Florida Report

This post is a bit late in coming, since it's hard to come back from vacation on Sunday and plunge right into the workweek. Tasks like "grocery shopping" and "laundry" kept getting in the way. (Also, "walking", but that's another story we'll get to in a minute).

So, overall, Florida was awesome, beautiful, relaxing, fun, and lovely. It was really nice to see Mike's family. I'd go back! In a heartbeat!We stayed on Lido Key, which is close to downtown Sarasota, but far enough away that it felt beachy and peaceful. Here are some obligatory beach shots:Mike's aunt and uncle also winter in Sarasota, so we got to see them. We were also joined by Mike's cousin from Buffalo and her family, including her two adorable kids (some of you may remember the older child who was about four months old at our wedding):We had lots of family hang-out time.We also ate Key Lime Pie (a staple in my understanding of Florida cuisine).Equally wonderful, there were loquats!(I should also mention that I just got a big shipment of loquats from my grandmother. If were feeling inspired, maybe I'd try something like this. But that seems like a lot of work for something that isn't even chocolate!).

The only complication came from my left foot (ha, ha, right?). It was swollen and painful and became more so while we were there - by Saturday night it was pretty painful and I couldn't put any weight on it. I was afraid it was a blood clot. Luckily, it wasn't. After spending some time in the Sarasota ER (accompanied by the ever-patient Mike and his father) and then seeing my own doctor here, it seems that the likely diagnosis is torn ligaments/tendons or a stress fracture. I don't know which one it is, and it doesn't really matter since the treatment for both is the same [and apparently both are more common in pregnancy - who knew?]. So, basically, I'm trying to walk less, wear comfy shoes, and hope it heals soon. It has gotten better since we've returned, but it still has a while to go.

That blue-and-yellow-store-from-Sweden

Last Saturday we went on a excursion. I know that some people might say they they went "shopping" or that they "popped out to get a few things." They'd make it sound casual, fun, convenient.

Alas, for us, the store in question is too far to make it a routine, regular event. So all last week we steeled ourselves for the trip. Mike almost had me thinking it wasn't going to be too bad. Almost.

It's about a 1.5 hour drive from our house, northeast of Dallas. Really, we'd have no reason to go there but for a retail establishment offering cheap furniture.

The shopping part goes fine: after some brief debate, we manage to pick out what we'd come there to get (bookcases for our living room that match our TV cart) and a few other things we needed (shelving for the baby's room, a nightstand for the guest room, etc.). We even stopped to have lunch in the cafe. Mike ate the gravlax. I was disgusted by this and ate salad. I'm still shocked he didn't get food poisoning.

The trouble comes when we enter the "self-service" part of the warehouse. I guess they call it this to distinguish it from the rest of the store where people are just tripping over their feet to help you.

First, the location given in the upstairs showroom is not the location where the bookcases are found. Second, when we finally do find the right spot, the bookcase now costs $30 more. Apparently, different colors are different prices. Of course they are. Third, they are out of our desired color. No, there are none in the back. No, they don't think they'll get any more in for at least three weeks. No, they can't call us when they come in (oh, but we can call them!). No, they won't deliver if we pay now. No, they won't offer us a discount since we just drove 1.5 hours only to figure out that they don't have our items in stock.

And, this, dear readers, is the part where I'd like to say we broke up with Eye-KAY-uh and left the store never to return.

Except, no.

We picked up the rest of our items, including a very nice desk for me. You know, now that we had space in the car....
And then we left. And we have broken up with said store. Seriously, I never want to go back. I also never want to assemble my own desk again: the screws were so cheap that the threads shredded when you screwed them in, and the unfinished pressboard sides gave me splinters. Oh, I am so, so over it.

(And, just to stress how far the drive was , driving home we both realized we were thirsty. And we were so far from home that we actually had to pull over and stop at a store to get something to drink, since it would be, like, more than hour until we got home. We stopped at a grocery store. And, because it is Texas, this grocery store had a walk-in beer cooler. I cannot tell you what a good idea that seemed like at that moment.)

Also, we still don't have bookcases. And the likelihood that we'll be able to find something that matches our TV cart is pretty slim (after all, the TV cart came from that very same store and was bought my first year in Seattle). So it's onward and upward for us, to the big-kid furniture stores. Or at least the next step up.

The good news is that we are off to the Sunshine State tomorrow, so I'm thinking that this weekend is bound to be better than last weekend.....

The house

This post is a bit of cheapie, since these pictures were actually taken two weeks ago. But Mike was gone at a conference this weekend and I didn't really do anything photo-worthy in his absence.

So, here are some pictures of the house, just to show you that we're settling in and that we've unpacked most of the boxes!
Alas, I can't show you the office since that room really is a, um, work in progress!

Duuuuuude

So last week was spring break here.I had a few days off from work, and then took the rest of the week off in order to make a whole week that matched Mike's schedule.

On Monday we took care of some stuff around the house. After a trip to the hardware store, Mike built some shelves for the garage and a storage unit for the laundry room. We also borrowed a ladder from our friends and hung the rest of the pictures downstairs. Our house is really looking much more like our space now! I'll post some pictures soon.

On Tuesday we left for the vacation part of spring break. We were headed to a dude ranch down in the Texas Hill Country. We managed to time our drive so that we stopped for lunch in Austin. And it was AWESOME. To be fair, I think Austin is ordinarily pretty cool, but we were there during SXSW (a giant arts/film/music/culture festival) which was like steroids for Austin. And rain for our parched hippie souls. We didn't actually attend any of the events, but the place where we had lunch was quite near some of the venues, so there were lots of people associated with the festival. After lunch we were torn between finding an independent coffee shop or this cupcake bakery a friend had told me about. I won. Guess where we went?Yes, that is an airstream that sells cupcakes (I'd hate to think how hot it gets in there in the summer!). Also, for ultimate perfection, there was a yarn store across the street from the cupcake airstream. I never wanted to leave.

After our lunch fun, we were back on the road, headed for the small town of Bandera and the dude ranch. We actually didn't end up spending any time in the town at all, so I can't really say anything about it. The dude ranch, on the other hand, was very nice.

We met my mom and her best friend, Harriet, there. Harriet is a native Texan, so she'd been to the Hill Country before, but this it was new to the rest of us. For the southern Californians among us, I'd say the Hill Country is a bit like Poway/Escondido/Rancho Bernardo (before all the houses went up everywhere) - which is to say lots of chaparral and scrub oak. It was pretty, in a mildly rugged sort of way. It also might have been a bit early for spring, since many of the trees were without leaves. I didn't find it to be a place of awesome scenic beauty, but it sure beats having a big box store on every corner (I'm not naming any names here, Fort Worth).We mostly did a lot of relaxing and hanging out. Our little cabin had a very pleasant veranda. The ranch staff cooked all the food, so it was very easy to wake up (at 7:30am, when they knocked on your door, bringing you coffee and juice), eat breakfast and then pass the day walking around the ranch, reading, resting, knitting, etc. The ranch also always offered the option of eating outside; we did this about 50% of the time.On our second day there, Mike and my mom went horseback riding.Also, the ranch had deer (very quick and quiet) and a peacock and a rooster (less quiet, especially at night!).And, for the record (I've verified this!), the stars at night ARE big and bright.

I would totally go back to this place - it was very relaxing. I also think it would be fun to go when it was a little warmer so that one could go tubing in the river that borders the ranch property. I also think that if one had kids ages 6-12, this would be a totally awesome place for them. Since it was spring break week, there were lots of kids around having a really good time.

We left on Friday; Harriet headed back to San Antonio to pick up her daughter and Mike, my mother, and I drove up to Fort Worth. We drove home via Fredricksburg. Fredricksburg is a town in the heart of the Texas wine country. It's a bit like Port Townsend - filled with little gifty shops. We visited a nice kitchen store, had some good pizza, and Mike and my mom tasted some wine. Incidentally, if you are from California or Washington, you may not find yourself that impressed with Texas wine. I'm just sayin'.

Friday night we had dinner at our favorite Indian place and then headed to the house so that my mom could finally see it. She really liked it!

Saturday was kind of a low-key day. Mike made French toast for breakfast, and then there was lots of hanging out, lunch, a walk, baking lemon bars (only my second attempt ever; not a staggering success, but not bad, either), and then Thai for dinner.

On Sunday my mom and I headed to the Modern Art Museum for brunch, then we had a walk, and then Harriet and her daughter arrived in town just time for dinner. Dinner was pizza made by my Chef Extraordinaire.And that was spring break. The end.

More Pictures

So it was totally my goal to hang pictures in the house this weekend, and then take pictures of a few rooms to show how well we're settling in. However, it turns out that we'll need a stepladder to hang some of these pictures, so that project didn't quite get off the ground (so to speak). We did hang a few pictures in the eating area, but nothing really major.

But, despair not! I have other pictures to share.

On Saturday, two of our good friends here in Fort Worth got married (and to each other, no less!). We went with them to the ceremony in the courthouse and then to the Japanese Garden to take some pictures. We then celebrated with some pizza afterwards. The bride was beautiful, the groom handsome, and everyone was very happy and a little weepy.

More from the ultrasound machine

Here are some more exciting pictures. These were taken at the 20 week appointment, which was on Tuesday. For those of you keeping track at home, the gestation period for a baby is usually about 40 weeks. According to our sources, the "fish" (as we call it) is currently about 7 inches long and weighs about 11 ounces.

Moved in (sort of)

Sorry for the radio silence, but, as I'm sure you know, moving is a little stressful and time-consuming. I'm not sure what made us think we could pull off a mid-week, mid-semester move, but we have now been disabused of that notion for any future moves (of which I hope there aren't many).

I think the worst of it is over, though. Most boxes (except those in the office and those that go with our yet-to-be-bought living room bookcases) are unpacked, the kitchen is set-up, and we are settling in. I even baked some cookies in the new kitchen last weekend.

We still need to get the giant pile of boxes out of the living room. We've been doing the environmentally friendly thing and craigslisting them instead of just sending them off to be recycled. But that means that they hang around until the people who have made arrangements to pick them up actually show up. So, despite the progress we've made, boxes are still a larger feature of the living room than I'd like them to be.

No pictures yet, though. I'd like the big box pile to be gone and for us to have hung some of our pictures before I start taking photos.

floored

Well, we're finally finished with the flooring. It looks great - we're so happy with it. I'm glad we went with a lighter color, since I think it makes everything look a little warmer and lighter.This weekend we moved all our clothes and most of the boxes containing the super-fragile items. The real move - with the movers - happens tomorrow.

This is not my goat

Photo credit: Seattle Police Department

Or so I've been told. Full story here.

"What are you going to do with all those bedrooms?"

Due July 17th.

16 weeks plus change today.

We aren't planning to find out whether it's a boy or a girl (well, eventually, yes, but not before the birth).

We're happy, our parents are happy, etc.

You've come a long way, baby

Forgive the cheesy title, but here are some new pictures of the house. I took these with the iphone's camera (why is it that I have two perfectly good cameras, but managed to forget both of them yesterday morning???).As you can see, the grass is a little brown (as is the grass throughout the neighborhood), but we're hoping for green in the spring!
(the fan on the floor is trash [it was defective and replaced by the builder]; we just haven't thrown it away yet)
That's the master bath above, but there are no pictures of the bedrooms, since without furniture they all look the same....

However, here is a picture of Mike's first home-improvement project - a shelf for the laundry room!Also, this is Kate writing - I just realized that this will post from Mike's account.....