Racing Notes 9.8

Well, after thinking I would not get to see AR9 at its regularly scheduled time, Olivia went to bed early last night and I was able to catch the race first-run!
BJ and Tyler can actually get frustrated...although their friendship is pretty strong and they are one of the most supportive teams I've ever seen. I thought the other teams were a bit silly at the airport not telling them what time the flight got in that they were lined up for, but a few catch up points later and everyone was on the same page. The sand pit search was terrible to watch. It must have been overwhelmingly hot and BJ was quite the trooper to keep going. I definitely would have done the tower detour over the camels - although the camel task, when done properly (sorry frat boys!) seemed faster.
Ray and Yolanda had some moments of frustration with each other, but nothing seriously damaging that I saw. Just sniping - I was more upset with MoJo and the way Joseph was talking to Monica. I have to admit, it was nice to see the frat boys come down a peg or two by ending up in second-last, but even better was Fran and Barry's win! They have grown on me and hopefully will stick around a bit.
So, the first non-elimination round happened, so there will be at least one more, if not two. Hopefully the hippies can pull themselves out of the bottom!
Take care,
V

This little guy in here

So, the baby is still not out of me! In many many ways...
But in the most literal way, I sit and wait for our newest one to make his entrance, but it's to no avail. My c-section date has even been pushed back - it was supposed to be tomorrow, but is now the 25th (Happy Birthday to me and the new Berry!!!). In the meantime, I still suffer pretty huge discomfort and frankly I'm tired of it. I am in pain all the time with this pregnancy - no scratch that, as long as I find a spot and do not move my lower half, there is no pain, but who can do that. I can't do crazy dancing with Olivia and it hurts to pick her up and I'm all down about it.
I really hope he just starts to make his way naturally asap. Then we'll see where we go from there. (The actual due date is not until Friday, so I'm being a bit silly anyway...)
On the other hand - we have a bed. A great big bed. It's higher than it looked in the store, but it makes the several-times-a-night trips to the bathroom much easier. Make my way to a sitting position, ignore muscle and bone pain in my "girdle" and roll off bed to floor in a standing position.
Ah well, whine whine whine, bitch bitch bitch - that's not going to get me anywhere!
Take care (and send thoughts of "get out" and "move downwards" to the bairn),
V

Racing notes 9.7

I think my racing notes are always going to be late now. The time switch to Wednesday at 8 means I will likely have to catch the race on Sundays.
My boys! Ack! At the back of the pack. I have a feeling even if they end up last next week (which the previews imply, but they are tricky!), it will be a non-elimination round and they will have another chance to catch up (Go Hippies!).
I don't think I could have done that bungee jump - well, like everyone else, you do it, but I likely would have thrown up or something first. It looked really high up and really scary. Way to go Fran!
Those frat boys have major horseshoes up their you knows. I thought with Fast Forwards you had to wait until any other team had tried first - but Al said that was only for things where only one team could go at a time. Pretty frustrating for MoJo though.
At least the frat boys didn't go on and on about getting laid this time.
I thought that the detour about the letters was going to be harder - I thought they were going to throw in some non-Greek letters and people would have to use their smarts to determine which were Greek and which weren't or something twist-y.
Alan and I agreed right away that we would have tried the Olympic games task!
I don't know who the producers thought they were fooling with Tyler and BJ's suspense-filled wait for Lake and Michelle, while their penalty clock ticked down - Lake and Michelle got off the train and took the bus too, so they would have had to serve fifteen minutes of their own. They were going home from the second the hippies got to the mat.
Really Michelle? People will think your relationship is odd or off or whatever you said... Why's that? Because you and your husband are over-the-top mean to each other and only supportive when you are doing well? How bass ackwards is that?
Take care,
V

Tiny dancers

Yesterday Olivia spent the day with her gramma and great-aunts, as well as her cousin Izabel, playing with ballerinas. The girls got to listen to the story of Sleeping Beauty and visit with some ballet dancers who are performing that play in Toronto soon. They were allowed to colour "sets" and then go and try on costumes and tutus and dance around on the "stage". I am hoping to get some pictures soon, which I will post, but it sounds like they had a great time.
Olivia had plenty of practice dancing the night before, during her first foray into a pub. She seems to like beer - ack! Every time I let her try something that she should not like, she likes it - beer, wine, coffee...I have to be less adventurous or something - she's outsmarting me every time.
Anyway, we were celebrating Uncle Mike's 28th birthday. Mike came in and was dancing with Olivia in the restaurant portion of the bar. Then we went to the room upstairs that Aunt Jen had booked and there was more dancing and running around. She actually grabbed one of Mike's friends and started pulling him around in a circle dancing, which we all thought was so funny - then she reached into his pocket and stole his wallet - she's a mad, delinquent drunk! Anyway, the belle of the ball was ready to go at 9 when she started pulling us to the door saying, "Let's go home now."
And so we did.
Take care,
V

Racing notes 9.6

Ah Dave and Lori - we hardly knew ye, but we liked ye and we wish ye well. I missed some of this week thanks to the new timeslot - 8 on Wednesdays is about when story book time starts in the Berry abode. When I did finally tune in, it seemed like a fairly tame week - counting heads on a fence (brass or something like it, not real!), carrying or selling fish and kayak polo. After carrying fish, I would have dunked myself in that water. I think selling fish would have been the better choice for me and Fran and Barry seemed to have fun with it. (They are dong just extraordinarily well and totally keep it together, unlike the ever-pleasant couple Lake and Michelle - nice wallets by the way....).
Argh - the frat boys still maintaining a place at the lead of the pack - I guess you have to give them credit for being lighthearted about things, but they're still kind of icky to me.
Sorry you got philiminated Dave and Lori - may the force be with you...er...ye.
Take care,
V

Catching up

Well - I have now finished work for the year - pretty bittersweet when you know you are saying see you soon to your workmates, and you won't get to be in on the gossip, but at the same time, you are going to get to be home with your kids and hanging with your mommy friends.
The day after I started my leave, we moved! I did much pointing, but unfortunately mommy brain prevailed and I felt overwhelmed by choices and kept putting people off, saying, "We have to wait until I can ask Al."
The movers were pretty good - they forgot to empty the rest of the shed after the rain came and went, so we had a bigger load in our own vehicles than we thought we would. We ended up having to saw the boxspring in half. That was not all that shocking - when we moved in, we couldn't get the boxspring up the stairs and had to bring it in through the bedroom window, which we have since replaced with a sturdier window that left a smaller opening.
So, I have this big beautiful bedroom and I am sleeping on a mattress in the middle of the floor - very dorm room chic, I assure you!
The new house is great!!! I feel like such a grown up in it. I remember when we bought the first house, we would say - do you feel like we're just playacting and none of this is real? Well, now it's a whole new "reality" to get used to as we SLOWLY unpack and settle in. I can barely lift ten pounds without weird pains in my "pelvic girdle", so I'm not being as proactive, heck even active, as I had hoped I would be.
Still and all, we're getting there.
Olivia is home with a cough and runny nose today - I love that I can do that - just ask if she wants to stay home with me (we had a rough night, so I wanted to make sure she got some more sleep) and I don't have to feel parent guilt for missing work!
She actually ended up with a fever on moving day when she went to stay with her grandma/amma and after a bit of a rough night there, has decided that the "Dora bed" (a little inflatable bed bought especially for her overnights in Cambridge) doesn't like her. (Is she our kid, or what?)
That's about it for now.
Take care,
V

Racing notes 9.5

A little late, but here goes.
I really like it when one or two teams manage to stay ahead/get ahead during one of the flight scenes. I think it makes for a better race when people don't sit around waiting for everyone else to catch up. For real CBS? The hippies get to share a multimedia package! BJ can have the camera, but Tyler keeps the software. Button up your shirt, CBS, your heart is going to fall out.
Still love the hippies. Still like that they are pretty casual (as are the frat boys - but they are simply harder to like). I dislike the woe-is-me attitude that teams get... Just keep going. Lake and Michelle yielded Double D - does it make them great people, no, but it's a chance you take on the race...
I think the clothes were the way to go, versus carrying the bell - I think editing made the clothes look like the longer task.
The road block was great, as teams slowly realized that the statues had two extra pieces. Poor Lori got really confused by that.
Bye to Dani and Danielle - man that shared brain did them no good...
Not