Hart and Melissa's Fabulous Website

We're a little behind... so the next few posts will be a retrospective of the highlights of our summer. We'll start with our FIRST ANNIVERSARY! After our wonderful trip to Budapest and Prague we decided to spend our anniversary quietly at home. We spent the day together, had a lobster dinner at home, ate the top of our cake and just generally enjoyed each other's company. Some pictures are here.

Melissa and her family took a nice vacation to Virginia Beach in June/July of this summer. I could make it because I had to work...and then the water heater backed up and flooded the family room :( They look like they are having fun though! Take a look here...

My sister threw a kickin' Olympics Toga Party. The two best parts: 1) We all wore Togas {so did some of the guests} and 2) we borrowed a projector and the Olympics were displayed 6ft. high on the wall of the family room. Check it out...

We had the pleasure of attending Melissa's cousin Michael's wedding. It was a really fun, warm event that brought family and friends together. I hear they had a rockin' time on their honeymoon in Hawaii. See pictures of the event here!

Our good friend Lee had this really fun BBQ a few weeks ago. It was all veggie and all good. We got rained into the house, but never fear! Fun was had none-the-less with good food and good friends.

Labor Day weekend was spent in Virginia Beach with a bunch of our peeps. The reason we went was the Rock and Roll Half Marathon which my friend Joy and I ran. We had a blast! I didn't know running could be so much fun :) Bands were stationed throughout the course and cheerleaders were on the course to keep you peppy. There was even a competition among local neighborhoods for which had the most spirit and support for the runners. Additionally, there was a music festival going on so there were concerts every night by such artists as the B52s and Gin Blossoms.

Add in one hurricane stalled off the coast of florida, producing wicked waves at the beach and it makes for one incredible weekend! Did I mention the broccoli?

UPDATE: You can see Liz's pictures by visiting this link.

The company I work for held a spectacular picnic at Six Flags this past weekend. We had the most incredible time! We went with my parents, sister & fiancee, and good friend (and co-worker) Heather. Check out the photos here...

We went to Lee's Birthday party last night. It turns out that it was a double-party. For him, and for his college friend Malia. Here begins the tale of one small world:

One of the guests was a longtime friend of mine from 3rd grade. He met a college friend of Lee's (Tanya) while studying in Paris. Since Tanya was going to be in town for Lee & Malia's birthday, she invited Ian to crash the party. Wild, right?! Then to make the world even smaller, it turns out that Malia lives right down the street from us! See a few pictures here....

September 17, 2004 is a night that will live on in infamy. Andrew and I were down stairs watching "Panic Room" on tv. Around 10pm, Melissa came downstairs all half asleep. She said that while she was taking her wedding ring off in the bathroom it shot out of her hand and now she can't find it. I went upstairs with her and we proceeded to tear the bathroom apart. No Ring. So, Melissa went to sleep (she had graduate school classes early the next morning) and I went back downstairs to finish watching the movie with Drew and then play my favorite Xbox game.

I looked again when I went up to bed that night around 3am and again the next morning. Still No Ring. However, it was determined that the ring was not on any visible surface, in the magazine rack, or in any cosmetic bags on the counter. The only places left to look were the drains in the sinks and bathtub. I "snaked" them with a bent coat-hanger and came up with nothing.

The only clue I had to work with was that Melissa recalled hearing a dull "thunk" sound. Not a "plink" like metal hitting porcelain...more like the sound of something bouncing off the bathroom floormat. So, lying on my stomach I looked carefully around the edges of the floor. At this point I noticed a small space, 1/4 to 1/2 inch high, between the baseboard and the vanity cabinets. However, I had a birthday party to go to and just wouldn't have the time to rip the baseboards off Saturday night nor the next day (Sunday) since I had Search and Rescue training.

Finally, Sunday night around 9pm I had a chance to take a shot at the baseboards. I won't go through the gory details but the final solution was to drill holes in the baseboard and fish a rope through the holes. Once I had tied the rope off...I just yanked on the rope and tore the baseboards off. And wouldn't you know, against all probability, the ring had bounced off the carpet and went through that tiny space between the baseboard and the vanity cabinets and was just lying there in the dust bunnies. See the whole sage here!