Month: August 2009

….is no more.

Perhaps you have already noticed. Perhaps you never even noticed that we did that site in the first place. We just got tired of going to new places that sucked. However, apparently we couldn’t help but go to one more crappy place.

Behold, The Mayan.

Are you a fan? Sorry to burst your bubble if you are but we are definitely not. Let’s review.

We went on a Friday evening around 5:30pm and there was no wait. That was a plus (mostly because if we had to wait we would have left hating the place even more–if that is possible).  However, the hostess assured us that was very unusual so don’t get your hopes up to get so….lucky (if you can say that).

They make me, Mrs. 7 and a half months pregnant, hike up to the third floor to be seated when the place was empty. OK, yes she asked if that was OK and we said fine but sorry, you just don’t do that. Then they find the only people on the entire floor and sit us right next to them. Uh, awkward a bit, don’t you think?

Then we look over the menu.  Huh. My menu is different than Devin’s. O….k….get your act together, please. We order and start munching on some chips and salsa. Not a fan. The chips are not the real restaurant style that pretty much every Mexican place has.  You know the kind….fresh, hot, and crispy.  Nope, these are more of the “we opened a fresh bag just for you” kind. 

Anyway, moving on. I ordered a “bean and cheese burrito.”  Please take note of the order of the ingredients. I ordered it “smothered” for an extra $2.50 thinking it would be like the less expensive Mexican grills that put sauce and cheese on it then do a quick bake until it is bubbling with goodness.

Behold, this is what I received.

A burrito which was filled with about 80% cheese and 20% beans (so cheese and bean?). The beans were bland and practically tasteless.  The $2.50 went towards a cup of nasty puke-like sauce which was then sprinkled  dusted with a parmesan-like cheese. The cheese on the inside was clearly something that was not shredded then sprinkled or otherwise incorporated with the beans but it was like they buttered a block of cheese with beans and put it in a tortilla. I took about three bites and decided that it wasn’t worth the calories to stomach it.

Devin ordered a chicken burrito which seemed to be slightly better in that the proportions of the innards seemed to be ok.  But again, it was drenched in the puke sauce.

Devin and I usually don’t say anything about the food unless they get the order wrong. HOWEVER, you would think that the server would say something seeing that only a few bites were taken and I didn’t want a to-go box. Nope, he just kept doing his thang.

In addition, the entertainment was lousy. The “divers” were tacky and now they do this little drum beating parade (to recorded music of course, not actually) and wear these tacky loin cloths. Not to mention that their diving skills could use….some work. Last I checked a dive and a belly flop were not supposed to make the same sound and amount of splash.  But what do I know.  I’m not a trained diver.

So needless to say, we couldn’t get out of there fast enough.  No really….we couldn’t.  There seems to be limited signs letting you know how to get out of that place.

All we could say when we left was, “well, at least now we know.” Now we know that we are definitely not missing anything and we are glad that we didn’t make a special trip down there for a special occasion or when we were paying a baby sitter. 

How is it possible that Wal Mart can read my mind? Of course it’s not for the good but only to push my “I hate Wal Mart” button.

Today we went to Wal Mart to return a few things and get four items.

• mouth wash
• corn starch
• baking powder
• door lock

Seems like they knew we were coming because they had only two of the four items in stock. That’s 50% which is just as close to zero as it is 100%.  They are always out of the mouth wash that Devin likes but I’m onto them. Whenever they actually have it in stock I get two or three. Then there is the baking powder. Of the three options the shelf said they had, there of course was but one option to buy: a huge mother can that would last us a couple of years.  Normally, that’s not a problem.  However, since baking powder really does go bad, there was no way we could use it all up before it started giving us flat waffles.

So we stuck it to them. None of this “we’ll just get what they have” business.

OK so maybe we were told this already but our minds have been put from 80% at ease closer to 100%. I say closer because no one will ever tell you they are 100% sure thanks to the wonderful world of lawyers.

Yesterday we found out that we could get a gender check ultrasound from a reliable source for $30. No, we did not go to the mall. Later I was looking online and independent, just-for-fun, not-for-medical-reasons, type of places seemed to start around $50. Plus, I’ve heard too many stories about their reliability and they are severely cautioned by most doctors. We ended up going to the imaging clinic that the BYU Health Center uses for all their ultrasounds.

So after a quick visit with the ultrasound tech this morning, she confirmed that we are, in fact, having a girl.  She also said that the baby was bottom down which means that she turned since yesterday’s doctors visit. That has actually been nice because I haven’t had a foot in my rib like I have the majority of time over the past couple of weeks.  But eventually she’ll have to turn back, head down.  Or else.

Like I said, yesterday I had a doctors appointment.  My 32 week checkup. I met yet another doctor. The office that I am going through has a six doctor rotation. It’s good in that I will have the chance to meet the doctor who will deliver me, no matter what. It’s bad in that I have to get to know six doctors in a very short amount of time since I was in California all summer. So far I’ve met three but this last one I didn’t really care for. We’ll see how the other three are down the road.

So updates from my appointment:

• baby is growing at a perfect rate
• blood pressure is good
• baby was head down
• I lost a pound!

OK, so I know I shouldn’t really be celebrating losing the pound as I technically should have gained two over the past two weeks. But the doctor didn’t say anything so I’m guessing it’s not too much of a concern. I’m guessing that it’s mostly water weight as I know I haven’t been drinking quite enough water over the last week or so. But it’s all good because I promptly went to Taco Time right after my appointment.

In other news, we were rudely awakened by our fire alarms at 1:30am, 1:50am, 3:00am, and 6:00am last night/this morning. Fortunately, they only beeped for about five seconds. Unfortunately, they are all connected so if one goes off, they all start going off.  Also unfortunately, the one that we think was the problem was the one way, way up on the vaulted ceiling in the loft so we couldn’t get to it last night. I called our landlords around 9:30 this morning and oddly enough they’ve never had problems with them. At 6pm we are still waiting to hear what they are planning to do about it. But forget that! We already got a ladder and ripped that thing out for now.

PS–If our baby cries loudly and suddenly like a fire alarm, we are all screwed.

Wait a minute, I was supposed to be done with both of those!

Yep, two months before my due date I am back to the grindstone. It’s worked out that I can qualify for the lesser insurance premium if I take at least one credit this next semester. So the plan is to take two half credit classes that are during the first block of school only.  That means that classes are done by October 20. So…..yeah…..lets just hope either the baby is a few days late (though I’d rather she not be) or that my teacher is super cool and not one of those “well, it’s university policy….” types.

As for work, OK so I haven’t quite made it to that point yet but I’ve been given the option.  I’ve been asked to work on a project from home with the company I used to work for.  I was supposed to start last week but we’ve just been so busy with packing, moving, unpacking, and endless to-do lists that I just haven’t had the time or energy to get to it. Hopefully next week we’ll have more of our lives together that I can sit down and focus for a few hours.

Unfortunately, Apple doesn’t allow you to take pictures on campus. You know that whole Apple let’s-keep-everything-a-secret thing.  However, on Devin’s last day we made sure to at least get a picture of him next to his building sign.

So here is my Apple Man as he has fulfilled his lifelong dream to work for Apple.

Had it not been for the no picture taking rule, I’m sure we would have had several shots of Devin eating pizza at Cafe Macs. He pretty much lived for that stuff and had it nearly every day his last week. He also ate an apple nearly every day since that is one of the free perks at the Cafe. So it wasn’t all pizza.

Maybe I forgot to mention this but we are back in Provo…again. We left CA last Saturday and took some time getting home. Since the trip back to Utah is mostly through a whole lot of nothing in Nevada, the highlights of our trip were visiting Temples. There were only two on the way. So as usual, here are some pictures we took.

Obviously the Sacramento Temple.  It’s relatively new. As you can see, the way things are positioned it doesn’t make for a great picture with both the Temple and the sign.

They should really think about those types of things.

And here is the Reno Nevada Temple. The sun wasn’t really in our favor at that time.

And then here is me at 31 weeks.

While in California Devin was introduced to the delicious makings of a bakery in Los Gatos. It’s called Icing on the Cake. Someone at work bought a cake for a little celebration they were having and of course, Devin fell in love.  Which led him to introduce me to the yummies.

When we first went there, we got a cookie and a piece of cake. The cookie was a chocolate chip cookie but it had chunks of brownie in it.  Genius. The cake was of course chocolate, with chocolate icing and a cream filling. So good!

We thought that it was a little far away to make too many trips there but decided we needed to go back a second time right before we left. That time we got the same cake and one of their cupcakes. It was much like the cake but had about a two inch layer of ganache on top. A little too much for us but it was still delicious.

When we were there the second time, we realized that the bakery was only about five minutes from my doctors office. Naturally, after my last visit, I had to take one last trip there. Devin wanted to get something for his team member that got him hooked on the place. I ended up getting several things for his co-workers which in hindsight, it probably would have been cheaper to buy a whole cake. But what do you do. His co-workers loved us for it and that was great.

About a week before we left California we took another trip to Half Moon Bay.  We went with Devin’s boss John, his wife Megan and their son who is about a year and half old. Originally, we were going to go to a redwoods forest but then we realized that they have a fee to get in.  Since we had planned our outing for a Sunday, we decided it would be best if we did something fee-less. We are glad that we went back to the beach because the weather was so much nicer than the last time we went and John and Megan knew of other beaches in the area and things to do that we didn’t know about.

This first one is was a small secluded beach near a small light house.  I guess this was where a scene of the movie Bandits was shot.

After that beach, we went to another beach where there were tide pools. There was a low tide so we did some exploring.  There were a ton of hermit crabs, a few small crabs, and Devin found what we think was the only star fish in all the pools. I was disappointed that there were not any of the little green squishy things that you can squeeze to squirt people. I’m pretty sure they are small anemones which they had some big ones but not all the small ones everywhere like they do in Washington.

There were also a ton of seals on the beach and in the water. They had an area blocked off with cones so people wouldn’t disturb them but we walked up a trail where you could look down the cliff at them.

So another fun trip to Half Moon Bay.

I thought I had things mostly-ish figured out. Go to school, get pregnant, graduate, have a baby and life would go on from there. Oh, but then there is insurance. Blah.

The original plan was to be done with school but not officially graduate until baby came. But that plan was tossed aside when baby decided to not be baby until about 8-9 months after we wanted it to be. So, instead of finishing school and then having several months on BYU insurance with which to have the baby, we decided we’d look into paying some extra to use BYU extended insurance (for those who have graduated) until the baby came a few months later. As I started to look into things, they just looked expensive. But with all the checkups after baby comes and the due date being in the last few months of the year, we didn’t want to go with private insurance, dish out the money for the deductible only to have it reset in January.

So I called BYU Health Center. I know, I was desperate but hoping I’d get someone other than a student who had been working there for three days.  Fortunately, I got a nice lady who clearly knew what she was talking about. Come to find out, you can qualify for health insurance your last semester before graduating by only taking one credit! Awesome! So now all I had to do was petition to delay my graduation.

I’m sure plenty of people thought I was crazy trying to do this no more than 5 days before graduation was but hey, if it saves us $1,500, it is worth a shot. Come to find out my reason of “need to qualify for insurance” was reason enough for them to let me…..so far.

But this crazy, unorganized place being BYU certainly isn’t done making my life miserable. In short, college advisement says, “ok, you’re approved. You can register for classes.” Route Y says I can’t register. Registration office says, talk to the admissions. Admissions says “are you a BYU student?” (WHAT?!) Then they say I have to talk to Evening Classes Department. Evening Classes transfer me to BGS. BGS says, “we have to look into a few things and we’ll call you back.”

Bah! Still waiting…

http://emilysleftovers.blogspot.com/

Coming to California was something we were definitely excited for. Among other things, we were excited to hang out with our good friends Austin and Emily.  However, we didn’t quite realize how difficult it was going to be to get together with them.  With the hour plus travel time between us and a variety of weekend obligations, we ended up only hanging out with them a handful of times. What a stinker.

Austin and Emily have had a blog for about a year now but it’s my understanding that Austin manned that ship most of the time.  But Emily has jumped on board and started her own blog! She came up with a clever name and explanation of the name. So check it out. I’m sure she’s got plenty good to say about keeping it real.

UPDATE: OK so she recently made it a private blog so sorry you missed out. But she might add you to her reader list if you ask nicely and let her know you know me. :o)