My first time in New Orleans was a whirlwind trip for work. I arrived late on Sunday and left late on Tuesday. I spent most of my time there in a convention center. In my bit of free time, I had dinner at Tableau in the French Quarter, beignets at Cafe du Monde and strolled down Bourbon Street. What a tease to be on Bourbon Street when 8 months pregnant. I wanted to join the crowds bar hopping, but instead just enjoyed watching them be enjoy the night and be a bit (or a lot) ridiculous. I would love to go back with Lucas (and the baby) to get to the know city a lot more, really experience the culture, take in some amazing jazz and of course, eat more!
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Week 32 Recap
My 32 week appointment went well. We really like the new doctor we met. Three down, two to go! She cleared me for flying, which meant I didn't have to bail on my clients at work. It also meant Spud and I got to go to New Orleans for the first time! Week 33 Preview The week is off to a rough start. Standing and walking around most of the day at a trade show in New Orleans isn't the best idea for an 8-month pregnant lady. Neither is running through the Houston airport to catch your connecting flight. That's right - imagine a pregnant lady running through the airport with suitcase in tow. The week can only go up from here, right? Baby Bump I'm sure I look bigger than I did two weeks ago, but I don't really feel bigger. That's probably a good thing. I traveled to Orlando for work this week - which led me to a delicious dinner at Emeril's Tchoup Chop. I have never eaten at any of his restaurants before and was excited to check one out. I ordered the Misoyaki Salmon with mushroom risotto. Oh my, it was amazing! The salmon was so tender and the flavors worked wonderfully together. For dessert, I ordered the cinnamon caramel apple cheesecake dumplings. They were perfection! The inside was a creamy mix of cinnamon, caramel and apples. The cheesecake dip added that extra sweetness. The dumpling was crispy but not overcooked. Not kidding, I could have eaten three servings. All the hype around his restaurants is legit!
After gorging on delicious American food for Thanksgiving, just two days later it was time to give thanks for amazing Mexican food. I was visiting my brother-in-law and his fiancé in an exotic place called Maryville, Mo when we stopped for lunch at a little place called La Bonita. As college students at Northwest Missouri State, it's safe to say they'd eaten at La Bonita a few times.
I ordered none other than the Burrito La Bonita with chicken, rice, refried beans and queso. The burrito was very affordable - $7.00 - compared to a side of queso at $3.75. Although the queso was really good, not sure it was worth half the burrito. The other seven people I was with thoroughly enjoyed their meals as well. The chips and salsa were nothing special and, unfortunately, being five months pregnant I was unable to try a margarita. I like to think it would have been delicious. It's a good thing I like football. I married into a football fanatic family. My brother-in-law was a national champion football player at Northwest Missouri State. When I met him, he was a graduate assistant coach for Northwest. I was able to catch one game to see him in action on the sidelines. Last year, Lucas and I made the trek up to Menomonie, Wisc. to watch him coach the Wisconsin Stout Blue Devils - his first "real" job. It was November, rainy, cold and crappy. I spent half the game in the bathroom using the hand dryer to stay warm. This year, he made the move to Iowa Western Community College in Council Bluffs. The program has been in existence for less than a decade - and they are already national champions in the NJCAA. The temperature was pushing 90 degrees, not a cloud in the sky and I over dressed. I spent half the game standing in the shade next to the concession stand where there was a strong breeze.
Maybe the next game will be overcast and 70. I can only hope... Oh, Class of 2004. It's been 10 years since many of us have been together, and it will be another 10 years until we are. The turnout for our 10 year reunion was pretty low. I'd gander an estimate of 50 in attendance, and that includes spouses and significant others. That would be an awesome turnout if our class was 100 people, but I graduated with nearly 700. I did not know all 700 people, so I was pleasantly surprised when I actually remembered everyone's face who was there. Names were a bit more tricky. It was nice to catch up with people I'm not connected with on social media. It was even nicer to hang out with two of my favorite ladies who happened to help plan the reunion.
I'm not sure why attendance was so low. Maybe because many people are connected on Facebook. Maybe because many people still hang out with their high school friends and didn't care to see other non-friends. Maybe people hated high school and never want to think about it again. Maybe it was a bad weekend. Maybe people didn't think they made enough of themselves to go back. Maybe people thought they were too cool. Who knows. Maybe we'll have a 20 year reunion - maybe not. Best wishes to my fellow classmates for the next 10 years and beyond! In honor of my dear friend's impending nuptials, a dozen of us helped her celebrate the end of her single days in style in the beautiful San Diego. I've been to San Diego several times over the past several years on family vacation, but I've never spent time in the Gaslamp Quarter. I was not only excited to see my friend for the first time in over a year, but to explore downtown San Diego. We stayed at the Westin and were able to walk to dozens of bars, clubs and restaurants. I was happy to find most don't have cover charges and the drinks weren't terribly priced. To make things extra special, the bride-to-be bought a new school Polaroid camera, which provided us some quality entertainment. We showered her with typical bachelorette gifts and added one sentimental item. Each girl invited to the party could add photos and write a message to the bachelorette in a photo album. It was a great idea to make the weekend even more memorable. Thanks to San Diego and all the other girls for a wonderful time!
I love travelling, and I'm usually not too picky about where I'll go. I sure wasn't going to turn down the opportunity to spend a week in San Diego. I've been there three other times with my family, but I haven't been now since 2009. My parents landed the day before me and set up a little sailing excursion for us. I literally left the airport and jumped on a sailboat called the Californian. The Californian is a replica of a ship that sailed in the 1800's on the west coast during the Gold Rush. It was quite a big sailboat fitting 50-60 of us yuppy tourists aboard. Raising those sails is no easy feat. In fact, the tourists are allowed and encouraged to help hoist them up. My mom and I passed, but my dad got in on the action. They kept the engine running until we got out of the harbor into open seas. Unfortunately, the wind wasn't in our favor. The calm waters rocked us back and forth like a sitting duck for an hour. I never get seasick, but this got to me. I laid down on the quarter deck, took a little snooze and woke up when we got back into the harbor. Somehow the wind picked up inside the harbor and got us up to three knots. At the end of the ride, they fired guns (little canons that are not called canons) into the ocean. They warned us it would be very loud and sure enough it managed to set off a car alarm or two a half mile away. Overall, it was a fun experience, but I would have been just fine if it was only an hour ride rather than two. There's a lot of ways you can spend any given Saturday morning. Sleeping in, visiting family and binge watching my TV show du jour are the usual suspects. However, this Saturday morning was different; I was going to pull a UPS airplane. My first trip for work to North Carolina was quite the experience. One of our clients is located in Statesville, which is about 45 minutes north of Charlotte. The four day trip included meeting product managers and dealers and learning the ins and outs of all the products. We spent some time in the classroom and also got some hands-on time.
I took a turn trying to work the rammer. Let's say just I'm glad I left with all of my toes. That "little guy" hits the ground with such force I probably could have lost a toe or two if it accidentally compacted my foot. If I gave it more than a 10 second go, I might have even gotten the hang of it. While I may never be a construction worker, who doesn't love playing with big power tools? |