Not Feeling In The Pink....Got Me a Case of the Blues

But it's all good....really!

We're not having a Jet Set Chicklet, after all. The ultrasound was wrong. We're going to be welcoming a new Tsarevich! He's Joseph Michael, after his grandfathers.

This time we are sure....amnio results don't lie! ;)

Now I just gotta find receipts for all those cute little dresses.....and get some more overalls. We're bracing ourselves for hospital runs because he's fallen out of a tree, he didn't quite pop a wheelie the right way on his bike, and when he tried to be Superman he didn't exactly nail that landing when he jumped off his bed.

I'll just be happy if he doesn't bring swamp critters into our house someday. I mean, ok, we brought home lizards when we were kids, but Arizona lizards are tiny compared to what grows out here.

I can just see the difference now:

My mother, circa 1974 : "No, you can't keep him, he belongs out in the wild. Put him back. I hope it doesn't get eaten by one of the neighborhood cats."

Me, circa 2014: "@#$%! What the @#$% is that??? Get that out of my house, Joseph, before it bites the dog!!"

Sometimes I really miss Arizona, ya know?

Sometimes Things ARE Better Back Home, But...

I think that the new ranking for Miami being the capital of rude driving since I moved out here over my old hometown of Phoenix (ranked #2) is purely coincidental.

I haven't been driving that much out here, honest!!!

Looking for the Next Big Retirement Hotspot??

So, maybe you have decided that Costa Rica is now a little out of your price range. But you still want to go somewhere with a beach. Good food is appreciated, and natural beauty is, of course, a plus.

Being a trendsetter, you don't want to go where everyone else has been. So....I think I might have found the place for you.

It's not on the Caribbean, but it still has warm water and (for now) reasonable prices......plus it's convenient to a lot of other wonderful tourist meccas. Take a guess as to where it is before you click. I bet it's somewhere you had not previously considered.....

Not the Year of the Mouse in Hong Kong....

No sirree, it hasn't been an easy ride for Disneyland in Hong Kong.

First there were bugs in the hotel....then there was the controversy over shark-fin soup. Not to mention the complaints that souvenirs for sale in the park were made in sweatshops on the Chinese mainland, and that the only classic Disney ride at the park was Space Mountain. (Autopia is scheduled to open in 2006, with maybe the Pirates of the Caribbean coming afterwards.)

Now the complaints are that the park is too small, the costumes worn by the cast members are too hot, and the company is screwing over the local tourist agencies with cheap commissions and demands for early booking for large groups.

With only 16 rides (compared to 52 in it's California park), the locals now have a more negative perception of Disney than they did before the park opened.

Want to see the least Happiest Place on Earth for yourself?

Tickets top out at approximately $45 ($325 HKD) for adults during peak seasons. Kids 3 to 11 top out at about $32.25 ($250). Kids under three get in for free.

Whatever you do, don't try to get in during Chinese New Year. You have been warned.....

A Public Service From the Jet Set Chick

This is a little personal, but I still thought it was important enough to share.

As I posted earlier, I got an amniocentesis done this week. There was something that got messed up that could have been very serious (but fortunately easy to fix).

After I had the amnio, me & my husband were driving back home. I remembered reading something about Rh negative women needing a Rhogam shot any time they get an invasive procedure done involving their pregnancies. If an amnio isn't invasive, I don't know what is....

I decided to call the office to make sure what I had read was correct. Sure enough, after the receptionist checked, the doctor came on the line and told me to come back immediately for a Rhogam shot. (The Tsar almost took out two other cars with the U-turn he executed, but that's another story...) Even though it's all over the place in my file, they still missed it and didn't give me the shot right after the procedure. They might not have ever caught it if I hadn't said anything.

Got the shot, and got a little ID card to carry in my purse in case of emergency. It says when I got the shot and who the manufacturer is. It also says that in the future, if I should have a miscarriage or abortion, or if my baby is born with Rh positive blood, I need to get another shot within 72 hours.

I don't know if any of you know much about Rh incompatibility, but without that shot, I could develop antibodies to my baby's blood. (About 15 percent of the population has Rh negative blood.) There is no way to tell if our little girl is Rh positive until she is born.

They've pretty much stopped testing the guy the woman says is the father to see if there will be a problem. That's how my mother got out of having the shot....my dad was Rh negative, too. They just assume all women with Rh negative blood will need the shot nowadays, and give it to them. The Tsar hates getting his blood drawn, so he was relieved about that. ;)

Chances are, even without the shot, our little girl would be ok if she were Rh positive. However, any future little brothers or sisters that might have Rh positive blood could be born very sick or even die before birth because my immune system would attack them.

I think part of the reason hubby was so worried was that when he was growing up in Russia, he knew two sisters who were affected by Rh incompatibility. The older sister was fine, but her younger sister required a transfusion at birth and was kind of sickly growing up.

Be careful....and spread the word to any lady you know who is expecting or may be in the future!

We're Just Tickled Pink Here at the Jet Set Lounge!!!

I know that this page has been pink since the beginning of this blog, but now there's an extra special reason for it to be that color.

We just got back from the doctor's office a couple of hours ago. I had an amniocentesis done to make sure everything is ok with the little one. It looks good so far on the sonogram, so we are cautiously optimistic about the results on the 16th. We did find out what Bubba is going to be according to the good doctor, though.

Drum roll, please......

Her name is Katharina Alyona, and so far, she's doing wonderfully! We're calling her Katya for short.

I better make sure me & the Tsar have our running shoes on standby, because if what we saw on the sonogram is any predictor of our future, she's one hyper little thing. I'm amazed I haven't felt anything other than butterfly flutters yet, since it looked like she was Thai kickboxing in there!

We did get a couple of pictures, of course. I like the one that's a shot of her head from face-on. She looks like an alien!

The Tsar got to hear her heartbeat for the first time today, and he's already practicing lines for when Katya's teenage dates show up. The favorites so far are: "American prisons ain't #$%^ compared to Russian prisons, trust me, I know.....the Florida penitentiary system don't frighten me......you ever see a 45 with a laser sight, boy???" I'm sure there will someday be a reference to my past job with a police department and that I promised to help him hide the bodies real good, too.

I've got to take it easy for the rest of the day. That won't be difficult, since I feel like I got kicked in the tummy and it hurts to laugh. But tomorrow...I'm getting some of those cute Easter dresses on markdown for our little future beach bunny.

Peace, love, happiness, prosperity and chocolate chip cookies to all, and take care!

How to Spot a Loser, Part 45

Maybe I'm being harsh, I admit.

If me & the Tsar have a little girl, I want her to see this site when she's older so she has an idea of who NOT to date. If we have a little boy, I want him to see it so he knows how NOT to come across as a desperate dweeb.

(No, we don't know yet, but will soon, and believe me, we'll post the results here ASAP!!!)

I have no idea if it actually worked or not. All I know is, if you have to "sell yourself" this hard to a prospective sweetie, you are generally wasting your time and really should just move on.

Now Featured at the Alferd Packer Cafe!

Let's say that you are a cannibal, but, after going to PETA brainwashing sessions, you have decided to give up having your fellow humans for lunch (literally). However, you have begun to crave a slab of "long pig". You don't want to go back to your old Hannibal Lecter ways, since your new friends really wouldn't understand.

What do you do??

Before you break out the cutlery and start sizing up the neighbors, you might want to check out this site.

Note: there's no actual product for sale at this site, but you can get a t-shirt suitable for wearing to Pamela Anderson's house.

Finally, My Dream Job!!

I'm not kidding....this really does sound damn good. If I wasn't expecting a little one soon, you damn straight I'd be applying for this job in the Keys! What's not to love?

But in the meantime, I have to celebrate "Day Without an Illegal Immigrant" by shopping, and maybe by seeing "United 93". Hope you are all enjoying this late spring/early summer day, wherever you are!