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January 30, 2004

That Fantastic Plastic
A new American Experience about Tupperware, narrated by Kathy Bates, is airing on Monday the 9th! Check out Earl Tupper's invention notebooks.
01/30/04 05:55 PM |  Comments


Stuff and Stuff
It's rainy, but the grass is growing tall (in patches). The days have alternated sunny/rainy in a perfect pattern, with mild temperatures.

The kitties have comfy new beds (if only because I couldn't stand how skanky their old fleece blankets had become despite a hundred washings). They look so lush and cushy, I almost wish they made them in human sizes. I suppose I could make do with one made for a great dane.

Yesterday I tried out a new Crock-Pot recipe from Fix-It and Forget-It for Entertaining. In fact, I think it's the first time I've used anything in the book since I picked it up at my last Book Fair. Basically browned and spiced pork chops on a bed of homemade Rice-a-Roni (sans vermicelli). I learned two things:

1) The recipes were all submitted by different authors, and I'm not sure they were tested before publication! It turned out okay - nothing I'd serve for "entertaining," and definitely not without modification!

2) Longer on Low is far better than shorter on High. Especially with rice.

My nausea is patchy now. Still feel like I never get enough sleep (and I always do), but at least my stomach plays nice half the time.

Spicy Apple Ginger Chews rock. I'm making a pilgrimage back to Citrus Heights for more.
01/30/04 10:09 AM |  Comments


January 28, 2004

You're Making Mister Rogers Cry in Heaven
It's too bad we only have the one neighbor. Really unfortunate.

Right after we moved in, I was out getting the mail (we have one of those six-box curbside affairs) when I heard a shuffly noise behind me in the dark. A bit startled, I turned to find it was the woman next door. "Oh, hello!" I said.

To no reply, just seeming irritation that I was taking too long unloading my stuffed box (the previous five - yes, five, not counting big canines - tenants never bothered to get their mail forwarded). She bristled past as I made off with my load.

Their daughter has shown an unfortunate penchant for loud, thumpy music and standing in the yard wearing her mother's glare, with the addition of that nineties-style preteen snot that sent me over the edge at school.

And the little boy just screams and screams in the driveway.

We probably won't be borrowing sugar any time soon.
01/28/04 05:37 PM |  Comments


January 27, 2004

See, SF! We're Civilized, Too!
If you're in Sacramento, consider spending your Valentine's Day with beloved Newbery-award-winning author Gary Paulsen. Free!

Honestly, I only remember reading Dogsong (and, more recently, Puppies, Dogs, and Blue Northers), but the Hatchet/Brian books look good, too; they remind me, in spirit, much of Jean Craighead George's Mountain trilogy.

The one thing I miss the very most about my library is the unrestricted, spontaneous borrowing of all that great YA literature. Sigh.
01/27/04 04:25 PM |  Comments


We Need a Name that Means "Gymnast"
Okay, so today was totally worth the pantsing. First we got to see an (almost unbelievably) bigger alien - doing sommersaults! Literally! All spinning feets and arms and noggin. We didn't get a picture this time, otherwise I'd show you. And then, even though it was probably a couple weeks early, we got to hear the heartbeat with the doppler, bird-fast and strong. So cool.
01/27/04 03:49 PM |  Comments


Speculum Wishes and KY Dreams
Off to the OB again today. Breaking into Month Four, and already I'm tired of dropping trou for strangers. And I do mean strangers - there are nine OBs and two nurses in the practice, and apparently I get to see a different one every time (and who knows who'll be attending the delivery). They take my blood pressure as a matter of course, and it's generally a bit, well, elevated. Now there's a mystery.
01/27/04 10:05 AM |  Comments


January 26, 2004

$475K Sounds Like a Steal to Me...
I want my own koi farm!
01/26/04 05:58 PM |  Comments


Red
We took our first stab at painting this weekend, and it didn't go too badly, considering how little combined experience we have. The "floating" wall that separates the living area from the kitchen, and the entryway. Most of the problem was in the corner edges - we used painter's tape, but it didn't give us much of a straight line at all. There were too many bumps, and the chalky white soaks up other paint like a sponge. So, using one of the switchplates that had been conveniently buried in paint for computer matching, we went to Lowe's for a quart of white and some tiny brushes for touch-ups (I think I still haven't fully recovered from that horrible experience, shudder). And, while I sanded off the most obtrusive pointy "things" beneath the layers and layers of old paint before we started, the red sets off the rest of the history of crappy patch jobs real well. We think it still managed to look pretty nice despite all that.
01/26/04 12:18 PM |  Comments


January 23, 2004

I'm My Own DJ
It's been a long time since I tinkered with my LAUNCHcast radio station on a regular basis. Listening at work was obviously out of the question, and I had a gazillion mp3s to keep me warm elsewhere. But playing those all day is getting boring.

The station is slooowly improving. I think I've managed to filter out most of the unbearable stuff. You can listen, too, but I warn - it's a little eclectic. The only genres you won't find represented are urban/R&B/rap (oh, all right - I did let "Funky Cold Medina" slip by), country, thrash metal, and religious.
01/23/04 12:33 PM |  Comments


January 22, 2004

"Trudging to Mordor"
Yesterday Tim sent me a link to this entry at Defective Yeti, which concludes - hilariously - "that the entire Lord of the Rings saga is an allegory for pregnancy."
01/22/04 10:14 AM |  Comments


Speaking of Modern...
I must be living under a rock, not knowing that Oneida resurrected a line of Russel Wright (until I saw it on Martha this morning). The prices are pretty decent. But I wish they could've reproduced that incomparable glacier blue.
01/22/04 10:03 AM |  Comments


January 21, 2004

Penthouses, SUVs, and Cabanas - Oh My
Our three aren't nearly as spoiled as I thought they were. Clearly.
01/21/04 11:29 AM |  Comments


Have Your Brownie with Some Fava Beans
Loving Ephemera Now, featuring retro illustrations. Which I'm almost certain I've seen in the long-ago, but rediscovered thanks to Claire.

This one is kind of scary fun. As is this. Definitely not your adorable little Welch's tyke.
01/21/04 11:07 AM |  Comments


January 20, 2004

Notes to Self (While Half the Readership Flees in Hor-ror)
Things I've got my eye on for the future kidlet room:

  • Candeloo Lamps (blue and green)
  • Blik wall decals (aruba and kiwi - see the theme?)
  • Ikea Löva bed canopy
  • Ikea Kryp Snigel mat
  • Something much like this Leap Frog crib set, especially in color


    • So, in a nutshell: frogs, turtles, dragonflies, and other pondy things - and light on the pastels.
    01/20/04 08:00 PM |  Comments


    January 19, 2004

    The Next One Still Comes From Russia
    Physically, today is no better than the yesterday that prompted the "okay, okay, over two months of mild stomach flu is long enough" rant, but it did at least help to put it out there. And there is some cause for hope - I've mostly stopped retching on my toothbrush.

    One positive: I've virtually stopped shedding. When you lose 100 of my caliber hairs per day - mostly, but in no way limited to, the shower drain - it has a definite impact on the household. Now I'm down to about three when I wash my hair. In six months I suppose I'll look like Rapunzel.
    01/19/04 03:04 PM |  Comments


    January 18, 2004

    Ignore That Bleary-Eyed Madwoman with the Big Boobs
    It will get better soon. It has to. Because eventually I will, as my creepy OB nurse (upon learning of my long-ago battle with clinical depression) put it, "start thinking of doing harm to myself or others." Probably others.

    The joy of constant hormone surges, up and up and up. It's like the emotional content of PMS times twenty, accompanied by all-day nausea, a constant feeling of pale hollow, and dizziness if I stand in one place for more than a few seconds. Oh, and let's not forget the ADHD. Or the fact that nasal decongestants can cause birth defects, so I've become a permanent mouthbreather. For a couple days last week, I escaped with only the fatigue, and thought it was coming to a close. Psych!

    All while I'm pressured to feel either automatic overjoy or super-depressing "you're not out of the woods yet, don't buy anything or tell anyone" caution by the elder set, normal and not at all touchy by the home set, and nutrient-crammed and chemically virgin pure by myself. In short, the only sympathy my racked body gets comes from groups of people I've never met, going through the same thing.

    And then I read this, and think it may come off to some as selfish and unmothery, but then... screw that. This isn't the fifties, and you don't want the whitewashed version. I've been fed the platitude enough times - it's all worth it in the end - and wouldn't be here if most of me didn't agree.

    But that doesn't make me feel any less like crap right now.
    01/18/04 03:11 PM |  Comments


    January 16, 2004

    Happy Ending for Alice
    I didn't know Clarence had been found - and just in time for Christmas! Apparently, he was off procreating!
    01/16/04 02:58 PM |  Comments


    Better Than S&M?*
    Judge. Hertzfeldt. Together on the big screen. Can you dig it? We can!

    *Spike & Mike, you perv.
    01/16/04 01:54 PM |  Comments


    Curtainly
    I'd originally purchased three yards of this fabric to make a tablecloth for our dining room table. But now we have a smaller built-in table off the kitchen (this will soon be the source of bigger, weirder news for the great room, stay tuned), and the colors don't match our new scheme, so I'm using it to make some fun grommeted valances for the kitchen, instead.

    Now I just have to get my pukey butt to JoAnn's, the only place I've been able to find grommet pliers around here. My little eyelet punch wouldn't have enough oomph for the job.
    01/16/04 08:28 AM |  Comments


    January 15, 2004

    Land of Misfit Appliances
    So we've got a gas stove. It wouldn't be my first choice, and the whole "cooking with fire" thing was a small hurdle, but I'm over that now. My biggest beef is that there's no way to tell when the oven is at the right temperature. Even if I've let it preheat for half an hour, it still takes far too long to cook stuff. So I guess we'll be getting an oven thermometer. Like in the Stone Age.

    Our washer and dryer, of necessity, were installed backwards. Dryer on the left, washer on the right. And the lid on the washer opens - of course - to the left!
    01/15/04 09:27 AM |  Comments


    January 14, 2004

    Barney Was Nothing, My Friend
    It's like Teletubbies - for your nightmares!
    01/14/04 07:53 AM |  Comments


    January 13, 2004

    Escanaba Tangibles
    Everyone knew someone that worked at Mead in Escanaba. It's still the Big Industry in town. They mostly make coated paper for publishing - magazines, catalogs, textbooks. And employees never lacked for paper. My mom's brother and most of his inlaws were lifers, so there was always a steady stream of little scratchy notepads. At The Camp out in Bark River, where we spent summer Sundays eating raspberries and listening to bear stories, there was a huge industrial roll of white paper that kept the kids in coloring paper for years and years. I don't miss the cooked pulp smell in the summer, but I when I had to buy a pack of Mead notepads at the store the other day, it made me a little sad.

    The same folks also kept small herds of beef cattle, mostly for family use, and there's nothing better (or safer!) than truly fresh steaks. And they were all successful hunters, too - which meant unbeatable venison sausage and, sometimes, melt-in-your-mouth bear roasts (tastes like pork).
    01/13/04 11:36 AM |  Comments


    January 12, 2004

    At Least it's Not Bare Mud
    Yesterday was really nice, so D. raked up part of the yard, and we threw down some seeded mulch. Great stuff - 100% post-consumer waste paper, very easy to spread by hand. It looks a little bizarre, though. With any luck, we won't get any hard rains for the week it will spend germinating.
    01/12/04 11:07 AM |  Comments


    January 09, 2004

    I Do Not Wear a Plastic Nametag While Shopping
    I went to Target yesterday. Not just any Target, mind you - Target Greatland, the only one in the metro area. We're now close enough to it once again that it's not completely silly to make the pilgrimage. Far enough that I won't be doing it often, but I had business just a couple blocks north, so it was more than justified this time.

    One of the things I needed was a small wastebasket. Nothing pretty, just something Sterilite to shove into the little closet (specially vented and meant to be a hamper, but it's nowhere I'd care to put my frillies) in the bathroom. And there was really nothing. Of course I was getting impatient with the crowds by that point, so I may not have searched all that intently. In any case, there's a dollar store across the street, so I figured I'd walk over there and pick one up on the much cheaper.

    For a dollar store, they carry some really cute Valentine's stuff. I was browsing some little heart-y stamp kits, when a tall skinny guy whined over the shelf from the next aisle, "Don't you carry calendars here?"

    He wasn't looking at me, and of course I didn't assume he was *talking* to me. He shuffled around the aisle a bit, peevishly, and then walked around the endcap and whined once again - quite clearly at me - "Aren't there any calendars here?"

    And I reply, from my heavy black winter coat, "Uh, I really have no idea."

    "You mean you don't work here?" More high-pitched impatience.

    "NO."

    "Oh, sorry," snottily implying just the opposite.

    And this isn't the first time. It also happened a couple years ago, while I was looking at kitchenware in a KMart, wearing the same coat and carrying a big purse and shopping basket. At least that lady was nice about it, though.

    I did work at KMart for two years in college. Maybe the smell of retail sticks.
    01/09/04 08:58 AM |  Comments


    January 08, 2004

    Oolong
    It surely doesn't seem as if a year has passed already...
    01/08/04 01:24 PM |  Comments


    Chase Away the Cold and Rain
    This morning I threw together a batch of Texas Chili in the CrockPot. And the smells didn't send me hurling; hopefully that'll continue through the day as it cooks. Funny thing is I know I won't have any problem eating it. Just smelling it.

    I used the cute little chopper my mom got me for Christmas on the onion - so much easier than dragging out the food processor, and no stinky onion fingers!
    01/08/04 09:34 AM |  Comments


    January 05, 2004

    Moving (cont'd)
    The Deep-Freeze Boudoir problem has been fixed. We found that leaving the door open allowed enough warm air in from the hallway that the temperature became livable. Unfortunately, the bedroom is a strict human-only zone, given the allergy situation. So we bought a swinging wooden baby/pet gate, and, as feared, Elli is athletic enough to soar effortlessly over the top. Darin rigged another gate on top of that one, and now we have an awfully funny-looking door, but no cats and plenty of heat.

    We've all been spoiled by having the pet door and litter box outside, and of course we're not giving it up just because we're on the ground floor now. We got a large wire pen at PetSmart yesterday, which will form a half-circle on the patio against the back side of the house. And of course there'll be a mesh top just for trapeze-artist Elli. Lots of safe playspace to sun and torture/be tortured by the birds!

    Usually I'd have most everything unpacked at this point - I hate feeling unsettled. But this time around I'm too tired to care much; the kitchen is the only room that's even nearly finished. Not one single book has been shelved (!!!) Today I cleaned the master bath over at the old place, and just the shower was enough to make me spin. Tomorrow Stanford Home is finally coming to get my old car, I'll clean up the kitchen, hand in the keys, and be done with it. And then I'll sleep for a couple of days.
    01/05/04 07:37 PM |  Comments


    January 04, 2004

    Incurring My Wrath Since 1998
    D: [upon seeing one of these at OSH] It won't be long until *you're* going to need one of those!

    -----

    [Palmer's Cocoa Butter ad comes on, giant preggo belly appears sporting violent violet stretch marks]
    Both: Ah!!!
    D: You need to get that!!!

    -----

    Me: I wonder... Do other animals feel this crappy in early pregnancy? I mean, they still have to hunt, and stuff.
    D: No, only human chicks are whiny.
    Me: ...I hate you.
    01/04/04 06:51 PM |  Comments


    January 02, 2004

    Beats and Digs
    Hey, lookee, we're back!

    First, the important stuff. I had a second ultrasound on Tuesday, and there was a heartbeat, fast and small. The doc couldn't get a clear picture of any heads or parts, thanks to a mercilessly overproductive bladder on my part, but there was definitely a bigger bean in there.

    Reliable sources tell that my mom is already scoping kidwear. I sometimes feel bad that her first grandchild will be two thousand miles away. But at least we'll be flying her out next Christmas.

    In the past week I've become ravenous. I like to eat as much as the next guy - oh, probably more - but it's all getting a bit frustrating now. I can eat, for example, a lovely balanced breakfast of cereal, peanut butter toast, yogurt, and juice, only to be rumbling an hour later. And I have to obey or risk getting woozy and nauseated! All day long. I've lost all control, aaack!

    We're mostly in the new place. I was going to take pics the first day, but things were in such a deflating state. Neverever have I seen such a drastic disparity between model and unit. The previous occupants had large dogs, which left large untended poop - which left maintenance with no option but to raze the entire back yard. Oh, and they took good chunks out of the siding, too. Our wonderful wall 'o windows now looks upon a field of mud. And the entire interior was ruthlessly splashed with nasty flat white paint, covering whatever crossed the path of the brush (including some embedded things which I don't care to examine too closely). So the next few weeks are going to be filled with paint, all Trading Spaces-like. I even saw a respirator at Home Depot yesterday that filters paint fumes, so I can join the fun for as long as I can stand unwobbled.

    I'm up at such an ungodly hour (for me) because our bedroom is not unlike a butchery cooler. The rest of the house? Toasty warm. I've even been surprised at how warm the living room is, what with most of the back wall being glass. But I'm finding it miserable even reading in bed, my hands and nose get so cold. I think it's a combination of leaky windows and poor heating duct flow, but whatever. I'm going to get at least one good night of sleep on the couch!

    But then there are the hardwood floors (a bit worn and thoughtlessly finished but still not carpeting), not hearing a peep from our neighbors through the thick shared wall, and the breatheable kitchen. We had to find our own washer and dryer, and did, at a used appliance warehouse. A nice matching set of giant-capacity Kenmores with all the bells and whistles that we'd never have spent the thousand or so on new. Someone built a workbench in the storage room outside, and won't that be fun to pound on?

    We did have a bit of Christmas, with our last fire and some lively Mexican food out. I got an MP3 player, a couple of good print design books, another of good recipes for the long-abandoned CrockPot, a handy little kitchen chopper, and an electric knife (a bit of a head-scratcher from my mom, but I suppose it just means that hams and turkeys and roasts must be had more often, no?). New Year's, though, was ignored entirely. I think I was asleep by eleven.
    01/02/04 01:58 AM |  Comments