Tahoe Thanksgiving

Our neighbors, invited us up to Lake Tahoe this year to spend Thanksgiving at their rustic ski cabin with them and their two Devon Rex cats. We couldn't resist the chance of a change of scenery and the prospect of a relaxing weekend. However, with our neighbor being almost 37 weeks pregnant, it was up in the air until almost the last minute. Luckily she didn't have any problems at all. We got on her schedule of eating though. Pregnant people tend to eat like Hobbits--we had breakfast, second breakfast, elevensies, luncheon, afternoon tea (or beer/wine in my case), dinner and of course supper (which was usually late dessert). It was really easy to get used to.

Tim and I ended up cooking the entire Tday meal from scratch. Tim did the deep fried turkey, helped with the mashing of the sweet potatoes, and was my moral support the day before we went up, by hanging out in the kitchen while I made wheat-germ biscuits, cooked the cranberries, and baked the pumpkin and pecan pies. We made the stuffing in a crock-pot this year, since you can't stuff a deep fried bird. (At least not while cooking it.) We then re-heated the items that we prepped the day before, and fixed up some mashed potatoes and turkey gravy as well. Everything tasted wonderful! Tim's turkey had a dry rub on it and he injected it with a home-made sauce that amongst other things, contained butter, lemon, and Iowa maple syrup, it was so moist! Tim actually complained that the breast meat was too juicy, as he couldn't drown it in gravy. (And of course he had to compare his wonderful turkey injecting skills with the "Big shot" he had to give me!) It seemed that all of the cooking ended up starting a theme, as later in the weekend I was inspired to "whip up" some home-made eggnog! I forgot how rich it tastes compared to store bought. I made enough that we had eggnog lattes the last few days we were there. (Yes, we had to bring up our espresso machine and steaming accessories. We are so spoiled!!!)

It snowed on Friday and the girls stayed indoors by the wood burning stove most of the day. I learned how to play Spite and Malice which was a lot of fun. Unfortunately we only played one game before the men came home from their trip to town. At that point they introduced us to Sudoku, which is right up my alley. Need I say addicting? We all sat around the fire one night solving our sudoku puzzles. We did manage to make it outside for a walk every day. As depicted in the picture that was taken when we walked to the lake. The wind whipped across the dark ebony water with a vengeance, making it seem very cold and foreboding! (Although from what I can remember when I water skied on the lake during the summer of 1989 the water was freezing cold then too!)

Between cuddling with the VERY WARM cats, playing games, and working hard at doing almost nothing at all. I started wishing it would snow more... If it did Tim and I would have been stuck there for awhile, since we took my convertible and the low-profile tires do not accommodate chains. (I have to admit my car cover looked pretty funny the first snowy morning under almost 2 inches of snow, and it wasn't much fun trying to get the icy cover into it's storage bag when we left to go home on Sunday.) More snow arrived on Monday, and everyone leaving the Tahoe area needed chains! So close! It would have been SOO cool to be snowed in! We got snow days in Iowa all of the time. (This just meant the roads were too slippery for the busses to take you to school, but not too slippery to enjoy the day off, snowmobiling, sledding, or skating!) Oh well, maybe next time...

In Memory

December 28, 1913-November 18, 2005

In Memory of Ed my "adopted" grandfather, who I pestered relentlessly with questions while growing up. (Or so I gather from the name he gave me of "the Pest".)

Photo is of Ed and his palomino stallion Tuffy. (The father of my horse, Jewel.)

Ed taught me how to ride a horse at age 4-5, and I was hooked! Almost every day in the summer I could be found at Ed (and Milly's), where I would end up tagging along on trail rides, helping feed chickens, picking things from their garden, or getting ready to go to a horse show or to ride in a parade.

In fact he met his wife Milly while square dancing with his horse! I believe at the time he was riding a tall black and white paint named Chief. Milly had a beautiful appaloosa stallion named King. (He was the father of my POA.) Their farm had over 40 horses on it most of the time, and all were gorgeous!

Photo is of Ed and my POA Luv, taken in May of 1979.

Happy trails Ed... we'll miss you.

A what?

Life goes on, and I've immersed myself into my work, which is good. I've been helping take the load off of the interior designer until she hires a couple of people to ease her burden. And I think my bosses told everyone else to give me extra work too, as I've been swamped--doing everything from accounting, to extra field support. Plus I have to plan our company holiday lunch, which has been a fun diversion. In the past they have rotated between two restaurants, and I decided I'd spice things up a bit by choosing a different place.

When I broached the subject with my boss it went something like this.

I said "I was thinking we should do something different for a holiday party this year...I found a nice Tapas ('tä-päs) place that I thought would be fun."

My boss looked surprised and confused, as if I had really lost it from the fertility treatments, and said "TOPLESS?!?"

He thought the guys would really like the Topless place, but wasn't sure about the few girls here. I played a long for a bit, and said, "Well they have great chicken there." He looked really surprised then, and asked how I knew that! At that point I figured I better get back to the Tapas restaurant.

When I explained it was a Tapas restaurant, (a Spanish version of Dim Sum), he liked that idea as well, and thought it sounded like a safer bet. It was too funny though.

"And that was the end of it all", Milk's last words 'Farewell to Mankind' (episode 12)

Nothing, nada, zip. We had a 15-28 % chance, so I shouldn't be surprised, but the doctors seemed so-o-o worried about multiples, I thought something would happen for sure.

I had to tell my bosses at work what was going on, since I missed a few afternoons for treatment, and it was always last minute notice when I had to schedule things. They were very nice and understanding about it, but it was so hard to tell them that I failed without bursting into tears. Poor Tim, I pretty much cried the entire morning and night. Guys really don't seem to deal with that well. He wants to try again right away, but I just don't feel like it at all. I guess I'll see how I feel later on after the stupid hormones subside.

The hard part is you're supposed to be so positive about things when there's a chance you might be pregnant, and then when it doesn't happen it's really hard to keep a smile on your face.

The waiting is the hardest part...

No more shots!!! At least for a month or so. Since my body reacted way ahead of schedule, I have leftover meds for the next time we need them. (And if we do, I'm betting the dosage will be a bit lower.) I was reading my paperwork last night about the usual results with the Follistem, and I guess I reacted well. Which is encouraging. But it often doesn't work the first time. Hopefully things will go well and we'll get a result that is more than a goose egg and less than a litter. Now is the hard part, the waiting!