spinning-jennie: archives « May 2004 | Main | July 2004 »

June 30, 2004

Eggses, My Precious
I needed to consult my steamer's user manual today, for rice-cooking measurements. Delving a bit deeper, I found you could hard-cook eggs with it. How didn't I know this? It was so easy - no standing at the gas stove with a pan of boiling water - and the eggs turned out perfectly! Neat!
06/30/04 06:13 PM |  Comments


20 Questions to Being a Better Person
Your score as a human being is 85.65.

You are close to ideal. So close, and yet so far. Amusing, really, to watch someone squirm so close to the vaunted ranks of perfection and still remain so very, very ordinary. It is all one can do to keep one's ingratiating smile from polluting one's perfect face.

Actually, one recommends you take the quiz again and lie a little.

via Fillyjonk
06/30/04 10:14 AM |  Comments


Too Much Reading Makes Him Sleepy
Really, I've nothing interesting to say right now. But I did find this cute snap of McFly in my photo cache.
06/30/04 09:10 AM |  Comments


June 29, 2004

This is Getting Ridiculous
At what point does all the fasting and bloodletting do more harm than good? I got up at five so I can get the latest two tubes out of the way when the lab opens at seven (or, with as little fasting time as possible). And I still feel like total crap. I really just want my f***ing bran flakes.
06/29/04 05:51 AM |  Comments


June 28, 2004

Crock-Pot Italiano, Take Two
I inflated the pool and filled it this morning, but then got too busy to hop in this afternoon! Gas/wash, grocery store, cooking prep, dishes, laundry... Of course no worries - it'll still be hot enough tomorrow. Hip hurray!

I'm making Chicken Parmesan in the slow cooker, and it does smell good. It's a much-modified book recipe, very simple:

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
2 T olive oil
1 3/4 c crushed tomatoes
1/3 c diced onion
1 medium green pepper, sliced
2 T dry red wine
2 cloves garlic, crushed
2 t oregano
2 t parsley
Shredded Italian cheese blend to taste

Lightly brown chicken breasts in oil. Place
on bottom of cooker. Mix remaining 
ingredients except cheese and pour evenly 
over chicken. Cook on low for 6 to 8 hours. 
15 minutes before cooking is done, sprinkle 
cheese over sauce.
I may add sliced black olives, too. D. can eat fettucine with his, but I'm having steamed green beans.
06/28/04 06:25 PM |  Comments


June 27, 2004

Tropical Penguin Weekend
At one point this afternoon, the thermometer in D's car read 108°F. Not that that was the true air temperature, but it sure felt like it on the pavement. I had to nap for an hour just to recover from the wilting. Trying to breathe while walking is often interesting under the best circumstances, but in extreme heat... ugh. Mid-eighties by mid-week, so at least there's that.

We did finally get to Goore's. Most impressed by the furniture that most of us are only wealthy enough to look at. I don't know what it makes me, that I was more interested in hanging 'round the old guys at Bruce's Train Shop down the strip. They had a terribly unintelligible, one-trick parrot in back ("He keeps us all in line.").

Dodgeball was stupid, silly fun. Of course. I'd forgotten that Alan Tudyk was going to be in it!
06/27/04 10:49 PM |  Comments


June 26, 2004

Tour(ette's)
Labor and Delivery tour at the hospital today. Two firetrucks were outside Emergency when we pulled up... then firemen streaming into our entrance... then a huge group of folks piled up at the elevators. Apparently one of the elevators was emitting smoke up on the fifth floor (!!!) So when we finally did get up to the seventh floor, our guide couldn't get clearance for us to travel between floors. There was talk of rescheduling, but frankly, I'm already downtown every two weeks now, and another trip sounded less than appealing. Luckily clearance was granted before we got fed up and disbanded.

The labor rooms are large and nice enough. Not what I'd call "homelike" (an adjective more trendy hospitals strive for), but comfortable considering. I made sure that D. saw exactly where the ice machine is. That's the important thing.

I was dismayed to learn that only half the recovery rooms are private, the shared rooms are miniscule, and, as the guide said, we "ARE in the midst of a boom." If you know me at all, you realize that the thought of sharing a room with a strange person holds all the appeal of a naked blind date, especially when dealing with pelvic battle wounds. At least they make every attempt to move you into a private room ASAP.

Afterwards, we went to fill out the pre-admission paperwork. "Oh, didn't your doctor give you the forms to mail in?" Um, yeah. My office is TOTALLY on the ball with things like that. I've had two docs mention preadmission, but neither hinted that they could just give me the forms right there to fill out and mail in (why the hospital doesn't offer them online - even in accursed PDF - is a mystery).
06/26/04 03:05 PM |  Comments


June 24, 2004

And We Even Get a T-Shirt
As if I didn't already gush over Amazon inappropriately, they've gone and done something useful again - sent me an email re: free promotional screenings of Sundance comedy star Napoleon Dynamite here in Sacramento.
06/24/04 06:47 PM |  Comments


June 23, 2004

Or Maybe a Little Precipitation? How 'Bout Half an Inch?
German researchers report that Madagascar lemurs hibernate in heat. Can I?

Please?
06/23/04 05:32 PM |  Comments


Don't Mess With the Sleepless Fat Lady.
So I get home from the OB and turn my cell back on, where waits a message... from the OB's office, asking me to show up for my 12:30 appointment at 1:45. This call must have been made less than forty-five minutes before 12:30, because that's when I shut off the phone and left. Traffic, people!!! I wondered why I kept hearing mutterings of my name and things like "well, she's here anyhow;" I just chalked it up to typical Jennie-brand paranoia and forgot about it, but it makes sense now. Feh. I'm so tired of dealing with this staff.

Do slugs eat flower leaves? I think our flowers are being consumed. I never thought I'd consider breaking out the slug death, but my opinion is rapidly turning.

We received the co-sleeper yesterday. DHL, a delivery company I'd never heard of and hope never to meet again, flung it over our service yard fence to the cement six feet below. Luckily it wasn't damaged at all. Bit of a pain to set up, but it's sturdy when finished. Pregnant women should not anchor this to their bed in advance, especially if they're getting up four times a night.
06/23/04 02:22 PM |  Comments


June 21, 2004

Banzai Baby
It's like that short-lived show "Banzai," but with points, and, you know, our baby. Guess the birth date, weight, and length (gender's obviously a big gimme) to win fah-bu-lous prizes (game name is BabyKadrioski).

Believe me - your guess is as good as mine.
06/21/04 10:26 PM |  Comments


Randomness
  • Our neighbor cackles not unlike a bad stereotype of a movie witch, very loud and very, very often.
  • If you are eight months pregnant, a queen-sized bed with very narrow air chambers may make you a little bit miserable.
  • Joseph's Sugar-Free Brownies don't taste like they are, and they're made with organic unbleached wheat flour, to boot.
  • No, you can never get enough Ben Stiller in one week. IMHO.
  • VH1's Ill-Ustrated is often quite funny. The ads for the upcoming I Love the 90's make me hot for Hal Sparks and Michael Ian Black all over again.
  • Grilled pork cutlets, corn-on-the-cob, and rolls for dinner. Summer yum.

    • 06/21/04 05:10 PM |  Comments


    June 19, 2004

    Here, Have Some Chocolate.
    Serious giggle fits - Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban in Fifteen Minutes. Thanks to jessajune.

    more where this came from if you dig 'round her LJ more where this came from if you dig 'round her LJ more where this came from if you dig 'round her LJ
    06/19/04 07:54 PM |  Comments


    Bah!
    Apparently I'm the only girl-person in the world who can't get this [bleep] icon-maker thing to work. I can make it through about four steps, tops, before the whole thing chokes up. I've been trying daily for about three weeks. And it's not that it's, you know, of particularly monumental importance. It's just that... well, why doesn't it work for meeeeee?
    06/19/04 05:43 PM |  Comments


    Six AM Saturdays...
    Another early Saturday for the labor anaesthesia class at the hospital. The poor doctor seemed pretty uncomfortable in front of so many people; I felt his pain. Luckily I don't get squeamish over needle talk. Needles in the spine. IVs. Needles in the - ahem - nether regions.

    Okay, maybe thinking about that last one had me a little squirmy.

    Since the last hospital I'd hung around in for any reason was the bright and airy Marquette General (in the northern boonies of Michigan), what I saw of Sutter Memorial seemed strangely old and frumpy in comparison. Not that I'm doubting their good reputation on appearances, but it just felt weird.

    Of course Hannibal's, the only eastern European diner downtown, is never, ever open when we think it logically would be and we're jonesing for some goulash or spanakopita. So we wandered down to Old Sac and found a new little hideout below the floodline - Annabelle's Pizza and Pasta. Very family, very cheap - $5 for the lunch buffet! The pastas were passable, but the pizza had the fired-crispy crust I love. Would-be dieticians can just simmah down, now - I also had some fresh veggies. The ice, crushed to perfection, was delectable...
    06/19/04 03:24 PM |  Comments


    June 18, 2004

    Geekerrific
    Well, here's another good reason to visit Seattle: the brand-new Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame. Grand opening today.
    06/18/04 01:04 PM |  Comments


    June 17, 2004

    Lunchy Munchy
    If it weren't so far down Watt, I'd probably be in danger of severe crepe overindulgence. Enjoyed lunch at Danielle's Creperie this afternoon - and the weather was gracious enough to let us sit outside! I actually had the spinach crepe pictured here, it was more than yummy (and when I'm done with diet restrictions, someday I'll go back and try that carmelized peach and ice cream evilness, too). So nice that Shannon was able to stop in Sacramento on return from a Tahoe rendezvous with her wandering Edmond.
    06/17/04 05:26 PM |  Comments


    Trees in Threes
    I was really at a loss as far as the ugly white wall in the sitting area of our living room went. But I found some Alan Blaustein tree prints at Target, and they added a little oompf (which happens to blend well with our existing large tree on the red wall).

    Obviously, Elmo is thrilled beyond action.
    06/17/04 11:22 AM |  Comments


    June 16, 2004

    And More Progress
    The front "garden" area is done as of this morning, too (what will she turn her formidable nesting energy upon next? Tune in next week and find out!).

    Crusty, field-of-death Before
    Flowery, woodsy-smelling After

    I love my little stepping-stone shortcut; it's already come in handy, because I park just around the corner.
    06/16/04 10:27 AM |  Comments


    June 15, 2004

    Finally Finished
    Finally, I can show you the nursery. I wish some of the pics had come out clearer, but those represent the second try, and well, pfft. As of today, everything essential has been purchased, woot! (did I ever think I'd be so monumentally sick and tired of shopping, even online?).
    06/15/04 05:00 PM |  Comments


    Little Box of Horrors
    Our mailbox is very unpredictable. I don't mean the mail - you pretty much know it's going to be junk, bills, one of a handful of magazines, or Netflix. But the fauna, now that's something else. One day a daddy longlegs, another a wasp, and then yesterday... another big furry spider. It hitched a ride to the house in a rolled-up pile of ads, and scurried out towards me when I put them down on the dryer. Heart attack much?

    They're out to get me.
    06/15/04 09:24 AM |  Comments


    June 14, 2004

    Miracle Gro Wishes and Hyponex Dreams
    It's only cool enough to garden for a couple hours in the early morning, and again after dusk. I just got through spreading the second bag of bark mulch (before the mosquitoes attacked in earnest). I want to spread bark mulch everywhere. It smells good. And it's very rough.

    Damn the sun and heat. I'm watering three times a day, and the marigolds are already wilting. Hoping the mulch does really begin to hold some of the moisture in the soil as billed.
    06/14/04 09:29 PM |  Comments


    Mama Likes it Rough
    Still no real food cravings. Which would actually be kind of helpful at this point, because even when I'm hungry, nothing sounds particularly good, and I've become very indecisive at times. I only gained one pound last month (more like kidlet gained two, and I lost one). Which is fine. I mean, I had a little extra to work with in the first place. But I'm definitely not shovelling it in.

    What I am "craving," though, are rough-textured things. Like:

  • Bare feet on concrete
  • My pumice stone
  • Kitty licks
  • Brushing my tongue
  • Exfoliating, oooh


    • What makes it stranger is that other women are reporting a need to be surrounded by soft things, even going so far as carrying "security blankets" around the house with them. I'm so abnormal.
    06/14/04 03:15 PM |  Comments


    June 12, 2004

    29 (31?) Weeks
    Our ultrasound from last week. He appears to be sucking his thumb!
    06/12/04 06:20 PM |  Comments


    June 11, 2004

    Maybe I Should Just Call it a Day
    Bored stiff, indecisive, and weepy... excellent combination.
    06/11/04 07:19 PM |  Comments


    108 of 408...
    Nice meme for a Friday. Steal the book list (my source was Mindy), bold the titles you've read, and add three new titles to the bottom. Here's mine. Awful lot of holes, there... I suppose if it consisted of nothing but children's/young adult, I'd clean up.
    06/11/04 12:04 PM |  Comments


    June 10, 2004

    To Identify, Please
    I opened the gate to our service yard this evening, and almost screamed when a fat spider rushed out of a crack at me. Spiders aren't my favorite animal by any means, but this one looked particulary nasty. I should've taken a picture, but I thought I could find it easily enough on the web. Nope! And of course the one field guide I don't have is...

    So have you seen one? Entirely black, plump/squat, body approximately 1.5 cm in length. Three small but distinct white spots on upper abdomen. Blue-black fuzz on legs [shudder]. Scary fast.

    Wait... D. just found a picture of it on an "unidentified spiders" forum (see 4 June, about four-fifths down the page). But it was posted last year and - apparently never identified. Sigh.

    Tarantulas, black widows, and ??? Gotta love central California.
    06/10/04 10:43 PM |  Comments


    Gearing Up for a Few Years of Nothing but Netflix
    Watched Girl With a Pearl Earring. Scarlett Johansson was lovely as Griet, and the cinematography was gorgeous - almost tactile - but the film still felt too condensed when compared to Chevalier's novel. Then, most film adaptations do disappoint me, I admit. I'm no real Colin Firth fan, so take it with a grain of salt when I say he was adequate as Vermeer.

    I'm fairly frothing to see Azkaban. Maybe it's because I was without internet during opening weekend, but it seems like there hasn't been as much buzz for this installment. I can't wait to see what Cuaron has done with it!
    06/10/04 05:17 PM |  Comments


    Classifried
    I do love Craigslist, I do (especially now that they've added a "baby+kids" category - very helpful!). But when you're in the middle of negotiating what appears to be a successful transaction, and the seller suddenly stops communicating... argh. It's fine if they've sold the item to someone else, but it sure would be nice to at least get the courtesy of an email.
    06/10/04 08:57 AM |  Comments


    June 09, 2004

    Strip Mall Cooking
    Interesting concept - you make a reservation at Dinner Time, where each month they have a new lineup of twelve entrees. All the ingredients and tools are laid out, along with the recipe, and you put them together in foil tins or Ziplocs. When you're done, you've got six or a dozen huge "home-made" meals to take home and freeze. And since the meals are so large, they'll let you split them in half for smaller families.

    I guess essentially we'd be paying $105 for six meals, which would really make twelve. $8.75, not too bad. If I brought someone with, and we split the twelve meals (which they encourage), it's an even better deal at $7.42 per meal.

    Best of all - they do the cleaning up.
    06/09/04 09:38 AM |  Comments


    June 08, 2004

    Hare a la Mer
    Not too often you see a real beach bunny :-)
    06/08/04 08:02 PM |  Comments


    Jelly Bean Tribute
    I found this old pic when I was looking through the stats yesterday, and thought I would share.
    06/08/04 10:20 AM |  Comments


    June 07, 2004

    Catch-up
    Yesterday we started to tackle the "garden" area in the front yard. The landscapers are supposed to take care of anything that's not enclosed within our backyard fence, but... well. They don't, and I got so tired of looking at a hardpack patch scattered with a few volcanic rocks. Bricks and stepping stones are much cheaper than I thought (33 cents and $1.59 on sale at OSH), so we're going to town. Last night we dug a shallow trench around the perimeter for the low brick retaining lip. It already looks ten times better. Today we'll break up the dirt and cover with a few bags of topsoil. Then some annuals, and a bark nugget mulch. I took a Before picture, and I'll post it in a few days with the After.

    The nursery is nearly finished. I just need to do some paint touch-up (which I've been avoiding) before we can scrub the floor and move the furniture in. So far we're really happy with the way it looks.

    So, about that GTT I was supposed to have on Saturday. Yeah. Didn't happen. I do yet another sugar-free Friday, I fast for twelve hours, am already mildly pukey from nerves and no breakfast for preggie, and we get there at SEVEN FIFTY AM ON A SATURDAY... and I can't take the damned test. Because my doctor's idiot assistant didn't fax the paperwork over to the lab like she promised she would do immediately after putting down the phone. I really should've checked up on her, given her history. I've never been nasty on the phone, but I'm considering it this morning. If I didn't like most of the doctors so well... grr.

    Only about ten weeks to go... yikes!
    06/07/04 08:13 AM |  Comments


    June 06, 2004

    Back
    Yes, we had no internet for FOUR days. Sounds familiar, huh? Yay Comcast! If you sent me email since Thursday, I may not get it.
    06/06/04 06:44 PM |  Comments


    June 04, 2004

    Peeking
    Another ultrasound today. [TMI alert!] My bladder was so full per their drinking instructions (and the baby was head-down, pressing right into it), that the tech made me go a couple of times before trying for clear shots. Didn't help that I'm trying to keep very hydrated, for all the vein poking in the morning. I see a ham omelet and a creamy cup of decaf in my post-fasting future.

    We got to see all sorts of things - the perfectly-beating chambers of the heart, an apparently rare breathing "practice" session of the diaphragm, a nice spine, and, unsurprisingly, a full bladder. And it's "still a boy." Hee. She said he was the most accommodating subject she'd seen all week, practically pointing whichever part she wanted to examine into the wand (I mused that may bode well for the future). And no fibroid tumors, yay! Still have a wait on any potential major size/age discrepancies...

    I would show a picture, but the scanner is the machine that spontaneously won't play nice today. Maybe I'll have the patience to tackle it on Sunday.
    06/04/04 06:50 PM |  Comments


    June 03, 2004

    More Technical Difficulties
    Comcast sucks. Which you may have noticed by now.

    My blood sucks, too. Not much, mind you - just enough to send me to the next level of Hell. I failed the one-hour again (the assistant said "by a little," and I was feeling too defeated to ask how much), so, against my better judgement, I'm doing the three-hour glucose test on Saturday. They'll be taking my blood four times, and I'll be drinking twice the glucola on a completely empty stomach, so please send some non-collapsing/vomiting vibes my way. I'll be needing them. Along with books, puzzles, etc., etc. It'll be like jury duty, but with purposely-inflicted nausea.
    06/03/04 03:35 PM |  Comments


    Someone's Been Testing the Wine Too Often
    Um. I think I stayed up too late last night...
    For us at Roshambo Winery, the sport of RPS is not simply a convenient marketing tie-in, said Brilliant. We are committed to promoting physical fitness as well as mental fitness. To be a successful RPS competitor both these aspects of your game need to be honed and developed. It can be a grueling activity for both mind and body.

    Of course they're talking about rock-paper-scissors. The 2004 Southwestern Pro-Am Invitational is June 5th at the Roshambo Winery in Healdsburg.
    06/03/04 08:55 AM |  Comments


    June 02, 2004

    Fairely Bursting
    The Fair Oaks Tudor Fayre is coming up in mid-June, but neither outfit I own will accommodate my girth! It's been years since I've gone to a Faire un-costumed. I wonder if chemise and skirt, sans bodice, is authentic?
    06/02/04 03:56 PM |  Comments


    June 01, 2004

    Experiencing Technical Difficulties
    The power supply died on the tv PC, just when we were nearly finished watching Return of the King. I don't think I'd realized the extent of my addiction to Media Center - no cache of recorded shows! no skipping through commercials! (though, I'd have to say consequently, I did finish pasting up the nursery border last night). D. has been at Fry's half the weekend, but has had terrible luck getting a machine that works.

    The high chair was the last thing on our Get List, but we took a run through Cargo Largo on Sunday, where everything was 20% off, and they had a nice Graco model. It folds up, and has two trays, and toys! We couldn't pass it up at about $30 less than retail. I assembled it this morning... at the price of exposing the kidlet to a few harsh words, and the possible loss of yet another toenail. The cats all watched from a safe distance, evidently amused.

    And I can't post. Gargh.
    06/01/04 11:04 AM |  Comments