Shelby's Life and Whatnot

Cap'n Crack

Ahoy, mateys! We just returned from a lovely extended weekend camping (that's right--camping!) at lovely Pismo Beach. We had a great time. This annual camping event coincides with the Event-Formerly-Known-As-The-KCBX-Wine-Classic, now called the Central Coast Wine Classic as it ceased to be a fundraiser for KCBX (a Los Angeles NPR station) some years ago. I still call it KCBX out of habit. At any rate, there's a group of wine folks who attend the event and over a decade ago, a sub-group of them started tent camping at Pismo Beach State Park over the weekend. Strangely enough, those people stopped attending the actual event a number of years ago, although they do attend an event that is related and happens on Thursday (a barrel and reserve tasting with a smaller group of wineries). Part of this tradition is that the wine folks who do attend the KCBX event but don't have the cajones to camp come to the campground on Saturday night and there's a big group cookout. Last year Kevin and I were invited to join the campers (since we're Scouts and all) and we had so much fun we did it again this year.

I was a bit nervous about camping whilst 4 months' pregnant, but on the whole it went quite well. The campground is very well-kept and has flushing toilets and hot showers (I can just hear my dad's voice in my head, "Wow--flushing toilets! Hot showers! Where's the fun part?"--he's not the camping type) so the roughing-it was kept to a minimum. Our tent is a roomy 4-person tent, which is to say that it's roomy for 2 people but will not be roomy enough for the 3 of us next year (yes, believe it or not, I think we're going to attempt camping with a 7-month-old next year!). For the comfort of everyone involved, we don't sleep on a shared air mattress. Given the amount that I toss, turn, and flail, Kevin practically gets motion sickness from the movement at night. Instead I have been using his old Boy Scout cot, a small but comfy cot about 4 inches off the ground. Kevin himself has finally decided that he's too old for the Thermarest, so he may be getting his cot back next year and I'll get one of my own.

I found the weekend very relaxing. Thursday we went to the barrel tasting, and both Friday and Saturday the rest of the group headed out to go to various wineries while I stayed back at the campsite, read, and napped. The big dinner Saturday night was a blast as usual--tons of great food. I think there's something about being cooked outside on a fire that makes food taste better. I got a little bit sunburned but otherwise it was a very fun and satisfying trip.

All continues to go well with the pregnancy. We met with the genetic counselor last week and the appointment went very well. Because I am "AMA" (Advanced Maternal Age *rolls eyes*) the doctor is required to offer us an amniocentesis to check for Down Syndrome and other chromosomal problems. Apparently at age 35 your chances of having a baby with Down Syndrome go up to 1 in 273 and for Trisomy 18/13 (two other chromosomal problems) the chances are 1 in 493. The genetic counselor was very, very nice and based on what we know of our family histories, we seemed to be in exceptionally good shape. I had a blood screening test at my last appointment that tests for markers of Down Syndrome and Trisomy 18/13 and while it's just a screening test (only an amnio can determine if those syndromes are actually present) it does give you a much better look at risk ratio. Since the results of my test were not in my file, the counselor went off to go find it, and we decided that if the screening test showed an increased risk, we would go ahead with the amnio. Well we got the results, and the risk of Down Syndrome is 1 in 5,441 and for Trisomy 18/13 it's 1 in 9,841. Those numbers looked pretty good to us! So we decided not to have an amnio. Phew! One less thing to worry about.

Now I just have my latest addiction--Cap'n Crunch cereal. I don't know why, but I started really craving Cap'n Crunch and then I bought a box and it was like the best food I'd ever tasted in my entire life. I got it on Wednesday and we didn't bring it camping--a shame, because I lamented its sugary goodness while I was there. Today I filled up again. I haven't had Cap'n Crunch in like 25 years and I don't even remember it being one of my favorites as a child (I was a Frosted Flakes girl) but man, now I can't stop eating it. I think they make it with crack, actually. Cap'n Crack.