Aloha!

We're finally in Hawaii!

We had a rough trip out, as the power was out on the entire island of Oahu when we landed on Friday night. That meant the airport was completely dark, and there were no departing flights. Or food.

We finally got to leave around 3 am on Saturday, local time. It was a rough day, and we slept most of yesterday, but we're finally ready to really start enjoying our vacation!

Tonight we're doing a sunset whale-watching cruise, and tomorrow we've booked a trip to do the Road to Hana - we can't wait!

I'll try to update while we're here, and I'll post pictures when we get back Saturday.

Love from Hawaii!

Aloha

All I want for Christmas....

I had my second epidural on Wednesday. I'm pretty sore - it's one of those it-gets-worse-before-it-gets-better sort of things. I'm back at work today after being out Wednesday and Thursday. I'm hoping I'll be feeling great for the annual Christmas Tree Hunt tomorrow morning with Dan's family. I can't wait to get a Christmas tree!

Even though I was home and stuck on the couch the past couple of days, we are moving forward with Christmas decorations. Dan put up the outside lights last night. I love seeing them on when I get home!

Here are a couple pictures of our Christmas decorations so far:




I have a few more accident-related things to get through before the end of the year. I have an appointment for trigger-point injections, which should help with some of the muscle pain in my back as well as a couple of legal appointments, including giving my deposition next week. I also have a super fun dentist appointment scheduled for a filling and a crown. Aren't you jealous?

I can't wait for Christmas!

Christmas is coming!

I get really excited about Christmas every year. This year, I started shopping very early (in August!) and started decorating early, too. I'm almost finished shopping, am finished wrapping everything I've bought, sent my Christmas cards out yesterday, and have half-way decorated the house.

However, I've kind of stalled out. We have a couple of small gifts still to pick up, I have to finish decorating, put lights up outside (DAN!) and we have to get our tree. We've just been gone so much, I really feel like we're missing all the holiday around our house. :-(

This weekend we're heading up to visit with my parents, which I'm really looking forward to. We'll be celebrating my mom's birthday (on December 12th) and helping to eat the crab my dad caught the day after Thanksgiving! YUM!

Have a great weekend!

Pictures from Florida

I've been meaning to add pictures to the blog for some time. Here's a few from our trip to Florida.

Chris, Poppa and Kathy

Poppa

Heineken, Murphy and Dan

I'm hoping to steal some of Chris' pictures when she gets back home. I'll try to post more later.

Thanksgiving Dinner

We had a successful Thanksgiving dinner at our house last night. We had Dan's dad, Eric and Shannon over for dinner. I did the whole dinner, including turkey! I did take a shortcut, and we had turkey breast instead of the whole bird. We narrowly averted a crisis when we realized upon returning from our trip that Dan had accidentally put the bird in the freezer instead of the fridge. Oops.

It all worked out, and we served turkey breast with rosemary, thyme and apples, turkey stuffing, homemade mashed potatoes, homemade gravy, green beans with bacon and onions, salad, and the grand finale, homemade apple pie.

We even managed to prepare some appetizers - I made deviled eggs and potato skins with cheese and bacon (yum!). I'll definitely be making both of those again soon!

I can't wait for leftovers, and we'll also do turkey soup later this week. I think I've gained three pounds already this holiday season!

Beach Blanket Babylon

We had a great time in San Francisco on Saturday night! It was a great chance for us to dress up and spend a night out on the town! One of the carriers Dan works with invited us to a nice Italian dinner with several other clients, followed by seats at the infamous Beach Blanket Babylon. The show was great - they'd just added the Christmas portion into the show. We had a fabulous time, but were exhausted by the time it was done. We didn't get home until after 1 AM, which for us is very rare.

I'll have to see if we have pictures to post......

Happy Thanksgiving!

We got back from Florida late last night after spending the Thanksgiving holiday with Dan's Poppa and Aunt Lily in Ft. Lauderdale. Both Lily and Poppa were wonderful hosts, and we're thrilled we've finally had a chance to visit the Florida branch of the Clegg family tree. We're already looking forward to our next visit. We'll upload pictures soon - there are not many as Dan left the camera in the hotel for most of the trip :-)

We're having Frank, Eric and Shannon over for a tradional dinner tomorrow since we were gone on Thansgiving day. We've already begun the prep, and are hoping for a fun, easy day.

I'll be posting pics of both events in the near future!

Carrie Underwood!

My Mom and Dad came down for a visit, and we all got to see the beautiful Carrie Underwood on November 14.



Our tickets were amazing - we were so close!

Ghost Hunters

Dan and I have recently started watching Ghost Hunters. It's become part of our nightly ritual. In a lot of ways, this is a totally embarrassing guilty pleasure. I mean, it's on the SciFi channel, for goodness sake!

So, we'd been watching it on demand, but now we've seen all the episodes available. Then one day, we were wandering around Target while waiting on the pharmacy, and discovered that they sell seasons of GH on DVD. Wow! So we bought Season 4 part 1.

Well, we finished that this week. We were totally bummed until Dan found an awesome deal on Season 3. Woo-hoo. Now we just can't wait for it to arrive!

Megan's Got Back (Okay, it's silly, I know)

After a great weekend with Jessica and Dean (pictures and post to come!), I had a follow up appointment with my back specialist to discuss the effectiveness of the epidural and next steps.

Although I initially saw some improvement from the epidural, it wore off pretty quickly, and now I'm in as much pain as ever. We've elected to do another epidural, scheduled for December 10th, and follow that with some trigger point injections to calm the muscle tension on the December 22nd.

I did get some new pain medication as well as new sleeping meds, and I have to admit I'm not really feeling like myself today. I could barely make it up the stairs last night - I think Dan was both highly amused and slightly worried. :-)

I'm still doing counseling to help deal with the emotional side of chronic pain. I think that it was the best decision I've made since the accident, and am pleased with the progress that I'm making on my own and that Dan and I are making together.

For now, I'm pleased with the plan of action, and am hopeful for a less painful Christmas.

Go Sharks!

We got to attend the San Jose Sharks game on Thursday night with Brian and Joelle. We had such a great time! It's always nice to spend time with the Jennings.


Our seats were great - we got to see every body slam and hear every hockey stick clash clear as day! The game is so fast-paced - I think it's much more entertaining to watch than baseball or football. We sat in the 11th row!


Dan and Brian got to enjoy their first beers out of a plastic bottle. Truly a monumental moment!


All in all, we had a GREAT time!

Happy Halloween!

I wish I could take credit for this masterpiece, but I can't. This is Dan's pumpkin from last year - 2007. He's very proud of it - he specifically requested that I put it on my blog! This one's for you, babe!

Corn Maze

Dan and I went to see Mandi and Tommy in Davis today. We got to visit the biggest corn maze in the world! Dan was a super efficient leader, getting us through the maze in about 40 minutes - 20 minutes under the average time of 1 hour!

Here we are at the start:


And with the big corn maze monster:


Thanks, Mandi and Tommy, for such a fun day (and awesome lunch)!

Autumn Magic

Dan and I went to Autumn Magic tonight, a fundraiser for one of my non-profit clients. We had a great time salsa dancing and watching the professional dancers. Dinner wasn't bad either! We're looking forward to the pumpkin patch tomorrow with Mandi and Tommy!

The Epidural is Over!

So, I had the dreaded epidural yesterday. I was totally stressed out on Tuesday night, even after taking the Valium my doctor was so nice to prescribe. I took another one when Dan left for work on Wednesday morning, and then I got up and cleaned out my closet. :-)

We left for the surgery center at noon and got all checked in and ready to go. I got my IV, but no drugs until we got into surgery. They had me lay down on the table, and I told the very nice nurse that I was freaked out. They gave me Versed and Fentanyl, and some extra Valium through the IV. Then they started the epidural.

They went into my spine at the top of my shoulder blades and threaded a catheter up to C5-7, where the steroid went. There was a tiny prick, a little bit of pressure, and then it was over. I couldn't believe it. The whole thing took about 5 minutes, and it wasn't painful at all.

I got to nap for the rest of the day, snuggling on the couch with Dan. My back is a pretty sore around the injection site, but I can turn my head pretty much all the way in both directions. I'm at work this morning, but hope to work from home this afternoon to rest my back a little more. It is very sore today.

I'm so glad the procedure is over. And I'm thrilled that I'm seeing some improvement already. I'm feeling very hopeful!

Made it Through the Weekend!

I'm back at work today after spending the weekend with my parents and Sunday night/Monday in Carmel. Although I was continuously exhausted (and still am!) I had a lot of fun. We got to enjoy several nice meals with my parents, and then hit the road again, right after my haircut!

I got to spend Sunday night in Carmel, and enjoyed good food and a very short night in a fabulous hotel. My event Monday went well - event better than planned! - and I got to hit up the Gilroy outlets on my way home. Not bad for a work day. :-)

I have my epidural tomorrow, and will be home all day. I'll post an update soon.

Dan the Man!

Last week, Dan's softball team - the CytoSport Militia - took the Benicia Men's Softball Championship title! Take a good look - he's in there!


We're gearing up for a whirl-wind weekend. We're heading to Fortuna tonight to visit with my mom and dad, and then we have to leave EARLY Sunday so I can be in Carmel by 6 for a client dinner. We'll certainly be busy!

I'll check in early next week, hopefully with picture of our trip up north and my trip to Carmel.

Eeek - Epidural!

I never thought I would post this regularly. But I have news, so here we are.

I've been trying to get in for an epidural since my appointment with the orthopedic surgeon (Dr. Jason Smith) on October 1st. It's been slow going. I finally called Dr.Smith's office today (for the 10th time) and they have *finally* sent my paperwork to the new doctor that will be doing the epidural. We decided to go with a new doctor for this procedure, whom I have never met. I thought we'd schedule an appointment, meet him, and then schedule the epidural. NOPE.

I meet the doctor on Monday (10/20) to share my MRI results, then I have the epidural on WEDNESDAY (10/22).

NEXT WEEK.

The new doctor, Dr. Shinaman, just happened to have an appointment open that day. I'm a little freaked out, but honestly, it's probably better to have it done like this than to spend weeks leading up to it and researching everything that can go wrong!

I'll let you all know how it goes next week.

Bay Area Activities

This is a list I've compiled of local attractions for fun dates for Dan and I. We've been to a few of them, and the rest are on our to-do list. I'll let you know which ones we like best!

Chabot Space and Science Center
Set amid 13 trail-laced acres of East Bay parkland, with glorious views of San Francisco Bay and the Oakland foothills, Chabot is a hands-on celebration of sights, sounds, and sensations. Adult admission, $13.
Website: www.chabotspace.org/visit

USS Hornet Museum
The Aircraft Carrier USS HORNET Museum is a national treasure, having participated in two of the greatest events of the 20th century -- World War II and the Apollo 11 manned space mission. Adult admission, $14.
Website: http://www.uss-hornet.org/explore_ship/index.html

Oakland Museum of California
The Oakland Museum of California provides unique collections, exhibitions and educational opportunities designed to generate a broader and deeper understanding of and interest in California's environment, history, art and people. Adult admission, $8.
Website: http://www.museumca.org/

The Oakland Zoo
Open 10-5 on weekends, admission is $10.50.
Website: http://www.oaklandzoo.org/

John Muir National Historic Site
Adult admission is $3.
Website: www.nps.gov/jomu

Conservatory of Flowers - Golden Gate Park
A spectacular living museum of rare and beautiful tropical plants from around the world that will engage visitors physically, intellectually and emotionally. Tu-Su 9am-4:30pm. $5 for adults
Website: www.conservatoryofflowers.org

Presidio of San Francisco - Presidio
Formerly a military post, the Presidio is a national park and recreational paradise featuring spectacular vistas, meandering trails, and historic and architectural treasures. Open daily, year-round, free admission.
Website: www.presidio.gov

Scharffen Berger Chocolate Maker
Free public tours of our factory to learn how chocolate is made, about our history and partake in a delightful chocolate tasting. M-Sa 10am-6pm, Su until 5pm.
Website: www.scharffenberger.com

Anheuser - Busch Consumer Hospitality Center
Free, 45-minute tour includes brewing, presentation, packaging video, and product sampling. Tours Sept-May, T-Sa 10am-4pm and June-Aug, M-Sa 10am-4pm.
Website: www.budweisertours.com

Charles Chocolates Factory Store & Chocolate Bar
Premium chocolatier products include gourmet chocolate bars, handmade confections and chocolate covered nuts. Free factory tours. Optional $10 per person chocolate tasting offered after the tour. W, F, Sa and Su 11:30am and 2:30pm.
Website: www.charleschocolates.com

Golden Gate Fields
Live thoroughbred racing with the Golden Gate Bridge as a backdrop. Admission for live racing Grandstand $4, Clubhouse $6, Top of Stretch $2, Turf Club $10-15.
Website: www.goldengatefields.com

Submarine USS Papanito
This authentic, World War II submarine - with near perfect restoration - offers visitors an unforgettable experience. Many original artifacts are on display. Summer hours: Th-Tu 9am-8pm, W 9am-6pm; Winter hours: M-Th 9am-6pm, F-Su 9am-8pm. Admission $9 adults.
Website: www.maritime.org

Winchester Mystery House
Guided tours of this beautiful but bizarre 160-room California Historical Landmark reveal the eccentricities of Sarah Winchester, heiress to the Winchester rifle fortune. Open daily 9am-5pm except Christmas. Approx. $25.
Website: www.winchestermysteryhouse.com

California Academy of Sciences
Adult admission $25.
Website: www.calacademy.org

Welcome to my blog!

I really can't believe I started a blog. I'm far too lazy to be a blogger, but here I am anyway. I'll be treating this a little like my flickr account, which I think you all probably have access to anyway. This way, I'll be able to expand the captions and offer a little more variety.

If you don't like the blog, I don't want to hear about it. You never have to come back.

If you do like it, let me know!