Reporting from Cork

Since my last post, I have flown from Des Moines to Chicago (which almost didn't make it due to a thunderstorm on our tails) to London to Edinburgh, then drove to a tiny town called Inveraray on the northwest coast of Scotland. It was beautiful up there, especially once the weather cleared up a bit and rained less frequently with sunshine in between. We did some touring by car, and saw stuff like old castles, of course, some breathtaking views of the lochs, and an old charcoal-fired blast furnace where they reduced iron ore to pig iron. What can I say, there's no vacation from being a geek. Then we spent just over a day in Edinburgh, which is a really beautiful town. It's neat to see how the city's development over the years has been so dependent on its geography, and how the layers of the town over the years can still be seen. Just beautiful, but the hills make it a challenge to someone like me - increasingly wimpier from week to week. Pictures will follow once I get home, and hopefully they can convey some of the really beautiful sites we've seen.

Today we flew from Edinburgh to Cork, checked in at our B&B, and spent the most of the afternoon at Trav's brother Mark's flat. He gave us a brief tour of the University of Cork College where he "studied" last semester. He and his roommate Pranav cooked us an Indian feast for dinner, and now we're just chillin before we head to the pub to celebrate Trav's 26th today. He's got his Guinness polo on, and he's ready to party. It's nice here that the pubs are smoke-free, so Baby and I should have a nice time too.

More later!

21 weeks

Okay, somehow this picture doesn't fully convey just how big I seem, or how much bigger I am than 4 weeks ago. But here it is. Enjoy!

Milemarker

I feel I should announce: As of this week, I weigh more than 150 lbs - the most I have ever weighed in my life. I'm not sure I'm proud of that, but I might as well talk about the milestones as they go by!

And yes, that's more than Travis weighs.

More of the same

Not much new here. Same old things - work, bike, baby... that's pretty much it.

I finished up the interviewing for my job yesterday - yes, the job I already have. Fortunately, everybody involved also recognized how ridiculous the process was so it was relatively painless. I actually got some positive feedback out of it, so that was an unexpected bonus. I'm told that I'll hear something next week before I leave for Scotland. In celebration, I sat for maybe half an hour at my desk yesterday afternoon, entertained simply by the fact that Baby was kicking me and I could feel it with my hand, not just internal gurgling! I was wishing I had been where Travis could feel it, but, soon enough, I'm sure.

We went on a bike ride last night, and to my delight I discovered that just about exactly 10 miles out down the trail there's a bathroom, so we can stop for me to pee and then go back home for a nice 20-mile round trip. I had seen the sign for a campground before but yesterday when I noticed that it had a bathroom symbol on it I was sooooo very excited. I had been readying my psyche for a pee by a tree and instead we found remarkably clean (smelled like bleach!) and convenient restroom. Yess!!! That will continue to be an oasis for me as I do my "training," which I realize is only an attempt to delay my inevitable decay into a giant baby-bearing blob. I've gotten used to having my legs hit my belly when I bike, so in 9 weeks I might still be okay to do a day of Ragbrai. But I'll visit every cornfield along the way because the posture required for biking tends to squish a bladder from its already reduced capacity to that of a trial-sized lotion bottle. Still, it felt great to be on the bike again. Travis is out right now for another ride, but I'll go tomorrow. I'm taking it easy, you see. :)

I think I'll spend the remainder of the day sorting out the maternity clothes that I have, and putting away clothes that there's no point in trying to fit into anymore. I did a major sort with some of the cold-weather things earlier, but now that it's warmer I'll give it another go. I have a quantity of clothes from my sister, several dressy things from my very fun outing with Travis's mom, and essentials from OldNavy.com that were delivered yesterday. It's amazing to me that the first time in my life that I feel like I have a fashionable, functional wardrobe is during pregnancy! But I figure it's been ages since I bought clothes, large or small, so my recent splurging is not entirely out of line. Plus, you know me, I got some great deals. How lucky I am to have a mother-in-law who is as enthusiastic about coupons and clearance racks as I am!

Back to the land of the living

Okay, I'm feeling quite a bit better now, as it seems that the worst of my cold has finally passed. Now that I'm capable of thinking about something besides how miserable I am, I realize just how much I have to get done in the next seven days!! We leave for Scotland and Ireland next Wednesday, and I have a lot to do to get ready! Last night I went on a spending spree at Old Navy online, because I am really having trouble finding clothes for this in-between stage (too big for normal, not quite big enough for maternity). So I hope that will at least provide some stuff for me to wear overseas so I don't look like I'm wearing the wrong person's clothes. I have to get a bunch of stuff ready for a friend's baby shower on Saturday. I'd like to hit the library to pick up a good book or two for the trip, and then there's getting the house ready to sit empty for 10 days. I am wishing I could've had last weekend to start getting ready, but who am I kidding, I would've probably wasted it away anyway. :) And at least I'm feeling better now, because I could've had this cold while on my vacation and that would've been worse, I guess.

I met my new boss today, and he seems nice enough. Kind of a geek, but at least appears to be comfortable in the role of manager. He's not from Iowa originally, but I can't place his accent. I'm no good with telling the difference between Texas or Kentucky or North Carolina. Anyway, at least there's a buffer layer between me and the cuckoos in upper management now.

Trav and I didn't do anything special for my birthday yesterday. I was feeling pretty sorry for myself, being sick on my birthday, but at least I got to sleep in. And that's probably enough, considering the trip we have planned! I'm thinking of that as my birthday treat. :)

*snort*, *cough*

A very brief and pathetic post tonight. I will just say that being pregnant and being sick is about as awful as it gets. I can't take anything to relieve the histamine that's ravaging my nose, and I want to claw my eyes out and sneeze at the same time, all while struggling to breathe. I've already suffered through ~5 days of sinus pressure, which drained into my chest and then caused incredible coughing spells. That's all still there, but on top of it the last few days I've gone through nearly two boxes of kleenex trying to get my nose clear. And I know that there is a tiny magic pill out there that anybody could take (pseudoephedrine, how I took thee for granted!!) but I can't have it!!!!!

ohhh, poor me! :(

happy mother's day, all.

Washington, D.C.

So our trip to DC was very cool! We had a great time. Here's me and Trav, on the steps of the Capitol, looking out across the Mall to the Washington Monument. The street off to the right is Pennsylvania Avenue, and the White House is down there somewhere. The tower on that street is the Old Post Office, and we took the elevator to the top for an awesome view of the city.
















We also saw the monuments at night, which I highly recommend. This picture was taken from the WWII monument. Underneath the very bright light is the Capitol, in the distance. Directly behind us is the Lincoln Memorial. The fountains look funky because Trav used the longer exposure to get a good picture. I love it!

We had a great time while we were there, although the flight back turned out to be an adventure. Basically, due to Northwest's screwups, we got booked on a flight out of DC to DSM connecting through MSP instead of direct, and I got the last first-class ticket. It was probably the only time in my life I will ever get to fly first class, and I couldn't have any free booze!!! Of course, as I tried to get to my window seat, I managed to trip over the guy on the aisle, which is normally just embarassing but this time it was particularly awful. It turns out this guy was flying to Minnesota to have multiple back surgeries at Mayo over the next 4 months to relieve chronic back and leg pain. Nice, Kristin, trample the cripple!! He was very forgiving, though, and turned out to be a really interesting guy. I will think of him when I'm in labor and wishing I would die from the pain, and think, it could possibly be worse. He was in agony every second of that flight.

I bought my first pairs of maternity pants tonight. I hope they don't shrink in the wash, but I never have good luck with stuff from Target. The more I think about it, I should get over myself and just go return them for the larger size. I would thank me later. And I am SO glad that baby-doll shirts are in style! They look so cute on me, and I actually look pregnant instead of just fat! I bought four very cute shirts tonight, none of them maternity but all very flattering. It's funny, because in that picture above I hardly look prego at all.

And the last bit of news: Today was my 6th anniversary of working at John Deere. Six years ago, I showed up at the the back door of the Tech Center in Moline because the Mississippi had flooded out the front entrance, and proceeded to fumble my way through the summer, keeping my head above the metaphorical water. Now, after six years and 3 successful job positions, I've been rewarded with the opportunity to re-interview for my current job. To quote my manager, it's "just to make sure we can justify hiring the best candidate." I'm not even sure what to say that would express how exasperating this process is.

Baby says Hi! or, Kick! rather. :)

Flying baby

I had my third checkup today, at 18 weeks. The past two times they've looked for a heartbeat, they've had to probe around a bit and try to determine what's a baby's heartbeat and what's my heartbeat and other gurglings, but this time they just put the probe on my growing baby bump and it was very, very obvious! Crazy. Then they measured my bump and took my blood pressure, which they say increases when you're pregnant. I can tell that I have a lot more blood than I used to, because even though my veins used to be visible through my skin for most of my arms, they were never actually raised up, too. (Travis says it's gross, although they're not varicose... yet...) No matter - my BP is still 90 / 60.

The other fun thing about my appointment today was that they asked me to bring in a sample of my first morning's pee, and gave me a little vial in which to transport it. Now, I know that there are varying ways of transporting pee, and I've gotta say that as designs go, bladders win. Carrying a little test-tube of my own urine in my purse seemed very absurd, especially when the nurse asked if I had brought it and I had to dig through wallet and keys and phone to find it ("Please, the cap stayed on! Please!!"). This baby is putting me through adventures I could never have previously imagined.

So I was flying high when I left the doctor's office to go to work. Happy about the baby, feeling good about having slept a little later before my appointment. And then I got to work and it seems that in the two hours I hadn't been there that morning, all hell had broken loose. There was equipment in the lab that needed fixing, an impromptu visit from a repairman, reports that had to be completed ASAP, production parts breaking... it was insane. I had a very busy day, but I got most of it done, and I deal with pleasant people for the most part which helps considerably. I've said before, though, it's going to be a long summer.

But tonight, I packed to go to Washington DC tomorrow! We fly in the afternoon, return Sunday. I am so excited, partially because I haven't ever been to DC before and mostly because I get to see my sister-in-law and see her new lifestyle that comes with being a hot-shot congressional policy analyst. (I think that's a pretty accurate title, but don't hold me to it) (and I added the hot-shot. she's actually quite level-headed). So I'm on vacation as of 2:00 tomorrow! Hooray! I hope baby likes flying, cuz there's more coming in a few weeks, too.

I wish my travels could take me all over the country to visit all of you, (California, Georgia, Michigan, KC, Minnesota, and on and on), but you'll just have to take my word that I think of you all often in weird random moments of the day, and hope you're all doing well! Lots of Love.