We found a dress that is both beautiful and elegant. And we are both very happy. In the process, we passed on some very pretty dresses, some not-so-pretty dresses, lots of "eh" dresses, and one evening gown that in the end was not bridal enough.

At one store, the lady helping Steph stunned us. As she took Steph to the fitting room, she looked at me and said, "You know what she's looking for. Go to the front of the store and look through the sales rack for something she might like." Sigh... I desperately clung to what remained of my man-card.

Personally, I'm scared to go tux shopping now....

So we've been shopping for dresses and looking at venues throughout all of January. Many people give us with a stunned look when we say that our wedding is May 1st.

"Oh, that's around the corner!" they say.

Yes, thank you. We realize that.

"We need to get you a dress/venue/rings/chameleon today!" they say.

That's why we're here shopping for a dress/venue/ring/chameleon.

In the middle of all this, we set up an appointment with the Episcopalian minister who is going to do the service. "Don't worry," he says in his email, "we have plenty of time before May 1st to get things done."

It's all relative, I suppose.

and dresses, and dresses, and dresses.

I have been privy to seeing lots of different wedding dresses modeled for me.

I'm there because she wants to make certain I like "the dress" as much as she does. Many are very confused and put out by my presence. One (young) girl almost had a fit that I was seeing my wife-to-be's dress before the wedding. She then proceeded to complain that her fiancee had seen her bridesmaids' dresses and expressed his displeasure with them. Well, her wedding dress was similar to them, so she was at the store purchasing a second wedding dress. And Steph gives me that this-is-why-you-are-here glance. And I smile....

Once, a sales girl walked up to me and asked if my wife was in the dressing room. I replied, "No, she's at home. If she ever found out that I was here with my girlfriend shopping for wedding dresses, she'd be really pissed." At least Steph and I got a good laugh out of it.

So yes, we've been shopping for a dress. I have pictures (which I'm not allowed to share) just so that I can keep up. "Does this look better than the one at the store in the mall? You know, the third one we tried on that day!" Thank God for iPhones... I think we're close now, but I dare not say too much and risk jinxing it all.

And yes, we do watch "Say Yes To The Dress."

Steph and I took the train to NYC a few weeks ago. I wanted to go to the MET to see an exhibit of samurai swords.

Steph planned out the day and the route we were to take. We were to get off the train at Penn station, transfer to the "A" subway to 81st St, then walk across Central Park.

"What?" I exclaimed. "We can't do that!"

"Why not?" she replied, rather confused by my outburst.

"Because, lots of episodes of Law and Order start with someone jogging through Central Park and finding a dead body! To boot, that dead body is usually an out-of-towner! I don't want to be the next episode of L&O!!!!"

She was amused. We took the planned route, and amazingly enough, made it across Central Park alive. She tried to make that L&O sound throughout the trip, but as we all know, it's not an easy sound to make. We had breakfast at a small corner diner--I kept waiting for Kramer to walk in. The exhibit was very cool indeed. Steph's opinion was, "well, after the 40th sword...."

We saw some of the Christmas sights in NYC. The skating ring at Rockefeller center was tiny! It looked so much bigger on TV... Fun time. A little cold, though. That's us with the tree at Rockefeller center in the background.