, I think Dani and I exchanged more words by several orders of magnitude than we ever had before. Next, "the gang" -- Bryan, Jessica, Jared, and Jon -- showed up and we talked a bit before they headed in. My mom and sister made it to the wedding as well, which was especially good since they weren't sure they could. Lots of smiles. The ceremony itself went off without a hitch. Samantha never cried, which kind of disappointed me, and Mike didn't cry either, which would have been even better. ;-) And now they're husband-and-wife, etc. etc. Then more pictures (bleh, but they should turn out well) and a limo ride around La Crosse. More pictures at a park by the river (boating looked SO APPEALING. by that point we were really sweaty.) and some time at Grandad Bluff. Then the reception. Talking, talking, sitting, standing, talking, drinking. Later eating. I didn't eat very much because I was so nervous that I'd have to get in front of everyone and give the toast. I'm terrible at public speeches but it seems it turned out okay after all. The maid of honor followed with a tear-filled toast and Michael thanked everybody for coming and spending the special day with him. I tried to introduce two people who I thought would be good matches for each other but it did not turn out very well. >_> I partially blame Jack for being the aggressive psycho that he is and forcing the issue when it wasn't a good time. On the other hand, I wasn't sure what to do either. Oh well. No harm done, I hope. The Grand March was set to the Imperial March (!). The mother-son dance was amusing for reasons I won't go into. Two VNV Nation songs that night. (WOOT -- I'm impressed Michael had the cojones to pull it off, and it went well!) And Mike and Samantha had a very sweet gift for us -- they had the DJ play Ben Folds' The Luckiest and then surreptitiously left us alone on the floor. Had Tequila for the first time. Not bad. Perhaps I'll try it again. Gift opening on Sunday morning after dropping Laura off at the airport. Mike and Samantha got a LOT of gifts. Wish I had a way to transfer the picture to my computer so I could link to it. Very impressive. Mike smiled and said "So THIS is what we paid for..." They're on their way to Jamaica for a week now. Hope they have fun. This week and in the rest of their lives. Great weekend all around. Looking forward to what other people write.