Singapore/Thailand, Part 3

A short walk from the resort was this lovely beach, where we frolicked in the warm, clear water for hours on end. I realized immediately why Thailand's beaches have such a great reputation.

Alas, we had to leave eventually as we had a show to get to that evening, at Phuket Fanta-Sea. It was like an amusement park complete with midway games but with a Thai culture slant, if that makes sense. This was the only elephant riding I was able to do, since the tour coordinator didn't think a pregnant woman should gallivant through the Thai jungle for 4 hours on an elephant (booooo).

The following day we did a kayak tour that took us to some beautiful scenery. There was a bit of rain at one point, but it was such a great experience that we didn't mind at all. The day ended at another awesome beach. This was a major highlight of our time in Thailand.

That evening I was not feeling well, so the guys went out on the town for a little bit while I rested up.

The next day was a whirlwind tour of various spots throughout the island. There were lookouts, temples and shops to explore. We easily passed the morning taking everything in and wishing we had more time before having to fly back to Singapore that evening.

I don't think either of us expected to enjoy Thailand nearly as much as we did. We started talking about wanting to return some day in the future, so perhaps that'll work out for us sometime. For now, we're thankful just to have wonderful memories of a very special place.

Singapore/Thailand, Part 2

The next day started off very rainy, which gave us a chance to sleep in and recover from the whirlwind that was Day 1.

It was also someone's special day, so we let birthday boy decide what to do. He decided to take in a movie. In Singapore the movies are not general seating, you select specific seats when you purchase the tickets. So we didn't have to deal with sitting down in an empty theatre only to have people come in later and sit right next to us. It was actually a very nice birthday gift since usually people flock to sit by us in empty theatres. After we wandered the area, which was really swanky with lots of upscale retail shops and modern architecture.

It was on this day we met and fell in love with Bread Society, a bakery selling all kinds of cheap and delicious sweet and savory pastries and bread products. So my birthday boy was able to have some birthday cake. I promise some of it actually went in his mouth, although that doesn't appear to be the case...

We continued exploring several areas on foot well into the night before having birthday dinner of fish and chips (yes - no Asian food!).

The next day we went to the Singapore Science Centre. We only had until the early afternoon before having to head back and catch our flight to Thailand. We thought that was plenty of time. Well, it soon became clear we had underestimated how easily we can be distracted. There was a big kinetic garden outside with tons of different science bases games and experiments you can participate in and that alone took us over an hour. Once inside we spent the next few hours reading, playing and learning. We made it through about 75% of the exhibits and were sorry we had not allowed ourselves more time there, it was so much fun.

We flew to Phuket that night and got in late. So, once we checked in we had dinner and played cards by the pool before turning in.

Singapore/Thailand, Part 1

We took our most recent vacation in September to Singapore and Thailand. It was the first time either of us had been to Asia. We worked with a friend who moved to Singapore for work about a year and a half ago and we fortunate enough to be able to finally visit him.

Singapore was much bigger and spread out than I had imagined it to be and exploring it was a bit of chore. We had to determine what area to visit for the day and plan to be gone all day since coming back and forth would be really time consuming. Public transportation was efficient, however, and taxis plentiful.

Our first day we explored 2 nature preserves where our friend assured us we would practically be tripping over monkeys. While the scenery was lovely and the temperature was comfortable, there was not a single monkey to be seen. There was a super fun swing we got to play on, though, so it was all worthwhile.

We continued on to the Chinese and Japanese gardens and found a turtle preserve to wander through on the grounds.

Afterwards, we met up with another friend who took us around Little India, where he lives. We explored Hindu temples and a HUGE (I can't stress how HUGE) department type store where you can buy anything from toiletries to electronics to linens to fabrics to anything you could possibly fathom.

Indian food for dinner that evening and finally a very, very long day had come to an end. Oh, and I solidified my notion that I do NOT like Indian food, regardless of how authentic it is.

And Baby Makes Three

Where have I been???? Oh yeah, well as it happens, for the last 6 months I've been busy trying to prepare to become a mom. Ha! As if anyone can actually learn all they need to learn to be a good parent from 9 months worth of library books. However, I've got to start somewhere. Yes, we are expecting!

So to recap the pregnancy so far, the first 3 months were terrible. I felt nauseous, irritable and totally exhausted all the time, although, thankfully I never actually got sick (maybe because I avoided food and drink?). Anyway, once I climbed on into the second trimester I got to feeling much better and got some of my energy back. Well, certainly enough energy to enjoy a vacation overseas (more on that another time) and make it through almost all of my usual work schedule without killing any coworkers. Now I'm starting to enter the last trimester and other than the backaches and the fatigue I can't complain much. I've started to get a baby bump too, making things start to feel a bit more real.

We do know it's a boy but we haven't yet started to get his room ready or anything. We're just enjoying the anticipation and the excitement for now and taking it day by day until we meet him. Reading books, starting our childbirth classes and making a dent in our honey-do list takes up most of our free time now and we're pretty happy about that.

End of 2009/So Far 2010

The wedding in Las Vegas at the end of last year was such fun. I think being a best man is easier than being the maid of honor. Lots less was expected of me. In fact, other than the speech and keeping Roy's nerves in check I barely had to do anything but have a good time, and that's not much of a challenge for me.

Also in December, we got to spend Christmas and New Years with my sister. We enjoyed fondue together and the road trip to Vegas and back. We also made her join us on our traditional trip to Zoolights, where we took our usual abstracted and long exposure pictures.

Roy and Nichole are back in Austin happily enjoying the newlywed life. They had a reception there at the end of January for all the friends and family that weren't able to make it out to Las Vegas. I was able to attend that with my sister, too.

Then we had a series of rain storms with high winds that led to a small roof leak in the kitchen. In the end, we learned it was time for a whole new roof. Oh, we also learned we don't like Allstate, but we had already suspected that and this just sealed the deal.

I also had a chance to do a girls' trip to Kingston, mon. Welllllll, actually no "mon" with this Kingston. It was Kingston, Ontario. A great time was had, of course, as is the standard with Jill and I, albeit it was much much colder than what I was accustomed to. Brrrrrrrrrrr! Many of the things we had wanted to see or do weren't open during the winter season but it was picturesque none the less and together we enjoyed walks through the snowy streets, cups of hot chocolate and great company.

Sprinkle in about 200 shifts at work and 50 boot camp sessions and that's about all I've had going on these past few months. Nothing exciting but pictures are always fun to share.

Thanksgiving 2009

It was the first thanksgiving for us in our new house, so even though we worked doubles on Thanksgiving Day we wanted to celebrate and did so on Thanksgiving Day Eve. Keck worked in the morning and I spent the better part of the day cooking and baking for us and for work the next day, where we had a potluck.

I made way too much food which is one of the best parts of Thanksgiving in my opinion.

We had stuffin' muffins which I thought were great and even Keck, not being much of a stuffing fan, enjoyed them. Made with apples and onions, the best part was I was able to eat them since they didn't have chicken broth. Plus, they were just too cute in their little muffin shapes.

Good ol' cranberry sauce and not the canned stuff either - I can't do the canned stuff. I also eat it warm whereas it seems most people eat it cold.

We went with cornbread rather than rolls. It's a sweet, very moist cornbread that I make fairly often.

Rather than the usual sweet potato casserole, we tried these sweet potato balls that have the same ingredients but also include coconut. They were quite the hit of the party.

A vegetarian shepherd's pie was the main course and served to fulfill the need for mashed potatoes that should be at all Thanksgiving dinners.

Stuffed mushrooms and a broccoli rice casserole rounded out the dinner. We also had a blackberry cobbler and a chocolate pie, neither of which were photographed. The chocolate pie was terrible. Let me know if you have a good recipe that doesn't involve eating raw eggs. I'm anxious to get make a good chocolate pie.

We are both thankful for the new house and each other so it was nice to take a day to celebrate that. Thanksgiving Day itself was, for the most part, nicely spent even though it was spent at work. I wasn't able to take part in much of the shopping weekend mania, except for a small online purchase. I'm one of those people that used to get up at 3am to get in early and scoop up the doorbuster deals. Boy do I miss that...maybe next year...