Shameful

This is just amazingly awful. Vultures.

"Many villagers on the devastated west coast of Thailand lost almost everything in the Dec. 26 tsunami. Now, they may lose their land, too. Large investors are laying claim to prime beach front property -- and they're trying to evict the former residents in the process."

ANTM

Tonight on "America's Next Top Model" - flesh-eating bacteria!!! Now that's good television. Watch the other models recoil in horror and nausea at the prospect of catching this highly contagious disease from the stricken model.

In other news - I've officially hit the three month mark. It is getting easier to tell people. It still catches me off guard how excited everyone is. Squealing and spontaneous hugs abound. I've got a tiny bulge now. Mostly, I just feel chubby and gassy. Babycakes is now about the size of a lime.

Ruh Roh

It may be too soon to tell yet, but I think I'm getting sick. I have a strange headache and I'm freezing and yet my forehead is quite toasty. Those little kids get me every time! It's a good thing I love them to bits. Plus, a lot of people are sick at work at the moment. So it may not be the little germ factories' fault.

In other, good, news - I told a couple more people at work today, including my cool boss. And he was very excited for me. PLUS, coincidentally, the company is giving me a very, very generous year-end bonus on Thursday! (we run things on the fiscal year). Totally unexpected and mucho appreciated and needed. I'm going to sock it away in my new savings account until we decide what to do with it. I'm trying to make sure I have more than enough saved up for the 12 weeks maternity leave. This is in addition to the hefty profit-sharing bonus we will all be getting in May. Maybe now I won't feel so bad about shopping for furniture at IKEA.

God, I hope I'm not getting sick again. 'Cause if a fever is involved this time, it is going to suck.

A Case of the Mondays

It is raining and gray outside. On a positive note, most of the snow is gone and hopefully the rain means that it is actually Spring. We had a great time at my sister's house with her lovely family. Because both kids were sick, it was subdued and snoozy and nice. We went into NYC on Saturday and the hubster and I walked around a bunch - down to Lush to get some bath bombs - and then headed up the the Natural History Museum to see the planetarium and watch a space show about finding other life in the universe. After doing so much walking in the morning, I had a hard time keeping my eyes open. Then we headed back downtown and just made the train back to home base. We ended up not stopping at IKEA on the way home this time. I think we were both a bit pooped. And then the kitties were very clingy when we got home. Very needy. I woke up with Otto actually sleeping ON me this morning - and that never, ever happens. I was wondering why I felt like I was suffocating. I took my first bath in the house last night with one of the "Butterball" bath bombs from Lush. Smelled great, and there were soothing oils that made my skin very soft. Unfortunately, the bath tub's secondary drain is a little low so it didn't fill up as much as I had hoped. I'm going to have to rig something up to take care of that. There is nothing so disappointing as taking a bath and still being exposed and cold. The kitties were very confused by my bath-taking. Mostly because the tub I used is in a room we usually keep closed. And partly because it was me getting wet and wrinkly. Bath time is usually always reserved for the hubs.

Weekend

So, we ended up getting about 6 inches of very heavy, sticky snow. The hubs was none too happy to have to get up and use the snow blower. And we argued about me shoveling the front walk: "I'm not going to let my pregnant wife shovel!" But really? I need the exercise and I didn't overdo it. Now it's supposed to be in the 50s the next couple of days.

I have Good Friday off and I plan to "sink the torpedo" (that's for you, Amy) because I'm not Catholic and it's just a Friday Off Day and that means sinning! The hubster has a couple of classes in the morning and then we are heading down to visit my sister's family in New York. Yes, the black & white cookie sister. This is the first time I've seen them since I spilled the beans. Not for Easter, really, because only my Mom still celebrates Easter, but more just to visit. Saturday we will head into the city to walk around while she and her hubby and their kids go to the circus. I plan on stopping by Lush to buy something yummy. Not sure what yet, but we have a huge claw-footed tub in our new place and neither of us have used it yet.

And then maybe we'll stop at IKEA on the way back home.

I hope you all have a lovely weekend and please pray that all the snow will have melted by the time we make it back up North.

Cookie Update

Apparently I need to post photos of the amazing black & white cookies for all the people without access to fabulous New York sisters. ;) I'll do that tonight once I get home.

UPDATE: Cookie photos from mia.

After a week of 40 degree weather and snow melting, the Northeast is going to get hit with more snow tonight. They are estimating between 1 - 3 inches here. Which is not much, but enough with the frickin' snow already!!! I'm done!!! I actually saw what was either tulips or daffodils trying to poke through the ground yesterday and now Mother Nature is going to freeze them!

UPDATE TWO: Holy Crap! Now they are talking 6 - 12 inches!!! WTF!!! It's Spring, already! Enough!

The Black & White Cookie

My sister is the coolest sister in the whole world. You should all be jealous. I mentioned to her that I had been craving black & white cookies and that I had tried to find them in the local bakeries to no avail. There is one deli in Amherst that has them so I sent my hubby 1 hour out of his way on a mission for the cookies. Yesterday, he calls from home and asked if I had ordered something from a bakery in New York. There was a big box waiting for me. My gorgeous, fabulous sister sent me a dozen black & white cookies, special delivery from Zaro's Bakery in NYC!!! She rocks.

Babycakes

Thanks so much, dayment, for the interim baby name. We had our first OB appointment last Monday and even though the midwife said that we probably wouldn't hear the heartbeat because our little babycakes was about the size of a grape/walnut - we heard the heartbeat for the first time! That really freaked me out. My hubby, on the other hand, just about jumped out of his seat with excitement. Which made me giggle uncontrollably and so she lost the heartbeat. This whole thing is still a bit freaky. It is definitely something we discussed and talked about and planned-ish. But it happened sooner than I was mentally ready. The big boobs are nice, the no caffeine/no alcohol rule is not.

And then I got a cold this weekend and tried to make it through without taking anything, even though the midwife said that Tylenol and Sudafed are okay. I ended up taking a 1/2 dose of Sudafed when I really couldn't sleep one night.

Whereas my hubby also had a cold and he managed to be a big baby about it. He could have wine and whiskey and Nyquil and he was STILL moaning. Talk to someone else, buddy. And open your mouth to breath, I'm sick of hearing the train whistle through your crusty nostrils.

I did tell two of the women at work yesterday. And they both squealed and hugged and were all excited. It still feels unreal to me. Almost like I've done something wrong. I'm not sure when I'll tell other people yet. I should tell my boss soon, but today is not the day.

Thank you all for the lovely notes of congratulations!

Ch-ch-ch-changes

So, let's go through the list:

Constipation? Check.

Exhaustion? Check.

Bigger boobs? Check.

Aversion to former favorite foods? Check.

Weird cravings for other foods? Check.

It appears we have an announcement to make.

Wednesday

Tonight is stamp night. It is my turn to do an example that the ladies can make. And since Easter is a week away - I did a little pink easter basket-thingy. Very pink and very girly. They are oohing and aahing over it at work right now.

Since styro's comment that my blog has turned into a tv blog, I've tried to stop writing about shows. But I do watch a lot of tv so it's been pretty hard. I'm also reading a couple of good books - "Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell" and "The Wind-up Bird Chronicle". Both are very good. I requested them from the local library and they both came in at the same time. Along with three other books that I'm going to have to return because I can't renew them again and they are due back this weekend. I'll just have to request them later. The local libraries are all part of a big system, so if my local branch doesn't have a book, I can request it from another library. Sometimes it takes weeks to get the book and sometimes days. This time, all of them came in at the same time. Makes it very hard to get through them.

In other news, I think I'm coming down with a cold. Right when the weather starts to warm up a bit. And by warm, I mean in the 40s. I'm hoping all the snow is melted by this weekend.

I have been feeling pretty exhausted lately and my doctor checked my thyroid/TSH levels again. She ended up raising my thyroid medication a few notches. I've been taking the new dose for about a week now and I'm feeling much better.

More later.

Weekend

So, my hubby had a couple of his friends over for poker last night. There were supposed to be more people, but we ended up getting about 8 inches or so of snow overnight and a few people suddenly discovered they had other plans. So I sat in. And won both games. I made $30 in just a few hours. Not bad. They were all talking math very animatedly and I was concentrating on the game at hand. And then we played Taboo and my team won. Twice. I should have bought a lottery ticket yesterday.

Friday

Sorry, no kitty photos this week. More snow is coming this weekend. I am so SICK of winter at this point! Blech, yuck, AAGH!

The Starlet

This is the first time I've caught this show. It's kind of funny that all Faye Dunaway talks about is Acting and yet the women are forced to read scenes from WB shows. Last night they had to do a lesbian scene with other women in the competition. Courtney was a freak. They actually called her a "monkey on crack". ;) Not sure if I'll keep watching it. And why did they make them do a sexy lap dance!? That's acting? Seems a bit exploitative. Oh, and their special guest was Jaime Presley. Oh yes, she's a great actress - let's send her in to give advice. She basically said that Hollywood is going to exploit you anyway, so just go with it. Seriously, they had to act out a scene from "Fastlane"! Wasn't that show canceled? And why is Vivica Fox a judge? How did they team Faye Dunaway ("a legend") with Vivica Fox (dated 50 Cent).

I'm back

Got back from Chicago last night. And I'm pooped. Lots of walking around the show and shmoozing with magazine reps. It was gorgeous in Chicago on Sunday - sunny, in the 60s - and then yesterday, it started getting pretty cold and sleeting. And now I find out we are supposed to get 6 - 10 inches of snow today and overnight! Man, a couple of days without access to the Internets and I'm out of touch with the weather. It is raining right now and both my hubby and I were saying this morning that maybe all the snow will melt today. Because we still have a bunch of snow on the ground. He only knows about the weather when I tell him - so obviously he didn't know about the winter storm warning. I'm feeling a bit fuzzy at the moment. Kind of in limbo.

Chicago

I'm heading out on Sunday for a tradeshow in Chicago. I get there in the morning on Sunday and finish setting up the booth. Then stay overnight and head back to the show to wander around and look at who's here and what their booths look like. And then fly back that evening. It looks like it is rainy, snowy and cold in Chicago right now. Last year at this time, it was actually quite pleasant out.

So, tomorrow entails sleeping in (trying to catch up on sleep lost due to our annoying cat Tabitha), returning some pants to Old Navy and probably picking up some other goodies, stopping in to Target to look around and perhaps checking out Marshall's for more bras.

A couple of us were talking yesterday at work about names. Our receptionist here always gets my name wrong and we always laugh about it. I'm Monica, Andrea, Shelby, Jennifer and Erika, interchangeably. I told her at least she's not calling me Ethel or Bambi. And one of the engineers piped up and said - yeah, 'cause Bambi is a boy's name. She and I looked at him kind of strange until we realized - Bambi IS a boy's name. The deer in the movie was a BOY!

Have a great weekend - try to do everything I wouldn't do.

Cat Photo Friday

Tabitha, scampering around on top of the built-in wardrobe:

Otto, deciding he wants to get down. Lucky for him, his trusty elevator was standing by:

Road to Stardom

My faith in people has been restored tonight. Tonight, Jessica won the Road to Stardom competition - that's the Missy Elliott reality series. We are both big fans of Missy and this show was very well played out. There were all kinds of performance challenges - I'd like to see one of the American Idol contestants try to make it one week on this show - mental and physical tests. Very compelling TV. And from the very beginning, Jessica stood out to me as the most talented. And she won! She made all the judges cheer up when she had to sing to convince them that she was the one. Amazing song she wrote called "Why Me?".

I'm very glad Deltrice didn't win. I didn't like how she sang. Matthew was pretty good, but Jessica really deserved this win. If this is all jibberish to you, then you missed out on a great competition.