I have got to choose a better time to take these pictures.

See, I kept forgetting to ask S to take my picture each week.  So we set an alarm on his phone to remind us to take it first thing in the morning.  Which is why you get my stellar, I-just-rolled-out-of-bed-after-tossing-and-turning-due-to-pregnancy-insomnia look. 

According to Babycenter this week:

Your baby’s skeleton is changing from soft cartilage to bone, and the umbilical cord — her lifeline to the placenta — is growing stronger and thicker. Your baby weighs 5 ounces now (about as much as a turnip), and she’s around 5 inches long from head to bottom. She can move her joints, and her sweat glands are starting to develop.

The weight of a turnip??

In addition,

You may also notice your eyes becoming drier. Using over-the-counter lubricating drops may help. If your contact lenses become uncomfortable, try wearing them for shorter stretches of time. If you still have discomfort, switch to glasses until after you give birth.

I have totally been feeling the dry eyes lately.  I’m using Visine like it’s my job, since I don’t have any contacts to be able to take out!

My 17-week check in:

• Total weight gain: About 8 pounds so far.
• Maternity clothes? About half-half.  I only have one pair of my “normal” jeans that I can still fit into, ones that were really baggy on me before the pregnancy.  I am mostly sporting dresses and skirts with elastic waists at this point.
• Stretch marks? None yet.  S bought me some oil and cream for my birthday which I rub on every evening after I get out of the shower.  Fingers crossed it helps as the pregnancy progresses!
• Sleep: Ehh… hit or miss.  Since Friday night it has been pretty good, since I have been so exhausted every night and am still trying to make up for lost sleep. Last night I tossed and turned for hours, though.
• Workouts:  I ran Sunday and yesterday (3 miles each time) and went to the gym on Monday.  The remaining days I tried to at least get a good walk in.  Running is getting harder and harder, I’m not sure how much longer I will be able to do it.
• Best moment this week: Nothing too exciting this week, I think the best moments have been going to bed and getting a chance to read and sleep in the new Tempurpedic!
• Miss Anything? Sushi, sushi, sushi!  And caffeinated coffee.  Can’t wait until I can have that boost again!
• Movement: I’ve felt little bubbles, but am still unable to definitively tell if they are baby or food…
• Food cravings: Not really.  Eating pretty much as usual, just a little bit more.
• Aversions: Nada
• Symptoms: Tired, feeling bigger and heavier. 
• Belly Button in or out? In.
• Wedding rings on or off? On.
• Most looking forward to:  Feeling the baby move/kick, and for S to be able to feel it too!  I imagine it must be hard for him to know what is going on and not be able to feel or experience any of it except through what I tell him.  Remind me that I said this when I actually am in labor and have to experience that for myself.

And look at the kittys’ new grand hotel.  Small hotel on top of big hotel = Kitty QUEEN!

She can almost touch the ceiling!

Ok, nap time.

Tonight stuffed shells are on the menu for dinner.  Then it’s time for my FAVORITE time of the day, bed time!

It was a fantastic weekend.  A sleep-depriving, exhausting, but fantastic weekend.

Friday night through Saturday morning I was at work, managing a large maintenance change.  All went well, and the work was completed right on schedule.  I’d been pretty stressed out and heads down planning for that, so I feel so happy and proud now that it is complete.  It’s like a huge weight has been lifted off of my shoulders.

I got home a little before 8am on Saturday  morning, and immediately crashed in our new Tempurpedic!  I wish I could say that I had the best sleep of my life because it was so incredibly comfortable.  The truth was that I did have very good sleep, but I was so exhausted at that point that I could have slept outside on the cement patio and had good sleep.  The Tempurpedic is actually a little hard at this point – it is definitely not as soft like the one in the mattress store.  I think that it just needs to break in a little bit, since it is brand new.  So I will had an update in a couple weeks.  The mattress came with a 100 day guarantee, so we have plenty of time to make sure it is our perfect fit.  And it has to be a perfect fit, or I am sending it back for sure since it was so expensive.

I slept until about 1pm.  The rest of the day was spent relaxing because I was still pretty tired.  I did do some grocery shopping at Fresh ‘n Easy. Every time I go there, I think that I should go more often because they have great prices on lots of items.

After an early bedtime on Saturday, I woke up bright and early on Sunday for the San Francisco Marathon training program kickoff! 

The new gear, JB-approved.

This year, the program is called “Run 365” and I am volunteering again as a pacer like I did last year.  This year, of course, will be a little different.  I’m not sure how much I will be running, if at all.  So I will be a floater – helping out wherever I can including with aid tables, bagel pickup and delivery, logistics, etc.  I am hoping I can run a little bit (short, slow runs) but there will be no pacing or long runs in my near future. 

The kickoff was fun – we got to meet the new trainees and do introductions. 

We had each trainee check in and pick up their gear.  They they ran – either 1 mile or 3 miles – to understand their current running level and pace.  Based on this information, they were assigned to a pace group to begin running next week.

Love my fellow pacers. 

You can tell the pacers by our bright yellow hats!  Can’t miss us.

There was breakfast and goodies for all, including bagels with cream cheese and peanut butter, cookies, brownies, trail mix, fruit…

Coffee and orange juice.  Only caffeinated… fortunately I brought my own mug of decaf so I had some to sip!

Gary is the head of the south bay program and he’s funny and awesome.

Lots of fun and joking around! 

And look at this ADORABLE polar bear puppy that was there!  I wanted to take it home sooooo bad.

Post-kickoff I headed home and made lunch for S and I.  I made a roast beef sandwich with a whole wheat omega-3 baguette I picked up at Fresh ‘n Easy the day before.  Sooooo good.  With veggies and hummus on the side.

I am so in love with Trader Joe’s Garlic Eggplant hummus.  It is delicious!  All of those marks in the container are from me dipping my finger in it and eating it plain.

The rest of my day was spent watching football, eating snacks, and relaxing.  The perfect end to the weekend.  The football games were awesome, too.  I was rooting for the 49ers, and was sad when they lost.  But the real heartbreaker was the end of the Ravens vs. Patriots game.  I was semi-rooting for the Ravens (I pretty much hate both teams so was torn) but I felt so bad for Cundiff when he missed that final field goal.  He must feel even worse than Kyle Williams today.

So… today’s Monday.  That sucks.  The upside is, at least I didn’t miss a playoff finals game-tying field goal yesterday.  Look on the bright side, right?

I am a few days late on this, but please excuse me as I finish working through the major change that we have going on right now at work.  I finally get a few minutes of breathing room!

So… on wednesday I was officially 16 weeks pregnant.

From Babycenter:

Get ready for a growth spurt. In the next few weeks, your baby will double his weight and add inches to his length. Right now, he’s about the size of an avocado: 4 1/2 inches long (head to rump) and 3 1/2 ounces. His legs are much more developed, his head is more erect than it has been, and his eyes have moved closer to the front of his head. His ears are close to their final position, too. The patterning of his scalp has begun, though his locks aren’t recognizable yet. He’s even started growing toenails. And there’s a lot happening inside as well. For example, his heart is now pumping about 25 quarts of blood each day, and this amount will continue to increase as your baby continues to develop.

Baby P already has toenails?!?!

In addition, it says that:

Soon you’ll experience one of the most wonderful moments of pregnancy — feeling your baby move. While some women notice "quickening" as early as 16 weeks, many don’t feel their baby move until about 18 weeks or more.

I swear that I have felt some baby in there at some points the past couple of weeks.  But maybe it is just my dinner moving around    I can’t wait to definitively feel the baby.  That is going to make this so much more real.

I’m still kind of in that stage where this doesn’t seem real.  My head knows its real, but it still I cannot yet truly believe it. 

Two things that I am loving this week:

1.  My new SNOOGLE!

The snoogle was introduced to me by a friend of mine who had a baby back in June.  She told me how wonderful it was and how much it helped her throughout her pregnancy.  She also said that she would give hers to me except… she still wanted to use it after her pregnancy was over!  So I had to get one of my own.  I’ve also seen this being used by some other pregnancy all-stars, like this new momma.  As soon as I bought it and posted about it on facebook, I received tons of comments from my friends who are moms.  The consensus?  The pregnant women LOVE them.  The husbands?  Not so much.

This pillow is no joke.  It’s huge, and heavy!  But so far it has been worth its weight in gold.  And I’m sure it will only be more useful as I get bigger and further along.

The second new thing… drumroll please…

2.  A new TEMPURPEDIC BED!

This one has been on S’s wish list for quite a while now.  And we were pretty much done with our queen-sized Ikea bed.  It did me good, lasting for over 5 years since I moved here to California, and it is still in great shape so I am selling it if you know anyone who is interested.  But it’s not exactly the best and most supportive mattress, and it wasn’t the most sturdy bed.  Now that I’m married and “settled down”, I was ready to invest in a better bed.  Of course, I didn’t anticipate spending as much as we did.  But I don’t have regrets, this baby is like sleeping on a cloud!  Or so I think.  It just arrived today, and I haven’t slept on it because I have to be in the office working all night tonight.  But I’m sure that when I come home Saturday morning and sleep all day Saturday, it will be like sleeping on a cloud!

The new bed(s):

Excuse the hospital bed-ish look.  We have yet to buy a bed frame for it, so right now we just have the good old Tempurpedic frame and mattress.

We got the split king bed.  I know that a lot of married folks don’t think that you should have a king-sized bed, and probably particularly not a split king.  In fact, a year or so ago that was what I thought, too.  However, after sleeping with my wonderful S for two and a half years now, I’m more than ready for my extra space thankyouverymuch.  Especially now that both me and my snoogle have to fit in it. 

My side:

S’s side:

He is working from home today, and has not moved from the bed since it was delivered this morning.

No, you can’t have your lunch and dinner there.

The cool thing about having a split king is that we each have our own controllers for making the head and foot of the bed go up and down.  So night-owl S can put his head up and read, while grandma early-bird Rachel can go to bed by 8:30pm.

Look how loving this couple looks.  They must have a split king.

  Ok, now I am back to work.  Only 6 hours left to go in this change (fingers crossed!!!)

I’m a sucker for new things – especially new food things.  If it says “NEW!” on the package, I have got to try it.  There have been cases where I didn’t even like the old or original, but I still buy the new one.  Because it’s new, people.  I might love it!

Today, I found lots of new things that I just had to buy.  At Trader Joes:

And, although it’s not new, it is a new RECIPE.  You know I gotta try that too.

And then at Target, new Chobani flavors!

I have a crazy amount of Chobani in my fridge right now.  Last week, Safeway had it on sale for $1 each and I stocked up.  Then this week, Target had the same price (and new flavors!!)  I shall be eating Chobani for breakfast, lunch and dinner.  And I don’t mind.

Finally, I got:

Can’t wait to try all my new finds!

Speaking of new things, guess what else I splurged on last week?

Yes, I did.  I kind of felt guilty doing it, seeing as how I make banana soft serve myself on a regular basis, and since I have already splurged on a Vitamix.

But making banana soft serve in the vitamix, or in my other, “normal” blender, isn’t easy.  When I try to make a single serving with 1 1/2 – 2 bananas, the pieces of frozen banana go crazy when I turn on the blender and bounce all over the place.  With enough patience, and stopping every few seconds to push down the pieces of banana that stick to the sides of the blender, I eventually end up with banana soft serve, but by that time it is usually pretty liquidy and I have to let it sit in the freezer for a few minutes to get closer to a soft serve consistency.

After hearing some folks on facebook rave about the Yonana, I finally couldn’t help myself anymore.  It helped that I had some Amazon.com account credit to soften the $50 blow.

The verdict?  It is awesome!  I haven’t experimented with any other fruits, although I am looking forward to trying some modifications and mix-ins.  Last night, I went with plain old banana with Nuttzo peanut butter and some maple syrup drizzle on top.

It was delicious!  And the perfect consistency straight out of the machine, without me having to re-freeze it or do anything at all.

Now I just have to figure out where the heck to put another kitchen appliance in my teeny kitchen!

Finally, I give you an update on our new floor.

Remember what I came home to over one month ago?

Here is what we have now:

Not too shabby, right?  All that is left to do is all of the trim around the outside,

The

separators in between rooms (not sure of the “correct” name)

And around the fireplace.

I can’t wait until this is DONE!  We haven’t even started thinking about the upstairs yet…

Ok, JB says goodbye.

Apparently, blogging hasn’t been my top priority.  Actually, it has been high on my priority list.  I have thought about blogging many times during the past week, and have wanted to blog.  But I haven’t.

One reason is work – I have been working pretty much day and night preparing for a very large project milestone that will occur next Friday.  My team will be bringing down the most important corporate applications and servers that we have – applications that, I have been informed, cost the company millions of dollars in revenue for every hour that they are down.  The maintenance is necessary, so it has been approved, but suffice to say that planning and perfection in executing are of the essence during this work. 

The other reason is that… I have an announcement.  We have an announcement. So I didn’t want to just rush through this announcement in between project meetings and outage planning.  I wanted to sit down and enjoy every minute of typing this.

(source)

The past 8 months haven’t been easy for us, as we tried to get to this point.  That might or might not be a topic of a future blog post.   But understand that we are grateful.  Very, very grateful.

That’s right…..

(source)

We are also very, very excited.

I am still somewhat at a point where it doesn’t seem real.  But now, well into my second trimester, I know that it IS real. 

I know because I can no longer go up a staircase let alone run more than 3 miles without being out of breath and tired. 

I know because I go to bed by 8:30 (reigned in from my previously outrageous bedtime of 9:30). 

I know because during Thanksgiving time, I couldn’t stomach the thought of eating anything pumpkin flavored (usually my favorite, this has been the only aversion I have experienced thus far in the pregnancy.  Oh, and it is long gone.  )  . 

I know because I gave up a marathon.

I know because my barely-b-cup “girls” are well into the C range, and I have to wear a sports bra when I sleep to be comfortable.

I know because I’m getting spacey.  Usually, I am the one in the relationship who is sharp as a tack – remembering where everything is and when all of the appointments are.  In the past week, I have put things belonging in the fridge into the freezer, things belonging in the cabinet into the bed room, and I’m pretty sure one time I complimented S’s new shirt by telling him I liked his broccoli.

I know because I’m starting to show.  And people are starting to know – WITHOUT me telling them. 

I’m proud to announce: 

Baby P. 

Expected to arrive July 4th, 2012!!!

(source)

Goodbye 2011. 

Hello 2012.

I’m about 8 days late.  But in the big scheme of things, 365 days that make up a year, 8 isn’t really that bad… right?  It’s about a2% margin.

Now, I give to you my new years, and the remainder of my trip to Switzerland, in the blink of an eye.

Truthfully, there’s not all that much I like about Switzerland.  But one of the things I like – LOVE – are the roasted chestnuts that you can buy from street vendors.

These things are amazing, especially when you first get them and they are all warm.  I always feel like I should be singing “Chestnuts roasting on an open fire…” but really these aren’t a Christmas thing.  They are available in the cities all year round!

And they give you a spiffy bag with two sides.  One side has the chestnuts, and one side is empty for you to put the shells in as you eat them.  Genius!  Why don’t pistachio or peanut sellers at the farmers market do this??

Another thing I love, of course, is the chocolate.  I am starting to love it even more, in fact.  The first few times I went to Switzerland, they seemed to only have plain chocolate (milk and dark).  This was high-quality and delicious, of course, but I like all sorts of mix-ins and flavors with my chocolate!  Well, now it appears that they are having more flavors and varieties available.  S thinks this is because there are so many American tourists, and that’s what Americans want (because Swiss people usually just go for the plain old chocolate) and he might be right. 

A favorite of mine is this fondant-filled chocolate.

Looks plain, but a special surprise in the middle!

Speaking of surprises, look at what I found on my egg in Switzerland!

I wasn’t sure whether to laugh or to cry, but it was still a surprise… 

Another surprise was seeing a running store in Geneva.  There aren’t really that many runners in Switzerland, it seems.  At least… you never see any running outside on the streets.  The few times I went for a run on my trip, the people outside kind of looked at me like I was crazy.  But there must be other runners, if there is a WHOLE STORE for them, right??

It was the first time I had been to Geneva, which was fun.

The giant Geneva fountain…

On our last day in Switzerland, we went to Bern with S’s family to have a coffee and look around.

We got to the Bern clock right before 4 o’clock so decided to watch the hour hit.

It was fairly… anticlimactic.  A few things chimed and moved around, but other than that it wasn’t really worth the wait in the cold.

A last visit in the Lötschental valley (praise the lord).

Bye bye Grandma and Grandpa valley!

A brief walk through Interlaken.

A stop for a donner kabob. Have you ever had one?

They taste better when served by a Swiss dude in a red beret.

And finally, my trip concluded with my first trip on a Swiss train.  It was not, I might add, my choice.  But S’s parents decided that we needed to take the train from their house to the airport in Zurich, since their biggest car is a Toyota Prius which would not fit the five of us (Mom, Dad, Sister, S and I) plus our crap ton of luggage.

The highlight was sitting in the dining car and having a nice breakfast.

Cheeeeeeeeese!

Ok, that’s it.  Then I got on a plane, flew 12 hours, and was back on American soil in my beloved California.

I must give a shout out to Swiss Airlines.  It’s no secret that I don’t love Switzerland or most Swiss things.  But this airline rocks!  They feed you – a LOT – and it is really good food.   2 full meals and plenty of snacks on each of our flights, including this Movenpick ice cream!!

They are also really nice, friendly, and helpful.  I wish that Swiss Airlines had flights within the US!

Ok, now I’m off to watch the Steelers game.  Tebow, you’re going down! 

That Ben and Jerry’s isn’t only in the US?  In fact, it is very popular in Switzerland.

They even have some flavors that we don’t have (or at least I have never seen.)

Fairly Nuts:  Caramel ice cream with a praline almond cluster and caramel swirls

Coconutterfly fair:  Chocolate ice cream with a coconut caramel swirl and chocolaty covered coconut caramel crunch pieces

Baked Alaska:  Vanilla ice cream with marshmallow swirls and white chocolaty polar bears (I really want to try this one!!!)

Did you know… that McDonalds in Switzerland are cooler than in the US.  Some, like this one, have separate coffee and espresso bars inside.

With special treats, like cupcakes, brownies, carrot cake…

Even macaroons!

Som also have automated kiosks for easy ordering, so you can get exactly what you want and don’t have to stand in line.

They also have different kinds of menu offerings that we don’t have in the US, like a shrimp and avocado wrap, an order of shrimp, chicken wings, McZuri (a veal burger) and a McGrillSchnagg (sausage made from Swiss pork).

Did you know…

Whenever you order a coffee in Switzerland, it comes with a little sweet?  Either a chocolate or a cookie… it’s a wonderful partner to your hot drink.

Did you know…

You’re never too old to play in the snow?

And nature can make a wonderful freezer, especially for homemade black forest cake.

Until your never-too-old-to-play-in-the-snow husband attacks it with a fork during a playtime refueling.

Ok, so in Switzerland they don’t celebrate Boxing day.  But since my Dad is from England, and hence a lot of my family members live there, we grew up recognizing the day and even though I haven’t been to England to celebrate it in many years, I always think of December 26th as Boxing Day.  In a way, that makes it happy rather than the more depressing way to think of it – the day after Christmas.  It’s a whole new holiday!

This year on Boxing day, we had a special “lunch” with all of S’s extended family at a restaurant in the Lötschental valley.  Before I go into details about the “lunch”, I have to explain what a Swiss “lunch” is and why I have it in parenthesis.

A Swiss “lunch” lasts for hours.  A Swiss “lunch” is not over until… well, pretty much until it is time for dinner.  And a Swiss “lunch” actually does not entail much eating.  There is a lunch, for sure, and it is the usual courses (soup, salad, etc.) but overall it is more about the talking and the people.  And the drinking.  There is a LOT of drinking, mainly wine but also beers, champagne, and the hard stuff.

This particular Swiss lunch started at noon.  Sounds good so far, right?  For the first hour, we stood, enjoyed appetizers, and welcomed everyone.

At 1pm, we finally sat down at the table.   There were beautiful decorations, including this angel made from materials right here in the valley.

Some gifts were shared, including beautiful scarves and handmade cookies.

Finally, at around 1:45 pm, the first course was served.  Smoked salmon, my favorite! 

Along with some freshly baked bread.

Finish salmon.  Plates cleared.  Wait.  Wait some more.  Talk, then wait.

S’s brother, Nick.

A half hour later?  Soup course!  Pumpkin soup.

Between the soup and the salmon, plus munching on the appetizers and the cookies that were given to me, I was actually starting to fill up a little bit.

Not to worry, the next course (the main course) didn’t arrive until over an hour later.  Plenty of time to make room.

I was so hungry, in fact, that I forgot to take a picture before I devoured my chicken.  Oh well, here’s what my vegetables and potatoes looked like.

After this, plus the drinks that were constantly a-flowing, I was pretty full.  It was about 3:45pm.

So…. more waiting!  One of my favorite things to do while waiting was look at Missy.  She is Stephen’s uncle’s dog and is very old.  She is the sweetest thing, and comes with them everywhere.  She is always very well-behaved under the table.

4:20 or so, dessert was served.  A yogurt and chocolate panna cotta type dessert (I can’t remember the Swiss German name for all of these things), sorbet on a butter cookie with crème underneath, and caramel sauce on the side.

There’s always room for dessert.

Finally, at about 4:45pm, we ended our meal in the traditional Swiss way – with a cup of coffee.

Always served with something sweet.  Second third dessert!

So… that’s a Swiss lunch for you. We left around 5pm, ready to make our way back to the house (most likely to start cooking dinner).

Although I’m not exactly a fan of the 5-hour Swiss lunch, I am a fan of getting to see all of the family and friends, and I appreciate the fact that they truly take the time to sit, talk, and enjoy each other.

S and his Grandmother.  This is what it’s all about.

Since moving to California 6 years ago, I have not had any white Christmases.

Last year, we were in sunny San Diego.

The year before, it was San Luis Obispo.

Well, this year I am definitely having my white Christmas.

We are in Switzerland, spending the holiday with S’s family.  Right now, we are in their house in the Lötschental valley.  Remember our hike there last year?  Well… it was a different kind of hiking today. 

But first let me rewind to last night.  On Christmas Eve, we watched the Steelers game!  It started at 7pm here in Switzerland, and we watched it streaming online.  S was SO excited to watch it.  Since we were also about to eat dinner, S’s parents graciously allowed us to set up the computer on the table.

A few minutes into the game, however, jetlag hit!

Don’t worry, it was just a quick blink.  When he realized he had fallen asleep he was very upset to have missed a few minutes of the first quarter.  From that moment on, the head stayed up off the table!

Although I have not been imbibing in the typical cheese and alcohol smorgasbord that usually occupies my time and my stomach when I am in Switzerland, I am making up for it tenfold with CHOCOLATE!

These are my new ones, beautiful chocolates with the Matterhorn on them!  S’s grandmother gave them to me.  They just *might* be too pretty to eat… 

So back to our Christmas day in the Lötschental.

We went snow shoeing!

Although I was born in Colorado and grew up in Pennsylvania, I have only been skiing one time in my whole life.  I did enjoy it, but have just never had the opportunity (or the drive) to go again.  It always seems like so much effort to get to a ski resort, get all bundled up, rent skis, boots, and any other required equipment, etc.  Plus, I’m not the biggest fan of the cold.  However, when I found out we were going to Switzerland in the dead of winter and that there would be a lot of snow in the valley, I did think it would be pretty cool to try snow shoeing.  Amazingly, since Stephen’s family has their house there, they have equipment for pretty much any type of snow sport you could dream of, so they just pulled out a pair of snowshoes and poles for S and I (as well as snow pants and boots!)

It still required the major bundling up, which was a hassle.  But it was totally worth it once we got out there and started moving!

It was a relatively flat route, but it did have some ups and downs.  Walking in show shoes in deep snow is HARD!  I definitely got a workout today.  I could tell I was using totally different muscles than I usually do in running or my other activities.

I was bundled up to the hilt, but my face was freezing!!

It was a beautiful hike.  We started in the village of Blatten, and ended in Kuhmad by the chapel. 

I am guessing it was a little over a mile each way? 

On the way back, the sun was shining on us brightly and I actually got too hot.  Overall, it was tough!  I was pretty exhausted by the time we got back to the car.  I couldn’t wait to get back to the house for some lunch and some time by the fire!

As for the rest of the day, it will just involve relaxing, eating, and enjoying this time off.  I hope that everyone has a wonderful holiday!

It’s no secret that S and I are big Pittsburgh Steelers fans.  Last week, we got the opportunity to go to our first EVER live game!!  Neither of us have ever been to a live football game (NFL), let alone a Steeler’s game.  My friend Tim (who, by the way, just PRed at CIM in the beginning of December!!!!) was kind enough to give us two of his season tickets.  To say we were excited was an understatement.

Truth be told, we weren’t sure exactly what to expect.  We heard the stadium gets coooolllld, so we packed tons of layers and blankets.  It was a Monday night game that started at 5:30 so we left work early as we heard there was going to be a huge crowd for this game.  And good thing that we did… it was packed!

S had brought all of our stuff in his backpack… but then they wouldn’t let him take it in.  They are no longer allowing backpacks or bags, unless they are those clear ones that you can see through (that look like they belong to a two-year-old running around in the back yard with jelly shoes and slap bracelets on.)  So we had to check his backpack in their free “bag check” and carry all of our stuff in.

We got in before 5pm, plenty of time to find our seats for pregame!  We got a fair bit of heckling on the way to our seats, but we didn’t mind, we knew we were entering into enemy territory

I was wearing a long-sleeved tshirt, a sweatshirt, my winter coat and my jersey on TOP of my coat.

They had rolled out the giant 49ers helmet and were about to begin the pregame festivities when, all of a sudden, the power went out!

At first we thought it was part of the show… but then…  they didn’t come back on!  Almost a half hour later, we were still in the dark.  Everybody kept saying… “I don’t think this was supposed to happen…”

Finally, the lights came back on.  Due to the delay, there was no pregame show so they just started the national anthem, with some awesome pyrotechnics!

Then it was time for the game.  I didn’t take any pictures during the game, because I spent most of it wishing that our team would get their act in gear and start WINNING!  Which they didn’t.

We did the stadium food thing, with hot dogs and other goodies.  It was cold, but not as cold as I was afraid of.

Overall, it was an AWESOME time!  We will definitely be going to more games in the future.  The only thing that would have made it better was if we had actually won! 

Thanks so much, Tim, for giving us the tickets.  I owe you one, big time!!