Happy Valentine's Day!


In honor of this day of love and passsion I have compiled a list of last minute gift ideas for that special someone: *warning most of these receive a naughtiness rating ; ) *

For those in need of a little help in literary department might I suggest a love poem.

Is your loved one a patron of the arts? Some of these special glass figures are sure to leave them in awe.

Does your little sweet muffin like baked goods? Then perhaps you should order something from this New England bakery.

Here are a few other treats for a fun evening.

Who doesn't like chocolate? Here are a few unconventional products made out of chocolate of course!

Now you have showered your loved one with adoration and dessert and you want to give him or her a special massage, here's a sensual massage primer to help you on your way!

Want to let someone else work out all those knots on your honey? Maybe this hunky healer can help. A great gift idea if I don't say so myself!

Don't forget the flowers and a box of these. Yum!


Have a wonderful Valentine's! ; )

Objects in digital camera are closer than they appear!

*Cheer* Here are the pictures from our wonderful hike this past weekend...enjoy!

Hiking album

Conrad Mactire Milliken

Nothing quite like being out in nature to help clear your head of the oogly booglies and get you thinking clearly again. Saturday was a bit rough after getting a call from the doctor (on a weekend no less), but then we got a call from Eric inviting us to go for a hike (how did he know??). The day was beautiful; we went up to Monrovia Canyon and did a three mile round trip hike to the waterfall. Of course I had the digital camera in hand! I am working on a picture album, hopefully I can get it up either today or tomorrow (got some really cute pictures of Conrad). = )

A pretty flowering bush we saw on our hike yesterday. Unfortunately, I do not know the genus or species for this...I know you are disappointed and have come to expect such things from me ; )

Look for more pictures tomorrow or Tuesday!

A small sneak peek at the project I am currently working on. Joe had an interesting post a couple days ago about giving knitted gifts for birthdays or Christmas. He makes a good point and one that I had not thought of before. I am a new knitter and it is fun for me to make things that I think people will like and it feels like it comes from a good place, but I would hate for the gift to draw attention away from the celebration of the receipient. For my friend's birthday coming up I am going to go ahead and give it since it is only one part of the gift I am giving, but I may think twice about it for next time.

We had our visit today with the ivf doctor and things went so-so. The doctor was nice and seemed very knowledgeable, but his office staff was the worst and I do mean the worst I have ever seen! They were quite incompetant, and they actually bickered in a way reminiscent of a grade school fight right in front of us. It went something like this "if you can't listen to what I am trying to show you then I am going to tell the doctor that you don't want to learn anything" "shut-up" "no you shut-up". It was horrible I wanted to run screaming from the office, but luckily Dirk was there to be the voice of reason. So we stayed to at least see what the doctor was like (he ended up being very nice). My other doctor said that he has an excellent reputation in the field, which I think helped to keep us there. I am glad we did, but I haven't decided if I can handle having to deal with his office staff when it comes time to actual begin the ivf process. I think we are going to look into one other ivf clinic first before deciding. The first step for us, and one that caught me completely off guard, is for me to have surgery. Next month it looks as if I will be having my fallopian tubes removed altogether (sorry to my male readers out there for sharing). I am most definitely not thrilled with this prospect, but it makes a pretty big difference in the success for ivf in people who have the same condition as I do. I suppose the timing is good because I can try to schedule it for the week after finals. There were some tears shed over the prospect of losing what I think of as one part of my essence of being a woman, but I am beginning to come to terms with it. If we are going to go through with the ivf then we need to do whatever it takes to try and make it successful. The next step will be to wait a couple of months post surgery then begin the ivf process. Looks like sometime in June my eggs and his sperm will be doing the tango somewhere in a little plate and perhaps in July (fingers crossed) I will have some good news to post! = )

Ephippiorhynchus senegalensis

Saddlebilled Stork


Friday we have our first visit with the in vitro doctor. The insurance will pay half of this visit, but it is the last official thing that they will pay for. So from here on out we are on our own so to speak. Luckily, Dirk's parents have very, very kindly offered to assist with the cost of some of this, which definitely helps take some of the financial stress off. I have been feeling mixed about the upcoming appointment. I feel like I should be happy and excited since this is the first step for us to potentially conceive, but in actuality I am scared (and some what depressed) about the process. The success rate is approximately 25-35%, kind of scary when it will cost approximately $10,000 per try. Honestly, I wanted to give up after hearing the news about my fallopian tubes being damaged, but now I see that I have to at least try in vitro. Maybe we will fall into the percentage it will work for and we will end up with one, two, or even THREE little ones, who knows! This process is hard on an emotional level I must admit, but I am trying very hard to adjust my thinking so that I go into it with a realistic yet also optimistic view. Adjustment, patience, and acceptance are the things that Infertility has given me the opportunity to work on in my life (so far).



*Saddlebilled Stork picture from Exzooberance

Every knitter has to have her own sheep right?


Woolie, my new adopted sheep.

Possibly the most fearless of all sheep, this breed laughs in the face of danger and chuckles at the eyebrows of despair.
Favourite pastime: Hanging upside down in trees to impress the lasses.
Favoured bedtime reading: 'Poisonous monkeys have feelings too'
Favourite rock album:


The Beatles
Fleecy Road


Go on and adopt your own sheep at the sheep emporium tell them Woolie sent you!





I ripped out the knitting for the special birthday gift I am making and started over using a different cast-on method since the edge was bad and the tension was messed up. I am really glad I decided to do that rather than continue on with it. It looks much better now and I am making good progress on it finally. I look forward to adding the picture to my finished objects list in a couple of weeks.

We attempted our first geocache yesterday. The place we chose, Horse Thief Canyon Park, in San Dimas is beautiful! I was sort of familiar with the area from doing chaparral research nearby in the San Dimas Experimental Forest, but alas we didn't find the actual cache. We had a wonderful hike anyway. We followed the clues and it was exciting to know that we were in the right area, but without a gps device it was too difficult to find.

Here are a few pictures from our adventure:

The hillside was beautiful and lush.

This little man-made channel looks like its purpose to collect water run-off from the mountains (it was dry of course).

Dirk and Maddie hiking along the horse carved trail.

This was an interesting vine we found along the trail.

Maddie and I hitting the trail.

There are a lot of horses nearby, so it was important to keep an eye out for road apples.

Tragic and sad. Enough said!

I love the electric light parade!

Click here to listen to the famous electric light parade.midi





Not a lot of exciting stuff happening right now. I added a new little link on the left hand side for my guest map. I would love to see where all my virtual readers come from (you can remain anonymous if you would prefer), so go on and let your finger do the clicking!

I started knitting the surprise gift last night, but already it doesn't look right. I guess I am going to have to rip out what I have done so far and begin again. I am not sure what went wrong and since I don't have anyone around to ask I will just have to muddle through. Luckily I do have a picture of a completed one to help me. Oh well, there is always the option of a gift certificate as a gift heh.

Last, but not least a private *hug* to Tiffany!

Bougainvillea glabra


I have something to confess... I have a serious problem, I have geocaching envy! I long for the day when my guy, my dog and my gps device go on cache hunts. I have felt this way for a long time (thanks Paul) and this weekend I have decided to do something about it once and for all. I am going to go on my first geocache hunt! I am still in the process of picking a good one to try to find (psst... taking recommendations too). I do not own a gps device (yet), but I am hoping I will still be able to figure out the location or at least have fun trying. I will have my digital camera along for the hike, so of course all of my virtual readers will be subjected to the pictures. I love being out in nature and the idea of a kind of treasure hunt while being out on a hike or drive sounds so cool; I can't wait!




Now for a garden update: I did a lot of work in the garden the past couple of days. I have planted many veggies (both transplants and seed) and am still in the process of getting my Spring bulbs in the ground (many, many bulbages to plant). I planted lettuce (3 different types), onions (3 types, including Walla Walla sweets because I lived there briefly when I was kid, and they are yummy), broccoli, snap peas, and one brussel sprout plant because it was so cute. I still have some cabbage seeds to plant, some celery transplants, and some carrots that I will be planting in a container (they are picky about soil). Here are a couple of pictures showing the new progress and for comparison I am re-posting a "before" picture. Honestly, it is hard for me to believe it is the same plot!

The "before" picture of the jungle

I took this one at night so it is a little dark. The new little transplants

The right side of the Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow bush has pretty flowers

I was thrilled yesterday morning to find my first little Nasturtium bloom





In knitting news: tonight I will be doing the unthinkable and *gasp* start a new project before finishing my scarves in progress. A special friend has a birthday coming up and I thought I would try and knit her a little gift. I can't say what it is because I want it to be a surprise, but later I will post a picture (if it comes out of course hehe).

SHI A WASE NARA TEO TA TA KO
SHI A WASE NARA TEO TA TA KO
SHI A WASE NARA TAIDO DE SHI ME SOYO
SORA MINNA DE TEO TA TA KO


This is the little song we all sang at dinner. Sung to the tune of "If you're happy and you know it..." I have no idea what the direct translation is, but now you can sing along as you see the pictures from the festivities below. ; )



Yay yay yay I got this album code to finally work, thank you for your tech suppot Paul!

Onto the good stuff...

Unfortunately, the order is messed up in the album, but the pictures are all there so go on and check out Dirk's birthday picture album!


Here is our post dinner group photo.

Check out Dirk's Brithday album

Sunday, January 26, 2003

The birthday boy and his girl


Last night for Dirk's birthday I surprised him with dinner at Benihana, the food was so very yummy and the company was wonderful! Mike, Nise, Paul, Carol, Joe, and Felicia were all in attendance to celebrate Dirk. We missed not having Eric and Adrienne as well as Sean and Kristin there, but we knew they were with us in spirit!
After dinner we went over to the Guads for some dessert. I had made a Mississippi mud bottom pie for Dirk (a tradition in his family).

I am working on creating a little photo album/slide show and hope to get that up here tomorrow; so check back to see the pics!


Have a great week everyone!

Happy Birthday Dirk!!

Love you! = )

A blast from the past for today, Madigan's puppy picture!
I love this picture. My first dog and he is so dang cute.

Hi everyone!

I got a new hard drive this past weekend (yea, more room for my digital photos), but the installation was less than smooth. After the dead one was returned (heh) the second one finally worked and I am set up and running with 80 gb of space! In another three years that will seem like nothing I am sure, but right now it seems like a ton of space. Unfortunately, my photo editing software is not yet installed so no picture of the day on todays post.


In between getting my computer back up and running and knitting I have been fighting the nasty Physics demon. Sometimes I want to pull my hair out of frustration with this class. The theories of the hows and whys I understand without a problem, but the actual word problem solving part is challenging for me. I think I am too old for this lol.

Happy Birthday Nise!!


Ding! /cheer

Have a restful and relaxing weekend everyone!

Although I like knitting scarves I don't think I will be knitting any of these scarves anytime soon, thanks for the suggestion though Mike !
However, for the special men in my life I am taking orders for a knitted one of these! ; )

Felinius drenchius

Since I got the news about baby project 2003 I have had many up and down moments during the day. I think I am still in a period of shock while at the same time trying to accept it and move on to the next step. Within the next week or so we will be seeing another specialist, one who specializes in in vitro. He is supposed to have an excellent reputation so hopefully he will be nice. I did some research into what is next for us (we both want to know going in) and it seems like our next step will be
to try to get accepted into an in vitro program. There are several tests that need to be done before we are considered/accepted and it kind of feels like I am applying for University all over again when I look at the list of things to do. Many of the tests are minor blood tests and some I have had already like the hysterosalpingogram, there is only one test that kind of gives me the willies. Due to the nature of my problem we are classified in the "direct to in vitro" group instead of being put on hold until other options are exhausted. People are classified depending on the problem and what has been tried. I suppose in a wierd way it is good that we don't have to risk a bunch of failures trying other things, but for a lot of people those other methods work and they never have to resort to in vitro. I don't know I am still trying to sort it all out in my head.
I wish I had something happy and cheerful to blog at you about, but the last couple of days have been a little rough trying to deal with all of this. I didn't plant my veggies like I had hoped to yet, but tomorrow is another day! I have actually enjoyed being able to go to school and get lost in the science of Physics for a while. Today I got to map electric field lines in the lab which was pretty neat and in the evening played a little Everquest (pretty rare for me these days). I am also working on a new little project with my knitting that I will post pictures of soon. It is fun to see my knitting skills increase. Now that I have knit and purl down I have been experimenting with learning the various combinations in some of my projects.