Baby on Board

Okay. Before you all start freaking out, I will say right now - IT'S NOT ME. Whew. There. Now on to business.

I haven't made this announcement beforehand, simply because I didn't know how to approach it. (But if you've been paying attention to the comments section of the blog, you would have picked this up.) However, I got a picture from the expectant mother, so this makes things so much more fun. Introducing my future niece or nephew (still too early to tell):


That's right people. Jay and Angy are expecting!!! Not only are they expecting, but the baby has the coolest due date ever - February 29th. Yep, New Baby Kiang may be a leap baby.

I'm soooo terribly excited! I love babies. But so much more than that, I'm totally excited for Jay and Angy and to welcome a new member of the family into our lives. So that brings the total to 3 nephews, 2 nieces, a Hauser and... sex unknown New Baby Kiang.

YAY!!!! CONGRATULATIONS!!!

Totally. Swamped.

After a week in Beantown, I'm back to the grind and totally swamped. I have a whole bunch of things due out this week and only 4 days to do them because I'm taking the day off on Friday to visit MS (YAY!).

Boston was great. The conference was good and very educational. It was really really cold while we were up there. I did not become a Red Sox fan (don't you ever worry about that Jay). Saw my dear nephew and his lovely wife. Ate and ate - A LOT. Definitely will go back to Boston soon.

But for now, I have to concentrate on work so I can totally concentrate on fun this weekend!

Beantown

Going to be in Boston until the 23rd. So, I'll be MIA. Don't miss me too much.

One of those days...

Let's re-live a blast from the past. The details have been changed since then in terms of the morning routine. The part that didn't change from this post from the past: my mug of tea committing suicide from the roof of my car. And me standing there, blank-faced and staring as my tea was running through the crevices of the asphalt.

Thank god it's not Monday, or else I would have just gone back home and ridden the rest of the week off.

Shiny new toys

It took me a long time to figure out what I wanted to buy for myself. But once I decided on a laptop, I became single minded. I big on getting bang for the buck. My laptop has been dying a slow and painful death for a while now. I bought it so that I could write my thesis a million years ago. It had the features that I needed and not much more. It didn't even have an internal wireless card.

So, I'd been searching for a new laptop for while and was becoming disconcerted, since everytime I thought I found the one I wanted, by the time I finished researching and reading reviews, when I got back, the price went up. UP! Since when do computer priced go UP these days?? Seriously.

Anyway, I finally found the laptop for me. I'm very happy with it. It's shiny. It's fast. And most importantly, it doesn't overheat and crash in the middle of things (see slow and painful death). So here she is:

I've tentatively named her Nymphadora (obviously still on my Harry Potter kick). I think it suits her for now.

The Dwarf of the Day is...

Sleepy.

And to answer your question MS - yes. Absolutely, we can both be the same dwarf.

It hot. Really effing hot. And humid. Did I mention humid?

As in 102 degrees, record high kind of hot. Like being in someone's mouth. Hot, humid and gross.

Man. The office just sucks compared to the pool.

... or the rainforest.


Where gods sleep...


And the water comes in falls...



There's a heatwave in DC right now. I think I prefered the heat in PR than in DC. It was somehow more... satisfying.

American Airlines SUCKS!

And I am never flying on them again. Now, nothing can ruin the fact that I had a fabulous vacay with my fabulous girlfriends (more on this later, with pictures). But, I did come home on a very big downer. My flight was supposed to be at 5:35pm Tuesday. When I got to the airport, I was told that the flight was delayed until 7:20pm. That sucks, but I can deal. By the time I got to the gate, the flight wasn't leaving until 7:45pm. Also, a little bit longer, and I'm getting more agitated, but I can deal. Then comes the announcement, first in Spanish. The only things I recognize are 6:30 and mañana. Then it comes in English. The flight has been canceled for the evening and will not leave until 6:30am the following morning. The pilot has gone over his flying hours and the only plan they had was to beg the pilot to do the last flight. Yeah, THAT was going to work. So we all have to go downstairs, get our luggage and they would put us all up in hotels for the night.

I go to get my hotel voucher. Ask the guy what hotels they are putting us up in. He says the Best Western, why? I give him the "Oh, God, you've GOT to be kidding" face and say, "Well, there are certain hotels I would just rather not stay in, being a woman traveling alone and all." He books me at the Marriot. I wake up at the ass crack of dawn to get to the airport. Take a million years to get through security. Make it to the gate in time to hear the last boarding call. But get on the plane, get myself an emergency row seat with more leg room and quickly fall asleep. It's no time before we're landing in DC. I'm nearly home. It's 10:30am.

I go to baggage claim to get my one checked bag. And wait. And wait. And wait some more. There's a couple minutes pause. Then bags from another flight start coming out. WHAT THE EF?!? Where is my bag??? I go to the counter and find out that they have no idea where my bag is. It was never scanned. They assume it's still in the San Juan Airport, but they don't know for sure. This is the point I completely lost it. Standing at the counter crying my eyes out, totally frustrated with the whole ordeal.

I finally got home at about 1pm yesterday. Slept for almost the rest of the day. The good thing is they called this morning and have my bag at Dulles. They'll be delivering it later today. I'm glad for that. But this is the second time in three years that American Airlines has left me stranded overnight on the way back from Puerto Rico.

I'm never flying American Airlines again. They suck.

Update 12:55pm: My bag has been delivered. All is right. American Airlines still sucks.

Because, really, how much can you get done with one bloodshot eye

I was up kind of late last night. Reading. Harry Potter. Until 1:30am. And I'm paying for it now. And really, I still want to be at home reading rather than at work. Is that wrong?

Countdown to PR

I've been working my ass off to get all of my crap done. And I'm really exhausted. But I know, it will be completely worth it in 8 days, when MS, TC and I will be poolside at the El San Juan Hotel, drinking rum based drinks and reading Harry Potter.

Just. Eight. More. Days.

Current soundtrack of my life

Okay MS and CawfeeGuy, here's mine:

opening credits: How I Feel (My December) - Kelly Clarkson
waking up: Just a ride (from the Grey's Anatomy CD Michele gave me) - Jem
first day at school: Anxiety (Elephunk) - Black Eyed Peas with Papa Roach
falling in love: Temperature - Sean Paul
breaking up: Ever the Same (Something to Be) - Rob Thomas
prom: Simple Kind of Life (Return of Saturn) - No Doubt
life’s okay: Like That (Monkey Business) - Black Eyed Peas
mental breakdown: Language or the Kiss (Swamp Ophelia) - Indigo Girls
flashback: Suspension without Suspense (Return of Saturn) - No Doubt
driving: Breakaway (Breakaway) - Kelly Clarkson
getting back together: Wreck of the Day (Wreck of the Day) - Anna Nalick
wedding: Hear Me (Breakaway) - Kelly Clarkson
birth of a child: Somewhere I Belong (Meteora) - Linkin Park
final battle: Now Comes the Night (Something to Be) - Rob Thomas
death scene: Artificial Sweetener (Return of Saturn) - No Doubt

Considering how much U2 I have on my player, I'm surprised none came up. My mp3 player really liked No Doubt and Kelly Clarkson today... I wonder what that means...

GAH!

I am so overwhelmed with work right now that I don't know where to begin and all I feel like doing is crawling back into bed and pray that it all goes away but then I wake up at 4:30 in the morning thinking about all the work I have to do that I get overwhelmed all over again.

*breathe*

I can't wait to go on vacation.

Freewheeling Leader - what the hell does that mean?

Free-Wheeling Leader

Some of this is true. But the part that says, "You don't mind being in the spotlight, preferring social gatherings to quiet nights at home," I'm not so sure about...

Perils of working at home

Thor would sleep on the document I'm trying to work on. I guess that's what's called an occupational hazard. I just hope he's not drooling on it.

Whenever I'm at my Dad's place, I try to run as many errands for him as possible. I have the car. I have the time. And it's certainly not a big deal at all. One of the things that he usually sends me for is rice. Big ol' 20lb bags of rice. And there are usually 2 bags. Most of the time, his wife comes with me. But if there's nothing else to buy, there's really no point. How hard could it be to pick up a couple of bags of rice?

So, right before I leave to meet MS, her mom, TC and PC for dim sum, my Dad's wife hands me money and asks me to buy these bags of rice:
Now, I'm Chinese. That's pretty obvious. But I'm only a little more Chinese than General Tso's Chicken - created by Chinese people, looks Chinese, has a Chinese flavor, but definitely Americanized for public consumption. I speak what I call "Restaurant Chinese," which is enough to order food, pay the bill and generally fool the waitstaff up until the point they ask me a real question. And I certainly don't read Chinese (except for numbers and recognizing my last name).

PC and I are in the store trying to match characters and obviously not making any headway, when MS takes the list from my hand and says we're going to ask someone. Right. Yeah, well, when we asked for help, I realized just how sorry a person I was since I wasn't even close to choosing the correct bags. At least now I will have forever embedded in my memory the type of rice my Dad and his wife prefer. I'm only slightly afraid that next time she's going to give me an entire shopping list in Chinese and say, "Go."

(BTW, did you notice the 11 o'clock dollars? Yeah, me too.)

So, something's going on with Blogger right now where I can't put titles on the entries, so bear with me if it all seems a little odd right now.

(don't ask about the plate, because trust me, I have no idea either)

This past weekend in NY was all about friends and family. I went up to attend Dennis and Karen's baby shower. They are expecting little Darrien in about a month now and Karen definitely has the pregnant lady shuffle going on (terribly cute on her, by the way).

This is their first baby, and I always get all excited about buying baby stuff. I just like baby stuff - it's all cute and soft and fun, and really I want to play with everything. I bought a whole bunch of stuff off their registry at Target. Wrapped it up all nice and pretty.

I'm on my way up to NY, about an hour out of DC, having just gotten on the Harbor Tunnel Thruway (I895, for those who care). I was thinking that I should move the chocolates I have from the trunk into the car so they don't melt. Then I thought to myself, "What did I do with those chocolates? I don't remember putting them in the car." Then I remembered that I put them in the bag with one of the baby shower gifts... which was sitting on the dining room table. FUCK.

I frantically call up Turg and explain that the bags are on the table. He says to turn around. Well, turning around was not an option as far as I was concerned for two reasons: (1) I895 has NO EXITS until you pass through the tunnel, which, at that point, was another 15 minutes away, and (2) I was already an hour out, plus the extra 15 minutes before I could even consider turing around, which would add another 2 1/2 hours onto my trip. He was kind enough to suggest meeting me in Baltimore with the gift. And as I'm going through the tunnel, I'm thinking of all the possible places he could meet me. I settle on Towson, since there is a Petsmart there and I could get out of the car with Thor for a little while. Then I realized there was a Target in the same shopping center, and I could possibly rebuy the gifts. Which brought me to the fact that there's a Target near home in Brooklyn, and I could do the same there when I arrived in NY. Which is exactly what I did. *whew*

Of course, being the person that I am, I bought exactly the same stuff (with the exception of a couple of things they didn't have, and which will be sent to the parents to be), and wrapped it exactly the same, as if anyone besides me would know that the gift bag was different. But, then again, I am the one who was going to NY for a baby shower and forgot the gift on the dining table, so what does that say about me?

Pressure... pushing down on me, pushing down on me...

I have an unusual skill that I wish I didn't have. It's not a skill actually, more than just a physical perception. I am, or rather, my sinuses act as a barometer. A guage of air pressure. Specifically, that rise in air pressure that usually preceeds a thunderstorm.

What happens? Generally this dull pain begins right between my eyes which then increases as time passes until such point that it either rains or the weather front passes, thereby releaving the air pressure.

It's summer in the Mid-Atlantic, which means thunderstorms all the time. It also means that I am absolutely miserable nearly every afternoon. And I've searched for other reasons over the years, like lack of caffiene and such, but none of these explanations correlate to the headaches other than the weather.

At this very moment... my head feels like it's going to explode. Make. It. Stop.

Self-promotion... well not self, per se but...

I'VE BEEN PROMOTED!!!!!

Whew. I was seriously nervous about it for a while now, thinking that it wasn't going to happen. Now I need to celebrate. So, I'm looking for suggestions on what fabulous thing I can treat myself with. To quote MS, "you have to let yourself WANT something first. let's start there. (sheesh)" Yeah, I'm usually not too good at that.