Happy Thanksgiving Driving Day!

Yeah, so as soon as I get off my ass and finish the dishes, clean the piggy cages, put Moonbeam in her travel "cage" (a glorified box) and Peanut Thunder in Moonbeam's cage, and put the rest of the crap in my car, I will be heading to Cleveland to spend the evening with Justin before we head to Erie Thursday morning.

I am so not looking forward to the drive today. First off, I slept kind of crappy last night (thank you Nikki for calling me at midnight and waking me up *yawn*), then I woke up at FIVE AM... do you know when the last time I got up at five am and actually STAYED UP???? Yeah, me neither. I do remember the last time I woke up at THREE AM and stayed up (last Black Friday). Do I need to get up that early again this year? Maybe, maybe not. It all depends on what Jen needs to get. The sales are kind of crappy this year, and I really just want to get to Kohls during their early bird time and get 60% off maternity clothes.

One plus? I tried on my winter coat from last year, and.... IT STILL FITS!!! Whoo! Now, I can't guarantee just how long it will fit, but anything is better than nothing.

Well, back to getting everything ready - I wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving, and if you are traveling, please be safe. If you are hosting, may all your food be the best your guests have ever had!

Erie Trip, Part 2 (and one month late)

So yeah, burghbaby's mom gave me a smackdown for leaving everyone hanging. I can't help it that I'm just one lady and people at work seem to forget that (dammit).

But, hey, good news - I'm past the incredibly-tired-all-the-time stage (at least for the next 3 months), so I have more energy to post... but not necessarily more topics. :-)

Any way, let's see... where did I leave off...? Oh yeah.
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So the next day (that Friday), we woke up, got showered and whatnot, and went to lunch. Justin got a chicken parm with spaghetti, and I got a club wrap. I took ONE bite of that club wrap, and all I could taste was bacon, and it was NOT good. I sat there, turned around so I could check to make sure I knew where the bathroom was, and patiently waited and willed myself to not puke. After about 10 minutes, I felt a little better, but was not going to try my wrap again. I managed to eat some of Justin's spaghetti with no more problems. We then got the puppies and headed out to Erie.

Once in Erie, we went to Target and looked at some of the baby stuff. I found a little baby bib that said "I love Grandpa," and got a tiny gift bag to put it in. We then went to my parents house, where my mom made dinner and then I gave dad his presents. First, I gave him his bocce set, then I gave him the tiny bag. He pulled it out, held it up BACKWARDS, and my mom saw it first. She screamed, then exclaimed, "You're pregnant?" then jumped up and gave me a hug. This will be their first grandchild (I'm the oldest of 3 girls), and they couldn't be happier.

My baby sister, Nikki, came over with her boyfriend, and dad mis-heard mom (she said "DON'T tell Nikki"), and she started yelling in the house, "AMBER! Why didn't you tell me!?" Silly girl, I had just found out myself!

Saturday, Justin and I went up to the Arbys' that my other sister, Becky, works at, and she bought us lunch and talked for a bit. She doesn't have a house phone, so that's pretty much the only time I see/talk to her.

The rest of the weekend, we just hung out, went to Presque Isle to watch the sunset, then stopped and ate good ice cream sundaes. We took my mom dinner of subs from a local sub place. I ate half my sub, then it promptly came back up (and dammit, I love those subs!). On Tuesday, the day I was heading back, mom took me to Cleveland to drop me off at the Airport, and we stopped and picked up my friend Kristen to get together for lunch, and give her her birthday present. We went to another sub place, and that one didn't stay down either. So, it appears the baby doesn't like subs. Justin got the other half for his lunch the next day.

The flight was uneventful, although the walkway is sooooooooo long when carrying my carryon bag. I guess if I fly again, I'll have to start checking my bag (good thing I fly Southwest, so it's still free), as it's too heavy for me to carry all over the airport.

Erie Trip, Part 1

Well, last weekend I spent 5 days in Erie/Cleveland (mostly in Erie), and it was great! The weather was warm enough for me to wear shorts if I felt like it, or jeans if I didn't, and I wasn't freakishly overheated like I am in the south. I mean, I was able to sit outside on my parents' deck and enjoy the sun!


Any way, this post starts with my flight North from Nashville to Cleveland, and ends when I get tired of writing any more :-).


Date: Thursday evening, August 28, 2008
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I was excited to be heading north to see my husband, especially since the last time I had seen him was over the 4th of July. I got in line to board the plane (I always fly Southwest), and ended up getting a window seat (my favorite). These two guys sat next to me, and apparently they had been drinking in one of the lounges for a few hours beforehand, but they weren't annoying drunk, they were funny drunk. Right off the bat, they started talking to each other about one of the flight attendants that looked like the transvestite Lucy from Rat Race (but with YELLOW hair):
I could tell they were betting on whether the FA was a heshe or just a very manly woman, and I started snickering. They realized I knew what they were talking about, and we started talking.

The one guy apparently flies a lot, and he had a bunch of complimentary drink tickets. He asked me if I drank and I got all confused. I answered, "Yes," but then I had to amend it and said, "oh, but I can't." He figured it out, so I told them the story about our situation, and when the non-Lucy FA came by, he asked her if they had anything for "baby's first flight." I ended up getting a set of plastic wings, a certificate, and a luggage tag. :-) Towards the end of the flight, the FA asked me what my name was, and I was a bit leary, but gave it to her any way. Right before we got off the flight, she came over the loudspeaker, made me raise my hand, and told the entire plane that I was newly pregnant and on my way to tell my husband. Talk about embarassing!

I met Justin (and the puppies!) outside of the airport, and we went to Applebee's in Steelyard Commons. Since it was relatively late on a weeknight, it wasn't all that busy, and we got a big booth. We sat down and just ordered appetizers, since I wasn't all that hungry. We chatted for a bit, then I got up and sat next to him with my camera. I started looking at some pics on the screen, and started showing him some (the network room at work, my messy office, etc). When I got to the last 2 pics on the camera, I just showed him the first one (see previous post), then the second one. Justin's eyes kind of glazed over, and I just looked at him and waited for a response. He just kind of looked at me and said something about us not having a house in Erie yet (so?!?) But, that's my husband - he always looks at things in the most negative manner first. It's probably due to his job, where he has to look at machines for failures and stress points, etc (he's a Mechanical Engineer). He doesn't even like looking at roller coasters, because he just sees them breaking apart, etc.

Shortly afterward, I sent him my crappy cell phone pic of my test and he forwarded it to all of his family that has cell phones, plus two of his friends. Immediately he got a text back from his one friend, Paul, who said, "you better not be f-ing with me, because it's late." He then hit his head on the table he was under (why was he under a table? I have no idea - I'm sure he'll leave a comment and let us all know :-) ).

We finished eating, then went home for the night. I'll continue with the rest of the weekend (a shorter version than this, I hope) in my next post.

Home visit

Well, tonight I'm going to drive up to Nashville, hop onto a SouthWest flight, and an hour and a half later, see my hubby! I'll be in Ohio/PA until Tuesday afternoon, when I have to come back here, but rest assured, I'll be back more often until I finally am able to move back to PA at the end of December/beginning of January. (There's been a new development that's moved my timetable up. - I'll tell ya later).

While I'm home, I'm hoping to eat plenty of buffalo wings, italian subs (I swear, Erie, PA is the best place in the WORLD for italian subs), Wendy's, Arby's, and Dairy Queen while I'm there. I'll probably come back 20 pounds fatter (which I do NOT need more fat, thankyouverymuch). But hey, it's good food, and I need it!

Oh, I'm also going to wish my stepdad a very happy birthday (tomorrow), and give him this awesome present:
http://www.brookstone.com/store/product.asp?product_code=586115&search_type=search&search_words=led%20boccee&prodtemp=t1&cm_re=Result*R1C1*T

My parents *LOVE* playing bocce, but they don't usually start until the evening, and by then it's getting dark, and hard to see the green and red balls. I figure this will be a great present for him!

30 minutes till I leave work and play hooky!

Visit

Well, this past weekend my husband drove down to visit me. He also brought the puppies to visit! They got in really late Thursday night (okay, Friday morning), and left at 11am today. While the trip was short, it was nice. On Friday we went to Huntsville & did some shopping after having a nice lunch in town. We wandered around SuperTarget (oh how I miss Target), and bought some nice steaks that were set into pinwheels with parmesan cheese & spinach.

I grilled the steaks and made some corn on the cob & baked potatoes. Needless to say, we were stuffed. Unfortunately, by the time we were finished with dinner, it was 8:45 and there was not enough time to get anywhere to watch fireworks. I was a little bit distressed, since the 4th is Justin's favorite holiday, and he positively LIVES for fireworks. He was okay with it though (after trying to give me a guilt trip - sorry honey, guilt trips don't work on me!), and we just watched the Boston POPS fireworks display on tv.

On Saturday, we took the puppies and went canoeing on the Buffalo River. We decided to do the 10 mile trip, which they said it would take around 5 hours to complete. Harvey & Chance each have their own life jackets, so I suited them up while Justin paid & got the equipment we would need. The dogs were definitely the stars of the day, and a lot of people asked us where we got their life jackets from (Petsmart).

Poor little Harvey stood practically the whole time, and for a sleepy beagle, that is a LONG time. About 30 minutes before the end, I turned around and saw this:

That poor boy was so tired from standing so long, that he just gave up and took a nap on one of the life vests.

Here's a picture of Chance in the canoe:

Finally, here's a picture of Justin & Chance:

Justin and I both got a little sunburned, but it was mostly our legs that got the worst. I was wearing both a hat & sunglasses, so I was pretty decently covered. The worst part is that my back hurts from sitting in that canoe for 5 hours, plus I have bruises on the outside of both of my knees where they rested on the sides of the canoe. Sometimes it's painful being tall.