Vancouver: Day Two

I have become a wolf.

I have marked my territory up and down Vancouver. If we've been in a building, I've used the restroom. No, I'm not kidding. Doesn't matter how long we're there for - I'll make time to visit the restroom. Perhaps I should have photographed them?

Anyway, we woke up early and shuffled over to Caffe Artigiano for Sunday brunch, which was yummy. Considering that it's only 3 blocks away, it's a slow process getting there. Fortunately the food was yummy and the line was short - seems that 9am on a Sunday is early by local standards in the city. However, when you're pregnant, it's never too early to eat.

We finally picked up a recent guide book to let us know all about the things that I can't walk fast enough to get to and chose to visit the Vancouver Aquarium, via taxi.

Eric asked if I could walk the 10 blocks to get there and I goggled at him. Considering that the twins have officially objected to almost any walking, the concept of walking 10 blocks is completely out of the question. So we took a cab down and had a very nice time.

We saw quite a few jelly fish, a lot of tourists and beluga whales.

Eric, under the sea.

Underwater gardening.

Turtles! Or as my mother-in-law would say, "Tur-ulls!" Da Bronx, baby. Da Bronx.

Tiny sea eels. They looked like wires.

I have no idea what this thing is, but you would never want to encounter it in the water.

Ssssssnake.

Nappin' parrot.
Otters! Doing cute little human things with their hands! And wrasslin' other otters.

Beluga whales. Those things are big!
Heron or crane? Either way, it was waiting for the Beluga whale show to start, too.
Belugas like to shake hands.
And eat hands.
"You're a handsome devil? What's your name?" [Name that movie!]*

Oh and Pacific white-sided dolphins. They were awesome!

Snacks!

Jumping like mad.
Jellies!I can't even begin to tell you how this picture in picture pleases me!

See through jellies.

Barnacles! Who knew they were so brightly colored?

A third, puffy white jellyfish.

Cool detail.

We plan on going back to Stanley Park tomorrow and taking it a bit at a time. I'm not prepared to hike all over the bloody thing in one go, but I can do a little bit here and a little bit there. So long as there are frequent potty and sitting breaks, that is. Fortunately there's a horse drawn carriage tour that we'll be trying out. That ought to be fun! No walking, yet touring still occurs - I love it!

For dinner, we went swank and ate at C Restaurant, where the food was pretty, the waiter's did their dance, the servings were small but filling and the food was memorable. Being a yuppie/foodie rocks for just this reason. The only downside is the expense. Le Sigh!

Eric at C's restaurant. Also looking very swank.

Eric's dinner: seared sea scallops, with white carrots and white baby beets, an eggplant sauce with flash fried sage leaves.

Hatchet's dinner: halibut topped with crab and a micro salad, over melted leeks with prawns over golden potatoes. Yum!

This surprised me. This is a stainless steel swanky spork! For dessert eating, dontcha know.

Eric's dessert: chocolate brownie over a cookie base, topped with a chocolate mousse and a scoop of orange brandy cream ice cream.

Hatchet's dessert: rhubarb galette, in a pool of raspberry cream sauce, topped with vanilla ice cream and an almond tuile cookie. Rhubarb never tasted so good!

The marina outside C.

We considered going down to the Canada Place convention center and walking around the piers, but I was too tired and swollen to continue on. Instead we drove back to the hotel and drew a nice relaxing bath. Our trip is low on action, but has been very nice otherwise.

Oh and it stopped raining yesterday while we were at the aquarium! Incredible! We were even able to ascertain that Vancouver really does have mountains!

Well, time for a nap. It's raining again. I find it charming and am glad I don't actually live here full time. All I'd ever do would be to sleep - rain makes me sleepy.

*Grosse Pointe Blank. Hey, if Val gets When Harry Met Sally, I claim dibs on GPB!

Vancouver: Day One

Considering that we had all day Friday to pack, sans interruptions from Small Monkey, why do you suppose we were up at midnight packing?

Because that's how we roll at Chez Hatchet, of course.

I spent the majority of the day dealing with plants. I swapped hundreds of plants out from solid bottom flats to web flats in order to place them in the grass where they would get watered over the coming week by the sprinkler system. Then I got Eric to take them all down into the yard - the somewhat branch strewn yard. I took 4 flats down myself and my back immediately started hurting.

Hello! Why yes, I am pregnant, aren't I?

After that, the remainder of the day was spent mixing up seedling starter mix and then potting up 7 flats of seedlings. It's time for herbs, now that all of the initial plantings are out of the house and growing on. I seeded:

1. Basil 'Fino Verde'
2. Basil 'Purple Petra'
3. Basil 'Siam Queen' (Yes, that is a lot of basil!)
4. Tarragon
5. Italian Flat Leaf Parsley
6. Summer Savory
7. French Thyme

Then, suddenly it was 10 o'clock at night and I needed to pack. The alarm was set for 4:45am with an 8:25am flight time. Ugh!

Considering that we got to the airport two hours early, we made it to the plane with only 10 minutes left before departure. How is this possible? Well, when your government institutes ridiculous rules about gels and liquids it means that everyone now has to check all of their luggage. The line that forms to check your luggage at 6:45am on a Saturday is the sort of line one usually sees outside a concert hall. It was the line to get in the line to check your luggage.

Oh yes, it was fun!

By the way, there's an additional line for those poor folks that packed all of their stuff a little too heavily into one bag. That line you get to stand in after you've already stood in the giant initial checked luggage line. I don't recommend it. Fortunately, we thought it might be a possibility and packed two bags. I figured that if I could lift the bag, it couldn't be over 50 lbs. As it is, I can barely carry a 14 lb cat up the stairs without being winded, so I thought I'd be a pretty good judge of the bag weight. Turns out that I was correct.

We then zipped (quickly hobbled) off to blow 10 minutes on eating breakfast and then hurried to go stand in the giant snaking security line. They still make you take your bloody shoes off. I still think it's a waste of time and that they ought to have either a) come up with an automated way of checking your shoes while they remain on your feet or b) given up on the idea by now.

More fast hobbling to our gate and then the long sitting. I asked the nice young lady on the aisle seat if she'd switch with me since I have the giant medicine ball out front which meant I would be making many trips to the restroom. She gladly agreed. Which was a good thing, since I was up every half hour like clockwork. I watched my feet swell up and my tendons disappear. I removed my brand new Teva's (They're fabulous! Why haven't I owned some of these before now?) and watched the strap lines fill in. Bleah. I had brought my 32 oz bottle with me that we filled once past security which helped on the flight. A lot.

After a few hours and several cat naps, we landed in Vancouver.


It was overcast and drizzly and a little chilly, but I didn't mind. There was something different about the place. I could tell right away. I could almost smell it.

Then it hit me:

OXYGEN!

They have oxygen here! Ahhhh!

And - wait! What's that other thing? It's in the air, all around us. I can almost remember it...there's a word for it?

Oh yeah:

MOISTURE!

This water that falls out of the sky, it falls gently for hours out here and leaves the place...you know, moist!

My nose decided to argue the point and began bleeding once I made it to the restroom in the airport, just outside of customs. However, it seems to have been surprised by the lingering humidity inside the building, because it stopped bleeding almost immediately instead of running on for 20 minutes. It was...miraculous!

More walking to get to the car. Then driving. Then we were at our destination.

The Metropolitan Hotel.

Oooh! Ahhh!





View out the window.




Eventually there was lunch (Hot chocolate - they had no chai!, Caesar salad, seared scallops on a bed of crab and leek risotto and for dessert: a teasingly small scoop of huckleberry sorbet with lemon verbena [Seriously yummy!], an itty bitty huckleberry panna cotta and a tiny huckleberry tart.), of which I have no photos, sorry! The food was very very pretty and very very yuppie, just the way I like it. I had a cat nap while Eric determined what we would do in the rain drenched city on our first night. He decided on a movie that we had to hobble quickly to get to.

In the rain.

On foot.

Without an umbrella.

The twins decided to make their displeasure felt directly and that's when the Braxton-Hicks contractions began. My fast hobble turned into a decidedly slow hobble and then a limp. The theatre is only 4 blocks from our hotel, but they became really looooong blocks, as far as my speed was concerned. My ankles continued to swell.

Damn that George Clooney and his zippy looking new movie!

Needless to say, it sold out while we waited in line to get tickets, so we bought the tickets for the 7:40pm showing instead and then slow hobbled back to the hotel. Somehow we wound up in a fantastic little coffee shop called Caffe Artigiano and got a chai and a cappuccino there, along with dozens of other damp folks. The place was packed! There was a line out the door. The latte art was superb and Eric was making little excited noises about watching the baristas make his cappuccino. He was very impressed. As we continued our short yet long walk back, we noticed there was a Sears along the way that we oozed into, dripping, and bought an umbrella. Slightly drier, we continued back to the hotel in slow motion, while I chanted I'm fine! I'm fine! I'm fine! in my head. I peeled off my shoes and now have my feet propped up, admiring my cankles (That's not a typo: calves + ankles = cankles) and drinking lots and lots of water.

I suspect that Eric will be driving me the 4 blocks later, returning the car to the hotel and then walking over to meet me. Either that or we need to start walking...now. It's 6:30pm, local time.

How was your day?

We're goin' on vaca-shunnnnn!

We're goin' to Vancouver*.

Without Caitlin.

For a week!

Don't miss me too much. See you in a week!




* Will I ever have pictures for you when I get back!

Last Day of School!

Today was Caitlin's very last day of kindergarten.

We've come a long way since the first day!

• She's made friends.
• Survived bullies.
• Tamed the bullies.
• Fought with friends.
• Made up again.
• Went into her shell at the beginning when she didn't know anyone and came out of it again and stopped reading books in the corner to avoid the other kids (I can't imagine where she gets that from?!).
• Got better and better at reading (GRI 5, baby! I'm still trying to figure out what that means. Somewhere around 4th or 5th grade level, I think.)
• Got really involved with music and art.
• Got much better at playing in gym, although she still won't do anything that feels like she's in competition (i.e. running races).
• And lots more!
  

It's been good and bad; up and down. And now? Now she's in Crested Butte for a week with Grammy while we get ready to go to Vancouver! Yay!

Child-free for a week! Well, at least free of the sort that drags their feet about brushing their teeth. The remaining children are safely under wraps and can't talk back (yet), although they do make me uncomfortable in more physical ways.

Caitlin had an end of school party. Here she is showing me how she can ignore the teacher on her last day of school, along with friend D.
Ice cream sundaes, gummy bears and cookies. Oh my!Caitlin with her friend discussing the merits of said Gummy Bears.We then left and came back to get her after school. Grammy had sent a present for her very last day. That Grammy knows her stuff!

Opening.
Reacting.
Displaying.
Then it was time to say goodbye to her favorite teacher, Mrs. M., but not until after she got a chance to show off her latest acquisition.One teacher can make all the difference in a child's life and this one made Caitlin's first year go a whole lot better than it might have otherwise. She's a great woman, Mrs. M!
As we were leaving, we ran into L, Caitlin's 5th grade buddy. They really hit it off together and I think they're going to be penpals this summer! L's mom raves about Caitlin and how well L gets along with her while I rave about how much Caitlin loves L. It's a mutual admiration society!
They were paired up because they had a great deal in common, the uncommon reading level was part of it. I hope Caitlin some day returns the favor to some unsuspecting kindergartener!

Ahhh, the end of school. The beginning of summer. A short vacation. A chance to escape.

I hope your summer goes smashingly!

The wind in the trees

Last night we had a really powerful wind storm. I've no idea just how fast it was going, but reports were between 55 and 100 mph. In my backyard it was crazy - the trees were whipping all over, branches were breaking and flinging themselves into my yard from the neighbors trees and I was frantically taking my flats of plants off the table and putting them on the deck.

I've never been so grateful for having removed my 3 weedy trees as I was last night. All around town today there are trees ripped out of the ground, split in half (or thirds or quarters...), or shoved over really hard, yet still in the ground. Their death will be slower than those that got ripped out, but unless someone comes and resets them, they're goners. In my yard, instead of what we would have normally faced with the weedy trees, we just have a few smaller branches (4') here and there from the trees next door. Wow! My fuchsia, that I'd hung from the branch of one of my ash trees got whipped around and around, but never fell or ripped the plant out of the pot.

Eric went out and removed the umbrella entirely, just in case it was likely to catch more wind, in it's strapped down state and take the table with it (again). I think I lost a few plants, but not a lot of them - some had the vegetative growth ripped right off. Ah well.

Eric even made a video of it. I'll see if he can post it later.

Contained excitement

Remember when I went plant shopping and then promised you pictures? Well, here they are, finally.

Here is my pot filled with sedums.
In the very front there's one tiny Dichondra 'Silver Falls' that I grew from seed. These plants are all perennials and so I should be able to put them into the ground in the fall. Or someone will. They are individually really cute, if you can call a plant cute, and together they look smashing. I love that they're all in the same plant family and yet look remarkably different.

The plant in the middle is Sedum spurium 'Tricolor'.
The plants at 10 o'clock and 4 o'clock are Sedum pachyclados 'Rosette'.
The plants at 7 o'clock and 12 o'clock are Sedum album 'Murale', the one that's listed as being invasive right on the tag!
Finally, in the 3 o'clock position, we have Sedum hispanicum 'Purple Form'.
To the left of the doorway, in the pots that I spent big money on, I have a Murale in one small pot on the left and 2 Purple Forms plus 2 Silver Falls in the small pot to the right.
The big pot is the one that I stuffed full of plants that I'd grown from seed. The four corners are filled with Silver Falls, the 4 sides with lobelia 'Riviera Splash', one heliotrope in the middle front with coleus 'Mosaic' on either side and behind it is a Chinese fountain grass.

Click the image for a really BIG close up.

We'll see how all of that fills in over the course of the summer.

Just so you know, the soil doesn't go all the way down in the really big pot. That seemed really wasteful, so I filled it halfway with packing peanuts. Good reason to keep those things around! Save on potting soil, help with drainage and make the pot easier to move, if you need to. Although not this one, it's ceramic and is crazy heavy. I potted it in situ so I wouldn't have to move it at all.

Here's a picture of last year's pot. It's the same pot that has the sedum currently in it, but was jammed full of lots of different things last year. Probably a few too many!

Click the image for a really BIG close up.

There were 2 heliotrope, 2 agastache 'Apache Sunset', 1 guara, 3 or 4 Russian stonecrop and some number of lobelia 'Riviera splash'. The lobelia was overrun by the sedum and didn't make it through the rest of the summer. The heliotrope and agastache were scented and made walking out the front door delectable! You could smell the heliotrope from the foot of the stairs, which is why I wanted another one in my pot this year. I'm hoping that this year's plants will do really well and that I haven't overloaded it again. I can't seem to find any info on just how many plants are just right or too many or not enough to go in my pots.

We'll see!

Gardening is all about patience.

Watery Tart

Here are a couple of pictures of what I've been working on in the yard.

Ahhhh...water features!

Here is my fountain, created a few years back. A couple of days ago Eric helped me to empty it out and then refill it. I ripped out bunches of lamb's ears that was encroaching on its space, cleaned the rocks, threw in some mosquito killer stuff and put down some mulch in front as a placeholder for where I'd like some ground cover plants. Maybe some ajuga?
It makes very relaxing sounds. If only I had time to just hang out and listen?

Here is my pond that Eric and I dug the enormous holes for last fall and installed the water plants a week ago. The plants surrounding it were moved into place last fall.

Close up to show you the 'Afro' hard rush (crazy looking Dr. Seuss plant), 'Red Fox' curly sedge, 'Conqueror' red water lily (in the top bowl) and 'Madame Wilfron Gonnere', a pink water lily (in the bottom bowl). I'm debating whether or not to plug the pump in and run the waterfall or if that would disturb the plants too much.

The rush and sedge started out as a single plant each, but upon getting them home I decided that they needed to be potted up. During the said potting up on Sunday, I noticed that both of them were incredibly root bound! So I broke out a very sharp knife and cut each plant in half and repotted those. Now I have matching marginal water plants with each lily, two for the price of one! In the fall I'll have to figure out how to over winter them indoors. Maybe in the bathtub in the basement? Hmmm....

What a real breakfast looks like

Remember this?

Well, here's the antidote.
Freshly made Belgian waffle (made by Eric), organic blueberries, organic raspberry sauce (made by me), fresh organic whipped cream (also by me), 3 slices of organic bacon and organic skim milk from the local dairy.

MmmmmmMMMMmmm!

Now that is breakfast.

Just thought you should know that this is where my bar is set for waffle expectations and thus the utter revilement of the previously pictured waffle.

The Medicine Ball and Me

I've decided that it isn't a beach ball stuffed up under my shirt.

No, not that.

Instead, I'd say it's a medicine ball. It's heavy, hard and is larger than a beach ball. It's getting bigger, too. And it itches. I have no idea if medicine balls itch, but mine does!

I think it scared Kate, too. : )

The only thought that I have left to sustain me is: "At least it's not triplets!"

I finally gave in today and bought a few pieces of maternity gear. It's hard to know what size to buy. Extra large looks really big and yet I know I'm not going to remain the size I am right now for much longer. Out of the two lots of clothes I was given (one by my neighbor and one by Misty), the majority of their bigness was in the fall. So I have a good selection of maternity gear for September/October (because it's not like I'm going to deflate like a balloon back to a size 8/10 after they are born, is it?), but very little to get me through the summer months.

Shopping for maternity gear feels like I'm throwing money away: you know you only need it for a little while, but nothing else works. And there's always the possibility that I'll need an even larger size in another month.

Eek!

Baby update: Someone (most likely Emma), went spelunking up under my right ribcage. I was leaning back in the passenger seat when I got this weird pressure up high, under my ribs. Oof! Finding nothing of interest there, she climbed (swam?) back down. Phew!

Bits and Pieces

Not being able to breathe is scaring me. It also makes me feel like crying. This isn't going to get any better until I give birth. That thought makes me feel like crying, too.

The babies are kicking regularly, so that's a good thing. Except for when they shove so hard under my skin that I feel bruised from the inside out.

We had our best weekend yet at The Market. People keep commenting on how much they love our name and that our plants look very happy. Now if only they'd buy more plants! We're kind of tucked away off the main strip with a handful of other new sellers, so we become an after thought.a On the bright side, after we've chatted people up, they often promise to check back in with us "next time" to see what we have. Repeat customers. That's the ticket!

I had a horrible scare on Thursday. Heather and I had just come back from a trip to a CPA (who spoke to us for free for two hours!) when I looked out the back window and noticed the table with the umbrella was knocked over and the dozens and dozens of plants that had been on it were crashed into the dozens of plants the table was lying edge on top off. The umbrella broke its fall on a chair and the grill (which also had plants on them), so the devastation wasn't total. I hollered out, "Oh crap!" (I'm such a mom! Check out that bad language control!) and ran outside to go to the rescue. Fortunately for me, other than some snapped tops (argh!) and a lot of spilled soil (Weeks more to recover in time for sale! Argh!), it wasn't too awful. Seems we'd had some sort of micro burst freaky wind thing while no one was around. Yes, the umbrella was up and it had caught the wind. Yes, one of the spars is bent. Ack. No pictures. Too distraught to take any.

Still no hummingbirds sighted. Very very sad Hatchet. I've got 3 different honeysuckles in bloom! Keys of Heaven! Sage! Rocky Mountain penstemon! Red penstemon! Columbine! Fuchsia! A feeder! Come on!

Saw my first sphinx moth of the season last night! This helps to alleviate the Lack of Hummingbird Depression. The moth was drinking nectar from my Japanese honeysuckle (Lonicera purpurea). Yay! I'll have to try to get my own picture of it, since there appear to be a bunch of different kinds of sphinx moths. Mine was just fast and brown/gray.

I keep getting really awful bloody noses. It's as if I have to bleed from one end or the other! And when I get one, I bleed for a loooooong time. It's not pretty. It's especially not pretty when it wakes you up in the middle of the night....

We're going on vacation soon. Caitlin will soon be out of school for the summer and hanging with Grammy for a week and a half. Eric and I will be all alone...eating our way - slowly - across Vancouver and Victoria. I hear there are botanical gardens and tea houses that I must visit.

My yard is really starting to come together. And yet I still have a huge list of things to do. Or pay someone to do.

Le Siiiiiigh!

Updated: Just minutes after completing this post, I went to the bathroom and spent 20 minutes trying to not bleed all over myself. Joy!

OMG! I'm such a geek!

I had to share this with you:

lolbots

Which is a play on:

lolcats

I'm such a geek that I get a lot of the robot references. Aieee!

This one made me smirk loudly.

Geek girlz RULE!

Doctor! Doctor!

Went to my 21 week check up today. Oh the things you learn!

Weight: +36 lbs
Fundal height: 29"
Heart rates: ~150s
Babies: 2 (still)

We're still not within anyone's window of viability, should anything go horribly wrong at this moment. The first stage of beginning external, NICU supported viability is around 24 weeks. The same time period when women pregnant with twins are grounded from flying. You know how Misty got on an airplane at 37 weeks? They'd never let me near the airport at 37 weeks!

Then again, by the time I reach 37 weeks, I imagine I'll either be signed up for my c-section or laying in a bed somewhere wishing I was having a c-section!

By the way, the doc casually mentioned that I appear to be at 35 weeks. Yay me! I look and feel like and 8 month-er, but I've got 3.5 more to go!

ARGH!

No talk about bed rest, but she did tell me to keep an eye out for early labor signs and to take it easy. Oh and to get a Prenatal Cradle - belly band thingy. I'm also searching for comfortable maternity bras. The larger size regular bras I'd picked up? Too small already. Not having any idea of a) just how big I'll get when I'm at full size or b) how big I'll get when my milk comes in, it's all a crap shoot as to what size bra to get right now. Let me just tell you, though, I'm way past letters that I'm used to seeing in my lingerie drawer!

Twenty weeks and all is well!

"Well" being a relative term.

Personally, I don't think I'm gonna make it. I'm already crazy uncomfortable, breathless, tired, achy, itchy!, hot, grumpy and HUGE. I limp as soon as I stand up. I waddle when I first start walking. Emma shoves so hard right underneath my bellybutton that I feel bruised from the inside. I can't sleep through the night and I'm only half way done!

How huge? This huge:
No, really, check this out:
People, I'm full of baby! And my toes are long gone. There's no point in even trying to photograph it - it's belly all the way down.

Check it out - pregnancy progression! That's 12, 16 and 20 weeks.
Click on the image for the large version.

By the way, Misty:

I'm in ur clothes, bein' preggers!

Thanks! It's like Xmas, only better because it's all for me!

I'm sorry if I'm whining, but holy frijoles! This being pregnant with twins is a whole lot worse than a singleton! I didn't get this whiny until the 8th month last time! Argh! And trust me, every woman complains miserably towards the end of their pregnancy. You can't be human and not complain when you feel like this.

At market, people can't help but notice the beach ball I have stuffed under my shirt and they ask the inevitable question: "When are you due?". When I respond with "End of September." I feel compelled to add, "I'm having twins." Then their eyes bug out of the heads and the comments come pouring in - generally all size or luck based.

"You're huge!"
"You must be so excited!"
"You're so lucky! I've always wanted twins!"
"Wow...!"

I have finally reached the acceptance stage of I'm-going-to-have-twin-ness and am sometimes even excited, but Oy! Four more months?!

I'm going to need more ice cream.