Today was a busy day. A wonderful day. Shannon and Kimberly's wedding. But first, since the wedding was at 15:00, I decided to go see The Replacements and look for shoe polish. I saw the movie, didn't find shoe polish, and came home to find that Dave had stopped by to prepare his ceviche for Sunday's picnic. It was hot already so I turned on the air conditioner full blast and left it on the whole day, little good it did as we came home and my apartment was still hot.

In any case, that afternoon I was concerned with putting on my suit. The one suit that I own, with the one shirt and one tie that I wear with it. By now though the tie had become raveled, so I couldn't just put it on and adjust it. Time I figured out how to tie a tie. Unfortunately, today was not to be the day. So I put on the tie as best as I could (and it's a lot more complicated than it looks). Then we left for the wedding. Dave was kind enough to polish me shoes with some shoe polish he brought.

The wedding itself was held at the Faculty Club on the UC Berkeley campus. Wow, I haven't been on campus in years, and it is much the same, at least the small part that I saw. The Glenn T. Seaborg room on the second floor was set up for about 40 people on five tables. A large balcony had seats set up, where the ceremony would take place.

A lot of people I know attended. Shannon's parents of course, his mom and two brothers, his dad and stepmom and their daughter, didn't see Shannon's stepdad. Also several uncles and cousins, I think. I'm not too sure about Kimberly; I don't recall any of her relatives being there. From the gaming group there was Dave and I, Chris and Woo. Neither Eric made it. John Tomasetti and his wife Diane were there. Billy was there, though not Denise nor Sal. Donald brought his mom Kathy while Dave Pick brought Wendy. Matt was there with his girlfriend Zorya (no idea on the spelling). Lots of Kimberly's friends: Nancy, Dee, Fred, Rachel and three other people on my table who I've forgotten their names.

The ceremony itself was understated. We all sat down on the foldout chairs, most out in the sun, waiting along with the photographer for the bride and groom to come out. Nancy came out first, she was conducting the ceremony. Then Shannon came out, holding a book: Lady of the Lake. Kimberly followed with her own book: The Oddyssey. Books, reading, writing, are very important to these two. Some words from Nancy, then Shannon and Kimberly read the vows that they had written for each other in their books. I could barely hear what they said. They put their rings on, kissed, lots of clapping.

For the most part the gamers stayed together. Lot of talking with Billy, who had just come back from Tunisia. John and Diane seem to be doing well. Matt is his usual self, Zorya is a gamer so she's cool. Kathy is the coolest mom I've ever met, but I'm getting ahead of myself. Lunch was followed by a quiz to see which table knew the most about Shannon and Kimberly's romance. Any table with Donald has an unfair advantage.

Anyway, after that there was some more mingling. People started leaving. We decided to go to The Albatross to drink and be merry. Donald, Kathy, Donald's brother Dan, Matt and Zorya, John and Diane, Billy and Woo and Chris and Dave Sweet and I crowded into a largish table at the front of the bar. Played some Connect 4 and Pictionary with two teams. After Matt and John left with their significant others, it got really rowdy. Chris went nuts and we had a bit too many gay jokes. We tried to get Kathy and Dan to tell us an embarrassing story about Donald, but apparently all the embarrassing stories in that family deal with Donald's three brothers. We stayed there until the bar closed and it was great.