I can't believe it's already December!

I'm back! I survived a week offline. Seriously, no email, no blogging, no blog reading, no online newspapers, just old fashion hanging out and talking. We left last Tuesday for Southern California, and just returned today. It's good to be back! I love Seattle so much.

I have so many things to blog about, so instead of rambling on with each topic, I'll try to sum them up here:

1. Not all cousins are created equally. The cousins we went to visit were my dad's sister's daughters. There are 4 of them, but only 3 were there for the holiday. The one who we were staying with, A, is the same age as me, and my closest cousin growing up. Her younger sister, D, is two years younger than us. The youngest in their family, W, flew in from her college on the east coast. I've seen A a few times in the past year, and I saw D last Thanksgiving when she came to my house. I hadn't seen W in 5 years (she's now 21). I cannot believe how rude she was! She threw two tantrums over the 3 days we spent with her (seriously, a 21 year old throwing a tantrum is just sad. I have zero tolerance for that kind of behavior). She left early Saturday morning, and I was quite happy to then have 3 full days with my two lovely and awesome cousins.

2. Twilight. I've heard about the hype of this series/movie over the past month, and I've offically jumped on the bandwagon. All 3 cousins I was visiting had read the books and they wanted to see the movie so I went along. It was great! I really enjoyed the movie. It made Western Washington look awesome! I started feeling homesick for my lovely trees, rain, clouds. On Friday night after the movie I started reading the first book, and I'm almost done with it. It's a little simple writing for my taste (probably why it's such a hit with teens/tweens) but entertaining. I want to go see the movie again after I finish the book later this week.

3. Baby making. I ovulated! Woo-hoo, the drugs worked! I was a little nervous about how things would work out with traveling and timing. I was equiped with the digital ovulation prediction kit the doctor gave me (which was handy enough to keep in my purse). One of the problems with the test is that it is most acurate if you have not peed in more than 4 hours, and it is best to test it in the middle of the day (it has to do with hormone levels). This is tough for me because I drink a lot of water and rarely go hours between bathroom visits. The doctor told me to start testing on cycle day 10 (which was Thanksgiving) and to anticipate ovulation most likely happening on cycle day 14-16. On Friday (cycle day 11) we were out and about and I didn't get to use the bathroom until about 5 PM, having not gone since 10 that morning. As I sat in the stall of the public bathroom at the Santa Monica Pier, I thought "what the heck" and took the test. On the digital test you get a smiley face when it detects the ovulation hormone that will be present the day prior to ovulation, otherwise it just gives you an empty circle. I got a smiley face! Luckily, due to overcrowding at my cousin A's apartment, Friday was one of the nights Mr.P and I elected to stay at the nearby Holiday Inn Express. So now I'm 3DPO (3 days post ovulation). The books all say that if timing is right, there is a 20% chance of viable pregnancy happening. So we'll see...at least we'll find out before our trip to Mexico.

4. California. I could never live in California, especially Southern California. I don't like palm trees, smog, or desert hills. The traffic is insane, it seemed like the LA area was one giant sprawl of suburbs and strip malls. I find palm trees to be very ugly and weird looking, and personally I don't like being out in the sun. We spent Saturday and Sunday out near Palm Springs in the real desert...it was 100 degrees there! That is crazy. I hate hot weather. It was a fun place to visit for a few days, but like I said...I could never live there and be happy. Plus, they have a black widow spider problem. Yuck! I'm not a big fan of spiders, especially poisonous ones.

5. Friends. We got to see two good friends (in addition to all the cousins we saw in California). My friend A is one of my oldest friends (our parents were friends so we were in playpens together). Even though our families have drifted apart and we live in totally different states, it is so great to still be in touch. It's nice to have a friend like her who I've known my whole life, and I wish we lived closer to each other so I could see her/hang out more often (because I'm terrible about email and facebook). We also got to see my friend M who I met through Craigslist a few years ago from a roommate ad. We clicked and ended up becoming good friends. She's actually the one responsible for setting up Mr.P and I, so we will forever be grateful to her for her matchmaking skills :-)

It's already the 2nd of December and I'm starting to feel the holiday crunch time stress...so many gifts to make and buy, and so little time!