More realities of pregnancy

As I stated, my previous post was just the tip of the iceberg. Aside from the little bundle of joy at the end of all this, there are many other little gifts of nature that you can look forward to. Of course all women are different, so perhaps others will not experience all of these unpleasant things, but it seems that mother nature threw her entire bag of goodies at me.

Acne...
I have never in my life had more than 2 active zits at any given time. Not even during puberty. During pregnancy, and from very early on, I have been plagued with zits. Forehead, nose, chin, upper lip. The T-zone. At one point I had 11 active zits on my forehead. I got so desperate I bought Proactive, which has helped somewhat, but here's the catch... no pregnancy testing has been done with Proactive, and your doctor will tell you something vague like "if you think the benefits outweigh the risk, then use it". Well, sorry kid, but I will not be a pizza face for you!

Backne...
Hormone induced zits do not discriminate. They don't care that you can't reach your back to put zit cream on there. In fact, that's perhaps why they live there. They know you can't get them! My once beautiful smooth back now has a nice collection of back zits.

Hair growth...
With raging hormones comes a growth spurt in hair. The hair on your head will grow faster, and fall out less. Your hair will become thicker and fuller. This is a good thing for me because I have fine hair. However, it does not limit iteself to your head. Hair will grow where you never had hair before. Mustache, stomach, NIPPLES! WTF?

Pregnancy glow...
In my experience, this is a complete myth. Maybe I just don't see it because I'm too busy focusing on the zits and hair. Nobody has told me I'm glowing. Sure, I've got increased blood volume, which supposedly should cause me to have a rosey glow, but I'm just not seeing it. You're supposed to get better looking during pregnancy, because the increased blood volume plumps the skin and reduces wrinkles, etc. Of course, you're too busy staring in dismay at the cheese forming on your upper thighs to notice.

Cravings and aversions...
My cravings haven't been that strong. I fimd that I'm highly suggestible. When the restaurant or food advertisements come on around dinner time, I'm very driven by those images. Pregnancy literature and anecdotal evidence suggest that during pregnancy you gain an aversion to things that are bad for you, and crave the things that are good for you. If that's true, then why am I craving Tequila shots and I have an aversion to chicken? I also crave sushi, medium rare steak, and sweets.

Sleeping...
I have Restless Leg Syndrome. It's an hereditary condition that causes your legs to get a weird fidgety sensation that causes you to move to relieve it. Sometimes the movements are involunary. During pregnancy, this is amplified many times, and guess what? all of the drugs that relieve RLS are not safe for pregnant women! On top of that, during the second trimester, you should not sleep on your back because it cuts off circulation to your heart and to the placenta. You can't sleep on your stomach because it becomes uncomfortable, so you're left with left side or right side. I really believe that the problems you encounter sleeping while pregnant are preparing you for the sleepless nights and 4am feedings that you'll be a slave to when the kid is born.

I have to pee!...
We're told that the single most important thing you can do for yourself and your baby is to hydrate. Recommendations range from 64 to 80 ounces of water a day. Drinking water helps flush toxins from your body, and deliver much needed nutrients to the baby. In addition it helps stop stretch marks from forming (though if you're genetically predisposed to stretch marks, this won't do anything for you). What 80 ounces of water also does is make you pee every ten minutes, including in the night. I wake up in agony around 3am and 6am every morning because my bladder is full to the point of bursting. Again, I believe this is designed to prepare you for the frequent feedings when the baby is here.

Why am I here?...
The old wives tale that the baby sucks the intelligence right out of you is true. My ability to focus is severely deminished. I find myself being distracted very easily, and I can't count the number of times I've walked up the stairs with a purpose, got there and forgot why I went. It's not limited to the house, either. I went to the mall a couple of weeks ago with a purpose, got there, forgot why I was there, got pissed at myself and left. And of course, there's the hormonal outbursts. When emotion is high, intellegence and rationality are always low.

Clumsiness...
This one baffles me. I first noticed it while cooking. I have always considered myself to be a very competent knife handler, but recently I can't count on one hand the number of times I've almost chopped my finger off while preparing dinner. I drop things, knock things over, and trip over my own feet. I thought this would show iteself later in pregnancy when my center of gravity shifts due to the giant belly, but no, it happened even before I started showing. Coordination seems to be a little off.

Sense of smell...
It's a well documented fact that pregnant women have a sense of smell that would rival a hound. I was very surprised by how quickly this kicked in. We were on our honeymoon in Bali when mine did. I could smell someone smoking from the other side of the hotel! Of course, Brian and I didn't put two and two together until we got home and took the test and found out we were pregnant. Then the lightbulb came on! A delightful side effect of this symptom is that when your husband farts, you are the first to smell it, and it lasts twice as long, and it's ten times as bad as it usually is. Lovely!

Everyone who's ever been pregnant has advice for you...
This one is particularly annoying to me. I appreciate that these people are offering their 2 cents with the best intentions. They'll tell you how their whole pregnancy went, and how they felt, and how you should be feeling. They'll draw comparisons and sympathize with you. Why I find this annoying is beyond me. I know I should be grateful that these women are sharing their experiences with me, and are trying to impart their wisdom on me to help me feel better, and to let me know that I'm not alone, but I just find myself thinking "Lady, are you in here? No! so how can you possibly know what's going on in here?". I'm going to blame my intolerance of this on hormones.

Gas...
Everyone who knows me knows that my gas is legendary. And during pregnancy most women are afflicted with an excess of gas. I remember one of my very modest friends who never farted, leaning over to grab a gift at her baby shower, and let out a loud fart. I laughed my ass off... My gas seems to have subsided. At least from the rear end. Now I'm afflicted with man-burps. After every meal I can let out the loudest most manly belch you've ever heard. If you heard it, you'd look around for a 300lb man.

It's ok... she's pregnant...
One benefit of pregnancy is that you can get away with almost anything. If I belch out loud in the office, my office mate excuses me with "it's ok, you're pregnant". If I burst into tears for no reason, it's ok! I'm pregnant. If I get irate over seemingly insignificant things, it's OK! I'm pregnant! If I am at dinner with friends, I can say "Hey... are you gonna eat that?" and reach over to get it because it's OK! I'm pregnant! Finally, one benefit of being pregnant that I can get behind!

The reality of pregnancy (long)

Ok, since I've been in the closet for so long, I've been unable to share the joys and woes of pregnancy, but today marks day 1 of Amanda Tells All. If you find this TMI (Too much information) then don't read it.

The first 3 months were hell. Anybody who tells you that they loved being pregnant is just a sicko. In my experience, pregnancy is unpleasant. Here's what I've experienced so far.


Morning Sickness...
Why they call it "morning sickness" is beyond me. I was nauseous morning, noon, and night! Not the kind of nauseous that produces vomit, either, just the kind that makes you feel shitty. The ONLY time I didn't feel nauseous was when I was eating or sleeping.

Constipation...
Let's talk about poop for a moment. Or lack thereof. I was so constipated one night that I woke up with the most godawful cramps imaginable and thought I was going to die. I spent an hour on the toilet trying to push out a very dense and compancted poo that felt like I was passing an acme brick. Poor Brian had to run out in the night to get me something to make me feel better, but of course, nothing did. Since that incident I've been eating lots of fruit, taking my DanActive every day, and an Activia yogurt for regularity. It's helped, but not as much as I'd hoped.

Porn star nipples...
I don't even recognize my own boobs. They are HUGE and hurt like hell, and my girlish pink nipples have been replaced by these hot pink giant ones! WTF??? I read that the colour never goes back to the way it was before, though the size will go back to normal.

Being inhabited...
The feeling that your body is not your own anymore is quite common, I hear. The little parasite is taking everything you have. You're tired and lethargic all the time in the first trimester, at least I was. I found myself passing out at 7:30 in the evening in front of the TV. My sweet husband just quietly went about his business while I crashed on the couch. The cats must have sensed my tiny passenger because they became very clingy and always wanted to lay on my tummy. As pregnancy progresses, the feeling of being inhabited doesn't get any better. You eventually come to the realization that even when the little critter is out, he's gonna be sucking on you for many months afterwards. Your body will not be your own for a long, long time.

Dr. Visits...
I really think that the seemingly endless appointments with various doctors is just a way to smack the modesty out of you. Yea sure, I'm guilty of mooning large crowds and you might be thinking "Amanda? modest?" but let me assure you that I don't like people nosing around in my business down there and I'm mortified at the mere thought of the annual visit to the gyno. During pregnancy, you get violated many times with vrious instruments to check on the baby. Get used to it. By the time the baby's born you'll be ready to invite the whole world to come watch and video tape as you pop out a bloody, screaming, purple, cone headed, tiny Winston Churchill look-alike from your va-jay-jay.

Genetic testing...
This is an unpleasant but necessary evil when you are considered to be a "high risk" pregnancy. Brian and I opted for the CVS, which is done at 11 weeks. It detects Downs Syndrom and other genetic defects, such as Fragile-x, etc. The procedure requires a full bladder for the ultrasound, and a very large needle inserted right through your stomach into the placenta. I had to pee so bad that the doctor felt sorry for me and let me go to the bathroom, but only to release a little. Imagine having to pee so bad you could just pee on yourself, and then having to quit mid-stream. Not an easy task! During this ultrasound, the kid looked like Charlie Brown - a giant head and little body. When I saw the size of the head in relation to the body, I panicked! "Jeezus! it's got a giant head". The doctor assured me that it was disporportionate at this point and I had nothing to worry about. About 10 days after the giant needle takes a sample, you get results. Fortunately ours was negative, which is good, but we found out it's a boy, which is the exact opposite of what I wanted. Brian's over the moon, though.


Baby got back...
During pregnancy, you release a hormone that causes you to retain fat. This fat does not discriminate. It doesn't care that you're hoping for no bodily changes other than the cute pregnancy bump. No. This fat attaches itself to your ass, thighs and love handles. Your regular jeans may still fit, but you look like someone shoehorned your ass into them. Trust me, just go out and buy fat jeans early on to save yourself the crying in front of the mirror episodes every time you attempt to dress.

Showing...
When you first start to show, your friends will want to pet your belly and tell you it's cute. You, on the other hand might feel violated that everyone is touching you in a place they never touched you before, and you'll try to wear your normal clothes and will find that you just don't look good in them. It's not really that you don't look good, it's just that you don't look like you're used to, but this won't matter. You're gonna feel like a whale, and you're going to cry about it, so just go out and buy bigger clothes as soon as this happens and save yourself some heart ache. Not a whole wardrobe, just a few pieces to get you through the awkward phase before you need maternity clothes.

Mood swings...
I'm normally a very stable person. I'm not prone to mood swings and I don't get PMS, at least not the kind that can be percieved by others. I had my first hormonal outburst a week or so ago over cheese. Yes, cheese. I cried, stormed out of the house, went shopping for fat clothes, and when I got home had one more cry about elephants, then I was fine. Cheese and elephants. Two things I'm usually indifferent about, although I do like cheese a lot.

Registering...
This is quite possibly the worst experience of all. Brian and I headed to Babies R Us and picked up "the gun". About 45 minutes in and we had only one item on our registry. It was frustrating, overwhelming, and it completely freaked me out to the point that I've been having anxiety attacks ever since. We got about 1/3 of the way down the massive checklist of things we'd need, and my stomach was in knots. We had to leave. I have't been back since, and since then, we've added things from the Web with recommendations from friends. If I never have to go back to that place I will be happy.

Coming out of the closet...
There's always those trusted friends and close family that you tell before you get results back. We opted only to tell those who we trusted, and would feel comfortable around if we had to abort due to genetic defects, or if there was a miscarriage. We swore those friends to secrecy. Others guessed. Some were totally clueless. Kitty, for example, guessed when she observed me drinking Shirly Temples at happy hour. Jay, on the other hand, saw my Shirley Temples, saw me down three of them, assumed they were Cosmopolitans, and teased me about being a lush. Hehehe.

Things I want but can't have...
Tequila. God I want tequila so bad. I want a shot, not a margarita. I want a shot of tequila with salt and lime, and by god, somebody better deliver that to me as soon as the peanut is out!
Sushi. I miss my spicy susan and spicy tuna hand roll. Sure I can have the cooked sushi, and it does pacify me a little, but I really want regular sushi.
Medum rare steak. Apparently you can get parasites from under cooked meat. Parasites normally wouldn't bother an adult, but during pregnancy you're 10 times more likely to get sick, and it could harm the baby. I hate my steaks done medium or above, so since the only way I can eat them is well done, there's no point.
Blue cheese. Who knew that blue cheese was off limits? I love blue cheese.
Ceasar salad. This was a surprise to me. I'm still not sure why I can't have ceasar salad, but it's on the list of things I can't have.
Deli meat. Apparently, deli meat, like the kind you get at subway or any sandwich shop, is off limits because it harbours harmful bacteria that ordinarily wouldn't bother you, but again, being pregnant makes you 10 times more likely to get sick.
Salad bars and buffets. Again. Bacteria.

I've completely disregarded the salad bar rule because I crave salads. I think the benefits of me eating salad outweighs the risks. So don't give me any lectures.

Body image...
This is an important and seldom mentioned reality of being pregnant. Your body image will make you feel like a whale. You don't look like one. you look like a cute pregnant lady on the verge of showing. If you let your body image rule you, you'll eventually start to resent the tiny passenger in your belly. I'm speaking from experience here. I'm pissed off that I'm gonna get fat, and I'm blaming the kid. Do something about this before it goes too far. Which leads me to my next point.

Exercise...
I'm a runner. Except that since becoming pregnant it's been damn near impossible to run. I have ran several times. My boobs hurt so bad that it's almost unbearable. And as you start to gain a few pounds, you also notice it's harder to run. Not only that, but your joints beging to loosen because of pregnancy hormones, which makes you less stable. Being pregnant does not mean you need to, or should give up working out. Quite the contrary. You're not disabled. You're not sick. You need to stay in shape using alternate methods, otherwise you'll increase your risk of a c-section, prolong your labour, and lose your stamina so you will have a harder time during pregnancy, deliver, and recovery. So get off your fat pregnant ass and work out. I've hired a personal trainer. It's important to me that I get back to normal as soon as possible post partum, and there's no better time to get started than right now.

Time for daddy to "Man up!"...
This one is specifically for Brian. And he's been doing a stellar job of manning up to the task. Don't expect your man to just know what he's supposed to do. You need to tell him. No hints, either. Just flat out have the discussion. I needed Brian to show me that he's going to improve in certain areas to help ease my mind that I won't be burdened with two kids when the baby arrives. Picking up after himself, being more proactive about the cat box, dishes, house maintenance, trash, and laundry are all things that help put my mind at ease and show me that I have a partner in all this, and won't be the one doing all the work. I told him, and he's doing it. End of story. You're dealing with enough during pregnancy, the last thing you need is to be nagging your man, too.

That was a lot of info, and I've only shown you the tip of the iceberg here. But I hope that this piece of honest information will help prepare others for the things that most people don't tell you about being pregnant. And if nothing else, it helped me organize my thoughts and feelings as I wrote it.

Coming out!

I'm coming out of the closet today. All of our close friends and family have already been notified, so this is the last step in coming out of denial. Our lives are about to change completely. No longer will we be able to go out whenever we want, get up whenever we want, or take mini vacations on a whim. Our friends will think twice before inviting us over, they'll also think twice before coming to our house. Yes, we are going to become parents. To a baby boy, to be precise, who will enter the world outside of his mother on or around July 4th, 2007.

Happy Hogmanany, Y'all!

New Year's eve was a total blast. Brian and I, and a group of our bestest friends and family headed down to Donn's Depot where we received stellar service, were thoroughly entertained, and were surrounded by many of the people we love. Those of you that couldn't make it (you know who you are), we REALLY missed you!
New Year's Day was spent recouperating and relaxing. I made breakfast tacos for all of our guests, and Jen and Ethan came over. The rest of the day was spent shopping, eating, and veging in front of the telly with my extremely hot hubby :-)

This year's gonna rock!

Congratulations are in order to Renee and Sonny! I'm so happy for you both!

Time for a little reflection

Today is my favourite day of the year. The last day of the current year. In Scotland there is a tradition where at the stroke of midnight you leave the house through the back door, which symbolizes taking out the old year, and enter through the front door, which symbolizes bringing in the new year. If you want to be really fancy, you leave a bucket filled with coal outside the front door, and each guest brings a lump of coal in with them, which symbolizes prosperity for the new year. Since coal is in short supply, it's been replaced with shortbread. You can buy shortbread at World Market. Walkers is the best. Also, it is considered especially lucky if a tall, dark, and handsome man is the first to enter your house after the new year is rung in.
So that's a little nugget of worldly trivia with which to impress your drunken friends.

My 2006 New Year's resolutions were as follows:

- boldly go where I have never gone before (mentally, emotionally, and physically) ;-)
- sing every day
- continue learning Spanish
- be a wonderful wife to Brian
- become a mother ;-)

SO how did I do?
boldly go where I have never gone before:
Well, this one's ambiguous, but I did challenge myself mentally last year by learning a new language, and taking on additional projects at work that I had no experience with. I'm claiming complete success here. Emotionally, I've grown as a person. I've learned to let go of things that aren't important, and learned to recognize feelings that I had traditionally supressed because I thought they made me weak, and embraced them instead, let myself feel them, process them, and move on from them. I feel great about that. Physically, I have challenged myself by committing to going to the gym and lifting weights. I've kept this up for more than a year now, and while I'm no American Gladiator, I was able to drop several percent in body fat and gain lean muscle, and maintain a healthy weight. My running has suffered a bit this year, though. I have'nt done many races, and I'm not training for anything. I have only ran for fitness/weight maintenance this year, and I'm ok with that.

sing every day:
That's easy. I did. In the car, in the shower, and to the cat, who loves when I sing to her and follows me around, climbing on things to try and reach me and put her little kitty paws around my neck and hug me and chew my hair. The downside of this is if I don't let her up, she bites my feet.

continue learning Spanish:
I failed here. I took spanish one, then I stopped. I will try again this year.

be a wonderful wife to Brian:
Brian would be a better judge than me as to whether I accomplished this goal. But I take comfort in the fact that I am the best wife he's ever had ;-) All kidding aside, I do feel like things between us are as great today as they were when we first met. I'm still crazy about him and have enjoyed the last 6 months of being Mrs. Brian Bauman.

become a mother:
Well, obviously I didn't accomplish this one this year. So I'll roll this one over into 2007.

So I've had some successes and some failures, but in all I'm pretty happy with 2006. I got married to the love of my life, surrounded by my best friends and family. I've lost family members, and deepened relationships with friends and other family members. I've gained a whole new family. I've fulfilled my dream of going to Asia. I've gotten over some disappointments with what I hope was a little grace. Now I'm looking forward to all the challenges that 2007 brings. And I know for sure that this coming year is going to be the biggest challenge of my life. So here's what I'm hoping to accomplish in 2007 (in no particular order):

Buy a new house
Become a mother
Maintain a healthy weight
Continue to go to the gym regularly
Continue to run
Learn to be more paitent (a major challenge)
Pick up where I left off on Spanish
Paint more (and perhaps paint for my friends, specifically, Tara)
Focus on the positive and take action to destroy the negative (when appropriate)
Allocate time to hanging out with friends
Balance work and life appropriately

Wish me luck!

This evening I plan to park myself in front of the web cam for a while and watch the festivities at Aunt Glenys and Uncle Terry's house in England as the Burton clan celebrates ringing in the new year. Listen to Big Ben chime 12, and hopefully sing Auld Lang Syne with them, before heading downtown to celebrate the new year in style with a big group of close friends and family.

I LOVE NEW YEAR'S EVE!

Happy Hogmanay everyone!

Xmas

Xmas was fun, as always, Brian got me the most thoughtful gifts and even one big item from my list -- a pink iPod Nano! I just loaded it up with all my favourite bands and am now going to test it out with a work out at the gym.

This year we did the usual Bauman christmas rituals, such as decorating the tree, xmas eve dinner with the Rambins, and opening presents on xmas eve. But we added a new tradition this year, just me and Brian. While I'm thankful to be included in the Bauman traditions, my family tradition is that we don't open gifts until xmas day, and it just doesn't feel right to me to open everything on xmas eve, so Brian and I reserved some gifts for xmas morning and opened them in private. Another new development this year, usually we open my parents gifts early because we have to go to Houston for xmas, but we took them with us this year, and I got an international calling plan on my mobile phone especially so that I could call my parents from anywhere. At 2:30am on xmas morning we called my parents and opened gifts over the phone. I was so happy to talk to them on xmas day for a change. Next year will be extra special because they are spending xmas with us! For once, I'm actually excited about xmas. The bad thing is that it's a whole year away!

New year's is just around the corner. It's my favourite holiday. To me it symbolizes new beginnings, self improvement, and hope for the future. I like to reflect on the past year, and this year has been the best one of my life so far. It seems hard to top the events of this past year, but I have a feeling that next year will be even better.

My extended family...

I'm heading to Houston to spend xmas with my new family. This is my first xmas as a full member of the Bauman family, although in past years the family has always gone far out of their way to make me feel included. As I head out, I just want to let all of my English family know that I miss you terribly and wish we could be together for the holidays.

Mum and Dad, I'll call you on xmas eve or xmas day! (P.S. The best present ever would be if you moved here *hint *hint)

Aunty Glenys and Uncle Terry, I wish we could join your for your New Year's Party. I'll be calling you at midnight to hear Big Ben chime and listen to you all sing me a drunken rendition of Auld Lang Syne.

Daz and Mel, it was so great to talk to you yesterday, sorry it was brief, I will talk to you again before New Years (P.S. The info I told you yesterday is not public, so mum's the word ;-)) Give my love to Louise!

And for my Austin family, you know who you are... Though I don't get to spend xmas with you, you guys make every day a holiday {{{{{{{{{{{{{{HUGS}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}

Much love and happiness to all for the holidays (even you, Wassim ;-))

Shoes really do motivate a person

I've been less lazy this week. I ran yesterday with Brian, then today I did 30 mins on the treadmill at the gym, and weights. Last week I said I would buy shoes if I ran twice (I think), and I actually only ran once, though in my defense I did go to the gym several times and use the cross trainer, so that should count. Anyway, I bought two pairs of totally cute shoes from Stein Mart. They're closing their shoe dept so everything is on sale. I view today's and yesterday's efforts in exercising as paying off my shoe credit, since technically I didn't deserve the shoes when I bought them. So nobody can say my shoe purchase wasn't legitimate :-)

In other news, Festivus was a huge success. The festivus pole had a new addition this year. A red light. It was warranted after last year's display of lude poses with the festivus pole. This year, two new feats of strength were added entitled penis envy, and sumo sammi, and of course, the traditional airing of grievances was done by all. Pictures from the Festivus Spectaculous can be viewed here. A big thanks to Mike and Tara for hosting. And mum, everyone loved the trifle -- I added Bailey's as suggested.

Great weekend

I had a really relaxing weekend. Nothing was expected of me. I didn't have to DO anything, and I spent most of it with my best friends. I love weekends like that.

Brian and Mike went to College Station to do a race car driving class on an actual track. They had a blast. An instructor rides in the car with each driver and gives advice on taking turns and driving the course. Brian did so well that next time he goes, he's moving up into the next rank of drivers!

Way to go Brian!

In other news, Christmas sucks! I hate the crowds at the malls and I hate the obligation you feel to buy gifts for people, and the awkwardness you feel when you don't get someone a gift, but they get you something. I hate the indecision when you find something you think worthy of giving, but then you question whether that person needs it, already has it, or would enjoy/appreciate it. Or if it's just another one of those "oh... er... how thoughtful... a christmas sweater" type gifts. I'm not a total grinch, though. I do love to give gifts when I have the perfect gift to give. It's just the getting there that pisses me off to no end.

Can we just skip christmas this year?

I've been bitten!

By the Lazy Bug!

Since returning from our honeymoon where we did no running whatsoever (though in my defense we walked a LOT), I have ran a grand total of 4 times. In a month! I have been going to the gym very regularly, and I do weights and 45 mins of cross trainer, but it's not the same. I just can't motivate myself to go out and run. I especially can't motivate myself to go and run by myself. I think it's the cold weather. And I used to love running in the cold weather.

I need to make a deal with myself to try harder. Maybe a reward system! So if I run twice this week, then I can buy a new pair of shoes. Yea, that'll help!

Honeymoon pics are here!

Click on an album below to see the highlights from our trip:

Thailand

Singapore

Bali

Hong Kong

Secret revealed

Ok... so I've had some people bugging me about the secrets I've been keeping. One has now been revealed. And most people already know this, but if you don't, it's that Tiffeni and Brett are now engaged.

So congratulations to them both!

Thanksgiving

This year was a very special thanksgiving for the Bauman family for several reasons. Most importantly, Kevin and Darice flew in from Indiana, and Brian got to spend much needed time with his brother. Everyone came to our house for a fabulous thanksgiving feast complete with my Rosemary Guinness turkey with sage and apple stuffing, yorkshire puddings, garlic and blue cheese mashed potatoes, among many other wonderful side dishes. Jen and Ethan joined us, as is the tradition. And an intersting announcement called for much celebration in the Bauman household ;-)

I'm on an old lady schedule.

I mean it. I pass out in front of the tv by 9:30, and I'm wide awake at 5:30. On the way to Asia, I didn't have this kind of problem adjusting to the many time zones we crossed. We even lost an entire day because of the date line, but I functioned just fine when we were there. Coming back, though, we arrived in LA BEFORE we had left Hong Kong. And I just can't get my internal clock to understand that I don't want to be awake at 5:30am.
The cats don't seem to mind. In fact, since we've been back they've been within 2 feet or less of me at all times. I guess they missed their mummy. Awh!
This morning, I woke up at the crack of dawn, did some work, then went to the gym with Barbie. Imagine Barbie getting up and working out at 7:30?? Who is she, and what has she done with my best friend? I supsect alien abduction. If she stops smoking, I'll know for sure ;-)

I swear I'll put pictures from our honeymoon up soon. I'm just too damn lazy at the moment, and as always, work is consuming all of my time. Things ran very smoothly while I was gone, though. Thankfully. And all because of my awesome team. I am very lucky to have them. I spent most of my day today recording speaker notes for a bunch of slide presentations that will go on the web. It's a good thing that the recording software lets you alter the pitch of your voice. I had no idea how much like a 12 year old I sounded. Ack!

Keeper of Secrets

I'm keeping 2 secrets right now. Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! You may think you know what they are, but you don't.

Hello from Hong Kong

Well, we're on the last leg of our trip now. We've seen some amazing things, eaten lots of weird food, which we've really enjoyed, and have soaked up some Asian culture. We're now in Hong Kong. Today we took a tour of the city, which took us up Victoria Peak for an amazing view of Hong Kong from above, then to stanly market for some shopping, and to the aberdeen floating community where we took a water taxi around to get a look at all the people living on boats and working the floating market.

Bali was beautiful and a real eye opener as far as the culture goes. We took two days worth of tours, including a trek through the rice terraces, which was wonderful. Our guide showed us all the different types of rice, and picked fruit from the trees for us to try. There's a fruit here that I really like, the Dragon Fruit, which I've never seen before and I love it. In Bali, I also tried the Durain fruit, which we saw on one of the discovery channel shows and is the smelliest fruit in the world. It smells like hell but tastes like heaven, apparently, and they were not kidding. It did smell really bad, but I liked the taste. The only problem is that you burp it for hours afterwards and we all stunk up the car ;-)
The houses in Bali are really weird, too. I'll explain more later, but bascially, they are pretty much out in the open and only the beds are covered, and the kitchen. No privacy, whatsoever. It makes you realize how spoiled you really are when you see cultures like this.

So only one full day to go now, and then we'll be on our way home. We leave at 1:30pm on thursday, and arrive at 9:30am the same day in LA, so we're going back in time ;-). Maybe this is the secret to staying young?

Anyway, we're happy that we got to take this amazing trip, and we have lots of stories to tell and pictures to show, which we may bore you with whenever you come for a visit, but we are both very excited to come home and resume our normal lives. We miss our cats and friends, and we miss hanging out on the couch in the evenings. So we hope to see all our Austin friends this coming weekend so that we can feel back to normal.

I haven't missed work one bit ;-)(sorry guys)

(Hi Wassim - We're thinking about you slaving away while we're out here NOT thinking about PDE).

Getting old(er) is a bitch!

Not only does getting older bring you more to shave, but it also brings a variety of physical ailments that let you know that while you might have the maturity of a 15 year old, your body is wearing down. It sucks because when you're in your 20's, and somewhere near your physical peak, you lack the experience that you gain in your 30's to appreciate it. By the time you get into your 30's you're already struggling with gravity and those extra few lbs a year that creep onto your ass. Before you know it, you start looking up things on Web MD to find out what your latest sucky symptom is a sign of, and how to aleiviate it.
My particular problem today is back ache. And I'm not talking a slight dull pain that hurts when I walk. No, this one hurts when I sit. That's going to make the plane ride fun :-(
I'm not one to run to the doctor at the first sign of a sniffle, but yesterday, after about 2 hours in my office chair I couldn't handle the pain anymore and went to the doctor. She hooked me up with some vicodin and some muscle relaxers. I had THE best nights sleep EVER last night. I slept from 10pm to 8am, all the way through. Not even getting up to pee several times (another thing that age brings you).
Today, my back hurts still, and I'm hoping that resting will make it go away for the trip tomorrow. But if it doesn't, then I'll take a vicodin and pass out on the plane.

My timing on injuring myself is impeccable.

Ouch!!!

Today is my second day of pain! Damn you, Larry, and your correct form for squats! Yesterday I was rather uncomfortable when getting up after sitting for a while, and of course getting in and out of the car. Going down the stairs was also a challenge. Today, it's twice as bad. Today my legs feel *worse* than they did after all of the marathons I've done. Needless to say I skipped the gym yesterday, and I'm skipping again today. I'll go tomorrow when I might be back to yesterday's level of pain. Oh how I long for yesterday's level of pain!

We went to a new bar last night in Pflugerville. Can't remember the name of it, but we had fun. Andi, Barbie, Scott, Michelle, Renee, Sonny, Kitty, Nick were all there. There was a duo playing. Not particularly good. We're all hoping that Andi gets gigs there. It was a cool place and I wouldn't mind going there to see her play.

In other news, work's calming down. We've shipped the final big docs to translation and are now working on the minor details. We shipped on time, though, which nobody thought was possible. So big pat on the back to my entire team who are fricking awesome! And now I have only 2 work days left before it's HONEYMOON TIME! wooohooooooo! Good timing too. I hate to say it, but I did plan my holiday around the release schedule at work, which is majorly nerdy of me, but it is in keeping with my life goal, which is to have a happy and stress-free life.

This weekend will be all about preparing for the trip. Making lists, buying things we'll need, like... um... new shoes... no wait... I can get them cheaper over there. Ok, like... new... well crap! I don't have any excuse to spend my weekend shopping. The only thing we need, really, is a new suitcase for Brian. He borrowed one from the 70's from his parents for our Dominican Republic trip, and let me tell you, that thing is UUUUGLY. It's also not very easy to wheel around on account of it not having wheels ;-)

I do have a nice long run planned for Sunday with Andi. Let's hope that the muscle soreness goes away so I can enjoy it!

Leg work with Larry

So I was at the gym yesterday, just trying to get through my weights work out as fast as possible. I was almost done and was on the leg press machine when this guy in a weight belt came over and said "can I give you a tip?". I'm not one to refuse helpful hints so of course I welcomed the information. So this guy repositions me on the machine and makes me do 10 reps. Yea, that's more difficult. I'm gonna feel this tomorrow. So then this guy, who then introduces himself as Larry, offered to show me some other exercises that would maximize my limited time at the gym and help me get the sculpted ass that all women want. How can I refuse that??

So Larry takes me over to the squat machine. The one where you lift the dumb bell but it's on a track, so you can't drop it or get stuck under it. And he shows me the right way to use it. Positioning me just so, and boy! did I feel it! Then he showed me an exercise for my calfs, and then how to use the leg press machine properly, and then an exercise on the ball that is damn near impossible, that he made look super easy. Oh, and then that awful torture machine that does the hip abductors. Yea. I'd been doing that wrong this whole time. And 5 minutes doing those machines the right way is like spending 30 minutes doing it the way I had been!

So 30 minutes later, I was sweating like a hog, and had a fabulous work out with some random guy at the gym who used to be a personal trainer. It turns out he works for IBM now. Small world. Larry offered to show me any machine I liked whenever I was at the gym. How lucky is that? people pay lots of money for that kind of help at the gym!

So I know you're thinking that this guy was probably trying to get into my pants. That's the first thing Brian thought, too ;-) but actually he's married and mentioned his wife and kid on numerous occasions during our workout. He was genuinely just helping me because he was a nice person. How refreshing is that?

Party like a rock star!

Jeezus! I've been eating like crap over the last couple of days. I feel the need to confess all the bad food I've eaten, or booze I've drank. I'm embarassed, but I feel like if I confess, I can start today with a clean slate. On Thursday I ate a Wendy's chicken sandwich, fries, and a 1/4 of a vanilla frosty. And I had 2 glasses of wine. On Friday, I ate a molten chocolate lava cake and vanilla ice cream for dinner. On Saturday I ate a fried egg sandwich at Waterloo and on Saturday night I had vietnamese noodles, 1 wine, 2 beers, 2 cosmopolitans, and 1 dirty martini, followed by a slice of Roppolo's pizza at 1:30 in the morning, and THEN fries from Whataburger on the way home. I obviously need to go to the gym today!
Brian's in Houston this weekend, and I spent all day saturday with friends. I had a great day. It included a huge amount of greasy food, booze, and shopping. What more could a girl want? Fabulous ass jeans! that's what. I bought a pair of jeans from Buckle. There is nothing more satisfying than a pair of jeans that make a woman actually like her booty.

Pfft! I knew that!

So now I can tell people that my singing in the car is just my way of expressing how intelligent I am....

Your Dominant Intelligence is Musical Intelligence

Every part of your life has a beat, and you're often tapping your fingers or toes. You enjoy sounds of all types, but you also find sound can distract you at the wrong time. You are probably a gifted musician of some sort - even if you haven't realized it. Also a music lover, you tend to appreciate artists of all kinds. You would make a great musician, disc jockey, singer, or composer.

What Kind of Intelligence Do You Have?

7 miles of fun

My run on Sunday was awesome. Andi and I did a 7 mile loop and it seemed quite effortless. When we were done, we both felt like we hadn't ran 7 miles. During our runs, we solve the world's problems. At least those problems in our world. Ok, maybe not solve them. But definately share them and the old saying "a problem shared is a problem halved" really seems to hold true. I always feel lighter after a good run. In both senses ;-)

I'm seeing the light at the end of the tunnel at work now. And only 2 weeks until we leave for our honeymoon. A few days ago, the field guide for my new Nikon arrived. It's extremely helpful. I feel all the stuff I learned about photography so many years ago (thank you, Mark) flooding back when I read it. And today my new Nikon 70-300mm lens arrived! I've read great reviews about the lens, and the only negative is that it searches for a while in low light. Easily remedied by flipping it to manual control and focusing yourself.

It's not like me to be proactive and a planner when I take a trip. I usually like to just figure it out as I go, so it might suprise people to learn that for this trip I put together what is now a 12 page document, complete with all the embassy information in each country we will visit, and things to do based on my internet research on frommers.com, fodors.com, and lonelyplanet.com, and of course suggestions from people who've been there. The reason I'm putting so much effort into it is because I don't want to waste a moment of our time their trying to figure out how to get around or where to go, or what to do. One of the things I'm most excited about is the food. I love Asian food. At least America's rendition of it. I can't wait to sample the real thing, though.

14 days and counting down.....

White and Nerdy

Weird Al's version of Camillionaire's "Riding" is so funny!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-xEzGIuY7kw

Random thoughts

Only 3 weeks until we go on our trip. In preparation, we ordered me a wedding ring. Just a plain band so that I don't have sparkly, come mug me and cut my finger off written on my forehead during our travels. It arrived yesterday and I like it a lot. I also ordered a new zoom lens for our new digital Nikon, which is totally badass, by the way! I ordered a 70-300mm Nikkor lens from Amazon.com. It got great reviews and I can't wait to try it out.
I used the camera and the 18-55mm that came with the camera last weekend when we went wake boarding. The autofocus is extremely fast! I got some awesome shots of Mike doing jumps at 2 frames per second! you do not miss a thing with this camera! Speaking of wakeboarding, I managed to face plant twice. The first one knocked the snot out of me and pulled me right out of my bindings. We captured some good footage of Brian so that we can see what he needs to change to make it all the way across the wake.
This weekend I finished up the floor tiling project in the upstairs loft closet. It looks a million times better and smells better, too.

This weekend has been full of friends, as always. Friday we did happy hour at Mesa Rosa, followed by Donn's Depot. Brian was pretty wasted from the two massive 'rita's at happy hour, which made for a very entertaining time. Saturday night we tried a new place for burgers - Casino El Camino on 6th. Don't recommend the burgers, but it's definately an interesting place for people watching. On Sunday we grilled with friends.

Brian's been playing a lot of football (soccer to you yankies). He's playing on 3 different teams. 2 indoor teams and one regular. Tara and I went to watch 2 of his indoor games on Sunday night.

I'm considering going back to martial arts and learning an internal form - Tai Chi. I noticed during my run on Sunday morning that Andi is way more flexible than me and I used to be way more flexible than I am now when I was going to Kung Fu. It's not good to be so stiff. So after we get back from our honeymoon, I plan to check out my old school's (Shaolin Do) Tai Chi program. I think it will also be good for me mentally as well as physically.

As for running, I've done a couple of 7 mile runs. I have absolutely no desire to run a marathon this year. I might consider the half marathon, though, because I love training for a half and there are some great races for that distance in Austin.

Tonight I have a hot date with Barbie to go see the new Jackass movie. I imagine we're going to be completely grossed out!

Tomorrow I'm volunteering at Goodwill, where I will be dismantling computers and salvaging parts. Sounds like a nerdy and fun time!

Thailand

Well, we met with our wonderful travel agent today to discuss options for our honeymoon in the wake of the much hyped-up coup in Thailand. It seems that things returned to normal within hours of the military taking over, and tourists and locals alike are unconcerned. We weighed our options and have decided to continue with our honeymoon as planned. Which makes me extremely happy because the main reason for us choosing this intinerary was because of my fascination with Thailand.
So our honeymoon pictures might have tanks in them, and that's kinda cool. I've read reports that the military were very friendly to tourists and would pose for pictures, so I hope to get some good photo opportunities.

Mum and Dad, I know you're probably concerned for our safety, and rest assured that we will take any and all measures to ensure we don't get into any trouble or bad situations. Plus, you know my big strong hubby will protect me :-) Here are a few links to read that might put your mind at ease:
http://www.visiting-asia.com/asia/thailand/
http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowTopic-g293920-i5037-k798193-l4884159-Phuket.html#4884159

So YIPEEEE! We're back on!

In other news, work is still stressing me out, and one very minor health issue has arisen, but a blissful home life with the cats and hubby help keep my stress level manageable.

Amanda out.

HoneyDoom?

Brian and I are so excited about our upcoming honeymoon to Southeast Asia. However, recent developments have thrown a bit of a spanner in the works. Due to the coup in Thialand, and specifically Bangkok, which is to be our first city to visit, we might have to consider other options. Our travel agent is investigating our options now. So of course, we're still going on our trip, we just might have a different city than Bangkok on the itinerary. Travel advisories from the embassies are urging people to reconsider their travel plans, but I've been reading many news articles and tourist reports that say otherwise.
So I guess we'll wait for a few more weeks and see how this thing shakes out. I won't be too mortified if we have to spend 3 extra days in Bali, though :-)

Remembering

You never recover from the loss of a loved one. Even a pet. Things that happen around you remind you of them. For me, Onyx serves as a constant reminder of my beloved Ember. Every day I see her display a mannerism that is like Ember's and for a split second I see him. It makes me smile because he's still alive in my heart. There are other times, though, when the memory makes me cry. Like today. A friend's precious dog just lost the fight for life and she had to make an awful decision to let go. And as I followed the progress and hoped for good news, I relived every moment of Ember's last few days. And when I read the news that her sweet doggie had gone, I became a bawling, snot-covered, tear-stained mess. Crying both for her, because I know how she must be feeling, and for me because the memory is still so fresh in my mind, even after almost 2 years.
Just the other day, I was talking to my mum about pets and she still hasn't recovered from Tootsie, our first cat that we got when I was 5. Tootsie died when I was 23.
Even after 2 years, I stil can't talk about my Ember without coming dangerously close to crying. Even when I'm recalling great memories.
I sometimes wonder if it's worth opening your heart to a pet when I think about all the sadness when you lose them, but then I remeber all the joy Ember gave me, and all the joy I get from kissing the top of the sweet kitty heads and rubbing those soft kitty bellies of Nikki and Onyx every day, and I realize it's more than worth it.

Going back to my roots....

Literally. Last night I changed my hair colour from it's usual red to a brown very close to my natural colour. Semi-permanently, of course. Red is so yesterday.

In other news, I think I'm developing an ulcer. I've been pushed over the edge of my stress tolerance over the last couple of days, to the point where I feel physically sick. I am now unable to politely simmer inside while outwardly maintaining an ever so nice and patient facade, which is so very English. No, instead I'm given to short outburts of indignation, incredulousness, and then physical fury. I have become a New Yorker.

My new mantra: "Seriously! What the fuck???"

Current mood: PISSED OFF

The weeks are just flying!

It's been a rough week at work. Someone who I need to be able to rely on has let me down again. I'm not surprised, though. Just disappointed. I find myself constantly having to figure out a way out of a resource hole because the project isn't appropriately funded. It's testing my patience and my problem solving skills. Fortunately, there are some members of my team that I can always count on and that's what keeps me going to work every day :-) Anyway, enough work drivel! What have I been doing with myself over the last week or so?
Last weekend was Labour Day weekend and we had Friday and Monday off, which was much needed and ever so nice! We threw a party on Friday night for Jen, who turned 30 and fabulous! We had so much fun! we grilled fajitas, drank magaritas, and opened my special brew of Mamajuana (it's a drink from the Dominican Republic) that I've been tweaking over the last 3 months. It was perfect. Tasted exactly like we remembered it from the D.R. And despite the fact that most attendees at the party were in their 30's or approaching, we still managed to not go to bed until 4am!
Saturday was spent recovering from the night before. Not that I was majorly hung over, but I didn't get much sleep and my stomach was a bit dodgy the next day. Brian headed over to Terri and Joe's for a BBQ while I laid on the couch recovering. I did start to feel better and completely lazy around 6pm so I went for a run. Unfortunately, my stomach didn't think it was such a good idea! Saturday night, my wonderful husband took me out for a date. Dinner and a movie. Dinner was at some Mexican restaurant on I35 I've been wanting to try, then we saw the movie "Crank". It didn't have much of a plot, and I wouldn't recommend this movie to anyone, but Jason Statham is hot, and there is a lot of gratuitous naked arse, and if there's one thing Jason is good for, it's a nice bum shot. Ok, so I have a crush on him. What's not to like? he's got a smokin' body, an awesome ass, and an English accent [droooooooool]. So thank you, Brian, for indulging my silly crush :-)
Since this was such a long weekend and we were in town, I felt I couldn't let an opportunity for DIY to slip by, so Brian and I replaced the flooring in the downstairs and one upstairs bathroom on Sunday and Monday. We had one small misshap when we were tiling around the toilet and Brian accidentally tried to give me a nose job with his foot! no real damage, just a little painful for a few days, and I think he actually straightened my nose out. There used to be a bump on the right side that seems to have disappeared since the incident. The bathrooms look so much better! We have one more bathroom and a small closet to do and we'll be done with our floor replacement project.
Monday evening was spent with friends in the traditional holiday weekend manner, grilling and stuffing our faces.
In other news, our new camera should have been shipped today. Brian got a great deal on it and almost $100 off the price because we used a coupon and credit card points. I'm now reading John Hedgcoe's book of photography to brush up on my mad photography skillz in preparation for our amazing honeymoon.
Even though this has been a short week at work, I'm so happy that it's friday. Today I met with Danna over lunch and we went for pedicures. My toenails look so pretty with the pink polish and little white daisies! Very much needed girly time. Now if only I could find a massage therapist to work this burning knot out of my shoulder!

Honeymoon!

We booked our honeymoon! We have the best travel agent. She is putting together a list of things to do and places to visit in each country, and of course advice on where to shop, what things cost, etc. I have been so impressed with all my dealings with Tramex travel.

Here's what our trip looks like:
Austin - LA - Hong Kong - Bangkok (this is going to be a long 2 days.)
3 nights at the Marriott Royal Spa and Resort
Tour of the city on day 2

Bangkok to Singapore
3 nights at the Shangri la Hotel
Tour of the city on day 2

Singapore to Denpasar, Bali
4 nights at the Bali Hilton
Tour of city on day 2
2 days on the beach :-)

Bali to Hong kong
3 Nights at the Harbour Plaza
Tour of city on day 2

Hong Kong -LA - Austin

We're so excited!

Weekend Camera Shopping

The weekend, as usual, passed by in a blur. I'm happy to say, though, that work did not infiltrate this one. Crunch time is over for now and things are back to a normal schedule. We spent our weekend with friends, including some lake time, discovered a new (to us) restaurant downtown, and attended a friend's birthday party at a bar downtown.
Brian did his husbandly duty on Sunday and changed the oil in both our cars while I went for a great run on town lake with the girls. Later on we went shopping for a new SLR camera. I've discovered that things that look like a good deal online at first glance, are not when you look a little closer. For example, the camera I'm looking at is selling at one retailer for about $500, which seems like an awesome price for this particular camera and lens, however, on closer inspection, it turns out they're holding the battery and charger ransome for $129 and $179, respectively. Which makes it actually more expensive than if I just ent to Ritz or Best Buy.
I've lost a couple of Ebay auctions for a camera and 2 lenses, which on closer inspection was a good thing because it turns out to be a factory floor model, and the warranty is only for 90 days, as opposed to the 1 year warranty on the new one.
Another thing I've learned is that Nikinions.org and Photo.net forums are full of friendly and helpful people who know a lot about photography. I'm so excited to get back into the art of photography. I mean, my trusty Canon digital is a perfectly good camera, and takes awesome pictures, but nothing beats the feeling of a nice Nikon SLR in your hand.

Room to breathe

The fact that my last diary entry was over 2 weeks ago is not an indication that I've tired of blogging. No. It's an indication that I have been a slave to work lately. On Friday, though, even though work was demanding, and timing was inappropriate, I took the afternoon off for a much needed retail therapy session with Barbie. It was awesome. We went to the new outlet mall in Round Rock, and spent entirely too much money at Banana Republic, Gap, Guess, and Papaya. I helped Barbie pick out several new and versitile options to "step it up a notch" in her professional image. Mission accomplished, Barbie, you looked great in your new clothes and definately polished and professional.
Despite the fact that work has snaked its way into my weekends in the form of "bug crawl" conference calls, I still feel like I've had a relaxing weekend, puncuated by some accomplishments in gardening, and quality time with friends. Brian and I finally finished operation "Cover up the fence". Not that it's covered, but it will be in a couple of years when things grow in. We added edging that pinned down the weed blocker and it looks damn good out there.
On Saturday evening we went to sushi with a small group of friends, followed by a movie at the Alamo - Talladega Nights.
This morning I took a much needed run on Town Lake with Jen. Much needed because I haven't seen her in way too long, and because I have been very remiss on my running schedule lately. Though I'm happy to report that I haven't lost my running mojo, it's just been on snooze for a while. Aside from some stomach cramping issues, I had a good run, and as always, great conversation.
This evening I'll go and watch my hubby play indoor soccer, followed by some quality time in front of the telly, and possibly some ice cream :-)

Anyway, I haven't fallen off the earth, I'm just busy. So to all of you who I've been unable to spend time with lately, just try to wedge yourself into my schedule here and there in the form of a quick lunch or stop n' chat. I miss my girls.

Quick mid-week update

Happy birthday to my wonderful mum on Tuesday 8/2. I'm glad you liked the pressie and I hope you had a wonderful evening.

Work is balls to the wall crazy. I don't even have time to pee. I'm constantly in meetings and have to multi-task because I have way too much to do to pay attention (companywide problem, it seems).

The HOA "improved" the land behind our fence by removing a giant mound of dirt. It looks shitty and as a result of said mound being removed we can now see the road through the fence. So we went to Red Barn yesterday to pick up plants to plant along fenceline to cover up the fence. Problem is that there's a lot of rock under ground here. So we got a pick-axe. I'm gonna go help my hubby smash some rocks now, followed by dance class this evening.

Exciting, isn't it?

Priceless

I just received a disk full of pictures from my Dad. This picture perfectly captures one of my favourite memories from our Domincan Republic trip. We had ended our girl's night with a skinny dip in the ocean, while my Aunt Glenys was "guarding" the clothes. Our boys came and stole our clothes right from under Glenys's nose and sent a bunch of spectators from the bar to come and look at all the naked chics. One of which was my mother! Notice that we are all wearing men's clothing, except for Marie, whose clothes were the only ones left behind in the heist. And best of all, Marie is protecting my virtue with her stick-on bra. Now that's a true friend!
What an awesome night and a great memory.

Great weekend and mid-week girl's night

The past weekend was wonderfully stress-free and filled with friends. On friday night we went to dinner and a move with Mike and Tara. You, me and Dupree. We raided Albertson's clearance on candy and snook it into the theatre. It was a funny movie, but what was more funny was Brian's very loud laughing throughout the movie. Satuday Brian took me on a romantic date for our 2 month anniversary. It's been the most wonderful 2 months of marriage, even the first few weeks where Brian had to do everything for me because I couldn't walk. I wouldn't change a thing.
On Sunday we spent most of the day on the lake. I went wakeboarding for the first time since my injury. I didn't attempt any jumps, but practiced fakies (where you turn the board so you're riding with the opposite leg in front). My ankle feels great and I am totally ready to get back into boarding!
After we put the boat away we headed home for an impromptu grilling. Brian made fajitas on the grill and everyone brought a little something to contribute. Erin made her amazing salsa and Dave brought a variety of very fattening, but delicious, ice cream bars.
We had video taped our day of wakeboarding so that we could see what we were doing wrong/right and hopefully improve our techniqes, so after dinner we watched the footage. Dave had rode my board with no bindings and had some really funny looking crashes. An awesome end to an awesome weekend.

Last night the girls and I headed to Ladies' night at Dallas night club. I'm not one to listen to country music, and I can't two-step, but the last time we went there was for Michelle's bachelorette party, which was 3 years ago. So it was time. We had an absolute blast! I loved the breaks in country music where they played hip/hop and dance music. We all got out and shook our asses and acted totally goofy. Nobody asked me to two-step, but Renee's cousin Mike and I taught eachother and did a pretty good job.

Sigh. I love my girls :-)

What happened in vegas....

We had a wonderful time in Vegas. Just in time to celebrate our 2 month aniversary! The heat was incredible. We had managed to land on the hottest day of the year. 112 degrees!

We met up with Kevin briefly on Saturday and Kev showed Brian how to bet on the horses and get free drinks. A very important detail for the Bauman brothers. On saturday night we had dinner at a swanky steahouse and then saw Folies Bergere. It was a typical Vegas show and very entertaining. On Sunday our day was a complete blur. We love the deli at NY NY, they have the best Pastrami! Sunday night we had the buffet at Aladdin, which was pretty good. A lot of variety, then we headed to Freemont street to see the light show, which was super cool. We spent some time in the casinos. I really like Freemont street. I like the atmosphere in the old casinos. They seem more relaxed and easy going. We played some Blackjack, but as an ex-dealer, I find it hard to play. We lost about $35 overall but I was entertained so it was worth it. We rode "The Deuce" back to our hotel, which was a fun experience, though it takes ages. I'd recommend the monorail instead.
On Monday we had breakfast in Venice and then met Kev at his hotel, which was at the extreme other end of the strip. We walked the whole way and it took us what seemed to be a very long time. We never did get a run in on this trip, but we walked far enough to compensate for it. We met Daurice (not sure about the spelling, so she's D from here on out), when she arrived at the hotel and quickly set off for the thrill ride "The Drive". It's not a typical thrill ride. It's a race track and off-road course. For $10 you can drive any 2 cars. High-end sports cars and SUVs such as Hummer. Brian was in his element. We all got in a Caddillac with him and he took us for a spin around the course. We were all amazed at Brian's driving skills. He really pushed the limits of the car and our nerves, but impressed the professional driver that was in the car with us. I drove a hummer over some really cool obstacles that you'd never imagine you could get over. At one point we were looking at the ground at an almost verticle angle from the driver's seat. Very, very cool.
D and I rode the rides on top of the Stratosphere, and made a couple of cute new friends, Adam and Shane, who couldn't have been older than 14. They opened doors for us and watched us on all the rides. Such nice young gentlemen. Monday evening we headed to Treasure island for the Sirens show, but sadly it got cancelled due to inclement weather. Incelment weather in Vegas? We went to the buffet in TI. It was awesome! way better than Aladdin. They had a sushi section and the sushi was actually good! didn't expect that.
After we left the buffet it was raining. We headed to Ceasar's Palace to see the Atlantis show and do a little browsing in the forum shops. We rounded off the night with a drink in Paris.
On Monday we met for breakfast in NY and headed to M & M world and a few souveneir shops to round out our trip.

1st town lake run

We had a great weekend. We had out usual happy hour on Friday, then on Saturday morning we went to Ethan's 3rd birthday party at Brushy Creek Park. Saturday afternoon I relaxed and watched a movie (rumour has it) while Brian watched footy (soccer to you Americans), waxed off some unwanted hair (thanks, Barbie), and cuddled with the cat. Saturday night we had an impromtu dinner date at Kobe Steaks.
On Sunday I went for my first run on town lake since my injury. It was wonderful to run and chat with Jen. I really missed her. And we did a 5 mile loop which is the longest I've ran since about May 13th! ACK! Brian did some wakeboarding while I relaxed at home and then did some retail therapy.
The maid's coming today, so of course we spent some time picking up clutter so she can actually clean rather than tidy :-)

4 days till Vegas! We're thinking we will go see Jubilee, and possibly Zumanity. I've seen 2 Cirque Du Soleil shows. I loved "O". Tickets are unreasonably high, though. Can't wait to see Kev and meet Dorise (sp?).

Do they have a 4th of July in England?

You'd be surprised how many times I've been asked "do they have 4th of July in England?". Well of course we do. Do you think we just wrote that date out of the calendar and go directly from 3rd to 5th? YES we have a July 4th. No, we do not celebrate America's independence from the British.
I'm glad we cleared that up.
This year's 4th of July weekend was, as usual, full of friends and BBQs and a new addition to the Bauman household... temporarily. On Friday night we headed downtown to Romeo's with Andi and Mike. Followed by a nightcap at the starlight lounge. Romeo's was pretty good, and we were so happy with our find of this tiny bar upstairs at Starlight, where there were couches and comfy chairs and conversation nooks all over the place, with just the right mood lighting and level of music. Andi and I tried wines we hadn't tried before. Very nice!

On Saturday, Mike and Tara dropped off our houseguest, Maverick. He stayed with us all weekend while they went to New Orleans for a spontanous trip. The cats were a little disturbed, especially Onyx. Nikki just freaked momentarily then went about her business like he wasn't there. On Saturday night we joined Nick and Kitty over at Jay and Erin's house for grillin' and drinkin'. They had just bought a new grill and wanted to break it in. I'm very fussy about my steak and I can't stand it overdone. It was delicious! Jay had some special seasoning made by a friend in his home town. It was top notch.
On Sunday we headed over to Bob's house for a pool party. Too many people to list here were there, though two people I didn't expect to see, Tracey and Erin were there. They had met Bob at the boat party last week and came to the pool party. That was a nice surprise. Two kegs later and a very drunk Brian, we happily headed home with Maverick, who had a wonderful time fetching the ball for anyone who would throw it for him.
On Monday Brian went to test drive cars with Nick, while I ran some errands and did some stuff around the house. Somewhere during the weekend we headed to Bed Bath and Beyond to spend some gift cards and came home with a hammock and stand for the back yard. Late Monday afernoon we headed down south to Brian's friend Brett's wedding. It was in a catholic church somewhere of Wm. Cannon. Thankfully they cut most of the catholic stuff out and the ceremony only lasted 45 minutes. And I didn't burst into flames when I entered the church. That would have been awkward ;-)
The reception was held at Vintage Villas and was a lot of fun. I didn't know anyone there except for the bride and Joe and Terri, but by the end of it I had made many new friends and had a great time swing dancing with Joe. Afterwards, Joe, Terri, Brian and I headed to Carlos and Charlies to end the evening and ran into... you guessed it... Tracey! She is everywhere! We hung out with Tracey and her friends and also ran into Freddis, a guy I know from the elevator at work, who it turns out also knows Brian from indoor soccer, but didn't know we were married. Was pretty funny to see him put 2 and 2 together.
On Tuesday we had busy day, cleaning house, Brian did the front and back yards, our lawns look so good! he's been so dedicated to making the grass look good and it's really paying off. Tuesday evening we had a BBQ at our house. Skewers of beef and shrimp marinated in lime, olive oil, garlic and cilantro, and skewers of chicken marinated with Jamaican Jerk sauce. The food was awesome and I'm happy to say that Brian's grilling skills are coming along nicely. I made my famous guacamole and stole Erin's recipe for roasted potatoes, and Kerey brought a patriotic dessert of strawberry shortcake with blueberries. We finished off the night out in the back yard in the rain and it made my whole weekend complete to get soaked and watch fireworks against a backdrop of black clouds and lightening.

Happy independence day, y'all.

Death and rememberance

A friend and co-worker's father died yesterday. It wasn't completely unexpected, but painful for her nontheless. I'm not religous by any means, and I absolutely don't believe there's a heaven or hell, or that people's souls linger on after death and haunt us. What I do believe, though, is that people live on in our hearts and in our memories. They're never really gone as long as we remember them.

Whenever someone close to me passes away, I dedicate a tree or a plant to their memory. Each time I water it or prune it, or even pass by it, it reminds me of that person. As it grows and thrives, so does my memory of that person.

With this sentiment, I sent my friend a flowering bonsai. I hope she likes it.

First run

Last night I went for a run for the first time since my injury. 5 weeks of no running is taking it's toll on my body and my sense of well-being. We took a real easy jog for about 2 miles and I'm happy to report that my foot feels fine, though it doesn't feel the same as the left one. It feels different, but not painful. Can't put my finger on it.
Despite what my doctor said, I have been using the cross trainer at the gym to try and maintain my level of cardio fitness, but it's not the same, which became evident by the first 200 yards of the run. I felt more winded than usual, which is frustrating. But I'll get back up to 5 miles a day in no time.

Post-wedding thoughts

The boat party was so much fun! We had the perfect amount of booze, a little too many waters and soft drinks, though. I guess that tells us that our friends are BOOZERS! Rudy's did an awesome job of catering and we had only a small amount of leftovers, which we accidentally left out and Onyx enjoyed and then threw up near the door.
We're so happy with the way everything turned out for our wedding. It was as far from tradition as you can get, which is why it was easy, stress free planning. It was simple and beautiful and my dream of marrying my soul mate barefoot on a white sandy beach was fulfilled. The reception was an amazing spread of food and the only decision I had to make was chocolate or vanilla cake. I didn't have to stress over napkin rings or centerpieces, not that I would anyway because I'm not that detail oriented. Our wedding reception was just a boat party on beautiful Lake Travis where all of our friends could eat, drink, and relax.
We saved thousands of dollars by not doing a traditional wedding, and the money we saved will go towards traveling and enjoying our life together, in particular, our honeymoon in Asia in September.
With our wedding behind us and a bright future ahead of us, I feel like these last few years have been the happiest in my life, and I'm optomistic that it will continue this way for a very long time.

Post-haircut

I went to Ann Kelso, purely because I had a gift certificate from Brian from V-day. I wasn't intending to use it on a haircut but I got desperate. I probably won't go back. Though the stylist did give me something very similar to the picture I showed him, he cut the top layer WAY too short. So yet again, I get to grow out another haircut into something more acceptable to me.

I'm underwhelmed to say the least. It's not as bad as my last one, though. And it doesn't look bad. I guess it's because I'm a perfectionist when it comes to expressions of creativity and I believe that a haircut is an opportunity to make someone looke their best. It's an opportunity to create a haircut that takes full advantage of the texture of the hair, and not cause the wearer to have to fight against it to get the cut to lay properly. I swear I'm going to an Asian next time. I see all these Asians at the sushi bars and they have hair JUST like mine and they always have the best haircuts.

Frustrated! DAMN you Deakins for you awful straight and limp hair! Why couldn't I have gotten my mother's hair? HUH? is it too much to ask?

Hair cut?

It's that time! I've tried growing my hair, and when it gets to my shoulders I realize how I hate my hair long. It's thin, and it's straight. Not straight like most peoples. No, I'm afflicted with the kind of straight hair that if I didn't put a round brush on it, I'd be sporting that cocaine chic looks that was so popular in the late 90s, but with an extra 20lbs.

Looking at pictures it seems that my hair looks best just below chin length. So I guess I'll just go with that again.

I've given up going to my regular hair stylist because I got a bad haircut last time. It's been since March of 2005 since my last haircut, unless you count the times I've cut it myself, which is at least 3 times.

I hate going to the hairdresser. I think I'd rather go to the gynacologist than the hairdresser.

About Beckham....

"you throw him down and I'll sit on his face"

Can you guess which one of my girl friends said that?

Yay for the gym

I've been able to resume a somewhat normal workout routine at least with regard to weights. Tonight Brian and I are going out for a walk to see how I do. If I do ok, then I can try the cross trainer at the gym.
Monday night was fun. Brian had a few people over for world cup watching. Typical scenario when sports are playing, unless it's Longhorn football, is the girls drinking wine and chatting around the table, while the men scratch themselves, eat whatever's in front of them, and yell at the TV. We had a great night though.
Last night Brian took me for my favourite food, sushi. I had Spicy Tekka Don, which is raw tuna over a bed of sushi rice, covered with a spicy sauce. Very good. I also had sushi on Monday with Jack. mmmmmmm.... sushi.
We're heading to Houston on Saturday to spend some time with the in-laws, and of course celebrate Father's Day. I'm missing a very awesome sounding party on Saturday night. I hope there's a hidden camera in the champaign room ;-)

Irrefutable evidence

After receiving the pics from Daz and Mel's camera (Thanks you two), I've discovered irrefutable evidence that I did, indeed, injur myself during a trapeze incident, and not during snorkeling as my husband would have everyone believe ;-)

There are pictures from Thursday night's hen party that, upon close inspection, reveal a swollen ankle and discolouration of the foot. We didn't go snorkelling until Friday morning. One mystery solved. There is another mystery, though... how come I didn't feel it until Friday afternoon? Maybe it wasn't so bad and the snokelling aggrevated it. Maybe it was dulled by the tequila. I didn't discover the damage until I was shaving my legs in the shower, at which point I said "OMG! I have a CANKLE!!"

Foot update

I'm off the crutches!! yay! I was a little sad after I saw the doctor, though, because she said I can't do ANY cardio for 2 months. I can't even do the cross trainer or recumbent bike. I have to wear a brace in my shoe (no cast because it's too restrictive), which means I can only wear running/athletic shoes. That's gonna look good at J and E's wedding this weekend :-( She said I can only walk, no running, and not to even try running for 2 months.
Yesterday I went to the gym to work out for the first time since the injury. I did upper body, abs, and was actually able to comfortably do hamstrings and quads, so I guess it's better than nothing.

My hubby (eeee!) has been so wonderful through all this. When I was on crutches he did everything around the house, fetched things for me, fed me, watered me, pushed me around the grocery store and Cosco in a wheelchair, drove me everywhere, and rubbed my calf every night. It really sucks to lose your independence, but he made it bearable. I have to also give credit to my wonderful brother, Kev, who called Brian to tell him that Bath and Body Works was having a huge sale and it would probably cheer me up if he took me shopping. Which he did last night.

I still can't drive yet, but at least I can walk so now I can actually contribute to household chores. Today I'm going in to the office for the first time in many weeks. I do like working from home but I need to see my boy, Jack. I missed him.

Argh!

Rant:
I'm SO sick of being on crutches!!! I can't do anything for myself. I can't even make a cup of tea and take it to the coffee table! It's getting REALLY old!
The good news is that the bruising is now turning to a nice green and yellow, the purple and black areas are now only purple so that's progress, and it hasn't swollen up in a few days, probably because I'm staying off it. I have an appointment on Monday (it shoud be Thursday but I'm too impatient to wait) to see if I can get a cast so I can fricking walk on it!

I'm so bummed out. No running for 2 months. How am I going to live?

Mr. & Mrs. Brian Bauman present....

For your viewing pleasure....

Click here for Wedding pictures

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Wedding, etc...

We're back from the Dominican Republic. We're hitched. It was the most perfect wedding I've ever been to, of course ;-)
A few minor setbacks including an injury and a jellyfish sting, but it truly was the best day of our lives. Our wedding pictures are amazing.
I'm still in "Island mode" and can't quite bring myself to write up a blog on the whole experience because there's SO MUCH to say. But I will... soon. So stay tuned.

The cats are happy to see us. Big thank you to Jenn and Tiff for all they did for us while we were gone.

it's wakeboarding season...

...and with it comes a brand new boat to play in!

Mike, Tara and I headed for the lake on Tuesday after work. Poor Brian was stuck at work so he didn't get to go. I was expecting the water to be freezing, but it was a balmy 74 degrees! And given that the heat index was 101 degrees yesterday, the water was refreshing. Mike taught me how to drive the boat for wakeboarding, and return to the boarder when he's down without running them over, which is kinda important.
I was rather timid my first time out on the board. I felt stable and confident with riding my board, but doing fakies was a little hairy at first. I got it in the end, but it'll take me a few runs to get my confidence from the end of last season up. I could very nearly clear the wake last season... This season's goal... clear the wake, smooth landing on the other side. After I master that, then I'm going for a wake-clearing jump with a fakie combo. Yea, I'm a badass, it's ok. You can say it :-)

Brian's in Houston for the next 3 days for the Grand Prix. He's super excited! All the cars he's really interested in are racing and he's got excellent seats and is armed with out new camera. The cats and I will spend the next few days chillin' around the house (well, mostly them since I'll be working). I miss Brian already :-(

Tick... tick...tick...

After a brief freak out last week things are calm... at least with regard to our trip to the Dominican Republic. It's too late to worry if I've forgotten to take care of something. Only fun stuff left to do, like shop. Speaking of shopping, Brian and I got a new camera yesterday. Same brand as our old one, Canon. I like Canon's small digital cameras, but for an SLR I prefer Nikon. No reason, other than I own a few Nikons and lenses, therefore if I got a D70 for xmas (hint, hint), I'd already have lenses that work with it :-) Cameras make me happy.
Work has been stressing me out. This week I need to just focus on making sure nobody needs me while I'm away. And try not to think about the massive amounts of email that await me when I return.
In other good news, if the weather doesn't turn south I might get a chance to fly on my wakeboard today. eeeeeeeeeee!

Gaaaaaaaaaah!

It's only 12 days until we leave for the Domnican Republic. I keep getting this naggin feeling that I've forgotten something, and it's freaking me out because we've ran out of time to fix it. All the superficial stuff is set, things that don't really matter, like groomsmen shirts, dresses, etc... if we forget to take those the world won't end and the wedding will go on... but this nagging feeling is more about paperwork or some detail that will either prevent us from getting there, or prevent someone important to us to get there, or prevent the wedding alltogether. I'm sure it's just nerves, and I'm trying to just ride it out... maybe I need a checklist.

Recurring dreams are getting worse. The one where I lose my luggage or miss my plane/bus/boat. The only silver lining to this is that at least I'm actually getting into REM sleep. I've woken up feeling well rested the last 2 days.

Congrats to J and A

Congratulations Jen and Aaron!

The wedding was wonderful, and Jen was the most gorgeous bride I've ever seen! Brian and I had a great time in El Paso hanging out with friends and meeting Jen and Aaron's family.

Big exciting weekend

This weekend my friends Jen and Aaron are getting married! We're flying to El Paso, Texas to go to the wedding. There isn't much to do in El Paso, but that's ok because most of our time will be spent on wedding stuff anyway. Being a bridesmaid makes things really easy because I didn't have to frantically search for an outfit to wear :-)

In other news, this week has been a bit hectic, especially for Brian who put in several very long days in a row due to work commitments. But the end of the tunnel is approaching.

A quick update on the lawn: it's green (Yay!) but we're not exactly sure what the green stuff is. It's not St. Augustine, and it's not Bermuda. It must be a weed, but whatever. It's green so we'll keep it. It looks nice when mowed.

Last night we went to the Clay Pit for dinner with Amy and Gary. We ordered three wonderful dishes: Lamb Vindaloo, Karoos-e-tursh, and Seafood in Garlic and Wine sauce. All were REALLY good, though we all agreed that next time we'd kick it up a notch on the spices. After dinner we headed to Donn's Depot where we met up with Barbie, Michelle, and Brian. Our friends Michael and Craig (Murphy's Inlaws) were playing and previously they had given me much crap about them not meeting Brian yet. So last nighth I satisfied the requirement that my "uncles" meet him before we marry. They liked him, but then who doesn't?

oh, and yesterday I had a mini freak out because upon a little investigation, it turns out we didn't have a flight back from the Dominican Republic. Due to some rescheduling by the airline the DR -> miami portion of our trip was dropped!! it's all sorted now. On the bright side of that, if we had to be stuck some place with no flight, the Dominican Republic is not too shabby.

"All's well that ends well, that's what I say" ~ Wallace.

Geeky Big News!

Brian has become the newest developer to receive commit rights to Eclipse's PDE component. I know it means absolutely nothing to most of you unless you're completely nerdy... But rest assured that this is quite a very nice achievement!

Thanks to our wonderful friend, Wassim, Brian's picture and announcement of his achievement is front page of Planet Eclipse: http://planet.eclipse.org/planet/

Congratulations, Brian!!!

Oh My!

I woke up VERY early this morning, all things considered. 8am. Couldn't sleep anymore. Surprisingly I didn't have a major hang over from last night's activities. I can probably thank Michelle for the bright idea of a 3am breakfast. Just a bit of a funny stomach for most of the day. Nothing helps a weird hangover stomach like a trip to the local chinese buffet, though. Mmmmmm.
God Damn we had so much fun last night. I was a total ROCK STAR!

Brian had a fun night as well, though he's not giving up any details and Kev's lips are sealed. As with all good bachellor and bachellorette parties, details should never be divulged to the significant other.

A big thank you to my best friend, Barbie, for not putting me in a condom adorned veil and "suck for a buck" t-shirt. And a big thank you to all the girls that made the night so FRICKING FUN!

I am a lucky girl indeed :-)

Fitness update

well it's been about 9 months since I joined the gym. I've been going consistently 3 or 4 times a week as well as mixing in some runs and dance classes, and the scale was showing a mere 4lb difference. I moved the scale into the other bathroom because I wouldn't be tempted to weigh every day, and I've stayed off it for a while now. Over the last several weeks I've made some minor changes to my eating habits, too.

Today I got on the scale and of course the weight hasn't changed much, but something did. My body fat percentage. It's dropped by 6% since the last time I checked it, which was about 6 months ago. I'm doing a litte happy dance in my "doesn't my ass look tiny" jeans right now.
YAY!

Yard Work

These three day weekends seem to go by in a blur! Yesterday we spent most of the day doing yard work... Brian and Nick rented an airator from Home Depot and airated the lawns. Following the advice from the True Green guy, we re-seeded the lawn with Bermuda Grass and fertilized. Now we have to water for 14 days to get the seeds to start. Hopefully this will give us a green lawn to work with, and the St. Augustine from patches that are alive might eventually take over the lawn, but the True Green guy said that a mixture was probably the best way to go. Bermuda is also less of a water hog and does well in direct sun. So we'll see.
I spent my sunday morning running on Town Lake, followed by mowing the lawns and removing that cheesy little flower bed the previous home owners put in. It was hard work but I have a nice tan on my back (of course I used SPF 50 on my rosey English skin).
On Saturday we spent a little time at the mall picking out clothes for Brian to wear on vacation. The hotel is very European, and that means that people dress for dinner. I'm so looking forward to that. Living in a very casual city like Austin, you don't get a chance to dress up much.

Good Friday Indeed....

I remember once my mum asking me on the phone what I was doing for easter. After composing myself from the hilarious laughter that broke out I informed her that I didn't celebrate easter, and that I also didn't belive in god. It was then that she (I hope) jokingly informed me that I'd go to hell. And of course my response to that was that I'm looking forward to the family reunion when I get there, then ;-)

Anyway this easter is being spent in the usual heathen manner. We got Friday off, which was a nice surprise. We spent the day doing yard work. Brian trimmed the tree in the back yard and I went at the bushes outside with the electric trimmer. The True Green lawn guy came by and basically told us we'd have to start over on the lawn. It's awful. Mostly weeds and bald spots.

For dinner we headed to Sushi Sake with Jay & Erin, Tiff, Nick, & Andy. After dinner we went to Shooters to see Brian and Andi play and meet up with Michelle and Barbie. We stopped in on our friend Eric on the way. His bike store is opening next week and he and his partner were working late to build all the bikes. The shop looks awesome! I'm so proud of him.

Dear Daz....

Now that you've had a few days to adjust to your new age. I'd like to take this opportunity to say:

Welcome
to
Middle Age, Old Man!

I'm writing in this large font because it's easier for OLDER people to read. That's just how considerate of a friend I am.

Pooh patrol!

Not the cute and cuddle bear kind of pooh...
We babysat Ethan on Thursday, and had a great time as always. We took him for a run in his jogger and had such a great time out in the beautiful weather.
When Ethan's nappy needed changing, I made an attempt. This was my first time to change a poopy baby. I got as far as taking of the nappy and a couple of wipes and then the gag-reflex kicked in. Brian came to the rescue like my knight in shining armour. He took care of the rest of the poop and we put on a clean nappy. Poor Ethan must have thought we were such ameteurs.
He's such an awesome kid. He never throws fits when he's around us, and does everything he's told, and he's SO polite. He accidentally hit my hand with his toy Spiderman, and of course it didn't hurt and was NO big deal... but he came to me and said "Auntie... I'm sorry I hit your hand with spiderman! I'm sorry auntie." It was SO frickin' cute! Brian and I were SO impressed with his manners.

Smelling the roses for a moment...

I LOVE LIFE!
I'm usually so busy living life that I don't always spend the time to stop and appreciate just how great my life really is. When spring comes and I find myself spending time outside with friends, the sun shining on us and a cool breeze blowing, it really makes me take stock of my life. There are 2 sides to every life, the things you sacrifice and the things you pursue.... I've sacrificed living in my home country near my family, which sometimes takes its toll on me, to pursue a life in America. I miss them dearly. I overcome my homesickness by focusing on the great things in my life. I have the most wonderful friends. A core group of girls who I can truly be myself with. Andi and I were talking about that today. We're all like sisters and we can really just be our goofy selves, no pretenses, around each other. I miss my "real" sisters so very much, and I'm sometimes envious of their friendship, but I chose this life and I chose all the girls who I now call my sisters here. As if that wasn't enough, I have Brian. Truly the most wonderful, sweet, caring man I've ever met. Funny, gorgeous, romantic, silly... The list goes on. In 41 short days Brian will be my husband! it just sounds so funny to say it. And as the day approaches, people ask me if I'm nervous. The answer is no I'm not nervous. There's no doubt in my mind at all that Brian is the one want to be with forever. I'm excited and optimistic about the future. I'm looking forward to marrying him on the beach surrounded by everyone we love. I'm looking forward to being his wife. I'm looking forward to being a parent. I'm even looking forward to being a grandparent. I'm also looking forward to the day we both retire and buy a sail boat to live on and sail around the world.
{inhaling deeply} those are some great smelling roses :-)

Drinks in Cuba, then half way round the world

Ok, so not literally... Barbie and I headed downtown to Cuba Libre for happy hour last night. We drank $3 cosmos, and we ate plantain chips and pot stickers.
After happy hour we headed over to the Fox and Hound to meet up with Ben and a bunch of people from the Austin Yacht Club (I think). Some of you have heard of Ben, he's a very dear friend of Barbie's who cashed in his suit and tie and boring desk job and pursued his dream of sailing around the world in his boat, the Gypsy Soul. Ben has amazing stories and we watched last night as he captivated his audience with a slide show of his travels. Along with every picture came a wonderful story and we could have listened to him for hours. You'd expect someone who is pursuing his dream to be driven and passionate, and I guess Ben is in a subtle way, but what strikes you the most about him, is how laid back he is. We had a great time. We met some cool people too.
I think something I ate disagreed with me, though... by the time I got home I had the worst heartburn I've ever had in my life and my stomach was in knots. After I threw up I felt better.

Awesome wedding!

Our friends Jay and Julia got married this weekend. The wedding was out in the hill country at a ranch near the small town of Wimberley. It was one of the most beautiful weddings I've ever seen, set outside against a backdrop of woods and nature. There was a peacock roaming the grounds that seemed very proud of his colourful plumage. We also spotted two other peacocks that looked like albino peacocks, if there is such a thing. The ceremony was short and sweet, Julia looked absolutely amazing in her wedding dress and Jay, handsome of course in his tux, had never looked more proud and happy. Being an April 1st wedding, the ceremony wasn't without its humour. What stands out in particular was the reference to Julia's cooking skills, and to Jay's air mileage status, which if you know them is very appropriate. Their friend (and ours), Gary, performed the ceremony and did a wonderful job of injecting his own flavour of humour into the ceremony as well. And the funniest part was when one of the readings turned out to be the Pulp Fiction version of Ezekiel 25:17.
The reception was an absolute blast. The food was really good, lots of fresh vegetables, salmon, and chicken. We hung out with all of our friends and also met some of Jay's old room mates and friends from college. They were a very fun bunch! Amy and Brian made a deal with each other that whenever we are all together at a function that has dancing involved, they'd sit out and let me and Gary tear up the dance floor since we both like to dance ;-). I danced with Julia's infamous uncle John, and we hung out with the groomsmen and their friends. We got invited to an after party at Jessie's cabin but with Brian needing to stay sober so he could drive us home, he started to get a little tired, so we gracefully declined and spent a while saying our goodbyes to everyone.
We had a wonderful time, sullied only by a moment of bad judgement on my part in which I unintentionally offended someone. All in all, though, a great evening full of good friends, good food, good wine, good stories, and now, good memories.

Congratulations, Jay and Julia!

fun at the latino bar

Last night was interesting. So my dance instructor has put together a team of girls to go out to clubs and dance, kinda like the go-go dancers at studio 54. You know, girls scattered about the club on podiums shaking their groove thing. Only this would involve a pole. Her first gig was at this latino bar called Rodeo (row-DAY-oh) and she said it wasn't quite like she had in mind but was using this as a test to get a feel for if it would work, and to advertise her business as an instructor. Anyway, Tiff and I wanted to check it out to see if it was something we'd be interested in doing for fun.
So after happy hour we headed home for a while and then met up at midnight to drive down to Rodeo. We brought Brett and Brian with us for obvious reasons. We entered the club and took a quick tour around the room to see if we could spot Nicole. It was the most bizarre feeling because people were staring at us. We headed to a bar and got beers and found a spot to sit and observe the crowd. Nicole showed up a while later with her portable stage and pole. She had brought a girl from Sugars named Emily with her. It wasn't quite what we expected, and certainly nothing that we would consider doing ourselves. The two girls came out to the dance floor and did a sortof strip-tease but only down to a bathing suit, and then they took turns dancing on the pole. Of course Nicole was amazing. Emily was not so amazing, but the crowd seemed to enjoy her. Most likely because her boobs wouldn't stay in her outfit and she didn't seem to care or notice. Very soon after the girls finisehed we left.

So bottom line, it wasn't what we expected, and certainly not for us. I could be a go-go dancer, but not this. No way.