Vita-many

Now that I am gestating a parasite, we want it to be the healthiest parasite possible. Which means I am following all the rules about what not to eat and do and that also means there are a lot things I am now supposed to be eating. I'm totally increasing my intake of protein, dark greens, fruits, and whole grains and cutting bad carbs out (potato, white bread, etc). Given the demands of the parasite this means an increase in daily calories and 5-6 meals a day. So really all my marathon training tricks are coming back out of the bag.

And it doesn't end there, I've also starting supplementing with vitamins and this makes for one long list of pill popping. I am taking four different types of vitamins. I feel like I'm 80. John told me he's going to have to get a compartment daily pill reminder box thing. I just might need it to remember all of them.

Here they are:
Prenatals - Three Daily, mixed multi-vitamin with all the good stuff
Folate - Better blood, makes your hair healthier too, good side benefit
Omega 3's - Made from fish oil but at least they don't taste like it, immune booster and other goodness
B Complex - For energy to help get over the 1st trimester fatigue

All in all, it isn't bad though. The eating was probably the best part of marathon training, so I'm not sorry to resurrect it with the twist of heavy on the protein instead of carbs.

BOO!

Reality is sinking in and it's time to be made public, ... and baby will make three! We are 9 weeks pregnant, due date is October 27th for a little pumpkin. Hopefully, it will be less goblin and more Casper!

We are both pretty excited and will be figuring out what we've gotten ourselves into over the next 18 years or so. For now, I'm mostly just fatigued and find that the time I most want some coffee and caffeine, I can't have any.

Today, we had our first complete exam including baby's first picture, a black and white blob. Cool part was that we could actually see the heart beating a mile a minute on the screen. For reference, the portion of the blob to the right is the head (or so we've been told) and baby as a whole is the size of a martini olive. Sigh, martini's another thing I can't have right now. Personally, being pregnant thus far seems to be a long list of things I can't have.

Officer Shmociffer

For frequent readers on this post, you may have noticed a lack of any and all piloting related activity lately. The last flight I made was in January with Jen H ride along and then nothing. It's sad, I've missed flying, but it's all because I've been waiting for my new membership card as I am now inactive in the aero club.

I am now a 2nd Lieutenant in the Civil Air Patrol, the non-saluting, fake-military type of 2nd Lieutenant. I say that because technically it is the Air Force Auxiliary and they have uniforms, but seriously when I can choose to wear a polo shirt for a uniform, it really is fake military. Some people actually show up to the meetings in full BDUs, which I personally find kind of stupid since I am married to and know so many actual veterans it would be silly to pretend it is actually the military. I digress.

So anyway, my member information finally arrived yesterday and I am officially now a Civil Air Patrol pilot. What does that mean you ask? For now it means I have access to a cheaper airplanes C-172s and C-182s. Although, much nicer and newer for that cheaper cost, the 182s even with Garmin G1000 glass cockpits! For my first task, I am going to get my complex airplane rating (more than 200hp) so I can then fly the 182s solo. After I build some more hours (need 100, have 60), I will start flying transport missions (e.g. disaster relief supplies, move airplanes to staging locations, etc) and high-bird missions (e.g. homeland security with hyper-spectral imaging cameras type stuff). I will also, in the meantime, get certified as a scanner to fly right seat on search and rescue missions and do the "looking" part of searching. I need 175 hrs to actually fly search and rescue missions because they are low altitude activities.

I am looking forward to the flying, my big thing was have a reason to fly because $100 hamburgers get pretty boring. Plus, its been awhile since I did any volunteer activities and this way I get to give back in a way that I will really enjoy. For more information on the CAP try their www.gocivilairpatrol.com.

The Greening of Houston

Being from the wonderful Pacific NW, I have, for all intensive purposes, been recycling my whole life. Recycling in WA state is a normal, no questions asked thing you just do. Why wouldn't you just put recycling in one place and trash in another? Like why wouldn't you put a seat belt on your child? It's painless and it just might save the world.

So moving to Houston was quite the culture shock 7 years (really, that long) ago when I actually had to FIND a drop off for my recycling AND it was 10 miles away. For reference, I dropped my recycling off on my way to work to not waste the gas to do it. A few years ago we got curbside recycling in our neighborhood and it was one measly bin. Since I actually recycle the bin was a joke and I had to call and get more of them to cover the 3 bins worth of recyclables we produced. Plus, no curbside glass pickup, so I was still keeping that separate and taking it to the drop off.

Now, no kidding, I have a 90 GALLON recycling wheelie bin of awesomeness!! It is amazing!! I am literally a happier person knowing that Houston is doing something NICE and environmentally friendly. Not only that, but they now take glass and we don't have to sort. Just like what we had in Seattle 10 YEARS AGO!! So here is is our wonderful new Houston recycling bin on the curb for the first day of the new pickup. Note: It is actually still the same size as our enormous garbage can which we never fill and don't even put out weekly. So my only hope is that one day, Houston will take away the big garbage bin. Thereby forcing people to recycle since they can't stuff all the crap in a small can. One day, baby steps for Texas.



p.s. When we thought we were going to move to Friendswood, I was actually sad to realize I would have had to give up my new recycling bin. Added bonus for not buying the other house! :)

Vegas Baby! Vegas!

Last weekend we skipped out Friday morning and flew to Vegas for my somewhat belated 30th birthday celebration. We were supposed to go two weeks ago (like for my actual birthday) but I got assigned to a big meeting at work and couldn't go sneaking out that Friday.

The morning we flew in and checked into the Venetian for the weekend. Very nice. I am now officially a fan of the Venetian hotel since it is all suites and very nicely done. I enjoy having the extra space in the room to relax, which is the point of the trip, instead of a normal hotel room where the only place to "be" is on the bed whether it is watching TV, eating, or sleeping. Friday night we went to dinner and then saw the Blue Man Group, tickets included in the hotel package we got. Love the recession, great vacation deals. Blue Man Group was awesome, as a former drummer, I enjoy any percussion type show. My other comment about BMG... random. The show as a whole is neat, but just has a serious of random elements strung together.

Otherwise, Sat we did some gambling and shopping and spent most of the day relaxing. I started out good on the blackjack table the first time we sat down but, as is always the case, we lost that later in the day. But at least we had some of their money to lose and it was less of ours. Sunday morning we had an excellent breakfast delivered to the room and it wasn't just a lame hand you a tray room service. The guy came in and made up the room dining table with linens and everything and set the table with food. Good food too. Then sadly we had to pack up and head to the airport.

Quick trip but it was fun and it was nice to get away for a couple days at least. Plus, we got to trade what was apparently a crappy, rainy Houston weekend for a sunny and 70 Vegas one. I'll take it.

I'm sorry, they did what to the roof?!?!

Well we thought we were going to buy a new house, but it turns out that is all it was. Friday after work we had the home inspection completed. At first, it wasn't so bad. Some minor problems you'd expect, a slightly more serious one that none of the external outlets were on GFCI circuits... and then we got to the attic.

Holy Cow. We actually spent a lot of time up there because the inspector had that many photos to take. The first major issue was that some of the structural supports that should have been 2x8's were really a 2x4 attached to a 2x6, 2 extra inches of support right? Whatever. The next major issue was that about half the roof rafters were cut anywhere from 1-3 inches short and scrap lumber was used to scab it all together to reach the ridge line. No kidding, one rafter even had a piece of wood wedged in between the end of the rafter and the ridge for those extra couple inches to nail to the ridge. Then the last major problem was that the actual ridge board was cracked across 3/4 of the house. And a no joke crack I probably could have put my pinkie finger through in places. I know this house survived Ike, but if I lived there I'd be worried every time the wind blew.

So whew! Best $425 we've invested in anything. The inspector we used was the same one from our first house and obviously we think pretty highly of the guy. As he is only a home inspector, per protocol he recommended we "get a structural engineering inspection" in his report. Totally doesn't matter though, we've both been 'engineers' long enough to know what's wrong with the construction and really you don't need to be an engineer to figure that out. So anyone buying a house in H-town and needs an inspector, do we have the guy for you.

Well now, this is the reason we didn't yet have our current house on the market. We are pretty tired of going to look at houses that only half meet our criteria and have decided to participate in the recession by staying in our current home for now instead. Maybe we should have a house 'reheating party' for our current place.

Vote Colbert!

I think Steven Colbert is awesome and since he loves NASA so much he deserves this. He does more good PR for NASA than anyone else, so he should get the module named after him. Write in Colbert for the name of Node 3 here!

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For your birthday... a house!

Ok, well it isn't really a birthday present, but John and I found a house over the weekend and put an offer in which was accepted after some negotiation. So there it is, we are moving and will close Mar 27th. Crazy times have began as we now try to get our current house ready to sell (neutral colors booo!) in addition to getting inspections and financing in order for the new house. So busy, busy birthday (which is today).

Over the weekend though, we did go out Saturday night for a repeat event of a long standing tradition of going to Hooters and then playing Bingo. This started when I was in college by Mona and is still a heck of a lot of fun. Thanks to everyone who came and I hope we've converted a few people to the joys of bingo. The only sucky parts were that out of our huge table of 17 or 18 people no one won and we were totally being unfairly blamed for "making too much noise for the called to hear the Bingos." We were totally getting a talking to by the bingo noise nazis and were trying to tell her that we weren't making that much noise and it was the other tables around us and they she shouldn't just assume a table of young people (as in not 60 years old) were to blame. A table of regulars near us even had to jump in and defend us because she wouldn't believe us. She finally went away and chastized the right table, what a joke but still had a good time.