Saturday, August 30…

Today was a day that people could explore the town of Aspen and do whatever they like; white-water rafting, a Jeep tour, mountain biking, paragliding, you name it. I elected to sleep in since I had quite a few beers last night. It was a good night of sleep for me. Katherine had to get up for a 9:30am manicure/pedicure appointment with her bride’s maids. I’m glad I didn’t have to get up that early. My day was filled with running small errands – getting the power cord to our laptop from Ryan, finding a card to go with my gift to Katherine, and go for a quick hike to some ice caves. Yep, an action packed day if you ask me! What seemed to be a simple day didn’t quite turn out that way.

First off, I was running into all our guests that I hadn’t seen yet. I stopped off for coffee and a muffin at Ink and ran into Gary Selman & Ken Abrams on the bench outside of the “Under Amour” store waiting for their wives to return from shopping. I had a 30 minute conversation with them and then onto Ryan’s room. Another 20 min conversation with him and Andrea and I was quickly falling behind my preset (albeit miniscule) schedule. Eventually I arrived back at our condo and my brother, his wife Nikki, and my 3 month old nephew Patrick stopped by. Patrick was hungry and Nikki was lunch! While they fed Patrick I decided to run out for a wedding card for Katherine. Big mistake. Figuring the easiest thing to do was to ask a shop vendor from one of the stores where I could find some greeting cards. They sent me across town to the market. I get to the market and look high and low for the card section; it’s non-existent. When I ask a clerk about cards she informs me that they do not sell them and send me up the street to Sandie’s Supply store. No problem, it’s 1.5 blocks away. Great…I’m here BUT…she’s is closed for the long holiday weekend (Labor Day). Son of a b—-! And, yet again, I’m asking a store vendor where to buy cards. They tell me to go to Carl’s Pharmacy which is clear across town in the opposite direction of where I am and where our condo is. So I hike once again across town to Carl’s. I find the card I want and head back. At this point, my brother is probably wondering where I have been. He notices I’m out of breath and goes to ask me when I cut him off and say, “It’s a long story.”

I decided to get things ready for the rehearsal dinner which was held at the Snowmass Club in Snowmass, CO (5 miles from Aspen). The rehearsal and dinner went off without a problem. Once we completed the rehearsal, Katherine and I gave our wedding party gifts for our appreciation of them standing up with us. The bridesmaids received all kinds of goodies: hand-made bath soaps, vanilla lotions, chocolate bubble bath, and much more all tissue-paper wrapped in a gift bag. I bought the guys these very cool hockey stick putters. All the guys (except me) got Toronto Maple Leaf putters and I off course bought a Detroit Red Wings putter. I told all the guys they had to bring their putter tomorrow to golf and use them. The one exception was my brother, who is not a regular golfer although a trooper today with us (and he did very well), whom I bought a PSP with the GTA Vice City game. Both he and I have been video game people since the invention of the Atari 2600. I actually still have one of those that I have pulled out a couple of times and play. They still go for pretty big money on eBay. Then we had dinner with the wedding party and family and finally the “Welcome Reception” for all guests to attend. What a great time! And, it was so nice to see and talk with all our guests before our big day!