Belated Congratulations

I want to congratulate my lovely friend Margie on her engagement and forthcoming wedding. If you want to read a sweet and romantic "How we met" story (it's so cute it will make you gag - in a totally good way), go to their website. You can't help but be happy when you read about two people like this finding each other. Maddus, I hope you don't mind me putting up a link to your site. I'll keep the other one (the one with those pictures from that one night in Auburn when you were really drunk) on the DL. No worries. :-)

As sweet as Margie's story is, I daresay that it doesn't hold a candle to this...Romance and Stabbing - like Peanut Butter and Jelly (and I hope you are all catching the sarcasm here):

Man Gets Married, Goes To Jail For Murder

(Santa Barbara, Calif. -WABC, August 2, 2005) — Joshua Martin Miracle got married in the same courtroom where he had just pleaded guilty to a gang-related stabbing death.

Miracle, 26, exchanged wedding vows Friday with longtime girlfriend Christina Beltran, 21, during a brief ceremony performed by retired Superior Court Judge William Gordon. Miracle faces death or life in prison without parole for killing Elias Raymond Silva, 30, in October.

The groom managed to steal a kiss in his handcuffs and orange jail jumpsuit before bailiffs took him back to County Jail. The bride declined comment.

"I think they are very committed to each other and, despite the present unhappy circumstance, want to be together as much as they can," Miracle's advisory lawyer Joe Allen said. "This will enable Christina to come and visit him wherever he may be."

After three months of representing himself in the murder case - with the help of his court-appointed advisory lawyer - Miracle insisted on pleading guilty. But Superior Court Judge Brian Hill said state law prohibits defendants in capital cases from pleading guilty without the advise of any attorney.

The judge accepted his guilty plea Friday after Allen assured him the defendant was fully aware of the consequences of his pleas.