A Geek Girl In Mom Jeans

Well, I said I'd post more once I could string some coherent thoughts together.... and now, a week later, I'm almost there...

Last Wednesday afternoon, I went to my 20 week ultrasound.  I went in excited, expecting a fairly uneventful and normal results, though.  I had pretty much decided that the baby was a girl, so in my mind we were just confirming what I already knew....

Boy, was I thrown a curveball!  I'd only had one appointment with the doctor before the u/s was scheduled, and they had heard the heartbeat, and measured me and everything seemed to be right on track for a singleton pregnancy.  So I had completely dismissed the idea of twins all together.  In my mind, there was absolutely NO CHANCE that I could be expecting twins. 

So, after Rob, Lacy and my mother-in-law crowded into the u/s room and we got all set up and my MIL said she'd had a dream the night before that it was twins, I replied, "That's not very likely."  Of course I said this *just* as two perfect little heads appeared on the monitor in front of us and the tech said, "uuuuhhh... there's two in here..."

I thought she was kidding.  In spite of the obvious evidence on the screen, I just couldn't believe it was really true.  She went running out of the room to let the front desk know that the u/s was going to take longer than scheduled now that there were two of them, and Rob turns to me and asks, "Was she serious?"  He was in just as much shock as I was.

Now, a week later, I've spent a lot of time perusing the information on twins I could find online, read through the twin message boards on What to Expect, and I think I may be beginning to absorb all the information.

This changes so much.  In addition to having a whole other person to take care of, it also means that they'll only let me carry to Sept 29th, if I'm lucky enough to go that long.  I was due Oct 12th, so that's a two week bump, right there.  And they say with twins that 75% of them don't carry past the 34 week mark.  And a lot of them have to go on bed rest just to get that far along.   So who knows how long I'll actually be able to work.  

Then... Rob and I had talked about me trying to be a stay at home mom once one had come, but the finances of it are just going to be too hard.  But now, the idea of sending two to daycare and working for just a few hundred dollars a month after daycare expenses??  Blech!  I haven't got a clue how we'll manage it, but I can't see doing that... not at all.  I already can't stand the amount of time I spend at work as it is... doing it for so little money just sounds awful.  

I figure it'll all work out eventually.  That the details will all fall into place as time goes by, but right now everything is still very overwhelming...  I can't even imagine how crazy it will be when I'm dealing with the reality of it all on a severe lack of sleep!  :D

But, to get through all of it, I'm just going to stay focused on the little ones!  So without further ado, let me introduce you to the twins!

Carrie Dianne


Frank Wayne


And I am sure that these two will make it all amazingly wonderful no matter what the struggles may be in the meantime.  :D

Will post more later when I can form coherent thoughts...

...is over.  :( 

Ok, well, it's not really that bad.  I took last week off to hang out with my kids, and we had a great time.  We went to the zoo, and a couple of science museums, saw Race to Witch Mountain and Bedtime Stories, all of which were a lot of fun.  We slept until 10 every day (at least) and ate out too much and lazed around all week.  I hardly touched my computer (which is rare for me) and watched entirely too much TV.

I also finished up New Moon and read all of Eclipse (the middle two sequels to Twilight).  I'd bought New Moon for my daughter, so I read it because it was there and I was curious, but was just as irritated with it as I had been with the first one.  Mostly because if you're going to make a tween romance novel where that little happens, it really *shouldn't* be 500 pages long!  So then I'm just irritated with myself for having read the whole 500+ pages of mopey teenage angst and then two days after I'd finished it, I couldn't keep myself from picking up the next one at the grocery store.  I'm sure I'll be buying Breaking Dawn next, as sad as it is, but I think I'm going to make myself finish the 3rd Eragon book first...  Of course, it has it's own failings, but at least it's male teenage angst bleeding out the pages and not female stupidity being clung to by housewives everywhere as being "romantic" or some such crap.

Anyhow.  I also had my first Dr's appointment last week, but I didn't actually see the doctor.  They just took a medical history, gave me all the paperwork and set another appointment for me in four weeks. 

So I'm back at work now.  A little refreshed and a little ready to keep working a bit longer.  Which is good, because a couple of weeks ago, I'd been ready to quit for good... not that we can even come close to affording it yet... But it's definitely where I'm working towards.  Or at least greatly reduced work hours.  We'll see how that goes.  :)

Hi everyone!

I've been quiet, but I've been here, reading posts, lurking in the shadows, not saying much, but mostly just because I haven't been real sure what to say.  I'm loving the latest season of Lost.  I keep watching Heroes in the hope that it starts redeeming itself soon and I've been playing a ton of WoW.  But it's been a lot of fun. 

I'm also (re)reading one of my favorite books, "A Song for the Basilisk" which is just a gorgeous read, in my opinion.  As I'm rereading it, I keep wanting to stop and post passages out of the book just because they're such great imagery... but alas, getting the computer and the book together never seems to happen.

In other news... I'm pregnant.  Rob and I are very excited, but Jack and Lacy are a bit distraught.  The poor kids just aren't ready for another major change in their lives.  I, however, am going to be 35 this year and already feel like I'm waaaay too old to be starting over.  Waiting any longer just wasn't an option. 

Anywho... um... I think that's all the major news from OK... at least in my world.  :)

I spent all of last weekend with my nose stuck in Twilight and when I finally finished it Sunday evening I have to say I was disappointed.  The first half of it was really great.  Intriguing and sucked me right in... but the last half... and more specifically the last third or so left me completely unimpressed. 

It could have been a really awesome book.  I took all the early stuff about Bella being pale in spite of living in sunny Phoenix as a foreshadowing of her being something more than just a love struck teen.   But no, instead it turned out to be an almost 500 page romance novel.  And really, not even a very good one.  There was no romantic tension at all.  Very little conflict and the whole plot seemed centered around whether or not Edward was going to eat her.  Oh, not that there was any real concern that he would... but that was the conflict.

And the characters are so wooden and one dimensional it's not even funny. 

Maybe my problem is that I've always hated vampire stories... *shrug*.

Shortly after I last posted I was struck by one of the most awful stomach bugs ever.  I'll spare you the nasty details, but in short I spent Mon - Wed at home in bed, went to work on Thurs & Fri but was unable to eat anything.  Saturday afternoon I relapsed and spent the rest of that day, Sunday and Monday in bed.  While I did finally get back to work on Tuesday, I still couldn't manage to eat anything until Friday night. 

Ugh!  I don't usually mind being sick for a day or two, but I hate it when it just goes on and on and on.  I get so tired of feeling so blech.

Anyhow, in brighter news, the wedding is definitely on for the 18th and it looks like we're going to close on our new house on the 15th!  Well.... sometime around the 15th... hopefully before the 18th, though... right?  *crosses fingers* 

Also, on Saturday I was able to accomplish most of the things I needed to do to get ready.  We got our wedding bands taken care of, I found something to wear (red!) and we got ourselves registered. 

Actually, we're planning on getting married at the courthouse on Friday the 17th and having the reception / party on the 18th at my folks house.  It should be a really great party outside on the dock, roasting marshmallows at the firepit by the pond and getting to eat until we stuff ourselves to the gills.  The bad news is that since it's at my folks house (where I'm currently living) there's going to be a lot of work to do to get it in shape.  So my to do list for the next week and a half looks like this:  cleaning, packing, cleaning, moving, cleaning, lawn work, and... yep, you got it, cleaning.  Not to mention picking up all the horse poop out of the pasture... does that fall into cleaning? ;)

So... I've been trying to write chapter fourteen of Meta for weeks now and I decided Wednesday night that I really need to scrap it and start from scratch.  I had four different scenes, three of which were about three quarters written, but needed finishing / polishing in order to be publishable.  I had one complete scene that I was reasonably happy with... the rest... meh.

So, I started thinking about *why* I was having so much trouble finishing the story and realized it was just waaaay too all over the place.  So, I'm starting over from scratch, changing the overall direction and getting back to a more basic story arc.  I think it's a good decision... now I just have to buckle down and write it!

In other news... my fiance and I made an offer on a house yesterday evening... and so we're sitting here chewing our nails until we find out if it was accepted or not... either way, though, it looks like October 18th is a go for the wedding!  Even if we don't have any place to live afterward... lol.

If anyone's noticed, I've been a bit MIA lately, mostly due to completely flooding my brain with four seasons of Lost in 2.5 weeks. 

Urg... I finished them all about 3 AM Monday morning (yes, I had to be at work at 8, but damn it...) and have just now come up for air.

It's a really fascinating (and evil) show and I can't believe I have to wait until January to see more... 

Anyhow, hopefully my brain will kick back into gear and I'll be able to write again, soon.

 This is Speed Racer's last week in the cheap theater here in town and the DVD doesn't come out until September 16th...

So, after seeing it eleven times and spending well over $100 in tickets for this wonderful movie (9 regular matinee tickets, 3 imax matinee tickets, 9 matinee cheap theater tickets, 11 regular cheap theater tickets) I felt completely justified in deciding NOT to wait until September to get a copy of it.

I started the download last night, worried that I would get a bad version or a non-english version or something else screwed up somehow... and having opened it up this morning... 

Wow!  It's a beautiful copy and it's just as stunning and breathtaking colors as I could ever hope for a digital copy.  How in the world do pirateers get such clear copies on movies that aren't released yet?  Well, however they do it, I am forever in whomever's debt... well, at least until September when I go out and buy a real copy of the movie.  

Yay!  I get to watch Speed Racer tonight!  :D

I went and saw Wall-E finally yesterday and yes, it really is as good as everyone says. It was a little preachy, but it was so pretty I really didn't mind. 


 

If I had to sum up my impression of this movie in one word it would be "blech".

Of course, that would be a horribly unfair summaton of the movie, because it is a really amazing well done film.  It's just so dark.  So horribly depressing.  I started trying to explain to Rob what I thought of it and I just wanted to cry, go to bed and pull the covers over my head.

Is it wrong to want a movie to end on a happy note? 

So, last night my folks finally went to see Speed Racer.  I went with them (of course) and they loved it!  Okay, maybe loved is a little  bit of overkill, but they did really enjoy it.  It was my 8th time to see it and wow. 

I know it just seems ridiculous to see a movie that many times.  The only other movie I've seen this many times in the theater was Star Wars Return of the Jedi. I was nine and eight of those viewings were over the year that the movie was in theaters in 1983.  The ninth time I saw ROTJ in theaters was in 1997 when they re-released it for the anniversary.  

Anyhow, my point... ummm... yeah, since RTOJ I've seen a few movies more than once in the theater.  In the last few years I can think of a few that I've seen no more than three times...

Revenge of the Sith - 3
Pirates of the Carribean (the first one) - 3
Harry Potter (the third one) - 2
27 Dresses (I went to Jr High with James Marsden) - 2
Iron Man - 2

Hrm, that's about it...  

So what is it about Speed Racer that makes me want to go see it over and over again?  Mostly it's just the great feeling I have when I leave, I think.  Anyhow, I know that I'll see it at least a ninth time the last day it's in the theater here, but right this minute, I'm not sure I want to wait that long to see it again... lol.

Yep, I'm sick.   :D

 Chapter nine of Meta is going soooo slowly... it's a transitional chapter and it is almost painful to write.  I decided to skip a huge chunk of content and just do a quick overview of what we missed and then move forward, but I really haven't got much in the way of ideas of what else to do in this chapter to make the transition.  Chapter seven gave me fits like this and it turned out fairly well, though, so maybe it'll be ok... I can hope... lol.

I saw Speed Racer again last night.  And wow.  If you're reading this and you haven't seen it yet, do me a huge favor and go see it.  It's at the cheap theaters now, so you really have no excuse!  I can't believe how few people I have been able to talk into seeing it.  I guess I'm being too much of a raving fangirl so they don't believe that they'll enjoy it. 

Go, (see) Speed Racer, Go!

Last night my darling boyfriend officially became my fiancé. Of course, we'd been planning for ages, but my ring finally came in. It's gorgeous. It's a square cut alexandrite (my birthstone) with diamonds on a white gold band.

This is the picture of it that was on the website we got it from, but it really doesn't do it justice.



The really cool thing about alexandrite is that it changes color in different light sources. So far I've seen it range from an almost green color outdoors, to a deep purplish blue under fluorescent lights to more of a lavender color under incandescents... it's so purty! :D

It'd be a great, great day if we weren't running all of our fiscal year end processes at work (which are of course bombing right and left).

Whee!

I just managed to finish chapter 7 of my latest KotOR fanfic Tales of an Empathic Metamorph. All I can say is I'm soooooo glad this one is finally off my plate... I was beginning to think it would never get done!

The good news is that I've already got a pretty decent start on chapter 8... so maybe that one won't take as long... I can hope!

I started playing Mass Effect last weekend and was immediately overwhelmed by the first person shooter feel to it. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy a good FPS occasionally (I adore Star Wars Battlefront), but it doesn't feel right in the RPG setting, somehow.

When I play an RPG I'm primarily playing for story and so it is incredibly frustrating to have to redo that same section over and over again until I get my timing and aim just right. Of course, what's even more irritating is that same segment has a cut scene that I have to watch EVERY TIME, because stupid Bioware doesn't let you skip cut scenes (at least I haven't figured out how to do it yet). Yes, I suck at shooters in general.

O.K. now that I've finished griping I will say that I'm already becoming fairly addicted to the story line... even if it does seem to be the EXACT same story as KOTOR. Seriously, exactly the same. Starting with the visions and your acceptance into the Spectres,an elite group of peace keepers. And your job is to track down a rogue Spectre!

And just in case you were in doubt that this is KOTOR all over again, they let you have Carth back in your original party! Well, Carth's voice anyhow... the good news is that you apparently get to have a real romance with him in this game! Yay!

Now, all of that ranting doesn't mean I'm not enjoying it. I am, definitely, and apparently I am already obsessing over getting home to play more... woot! It's almost the weekend!

Last night, as a birthday present to myself, my sister, her husband, my boyfriend and I went to go see Spamalot.

I haven't laughed that hard in a long time. I didn't know quite what to expect, other than that it would have scenes from Monty Python's the Quest for the Holy Grail, but I was overwhelmingly pleased by the parody it made of itself and musical theatre in general. The audience loved it, I loved it. If you get a chance, go see it!

P.S. I saw Speed Racer for the 4th time today... wheeeeeee....

1. When I read what I'd written of Meta chapter 7 so far last night I actually liked it... it's not amazing or anything, but it gets me where I need to go... and I'm not feeling nearly so frustrated by the whole thing... well, that's always good!

2. It occured to me last night, that my current obsession with Speed Racer is not my latest fandom but rather a renewing of my earliest fandom. When I was 5, my entire kindergarten class would play Speed Racer on the playground and I always got to be Trixie and my boyfriend (I think his name was Brian) would always be Speed. I don't remember any of the specifics of our games, but I know now that the fangirl in me was alive and well even at that young age.

Damn it... when is the DVD coming out???

My latest chapter in my current fic, Metamorph, is stalling out big time. Until last night I'd been staring at the same two pages for over a week. I've written almost four pages, now, so I think I'm through the worst of it, really, but I don't like any of it. Which is a real shame, because I've really liked most of this story up until now...

Eh, maybe I'm just in a mood or something. Maybe if I sit down with it tonight it won't be as bad... we can hope... Or maybe I can just start this chapter over again from a completely different point... screw the rest of the trip... we'll just instantly warp to Nar Shaddaa! Brilliant!

Ok... I'll quit whining now... lol.

Hi, my name is Erin and I have a problem...

I have become addicted to the movie Speed Racer.

I know, it's pathetic. I've now seen it three times. Three times in 4 weekends. The Speed Racer theme song has been stuck in my head for most of that time, too. In all honesty, as much as I loved it, I probably wouldn't have gone back the second time... except that I got a chance to see it on IMAX and I couldn't pass it up... then after seeing it on IMAX, I had to see it at the regular theatre again, just to compare... Yes, IMAX is a much clearer picture, though not always to its benefit... Royalton's nose hair was much more visible in the IMAX version... :D

Anyhow, I *adore* this movie.

It's magical, it's fun, it promotes family and simple good v. evil. It's bright and colorful and really much more than I ever hoped it would be. Furthermore, after watching it I'm so terrifically hyper it's not even funny. Adrenaline is a fantastic thing... :D

Unfortunately, it's almost gone from the theatres. People didn't go see it. It flopped. Even my sister and brother-in-law who enjoyed it, didn't really get it. A lot of people didn't apparently... I guess it's not surprising. It's so different, so out there, and certainly not in the least bit linear. But that doesn't keep me from wondering for the first time, ever, how much a Blu-Ray & HD TV would be, just so I could watch it again, much closer to the way it was meant to be seen...

Well, guess I'll be waiting a few months for that... I wonder how much longer till it shows up at the dollar theater... I think I could see it a couple of more times easily...

God, I need help...