Sue's Talk Was a Little Too Late for Me

Yesterday I went to work, but was home by noon. We got a heck of a snowstorm yesterday and the entire city shut down by 4:30pm - even the malls closed. Yes, ladies and gents - the malls. That's when you know the road conditions are bad.

So much has gone on since my last post. First of all, I did finally get to Newfoundland. It was, quite possibly, the WORST LANDING I'VE EVER EXPERIENCED. While I don't fly nearly as often as some of my coworkers, I have had a variety of experiences flying (including torrential downpours, emergency medical landings, turbulence that kept us seated for the entire flight...)

The winds were gusting to 150km/hr in St. John's on the 14th of January... and the pilot had to make a second attempt at the runway because of that. Those of us on the East Coast know that if you need to land anywhere in a windstorm, you want to hope that your pilot regularly flies in and out of St. John's. Those guys know what they are doing. So, while I wasn't too frightened when we were being tossed around like a paper airplane in an electric fan testing facility, I will admit that it wasn't quite like landing on a balmy, calm summer day. Gah!

I was in St. John's for a student conference. When I saw the agenda for the conference, I will admit that I was particularly interested in hearing one speaker: Sue Johanson. Some of you may know her from her American show, "Talk Sex With Sue"... but we Canadians know and love her from the "Sunday Night Sex Show" (please click that link - the photos along are worth it).

Sue captured everyone's attention the moment she walked onto the stage. She holds no punches and tells it like it is. She's frank, matter of fact and funny as heck. Her analogies, gestures and anecdotes had the entire conference room roaring with laughter... and all the while, learning things about our selves that we should have known years ago.

Did I mention that she'll be 79 this year? Oh yessiree - someone's grandma just told all the secrets!

Anyhooooo... the conference was great and the trip home was without incident, thank goodness.


In Baby News:

We had our second ultrasound on the 19th and other than the wee one being wee, all is well.

I'm only 5'1.25" and come from a family that makes not only small babies, but small people. We did have a few rather stressful days worrying about what the doctor at the FAS clinic told us, but we tried not to worry until we talked to the OB about it... a whole ten days later. Our OB told us that she is 99.9% sure that the baby is fine. We both felt like we were walking on air after that appointment.

Backtracking: We told the nurse at the U/S clinic that we didn't want to know what sex the baby was, but if it was obvious, then we probably wouldn't miss it. We do know the sex b/c a certain someone wasn't being very shy. But you'll have to wait for the next post. And if you already know, try not to shout it from the rooftops. Mr. Happy and I figured that we are incredibly bad at keeping secrets, so we decided to tell everyone the sex of the baby in advance. Plus, this guarantees that we won't get a deluge of neutral coloured things. Which isn't always a bad thing, but it's kind of nice knowing.

For those who are curious about the bump progress - here is a photo from 20 weeks + 1 day. I'll be 22 weeks on Friday.

(In case you're wondering, the shirt I'm wearing has dogs on it - it's the "Fairy Dogmother" shirt from "The Fleas Knees Tees" - given to me by my two favourite chihuahuas and the lovely lady who keeps them in kibble.

It's getting really hard to get out of bed in the morning b/c there is a 6:30am, by invitation only, party going on in my belly every day. The Mogrunt was moving the furniture back so he could dance. In fact, he tends to have parties when I'm at my desk. It's quiet awkward, explaining to my boss where the music is coming from.


In Knitting News:

I don't know if it is some sort of deranged nesting instinct or not, but I've been on a sock bender. Specifically, knitting socks for Mr. Happy. I think it's because I know that knitting for him might go by the wayside when the Mogrunt appears. The poor soul only had two pairs of wife-knit socks and as it has been quite cold out, and as I had the yarn, I decided to knit him a couple pairs of socks.

He has size 11.5 feet, so I pulled out the Opal 6-ply and had at it:

First up - orange.

Currently on the needles? Another pair of Opal 6-ply, but self-patterning. I do believe that I picked up both of these balls of yarn at Tangled Skeins' Boxing Day sale in 2007. Yoi. I would like to get a ball of chocolate brown to make him a pair of socks with orange toes & heels... but I haven't seen any locally.

I'm also working on a tiny teddy bear for the Mogrunt. It's the bear from Debbie Bliss' Baby Cashmerino book. Here's a ravelry link.

I don't have a photo to share right now as I can't seem to get my act together to take photos when the sun is shining.

Another bit of knitting that I wanted to share isn't something I made myself. It is, in fact, something my grandmother made. A couple years ago, I gave her the pattern for Catherine Vardy's felted mitts. In speaking with my cousin at Christmas time, it turns out that Catherine was a classmate of hers at Kings College in Halifax. Sing it with me - "It's a small world!"

Anyhooooo - Grammy loves this pattern and has made several pairs of mitts from it. I've made a few pairs myself, but never a pair for myself.

These are now my favourite mitts of all time. They are super warm. They kept my fingers toasty while I was walking around Signal Hill in the -27C windchill (at ground level - I'm sure it was more like -40C on top of the hill).

That's all for now!