Of Silly wedding Ideas and vampire burials~~~~

Dear Darklings,

I am going down a very crazy path, but it just seems to happen that way.

Today I was helping Brian get party favors at Party City.  His ex-wife (he's still good friends with her) needed help, his oldest daughter's birthday is tomorrow and his daughter is doing a sleep over at her friends house.

Which is perfect, his ex asked if he could pick up party favors and gave him a list of things, and colors, he asked me to come with him, and not having anything special planned I thought "why not?" so away we went.

We had no problem getting the items only if he wasn't sure he'd call his ex and use his cell phone to send  pix's to see if that was what she wanted---I'd have to say there are some positive uses for cellphones.   All in all it worked out fine.  He was going over to his ex's house that evening to help decorate for the party and he'd pick up the cake tomorrow while his ex finishes with the food.

I told him that it was nice of him to help out and he said that he and his ex get along better divorced than they did married he said to me "We have to work harder at it because we don't want the kids to be in the middle of any disputes so we try to work things out."

He told me his ex was planning to get re-married to someone else, he's met the fellow and he seems fine.  I asked "Well is your ex freaking out on wedding plans?"  and he said no not really, that it was going to be a simple affair, with a slight twist, his ex-wife's father had passed away and she wanted Brian to walk her down the aisle.   I asked "Isn't that a bit bizarre?"  he didn't think so, he vetted the guy without his ex knowing and the guy is on the up and up so he said "When I hand her over to him I'll tell him ' if you do her wrong you're going to be seeing a lot of me'." 

Hmmm I thought nothing like a nice little threat to keep a marriage in line.

As we happen to go down the aisle that had wedding decorations I asked "Does your ex have a theme for the reception?"  and he said that she hadn't had a chance to think on that.  

It was then that I spotted them---two cowboy hats, a white one that said "Bride" and a black one that said "Groom" both in rhinestones  and then I spotted a wedding cake topper that had the bride dragging the groom to the altar.

That did it---I was off and running with idea's I said to Brian "Why not suggest a rhinestone cowboy wedding," and I showed him the hats and the wedding topper "the bride could come down the aisle to the tune of "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly", The best man could have a shot gun just in case anyone disputes the marriage when the minister asks if there is anyone who objects to the marriage.

 They could have an old fashion bar-b-que with paper plates, baby back ribs, bar-b-que chicken, beer, sarsaparilla soda,  chilly  and beans, sourdough bread, and serve not only wedding cake but also hot apple pie, the music could be country western, every one dress up like cowboys and cowgirls, they can all dance to "Achy-breakey Heart", and nobody has to worry about getting their clothes dirty"

Brian's eyes lit up and he told me that the guy his ex is marrying is into Cowboy re-enacting and is also a member of a Civil War re-enactment group---he'd be helping out with the birthday party but he was committed to this memorial weekend event, on Sunday Brian's ex and the kids were going to see it.  So he's going to suggest this idea to her.  "She might go for it, something easy and fun!"

So we loaded up the trunk and back seat of Brian's car with all the party favors, including some Mylar balloons, which made driving a little difficult but we managed and dropped everything off, he then dropped me off and went back to his ex's house to help out and maybe run the idea pass her.

Then after checking the crock pot to see how dinner was coming along I went and checked my e-mail and once again one of my co-workers sent me this interesting vampire tid-bit, which I'll print out in full here.

~~~~~~~~

‘Vampire’ skeleton discovered in Poland

  Archaeologists working in northwestern Poland have unearthed the remains of man who was buried with a rock jammed into his jaw and a stake driven into his leg. They believe that the individual was considered to be a vampire and given a deviant burial by the local population.

The discovery was made in a cemetery outside a church in Kamien Pomorski, a town close to the German border. They believe the skeleton dates back to the 16th century – it was found facing east instead of west (the typical orientation of a burial) and with a wound in the leg. At first the lead archaeologist Slawomir Gorka thought the injury was caused by a gunshot, but later tests revealed it was a puncture wound caused by a wooden stake that was meant to prevent the corpse from getting up.

The archaeologists also found that a rock was placed into the man’s mouth so hard that it knocked out his top-front teeth. It was a common method to have stones placed in the mouth of a person suspected of being a vampire.

The fact that he was buried in a church cemetery initially puzzled the archaeologists, but Gorka told the Polish website kamienskie.info that “We have to realize that the cemetery existed from the thirteenth to the eighteenth century, but not in every buried. It was during a period when it was not in use that he was buried, somewhere along the side of the initial cemetery.”

There have been several reports of so-called ‘vampire burials’ from medieval and early modern Europe. Archaeologists have come across another similar deviant burial last year in Poland, as well as in Bulgaria and near the Italian city of Venice.

~~~~
My co-worker also found attached two titles in regards to strange burials and vampire and thought I'd be interested in adding them in the future to my personal library.

I include these titles for your information, they are:

How to kill a vampire: fangs in folklore, film and fiction by Liisa Ladouceur

Deviant Burial in the Archaeological Record by Eileen M. Murphy

I thought how perfect, because after Brian and I had completed our purchases we went to Rasputin's next door to check out the DVD's and CD's, I found a cd of Gregorian chants that I didn't have as well as seasons 2 and 3 of "Supernatural" and a Bela Lugosi film "Return of the Vampire" (1943)  I had not seen that one in ages and considered it a find.  Then we grabbed coffee at Starbuck's and took the long route home to avoid the freeway traffic.  It may take longer but it's less insane.

Doyle is in the other smaller room finishing his work I can hear the click-snap of his stapler, the thumping of the papers to line them up and put them into their proper file folders and in a minute or two he'll go into the family parlor to put on some mellow big band music CD's, and with that he will then select a bottle of wine for us to relax with and enjoy with our dinner.

I can hear Belladonna's and Weiner dog's nails clacking into the other room to see what exciting thing Doyle will do, they know he's a sucker for giving them some doggie treats if they put on really sad faces.  So now I will sign off, get up stretch a bit and put out the dinner ware, the salad is ready and chilling in the fridge, dinner still has 45 minutes to go, so we will relax and chat and see what to do for the weekend.

Later Darklings