BIG ANNOUNCEMENT!

Mike and I have officially decided to tie the knot! He proposed over dinner on Friday night, to my complete surprise (I knew it would happen sometime, but definitely wasn't looking for it!), at our favorite restaurant, Biaggi's. The ring is just beautiful, and we couldn't be more excited! We have not yet set a date. The hope is that we will have a short engagement and can plan a wedding with minimal fussiness and stress. The location will be Madison, which has been my home for 8 years, and where I met my fiancee, Mike, the love of my life.

The love of my life! Officially! And now the whole world will know!

If anyone has any tips for planning a wedding in general, or has connections in Madison to things like florists, bakers, photographers, banquet halls, etc, please let me know! I think we'll have a website to keep loved ones up to date with plans as they solidify. More on that if/when it goes up.

I learned after the proposal that he was hoping to have the ring in time for our get-away last weekend, but when the ring arrived on Friday afternoon, and I called him from work and said "Let's do something special tonight," he knew it was opportunity knocking and that he had to answer!

Oh, so sappy and cute, I'm sure I'm radiating a field that's lethal within 20 feet. One of these days my feet will touch the ground again.

~Kristen Z. (soon to be Kristen Z. B.!)

A bunch has been going on in my life recently, and most have meant I was offline and unable to post. Not that I've taken a bunch of time to post even when I don't have convenient excuses, but still, I might as well use excuses while I can.

It all started with my birthday, which was on Sunday Feb. 18. I'm now 26 years old, in case you were wondering. I went away for the weekend with Mike to Country Springs Hotel and Waterpark. It's located about an hour east of Madison, near to Delafield and the smiley barn (or "Amish Barn", though it'll always be the smiley barn to me). It has an indoor waterpark. That seems to be a good investment for a hotel in Wisconsin, what with the ridiculous cold we have had this February. It was nice and warm, had some neat slides and a great indoor-outdoor hot tub. Unfortunately, it was also full of screaming children. We stayed for a few hours and retreated to our room.

It was a great weekend, despite screaming kids. We had dinner on Saturday night at a Chinese restaurant, I think it was called Emperor's Kitchen. It was FANTASTIC. Mike and I are spicy food freaks. Just to give you an idea, our chili recipe now consists of 5 jalapenos and 5 habinero peppers, and it's still not terribly painful. Well, the Chinese food was DEFINITELY painful. Painful in that good sort of "ok, so now I know my limit" way. It was also very tasty. I washed down my meal with some tasty plum wine, which was a really interesting beverage, while Mike had a Chinese beer. I don't know if it was Chinese style or actually from China. Apparently, some very Chinese things are made right here in Wisconsin, such as Kikkoman Soy Sauce. Who knew.

The hotel room was nice, especially the two sinks and the tv in the bathroom. I want two sinks and a tv in MY bathroom. For now I'll have to make do with dust bunnies and spiders.

Sunday we had a wonderful lunch with my parents, my bro and his gf. We at at the Water Street Brewery in Delafield. It's a very nice place, good food, great service. It was rather nostalgic, too. When I used to play in the Milwaukee Youth Symphony Orchestra (during my previous life as a musician), my family would go eat at the Water Street Brewery afterwards, sometimes with my oboe friend and her family. The restaurant in downtown Milwaukee is actually on Water Street, but the one in Delafield is still quite nice.

I got a couple fabulous birthday presents from my family. My brother gave me an adorable hedgehog rug that I absolutely love. My mom and dad gave me a really neat necklace and Guitar Hero II. If you've never played Guitar Hero, you probably should. It's very musical, which is part of the draw for me. I'm terrible at it right now, but just you wait...

And thus ended my weekend of fun. Just one excuse for not writing in my blog. More to come later. :)

~Kristen