Category Archives: Random

Family, Health, humor, Lifestyle, Parenting, Random

Fertility Woes and Baby Hopes

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By Heidi Pfister

I was deleting my old email drafts and came across this almost two- year old email, which I never actually sent to the intended recipients…don’t know why. Now my baby, Penelope, will be one year old in about a month, which makes it even more amusing to read than if I had I sent it when I wrote it. The email subject line read “fertility woes and baby hopes”.

This is an update on my efforts to conceive, and so much has happened in the past few weeks that I’d like to update all of you in one e-mail. If clinical info makes you squeamish, stop reading here!

Earlier this month, I found out that my ovaries are “old”, my uterus lining is too thin, and none of that matters because my cervix is too acidic to let sperm survive long enough to get to an egg anyway.

I found this out after a series of doctor visits that included multiple blood draws, an ultrasound of my ovaries, and an extremely painful procedure to examine my fallopian tubes. I screamed during that event, and said out loud, “Why am I trying so hard to have a baby if childbirth is
going to feel worse than this?!!”

However…there is a bright side. My 36-year old ovaries are now performing well thanks to fertility medication, and we have bypassed the cervix issue by undergoing intrauterine insemination. The procedure took place yesterday, and now we wait. I pray it works because I really don’t want to go through all this again. And I really don’t want to have to pay $17,000 for in vitro fertilization!

That’s where it ended. And now that I think about it, I know why I didn’t send it: I didn’t want to jinx myself!

Gotta go…Penelope’s waking up from her nap. 🙂

Love to all of you trying to get pregnant,
Heidi

Heidi Pfister is a new mommy and guest blogger. This is her first entry.

Culture, Lifestyle, News, Random, Travel

Party with Latin American Idol’s Gabriel Suarez

ChileWe partied last weekend with Gabriel Suarez, a hottie Chilean contestant on the first season of Latin American Idol. He made a special appearance at our friends’ wedding reception in Santiago, Chile, sang three songs while the bride swooned, and then danced with us until dawn.

(Gabriel Suárez of Latin American Idol Season 1 on far right)

Wedding tip: Chilean brides-to-be, he rocked the reception crowd in the ballroom at the Hotel Plaza San Francisco. “Gabriel es el mejor,” beamed the groom’s sister as she led him to him the dance floor. He even brought along an entourage of hottie helpers that were willing to grind with the grandmas.

His Clips

In case you missed this hot Chilean cantor on the first season of Latin American Idol, you can catch his clips on YouTube. Here is a run down of his songs on the show:

Gabriel Suárez – Eliminated (10/12/2006)

  1. “Hasta Ayer” (Marc Anthony) – First Workshop
  2. “No Me Conoces” (Marc Anthony) – First Concert
  3. “El Hombre Del Piano” (Ana Belén) – Second Concert
  4. “La Copa Rota” (Vicente Fernández) – Third Concert
  5. “Cálido Y Frío” (Franco De Vita) – Fourth Concert – Bottom 2 (09/21/2006)
  6. “No Renunciaré” (Lolita Flores) – Fifth Concert
  7. “Carito” (Carlos Vives) – Sixth Concert
  8. “La Camisa Negra” (Juanes) – Sixth Concert
  9. “En La Ciudad De La Furia” (Soda Stereo) – Seventh Concert
  10. “Lamento Boliviano” (Los Enanitos Verdes) – Seventh Concert

Even though he didn’t win the Idol competition, Senor Suárez has a very bright future as a wedding singer.

Career, Lifestyle, News, Random

LinkedIn 3rd Level Introduction

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My friend, Julian, recently pinged and asked me to make a third-level introduction on LinkedIn.

A what?

A third-level introduction is basically introducing a friend to a friend-of-a-friend. But it’s not as easy at it sounds. Julian is in my LinkedIn network and wanted to meet someone outside of my network and who is connected to me by another guy in my network. Still following? I was confused so I drew a map:

I’ll be honest. If Julian wasn’t such a dear friend, I wouldn’t have bothered. Turns out that there is no convenient way to make a third-level intro on LinkedIn–no quick clicks to get the job done. This involved time, communication and follow-up. Here’s what I did:

Step 1: Figure out who my friend wants to meet

Turns out Julian wanted to meet Novak, who is a friend of a friend, or a second-level connection. Novak was not in my network so I couldn’t contact him directly. More investigation needed.

Step 2: Contact the middleman

So I contacted Nic, the person Novak and I have in common. Nic is in my network so I could contact him directly through the LinkedIn site. I asked Nic if he would be willing to make an introduction to his contact, Novak.

Step 3: The middleman contacts the target

Nic contacted Novak and asked if Novak would be willing to contact me. Since Nic and Novak are in the same network, this was done through the LinkedIn site–like how I contacted Nic.

Step 4: Target agrees to meet me

Novak replies back to Nic that he agrees to meet me. He gives his email address to Nic to give to me.

Step 5: Middleman replies to me with the good news

Nic replies to me that Novak is willing to meet and forwards Novak’s email address.

Step 6: Second-level contact made

I make direct contact with Novak, a second-level contact. I tell him about my friend, Julian, who wants to meet him.

Step 7: Go ahead

Novak replies back that he is willing to meet Julian, a third-level contact.

Step 8: The final connection

I reply to Novak and copy Julian so that they are now connected. Novak and Julian chat about their common interests.

Third-level communication totally sucks, but my job is done. All of this only took about four hours of my time spread over three weeks. Any better ideas out there of how to do this?