Sunshine and Light

So Long, And Thanks for All the Fish

2008-04-27T19:21:00.003-05:00

Life here has been busy, hectic, fun, tiring....all of those good things that a new mom/working mom can expect from having a baby. But alas, I'm still trying to figure out how to balance doing a good job at work, spend the most possible time with my son, spend time with my beloved, cook (thank heavens for the "5 in 10" cookbook), work out (I'll just lay my head on the table and laugh here), and still squeeze in some quiet time to get my head back together. I knew that last one was failing miserably when I realized that the last time I spent with my husband was an hour we spent driving around Bowling Green, and before that the last time I walked out of the house without my son or a briefcase was when I got my hair done at the beginning of March. Sigh.

So basically, something's got to give. And it can't come as a surprise to anyone after weeks of not posting, that the something that's giving is the blog. Which is a bummer, I like blogging. But for now, life is pulling me away from my computer, and I just try to get on long enough to check email and skim through the RSS feeder.

So dear friends, I may one day return (hopefully. Fingers crossed) to bore everyone with my rants. But for now I'm pulling the shutter on this blog, and telling you "Move along. Nothing to see here."

Did you know?

2008-04-03T07:54:00.001-05:00

The sound of milk hitting cereal makes babies scream!
When soy milk is mixed with granola (yes, I'm a hippy) and allowed to sit for 15-20 minutes, it turns into building materials.

Sprint Made Good

2008-04-02T14:34:00.002-05:00

Since I've complained about our Sprint experience, I need to note that Sprint made good. Free unlimited text messaging for Chris, 100 extra any time minutes for me, and money towards our next bill. And an apology. That's fair, and I'm considering the chapter closed.

WOOO HOO!

2008-04-02T07:35:00.003-05:00

One of my favorite blogresses (is that even a word?) is back. Hooray for La Vida Vica!

Things shouldn't be this hard

2008-04-02T07:04:00.004-05:00

SprintPCS has not been kind to us. Our first email to Sprint:

I wanted to write to address a very bad customer service experience that my husband and I had with Sprint. Which is a shame, we normally go to the Sprint store in blahblah PA, and have had excellent customer service.

We wanted to combine our two phones onto one account. We were moving my husband's phone onto my account. First I called customer service, on April 1, 2008, and they told me that we hadto go into a Sprint store. So on the same date, we went to a different store than our usual , because I was on my lunch break at work. We went to Store 461 on Summit dr, filled out the transfer of liability form, and gave him a photocopy of the driver's licenses. Then the rep at the store said there was a problem, that we needed to call customer service. We went out to the parking lot and called customer service, who told us that we had to go into the store, but that there
was a balance on my husband's account. We went into the store,and the rep told us that wasn't the problem, we had to call customer service. My husband called customer service while the rep moved on to work with other customers. I asked another rep why we had to play go between for the Sprint store and Sprint customer service. She said, "I know what you mean" and walked away from us. The store rep that had been working with us, called us over and told us that he thought theproblem was my husband was on the Fair and Flexible plan, which is no longer available.
In the meantime, my husband was on the phone with Sprint customer service. When the store rep said he got another error after transferring my husband's plan to something more current, I handed him my husband's cell phone so that the Sprint store and Sprint customer service would talk to each other. We arrived at the store
at the start of this saga at noon. I had to leave slightly after 1:00 PM to attend a meeting. The store rep was still on my husband's cell phone, and the issue had not been resolved.

There are a few reasons why I'm writing. The first reason is obviouslythat we're very angry about the service we endured. The most helpful person was the last Sprint customer service call center person. But by the time we worked with him, my husband and I were so angry that we debated cancelling our phones all together. That would be after we each individually were customers of Sprint for 5-10 years. The second reason is that I'd like to have the number of minutes on my husband's phone that were used to resolve this issue either restored or extendedfor the current calling period. I would hate for us to exceed our calling minutes because the Sprint store wouldn't call Sprint customer service. And the third reason is to point
out the process issues thatwe encountered. There should be a way to fax in
the transfer of liability form and our drivers licenses rather than going to a store.And I would contend that the customer store should never send a customer off to resolve systems problems or figure out why errors occurred when they attempt to make changes to accounts. The store should contact customer service and they should work out any issues.

Your customer website says "Sprint wants you to enjoy the best customerexperience." This was not it.

Thank you for your time

Anyway, apparently I was too subtle in my grousing because the response we got was:

Thank you for contacting Sprint. I understand you wish to combine your two phones onto one account.

To protect your account from unauthorized access and changes, it is important that we confirm the following information:

a. Your PCS Phone Number
b. Your email address on the account
c. Your Mailing Address

Please reply to this email with the requested information, and we will be happy to assist you.Thank you again for contacting Sprint. We appreciate your business.
Sincerely,
Matt K.
Sprint

Sigh. They read....The first sentence? Maybe? Or was that such normal behavior that the rest didn't sink in? Anyway, my reply with a CC to Chris was:

Actually, no, we got the accounts straightened out. I'm contacting Sprint to express my disappointment over the pathetically bad service we received.

and Chris added:

To be perfectly clear I spent a total of two hours in the store trying to resolve the matter. My personal phone was used for 70 minutes by the Sprint Store sales person. He only talked to Sprint Customer service (again, on *my* phone) after I forced him to because my wife and I had been thru *three* versions of "you need to talk to the
Sprint store" "You need to call Sprint customer service."

There has not been once single apology from any one or any attempt to make up for the two hours lost in the process of TRYING TO GIVE SPRINT MONEY.

Seriously, what is it that says customer service CAN'T APOLOGIZE when they give bad service? They didn't even address 90% of my email. My normal modus operandi is that I don't expect to have my ass kissed as a customer, just normal courtesy. But considering what a fiasco this has been, there better be some ass kissing soon. We're still not ruling out ditching Sprint.

Anyway, so when I go out to the Consumerist, I found this, which rings true in light of our experiences. Oh and this article may be very interesting if we still don't get an apology, and don't think I'm not asking for this too.

Me? Fired up? You're kidding, right?

Insomnia Tour '08

2008-03-31T08:33:00.003-05:00

My son has decided that sleep is really unnecessary.

Alas, he cannot just lie in his crib and ponder the mysteries of life ("Why do I have hands?" "Why does Ginger smell like sewer water?" "What makes that rattling sound in my rattle? I can't see anything on the outside...").

No, the insomnia experience is to be shared. And as he gets more and more tired, and less and less able to self soothe, his middle of the night wake ups have gone from gentle "wah, wah, wah" to screams that make my ear drums vibrate. I've stood outside the hangar at what was then McDonnell Douglas as the Blue Angels approached, and it doesn't come near the effect of my baby screaming in my ear.

Now I understand why my great aunt used to give shots of whiskey to her teething babies. All is made clear.

Canadian Warmup Music

2008-03-28T06:41:00.002-05:00

This morning on the way in to work I heard first Queen's "Another one bites the dust" followed by Anything But the Girl's "Miss You". And it reminded me of a story....

So back when I was the Yoko Ono of Chris's cycling team, we headed off to St Catherine's Ontario for a race. The best part with the guys we went with was just getting there. The one guy was....directionally challenged. It added a certain amount of spice to our trips. Anyway, after crossing the border we went the wrong way on the QEW. After a few miles, it became pretty evident. "Should we pull over for directions?" I suggested, hopefully. "No, drive faster!" was the response from the navigator in the front seat. At that point, I abdicated any further input. I wasn't racing after all, and this promised to be good. Somehow Magellan got us there, whirling along at 150 mph (or 300 kmh in Canadian Dollars at the time) down back roads I'm pretty sure weren't on his map. Hats off to him, I never thought he could do it.

When we pulled into the parking lot at the race, you could hear the beats going from all the cars. A little "Rage against the Machine" from the angry looking dude over there. A little techno from the car with about 47 riders crammed into it. Quiet Riot blasting on the old dude's stereo. Beastie Boys from the Hip-Hop wanna-be guys. And then there was the guy who pulled in next to us with the Ontario license plates. He turned on the tunes, and immediately I was lulled into a state of calmness as Styx came on. As "Babe" rolled out of his stereo and he warmed up on his trainer, Magellan turned to Chris with an incredulous look on his face. "Suddenly I want to just call my ex-girlfriend and tell her everything is going to be ok."

And thus came the expression that lives on in our lexicon: Canadian Warm Up music - any soothing mellow song, especially if it's from the 80s.

W!K!U!

2008-03-28T06:40:00.001-05:00

Good for WKU! Yes, they lost and they're out of the tournament, but they made the sweet 16, and they pushed those city slicker UCLA players to the wall. So good for them - and next year we'll see you in the elite eight!

Fredly Update

2008-03-27T14:59:00.004-05:00

Under the heading...mixed feelings....

The surgeon says there's nothing that they can do for him (or maybe it's just too hard on him, that's a little unclear), so it's looking like long term pain management will be the key. I really, really wish it were something that we could just fix, but on the flip side, the rimadyl has been awesome for him. Keep your fingers crossed for no side effects.

As a co-worker and I discussed, financially the good news is we're not coughing up $1500-$2000 for surgery for him. Financially the bad news is we'll pay way more than that over the years. But at least we can budget for that.

I've got a friend named Walter

2008-03-27T14:53:00.003-05:00

Whatever you think of this church (and "Whatever", shrug, pretty much sums it up for me), You have to love Ace's Top Ten Mandated Changes to Make Christianity more Politically Correct and Inclusive. 7, 8, and 9 make me spit Coke (not the drug, the drink) on my computer screen:

9. Key lyric of Martin Greenbaum's hippie-Christian anthem, Spirit in the Sky, changed from "I've got a friend named Jesus" to less-divisive "I've got a friend named Walter"
8. Good Friday officially renamed "Passable Friday;" Ash Wednesday officially renamed "the Day Before Thursday"
7. Placards displaying "John 3:16" outlawed at sporting events; spectators wishing to display their spiritual beliefs may substitute oversized foam-finger bearing the corporate slogan "Dude, You're Getting a Dell!"

Uncool

2008-03-26T11:57:00.004-05:00

Ya know, I'm not precisely what you would call a Hillary supporter. I don't hate her with the rabid passion that seems to obsess a lot of people. But I'm also not going to vote for her in November.

I'm just throwing that out there, because I have to say, asking Chelsea about Monica Lewinsky in order to prove how strong Hillary is, is uncool. That the questioner was surprised that it upset her shows that he's a socially inadequate nimrod. It is not the daughter's responsibility to defend her father's indescretions while campaigning for her mother's presidential campaign. If he really wanted an answer, it needs to come from Hillary, or better yet, Bill. I understand Chelsea's in the public eye, but....c'mon. That's seriously wrong.

All dogs, all the time

2008-03-25T07:57:00.005-05:00

So a few years ago, Fred developed a limp. We took him to the vet, who diagnosed him with a sprain and some "crunchy" joints. It took him months to completely recover. And every year since then, he's developed a limp. Back to the vet, sometimes, otherwise continued glucosamine and some aspirin. The limping never made him less happy to get in the car and go to races with us. That is what he lives for.

Fredly, the world's best dog, has been getting crankier as the years progress. He's always been a mellow guy, but more and more he'd started hiding in the corner, away from the family, especially once Ginger, who is all fire and energy, came into our lives. It's hard to watch your dog getting old.

Last week, the limping started again, but with a difference. He was definitely....dragging that leg. So this time he got an x-ray. It appears that those crunchy joints were probably a fracture, and now he has a bone spur that is making that joint incredibly painful. So the x-rays have been sent off to a surgeon, with an answer expected later this week. And we came home with sweet, sweet Rimadyl. It's a doggy pain reliever. Since we've started giving him pain relief, Fred has completely changed back to the joyous guy we used to know. A walk! All Right! Snuggles with mom? All Right! Treats? All Right! Covering Mom with kisses after she takes care of the baby in the middle of the night? All Right!

I can't even begin to express the mixed feelings I have about this. Primarily remorse that he's been in pain for longer than we can possibly imagine. Some relief to see him turn back the clock, and have joie de vivre again. And joy, so much joy, to be able to play with him once again.

Here's hoping that the surgeon can fix Freddy. One potential option which would be a total bummer is surgery to fuse the joint. It would relieve his pain, but we're not sure if that would put an end to his favorite thing in the whole world - mountain biking. But that's a bridge to be crossed once we hear back.

___________________________

And in only somewhat related news (related in a "Why do I do this to myself" way) - there's a website for dogs that are in danger of Euthanasia. If you're thinking of a new dog (we are not), please check it out before you check out Petfinder. It's called Dogs in Danger.

This one's for my hubby

2008-03-24T09:15:00.002-05:00

Brackets to NCAA finals are here.

I think the only Cinderella stories left are Western Kentucky and the entire Midwest bracket. WKU and Louisville are his two sentimental favorites. So for him I say

Go Hilltoppers!

Go Cardinals!

Hello, Netflix? How fast can you send this movie?

2008-03-17T20:37:00.001-05:00

The Description:

On a quiet New Zealand ranch, a genetic experiment has gone horribly wrong, transforming a docile flock of sheep into killers hungry for human blood. Those they bite become ravenous were-sheep. As the body count rises, a desperate handful of outnumbered survivors take a last stand against the ovine onslaught. Who will live, and who will be the next victim of the vicious killer sheep?

I can only hope that there isn't a long wait for "Black Sheep".

Bike Commuting in Pittsburgh

2008-03-13T08:41:00.003-05:00

The only way to guarantee that you won't be run off the road around here.

Photo by my hubby, Chris

Would you stand by this man?

2008-03-11T07:35:00.002-05:00

It's an interesting question. Your hubby gets caught in a major public scandal - do you stand by him in the press conference? Honestly, I have to say "yes". As devastating as it has to be, as humiliating as that public stand can be, you're still married, and there is a lot to be sorted out. At this point they probably don't even know whether they're going to stay together or not. If they do stay together, taking your lumps in public removes one more bickering point in the future. If they don't, surely that buys her some "loyal and faithful wife" points in the divorce fight. If they do stay together, well she's hitched to his star. It's in her best interest to enhance her husband's high profile.

What about you....stand by your man? Or kick him to the curb?

Pharmaceuticals in the drinking water

2008-03-10T10:12:00.003-05:00

Ok....just freakish. But the good news is if I get an infection of any kind, I can just head to Philly to down a boatload of amoxycillin, azithromycin, and tetracycline. Who needs government health care when all you REALLY need is a cool glass of tap water.

And not to be insensitive, but quite honestly it's hard for me to get worked up about wildlife when we're still worrying about what this does to humans. One problem at a time, sarge.

Update: Spanky's take is here. While I agree that a major factor that keeps us from cleaning up this mess (so to speak) is engineering, I would quibble with the point that this is only a result of flushing toilets. If you check out this New York Times article, they talk about the steroid level downstream of a Nebraska feed lot is four times higher than the level upstream from the feed lot. It sounds to me that a certain amount of this is our compensating for some pretty crappy lifestyle decisions with a "Better living through chemistry" approach. We need more meat (bring on the steroids), eat like &%(#@ which means we have poorer health, more need for heart meds, and obesity drugs, etc. So while the whole thing is distressing, alas we cannot say it's surprising. We are free to abuse our bodies however we like. Now we know that there are more repercussions than we realized.

Happy Happy Birthday, baby

2008-03-08T09:39:00.003-05:00

My sweetie's birthday is today - a crappy weather day to be sure, but so far we haven't seen the ice pellets and snow that's been predicted. But here's hoping that the next year is a fabulous one.

Word to your Mother

2008-03-08T09:35:00.003-05:00

Sorry kids, that's as gangsta as I get. Maybe these two videos will make you feel better. First...the TSA Gangstaz. Shush the kids out of the room and crank it, it's really funny:

And then check out the rack and roll rap from Louisville's Tarc

Thanks to my hubby for pointing these out. He's obviously way cooler than I am. But he seems to love me anyway. I'll have to keep drugging his drinks for a long time to come.

Sign of a good blogger

2008-03-01T13:19:00.004-05:00

When the first post of the week is a you tube clip and a close up of her dog's nose. The video was sent by my brother, the priest....

Pittsburgh legend

2008-02-27T19:56:00.001-05:00

To those who live in Pittsburgh (or are from Pittsburgh), you know what the death of Myron Cope means. To my non-Pittsburgh friends, the only way to get a flavor of what Myron Cope is about is to hear that crazy voice. It's insane.

I'm sorry....did you say something?

2008-02-26T20:34:00.002-05:00

Hugh Jackman with many thanks and a few head
nods to What Would Tyler Durden Do

Cracks me up

2008-02-24T13:58:00.002-05:00

The latest and greatest blog currently in vogue (or is that en vogue? Whatever) is "Stuff White People Like". Each new posting is pretty darn good, but when you read the site as a whole, you find yourself nodding along going "YEAH! YEAH! I know someone, ok, me, just like that!"

And because I'm the whitest white woman in America, and love this CD, my favorite post is actually the guest column - Top Ten Hip Hop Songs White People Like. But then I read the one about the dogs, and Whole Foods, and the Prius.... Snort.

Worth checking out if you need a laugh!

Charity

2008-02-22T10:23:00.003-05:00

Looking for that charity that combines your love of cycling, help for the third world, and coffee? Well look no further, Bikes to Rwanda is here. Our local coffee shop is doing a fund raiser tonight for them, so that's how I found out about it. And of course Rwanda still stirs echos from the movie "Hotel Rwanda". (I spent half the movie going "We knew?! And we didn't do anything?!" I was in my even more self absorbed stage when that went down. I seriously had no idea.) But if you don't happen to live in Pittsburgh, go to Bikes to Rwanda's contribute page and send a few bucks their way. C'mon, you just dropped $2000 for a new bike, $5 for some frou-frou coffee drink, and $10 for lunch. Do you feel good saying you don't have $10 for charity?

Why my screen is now adorned with Pepsi

2008-02-19T14:24:00.001-05:00

Email from my husband:

Subject: Porter

Text: I'm not saying he's gained weight or anything....

How are you feeling today?

2008-02-15T11:07:00.001-05:00

Grateful for everything you have? No? Give this a whirl, and you will be.

Happy Valentine’s Day

2008-02-14T12:57:00.002-05:00

Ok, Ok, I have to admit Valentine’s Day is one of two holidays a year against which I hold a grudge. It all goes back to that rather uninteresting dating life I had. Every year we’d get that one-two punch of New Year’s Eve and Valentine’s Day. They were the days on which it seemed like EVERYONE was in FREAKING LOVE except me and a few other equally bitter friends. Every diamonds commercial seemed to say “Every Kiss begins with Kay. Except for you. You don’t have a kiss or a diamond do you? Schmuck.” Bitter, bitter, bitter. And even when I did have a Mr Right (or Right Now), I was still bitter enough at the Romance Industrial Complex that both days tended to be low key. We watched movies on NY eve, or went out to dinner for Valentine’s, and that was about it.

Fortunately for me, my husband knows the four things that make me happy – roses, chocolate, babykins, and him. Well six if you count the two dogs in the car. Anyway, he showed up at work for lunch with all of the above. 2 chocolate bars from Ecuador (his birthplace) and 2 chocolate bars from Galler in Brugges, where we bought chocolate on our honeymoon. (How’s this for the perfect euro-travel setup – on the day he and the other guys on our trip rode the Paris-Roubaix course, I hung out in a French farmhouse eating Belgian chocolate. Life is good!).

Just a few more weeks, and we’ll have to tell Porter the Saga of the Honeymoon for the very first time. It’s a story that he will hear over and over again. Because it makes his daddy and I laugh. Especially the part where we were hurtling through the darkness from Brussels to Lille in a tiny car with two strangers who barely spoke English (while I barely spoke French), wondering if we were going to die in a ditch somewhere. And then got to Lille and were dropped off only to find out that “gang” is apparently a universal phenomenon. And then were saved by a taxi driver that I still pray for every day. Porter might be older when we tell him about the “Hollywood” portion of the story – the guy who may disprove the theory that you “can’t” get addicted to marijuana. And the thing that we’ll tell Porter is key to the whole thing is…no matter how crappy things get, a good sense of humor is key. We each melted down at different times, but never at the same time. But all along we knew that when it was all said and done, it was going to be a GREAT story. And it is.

Happy Valentine’s day, my love of my life. Just think, a mere 46 more of these before you get to renegotiate the contract.

Doh!

2008-02-11T14:00:00.000-05:00

From the NY Times: "Biofuels Deemed a Greenhouse Threat".

Now if someone could just ban the damn CFLs. I've been a good girl and loaded two of them up in our house. One is in the living room giving my husband a headache. The other is in our basement where it belongs. But nooooo, CFLs are going to be the wave of the future. I gave ours a whirl with the idea of saving money on electricity (that it's supposed to be environmentally friendly was just a side benefit). But I'm not impressed. And from an environmental standpoint, I'm not sure that using mercury that heavily is going to ultimately be a good thing for anyone. Yes one bulb contains very little mercury. But millions of bulbs? What happens when they start hitting the town dump? Because you know that we'll be lucky if 10% of people recycle their mercury bulbs. Choice between tossing in trash can and running to a "convenient location" blocks or miles from their house? Yeahhhhh....

I do believe we should be good stewards of the earth. I'm just not sure mercury anythings are the means to do that. And apparently biofuels aren't either. (Booyah, brought that right back around to my opening line. Not bad, eh?)

Nothing but class...

2008-02-08T12:21:00.000-05:00

Regardless of what you think of this story, can we just agree that this:

Outside the Shattuck Avenue recruiting station earlier this week, a handful of protesters with the anti-war group Code Pink camped out, strumming a guitar as they sang anti-war songs and held signs against the Iraq war.
"Time to end the war, time to end the war, time to end the war right now," they sang to the beat of "I've Been Working on the Railroad."

Shows the sign of uncreative minds? Strumming a guitar? Really, when are you going to get past 1965? And the best lyrics you can come up with is "Time to end the war, time to end the war, time to end the war right now". I know some little kids withthe same creativity: "I want a cookie, I want a cookie. I want a cookie right now."

As for what I think of the story....the city of Berkely are a bunch of imbeciles. I hope congress does pull back the $2 million in federal funding. Idiots.

Jury duty

2008-02-05T09:17:00.001-05:00

Last week I had jury duty. And despite what I’ve been told, letting the clerk of court know that I had an engineering degree AND that I’m an IT business analyst did not get me out of jury duty. Later I was talking with another juror who was an engineer, and he’d been told the same thing. Lies! All lies!

Regardless, it was kind of an interesting experience. We ended up with a personal injury case, where there was a fender bender, which aggravated a pre-existing back condition and rendered the hit party unable to work. That was so sad. I felt for him, truly.

Some thoughts:

-I loved that the defendant’s name was Smith and his lawyer’s name was Jones.
-Our judge was a marine who served in Vietnam and got two bronze stars. And he thanked our bitching, moaning selves for service to our country.
-At one point the plaintiff’s lawyer got crosswise with the judge. The judge gave him an instruction, and the lawyer either didn’t understand or else tried to go there anyway. The judge darn near leaped across the bench.
-Court rooms are not as pretty as they look on tv. The woodwork was all there, but so was the stuff piled up in the corners.
-Under things that suck – having to ask the 50 year old “tip staff” man for a place to pump milk. And then getting to use a deliberating room for this adventure while he stood guard outside. Courts: Not a nursing mom friendly environment.
-The defendant’s lawyer was talking to the defendant about which cars he had, and their colors. He had a gold Cadillac Seville for his personal car, and he drove a yellow cab for work. The lawyer kind of laughed, but she had to ask: “What color was the yellow cab?”

Overall an interesting, and somewhat depressing experience. The proceedings were interesting, but seeing someone whose life fell into shambles over a fender bender was depressing. Glad I did it, but I don't want to go again.

Forty Nine Thousand

2008-02-04T15:02:00.000-05:00

Chris calculated last night that conservatively I've burned 49,000 calories just feeding Porter for the last 5 months. Or, if you take the rule of thumb calculation,

Porter's roughly 23 weeks old x 7 days x 600 calories/day = 96,600 calories.

I think I hear a bunch of bike racing guys gearing up for the new season by trying to figure out how to lactate.

And the winner is....

2008-02-01T09:15:00.000-05:00

Update: Curses, sorry about that guys, wrong blog. This was supposed to be updating grandparents and family who are all excited about things like the latest foods Porter's eating and what toys he has.

In other words....never mind.

_______________________________________

Acorn Squash.

We had two left acorn squash left over from last season's CSA. Chris isn't a big fan, and I find they take a little work which almost doesn't seem worth it for one person. But I never did bring myself to get rid of them. So last night I chopped them up, boiled, and pureed them. Then I poured them into two ice cube trays, and put whatever was left over in a coffee cup that I use as Porter's bowl, plastic'd it and threw it in the fridge. (He actually does have a regular baby bowl, but it's sort of big for what he's eating right now).

20 seconds in the microwave and our little chow hound was a happy boy. I have somewhere between 14 and 28 days (1 cube or 2 per meal? We'll find out tomorrow).

In other news, craigslist is once again my friend. I got Porter a Leapfrog "Learn and Groove Music Table" for super-duper cheap. It's a little old for him since he's not really able to stand on his own, but I figure he'll grow into it.

Wait...what?

2008-01-29T18:38:00.000-05:00

My husband is currently mountain biking with a bunch of guys. When they're done, they're going to go to someplace that is known for hotdogs and beer. Except....3 of the guys are vegetarian, and 3 are either straight edge or just don't drink alcohol.

Huh?!

SYM

2008-01-28T13:53:00.000-05:00

I found this article to be fascinating. And that’s primarily because it ties in nicely to my personal theory of happiness. Essentially, you can’t be happy if you’re the most important thing in your life. Awkwardly phrased, I know.

Where this little bit of profundity comes from is years of watching guys in their 20s (mmmm, guys in their 20s…I mean, no! wait!) flounder emotionally. The ones who seemed the happiest (truly happy, even when they aren’t drinking) are the ones who are committed to something other than (and more important than) themselves. For some it’s religion, for others it’s a significant other or their family, for others, it’s a cause. The guys who have nothing other than themselves to worry about seem, at best, restless, and at worst, miserable. I guess sitting around thinking “Am I happy yet?” doesn’t lend itself to actually being happy.

Oh and while I’ve seen it most in men, we women are not immune. Life amongst us single women can be pretty miserable as well. Most of my friends want(ed) to be involved with someone. And that can make for equally miserable, restless people. But I think the difference is, most of the women I know wanted to be in a committed relationship, and want a life beyond sitting around with other chicks, bashing men. Alas, a lot of guys treat commitment like there’s only 4 letters there, and the tension builds....

Should I be Worried?

2008-01-25T20:37:00.000-05:00

Is it a problem if my husband likes to ride his bikes in the woods in the dark with another guy and talk about Project Runway?

Turnabout

2008-01-22T19:06:00.000-05:00

Since I heckled the Vegans on Ideal Bite (but Soupie, you're a reformed vegan, so it's ok!), it's only fair that I post this link to Megan McArdle.

What my hubby wants for his birthday

2008-01-20T20:40:00.001-05:00

Email I just sent my boss

2008-01-20T19:56:00.000-05:00

Short Version:
I need to work from home

Long Version:

So I'm leaving a play date for Porter at a friend's house when my husband calls. Our little girl dog has run off, and he's got to be at a client's. So he's leaving the back door open. As I get on the state highway to head home, all I can think is "It's 15 freakin degrees, and this dog is probably going end up in the pound and our gas bill is going to be a million billion dollars." And I'm so aggravated at the dog, that it takes me a few minutes to register that things seem....noisy. And I'm on a stretch of the highway that has no place to pull off. But it's getting louder and louder and then suddenly I see a tire go past my car. My tire. From the rear drivers side of the car. I got the car stopped, but it was in the left lane, with the traffic whizzing by in both directions.

Thankfully a wonderful, wonderful man stopped and put on the bicycle tire for me, with Porter screaming the whole time. And when I got home, Ginger was waiting for me. It ended pretty well. Until the bills start coming in.

So I'll be putting tires on the car.

What would you spend YOUR economic stimulus on?

2008-01-18T13:04:00.000-05:00

I can tell you where ours would go:

(It'll keep the hospital from repossessing him.)

Send drugs

2008-01-18T10:47:00.000-05:00

My favorite baby is teething. At the same time he's also congested (alas, he appears to have his parents proclivity for sinusitis). He's been a sweetie pie through all of it, but he's not sleeping at night. He wakes up trying to chew on the bedding and then getting upset because it's not crazy effective. Therefore I am not sleeping at night. Chris has been sent out for Orajel and teething ring. I'm sort of just trying to keep my shit together at this point because I've already had two conversations where I've lost my train of thought in the middle of a sentence.

Gosh, and we only have 20 teeth to get through, this should be a blast.

I don't get it

2008-01-16T15:17:00.001-05:00

So the story of the pregnant marine who was killed (apparently) by another marine who raped her is everywhere. But one thing keeps jumping out at me as being illogical:

Months earlier, Lauterbach had told superiors at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, that Laurean had raped her.

However, "At no time did she indicate that she was threatened by Cpl. Laurean," Sokoloski said. "When she was asked if she felt threatened by Cpl. Laurean, she said she did not feel threatened."

Wait....someone rapes her, she takes out a protective order, and yet at no time did she indicate that she was threatened by him? What does it take to indicate that you're a weeeeeeeeee bit uncomfortable around this person? Flags? Flares? Somebody dropped the ball here.

Place your bets! Place your bets!

2008-01-16T10:16:00.000-05:00

I hereby am betting that the race will be Obama vs McCain. Anyone want to bet on anyone else?

Wow

2008-01-15T08:26:00.001-05:00

This has to be one of the most heart-rending things I've read in a long time. I'm just happy that I'm able to read this AFTER we had Porter, I don't know if I could get through this if it turned out that we couldn't have kids.

Great Photo

2008-01-14T20:58:00.001-05:00

This came from CNN

Creepy

2008-01-11T09:16:00.001-05:00

Not that I need another reason to dislike Chavez of Venezuela, but this is a little unnerving.

Update: You know what's even creepier? The anti semitic comments that are attached to that article. Anyone who has an axe, or a perceived axe in that forum seems to be saying "They have it coming". That's just horrifying.

More Whoa

2008-01-09T17:59:00.000-05:00

The girl in this story was Chris's roommate

And friends of mine are going to be the subjects of an article in the Feb Glamour about eating disorders.

And Porter just rolled over.

Life is always crazy.

Whoa...

2008-01-08T18:27:00.000-05:00

I went to college (go Buc U!) with Mike Huckabee's campaign manager...

Just.Don't.

2008-01-07T17:45:00.000-05:00

Ok, I was never going to vote for Hillary. But one professional woman to another I have to say

Don't.

Just.Don't.

Look, men can get by with crying if they do the Iron-eyes Cody thing when their team loses a Super Bowl by a last minute field goal. That's because it plays against type and demonstrates their softer side. Now I realize that you're taking a rap for not being soft enough, but how about smooching your daughter on the forehead or something instead. Crying women are considered weak. Especially if they aren't crying over the bodies of a loved or a mass grave someplace. You were crying over how brave you were. Not cool.

Just.

Don't.

A Deranged Mind

2008-01-07T13:13:00.000-05:00

Well one positive thing about the possibility of Obama vs Huckabee is at least we will have the treat of listening to good orators. I’m not sure we will or won’t like what we hear, but after 8+ years of Ws mumblings, it’s going to be refreshing.
I know I’m old. How? I just looked at one of my co-workers and thought “Cute kid”.
This is a primer on how NOT to convert people to veganism. (Scroll to the comments after the tip). http://www.idealbite.com/tiplibrary/archives/truth_or_dairy/
I was starting to giggle when we got to cow rape racks. C’mon. Do you REALLY think that the natural process of cow breeding involves wine, a nice dinner of hay, and mood lighting? I have plenty of issues with some of the things that go on with factory farms, but it’s hard to take someone seriously when their rhetoric is SO over the top. Start slow, start where people are. You’ll get more converts to your point of view.
Saturday morning Porter started reaching for Ginger. And grabbing her hair with both hands. Fortunately her hair is short, and blessedly, she’s super patient. We’re going to have to work on “petting” with him. He got Fred’s long hair later in the day, and Fred just gave him an “oh &%(*” look and waited for me to rescue him. We have the best dogs.
As long as there’s no major scandal, I’m guessing we’ll be complaining about President Obama next year. (Oh c'mon, you know you'll complain about whoever it is). It just has that feel to it. A math professor of mine, every year at evaluations would tell us “Be honest. But you should also know I’m tenured. I’d have to have sex with a freshman at noon in the middle of a busy street to get fired.” Obama feels like he’s tenured.
Woohoo! Went for my first bike ride since I had Porter. It was New Year's day. And I went around the block. DAMN it was cold. And I was under dressed. And we had hills. When did we grow those? The whole thing was downright embarrassing. I'm just going to have to start slower after a year+ off the bike.

Zippity Doo Dah...

2007-12-27T08:48:00.000-05:00

So the bad news is that yesterday was Porter's 4 month checkup and therefore shots day. Poor guy. Shots day extends beyond the joy of sticking needles into the baby's legs. It also means that for the rest of the day, he pretty much feels like crap. I came home from work around 3 PM, and spent the afternoon curled up with him in bed so he could sleep/nurse/sleeeeep/wake/fuss/sleeeeeepppppp....

I'm going to burn in Mommy hell for admitting this, but the boy slept from 10:30 last night until 5:30 this morning. Man, I love shots day. I haven't had 7 straight hours of sleep since he was born. My previous best was when he was sleeping 7 straight hours starting from around 8PM. That equated to about 5 hours for me, which was pretty sweet. That was the week of Thanksgiving, but it all went out the window when I went back to work. Hopefully Chris doesn't call me any time soon to tell me that the little man has a fever and is sick. That would suck the joy right out of my morning. But in the meantime, I was dancing in the car on the way to work. All of that spare energy! Sweet!

Zippity doo dah, Zippity - aaaaa

I am Legend

2007-12-26T17:10:00.000-05:00

Merry Christmas - Over and over again. First the grandparents (aka my mom & dad and Chris's mom) came in for an early Christmas celebration. Then we celebrated our own Christmas. It was all fun, and the best part....going out to see a movie. Gasp. Without number one son.

We saw "I am Legend". Chris nailed it - if you liked "Children of Men", you'll probably be inclined to like this one. And we did like "Children of Men". Well for me, except for the part where the woman went through childbirth and then ran with her newborn through a war zone. I was about 2 months pregnant, you see. Actually that then brought up a similar issue with "I am Legend". No pregnant women, but there's an aspect of the movie that both of us identified with. And it went horribly awry. Unfortunately I can't expound on this because it would be a spoiler. If you go, you'll figure it out.

In general, I just didn't enjoy the movie all that well. Will Smith is a phenomenal actor - and he did a great job here. But this was sci-fi crossed with horror, and I'm not much of a horror flick fan. I have an overactive imagination. And then of course there was the aforementioned aspect of the movie. I'd give a qualified thumbs up - knowing that it's an apocalyptic horror flick, if that's your thing, definitely go. Otherwise...Blades of Glory anyone?

Bwah?!

2007-12-12T08:04:00.000-05:00

I've always cursed flying in and out of Pittsburgh because it's so freakin' expensive. USAirways had the monopoly on the local airport, and they weren't afraid to use it. I've flown out of Cleveland and Akron and gotten hugely cheaper tickets. But either that's changed, or Cincinnati is just ridiculous. Egads.

Happy Anniversary, Sweetie

2007-12-12T06:29:00.000-05:00

I'm a day late in getting this to the internet, but our celebration won't be until we run out of the house on Sunday yelling "sucker!" over our shoulders at Mom while she babysits Porter.

Ok, just kidding about the yelling "sucker" part. But anyway, you'll be happy to know that only 3 years too late, I've found the perfect first dance for us.

Surreal moments in getting old

2007-12-11T12:29:00.000-05:00

I just ran into someone that I first met when I started with my company....18 years ago. Dear lord, I cannot possibly be this old.

I was just a child when I started working, I swear!

Any doors fans out there?

2007-12-08T14:03:00.000-05:00

Thanks, Angie!

Porter to Fatmarc

2007-12-04T08:27:00.000-05:00

Swing Free, my man, swing free.

(Mommy to Porter....I can't wait for Prom.)

Cyclocross

2007-12-04T06:05:00.000-05:00

Die! Die! Die!

2007-11-29T08:55:00.000-05:00

Ok, while this article is ridiculously over the top, I can totally sympathize with the general sentiment. I used to love going to the stores on the Friday after Christmas, just to be in with a crowd of people who were in good moods, listening to Christmas music, and admiring the decorations. But the madness that this has evolved into means that I'll wait until one of my Mondays off to do all of that. There won't be crowds, but it'll just give me more room to wander with my baby and look at lights.

And then I'll order my presents from here . Mwah-ha-ha-ha-haaaa, take that big box stores!

Lotus-Eater no more

2007-11-28T08:47:00.000-05:00

After three months of spending my time like a lotus-eater with nothing more to do than stare lovingly at my baby's face and wonder why the heck he's still crying, I'm now back at work. It's a little rough, but one saving grace is that I'm leaving Porter with the person I trust most in the world to take care of him - Chris. And at least I took 3 months off with him and wasn't stuck with the unfortunate world of 6 paid weeks and then back to work. So far it hasn't been end of the world. I suspect that will actually be the worst in January when I start having to work full weeks. In December, this is my only full work week, and then I have one or two days off every week. But man....what a drag this is.

Dirty Dozen

2007-11-24T20:39:00.000-05:00

And as surely as Black Friday follows Thanksgiving, does Dirty Dozen Saturday follow Black Friday.

The Dirty Dozen is a 24 year Pittsburgh tradition. Every year a bunch of sickos ride the 13 toughest hills in Pittsburgh. Yes, they cannot count. Or they're all bakers. Anyway, babykins and I headed out to watch Chris ride Sycamore and Canton st.

First up: Sycamore. I remembered to bring my camera along to film it. Just before the riders got there, I tried to frame the shot only to see the battery light start flashing. Then as the riders approached, I shifted Porter in my arms, and he started crying. Which then distracted me in my filming so that I got an awful lot of the fine paving job on the side of the hill. After two attempts at filming the camera gave up the ghost all together.

Sigh.

Then I hung out with Chris and a few other friends that I haven't really had a chance to talk to this summer. Then it was off to Canton St, one of the contenders for the steepest street in the world. It's supposedly steeper than anything in San Francisco at 37.5%. It's a crazy street, and better than 1/2 the riders fell over on their sides when they ran out of energy part way up. Alas one such rider went straight into Chris on his way up, and knocked him over.

Steevo killed it and won the whole race handily. Chris got somewhere in the 5th or 6th place. So it was a good day, and a good time was had by all.

So if you're driving through Pittsburgh on the Saturday after Thanksgiving next year, and you see 100+ cyclists, you'll know that they're headed off to do something silly. Fun....but silly.

And this is my middle finger...

2007-11-24T09:23:00.000-05:00

So these "lovely" people don't want babies. Whatever. I certainly respect people's procreative choices. But...

"Having children is selfish. It's all about maintaining your genetic line at the expense of the planet," says Toni, 35.

And why are we maintaining the planet? I like how I would be a bad person for not respecting her choices, but she can judge my motives in the paper. Snort.

PF

2007-11-20T22:54:00.000-05:00

Over the last couple of months, I've slowly become obsessed with reading personal finance blogs. In part, that's for obvious reasons. Somehow we have to pay to raise our little bambino. But also, reading articles like this one about "The Sandwiched Generation"makes me realize that if we don't get our retirement shit together, Porter's going to be paying for our nursing home. And if we aren't nice enough to him, he'll put us in some cheap elder-abuse kind of place.

But anyway...if anyone's interested in reading PF (Personal Finance) blogs, some good ones are:
Get Rich Slowly

The Simple Dollar

Five Cent Nickel

Wisebread

Livin' on the Edge

2007-11-18T22:03:00.000-05:00

How tough am I? I've lived in two of the top ten most dangerous cities in the country.

That's right, don't fuck with the baby sitter.

Welcome to the 21st Century!

2007-11-15T14:45:00.000-05:00

We just figured out how to use the RSS reader a few weeks ago, and man is it sweet. Check out "Google Reader" sometime. My favorite moment in RSS reader history was Sunday night of the Granogue/Wiss weekend. Chris was hitting "refresh" on that thing like a rat on a feeder bar, waiting for blogs to post updates about the big races that he missed. From the time fatmarc showed up in the reader to the time Chris got out to the site to leave a comment THREE other people had already commented. Wow....

Is raising kids a fools investment?

2007-11-15T14:21:00.001-05:00

MSNBC has an article about how expensive kids are.

Duh.

I've been doing a lot of reading about personal finance lately, (gee what a surprise, huh?) and one topic that's always good for a healthy debate is the financial impact of having children. When should you have them? How much money do you need to have stored up? Are you a sucker for having children because of the cost?

I think the MSNBC article hit the nail on the head in one aspect - kids used to be a financial investment when they worked around the farm and took care of their parents in their dotage. But now they're an emotional investment. And while I would never say that you shouldn't consider finances (believe me, I've considered them a lot of late), I find it hard to believe that finances are a prime mover for most of us in deciding whether or not to have kids. (Note: For an exception to the rule, read Jeff Opdyke's "Love and Money".) I have two dogs who are emotional investments as well. If they keep the house from getting robbed, that's a nice bonus, but I got them for non-financial reasons. I ride bikes for fun, it's an emotional investment. If it makes me healthy, great! There are a lot of things we do that aren't financially motivated.

Having said that, I'm not suggesting that if you want kids, you shouldn't factor finances into the timing. I just think that if you want kids, you'll make things work. And you probably aren't deciding to have kids because it's a sound financial investment.

Why it pays to have friends who are graphic designers

2007-11-14T08:20:00.000-05:00

My friend Kathy's handiwork...

Before

After:

Man...

2007-11-06T21:53:00.001-05:00

What a day. I could do with the remote and a cold beer.

Bring me Solo and the Wookie

2007-11-05T12:24:00.000-05:00

Her house is probably spotless too

2007-11-04T16:17:00.000-05:00

Paula Radcliffe wins the NY marathon 10 months after having a baby.

Wah

2007-11-03T17:31:00.000-05:00

Things I'm missing only 2 months into this parenting thing:

caffeine. I want my Dr Pepper, darn it.
dairy - I miss cheese, and ice cream, and butter and yogurt and... Alas, Porter doesn't seem to take well to dairy.
being able to pick up my keys and walk out the door. Ok, Chris just spit his drink all over the computer screen. More accurately, I miss being able to look for my keys for 10 minutes, then borrow Chris's keys and walk out the door.
alcohol. Pre pregnancy, I had a drink about once a month, tops. Now, just knowing that I can't/shouldn't is enough to make me miss it.
being able to walk the dogs without 15lbs of baby strapped to my chest. There are days when I'm like "Is this what a disc rupture feels like?"
sleeping through the night. God, I miss sleep.

But this little guy? Totally worth it. At least that's what I chanted the whole time I was in caffeine withdrawal:

random thoughts from a hiatus

2007-11-01T10:53:00.000-05:00

Seriously...Al Gore gets a Nobel Peace Prize? Last year's winner, Muhammad Yunus works to give people a chance to pull themselves out of poverty. Gore? He tells everyone that if they're not careful, the world's going to get too hot for him to air condition his mansion. (spits in dust in disgust)
Why the hell isn't Stephen Colbert running for president in PA? I'd vote for him, he's as good a candidate as any of them out there...
Found two really cool charities - one via the Colbeaaarrrr Repoooorrrr -
Donor's Choose
Kiva
I'm only 23 years behind the times - I watched "The Killing Fields" and realized that the thing that's tugging at my heart these days is...crying babies. What a surprise.
Our little tyke is huge. No, really big for his age, I'm not kidding. We keep singing "I'm a little teapot short and stout..." Our pediatrician was trying oh so tactfully to say that our kid is...uh...large. As one, Chris and I said "It's ok, he's fat".
We saw the "Bodies" exhibit. At the end they had a board where you could put a post-it with your thoughts on the exhibit. My feelings matched the one that read "Cool, but gross". Also...a lot smaller than I expected. Tickets were $22/person, but the whole exhibit took maybe 45 minutes to go through. So for two of us, it was a bit pricey. Cool, but pricey.
Flick's last two posts are hysterical. Good on you mate. And I hear you show up in "A Sunday in Delaware". A star is born.
Overall, I'm avoiding presidential candidates. No point in getting wound up until I know who's actually running. But there have been some pretty funny moments. Kucinich on the Colbert report made me laugh. I've heard Edwards was good, too. And I liked this video from McCain:

The perfect fall day

2007-10-30T10:19:00.000-05:00

In the words of the sign on the nuclear scientist's door....

2007-10-13T08:29:00.001-05:00

The baby thing has me beat, I'm taking a blog sabbatical here until November 1. Happy Halloween everyone!

Very, very cool

2007-10-06T12:22:00.000-05:00

Librarian Chick has a HUGE list of free educational resources. Free...one of my favorite "F" words...

H/T Get Rich Slowly

Sweet! Sort of...

2007-10-04T16:12:00.001-05:00

So the good news is....I've lost 30lbs of pregnancy weight.

The bad news is...a lot of it is muscle weight.

The good news is....7 weeks to get fit before I have to juggle mommy-hood and work.

The bad news is....I have a LOT of work to do.

The good news is at least I'm not doing the 9 up-9 down thing. And I'm going to stop it there, because really, this is nothing to complain about. Tonight Fred and I are going for a run.

Break

2007-10-01T18:12:00.000-05:00

Yesterday was Chris's break time from all-baby-all-the-time. He has been awesome about the non-stop diaper changing and baby-walking, but it was definitely time to get out of the house. So he, Soupie, Steevo, and Turner hit the road for a cross race in Maryland. And it was a good day all around. In the B-race, Chris took 4th, Turner took 3rd, and Soupie having stepped up a level in the racing, held in there for his first B-race. Nice job, Soupie - I hear tell that Diane gave you an appropriate congratulatory response. (Just kidding, actually I sympathize greatly with Diane, it's an easy mistake to make). Steevo took 12th in the A race - which apparently Wes rocked the place and beat Jeremiah Bishop. And for the first time in 3 years Chris had a chance to just chill out and watch the race, listening to some old-school hip-hop, and hanging with friends. Usually his race day is race-announce-leave. So this was the break he needed from kid responsibilities.

And for me - I watched season 3 of Grey's Anatomy. Pretty close to all of it. I really like that show, but I'm starting to get irritated with Derek. In season 1 & 2 he was a guy whose life had handed him a raw deal, and was struggling with the decision between love-of-his-life and doing the right thing with the wife who cheated on him. But in season 3, he turned ugly. Life got tough and he started out the door. LOSER. Grrr. Doesn't stop me from thinking that Patrick Dempsey is gorgeous, but his character is going to have to pick it up. Shame about the whole Isaiah Washington thing, his character was really good, although season 3 wasn't impressive for him either. And George was so freakin' wishy-washy. All in all, season 3 was the weakest of the seasons so far. But at least I'm caught up, and can start watching season 4 this Thursday. I can hear Chris's eyerolls from here. I'm not normally a late night soaps person, but I've been watching Hotel Babylon and Grey's Anatomy. Cable tv is the work of the devil, I tell you....

Charmed....I'm sure

2007-09-25T10:27:00.001-05:00

Sunday was weird. It was the start of the cyclo-cross season, and for the first time in 5 or 6 years, we weren't there. But even though Porter is a great kid, 6 hours of driving for the day and a long day at the race is probably pushing our luck. But it was awesome to hear from everyone as the results started coming back from the race. Ethan (aka E-town) took the B-race. Fatmarc won the Master's B. It was awesome and we had a mini celebration here at home. But it's nothing like being there.

But this coming weekend, and the next, Chris is going to take on the next two races. I will be home drinking to make sure Porter sleeps through the day. (I jest, hang up the phone with CPS). So the fun is underway!

My husband has a new phone...

2007-09-17T17:07:00.001-05:00

Who knew that Sanyo was the maker of the Barbie Dream Phone?

Thought for the day

2007-09-17T16:28:00.000-05:00

Am I considered a cougar if I'm already married?

Perverse

2007-09-16T09:08:00.000-05:00

One thing that's been a real adventure with this motherhood thing is that I need the ability to wake from a sound sleep and figure out what my baby wants, usually within a few seconds if I don't want full scale shrieking to begin.

Last night the whimpering had started, so I offered him a bit to eat from the left side. NO! NO! NO! WRONG! and the whimpering progressed into whining. So it was off to the changing table. Where I discovered that his diaper was dry. NO! NO! Now the screaming was in full force and the whole family was awake. Ginger, who much to our surprise has shown that she had room in her pea brain for a spark of maternal instinct, fled the room for the first time since I'd brought the baby home.

Now, I'm stumped. He doesn't want food and his diaper is dry? So maybe we'll try the right side. Except...at this point Porter is well and truly pissed. He's had to endure a diaper check and this incompetent doesn't know what he wants. And because he's been unswaddled to check his diaper, the angry flail has begun. In desperation I decide to try the right side's food offerings. But now I have to get past the ninja hands, and I'm getting pretty beat up in the process. On the plus side he hasn't landed any blows on his own face, so that's good. Finally I manage to get food to baby mouth and the crying and flailing ceases immediately. I guess the left side offering was unacceptable, but the right is O.K.

Just goes to prove what I always suspected as a single women. Boys are perverse.

3 Weeks down, 933 to go

2007-09-13T19:54:00.000-05:00

Today is 3 weeks since Porter was born, and we're sort of settling into a sort of a soft focus pattern to the day. But I have gotten to see some movies, and more than caught up on a bunch of TLC/Style Network/BBC shows. I'm now officially hooked on Hotel Babylon, Clean House, What Not to Wear, Mythbusters, Dirty Jobs... It's going to be tough to go back to work, it'll feel like going cold turkey on TV. We've also watched "Hot Fuzz" (Very funny - think "Shaun of the Dead"), "Blood Diamond" (eh....a little preachy), and I watched "Paint Your Wagon" (Any musical which features Lee Marvin and Clint Eastwood singing is not at all intimidating for my croaking along). Unfortunately I'm still figuring out how to hold a baby and do things, so not much else gets done. That and I'm endlessly fascinated by the faces the boy makes. I know this will eventually wear off, but for now I just settle for looking at him and thinking "You were inside of me?! How the hell did THAT work."

The adventure continues.

You call that a Victory Salute?

2007-09-07T11:20:00.001-05:00

Please, my 2 week old son does that in his sleep.

Poking my head up

2007-09-04T08:42:00.000-05:00

So obviously everything around here has been pretty much all baby all the time for the last two weeks. I finally turned on some CNN to see what's been going on.

Michael Vick was convicted of a dog fighting ring. Really? A pro football player arrested?
Senator Craig was arrested on soliciting a man in an airport bathroom. Really? A politician with sexual indiscretions announcing that he's going to fight on?
A hurricane of large size is about to hit landfall somewhere.

Basically it's same-old, same-old. So I don't feel in the least bit bad going back to watching my baby roll his eyes for the next few weeks. It's certainly more entertainment than the nightly news.

The littlest things are keeping me from blogging

2007-08-29T10:09:00.001-05:00

It's been a crazy few days, as you can probably imagine. Our parents were both here Sun & Mon, Chris's Mom left Tues, mine will probably leave Friday. Thank heavens, though. We've had meals made for us, the house cleaned, the baby held. It's certainly going to be tougher when there aren't spare hands reaching for the baby at all times. Sleep has been expectedly spotty, but last night was actually survivable - I think I got 6 hours of sleep, which is WAY more than I expected. We'll see if that ever happens again. My Dad, Mr Project Man, is getting antsy because we don't really have many projects left, so it's time to head on out.

It's a BOY!

2007-08-27T04:20:00.000-05:00

Porter Deon
Born Aug 23
7lbs 11 oz
19 1/4 inches tall

Mom, Dad and Baby are all exhausted

Nope, not today

2007-08-22T11:50:00.001-05:00

My co-worker got tired of answering the question on everyone's mind.
Chris (the not-my-husband-but-still-a-crosser version) is going to see his baby at roughly the same time we're thinking we'll see ours! I swear we were NOT at the same party.

Hmm. On second thought, were y'all drinking from the same whiskey bottle at the end of MAC races last year?

Clean House

2007-08-21T17:45:00.000-05:00

I am pathetically addicted to makeover shows. "What not to Wear", "Clean House", etc, all have me entranced. But I think what I'm most fascinated by is how resistant people are to change even when they are so bad at some facet of their life that they get nominated for one of these shows. My favs are the women who wail on "What not to Wear" when their hair is cut. Dude, you're on a show called what not to wear. The guy cutting your hair gets paid 10 times what your "stylist" gets. And....it's HAIR. It will grow back! Or how about the people on Clean House who first fight getting rid of things (er....why did they nominate themselves? they didn't know they had to get rid of stuff) and then worry that the design won't suit them. These are people who couldn't walk across their living room floor and now they're worried about the design?! ANYTHING is better than what they had!

I'm off to fantasize about $5000 to spend on a new wardrobe with makeup and hair done by real pros.

The "Other" religion

2007-08-21T07:20:00.000-05:00

Megan McArdle has moved from a PC to a MAC. And I think she captures the experience well.

2007-08-21T05:30:00.001-05:00

Rain, Rain,
Go away
Come again another day
Little doggies want to play
Rain, Rain
Go Away

Other parts of the country have had a wet summer with flooding, but we have decided to get all of our rain in one week. Which is just sucking wind for two antsy dogs who can't figure out why the humans don't turn off the outdoor shower. They don't like being out in this weather either. But being cooped up in a small duplex isn't precisely their idea of a dream. Fred's pouting paw is on permanent extension. He wants to make sure we understand how miserable this all is. And he's got Ginger well trained also.

Add to that the adventure of Fred's newest fashion statement:

He tore his right front dew claw pretty badly, and is sporting a lovely "cuff" these days (aka a blue bandage from the vet). He also had this in green, but alas that doesn't match his leash as well. Then we bought a new red leash, so we might have to hit the vet to update the look. I digress.

Anyway, for fun these days Chris and I have been rating the value of the insanity each dog shows us to let us know that they're BORED. Ginger pretty much wins every time.

Style Lust

2007-08-18T18:50:00.000-05:00

I didn't realize how sick I was of maternity clothes until we went to the book store last night. I picked up InStyle magazine and Lucky magazine. When we got home, I was like a teenage boy with Playboy. And I am by nature a disease-ride t-shirt and jeans/shorts kind of girl. But I'm getting a little sick of wearing the same 6 outfits, 3 of which the tops are too short to cover the belly. I'm looking forward to having more selections after the baby's born. Or at least having all of those outfits fit again until I get back to a normal shape/size. Soon!

So THAT'S how it's done

2007-08-17T08:21:00.000-05:00

I like this story about a continental airlines passenger revolt.

Fun with Co-workers

2007-08-15T08:50:00.001-05:00

I was attending a meeting that was supposed to end at 9:30, but was running long. I had a meeting that started at 9:30. So at about 9:28, I told the people in the meeting "Look I really have to go". Which caused much consternation until I clarified "Not to the hospital, to my next meeting!"

This pregnancy thing is so much fun!

Cheapy movie night, round two

2007-08-14T14:08:00.001-05:00

So last night we were off to see the Bourne movie. Oh dang, I can never remember which one. Identity? Supremacy? No, wait, I've got it - Ultimatum. And it really is the ultimate summer movie thriller. What more could you want - it's got a hotty lead (Matt Damon), a hotty chick (Julia Stiles), and action/adventure all over the place. My only complaint with this movie is the same as with the Bourne Supremacy - they borrowed their camera style from "The Blair Witch Project". Hand cams have to be the most highly over-rated shooting style in the world. Thankfully it wasn't as extreme as in the last film, which I almost couldn't watch. It was just a lot of fun, and even if we did exchange some comments between Chris and I during the movie like:
"In case you were keeping count, this is the third secure perimeter"
and
"So you come home from a bad day at work, and walk into your apartment..."

If you don't mind spoilers, let's just go with - I agree with Ken Levine!

Operating Instructions by Anne Lamott

2007-08-14T09:20:00.000-05:00

I've read this book already once before and laughed my head off. It's a diary of Anne Lamott's first year as a single mom to her baby Sam. Now I'm re-reading and going "ew....really?" And it also makes me realize that I'm really, really glad that I'm not doing the single mom thing. I don't know how women do it. I'm so dependent right now on Chris to keep the house together, because my idea of a craaaazy evening is to flop around trying to find the position that best allows me to breathe. I can't even imagine doing it all myself once the baby is born. So as funny as I found this book when I was single and childless, now it's definitely gotten a more poignant tinge to it as I imagine how I would respond to certain situations. But hysterical.

We were laughing the other day that I'm probably the first woman in history NOT to get the nesting instinct. I'm more of a cuckoo bird than you thought. Cuckoos wait for other birds to build their nest, and then they go lay their eggs in them. "How about you nest, I'll take advantage of it." Good thing our parents came in and took care of the whole nesting thing for me. Phew! Instead my nesting instinct has taken the form of going over and over and over finances obsessively. I've been fine tuning our budget down to the dollar for each pay period for the next year. I've moved money from account to account. I've plotted how grey my hair can get before I go back to get my hair done. I've talked to the short term disability people so much that they've taken to asking me "um....why are you calling?" So if that counts as nesting, I'm all over it. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go troll the arcade to see if anyone dropped any quarters.

Eeks

2007-08-13T20:07:00.000-05:00

Quick quiz - what's 2 weeks from today?

If you guessed my due date, well you have more than a passing acquaintance with the fam, I have to guess.

Er....right....

2007-08-13T13:06:00.001-05:00

Suicide. Right. The man committed suicide. With no help or pushing from anyone else, I'm sure.

Poetic Justice

2007-08-09T07:36:00.000-05:00

Cheat on your wife, get outed by the florist. Sweet.

What...doesn't everyone dress like this?

2007-08-08T17:28:00.000-05:00

Other than #6, this list pretty much describes every cyclist we know.

Quote du jour

2007-08-07T13:45:00.000-05:00

In my case, I waited until I was 35 and I was really sure — as sure as you can be — that I was in the right relationship. That's why I did it. I didn't feel any great need to get married. People say, ''Do you like being married?'' F---, no. It's a ridiculous thing to do. But I like being married to her.
-Matt Damon in Entertainment Weekly

Yeah, we liked it - Updated

2007-08-07T07:02:00.000-05:00

Spider Pig, Spider Pig
Does what ever a spider pig does
Can he swing from a web?
No he can't, he's a pig
Look out!
He is the spider pig

Went to see "The Simpsons Movie" last night, and we both loved it. It was also bargain night at the movies, so we got free popcorn - woohoo! Banner day all around. In the interest of fairness, I should say that the husband and son of a friend went to see it last week, and neither liked it. Apparently they're cheese-eating surrender monkeys. Or maybe Principal Skinner fans (he's not really in the movie). Anyway, a good time was had by both.

UPDATED Poor Ginger, she has suddenly acquired a new nickname....because she does whatever a spider pig does.