New Chapter

As many of my readers now know (all one of you), I'm pregnant. Yes, it's true. Hard to believe I know, but it did 'mysteriously' happen.

I'm currently at 13 weeks. Just a mere 27 more to go. I've got the baby ticker ticking and every week I receive newsletters from the many baby boards I've signed up with informing me of the lil' aliens development.

There's so much to talk about, but it appears that after 5pm my brain shuts down, as does my body. This is all in preparation for the progesterone poisoning that begins to occur between the hours of 6:30 and 8:30p. If I go to sleep or feign sleeping, somehow I make it through unscathed. The upside is that I haven't gotten sick. Yay, for stomach of steel.. ?

For now, I will leave you with a few images that were taken yesterday during my ultrasound:

MySQL Puts a Shuffle in My Step

All week I've been in training for MySQL for DBA's. Honestly, out of the many training courses I've attended, this one was the best. Not only am I extremely interested in the subject, but we had an amazing instructor.

The downside: commuting to/from Rockville everyday. Wow!! My dislike for driving has increased infinite-fold. Although the final drive from Rockville wasn't as frustrating yesterday afternoon. You see, before we were taught any more MySQL goodness, the instructor informs us that he "just received the box in the post and I'll be passing out iPod Shuffles to everyone on our first break." What? We get an iPod Shuffle?!? Another delicious Apple product to add to my collection. And it's blue. CUTE!!!

Apparently, as a "thank you" gift for dishing out the $$ and taking this course, our compensation prize was an iPod Shuffle. MySQL rocks on so many levels.

So adult

The other day I received a Bed Bath and Beyond circular in the mail. Intrigued with their Thanksgiving goodies, I decided to window shop and stopped dead in my tracks halfway through. "Energy Saver Window Panels" only $40 per panel. The color: crimson. The style: 84" Argentina window panel. I was sold.

If you've ever been to our house, I'm sure you were wowed over these beauties:



And in case you've never seen them, here's a nice close-up of the pattern:



For 4 years I've been wanting to replace these things, but procrastination totally got into my way. Until 5 days ago. I beat procrastination over the head and ordered the curtains -- of course, only after mentioning our need for change to Casey while he was wrapped up in a quest. That was an easy sell.

The new curtains arrived 2 days ago. OH. SO. PRETTY. But ... yes, we knew there had to be a 'but' ... but, we didn't have the right hardware. The old curtains used hooks. The new curtains just slide onto a rod. Of course, this also led Casey down a dark path of separation anxiety ... from the valance. He *hearts* that valance for reasons I'll never understand.

Off to Bed Bath and Beyond I go to buy the hardware. I really wish I had a better visual artistic touch because it would cut down my visit from 45 minutes of "does this rod match? or does this one?" to a trip totaling 10 minutes.

With everything now in place, we said our farewells last night. Although we kept up the valance hardware "just in case". *eye roll* Luckily, once we had the hardware in place, we discovered it jetted just a wee bit further from the wall than the original setting. A tear was shed and the rest of the valance was taken down.

After we completed the install and hung the curtains, we were both taken back by how "growed up" we felt.



So shiney, right?!? But not only that, b/c of its simplicity in style and pattern, the whole room has opened up. And with the valance gone, one's eyes are now drawn to the artwork on the walls and not towards this huge rectangular object above the window.

I feel so adult.