Well hello! So good of you to stop by! Please, come on in...

through our FRONT DOOR!

Isn't it pretty?! As you can see, our front door has arrived and has been installed. Our interior doors are all here too but I think they'll wait to install those till a bit later.

Other house updates:

- Our kitchen appliances have been delivered to the site! It'll probably be a little while till they get installed. We don't have our cabinets in yet. So they are still in boxes.

- We've selected all of our exterior and interior paint colours except for 2 spaces (living room, and entry/stairway) - should have the missing ones selected by thursday

- We've picked out all of our tiles except for the master shower floor, and the kitchen backsplash. We'll be making those selections on Monday.

- We've purchased and received all of our cabinet hardware - kitchen, bathroom, laundry room

- we've bought our master bathroom accessories (towel bars, toilet paper holder, etc)

- The decks and bridges are built!

- The mud and taping is completely done and a coat of primer applied throughout the interior! It's looking pretty sweet :-)

Tim was out at the site earlier this week when they finished the decks and bridge, and today when they had finished the priming and took these photos.

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It's official - it's grillin' season!

We actually broke out the grill for the first time this season last week with... what else... steaks. Which were scrumptous. There's almost nothing better than a good grilled steak. And Tim's grilled steaks are always good.

However I have a weakness when it comes to grilled hamburgers. Big, juicy, thick hamburgers - not the pre-made patties you can buy in the store. The hand formed patties rich with real onions inside them, brushed generously with bbq sauce while on the grill, smothered in freshly sliced cheddar cheese, and served on a perfectly fresh hamburger bun sized appropriately of course. Mmmmm mmm. And that's precisely what we had for dinner tonight.

So I inhaled a burger and a half (the half was without bun for me)and then settled in on the couch to stretch out and digest. It was a lotta beef. Even Baby Girl cut her usual post-meal kicking MARATHON relatively short and settled in to a nice beef-induced coma. Like father like daughter, I'm thinking.

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We're Back!

Happy Easter everyone!

Border crossings were swift; weather was grey and cold but not an impediment to enjoying a walk around the city on Saturday. Had a wonderful dinner with Jake and Stef to celebrate Tim's birthday last night, and equally wonderful Easter brunch today with Eileen and John.

Tim has summarized the culinary highlights of our trip with photos :-)

I think all in all, a lovely, relaxing weekend!

Oh - and we did control ourselves at Baby Roots - for the most part. Caving in to the teeniest tiniest little pair of Baby Roots track pants and matching hoody (in pink, of course ;-)). I mean - she is half Canadian. It's practically mandated by citizenship law that she maintain at least one article of clothing in her wardrobe at all times that has a beaver logo and the words "Roots Canada" emblazened on it.

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Off to Vancouver!

We're off today for our annual "Tim's Birthday Trip to Vancouver". Normally, we splurge for seats on the glass and watch the Canucks take on whoever is in town at the time. Only there will be no NHL hockey this year, obviously. :-(

We will however still partake of the 2nd part of this little tradition and dine on Spanish Tapas and Sangria (well - for me it will be water ;-)) at our favourite spanish restaurant with my cousin Jake and his wife Stef! So should be a good time!

Ooooh - and Tim promised me at Christmas that once we knew the sex of the baby, the next time we were in Canada we could stop at Baby Roots and buy her something - hee hee :-) So we'll be doing a bit of shopping as well. (Only a bit. I promise to behave!)

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The "Pregnancy Glow" : Realty or Myth?

On two separate occasions, over the last two days, by two different people, I've been told that I have that "pregnancy glow" going on.

Perhaps coincidentally, over the last week, 1) I've also had a minor cluster of zits erupt on one half of my face (and my left eyelid); 2) small, dry scaly patches have erupted on the other; 3) my hair has decided to be frizzy and unmanageable; 4) my tummy has "popped" (in other words, I'm definitly showing); 5) my cheekbones appear (at least to me) to be less prominent than they used to, and 6) I have circles under my eyes from nights of interrupted sleep. And not in all of these little bathroom mirror self-assessments have I even once noticed a "glow" about me.

Now, I also generally have a fairly critical eye (as do most people) when it comes to assessing my own appearance, even on good days and even when I'm not pregnant. But the question is now raised - is the "pregnancy glow" rooted in scientific fact (and I'm just being unduly self critical or oblivious when I look in the mirror), is it a myth (and people just feel the need to say it anyway because - well - I'm pregnant and they think it is expected), or is it just a "polite" way for people to comment on one's obviously changed appearance without offending? :-)

I'm not one to just raise questions, and not try to find the answers. So I've been doing some thinking and some research - through my copious library of pregnancy books that are currently littering our living room and bedroom and office as well as on the internet (because if it's on the internet, it must be true, right?). And here is what I've come up with.

First, I will start with an analysis of my general sense of health and well being (because it is clear that an analysis of my face and skin has not resulted in any kind of rational explanation :-)). Despite the frizzy hair, circles, zits, dry patches, and increased girth, I have actually never FELT better emotionally, mentally, and physically since the start of my pregnancy. I'm not achy or feeling sick; I'm not tired, I've managed to get off the emotional roller coaster ride that was my first trimester (I even got Tim to agree last night that I've been pretty stable and normal over the course of the last week or so), I've got a tonne of energy, and in general have been in great spirits. It's like the half-way point came and *poof* I'm back to my old self (at least my old self mentally and emotionally. Physically, I am wearing pants with elasticized waists ;-)) . So - if any of that emotional and mental well being and stability is in any way manifesting itself in my physical appearance through my facial gestures, body language, and a general vibe of increased peace, energy and relaxation in my mood that is visible to others, then I guess I could see how that could be interpreted as a "glow". In which case "glow" is perhaps another way of referring to that "je ne sais quoi" quality; the "there's something different about you, and it's good, but I don't know quite what it is" kind of thing.

But setting that possible explanation aside, Are there actual physical, biological, or chemical explanations for the purported "pregnancy glow"?

In fact, there are.

According to Dr Sears: "The glow that others notice (though you may not) isn't just a sentimental old wives' term. This facial shine actually has a biological basis. The increased volume of blood causes the cheeks to take on an attractive blush, because of the many blood vessels just below the skin's surface. On top of this redness, the increased secretions of the oil glands give the skin a waxy sheen. The flushed face on many pregnant women is similar to the one non-pregnant people experience when they are excited, cry, or do anything that increases their heart rate (which pregnancy does constantly)."

My Analysis:
- It is true that my heart rate has increased
- I don't know about you but my non-pregnant flushed face when I've been crying or in the middle of an intensive cardio workout is anything but attractive.
- There is most definitely increased secretions of my oil glands happening. But all I see as a result are zits, not a "waxy sheen".
- The term "waxy sheen" makes me think of a red delicious apple sitting in the non-organic section of the local supermarket.

Still - it is an explanation that makes sense. Ok... moving on.

An article entitled "The Pregnancy Glow and Other Myths of Motherhood" by Barbara A. Eastom Bates on babiesonline.com appears to be more up my alley. An exerpt: "Although it's rumored there are actually women who sail through pregnancy untouchbed by any ills or discomfort, I was not one of them. If I'd ever experienced a pregnancy glow, I'm certain I could only have been radioactive".

Here here :-) Although I have to admit I've been fortunate enough to never have experienced morning sickness at any point during my pregnancy thus far! And as I've said - at this point I actually really feel great!

Pregnancy-info.net says that by week 12 (I am now just starting week 21, btw) I should start to feel less tired and my nausea (which I fortunately never had) will begin to subside. I should expect compliments on my "pregnancy glow" as the increased blood volume and pregnancy hormones work together to increase oil gland secretion, resulting in flushed, plumper and smoother skin appearance.

Now, I'll buy the plumper skin appearance and I'm sure that somewhere underneath the minor eruptions and dry patches there's smooth skin to be found. I'll let you know. But once again I'm left with the image of a red delicious apple. In particular one that has been coated with wax and genetically modified to make it bigger and plumper. Are we sensing a theme yet?

Finally, on BabyMabels.com I learned that if I want to "keep my pregnancy glow" going, Suzanne's Beauty Lounge has just the beauty booster products for me! Although from everything I've read, I'm not sure why I would need to boost my beauty with external products at all - my increased blood flow and oil gland secretion have me positively radiating gorgeousness everywhere I go. And it doesn't cost me a penny.

So in summary, the scientific explanation for the "glow" is the increased blood flow working in conjunction with the increased oil gland secretion. There you have it folks. Now if you'll excuse me, I must go and cast my glow upon my dear husband, kitties and dog and let them bask in my radiance.

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Yes! We have no bananas! We have no bananas today!

Why?

BECAUSE I ATE THEM ALL! Yes. Yes indeedy. My intolerance for bananas and banana-like smells has disappeared. I am a banana eating machine once again.

Gotta go. Baby needs a banana ;-)

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March Madness is here. But did you know...

I am NOT a basketball fan at all. It just doesn't hold my interest. Not sure if it is the egos and attitudes ("me me me") that is pervasive throughout the NBA; or the fact that there just appears to be nothing competitive about a bunch of 8 foot tall players trying to dunk a ball into a 10 foot high hoop or more generally where 3-digit scores are not uncommon. It's just never really interested me the way football and hockey have.

However - since it is that time of year here in the good ol' U S of A, I thought it worthwhile mentioning (since it's not as well known a fact as I thought it would be) that basketball was actually invented by a Canadian.

Yup. Them's my people!

Exerpt from inventors.about.com:

James Naismith was the Canadian physical education instructor who invented basketball in 1891. James Naismith was born in Almonte, Ontario and educated at McGill University [Heather's note: my alma mater, by the way] and Presbyterian College in Montreal. He was the physical education teacher at McGill University (1887 to 1890) and at Springfield College in Springfield, Massachusetts (1890 to 1895). At Springfield College (which was then the Y.M.C.A. training school), James Naismith, under the direction of American phys-ed specialist Luther Halsey Gulick, invented the indoor sport of basketball.

The first formal rules were devised in 1892. Initially, players dribbled a soccer ball up and down a court of unspecified dimensions. Points were earned by landing the ball in a peach basket. Iron hoops and a hammock-style basket were introduced in 1893. Another decade passed, however, before the innovation of open-ended nets put an end to the practice of manually retrieving the ball from the basket each time a goal was scored.

In 1959, James Naismith was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame (called the Naismith Memorial Hall of Fame.)

Incidentally, the rules for Modern Ice Hockey (hockey as we know it today), were also invented by a Canadian, J G A Creighton, who was ALSO a student at McGill university.

Go McGill!

Go Canada!

Go Team! (I guess if I have to pick one, I'll root for the Huskies. But I likely won't actually watch any of the games ;-))

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Mom and Dad's "Princess" celebrates her 10th Birthday

St Patrick's day was actually a pretty busy day for the whole extended family all the way around. Besides being St. Patrick's Day, the half-way point to our baby's due date, and the day that we found out we're having a little girl, it was also Diva's 10th Birthday! Diva is Mom and Dad's german shepherd. And she is true to her name (which I believe was bestowed by my sister when she and Dad first brought the little puppy home :-)).

True to form, Dad ensured that the occasion was marked with much pomp and circumstance, befitting of course, for a Diva! (Note: The same amount of pomp and circumstance ensued whenever Sarah or I celebrated a birthday - minus, perhaps, the lamb and crunchy rice bits. I felt the need to clarify in case you got the wrong impression. Sarah and I were always treated by my parents as equals with the dogs ;-))

Here are some more great photos of the birthday celebrations that Dad sent us, along with his commentary (hope that's ok Dad!)

What can I say - we're a family full of animal lovers. You gotta love that. I know I do!

Happy Birthday Diva!

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Boy? Girl? The answer is revealed...

We had our anatomy ultrasound yesterday and they were able to tell us that we are having a baby girl :-) They let us bring a blank video tape with us so that they could tape the ultrasound (just the images of baby - not the actual procedure ;-) which makes for a cool little momento, as she was pretty active and wiggly the whole time. They also printed out a lot of pictures for us to take home. As soon as Tim scans them we'll post them here. Suffice it to say though, that she is absolutely adorable! Of course! :-)

So yes - that means the name list is automatically narrowed down. Of course, if you recall my entry on baby names, it's still quite a list to choose from and there are only 20 weeks left! Guess we better get to work ;-)

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Half-Baked

Today marks 20 weeks exactly. The half way point. 20 down, another 20 to go. The "bun in the oven" is half-baked, so to speak ;-)

Today is also the day we found out whether we're having a boy or a girl!

BUT - I'm not gonna post it here just yet :-) We're gonna let my Dad spread the news to the rest of our side of the family, and we'll tell "the gang" tomorrow at friday night :-)

In the meantime, of course, you're welcome to guess - you've got a 50/50 chance of being right ;-)

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Dining in New Orleans

Last night's dinner was at a place called Louisiana Bistro on Dauphine Street just a few blocks from our hotel. Turned out to be another hit recommendation from our concierge who also was a miracle worker securing us a table for 5 at 7:00pm - right in the middle of prime dinner time in New Orleans at the height of two conferences that are in town. Excellent food. Most of it was seafood, of which I did not partake, but I had their pork chops which was served with jalepeno bread pudding and a spicey creole hollandaise sauce (yes - I said creole hollandaise sauce) and mixed veggies. Very scrumptious. Followed by white chocolate bread putting for dessert. Yum-my.

Today between meetings we had lunch at a place called "Mother's" on Poydras Street (established 60 years ago serving Po' Boys to dock workers) where I had me a nice Roast Beef Po'Boy with creole mustard and shredded cabbage (hold the pickles and the mayo). Atmosphere was great as was the food. For those of you in Seattle, think "Dixie's" in terms of atmosphere and service but with all the traditional New Orleans and Louisiana fare instead of BBQ - Po' Boys (with just about anything in between those two halves of french bread), red beans and rice, bread pudding, and seafood galore.

Sometime tonight I need to hit Cafe du Monde, the original French Market Coffee stand established in 1862 for a beignet fix before heading out of town tomorrow morning. I'll be skipping on the chicory coffee though - no caffeine for me.

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In New Orleans, Sunday is "Drink for Jesus Night"

Dinner was great - we had a wonderful meal at the Pelican Club, which ended around 10:00pm and, feeling that the night was still young, decided to wander down Bourbon Street to meet up with another member of our group.

We ended up at a place called The Famous Door which I later learned, after looking it up on the internet, is Bourbon Street's oldest live music club.

The band that was playing was pretty darn good - they did everything from Cheap Trick, to Journey to Aerosmith to... well, whatever. And did it really well. Baby got a good dose of bass this evening. I've read that babies in utero generally don't start to hear sounds outside the womb until about week 25, but I'm postive that our baby could feel the music tonight! I've been back at the hotel for an hour and he or she is still kicking up a storm.

The people-watching was plentiful as well, but that is true for all of Bourbon street at night, not just The Famous Door. But we'll start with the bar... shot girls pushing test tube drinks - you know, the kind that they hold in their mouth and then tip into yours... etc. etc. Plenty of that going on. And then down in front of the stage were these two little girls - I kid you not, they couldn't have been more than 17... both dressed in these delicate long pink satin prom gowns, shakin' their "thangs", and banging their heads to the beat of the music while waving their neatly manicured little cigarette-gripping fingers in the air, flirting with the band. The only time they stopped was when the shot girls would pass by with the test tubes, and then they'd do double shots and continue dancing. The contrast of the head-banging, shot-drinking, cigarett-smoking party moves with the delicate pink prom dresses was pretty surreal.

It was during a Cheap Trick song that I received a text message from Tim, after several failed attempts to call each other and hear each other over the bar sounds. I flipped open my phone to reply and a man in front of me who had been enthusiastically rocking out to the tune of "I want you to want me" turned around and said "Hey! Put that phone away! This is Cheap Trick!". When the song was over and the band had switched to Aerosmith, he came back and told me it was ok for me to use my phone again, pulled out his own blackberry device and explained that his wife had emailed him during Cheap Trick, but NOTHING would ever interrupt him during a Cheap Trick song, despite the fact that she's 8 months pregnant.

And then there was the huge crowd of guys standing around in the middle of the street outside the bar staring up at one of the wrought iron balconies throwing beads and encouraging the two women who were staggering around up there drinking and giggling to show them their "stuff" (only they weren't yelling "stuff" if you know what I mean).

The city definitely has a smell to it too. It was vaguely noticable during the day, but it was definitely noticeable at night. It smells like... well... a garbage dump.

But I think the moment that really defined it all for me was when the lead singer of the band on stage back at the Famous Door yelled into the microphone during a song change "Hey everybody! It's Sunday night! Sunday night is Drink for Jesus Night! How many of you are Drinkin' for Jesus tonight?" and then proceeded to slug back a test tube shot. With the number of hands that shot up to answer his question I'm thinking (actually I'm hoping) I was the only pregnant woman in the bar tonight... all I was slugging back was water.

New Orleans. Definitely a free spirited town. And the only city I've been in that parties like this on a Sunday night. And it was only 11:00pm when I got back to the hotel.

Unfortunately I had left my CF card for my camera back in my laptop so didn't get any pictures. But we'll be going out again before the trip's over, so I'll make sure I capture some of the "essence" of the city to share with you :-) I wonder if Mondays and Tuesdays are as rowdy as Sundays... hmm... there are just so many things wrong with that question. :-)

Off now to shower and head to bed. We'll see what tomorrow brings us!

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Welcome to The Big Easy

Well - I've made it to New Orleans, after a fairly uneventful flight (my favourite kind) with a 2-hour stop over in Denver. When I went through the self-service check-in at Seattle it gave me the option of upgrading to "Economy Plus" which has "up to 4 inches of extra leg room" for $53. Hell yeah - even if I only get 1 or 2 inches of extra leg room, I'm happy. I think I got the full 4 though - it was actually quite a comfortable trip. It was also a gorgeous day for flying. my "upgrade" put me on the right side of the plane, and since we were taking off to the south, I had a beautiful view of Mount Rainier as we turned onto our flight path to Denver.

After claiming my bag, grabbing a taxi to the hotel, and checking in, it was about midnight local time by the time I got up to my room. They ended up giving me a smoking room though, instead of non-smoking. However you can't really tell it's a smoking room until you actually leave the room and run into people puffing on their cigarettes while waiting for the elevator. It's a nice room - it's actually quite a nice hotel. I'm pretty pleased. AND it has wired high speed internet access. Yay :-)

I woke up about 5:30am this morning. Why, I have no idea - since it'd be about 3:30am in Seattle. I thought going east-bound I'd be more likely to sleep in and wake up around 9am, but nope. Not me. I made myself to stay in bed until about 7:30 but was finally forced out by my all consuming ravenous hunger. Got dressed, and went downstairs for breakfast.

After breakfast, I decided to orient myself to the city. I walked over to the W Hotel - which will be the site of all of the meetings I need to go to - and then figured out where the convention center was. It was only about 9:30am by the time I got back to the hotel but it was already way too warm for a jacket (it was actually way too warm for my light white cotton sweater and jeans, but not a whole lot I could do about that) so I ditched the jacket in my room, and then headed off to see the sights of New Orleans. This is really my only opportunity for sight seeing, since I have meetings Monday and Tuesday and then fly back Wednesday morning.

Our hotel is near the corner of Canal street and the infamous Bourbon Street. However the concierge and the taxi cab driver from the night before suggested that during the day I'd want to walk along Royal street - it's much more interesting during the day. Bourbon Street is active at night, but apparently doens't have a whole lot going on during the day. So I took their advice. Royal Street is filled with galleries and antique stores and little shops although they were still all closed at that time of the morning, and the street fairly quiet.

I took Royal Street through the French Quarter to St. Louis Cathedral, which if you recall from my previous post, is the oldest continuously active Roman Catholic Cathedral in the United States. It was originally built in 1724 and rebuilt twice after a hurricane and a fire. Since it is Sunday, I caught the tail end of a mass when I went in. In fact, I arrived just as they were finishing communion and starting to pass the collection plate. I tell ya - I have the best timing. But I wanted to be respectful, so I stayed and sat quietly in the back, and listened to the hymns and the real pipe organ that was being played by a real pipe organist, and let the hazy childhood memories of going to catholic church on sundays drift over me. When mass was done, I took a look around. It's a gorgeous church, to be sure.

Across from the church is Jackson Square, and as I was crossing the square I saw a line of horse-drawn carriages waiting to give tours of the french quarter to anyone interested. I wasn't sure I wanted to bother, but then I saw this one horse decorated with pretty yellow roses (fake, of course, but still pretty). However the real thing that decided for me that I needed to do this, was when I heard the tour guide speak with his easy, smooth, lilting New Orleans drawl. Wow - I just had to hear more. To be honest I couldn't understand everything he said, but it was really quite pleasant to listen to ;-).

I knew to expect that the French spoken in New Orleans would sound very different from France French or even Quebecois. But it took me quite a while to figure some stuff out. Our tour guide spoke English, but of course, being in the French Quarter, most of the place names were french names. As the tour guide started talking about the "Boo-ka-ray", which he said translated to "old square" I was completely lost. Even having been given the English translation, I was completely stuck. Just as I was thinking to myself that the only word I know in french was "Vieux" It wasn't until I saw the sign "Vieux Carré" that I understood. He wasn't saying "Boo-ka-ray". He was saying "Voo-ka-ray". But had I realized that, it still wouldn't have helped me much. I had to actually see it written down for it to click. To make matters funnier, as I was researching the internet to bring you this link to more information about the "Vieux Carré", the web site I found gives it a pronunciation of [view-ka-ray]- which would have probably been as equally perplexing to me had our driver used that pronunciation instead.

New Orleans actually has quite a rich and interesting French and Spanish history. You all may know this already, but it was quite fascinating to me. I also got a brief lesson on the Louisiana Purchase as we passed by the place where it was signed, and I'll have to go read up on that a bit more, now that my interest has been piqued.

The tour dropped us off back at Jackson Square. From there I strolled up through the farmer's market and flea market. The farmer's market was great fun - air filled with the savoury smell of hot sauces and creole spices. At the end of the market I crossed over to the river walk and strolled along the Mississippi river for a few blocks.

That took me back to St. Louis Street, where the New Orleans School of Cooking and General Store is located. They have real lessons in Creole cooking there during the day, and as it happened there was one in session when I got there. I didn't sit in, since it had already started, but I explored the shop and picked up a souviner for Tim in the process :-)

Another famous landmark on St. Louis Street is Johnny's Po'Boy restaurant. The Po' Boy, or "Poor Boy" is a sandwich made with French bread. According to our tour driver, it started back during a local transit worker's strike. A local restaurant in the French Market took pity on the "poor boys" who were out of work, and concocted sandwiches made from french bread and leftovers that they would sell for pennies to strikers who came by. Also according to our tour guide and my taxi cab driver from the night before (who was as you can tell a fountain of information in his own right), you can put just about anything between two halves of french bread and make it a "po' boy". today they are often filled with seafood - in particular fried oysters. But you can still order them with just about anything in them - especially at Johnny's.

Unfortunately the place was totally packed, and I was hot, and hungry and not inclined to wait. So I'll have to try and make my way back over there on Monday or Tuesday.

I headed back over to Royal Street and by now the shops were all open and the street was lively and filled with people - mostly tourists from the number of people snapping pictures that I observed. According to my taxi driver from last night there is a Nursing conference here in town too (yeah - it's actually a classic combination: Techno Geeks and Nurses. It reminds me of my days at McGill where the engineers would have their friday night engineering beer bashes, and invite the nursing students to attend to increase the ratio of women to men. Not that it really helped them in any way in the end ;-) but I digress). Musicians were playing in all of the indoor/outdoor restaurants and cafes and on the streets. And the thing that struck me as interesting was that as I was walking I didn't hear a single bad musician or singer. I mean - I've been in a lot of cities and heard a lot of street musicians, subway musicians, and "entertainers". You've got your decent ones. And you've gone your really bad ones. But the ones I heard as I walked the streets of New Orleans today were all really good. It is definitely a musical city - true to its fame. Should be totally cool to see and hear it at night.

The above photo also gives you a bit of a glimpse of the wrought iron balconies that are prevalent throughout the french quarter. Although it is called the French Quarter, the wrought iron balconies and the hidden central courtyards are Spanish architectural influences, as Spain was the ruling entity at the time (1762-1800) and as such, were the ones who oversaw the reconstruction of large portions of the city after the big fire in 1788 that burned over 850 structures . The buildings in the quarter are authentic - dating back to the reconstruction of the 1700s.

If you look closely at the balconies, you would also more often than not see them adorned with Mardi Gras beads glinting in the sun. The stores are full of them too. It makes for quite festive looking streets, even when Mardi Gras is over :-)

After a leisurely stroll back down Royal Street to Canal, I returned to the hotel, had lunch in the restaurant there, and then made some dinner reservations for our little team for this evening. The concierge picked a place called the Pelican Club. It's a brief walk from our hotel and should be fun!

Then it is off to meetings tomorrow :-)

(Incidentally, and I'm not normally one to plug this kinda stuff, I found all of the above links and the ones in my previous post using the New MSN Search. I have to say - I've been very impressed with its results since the launch of their new and improved service!)

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Off to New Orleans

I'm off to New Orleans today for another conference. Back on Wednesday. This will be my first time to The Crescent City.

Setting aside its well established reputation for Jazz, food, and Mardis Gras celebrations, there are a number of historical facts about New Orleans that make it an interesting place to visit.

- Louisiana was claimed for French king Louis XIV in 1699 and is the only state that was once a French royal colony.

- New Orleans is the only U.S. city where French was the predominant language for more than one century.

- New Orleans is the American city occupied longest by enemy troops (the Union Army 1862-65) during the Civil War

- The city has approximately 40,000 buildings listed on the National Register of Historic Places, more than most other cities in the U.S. including Washington D.C.

- St. Louis Catherdral, located in the historic French Quarter, is the oldest continuously active Roman Catholic Cathedral in the United States. It was originally built in 1724 and rebuilt twice after a hurricane and a fire.

- Many of the tens of thousands of live oak trees that line the city streets and boulevards date back to before the Civil War. They have survived hurricanes, droughts, insects, and fires.

- The New Orleans Streetcar line is the oldest continuously operating rail system in the world.

- The Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra is the only full-time, player-managed symphony in the United States.

Should be a fun trip!

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My turn...

Tim's outta town today and tomorrow. Left for Portland, OR this morning. So it's just me, Tommy, Ginger and Spice (and little tiny person inside me) for tonight and tomorrow. 2 days is easy though - I'll be at work the entire time. Still - I miss him!

Yeah yeah...I know. I'm a mushpot. Whatever. :-)

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Need a little direction?

In this day and age, when every business runs on computers and has access to the internet and wonderful little sites like MSN Mappoint, WHY should I have to provide directions to a driver from some place I've never been, in some location I am not familiar with, to my location to pick me up? I'm not talking about just some landmark to help facilitate finding our place. I'm talking about full on directions from Point A (a location unbeknownst to me) to Point B (where I am).

Why?

I don't know where you're starting from. Why are you asking ME for directions? I'm paying YOU to come pick me up!

Me: Hi - I made reservations online and was told to call in the morning to arrange for someone to pick me up.

Car Rental Person: What's your address?

Me: [provided address]

Car Rental person: Ok. And how do we get there?

Me: I don't know. Where are you?

Car Rental person: [provides location]

Me: I have no idea where that is. Never been in that neighbourhood.

About 10 minutes later we figure out what I believe to be a common landmark (I think we were talking about the same intersection), and I think I provide him with directions to our house from there.

I do this with taxis, and pizza delivery people too. Why should I have to? All I have is their phone number. I have no clue where they are at.

The driver should be here in about 15 or 20 minutes. Provided he doesn't get lost.

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"Another fine job done by Captin [sic] Super Dan and his little helper Buckwheat"

Apparently they got the drywall done on Sunday as planned :-)

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Putting up walls

Progress this week: Exterior siding is almost complete and looking gorgeous; main deck is coming along very nicely; drywall is almost entirely installed inside (the drywall guy was out there working when I went out on Saturday and said he was aiming to be complete by Sunday). Cabinet order has been submitted (we ended up backing out the TV cabinet in the family room; we'll be temporarily living with a "hole" in the wall in which we'll place our existing IKEA furniture until such a time as we determine we have the budget and time to get a cabinet made for it. Such is life on a budget!) and things are looking pretty damn fine.

At this point we're only about 2 weeks behind schedule, which is AWESOME in my opinion. Not bad at all. Kudos to our awesome builders - Phoenix construction. Who have not only stayed on schedule but kept the rest of us on schedule too, and put up with my constant stream of "but what did the estimate say" and "we can't afford to do that" and "we need to be able to afford to live here when its done" comments and have done a very admirable job coming up with great compromises and cost savings solutions without impacting the quality or integrity or design of the house overall. And kudos to our architect for the design and all his hard work during the construction phase - it's GORGEOUS. Isn't it? It's our perfect dream house. There is not and has never been a single aspect of the house at any point in the project that we do not like. And he's also been great about helping us find ways to stay within our budget, working with the builder to find options that still allow us to apply many of the green principles that we were interested in originally, and has been a fountain of creative knowledge and input in our selections of the finish details. There was a lot of stuff we had to cut due to costs and overall project budget but in general we're looking good. I still have sticker shock, but I'll have to get over it somehow.

We have many more photos of the interior (with the completed drywall installation) and exterior along with descriptions of what you are looking at.

You can also check out the fun had by Tim, Davwill, Rich, and Michael (Tim's brother) running conduit and pulling low voltage wire last weekend before the drywall went up. It was a mad rush and tad stressful that weekend to get the low voltage done on time so the drywallers could stay on schedule :-)

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Speaking of details - some fun little tools

Glidden has the Glidden Color @ Home Paint Visualizer which lets you select a room and a room style to decorate from a variety of options, and then you can drag and drop any Glidden paint color onto any surface (wall, furniture, shelving, etc) so you can see the colour combos together. It even fills in the shading, etc.

Silestone has a little Silestone Compare and Contrast tool that lets you select a wood finish and then a counter top colour, to see how your selected counter top will look with your cabinetry. Again

BobVila.com has a number of design tools. The one I had fun with most was the 3D Kitchen Designer. You can design your kitchen from scratch, or choose from one of the existing kitchen templates (there are a variety to choose from) to get started, and then you can change appliance colours and styles, cabinet colours and styles, paint colours, floor finishes, etc to see how it all goes together.

Of course, due to the way colour varies from monitor to monitor, and also looks different on computer screens and printers from how they appear in real life, you aren't really getting the real picture of the colours and textures involved in any of these tools - you still need to go and get the paint colour cards, tile/countertop samples, cabinet wood samples, flooring samples, etc and do your own in person compare and contrast. But they're still fun to play with for generating initial ideas and getting the creative juices flowing (if you're not the type of person who can count on having them constantly flowing whenever and where ever you need them at all times :-))

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Devil's in the details

This week and all weekend Tim and I spent our non-working hours researching, pricing, and selecting:

- Exterior trim and paint colours
- Interior trim and paint colours (room by room)
- Marmoleum colours for the laundry room counter and floors
- Cabinet pulls and knobs for Kitchen, Laundry room, Master bath, and Guest Bath
- Interior door handle styles
- Exterior door lock and entry/handle sets
- Slate for the entry and bathroom floors

and we also paid off our appliances in full so they are free and clear for delivery.

Riddles of the week:

- Who knew that there were so many knob and handle pull styles out there to choose from (and just as many price ranges)?

- And who knew that you could pay (if you so desired - we didn't ;-)) up to $600-$800 for a single exterior door entry set?

- And who knew that there are no fewer than 62 tints of "off white" in the Rodda colour scheme and is there really anyone who can seriously tell the difference between "Soap Suds" and "Swan Wing"?

You're starting to get the picture.

After carpeting our floor with about 600 paint swatches, carefully researching colour combinations (complementary, Accent, and Related colours), standing in every room with my 62 samples of "off white" comparing them to the white window trim to find which one is most similar for use as an interior trim colour (I had to see the comparison in every light condition in the house of course), holding 2-inch paint samples up against 2-inch marmoleum samples to figure out which floor/counter colour would go best with the happy yellow paint colour I had selected for the laundry room ( a room, I might add, that Tim and I will be spending considerable amounts of time in washing diapers and baby clothes and baby bedding and burp cloths and... oh yeah, our own laundry, hence my desire to select the perfect colour combination that will make it calming yet cheerful), squinting while I placed paint samples against fabric colours and attempted to envision entire rooms swathed in my little 2-inch sample and how it would look with the furniture, and then trying to imagine staring down the hall through the various rooms and seeing the colours line up visually and determine whether or not they'd look ok together, we finally have our colour selection.

The cabinet pulls were a no less complicated affair. We actually found some styles we liked relatively easy. The problem was the price. At $8.50 a drawer pull, in a kitchen that has 44 of them total, the dollars add up pretty quick. So after seeing the styles in store that we liked, considerable research was performed on the internet to try and find knock-offs or sales that would get the price down to about $5.00 a pull. We haven't quite got it down that far yet. Still looking ;-)

The exterior door entry sets were a similar endeavour. we already had handle sets for the french doors (they came with) so we had a good starting point in terms of the style we were seeking. But again the price range varies drastically - one set that we looked at in store that we loved was about $700 including tax. We didn't love it that much, and were able to locate a similar style, different (but reputable) brand, for considerably less.

And this was "part 2" of the details selection process. Part 1 was finished before Christmas where we had selected bathroom and kitchen countertop materials and colours, all of our kitchen appliances, all of our kitchen and bathroom plumbing fixtures, and all of our bathroom accessories (towel bars, paper towel holders, etc).

And we're still not done. We still need to

- select a hardware flooring. We had our hearts set on Madrone originally, but there were concerns raised about the moisture content and the likelihood that it would end up warping in the future as well as the fact that it's increased by about 60 cents a square foot since the initial estimate. So we need to rethink our selection.

- select tile for the kitchen and bathroom backsplashes and the dog wash

- Select shower doors for the bathrooms

In one sense it's actually a lot of fun. This is why you choose to build a custom home. You get exactly what you want. In another, it's a lot of work, a lot of choices, a lot of responsibility, sometimes a lot of stress, and a lot of time spent researching and browsing and comparing, which is tough to find when we're both working so much during the week. It's made more challenging by the fact that all of the show rooms are closed on Sundays and only open limited hours on Saturdays.

At any rate, it feels good to have another batch of the details sorted out and passed on to our builders and architect.

My biggest fear at this point with respect to the detail selection is the interior paint colour. While we love the colours we've chosen, we really aren't gonna know how it all works together until it's done. I really wanted to have some fun with colour in the house - we're tired of living in a house with small rooms, white walls, and not a lot of colour options due to the size of the spaces. At the same time, we don't want it to end up looking like something Dr. Suess or Rainbow Brite decorated. We'll see how it all comes together.

My biggest fear with respect to the whole project is... drum roll... the budget. It's just been a scary ride, watching our savings dwindle down to nothing, and seeing the mounting debt accumulating in the form of the construction loan. Even though we did a lot of financial planning and prep work and calculating before beginning the project and establishing the budget, it's a lot of money. And, despite everyone's best efforts - ours, our builder's, and our architect's - there are some things that just ended up costing more. Either because cost of materials increased since the original estimate; or because it took longer to figure things out or get the work done; or because there were things that were completely unknown and unaccounted for when we started. Like having to move the septic system. And having to make some modifications to our well. It comes with the territory. Still - I'm a stickler for budget and a total control freak when it comes to our finances. So it's been quite a test of endurance for me to get through this whole thing without completely blowing a gasket or going off the deep end. Some might suggest I've already gone ;-) It's all relative I suppose!

Well - it's late, and Tim'll be home soon (he was working an auction downtown today. I got to have an early dinner with him, but we've hardly had a chance to see each other all week between our two work schedules). I had hoped to write an entry about the house progress itself - complete with new pictures taken today! But that'll have to wait until tomorrow now :-)

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Spring has sprung

here in the Pacific Northwest!

Actually, it sprung a few weeks ago but I've been a bit busy :-)

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Ch-ch-ch-Changes...

I knew about the obvious ones that I was in for - you know, that I

- might have strange food cravings
- definitely would gain weight ;-)
- could be a little more emotional than usual...
- would have to go to the bathroom more frequently

etc.

But I really wasn't prepared for the magnitude of these "changes". Take the whole "hormone/emotion" thing. I'm totally thrown by how much my emotions have been affected by my pregnancy. I was prepared for some weepiness. Some feelings of sadness. Maybe even a little anxiety - the "wow - what have we done" kind. Instead it's been a rapid roller coaster ride of swiftly changing emotions ranging from super-silly highs to down and out sobbing blues. I never know what is going to trigger my next emotional reaction, and I have no way of knowing what that reaction is going to be - whether it'll leave me feeling giddy and goofy and laughing hysterically or whether I'll be sobbing uncontrollably between gasps for breath. Either way it leaves me exhausted and emotionally drained. It leaves Tim totally confused. But he's handling it well. Wish I could say the same :-)

And then there's a whole new dimension of paranoia and lack of self confidence that has set in. I'm constantly questioning myself and my interactions with people. Completely innocent comments that normally wouldn't even cause me a moment's pause are all of a sudden swirling with double-meaning. "What did he mean by that exactly", "Does she think I'm really that stupid", "Why did they feel the need to say that".

I'm hoping this is temporary and not something that is going to stick around for the duration of this little adventure. Because 5 more months of this and poor Tim's going to be crawling the walls screaming "I want my wife back! Give me my wife back!" and while he's doing so I will either be laughing hysterically or crouched in a corner bawling my eyes out.

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