Good morning friends!

That is all.

Mexico!

Right now I'm still in Alaska, and due to the ice storm in Seattle my flight home tomorrow might be canceled.  :(  In better news, Bajabucky and I just split a surf and turf at dinner, I met two lovely new people, and I have a massage tomorrow at noon courtesy of my very sweet fiancé.  The massage is well needed by the way because: A. it's been almost a year; and B. I could barely move my neck at all last weekend without scorching pain.  Thank goodness the sweet fiancé also had muscle relaxers.

Anyway.  Did I mention it's -3 degrees here right now?  Which has got me really missing a couple weeks ago when we were in Mexico.

In Mexico!  For Hoeface's 30th birthday with Slutbag and a dozen other friends.  It was pretty epic and involved a horribly swollen ankle injured the first night on a bar trampoline, one of us going missing because he walked home from the bar in rural Baja, a shredded rental car tire, a rental car transmission crushed from the underside by a dirt road rock (this involved a car that would no longer shift, let alone move, followed by a tow by a local mechanic, terror at the potential bill to fix it, a possible day trip into Cabo San Lucas to fix the transmission by an incredibly patient, adventurous, and responsible man, and an ultimate car switch 3 miles from our house by the rental agency and subsequent zero charges due to the foresight of paying for the extra extra insurance), the owner of the rental house getting peed on by one of us, some naked hot tub time, and a horribly hungover drive to the airport in which the car had to be stopped four times.

But we had a lot to celebrate - between the 14 of us we had a birthday, an engagement, a pregnancy, a new job, and a promotion.  I didn't think anything like my 30th birthday would be seen again.  But it has. Yes, yes, it has.

When we first got to Mexico Mr. Renaissance and Slutbag and I stopped at a mega-mart for supplies - including flip flops and a swimsuit for him (the man needs more vacations I think!) and a birthday cake for Hoeface.

These are shoes.  We did not buy them.

Even the grocery parking lot had beautiful views.

The house was beautiful, right on the beach, held 14 people, and cost $35/person/night.  There were surfboards, kayaks, and a wood fired concrete hot tub.

Mr. Renaissance and I got one of the (mostly) private rooms, but to get to it we had to go through the single ladies' bedroom with just a sliding wooden door separating the two rooms.  Where I'm going with this is that the ladies got to hear a lot of snoring.  Which is kind of funny because as soon as a couple of weeks into dating him I already had it tuned out.  So now I never even know if he snores or not because if I'm asleep I don't hear it.  Thank god.

The surf at our house was really big.  It was beautiful and the sound of the waves crashing was so amazing to fall asleep and wake up to, but it also meant we really couldn't get more than about knee deep safely.  That was fun though.

I did way less of this than you might imagine.  Sadly.

So we went to a beginner surf break nearby.  One with quite a few other people.  We sat at a table with an umbrella all day and drank beer, and had a few snacks, and rented surfboards and boogie boards.

Lots of people went surfing, including Mr. Renaissance, Hoeface, and Slutbag.  I didn't want to surf unless I could really spend a lot of time to learn (I do have a bit of self-awareness about how obsessive I am) so I passed.  

I boogie boarded instead.  And when I got tired of hauling that out through the surf I just swam and body boarded.  That was way more fun.  And I kind of accidentally got out into a pretty decent surf break and got a little bit rocked.  That was also pretty fun.  And I wore my swim goggles.  Natch.  

We also did a little shopping in Todos Santos, but didn't really take the time to shop at the edges of town where the decent prices were.  So I just bought a magnet, and a couple Christmas presents, our first Christmas ornament, and some small gifts for the doggy sitters.  Mr. Renaissance insisted on bringing back a sombrero for Bubba.  Since he's part Mexican and all.  

There is one soul in this house who loves it, one soul who hates it, and one soul who feels caught in the middle.

I'm in Alaska, b*tch

And omg, is it cold.

I'm here for a conference.  A conference that is always held in January.  My only guess as to why is that the hotel costs a lot less in the winter.  That and many people aren't available in the summer due to fieldwork.  But whatever.  

I got here Sunday night and still wasn't done with my presentation that I had to give this morning.  So I spent a couple days holed up in my hotel room ordering room service... 

and working like mad to finish my presentation by Tuesday.  

This is what the sky up here looks like at 9:30 am.

Ah, finally some sun!  I'm not going out there, though.

So then Tuesday I spent most of the day practicing my presentation.  Oh boy, are the first few times you practice a presentation painful!  Then that evening I walked 4 blocks to the poster session.  In those 4 blocks my face went numb.  

Look, Bajabucky is here!

We're going to hang out later.  

So this morning I got up at 6:45 to have time to practice my talk and get downstairs by 8 am for the beginning of my session.  My talk went well but I was a little bit terrified.  The ratio of audience size to my comfort level with the topic was waaay higher than I'm used to.  This meeting has only one talk at a time in a large ballroom.  So there were probably over a hundred people in the room.  And up until, oh, about Monday, I didn't quite understand the subject in all the detail necessary to speak on it.  But I did ok.  Some people even said I did well, and that it was "well organized" and "accessible".  Phew.  

I'm glad that's over with.

Now I'm just hoping I can fly back Friday what with all the snow we've gotten on the home front.  

See?

Mr. Renaissance is keeping me updated on adorable Bubba photos.  Thank goodness. 

Over and out.

I guess he likes it!

Well we're starting 2012 off with a bang here friends!  Mr. Renaissance over here put a ring on it!  We had reservations at Joule on New Year's Eve for their special menu.  We were going to have a nice casual NYE together.  And because it was a nice dinner I wore a black dress, blue tights, and heels.  Mr. Renaissance said he wanted to stop by the house renovation because he wanted to check on some things before dinner.  I said sure, no problem.

Once there, he turned some lights off, checked out his work for the day, then grabbed me on my way back into the car.  And right there on the sidewalk in front of the house he's building for us, in which we plan to build a home and family and live for 40 years, he told me how much I mean to him (at this point I thought this was just a sweet way to start 2012), got down on one knee (at which point I was like, "wait, what?"), pulled out a ring (I was mightily confused that he would have had a ring made already), and asked if I would marry him.

So I said, "Of course I will".  And then he laughed at me.

Here's my ring!

It's a round aquamarine set in a band of diamonds.  Of course my engagement ring would be blue, amIright?  It couldn't be more perfect.  

Look, it doesn't even fit on his pinkie.   

We finished the night off with an awesome dinner, then dancing at R Place with The Violent Offender.  And asleep by 4am.  Not exactly the mild night I was expecting.

And then we started 2012 with breakfast at our new favorite neighborhood joint, with texts and calls to friends and family.  And he told me all the details of his secret ring designing.  And that he brought the ring back and showed it to almost my entire family without me being any the wiser.  

So obviously that is the big news over here!  There is so much more to tell you though, so I'll get on that soon.  But not like tomorrow soon because we're going to Mexico on Friday to celebrate Hoeface's 30th with Slutbag and some more friends.

And mark your calendars for sometime in 2013 to go someplace great to celebrate with Mr. Renaissance and myself the official binding of our happy union.  Which is to say, we need to get this house done before we start planning a wedding.