whoosh there goes weekend...

So as I get ahem older, I noticed that the week goes slowly but weekends go whoosh. Even quicker then when I was a kid waiting for school.

So this weekend we went to mate Fiona and her clann Friday night where we got to hang out with her two wee lads and herself and her hubbie. (I used to babysit for them and laughed out loud when her husbands only question to me when first meeting him was what was my fav sci fi film...) Lovely Irish family and her 7 yr old beat himself at chess after some pizza. Not that Jan was trying to win but he wasn't looking to lose in the speedy 7 moves this kid took. Then we went to their garage where they were very nicely giving us some of their old baby stuff. Now I rented a van, just in case mind you as they were giving us a crib so wanted to be able to transport easily.

I never imagined we'd fill the van but we did. Wow. They gave us so much stuff. I think I could open a daycare with all the cool fisher price toys alone. They last forever those toys. They gave us travelling cot, crib, baby seats, toys, security gates - we filled the van. It was a large van folks. I had to do a running jump to get in it ! As much as I can do a waddling running jump at moment...

Saturday morning then used the van to go to Ikea and Osh to pick up more storage - bookshelves and cabinets and outside sheds. I've starting dreaming about organizing/nesting in my bloody sleep (or lack there of - see legs cramps and second trimester and turning over in bed like a piece of bacon doing an hour each side...).

Then we had Sarah (who we call Labrador puppy Sarah as that's her personality - bouncy, smiley, wonderful and just bloody excellent person) come down with her hubbie Lou and wonderful baby Aeden Bear Saturday afternoon. Wee Bear is so so cute not even funny. He's that nearly 7 month old baby who's a constant giggler, smiles and engages you and a wee Buddha with his beautiful baby chunky legs and arms. (Side note - how come babies are super cute when extra chubby and we aren't?)

The men went off to BevMo to get a new keg of beer for kegrator and then Frys for electronics fix and we sat and I built new fisher price door toy I had got from one of my credit card free points catalogs while chinwagging with Sarah. Of course after putting together wondered why did I do that since baby Hobbit realistically won't be playing with this till Januaryish and of course it doesn't fold up so another space hogger. At least baby Bear got a few minutes play with it next morning.

Sarah also gave us a baby swing and a baby bouncer as Bear's too big for them now (having a Mammy and Daddy both tall he's got their big genes! They are so good as its great to have a friend who's also a new Mummy and who I can call.

The baby bouncer brought back memories of Maeve my wee sister in her bouncer and how she wanted to be in it even when her bum was practically on the ground in this old net bouncer. She got so big for it that in the end she flipped over still in bouncer and was crawling around like a snail with it on her back before we had to hide it to stop her trying to get in it.

So they stayed over Saturday night - we had a lovely night chillin and then Sunday I did a dash to pick up a baby car seat and snap in and go frame stroller for it from a lovely http://www.freecycle.org/ person and picked up and dropped off laundry. Then we sorted through toys, putting them in to soak and cleaning clothes we had got while himself took out his hearty electric drill and put a bookshelf together from Ikea and snapped together the Osh outdoor shed. phew...

So then Sunday night we went to see Hot Fuzz which we had missed at our local wee cinema (which we can walk to a whole block away and normally are only folks there !) We laughed out loud - loved the movie. Had dinner at Max's and came home and chilled

In between all of this had to go bring back van to local www.enterprise.com office. Rented it for 24 hrs, picking it up 33opm Friday so dropped it back Saturday at 23o with himself in car so we could get home quick for Sarah and baby coming over. But Alas the office was closed - a sign saying closed till Monday, no dropping off key in door slot which was sealed shut. I told them I was dropping off Saturday at 3pm so was kinda shocked and didn't want to pay for extra two days rental. Called enterprise and got a lovely person on the phone who put in a ticket and kept apologizing for any confusion I had. I went there at 730am Monday as soon as they opened (having left the van outside their front door all weekend) and the lovely girl behind counter said immediately that she would just charge me for the one day. I'll be using them again - its nice to run into customer service that coordinated! She also said don't I know you. I smiled and said yes I was here with my sister who rented the car from Ireland. She laughed and said yes the one who was cursing..

So story is that when Grainne and Dee was here we were at car rental place in February for a car for them and doing the walk around the car as you do for scratches.. There was one on the hood/bonnet and Gra in all Irish innocence said -

"F**K how did they get that scratch there ?"

and the Enterprise girl nearly dropped her clipboard in shock. I apologized and explained that in Ireland cursing isn't so much cursing but used as an adjective, noun and verb so very different to puritan America where the f word is seen with aghast and usually a faint... Gra realized what she'd said and turned to the girl and apologized saying -

"I'm so f**king sorry - my apologizes"

.. and genuinely meant it all with a straight face not even realizing she was cursing again while apologizing. The look on the girls face was priceless and turns out she remembered it well and remembered us in process... Better to be remembered than not I suppose!

Whoosh there went weekend folks. Now to clean up for next weeks BBQ and mates staying over... Hope yours was a good one !

Weird and Wonderful

So Tuesday night lying on bed with himself watching the last episode of Gilmore Girls. (Yep after 7 yrs we get to say goodbye to Lorelai and Rory from Gilmore Girls.) Himself has enjoyed the show as much as I have which speaks volumes on how good chick TV can be. My favorite episode is still their diorama one... (classic one where they have a historical diorama on Stars Hollow). The last episode was still fantastic - for those who haven't seen it yet don't click on the link as spoiler alert. http://www.kansascity.com/238/story/109827.html

Catching up on our Tivo this week after being away on holiday. Hero's is as fantastic as ever and last night watched last episode of Voyager Star Trek. I don't know why I didn't like the series when it first came out but I didn't. So Tivo helped catch me up on Janeway and her crew.

Anyway lying on bed Hobbit was kicking away when I saw my belly move and I wasn't moving. I looked down to make sure I wasn't seeing things and again saw a movement under my skin poking out. Weird but wonderful. Very like Alien...

have a good week folks.

How to blow out a towns power

So saw this story today on Yahoo news about the numbers of Bald Eagles growing so much that they are thinking of taking off the endangered list and just putting on protected list.

U.S. Bald Eagle population soars, possibly delisted http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070514/

sc_nm/usa_endangered_baldeagles_dc

Reminded me though of what happened at Price Rupert, last port we visited on cruise. There was a guy feeding about 10 bald eagles at the pier when one took some food, flew onto a power transformer and went bang. Yes sadly the eagle exploded.

It also knocked out all the power to this small town so when the tourists went in, everything was in darkness and closed. One one brave soul running her cash register from her car battery. All tours and trips cancelled as no lights in their famous wee museum or restaurants. We to be honest weren't even planning to get off the ship, stayed and chilled (himself getting over chocolate feast bug and sleeping 16 hours that day). But even still, we all felt bad about the exploding Eagle and especially as we were visiting a neighbouring nation (Prince Rupert is in Canada..)

Maybe we should wait a wee while before taking them off the list. Especially with tourists still abound....

woman hear me roar

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Originally uploaded by SineadBorg.

so you cant go to Seattle without dropping in on Science Fiction gallery. Well we cant anyway. Heres the sign for the bathrooms. How cool is this!

when you can't drink martinis..

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Originally uploaded by SineadBorg.

so when you cant drink martinis you pull up a lounge chair , watch the world go by and go into the hot tub and pool before your reflexology session. Then pop over for dinner on another deck come back and repeat...

hot tub

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Originally uploaded by SineadBorg.

this is where I spent at least half hour twice a day. with my faithful sidekick rubber ducky (that has temperature on it) making sure me and Hobbit were nice and comfy. to left was all glass windows for looking outside at the scenery while you floated in warm water. I miss it already...

sawyer glacier

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Originally uploaded by SineadBorg.

one from the balcony on our room. Himself did the right thing getting the room with a balcony. Ringside seats then for the glaciers and icebergs we saw floating by. Also got to chat to other folks beside us sticking their heads out on balcony as well. I passed down glasses of wine to folks trying to deplete the box we had brought (read smuggled) on. We ended up giving it to the nice folks at oncruise Spa where I spent most of my time getting pampered during trip and in therapy pool daily ;-)

Glacier Dancing

what else can you say..

more pillows

So will blog more later but just back from fantastic brilliant week on cruise to Alaska. It was really just a incredible week and so glad we went. Brought the big U-shaped maternity pillow and another orthopedic pillow and my wee belly wedge. First night on cruise and realized bed was solid hard with no give at all. We had 6 pillows on bed and my two maternity ones. I think the beds hard so you don't get too seasick with springs and too much motion. I realized though that I wouldn't get any sleep. So I called housekeeping at 6am and asked for more pillows.

How many pillows Mam? 4 please. You want 4 more pillows! Yes I want 4 more pillows. Are you sure Mam. Yes I'm sure. 4 please. Do you realize theres 2 more pillows in closet Mam. Yes I do, thanks - we have them on bed already, I need 4 more. Silence on end of phone. Finally I said, I'm pregnant and building a nest.. 4 more pillows came 10 minutes later..

Will post pictures later but housekeeping had no idea what to do with all the pillows when they turned down room so they just kept piling them like a tower on the bed. Last night of cruise they took our bags early and checked all the way to San Jose so I had to ask for more pillows as my own maternity ones were packed and gone. They gave me two more. They didn't have any more they said. I'm now known as pillow hog.