Beam us up Scotty!

This week while my dad is visiting, we decided to take him to the Star Trek Exhibition at the San Jose Tech Museum. This was NOT a convention, but yes... we did see one person wearing a uniform. Actually before you laugh, on opening night Bob and I were walking around downtown San Jose and saw a couple guys all dressed up and Bob asked me, "are they dressed as Kiss?" and I said " NO! They're Klingons!!!"

The Exhibition had "scale" replicas of the Enterprise, wardrobe uniforms, a replica of TOS deck, TNG ship corridor, transporter room and even Commander Riker's living quarters. I put scale in quotes because I mean really... a scale of ... what an original starship?? an original model? Hmmmm.
Anyway, there was also a set recreation of the Guardian of Forever... a sort of natural time machine that was in a famous and favorite episode from the original series called "The City on the Edge of Forever".

In this episode Kirk lets the love of his life die so he can fix the space time continuum, which had previously been thrown askew by McCoy. [Warning: this is the only paragraph of geek speak] You see, contacting a civilian within a pre-warp civilization, especially one not from your time, is a direct violation of the Prime Directive. We found this hilarious, because well, you could site many many examples, but in Star Trek IV - the whole movie violates the Prime Directive. I'll digress as to not reveal my complete geekyness. Oh Well - it was still fun to see.
One gripe was that we paid $25/person and then half way through got yelled at for taking pictures (there were no signs and no prior warnings) and were then followed to make sure we didn't take any more. Boo. I could only suppose this was so they could make money on their "professional" staged pictures, which I ended up buying anyway for $28. So all in all we spent $128 (this does not include the ride on the shuttle pod).

One other neat part was the touch table by Microsoft that is programmed with a trivia game on questions about Star Trek. Bob and I dominated over Kenny and Dad - but I have to wonder... did we really win??

Below is a 2 minute video spoof of the pictures we were able to take.

21 Weeks and All the Holiday Treats I Can Eat!

Well, it's over the hump-bump! And I have not relented on the sweets this holiday. In fact I went for an Xmas morning jog just because I'm sure my butt was turning into the 3 chocolate mousse cakes I've had within the last week (This does not include the 3 [mini] red velvet cupcakes I inhaled at a party either!)

I headed to the track next to our house and was able to jog 2 miles, but took a break between each mile for butt and arm conditioning. I am definitely slowing down. It was a beautiful Christmas day for a jog - perfect blue skies, sunny and about 58 degrees.

My "Girlfriends Guide to Pregnancy" (THANKS SOOZE!!) said not to exercise at all because "you're going to get big anyway". But honestly, it's not about the size... it's about how I FEEL. And let me tell you, I felt a LOT better about the Ruffles, french onion dip, Jelly Bellies, cookies and spinach dip I ate after my run! LOL

Lots of holiday parties and events this season! Thanks to the Moeller's and the Duenow's for including us in on your family and friends tradition.

On Christmas day, we headed over to my brother Kenny's house for aforementioned feast with them and Heidi's Uncle Timmy and his family who helped us build a list of girl names... we are taking any and all suggestions!

I am serious about suggestions... as many of you know, we have a 9 year old cat named "Kitty" because we could not agree on a name and after 3 days, the cat only came to "Here Kitty!"

Then again, maybe "Baby" will stick. "Nobody puts Baby in the corner!" If you don't know that quote - shame on you ;-)

Let it Squaw, Let it Squaw, Let it Squaw!

This year marked our 5th pre-Christmas Tahoe trip to Squaw Valley USA. Our 1st trip being when Bob and I were engaged on the slopes! This year it snowed about 80" the week before we arrived and even more creating the largest ski base, right before Christmas, at least since we've started our little tradition. This created the perfect winter wonderland setting, however really bummed me out because I cannot ski this year. :-(

The drive is about a 3-3.5 hours from San Jose to North Lake Tahoe with good weather and light traffic. Funny, while the east coast was getting slammed with snow we leave our sunny, 60 degree weather and drive several hours just to be in the snow!!

The first day after we arrived it was raining at the base and storming with high winds at the top of the mountain, High Camp and half the runs were closed, so Bob decided to do a "spa day" with me instead of skiing.

The bright side of the storm was that the rain later turned to snow and it accumulated about 12" overnight and gave way to clear skies and good skiing conditions for Bob the next day. While Bob skiied, I rode the Cable Car to High Camp and sat at the bar (which has panoramic views of the valley and Lake Tahoe) and worked on my laptop. Bob came in and met me for lunch before I headed back down the mountain.

One other celebration happening in 2010 is the 50th anniversary of the Winter Olympic Games at Squaw Valley. In my non-skiing condition, I was able to read up on all the fascinating history. Things like, it dumped 8 feet of snow before the games and everyone predicted the downhill and jumping would be a disaster - but the National Guard were called in from San Francisco and they rode up the new chairlifts, linked arm-in-arm and walked down the mountain packing in the snow! Also, it was the first internationally televised winter olympic games. One other trivia nugget, 1960 at Squaw was the only winter olympics to NOT have the bobsled competition...

One other nice trip was out 30 mins and over to another ski resort, NorthStar. There they have also built up a nice village of shops with an ice skating rink at the center. Around the rink are firepits and cabanas, a little bar for apre ski cocktails and hot toddy's. There is even live music at one end of the rink. We spent time in the "Chocolate Bar" which specialized in chocolate drinks and desserts (they had about 10 different chocolate martini's.... of course just when I CAN'T have them! ugh.) It started to snow and the whole experience was like right out of a winter wonderland movie.

I love our tradition.

Merry Christmas!

Seasons Greetings Friends and Family!

Last year, as I mailed our Christmas cards, I thought about the amount of paper we were wasting. Then again in January as I recycled paper card after paper card, I vowed that this year I would change that. Now as Christmas approaches and we reflect back on 2009, the down economy has hit people very hard and charitable contributions are at an all time low, it became clear that we would change our routine this year, not only for the amount of waste but to give during a time when people need it most.

That's why this year we decided to take the money that we would have spent on sending Christmas cards and donated $100 to Toys for Tots and Feeding America.

Seems like a no-brainer. But I have to admit, it was difficult to overcome my love for all stationery and paper products. Also gone was the excitement that I get over printing labels (seriously... I do!), but in the end I do feel a little bit better.

We hope you all have a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

Psycho Donuts

Thanks Joanna for putting the donut crave in my head. Anyway, Psycho Donut is this little donut shop a couple blocks from our house and I can usually ignore my cravings but hey, I'm pregnant AND started holiday vacation today - so why not!!
The shop is complete with a padded cell and people who work the counter either wear doctors or nurses outfits. After many (small) rallys and some press coverage, Psycho came to some agreements with a group representing mentally challenged peoples. A lot of buzz for our little town!
Anyway the donuts are out of this world unique with the names to match ( like, Bipolar, a cake donut topped half with peanuts and the other half coconut). I think the shop has similar vibe as Voo Doo Donut in Portland - but I have to admit I like Psycho's base better, though not as "colorful" as Voo Doo's.
Pictured is 'apricotology', an apricot glazed donut shaped kinda like a bear claw, also malted milk balls and chocolate on a glazed, 'mellow peanut' melted marshmellow with rice krispies and light dash of peanut butter and 'clumsy crunch' a chocolate cake with some type of heath crunch topping. They were out of my favorite which is a glazed base topped with lemonade, pretzels and little dust of chili powder. Enough donut to make you go crazy!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

19 weeks

Half way there! Well almost. This is me and my bump at 19 weeks on my way to Bob's Holiday Party at Chez TJ, rated 2 Michelin Stars. It was a fun experience considering I don't even get so much as a holiday cookie at IBM. I had the BEST ever Moscato di Asti - which is saying a lot - because that's my FAV. Dana, if you read this, I hope you are saying "mosssscaaaatooo" while pulling your hair. This was truly a "bathing quality" moscato. I had Chez TJ write it down for me, but don't have it at my finger tips as I write this. I'll have to post an update on what it was... yum! If I wasn't preggers, I'd probably have drank a whole bottle of it myself, on a positive note - Bob had a designated driver for the way home :-)

18 weeks

Baby Bump started to present herself between 16 and 17 weeks. So I decided to start documenting before I got any bigger!
This is me at 18 weeks. On our way to see the play production of "A Christmas Story" at the San Jose Repertory Theatre.

Welcome

I am hoping this will be easier to update than our previous, self-edited, website.