Contentment and Anxiety

I feel lately as if I'm bouncing back and forth between the two words the title...but all is well, and nothing is awful. I think it's a mix of all the busy things going on in our lives as well as my crazy even-more-so-than-normal-out-of-whack-hormones. Ah, pregnancy.

So yesterday was a great day. Originally my husband and I had intended to run up to Pittsburgh to go check out the museums of Art and Natural History...but we diverted and decided to check out the Strip District instead. First though, my husband went to St. Paul's Cathedral, whilst I hung around the Cathedral of Learning to take some photographs.

Ah, this in of itself was a story. Trying to get to the aforementioned tunnel was impossible yesterday. We were stuck in some pretty miserable traffic...and thanks to our TomTom, we were able to see that at one point it took us 15 minutes to move 0.2 miles...I played this on my BlackBerry to lighten the mood.

Anyway, probably a half an hour BEFORE we were stuck in the traffic jam from Hell, I suddenly had to go to the bathroom (oh yes, pregnancy, how your little quirks amuse me!)...so, as you can guess, I was pretty miserable when we finally DID get into Pittsburgh and got parked. The parking garage we're fond of is almost right next to the Cathedral of Learning, so I made a b-line there, and hung out while the husband trekked to St. Paul's Cathedral and back. I got to take some pretty amazing pictures while waiting on him!

The Cathedral of Learning has rooms on its lower floors that are themed by Nationality. They're pretty breathtaking!

The Cathedral of Learning

The Cathedral of Learning (with real lens flare)

Inside (taken from the third floor)

The Austrian Room

When we did meet up again, we decided to grab some lunch. We tried Joe Mama's, since it was close and he hadn't eaten any breakfast. The food was good...nothing to particularly write home about, but nothing stomach churning either. However, next time, we'll be sure to eat at the Strip.

Mmmm....

It's a pretty neat looking building!

Pittsburgh's Strip District is why I want to live in a real city. It's hustle and bustle, always fresh, larger varieties of food, super cheap (compared to supermarkets), and just has a lot more character in general. There are street venders peddling everything from Penguins Jersey's to Fresh Lamb Kebobs, resturaunts specializing in Polish to Korean food, not to mention the wide variety of speciality stores. We ended up just buying food at Wholey's. We managed to snag a boneless lamb roast, a fresh fillet of Grouper, and some fresh peppered bacon for a fraction of the cost at a conventional grocery. It's not just the price that's appealing however. It's hard to find fish that hasn't been previously frozen at some point in time, and meats such as rabbit, lamb, and duck you just stumble upon in super markets - they're never there constantly. Let's not even get into the realm of ethnic food and how living in a small city is limiting in that regard...

The outside of Wholey's. Notice how many languages are on the signs!


Standing in line, waiting for my number to be called.


I got some fresh (never frozen) Grouper! :D


If only I liked the taste of rabbit! (My husband does...I find it too gamey.)

I think next time we are in Pittsburgh, we're going to explore the Downtown...that's really the only part I haven't gotten to really experience yet. It won't be until next month however, as my next three weekends are already scheduled...with baby showers!!

I won't lie...I'm pretty excited.

Foodie.

I can't really pin down where I got my extreme love of food, especially overpriced culinary food. I was a pretty picky (and quirky) eater as a child. If you would have asked 7 year-old Sarah what her favorite foods were it probably consisted of "SpaghettiOs, SPAM, Kraft Macaroni and Cheese with kielbasa, and chicken skin". Admittedly, that list still applies to things I love to eat (I always have a can of SpaghettiO's in my cabinet) but if you asked me my favorite foods now it would probably consist of Duck a L'orange, Rack of Lamb, Otoro Sashimi, and Morel Mushrooms. I've gotten to the point where I'll try almost anything unless it has fennel. I hate fennel. NOTHING IN THIS WORLD WILL MAKE ME LIKE SOMETHING WITH FENNEL SEASONING IT.

Regardless, my husband shares my love for indulging our foodie appetite. This, unfortunately, doesn't always translate into elaborate meals at home, but rather consistent eating at restaurants...many of which are a bit out of our general income range. Now, we do have the opinion that we splurge on food whereas others might be frivolous elsewhere in their budget...however, as of late, we noticed a severe lack of this thing called "money", in that so called "bank account".

Wondering where all of this modern bartering chip had gone, I did a break down of last months expenses...I was shocked to say the least. So, being stricken full on with nesting syndrome, I translated this into the idea that we should start a budget. Three specific ones to be exact. Two for our respective frivolous spending (such as eating out with co-workers, personal items, etc...) and one for our joint spending at eateries. Being a bit of a technophile, I mulled over the desire of having some type of web application to do all the dirty work for me...for me to simply be able to text the amount of money I was spending, and a big server in the sky to tell me when I was allowed to spend no further. However, I am a computer based designer...not a programmer.

I went to bed, dreaming of knowing the code and Boolean algorithms to build such a dream. Unbeknownst to me however, it had already been created.

Enter Buxfer. It let's me set up budgets, text it amounts I'm spending, sends me notices of what the balance on premade budgets are, and even throws in some nifty graphs just for show. It's everything I wanted to be able to program and more.

I'll keep you posted on if the works or not...but I have a hard time thinking that it won't help...as long as we don't get lazy or start cheating.

Tumult.

A friend and I were commenting (via Facebook) on how the word 'tumult' is so fabulous, yet, when it is present in our lives, leans more on the unenjoyable side of things.

Things are very hectic and stressful for us right now, but I have faith that "this too shall pass"...as cliché as it may be.

Last Saturday's trip to Pittsburgh was wonderful. Here are some highlights:

First, my husband and I were remarking that Pittsburgh is either exceedingly ugly and depressing or a very beautiful city. This stark contrast is entirely contingent on that day's weather. Most generally speaking, it is the former as Pittsburgh gets a lot of rainy, overcast, and most generally dreary days. However, we managed stumble upon an elusive "pretty day"!

One of the highlights of Pittsburgh is it's entry into the city. I compiled this .gif animation (why hello 1992!) from the pictures I took trying to show how very cool it is.


So basically, you're in a real rural part of Pittsburgh with nothing but greenery (and highway) around you) and suddenly you POP! into the city. I have always been amazed by this, and continue to be. I can't wait to show this to my kids...I just might have to sit in the back seat with them to see their expression better!

We parked downtown (a couple blocks from the Cathedral of Learning on the Pitt campus) and then hurried off to the Pittsburgh Cathedral so my husband could go to confession. Interestingly enough, there was a wedding going on simultaneously. The wedding had 3 Priests, and the Bishop of the Pittsburgh diocese presiding! I was curious what kind of clout the family had to arrange that.

Beautiful Organ!

Tabernacle Baptismal Font

The Main Altar

On this side, a wedding!

To the right, confession!

We then walked a few more blocks away to Phipps. We remarked on how much more fun the conservatory was for us because we had a fancy camera...to say it kept us entertained would be an understatement! The food at the cafe was very good as well...my husband had some falafel (yuck!) and I ate a mushroom quesadilla...homemade sea salt chips weren't anything to complain about either!

There was a mom with about 5 kids (varying in ages from about 6 to 16) that was in front of us, and was walking back to their parking garage in the same direction when we left. Here's vague transcription of the dialogue that she began:

Woman: "You look so cute!!"
Me: (Laughing) "Thank you, very much!"
Woman: "You're having a boy, right?"
Me: "Yup!"
Small girl with Woman: "How did you know she was having a boy?!"
Woman: "You see how small her butt is honey, but how it looks like there's a basketball under her dress? That's how I knew for certain it was a boy!"

Oh how amusing my husband and I found this to be.

I was pretty exhausted by the end of the day. I approximated that we walked close to five miles after all was said and done.

Yesterday, was my first birth class. We went with another couple (friends of ours) and we all felt generally the same. Most generally, it was a rehash of everything we've read, but it's kind of relieving to know I can ask questions about pregnancy/giving birth if you need to. You can't really ask a book a question and just having that option open alleviates a lot of pressure and stress. Oh, and birth is disgusting and looks exceedingly uncomfortable. None of us were fans of the "birth video". All of us wanted to run to the bathroom. I don't care how you sugar coat it, birth is not pretty/attractive/heart warming. The baby is all of these things...but birth is most assuredly not.

I'm starting to get third trimester ailments now...I'm getting increasingly tired (again), my digestive system is all out of whack (again), and my stomach is getting sore (again). My friend told me she read in one of her books that "everything you suffered from in the first trimester, expect it again in the third...only worse". This is appearing to be rather true. In regards to digestion, I'm trying to force myself to eat smaller, but more frequent, meals. This is harder for me to do than I had expected...I have a rather gluttonous appetite unfortunately. I may be small, but I LOVE TO EAT. I'm going to make a post about my love of food later...