Off to Baton Rouge, La

I've worked past 7 all week, and right now it's 6:05 on Sat and I'm at the office. It's been busy at work, but it's been extra busy because I'm going to be gone three days next week. It never fails, any time I have to leave it seems like I suddenly have so many extra things to do on top of my normal workload. But I'm really looking forward to the trip.

It's a design conference for all the Art Directors from all the plants across the country. About 180 people. Corp is doing it as a way to give us a break, get to meet each other, and decompress. While we have several great speakers lined up - diff CCreative Directors from big city agencies coming in to talk. As well as lots of break out sessions. I'm actually co-leading one. Very excited about that. I'll also find out if I made the cut for a national corporate design team. It would be a big deal for me. Extra money and chance to actual work on exciting projects, while working with other designers for a change. Not sure what my chances are of making it.

There's going to be lots of eating and drinking though -lots of southern hospitality. A fish fry one night and a cajun dinner the next. I think it's going to be a really good time. All the other AD's have been emailing each other all last week about it. It will be nice to put faces with names on email.

In other news -started a new yoga course this morning. Its concentrated on posture and opening up your hips. It's a 6 week two hour class. So far I really liked it. And I'm taking it with a friend which is nice for a change.

More interesting though is my appointment next week. I'm going to see a traditional chinese medicine accupunturist. (yes EM, finally taking your advice, been meaning to email you about it in more detail) More on this later, but it all started with this book I picked up.

Gotta go meet D for wings for dinner. Back next Thursday!

Off to Philly

We're off to Philly for a long weekend. This will be Ned's first long car trip. This will be interesting. Really looking forward to the weekend. Haven't seen D's family since July. It will be good to see them and get away for a bit. So far we have planned: hanging with the family, a birthday party, kids soccer matches, pizza, cheesesteaks & beer Friday night for dinner, walk along the Deleware Canal...so far.

I can make Sushi!

Why haven't I tried this before?!?
I had been craving some sushi. I used to be able to get it any day I wanted when I worked in DC. The Whole Foods up the street had a sushi station in it. The week before we moved back to WV I ate so much of it I didn't think I'd ever want it again! The closest place to get any around here is all the way up in Pittsburgh. Well, I had also just finished reading "Memoir of a Geisha" (good book because of the detail, historical info but washed out ending) I knew a bunch of girls that had also read it this year, so decided to invite them up to watch the movie version. Figured this was a good excuse to try and make sushi. I had a couple different recipes that were all basically the same. I found it really funny that our local Krogers actually had all the ingredients for it. Seafood wraps, pickled ginger and wasabi. I expected them to have a good layer of dust on them - but they didn't. huh - maybe more if this stuff gets made around here than we realize?

Anyway I made the rice before I went to work yesterday morning. Then put the rolls together when I got home from work. I couldn't believe how easy it was. I just made California rolls - nothing too exotic. I could have eaten the entire jar of pickled ginger yummmmmy. And the wasabi was really strong. We kept laughing at each other trying to breath thru the fumes after we ate a bite. My sinuses are clear now. The girls that showed up all really like shushi so they gobbled it all up and said it was great! yay me! One girl is a flight attendant and has gone to Japan many times, and said it was pretty close. She said she wanted to make Goya? (spelling) dumplings but didn't have time. I did get some steamed dumplings, but they were more Chinese style. Considering they were from "AmeriAsian Buffet".

The movie btw, was a let down. We had to turn the volume up soooo loud just to hear the voices, that when they quit talking the music was blaring. And the movie itself was just kind of bland. I thought even if the movie was boring the visuals would be great, but the whole thing wasn't that interesting. Another case of the book being better than the movie.

Side note - the person responsible for introducing me to sushi lives in Thailand - check her blog out to get some insight to what's going on with the coup over there.

Stacking wood to clear the mind

Third time wasn't the charm it turns out. Found out Saturday morning, just in time to go to my parent's to run my garage sale. (I made $70 selling basically junk) I was doing really good. Wasn't letting it get to me. We'll take a break this month cuz I 'll be on travel, do a fourth in November.

Then my friend callled Sunday afternoon. Off the pill a month and got pregnant. I'm sooo happy and excited for her. I'm so glad it was easy for her, she is my age, and for her not to have to worry about anything. I want to be able to share her experience, it's only fair for her. But it crushed me. I just feel so tired. Not. Fair. So last night I helped Dan stack wood for almost three hours. Nice mindless, thoughtless work. Felt good. And I'm glad I got to help him, he's been busting his ass to get a lot of wood in for the winter. Problem is we finished, and I could use another load of wood to stack.

My Own Private Lumberjack

This is what Dan did aaaaallllll weekend. (except for football on Sunday) The small pile in the foreground is what he split by hand. Then our neighbor brought over the hydraulic splitter. That thing is great! I don't have a photo of it, but the pile of split wood is now HUGE! it's at least 6 feet tall, and we still have more to split. I don't get involved until it's time to stack it. Then I'll help.

We will be warm this winter for sure!

Slimey Salamander

Here's the little guy that popped out of one of the log's Dan was splitting. It must have been in a rotten hole or something. Dan yelled so I grabbed my camera to get a pick of it.

We looked it up online, it's a Slimey Salamander. Had really cool spots on it. I put it in a tupperware container and took it down to our neighbor's pond to let it go.

This is why we live here.

Lunchtime chat

At lunch today I actually got out of the office and walked around our sad little mall, looking at clothes, checking out prices, just escaping for a bit. As I walked into a shoe store to browse, my cell rings and its a girlfriend. She's out of town and having lunch with a client. A client whom apparently tried for 10 years to get pregnant and who's Dr. has come up with a medical miracle to cure "un-diagnosed infertility". So she, the girlfriend, thinks of me, calls me and then puts this woman on the phone to tell me all about what she went thru.

I know the girlfriend is concerned for us, and only did this out of the kindness of her heart. But it really pissed me off. This chic is telling me to get on the pill for three months, then go on Clomid, then after follicle scans do an in-home-insemination kit. IN-HOME?!?! This is what her Dr. has come up with on her own. How the f*%# does she know what my problems are? And she said everything preachy like I was an idiot. The kicker - "how old are you?" Almost 36. "Well, the older you are the harder it will be for you..." Yeah, no shit honey. They asked if I was writing all this down? "uh, no - I'm in the middle of a shoestore". She sounded put off - like why wasn't I writing down the secret to Col. Sander's Chicken Recipe? I said I was really glad they called - could they write it down so I could run it past my Dr. That would be great. She also offered to send down all the drugs she still had. !!!! It was a sweet offer because I guess they were really expensive drugs, but I don't like the idea. People taking each others Vicoden creeps me out. Oh, she also asked me if I was on clomid - no, I don't need it - I ovulate regularly. "But do you know that? Did they do tests?" & "oh, they just told you you don't need Clomid because some insurance doesn't cover it"..Uh no we're all out of pocket - I just don't need it. (at least not yet) It was just hard to justify to a perfect stranger over the phone what I'm doing. It's not like we're aren't already worried about everything to begin with.

I don't know how to balance this. On one hand I like to vent on my blog, but on the other hand, I don't want people discussing my fertility so perfect strangers can give me advice and talk to me like an idiot about my own issues. And keeping in mind the friend who started this really was trying to help. It's just a touchy thing. Especially the week I'm trying NOT to think about it. OY!

Art and the Animal Exhibit

Last week we were invited to the opening of a new exhibit at the Stifel Center. It's called "The Art and the Animal". It is on a national tour and we're lucky enough that somehow our little local art gallery managed to snag it. The tour is sponsored or put on by the Society of Animal Artists.

It's really amazing. They brought so many incredibly beautiful pieces. It's hard to walk through and select one you like the best, but mine was the pig statue below. Our friend is the Marketing Director of Oglebay Institute which the Stifel Center is part of, and because of her we (work)helped out and donated some billboards for the event. And we snagged the invite to the opening. Sweet!

Lots of local VIP's, politicians, media, etc, but also great eats and drinks. Plus anything at the Stifel is fun. It's such a great old mansion.

Two favorite pieces...

This charcoal chimpanzee really stood out because of the motion. The chimp looks very sad. It's really well done.
This pig just makes me smile and laugh. He's great!

The Stifel Home/Galleries

Stifel's gallery is really very nice. The building is the donated home of the Stifel family. Old Wheeling money. They owned a textile mill. Stifel calico was quite famous at one time. I've worked part-time jobs here off an on throughout school. I taught batik classes and children's art classes, then I ran the Christmas gift shop for two seasons. I also did a gallery internship. I learned a lot about running a museum, but I actually learned a lot more about the house and it's history. It's really unique. And beautiful.

Big Ouch

Sunday we had our third IUI procedure done. First time - no pain. Second time, uncomfortable. So I was really unprepaired when once the procedure started it hurt like hell. It was a very brief pain, but almost peel me of the ceiling pain for a few seconds. Then I cramped afterwards a lot more than before. Memorable quotes from the PA who did the procedure:
• "maybe that's a good sign (the pain)
• "all it takes is one good sperm" (duh)
• "hopefully one will stop and ask for directions" (what?!)

I went home and slept for 3 hours. We ordered pizza and watched "V for Vendatta". Which I thought was a really good movie. We both did. Very enjoyable, good story. Hugo Weaving's voice and delivery was great. I liked that they never took his maks off. D said just one more movie that proves Natalie Portman is a good actress and that the script and directing in Star Wars was deplorable.

To continue taking it easy, I woke up Monday and watched "MatchPoint". What an awful movie. The main character is horrible, the actor is such a feminine, pouty, seemingly vain guy. I've seen him before, but I really detested him in this. Maybe that was the point. The whole movie was about infidelity and murder. Not exactly calming to the nerves. Thought it would be better. blech.

Then later that night I made a huge pot of curry and we watched the Star Trek marathon. It was the final two-part episode of NG. Actually the whole weekend was a Trek marathon. And a CSI marathon. Awful to admit that I watched a lot of both over the weekend. Or had it on in the background while I did chores or worked around the house. My favorite NG episode is "Inner Light". It's probably not good that 1) I have a favorite 2) I know it's name 3) think that the idea of a Prime Directive, if we ever actually needed it, is a great concept.

At some point over the weekend we also watched "Munich". Not the greatest uplifting list of movies huh? It was good, but neither D nor I really liked it. It started out historical then went nowhere. It felt like the whole purpose of the movie was some political agenda on Spielburg's part. It wasn't unbiased. Even the bit they added to maybe show the Palestinian view, still seemed biased. Overall, wasn't that great a movie. Thought "Syriana" was a far better film on chaos in the middle east.

Apart from having the IUI and watching movies, we didn't do much this weekend. Just took it easy. D played golf with dad, I puttered about and cooked, ran a few errands. So now once again - we wait for two weeks to see if I get my period. Like I said, doing my best this time not to think about it so much.