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April 29, 2004

Just Desserts For Bragging on Not Being Sick This Year
I have a cold. Someone probably mouthbreathed on me at our trashy WalMart (the only place to shop anywhere remotely nearby, and sometimes you've just gotta). Luckily NyQuil is on the safe list.
04/29/04 09:37 AM |  Comments


April 28, 2004

Now I Can Eat My Yoplait in Peace
The Glucola wasn't as bad as I expected; it wasn't all that difficult to chug it in five minutes. Though I was disappointed that my choices were all citrus - orange, lemon, or lime. Blech. I went for the orange. Didn't feel any ill effects until a good forty-five minutes later, when I sat up too fast on the exam table. Ooof. Just about passed out! After five minutes on my left side I was good to go.

I've been so busy not eating sugar that I forgot to overhydrate, so they couldn't find a good vein in my arms. They usually have to use a baby gauge needle on me in any case, but this time it had to go in my hand. Which, strangely enough, was less uncomfortable than an arm poke. I still can't watch them do it.

Have to schedule another ultrasound. My uterus is still measuring big for the due date, so they're going to look around for fibroids. They didn't catch any on the last one (and you'd think they'd have to be pretty noticeable for that much difference); I believe I'm just due earlier than they figure. Whatever - I get the fun of an extra ultrasound!
04/28/04 10:42 AM |  Comments


April 27, 2004

It Comes Earlier Every Year We're Here
A: The maintenance guy. Oh, yeah.

Q: Who's the person you'll be happiest to see when more record highs hit, and your A/C isn't working?
04/27/04 06:45 PM |  Comments


Mmm, Syrup.
Tomorrow, bright and early, I get to take the test for gestational diabetes. I go to the lab first, they give me a nasty Glucola syrup to drink, I go to my regular appointment upstairs, and, after an hour has passed, I get my blood drawn back at the lab. In preparation, I'm not allowed sugar of any kind today (not even fruit juice!). Hopefully neither of two things will happen: 1) I won't throw up the Glucola (somewhat common), or 2) I'll somehow fail and have to take the three-hour test, which requires you to drink the Glucola on an empty stomach, and have blood drawn every hour afterwards.

I wish they'd do this only to women who exhibit possible symptoms, and not as a routine. Who needs the extra stress?
04/27/04 11:52 AM |  Comments


April 26, 2004

And Whiskers on Kittens
Our very first rose was open this morning!
04/26/04 09:08 AM |  Comments


April 25, 2004

And Someone Else's Peas
This post is one of the funnier I've read on Craigslist, maybe because I've been there, man.
04/25/04 08:13 AM |  Comments


And Then Came the Split-Pea Soup
I'm not going to lie to you: this whole being an incubator (and nothing but an incubator) gig pretty much sucks at the moment. I can't breathe, my closest family is being selfish and/or downright poisonous in the face of what I consider a good bit of generosity, and it seems that in the past three days I've lost the ability to sleep halfway through a night. To sum, I'm overtired, hurt, and nauseous (again!). The only comfort I derive is feeling the kicking/wriggling/headbutting/???. So the kidlet gets to stay, but people who dismiss my state as a temporal issue, and those without cookies or nice things to say, can kindly go 'way.
04/25/04 02:56 AM |  Comments


April 24, 2004

I Don't Name My Clothes. Really.
Want to see a moody pregnant woman panic? Misplace her security blanket - the Big Old Sweatshirt (we'll call it the BOSs, for brevity's sake).

Wednesday night Darin's coworker and family had free reign of the house they'd just signed a lease on, right down the street in our complex. Of course! we'd love come see it (= compare and contrast with our own duplex). It was in the high fifties, maybe, but I didn't feel like trying to squish into a jacket. The BOSs, though, would still fit just fine.

It was born of a bargain bin at the NMU bookstore a good dozen years ago. $8.00! Navy, very much oversized, and made not of fleece, but some more substantial knit - kind of a nubby weave on the inside. Of course it's been washed a thousand times, and maybe not the prettiest thing, but it's the most warm and comfortable object I own. It's especially good at nursing colds.

But... it wasn't with the other warm stuff in my closet, or out of place further down the rod. It wasn't hanging with the coats, or in a drawer, or even fallen to the floor.

It was terribly cold when we moved, and I was wearing it a lot then, back and forth between places... Had I left it in the old apartment? or in the car that I donated? Did it get shoved in a Goodwill box by accident? The horror!

Dejected, I put on the Big Old Wool Sweater, and we left.

At bedtime, I was shuffling through the warm-weather part of my closet, trying to find something that I could still squeeze into for sleep. And there, wedged at an odd angle on its hanger so that it was hidden behind the tees, was the BOSs. I went to sleep happy.

The End.
04/24/04 12:10 PM |  Comments


April 23, 2004

My Favorite Insectivores
We have three small rosebushes in the back yard, two infested with aphids. Spraying them with the hose works, but only temporarily, and only on the adults - those eggs are superbioglued, or something.

Last night we were at OSH for some other stuff, and they had ladybugs! Dozens of live, aphid-chomping ladybugs. We bought a container and dumped it out, and, just as the instructions said, they mostly won't fly away during the evening. They stick around and hunt down a nice juicy aphid dinner. Munch.

I'm sure they're not all still out there today; I'm not even dressed yet thanks to another odd nauseous morning (Why am I going though this again?). Otherwise I'd check. I'd bet anything those eggs are gone, though.

Update: we've still got lots of ladybugs! And all evidence of the aphids is gone, overnight!
04/23/04 01:10 PM |  Comments


April 22, 2004

Disgusting Crave du Jour
Reduced Fat Pringles, dipped in a mix of:

Sour cream (leftover from pierogi night)
Hidden Valley Ranch dressing
Bacos

Just so you know, I eat fruits and vegetables, too...
04/22/04 03:20 PM |  Comments


And They Made Her Sneeze, Too!
There once was a girl from the Motor City
Who finally got a car that wasn't sh**ty
She loved to keep it clean
But the maples were mean
And kept it covered in pollen - how unpretty!
04/22/04 02:24 PM |  Comments


April 21, 2004

Battlefield Brain
The thought of labor is undoubtedly scary. But to someone who's been to the bowels of depression hell and back... this is downright terrifying.
04/21/04 07:52 PM |  Comments


April 20, 2004

Visiting the SickDeathbed
I was feeling ambitious today. Which, to clarify, means that I'm in the shower by nine. Heh. Anyhow, when I get in the mood to do these days, it's better to use it for good than evil. I decided to knock a few more items off the Baby Essentials Get List (bathtub, butt balm, baby wash, powder, brush & comb, first bag of diapers, burp cloths - check). Didn't want to drive through Citrus Blights or Roseville traffic to get to a Target, so I decided to go halfway to one of the three remaining KMarts in the area. To which I'd never been (adventure!), and I was jonesing for some of that cheap Martha green (if even just to look).

And Lo! and Behold!!! It was a big old school KMart, with a sit-down eatery! The memories. When I was very small, my dad was receiving manager at a Wisconsin KMart. My mom and I would shop, and then have chocolate milk and a cookie at the eatery. In college, during a very harsh mini-depression in Upper Michigan, the KMart eatery was (literally) the only place I could find a part-time job, slinging eggs and burgers in my dopey black pants and red polo (though a year later, when the job market had picked up but KMart was hitting yet another of its hundred rough patches, I was laid off, and found better work as a children's museum office intern - no poly uniform there).

It was filled with the typical morning crowd of seniors. If I'd been remotely hungry, I would've gone in and had soup, and pie. I should've done anyway, parked my cart at the rail, and had a decaf. Because they really mightn't be around much longer, this time.
04/20/04 02:34 PM |  Comments


April 19, 2004

Stay! Good Breakfast.
Saw Hellboy on Thursday. It was pretty much what I expected - entertainment for two hours, but nothing real special. There were Nazis. Wasn't expecting the half-empty parking lot (never happens, whee!) or the $9 price tag (!!!).

Saturday afternoon saw us scoring a loop of five letterboxes out in residential Folsom. Pretty new hike 'n bike trails surrounding a natural wetland. D. was jealous of some of the behemoth million-dollar homes across the water; I don't find them particularly inviting, myself. Though I wouldn't turn up my nose at an oversized bathroom with a marble spa.

I spent most of yesterday staying warm inside while napping or struggling to breathe (giant uterus is tough on the old asthma!), and this morning the green bucket and I hung out on the couch. No idea what that was all about, because I woke up from my snooze ravenous. Now I'm so verrrry cautiously eating an English muffin.
04/19/04 01:48 PM |  Comments


April 18, 2004

Please, to Answer
A lot of you folks are using MT, and take advantage of the built-in comments. I don't use them on this site for one reason: for me, at least, the text appears like molasses. Doesn't matter whose site I visit, I can't read your comments within half a minute unless I highlight the text myself. I'm trying to implement them on the still-infant-after-all-these-years letterboxing site, hoping for an improvement, but no such luck.

Do you notice this, too? Why does it happen? Does MT just really hate IE? Am I just crazy nuts? Whywhywhy?
04/18/04 08:36 AM |  Comments


April 16, 2004

Old Stuff to Ignore!
If you click on the file cabinet icon, you'll be able to see my archive list. Haven't cleaned up the MT templates yet, so the archive pages themselves still don't look pretty, but it'll happen (I adore using MT day-to-day, but dealing with the tags in the back makes my head hurt). The archive list looks nicer if you're using IE; I'll get the sidebar working for Nutscrape/Mozilla soon.
04/16/04 05:21 PM |  Comments


April 15, 2004

More Girlie Stuff
I ran out of my favorite cosmetic of all time, and couldn't find it anywhere. So I wrote to L'Oreal, who replied, rather lamely, that it had indeed been discontinued, but they were "certain that I could find other fine L'Oreal products" to meet my needs. Bah.

I scored a tube on the cheap a la eBay, and there are more to be had. Question: if I bought another tube or two, could I keep it safely in the fridge? Would it still break down, as old cosmetics are wont to do?

Or maybe I should just buck up and try something new. Sigh.
04/15/04 11:41 AM |  Comments


April 14, 2004

Erm...
Air Stocking: spray-on silk stockings. For obvious reasons, I have my doubts; I'd love to see a real person wear these (this?) in Sacramento for an entire working day in August.
04/14/04 08:04 PM |  Comments


At 22 weeks, the Bridge Still Wins for Size
Me at 22 weeks, with Sac State's Guy West Bridge in the background (believe it or not: we'd been living here for three years before we even realized this local landmark existed!). Taken post-picnic, I may be mostly ham and eggs.
04/14/04 12:17 PM |  Comments


April 13, 2004

It Takes Chipboard to Raise a Village
Luckily we have a Utrecht in town; I need to call and find out if they have thin chipboard in stock. Because I certainly don't want 40 pieces for my little project. Got the issue of Living with the templates, fun fun.

Also have to find some decent chenille stems to make trees and reindeer. Is it possible to find bags of stems that aren't assorted colors? Must get me to a Michael's, the last resort. I'm itching to work on this stuff now, because the pre-holiday months will probably be a little hectic. To say the least.

(Yes, one of these days I promise I'll get around to cleaning up my blucky, unorganized archives, and get the pre-MT stuff back out. No excuse, except I don't want to.)
04/13/04 06:15 PM |  Comments


April 12, 2004

Them Dang Duke Boys
I saw the stupidest stunt today.

It was on my way home, in not-quite-yet rush hour traffic. The rail crossing gates, four cars ahead of me, started to come down. I don't mind waiting out trains if I don't need to be anywhere; with all that graffiti, they're like a long mobile urban art show.

But the guy in the black sports car two up in line was in a hurry. So much that, even though the gates were completely down and the train whistle could plainly be heard just down the track, he simply had to break rank and whip a screeching zig through the breach.

I guess some folks don't watch the news.
04/12/04 10:33 PM |  Comments


Hey, I'm Up Here!
I'm not an invalid. Really. I'm not. Maybe I should get a t-shirt made...

I'm too independent, too averse to unnecessary attention to be a public fawning object. And, while it's nice that people are concerned about my/our health and well-being... if you ask once, and I tell you that I'm perfectly fine walking around, or picking up a five-pound object, then I'd be ever so grateful if you'd just believe me, and not question my good judgement. Because I'm not the fetus. I'm - now, look up here, at me! - actually a very healthy adult (aside from those allergies I've no way to safely treat, except with OTC zombifiers).

Now, if you still can't get the mother hen out of your system, go find me some nice chocolate.
04/12/04 09:58 AM |  Comments


April 11, 2004

Happy Easter... I Guess?
Is it just me, or is Easter, that most chocolatemarshmallowy holiday, being completely ignored by almost everyone this year? Even by... [gasp] Google!?!

Well. We made devilled eggs last night, and they'll join the ham, cheese, croissants, and other tasty tidbits in our picnic pack, where we'll later find them, and eat them by the river. As per tradition.
04/11/04 11:36 AM |  Comments


April 10, 2004

Premature Balding
The tree in our yard seems confused. We had that record-breaking hot spell, and then it cooled back down. Now our yard is suddenly full of dead leaves - it literally looks just like fall out there. The cascade doesn't appear to be stopping, and a few branches are already bare... I just hope we have some shade left for summer!
04/10/04 09:48 PM |  Comments


April 09, 2004

And It All Came Flooding Back
I spent much of the day back in my old district, helping out a librarian with her Book Fair. She always helped with mine, and I'm bored (have I mentioned that?). And, even though her school is a vast improvement over my old one in many ways, the visit still proved a great reminder of just why me and my hormones don't belong in that environment as employees right now.

The administration had screwed her over yet again. She puts the standard-but-stunning number of unpaid hours into her Fairs. Still, they're demanding she erect the whole giant thing for part of today, take it down tonight because the church that rents school space "absolutely has to have the library for Easter crafts on Sunday - a classroom simply won't do," and then give up her own holiday time after services to set the whole thing back up again for next week (never mind that the group has done crafts in the library on other Sundays, and left giant messes of glue and glitter and scraps for her to take care of on Monday morning - most schools only have one overworked custodian now). Of course she has the right to refuse and work only her contracted hours (overtime in public schools? - good one), but she won't take away any Fair time from the students. This sounded like any given day at my own school, and it was difficult to keep my blood from boiling.

Then Ms. Book Fair Representative showed up. Everyone present was experienced, even a good number of the volunteer moms, and had done a fine job putting it all together. But MBFR decided that, after we'd spent four hours on setup, most of it needed to be rearranged. Simply riding roughshod over the fact that sales at the school are always the best in the district, consistently earning the highest premium selections. After two more hours of petty commands, my arm was twitching to smack her just a little.

All in all, a very necessary day - it'll make me try harder to relish my boredom. Or find someplace less stressful to volunteer!
04/09/04 02:56 PM |  Comments


April 08, 2004

Normalizing
Turns out letterboxing on a stomach full of Togo's in Goethe Park on a sunny afternoon is therapeutic. Who knew?
04/08/04 08:08 PM |  Comments


Maternal Gothic (or, Will You Still Respect Me When I Come to My Senses in the Morning?)
It hasn't been the best day, really. It's been a struggle, but until now, I've mostly been able to ignore the raging mood swings and keep that upper lip stiff. I'm certainly not unhappy with The Bean. But today, all at once, I've become homesick, I'm feeling large and gross and undesireable, and I'm (perversely, yes, I realize) tired of being alone. Which somehow escalated to now, where there are suddenly so many other dark and selfish and otherwise unutterable (= will get me in trouble if I mention) thoughts grappling for headspace, it's keeping me awake and even lonelier. I know with absolute certainty that not returning to my job was, health-wise, the safest course, but now that I haven't been puking for a few weeks, the fun of limitless boredom has lost some appeal (not to mention that I still haven't figured out how to satisfactorily handle "So, what do you do?" Uh, erm... can't say "parent" yet... I sit on my waterlogged butt and eat fakemeat sandwiches the live-long day...?).

Walking in the dusk tonight, I've never been more tempted to just find a dog - any grateful, kid-safe little shelter mutt - and bring it home. The cats have been, for the most part, disgustingly aloof and naughty. And bonus! barfier than usual. Which in my current frame I'd almost suspect they're doing because it grosses me out more, and/or because it's increasingly uncomfortable to bend down and clean up. And of course you can't even pretend discourse with them, unless they want more food to upchuck.
04/08/04 02:34 AM |  Comments


April 07, 2004

Wine oh!
I can't be a lush this Easter picnic, but at least I can act like one! It's really wine, with the alcohol removed ("...contain[s] less alcohol than most fresh-squeezed orange juice"). Why hadn't I thought of looking for it before? It's even won a few awards.

But, um... would you go to the store and buy it for me? It might still look bad if I did.
04/07/04 12:37 PM |  Comments


Bling in Yer Eye
nonoNO! I refuse to believe this. And since I can't Google it (though I admit I didn't try in Dutch), it musn't be true. Nuh-uh.

Update: Oh, it's real, alright.
04/07/04 09:41 AM |  Comments


April 06, 2004

"one God under a nation"
"The need of so many American believers to have government endorse their belief is thoroughly abject. How strong, and how wise, is a faith that needs to see God's name wherever it looks? (His name on nickels and dimes is rather damaging to His sublimity.)"

What America Can Learn From Its Atheists - via MetaFilter. Thought-provoking discussion of Newdow and the degradation of faith when it jumps into bed with politics, to which I've nothing of value to add here.
04/06/04 05:35 PM |  Comments


eBay and Pancakes
Yesterday evening we drove over to Vacaville to get the two biggest purchases out of the way - crib and dresser/changing table. And our kid now officially has nicer furniture than we do. Solid maple, worth about $750. We got them barely-used on eBay for less than half that! From very nice people for whom we quickly became very sorry - they'd been happily living in Portland, but were recently posted here by the military. We all concurred that our goal was to be living in OR before the kidlets started school.

On the way home, we stopped for dinner at a nice empty IHoP in Dixon. It didn't have the traditional comforting blue triangle roof, and was extremely difficult for us to find in the dark (we almost had to settle for Denny's for the pancake love, so wrong). But the only thing that could make a flawless transaction better was eggs scrambled with diced ham and pancakes with the trademark Row 'o Syrups. My heart lies with boysenberry, but will occasionally make a tasty dalliance with butter pecan.
04/06/04 12:00 PM |  Comments


April 04, 2004

Bunny Love
New pics of Yuebing always make me smile, but this series in Yokohama is particularly cute.
04/04/04 07:24 PM |  Comments


Shopping with Beavis
I don't know if I'm mature enough to raise children. Review the following evidence, and come to your own conclusion.

Scene: empty billiards shop. D and J enter stage right. While they peruse the accessories, polite pool geek enters stage left.

PG: Hello. Can I help you?

D: Yes - do you have anything we can clean our balls with?

J hides red face behind bushy hair and quickly heads stage right, trying desperately not to laugh while "nonchalantly" examining a purple-felted table in the corner. Enthusiastic and educational discussion ensues re: dirty balls, scuffed balls, ball polishers, etc. J manages to regain composure in time to make small purchases and leave.

D: There just has to be a better way to say that...
04/04/04 09:10 AM |  Comments


April 02, 2004

By All Means, Take Your Time, It's Only Our Health
I like most of the doctors in my OB group, but some of the staff is hopeless. Yesterday's doc told me that the ultrasound results hadn't arrived yet, but she would have someone call me when they came in. I guess they did shortly afterwards, because her assistant called me before I even had time to get home. When I called back, she was at lunch, so I left voicemail, and the message said that she would get back to me promptly - "within 24 to 48 hours [?!?]" Well, I guess she's being literal, and of course it's a weekend.

Aside from wanting the reassurance that the radiologist found all the organs normal, my uterus is measuring markedly large for a normal-sized baby, and the doctor said it's highly possible that I have fibroids. Which, if true, I may have always had, and now they're growing because of all the estrogen. They're pretty common and don't often cause serious complications - just often enough to make me twitchy. I know medical offices are busy, but, cripes, this is irritating.
04/02/04 11:51 AM |  Comments


April 01, 2004

None Here
Sorry to disappoint, but I've no April Fools' Prank this year! I was looking forward to it, too, but with vacation and all, and my brain being mush (you should hear me try to string a sentence - I was never super-skilled, but it's getting funnier all the time), nothing came. Lots of evil nebulous ideas lurking around, unformed, so maybe next year.

Some of you are new around here, so I'll let you go look at last year's silly prank.
04/01/04 07:49 AM |  Comments