Cheesy-Moon

Back in April for Norwescon, cuddlyeconomist swapped Easter for the 4th of July holiday with Rhys' dad, dmbergman. This meant we got to take him to the con, and that Rhys would be in Houston for his father's 40th birthday. It also meant that we would have a few days after the wedding on our own...

Project Xeres is close enough to the planned shipping date that DrB can't really fly, and we didn't want to end up stranded on one of the (lovely, I'm sure) islands sitting about waiting for a ferry back or taking a Lifeflight trip should Xeres arrive a little early. Last year for Sunfest we had visited the Oregon Coast, so it seemed like a good place to consider for a relatively short trip. Thanks to a LivingSocial.com advertisement, we booked a room at the Garibaldi Inn & Suites in Garibaldi, OR--alas, we hemmed and hawed too long and missed out on the deal itself. It was very close to the Tillamook Cheese Factory, which we had visited with Rhyser last year, but it seemed like a fun theme so we ran with it.

We put Rhys on his flight back to Houston Sunday morning, and packed up for our trip. We stopped for brunch at the Cheesecake Factory on our way out of town, then stopped in Portland at Fuddrucker's for a cheeseburger. We made it to Garibaldi a little before sundown. We wandered out for some dessert, walked half the town, and had some Blizzards at the DQ. It's a town of about 800 people, which is good because DrB was pretty tuckered out by the time we got back to the hotel.

Monday the 4th we did some shopping at the Fred Meyer in Tillamook--DrB finally dropped off her little return card for the Fred Meyer rewards card we had as a to-do for almost a year--and then visited the Tillamook Factory. Because it was a holiday, the packing operation was shut down, but we had seen it the previous year. Our breakfast that morning had been lacking in the requisite cheese, but the factory more than made up for it. We made several trips through the samples line, browsed the cheese and gift shops, and wrapped up with some ice cream.

We headed back to the hotel, and then decided to book a ticket on the little train that ran from Garibaldi to Rockaway Beach for 4th of July fireworks. The show was very well done and lasted a good half-hour or more, and the scene on the beach was pretty surreal with many hundreds of folks shooting off their own store-bought fireworks. I liked that we could see it, but was equally glad to be able to jump back on the train and get away from all the safety-fail activity down there.

Tuesday we took our time heading back to Seattle, driving through Astoria. We had considered the Goonies tour as a solidly cheesy activity, but it made more sense to really do it thoroughly with the Rhyser at some future date. It turned out the other half of Garibaldi was amusing in and of itself, they had a store called "Stuff & Things"! Alas, it didn't seem to be doing all that well. My original idea had been to have a store called "Stuff & Things" right across the street from a "Things & Stuff" which both sold the same items with randomly opposite pricing, but the purveyor of this one didn't seem to have shared my vision. We stopped to have an early dinner at the Country Cousin on the way back to Seattle, which also fit the theme.

Project Xerxes: The Fourth Trimester

We are coming down to the final stretch starting the 37th week. Since we first started the IVF process last fall, each thing has been day-by-day, week-by-week. In some sense actually having the baby seems like it will be less difficult than the path so far...

Honestly though, the whole experience so far hasn't been extremely difficult physically or medically. DrB having to cope with all those shots that first few months was a challenge, but she responded well and compared to many the IVF process went very smoothly for us. She was diagnosed with gestational diabetes a few months back and she was really frustrated by it, but it's responded well to diet and for the most part they are probably good diet changes to make and to keep for both of us.

The biggest problems have been in trying to help her manage her anxiety. She had some pretty traumatic experiences in the past, but so far it's gone reasonably smoothly. We've been pretty focused on getting past each little milestone, and at this point we've gotten past all the various planned events as well as a number of birth- and baby-related classes. The house is 99% ready--we have one more thing coming in the mail this week, and we should be in pretty good shape. We have DrB's birthday party next Saturday and tickets for Harry Potter 7.2 next Sunday, and hopefully we won't need to cancel either event to head to the hospital instead.