Tag: travel

Woo!

Am so excited…in less than three weeks, I’ll be spending the weekend in the DC area with Kristina and my sister and Emily and my other DC-area friends. Since it’s just me going, I’ll be bringing just one baby with me. And I’m going to pick fairly (in case they’re reading this in 15 years…) and draw a name out of a hat. Either that, or I’ll just take lots of pictures in different outfits, and Photoshop the resulting photos to make it look like I brought all three. (And in that case, of course I’ll edit this entry.)

If you’re disappointed that I’m not bringing all three boys, do this…drink several beers. And then you’ll see three. They’re identical, you won’t know the difference! Or if you’re not a drinker, squint. Or something.

I can’t wait to see my Emily again, and to see Kristina’s new house, and Annie and her son Whitman and their new house. And hopefully meet some of my blog friends too! Egads, it’s exciting!

We had a pretty low-key fourth of July. We didn’t even see a single firework! But we did hang out with some friends for a little while. Mostly I was preparing for the most exciting part of the weekend…Saturday night!

My boss and his family took all three boys overnight so George and I could have some time to ourselves. People, I slept until ELEVEN IN THE MORNING! It was blissful. I took some Tylenol PM to make sure I didn’t hear phantom baby cries in the night.

We also went to dinner with friends and I saw WALL-E. Ack, I loved it! Want to see again.

So that is me right now. If anyone has tips for flying alone with a baby, please feel free to share!

Now, for your enjoyment…

Linus does “the lip”

And now Oliver…

Our aquarium trip from last weekend: Note Miles eating his blue stroller. He looooves blue stroller. It tastes goooood.

Linus, lecturing from the chair I won in a contest on ohdeedoh.com:

But he didn’t like the chair for very long:

And hanging out at Gulf Pizza on the Fourth. Babies, babies, everywhere!

OB appointment

So, I had my doctor’s appointment yesterday. It was pretty unexciting, except that I did get to hear all three heartbeats. Woo! I still have a bit of a hard time believing that they can differentiate between three different ones, but I guess they’re the pros! And I could tell that she was pressing on different areas of my tummy when she heard each one. I shall choose to believe that yes, there were three.

I have GOT to start packing for our trip! Ack! We leave tomorrow afternoon! At least I did the laundry. I also have to finish Emily’s birth announcements. They’re cute. Of course! I can’t wait to see her. My own little Emmy to play with! I told Jenny I’d babysit on Friday for a few hours. I wonder if I can get George to change a diaper. I doubt it would be worth the effort, though, but I’m gonna try.

Monday night is the Morrissey concert. Aaaagh! I can’t wait! As long as it doesn’t get cancelled, but I am going to think positive thoughts. The concerts for the past few nights have been cancelled, but we still have a few days for him to drink hot tea and get his voice back. I can’t even think of the alternative. (I’m so dramatic.) I mean, this is the triplets’ first exposure to good music! They’re going to be Morrissey fans! I can’t wait!!! Mwah ha ha ha ha ha!!!

California and pictures

Aww, isn’t Emily cute? Here’s a picture that Jenny sent me a LONG ASS TIME AGO. NEED MORE PICTURES, MOMMY!!!

Who’s a bunny???

Eeeep! Isn’t she cute?

Speaking of cute…

Now, you can’t deny that I have the cutest nieces in the whole wide world. Don’t even try arguing with me! I can’t wait, less than four weeks and I get to hug them both at the same time. Woo hoo!

Also, want to apologize for lack of posting. We were in California last week for fun/work. Fun first – we went to San Francisco, and then work in Monterey. It was friggin’ COLD but we had fun. Just so dang busy!

Here we are at the Golden Gate bridge. Wearing fleece jackets. IN MAY.

Now, I promise to start posting more! Promise!

PS Paula, were you trying to say in the last entry that you have something to share with the rest of the class? Just wonderin’.

Recap

I know, I know, I know, I haven’t posted in forever. But I’ve been so busy!

Here’s a basic rundown:

Jan 12-16: Pittsburgh. Hung out with Polly, Colin, and Amelia. Gave serious thought to babynapping Amelia. Dang, but she’s a cute, sweet baby. Curled up right on my chest and slept a lot. So so so cute. Can’t wait til they come back to visit in April! yay!

Flight home was delayed, though, and ended up staying an extra night. More Amelia for meeee!

Jan 16: On way to work from airport, stopped at Wendy’s for lunch. Big mistake. Ended up barfing all night long. And the next day. Yuck. Still don’t feel 100% better. But hey, lost 3 lbs or something like that. However, I don’t think I’ll be using that again as a weight loss strategy.

Jan 19-21: Visa Las Vegas! (Okay, that commercial stuck with me.) Kristina’s bachelorette party. We stayed at the Wynn, which was beautiful. We walked, ate, and drank a lot. Didn’t gamble too much. Mostly on nickle slots and video poker. Fun. Got home after midnight last night. Zzzzz.

Pittsburgh recap

Sooo, it’s been a long time since I’ve posted. Yes. But I’ve been v busy. I am v important busy person. You may now even refer to me as “Board Member Pam.” Yes indeedy, I am that important.

So, my week in Pittsburgh (with a foray to Northern Virginia) went a bit like this:

Sunday: woke up at ungodly hour to catch 6 am flight. Met Kristina at airport (she drove in.) Went to IKEA. Checked into hotel. Walked to Pirate’s game. Got sunburned. Ate lots of food. Went back to hotel, rested. Went to dinner at Piper’s Pub, a Scottish pub that Polly and Colin recommended. Drank some beer, ate some toad-in-the-hole. Delish. Got a cab back to the hotel, hung out in hotel bar with roadie from some heavy metal band. We are cool chicks.

Monday, Memorial Day: Woke up, decided to walk to Penzey’s, the spice store I’ve been dying to visit. Me, being a Southerner, didn’t realize how big Memorial Day is up north. So the fact that EVERYTHING was closed was a bit of a shock to me. So no Penzey’s for us. After we trekked back downtown, we took the teeny subway to Station Square, a “mall” (I use the term very loosely) that was also largely closed. We ate lunch and then took the v scary incline up to Mt. Washington and admired the view and the houses. Ate some ice cream, went back to hotel, Kristina left for DC. I took a nap and then met with fellow members of conference planning committee for dinner. (Buca di Beppo…mmmm!)

Tuesday: Conference began (actually, pre-conference.) Seminars were interesting, esp the one about computer forensics. Tuesday night was the opening picnic. I got to eat another french-fry sandwich. Yum. I went to the gym that morning, did I mention?

Wednesday: Real conference beginning. Went to seminars. That night, my coworkers and I went to an outdoor mall where I shopped and then we ate dinner. Went back to hotel where we visited the hospitality suite. Fun!

Thursday: More conference. That afternoon we had the big outing. The Cathedral of Learning with the Nationality Rooms – very cool, a tour of the cathedral, and then a boat trip up and down the rivers with dinner and faux-gambling. I am now a faux-roulette expert.

Friday: last day of conference. I won a seat on the Board of Directors! V exciting. Friday night was the closing banquet. Yummy food, we had a fun table, and I won another printer! (Last year, at the closing banquet I won a photo printer. This year, a big ol’ inkjet that will come in v handy for my design jobs.) They had these ethnic dancers (Eastern European) that were highly entertaining.

Saturday: up at another god-awful hour for another early flight, this one to DC. Kristina picked me up, and we went to her house. I took a nap, we got manis/pedis, and then I started making five batches of hamburger and hot dog buns. Only I made them too small, so we ended up having a ton of rolls. Just rolls. Lots left over. Too bad I didn’t bring any home. Mmmm. Bread. I drank too much champagne punch, made a toast (before too much punch was imbibed, I think) and had lots of fun. Too much.

Sunday: got up not too early for flight home. Only one bag made it with me, not the big one. Sucky. But now everything is back safely in my hands.

Last night we went to Jacque-Imo’s for dinner with Polly and Colin and Teresa and Jon. Polly and Colin are moving to Pittsburgh on Sunday. 😦

Fun trip!

What a fun weekend! Polly, Regan and I went to Dallas to visit my friends Mar and Ket. Yes, those are their real names. To me.

We left on Friday afternoon and got to Mar’s house at around, oh, 1 am. Even though we genuinely, naively thought we’d be there by 11. Of course, traffic was horrific leaving New Orleans, so it wasn’t really our fault.

Anyway, so we get to Mar’s incredible house (it’s a gorgeous house on its own, but really, it’s her decorating sense that makes the house. Gorgeous. Her dining room table is to die for. Oh man. And her bedroom? It’s about the size of my house. Approximately.

So we go to sleep and on Saturday morning, we go to meet Kettie and her friend Brittany for brunch. Mmm. Brunch. I had pan-crepes. Those wacky Dallas restaurants, mixing pancakes with crepes! Delish. (Why they just couldn’t call them crepes is beyond me, but what do I know?)

After pan-crepes and bacon, we went to DSW. I got a pair of $80, 4″ heels for $20. Gotta love it. Not the most practical shoes, but who cares, for $20? And then onto Sam Moon, which is indescribable. A large jewelry/purse/belt/scarf store teeming with women because of the low prices. Is that a good description? No. Anyway, I got some earrings (including some faux diamond ones that match my necklace perfectly) and a shawl.

On to a fancy mall after that, where I fruitlessly searched for a “foundation garment” for the wedding. If you don’t know what it is, don’t ask. You don’t want to know. Also a stop in Sephora where we all got our eyes made up and where Kettie and Polly got suckered into buying $22 lotion. But it did make their hands feel very very soft. Okay, kidding about the suckered part, if you’re reading this, Polly and Kettie! I bought the best eyeshadow brush ever and an eyelash curler. Fascinating, eh?

So then we left the mall and visited Kettie’s house, dog, and husband. All very cute. Looked at her wedding pictures. Kettie was a beautiful bride, but the best part is her description of her hairdo. “Five minutes before walking down the aisle, I shoved it into a ponytail.” Sigh. To be so low-maintenance. Not me.

Went to dinner after that, and met up with everyone’s-friend Martha and a guy we went to high school with. Drank margaritas and ate too much food. Went back to Mar’s house and drank some wine, and then went to sleep. And then came home on Sunday.

So really we only had one day in Dallas, but it was lots of fun. I think next time I’ll fly.

4/10/02

Leaving in 24 hours. Plane takes off in 24 hours and 5 minutes, to be exact. Well, is supposed to. Am all packed, basically. Just need to do some rearranging so it all fits.

I woke up at 6 a.m. this morning, for no reason except to make sure I’m sleepy enough to go to sleep at 7 p.m. tonight. Of course, the two Tylenol PM I plan to take should ensure that anyway, but if I’m not at least a little tired, I’ll just be awake and zombie-like. Going to wake up at 3 a.m., watch some TV (will probably rent a movie), eat a snack, get everything together. Then we’re leaving for the airport around 6, going to check in early to get my seat assignments (if I end up with a window seat, I’m going to be very upset) and then we’re going to Denny’s for breakfast. Yum!

Last night I ran around the park just once. I was upset when I left work yesterday, for work-related reasons, so going to the park and running in the beautiful weather cheered me up. Fortunately, it cleared up sometime yesterday afternoon, so the gloom of the past two days is gone. I actually went around in under 20 minutes, which may be a new record for me. Since I went so fast, I didn’t go around again. Don’t want to hurt anything or wear myself out.

Now, just need to get through work today, and I’m home freeeeee!

4/5/02

Sleepy, soooooo sleepy. Want to take a long nap. But still have 7.5 hours left of work. How on earth am I going to survive? Have not had coffee this morning. May have to go treat myself to good coffee. A walk to the coffee shop and a coffee. That should wake me up. We left Baton Rouge at 6:30 this morning, which wouldn’t be so bad if had gotten in last night before 12:30, but we didn’t. So I’m (barely) functioning on very little sleep (for me. I know there are people who are fine with 5.5 hours of sleep, but I am not one of them!)

Regardless of how tired I am today, though, it was worth it. Got my hair done (shorter, shiny, stripey, red) and then had dinner with my mom and Jack and then Kristina and I went on to the Bayou to see Mike’s band play. It was really strange, we talked to the bassist for a while before they started playing. I had never really had a conversation with him before, and he always seemed scary and not sociable, but he’s actually quite chatty and friendly. Funny, having a lighthearted conversation with a guy in leather trousers. And, since I designed the band’s website, I got mentioned twice by the lead singer. I was cool. Except there were only about 30 people in the bar. Ha ha. It’ll be more exciting when they play Madison Square Garden.

Oh yeah, and then when we got home, my mom gave me my Easter present – a (not very) crisp $100 bill! Woo hoo! For my trip! Yay! I was stressing a little about having enough spending money, so it’ll definitely come in handy. Yay! Of course, now I’ll have no excuse not to go to Harrod’s to get her favorite bath stuff. Must not forget or I will be in big trouble. I wonder if Stansted has a Harrod’s duty-free shop like Heathrow and Gatwick. Hmmm. Must check on that.

This weekend I have to get all the little odds & ends I need for my trip. Toiletries, books to read on the plane(s), presents for Marianne and Michael (I’m staying with Marianne and Michael wants me to bring him some cigarettes. Feels a little like I’m visiting someone in prison.) etc, etc.