Diary of a geek

Diary of a geek: "Cool cat...

...warm computer"

Oooh a new extension in firefox allows you to right click on any text on the internet then blog directly to it using blogger. How exciting :) This is linked from Andrew's blog.

W minus 4 weeks

Mmmm... it's all pretty quiet now. I got my shoes today. That was pretty easy. I'd been to a few places such as Mathers and Betts, and they had nothing, so I went to a couple of more "bridal" shoe stores out of the local wedding guides, and the first shop had nothing that caught my eye, so we walked straight out. The second place (just around the corner from the first) we walked into, and they had "weddingy" shoes on a stand, and straight away I saw exactly what I wanted. They had my size, she was able to punch some extra holes in the strappy bits as they were a little loose, and they were only $56. Woohoo!

We also went to a wedding shop that has everything wedding that you could ever need! So we got a fluffy cape for myself to keep me warm, some ribbon for the cars, cake knife, nice brooch-like pins to hold the capes together (they didn't have any more matching ones for the bridesmaids, so had to get them elsewhere), ear rings and necklace for me, ring cushion, and also had a look at flowergirl dresses while we were there.

Andrew's mum is an organist at her church, and quite likes classical music, so we've given her the task of choosing music for the string quartet. She rang us up today and played a couple of pieces on the piano that she liked and thought would be good, so that was great!!

Tonight we'll probably go through the list of songs for the DJ and pick out a few hours worth of stuff.

The next 4 weeks are going to fly....

One of those weeks!

It's been wet and rainy all week and I've been feeling very unmotivated. There's also been a few family dramas this week, which have kept our stress levels a little higher than usual.

The cardiologist rang me on Wednesday as well. This guy is awesome, but more about that later. So he tells me what the specialist in Sydney pretty much said, but asked if I'd like to come and speak to him face to face to discuss options, and to bring Andrew as well, as it was good to have a second voice there. So he said he could come in at 8:15am the next morning if that was good for me, and I could see him then. So we did that and rocked up on Wednesday morning.

So basically, I have a 50/50 chance of having the same condition that my dad and aunt had. There seem to be 5 things that cause aortic dissection, and the only one they can actually test for is Marfan's syndrome, which is characteristised by having a very long slim body, really long limbs, and fingers, curvature of the spine and a few other fairly obvious signs. So the other 4 causes they haven't been able to develop a test for gene wise (which makes me wonder how they know there's 5 causes if they can't test for the other 4).

Due to this, the cardiologist wants to take the cautious approach, which I can fully understand. So he's put me on beta blockers to lower my heart rate and blood pressure. Both my blood pressure and heart rate are normal already, but it's a preventative measure to ensure they don't get too high, especially during exercise as it can put extra strain on the aorta and cause dissection if I have the condition. He's also said to try to avoid getting my heart rate over 120-130. With the beta blockers, easy exercise should ensure this. Unfortunately it may make me feel lethargic and not feeling like exercise. I'm on a low dose though, so hopefully this will be a happy medium.

The only problem is that I'm quite sensitive to medications, and after starting taking them on Wednesday I was feeling quite ill yesterday!! As well as that I had swollen glands, feeling generally achy and started getting a sore throat today.

So went along to the GP today just in case it was some weird reaction to the medication, but no - it's sensitivity to the medication which should settle down and a virus on top of that. Throat infection, swollen glands, achy body. Just got to rest and drink heaps of water. Just what I need right now!!! Oh well, better than getting it in a few weeks time. No riding for me tomorrow!

W minus 5 weeks

Meant to post this a few days ago - time is just flying by!!! Booked in for hair and make up last week for myself, the 2 bridesmaids, my mum, Andrew's mum and my sister in law. Now apparently my nan and aunt also want their hair done for the day so I need to either book them in with us or find somewhere else close to where they're staying.

Also sorted out flowers finally which is a bit of a relief! We've got a fair few RSVP's in now, so we're adjusting the tables a bit so everyone fits in.

So all the major stuff is done now. I'm going shoe shopping this weekend, and will also need to sort out a suit for my 22 month old nephew who's hopefully going to be a pageboy, providing he can handle the whole walk down the aisle thing!

Fixed bike and a ride!

Got the bike back from the bike shop, and the frame is all fine, it got a bit of a service and has a spanky new wheel. It's got a few less spokes than the last wheel which makes it go faster or something...

The bike got it's revenge on the car last night though. I went for a ride in the morning, put my bike up on some boxes at about 2pm I guess where it seemed nice and secure, and about 9pm last night it just decided to throw itself at the car and scratch some of the paint off the car. Sigh.

The ride yesterday morning was great though. We aimed to meet at 9:30am, but it was probably closer to 10 by the time we got away. We just went for a nice easy 35k ride from Kaleen out to Hall and back via Gungahlin. It was a nice day, perfect for cycling, and we could see the snow on the mountains in the distance. Very pretty.

My heart rate averaged 146 which is a bit high, but given that I haven't done any exercise in a while, I guess that's to be expected. I'm also going to either get an extra chain ring or some bigger cogs on the back. Getting a couple of bigger cogs will be cheaper, but the extra chain ring will give me more gears and makes hills easier, and therefore won't get my heart rate quite so high. Mmmm decisions...

W minus 6 weeks

Ok, we're doing pretty well here!

- Already getting RSVP's back in
- I've got a tentative seating plan knocked up
- The boys suits are all organised
- booked a string quartet for the ceremony, and a DJ for the reception
- A friend has a flowergirl dress that may fit our flowergirl, so we're going to get that sent to us to try it out
- The bonbonniere is sorted, we're getting placecards/bonbonniere in one in the same colours as everything else we're doing
- We've booked cars (just hiring Commodores from Thrifty and doing them up ourselves) and getting rellies to drive them
- Accommodation has been booked for most of the family (we've got around 35 rellies coming from between Gladstone and Melbourne!)
- I've started looking at flowers which has been an effort and a half!! I just have noo idea what to get....
- Started looking for hair/make up packages as well. Prices are ok for the bride, but they all seem very expensive for bridesmaide and accompanying families, so I'll continue ringing around tomorrow.

Tomorrow we're finalising the menu, hopefully booking hair/makeup people, and next Saturday I'll decide on flowers. After that we're pretty much sorted!! If anyone can think of anything I seem to have forgotten, please feel free to mention it to me... :-)

Car vs. bike

No, I wasn't on the bike! The bike was in the garage, and must have been knocked so the front wheel was poking out a bit too much. When Andrew left for work in the morning, we heard an unpleasant sound as the front wheel got caught in the wheel rim of the car. The results are below.



Methinks I may need a new wheel before I go riding again...

W minus 7 weeks

Andrew got approached a month or two ago to apply for a job with Google in America. He put his resume in, then had two phone interviews, and on Thursday got emailed by them to ask if they could fly him over to California for an interview. Woohoo!

So this means that he may be in for a pretty good chance of getting the job, and if he does, we want a wedding in Australia before we go, and we want it to be a decent one still. As well as this, the whole american visa thing will probably be a bit easier if we're married when Andrew applies.

So the wedding will now be earlier than April next year as originally planned. It's now on July 23. In 7 weeks. EEK!

We're currently at wedding minus 7 weeks and the following is done:

- Venue is confirmed (the place we'd organised was free that weekend which was good!)
- The celebrant is also confirmed (not many other people are getting married in Canberra in July funnily enough....)
- We went shopping for Andrew's wedding ring yesterday, and found a really nice white gold and yellow gold ring. that should arrive in between 2-6 weeks (hopefully more on the 2 week side...)
- Photographer is free that weekend, so he's sorted.
- Went out dress shopping yesterday and today and the dress is decided on. I wanted the colour of one dress and the style of another one, but as the lady makes them all new for you, she could do that easily.
- My mum is a legend, and has invitations knocked up already, despite only telling her the wedding was happening very soon 2 days ago!

Will update again next weekend at "W - 6 weeks". :)

Heart update

The specialist in Sydney called and confirmed that my scans at the moment are only showing very minor enlargement of the aorta, and there's nothing more I can do other than get checked every few years. The only way they can confirm anything is to compare the genes in my aorta (or the fibrillin or something...) against someone else in my family who has the condition. Unfortunately, since everyone in my family who has had it as far as we know is dead, they can't really do much. Tests to check for other causes of the condition are still very much developmental and aren't in the clinical stage yet.

He also said that the way they think this gene works, that I have a 50/50 chance of having it. So he said because of that, triathlon is definitely not a good idea, and neither is anything that gets my heart rate over about 130 or so, as the combination of high heart rate/high blood pressure brought on by exercise could cause a rupture if I do have it, even though it looks fine at the moment. :(

But... he said swimming is fine, and jogging was fine as long as I wear my HRM and watch my heart rate, and I didn't ask about cycling as I thought I was pushing my luck, but that doesn't generally get my heart rate too high, so if I just monitor that, it should be ok. So, maybe I can still do triathlons, but just deal with the fact that I will always come last and that I'm doing it for fun and fitness, not to win. Maybe I'll need to stick to OD races, and try to curb my competitive streak.

Ooooooh!

I decided to send an email along to Dr Jeremy, and I got this at about 6pm last night:

Dear Sarah

I have indeed reviewed the scans and information forwarded by Peter
French and I have written back to him (but letter may still be in the
typing pile).

If it would be helpful to you, I would be pleased to discuss matters
with you directly

I can be contacted on 02 xxxx xxxx at the University if you wish

Yours truly

I take it all back, he’s obviously a nice guy... :) I’ll call him today to see what he says!