GarniGal's Journal:

Even if it is cold as Mars outside.

So far this morning I have stubbed my toe twice, closed a bifold door on my finger, lost Genevieve's thermos to take milk to the babysitter (at least Derek found that), tidied up for the house cleaner, and made it to work, only to hear that one of my co-workers got in a car accident on the way. He isn't hurt, but I still feel bad for all my bitching about my crappy morning.

Nothing like a bit of schadenfreude to brighten your day!

It's been far too long since I've posted. What's worse is that I haven't been reading either.

I can't really blame it on Gen - she's still an incredibly easy baby. So easy in fact that I've spent most of her first 4 months cleaning and reorganizing, with some time out for vacations. I'm recently back from a train trip to British Columbia with Gen and my parents. Derek is heading out to visit a friend for a week, and then we're both home together until the end of August when I head into Toronto with Gen for FanExpo (Nathan Fillion!)

The other time consuming event has been one of our cats. He's been peeing on the floor in multiple locations nearly every day for 2 months now. We've had him to the vet to see if there was a physical issue, we've wondered if it was jealousy of Gen, or a dominance struggle with one of the other cats...

Yesterday we took him in to get his teeth cleaned, and before they sedated him they did a blood test. Turns out he's diabetic. Between the teeth cleaning and being on a diabetic food, he hasn't peed on the floor since we got him home. Hopefully this holds.

Here's some pictures. The first three are from a photo shoot that we did when Gen was 2 months old. The photographer was the same as we had for our wedding. The last picture is AJ, the mad pee-er. :)

Today is my last day at work before mat leave. I'm so ready to be done with this.

Last weekend I went up to see my aunt in the hospital. She died last night, so I'm very glad I went.

Everything always happens at once...

We had both sides of the family over for BBQ last night. Apparently we don't invite people over just for no reason, so a few of them already had some suspicions, even before they opened the fortune cookies that said "We're having a baby!!!"

I'm due at the end of March, and finally feeling well. It's been a test of my patience, sitting on this news for 13 weeks, but well worth it.

Hey, anybody want a Christmas Card from Canada?

Leave your comment with your address. Screening is on, no worries. :)

Last night was the first of the wedding festivities - an engagement party/pre-wedding party thrown by my parents to celebrate with all of the neighbours and family friends from up home that I'm not inviting to the wedding since we're keeping the wedding smallish, and limited to close family and friends.

It was at the Wingham Golf and Curling Club, one concession over from Mom and Dad's farm. There were 120 people - every seat in the place was full, to the point that Derek and I sat at different tables. Mom and my sister-in-law did a beautiful job decorating, and the food was delicious. Mom asked D to bring DDR and a karaoke game, and he did and hooked it up, but we ended up talking all night.

It was kind of amazing to see everyone all in one place, all because of us. I've been to weddings, but I've never been on the recieving end of all that outpouring of love - what a phenomenal feeling.

We said a few words after dinner, thanking everyone for their hard work, for coming, the club for the food, the usual. Derek also spoke about how blown away he was that everyone was there for us. We got lots of compliments on our speeches, which was nice since it was totally off the cuff. After we spoke, Mom said there was a special dessert, just for Derek. He'd been pouting because we vetoed a chocolate fountain at the wedding because of the cost, the messiness and the double-dip factor. But Mom rented one just for him for last night. He looked like a kid in a candy store - it was a huge hit. Derek even dipped a piece of cheesecake in the fountain.

Basically, we had a wonderful time. :)

It's been a big year for Derek and I. Things both wonderful and scary are happening.

In April we got a new roof that we're still paying for (steel shingles, so it'll pay for itself in the long run, but steel shingles, so holy hannah that bill....)

In June we started planning a wedding.

In July we told our families we were planning a wedding (way more stressful than just planning it, let me tell you. They're happy for us, but my side at least, has opinions. Derek's side are just pleased.)

And in the past week Derek's car died (quickly - transmission blew on the way to work), and I've gotten the word that Grandma won't make it to my wedding in November.

We've been told she has 4-6 weeks left - just enough time to show her my ring, hopefully my dress, and say goodbye. Hopefully, it's fast and relatively painless for her - it'll be very painful for all of us.

This is mostly for me, so I can find this again when I need the motivation. It's an interesting overview of Knowledge Management though, and I found it spurs some ideas in fandom and other parts of my life as well.

http://blog.socialcast.com/e2sday-the-evolution-of-knowledge-management/

Getting myself ready for Ad Astra tomorrow. I've printed the map and my spreadsheet of panels to see and when, when the signings are, and when the Guest Q&As are. I've gone through my books and picked out 5 to take to get signed (4 for Mercedes Lackey, 1 for Larry Dixon (that also includes one of Mercedes'), 1 for Eric Flint (that also includes one of Mercedes') and one for Guy Gavriel Kay). I'm leaving Mercedes 2 most recent at home because they're hard-cover.

I still need to get a backpack that won't kill me when I carry all these, along with whatever I guy at the vendors.

Apparently I lied when I said I'd keep you up to date on the rest of my trip. The trip was awesome and wonderful, but the hotel internets sucked so hard that I just gave up on trying to use it.

( Denver )