As many of you know, we're going to San Francisco to be with Dinomight's parents for Christmas. I think they're really excited about us coming. How do I know this? Because they keep calling us from the grocery store and asking us what kinds of products we like. It sounds like they are stocking their cupboards for our visit (which is only 4 days long) and I'm rather worried that we're going to leave them with an excess of leftover food. It's only going to be the 4 of us, and although we both like Orange Soda, I'm not sure they need to buy a 12 pack of it and a 12 pack of Sprite when we're only coming for the weekend. Today they called us from the cereal aisle and were reading off the names of the cereal and asking us which ones we liked the most. Really, anything would have been fine. I think they're experiencing empty nest syndrome, as their youngest left for a mission this past April (coincidentally on the same day that Seamus was conceived...too much information?) and their children all live with their spouses far, far away. It'll probably be very good for us to be there. They've already started spoiling their first grandson with presents and clothes, and he's still in the womb. Half of the Christmas presents they sent were for Seamus. I know I probably shouldn't be jealous of a baby...but dang.

Today I filled out all the Family and Medical Leave Act forms for my maternity leave in a month. It really made this real for me. I'm going to be able to finally take care of my house and my family, instead of having to bring home the bacon. This, needless to say, has me VERY excited. I'm going to miss my friends here at work and the perks of working here (like the free doughnut I just ate), but I can't wait to be at home. That's why I'm taking the full three months offered, and why I may be coming back just part time when I do return. I watched my mom try to do a single-parent working thing after my dad left, and it's brutal. Much better to be home when the kids get home from school and make dinners and generally just be a mom. Outside of Utah, I know that a lot of women worry about their careers first and their family second, but that was never an issue for me. If I hadn't met Dinomight, I was planning on going to medical school and diving into research, but that's not the plan that the Big Man had in mind for me. I promised myself that when I became a mom that I'd be there for my kidsI'm grateful for this year that I've spent working since we've been married because it's made me realize how much I want to be at home for my family. If it was up to me, I probably wouldn't be coming back here at all, but we need the money and the insurance too badly. Oh well. At least I like it here.

This may be my last post until December 29th when I'm back at work from California. If so, Merry Christmas to all!! I hope your holidays are as fun as mine...well, funner even. Now if I could just get Dinomight to take a break from The Board over Christmas...

Wow, I can't believe it's been 6 days since my last post. This blog is starting to sound like my journal..."Well, it's been 8 months since I last wrote and a lot has happened...we moved again..." That's how my journal entries started for about the last 10 years. Now I've got a whole new medium to neglect. I guess I brought this on myself for giving in to peer pressure.

It's not like I've been slacking, though. If you've been reading Duchess's blog you can see what I've been doing. It's been an insane week, and I'm just glad it's over. 4 day workweek this week and a 2 day workweek next week. Yay!!! Our CEO's assistant left the company to go live with her Napoleon Dynamite (really, I'm not kidding) husband in LA about 2 months ago, and he still hasn't hired a new assistant since then. According to him, he's enjoying using all of the other assistants in the company as backups. So, we set up meetings, take minutes, arrange travel, attend Board of Directors meetings, return calls, and assemble Power Point presentations for him. This man really really needs an assistant. We assistants have other jobs to do, that's why we work here. I can't believe how busy I was this last week, and I didn't do hardly any work for my own 2 bosses. I guess that's ok, though, cause then I get lovely gift baskets as a thank-you from the CEO. It had white-chocolate-covered popcorn in it. Yum.

But, Duchess already blogged about the Power Points and the busy schedule. She left the Christmas party up to me, mostly because Dynamite and :::Latro::: (hereafter refered to as Latro) kept us all very entertained making fun of the speakers. Even though Dynamite was really sick, he sucked it up and cracked jokes the whole time. I think he enjoyed himself... The party was in the Grand America hotel in downtown SLC. This is a VERY ornate 5-star hotel, and one of the best in the state. To give you an idea, each of the bathroom stalls was completely enclosed and sported a fancy crystal chandelier, a gold plate over the toilet paper, and individual cloth handtowels for drying your hands. I mean, good heavens, there were red plush seats and tons of mirrors. That bathroom was fancier and bigger than my entire apartment. I wouldn't mind moving in there!

The food was also very good, and Duchess and I went back for seconds on the mashed potatoes. They even left the skins in the potatoes; that's my favorite way to eat them. For $50 a plate, we didn't feel bad going back several times, although Duchess didn't get as much potatoes as she wanted... The entertainment was a little lacking, and we didn't win any of the fabulous prizes. What really ticked Dinomight and I off about the prizes was that there were several people who won at last year's party or at the summer party who were winning again. No fair!! How many X-Boxes does one call center employee need??? Another fun part about the evening was dressing up. We looked gorgeous, as one of the Founders commented in his speech. He said it kind of rudely, though. Saying that the women really looked good here tonight when they put the effort into getting all dressed up. What are you trying to say, buddy? We look good ALL of the time.

One of the Founders (these are the 5 guys that started and now run the company) went on and on about cutting down a christmas tree when he was a little boy and about how he peed his pants because it was warm...yadda, yadda, yadda. I guess when you're worth millions of dollars you can ramble on and your employees have to listen to you. It was still a pointless and slightly disgusting story to tell during dinner. The final speaker was a "modivational speaker" (yeah, right) who was just awful. His jokes were old and stale and just didn't fly. About 1/3 of the people left during his schpeale. Then he did a major No-No and plugged his book and his CD to be sold in the lobby afterwards. He was expressly told NOT to do that, and I wonder if he got into trouble for it. He even had the nerve to complain about his accomodations when we flew him (and his wife!!) first class from Georgia and put him up in this hotel for $250/night. I mean for pity's sake, you're getting more money for 30 minutes of rambling crap than most of us see in 3 months! At one point he said that he "had a testimony" of the product we sell. Latro and I both looked up at the same time and mouthed "test-i-mony" with incredulous looks on our faces. Needless to say, I'm really hoping they don't invite this guy back next year...

After dinner there was dancing, and that was fun. Challenging, but fun. I think pregnant people probably shouldn't dance. It just looks dumpy. At one point, Dinomight attempted to dip me but we'd forgotten that I'd put on 40 lbs. since our last dipping attempt and he promptly dropped me to the ground. That was graceful. We all danced for awhile, and then drove through the horrible fog back to my apartment, where we watched Heat Vision & Jack and The Incredibles. Fun, fun, fun. We adjourned at about 2am for the sake of those who still had to drive home and had eaten WAY too much Skittles and popcorn for their own good. All in all, a fun evening, although due to the lack of photography we have no proof that it actually happened. Maybe it was all a dream...a wonderful, steak-filled dream. Those are the best kind...

Wow, it's been almost a week since I've blogged. Time really does fly...and I don't even have the excuse of finals week as a cop-out. That's a weird phrase "cop-out". I wonder where it comes from. Hold on while I check... ***returns from googleing*** It used to mean to "take something for oneself". Then, in the 1930's it started to mean to "take the lesser charge of a crime". Then it moved to surrendering, then to making excuses. Isn't the English language amazing? :) I guess my cop-out can be the baby. He's been beating me up lately. My tummy is so tender; it feels like I've been doing crunches non-stop for the last few days. The good news is that I haven't gained any weight in the last 2 weeks. That IS good news because I've put on like 30 pounds so far, and I feel like an elephant. But they have a 2 year gestation period. NOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!! So, the little guy has been beating me up, and I've been working and doing wifey stuff like cooking and cleaning. That's a good cop-out, right? Nod your heads...go on...nod them. Excellent...

The Christmas Party is this weekend, and I'm going to look gi-normous in my red Christmas dress. My innie navel is officially an outie, and it pokes through the dress fabric. I'm telling you, it's going to look really interesting. Maybe no one will notice. If I make Dinomight shave "Merry Christmas" into his hair, and then everyone will be looking at him and not me. Hey, that could work... He's been wanting to bic his head for as long as I've known him. I just won't let him. What a great Christmas present that would be. Speaking of presents, his parents are thinking about renting us a car and having us drive to San Francisco for Christmas. Why would WE go there, instead of them come here, you ask? I have no idea. I'm the one who is 8 months pregnant. The doctor said it would be ok to drive, but it wouldn't be a great idea. I'm having nightmares about going into labor in Donner Pass and having to deliver like the pioneers, only it was more like that alien lady in Men in Black. I don't think they'd want the rental car back if I delivered in it. Eewww. Maybe they'd give it to us? Anyway, the doctor said to map out our drive by hospital with a maternity ward so that we know if it's better to turn back to the last one city when I go into labor or to push ahead to the next city (no pun intended...push...ha ha ha). Can you imagine? This road trip decision is going to take some more thought.

Duchess and I are bored at work and, with the Board down, there's nothing for us to do. We've come up with cute awards names and done all of the web surfing we can think of. Therefore, when I whined to Duchess that I needed something to do, she practically commanded me to write on my blog. And that's why we're here today.

All of the time lately in the Mynamyn/Dinomight household has been dedicated to The Board switcheroo, even at the expense of classes and grocery shopping. We only have 1/2 a box of cereal left, and if you know us (we usually have 6 boxes open at one time) that's a huge deal. I can't believe we've used up almost everything we have. Leftovers are the name of the game, now, until we finally drag our sorry butts to the store. It's not that we don't have the money or the transportation, we're just lazy. Or busy. Dinomight waits patiently for me to come home from work every night, at which time he's happy to see me. For about 5 minutes. Then he enthusiastically greets my laptop computer (work-furnished, of course) and proceeds to spend all evening with it. Well, it and The Board. Yes, I'm a Board widow. My evenings are quiet, just the tap-tap-tapping of fingers on a keyboard and the occasionally noisy car commercial on the TV that he insists on keeping on in the background. I've finished 4 books in the last 7 days. Amazing, huh? But, alas, The Board is finally done and will be launched tonight. Whatever shall we do now, you ask? Never fear, there's always a new project to work on. It might be the build-it-yourself mod chip for the Gamecube that's sitting under our bed. It might be a programming project for work or the keyless entry system that he wants to design for our 89 Mazda (waste of time, you say?? I think not).

On a different note, I'm cheap. That's just the way things are. I've already written a blog on being a cheapskate, so I won't go into that here. It's just that every so often I get reminded of how cheap I am. OK, not cheap...thrifty. Take, for example, the Christmas Party coming up. It's a formal event and I have a dress that was given to me as a birthday present. Perfect. I have some black strappy heels that I bought for my senior prom and that I never use. They'll work. Now take my friend. She just went out and bought a new dress and is considering buying new shoes just for this one event. She already has a ton of black strappy shoes that would definitely work for this, but she wants to buy another pair. I just don't understand that. She's already working 2 jobs just to make ends meet, and now she wants new clothes for a 4-hour party? The second evidence of cheapness has to do with The Board Party tonight. Instead of going out and buying forks, plates, and cups (since Duchess forgot to order them with the food), we went to the Cougareat and purloined them. I mean, honestly, spend the $1.50 for some stinkin forks. I have no idea what's wrong with me. I'm also considering just coming back to work part time in order to not have to repay my flex plan that I'll be using to pay for the birth. It is $1700 worth of medical attention that I would get for free if I lost my benefits after my maternity leave. Why am I always trying to find a way around the system? I have no idea. All I know is that I'm cheap. Oh, and now Duchess is, too, since she helped "borrow" the forks.

When the cat's away...the mice do play. Isn't that the truth. My boss is in China from the 3rd to the 8th, and I'm planning to make the most of my free time. Seeing as how my sole job is to be his assistant, I have no qualms about blogging, reading emails, surfing the web, even pulling out the book I'm currently 3/4 of the way through. He is gone. There's nothing to assist him with. Yay! It does get rather boring from time to time, but in the meantime I can just hang out and chill. Being a board writer would be ideal right now, but alas Duchess would kill me if I started logging on as Dinomight and answering questions. She'd be able to tell right off when I spelled words like "writer" correctly and didn't answer any technology-related questions. So I'm stuck taking "Executive Lunches" and going home early to play with my hubby. We're right in the middle of the new Prince of Persia game. It's really fun. I like to watch him play games while I read my books. Every so often I help him out with a particularly difficult puzzle or series of events in his games. I really want to learn how to knit/crochet so that I can stop wasting so much time watching TV and being unproductive.

So, we just found out that Dylan's older, incredibly competitive sister is pregnant. They got married 2 years before we did, but weren't trying for a baby until they found out we were pregnant. It's taken them 4 months, but they finally did it. In a manner of speaking... Well, good for them. I'm still having the first grandchild. She just didn't want to get left behind in the Great Baby Race that we didn't really want to enter. The real kicker is that they live in Phoenix. That means her last trimester is going to be spent in Arizona heat during June, July, and August. Heaven help this girl. I'm not sure why they picked this time to start having children. They're both still finishing their undergraduates, they have 2 VERY unreliable cars (which they keep wrecking), they're living in his Aunt's house while she's on a mission (but she comes back in the next few months), they can't really afford to pay rent or eat...It just seems like a bad time to start a family. We're not much better off, but at least one of us is working full time and we have a pretty good savings account built up. Plus I get to keep my incredible insurance during my maternity leave. What in heavens name are they thinking?!?!?!? Silly sister-in-law...it's not a contest!!!

It's amazing what you forget about living in Happy Valley. For instance, Benvolio's blog today was on cigarettes and smoking. I totally forgot that cigarettes exist. Every once in awhile (when I was on campus) I'd walk by the ever-present construction site and smell cigarette smoke and remember "Oh yeah, there are people out there intent on destroying their bodies with this junk." Working in a building where 98% of the people are mormon, though, one doesn't run into too many tobacco junkies. I also forget about things like expensive produce, dangerous streets, murders, humidity, major traffic, swearing, and things of that nature. I guess it really is a bubble here. Do I like it? Sure. Do I want to live here much longer? Nope. Will I miss it? Maybe.

Tangent 1: Kids
Today is a happy day for some reason. Maybe it's because I remembered my prenatal vitamin last night and it has given me an energy boost. Maybe it's because I'm finally busy at work and that makes the day go by so much faster. Maybe it's because when I went Visiting Teaching last night we arrived about 1/2 an hour before the girl was heading to the hospital to have her labor induced and I realized that I'm not that far away from being done with this pregnancy myself. It's nice to hang out with girls who have had or are having babies soon. The advice they give is priceless, and their kids are usually cute. Like the 2-year-old son of one of my teachees. He likes to put on Adult Size Isotoner gloves and carry around a bouncy ball that he calls "the snitch". He'll throw it against the wall and then run after it shouting "get snitch, get snitch". Is that adorable or what? Ok, so not so adorable when we're trying to give a spiritual lesson, but still cute as heck. I told Dinomight that if our baby isn't cute then I'm returning him to the hospital and expecting a full refund. Can you imagine if we get a jock, or a drama geek? How in the world will Dinomight relate to him if he doesn't like electronics/computers? We'll just have to train him early...

Tangent 2: Bathroom Etiquette
This morning I walked in the restroom (see #2 in the Cliches list below) and there was a girl already in there (don't worry, it's a public/multi-stalled restroom). Anyway, she started asking me The Questions (see #4 below). Now I was happy to answer them, but I really really had to pee. So I try to answer them as fast as I can, and then head into a stall thinking that she'll take the hint, finish washing her hands, and leave. Bathroom Etiquette, right? Don't talk to strangers while they're peeing? Well apparently she hadn't read that part of the etiquette book because she just kept on asking questions and yammering away. Meanwhile, I'm trying to relax my aching, overfull bladder enough to pee (is this too much information??) and have a conversation with this person at the same time. Talk about uncomfortable. I'm not saying that I've never talked to someone through the stall wall before, but usually they're a friend or relative. Heck, Dinomight and I leave the bathroom door open at home, but mostly because he's in there for like 20 minutes at a time and he gets lonely. So, I'm no stranger to having bathroom conversations, but come on...with a complete stranger about something which is none of her business?? Have a heart, lady, I'm dying in here...And what is with those people who talk on the cell phone in the bathroom? Talk about distracting and disgusting. Does your friend really want to hear the inner workings of your bowel as you discuss whether that guy you like winked at you at Ward Prayer or if he just had something in his eye? Have a heart, people, there are others of us in here who need peace and quiet if we're ever going to get the job done.

Tangent 3: Duchess's Department
Today I'm mad at Duchess's entire department. I guess mad is the wrong word...more like insanely jealous. They left work at 11:30am this morning to go watch National Treasure, then have lunch at Cafe Rio, then go play games for the rest of the day at someone's house. It's their "Christmas Celebration". I guess this is in addition to the Company Christmas Party on the 18th. In any case, they get paid for a full day, and all of the movie/food expenses are also comped. What is my department doing, you ask? Nothing. I AM my department. I have no group of people to go out to lunch with...just me and my boss. He often goes out with other departments, but I'm never invited. Duchess's group goes out whenever one of them has a birthday. My boss gave me a raise for my birthday and some movie tickets, but no lunch or anything. He's not exactly a people person, I guess. The only time I've ever gone out to lunch with him was my very first day, and we went with a department who had just hired 3 new people as well. So, in short, I'm jealous of Duchess and her fun Wednesday...