Does the world really need a biopic on...

...Falco??????

In other news, it's a beautiful, sunny, and rather cold day here in the good land. Skiing is plentiful but the cold really makes ski waxing tricky. I waxed all of our skis with special green as a base, and with blue as a top layer (after struggling with special green and having a minor pregnancy-induced hissy fit, it was just better this way).

I am slowly counting down the days to delivery, and have just started thinking about how nice it will be to be able to run. At the same time, Kira gets stronger and stronger everyday, and so do her kicks. I think we are all ready to get this whole delivery thing over with.

Speaking of delivery and labor, childbirth class has been a lot of fun. Not only do we get to meet a lot of new people in our same boat, but also we get to watch the "real baby story" -- real people in graphic detail going through labor. Once again, all data points suggest that there is pain involved, and drugs are starting to look mighty good. I keep reminding myself that, despite the societal pressures surrounding pregnancy and birth, that delivery is not a competition, and there is probably not a gold medal involved.

The other funny part of childbirth class is the practicing of labor positions and what the partner can do to help. Since many of the positions involve hanging on your partner or the partner bending over to massage you, Frank's back started aching. We decided he may also need some drugs to get through labor :).

What else can I say? We've got a jam-packed weekend coming up...a UAA hockey game, concert tickets, and the super bowl of course on Sunday. I would say the Ski for Women (the world's largest women-only XC event) is also on Sunday, but I think maybe this is a good year to skip since it's kind of like a roller derby on skis.

Have a good weekend!

Random Notes

How cool to live in a place that you actually get to see on TV every once in a while :)

Yesterday we had a temperature inversion, meaning that the warmest weather was actually on the hillside, melting our snow, and the cold air wound up down near the water. It's pretty scary for us skiers because if it continues to be warm and rainy, we will either lose all of our good base of ski snow or everything will icy (icy trails != good skiing for the pregnant).

Otherwise, we're just enjoying a lazy non-working day. The US needs more holidays. Shouldn't we have more three day weekends? And shouldn't we have a holiday once every month?

It must be the salt...

During my cold, Galileo has developed a taste for used kleenexes. He especially likes the snotty ones. Luckily, he's afraid of the bathroom so I can put them in the wastebasket.

In other news, once again (suprise) the sun is coming up. The sky is a beautiful peachy/pink color, and the clouds usually mean that it should be a relatively warm (20-ish) day today. Good skiing weather!

We did go ski yesterday -- Frank is so nice, he patiently let me lead now that I'm pretty pregnant, just in case I fall and can't get back up. I'm still pretty good at looking ahead and am enjoying the little boost of speed I have on the downhills with the added weight.

Anyways, hope your weekend is awesome!

No rest for the weary

There I am, done with work for the day, sick with a fever and a cold, when Galileo greets me at the screen door. I had left him outside for maybe 20 minutes, and in that time, he had decided to dig down underneath the porch and get lovely muddy dark dirt under his feet.

My choices were pretty slim. Since I couldn't leave him outside in the balmy .1F to be a puppy-sicle, he had to come inside, but the carpet inside is a beautiful cream color made to show the black dirt. Usually I can get him to sit on his pad (really an old papasan cover), but to make it over to the bathroom is really difficult without getting some carpet mess that has to be cleaned up.

So, pregnant and tired, I picked up our 50lb austrailian shepherd and attempted to get him to the bathroom about 10 feet away. After an accidental dropping on the bathroom floor (which flung ice-mud across the linoleum--nice), we made it to the bathtub for the third paw-cleaning in two weeks.

Puppy was traumatized; I was traumatized. Pregnant or not pregnant, sick or not sick, something had to be done! I went out to the garage to grab a snow shovel and started shoveling snow under the porch to try to keep Galileo out next time. We'll see if it works.

In other news, I'm sick, but have discovered Tylenol is not only for reducing pain after a particularly brutal marathon training session, but it also reduces fevers really well. I'd always seen it on the box, but never tried it really until today.

And ear thermometers? Easy to play with, very very hard to get a correct reading off of of. Maybe this is because I am a hothead.

Also, I watched the Price is Right while waiting for my fever to come down. I'm not sure what I am more disturbed about -- the insanely high prices on the show (600 bucks for two mp3 players?), the very odd selection of prizes (water trike or a grandfather clock!), or the contestants that seem way, way to eager to be on the show. Either way, I think it may have contributed to my fever reduction by reducing the number of brain cells firing in my head.

P.S. for those of you wondering about baby Kira -- she doesn't seem to be traumatized at all by me being sick and is in fact entirely unsympathetic. She has taken this opportunity to perfect her kung fu inside my belly, and likes to give me an extra kick to the kidney when I cough or sneeze.

Starting off the year right...

Long time, no blog :)

The Northtoak clan just got back from a fantastic family holiday tour of the midwest. Although it was incredibly wonderful to see family and friends, I am just now recovering from the travel and excitement. Something about being seven and a half months pregnant makes me quite a bit less able to bounce back from travel.

However, with a 12 hour nap under my belt (not kidding), I'm feeling a bit more spry, so Frank and I took to the ski trails this afternoon. With three inches of hours-old snow, the skiing was a bit sluggish, but the scenery was beautiful. When we started, the sky was peachy-pink, and it was stunning against the snowy trees and the orange lights. There were no moose today, but the ski trails were showered by the shouts of encouragement from the local high school ski team, who were doing relay drills along the gasline trail.

All in all, it was a great first ski outing in a long while. Although I miss my family and friends already, it also feels really good to be home.

Update on comments: I *think* I fixed the comments for everyone who warned me they were not working. Please feel free to use it :)