Just another day

I woke up twice early this morning to go to the bathroom, and I couldn't sleep after the second bathroom trip at 6:45 AM, so I thought I'd have an unusually early start for the day. After checking my e-mail and what nots, I felt a bit tired and was able to catch up on a couple more hours of sleep. When I finally got out of bed and had breakfast, I decided to play handywoman and fixed up all the baby furniture. The back side of the "changing table"/chest needed to be re-nailed and the bottom row of the "other" changing table gave out due to the heavy diapers, so I fixed that as well, with Trung's help.

After lunch, Trung and I caught the last half of "Night at the Roxbury"; Will Ferrell sure does look young. Then I decorated and added the base to the clock, and here's what I ended up with:Oh, and here are the pictures of the two other little projects I did; I basically just painted them, but not bad for a newbie if I do say so myself. :) FYI, the one on the left is a peg for hanging stuff on and the one on the right is a picture holder.

Ready

Last night we finally saw the Oscar award winning movie "Crash", which was very good. There was one scene in particular that really got to me...if you haven't seen it yet, you might want to skip to the next paragraph. Okay, so there's this scene where a five year old girl runs into her father's arms just as another guy is about to shoot him, but she gets "shot" instead. The father is crying out and I just totally lose it. I don't know if it's because I'm pregnant or the thought of that happening to my little girl, but the tears kept coming. I think I even saw Trung's eyes water. You can actually see a still image of the scene if you click on the link. Anyhow, yeah, good movie.

Today I painted a butterfly peg and a butterfly photo holder for Lydia's room. I started working on the clock as well, though I have to wait a couple days for the paint to dry before manipulating the design a bit. I did a couple loads of laundry and sorted out my bigger maternity clothes for my cousin since all I've been wearing lately are big t-shirts and shorts. We went swimming, had dinner, and watched a depressing special on 20/20 about the Last Days on Earth.

So, I was hoping that Lydia would be born early, but seeing that she's due in only five days, it feels like she's going to be late. I really should read those parenting magazines like I said I would...ah, something to do tomorrow. Oh, and another reason why I want the baby to come soon besides the fact that I'm beginning to get bored, the pregnancy is beginning to be uncomfortable. I've been waking up every night for the last week and a half to go to the bathroom, the bottoms of my feet have begun to hurt from the extra weight (I'm still at 144 from last week), and sometimes a sharp pain runs down my right back side for no particular reason. Yeah, I'm sooooo ready!

Still waiting...

So instead of grocery shopping yesterday, we decided to go out to eat. As I was looking through my purse for restaurant deals that I had gotten in the mail, I came across the free sneak preview pass for "Trust the Man" which I had won last week from KISS FM. The movie wasn't too bad; there were some funny parts which were rather entertaining.

Today I had my 39 week doctor's appointment, where I found out that I was 3 centimeters dilated and the doctor could touch the baby's head (and for those doctors out there, she was 50% effaced). So, Lydia really could be here any day now...or in three weeks, who knows. The weather was kinda muggy today, but Trung and I still went to the pool. Of course, no one was there and it was sprinkling a little, but we got our work-out nonetheless. You never know when the weather could get really bad, thus making that swim my last swim.

Oh, I've also been watching my niece and nephew at school via the school webcams. I've got a lag time of 25 minutes, but it's kinda cool seeing what they are up to throughout the day. I don't know how their teachers concentrate knowing that parents could be watching them at any moment, I know that I wouldn't be able to.

It's raining!

After a drought of a few weeks, the rain is finally coming. It's still thundering outside, but the rain will surely follow. Thank goodness for our newly installed sprinkler system, or else our grass would have shriveled up and died by now. With rain comes cooler weather; maybe Lydia will be born on a nice sunny, cool day! :)

Okay, so what have I been up to since Thursday? Well, we settled on a pediatrician; we're going to go with the recommended one because she seemed to really take her time to talk with us, while the meeting with the family friend felt really rushed. Friday, I spent the morning and early afternoon at the brand new Round Rock Premium Outlets; here's what I looked like <------. There's really no point in clothes shopping for myself anymore, so I shopped for Lydia. The way the outlet is laid out, the children clothing stores are right next door to each other, so I just went from store to store, loading up on the cutest baby girl's clothes. I also managed to get a little something for myself...okay, so I've been told that the diaper bag ultimately become your purse from other mommies. So, I've got the stylish diaper bag, but then I was thinking, what if I just wanted to run a quick errand or leave Lydia with Trung, would I have to take the big ole diaper bag with me? Then I saw on ebay a Coach lilac wristlet, and thought that it would be perfect! Even better would be if I could find the wristlet at the Coach outlet store, which I did! And in my book, every "purse" needs a matching key ring, and it just so happens that the regular Coach stores have one in lilac. Oh, but the only thing is, the wristlet and key ring are from different seasons, so even though the color codes read the same, they don't exactly match. Um...what to do, what to do.

Saturday, we had our carpets deep cleaned for the first time in almost three years. Let's just say that there was tons of cat hair accumulated over the years, but I think we got most of it after vacuuming before and after the deep cleaning. Anyhow, we had to let the carpets dry, so we went to Whole Foods for lunch where we ran into Sing and Maggie. Then the four of us went to Tapioca House for some Taiwanese drinks. Trung and I headed to Half Price Books next to purchase pediatrician-recommended baby and discipline books. After spending a few hours at Barton Creek Mall where I baby shopped again while Trung checked out the Apple store, we had a quick dinner and went to our photographers' house for some poker. We also got a DVD of our maternity pics, where most of the pictures turned out pretty well. Now, it's a matter of going through and picking out our favorite ones, which we will post later after they have been photoshopped.

Since we were out all day Saturday, we spent Sunday putting all the furniture back. In moving most of our things off of the carpet, we took the opportunity to really clean up and rearrange the rooms. We went for a quick swim later and got home in time for "the gang" to come over for a barbeque. We ate macaroni salad, burgers and/or sausages, salad, home fries, and pineapples, while watching the Emmys. Oh, and we had yummy strawberry shortcake ice cream for dessert.

Okay, so the weather is such a tease. After the dark clouds rolled in and the thundering stopped, we received not even a single drop of rain. Well, I guess I'll head off to the grocery store now, so that we don't starve. Tomorrow I will start on my next arts and craft project: a clock for Lydia's room. Stay tuned for pictures of the finished product.

A Hawaiian morning

Now that I've all this free time on my hands, I've been experimenting with my cooking. This morning I finally made Banana Macadamia pancakes with Coconut syrup, which I had been wanting to make for awhile. I had this delicious breakfast combo my first day in Hawaii, Molokai to be exact, on our honeymoon. Despite the lack of scenery, the pancakes did take me back for a moment. We drank POG, of course, which is a concoction of passion fruit, orange, and guava juices. All we really needed left was a mug of Blue Mountain coffee; decaf for me this time around. :) Oh, the memories.

So, right now at this stage of my pregnancy, I am supposedly "nesting", which means having an urge to clean the house. I personally think that I naturally would have wanted to clean the house before having the baby since I am at home now and have the time, but call it what you will. Plus, my family will be coming up to Austin when the baby is born and I wouldn't want them to stay in a filthy house. So far I have cleared out all the closets in the house, reorganized the entire kitchen and pantry, and swiffered all the tile floors. I'll probably dust today and get Trung to vacuum before the carpet cleaning people come on Saturday to deep clean.

Yesterday I went to the pool by myself since Trung was home stuck with a work application problem. For the first time ever, I was the only one at the pool, which was kinda cool at first, but then later freaked me out. I don't know if it was because it was on a school day and kids have to stay home doing their homework or if it was the time (I went at 7:30 PM, about an hour later than usual), but it was completely empty. As I was doing my laps, I started getting crazy thoughts about drowning and someone finding me there, all pregnant and such a tragedy. Then the movie SwimFan popped into my mind, followed by the Lacy Peterson murder. So, I swam my last lap and quickly went home. Yeah, Trung's coming with me from now on. Shikes!

And on the third day...

So, yesterday was super busy; Trung and I had appointments and errands galore. We started off the morning by organizing our closets, which meant a couple bags going to Goodwill. Then off to our "Meet the Pediatrician" with an old family friend of my family's. She too is a PK (aka preacher's kid) and works right across from my hospital Seton Northwest. We basically thought that we would automatically go with her since I knew her, but then again there's always a downside of knowing someone already. So, on Thursday, we have another "Meet and Greet" with a highly recommended pediatrician, just to have someone to compare with.

After we met the pediatrician, Trung and I had a yummy lunch at Sushi Sake, our favorite restaurant for lunch because those bento boxes are a great deal! Afterwards, we headed to the hospital for my 38 weeks appointment. My doctor had a C-section to perform that morning and had two ladies in labor at the time of my appointment, so we had about a thirty minute wait. When she finally did arrive, she checked for cervical dilations...right now I am dilated 2 centimeters, which she said is very good. :)

Next, Trung dropped me off at the hair salon where I got my hair chopped while he went to finally get his state inspection. I don't think my hair has been this short in ages, like when I was four! I just thought that it would be convenient for when I have the baby because I won't really have time to mess with it. Um, maybe I cut it too short. Hmmm, I wonder how long I get to take prenatal pills for, the longer the better for the hair growing process if you know what I mean. Anyhow, I was going to post some pics, but they don't look so great, so I'll have some later when I actually fix my hair. I meant to take them yesterday when I had just gotten my hair cut and it looked better, but you'll just have to wait.

We then got a carwash at Genie Carwash, which was highly recommended by the brother-in-law, and then went to Carmax to see how much Trung's car would be appraised for. The end result was a disappointment, but at least now we know what we've got to work with. So later, we weren't quite hungry yet, so we hung out at Wal-mart for a little while. We just walked around the entire store and looked for things that we would possibly need within the next couple months. KISS FM was at the Wal-mart, so I got to see Bobby Bones from the morning show; I swear he was looking at me weird...maybe cause I'm so huge. There was a spin wheel for winning some cheesy prizes, but I won a pretty decent one, a sneak peek pass to the movie "Trust the Man" on Monday night. Honestly, I wasn't surprised that I won; I've had a stream of good luck in my time. I won a Bulova clock at an Off-Shore Technology Conference and the grand prize of a laptop and color printer at my Project Graduation, just to name a few.

Anyhow, we had dinner at Clay Pot, a hot pot place, which as always, was very filling. I was sad that they didn't have their tasty desserts from the last time I dined, but they had a bunch of new hot pot ingredients to make up for it. This time around, the restaurant offered clams, squid, scallops, and tripe. Yummy in my tummy...Lydia agreed.

So, today so far I've posted like eight postings on Craigslist; it's my new way of cleaning house. :) I'm getting hungry, so I'll warm up lunch in a bit. Oh, here's what Sasha was doing this morning, bothering Trung...notice the tail on the mouse. Uh-huh.

My first day on maternity leave

It was nice not having to be at work today. All I did all day was feed Trung as he worked and cleaned/reorganized the entire kitchen and pantry. Our kitchen counter space has tripled and as Sing said, looks as if though we just moved in. Um...maybe I put away too many appliances, but Trung, being a clutter-phobe, liked the "new" look, no pun intended. (well, maybe)

We tend to have an ant problem once in awhile since we've got a greenbelt behind our backyard, but today they all came storming in. I don't know if it was because those critters knew I was home or if it was just too dang hot outside, but I had never seen so many ants since we've moved into the house, which will be three years in November. So, I basically 409ed all the kitchen counters and moved the ant traps around. Within minutes, the ants were gathered at the bait...so long, suckers! :)

After Trung finished work, we attempted again to swim at the community pool, but once again, it was "out of order". It was bad enough that the pool was closed yesterday, but again! Geez! The bottoms of my feet have begun to hurt, I guess from standing with the extra weight too long, so swimming is basically the only form of exercise I can (or really want to) do nowadays. The management company of the HOA aka as the people in charge of the pool is located next to my hospital, so if we have time tomorrow after my now weekly doctor's appointment, I may swing by and chew them out. Looking forward to it. Tee hee hee.

The day after

I really didn't do much my last day of work yesterday, just processed a few loans and sat around snacking. I didn't feel like stacking, so I didn't...what are they going to do, fire me? Ma ha ha. My co-workers didn't care; they took me to lunch and let me set appointments while they stacked. When loans did come in, however, I did do them; they helped to make the time pass faster. Oh, and I finally got a phone call from HR...I got an "increase" effective July 30th, though my anniversary date was July 22nd. Oh wells, something is better than nothing. :) Oh, and even better, Trung looked up his company's policies and discovered that he gets two weeks paid paternity leave...NICE! Now he can serve as the mediator between his mother and I when she's down here the first two weeks after Lydia's birth.

Right now I am using Trung's laptop, sitting next to him as he is gaming with eight other guys. We started off with a total of eleven guys, but a couple had to leave late afternoon, so now we are down to the hard core gamers. I tried to plan things to do outside of the house, so as to leave the guys to themselves, but there's not much for an eight and a half months pregnant woman to do, especially on ozone alert day. So I just went to get my car washed and got the inside vaccumed, and then went to the Chinese supermarket to stock up on Asian groceries. I just read a couple parenting magazines and took a nap to pass time, and now here I am. I'll probably head to bed soon...and wake up a few hours later to pee and get a drink of water, oh and say "hi" to the guys if they are still gaming. Good-night!

One more day

Whew, I don't think I'm sick after all. What a relief! I'm still keeping my fingers crossed though because I do get sick around this time every year. Today went by relatively slow since I was super sleepy. I guess all those nights I've been waking up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom/get a drink of water, or waking up with Trung at 6 AM has finally taken its toll on me. At least tomorrow is Friday and I'll have the weekend to sleep, um, that is until the gamers come over at 10 AM on Saturday.

Oh, and yet another incident occurred today that made me glad that I am leaving this industry. If you are not in the mortgage industry, I would just bypass this paragraph as it will only bore you. :P Last night, Sayble and I left work right around 6 PM. When I checked my work e-mail later that night, I saw that we had received documents for a loan. Well, I came into work today not thinking much about it because that does happen sometimes. Come 4 PM today, the branch manager came over and asked if I knew anything about the loan that had to go out last night. Um, noooooo. Had I known about it, I would have had to sit around doing nothing until 7 PM when the documents posted; then do the loan; and send out the documents, like at 9 PM. Needless to say, I'm kinda glad that we didn't know anything about it, cause I had my finale to watch last night. Shish! Good-bye, Countrywide!

Trung's office

My co-worker was off today at work, so Sayble and I were able to keep busy all day. I had a bit of a runny nose and headache this morning, which kinda freaked me out because after all, who wants to go into labor while they are sick? By the end of the day, however, my nose had dried up and the headache was gone. I've been drinking plenty of water and eating Vitamin C-ful fruits, so hopefully I'll be A-okay for the big day.

Tonight was also the finale for "So You Think You Can Dance" and though I was a bit surprised that Travis did not win, I am glad that the winner was a deserving person like Benji. I would like to see him in the Celine Dion "A New Day" show though, that would be quite interesting to see how a swing dancer fits in. Well, I have never been to Las Vegas before AND the TV show tour is not coming to Texas, so maybe I can convince Trung to take me to Vegas! What would Lydia do though?

Well, Trung has finally nailed up the diplomas (right) and I personally think they add a nice touch to his office. They had been lying around the house forever (I found Trung's under a humidifier box in his closet) and we figured, the least we can do is frame them, after all, our educations took a good chunk of our money. Also pictured are Trung's IBM patent awards (left), which he received for his first patent submission, his first plateau (4 patents), and his second plateau (4 patents). They came already framed and everything, so we decided just to hang them up to help take up wall space or something.












And here is Trung working into the wee hours of the night in his completed office. The back still is a bit messy, but it's all in preparation for LAN party IV this Saturday (so he tells me). Oh yeah, and this is where the ping pong table used to be. (Notice the patents on the left back wall and a hint of the diplomas on the right, next to the bookshelf)

Preparing for da baby

According to the doc this morning, I currently weigh 142 pounds and my tummy is 36 centimeters from the top (just below my chest) to the bottom of my belly. So, basically, I'm huge and pointy, per Trung. Oh, and apparently when your water breaks, the "water" just keeps flowing until delivery. I was concerned that since I've been swimming so much, that my water would break and I wouldn't even know it, but my doc assured me that as soon as I got out of the pool that I would know. Ugh.

Okay, so I've been reading more stuff on "Dancing with the Stars", and I don't believe William Hung will be in the third installment. Sucks. This doesn't mean that I'm not going to watch though, I'm just a little less intrigued. hee hee.

*Sigh*, just three days left of work and I'm totally outtie. What will I ever do with myself with all that time? Well, before Lydia arrives, I need to catch up on my baby book and magazine readings. The baby room is pretty much done, I just need to hang up the Paloma shelves. Oh, and of course, I need to prepare mentally...I'm about to have a baby! My life will never be the same ever again! *breathe* Can't wait, any day now! :)

My last week of work

Wow, I can't believe I've made it to my final week of work. Watch it be really slow this week too! Argh! Well, if that's the case, I'll probably be blogging every day since stacking hasn't been too busy lately. Oh, most importantly...I've officially reached full term in my pregnancy today, which basically means I've hit my 37 weeks mark and that the baby is developmentally ready to handle life outside the womb. YEAH! So, no more pre-term labor jokes. :)

We didn't do much this past weekend. Friday night I had the breastfeeding class, which was very informative. We even got to have plastic babies to practice our breastfeeding holds. Trung picked out the baby...he wanted to get me the colored one, but instead got me a blue-eyed one. What about the one with the Asian eyes? Oh well. Okay, then Saturday I did four loads of laundry, which took all morning because it takes FOREVER to fold little baby clothes. I met up with Joy for a 2:30 showing of Step Up, which I'm sure you can tell is my cup of tea (seeing that I'm all about them dancing shows). :P After a quick swim, Trung and I met with friends at Mandarin House for some authentic Chinese food. Then we headed home for some much needed zzz's since we were up pretty early that morning for Trung's work.

Sunday...a couple more loads of laundry. We dropped off Kelly's bridal shower gift at the shower before heading to a tour of our hospital, Seton Northwest. A rather entertaining male registered nurse gave us more information (and opinions) than we would ever need to know about the hospital and child-birthing. We got to see the delivery and recovery rooms, which seemed more comfortable than I imagined, which is definitely a plus. Ok, now I'm totally ready to have this baby!

Laurie dropped off my fitness ball at work today, so that I can use it as a birthing ball when I go into labor. She said that it looked like my belly has dropped, which explains why I haven't had to go to the bathroom as much lately and possibly that the baby is coming soon. The first baby is usually late, but who knows. Also, according to baby websites, Lydia should be around 6 pounds at this point and measuring between 19 and 20 inches, head to heel. A bunch of ladies have told me that I'm pretty small for how far along I am, and that the baby won't be more than 7 pounds at delivery. This is all talk for now, we'll see soon enough!

Sasha

I dedicate today's post to the best pet ever...my cat Sasha. A pet who can sleep anywhere...who will eat anything (and throw it up later)...who will play with anything...who is never afraid to speak her mind...and who will always be there with you to the end.

Lydia has a great big sister!

Stuff, stuff, and more stuff

Yeah, so we sold the ping pong table and it's cleared up a lot of space in Trung's office. We are going to hang up our diplomas and probably Trung's framed patent certificates to take up some wall room. Now all we've got left to sell are the ink cartidges...anyone got an Epson? :P

Okay, I think that Travis will win in "So You Think You Can Dance". Why? Well, mainly because he was the only who received positive critiques from the judges for all his routines and because according to the judges, he was a "stand out" in the group routine. On the other hand, he is awfully young compared to the other contestants at a mere 18 (Benji 22, Heidi 24, and Donyelle 26). Hmmm. Well, I think that Travis would be a better fit in Cirque du Soleil since he specializes in contemporary dance anyways. Benji and Heidi are great, Donyelle not so much these last couple of weeks, but still good...it'll be a tough call. Stay tuned Wednesday night for the big finale. I wonder what Cat will be wearing?

Tonight I've got my breastfeeding class at Round Rock Medical Center. Should be interesting, oh, and of course, I'm dragging the hubby along for moral support. Oh, oh, and last night, I washed my first full load of baby clothes. Man, it took me thirty minutes to match up and fold all those little pieces of clothing, but they were oh so soft, cause I used that special Dreft laundry detergent. I've still got at least a couple more loads to do for the darks and comforters, which I'll probably do this weekend. That's all, folks!

Odds and Ends

Yet another uneventful day. I was hoping that work would be busy so that these last couple weeks would go by faster, but that definitely hasn't been the case so far. Well, at least I've got good ole blogger.com to keep me busy and I've been forwarding all my e-mails over to my personal e-mail account. Once I finish with that, I'll create an e-mail list of my friends for when I officially stop using my work e-mail and a call list of "have to call" people when I go into labor. I'm all about the lists, baby! :)

I've been using recipes from Food & Wine magazine lately, and I have yet to be disappointed. Too bad this month will be my last free issue because I didn't subscribe, thinking that my Cooking Light magazine would be good enough. Hmmm, I haven't gotten the "last call" postcard yet, so maybe I will get the magazine after all. So far this week, I've made Thai Bean Coconut Curry (with grilled chicken, green beans and corn) and Spicy Pork Lettuce Wraps and both have been yummy, at least Trung thought so too. Trung had started a list with all the good recipes awhile back; we really should get that updated because now I've got tons of cooking magazines and I don't remember which recipes were good. Argh!

YEAH!! Someone e-mailed me last night about the ping pong table. Hopefully we've got a buyer! He just called to get directions to the house, so I'm thinking this is a done deal. I did adjust the ad to read "price is negotiable", but I hope he doesn't try to negotiate too too much; after all, I've got a baby coming!

Random Ramblings

I had my 36 weeks doctor's appointment this morning; I'll have one every week until the baby gets here. Everything went well, though I had an unexpected swab test that the doctor had to do on me. Right now, I am at 140.5 pounds, which will probably go up a few more pounds before I deliver, but at least I won't weigh as much as the hubby this time around. :) The baby gains about half a pound every week from now until birth, so that means that I'll be gaining weight exponentially from now til then. Trung and I think that Lydia will be born before her due date of September 4th since she's been developing pretty quickly. Plus, she's been kicking me like she wants out. The doctor said to hang in there at least one more week and we are good to go. I've got my breastfeeding class Friday night and the hospital tour Sunday afternoon, then I'll definitely be ready. Hang in there, kiddo!

Okay, so we have a new girl at work to replace me when I go on "maternity leave". Jim, our gay underwriter, found it quite amusing that she too was Asian; kinda like replacing one with another. Anyhow, her name is Sayble, which I found to be a rather interesting name for anyone, much less an Asian person (she's Vietnamese, by the way). Well, I was in the break room with her and I asked her how she got her name. Apparently, she got to name herself when she came to the States. Then she asked me how I got my name because she had never heard it before. Needless to say, I was shocked! After all, I had just seen The Grace Lee Project and I know tons of Graces. How many Graces do you know? Hmmm?

Now, time for the random: 1) I finally chose a mutual fund and purchased it Sunday night. YEAH! Let's hope my numbers start growing now cause right now nothing's movin'. 2) The items I posted on Craig's List are a ping pong table, an electric griddle, and ink cartidges. I haven't gotten any hits on any of them, but Jim bought my griddle the other day, so one down and two more to go. I'll probably lower the asking prices on the table and cartridges by the end of the week. :( 3) Work is slow again, so hence, all the long and frequent posts. 4) I almost tumbled down the conveyor belt-like machine at Whole Foods...this front heavy thing really catches me off guard. 5) Here's the latest news on my other favorite show..."Season 3 of Dancing with the Stars will begin on September 12, 2006 at 8pm with a two hour season premiere, airing on Tuesday and Wednesday nights. Rumor has it that Sara Evans, Melissa Joan Hart, David Carradine, Masiela Lusha, Mario Lopez, Vivica A. Fox, Jerry Springer, William Hung, Harry Hamlin, Shanna Moakler, Emitt Smith, and Joey Lawrence will be among the stars participating this season. "

Here's an update on the Lee fam...my Dad is currently in Amsterdam, after having visited my brother Mike in Dubai and traveling to Jordan alone. My Mom is still working at New Era Life Insurance Companies, where I interned for five summers (age 17-21) and is doing just fine. Mike came home on Thursday and will be in Katy for two weeks, trying to find a place and a job for when he moves back to the States in October. My brother Jimmy and his family just closed on their new house on Friday and are in the process of moving in; they will live 5-10 minutes away from our parents' house. So, as you can see, the baby is not the only exciting thing happening these days. It's crazy!

Wendy Weekend

Friday evening was Wendy's bachelorette party. About twelve of us had dinner at Siena Ristorante and gave Wendy sexy, yet tasteful lingerie for her honeymoon. Here's what I got her:The group of gals; I'm on the far right if you couldn't tell by the belly. :) The food was pretty good, though the service...um, not so much. It took awhile for the meals to come out, but at least we had plenty of people to talk to and things to talk about; plus, we had yummy rolls to nibble on. Also, at the end of the meal when it was time to pay the bill, we were under on the total. Apparently, the waiter charged everyone for the "secondo" (aka the larger portion), while all the girls ordered (or thought they ordered) the "primo"; thus, creating a slight shortage in funds. But finally everything was figured out, the waiter was happy, we were happy and finally on our merry old way. Afterwards, the majority of the girls went to karoke to meet up with the guys, but I'm a pregnant party pooper, so I headed home. After all, the last time I went to karoke was in May and Lydia was already kicking me because of the loud music. Imagine what she would do now. Not to mention the whole pre-term labor thing, but we won't go there.

Saturday, Trung was up at 6 for his 6-4 shift. His department is launching a new product this month and rather than having to go to Raleigh, NC and leave me, he's taken the early shift; at least I like to look at it that way. I worked on a bunch of odds and ends around the house while he worked, and then we went out for a late lunch. Trung caught up with the bachelor party at Hooter's for dinner, while I met up with Wendy, Maggie and Yuri at the Whole Foods downtown. Wow, that place is NICE! I seriously wouldn't mind shopping there for groceries every week if not for the high prices and the location. I had a lovely smoked salmon and corn chowder and a roll for dinner, and later a red bean milk icy for dessert at Tapioca House (where they use real red beans unlike another place I know). So I went home afterwards, posted some stuff on Craig's List, and went to sleep. Trung came home around 1:00 AM after having "tied" in his poker game with Wendy's little brother, ate some cereal, worked a little bit more, and got some shut eye.

Sunday, Trung was up again at 6. Fortunately, it wasn't too busy, so we had time to meet with "the gang" at Marco Polo for dimsum. Hopefully I can get my man, Jason, to send me some pics that he took of the group and of "hands on my belly", if they turned out okay. Here they are...thanks, Jason!We made a quick stop at Fry's later to check out some computer stuff and to buy "V for Vendetta" for me; cause I think V is hot in his lil mask. Oh, I also got "Princess Bride", cause I love me some Princess Buttercup and Wesley. Then around 6 PM we went to our wedding photographers to experiment on maternity pictures. I'll post some pictures if I don't feel too exposed. Otherwise, you'll have to specially request them from me and I may or may not let you see them. :P

Mutual Funds

What do you know, I've completed all the "busy work" assignments that CW and G & V have attempted to burden me with. Okay, stacking really isn't all that bad. I guess when the workload is spread among three people, it goes by much faster. Now I have time to blog...plus I'm taking a break from researching mutual funds. Boy are there tons of mutual funds to choose from...AND, Trung won't let me get the same one he did. He's already got two weeks under his "mutual fund" belt, so I've got to find a really good mutual fund to catch up with him. :P

Two more weeks and I'm outta here!!! Yippee!!!

Okay, so last night on "So You Think You Can Dance"...I was totally right on! Go me! It was sad to see Natalie and Ivan go, but they left graciously. As for who I think will win, um, probably Benji. I really wanted to see the top ten on their tour, but they aren't even coming to Texas, much less Austin. :(

Front heavy

Tuesday night on our way to the pool, I suddenly remembered that the HOA (homeowner's association) was having a pizza party at the pool that day. We didn't RSVP for it nor did we bring a dessert, so we thought that we would swim quickly and jet. Well, by the time we finished, one of our neighbors had arrived and the host lady was insisting that we grab some food. So, we did. :) Our neighbor JT was there with his wife and one year old daughter, Lily. Well, as Trung was helping JT grab a table and chairs, I bent down to play with Lily or what have you, and I just toppled right over...skinned both my knees. Geez, I didn't realize how out of balance my body was nowadays.

Okay, my choices for the dancers being voted off on "So You Think You Can Dance", if they are not obvious enough, are Natalie and Ivan. The other bottom two will be a toughy, but I think that they will be Donyelle and Benji, though I think Benji could easily win the whole thing too. OH, I DUNNO!

Today I went to Half Price Books for the first time ever and got a couple of books for Trung and myself. Trung has been reading the "Otherland" series and needed books 3 and 4; I was just looking for the best-sellers "Memoirs of a Geisha" and "The Devil Wears Prada" to read during my upcoming free time. I only found Otherland book 4 and Memoirs, so I bought Trung's book 3 on amazon. Now my lunch break is coming to an end, so laters!

Letters and stacking

Sunday, I spent the afternoon putting the letters together for Lydia's room. I painted two coats of paint on the wooden "frames" and the letters after sanding them down a bit, stapled the ribbons to the frames, and then carpenter glued the letters to the frames. I let the glue set overnight, so hopefully the whole thing won't fall apart right away. Anyhow, here's the finished product!So, today we officially learned how to stack files at work, which means we have to start a'stackin. Now I'm REALLY feeling an itch to leave earlier. Hmmm, I am thinking that maybe I'll make a compromise with my corporate office; I'll stay until the 18th if I don't have to stack files, but if they are going to make me stack, then I'll leave, um, say, tomorrow! It's gotta be dramatic to get any kind of reaction, let me tell ya. I mean, I sent a supervisory person an e-mail last week about my anniversary (I can't believe I've been with this firm for two years!), which was on July 24th, and 1) I haven't heard back and 2) there's still no wage adjustment on my paychecks, so what the hay! Anyhow, so the blogs are not going to be as frequent, so I'll be missing ya. We'll keep in touch though, ok? *muah*