Mailbox Monday (131)

I figured it's about time for me check in with a Mailbox Monday post, right?
Gifted from My Dad
Spaghetti and Meatballs for All! by Marilyn Burns
I've actually seen this book on several lists of math books for children. In the story, Mr. and Mrs. Comfort throw a dinner party and have to arrange, rearrange, and rearrange the table and chairs to make room for everybody learning a bit about perimeter on the way.

Little Beaver Builds a Bed by Katie Thompson
This one was actually written by one of my dad's friends. It's about a beaver who builds a bed with his dad for a very special person.

From PJ Library
Tea with Zayde by Barney Saltzberg
This is actually a really cute and relevant for us book. Each day the little girl in the story has tea with her grandfather. Except you realize on the last page that they aren't meeting in person but over the internet. Until a few years ago a book like this never would have existed, but for kids growing up like Elley now, it's hard to imagine life without this type of technology.

Happy, Happy by Bara Bat-Shem
This one is slightly more traditional, but still adorable, as the book goes through the various happy times that occur in a baby's first year. Knowing Elley, I have a feeling this is one I'll be reading, over and over and over again.

What did you find in your mailbox this week?

Mailbox Monday (119)

Not only is today the end of the weekend, but it's the end of the Jewish year. Tomorrow I'll be heading to services with Elley in tow. We may only be staying for the children's service, but it will be the first year of many for her of High Holy day services. First though, here's a look at the books that have made their way into our home in the recent weeks.
From PJ Library
Sammy Spider's First Book of Jewish Holidays by Sylvia A. Rouss
Speaking of Jewish holidays, in this book Sammy Spider shows how we celebrate Jewish holidays throughout the year. I love the illustrations and think it's adorable. I'd even say it's my favorite of all the PJ Library books we've received so far.

Gifted
Math at the Art Museum by Group Majoongmul
Me and Earl and the Dying Girl by Jesse Andrews
While visiting my dad in California (which I'll be finishing up writing about this week), he gifted me and Elley these two books. The first, for Elley, shows various famous paintings and explains the concepts of perspective, composition, and symmetry through them. The second, instead for me, is a YA book, one that was recently made into a movie.

From the Publisher
The Sea Beach Line by Ben Nadler
This one surprised me a bit. It's a mystery, which isn't the type I normally read. But it's about a Polish-Israeli street vendor, which intrigues me a bit, and I'm guessing is part of the reason I wound up receiving it.

From My Mom
Brick Lane by Monica Ali
Going through my mom's books I found this one, about a Bangladeshi woman who is sent to London for her arranged marriage. It's a book I wound have likely picked up on my own, but knowing it was one of my mom's makes me want to read it even more.

Childbirth Choices in Mothers' Words by Kim Selbert
It may be a bit odd adding a book about childbirth 9 months after my daughter was born. Except this book, which is a collection of birth stories, includes my mom's. As in the birth stories she wrote about having me and my brother. It's a little bittersweet reading it, especially when she talks about having her mother with her when I was born, since she couldn't do the same with me, but I'm so happy to have it. So far hers is the only one of the stories I've read, but I do plan on reading the rest.

For Review from TLC Book Tours
The Determined Heart by Antoinette May
I started this book last night, and so far really like it. It's a historical fiction about Mary Shelley, the author of Frankenstein. Even now I really have no idea who Mary Shelley was, and only recently put together the fact that Frankenstein was written by a woman, so I know it's one where I'll learn a lot and hopefully enjoy along the way.

Broken Homes & Gardens by Rebecca Kelley
I've actually already read and reviewed this one. It's a cute chick lit type book that I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed it.

What did you find in your mailbox this week?

From Miss to Mrs: Reception Details

Before our wedding, back when I was reading everything I could on weddings, I used to love detail posts the most. So where when I started writing our recaps, this was the one post I've been looking forward to the most. Except that I've put off writing it, because what if I couldn't do it justice. But the wait is no longer, because it's finally here, and hopefully you feel it lives up to expectations! I've already posted the ceremony details, so these are just the details from the reception.

Our reception was in the Neptune Ballroom, named so because of the old submarine inside it. I can't say I would have ever expected to have our wedding reception was a submarine, but I don't think most people noticed it. And if they did, at least it made a conversation piece.
The photo above doesn't have the room completely set up, but if is the only shot I have which gives you an idea of what the room as a whole looked like. One thing you should notice though, is that we had chiavari chairs. It wouldn't have been something I'd upgrade for, but since they were the only option our venue had, they were included.
When our guests walked in the room, there was a table at the entrance with the escort cards. Depending on the table number assigned, I had either the symbol itself, or the symbol with its name. (If you're curious this post explains how the holders were made.)
On the same table with the escort cards was our guestbooks, which included family wedding photos, photos of the two of us growing up, and well as photos and mementos of our relationship. In the photo above of my sister-in-law and niece, you can see a few Halloween themed photos as well as an almost-empty escort card holder.

Personal PhotoThis photo is one of my favorite photos including our guestbook and it wasn't even taken by our photographer. It shows MOH, her mother, and my grandmother looking through the various photos together (all 3 of whom made the guest book a few times).
Each table had a centerpiece with a wine bottle containing blue and purple fabric flowers. (I collected wine bottles in the months leading up to the wedding, and had enough for each table, plus some for the escort card table and candy buffet.) Also we two small glass jars with blue and purple stones with votive candles. And of course, a sign showing the table number as well as a picture frame explaining what that number meant. The photo above shows the explanation for phi, the golden ratio, and the one below is one of my favorites, aleph naught which represents a countable infinite. (Remember how in The Fault in Our Stars they talk about different types of infinity? This is one of those.)
All food was served on Houmas House china. This was actually the pattern used by the homeowners in the 1800s. Pieces of the china were discovered, and the current owner commissioned modern day china to match it's historical inspiration.
Speaking of food, the cake was 3 square tiers frosted butter cream with a blue fondant ribbon. The actually cake stand was borrowed from our bakery.
I actually picked up the cake topper from Michael's the day before our bakery wanted it to make sure the cake would be strong to hold it. Funny enough, even though I picked it up on a whim, I fell a little in love with it and was surprised by how many people commented on it.
The flower was a light yellow gum paste rose. When ordering my cake I was told to keep the rose and it would harden and become porcelain like. Which it did and is still sitting on my dresser as a keepsake.
Funny enough, the rose isn't the only wedding item currently decorating our home. Our mantle currently holds 4 wine bottles filled with fabric flowers, as well as our cake topper.

Have any elements from your wedding turned into home decor? And which of the details do you think lived up to anticipation?

All photos in this post unless otherwise noted courtesy of Sabree Hill Photography.
Miss a Recap Post?
From Miss to Mrs: The Calm Before the Storm
From Miss to Mrs: There's a Hurricane Coming?
From Miss to Mrs: Here Comes Isaac
From Miss to Mrs: Weathering the Cane
From Miss to Mrs: After the Storm
From Miss to Mrs: Trials and Tribulations
From Miss to Mrs: The Last Errands
From Miss to Mrs: A Night on the Town
From Miss to Mrs: The Hangover
From Miss to Mrs: Rehearsing in the Heat
From Miss to Mrs: The Last Single Supper
From Miss to Mrs: Gifting the Girls
From Miss to Mrs: The Last Single Night
From Miss to Mrs: Oh What a Beautiful Morning
From Miss to Mrs: Getting Prettified
From Miss to Mrs: Prepping the Plantation
From Miss to Mrs: Turtle Time
From Miss to Mrs: The Photographer Has Arrived
From Miss to Mrs: Becoming the Bride
From Miss to Mrs: Dress Details
From Miss to Mrs: Ou Est le Groom?
From Miss to Mrs: A Bridge-y First Look
From Miss to Mrs: Couple Time
From Miss to Mrs: Just the Two of Us
From Miss to Mrs: Grouping the Girls
From Miss to Mrs: Ain't No Party Like a Bridal Party
From Miss to Mrs: Fun with Family
From Miss to Mrs: Making it Official
From Miss to Mrs: The Bedeken
From Miss to Mrs: The Final Minutes
From Miss to Mrs: Programming Break
From Miss to Mrs: The Processional
From Miss to Mrs: Walking the Walk
From Miss to Mrs: Circle to Ceremony
From Miss to Mrs: Remembrance to Kiddush
From Miss to Mrs: The Exchanges
From Miss to Mrs: Lucky Number Seven
From Miss to Mrs: Mazel Tov
From Miss to Mrs: Ceremony Details
From Miss to Mrs: The Yichud
From Miss to Mrs: Extended Fun with Family
From Miss to Mrs: The One Who Found You
From Miss to Mrs: You Are My Fire
From Miss to Mrs: Eat, Drink, and Be Married
From Miss to Mrs: I Want Candy
From Miss to Mrs: Let's Get Toasty
From Miss to Mrs: What a Wonderful World
From Miss to Mrs: Behind From Where We Came

Infinite as the Stars

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
Published: January 10, 2012 by Dutton Books
Like so many others I was hesitant to read this book. With so many amazing reviews you have to wonder, "Is it really possible to live up to your expectations?" For that reason, I had been avoiding it. After all, if I never read it, I wouldn't have to deal with being let down. But I finally took the jump, and I have to say, it was well worth it because like so many others I LOVED it.

As expected I was started crying about halfway through and didn't stop. But what was unexpected were all the moments where something amusing happened and you were literally laughing out of loud through your tears.

I was also surprised with some of the minor characters. Yes, I loved Hazel and Agustus, but what struck me more was how much I enjoyed the characters of Hazel's parents.

Except, I did have one huge complaint of the book, one that actually took me out of the moment and got rid of my tears because I spent so much time frustrated by it. At one part in the book, a part that is almost the emotional climax, Hazel is describing the size of infinities and says that there are an different type of infinities (true), but that the number of numbers between 0 and 2 is greater than the number of numbers between 0 and 1. Except that's incorrect. The amount of numbers in both sets is the same. And in fact both number of elements in both sets (defined as the cardinality) is equality to the cardinality of all real numbers put together.

The fact that she said something that was so wrong bothered really bothered me, at least until a found a FAQ on John Green's website. There he made note of the fact that he intentionally made Hazel understand infinities incorrectly. He thought that at 16, Hazel probably would be able to understand relative sizes of infinities and made an assumption based on information she heard. Which is what I kept telling myself, but it's nice to have it confirmed.

Now that I've probably lost everyone with my math lesson for the day, I will finish up and say again, I loved this book! The morning after I finished it found myself thinking of various scenes and had to force myself to stop, to stop the tears from starting again. There's so many perfect scenes, and so much to think about with this, that I'm already looking forward to reading it again.

5/5

Today I'm linking up with Blonde Undercover Blonde for Book Club Friday!

Episode One: The League

Sulan by Camille Picott
In general, I try to stay away from self-published books, so I began this one with a little trepidation. Except the more I got into in, the more I enjoyed it, and about halfway through I really couldn't put it down.

The story takes place in a dystopian world, where the United States has gone bankrupt. Corporations compete against each other to take the place of the government, by schooling children or protecting the public. Yet due to the activities of the Anti-American League, most people never venture out into public if they can help it. Instead most interaction is virtual in a world where you become your avatar.

I thought the society Picott created wasn't just exciting to read about but also believable. I think it would be difficult for all government worldwide to become bankrupt, but the virtual world, with the virtual interactions is basically already happening. While we may not become our actual avatars, we do have a lot of our interactions virtual now.

My biggest complaint on the book is kind of picky, but it's one aspect I was really looking forward too. Our character, Sulan, is a math prodigy, and I was really looking forward to a few good math jokes. By the end of the book she is able to use her ability to get her out of a tight situation. Except what she does isn't really possible in our world. I can let that go and think that technology has advanced enough to make what she does possible, but I can't let the math go.

Everyone is so impressed by what she does mathematically and to do it she has to solve an equation quicker than she's ever done. Except what she does, doesn't involve an equation, nor is it really that hard. Basically she's doing high school geometry. Now there was some equation dropping halfway through the book that involved math I learned in my upper level college class. I don't necessary remember how to solve it, but I do remember learning it in our Boundary Value Equation class (which we lovingly called "Soap Bubbles," which was an application of the math). But I wish the extra smart math she used at the climax, was actually extra smart math.

But with that complaint aside, I still did enjoy the book. Yes, parts were predictable, but I still needed to know what happened. And while the book doesn't really end on a cliffhanger, it definitely feels like "to be continued." There are definitely some unsolved stories here, and I would love to read the sequel to see just how they resolve.

4.5/5

Disclosure: I was provided this book through Virtual Author Book Tours. All opinions expressed are my own.

I'm at Table Number What? - The Execution

Almost a year ago I wrote this post about my idea for the table numbers. The following day my mom sent me this email.

Loved Your Blog Post
Daddy and I were cracking up. I noticed one of your readers is from NOLA. I went to look at her blog and saw her posts about cake pulls. I keep meaning to ask if you want to do that? One of the links she has to an etsy shop is really cute. This one: http://www.etsy.com/listing/46602599/nola-cake-pulls-set-of-nine-sterling
Anyway, just wondering.
Mom

Of course, the way things work out, that blogger is no longer blogging, my mom is no longer here to e-mail me, and I decided not to go with cake pulls. But I did finally create out table numbers.
I made this pretty much the exact same was as my wrap around labels using tables in word. The main differences being I started the a 3x3 table, I made the outside border thinner, and obviously put different stuff inside the boxes.
I order to flip one box upside down I did have to use a text box, which I discovered using a helpful google search.
As a math major, inserting the numbers was easy enough, since I had to do it for papers back in college. (Thankfully I didn't have to start using LaTex till grad school.) But I could see how if you aren't familiar with the process of editing equations it could be tricky.
I did have trouble though with one of the numbers the boy suggested, the one that represents the complete banach space of all differential functions, since I wasn't sure what the symbol was actually called. I could draw it on a piece of paper for you, and I'm sure I could find it for LaTex, but for all I know you may not be able to type it in word.
The boy wasn't happy with the Q I used, to represent all rational numbers, since the way you draw it, it's only double-sided on the left side, but it's the best representation I could find. I'm also not completely happy with the aleph naught, since I think the subscript is to big and it doesn't feel centered. But it is still my favorite number since it's Hebrew and math-y (it represents the countable version of infinity).
On the symbols people my not be familiar with I made sure to write out the name that way they're not just matching a symbol, although I would hope all our guests can recognize π. But on the ones that are easily recognizable, like e or i, I thought those by themselves were enough.
This project isn't completely finished yet, because I do plan I writing up a small paragraph that defines each number for those curious. But so far, I love it, and I hope our guests enjoy them.
Did you do anything unique for your table numbers? And how many of our numbers can you actually define or even just recognize? (Just be happy I'm not asking you to arrange them from smallest to largest, which the boy already decided to do.)

I'ts Pi Cake Day!

First since today happens to by Pi day, let's start off with a math joke.

Teacher: Pi*r^2
Student: Pie are square? Pie are not square. Pie are round. Cakes are sqaure.

But moving on to the part of wedding planning that I was most looking forward to, cake tastings! The first tasting I went to was at a bakery not too far from where I work. I didn't neccessarily think I'd be booking it, but I figured free cake for lunch was something I could handle. When we walked in we were handed a plate of 3 petite fours. The green was almond flavored, the white was their butter flavor (or vanilla), and the third was chocolate.
We sat down with the owner and discussed flavors, designs, and pricing, and to be honest this was probably somewhere I would consider. At least until we inquired asking if we they could deliver the date of our wedding, which is a Sunday. We were told no, that they're closed that day so they're able to go to church, but she'd be willing to box the cake up for someone to pick up. But I'm not too sure that I know someone who'd I'd be willing to trust enough to pick up a cake, drive on the interstate to our reception site, and assemble correctly, so this place was automatically out.

The second bakery I went to was the one I'd been hoping to book all along. They're the bakery that the boy's sister tends to use for her kids' birthday parties, all of which come out adorable.
This one's from the boy's nephew 2nd birthday, and while I'm almost positive this is from the bakery I booked, I'll feel awfully embaressed if I'm wrong here.

But once confirming that they would infact deliver on a Sunday during a holiday weekend, it was looking awfully likely that we had our baker. Once we attended our consultant we were given a slice of their white buttercream on almond cake as a sample.
To give you a size comparison, the plate this was on was about the same size as the plate for the three petite fours. And if you're concerned about the fact that there's only a single flavor, once you put down a deposite you're able to pick up a box of 6 slices each this size with the fillings you'd like to try.

We sat down with the owner to discuss pricing, falvors, and had her basically draw out our cake. But since this post has already gotten long enough, I'll make you wait a while to show you what we came up with. But I will leave you with two real wedding cakes from our bakery.

Source

SourceDid you have a hard time deciding on a cake baker? Or did you have something, like no delivery on a Sunday, make your decision for you?

The Cost of an STD

Now that I've given you the big save-the-date reveal, I figured it made sense to give the budget breakdown. Yes, it's for your curiosity, but it's also so I have something official to add to my budgeting spreadsheet. Now they may be a little creative math here, but I figure if I only used a third of the 180 labels, I don't need to include all of it in my budget. After all, I may NEED oval shaped label for something in the future right?
56 magnets w/ envelopes from MagnetStreet + Shipping: $106.51 ($142.65 for 75 + Shipping)
56 Oval Mailing Labels: $3.73 ($11.99 for 180)
56 Business Cards: $0.94 ($4.22 for 250)
56 Forever Stamps: $24.64 (Purchased the day before the price increase at $0.44 each)

(This doesn't include the photo stickers or the glue tape I used to get the business cards onto the envelopes since I already had them around the house.)

Total for 56 Save-the-Dates: $135.82
Price per Save-the-Date: $2.43

Which without stamps in less than $2 each. Doesn't sound too bad to me. Now hopefully I can DIY invitations for not much more!

Would you consider $2.00 per STD a good price? And if you're mailing out invitations, did you manage to pick up stamps before the price hike?

I'm at Table Number What?

I realize this is outside of the Louisiana norm for weddings but I'm planning on assigning tables for the reception. If you don't believe me, take it from the owner of our venue who told me, "I should have known you were from California considering you wanted a seated buffet." But one of the reasons I'm looking forward to table assigned table is to be able to name them.

There's all type of creative ideas for table names, places you've been as a couple, favorite books, types of herbs, but I'm planning on doing actual numbers! For a bit of background the boy and I met in a Combinatorics class. I have my masters in math and the boy is currently working on his Phd. So when I say numbers, I don't mean numbers like 1,2,3. Instead I mean numbers like π or e. Here's some of the number I'd love to use, and a brief description of what it means.

This is the board from one of my classes senior year of college to give you an idea of the numbers we actually used.φ - Phi - Known as the golden ratio, which is related to the Fibonacci Sequence
i - as in the imaginary numbers, by definition √-1
ε - Epsilon - Basically used as a small area of measure. So often in proof you'll want to proof something when epsilon is greater than zero, which basically means something that exists in very small terms.
λ - Lambda - This is more chemistry than math, but it's used to designate wavelength.
∞ - Infinity - Technically not a number in mathematical theory, but more for the idea that something is infinite.
ℵ₀ - Aleph Naught - First I love this one because it's actually a Hebrew letter instead of a Greek letter. To try to explain this concept as simple as possible, this symbol represents the number of integers that exist.

I could probably come up with a few more, but it at least gives you an idea of where I'm going. Although honestly I'm not sure how many more we could actually come up with that would work. I thinking maybe along with the numbers we could do mathematical theory, or maybe even famous mathematicians, but for now I think it's a start.

Did you do anything clever for your table numbers? And if you're more math-y, any ideas of other "Famous Numbers" we could use?

A Relationship Story

I love reading every one's stories about how they wound up in their relationship. I started thinking about it and realized I've never posted that story here myself. I do remember someone asking if part of the reason I moved to Louisiana was because of him. The answer to that is definitely no. I have already posted the story of how I wound up in Louisiana and if you read that (here) you'll see that no boy is mentioned, so how did it happen?

If you read the story about why I moved to Louisiana, you'll know I came her to go to grad school for math. One of the classes I was taking at LSU was combinatorics. Basically a fancy name for saying counting, but counting weird things like "If you had 1 banana, 3 oranges, 2 plums, and 6 apples in a bowl and you pick 3 pieces of fruit, how many different combinations of fruit can you have?" Do I lose everyone by posting a math question?

Back to the story. I can be really shy in large group situation, and while it wasn't a huge class it was large enough for me to be intimidated. Which means I didn't really make an effort to make conversation with the people in the class with me. Instead before class I would always bring a copy of the newspaper to read or to do the sudoku. (A bit off topic, but one of the things I liked going to a school the size of LSU was they published a student paper everyday! Which meant new things to read everyday! A little different from my liberal arts college publishing a newspaper around once a month.)

Back to combinatorics, since I'm talking about this class in particular you might have guessed that the boy was in this class as well. If so you'd be right. A few weeks into the the semester I was leaving the class room as normal at the end of class. Except the boy stopped me and the door and said, "I don't think I've ever seen you talk to anyone the entire time we had this class."I laughed and responded saying something about "not talking to strangers" and pretty much walked away as fast as I could to avoid having to say anymore.

Yeah, I'm not really good when I'm being confronted or put in awkward situations so I really didn't know what else to do. Clearly, that wasn't the end of our relationship, since we'll have our 3 year anniversary this fall. Maybe eventually you'll get the rest of the story from me!

~Shoshanah

Even or Odd

My post yesterday had some interesting feedback, especially concerning my even number issue. So I figured I'd provide a little clarification.

As weird as it may sound I know exactly where this came from. Growing up, my best friend had a bit of an issue with this of her own. Whenever I was at her house and needed to change the volume on the TV, she'd make me change it if I didn't put it on an even number. I guess that bit was classically conditioned in me. She does not have the same issue with repeating numbers or with numbers ending in zero, so I'm not sure where that came from. And I'm not sure how or why I've applied it to my alarm as well (which is just my cell phone)

I'm not sure when this exactly started, but I'm pretty sure it was in college. Growing up our TVs didn't have numbers on the volume. I also didn't set an alarm, I just relied on my parents to wake me up. I distinctly remember requesting the volume HAD to be on an even number on a ski trip my Junior year of college, but I'm not sure how much before that I was doing this.

Overall, this isn't that big of a deal. (The easiest solution, buy a TV where there are no numbers on the volume.) The worst though is when the volume is on 18, and you need it a tiny bit louder. Well, the next even number is 20, and that doesn't work because it ends in a zero. Then there is 22, and that doesn't work because the 2 repeats. Then you finally reach 24. I have had several times when I have gone back and forth between 18 and 24 trying to decide if it is better to have the volume too low or too high. I have managed a compromise with myself, and when it is EXTREMELY necessary I will allow 21. (That was my uniform number on my college soccer team. It's pretty much the only odd number I have a soft spot for.)

Andrea wanted to know if I had a problem with odd numbered dates. And no! It really is just with TV volumes and my alarm time. (I'm OK with odd numbered radio volumes.) She specifically asked about 3/3/09. Which is a great day because its a perfect square! I love fun little dates like that! (Hence my Pi day post) Other fun dates? Well, Mole day is 10/23. My Birthday is 10/10. And there was a great moment a few years ago when it as 12:34 on 5/6/07.

Now that you all think I'm crazy, I think this is a good place to end. But really, anyone have their own issues with numbers?

~Shoshanah

In honor of Pi day

Taken in Avignon, France May, 2005