Hockey time

Yesterday E and I took the time to head to a Dallas Stars hockey game. The only time I have been to see the stars before involved E and I sitting in the very last row of the American Airlines center. I'm talking, the very very very last row. I needed binoculars. It was fun, but I could have absorbed nearly as much watching the game on the TV at home.

Imagine our delight then at having tickets on the 12th row! We were right on the ice - we could even feel the cold-ness! It was super fun. I was very grateful for the glass and giant net that they put up behind the goals. Those pucks are really moving. As I watched Turco's backside during the first and third periods, I decided that being a hockey goalie is definitely not a job of the weak at heart.

It was a great time, even if the Stars lost. Go Stars! Get them next time.

I might've peed my pants a little...

E and I decided to spend part of our Sunday visiting a nearby exotic animal rescue. Nestled less than 7 miles from us on Lake Lavon is In Sync Exotics, a wildlife rescue center for big cats. It's only open on Saturday and Sunday from 11 am until 6 pm, so we figured it would be the perfect way to spend a Sunday afternoon.

We arrived and paid our donation (tax deductible!) the kid at the gate (child labor laws? Maybe not at a volunteer facility.) Immediately we got to look at two Lynx. I mean, immediately. They're right there, in that cage, looking at you. Awesome! I've never been so close to such a large cat before, and they really are beautiful. And big. Look at the size of those paws. And claws. And teeth. Now, at a zoo you would find yourself safely behind a very deep moat with a gate and all kinds of security-type precautions keeping you far far away from all those pointy parts of a giant cat. At the animal rescue sanctuary, all that stands between you and giant cats is two layers of chain link fence. I don't want to go speaking bad about chain link fences or anything, but I'm pretty sure my brother and I knocked a fence or two over when we were kids, i.e. much smaller than a 450 pound tiger.

The lynx didn't seem much interested in us, so we moved on to the giant white tiger who was lazing in the sun. He seemed kind of sleepy, but mostly harmless, so we oohed and ahhed a bit before moving on to the "Tiger Country". As we approached tiger country to read about all the tigers living in the enclosure, the largest, scariest Siberian tiger I have ever seen came sweeping out from a tiger house and growling, hissing, and standing up on his hind legs against the chain link fence. Reasonably, E and I scurried backward from the fence and tried to catch our breath and make sure that we hadn't wet ourselves. One of the keepers came over and told us that "Oh, Mohan just gets spooked by large groups of people. Move along and come back later and it will probably be fine. Don't you Mow-hawn? Big gwuy just scared of big people..." Scared of people my patootie. You talk baby talk to him all you want lady, we'll be happy to move along.

Does he look mad? Well, he was.

Anyway, after our scary run in with Mohan, we visited all the other tigers without incident. We looked at the two lions, visited the serval, hunted for the cougars (only spotted one), talked to the coatimundi, looked at the leopards, and even got chuffed at by a tiger named Nikolas. At first, we were quite sure we were going to be in trouble by tiger again, but a keeper informed us that chuffing is his way of telling us he likes us and to come on over. We were SOOO close to him and he looked really friendly, not like that Mohan guy. We talked to Nick for a while before ending our day by patting the friendly dog and horse (not part of the tour but on the property anyway) goodbye. It was a fun visit and really interesting. Just don't get to close to Mohan, and I'd highly recommend going. If you intend on getting close to Mohan, bring a change of pants.

Nick really likes us. He's super friendly and apparently the tallest cat there. He stands at over 11 feet when he gets up on his hind legs!

Handsome puppy

This weekend we received our nursery bedding as a gift from E's parents. We ended up going with a pattern completely different than we expected, but hey, we like it. It's Kenneth Brown's Handsome Puppy, and since we fully expect our kiddo to love dogs, it fits perfectly. Hope he likes it too!

* This isn't our crib, but it hasn't arrived yet, so when we get it and it's all put together I promise to post that.

Stability

Apparently when you're preggers you're supposed to lose your ability to balance, and for anyone as clumsy as I am, this notion is terrifying. In an effort to stave off the fact that I'm quickly growing top heavy, I head to the gym and always visit the stability discs. I like these little discs, because they make me feel like I'm doing something interesting. Plus, no one else seems to use them unless their trainer is with them, so typically there's no wait. The notion of the discs is simple. You stand on one with one foot, and do something with your other leg. My old trainer particularly liked to make me stand on a disc and kick the other leg out in front or behind me. So this is what I do on the disc, even now.

As we saw in my last post, the fact that I am with child is no longer something I can hide from the world. So there I am, in all my big belly glory, running, lifting, and perhaps most histerically, balancing. At least, these things all seem funny in my head. Today I had a nice man come up to me as I was putting the disc away and congratulate me. First for the baby, second for the ability to balance. He pointed out that he'd never been able to balance on a disc, and he didn't even have a growing belly to blame.

We'll see just how capable I am at these discs a month from now.

Baby bump

E and I have tried to do a good job preparing for our little guy. One thing that we've done is document my ever-growing belly in a series of pictures. To get you up to date, we're in our 27th week, and here are some snapshots...

6 weeks along - we had just found out, so really there isn't much to this.

26 weeks along - He's really starting to stick out there!

The chocolate stain matches his chocolate stripes

Today we purchased our baby crib (with rail to convert to toddler bed!) and dresser/changing table. We didn't get the tall dresser, but we can always go back and get it later if we so desire, along with the bed rails that turn the crib into a twin-sized bed. This kiddo's set for life! We really liked the dark stain on the wood and E likes the scoop in the front of the crib. It's the Pali Wendy collection, if you're interested. We like it! It should be here in 8-10 weeks, but maybe sooner, at which point I'll post a picture of the actual furniture, instead of this shot from the magazine.

Jet-setting

From time to time in anyone's business they've got to embark on something called the "business trip". This is an exciting time in any business-person's life, given that they get to do all the ridiculous things that you do on trips (like order room service for breakfast and eat expensive and silly meals) without having to incur any of the costs for these things. On business trips there is something called a "Per Diem", which translates roughly to "I'm pretty sure no reasonable person would spend this much eating in a single day, but hey, you're in a different city so order the steak AND the lobster - it's on us". It's all lovely, which is why I only felt a small twinge of guilt when ordering my $20 breakfast of cereal and fruit (With juice! Only $4 more!) at the hotel on Tuesday morning in DC.

There are downsides to business travel, however. These include not being able to see your family (mine being E and the dog), having to pack nice clothes in a suitcase and looking neatly pressed the next day, and having to take off your shoes in the airport in front of your coworkers. Or worse yet, be examined by airport security in front of said coworkers. It is imperative to wear your nicest socks on these business travel days, in order to avoid embarrassing missteps involving holes around toes.

Regardless, I took one of these illustrious trips this past Monday and returned on Tuesday. I jetted off to DC, where we have a number of friends who I would have liked to have seen, but because of the pace of the trip was able to only eat food in the hotel or airport and sit in a small office where I was the only woman present for six hours. In all I believe I was in DC for 18 hours, 6 of which were spent sleeping. This explains why I'm so pooped today, as my rest time was drastically reduced.

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Another first on this trip - the first time a total stranger realized I was pregnant and attempted to touch the belly. She did, however, seem perfectly nice and did not end up touching me, so it was okay. I guess there's no hiding this guy now. We went to the doctor today and he's measuring great - one more visit in three weeks to check my glucose levels. I got an interesting looking orange drink to consume before the next visit. Supposed to taste like orange soda - we'll see.