Boston meetup & welcome ICLWers

It's been a few days since I've updated, my fellow bloggers, and it's all Micr.osoft's fault! I worked all weekend and 16 hours shifts the past few days because Wind.ows 7 is launching tomorrow. As I've mentioned before, I work at a PC company and anything that can get you folks to get excited about a new PC is cause for Defcon 5. We worked our little butts off and so today we're in good shape for tomorrow's launch and I find myself with a little bloggy time.

First off, I'd like to welcome any new ICLWers!! You can read my history on this post, it is a long and sordid tale of heartbreak and triumph. Well, mostly heartbreak at this point, but I've got a great husband and, I hope, a good attitude, so we try to focus on the little bits of triumph. I still think we'll beat this thing, one way or the other, call me crazy. Where I am right now is recovering from a heartbreaking miscarriage in September. I'm in a good enough place at this point, to have had my STBY appt with my RE, Dr. B, last week and we have me on a pace to try IVF#2 in December. I am a VERY poor responder (can you say one follie on an aggressive EPP protocol?) but the eggs I do eke out seem to be of somewhat decent quality in that I have gotten pregnant twice and my last IVF (one follie!) resulted in the most beautiful HIP embie, though a BFN. However, the quality is not quite enough to get beyond likely chromosomal issues x 3. I'm lucky enough to have excellent insurance, so when other people might throw in the towel with their own eggs at this point, I'll probably do 2-3 more IVF attempts and if no luck by spring, then switch over to donor eggs. That's the IF part of me as of October 21, 2009, in a nutshell!

Second, I am so excited to have stumbled upon a Boston-area Social Group for Ladies Who Are Looking to Add to Their Families -- notice how they cleverly avoided the word "infertility" in there? ;) It's called RubyFeather and it looks like in-person gatherings will be planned monthly, along with the online support forum. Very fun -- I've been hankering to join an IF support group but intimidated by Resolve which seems great, but more experts lecturing than the in-the-trenches support I was craving. I live about 30 minutes south of Boston, so it'll be more of a challenge for me to go than if I lived right in Boston (Oh, if only!) but I think it'll be way worth the effort. If there are any other Boston area ladies out there, looking for support, join this group! Thanks to Kate, who posted about it on her blog, where I found it: This Place is Now a Home.

And now, ladies and germs, some updates to my previous post:

1) Weekend travel news - NoodleGuy and I are this close to booking a long weekend to San Francisco next weekend! A combination of great fares ($100 each way) on Virg.in America and some great reported priceline hotel deals and we think we an do a 4-day weekend for pretty cheap! We both LOVE California, would love to live there one day. We've both passed through San Fran (me twice, once with a friend and once when I was flown out for an interview with Yah.oo) but never together and never enough to really explore the city. We're excited! With the sadness of Peanut's passing and just general IF suckiness for over 2 years, I think it'll be really good for us to rediscover our passion for traveling.

2) Indian food - this weekend's Indian food was so incredibly delish.

God, I just love this new restaurant. I want to eat there every day! It's called Rasoi and it's right on the border of the East Side of Providence (near Brown) in Pawtucket. For anyone familiar with our local foodie show in New England, TV Diner, they were featured and got the coveted Platinum Plate (highest rating)! We had an appetizer called Cauliflower 65 (pictured at left), which is fried cauliflower in this incredibly tasty spices.

Even NoodleGuy loved it and he swore he wouldn't be able to eat it since he hates cauliflower. As entrees we both had a combination plate called Nirvana, pictured right. It had rice in the middle, naan on the side and then an array of yummy samplers, including Palak Paneer, Tikka Masala, a Lamb curry (gave that one to NoodleGuy), a vegetarian curry and a dessert. Mmmmm..... if you live anywhere in the Boston/RI area, I highly recommend this place. LowFatLady had asked me for some beginner-Indian dish recommendations, and in case anyone else was interested, my best recommendation for a novice is Tikka Masala. It's an incredibly tasty, but not spicy, chicken dish that everyone loves. Also, you can't go wrong with samosa appetizers.

3) Feeling blue - My friend, D, is coming to visit this weekend. She's the only RL friend that knows about this recent pg and m/c and she's been threatening to visit since then for some girly fun to cheer me up. I haven't been up to socializing until now, but despite rain in the forecast we should have a hootenanny. The plan for Saturday is to go into Boston for dim sum in the morning, then stroll Newbury Street for shopping, coffe, etc. That we'll do without NoodleGuy, to spare him the torture of shopping with two girls. In the afternoon, we'll head home and go out to dinner and a movie with NG. D never gets to see movies because they have a toddler at home, the adorable K, my god-daughter. It's a bit of a movie tundra out there right now - the pre-oscar season - but we've heard good things about The Inve.ntion of Ly.ing and we could all use a comedy right now.

Hope everyone in bloggy land is doing well -- I've got to run, I feel Win.dows 7 pulling me back into the work vortex...