Dresser

Today we put together the lovely dresser that DS's mom got us. I really like it.  I wasn't much help, but I am pretty good at following directions.  There was also a point when all the crossover bits were installed on one side of the dresser, so it had to be held up.  I helped out there too.  The rest was all DS.

Still slowly working on the nursery.  The wall stickers are up, most of the furniture is where I want it, I've filled up the dresser.  The clothes are all washed and put away.  Diapers are prepped.  Still need to sew up all the cloth wipes.  That's going better now that I've converted the coffee table into a fabric cutting station.  Way easier than the floor.  Once those are done, I guess I'll start on the little crochet sea creatures I want to make for the insulated wall.

Also, in case you missed it, there are some new backposts linked over there on the right!  I think I'm all caught up now.

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Random Thoughts

1. I keep seeing clothes I want to buy.  This is stupid, because my maternity clothes are almost too small already because I'm twin sized.  Buying more would be a waste of money, and they'd only be useful for 2.5 months at most.  And I can't try on anything normal because I'm a balloon at the moment.  Why do I keep wanting to buy things anyway??
2. I kind of wish I could have an ultrasound today.  I know these babies have moved, and I can't tell how.  I prefer knowing who is making which movements, and now I can't tell...
3. The low tonight is 29, which means I should figure out fast what to do with the plants left on my balcony.  And yet.. I can't really bring myself to care.  So long plants!
4. I am super happy my hips aren't giving me shooting pains with every step I take today.
5. I have a lot of back posting to do.
6. We moved our bed last night so that I can fit the co-sleeper next to us when the babies come.  Still have to figure out how to rearrange the rest of the bedroom now.
7. I am so excited for this dresser that's on its way thanks to DS's mom.  It's weird to be so happy about a dresser, but I had no idea how I was going to store all those little socks and hats and whatnot.

I thought there were more, but maybe not.  Hopefully I'll get around to back posting soon.  Lots of photos.

Pumpkins!

DS and I carved pumpkins!  He did a scary face, and I did Totoro.  Sitting on the floor and bending over a pumpkin is a lot harder this year, but I managed it.  And we have a ton of seeds for roasting!  I'm really proud of DS's pumpkin, he did a great job.  I sketched it out for him because we didn't have any templates or anything this year (not my design, found it online), and he wasn't sure he could actually carve it. But it looks great!

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6th Anniversary

Wow, I can't believe we've been married for six whole years.  Seems like no time at all.  But it also sort of seems like a lifetime.  It's hard to remember life without him, and honestly, I don't want to.  He is my anchor, and as long as he's with me I feel like I will never be lost.  Life is an adventure that we will face together and always come out okay.  Or even better than okay.  It is more than I ever expected for myself, and I am so thankful.

We spent the day doing fun things.  We went to Linvilla Orchards for the first time.  That place is so insane!  I can't remember the last time I've been among that many people at once.  It was a little overwhelming.  But then, it's the last weekend before Halloween is celebrated for most places.  We thought about apple picking since we didn't get to do that the weekend before, but I think the chaos of the place made us decide against it.  Don't worry, we did get the most important thing, which was apple cider!  They even sell it in these tiny jugs that were perfect for the ride home.

Portable cider!

Tonight we had reservations at City Tavern, which is probably the oldest restaurant in Philly.  You might remember it from when I got to try my first shrub.  This was the first time I've actually eaten there though, and it was DS's first time period.  All the tables are candlelit, which is a nice touch.  The water is served in metal cups.  I had an amazing pot pie.  It was a perfect way to end the day.  Love you babe.

6th Anniversary, at Linvilla Orchards

Babymoon

I had been hearing talk of this babymoon thing early on through my baby app forums.  I'd never heard of such a thing, but the general idea is that you take a romantic vacation, just the two of you, before the baby comes and shakes up everything.  I thought that sounded lovely, especially considering we have two on the way at once.  Some people were talking about big fancy vacations.  One lady even went to Fiji for hers.  I knew we wouldn't be able to do anything like that for several reasons, but that's just fine.  What we decided on instead was our very first bed and breakfast experience, and it was just perfect.

I did some research for B&Bs in the Poconos area.  Neither of us had been there, and we were hoping to go sometime in October in the hopes of catching some lovely foliage.  We chose the Gatehouse Country Inn, which was so amazing.  They have little add on packages you can get, so we did the babymoon package.  It was basically snacks in the room when we got there, but the apple pomegranate sparkling cider was seriously delicious.  It was a really nice way to start the weekend.*

I had been worried about the trip in general because some people are on bedrest by this point.  Thankfully, not only am I still fully mobile, but we were even able to go hiking on Saturday!  We did the Tumbling Waters Trail, which is about 3 miles round trip with a 400ft elevation gain.  I was a bit worried about that last part, but I really wanted to see the waterfall!  The majority of the hike was super easy with lots of big lovely trees and some lakes.  But you had to hike down a big hill to get to the waterfall and then back up up up to leave.  That part took some time.  I had to rest a lot, because it's so hard getting oxygen into my system with all the extra blood.  Plus, the babies steal most of what I do get.  But I managed the whole thing without incident, and DS was super awesome about being patient and waiting for me to inch my way up.  So worth it.

Of course, afterwards I ate a feast and then took a 2 hour nap...

Sunday we found a close farm and pick pumpkins out of a patch.  It feels like it's been forever since I've done that!  We were going to go apple picking too, but it would seem the area had a horrible harvest because of a late frost killing off all the blossoms in the spring :(  That was kind of sad, but I made up for it by getting the world's biggest pumpkin.  Okay, not really, but it is 30lbs!

Oh, and the breakfasts!  Man, so delicious.  I need to learn how to make a sun-dried tomato quiche.  Really a perfect weekend.  So happy we had this time together.

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*Unfortunately, right before we arrived we saw a baby deer cross the road, which was followed by its mother.  I was so excited, and then absolutely crushed when the mom hobbled across the street on 3 legs.  She had recently been hit and her fourth leg was managed.  I bawled like a baby.  I'm tearing up now just thinking about it.  *sigh*

Beautiful Fall Day

The weather today is kind of amazing.  Perhaps a little hotter than I would want in October (the high is 81°F), but slightly breezy with just a few clouds.  I spent the day at the local park with my friend Sarah and her toddler friend, who we've been calling "Mark" here.  The whole place has been decorated for fall.  There are hay bales and cornstalks around the lampposts surrounding the fountain, which are ornamented with various kinds of pumpkins and mums.  The buildings and miniature golf course have fake spiderwebs all over them.  The carousel is playing spooky music.  Perfect.

This may very well have been my last chance to go to the park with this little guy, which is sad.  He's starting school, and Sarah will be moving on to a new family that isn't close enough for us to have this kind of park time.  I will really miss it.  It gets me out of the house, which I'm sure will be something I'm really craving soon.  Plus Mark is tons of fun and adorable.  He's taught me a lot about caring for toddlers that I hope I'll remember by the time my kids are his age.  I'm not even sure when I'll see Sarah once she's working somewhere else.  This was the bulk of our hanging out, and now we'll have to actually try to schedule in time around work :/

But enough sad stuff.  Today was just great.  And it was also completely filled with pumpkin.  I had a pumpkin spice latte from Starbucks with their pumpkin scone for breakfast, and then the pumpkin pie milkshake from Square Burger this afternoon.  Seriously, fall is just the absolute best.

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PA Shower

Man, I'm tired.  Who would have thought that running around in a field while 24 weeks pregnant with twins wear you out?  Ha!

This weekend was my local PA shower.  It was so lovely, truly.  A lot smaller than the KY, mostly because the majority of our friends are now spread far and wide and are hard to gather.  I am so thankful for the three that came in for the weekend; two from Albany and one from Syracuse.  Not the worst drive in the world, but a decent distance for a party.  I love that we have places to put people when they come to town, even if it's limited.

This particular party was hosted by my friend Bri at her dad's house.  He has a huge yard, big deck, and a pool.  Unfortunately, it ended up be too chilly for a pool, though he did invite us back to teach the kids how to swim once they're here!  There was badminton and bocce ball, an adorable cat named Gray, lots of craft beer for DS, and food!

Seriously, the food.  Bri made almost everything.  We had burgers and hot dogs from the grill, baked mac and cheese, fruit, hummus, chips, some soda.  Then came the desserts!!  Apple pie, strawberry shortcake cupcakes, both vanilla bean and pumpkin ice cream.  I tell you what, homemade desserts are where it's at!

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23 Week Growth Scan

The babies are officially 23 weeks and 1 day!  We had a growth scan today, which is just a follow up to the anatomy scan.  Much shorter though!

Both babies weigh 1lb 2oz each.  They're breech and sitting on my bladder, turds.  The docs say they look perfect, and we don't have to go back for four weeks.  We're really happy :)

Baby A

Baby B had his back to us the whole time.

Bliss

Today has been a good day.  No, a great day.

The high was 72.  DS stayed home with me this morning since we had an OB appt at 8:45am.  I wore some of my new clothes from Mom.  The OB appt went great, which was really nice considering I left the last one crying because that doctor kept telling me I had gained way too much weight.  This guy didn't even mention it.  I got a prescription for my heartburn, and haven't had a problem all day.  This is amazing.

This afternoon I met Sarah and her little friend at the park.  I enjoyed my free Pumpkin Spiced Latte from Starbucks for my birthday.  I talked to another mom.  Everyone had good times.

When I got home, the giant box from my mom had arrived, along with my new knitting needles (sizes 1-14!) that I got with my birthday money.  The windows were still open and the house feels great.  I mapped out the day and discovered I walked 3.79 miles today.  I'm having homemade soup for dinner.

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The Rest of KY

The rest of my visit to KY was kind of busy but fun.  It went as follows:

Monday: Spent the day on the internet, then the evening with the parents watching tv and playing Sudoku.

Tuesday: Met a girl from my pregnancy forum to go shopping in Lexington.  Had sushi (not the raw stuff, *sigh*) and ice cream.  Went back to town and hung out with my stepdad for a while.  Drove out to Anna and Jason's house, where I played with their cat and bunny and talked baseball.  Then had dinner with Anna (delicious).

Wednesday: Woke up to balloons and a card for my birthday, and one card from "the babies".  Hung out with my old neighbor Raiden and her youngest.  Watched The Corpse Bride twice (kids...).  Went shopping with Mom for my birthday (hello new clothes!  hello Kohl's 50% off sale!).  Had dinner with the parents for my birthday.  Had a friend stop by after dinner that I hadn't seen since high school for cupcakes and ice cream.

Thursday: By this point I was exhausted.  No naps all week!  Lots of running around.  So I was slow moving, but managed to shower and eat before the parents took me to the airport.  We had lunch there before I went through security, because they are awesome like that.  Got back to Philly and found a cab, which drove like an absolute maniac.  I was honestly a little scared, not to mention uncomfortable hitting the bumps in the crap roads at those speeds and feeling my whole uterus bounce.  I don't recommend it.  Got home, collapsed for a while, waited for DS to get home.  The rest of that day is a blur.. I assume I ate, but I don't remember what.

On the way there I had packed my largest suitcase with my carryon inside it.  All of my stuff fit inside the carryon, which meant the entire large suitcase was free for taking home shower gifts.  I ended up filling that, filling the diaper bag I got and having that be my carryon instead, and still Mom had to ship me two boxes of stuff.  And for reference, one was books, and one was clothes and boppy pillows that weighed 35lbs.  THIRTY-FIVE POUNDS.  To say we were given a lot of stuff would be an understatement.  We are very lucky.

Ky Baby Shower!

I'd say my first baby shower was a huge success!  So exciting :D  We had a great turn out, and my mom really went all out organizing everything.  The theme was "Two Peas in a Pod", and there were yellow and green streamers and balloons decorating the house.  We even had themed M&M's.  Mom made almost all of the food herself, including pulled pork bbq, which I even liked.  SURPRISE!  We also had three different flavors of cupcakes from my friend Lisa that were so delicious I had two.

Here are a few of the photos from the day.  You can see the rest here if you're so inclined!

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Friendly Visits

Whew!  We just finished having two sets of house guests here.  Fun times!  Though sleeping arrangements Friday night when they overlapped was a bit tricky.  Good thing we bought that extra air mattress recently.

Sam and Brett had a wedding to attend in NJ about 45 min from our place, and took this opportunity to visit us for the first time since moving here.  First time visits are always fun, because there's so much to see and do in the city.  And they had some firsts with me.  Ever since kimberlina mentioned shrubs, I've been wanting to try one.  We have a restaurant here called City Tavern that has been around in the 1700's that still serves shrub beverages.  So I had a raspberry shrub with soda water, and Sam had hers with rum.  We were both super happy with them.  Vinegar for the win!

Sam and I enjoy our first shrubs in City Tavern.

 We did many other fun things.  We even had ice cream for lunch one day.  And I finally got to go back to Alma de Cuba for dinner, which hasn't happened since DS and I came to Philadelphia to be decide whether or not we wanted to live here.  I seriously love that place.

Sam and I share a "Ladies Choice" at Franklin Fountain: raspberry soda, peach ice cream, whip cream.

While they were here I also hit the 20 week milestone of my pregnancy.  That's officially half way!  Though the doctors won't let me go past 39w, so more than halfway for me.

Sam and I, 20w.  Nell is hanging out on the couch!

 Sam and Brett left Saturday for wedding things, and then we had Nell and Brian until Sunday.  They were on their way to their new home in New York.  We're so happy to have more of our friends within driving distance of us!  And DS was happy they were in town especially, because they all went climbing together Saturday afternoon.  Saturday night there were board games and pizza.  Though by this point all the running around was catching up to me and I spent the evening half asleep in the chair before retiring early.  Having them close means more board game time though, which we've really missed!  And they're close enough to come back down for the PA shower at the end of the month.  Now if we could just get Brett and Sam closer...

Summer Endings

This weekend marked our last full weekend together and alone for the foreseeable future.  We have house guests coming this week, and then between my trip to KY and school starting and conferences, we'll have something going on until mid fall.  Not that we won't see each other, but things will be busy!  So we decided to make sure we made the most of this weekend.

Yesterday we went hiking at Nockamixon State Park (there's a lake, but I didn't see it).  It's a place that DS goes bouldering (rock climbing) by himself, and I decided to tag along for the exercise.  Regular ol' hiking is more than enough exercise now.  I took a book so I wouldn't get bored while he climbed.  It was a really nice day, and there wasn't anyone else there.  So lovely and quiet.

Today we got some grocery shopping done, put a giant stew teeming with vegetables in the crock pot, and put together the crib.  We are so excited!  Having the crib up makes things feel more real for sure.

That's my giant care bear that I've had for nearly 10 years in there, and the whale tub sitting next to it.  The bedding set isn't here yet, so right now there's just the mattress and a couple of my old baby blankets in there.  I also ended up sticking the two quilts DS's grandmother gave us in there.  There are some built in shelves in this room that used to have a bunch of my craft books and whatnot.  I cleaned that out this week so it can hold baby things.  It's not a huge difference, but it makes it feel more nursery-like while the babies are sharing space with the office.

We have a tentative plan for insulating that brick by the crib.  It gets super cold in the winter, and this room is over our landlord's bedroom, and you can hear everything through that brick.  (yes, I do mean everything, it's a little embarrassing to be in there at times; I'm glad it's not where we sleep.)  Hopefully some insulation will help them sleep better until we're able to buy a house.

Making progress!  Now we're looking forward to some of our Santa Barbara friends coming to stay.  Exciting times ahead!

Anatomy Scan!

Today we got to look at the babies for almost an hour and a half.  They're so much bigger than they were before!  About 6 inches, CRAZY.  Baby A weighs about 9 ounces, and Baby B about 8 ounces.  Pretty much every inch of their bodies were measured.  Their skulls, parts of their brains, their kidneys, their stomachs.  Their bones have started calcifying, so we could actually make out every single vertebrae and rib.  The tech had to make sure their hearts were functioning properly, so she watched those in slow mo.  It was really cool to see all 4 chambers working together.

Their nervous systems have started functioning, so they have some controlled movements now.  We watched both of them sucking their thumbs at various points.  They also both got the hiccups.  They had liquid in their stomachs and bladders, which meant they're properly swallowing amniotic fluid and their kidneys are working.  Good job babies!

Baby B, thumb sucking

Baby A, relaxing

Baby A was wiggling all over the place as usual, so finding out the sex took a while with that one.  The tech moved to Baby B hoping we could come back to the other one at the end.  Baby B was not shy.

The tech says, "So now I have to give you my spiel about us not being 100% sure on the sex, but if that's not a boy you'll have to bring him back here for me to see!"  She finished up with the measurements she could get (Baby B was in the wrong spot to get a back of the brain measurement), and then decided to do some of her computer work that she would normally have done at the end when she didn't need us anymore.  Otherwise we would have been back in 2 weeks or so, and we're already going every 4 weeks because we're high risk.  There was about a half hour between that shot of B's legs and when she finished entering our measurements.  I just knew that A would end up being a boy too, because in 19 weeks we've only thought of one name, and it was for a girl.

And sure enough:

Jerks!  I keep calling them my jerk babies, and little things like this are why.  I laughed when we saw him like this, and I said, "he must have heard you saying how good Baby B was being and got jealous!"  The "BOY" type is in his umbilical cord, but the more defined part is his penis.  This shot isn't as easy to read as B's, because you can't really see his legs, so I labeled his butt for you.

So we have all their measurements!  And the doctor came in and did a quick check for herself and told us how happy she was everyone is doing fine.  They both also commented on how easy the scan was to do because I'm so skinny.  :)

Other than the fact that I started getting super hot at one point from the pressure the babies were putting on my blood vessels while lying on my back, this was a great visit.  We'll go back every 4 weeks, but they'll be shorter check ups called growth scans.  Those will be to make sure each baby is growing as they should, and that they're not having issues with things like intrauterine growth restriction or large discrepancies between the two which would be possible reasons to induce early.

Here's one last pic of them both.  It's still super hard to fit them both in one photo.

Baby B on the left, thumb sucking, Baby A's head on the right

Stargazing

This weekend DS and I drove down to WV to visit his grandparents.  We know we won't be able to travel for Christmas or Thanksgiving this year since I'm not supposed to get out of easy range of the hospital after 24 weeks.  His mom and aunt also came up, so it a nice little family gathering.

The weather was fantastic, especially coming from all the upper 90's we've been having here.  I actually wore pants and got chilly at night.  We slept with the windows open.  It was also the peak weekend of the Perseid Meteor Shower, and WV is probably the most perfect place to watch stars on the east side of the US.

Saturday afternoon we hiked up Bickle Knob.  There's a fire tower at the top, and it's a lovely place to enjoy the landscape.  Honestly, it's not much of a hike.  You drive most of the way up.  But you can't beat the view, especially in the fall.  I was impressed with my ability to climb up all the stairs of the tower.  Anything remotely cardio is a lot harder these days, it's kind of depressing.

DS and I at the top of the fire tower on Bickle Knob.

That night we went back up to view the meteor shower.  Some of them were really bright and amazing.  We didn't stay out late enough for them to really get going, but I'm still really excited with the amount we did see.  I've never lived anywhere before where I could see a meteor shower, so that was awesome.

It's pretty difficult to photograph actual meteors.  There's not a lot of light, and they're not in the sky for very long.  But DS was able to take some cool photos of the sky with a long exposure.  The lines you're seeing are the paths of the stars across the sky as the earth rotates during the exposure.  The lines get smaller in the upper left corner because it was center of the rotation.  Pretty cool huh?

Long exposure of the sky over WV on Aug 11, 2012.

So we had a pretty great weekend.  The food was good, the company was good.  One of his grandmothers even gave us two handmade quilts her friend made for the babies.  She also gave us a wrapped gift "for the shower" that we're not allowed to open yet :)  Now if his other grandmother could just feel better, things would be perfect.

Color Me Rad 5k

This spring I decided to sign up for my first 5k.  My friend Sarah agreed to do it with me, and we both started training.  I was actually making some pretty good headway and was running probably the best I ever have.  Of course, then I got pregnant.  It was really hard to do much of anything for a while, much less run.  So exhausted :P

Anywho, I realized I'd never even gotten these photos off my camera.  This particular race involves getting hit with colored cornstarch, or "color bombs".  It's not timed, anyone can do it, even babies.  They don't care if you walk it or run it.  In fact, the rules say you should finish by sunset so you can see where you're going.  So we jogged just a bit, but mostly walked.  I'm sad I wasn't able to run it, I feel like I was so close before things got nuts!  But it was seriously a LOT of fun, and if you ever get a chance to do this or something like it, I highly recommend it.

Photos are all taken by DS on June 17, 2012.

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Eastern State Penitentiary

I've been showing my mom and her husband around Philadelphia for the past few days.  Today they wanted to tour the penitentiary.  I've always wanted to tour it myself, so I gladly agreed.  This place was famous for its "Pennsylvania System" of inmate care, which was basically severe solitary confinement.  Now it's mostly remembered for house Al Capone, possibly being haunted, and hosting one of the scariest haunted houses in the US.  As someone who studied Historic Preservation, I am intrigued by the architecture, and the decision to leave it as a "preserved ruin."  It's a really cool place, and I can't believe I hadn't been there sooner.  DS was working, so the two of us will definitely have to go back some time, and next time I'll take a better camera.

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Twins!

So you're probably wondering where I've been for the last forever.  The truth is, I'm pregnant!  DS and I are expecting twins "January 18th".  Or 13th, as Friday's ultrasound tech mentioned to me for the first time after 6 appointments.  I have no idea.  I haven't been overly worried about their due date since twins pretty much always come by 38 weeks, on average around 36, and a decent percentage as early as 32.  We we're saying roughly this holiday season.

Two babies!  Horribly blurry photos!

Hooray!  We're so excited.  We're finally in the second trimester and feel like we can tell people.  There's always a chance something will happen before the 20th week, but the chances are much smaller now.  And we live less than 3 miles from the best neonatal hospital in the nation, so while preemies are a concern, I feel that we're in great hands.

Not being able to talk about something that has been basically occupying all my thoughts hasn't left much to write about.  I do think I left out a post or two because I got distracted, which I'll try to fill in later.  I've been sleeping and resting a lot.  Eating more than I thought possible.  Doing pretty well with the nausea thing once I figured out that I wasn't eating enough.

Now that I'm starting to feel a little more normal, it's strange to discover some new limitations.  The last two nights I've noticed an uncomfortable pressure if I lay too much on my stomach, which I knew was coming but is still a bummer since I sleep like that a lot.  Pregnancy pillow is on its way!  I have to be careful about my laptop too, because I lounge on the couch with it a lot, and the heat bothers me now.  Steps are like torture on my lungs and heart.  It's hard to believe that when I found out I was pregnant I was training for a 5k and running better than I ever have in my life.  (I walked that 5k...)  Now I'm tired if I walk too fast or too long.  *sigh*

Truthfully, pregnancy itself is totally lame.  I keep asking DS if they can be here already (he tells me he actually ordered that for me as a surprise, but it's on back order), or if I can borrow an 18 year old body for a while and that I promise to give it back afterwards.  But I'm still so excited for babies!!!  I can't wait :)  And I know there will be major adjustments, and lack of sleep, and all that stuff, but I am so ready to be blown away.

13w scan.  Baby A is the blob to the right; it wasn't feeling photogenic.

Lots of House Guests!

We've started a tradition, inspired by DS's grad school advisor, where we take his research students out for drinks every couple of months.  There are only 6 of them, so it's not that big of a deal, and it's good for morale I think.  It had been a while since we did it, so on Wednesday we mixed it up a little bit by having them over for dinner.  This of course required some mega cleaning, and it always feels good to have that done.

We grilled some burgers, corn on the cob, and pineapple chunks out on our balcony.  We also had those brined pork chops we love so much ready, but everyone brought food so it would have been way too much.  Those just went in the freezer, and they'll come in handy this weekend.  There was also the yummiest fruit salad, the best asian dumplings I've ever had, and some rice and duck.  So much food, and of course, beer.  The cats put on quite a show, especially Winston (as if you had any doubts).  They were all blown away by how talkative he is, and they were all slightly disappointed that neither of them wanted to curl up with anyone.  One guy tried so hard to get them to love him, and then learned the hard way that he's allergic after rubbing his face in their fur :/  That did not deter him though!

This weekend, our friends from Brooklyn are coming down.  It's a good time since it's a long weekend, though it's supposed to be almost 90 all weekend.  Also, these types of holidays are sort of tourist traps in historical cities like this one.  I'm not sure what they'll want to do, but I'm sure we'll find something entertaining.

Next weekend, Luke and his new wife, Adrienne, are coming for the first time.  I'm really excited to show them around, and I hope the weather doesn't make us too miserable.  It looks like it should cool down by the middle of the week, which is a relief.

Go Phils!

Last night I was unexpectedly invited to a girl's night at the Phillies game!  One of Bri's friends were in town and had two extra tickets.  They were amazing seats, just 11 rows back.  Also, it was free hat night, so I officially own real Phillies gear now.  Whoo!

The only downside was that it rained all night.  I'm so happy we got those free hats, because I didn't have to worry about wiping rain off my glasses all night.   However, I was still rather wet when I got home.  But we won!  And I had ice cream with sprinkles out of a little hat!  Good times, good times.

A Look Back at the Jungle Mobile

You may remember a while back that I posted about a jungle mobile I designed for a friend's baby.  Recently I got an update on how it's holding up, and I was so tickled with the results.

Ellie's crib, with mobile

This is Ellie's room.  The alphabet tree still needs leaves I'm told, but that's where the mobile hangs!

Ellie with her Tiger and Elephant

And this is Ellie holding two of the animals.  She's now 1!  I'm really happy to see that they get used for play time, since that's how I envisioned them working.  Also, I just can't believe how big they look in her hands.  Her mom tells me that Ellie cries whenever they have to be taken away for things like bath time.  !!  I'm not a fan of babies crying, but wow is that a compliment :D

Cinco de Matto - 2012

Holy wow!  My friend Matt, the one that married us and lives in Brooklyn, has a birthday on May 5th.  So it's always Cinco de Mayo, and quite often the Kentucky Derby, when he celebrates.  He calls it Cinco de Matto, as well he should.

This was the first year we were able to make it up there for his birthday.  It was kind of insane.  Nearly 50 people RSVP'd yes to coming.  You guys, I don't think I even know 50 people.  We spent most of Saturday setting up, and then the rest of the evening dancing, talking, and watching fire spinning on the roof.  I attempted to document the proceedings while learning the manual settings on my camera.

It was an epic night.  There were 5 gallons of red margarita.  Brownies, bruschetta, mints, balloons.  Everything and everyone was decked in red and black, even the lights!  I was really impressed with everyone's clothing.  Honestly, check it out!

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Be happy you weren't there for the cleanup the next morning!

First World Problems

I have some posting to catch up on, I know.  But I wanted to tell you about the worst thing that happened to me yesterday.

It wasn't that my laptop problems got bad enough that apple took it away from me to extensive repairs.  It wasn't that a lack of a laptop meant that my only computer in the living room was the pc, from which you can't see the tv.

It was that while playing the Sims 3 on said pc, my pet cat (Felix Yau) left me due to neglect.  My sim freaked out for 2 whole days.  I really miss that cat.

Seriously though, life is pretty good.

Aerials, Anchors, & Little Helpers

It simultaneously feels like time is flying and we're super busy, and that we're not doing anything at all.  I'm trying to remember everything that's happened since my last post.  At first, I didn't think it was much, but the more I think about it, it's kind of a lot.  Not all of it is interesting though.

Remember "Mark"?  He came over for a bit yesterday.  It was absolutely gorgeous out.  Just the right amount of sun and heat and breeze with no humidity.  He spent some time attempting to catch the cats, who had never been around children before.  They were understandably wary, but surprisingly well behaved.  They even ended up taking treats from his hand, though we had to help him hold still enough that the cats didn't start.  When it seemed like the cats had had enough treats, Sarah told me how much "Mark" loves watering plants.  She was not kidding!  I think he watered my tomato about 20 times.  It's a good thing I wasn't putting much in his watering can.  I had a little one hiding in the cabinets that I never use, and I was filling it up on the balcony from my big one so his wasn't too heavy.  After the big one was empty, we tried telling him he was done and the water was gone.  And then he discovered the cats' water fountain and attempted to refill the big one himself.  It would seem he doesn't quite understand water flow yet ;)

"Mark" attempts to refill the watering can.

DS has been taking me to Birdsboro Rock Quarry, which is now a sport climbing place and lake.  I've never been a serious outdoor climber, and what little I have done was mostly top roping.  I had some things to learn about proper technique for clipping and cleaning the anchor.  It makes climbing quite a bit scarier, because you typically have further to fall than you do with a top rope.  It took two trips, but I've learned enough that I can do everything.  Now I just need to work on my outdoor climbing skills (outdoor climbs are a bit harder than indoor ones typically) and my nerve.  It's really exciting stuff, and I love that DS and I have a physical activity that we can do together again.

In an attempt to motivate ourselves to keep working out, Sarah and I have decided to run a 5k this summer.  I've never run anything before.  I'm a horrible runner.  But I have noticed that in the year since I last visited a real gym I've gotten significantly better at it.  Not to say I'm "good", but by comparison, definitely better.  I'm nervous about the idea of running anything at all, though this race is not typical.  It's called Color Me Rad, (seems almost identical to The Color Run) and you can walk or run or anything you want.  It's not timed.  You wear white and get hit with "color bombs" which dye you all kinds of crazy colors.  I think it will be a lot of fun, and it seems like the perfect way to try out a 5k.

Monday DS and I checked out a gymnastics studio which recently put up a rock climbing wall.  We weren't expecting the wall to be very big, but we did have hopes about the studio equipment.  It was advertised as Open Gym, and their website indicated that they provide instruction on vault, bars, balance beam, and floor exercise.  Floor exercise alone is huge in terms of space.  Unfortunately, this place was tiny.  It had a bar, but it was for small children.  The trampoline wasn't much bigger than those individual ones people put in their houses.  I was pretty bummed, as I was looking forward to playing around with stuff I haven't had access to since high school.  But there was a slackline, which is harder than I imagined, and a mat laid out for a line of tumbling.  A few of us were attempting aerials.  I used to be able to do one, but it would seem that now I have trouble trusting my body to make it around without killing me; my hands kept reaching for the floor at the last minute.  It's a very strange thing to have muscle memory for things your body can't do anymore.  I remember in exacting detail how to do each aspect of a back handspring, but if I tried one now, I'd most likely break my neck.  I have dreams all the time about doing gymnastics.  I miss it a lot.

Oh, and I got my new glasses today!  Hooray for being able to see again! :D

"Trapped Princess in the Tower"*

or: How I Spent the Day Locked on the Balcony

It was not my best day.  Certainly not my worst, but still, not very good.  The locks on our doors only have key holes on the outside.  The inside has L-shaped door knobs, and a twisting thing for the dead bolt and lock.  The one mechanism serves as both options.  When the switch is vertical, the door is completely unlocked and openable from both sides.  At horizontal, both the door knob will not turn and the dead bolt is thrown.  When you unlock it, by default it slides into a position between these two.  Here, the door knob will turn from the inside, and the dead bolt is open, but the door is still locked from the outside.  This is how our locks are most of the time we're home.

I've never really thought too much about the balcony door locking from the outside, even though I've accidentally locked myself out of the front door once before by forgetting to double check the funny lock. The lock on the balcony door for the most part just keeps the door closed for us, since it's pretty warped from all the times the ceiling has leaked over it.  Actually closing the door is usually difficult.  We've lived here nearly 2 years now, and never once have I had to worry about the status of my balcony door lock.

I went out on the balcony today to check on my plants as usual.  Felix joined me.  I was in pajamas, no shoes or socks, just a thin pair of flip flops to keep the rust off my feet.  We must have been out there for 2 minutes when a gust of wind from the open bedroom window slammed the door shut.  With it half locked.

It was some time between 2:45 and 3.  It was windy, and a little on the chilly side for no socks and short sleeves.  The balcony floor is metal.  DS wasn't due to come home from work until 6:30, and both my phone and keys were in the house still.  Felix and I reluctantly settled in for a long wait.

There were two things regarding this experience for which I was grateful:  It wasn't raining, and there's a shower curtain folded up on the balcony for emergency plant protection.  That shower curtain was my only protection from the wind, and I did my best to curl up in it so I would freeze.  The plastic kept Felix from wanting to curl up with me, which is too bad, because I was still fairly cold even with the wind protection.  She also was very offended that I was not letting her back in the house, and she spent the 3.5 hours I was stuck out there crying.

I attempted to sleep some, but mostly only managed a sort of meditative state to pass the time.  I also spent a lot of time watching the clouds, which wasn't so bad, and watching people either walk their dogs or walk/run past.  I couldn't see any clocks from where I was, so I tried to judge the passage of time by the way traffic changed and how many cars were parking, or how many people were in the easement next to the interstate playing with their dogs.

Felix and I were both very relieved when DS came home and freed us.  We were hungry and cold and in need of bathrooms.  The rest of the evening has been spent huddled in blankets and vegging on the couch.  For both of us.  Perhaps it's not so unusual for her, being a cat and all.

So note to self:  Always fully unlock the balcony door before going out there, just to be safe.

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*My special thanks to Monkey for putting my day into words that gave it a sense of whimsy.  It somehow made it better.

Busy Busy

So much to do lately!  It's all good stuff, but it's piling up in a way that's verging on stressful.  I need to work on time management!

Saturday I walked around with Bri downtown to help her find a new apartment.  It was chilly, and a bit damp, but I haven't been seeing much of her so it was nice to have time to talk.  Also, we found an adorable studio downtown with great views of the city.  The landlord is letting her paint.  Exciting!  DS and I also picked up a new climbing rope and a helmet for me.  Outdoor climbing is so close.

Sunday was climbing gym day.  We were there for several hours, and I managed to completely exhaust myself.  It's a good feeling.  Also, I on-sighted a 5.8 climb.  Whoo!  I love how you always know how well you're doing in climbing because of the rating system.  As we were walking home, we were asked by Sarah and Bri to join them for dinner at a place right by our house, so we changed quickly and met up with them.  And then after that we hurried to Dan's house to watch the premier of Season 2 of Game of Thrones (omg so excited for this season).

Monday I went to a regular gym with Sarah.  We scored a Groupon deal that got us 20 non-consecutive visits for just $15, which includes all their classes and tanning and sauna and everything that's there.  It's a pretty sweet deal.  We ended up being there for 2 hours, and I was completely surprised by how easily I was able to jog on the treadmill.  Afterwards we went back to her place so I could work on her couch some more.  And when it was time to go home and I was still working on the same cushion, I got exasperated and asked to steal a cushion so I could work on it at home.  I had a quick dinner with DS and then met up with Bri again to help her move some stuff into her new apartment.  We measured all the walls for reference, since she'll have to pare down some of her furniture in this place.  When I got home I used my drafting skills to draw it all out to-scale for her.  And then I spent some time watching Star Trek: The Next Generation while I pinned fabric for a couch cushion.

Today I have an eye doctor appointment.  I'm excited to finally be able to get glasses that aren't scratched up from hurricane...  I think they've been giving me headaches, so I'm looking forward to alleviating those.  I have a lot of house chores to catch up on since I haven't been home much.  More couch to sew.  Possibly measuring Bri's furniture.  And First Friday is this week, so I've been trying to find time to work on making new things to sell.

So much happening!  It doesn't make for very exciting blog posts, but what can you do.  The rest of the week and weekend are looking busy also.

New Pants, New Characters

DS and I really want to go camping.  We also want to start climbing outside now that the temperatures getting pretty nice.  Unfortunately, the weather has been playing mean tricks on us.  It keeps being sunny throughout the week, and then raining all weekend.  This weekend's rain has already started.  *sigh*

I read something about burning calories today, and how hard it is to actually burn enough calories through to make up for the things you eat.  And while that is true when you're looking solely at exercise specific totals (I would burn around 250 calories walking for an hour), that's not the only factor to consider.  I'd of course heard before that your metabolism matters, and I'm finding that out more and more lately.  I've been building a lot of muscle, and each of those muscles burn up more calories than before, even just sitting around.  I can tell, because as I mentioned yesterday, I've been starving for about a week and a half straight.  Even though I'm eating an insane amount of food, I'm always hungry.  And I lost another pound today.  I had gained a little bit of weight early on in my exercising, which I think is normal, so I'm about back to where I was at the end of my last exercising bout.  The hunger was especially bad after I did an intense leg workout earlier in the week.  Leg muscles are big muscles.  I think I pushed myself too hard though, because I was completely exhausted for the next two days.

More importantly, I am shrinking in size.  I bought a pair of jeans in a size 8 today, and they fit.  They're still a bit big in my waist, due to my pear-ness, but I'm super excited they fit in hip and thigh.  I'm both happy to be getting smaller, and sad at the idea of needing all new pants... Thank goodness for belts!  Also, I will be hanging on to all these pants for a while, because knowing me, at some point I will get tired of all this "work" and end up needing them again.

I have one episode left of Star Trek: The Animated Series.  Man.  I'd seen some of it before, so I knew it was bad, but boy is it ever bad.  Seriously seriously bad.  Though it is nice to see that they took advantage of the animated platform to introduce a whole range of crazy looking aliens that a live-action show would make difficult.  Check some of them out:

M'Ress

Arex

Aleek-Om

It was nice to see non-humanoid characters throughout the 22 episodes, but I'm looking forward to moving on to The Next Generation.

Violin on Crack

Last night DS and I went to see the Philadelphia Orchestra.  They were doing La Mer by Debussey, which DS apparently really likes, so we snatched up some tickets while they were on sale for $10.  Whoo! to that.  They opened the program Bartók's Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celesta.  It was interesting, kind of creepy in the beginning.  Then the conductor's own Violin Concerto was performed.  Before the concert, DS was reading the program and said, "This sounds like it's just going to be the violin showing off."  Which sounded kind of cool.

And then it started.  Truer words were never spoken.  You guys, there is no doubt at all that the soloist was amazingly talented, but attempting to play every note at once on the violin does not a good piece of music make.  Seriously.  It was all over the place, with no anchoring theme except that the violin was on crack the whole time.  The only thing even kind of cool about it was the third movement, and even then only for a few minutes.  I felt so sorry for the rest of the orchestra.  Most of them just sat there looking bored.  DS said he caught people making faces at each other.  I think maybe, MAYBE, each person played for a minute and a half total.  Most of that was very spread out.  It was a 30 minute piece you guys.  *sigh*  I feel bad that I didn't like it, because I thought I liked contemporary stuff for the most part.  But this piece just didn't speak to me at all.  By the time La Mer started, I was getting sleepy.  I liked bits of the first movement, and the third movement, but I don't even remember the second...

Also, I would like to take a moment to brag.  Last night I wore a dress that I bought in high school.  It's a size 6*.  It was kind of amazing.  I must be burning a heck of a lot of calories with the exercises and climbing I've been doing lately, because I've been starving all the time and basically stuffing my face constantly, and yet I'm not gaining weight.  I'm most excited about the quantifiable changes, like going up a climb with ease when just last week I was struggling with it and falling a lot.  Some of that is practice of course.  A lot of climbing is just knowing how to move your body.  I love that there's so much thought in it, and not just strength.  But truly, I feel stronger every day.

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*I can only pull something like that off in a dress with a flared bottom.  I've always had a pear shape, and my hip to waist ratio is kind of absurd...  I'm still wearing size 10 pants. :P  But I will take this victory!

It's Spring!

Spring is here!  In fact, in PA it came early.  Starting March 7th, almost every day has been at least 60°, many of them in the mid-70's.  The average high for March here is only 53°, and on Friday it was 80°.  The 10 day forecast has temps returning to something a little more normal, but still on the warm side.

As much as I think this is probably not a good sign in terms of me hating this summer, DS and I have been very diligently taking advantage of how nice it is right now.  To start, as soon as I noticed that there was no indication of freezing temperatures anymore*, I set out for Home Depot to restart my balcony garden.  This year I have three kinds of lettuce, brussel sprouts, oregano, rosemary, catnip, cilantro, and strawberries.  I plan to have more stuff as soon as I can find it, but things like tomatoes weren't even in the store yet.  I have carrot seeds too, which I'm pretty excited about.

Clockwise from top: Strawberries, Cilantro, Catnip, Oregano

I've been spending a couple days per week visiting Sarah in Franklin Square park.  She's a nanny for this adorable kid we'll call Mark who is 16 months old.  He doesn't talk yet, but he knows sign language, so we can have conversations of a sort.  As a result, and because of my secret deep love of the show Switched At Birth, I've been learning sign language too.  This Thursday is the grand re-opening of the park, where they'll open the carousel, miniature golf course, and the shake place.  Sarah wants to buy Mark a milkshake.  I'm just excited to be going to the park so much.  It's a really awesome little place.  The best is when the Chinese kids get out of school (we're right by Chinatown) and come set up their boombox for breakdancing sessions.  Mark loves it so much that he's been making up his own breakdancing moves.

"Mark" plays peek-a-boo in Franklin Square Park.  He hid for like 9 minutes that time.

We've been looking into place to climb outside as soon as we get a new rope and some weekend days that don't include rain.  Hopefully in April.  To prepare, DS and I went hiking around Birdsboro, PA.  There's an old quarry there that is now a water reservoir, and the remaining exposed rock has been bolted for sport climbing.  It was a nice little place, and I especially enjoyed the two wire cable bridges you have to cross to get to the area.

If you'll recall from the Changes and Challenges post, we had two extra cats living here for a while.  They moved out right after we got back from the snowboarding trip, but last weekend we had them again while their owner was out of town.  Aside from some superficial hissing as the cats came in, it would seem that the forced cohabitation did the trick!  We had some actual getting along, and it was very exciting for DS and I.  Our cats have never before been okay around any other animal, and look at them now!

Johann and Winston share the bed.

Progress on Sarah's couch is coming along really well, though very slowly.  I keep meaning to take a picture of it, but forgetting.  She's only about a mile away from me, which is easy walking distance.  Thursday I met her at Llama Tooth, an adorable little bar near her house, for drinks on their patio.

The patio of Llama Tooth.  There are worse ways to enjoy an evening.

Today marked six days in a row of working out.  I'm trying to vary what I do every day so my muscles don't get overly sore and I don't get bored.  I can already tell it's making a difference in my climbing.  Yesterday I conquered a beast that I thought was just too big for me, and it was so exciting.  There are quite a few climbs in the gym that seem to be set by someone about 7 feet tall, so figuring out a way to get my munchkin self up them always makes me feel very accomplished.  Their setting initials are BJR, and I think their climbs are going to be my project material from now on.  I already have the next one picked out!

So that's what we've been up to around here, sprinkled with a lot of book reading.  Hopefully I'll be updating a bit more often now that I'm caught up!

2012 Snowboarding Trip

I CAN SNOWBOARD!  WHOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Hahahaha, okay.  That was a bit much.  But seriously, I was so excited to actually be able to make it down a hill without going flying and knocking all the air out of me and then crying in the snow for 20 minutes.  (seriously, my first experience was pretty horrible)  Am I good?  God no.  I still pretty much suck.  But I've definitely graduated from "couldn't possibly be any worse" to "well, she has the basics down."

The first day we were at Park City, and I never even left the First Time hill.  You'll probably have trouble finding it on that map I linked, because it's TINY.  I didn't realize how much of a wuss I was being until I saw that map at the end of the day.  But I was really happy to figure out how to ride my heel edge and "snowflake" down the hill without falling.  Also, I was with Samantha all afternoon, and we had dinner with all our Santa Barbara people, which was amazing.

So on Monday, Day 2, I made it my goal to make it down at least one "real" run.  This time we were at Solitude, which is a bit harder of a place since it has mostly harder runs and even the green ones are fairly steep.  I also really wanted to figure out how to ride my toe edge, which was still giving me a lot of trouble and causing me to wipe out.  You can't really do much with just your heel edge.  Some would argue it's not snowboarding at all.  DS and I spent a couple of runs on Easy Street attempting to get my courage up, and then we tried Little Dollie.  Man.  That thing was crazy steep.  I was terrified.  But I made it down!  On my heel edge!  Slowly!

DS left me for a while to do "fun" runs, and I hung out with the other newbie, Jaime's boyfriend Jonathan for a bit back on Easy Street.  Then there was lunch, which was insane, as any gathering of the SC crowd tends to be.  And then I was back on Easy Street working hard on my toe edge.  Which is when I took a bad fall, flew threw the air, and landed really hard on my lower back and slamming my head into the ground.  Good thing I had my new helmet on.  After that debacle, it was time for hot cocoa and some chill time with Sam while we waited for the rest of the gang to finish their blues and blacks.  That night we had dinner at the Red Iguana, which is probably the best Mexican food place I've ever been to.

Tuesday, Day 3, we decided to lay low and rock climb with Nell and Brian at Momentum.  That gym was so much easier than the one we go to here in Philly.  I on-sighted a 5.10b, and felt much better knowing that I'm truly better than a 5.6 climber.  It was a pretty cool gym.  They set so that each route uses a uniform color for the holds instead of marking the holds with tape.  They also had crack routes, which was awesome.  I'd never seen that before in a gym.

Wednesday, Day 4, we went back to Park City with the SB folk.  This was where DS realized that the reason I could ride my toe edge was because my bindings were entirely too loose.  Whoops.  Once he showed me how tight they needed to be, I picked it up in no time.  Hooray!  And then we rode to the top of the Crescent lift.  I could feel the temperature dropping as we went up, and I thought it would go on forever.  It was also a really tall lift, and I was a bit terrified of the height.  My goal was to ride all of the Home Run route, so we went down Claim Jumper to the Silverlode lift.  Now we were at the top!  DS left to ride some blacks, and I took some time to think about what I was doing.  Home Run is 3.5 miles long, and we were really high up.  Nearly 10,000 ft up, if their map is accurate.

The Park City map, via www.parkcitymountain.com.  For a larger version, click the Park City link above.

It took me something like an hour and a half to get down, but I did it.  I did it riding both edges, and only falling a couple of times.  Those were minor falls too.  Though I did stop several times to rest, because my legs just weren't used to this type of exercise.  Juliana caught up with me at some point, and we went down part of the way together.  But she's better than me, and left me for some blues.

In the end, this was an excellent trip.  It took a good week or two for me to be able to sit on the floor without being careful of the tender spot from Monday's fall, but that was the only real problem.  I learned to snowboard!  I had really excellent food.  We played multiple rounds of Zombie Fluxx!  I got to see people we almost never see anymore that I love dearly.  I climbed a 5.10b!  Also, the mountains around Salt Lake City are just awesome.  These photos don't do them justice.

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Changes and Challenges

We have a friend living with us right now.  I don't want to put her business out there, so let me just say that life is throwing her a curveball at the moment, and we're doing what we can to help her transition.  But what this means is that she's here with her two cats.

Well, it's time for a bit of a side note.  I thought I had been documenting the fact that my cats are big wusses, especially Winston.  To some extent, I have, but there are SO MANY times he has been just outright ridiculous.  Like the time I found a kitten in the hallway of our 2007 apartment and took it in until its owner saw my fliers in the building and retrieved it (Winston spent the entire time under our bed).  Or the time that a vet friend picked up a recently fixed kitten on her way to visit (Winston attempted to hide under the bed, but the kitten wanted to say hi, so he spent the night on top of our cabinets.  Even an hour after the kitten left, I had to go up and retrieve him so he would know the kitten was gone.  He still hissed for the rest of the night.)  And apparently I never even told you about the time I was cat sitting for these same cats when they were itty bitty babies (Winston and Felix both spent the entire time hiding and hissing, both at the kittens and each other).  *sigh*  Well, now you know, Winston is a baby.

So with her cats here again, and pretty much adults this time, things are tense.  I thought mine could use some socialization anyway, now that they don't have much of a choice about it.  We've only been shutting her cats in her room at night, and letting everyone mingle during the day.  Winston spent most of the day under the bed; lots of hissing and growling.  Felix spent the day in a corner staring everyone down and hissing whenever someone had the audacity to come within her view.

Winston, the first time he met these cats back in July.

Today though, things seem to be a bit better.  Both of my cats seemed to follow their general day time routine, which admittedly involves mostly sleeping.  But they did it in the living room with me, and ate, and only hissed if the kittens came within six feet of them and kept walking in their direction.  There was even a moment where Winston slept on the couch, and Carmen hung out for a while about 3 feet from him.  I was so proud.  They're still pretty stressed out, but there's definite improvement.  We might make them social yet.  Or at least tolerant.  I'd be happy with tolerant.

I've been pretty busy this week.  Band practice, working out, bead shopping...  I'm attempting to sew a couch cover for my friend Sarah.  I've never done anything like this before.  We found some covers in the as-is section of Ikea that she thought would fit her couch, but they're actually too small.  Luckily, we got two different ones, and we're attempting to dye the lighter one and take them all apart and then put them back together in a way that fits the couch.  We're thinking mostly the blue with grey panets running down the edge next to the arms.  I'm nervous about screwing it up, but excited to try something new.  Also, First Friday is tomorrow, so I'm trying to prep for that (in addition to all the galleries opening, artists set up shop on the sidewalks all around the neighborhood).

Also, Saturday we leave for our first group snowboarding trip since the first one I attended back at the end of 2004.  I had no gear for this, so I've been attempting to accumulate cheap, used gear that was in great shape.  I'm excited for this trip, because I know how much DS used to love snowboarding.  And pretty much all of his friends from SC do it, and they have this trip every year.  But I'm nervous, because the only other time I've tried it, I had to go to the doctor afterward to find out I had two bruised ribs and a bruised tail bone.  Either way, it will be fun, because both our SC friends and our SB friends will be there.  I just really hope all this working out in the last year will have me ready to be at least marginally successful.

Lots of things happening!  We are working hard to make sure that all of these challenges becomes paths to better things.