Today was the big day! Julie and Mike are now married, and the entire ceremony, afternoon and evening were just lovely. This was one of the shots I took while the bride was getting ready. I love the juxtaposition of her fancy veil and the bottle of mineral water.Oh, and I guess Osama bin Laden was killed today? Random news to get on the dance floor at a wedding in the Caribbean, but the journalist in me cannot wait to see what the Mexican papers do with the story tomorrow.We leave around 10:30 am and land in Minneapolis around 7:30 pm. This has been an amazing trip and a wonderful time... but hot damn I can't wait to see my puppies tomorrow night.

I did not take this photo! We will welcome Jamie as a "guest blogger" today -- but I'm actually in the photo instead :). The water looked calmer today, so we decided to head out and try some snorkeling. Since we (I) get pretty seasick, we opted for a shorter, hour long trip. Let me just say that an hour in the sea seems way longer than an hour on the massage table. And I prefer the massage table.Anyway, we saw some lovely and colorful fish. I even saw a school of yellowtail snapper (one of my favorite meals in Miami). We took our new GoPro camera and Jamie wore it around his wrist and we set it to take a photo once every 10 seconds. Kids, if you're gonna try this at home, we learned we should have set it to about one photo every five seconds because those fish are kinda fast and we barely got any in our frame. Also, the underwater photos were pretty dark and murky, so if you get a Go Pro, use it outdoors (above water) where the photos are pretty great.We did not see any sharks (thank God) but Jamie says he saw a barracuda. Thankfully he kept that information to himself. I'm posting this photo now (late afternoon) because we miraculously have an internet connection.Tonight we have a beachside bbq planned and Jamie and I might head into town for some shopping. If I get photos of those things, I may post more later. We'll see. And tomorrow? That's the wedding! So we should have about a million great shots from that :).UPDATE: More photos were taken, and we skipped going into town. We may try that before the wedding tomorrow. Or we may get another massage. For today's photos look no further.

Nice start to the morning, eh? These are tacos de juevos (scrambled egg tacos) and man, are they delicious. This is how I have started every day since arriving, and the fresh salsa in that white dish with the spoon? Oh my, I could live on that. Jamie's been getting the banana pancakes each day, which are amazing as well. But you know me, I prefer the salty to the sweet.Today was another day full of sun and sea and naps and hammocks and margaritas. Then after dinner, the girls took two vans and the guys took two vans to our respective "bachelor" nights out. The girls started at a patio bar that featured live music (Mexican indie bands covering Franz Ferdinand, for example) where we downed Coronas and tequila shots. The boys started at a strip club. That's all I'm gonna write about the boys night. I will point out Julie's hilarious remark this morning about that though "Yeah. Those girls aren't exactly working their way through college."We (the girls) proceed down to this fascinating club called the Blue Parrot. It was particularly amazing to me as, um, this is the only way you're gonna catch me in a club like this. VIP girls get in free (we were deemed VIP) and apparently if we were willing to wait in line we could have drank for free (we were not willing to wait). There was a crazy dance floor that offered random smoke sprayed directly in your face as well as massive amounts of balloons. Not like balloons from my photo shoot a few weeks back, but balloons like you make into animals and such. Strange. Lots of unnn-tsss-unnn-tsss music and we had a good time. Julie, in fact, could be seen dancing while wearing a bedazzled eye patch. I didn't want to haul my camera into town and have to carry/keep track of it all night, but man when she was dancing with that eye patch I was regretting the decision to leave the gear at home.Later, at that same club, we wandered over to the area that was on the actual beach, and there was an amazing fire dancer show, where miraculously, no one caught on fire. Shortly after that I left (only so much "clubbing" this girl can handle) and I was amused to learn I wasn't the only one who viewed the club as a great scene for the start of a CSI:Miami episode.Lemme just say that this is most surely not my scene, but I had a wonderful time. I think I could be just about anywhere with Miss Julie and head home with a sore face from all the smiling and laughing. This is kinda cheezy, I realize, but I am so happy that we could be down here for her wedding and experience all these great times with her and Mike. If you ever get the chance to come to Mexico with a group of amazing friends, don't even hesitate.A few more photos from the day are over here.

Well hello there! I am so sorry for the delay in posting, but the internet service here in Mexico appears to be a very low priority. When we ask why it's down, they tell us it's because it's windy. Hi. We are on the beach. It is always windy.But who cares! We are on the beach! So please forgive the late posts. It appears we have a connection now, but it might only last a few more minutes, so I'm going to try to catch up as much as I can. This photo is from Thursday when we ventured about 300 yards inland from the beach (which I will now be referring to as "the jungle"). It is about 15 degrees hotter and about 35% more humid in "the jungle." So yeah, get us back to the beach, ahora por favor.But the resort has a "zoo" back there that we wanted to check out. We met the zookeeper, who said his name was Wilbur. I shit you not. Didn't think "Wilbur" was a popular Mexican name, but there you go. Anyway, he was so kind and showed us all the animals and even opened up the pens to let me in to shoot photos either up close or without a fence obstructing my view. How awesome is that?You can see more photos from the zoo and the rest of our day over here. Ha. "The rest of our day." By that I guess I mean us lounging on the beach. Or getting beach side massages. Oh wait, there was a reception though for arriving guests and a live mariachi band, and that was AWESOME. So yeah, we're having fun.

Hola! We are in lovely Mexico, safely nestled in a boutique resort soaking up the sun and surf. I think Jamie took about three naps today. There have been long walks on the beach, sleeping, swimming in the pool, guacamole, sleeping, margaritas, more sleeping and we're almost ready for dinner. The wifi is a tad spotty here, so while I am hoping to post every day -- it might not happen. Please forgive me, and if it can't work live, I will update every day's post upon my return. If you want to see more images of our lovely resort, go here.

Today was crazy! Tons of work and tons of meetings and Books and Bars at the Aster! What's that? That's the book club that meets at the bar (my kind of book club). This month we read 'House of Tomorrow,' which was so, so good. Really, go read it if you like stories of teen angst and punk rock.The book's author, Peter Bognanni, lives in St. Paul and he came and did a reading and answered a ton of questions. It was a very good time. Also? You can peek at Meredith in the dark right side of the frame. Oh, and yes, this is a fuller frame of The Aster -- that restaurant that I cannot get enough of. They serve one hell of a roast beef sandwich.Oh man, I cannot wait for tomorrow's picture... Sunshine, here I come.

It was so beautiful today -- I think it even hit 60 degrees. The plants in the garden are slowly creeping up toward the sun, and this sedum plant is one of my favorites. I love how the leaves are almost purple, not quite green. And yes, there is Merlin hair in my yard. Better than the house I suspect...Wanna know what the forecast is calling for on Tuesday? Snow. Yeah. But wanna know what my forecast is for Wednesday? Partly cloudy with a high of 90. That's because I'm headed to Mexico. Squee!

You guys! I'm finally feeling better! Just a few small coughs today, not a single kleenex (or puffs, as you can tell from the photo) was used, and it's 10:03 pm and I have some energy left! This feeling of health! It's amazing!The above photo is of my kitchen countertop and the arsenal of medication that it has been housing as of late. I am taking all or some of those medications at any moment. The neti pot has been stored away, as I like the saline spray much, MUCH better.For anyone coming down with said cold/allergies, these are my suggestions. (It's like a restaurant review! But of pills! And not the fun kind!) Zyrtec works WAY better than Claritin. But it gives you freaky dreams, so be aware of that. I prefer advil cold/sinus over the sudaphed (or walphed) because it doesn't leave me as thirsty. And the flonase tastes awful, but it seems to work. But make sure you sit down right after you shoot it up your nose because it makes you a tad dizzy. Oh, and gummy vitamins are just more fun than regular. See the services I provide here? Amazing.