The Copeland Picture of the Year

This is what happens when I try to touch Alicia.


Well, okay, when I try to touch Alicia after accidentally touching bird poop. Luckily, the camera was ready. Talk about a Kodak moment.

Thanksgiving Pictures

Just a quick assortment of pictures from the holidays:

First off, Alicia and I attended the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade:



Here's the crowd from left to right:




I guess we had to expect it would be busy: this is Time Square in New York City.

It actually wasn't bad, though. The police only let a certain number of people through to the parade. We arrived an hour early, so it worked to our advantage.

This girl:



... has pictures on her blog. In fact, she has so many posts about Thanksgiving, it would be awkward to post links to every one of them. They are on the front page right now, but if you're reading this months in the future, check out her posts on December 1st, 2008.

How'd the turkey go, you ask?



Pretty well. We even had a fancy setup for it:



The four place settings were to include Alicia's friend from High School, Tanya, as well as her boyfriend Jorge. It was a great Thanksgiving. Not as good as spending back in Minnesota, mind you, but a fine night indeed.

Alicia's first day!

The tradition of taking a picture on the first day of school lives on. Here's Alicia on her first day of work last week. She looks happy because she was able to sleep in, her first day of work started at 10:55.

As for the job, she's loving it. She's joyfully employed by Bloomberg, a news and legal service started by the current mayor of New York City. She talks about it on her blog, Put on the Glasses.

Wedding Announcement

We've set a date and time!

On Saturday, August 15th, at 5pm, at the Wynn Hotel in Las Vegas, NV, I'll take Alicia's hand in marriage.

We've set up a website where you can get more information. Head over to:

http://copelandglaserwedding.blogspot.com/

for the wedding blog.

I'll try and drop a note here when big info is posted.

Alicia update

If you haven't been reading Alicia's blog, shes had a lot happening.

First off, she got a job! She started yesterday (Monday) working for Bloomberg doing legal research. It is great pay and she says it is mindless and easy. I won't go into detail, but I will say she is very happy to have the job search over for the time being. It is a temporary job, so the job search will begin again eventually, but she's employed at least for the foreseeable future.

Even better, she has a birthday coming up. On Friday, October 1oth, she'll turn 27. I've been doing my best to plan it, gifts, etc. Considering it is on a Friday, I'm sure we'll have fun.

Lastly, the wedding planning is going well. We might have a date and time confirmed soon. I'll keep you posted!

Renegade Craft Fair

Going back just over a week, Alicia and I hit up a festival in our neighborhood called the Renegade Craft Fair. Taking place in McCarren Pool, an old empty pool, the fair features craft sellers from around the area. We're talking a lot of knit items, a lot of art, a lot of printing press stuff, and tons of non-fancy jewelery.

Alicia and I attended last year, and I wasn't very impressed. It was a lot of over priced knit items, almost entirely geared for women. Plus, it was very sunny last year, so sun burns commenced.

This year was different! It was packed, a lot of variety, and while there was a lot of female-centric items, there was also hipster paraphernalia. Alicia got to see several printing shops that she had looked at online previously when checking out wedding invitations, and I got to be tempted into purchasing two items.

The first is kinda ugly. But fantastic. I can't help how much I like it. Pictured here, it's a mug with some strange brown glaze and about twenty steel studs sticking out to act like a handle. I still don't know why it appeals to me so much, but it does. I drank coffee out of it the next day, but it is currently serving as a pencil cup. The steel studs aren't very comfortable to hold, but it's necessary to avoid burning your hand.

My second purchase is a new bag. I've been shopping for a new bag for quite some time now. I've got my giant Laptop bag, a big and shapeless Brooklyn Industries bag for when I'm schlepping a lot of things. There's my bag from Office Depot back in Duluth that I even took to Italy. All these bags have a good reason for them, but I was missing a small bag to just hold a few items if I'm not going out to carry much (no groceries, just maybe taking a two books to study at a coffee shop).

One problem I've encountered is that it seems the size of bag I was looking for has bordered on being a purse. Alicia frequently turned down several other bags I liked because they were too much like a purse.

Enter this bag. It's bigger than a purse, designed specifically to go over and around your left shoulder, and it is made using old tire rubber on the outside (in stripes) so it must be manly. The inside is simple, but big enough to carry my math books. It's great! Outside my trip to Ikea (where I wanted a big bag to carry Ikea swag), I've used it every chance I get. It has a great adjustable strap for keeping it squarely on my back, and it seems pretty high quality. Plus, it's basically one of a kind. The woman who made it doesn't really have a store, only a website (which I can't seem to remember). So I won't be passing people on the street with my identical bag. That isn't a huge selling point, but it makes my bag feel special. I guess I'm a sucker some times.

Alicia's Blog

Just a quick note to mention that Alicia (my fiance) has switched to Blogger, too. Her old website, aliciaglaser.googlepages.com, will also stay up, but you can catch her at her new blog, aliciaglaser.blogspot.com, where she has been blogging up a storm.

She's got pictures of me and more pictures of Ikea. Give her a chance!