ok, that kind of stunk

My three hours at the fair.

Slammed bottle of water before getting to the gate because it was cheap and I was thirsty.

Saw Joe Kimball and his little office. Yay!

Went to the bathroom.

Bought bottle of water because I was thirsty.

Went to Franken booth, then Ciresi booth. Saw Ciresi was coming at 2:30 so left to go get food.

Smartie bought cheese curds and we walked. Ate a curd and thought it tasted gross. Refused to believe that could be true, and ate second curd. Still yucky. Drank water.

Went back to Ciresi booth, saw they had changed the sign and he was coming at three. Went to the bathroom.

Walked over to GOP booth. Saw lots of College Republicans.

Went to the bathroom.

Walked back to Ciresi booth, stayed in line and talked to the candidate.

Ate some alligator, which tasted much better than curds. Had more water.

Went to the bathroom.

Stopped by DFL booth. Not terribly busy, except for the button table. Saw Ember Reichgott Junge in a Ciresi shirt. Was surprised, I don't remember hearing she endorsed him. Grabbed an Al Franken Baseball Card.

Went to bathroom.

Walked by Star Tribune stand. No one there.

Walked to Air America booth to locate it for later.

Went on giant quest for Koolaid pickle. Finally found it. Wish I hadn't. Yuck.

Went to bathroom.

Began getting hot, dizzy and crampy. Gave up and went home to put up strangely swollen feet. Missed radio show all together.

I saw many pregnant women at the fair. I appear to be the only one who was miserable and sun sick. I probably was also the only one who had to go to the bathroom 4 times an hour. I assume the two were related.

State fair was a bad idea.

Here there be Kool-Aid Pickles

Smartie and I are going to hit the fair today. We've got a date with Joe Kimball to see what the fair is like to the old pros, and the siren call of the kool-aid pickle beckons. I'm not even really sure what it is, but I know I like pickles right now, so it has to be good, right?

I think the fair could be fun. It's nice and cool, and since I have no tolerance for heat right now, that's a must. Foodstuffs are bitesized, which is about all I have the ability to do lately thanks to the real estate the little monster is taking up, and there's something every 4 feet, which works well when you are hungry every 2 hours. Besides, I promised the doctor I'd gain 3 more lbs before the next appointment, and what better place to start than the fair.

Must pace ourselves, however, if I want to make sure I don't get a bad case of the logeys before the Mark Heaney Show, where I'll be stopping to chat sometime between 5-7. You'll know it has all gone horribly wrong when I start the interview by asking Mark if I can just grab a quick cat nap in the booth...

All Airports Should Have Free Wireless

It makes us much less cranky when our flight gets delayed for 2 hours. And they make us go to the basement for a possible tornado.

It's officially my last flight until after the baby is born, so I suppose I should not be surprised that it's become the flight from hell. I'm about 50% sure at this point that I'm going to go back to my hotel room rather than risk getting stuck in Detroit all night in the layover spot. But I want to be home so desperately, I might risk it. We'll see if I get yet another delay.

If you have to get stuck in an airport, it's nice to have one with wifi. It would be nicer if they had any food besides hot pretzels, which sounds utterly unappealing. I've started traveling with protein bars, but after 6 days of them they are starting to wear thin as well.

It looks like another storm is coming. The clouds are getting dark again, and at this point home is looking farther and farther away.

Shall we take bets on whether it's another day in Lansing?

Oh, the things I've learned....

1) You can buckle your shoes on the last notch and slip them on your feet rather than try to bend over and buckle them once they are already on...

2) Erte has amazing pie, which they will give you to go.Yes, they will even drizzle chocolate on the cardboard in a pretty pattern. No, they will not provide a utensil...

3) Never bother registering for gifts until you have spoken with someone with a 6 month old...

Long time no blog

Between the checkups, the travel, the conferences and everything else, the blog dropped off my attention span for the last few weeks. So, to catch up...

Heading back to Michigan on Sunday, to be out in Lansing all week. Looking forward to what should be one of my last airplane trips, since most of the rest should be driving. Very happy, since I still think the last Lansing trip followed quickly by Chicago were responsible for some bizarre water retention that made for two days of scary before it finally went away.

Had my 24 week checkup and everything is perfect. I gained almost as much weight as I was supposed to for the month, the baby had a good strong heartbeat, and she kicked the Dr. soundly when he tried to do his measurements. She's been bouncing back and forth between tap dancing (light, frequent kicks) and placekicking (seriously, she's probably better than the Vikings kickers already), and it's quite amusing if it didn't involve her telling me when it's time to go to the bathroom, eat, move around, etc. The only bad side is my iron dropped quite a bit, but it's still in the normal range, so more spinach and steak should take care of things.

I went and made registries at Babies R Us and Target over the weekend to prep for a baby shower back home over Labor Day weekend, and was flustered by how much...stuff...babies need. Very overwhelmed. Although to be fair, many things are for our own amusement (honestly, I'm sure the baby kind of enjoys the door-hanging bouncer, but really, you just get it because watching a kid bounce up and down uncoordinatedly is really funny.) And inevitably we will learn that nothing on the list was necessary, and everything we really need will be bought at the grocery store at 2 am.

Now if I could just find some shoes that fit, I'd be a happy camper. I've been living in a pair of flipflops for two months straight now, and it's getting old.

for family

cells are cutting in and out, the Minneapolis cell is overloaded, but we're fine.