Mmmmmmm, fajitas

OK, all the talk about fajitas in the last comments block has me hungry. There are so many foods I missed in Denmark that I've been trying to avoid eating too much of since I've been home. (Like fruit juices, root beer, fish frys, Wegman's double chocolate donuts, to name just a few.)

I'm in the home stretch here, people, and trying to not to blow it! Actually, I already did, by Danish standards. (They insist any weight gain above 25 pounds is terribly dangerous.) Let's just say I'm a few over that. I'm ready to get my little body back. We'll see how that goes.

Actually, I've been having a lovely time at Wegman's the last two weekends. I'm the big fat pregnant lady eating the free samples! It's been great, since they're celebrating apple season here, so John and I have been eating all the apple samples. Apple pie (with ice cream, thank you), apples with caramel, pork roast with apple stuffing, cider . .. even donuts! It's been yummy. I haven't had so much fun shopping since they gave away beer, wine, and snapps samples at Føtex (the Danish version of Wegmans) last Christmas.

I had that sonogram today, and the baby is definately breech. His head is up, his butt is down, and his arms and legs are up over his head and face. All else is well. I'll talk to the doctor in the next few days and see if we can get a plan together (or at least as much of a plan as is possible). Oddly enough, I'm strangely content to swing with whatever comes. This whole pregnancy has been more of an act of faith than I'm accustomed to, so I seem to be mentaly ready to wade through the next few weeks. We'll see what happens. I'll keep 'ya posted!

Superman and a Princess

Superman and a Princess
Originally uploaded by mgenovese.

Sometimes quarks (not the express variety, Kris), atoms, molecules, compounds, mixtures, and other organic entities align just right at a single instant in all of time to produce the perfect photograph. And when this happens, I typically don't have my camera with me.

Until today.

Silly baby

Sometime Saturday evening all Hell broke lose in my belly. I couldn't quite figure out where the baby thought he was going, but he seemed to be on a mission. To put it bluntly, he was pummeling me. It felt like he was doing Thi Chi- long, strong stretching. The good thing was that he was moving, but it had me a bit concerned.

It continued all weekend. By last night, I was almost ready to call the doctor's answering service. The only thing that kept me from doing so was that 1) the baby was moving, still in Thai Chi mode, and 2) I had a doctor's appointment this morning.

This morning the doctor listened to my weekend worries, gave my belly a thoughtful sqeeze, and took me right over for a sonogram. Well, my stupid son decided to flip over last weekend. Apparently he was bored, and decided to go breech. He really didn't need to do that. At the moment, he seems to be laying hammock-like with his head oder my right side rib-cage and his feet over my left hip. His new hobbies include punching my diaphram and dancing on my pelvic floor. I'm hoping this gets old and he decides to get back where he should be.

I go back to the doctor next week, and we'll do a more complete sonogram and see exactly how he's settled. Then we can discuss trying to turn him, if that's possible. If I'm really lucky, he'll flip over on his own. He's still moving more than usual, so maybe he isn't done yet. Keep your fingers crossed!

Up and down.

Ok to tell you all how crazy the Texas Autum is let me tell you about the weather the past few days. Earlier this week it was 92 degrees and HUMID, then the next day after a "cold front" came in with some much needed rain, the high was 68 degrees. Today we went to a christian music festival held at a local park, featuring some local artists, and it was 97 degrees!! Some one please help us. One day we have the AC on the next the heater, the next the AC is back on. I'm ready for something consistent.

Kris how are you feeling? In what one short month the newest member will arrive.
Karen, thanks for the email. Anna is doing wonderfully! Jane is a cutie.
How is everyone else?

Buffalo

I just recieved an email from a friend from Århus, who is now in her home country of Austria, and she wanted to make sure my family in Buffalo was ok.

Wow. News does travel these days, doesn't it? It's amazing such a big deal could be made over a snowstorm in Buffalo. (Think about it, people.) But this one has left hundreds of thousands without power, and now without clean water.

My parents actually lost power later than most people, on Thursday night. They're also lucky that they have a gas-powered space heater in the basement, so they haven't been completely without heat. The tricky part for them is flooding. They're sump pump is electric, with a water-powered back-up.

Now the news is that the water-treatment plant in Buffalo, also without elecricity, doesn't have a back-up generator. So much for American disaster relief and "homeland security"! (Hey, if the government can't fathom a back-up plan for a snowstorm in Buffalo, we're all in Big Trouble.) Water has to be boiled, and people are supposed to use water sparingly. Some people have had their water turned off altogether. If the water gets turned off to my parents' house, the basement will begin to flood.

Meanwhile, in Williamsville, Doug has had an equally exciting few days. He lives in a group home run my Heritage Christian, and they have my full confidance that they'll continue to take excellent care of him and his housemates. The staff has had a rough few days, filled with scrambles for gas, heated accomidations, and food, often without land-lines or cell phones. They're hanging in there.

They lost power earlier than my parents, as did several of their other homes in the area, but unlike NYS, they had enough of a plan in place to keep all the residents warm, fed and comfortable. It took a short bit, but Doug's house now has a generator, and half of the house is heated. So Doug can cook, and can stay warm for the weekend.

Mom and Dad should move in with him for a few days!

Heather, how are your parents faring? Doug lives a few miles from them, and according to the Heritage staff, it's pretty rough down there.

It's a beautiful thing

As I know I've mentioned, we've had computer problems for quite a few months now. The Mac G4 laptop was getting old, and quirky. John was frustrated because it wasn't handling World of Warcraft very well. Every patch was a nail-biting experience, and the computer would often crash while he was playing. I was very frustrated with iPhoto, which would no longer work, so I no longer had easy access to any of our photos. iTunes crashed quite often as well. Since all of our music is ripped to the Mac (beats carrying the CDs overseas), we functionally didn't have any tunes.

The worst part was that the computer was no longer taking any instalation well, so each time a program stopped working, there was a chance we couldn't get it up and running. We'd even had trouble re-installing the OS, which just about sent me into heart failure, even with the files backed-up. We were limping along on borrowed time, and we knew it.

It was time for a new computer. At first I thought about jumping to a Windows machine, mostly because of the cost, but quickly realized I couldn't do it, for reasons I won't bother all of you with. After a bit of reasearch I realized that John could still play World of Warcraft with a souped-up 17" iMac, which is more than enough computer for me at the moment, so the decision was made.

We walked out of the Apple Store yesterday with our new purchase. John was jubilant. I (who had handed over the debit/credit card) felt as if I were about to throw up. However, now that the money is officially gone, I have to say this is a beautiful thing. The monitor is luminous. We merged all 7,000+ of my photos into iPhoto last night, and got to trip down memory lane. I have to take some time to sort through them and put them into albums, but it won't be too hard. I'm actually looking forward to it (as well as ordering prints).

World of Warcraft runs extremely well, much better than even John expected. And we scored a free all-in-one printer/scanner/copier from the Apple Store, so I have access to a basic scanner for the first time in years. We're pleased.

Whoa! What happened?

We broke down yesterday and made the Big Purchase, that is, a new computer. The laptop that got us through Europe was starting to get wonky, and wasn't always taking installations well. I haven't been able to easily access my photos (all 7,000 of them) for months, and hadn't even seen shots of our last trip. I was just waiting for it to refuse to take CDs altogether. John, of course, was more concerned that his game was crashing. (I am a World of Warcraft Widow.)

At first, I was ready to jump to a Windows operating system, if only because of the cost. (Yes, I was delusional.) Then, I realized I just couldn't do it. We've been sucked in by the lifestle issues Macs addict you to: our music and photos are all linked to the Mac OS. I know there are ways to switch, but it wouldn't have been easy (especially the music, I think). Plus, I would lose access to Photoshop and Illustrator, unless I bought new disks. I've already lost Quark (the version I have is OS 9 compatible), and I just couldn't face losing Photoshop.

I am a Mac Girl, and always will be. After a bit of research, I realized that an iMac would be more than enough computer for us in the near future (even with John's gaming habits), so we should be set computer-wise for the near future. We bought the slightly souped-up version of the 17", which is the smallest monitor they sell now. It is absolutely beautiful. When we left the Apple Store, John was jubilant, I thought I was going to throw up. However, the money is out of the bank account now, so I might as well enjoy it!

So this morning I was re-linking my bookmarks in Firefox, and I realized that I've missed a whole month of Hunny House blog entires! I'm not sure why they didn't come up before (I tried hitting update and re-linking, I thought something was off), but I'm caught up now.

We're still hanging in here. I'm slowly adjusting. It's been harder this time, partly because the pace of life has sped up, partly because I'm not working, and partly because this is yet another temorary stop over. I'm looking forward to being a mom, but that's another identity change as well, and I'm in between careers, too! It's just a bit too much change for me. John likes his job, but only has it for two years, so he's aready looking for his next job, which should be permanent. We could end up anywhere, although we'd prefer the East Coast. He's come to the reallization that he probably doesn't want to head up a research lab, and I don't blame him, but that opens up many other options we hadn't considered before. It's all a little to up-in-the-air for me, but I'm managing.

Meanwhile, Baby Snyder seems to be growing in leaps and bounds. He's kicking like crazy, which makes me feel good. I have to admit that if I have to eat one more "nutrient rich, healthy snack" I think I'll scream. I was actually dreaming about chocolate cake last week, and talking in my sleep about the frosting. (That had John really confused.) That's just sad. I've backed off a little, for better or worse. I'm hoping the poor kid has enough of a head-start that a week or so of slacking off won't hurt him. We have about eight weeks to go before we get to meet him face to face. I can't wait.

I'll make sure I don't drop off the blog again . . . type to you all soon!