home sweet home
back from vacation.
work is hell.
we avoided the hurricane, and got tans, and used the hell out of our new videocamera.
there were many reptiles, large and small, everywhere- we had close encounters with a large skink, an adorable tree frog who did not want to leave my shirt, thousands of tiny lizards, and an alarmingly giant black snake.
a dolphin at the gulfarium fell in love with d.
k was spoiled more than rotten, so much so that i had to have a very stern talk with her when she had spent all of her vacation money and decided she didn't want to go to lake buena vista because nobody would buy her any more toys. she came around, though, and tearfully decided she'd go with the family after all, and had a great time despite not getting any new toys there.
elf con was amusing, girls were CRYING after 15 second photo ops with ElWood...who, by the way, was charming as all hell, spoke very well and had an impressive vocabulary. he used the word "jovial" when i spoke to him at my photo op. and, well, it's true... big. blue. eyes. i was hypnotized, a little. john rhys-davies was a wonderful speaker, sean astin was just smarmy, and i met peter s. beagle (who wrote The Last Unicorn), which was pretty freakin' sweet too.
i got video of the costume contest, which was...i can't even describe it. let's just say there were some gorgeous and inventive costumes, but charisma definitely won the day, as the 4 japanese girls dressed as hobbits won purely on cuteness and frolicking ability. i was in love. if i can figure out how to do it, i'll try to post a clip of them being all hobbity on stage.
the only things i bought at the con (which was severely lacking in vendors, strangely- there are so many licensed products that they could have made a killing on...i admit, i would have bought a Frodo action figure in goblin armor, if there was one to be had there, but there were no toys at all) were two 11x14 movie posters, one original lobby card for War of the Worlds as a present for d, and one reissue Fantasia lobby card with cartoon cherubs on it, which i will frame and put near the baby's bed (as we won't have a nursery to decorate, just a corner of our bedroom).
traveling home sucked for all of us- we were flying standby, and d and k got stuck for hours at the cincinnati airport on sunday, and i got stuck there for considerably less time but still got bumped off one flight on monday. i was thrilled to get home at 8pm last night to my own house, stuff, bed. i am less thrilled to be back to work today, obviously, and d and i have been wondering where we can get a few million so that we can quit our jobs.
my belly seems to have gotten bigger just in the last two weeks, as now it's pooched out in front all the time. i'm constantly pointing at it and asking darryl, "this looks like a pregnant belly, right? not just like i've got a beer belly?" he assures me it's all in front, and i don't have an ass to match it (yet...) so it definitely looks like baby and not beer. my next dr. appointment is next week friday, so hopefully i'll get to hear the heartbeat then...and if not, well, another peek at baby benzin will be in order via ultrasound. i am now in the second trimester and breathing a sigh of relief, as i'm getting some energy back, not feeling as nauseated, and there is much less risk of miscarriage now.
and the bad stuff? well, we're luckier than the people who lost homes and lives and businesses to the hurricane, but my nephew lucas has been in hospital for quite a while now, in intensive care, but seems to be doing a bit better now. say a prayer for him, if you do that sort of thing. he's a tough little guy, but he needs all the help he can get. we're all really worried about him.
add to that the fact that my 83 year old grandfather, a widower who lives alone, is losing massive amounts of weight to some mysterious cause and no longer has the strength to drive his car or even wash a dish anymore. he's wasting away and the doctors can't figure out why- he's had every test known to man in the last few months and nothing seems to be wrong with him that would make him lose fat and muscle tissue like this. he was so slow and weak when we went to see him in july, and he's gotten markedly worse just in the last few weeks. my parents are worried sick, and trying to decide what to do about his living situation, since he seems not to be able to live on his own anymore. he's lonely and scared and calls everyone in the family (including darryl!) several times a day, and i feel guilty for being annoyed by it, but it exhausts me to speak to him on the phone because he's hard of hearing and i have to yell, and i just can't speak to him whenever the mood strikes him. he forgot i was at the con this weekend and thank goodness i had my ringer turned off, because he called me twice a day, always when i was listening to a presentation and couldn't answer.
work is hell.
we avoided the hurricane, and got tans, and used the hell out of our new videocamera.
there were many reptiles, large and small, everywhere- we had close encounters with a large skink, an adorable tree frog who did not want to leave my shirt, thousands of tiny lizards, and an alarmingly giant black snake.
a dolphin at the gulfarium fell in love with d.
k was spoiled more than rotten, so much so that i had to have a very stern talk with her when she had spent all of her vacation money and decided she didn't want to go to lake buena vista because nobody would buy her any more toys. she came around, though, and tearfully decided she'd go with the family after all, and had a great time despite not getting any new toys there.
elf con was amusing, girls were CRYING after 15 second photo ops with ElWood...who, by the way, was charming as all hell, spoke very well and had an impressive vocabulary. he used the word "jovial" when i spoke to him at my photo op. and, well, it's true... big. blue. eyes. i was hypnotized, a little. john rhys-davies was a wonderful speaker, sean astin was just smarmy, and i met peter s. beagle (who wrote The Last Unicorn), which was pretty freakin' sweet too.
i got video of the costume contest, which was...i can't even describe it. let's just say there were some gorgeous and inventive costumes, but charisma definitely won the day, as the 4 japanese girls dressed as hobbits won purely on cuteness and frolicking ability. i was in love. if i can figure out how to do it, i'll try to post a clip of them being all hobbity on stage.
the only things i bought at the con (which was severely lacking in vendors, strangely- there are so many licensed products that they could have made a killing on...i admit, i would have bought a Frodo action figure in goblin armor, if there was one to be had there, but there were no toys at all) were two 11x14 movie posters, one original lobby card for War of the Worlds as a present for d, and one reissue Fantasia lobby card with cartoon cherubs on it, which i will frame and put near the baby's bed (as we won't have a nursery to decorate, just a corner of our bedroom).
traveling home sucked for all of us- we were flying standby, and d and k got stuck for hours at the cincinnati airport on sunday, and i got stuck there for considerably less time but still got bumped off one flight on monday. i was thrilled to get home at 8pm last night to my own house, stuff, bed. i am less thrilled to be back to work today, obviously, and d and i have been wondering where we can get a few million so that we can quit our jobs.
my belly seems to have gotten bigger just in the last two weeks, as now it's pooched out in front all the time. i'm constantly pointing at it and asking darryl, "this looks like a pregnant belly, right? not just like i've got a beer belly?" he assures me it's all in front, and i don't have an ass to match it (yet...) so it definitely looks like baby and not beer. my next dr. appointment is next week friday, so hopefully i'll get to hear the heartbeat then...and if not, well, another peek at baby benzin will be in order via ultrasound. i am now in the second trimester and breathing a sigh of relief, as i'm getting some energy back, not feeling as nauseated, and there is much less risk of miscarriage now.
and the bad stuff? well, we're luckier than the people who lost homes and lives and businesses to the hurricane, but my nephew lucas has been in hospital for quite a while now, in intensive care, but seems to be doing a bit better now. say a prayer for him, if you do that sort of thing. he's a tough little guy, but he needs all the help he can get. we're all really worried about him.
add to that the fact that my 83 year old grandfather, a widower who lives alone, is losing massive amounts of weight to some mysterious cause and no longer has the strength to drive his car or even wash a dish anymore. he's wasting away and the doctors can't figure out why- he's had every test known to man in the last few months and nothing seems to be wrong with him that would make him lose fat and muscle tissue like this. he was so slow and weak when we went to see him in july, and he's gotten markedly worse just in the last few weeks. my parents are worried sick, and trying to decide what to do about his living situation, since he seems not to be able to live on his own anymore. he's lonely and scared and calls everyone in the family (including darryl!) several times a day, and i feel guilty for being annoyed by it, but it exhausts me to speak to him on the phone because he's hard of hearing and i have to yell, and i just can't speak to him whenever the mood strikes him. he forgot i was at the con this weekend and thank goodness i had my ringer turned off, because he called me twice a day, always when i was listening to a presentation and couldn't answer.