Results are in!

Despite the vote giving a slight edge today for baby girl Andrews, today our ultrasound showed us definitively that it is, in fact, baby boy Andrews gestating in my womb. All you haters can just pay up!

The ultrasound was awesome- we saw the fully formed spine, heart, brain, stomach, bladder, arms, legs, and even the face! The picture in the ultrasound doesn't do him justice, but it is apparently of his face, skull, and eye socket. It's not a very flattering picture, but it's the best we can do right now...

At any rate, thanks for all the votes and comments- that was fun! Hopefully I'll be back to posting soon.

Vote Vote Vote!

In honor of the Pennsylvania primary, and with a scant 8 days left until we (hopefully) find out the gender of our spawn, I thought I would post a poll of our own. My mother and Nick, as well as most of the people at work, are sure we're having a boy. My father and grandmother are equally sure it's a girl....As for me, all I care is that it's one or the other. Regardless, things are clearly set in place today, we're just hoping that he or she will make an appearance for the ultrasound person!

So, what do you think? Let me know!

Is that truffle in your pocket?

Well, I am finally posting after being back from Italy for three weeks. The trip was incredible- the only flaw was that it was too short! The jet lag was a little harder on me than it would usually be- the time change made me slightly nauseas – little Alf (alien life form) was quite confused by everything! I am happy to report, though, that now that I am well into my second trimester, Alf seems to be no longer trying to kill me!

Anyway, back to the trip: we had a blast exploring the hill towns of Umbria, Tuscany, and Rome. Nick’s inner Mario Andretti came out on the Autostrada, and he averaged about 160 km/hr. We saw real live Italian prostitutes- not just in Rome, but just on the side of the road in Umbria, right alongside the truffle hunters. Very random (this from the girl from Vegas)! I fared as well as could be expected without wine- Nick actually drank enough for him, me, and the baby. I also would like to say we saved a lot of money without me drinking, but since wine is cheaper than water in Italy, this would not be true.

Since being back, everyone asks us what our favorite part of the trip was, and I really can’t say. We really enjoyed the hill towns of Orvieto and Civita- not much to do in Civita, but it’s this incredible medieval town that’s built into a mountain. We spent a day visiting the Uffizi and the Academy in Florence- and because Nick was so well behaved at the art galleries, I granted him one day of wine tasting through the Chianti region. It was fun for me even though I couldn’t drink. Nick ignored all my really valid arguments as to why it’s a bad idea to purchase wine and pack it in our suitcases and we managed to get 7 bottles of wonderful Italian wines (all red!) back home without incident.

Everywhere we went we met wonderful people from all around the world. The first place we stayed, Locanda Rosati in Orvieto, was run by the exuberant Jean Pierro. We ate dinner family style on the grounds both nights we stayed, enjoying conversation with people from Holland, Australia, Italy, London, and yes, even Seattle.

In San Gamignano- the Disneyland of Italy- we got some much needed practice on our English skills. In the smaller hill towns, there are not as many English speakers, which is actually kind of nice. However, we did enjoy San Gimignano, and, as our agritourismo was a scant 2 kilometers away, we went into town for dinner on four occasions. San Gimignano at night is lovely, and the food was tremendous and quite inexpensive compared to the larger cities. The truffle gnocchi I had was so good that I am thinking I can never have it here again- certainly not the kind from the package that I make!

After leaving Locanda Rosati, I thought nothing could compare – then we checked into our room at Casanova di Pescille. By room I mean “apartment”. This place was fabulous, and we were the first guests of the seasons. This agritourismo was run by Roberto, whose family had owned the land since the sixteenth century. He, and his dog, Ettere, were quite friendly and welcoming. We loved the agritourismos and wouldn’t want to do it any other way. I am not a huge bed and breakfast fan (they’re always kind of creepy and remind me of being at somebody’s grandmother’s house), and I was worried agritourismos would be similarly creepy. This couldn’t have been further from the truth – We loved that where we stayed produced 60% of what they consumed, and the people were so friendly without being overbearing. In fact, upon returning home, Nick has made it his life’s goal that we will soon begin producing 60% of what we consumer. I told him if we could live on tomatoes, weirdly small corn husks, raspberries, and lettuce, we will be good to go. Oh, and rosemary in the winter. I won’t bore you any more with details- I could go on for days. I will just leave you with a few thoughts:

1) Europeans hate Americans for a reason: most are loud, obnoxious, demanding, and closed to change or differences;

2) Europeans LOVE Barrack Obama (except the Dutch, who inexplicably think that he will close our borders);

3) The Dutch are obsessed with Natalie Holloway, are sure Joran Vandersloot killed her, and want him out of their country;

4) The dollar is very, very weak, and Italians do not like this, as most of their tourists are American, German, or Japanese, but Americans are the only tourists who buy things.

5) The Japanese are almost universally hated by Europeans (hey, I’m just the messenger), as are the Germans. Notice that these groups go hand in hand with the highest number of tourists. I am assuming that Americans also fall into this group, but our new friends were too nice to tell us that.

6) Italians appreciate it when you at least try to speak the language, even if they laugh at your pronunciation.

7) I definitely regret not going to the Cinque Terre. Maybe on our next trip. Although, we would like to go to southern Italy too (but not until the dollar is better!)

Writer's Strike

We leave for Italy Thursday, and have been busy getting ready for that. I've also been dead exhausted and have had morning sickness in the form of all-day dry-heaving! Good times. After we get back, I'll start posting pictures, and well, maybe just start posting something worth reading.

Who has time for this?

Really? All of you super women out there, I'd really like to know! I started (OK re-started) this thing a few weeks ago with every intention of delivering weekly, ne, bi-weekly, witty, intelligent musings of my life on the Olympic Peninsula...I don't even have pictures up yet, and in my last two (of a scant three) postings I have just talked about me being a slacker...


Oh well. We are busy gearing up for Italy- we leave in less then two weeks, and I am doing a bunch of stuff last minute because we kind of changed some plans (and simply slacked on planning). Here's to hoping my International Driver's Permit and new credit card with no foreign exchanges fees get here by March 12! Cheers!

Already slacking!

Even though we've had a busy three day weekend, I suppose I can't let it pass without posting something! We've been busy because we found a house we like, and we've been looking at it, crunching numbers, figuring out what we can sell our house for, and that sort of thing ...anyway, I am hoping for a more substantive post later this week, but until then, here's a picture of the house we're looking at...the BIG selling point for me is the water view!

It's only been 9 months since my last post and I'm already posting again!

So, it's been 9 months since my last post. Certainly my life is not so boring to have nothing to post? Anyway, I'm trying to get up and going again so I will start by doing what MHN did: I shuffled the songs in my iPod and here are the first ten that come up:

1. "Momentum" by Aimee Mann from the Magnolia soundtrack

Great song from a great album. Of course, the album is very Aimee Mann-centric, so if you're not depressed when you start it, you will be by the end! Of course, this album also gets props for reminding me of Tom Cruise in the movie, where "his character" is a crazy motivational speaker (nothing like real life).

2. "I like It" by The Dixie Chicks from Taking the Long Way

What can I say? I heart my Chicks! They are so sassy and this is their best album EVER...especially if you've seen Shut Up and Sing, one of the best documentaries about sassy songstresses ever! (If you live in a bubble, you may not know that the Chicks were ostracized, personally attacked and even threatened by crazy rednecks and Toby Keith when they exercised their right to free speech at a concert in England and verbalized displeasure over President Bush's foreign policies).

3. "Grace is Gone" by Dave Mathews Band from The Lillywhite Sessions

I don't think I could do a shuffle of my 15,000 songs without a DMD song coming up. This has nothing to do with the song, but is my favorite DMB story. When my husband and I were dating, he took me back to Charlottesville, Virginia to stay with his grandparents in their modest home (OK, the home was actually an estate with a name -Woodlawn- was built by the builder of Montecello, and was on 100 acres). For a girl born, raised, schooled, and settled in the west, a home with a name is a big deal. Anyway, we're at dinner, and Grandpa Jim says "They sold the old Klugge estate to some sort of musician or something. Have you kids hear of this Dave Mathews fellow? Apparently he must be pretty good to be able to afford the Klugge property."

4. "Riga Girls" by the Weepies from Say I am You

I am not a huge music person. I enjoy it, and there's a lot of music I like, but I'm not one of those people who "discover" bands. I leave that for my cooler friends, and then steal their finds. Well, my very cool old friend KT from college always makes me the best mix CDs with new and interesting artists. My 30th birthday CD, appropriately entitled "30, Flirty, and Fabulous" included a great song from The Weepies that made me go out and buy the album right away (OK, I got on itunes and downloaded it).

5. "Lesson 6d" from disc 2 of Italian

We're going to Italy for 10 days in March. We're really excited because it's kind of a last hurrah, before he gradates from law school in May and we try to live more grown up lives. For reals. So I was at Border's last month going through the bargain bin (of course) and got a Fodor's guide book, language supplement, and six CD language lesson for $10. That's right, folks, I said $10! So, I thought, "Hey, I'm great with languages (or not), I'll learn Italian before I go to Italy in 8 long weeks." Let's just day I'm on lesson 3 of 35 and leave it at that.

6. "Delia's Gone" by Johnny Cash from American Recordings

There are a lot of songs on my iPod that I did not put there. Last spring, Finn, our youngest, ate Nick's iPod after taking it out of his zipped up back pack. (Nick stayed surprisingly calm). So, being the wonderful wife that I am, lent Nick my iPod for Mancation 2007, yet another summer trip to Alaska. Upon his return, I noticed that my iPod had about triple the songs on it. I have since taken off many of the songs, including most of the TuPac, but left the Johnny Cash. What can I say? I'm a sucker for a man in black.

7. "Sharing Song" by Jack Johnson from the Curious George soundtrack

I am actually not a huge Jack Johnson fan- I don't hate him, just rather indifferent. So why then do I own not one, but 2 Jack Johnson albums? That would be be because Nick can never remember that I am not a huge JJ fan, and keeps buying them for me. :)

8. "So Far Away" by The Dire Straits from Sultans of Swing, disc 1

I love the Dire Staits, and this little ditty is often over-looked for the equally romantic (if you like hookers) Romeo and Juliet.

9. "Burlesque de Don Quixote", from Sighs of Love for Dulcinea

I am not cultured enough to put this on my iPod. It is part of Nick's classical music repertiore that he put on my iPod. He doesn't think it's strange that he puts this lovely classical music piece next to Kanye. Ya.

10. "Better" by Regina Spektor from Begin to Hope

This whole album is fabulous. Besides the fact that it's just plain good, it evokes good memories of a really fun trip to Oregon wine country we took last January.

I am actually surprised that more embarrassing songs did not come up. I easily could have had to list some kickin' Air Supply or even "Barbie Girl" by Aqua (it's in my work-out mix). So, hopefully I will be blogging more, so check back soon!