Monday, August 11, 2008

Still throwing up.

Still no internet. Internet is working, finally. No clue what the problem was, but it took about 30 minutes on the phone, a significant amount of that on hold and a return phone call by the tech.

Still need to finish the vacation posting.

No motivation.

Sunday, August 10, 2008

First, we still have no internet. Comcast techs couldn’t figure it out by phone so we need a technician to come out. Who knows how long that will take. Seems the database for Ticklish Giggles is hosed, but I can’t access the host CP from my laptop, so that will have to wait until we get internet back at home, too. In the meantime…

Very sick weekend for me. I spent most of yesterday doing nothing except warding off nausea. Poor Beau had to do everything - he took care of Jesse all day, provided food for me when I needed it, cleaned up, provided comfort. He’s a prince. Yesterday was a day.

I woke up feeling pretty good this morning, but he had made pancakes and the smell brought on instant nausea. Poor guy felt terrible. Anyway, I had a small and then managed to actually eat pancakes with my fellas. However, my snacks this morning have not done the trick because I just experienced #2 for the day. And I’m waiting for Beau to get back from church, where he did his parking lot duties. Fortunately, Jesse has been napping for most of the morning.

I dread the work week ahead.

Friday, August 08, 2008

1. For those who missed this oblique post the other day - I. Am. Pregnant. Baby Speaks #2 is due in early April 2009. The blog is here.

2. Our internet is still out and Comcast has no clue what the problem is. The technician put in a ticket requesting a higher technician to pick up the problem. But they won’t call us to let us know, we have to call them back. Customer Service as its best. Fortunately we have my work laptop for internet access until it is fixed, which could be next year.

1. This is going to be a long pregnancy if I’m already puking on a daily basis. *sigh* It hasn’t been a good morning so far.

2. Beau is helping with parking at the church today for the Leadership Summit. So I’m ill and home alone with Jesse. Fun times.

3. Our home network is down for some reason. I can’t figure it out and I know that Beau knows the secret to getting it working again - there’s a particular order to plugging things back in and I can’t remember it. So it’ll have to wait until he gets home this afternoon.

4. The good news is that we’re going to see The Dark Knight tonight. I’m very excited and hoping the smell of popcorn won’t have me puking in the bathroom for the whole movie.

Thursday, August 07, 2008

Beau has a couple of new posts up about Reagan. Good stuff there.

Ronald Reagan and Patriotism

Reagan and Carter as Pilgrims

I feel like I did on Monday after we got back from California. I’m just whipped.

So I’m heading home soon for a long nap.

I do realize that I haven’t finished chronicling our trip - that will come, I promise, including more pictures.

[5:00pm]: I feel better for the 3 hour nap. We’ll see about tomorrow after a full night’s sleep, too.

Wednesday, August 06, 2008

Phone rings.

Me: US Marshals Service

He: Ah! Thank God I got a person. It’s so hard to get to a person in your district.

Me: *on alert that this dude doesn’t really want to talk to me, but anybody* How can I help you?

He: *identifies district from which he is calling* I’m calling about a warrant out of our district ... yadda, yadda, yadda *he proceeds with information that I can’t do anything about because he needs to really be talking to the warrants section*

Me: You need to talk to our warrants clerk. She works later hours, but should be in soon. You can leave her a voice mail and she’ll take care of it.

He: *heavy, annoyed sigh* Is that *name withheld*?

Me: Yes, she works later hours now.

He: *another heavy, annoyed sigh* I’ll email her. Thanks. *click*

Why didn’t he email her in the first place? Gah!

For those commiserating with me about the loss of the job promotion, take heart. Good things are afoot.

There’s a new project underway.

The unofficial word is that Amazing One got the promotion. My boss said that it was mine until her interview.

I’m disappointed, but she has a much longer tenure with the agency with a broad range of experience. There’s a reason I call her Amazing One - she deserves the job.

But I really wanted it.

Dang.

Here are a few random pictures from the trip:

Jesse in his tent.

Jesse sleeping in the car.

Jesse with MooMoo on his head, which seems to be his favorite thing since he does it a lot now, even in the crib.

Tuesday, August 05, 2008

Wednesday dawned foggy. Most days start foggy in that part of California. What’s funny is that it wasn’t until about Thursday that I realized that our hotel balcony included a pretty good view of Morro Rock.

Anyway, this was our day to head up to Monterey. You’ve seen a photo from PCH on our way up (and the gas receipt from Big Sur). There are more photos to share - I’ll add them here tonight when I get home.

[place holder for lovely scenic photos]

We got to the waterfront in Monterey and I didn’t recognize anything. I have a pretty good memory for places, but there was no way I could figure out where anything was because so much had changed in 25 years. The Cannery Row I knew resembled nothing that I remembered. It is much more built up and super touristy, including a Bubba Gump, which I rejected as a lunch option. We ended up eating at a local diner across the street from the Aquarium that provided pretty good fish and chips.

After lunch we toured the Aquarium, which was very crowded. Jesse enjoyed the fish tanks more than anything. I think we could have stood in front of them for hours and he would have been happy. We did manage to get to the sea otter feeding, but it was so crowded on the platform that I started to get claustrophobic, so we left. Sadly, once we got outside we both sighed in relief to be away from the crowds and agreed that we would try the Baltimore Aquarium some weekend when it won’t be as crowded in the fall or winter.

We got back to the car, after deciding to drive up to my old neighborhood to give Jesse some quiet/nap time before we met Ith for dinner downtown. Once in the car we realized the parking ticket was missing. I finally got so aggravated, that I got out of the car and instantly found the ticket on the ground. The wind must have blown it out of the car when we opened the doors. Beau laughed that it was a good thing I got so mad to get out of the car on that day.

Anyway, we drove up to Marina, the small town that we lived in back in the early 1980s while Dad was at the Naval Post-Graduate School. Marina is still the same, but built up more. The neighborhood is now surrounded by much newer houses. Our old neighborhood looks really run down and old.

So we managed to find the restaurant to meet Ith, who is lovely and charming in person. We enjoyed a delicious Japanese dinner and Jesse was cute to the waitress and Ith. Then Beau drove home so that Jesse and I could sleep.

It was a good day.

I was supposed to be interviewed starting at 11am. I’ve been waiting nearly 30 minutes now. Kind of aggravating since I have a lot to do, but didn’t want to start something new before the interview. So I’ve been sitting here twiddling my thumbs.

I’ll post when I’m done.

I’m the first one since they’re doing this alphabetically. And the other three dressed to the 9s today, so I’m looking like a slacker in my normal work clothes. Add my incredible fatigue and it’s a banner day to be interviewed for a job promotion.

*sigh*

[UPDATE 1pm]: Still no interview yet. I’m told that it will be in the next few minutes.

[UPDATE 1:30pm]: The interview was a total of 15 minutes long. I’ll be interested to see how long the others go. I tend to be concise when answering questions in interviews. Kind of like test taking - I was always one of the first ones done taking tests in school.

So now the wait for the results...thanks for praying!

Monday, August 04, 2008

Here are a few pictures. The ones from the Reagan Library have pink skies when downloaded. I’m not sure what’s causing that since they look fine on the camera. So I’ll try to download those again later.

This one of Jesse looking at Air Force One is still OK though.

Here are two of Jesse at the beach near Morro Bay.

On our drive north to Monterey, we needed to get gas in Big Sur. We were robbed.

Here’s Beau and Jesse on the trip up Highway 1 (Pacific Coast Highway) to Monterey. We were stopped by a construction crew for about 10 minutes, so we got out of the car to see the view of the fog rolling in below.

I haven’t talked about our trip to the Monterey Bay Aquarium yet, but here’s a picture of Jesse on Beau’s shoulders. Behind him are the anchovies, swimming in a loop around the circular room we were in. It was completely dark in there, so the flash makes the fish look like sparkling lights.

Jesse looks sweet kissing Daddy’s head, right? So why doesn’t Beau look happier? Because seconds before Jesse leaned down to give the kiss, he had been pulling hair out of Daddy’s head with both fists. Somehow I managed to click the shutter at the right moment to catch the kiss.

More recaps of our trip tomorrow. I’m going to bed now.

We’re home, safe and sound and completely exhausted.

Note to self: Never book another red eye flight. Ever. Seriously.

We think they turned on the heat on the airplane. Maybe to help people get drowsy. I don’t know. What it did for me was swell up my hands and feet and make me sweat. There was no sleeping happening for me. Fortunately, Jesse slept for most of the flight.

More posts later - maybe today, maybe not.

Oh, and my boss was kind enough to call this morning to let me know to expect my interview for the promotion tomorrow. Joy.

Saturday, August 02, 2008

Tuesday was our quiet day. We did nothing really. We went to Beau’s parents for some of the morning and then we headed to the local beach. Jesse did much better at this beach - it was more of a rocky beach than sandy. And we left his sneakers on, so his feet didn’t actually touch the sand. He was fascinated by the seagulls and enjoyed watching the waves crash on the rocks and roll into shore. As long as he was close to Mom or Dad, of course. We got some good photos of him on this day that I’ll post later.

The evening was the dessert for the folks from Beau’s parent’s church group. I met some great people who were so sweet to Jesse and welcoming to me. One man handmade a beautiful potty for Jesse that has a magazine rack on one side and an actual toilet roll on the other. It looks like a little throne! It’s fantastic and we’re happy to use it for Jesse’s potty training when we get home.

Tuesday was a nice day.

Next up: Monterey, Hearst Castle, meeting two more friends, and the family reunion to beat all family reunions. This will all get posted after we get home, most likely.