First off, we’re going to Hawaii for a week starting on Friday. Expect fewer posts than usual (I know, you’re probably thinking, “How is that possible?” Just you wait and see!) I anticipate getting lots of sun, which for a Washingtonian in February is the epitome of luxury.

Initial Ground Rules for Conversations With Katie While She is Pregnant

1. Please try to bring up pregnancy no more than 25% of the time. I appreciate inquiries into how I’m doing, but beyond that, let’s keep it to a minimum. I may bring it up myself, but if I don’t, it’s because I would like to talk about something else. I continue to have a personality and interests despite having a little alien in my uterus.
2. There’s nothing to see belly-wise yet, but when I start showing, please DO NOT TOUCH ME. Being pregnant does not invalidate personal boundaries. Thus, some specific guidelines: The first time you pat or touch my belly, you get a verbal warning. The second time, you get a punch in the face. The third time, I sever all contact with you forever. My apologies if this sounds excessive, but I feel rather strongly about this.
3. Please refrain from using the term “prego,” “prego-luego,” etc.; talking about my “eating for two”; or other oh-so-cute pregnancy cliches. I have enough nausea in my life without these types of references.
4. Please, don’t show me pictures of babies in your life. I’m afraid I’ve never been a baby person, and being pregnant has not changed that so far. I really won’t appreciate your baby pictures, and if you show them to me, I’m going to have to lie and tell you how darling I think your baby is. (Not that it isn’t cute — I just won’t appreciate it, and my reaction will therefore have to be faked.)
5. Feel free to offer unsolicited advice or name suggestions. The way I’d like you to do this: When you think of a piece of pregnancy or parenting advice or a baby name we just HAVE to hear, write it down an a piece of paper or in an email. Send it to me. I guarantee you I will read and consider all information received in this manner. Verbally-supplied advice I will gratefully acknowledge and forget within 30 seconds.
6. I’m sorry to disappoint anybody, but no pre-birth baby pictures will be posted here or anywhere online. If you want to see what a normal ultrasound, I have handily Googled it for you. Our fetus at 12 weeks looks exactly like all the other pictures of normal 12-week-old fetuses online already.

Thank you for helping me stay sane and happy during the next six months by following these guidelines.

In other baby-related news, I saw the alien fetus on an ultrasound yesterday. For a creature that didn’t exist 12 weeks ago, and that’s only about the size of a plum right now, it looks remarkably person-like. The ultrasound people said everything looked perfectly normal. They then stabbed my finger with a very sharp, long, presumably sterilized needle and proceeded to squeeze out more of my blood for various tests. The previous day the ob-gyn office took between 1 and 2 pints of my blood to do various genetic screening (maybe I have exaggerated slightly, but not much, I promise). Happily I’m done with that for a month. I hope next visit involves a lot fewer needles.

Also for this first ob-gyn appointment, I had a very unsatisfying conversation with the doctor about athletic activity and pregnancy. She didn’t seem to understand why I would want to train with my team if I wasn’t going to race; didn’t understand that biking is about riding for hours at a time without stopping, but with eating and drinking on the go. Instead, she gave me a kind of canned spiel essentially saying that any vigorous exercise of any sort was out; I should keep my heart rate below 140 beats per minute (that’s a “riding easy” pace; I can easily exceed 170 when riding up a steep hill) and even then stop and rest every 30 minutes. Give me a break! Women run marathons, do triathlons, heck, in Third World countries do hard labor all the way through pregnancy.

I understand that lactic acid is toxic, and I need to not go anaerobic — fine, a heart rate of 160 – 170 bpm is still not anaerobic for me. And I understand that exercising to exhaustion sends all the oxygen and nutrients to my muscles, depriving the alien, which needs those things to grow into a healthy person. Also fine. And yes, of course the alien’s well-being is my top priority for the next 6 months, while it’s in my body and my sole responsibility. Yet surely there must be a satisfying balance between my doing hard, long riding and keeping the alien well-fed and -oxygenated. I’m looking to her to get her expert advice for guidelines on how far I can push and still be healthy, but whatever that limit may be, the doctor didn’t really help me determine it. She did say she’d do more research and get back to me, but I’m skeptical about how meaningful that will be. When doctors “get back to you,” it’s a nurse reading a one-sentence memo the doctor gave, no give-and-take conversation.

/rant. Finally, Mr. XKCD has our backs for names if our baby’s a girl.

Too bad we’re on our own if it’s a boy.

This is what you get when you wear lightweight long pants on an extremely rainy team ride. The pants have an almost indistinguishable grid pattern of thickness in the fabric, with slightly thinner lines and slightly thicker squares.

After 73.3 miles of drenching my legs in water and road filth, apparently enough dirt had worked its way into the slightly thinner sections to leave a nice grid on my legs after I removed the pants. What this picture doesn’t show is how tired I was when I dripped my way home, and the misery of post-ride sore knees that has come to haunt me again. Ian did get me a Kidd Valley milk shake and fries, though, which sure helped me feel better.

If you’re wondering, don’t worry, I had shorts on for the picture. Also, don’t mind the stubbly appearance of my legs — that’s an optical illusion created by the camera’s focus. Really. And, last but not least, I’ll be working on alleviating some of that wintry pastiness next week on our vacation in Hawaii.

Robo-poller: This is the National Marriage Organization for Marriage calling to poll you on your views of marriage.
Me [Thinking to myself]: Hang up? Nah, what the heck, I’ll be a statistic.
Robo-poller: Do you believe marriage should only be between one man and one woman?
Me: No.
Robo-poller: Are you male?
Me: No.
Robo-poller: Are you over the age of 50?
Me: No.
Robo-poller: Thank you for your time. [Click]

And that was the end of that conversation.

Another robo-poller wanted to know my opinions on the national debt crisis (even this wording screamed “Republican poll!”), and said I would get a FREE two-day cruise in the Bahamas just for answering 30 seconds’ worth of questions. I declined to participate by hanging up, but really I need to just take the phone off the hook, because by the end of the day it’ll be six more polls or political ads.

I am grateful that our lack of TV spares us from the worst of the TV ads, though. And listening almost exclusively to NPR insulates us from nasty radio ads. Some people would suggest that it also insulates us from the “fair and balanced” views espoused by those worthies to the right of us on the political spectrum. Maybe so, but most of the NPR shows work to get real, serious experts from both the Republican and Democratic camps when evaluating the political situation.

I hope I’m not burying my head in the sand too much, but realistically, studies have shown that we choose to believe what we want, and then find evidence to support that belief. Contrary evidence may crop up, but often contrary evidence actually reinforces a belief. So I have to accept that my views are biased, that I’m seeking news outlets that fit my worldview, that I can’t make a truly bias-free decision, and I have to try my best to overcome that by deliberately being open-minded. Which is not to say that I’d choose to vote for Newt — but that’s a whole different ball o’ wax.

Okay, I meant to post this when Ian got them, back in December, but I’ve been really tired and had a hard time getting myself to do anything other than take super long naps. Anyway, better late than never. Somebody in Ian’s office gave out Christmas presents to every one in the office. Here’s what Ian got:

Thanks, Santa. We were really hoping for gummy hotdogs seasoned with Tabasco sauce from shot-sized containers.

More recently amusing experience: By Sunday, the weather switched from snow to steady rain and high winds. That didn’t deter our intrepid neighbor, though:

Dang it, he’s grillin’ even if he can’t keep his umbrella open (it collapsed a second after I took the picture).

Finally, Ian found this in a library book. Here’s the front:

The back:

Apparently the prescription’s for you and ONLY YOU… and all the other people who have checked out that book since April.

Last but not least, a seriously cool time-lapse video of Yosemite. Watch it full-screen.

Yosemite HD from Project Yosemite on Vimeo.

Ian and I have been a family for 8 years, 5 months, and 13 days. In all that time, we’ve kept our responsibilities to a minimum — one drought-resistant plant and an adopted beta fish (Mr. Fishy; may he rest in peace). As a result, we could always pretty easily zip off and do whatever struck our fancy.

That’s all changing, though, because in mid-August Ian and I are going to be joining the ranks of the chronically sleep- and time-deprived: We’re going to be parents. Yep, we’re pregnant, and that means we’re finally taking the pressure off of our siblings and fulfilling our parents’ long-standing desire to become grandparents.

Q & A With Katie

Q: Are you excited?
A: I am tired and nauseous. Excited hasn’t quite entered into the picture yet. We do believe we’ll be good parents, though, and we look forward to raising our child.

Q: Does that mean you’re going to stop biking now?
A: Nope, but thanks for asking. I am, however, working with a certified cycling coach, a nutritionist, and a doctor to make sure I stay healthy. I will continue to ride for as long as it’s comfortable and safe — hopefully all the way through.

Q: What about bike racing?
A: I plan on doing two time trials early in the season (late February/early March), as those involve riding alone, the cyclist against the clock. However, pregnant women are banned from racing by general consensus. Other women don’t want to race a pregnant woman and cause her to crash. I plan on using membership on a team to help me get back in shape after little Ferguson arrives.

Q: Did you intend to get pregnant now?
A: Generally, yes, I wanted to start have kids before I turned 30, and we’re in a good situation for it right now. Specifically this year, not exactly; I would have liked to try racing. But that’ll be there in the future. I’m grateful that it was fairly easy for us, and so far pregnancy hasn’t been overly intrusive in my life. (I’ll appreciate that while I can!)

Q: Are you going to find out if it’s a boy or girl?
A: Ian likes to plan ahead, so yes. Whether we’ll share that with people is a different story. Feel free to suggest baby names, but keep this article in mind if you do.

OK, that’s all the time we have for questions right now. Other questions, write ‘em down and we’ll see if we can work answering them into our busy schedule.

Saturday and Sunday, January 14 – 15

(Photos courtesy of a teammate)

A small part of Team Group Health on Orcas Island before setting out on our day’s ride.

Mt. Constitution, on Orcas Island.

Sunday, the ferry to Lopez Island.

A dusting of snow on Lopez Island.

Monday through Thursday, January 16 – 19

At first the snow was exciting.

Ian got to work from home!

Hummingbirds got food despite the lack of natural flower nectar.

More snow kept falling, although not the prodigious volume predicted.

Our next-door neighbors broke out their snowmobiles for getting around.

Dad and I met up and went snowshoeing.

Other people snowmobiled around the neighborhood, including a mom with a kid perched in front of her.

But then more snow kept falling, after they predicted it’d switch to rain, and we all started getting a little stir-crazy. (There’s an out-of-focus hummingbird perched on some of those little twigs.)

We shoveled the driveway and sidewalk three times. My back is not pleased, but at least it was outdoors and productive.

Friday, January 20

After seeing an article in the Seattle Times about a brand-new sea otter pup born earlier this week, Mom and I resolved to get out of the house and take a bus to go see the baby otter (or “fluffy puffy,” as Mom ended up calling it).

This turned out to be quite a trek: I walked 3 miles through a foot of melting, slushy snow to the bus, meeting Mom along the way. Our bus was stuck so we took a different one and got off in Kirkland, instead of going straight to Seattle. That worked, though, because we met up with my friend Rachel in Kirkland and the three of us caught a bus into Seattle. We saw the baby otter, scooped our melted-from-the-cuteness selves off the floor, ate some food, went back for Round 2 of cuteness (awwwwwww), and then went up to Pike Place Market for dried fruit (no success) and chocolate (success). Along the way we splashed through ankle-deep puddles of melting snow and rain, slipped around on extremely slick slush, and turned up our collars against the almost-freezing drenching downpours. The trip to Seattle took about 2 hours and involved walking 3 slushy miles and two buses. The trip home took about 3 hours and included a standing-room only bus that had chains and could only travel up to 30 mph, another mile-long slushy walk, and a ride in Dad’s four-wheel-drive Subaru.

It was all worth it, though.

Okay, in this picture, the baby does look like an anonymous lump of fur.

Here the mommy otter cleans her baby otter. My camera can’t zoom and focus at the same time, which is really quite inconvenient, but you can kind of get a sense of the cuteness.

Fortunately even though none of my pictures turned out, there are always ones like this one from the Seattle Times.

Yesterday I read an article in The Seattle Times about how close Washington State is to passing a gay marriage law. In the article, Senator Rosemary McAuliffe was described as undecided, but likely to support the bill. I double-checked my legislative district, and sure enough, she’s my state Senator. What the heck, I figured, Why not throw in my $0.02 to tip the balance? (And I might as well mix metaphors, while I’m at it.)

The Internet handily provided direct email to her, so I sent off a very brief email. I said:

Dear Senator McAuliffe,

I know that you are a busy person, so I will keep this brief: As one of your constituents, I am writing to encourage you to vote yes on the upcoming gay marriage legislation. It is the right thing to do, and I believe will make life better for many Washingtonians.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

Best,
[My Full Name & Address]

Not my most eloquent, but at least I said something, right? And I figured I’d either hear nothing, or I’d get a canned reply from her office that told me the six dozen ways she’d done this, that, and the other excellent thing that related to my interest. Nice enough, but nothing interesting.

Instead, within 24 hours, I received the following reply.

[My Full First Name],

Thank you for sharing your support for Marriage Equality. Below I have shared with you a letter I am releasing to the public tomorrow. Thank you again for involving yourself in the legislative process and lending your voice to such a vital cause.

Rosemary

Okay, yes, it’s somewhat canned — almost certainly she had a template pertaining to this topic, and handily inserted my name at the top. But it’s not obviously templated, and it’s definitely a real reply, so I know that my representative heard my view. Attached was the following letter:

The governor recently announced her support of marriage equality. For decades our country has struggled with discrimination in many forms. I am proud that our state has a past of joining together to support equality for women, racial minorities, people with disabilities, and religions — now is the time to support all families with the respect and dignity they deserve.

Separate but equal is yet another form of discrimination. For many people, I know this is a very sensitive issue. I have received many letters, emails and phone calls for and against marriage equality legislation. An overwhelming amount of constituents have sided with my own belief, that all Washington citizens deserve the chance to be equal under the law. We are free to believe whatever we choose however we live in a state and world where our laws protect human rights for all.

A main concern I have heard is the right to religious freedom. This bill includes an important exemption for religious organizations and clergy to continue to exercise religious freedom.

In the past, I have supported civil unions, domestic partnerships, and the efforts of Senator Ed Murray to stand up for equality for same sex couples. We as legislators must be vigilant about protecting all of our citizens against discrimination. I support marriage equality and have signed my name onto this long overdue legislation to ensure all of our children grow up in a society that truly promotes equality.

Rosemary McAuliffe
_________________________________________
Senator Rosemary McAuliffe
State Senator 1st Legislative District
360.786.7600

Well, hey. How cool is that? I am unexpectedly pleased about this whole exchange. Probably my email made no difference in her decision, but just having said something and knowing it got heard — that’s pretty great.

Mostly, to me, the government feels like some vast ship steaming along, unable to stop or change course quickly, driven by momentum to very slow changes even if the rudder changes direction. Politicians are the crew members of the ship, and we’re the passengers. Sharing my views may make one of the crew members pause for a while, or nod and smile, or say something inanely polite, but the ship will just keep chugging along its course, regardless. But in this case, something I — and a bunch of other people in the 1st Legislative District — said influenced the behavior of one of the crew members. That’s how it’s supposed to work, of course, even though it doesn’t always. But I’m pleased it worked this time.

And, of course, I’m hoping to soon celebrate marriage equality in Washington by making some rainbow-colored cake or something.