Happy Holidays!

So...long story short I have been in Washington DC for the last 5 weeks and I have another week to go before I go home. On the bright side, I get to see DC decorated for Christmas.

Me at the National Christmas Tree


Happy Holidays Everyone!

More cakes

So, yeah, a lot has happened since May, some good, some bad, some ugly. But mostly good. I am finally updating this thing so I can post pictures of Will and Arnold's Birthday cakes, which took me many hours to complete and which we managed to transport from Jacksonville to Atlanta without any damage. Anyway...Cakes!Will's cake was a carrot cake made to look like a Book of Law from a game known as Mutant Chronicles. Will has a kick-ass Inquisitor costume from this game.

Arnold's cake was Pikmin themed. Pikmin is a video game with cute little charaters that I recreated in rice krispies and fondant.

I was happy with how both cakes turned out, but Arnold had to deal with ALOT of cussing from the kitchen while I made them.

What? But I don't have time to have my gallbladder removed!

So yeah. I've had these intermittent, intense "stomach" pains for awhile. At first I thought it was a stomach bug. Then I thought it would just go away on its own. But it kept happening. Those of you at TurboCon B might remember I disappeared for a while on Saturday. Well, last Sunday, I spent 8 hours in the fetal position praying to whomever would listen to make the pain go away.

So Monday morning I finally went to the doctor who said "you might have gallstones, lets schedule an ultrasound and do some bloodwork." No big deal. So they took blood and scheduled an ultrasound for Friday. The bloodwork came back Tuesday and I got a call from my doctor saying " You need to have the ultrasound NOW and I've scheduled a consultation with the surgeon for you" Slightly bigger deal than expected.

The possibility of surgery threw a serious wrench in my plans. Not only was I supposed to be in Charleston for work next week, but Arnold was going to Cincinnati to see his family. The plane ticket was already purchased. I've heard that they frown on you driving yourself home after being under general anesthesia while they remove a body part. Silly them. And they said it usu sally takes a week to recover. They laughed at me when I said "a whole week?! But its an outpatient, laparoscopic procedure." I seriously didn't have a week I could spare. Work is crazy busy.

Well, thanks to a wonderful coworker who stepped up to take my place, even though she has little experience with the project and no one who could go with her, work was taken care of. My mother said she could come up to take care of me. She was planning on coming up the moment she heard I needed surgery anyway. Though she is threatening to take pictures.

I had the ultrasound Wednesday, talked to the surgeon on Thursday and scheduled the surgery for Monday. The surgeon was not too terribly worried about scheduling my surgery as quickly as possible, as gallstones don't generally kill, they just hurt like hell. But his schedule was booked and it was either Monday or JUNE 10th. Yeah, I couldn't spend another month playing the "will my gallbladder be an ass tonight" game.

But seriously, my gallbladder is an ass already, because it could not have picked a less convenient time to make the gallstones known. It could have waited til after DragonCon when work slows down and I can breathe again. But no, it had to be an attention whore.

Anyway, while y'all are doing whatever it is you do on Monday at 10:30, I'll be having my gallbladder removed via my belly button. The good news is that it is a very common procedure, I have been deemed a very low risk patient, and I should still make Spoleto and ConCarolinas.

A Cake I didn't make

Little Bit turned one last Monday. We had a party for him on Sunday, where he acted all traditional and shoved his face with cheesecake. Chrys (grandma) made his cake. It was delicious. I took so many pictures you could probably make a flip book and not miss a second of the event.

I also cheated and took Mom to dinner for Mother's Day a week early as to avoid having to drive to Tampa 2 times is as many weekends. I took Mom to Aquaknox. It is an upscale seafood restaurant that we ate ate in Vegas. Tampa now has one. It was great. The website for the restaurant listed the dresscode as "smart casual". The person at the restaurant laughed when I called and asked what exactly "smart casual" meant. He said that they were trying to attract the "young business" crowd and the only hard and fast rule was guys couldn't wear sleeveless shirts. I thought "how upscale could they be if they don't actually require pants?"

Cutest. Pirate. Ever.

We took Layne and Crystal to their first Renaissance Festival last weekend. They both seemed to enjoy it. I couldn't believe Crystal had never been to a fest. We saw good musical acts, ate very not renaissance food, wore cool costumes, and had a great time. The only part that sucked was the wind. See, Tampa is built atop Florida sugar sand, which is horrible when it is windy and you are outside all day. We had sand everywhere by the end of it. But Layne didn't complain. He was a good little baby all day.

We were at a booth that was selling leather bound books. Some of the books were "furry" meaning they had a more natural leather hide. Well, the conversation got around to how Layne is at the age where he just chews on books and that was why he wasn't allowed to hold the furry books. Arnold make a comment to the affect that Layne would get a hair ball and he really shouldn't get his first hair ball until college. This got the book vendor giggling loudly and lead to Crystal making the comment "That's my baby you're talking about." It was quite amusing.

Mom bought Layne a pirate hat. Of course I took tons of pictures. He was technically yawning in one of them, but it looks like he is saying "ARRRRGH". I adore my Godson. In the second picture, he was "dancing" to a musical act called Pirate Tales.Behold the cuteness:

Random and Busy

So, yeah, long time no type, as usual. I didn't even post a "holiday recap", which I should have, because the holidays were awesome. We went to Cincy for Danny's graduation and Christmas. We flew home Christmas Eve, as always, because it is cheaper. Christmas Day we drove to Tampa. We had the first annual A&W Constructions Services Christmas Party. Mom started a business with a friend of hers and we used it as an excuse for a party. It was quite fun. There was even Kubb involved. And I got to see Crystal, Chrys and my Godson, who is cuter than ever (see picture below). Arnold and I came back to Jacksonville for New Year's and Hope and Will came down to celebrate it with us. We had an extended celebration since they stayed through the weekend. It was ~4.5 days of movies, games, good food, and good company.

I should also have posted something about the Ren. Fest. Arnold and I went to. They don't have one in Jacksonville, but I found one in Gainesville. I expected it to be small, but it wasn't and there were some great musical acts. The was even a "baby dragon orphanage" which I thought was cute. They sold little lizards. I thought this was funny because we live in Florida. You can't walk from the front door to the car without seeing at least 6 lizards. Anyway, we had a lot of fun.

I finally went to the doctor because mom and Arnold made me promise I would go. After 4 doctor's visits, ~$700 and one upper endoscopy, I now know that I am not diabetic, I have high cholesterol and there is a ring of tissue in my esophagus that causes the swallowing issue that you all are most likely aware I have. I am supposed to change my diet and exercises for the cholesterol (oh Mountain Dew, how I miss you so) and I have another appointment next Thursday to set a course of treatment for the stupid ring of tissue.

Work is hectic and only getting worse. I can't wait for August to get here and this damned annual project to wrap up for the Fiscal Year. It is my first year running the project on my own and things aren't going well. They could be going worse, knock on wood (or whatever is close), but they could be going a hell of a lot better.

So there you have it, an update on the Beth. See you again in three months. Layne (the godson) turns 1 at the beginning of May, so you're guaranteed to get an update with birthday pictures.

Cupcakes and Babies

So, I know I only update this thing when I have cute pictures of Layne or cake pictures. At least this time you get both. I visited Tampa for a zoo fundraiser that Chrys (Grandmother to Layne) invited me to. Of course we took tons of Layne pictures before we left for the event. I also made cupcakes for Thanksgiving. Very few were eaten, as usual. At some point I am going to have to make ugly cupcakes so people will eat them. Though the cornucopia cupcake was fugly and no one ate that one either, so it may be a flawed theory.