I was wrong. There is a Hell. And Spongebob is here with me...

When I booked my trip for this conference in Orlando, I tried my best to do it on the cheap so I could convince my boss to send me. So instead of staying at the Marriot where the conference is being held, I opted for the Nickelodeon hotel across the street. I figured I'd save a bundle (about $300)and walk the .2 miles to the Marriot every morning. $300 was worth the inconvenience and inevitable annoyance of walking cartoon characters and swarms of kids.

But then I discovered the hotel was .2 miles across a major interstate from the Marriot. So after a car rental, tolls, and a surprise $85 "resort charge", I'm really only saving $100. So not worth it. My room is still not ready, so I'm camped out here in the aforementioned Spongebob Hell. Perhaps slightly better than the other Evil Cartoon Empire just down the street (you know the one). But only slightly. A stiff bourbon would make this place more tolerable, but, alas, against doctor's orders. Sigh.

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I feel I must amend my assessment. Yes, the walking cartoon characters and kiddy activities are aggrevating, but my room is actually pretty swank. I've got a kitchenette, so I ran out and got a few breakfast provisions, which will be nice in the morning. And as silly as I thought the required wristbands were at first, it's awfully convenient to have your pass into the parking lot and your room key attached to your wrist at all times. I think if I stick mostly to my room, I'll survive my stay.

While Jill's been oh-so-much help in the baby-registering department, I managed to snap some adorable photos of that niece of mine. Check them out.

Things have been hectic for us this week...I promise a full update later. In the meantime, I'm looking forward to my trip to Orlando this Sunday for the Create Chaos Conference. I'm hoping to gather some tips, tools, and inspiration to help me on my next big redesign project. Seems like I've had one of these big redesign projects once a year for the past five years -- the hazard of working on three different publications, I suppose. Speaking of which, I've made a couple of additions to my online portfolio.

Saturday we're off for a sushi lunch with James's friends (hold the raw fish, please. sighhh....) and then I'm dragging James to the dreaded Babies R Us to pick out a crib and rocker. I'm hoping the trip doesn't scare him, lol.

James and I went to see Bill Maher's new comedic documentary Religulous on Saturday, much anticipated for both of us. And while it did lack the cohesive narrative inherent in most successful documentaries, we both found it insightful and hilarious. I wholeheartedly support Maher's stance on religion -- how can anyone presume to know what happens when we die? And what an utter tragedy that so many people die and kill over these beliefs. It reminded me a lot of a book I read a couple years ago called The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason by Sam Harris. I would highly recommend this book, and Maher's movie, for that matter, to all of my friends, no matter their degree of faith. The movie prompted this amazing 2-hour discussion, and for once James and I were on the same side! I can't wait until this one comes out on DVD -- there were so many laugh-out-loud moments, I missed some of the dialog. And I'm hoping some of the interviews -- particularly the ones with the old priests at the Vatican, who admitted most of the bible was hogwash -- are expanded in the special features.

Saturday was also an excellent food day. My dietary restrictions are on hiatus (it seems pregnancy quells my IC pains, so I'm able to eat a lot of foods I couldn't before), so I enjoyed an incredibly delicious pumpkin cheesecake at the Olive Garden. Then, while standing in line at the concession stand at the AMC, James leans to me and says, "I'm tempted to order an Icee -- they're so good." To which I honestly replied, "Y'know, I don't believe I've ever had one." Yes, I know, what rock have I been living under, right? I guess I didn't spend much of my youth at the 7-eleven, and I've never been a fan of fruit flavored drinks (I blame children's Tylenol -- cherry and raspberry will forever taste medicinal to me.) I saw they had Coke flavor, so it was settled: Large Coke Icee, please. And upon my first sip, I fervently decided from now on I should drink all of my Coke in slushy form. Yum-mmy!

Stephenson's Apple Farm has quite a history with my family. My grandparents ate there for milestone anniversaries. Every family gathering in KC always involved a dinner there. In the lobby you could sip ice cold apple cider (or hot cider in the winter) while you waited for your table, and admire the numerous memorabilia on the walls. This was one of Harry S. Truman's old haunts, and the food was down home cooking at its finest. James and I loved the place so much, we had our wedding reception there. Apple fritters. Green rice. Apple butter. Brisket. The list goes on. It was fine dining for regular folk, and my whole family grieved enormously when they closed their doors last year.

So imagine our delight when we learned that the son of the original owners, JL, had reopened the restaurant in Raytown. Not a location known for its fine dining, we knew to expect that the place would be different. While Stephenson's had a vast area of different dining rooms, all with white tablecloths and cloth napkins, JL Stephenson's Sante Fe Inn resides at the end of a dilapidated strip mall, and inside it feels more like a dive bar than a proper restaurant. You could see some of the Truman memorabilia up on the walls, but as my dad put it, "It's like taking all of that great stuff in the lobby and sticking it in a truck stop." All would have been forgiven if the food had been outstanding. Sadly, it wasn't.

They offered three classic Stephenson's entrees -- the baked chicken, the brisket, and the pork chop. You could order a side of green rice, another Stephenson's staple, and every meal came with an apple fritter, which was always one of my favs. Save for the apple fritters (that were a little smaller, but still tasted delicious), the meal was more like what you'd get at a Luby's Cafeteria. Yes, it was that bad. The brisket was nothing like before -- not sliced, not served with the horseradish dipping sauce. The green rice tasted totally different -- a little bit tangy, and not altogether bad, but certainly not the same. And their cheesy potato offering was a luke-warm scoop of cheesy hashbrowns the likes of which you'd see at a school cafeteria. Needless to say, the fam and I won't be going back. But we had to least give it a try.

Anyone out there who remembers the old Stephenson's restaurant, be forewarned -- you won't get your nostalgia here.

Every morning at breakfast I watch American Morning on CNN. And every morning on my way to work I listen to NPR. All of the news about Freddy, Fannie, AIG, $700 billion bail-outs (er, sorry, rescue plans), and the credit crisis have me thanking my lucky stars James and I have decided to be renters. It wasn't a choice we made because of the economy, more the mobility, but now we're glad we stuck to it. Not that owning a house is so bad right now -- interest rates are low, foreclosures made for some great deals out there -- but I know with all of the things going on with our lives (read: baby, job-hopping husband), I'm sooooo glad I don't have to worry about selling a house. My poor parents-in-law are dealing with that right now, and I feel for them.

James got a call yesterday from one of the "guys upstairs", essentially asking if he'd like to take the job at the Cave. We're still waiting to hear official confirmation, but it sounds like he's got it. So, yaaaaaay! Best of all, the job doesn't start until next February, or possibly later, so he can keep his supervisor job (which starts Oct. 14th), and have that on his resume as well. I've concocted a new plan (#4593-45F, lol): We're going to wait until November 1st to see if he gets a call for an interview with the training position in DC. If no call comes, then we're going to start rental house hunting in Leawood, Overland Park, and Lee's Summit, with the intention of moving in December (we can afford some overlap, so we can take most of the month to do it). That way Liam can have a proper bedroom, James will be closer to work, and I will hopefully get my much-needed automatic garage-door opener. Yes, I know, I almost always shoot myself in the foot by making a plan. But now more than ever, I feel like I need one.

It's premiere week for the networks, and my DVR was working overtime to tape my favorite shows. Heroes was my most anticipated, but I thought it fell a little flat. They aired two episodes in a 2-hour block, and the story finally started picking up there at the end of episode 2. I thought episode 1 was muddled and overly complicated, and like another of my fav shows Lost, I'm afraid you need a cross-referenced encyclopedia just to get through this show. I like a little mystery, but this opener left me with a lot of puzzles and plot holes. I'll continue watching because I love the characters, but I hope they can pull this season through. My Monday laughs were much better: How I Met Your Mother spoke right to the heart for me -- Ted wants his fiance to love Star Wars as much as him. Hear, hear! I also loved The Big Bang Theory, which I was afraid would lose some of it's spunk once Leonard started dating Penny, but things are just as awkwardly geeky as ever, hooray! I gave the new JJ Abrams show Fringe one last shot, but after another convoluted and scientifically convenient episode, I've decided to call it quits. I don't want to get wrapped up in another mystery show, and quite frankly, I don't really care much about what "the pattern" is anyway. My Wednesday favorites Bones, Project Runway and Top Design were all solid this week. Grey's Anatomy, another of my most anticipated, packed more of a punch than I expected. I was getting a bit disenchanted last season, but I thought this season opener was much better than some episodes of late, and I'm hoping they can keep this up. The Office was absolutely hysterical, hands-down my favorite of the week. ER was like a douse of cold water after the hilarity of The Office -- they killed off a major character (Pratt), and I spent the rest of the night blubbering (probably those pregnancy hormones). Until the end, which was a little campy. I keep thinking I'll delete this one from my queue, but it's the last season, and I've been watching it for years. My as well see it through to the end.

Now on to the debate. James and I were celebrating our fourth anniversary at Pierpont's on Friday, so I had to tape it and watch it this weekend. I got through about an hour of it last night before I nodded off. What annoys me to no end about these things is how many false accusations come from both candidates. It's hard to tell as you're watching what to believe. I found FactCheck.org an informative website that breaks down all the rhetoric of the debate and analyzes exactly what was fact. My impressions, having not watched much media commentary yet, were that McCain was slinging the most mud, and Obama was put on the defensive most of the night. Foreign policy is McCain's bread and butter, and it showed. He kept throwing out phrases like, "My opponent doesn't seem to understand..." or "That's naive to think...", which I'll admit was probably a good debate strategy for him. I tried to put myself in the shoes of an independent, and I'm not sure if this debate was necessarily clearly won by either candidate. What I took away as an Obama supporter was a clear message from the Obama side that I already pretty much knew, facing a bull-headed republican opponent, again which I already knew. McCain sounded good, I'll give him that, but I fear that if he wins, he'll be putting Bush's veto record to shame, block any progress by a reputedly weak Democrat congress, and push the same Bush policies that I've opposed for the past eight years. And although the VP usually doesn't have much power, I can see Sarah Palin pushing her social conservative agenda as far as she can. Maybe living overseas isn't such a bad idea...

And speaking of James (who I'm still trying to forgive for switching his vote from Obama to McCain) has started yet another expensive hobby. Golfing. Which I'm totally making fun him for. He bought golf clubs yesterday at Target, thankfully not over-the-top, and he's been out at the driving range with Travis two days in a row. He says I should come with them sometime. For to laugh. I learned how to play golf in high school gym class, and it was booooooring as hell. Unless there's a windmill involved, I'm not very interested. Thankfully, he and Travis need to work on their putting, so I might get an afternoon at the local putt-putt golf.

Fall is such a lovely time of year. The weather was absolutely perfect, and I had a three-day weekend. I managed to get back on my bike briefly, which was less awkward than I thought, but I'm not in shape enough to ride very far. No more riding to work, I'm afraid :( Saturday night I went to the P&L with college friends Jenny and Tori. We intended to paint the town red, but we're old, (and I'm preggers), so we headed home around 11, lol. We did have an absolutely awesome dinner at Bristol. I had the sea bass with lemon risotto and green beans, delish! And of course I saved room for the creme brulee. Thoroughly stuffed, we headed over to the bars, where we snickered at the dress code (apparently, the area has earned the nickname "Power & White District"), then had a drink in the Maker's Mark bar. I've always been a huge fan of Maker's Mark bourbon, though this time I couldn't partake. But the bartender took pity on me and mixed me an awesome fruit punch drink, on the house.

Sunday we headed to mom and dad's for dinner and to visit with my Aunt Cary, in from Lexington. Jill brought Evie, who was of course cute as ever. By the time Sunday night rolled around, James and I were wondering where our weekend had gone. Back to the grindstone.

In job news, James got the supervisor job and met with his new bosses today. It looks like they might want him to start as early as next week! He'll be in the same building, so it won't be a big change. But he seems to be looking forward to some different kind of work. He also got a call from the people at The Cave, who asked if they could call his references. That's a very good sign. Apparently there are three positions available, so that increases his chances even more. It's looking more and more likely I'll get my way, woo hoo! However, there's still that niggling chance that the DC job he's the most excited about will come through, and we'll be turning our lives upside-down to move there right after Liam is born. It'll be hard for him to turn down -- it's a GS 14 position, which has been almost impossible for him to get so far, and it would be really good for his career. Ideally I'd like to stay in KC at least through next summer, but as usual, things are still up in the air. Here's hoping all of this gets settled soon (before I go bonkers).

I've already professed my love for the Twilight series, but for anyone out there, like me, disappointed that the series had to come to an end after four installments, check out Midnight Sun, a downloadable PDF of a partial manuscript Stephanie Meyer was writing, which retells all of the first book from Edward's point of view. It's an awesome read, but unfortunately, someone leaked this copy onto the internet, and the author has suspended work on it indefinitely. It only goes up to just before the meadow scene, but it's very enlightening and fun to read. I'm hoping Stephanie will decide to pick this up again later, once the heat has died down on it.

HBO also has a new series called TrueBlood, based on another series of vampire love novels. This one doesn't quite stand up to Twilight in my opinion, but the series is growing on me. It's on Sunday nights, and surprisingly, James is watching it with me. Never would have thought I'd get into it, heh. Goes to show he's got a few surprises left in him ;)

That boy is always keeping me on my toes! Right now James is in Nebraska attending a week-long conference on, hmmmm, well, whatever it is that he might need to learn. He called me yesterday with big news -- he got a call about a job in LS at The Cave, and he went ahead and did the phone interview. This was a job that initially he had reservations about -- he had heard that the positions were new, and they would be heavily scrutinized by the guys upstairs, so to speak -- but he came away from this interview very excited about the actual job. Rather than pushing papers for the fraud department, this job is in the intelligence division, and he would be working as an analyst. He'd be working cases along with the FBI, CIA, and other such acronymed government agencies. They told him they'd be making their decision in the next few weeks, and James thought the interview went very well.

James had more news, of course. He was notified that he made it on the list for a job in the Training Division in DC, which is the one he was the most excited about. The timing on this one would likely not work out for a move this fall, but there's a chance if he were to get this one, he'll want to move sometime after Liam is born.

So, here's how things stand:
1. He interviewed for a supervisor position in LS, and he expects to hear about that one this week or next. We're 90% sure he got this one, but he considers it his fall back if nothing else comes through. It would look good on his resume to have supervisory experience, but the job only lasts 2 years.
2. He interviewed for a job in Fairfax, VA a couple weeks ago, and he's hoping to hear from them in the next couple of weeks. He'd rather take this this job than the supervisor job.
3. He interviewed for the analyst job at The Cave yesterday, and we should know by beginning of October if he got that one. He's considering taking this one over the Fairfax job if they are both offered.
4. He's on the list for the training job in DC, a district office job in Alexandria, VA, and I believe he has yet to hear about an application he put in for international ops, which is a long shot. All other jobs he applied for this year have either been filled or canceled.

I'm still pushing for us to stay in KS, at least until next year. I guess we'll see how things shake out.

This morning I went to see the new Coen Brothers movie Burn After Reading. I'd been forewarned by Eric that this was a very dark comedy, different than what was portrayed in the previews, and I'm glad he warned me. Knowing that, I think I could really appreciate the humor, which was subtle, and in some places, rather uncomfortable. I wouldn't rank this movie up there with Coen Brother classics Raising Arizona, Fargo, or O Brother, but it was still entertaining. And a little shocking. I have a feeling this is a movie I'll enjoy more on subsequent viewings -- the same way I felt about Napolean Dynamite. I wasn't sure what to make of it at first, but after ruminating about certain scenes, and realizing how truly funny they were, I wanted to see it again. (I'm adding this last bit in on Sunday, and already I'm thinking of Burn After Reading the same way). Check out Eric's review, which I'm sure explains this much better, heh.

Last night James and I settled in to watch Real Time with Bill Maher, a political show that elicits quite a show in our own living room. This is how it usually goes: Bill Maher introduces his three guests, and James sighs, rolls his eyes, and complains that they always stack the deck toward the liberals on this show. To which I reply, "Of course they do. What republican in their right mind would subject themselves to this kind of abuse? You wussies." And then the fun begins. Inevitably, some hot button topic will come up, and suddenly James thinks he's the fourth guest on the show. I'm trying to enjoy the banter, James is huffing and whining and shouting at the TV, and I'm shushing him so I don't miss all the snarky, liberal jokes. While I'm giggling and mostly agreeing with the guests (though even Al Sharpton and Jeanine Garafolo come across pretty wacky to me), James feels it's his duty to "set me straight." Right, dear. Yes, I'll admit, you do bring up some valid points. But until the conservatives can shake that crazy Christian fundamentalist base, there's no way in hell I'm ever voting one of them in. And now that Sarah Palin is on the ticket, a far cry from Hillary Clinton, and a woman whose policy decisions and beliefs actually make me fear for the future of our country, there's no way James and I will see eye-to-eye this election year. Sigh....guess we'll be canceling each other out at the polls yet again this year. Go Obama!