Saturday School...

Well, Ryan's been gone for 3 days now. Here's what he wrote me on Friday...

jen.

we're in moshi. it's friday mid-day. we've paid up for our trips: the
mountain and also the safari when we get back. we leave for
kilimanjaro tomorrow morning and will be back on friday, 11/17. then
we'll head out to the serengheti park.

so far, so good. lots of rain. this cold has been hurting, but the
plane ride didn't do me any favors.

juice is in charge here, squarely.

anyway, love you the best. i'll write more in a week when we're off
the mountain.

the hotel we stayed in is nice. everybody's so friendly it's crazy. and
they also want my money. we're mobbed by people all the time for money
and things.

see you soon.
ry

I hope they are having fun. They've been on the mountain for a few days now. They are about 12 hours ahead of us, so it's morning there on Sunday now. I checked the weather a few hours ago (my first time checking the weather for Tanzania, Africa, by the way) and it said only a 20% chance of rain for the next few days. I really hope it's not raining cats and dogs on them the entire week. I can't think of anything more miserable, Africa or not. Plus, Ryan got my cold just before he left and coupled with the little sleep he had been getting in preparation for the election, he was a bit of a mess. Climbing one of the world's tallest mountains isn't my idea of relaxations, but Ryan's not exactly normal.

So I'm here...alone. So far, so good. I have my PACT (an acronym for this giant project I've been working on for two semesters in order to get my credential) due on Wednesday and I still have a lot more work to do on it than I would like, so it's pretty good timing that I have all of this alone time. I've made the rounds over the last few days from the library to Borders, to Panera--anywhere where I can plug my computer in and type for a few hours. I've probably got about 20 hours of work left still to do on it...I'm starting to feel the rush of panic. And...here I am blogging. Figures.

I haven't written much about our baby lately. Well, I haven't written anything besides the news we got about its sex on Tuesday. It was a trip to go to the fancy office and have the ultrasound. We were really lucky and got a technician who has been doing ultrasounds for almost 20 years! She knew how to move the wand to get every picture she needed an then some. And, she told us that the machine she was on was the newest and coolest! It was pretty cool, I'll admit. I just kept asking if all the body parts looked normal--all four limbs were present and no cleft palate. For whatever reason, I've been obsesed with cleft palates lately. I think I've been watching too much TLC and reading too much. Either way, everything looks ok, but you can't be totally sure until the baby is born. I'm just saying...

I am also obsessed with my belly growth. It doesn't seem to be growing at the rate I expected. At my last appointment, they told me I had only gained 1 pound and I thought they were crazy, but now I'm starting to wonder if something is wrong. Maybe I've been eating too much unpasterized cheese and I have a parasite. Could be. I'm not feeling the "hearty appetite" all my books say I should be feeling. In fact, I have to remind myself to eat.

Maybe I'm crazy.

Maybe not.

My dad and I are going to the Kings game tomorrow night. Ryan and I went in on some season tickets this year. We have 15 games or so over the next few months. I'll admit, I'm not a huge fan these days, but I do love going to the games. I really just go for the chicken strips and fries. And Mike Bibby. But he's hurt right now. So, it's chicken strips and fries for me tomorrow night.

I have no pictures to post because I'm alone. Oh wait. I'll post the picture of Ryan in his racing gear when he joined some work friends at the go-kart track a few weekends ago. I'll post it just as soon as I get a chance to get it off the camera.

More later...