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Tuesday, September 11th, 2007
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11:16 pm - So long, old friend.
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12:28 pm - "Welcome, this is a farmhouse"
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We have cluster flies, alas
And this time of year is bad
We are so very sorry
There is little we can do
...but swat them.
Ironically enough, those lyrics are the first verse of my favorite Phish song. Martin and I were only mildly amused by it when we did a little research last night and concluded that our fly infestation is in fact Cluster Flies. It's a little bit sad that it probably won't be my favorite song for much longer as it's in my head CONSTANTLY since every time I open or close my eyes I see cluster flies. (Although this morning in the shower I changed to "Little Black Fly" to which I only know the chorus, but it's still fun to sing.)
This is a cluster fly (assuming the picture posts.) The best thing we've learned about them is that they eat earthworms and they don't care about garbage or carcasses or human food and they don't carry any diseases to us or Baxter or Theodore. The worst thing we've learned about them is that when it comes to getting rid of them, the most common solution we've found is "tough luck." Evidently they are a pretty permanant thing. They come into the house when the cool weather comes in and they stay until winter when it gets cold, when they just hibernate. Then next fall... they come back again. The good news is that even though it's really gross to have a fly infestation, it really has nothing to do with us being dirty people, (even if we ARE dirty people....) it's simply that they are living in our dirt-floored basement and coming in through the vents. Evidently the fact that they came along with the dead animal is just a coincidence... that was our first spell of cool nights as well. And now just a few days ago, they REALLY started coming back... when the nights got cool again! Apparently this is what they do. But it makes me happy to know that they aren't going to eat us or give us Polio.
I've wanted to take a picture of the toilet bowl after a kill-fest, but Martin won't let me because he doesn't want anyone to know how bad it is. I don't think he knows that I post all about it on LiveJournal. Yesterday I was gone for about 2 hours going to the doctor and the grocery store and when I left there were maybe 3 flies in the bathroom... when I came home, there were probably 40 or more. They congregate around the mirror and the flourescent lights. Last night was especially bad because we'd left the kitchen lights on and the laundry room light on so they were in there too, all buzzing around the lights. It's really gross. But like I said, they stay away from our food, which is great.
So anyway, that's the news on the infestation. Maybe I'll sneak a picture one of these days while Martin is gone on his travels.
Speaking of... this was supposed to be my first week completely without him, but so much for that! He was home last night and tonight he'll be home for dinner and then gone for the night, but he'll be home on Wednesday night and Thursday night too, so it's hardly anything. It makes me happy, I feel like we've sneakily gotten out of one whole week of travel! However, next week he will be in Wisconsin so I doubt he'll be coming home every night.
Yesterday at my doctors appointment my doctor was very amused by the amount of movement that my love bean makes. When it came time to measure his heartrate, once again, it took him a long time to get the reading. Not because Tumblebug was swimming around, but because he kept kicking the monitor. The doctor asked if he always moved that much and I had to say yes, he's insane. Then the doctor said it'll be interesting to see this baby's personality after it's born. Eek!
WHAT A GORGEOUS DAY!!!! This morning I kind of embarrassed myself when I walked outside and, with my mouth full of cracker, said pretty loudly to myself, "Wow, it's really cool out here!" (Which of course came out sounding like "Waaah, ih hee-hee hoo ah eee!") before I realized that my neighbor Nick was sitting on his porch. I tried to apologize, but of course, my mouth was full of cracker, which made it difficult.
I got flowers from Rubia again today (1/2 price Tuesdays) and I got four bouquets for GUESS HOW MUCH. $5.75!!! Lucky, lucky me!! I have come to really value fresh flowers after dating Martin. He used to bring me flowers all the time when he worked at CC and I was working longer hours than he was. He'd get done with work and go buy me a bouquet. He still brings me flowers lots of times, but he's not usually home in time to go to the flower store so usually the flowers he buys me now are at Farmers Market so it's less of a surprise. But I used to love how the flowers would immediately brighten up my apartment, and now I love how they brighten up the house. Even if the house is dirty or messy, the flowers make it seem pretty and clean. And now that I know that every Tuesday is 1/2 price day I've given myself a $7 weekly limit for flowers and I get nice fresh flowers once a week. And $5-7 will get me enough for the living room, dining room and kitchen most of the time. It's great! But I don't just value the flowers anymore; now I value the fun of going to get them too. The young girls who are working ask me about my baby and pregnancy and are so friendly, especially this one who has remembered me every week and has stopped telling me that it's 1/2 price day because she knows that's the only reason I'm there.
Time to fold the laundry!
current mood:  happy
current music: Phish- Farmhouse
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| Monday, September 10th, 2007
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6:26 pm - Guess Who's Posting From Her Own Living Room?
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Yer darn tootin'. I AM!
Although I have a monsterous headache and the internet that was supposed to be hooked up between 8 and noon this morning has just now been connected and it's.... 6:27pm. I spent the first half of my day sitting in my front room reading and knitting and falling asleep with my butt in the air and my head on a footstool waiting for the Insight guy to show up. I blame all the waiting around for my headache. That, and not really eating all day, which I know is a stupid thing to do, and I did eat... I just didn't eat very much.
And this ends my first ever post from my very own house!
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| Friday, September 7th, 2007
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2:35 pm - Tumblebug
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It happens most mornings that when Martin comes in to say goodbye around 5:30 I stay awake for the rest of the time because between the tumbling alien in my belly and my super friendly cat who never just wants to snuggle but wants to be petted the whole time he's snuggling you, it's about impossible to go back to sleep. So I often just stay awake. Martin calls me at 7:00 every morning to wake me up (or not wake me up, if I don't feel like waking up just then) but lots of times it doesn't even matter... I've been awake for an hour and a half anyway.
This morning was one of those mornings, but it was okay because I was taking some stuff to the dry-cleaners for sameday service so I had to be there by 7:00. Except that I'm always there about 10 minutes after seven and they say I'm too late... even though the sign on the door says same-day service 7:00-Noon. I've always GOTTEN the same-day service in the end, but the women there always act like they're doing me a favor, they tell me they'll "sneak me in" because I'm there so early. Hello? They only open at 7:00, it'd be hard to be much earlier. I really don't understand. Do they not remember the sign on their door advertising same-day service? Martin says next time I go I should take a razor blade and then offer to scratch off the same-day service sign for them.
So anyway, I was awake at 5:30, out and back by 7:30, read my chick-lit book (more coming on that) for awhile and then went back to bed... UNTIL ALMOST ELEVEN THIRTY!!!! Talk about a lazy bones!!! But then I woke up and have been so productive since then that I decided to treat myelf to a chai and some internet. I've finished my whole list for the day! Yay me! And I always like to give myself little treats.
Okay so I read this article in a 2-year-old magazine that said that a lot of beauty products, shampoos, makeups, etc. contain this kind of refined plastic stuff that can cause reproductive complications in unborn baby boys. Evidently when tested on pregnant lab rats, the newborn boy rats were gay. (How you distinguish a gay lab rat from a straight one is beyond me, but STILL...) Now, I used to use natural hair products but stopped when I got married and our budget got tighter and I started Suave everything because it's so cheap. I don't wear much makeup so I didn't think that made a difference. Anyway, the thing about this plastic ingredient is that it doesn't have to be listed as an ingredient so you don't know what products HAVE it, they only gave a short list of some products that have said they DON'T contain it. The only brand I recognized was Aveda. WAAAAAY too expensive for my little pocketbook!!! Whew!! So I went to Nature's Pharm and picked up the cheapest bottles of natural shampoo and conditioner, and it really isn't much more than Suave and it's definitely less than the more expensive brands at Target. But the best part is the smell... ohmygosh, this stuff smells SO GOOD. When I go to bed at night my hair still smells like it and so I bundle my hair in front of my face and sniff it for a long time.
A funny thing about Martin's morning routine is that he gets to watch TV in the weightroom in the mornings because there are TVs always on in there. The best part of this is commercials. When Martin and I were younger we both, independently of each other, would watch TV just to flip through and watch commercials because we loved them and thought they were funny. So now I'm a little bit jealous because he gets to watch commercials again and I don't, but he remembers the funny ones and comes home and tells them to me and we laugh and laugh and laugh.
And then I talk to my mom or Mrs. Schap on the phone and they ask me what's new and I can't think of anything to tell them because even though my life is really great, it's full of stupid things like laughing about commercials that I'm not even seeing... I'm just hearing about them second-hand.
Last night I made a dinner from my past: "Monster Chicken!!!!!" Cause it makes your tummy feel like you ate a monster!!!!! Ah, the good old days when I was in charge of only myself and I ate whatever disgusting things I wanted..... No, actually, Monster Chicken is yummy. There is a variation of it that isn't very yummy, but the stuff from last night was the original recipe and it was good.
For anyone who wants the recipe for Annie's Monster Chicken, this is it:
1 bottle Kroger brand Lemon Herb Marinade
Some chicken drumsticks with the skin on them
1 pan with a lid
TO COOK: Put chicken in pan. Dump marinade (as much as you want... I used about half the bottle for 5 drumsticks) over the chicken, put the lid on the pan and cook. When the chicken is done, it's time to eat!!
And now you all know what a truly lousy cook I am and how my poor husband would've been MUCH better off with someone like Miranda Meek. Seriously. Martin was really stupid not to have married that girl... she's very much like Tara Cook in the way that she can do ANYTHING, except she went to culinary school and she looks like someone from a Jane Austen movie. Martin's an idiot, if you ask me.
So anyway, back to things that matter: I'm reading another ChickLit book, along with "Mona in the Promised Land" by Gish Jen which everyone should read because it's so funny. It's about this Chinese-American girl in the 60's and it's really funny. I like Gish Jen. And I like having two books to read at the same time because then when you lose one you can usually find the other. Anyway, the chicklit book, I'm sorry to admit, is by that same author I read last time. It's called "Little Earthquakes" an it is SO much better than "Goodnight Nobody." Waaaaaay better. Not very many rhymie names, much more realistic plot, characters who aren't so shallow, stupid and self-centered. However, I wonder about this author and her relationship with her own mother. She's never had a character that I've read of who has anything like a decent relationship with her mother. The mothers are always present, they're just always really obnoxious and heartless and hate their daughters. But whatever. The book is a lot better, I don't hate myself so much for reading it.
I signed up for Childbirth Class today! This is a good thing because it's one all-day Saturday session in October and then three *FREE* classes on different days! Plus, they're sending me a thing to get pre-registered at the hospital so that when I go in for delivery they won't have to ask me all those dumb questions at the desk, they'll already have all my information. I think it's a pretty good deal.
I think that's about all my news. Tonight is the Gallery Walk, I don't know where I'm supposed to be playing but it's supposed to rain.
Ever since Baxter got shaved awhile back, he's been very well behaved.
And now: What does everyone think of the name Mavis Jane for a girl? Go ahead and decide rashly, then turn it over in your mind a few times... and see if your opinion changes at all.
current mood: accomplished
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| Wednesday, September 5th, 2007
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10:35 am - And the Coundown Begins!!
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Next Monday is the blessed day. Internet at home!!! And just in the nick of time, as Martin leaves that day for his travels. I called Insight yesterday morning to set it all up and it was way cheaper than I was expecting, which is great. The price for internet keeps going down, and the initial installation price is really good. It won't be wireless because they don't offer wireless... things... but we can upgrade to wireless anytime we want just by getting one of those things for ourselves!
A happy late Labor Day to everyone! Our holiday was uneventful, but the day before was lots of fun. We went up to Chicago to visit Juan and AnnLaura and we went to the Brookfield Zoo! I'm so jealous of AnnLaura... she literally lives down the street from the zoo and goes there sometimes three times a week!! I would LOVE to live that close to a zoo. And it was so much fun to see all the animals. They had a baby polar bear and a baby giraffe, and this funny animal called an Okapi that is a mix between lots of animals. It has kind of an anteater/hyena face, a horse-ish body and zebra legs! It's so funny!! So many fun animals. And after the zoo Ryan came back from Ireland so we all had dinner together at AnnLaura's. Then we all went home.
Here's something slightly annoying: Vienna has been getting some really lousy workers lately. Girls who have these annoying attitudes and are so unfriendly, etc. So this morning I came over here and it was one of the snotty girls working and I ordered a hot vanilla chai and a cream cheese brownie. (this was after I'd sent five minutes setting up my laptop as one of about 3 customers in the place.) She never asked me if I wanted this stuff for here or to go, so she just gave it to me to go. Except she didn't put the brownie in a bag or anything, she just handed it to me in its plastic wrap. So I didn't complain, went back to my table and started to eat my brownie and wait for my crazy hot chai to cool off... and then I went to take a drink of chai and the lid came off and it spilled everywhere and it burned my hand and got on the laptop!! Argh!!! Lazy Vienna workers!!!
But in five days, I will be checking internet at home!
Last night as we were going to bed, Martin and I were talking about what a good decision it was for us to get married. Then we thought about if we would have called off our engagement, how would we have done it? I said I would have waited until I was up the aisle then turned and run so I could have at least worn my pretty dress for awhile. Martin's plan was to just not show up to the church and disappear from all contact for about twenty years. After a long time he would come back to town and tell us that he'd been living as a homeless person in New York City and he'd have this huge beard with all sorts of little chipmunks and mice living in it and he would have made a pretty good living off the tourists in New York dropping pennies into his little tin can.
The biggest baby news is that Martin finally--FINALLY--saw him move in a worthwhile show. In fact, it might have been the best show I've ever seen, and it was so lucky that Martin saw it. He always misses the really good ones. There was a foot (I'm guessing it was a foot, considering that his head is most definitely on the opposite side) that came waaaaaay out and then slid all around the left side of my belly. It was soooo weird looking. And hilarious! I can't remember if I've said this before, but sometimes his head sticks out so far on my right side that I can't lie on that side when i'm going to bed. I feel like I'm crushing his little head. I think when Martino is gone I will definitely get myself one of those body pillows. That will make it easier to sleep, I think.
Sorry this was such a boring post. Time to go read the rest of the blogs! I hope there've been some fights!!
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| Tuesday, August 28th, 2007
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8:48 am - Night Visitors
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Well, the critters are back... and are dead again. I'm not sure we haven't killed 2 more things in our basement. On Sunday our house was very stinky and the flies were back with a vengeance. There were so many flies coming up from the basement that if you put your ear to the basement door you could hear them all buzzing in there. We smelt the stink grow throughout the day, but by evening it was a lot better. The flies weren't--but the smell was. However, last night the smell started to come back. Grrreeaaat.
The flies, however, are a huge source of entertainment. We only have one fly swatter, so Martin and I run through the house passing it off to one another, stealthily working room by room killing flies and letting Theodore eat them. At the beginning of the infestation Theodore was having a hayday, but I think he's getting bored with them now so a lot of them we just drop in the toilet. And it's ongoing because it seems like AS you're killing off the ones in the house, more are creeping in under the basement door so we've got a steady supply. The best room is the bathroom where we go in and shut the door and leave the toilet lid up. Then if the flies land in the right spot and we kill them there, they drop straight into the toilet bowl and we get points. Well, that's a lie, we haven't exactly established a point system yet, but I think we should. I don't know how much rat poison Martin put down there in the basement, but however much, it was enough to keep us well supplied for our games till the warm weather leaves and I think we'll always remember our first summer in that house as the summer we chased flies.
Ohmygosh, ohmygosh, ohmygosh. Last night the CUTEST thing in the WORLD happened to me. But first some architectural explanification: The way the original part of our house is set up is like a box. There is the living room and dining room, above which is the booknook, bathroom (together they're the length of the dining room) and our bedroom which sits directly above the living room. We have one window in our bedroom that is very tall and comes down low enough so that when you're sitting on the floor you can see out the window. Directly outside our window is the porch roof, which is the width of our bedroom, meaning it's a pretty big piece of roof. It goes out to the edge of the porch and across the sidewalk is an oak tree whose branches come right to the roof. A cozy setup.
WELL...
Last night I came back into the room after using the bathroom, and there at the screen were a big pair of ears and a little masked face looking in at me!!! I woke up Martin to see, and we sat by the window as TWO little raccoons hopped around the porch roof!! THEY WERE SO ADORABLE. I talked to them and they came right up to the screen and pawed at it a little bit. I had my chin on the windowsill; we were so close we could have nuzzled noses. They weren't afraid of us at all!!! I talked to them as long as they were there, but then Baxter barked downstairs in the living room right below us and it scared them away. I stayed up for a long time waiting for them to come back, but they never did. I guess it's a good thing we have screens on the window. Those raccoons would have just come right in and made theirselves at home. They were so adorable, it was just like in a Disney movie--the one little head popped up and then the other did, and they were just next to each other looking in at me. It was soooo adorable. If they come back tonight I'll have crackers ready to feed them. There's a sizeable gap between the bottom of our screen and the window sill that is plenty big enough to slip some crackers or carrots through for visiting friends. I loved them. And I wonder if they've ever been there before? Theodore usually sits in that window, but he doesn't hiss or anything so I wonder if he's ever seen them? I would never know. If they start coming regularly I will name them.
"Franja" (as my sister calls him) has come up with a new game: Bladder Jumping. It's a pretty weird feeling to be walking along and then have someone hit/kick/jump upon your bladder. It's really not such a pleasant sensation... but SO hilarious that it makes me laugh. Who knew growing aliens could be so entertaining?
I'm driving my parents to the airport this morning as they are leaving for Italy today. Sarah and Andrew are picking them up when they come back, and in thanks they are sending Sarah and Andrew and the kids to the Childrens Museum. I didn't get offered any gift of thanks, but I was rude enough to ask for it, so I'm going out in a few minutes to buy an Iris Dement CD. I've re-discovered her and (of course) have fallen in love.
I wish the library had a better supply of folk music. They've got a decent amount, but it isn't outstanding. Still, it's nice to be able to go over there and borrow new music whenever I want. I got a disc the other day, I don't know what it's called, but it's full of singer/songwriter songs and it's got Iris Dement, John Gorka, and some others that I knew. It's the first volume of at least two; the second one I'd gotten before and it had Nanci Griffith, Stan Rogers and Tom Waits on it.
Anyway... I'd better head out. My mom wants me to teach her how to purl today too before we go.
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| Friday, August 24th, 2007
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1:30 pm - That's what I get for being M.I.A. for so long...
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Boy am I glad I'm not in charge of Anne's blog! Whew!! People sure get fiesty over there! Of course, since I only get online once every 6 years or so (what it seems like, anyway...) I missed all the really big comments that got deleted. All I can see is "comment has been deleted by user" as a kind of tease. I bet there were bad words in it. Gosh, I miss all the action. *sniff*
In the Knews.... (haha, get it? I put at "K" there because I'm going to talk about "k"nitting!!)
I have made two hats. Well, four actually, but two really good ones, one that is sort of okay, and one that was so bad I ripped it all out this morning and am going to re-make it. I LOVE THEM. and I love to make them! The one hat I made with the yarn called "falling leaves" is ridiculously small... as in, I'm not sure if it would even fit a preemie. However, if this baby turns out to be a girl baby, it'll do nicely for her dolls down the road. After I made the too-small-for-a-preemie hat, (which obviously didn't use very much yarn at all) I made a slightly bigger "falling leaves" hat which is FABULOUS. They both look great, but this one seems to be the right size. And even if it is a little too big for a newborn, at least it doesn't fit ME, and it will work for little Schapino next fall. With the extra "falling leaves" yarn I am going to knit a scarf and matching hat for Gracie for her birthday, which is October 12th. She likes to wear my scarves in the fall and winter, so I think she should have her own, and this yarn is super cute. Although, it isn't pink... so maybe she won't like it...
And I'll get some red yarn for Christopher and make him a scarf too, which will probably end up matching Martin's scarf because I'll double it up with a dark grey to make it less boring.
And the blanket work has stalled for now while I'm making so many hats.
Okay, now on to more interesting things. I had an ultrasound this morning! I know my mom says that they are just taking my money by giving me four ultrasounds in one pregnancy, and heck, maybe they are, but I don't care. It's worth a small fortune to be able to see Little Schapini dancing all over on the screen and see his cute little face and his nose... which has grown considerably since the last ultrasound... frightening as that is.... poor child.
Anyway, the ultrasound technician was SUUUPER nice. She was so cute! And she liked my purse! And she liked my baby! And my pregnant belly! The ultrasound was really to look at the baby's heart because last time it was moving so much the lady couldn't get a picture of it for the doctor. This time the baby was moving so much the lady ALMOST couldn't get a picture of it for the doctor, but finally did at the end. But we looked at his legs and his cute little face and guess what?? We even saw HAIR on his head!! Little white things coming off his head, they are little hairs!! How adorable is that?!??!!? So I don't care if they are robbing me. It's worth it. (At least this time, while I have nothing else to do with my morning!)
And I've almost finished my thank-you notes from the shower, in less than a week! That's pretty good for Annie Time. They might even get mailed tomorrow!!
I went to lunch with my dad today and we had Indian food and there was this one orange dish that was sooooooooo good. He'd been looking forward to mango ice cream, and therefore had made ME look forward to it too, but they didn't have any today. :(
I really like being pregnant, I do. It's exciting and funny and most days I don't mind that I'm not wearing my normal clothes (especially since I got these super hott jeans from Goodwill for only $3.99!) At least I still get to wear all my cute shoes. So, I like it. I think it's fun, for the most part. But I can foresee a time in the not very distant future when I DON'T like being pregnant. I am anticipating a time not very long from now where I'm really sick of the constant back-ache*, the never being able to sleep, the waking up every hour to potty, the general heaviness. Right now I'm able to deal with all this fairly cheerfully (okay, I wasn't cheerful about it the other day, but for the most part, I do alright) but it won't be long before I'm sick and tired of it and I'm not going to ever be cheerful about it. I'm not even going to try! It will actually be a good thing that Martin will be gone for the majority of eight weeks at the end of my pregnancy. I certainly wouldn't want to deal with me during that time, and I don't see why he should have to. He did enough for me in the first three months... which was more like five.
*"back-ache." More like butt-ache. Which, I think, is worse, ONLY because when your back hurts you can go around and kind of hold your back or rub your back and then people might realize why you're walking like a lame cow. But to go around in public holding or massaging my rear end? Um... not so acceptable. Not that it would do any good anyway, since the pain is from that weird nerve and not from muscles. Sciactic? Is that what it's called?
I don't mean to sound so complainy. I'm not complaining really, I think all of this is hilarious. I think it's a lot easier to see the humor in something when you know it's going to be over in three months.
I have only ten weeks until I'm "term." CAN YOU BELIEVE IT?!?!?! I can't!!
current mood: amused
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| Tuesday, August 21st, 2007
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12:41 pm - That's it.
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12:38 pm - Snapfish Stinks
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I've been here for an hour trying to upload my pictures, and it didn't even upload all of them. It skipped all the pictures in the middle. I HATE COMPUTERS AND I HATE ONLINE STUPID THINGS LIKE SNAPFISH AND FLICKR!!!!
That's the hat I made. If it doesn't show up, forget it. I'm done messing with this garbage.
current mood:  angry
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11:35 am - Rainy Baby Thoughts (duh)
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GeemiNEE! Now our laptop is even useless at the library. I'm convinced that the problem is with our little internet stick and not with anyone else's internet. We need to just invest in a real wireless card. This little guy gave us a lot of pleasure for twenty-five bucks, but now it's time to move on. Martin PROMISES me he won't leave me without internet when he leaves in September, and I hope he can afford that promise. (He won't be able to if I keep turning on the air conditioning and opening all the windows.)
So I don't need to say what a gorgeous day yesterday was. I opened all the windows and turned off the fans so I could hear the rain all day, and Martin would call me every once in awhile to tell me how much it was raining in Crawfordsville and then when he got home we went for a walk in it while we waited for dinner (beef veggie soup) to cool, and after dinner we sat on the porch for about two hours, him reading and I knitting and IT WAS GREAT. SOOOO rainy!!! And it thundered for awhile too, it was so nice. I finally appreciated all my cooky neighbors--we were all sitting outside in the rain. We'd all been out the night before too, except that was different because Martin and I took tea and hot cocoa over to the Cooks who were sitting on their porch swing. Then some new people from their church showed up and we all ate brownies and chatted in the rain. It was really nice.
I really like my neighbors the Cooks. It's fun having them right there next door. Last night Martin found a baby nightcrawler so we took it over to show the Cook kids who were all in their PJ's eating popcorn while Doug read them "James & the Giant Peach." (They're on Chapter 3.) It's nice to have them right next door. And Harry is so crazy, it's hilarious. He has the same kind of raspy little kid voice that Hope had when she was little. It's so funny!!
If Anna is already feeling that nesting instinct kick in, then I don't feel so bad anymore for having it big time yesterday. The good thing is that I suddenly feel motivated to get the house in order. The bad thing is that I'm ridiculously unsuccessful. Yesterday I spent something like an hour trying to hang a shelf in the baby's room only to come out with 7 random holes in the wall and some bruises on my forehead from holding the shelf up with my forehead and drilling hammering nails with the other. Then when I got all the nails in, I let go and the shelf fell down. Then I thought I'd put the crip together the rest of the way so I can cutie it up... so I managed to get behind it (quite a feat) and then I didn't have the first clue where to start putting it together. So I decided to give up--but I was stuck!!! By the time I managed to get myself out from being wedged between the crib and the wall I was so hot and sweaty that I knew I should just stop... but I didn't-- I started washing dishes instead!
This is SO unlike me.
And after Sarah constantly telling me for one reason or another that my due date is wrong and that I have to be farther along than I'm told, every little thing that seems to come early makes me nervous. The baby can be born any time except the first week of November. That's when Martin will be in St. Louis, and even though it's only 5 hours away, that's a little bit too far for comfort. But any other time he'll be in Indiana (he goes to Wisconsin in early September) which is just fine; he'll be close enough to make it home in a few hours no matter where he is.
Sarah and AnnLaura gave me a baby shower on Saturday and it was really fun! Baby showers are a zillion times better than bridal showers. I got loads of cute things, and my "cake" was very fabulous and useful too, made out of rolled up diapers!
I'm currently knitting a baby blanket. I will post pictures of it if I ever figure out snapfish. I think I'm going to have to move to Blogspot so I don't have to mess with uploading them to the internet. Darn YahooPhotos for going under. They've ruined my life.
And that's all for today, boys and girls!
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| Thursday, August 16th, 2007
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11:26 am - To Be Social
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In this post I will try to post what I wrote yesterday in Campbell's On Main but couldn't post because I never got the internet working. Grrrr. I'm getting frustrated with never having working internet anywhere I go, but Martin says in September we'll get internet at home. Yay! That means I'll be able to upload all my pictures to Snapfish! And, like Anne, I am VERY much looking forward to reigniting my passion for Pandora.com from which I've long been away. *sniff* The following is my post from yesterday afternoon:
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Today I feel like a character in a book. I’m sitting in Campbell’s On Main, the coffee shop on Main Street and 231 in Crawfordsville. Being on 231 makes it sound like it would be a crummy location, but the highway just seems like a Main Street here. I’m sitting by a long squat window looking out at the super cute buildings across the street. They all have different facades, different windows, different paint, and they are all very cool looking. A couple of them have really pretty window boxes with droopy pink flowers hanging out of them. I walked here from Trippet Hall where Martin works. He showed me his cubicle. It’s pretty depressing. I walked down Wabash Avenue past the college and, for anyone who’s read “Joy in the Morning,” I felt just like Annie Brown, all pregnant and awkward, alone on a college campus. But I made it here and I can easily see myself falling in love with this coffee shop. They have some of the same art as Vienna, without the ugly wall murals. They’re playing really fun music and with all the windows it’s really bright. Well, not upstairs… I was originally sitting upstairs but couldn’t find an outlet so I came back down, but that’s okay because once I got up there I didn’t want to be there because it was too dark… also once I got up there I was worried about the idea of coming down because to get up there I had to go up this very narrow spiral staircase that’s like the staircase in the Watson’s house and I could just see myself falling down them and making a fool of myself.
Now to make the scene even more picturesque, there is an old grey haired woman standing in one of the windows across the street, the one with pink flowers and pulled back lace curtains. She’s just standing there looking out, being old.
Speaking of being in love, I am totally in love with Emma Thompson. She is SUCH a great actress. I might have watched “Love Actually” yesterday and today (haven’t finished it yet) and every time I see it, I just love love love her part!!! She’s so AWESOME when she finds out her dirty old husband is having an affair with that slutty girl from work. The way she dabs her face with a Kleenex and straightens the blanket on the bed… she’s so great!! Plus, she has the BEST facial expressions. I love her.
Back to this wonderful coffee shop and Crawfordsville in general… I could totally live here. I’ve been in town for less than an hour and everyone I’ve seen has been SO friendly. Everyone I passed on the street (that group consists of one old man in a suit just outside Martin’s building) and everyone in this coffee shop is just so friendly, not just to me, to everyone! This girl, maybe about my age, came in with her brand new baby boy, and he’s two and a half weeks old and VERY cute with fuzzy hair, and she looked great and was so friendly, she gave me a big smile when she caught me staring at her baby. It made me look forward more to having my own. I would like to live in Crawfordsville. I think it’s a cute little town, maybe a smaller version of Lafayette. From where I’m sitting I can just see the lot where Tommy’s burned down; they’ve leveled it and now the lot is for sale. The only thing I wouldn’t like about this town is the meter parking, but that wouldn’t matter to me because we’d live right here downtown and I’d never have to parallel park because I’d walk everywhere.
And everyplace is decked out with Wabash stuff. Wabash flags, jerseys, license plates… all the cute houses have them and this coffee shop has them too, but they don’t go overboard—I didn’t even notice them right away—just a few things strung up on the upstairs rail.
My boyfriend bought me some new shoes!!!! Some super cutie Chacos that were on sale, he ordered them off the internet and they were delivered today!!!!! I’m wearing them now. They are sooo cute. They have tri-color green and blue skinny, criss-crossing straps and they are super comfy too. I love them. I’m so lucky!
I keep hearing a cat meowing and I can’t tell if it’s a real cat, the music, or one of the baristas being weird…
One other cute thing about this café is that they have salt & pepper shakers on all the tables, but they aren’t the generic boring brown and white kind; they’re all different. My favorite set is a pair of ceramic feet!
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Well, that was the post from the afternoon. Shortly after, Martin called me and I walked back down to campus where he gave me a tour of Trippet Hall and fixed me a cup of tea. Then we loaded up our camp chairs and walked down to the event which was the whole reason I was in Crawfordsville yesterday.
Evidently there's an annual picnic at the president's house at the beginning of the school year for the Wabash faculty and staff. It was the fanciest casual picnic I've ever attended!! It was kind of like a wedding reception... it was outside in the gorgeous yard at the president's house (which can now be called The White House while Pat and Chris White live there! Hee hee!) and catered by this yummie place. They had tables with white linens and the trash cans were lined with white linens too. We all brought our own camp chairs or picnic blankets and everyone was dressed along the upper end of casual. I was wearing khaki kangaroo pants and my pretty green flowery shirt. Anyway, it was very fun. I got to meet lots of Martin's professors and co-workers, including Jennifer Abbott who wasn't able to come to our wedding and who now is expecting a baby (girl) on November 22nd! She is just as nice as Martin said she was. Her husband wasn't there though so I've still never met him.
I also got to meet Dean Klein and his wife, who, oddly enough, are friends with the Schilling's from my parents' neighborhood! How weird is that!? Mrs. Klein was VERY nice, and Dean Klein was just exactly what I was expecting. Martin's been telling me stories about him and describing what he looks like and basically told me he's Joel's twin separated by 30 years. So then at the picnic, Martin said "there's Dean Klein" and I looked up and there was a 50 year old Joel Presti!!!!! It was amazing!!!! Also, Dr. Blix was there and I really like him because he is huge and old and funny. He brings his own table to the picnic and sets up camp and waits for people to come to him to talk. He's so funny! He looks like somebody famous, but I'm not sure who.
It's fun to be fancy sometimes. And it's easier to be sociable when you're not by yourself. I met the president of the college and he was very friendly too, but we never met his wife who was wearing a cute red 1950's style party dress. I think I'd like her though because the picnic always has a theme and this year's theme was something futuristic and she was wearing alien antennae with her red party dress.
After the picnic we walked back campus admiring all the houses and old buildings and loving Crawfordsville, stopping by the fraternity house to use the potty and talk to some of the boys there. And that was about the end of my day in Crawfordsville.
Oh! But I forgot about my camp chair!! So, Martin only has one camp chair that he got from somebody when he graduated highschool and I don't have one at all, so he told me to go out yesterday and find a cute one for myself. So on my way out of town I went to Target and bought the CUTEST pink camp chair for only six dollars!!! I had the only pink chair at the event.
I wish Martin would've been at home this morning when I was snuggling my cat so he could've taken a picture of how Theodore likes to lay sprawled out on his back and have his tummy rubbed. It was very cute.
This was a long post. Whoops.
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| Thursday, August 9th, 2007
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1:37 pm - A Post on Such 'n' Such
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Conversation from this morning:
Annie: "Baxter is being really sucky today."
Martin: "Maybe his butt hurts. He pooped out a paper towel this morning."
The only reason I laughed so hard was because that dog is so awful. This was only hours after Martin left for work, telling me on his way out, "Baxter's in his cage; he ate your flip flops." Aarrrggh!!!
And then while I was walking him today, this black man in his pimpmobile pulled up beside me and said "If I were a dog I'd let you walk me too." I laughed stupidly because "dog" was the only word that registered immediately and strangers are always going out of their way to say stupid things about Baxter. But after he pulled away, the rest of his sentence came through and I thought, "What the heck was that supposed to mean?" Was it a come on? Was it something crude? Was it... I don't even know what to think of it! What a dumb thing to say!
I asked Martin to wake me up when he got to work so I could get up and get a good early start on my day. So he texted me at 6:30 when he got there, and I just slept right through the text notification gurgle sound for a whole hour. I eventually got out of bed a little after 8:00 and was at Vienna before 9:00. I had wanted to get to Vienna at 8:00 (I know that's not especially early, but that's what time Vienna opens in the summertime) so have breakfast and a nice big chai and be able to spend some hours there without feeling so guilty for wasting a pretty summer day. So I got there and I got my breakfast and I got my big chai and sat down at the computer for a good, long, relaxing morning of guilt-free internet usage... and the internet at Vienna didn't work. I tried three times to make it work and it never did.
So it was a good thing I had brought my chick lit book with me!!!!!!! And Martin called so I talked on the phone for awhile. And then I left because The Slowest Man In The World was working and he really annoys me. He is SO unfriendly. In fact, his alternate name is The Unfriendliest Man In The World. (And he puts too much foam on the chais, which also really bugs me.)
I read my chick lit book all day. Seriously. It's all I did. I sat in the chair in the front living room and read that book until I moved to the kitchen where I sat at the table and read it some more. It's TERRIBLE!!! I have to quit doing this!!! Martin gets home from work at night and while I'm making dinner, instead of talking to him like a normal friend, I just keep reading!!!!!!!!! And then if he tries to talk to me, I'm only half listening and just smiling and saying "uh huh" while I'm reading about these silly lives of silly ficticious characters in a silly novel!!!!! I AM RIDICULOUS!!!!
But while I was reading and making myself a bowl of soup, who should come over but the Cook family! They had gone to the movies and brought me back this gigantic bucket of movie theatre popcorn because they know how much I love it!! How nice and thoughtful of them!!! They all came in for awhile and I like them because sometimes their house is dirty too so they don't mind when ours is. Then they left and I sat in the front living room... and ate a bucket of movie theatre popcorn...... and read my book.
I bought a new journal yesterday! I filled up another one (started last January) and went to Von's and found nothing wonderful, but at Barnes & Noble there were so many choices I couldn't make up my mind. I must've sat on the floor there for half an hour in the journal section debating between these two books; one was greenish-yellow with squiggly flowers, the other was leather hard-bound with a neat print on the cover. I eventually decided on the cheaper flowery one. They always have good leather journals... I'll wait on that till Christmas or something.
I'll be nice to have internet at home. Right now I'm up at my mom's. I think we're going swimming. I hope they don't laugh when I take my pants off and reveal my lobster legs to them... I might have snuck over to my Uncle's pool yesterday by myself without telling anyone (well, I told my Uncle when I called and asked if it was okay that I come) and remembered to put sunscreen on my face and shoulders, but not my legs. Oops!! But there's something deliciously painful about a sunburn... like you can't complain about it because it only happens once a year and the whole reason it happens in the first place is because you were enjoying yourself so much.
Plus, it makes it that much better to put on lotion from the fridge!!
current mood: content
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| Tuesday, August 7th, 2007
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10:40 am - Got the Grumps
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I am having a grumpy day. I know WHY I'm having a grumpy day, which should make it go away because it isn't even a big deal, but for some reason I just can't shake it. Plus, it's one of those "whale days"... you know what I mean... when for about every two days of feeling cute and pregnant, there's at least one during which you feel like a whale? Yeah, it's one of THOSE days.
I've conveniently gotten out of the habit of waking up to an alarm clock, so when Martin wakes up in the morning, I'm completely unaware that he's gone from the bed until he comes back in to kiss me goodbye before he leaves. He's starting out going down to Wabash around 6:00 to work out there before work so that we can have nice long evenings. So this morning he said goodbye and I went back to sleep and then I woke up again at about 6:30 (I'm pretty sure it was my first experience of being kicked into wakefulness by you-know-who!) and I figured Martin wasn't even to Crawfordsville yet, so I texted him but he didn't answer. Oh well, I figured he'd let me know when he got there. But he didn't!! He'd already BEEN there! So when I went downstairs and found his Cubs hat chewed up by the dog and called to tell him about it and he didn't answer, I naturally started to freak out. So over the next hour and a half I (of course) convinced myself that he was dead and that I'd never see him again. Then he called a few minutes before eight, when he'd gotten back to his car and found his phone vibrating under the passengers seat where it had somehow managed to end up during the commute and noticed my 19 missed calls. So he WASN'T dead, but it still wasn't the best start to the day.
Plus, I'm mad that Baxter ate his Cubs hat. This just a couple of days after Baxter ate almost an entire block of Romano cheese right off the counter in the time it took me to turn from the counter and walk to the table to sit down. (That was the same evening that Zoe and Ellie Cook came over and as exciting as that was, it wasn't nearly as exciting as the chicken bones in the trash can which he bounded away to eat as soon as he got the chance, even though we had guests!)
And waking up at 6:30 doesn't do any good when you don't feel like doing anything and you're grumpy. So I just sat around reading all morning until I came here (Vienna) and now Alison is going to meet me here and I'm sure that will cheer me up.
current mood:  grumpy
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| Sunday, August 5th, 2007
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3:13 pm - Now WHAT?!?
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Alright, I've had enough. This Vienna makeover has gone a little too far. The newest addition to the back walls is three gigantic murals sandwiched between the fake brick foam wallpaper. WHAT IS THEIR DEAL!?? If you want crappy murals, go to Skylight or Java Roaster. Vienna is supposed to be the classy, chic place to get coffee. It's supposed to be the place you can take ANYONE and not be embarrassed. The art they have is supposed to be good and framed and hung on walls, and the bad art should be reserved for the temporary east wall gallery where you never really know what you're going to get, but who cares because it's only there for a few weeks anyway before someone else's show goes up. I AM MAD ABOUT THESE MURALS. The one is really huge. And UGLY. It's some gigantic stupid looking island scene painted with primary colors. Excuse my language, Mama, but it really sucks. And it makes me really mad, too. (If you couldn't notice already.) What is happening to my favorite place in town?!?
In other news, Martin and I got rid of a ton of junk at the garage sale at my mom's on Saturday. It's a fabulous feeling to have space in our house again. This week while Martin is training for his brand new job I will be redecorating and hopefully ending up with some rooms I can really be happy with. And I don't think I'll paint any pictures on the walls, especially not any seascapes in aquamarine blue acrylic.
After the garage sale I was absolutely exhausted, as was Martin. Too tired and hungry to cook dinner, we went to Fazoli's at 4:30 then to Barnes & Noble for a favorite date where I started reading "Baby Proof," a chick lit book that has some potential to be kind of funny; at least it looks to be more funny than annoying so far, except for the fact that the author tends to write themed novels and the random tense change from the first chapter to the second threw me off a little bit. I hope this time they don't re-do the display until I'm finished with the book.
Boy am I Captain Complainy today!!
This morning we went to 7:30 mass and saw Joannie!!!! Hooray!! One of my favorite things is to be at church and suddenly Joannie walks in when you didn't even know she was in town! I've heard that mass can really be awful when you're pregnant, and I had thought up until last weekend that maybe I was one of the lucky ones who wouldn't be so affected by the heat. Not so! Too bad for me!! It was a little bit miserable and I a little bit thought I was going to die. But I survived, and immediately upon getting home, Martin and I went back to bed and slept until 12:15 and felt SO MUCH BETTER. We woke up and ran some errands then came over here to Vienna where Martin got us a Triple Chocolate Tart while I was in the bathroom! Hooray!!
Le Bebe has been really crazy acting today. He's been pretty calm for the past few days, but today he's really going on a spree. Either he's lost his mind, or he's feeling really good about something. Sarah thinks my due date is off because I'm so huge already for only being 24 weeks. Either that, or I'm having a gigantic baby. I've never had a baby before so I don't know what's normal but there are some things that I didn't know would start so early... like your whole belly moving when the baby moves. It's so fun to sit there and watch my stomach move and sometimes it's REALLY big moves... like big enough to be kind of embarrassing if it happened while I was sitting next to someone I didn't know very well. I really like it though... it's like having a squirrel or a chinchilla living inside you!
I got a really good curl on my eyelashes today.
Well, I think it's about Martin's turn for the computer now.
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| Tuesday, July 31st, 2007
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2:59 pm - The Problem with the Hat
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I finished knitting the hat for my BABY and it has a few problems. One problem is that I started purling in a knit row so there's this funny scar in the back. I knew I had done it and was too scared to go back and fix it for fear I'd have to rip out the whole hat and start over. (the scar is near the top.) I consider that a small problem, even though it's pretty noticeable. The other problem is the general lumpiness of the hat; it has a few little holes where I was too loose with my knitting and a few fuzzy spots where Theodore attacked my yarn and freyed it up. But the REAL problem with this hat, which I made for my baby, is the size. IT FITS ME!!!! Hahahaha!!! Probably this is a good thing since a good mother wouldn't put its baby in someting so lumpy and ugly. And I might have enough yarn left over to make one that's the right size for the baby. But I laughed so hard when I got the whole thing finished and then put it on my own head. It's actually not too ugly... I mean the STYLE is very cute... it's just the knitting that's bad. But whatever. It's the first thing I've ever knitted! I put it on Baxter and took a picture (he made a fabulous model, he was so patient!) but then my camera ran out of batteries so I wasn't able to upload anything before I left home. I'll have to buy more batteries before I can. Also on that group of uploads will be the birthday party pictures and some other random things.
The good news of the day is that Martin found out his recruiting area for his new job and it isn't Hawaii and it isn't Florida or California or Maine. He's going to be in three different chunks of Indiana, all of Wisconsin and all of Missouri! That's FABULOUS news for me who was a little more than slightly nervous about the possibility of him being in Alaska when I go into labor. But Wisconsin and Missouri??? That's not far at all!!
Sometimes I wish we didn't have a mortgage to pay and two pets and two people to feed and doctors bills to pay and all that stuff so that I could spend all my money on iTunes. What a good life THAT would be!
The hat has been the main event in my life for the last couple of days. Tonight I'm making bbq chicken wings for dinner with this bbq sauce recipe of Tara's. I actually made the sauce yesterday thinking we'd have the wings last night for dinner, but then just as I was getting everything together Mrs. Schap called and invited us out to eat with her (she just got back from Ireland!) so we did that and we'll have the wings tonight. I've never made wings. I hope it's not another cooking disaster.
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| Sunday, July 29th, 2007
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9:36 pm - Happy Birthday, Martino!!
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Martin turned 25 today. He doesn't look much different. He doesn't smell much different. Turning a quarter of a century old doesn't seem to have affected him much at all! Which is good... I'd be pretty embarrassed if my husband had a mid-life crisis or a nervous breakdown over turning 25.
Sometimes I really like to come to Vienna and read all the blogs and laugh out loud and not care that there are so many people around to hear me. It's so much fun! Like Monica's hilarious potty mouth post! That's one thing I might miss about getting internet at home: the embarrassment that comes with public blog reactions.
I don't understand why people have to go and change an already good thing. Not too awfully long ago Vienna painted their walls. It was very blogspot-ish, with soft natural tones of paint and a carefully thought out randomness to which wall would be which color. It was really nice. Relaxing. Calm. Pretty. Artsy. It was everything you could want in a coffee shop and better than the boring beige walls they'd had before.
But now they've painted again. And this time, I'm sorry to say, they failed. Kind of miserably. The walls are now a mix of McDonald's colors; two shades of red and a bright yellow ALL OVER the place, except for the back couch area which has been wallpapered with this textured foam wallpaper that's meant to look like bricks. Except the colors of the bricks are the same colors of the ugly couches back there so it looks like the couches are trying to blend into their "natural habitat" near the restrooms. THE RESTROOMS!! That's another thing!!! The back hall where the restrooms are used to be a calming soft earthtone of some sort and now it's BLUE. So the new Vienna colors are bright red, slightly darker bright red, bright yellow, ugly fake brick, and BLUE. Talk about YUCK!! They really missed the mark on this one, I'm sorry to say... and as Martin pointed out: we love Vienna unconditionally for all that it is... but newcomers will probably come into this place and think they hired someone from the Decorator's Special Olympics as a decorating consultant.
But anyway... the birthday today was fun. We celebrated Martin's, My dad's, and Christopher's birthdays out at Prophetstown with the Cooks and the Riders and it was a pretty good time. Lots of food. Lots of children.
After church Martin and I went to Sunrise Diner for his birthday breakfast. Went home, Martin went out to mow and I instantly fell asleep on the couch and didn't wake up until he came in and said, "wake up, little possum!" and there I'd been sleeping for something like two hours with my cat all curled up and asleep under my chin.
I gave Martin for his birthday an insulated Vienna travel mug, a juggling kit, and some rosin bags for his weightlifting hobby. He liked them all and thought they were thoughtful, even though they weren't, because I knew that all those things were specific things he's been wanting.
And now it's his turn for the computer and MY TURN TO KNIT!!! I LOVE TO KNIT!!! I'M MAKING THE CUTEST HAT IN THE WORLD FOR MY UNBORN FETUS WHO WILL LOVE IT NO MATTER IT'S GENDER!!!!!!!!
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| Thursday, July 26th, 2007
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7:04 pm - When the Cat's Away.........
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Now you can all have it confirmed that on top of being a bad cook, a bad housekeeper, and even worse at keeping a part-time job of any sort, I also am a REALLY BAD PREGNANT PERSON.
Martin left this morning for Hanover and so I've begun my sort of trial-session for the upcoming travel season with his new job. I have two days and one night at home without him, and a whole list of productive things to do, and what did I do today? NOTHING. Well, nothing productive anyway. I went to lunch with my good friend Alison, where I spent money. Then I went to River Knits to get some yarn, which cost money. Then I went to Tara's house so she could teach me how to knit, and from there I went to Jo-Ann Fabrics with my mom and sister... and bought (for money) more yarn. I DON'T EVEN KNOW HOW TO KNIT AND I BOUGHT THREE SKEINS OF YARN TODAY!!!!
But that isn't what makes me a bad pregnant person. (that just makes me a bad wife.)
After driving Kristof I went to the movie store where I rented two chick-flicks, and bought a bucket of their movie-theatre microwave popcorn and a 20-oz. Cherry Coke.
THAT'S what makes me a bad pregnant person. That, and also the fact that I right now am at Vienna, where I spent more money for a sugary vanilla chai just so I could make this post and tell you all the truth about Preggo Annie. It is not my talent.
However, I do feel fabulous these days.
Except for the housekeeping stuff. It's starting to really get me down. Every good idea I think I have turns out to be a stupid idea. I've got so much stuff and so much space and I don't know what to do with it all! I miss my apartment when I had only four small rooms to take care of. Even then, I couldn't keep the bedroom nice and it never got decorated. But it didn't matter because I only ever went in there to get dressed. Lots of nights I even slept on the couch! But at our house now we've been rearranging and still nothing looks right. We have stuff on the walls, but it just doesn't seem to fit. The dining room is good, and the kitchen is good even though it's usually dirty.... at least the walls are completely full. I hate bare walls. But the living room when you first come through the door is AWFUL. And we don't know what to do with it!! Sometimes I think we should just empty it and start over.
There is this guy who came into Vienna and sat down not next to me but NEAR me, and he smells SO BAD that I can't stand it anymore and I have to leave. He must be wearing three bottles of cologne.
Have I stated how eager I am to get internet at home?...
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| Tuesday, July 24th, 2007
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2:57 pm - The Unfortunate Lives of Internet Scavangers
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The internet at Vienna isn't working these days, which makes it tough for us to check our email. Right now I'm at my mom's. I'm glad to know though that the problem is with the Vienna wireless and not with our computer. But I drove over to Vienna with a time limit (because of my soup that I will later talk about) and it was all for nothing! Poo! And now I'm here because I couldn't wait any more to check the blogs and do some posting of my own, not to mention read my emails that have been sitting there for like a week or something.
Boy, yesterday was a crazy fun day. Martin came upstairs at the usual time he goes to work and I thought he was just going to kiss me goodbye (I was asleep) but instead he told me that he wasn't going to work at all that day! So I got up and we ate a nice breakfast on the porch together. We went to Target and did some toiletries/birthday shopping, then drove up to Chauncey Hill for lunch--Martin got a Wendy's salad and I had a Jimmy John's sandwich and we sat on the wall by Vienna and got chais from there and ate our lunch, then hopped in the car and drove straight from there to Crawfordsville to go to the Wabash bookstore.
Martin is going to be gone on Thursday and Friday for this training thing at Hanover College. It's going to be our first night apart since we've been married! Eek!! I hope I don't freak out and have to call Doug over in the middle of the night to chase away imaginary burglars! (I did that once when I was living with Sarah and Andrew... they had gone someplace for the night and shortly after dark I became convinced that there was someone in the house so I called Ryan Goeken to come over and check things out. Nobody was there, of course, but it was so nice of him to come and rescue me!) Anyway, for this training thing Martin needed a Wabash polo shirt and a Wabash mug, so that's why we were going to the bookstore. I love the Wabash bookstore because it's so unintimidating. It's very small and in this semi-trashy little basement room and they've got all these good books and all this fun Wabash stuff to look at. They even have Wabash baby clothes! Martin was VERY close to buying the "Wabash Always Fights" onesie in "newborn" size, but he didn't. Instead, we each got ourselves a Wabash mug. Mine is SO CUTE, it's short and fat and I forget what it says on it... oh, probably "Wabash" or something like that. But this morning I drank hot chocolate from it and was happy.
So aaanyway, after spending kind of a lot of time at the Bookstore laughing at stuff and goofing around, Martin took me on a tour of the campus. Last time I was there he took me on a short tour of the campus, but we either didn't have very much time or it was really cold or something... I forget what, but this time was a lot better. He took me through Center Hall and into the chapel and the gym and everything and told me stories about the campus. It was great! And a beautiful day! The bad thing is that on the way into town we accidentally fell in love... with this wonderful yellow house........
So the neighborhood surrounding the campus is SO CUTE. Cutest old houses ever. There was one tiny little yellow house that we loved, but it wouldn't be the best choice for a growing family. But this other one.... *sigh* It's a big old yellow mission style house with these gorgeous windows in the front and a nice fenced-in backyard. It's about half a block from campus. Martin said if it ever comes up for sale, he'd drop everything to get it. If he sticks with his job at Wabash as a career though, we'll probably sometime move to Crawfordsville and the only debate is whether to get a farm near Darlington or something, or to live in this great neighborhood right there by the college. We'll see how it goes!
After our Wabash adventure we came back to Lafayette and went to Martin's brother, Tony's, house because it was his birthday. That was a funny little time, and afterward Joel and Martin went to run at the track and I drove out to Pretty Prarie Road to buy some sweet corn. Yummmmmmm yum! For dinner we took the corn to my parents' house and ate fried chicken and mashed 'taters and corn with my parents and the kiddies while Sarah and Andrew were out for Andrew's birthday. When they got back we had Frozen Custard and gave Andrew cards and presents. He got a pretty burgundy bike!! Maybe I should say handosme instead of pretty...
I'm afraid Gretel isn't working out. We are going to see if AnnLaura wants to take her, but if she doesn't, then we'll give her back to her owner. She hates Theodore, and all night long all I hear is hiss, hiss, hiss!! And she bats at him and is so mean to him, and since Theodore is my precious baby boy, I'm just not down with that. So I think we'll give Gretel up and when we have a little more money, maybe in the fall, we'll get a kitten.
I'm making beef vegetable soup for dinner. The beef is leftover steak from dinner the other night and the veggies are all from Farmers Market, some leftover from other dinners, some fresh from this morning. I put it all together a few hours ago and put the water and spices in and left it... now I have to go home and get it cooking. It smelled SO GOOD when I stuck my nose in the pot. All fresh and kind of dirty... veggielicious!
On Sunday I made salsa with farmers market veggies and I'm still eating it and it's very good. The mistake I made is that I bought some hot peppers, which I thought were mild peppers, so it turned into spicy salsa which is something I'm not such a fan of. But whatever... it's not bad when it's cold and I tried to pick out all the spicy peppers.
I really want to have internet at home so I can post and read all the time!! Aaaah!!!
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| Wednesday, July 18th, 2007
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2:47 pm - Saintly Superstitions
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Much like Anna's most recent post, I'm going to update you all on my gender predicting skills. (Or bad habits, as some people might view them.)
Poo! Christopher just called me and invited me to the fabric store, but I couldn't go because as soon as I'm done here I have to figure out what to do about dinner because I ate yesterdays leftovers for lunch today and John Smooney is coming for dinner so I feel a need to impress him. Plus, Martin brought home this gigantic chicken cookbook of his and it's filled with 500 recipes... so before I go to the store and make the dinner, I have to figure out what to make!! But I love it when Christopher calls me on the phone because he's such a funny little person now. And I'm a little bummed that I couldn't go to the fabric store with them.
So anyway, back to my superstitious predictions...
Last night at adoration I was reading this Lives of the Saints book, and before I tell you my gender predictions, I have to sidestep and tell you how annoyed I was by the OBVIOUSNESS that the author was a priest. It said things like "she was destined for something higher than domestic sanctity." UGH!! Things like that make me so angry. If God didn't think "domestic sanctity" was a good enough vocation, he wouldn't have made it possible.
Okay so anyway, I was looking up the feast days around my due date and trying to predict the gender based on those saints. Surprisingly enough, this is how it turned out:
-If baby is appx. 10 days early, it will be on the feast of St. Martin! In that case, I think it's a girl.
-If the baby is born on November 22nd, it will be the feast of St. Cecilia who is my confirmation saint and, obviously, a meaningful saint for this baby since this baby seems to enjoy banjo music so much. If it comes this day, I'll think it's a girl.
-If the baby comes on its due date, November 24th, it is the feast of St. John of the Cross! In this case I will definitely think it's a boy, since the boy name we have picked is John Francis.
-If the baby comes appx. 10 days late, it could be born on the feast of St. Francis Xavier! And in this case, I also think it's a boy, again, because of the name we have picked.
So those are my predictions! Pretty amazing really, to have a due date around all of those meaningful names. Watch it be born on November 23rd, the feast of St. Cletus or someone, who has absolutely nothing to do with anything.
Doctors appointment this morning! Woohoo, I love them because it assures me that the little alien inside me is still alive. At the ultrasound the little bugger wouldn't hold still so I have to have ANOTHER ONE at 28 weeks so they can make sure his heart and arteries look good. This will be my 4th ultrasound. But everything else looks very good and his heartbeat still looks great!
Gretel is not warming up very well in our house. Theodore has tried to be friendly to her and she hisses at him and wants nothing to do with him. We moved her upstairs by the litter boxes last night and since then I think Baxter has forgotten all about her. But Theodore still visits her upstairs (where she is under the dresser) and she doesn't seem to like him very much. Too bad since Theodore's being such a good and friendly boy. Our house is becoming very diverse with the foster dog and 12 year old adopted cat...
Time to look for recipes!
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| Tuesday, July 17th, 2007
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8:33 pm - It's a Girl!!
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Haha, fooled you! I'm sure you thought by the title that I would be revealing the gender of our unborn child. No, that is still a surprise. But tonight we got a new family member--Gretel the cat! She is VERY fat, waaaay fatter than Theodore (amazingly enough) and so far in the 45 minutes she was at our house before we left to come here she had not ventured out from underneath the table in the living room. The boy animals seem to like her well enough (well, Baxter likes everybody) so we hope it works out. Evidently she is 12 years old! Yikes! Maybe her thyroid went out with menopause.
We had a fun weekend. We moved furniture around the house on Saturday and then on Sunday we went to church, mowed lawns, and took a field trip to Target with my mom. She bought us a bed set--sheets, comforter, bedskirt, pillow cases and shams--which means now we have one full bed set and two sets of sheets! We are really living in luxury now! I really like the sheets, they are green and beige and stripey. We still haven't dressed the rest of the bed because we're waiting for that darn plywood platform for the mattress before we do that, but surely it won't be much longer...
Then that night we stopped by my parents' house for a rousing game of Euchre... WHICH WE WON!! No need for a third game when you're playing two-outta-three with Martin and Annie. We whooped 'em. And it was really fun. Probably it would've even been fun if we'd have lost!
I can't wait till we get internet at home. All day I think about all the good stuff I need to post and then by the time I come over here to do that, I've forgotten all of that good stuff! Booo!
But good news I found out tonight is that Martin and I will get free admission to all the Wabash stuff like football games, plays and talks! I'm so excited!!! We get to pretend to be fancy people! And once the baby is born and I'm slim again (from taking advantage of my FREE access to the Wabash gym facilities) I'll be able to wear my little black dress to all the fancy events!! Maybe we'll get to go to hoity-toity book signings and things like that! I'm super excited!!
current mood:  excited
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