Randomness

After feeling rather out of the loop for the past few days, with no cell phone and no access to the internet (I am WAY too cheap to pay for it!), I am finally back. Here are some interesting sights from my trip to LA:

This truck had a shell that seriously was like twice the size of the truck. I am thinking it is a homemade thing and not quite safe for the streets, but such is life in the city where 50% of people roll without car insurance!

I spent a day with my great friend Kelly. We pretty much ate our way through the day...it was definitely a good day! We ended up at this specialty ice cream shop that had random flavors like brown bread. We tasted it and it actually didn't taste bad (though neither one of us got it).

I am not quite sure why a 24 hour Subway weirds me out so much, but it does. I think it is partially due to the fact that I am way too lazy to get out of my car in the middle of the night to get food...it's all about drive thru's for me!

Hard Rock Cafe

When I was younger, I used to think that the Hard Rock Cafe was really cool. I remember me and my brothers wanting to go there whenever we traveled. Eventually, I grew out of it. I realized it was nothing more than a tourist attraction located in about a million different cities. Ian, on the other hand, has a fascination with it. He thinks it is so funny to take pictures of tourists walking out of there with their huge bags of merchandise and makes me pose in front of the stores when we travel. Of course, he does this to make fun of the place, but deep down inside, I think he is really suffering because he didn't get to go there enough as a child. Ha, ha! All that being said, I also thought Hard Rock was an American fascination. Once I moved to Edinburgh, I realized it wasn't. People like going there for the American food. Ian had a work night out there a few weeks ago, and I had a work night out there a couple days ago. The food really is mediocre at best and it is all overpriced, but seriously my coworkers went crazy. Especially the guys...they all got their drinks in souvenir glasses...and they live there! But, it was still a good time had by all. Some of the guys had an eating contest (no joke) and it was fun to hang out with everyone outside of work, even if it was at Hard Rock Cafe!

Note to all: I am sorry to offend anyone out there that is truly a huge fan of Hard Rock Cafe, but come on, you have to agree that that food just isn't good!

A Weighty Matter

No one likes to get weighed...well, at least no one I know. But, now that I am pregnant, having my weight taken will become a normal thing to me, so I need to learn to face it. Today, when I stepped on the scale at the doctor's office, the midwife said I was a "lightweight" which made me feel semi okay about having my weight taken. The funny thing about weight over here, is there are different ways (neither way being pounds) that they calculate weight and both ways make you feel better about yourself.

Way #1 - Kilos. With 1 kilo equaling 2.205 pounds, it tends to boost one's self confidence!
Way #2 - Stones. I honesty don't think I will ever get why they do this, but this is how everyone over here says what they weigh. 1 stone equals 14 pounds, so if you weigh 100 pounds, you would say you weigh 7 stone, 2 pounds. It seems easier to me to just say how much you weigh in pounds, but I guess saying it in stones makes you feel lighter and thus better about yourself!

Personally, I think that weighing yourself in kilos is much less accurate than pounds, but given that the number is much smaller, it is still a huge boost in self confidence! So, when in Scotland, weigh as the Scottish do...

Poor Little Arms

So I had a doctor's appointment on Wednesday where they took blood for about 1001 tests. It's amazing I have lived to this point of my life without all these tests! After the artery collapsing in my right arm, they moved to my left. Three days on, I still have a massive bruise on my left arm (it looks WAY WORSE in person) and it hurts. My right arm has a slight bruise on it, but no pain. The bummer part is that I was two days too early to get a bunch of blood tests for the baby as well (why didn't they think of this when they booked my appointment?!?), so I have to head back again on Tuesday. I am having some fears of them repoking into my already sore arm, but I was told the other option is my feet and I don't think I could handle that, so my arms it is! I'm just tired of looking like a druggie who can't properly insert a needle!

California

Ian and I were at the gym this evening, on treadmills side-by-side (I know, so cute!), when a California commercial came on the tv. It was funny. We looked at each other and smiled. Sometimes I wonder, how could anyone NOT want to live in California?!? I know I am not currently there, but I still think it is like the best place ever! So, if you are feeling a bit bored, check out the commercial airing in Scotland about California.

baby g

Well folks, the day that many people thought would never come, has actually come. Ian and I decided to procreate! Baby g is due on November 4. That makes me at 14 weeks along (3 1/2 months). So far, things are going quite well. When we had the scan a couple weeks ago, we got to see the baby moving its arms and legs and bouncing all about. It was quite exciting. And at that point, it was 2 1/2" long.

Yesterday, we told our families. Having kept this a secret for quite a while now, it is nice to have it out in the open for everyone to enjoy! I am sure you will be hearing more about this baby in blogs to come!

Another Spring Post

I know I have posted a lot lately about spring...it must be my mood (or the weather). Today we took a trip out to a garden center with our friends. We loaded up the car with plants and headed home. Ian and I took to our patio to plant our plants...some flowers, a tomato plant, a blueberry plant and some sweet corn. What can I say, we were in a food mood! Since we were already out on the patio, we decided to clean up a bit...cleaned the windows, swept and more. It looks really nice.

The blueberry plant really is the most exciting for both of us. Being that it is rather large already, it seems rather legit. It is supposed to produce fruit in July or August and we can't wait!

Hopefully we will actually stay on top of our plants and not let them die! And, hopefully they will produce more than our plants last year...two strawberries and a bell pepper that was an inch tall!

Conforming

No matter where I am, I always seem to conform a bit to my surroundings. And, I am happy to say that even though I have conformed a bit while I am in Scotland, I have caused some of them to conform to me! All of it really is in speech. I get tired of people making a big deal about how I say things, so I conform and say then them the way they do (think herb, but pronounce the "h" at the beginning). Well, it was pointed out yesterday that some of the people I work with have also begun to talk like me! I am rubbing off on them! This made me laugh. It also made me realize, all of us seem to conform a bit to our surroundings. It's normal...it just happens. And so, the Jessica-nization (yes, I did make up this uber cool word!) begins!

The Birthday

My birthday was earlier this week and I never even commented on it! Ian and I took the day off and headed over to Deep Sea World...an aquarium of sorts near Edinburgh. Though it was small, there was one really cool feature...an underwater tunnel where you got to view sharks and fish up close. We even got to watch them being fed. This was definitely the highlight.




The day after my birthday, I returned to my work to find a present. A couple weeks ago, I found out that a certain author customer in my store shared a birthday with me. I was quite excited about this and talked with him about it practically every day. Well, for "our" birthday, I left a card and some candy at the store for him. Apparently, when he came in, he asked for me, discovered I wasn't there, then handed my coworker a present for me, which they in turn handed him the stuff from me. What this present was is a signed copy of one of his books, with a note written inside that says, "Jessica, Even though I didn't have to pay for it, it still counts as a present, right?" I was over the moon about this, and my coworkers, well they were insanely jealous! Then, later that day, he returned to the store to give me a huge hug thanking me for the card and candy and to ask how my birthday went. Its cool that relative strangers in the world can share something like a birthday in common and still make each other feel special. Well, I think so at least!

My birthday was quite a success. Even though I am a year older and wasn't able to celebrate with all my family, it was still quite the good time.