Another Long-Overdue Post
--or--
So Much Crap Happened I Forgot to Write It Down

June
Matt and Linzee got hitched. Their reception was super fun and everyone got very toasty. So toasty in fact that the only photographic evidence seems to be from Damon.

And you know what they say about weddings and liquor...someone's gonna get knocked up. OK, that someone was me. OK, and it probably didn't happen during the reception. More likely it was two nights before when we celebrated our anniversary. Nevertheless, the outcome is the same.

Yep, pregnant. Most of you saw our first ultrasound (10 weeks) on our homepage. We had another one this past Friday. Pics were pretty crappy. (Don't think we'll be posting an image of the baby's spine.) But we did find out that we're having a boy! Rick's fond of the name "Roman Nostradamus." Yeah, gotta work on that one.

So far the pregnancy has been pretty smooth. I was pretty nauseous my first trimester, and the fatigue has been bad throughout--especially since I'm still working 50 hours a week. Heartburn is bad pretty much anytime after I eat. Or I'm laying down. Or I'm standing in the middle of the post office, with no Tums in my purse. Or right now.

All of our check-ups have been good. Baby's hearbeat is very normal and I'm measuring right. The baby is very active, too. The first time we went to hear the heartbeat the nurse practitioner had to reposition the Doppler seven times before she could get an accurate pulse count. He's quite a kicker. I've been feeling him for about a month now, but it was still really cool watching him kick on the ultrasound and feeling him kick at the same time. The kicking is not always comfortable. Sometimes he likes to kick my bladder or my bowel, which can sometimes create urgent situations. (Not so great in the movie theater.)

It's pretty amazing that we're already half-way through this...I was 21 weeks on Saturday. Baby's due February 19th. (FYI, they calculate the weeks pregnant from the last day of your menstrual cycle.) The rest of the pregnancy, I'm sure, will zip by and then we'll have a new life in our lives. Very surreal.

I pretty much knew I was pregnant by mid-June, or around the time we went to Chicago to see Puppy. I wasn't feeling right so I took a pee test before we went, which came out negative. I mostly did it so I wouldn't feel guilty about drinking. Which I did. Don't worry, as my aunt says, "No placenta, no problem."

Still wasn't feeling right when we came back. Noticed that I was being really...no better word for it...stupid. I kept dropping things, forgetting things, losing my place, you name it. My girlfriend Liz, who has two little boys, suggested (with raised eyebrows) that I take another test, just to be sure.

By the way, ladies, First Response is definitely the way to go. I took two different tests, and while they both came out positive, the First Response result was a lot clearer and easier to read. And you want really clear and easy to read, because even if you suspect you may be pregnant, and you're hoping really that you are pregnant, reading that little pink plus sign in the window can be one of the most difficult things you will ever do. And I mean physically difficult, because your hands will be shaking, your eyes will be unfocused, and you will have trouble breathing.

After I reread the pee stick about 40 times ( I kept leaving the bathroom for 10 minutes, coming back, and reading the stick again, just to be sure), I became very excited and had an uncontrollable urge to tell everyone. Problem was, I wanted to tell my husband first, who had called earlier to tell me he would be working late.

So to keep myself occupied, I ran down to Target. Big box stores are FREAKY when you are first pregnant. The white floors, white walls, open floor plan and fluorescent lighting disorient you completely, kind of like when you are coming up on a hallucinogen. All I could do was grab my cart and maintain.

I stayed there for an hour or so and I purchased gum, Q-Tips, and a bib that said "I Love Daddy." I figured I'd give that to Rick in case I was unable to tell him myself. Which turned out to be the case.

Rick, although very excited to be a daddy, had a hard time grappling with the reality of it all. He looked at the bib, read it over about 40 times, and said, "Does this mean you're pregnant?" I guess that's the pink cross moment for the father.


July
I had my 30th birthday party, although because of the pregnancy, it wasn't quite the drunken orgy I envisioned it to be. I think we still have about a case of N/A left over from that party. N/A does NOT hit the spot when you are a beer drinker. Emo Phillips was on Conan a couple of weeks a go and had a really good joke about N/A. It went something like this:

You can always tell a recovering alcoholic at a party. They're the ones standing by the keg and wistfully sucking back an O'Douls. I never understood the concept of non-alcoholic beer. It doesn't seem like an appropriate substitute. After all, you wouldn't give a recovering pedophile a midget dressed up as a boy scout.

Buh dum dum, CHING!

Now that I am well into my second trimester, I do have an occasional beer. I always make sure it's a good beer, so I'm sure to sure to satisfy my craving. It's kind of like when you crave pizza and you get Domino's. It's crap and it doesn't satisfy your pizza craving. So you keep buying more and more crap pizza in the hopes of getting that one great slice. With beer, like pizza, you have to go for the good stuff. Thank god for the GLBC. I'm hoping my boy will develop a taste for the Burning River.

While I am talking about beer what is that Coor's slogan about? The "coldest tasting beer". What the fuck is that?

"How's your beer taste?"
"Cold."

Mmmm. Cold.

I got a new digital camera for my birthday. So you'd think I'd have more pictures on our site, but I don't. Sorry. Working on that.

August
We went to see the Cure in Cleveland. That was the Curioso tour, so we also got to see Interpol and Muse (kick ass). We missed the four other bands as we were whooping it up at the GLBC. Fortunately for me they bottle their own root beer now. Very rooty.

I think Rick's favorite part of the pregnancy is that he has a designated driver for nine months. I kind of like that I didn't feel like I needed to by a $8.50 Coors Light at the venue. I don't care how freaking cold it tastes, it's not worth $8.50. It is rather amusing being the only perfectly sober person in a group of drunkards, too.

Our friend Josh and his brother kept telling me how beautiful it was that I was having a baby and what a glow I had about me. They had a few $8.50 beers. Our friend Julie while trying to spin somehow up rolling down the hill into a group of concert-goers. I think she nearly dislocated the one guy's knee. She had quite a few $8.50 beers. Our friend John (he drank $8.50 beers AND nearly an entire bottle of Seagrams Gin & Juice grabbed me at the end of the concert and started jumping up and down frantically. We had to tell him he was worse than the baby-shaking nanny before he would stop. Still lots of fun.

Also in August...
My brother-in-law Kevin and his lady Ann tied the knot on the 21st. The wedding was up at Peek N Peak resort in Findlay Lake, NY. We had a wonderful time, and amazingly, I still fit in my bridesmaid's dress.

Saturday before the wedding, we went to Ann's parent's friend's lake house and I went jet skiing for the first time. Super fun. Although I didn't drive. And Rick did dump me in the lake. Lousy male drivers.

Everything went very smoothly during the ceremony and reception. Ann's parent's did threaten the DJ with non-payment if he played ONE MORE country song. And Rick's cousin got a little rowdy and somehow broke a glass that cut Matt Sill right between the eyes. Other than that, smooth sailing. (That's pretty good for a weekend-long wedding.)

Sunday morning we had brunch at a wonderful hideaway called the Curling Maple. (So hidden away there is no web listing for them.) If you are ever in Findlay Lake, NY, be sure to eat here! Excellent blintzes and homefries to die for.

September
Bought a house in September. Yes, it came as a surprise to me, too. We had been looking since we moved back to Pittsburgh last July, but hadn't had much luck. Although we have room for the baby in the apartment, we really wanted to get into a house before he came. We were getting a little desperate. By the first weekend in September we decided that our motto would be "We'll take it."

Fortunately our realtor had done a great job screening neighborhoods and homes for us, and although we had a very limited budget to work with, she found us a great starter in the area that we wanted. That sounds like a TV commercial, folks, but it's true.

We wanted to buy in Squirrel Hill, but there was no way we could afford it, so we bought a house in Swisshelm Park. It's a tiny little neighborhood smooshed between Squirrel Hill and Swissvale. It's still the city of Pittsburgh, but it has a great residential neighborhood feeling (minus the off-street parking) and seems very kid-friendly. There is a huge playground right across the street from our house and we're a quick drive away from Frick and Schenley parks.

The house on Love Street is an old frame farmhouse that was used for a rental property for quite a few years. So even though it's over 100 years old, it has new siding, a new roof, a new furnace and a new hot water heater. Our housing inspector said it was the best looking older home he'd ever inspected (that means little to no code violations or necessary repairs).

The drawback to it having been a rental for so long is that EVERYTHING is painted white. Including outlets that have been painted over. And the carpeting is very beige, although not in bad shape. We want to rip up the carpet to eventually restore the hardwood, but that is a longer-term project. In fact all of the improvement projects we can take at our own pace; the house is in fine shape to move right in.

What I love most about the house are the two large porches--one in front and one in back--and the sizeable and FLAT front and back yards. (The picture is somewhat deceiving, because the house has no side yards--property ends at the bushes.) Can't wait to have a porch swing.

Our closing is set for October 29. We're supposed to find out about our loan by this Friday. Haven't heard much about that, but from what my home-owning friends tell me, no news is good news. Other than that, everything is in place except we still have to find a tenant for our apartment. Keeping fingers crossed that our landlord doesn't go totally dick on us for leaving. We won't be doing overlapping rent and mortgage payments. Will not work.

October
This brings us current. The general news is: we're both busy at work, we're both anxiously awaiting our closing, and we're both ecstatic about having The Boy.

Up on the horizon is Rick's 30th birthday on the 18th. Probably won't be celebrating too much until the end of the month. It's only fair that his Big 30 is disrupted by a major life event, too.

More hopefully soon.