weekend review

Ahhhhh the relative bliss of a reasonably clean and neat house. It was not that the house was ‘dirty’ but it was awash with clutter from traveling and holidays. When Niamh started using the luggage in the kitchen as a table to spread her toys out on it means it has been there too long. I’m very glad I have a husband who has such a high tolerance that it never bothers him (since mine is way lower). We didn’t slave all weekend or anything, a I did a bit of work on Saturday and about an hour Sunday of heavy lifting but the house now looks pretty good. The stage is now set for moving things around from room to room~

The cleaning was sped along because we had a little play date on Sunday. This is roughly 1 year from the first one with her ‘bf’ from daycare I didn’t get many pictures but the kids actually played together not just near each other. We intended on sledding and we did some but the fresh powder really does nothing good for sledding. I did get a decent workout going up and down the hill and maybe next week will be better. The guys at work suggested I take the hose to it but I’m not sure the kids need that much speed! I know the kids see eachother every day but its fun to see them together. Niamh keeps referring to ‘J-me’ stuff around the house, the booster he sat in, toys they played with etc.

Otherwise the weekend was nice and dull. No drama, no travel, not even a trip to the store. Niamh was a very good helper with the laundry and since the biggest lesson in child raising is ‘go with it’ I ended up cleaning my bedroom because that is where she decided she wanted to solo play for half an hour. No reason to drag her to the room I had intended on cleaning since our bedroom needed it too. Tonight we could play with puzzles and do dinner and bath and bed with no angst about cleaning and I’m now free to write this, and, exercise.

oh, before I forget, big kid bed is doing well. She stays in it and everything. We had a few days back in the crib at her request but then back to the toddler bed. I learned tucking her in tight helps, and, I let her take one of my pillows so she would have good dreams and last two nights no nightmares. Ok, time to slowly run a mile.

25w pregnant + two early mornings + first class of the semester + pre2 toddler =

= Tired…..  tired tired tired!  I did pretty well all day at the seminar but left as early as possible and actually got home 20m before I normally get Niamh so I went home and hit the sofa (my other bed).  Lars took pity and got Niamh for me so I got to snooze for about 40min but I’m still tired.  Niamh is also getting into a more independent stage and is very insistent about what she does and I don’t know if it was her or me but this evening was not easy.  I even did the call grandma trick/treat and usually she loves it but today she was distracted and didn’t eat much dinner and mostly loaded and unloaded the kitchen toy box but it was atleast nice to talk to my mom.  She ended up in bed 20m late with none of the normal routine but she is asleep and I’m enjoying the peace.  I should be using my time to exercise but I just do not feel like it.  Oh well, blah days happen, I’m sure I’ll be fine in the morning.

Class yesterday was actually decent.  I was worried this class would be canceled since there was no book in the book store, no sign of life on the class site (blackboard), and my E-mail to the teacher was unanswered for a week.  I got ‘proof of life’ by way of a room change notice so that was atleast a good sign.  This was my first class outside the MBA program, it is actually part of the Masters of Engineering (but counts for my MBA) and its major perk for me was that it is in the St Paul campus and was on a Tuesday.  The subject was almost irrelevant when I signed up.  The class is called Masterful Leaders and is aimed at getting engineering masters students to figure out what they can do to be leaders.  You can tell the joke that an outgoing engineer is one that looks at your shoes when he talks is not all together fiction when you see the 5 (yes, only 5) others in my class.  Actually they all seem really nice but also shy, nowhere to hide in a 6 person class.  This is a self directed class and I believe we will spend time focusing on the ‘deep’ questions of the world like what is Justice and what is honor – not bad things to spend 2 hours discussing with a group and definitely the work level I can handle for the next 3 months.  The first reading ironically is the same as the very first Plato reading I did in my first BA class so I’m one assignment ahead already.  We discussed all the classic philosophers in that class and I actually remember a bunch of the discussions.  I also took Political Philosophy as an undergrad where I had to memorize the philosopher and their theory and how that theory was used in government/politics and I studied that stupid chart so hard I still can see it in my brain and remember atleast half.  This is the type of class that I can enjoy preparing for in a nice lunch break and have fun in class, learn some things, and not stress about too much new ’stuff’ because it will be re-examining stuff I’ve already looked at some other time in either college or ROTC or even SCA where leadership and honor are often hot topics.  The teacher was funny saying that the school system is ‘failing’ to teach these ideas or how to think so I guess I got lucky because I remember critical thinking and logic and reasoning as aspects of basically every class from elementary school all through college.  The only exceptions were the hard science classes where you can’t exactly make your own theory on chemical reactions or bonds or the biology of whatever we were dissecting and even though I tried, there are not good alterntive methods to trig, algebra, or math in genera, not alot of gray areas in learning the basics of  math or science.  I suppose engineers do specialize in them and don’t get to take cool classes like comparative Lit or controversial economic issues.  Poor engineers!

Random self observation from the day; apparently my defacto face is my ‘Princess’ face because more then one person commented on my happy expression.  I was really tired and zoned out but after years of training my face just pops into plesent smile and simi interested gaze without any effort.  Not a bad defacto expression and just as people are staring at you in court as princess when you have nothing to really do but sit there, same goes for seminars where you already know 90% of the material and it is fairly similar to the last 5 years I’ve gone.  Oh well, at least the networking portions are always worth being there for even if the content is not all that new for me.

why is every week so busy!

This week is my first full week, 5 days, back in the office after over a month. HOWEVER we are having our international conference where all our overseas people come in for the corporate message meaning I have an entire day offsite tomorrow plus meetings with people I never see crammed into every hour of the day today and Thursday plus a few early birds that got here Monday. Yesterday I had a meeting that required me to drive from our MN facility to our Wi facility, normally an easy 20m but in the sleet and snow it took 40. Even better was the fact the people I was showing didn’t drive, they were depending on me to bring them to the other facility and back (not a big deal really) but they also did not have a ride back to their hotel in the city. I can’t just strand them so I braved the traffic and the snow to bring them back. The icing on the cake was a ‘fate’ sort of thing… Lars and I have stopped trading cars daily like we used to and I drive the prius and he drives the Odyssey. This means the Odyssey has become a pit of despair in the organization/clean department. A few weeks ago I had enough and hauled out a few loads of stuff (armful) but since it is so cold and I have not been around it was still in a pit like condition when I drove it yesterday because the Prius was out of gas and I didn’t want to get up earlier then I had to and my husband is awesome. So, the very good thing is that I had enough room to drive the 4 extra people around that I found myself doing yesterday with no warning. The bad thing was the aforementioned pit status of the car… I solved the problem more or less by getting someone else to meet with them for a half hour and dashing outside to cram everything into the under floor storage compartment. I literally swept it under the rug… The car looked presentable and now all I have to do is empty the storage area to clean but I’m really glad I had the odyssey because it also handles way better in the snow. White knuckle driving for 2 hours to drop them off and get home, but, I survived~

Enough complaining, must get to the e-mail while I still have a chance.

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from 75 to 5 degrees in just 5 days

Deuter backpack – carry the kid in style

I have been meaning to write this for ages because every time I wear this backpack in public I get at least one stranger ask me about it. Niamh will still sit in the stroller happily sometimes, she prefers the backpack, probably because instead of the back of people knees or the fences at the zoo she sees the world at the level of 5’4 or even 5’10 if Lars wears it.

I first saw it on a blog I read and she said her son loved it so much his first word was ‘backpack’. Niamh most definitely and clearly says backpack and knows what she wants when she says it. A few times over the winter she has seen it in the closet and clung to it with tantrum like kicking and screaming until we bundled up and went outside in the backpack. I have walked around and around the block in the dark (5pm) like a crazy person because of the backpack but it does make her happy. Sundry describes the features of the backpack really well, I have a slightly different model but it fits a good amount of stuff and when it is closed it just looks like a normal backpack.

At the zoo we had 2 different people ask and we always get at least one person in the airport. I especially like it in the airport because #1 I can get her into it in the plane unlike the gate check stroller and she is under our control through the throng of people getting on or off the plane. #2 then we can use the stroller for the stupidly heavy laptop backpack that weighs more then she does, and, never tries to climb out or grab people/items/furniture when we are trying to get from one gate to the next in under 20min. I think Deuter should sponsor me because at this point I’ve sent so many people their way but it really is a good product. The stroller is much easier and carries more stuff but if I could only have one on a trip this would be it…

Home again – again

Mom pointed out that I have been traveling for basically an entire month.  I left for NY on Dec 24 and I returned from Fl on Jan 26 and did not have more then 8 days in MN in-between.  No wonder the pile of mail is outrageous, my blog is neglected, and I have a $16 library fine.  Oh well, no travel for a little while at least.  Next planned travel extravaganza (because they always get piled on top of each other) will be visiting NY for Miss Math’s wedding in late March (close to 8m pregnant) and then on April 10th a road trip to the other side of WI for a big event and then Lars’s mom is visiting the following weekend.  A month after that there should be the small matter of a trip to a hospital to produce a new baby!  I know my blog pre Niamh was all about being pregnant and it is certainly on my mind now but there are just so many other things happening too.

I just took my 24w pic tonight, I did 23w last time but I can’t turn back time and take the picture yesterday so I figured it was better to label correctly rather then go for consistent labels on the two picture timelines.  So here is the 1 (bottom) v 2 (top) comparison and I think I’m still right on track.  Who said the second time you look bigger?   So far this pregnancy has been pretty similar.  There were some really different symptoms in the beginning but they actually stopped and now I’m pretty much the same as last time.  Biggest complaint is heartburn, no real swelling or pains.  I sleep fine and don’t need to get up at random times.  People are definitely noticing I’m pregnant now, being away so much I think made it more obvious.  I don’t have any cravings but I have the need to eat more often so I’m back to the honey nut cheerio snack like last time but this time I have to share with Niamh.

Niamh is noticing the bump, she may know there is a baby in there but I’m not sure.  She is a smart cookie and is really beginning to remember and recall things way after I think she has forgotten.  Most impressive from the past few weeks is she seems to be getting a concept of time.  We told her we were going on the airplane in the morning right after she woke up and the next morning the first thing she said was ‘airplaine!’.  At the end of the FL trip I was calming her down by talking about all the things we did that day (including packing) and what we were going to do the next day and before I got there she said ‘go home, airplaine’ because I mentioned earlier in the day we were packing to go home tomorrow.  Her speech is getting more and more clear, she often says 2 or 3 word sentences and her grammar isn’t all that bad.  Lots of her phrases are like ‘Momma sit here’ or ‘we go car’.  She is still using sign and made up her own for music – she kinda dance/shrugs and that is a silent request for you to turn on some music.  Potty training was in a pause while we were in FL but she is back in full swing and daycare reported she pooped in the potty today.  I’m ever hopeful that she will be done with diapers before new baby is born but if not, she atleast uses way less then she used to.  She also gets them herself and brings them to you so thats handy.  Her little pre-2 self is getting self righteous and opinionated, other then telling people where to sit she has whims about food and what she will or will  not wear/not take off.  Since Lars is in charge of dressing her on weekdays more then once an item worn to bed appears to still be on when I pick her up from daycare.  Today were here ‘grandma’ socks (the purple ones that match mine that mom made for TJ) but I doubt her socks get very dirty while she is sleeping.  Speaking of sleeping, she is getting good at staying asleep from 7pm to 7am.  She has night terrors sometimes and that is freaky and sometimes she wakes up and spits out all the buzz words she knows; ‘potty!’ ’scared!’ ‘water!’ ‘hungry!’ ‘my nuk!’  all punctuated by screaming.  She usually is thirsty, sometimes she can squeeze out a drop of pee and often her nuk is missing but mostly I think she is looking for confirmation we are still there.  This tends to happen at 1am, if we make it past then she is usually good.  On the very positive side she goes to sleep with a very minimum of fuss, often none, and is asleep within 10min if not sooner. Notable exceptions of course are when we travel, then most bets are off but still she is reasonably good.  I did learn that she can’t be trusted in a not crib bed since she woke up in FL and was very upset and I cuddled her on the daybed next to the pack-n-play and left her sleeping there since I think the soft bed was way more comfortable for her but about an hour later there was a little face at the end of our bed….  We need to transition to toddler bed soon so we have the crib for the baby but I think the baby gate will be on her door and she will be in a very child proofed room.

I’ll do some trip details tomorrow or later, we took 1000 pictures but I can’t upload right now because of the game Lars is playing.

still at home

Amazing, a whole 3 days in one country!  I just got a call from my MiL who we are visiting this weekend.  I feel a little traveled out but visiting them is not work, and, Lars and Niamh will be with me rather then leaving anyone at home.  That makes a world of difference.  Niamh won’t know what do without snow but I’m sure playing outside will come back to her.  Not that FL is exactly tropical in January but it is not freezing either.  We also got good deals on tickets so it is double nice to visit warm weather for a good price.

I need to get my brain in gear to pack, it won’t be too hard just needs doing.  The laundry we started is still in process… I had a really bad stomach ache today – constant nausea.  I don’t know if it is a sickness caught in some random country or airplane, bad eating yesterday, or jetlag.  Whatever it is having a little internal future golden gloves winner is not helping!  I left work an hour early because the supplier that was supposed to be there forgot, and, I had been only holding it together by a thread.  Things are feeling a little better and now I’m going to go eat an egg and toast for dinner.

Back in MN

Finally arrived back in the US yesterday morning after a long but dull trip.  There was an Indian family that had the other 3 seats in my row and they wanted me to trade for their middle seat in the row behind and I said no way, I want my aisle.  I think the mom secretly thanked me because she got 24 kid free hours.  They were not badly behaved boys but they were a little annoying to me and really picked at their dad so the mom was on a minivacation.

Malaysia was probably my favorite country but it had the worst internet so I got behind on my work e-mail and no time for uploading pictures or blog updates.  Each country on my trip had its ‘best’ feature, well above the others but if the internet would have worked Malaysia would have been the clear winner.  Korea was blah but had the best bathroom and coffee (not related).  Vietnam had hideous traffic and crossing the street was like playing frogger but their weather was the best (80’s and sunny) and so where their towels and bathrobe.  A neurotic part of me has a mental chart going that maybe I’ll put on paper someday comparing the three hotels and countries.

Lars and Niamh ‘met’ me at the airport.  I was imagining seeing them as I exited the international section but I got out and they were nowhere around.  I did spot them way down the terminal walking away from me so I had to run after them and catch up.  One good point to a neon green coat is it is easy to see and unique, I can see Niamh a mile away.  I got to them and Niamh gave me an uneasy look and then dove for me.  I soon noticed she was wearing no shoes…. in the excitement to go ‘get mommy’ there was no time to put on shoes.  I guess when you are under 2 you can get away with that.  Lars said she was fairly calm about me being gone with the explanation that “mommy’s in Asia” but as soon as it was “we are going to get mommy today” it was apparently time to go immediately.

The rest of Saturday was groggy but nice.  I tried hard to stay up but it didn’t happen.  There was the feeling of bliss when I lay down on my own soft flat bed that I just could not leave.  I was dizzy from being awake more then 24 hours.  I moved to the livingroom so Niamh could play on me and that was a fair compromise in her mind.

Sunday we got back in the swing of things and a friend came over to visit and watch football.  Not that we normally watch football but it was a good background to the day.  I uploaded a selection of my Asia trip to flickr.  I only took 42 pictures worth publishing while in 3 countries, without my favorite subject there is less motivation to photograph the world.  There are only so many trees and flowers I think people want to look at.  Feeding the Malaysian monkeys was fun, they enjoyed the granola.  I did not personally feed the Korean seagulls but they were eating out of peoples hands.  There were no Vietnam animals that I could see other then a gross beetle in the airport (not pictured but I didn’t kill it either).

I read two books while traveling and I’m starting a 100 books tab with mini reviews – both were fiction both were good.  There were two major happenings while I was away, one friend had her first baby and he is HUGE, almost 10lb but long.  I don’t have the birth details but given the operating room setting and his perfectly shaped head I believe he came by c-section.  The baby was more or less expected, so, the other news that Miss Math got engaged was much more of a surprise!  She is excited and has been convinced that she needs to at least invite a few people and go to a restaurant but her long standing wish has been for SMALL wedding so this will be teeny but no less important.

This coming week is short again, we are going to Lars’s mom’s for a long weekend.  After that I’m ready to be a hermit for a while…  I feel like I have not been home in a month and in some ways I haven’t really.  I dreaded leaving Niamh for a week but it was not all that bad.  She accepted I left and accepted me back with little problems.  It feels cold but I just put her out of my mind for the trip, I would have been a mess if I thought about what she was doing or needing at any given time.  I showed people who asked our christmas picture montage, people really only ask to be polite and I didn’t want to bore them with a bunch of pictures.  Other then that I just focused on working and getting from place to place.  An unexpected bonus of the trip was some bonding time with the bump.  New baby swished and kicked and kept me company in a way and it was nice to be able to just focus on the internal feelings when I had time alone in the hotel or airport – no laundry or housework or anything to distract.

So now I’m back, pictures are up, laundry is in process and I’m ready to get back to regular life for a few days.  Anything else happen while I was gone?

Packed again

Part I of this trip is almost complete, I leave Korea tomorrow morning at 8am. Right now I’m having paranoia about the person who is supposed to bring me to the airport forgetting but I hope that if that happens I can get a taxi quickly. I fly from Busan to Narita Japan then a one hour layover and then from Japan to Malaysia to arrive 6pm local time. I’ll be traveling for about 12h if you include getting to the airport.

I’m looking forward to going to Malaysia because it is warm there. Korea is hovering around freezing and while that is way warmer then MN it still is freezing. I brought a fleece jacket and a good scarf but I didn’t want to overdo it since the majority of my trip is tropical. I did ok on Sunday since we mostly were sightseeing (walking or inside) today was more meetings and visiting production facilities that are all unheated. I never took off my jacket… The meetings were productive and while we didn’t finish anything we got a really good start and I think the project will go much better now that we are clear on a few points. I dragged myself out to dinner with everyone tonight and I’m glad I did because it was the best meal yet. It was Korean bar-b-que and it has no bbq sauce at all. There is fresh meat (cow, I checked) grilled on two person skillets on the table and a ton of veggies to eat with it. It was like meat and veggie burritos ~ The meat was tender and thankfully unspiced/saused/gacked because the burgers at lunch were slathered in some odd brown gack that made me queasy until dinner. I’m not sure if it was the sauce or the fact I didn’t eat a lot of lunch but dinner made me feel 100% better.

Yesterday we ended up at the Outback 2x’s (yuck). Once was with the supplier for lunch and then I was outvoted for dinner and we went to the outback right next to the hotel since one guy didn’t go out at lunch and he swayed the other guys with bribes of beer. Australian themed American food is really odd in Korea… The one thing I can say is that Outback branding and décor is exactly the same, right down to the color of the laminate in the ladies room. There are a few odd things I’ve noticed about Korea, maybe its this area but:

1. all the locks go the opposite way then I’m used to
2. people run very oddly, they keep their arms down and swing their hands across the front of their body instead of pumping your arms like I’m used to.
3. they love bright and shiny colors and there is no exterior building space not covered in an add
4. there are stickers of cute things like kittens and goofy flowers stuck to many random public things
5. wedding obsessed culture – I counted no less then 10 storefronts dedicated to wedding dresses in just the area we walked
6. the country is 80% mountain so there is a lot of things on steep slopes and a lot of tunnels

On the very positive side there seem to be no shortage of ‘western’ toilets.

So that is Korea in a nutshell or what I got out of 2 days here. Next stop tropical Malaysia!

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in Korea 3am local time

I am safe in Korea for the next few days. Travel was uneventful… I was assigned an awful middle of the middle seat and I paid $50 to switch to a slightly less bad one, window in a 2 person row, and I ended up next to a really nice woman from white bear lake (where we used to live) who was on her way to Thailand to sail for a month. She was a fun person to sit by and we took walks every twoish hours since I had to and she figured it was a good idea. I had 3 coworkers on the flight with me so it was nice to have people to visit. There was one HUGE man with an aisle seat and he fell asleep about a half hour in and he was taking up half the aisle too. The guy next to him slept (or combat slept) every time I was up and the poor tiny Asian woman in the window seat looked like a trapped animal. I don’t know what I would have done if I was her but she seriously looked like the least happy person on the flight.

We only had a short layover in Japan that was half take up by us standing in a line to get our bags xrayed again. They only had 4 machines for about 300 people and it was not very well organized. Oh well, less time sitting and waiting for the next flight. The Korea flight was short and I snoozed even though I was trying to stay awake so I would sleep in Korea. We landed at 8pm local (5am Central) and got to the hotel with no problems. I fell asleep at 9ish and stayed asleep until 2 something local time. I am not sure how long I was awake and asleep over the time between Friday noon central time and Sat night Korea time but I’m guessing a scattered 6 or 8 hours. After I post this I’ll try and sleep again just to get onto the local time.

The hotel, from what I have seen, is pretty nice in a very Asian minimalist meets holiday inn type of way. I was surprised by a pair of mens pants and a jacket on the floor in my room, the desk came and collected them and was very apologetic. The rest of the room seems neat and clean and the wireless is free (although weak). I called home and Lars and Niamh were eating lunch. They seem to be doing well 24h in but I didn’t expect anything less. Tomorrow we are being taken on some sight seeing by the company we are visiting. I don’t know what we will see since this city was created in 1980 and is completely planned but who knows. I’ll see about pictures if there is anything good tomorrow.

Happy New Year a few days late

We got back to MN on Sunday night and had no travel drama at all. The worst thing that happened was the Mexican place in MidwayAirport put lots of jalapeños on my burrito and I didn’t know until I took a bit. Lars benefited from that issue and I got a chocolate peanut butter shake instead. We got home to a driveway full of snow so we spent our first half hour home outside. I’m very glad we got the snow blower, Lars had to shovel the end where the plow made an icy mountain but I got the whole driveway done at the same time.

Back at work this week I’m frantically trying to get all my work done plus prep for my trip. I’ll be leaving Friday for a business trip in Asia, the first time I’m leaving Niamh over night and I’m leaving for 8 nights! I think she will be ok, we need to wait and see if me calling or web-caming would be a good or bad idea. Probably out of sight will be better at this stage in her life. We have a babysitter for the 3 afternoons Lars usually works out so his life is not completely solo parent but he will have a whole weekend alone. If anyone wants to visit him and play with Niamh I’m sure he would be cool with that.

I’m not really excited about the trip, we are not allowed to go business class anymore and I’m stuck in the middle seat in the middle row for a 13h flight. I think I may invest in one of the ‘premium’ aisle seats. NWA is such a ripoff, every seat is considered premium, they just want to extort the most money possible.

I have no idea if this trip will leave me time to fill in the blanks of our trip to NY and all the Christmas, sledding, rock climbing, visiting, and NewYears festivities but the one thing I don’t want to leave out is that through good timing the new babies ears apparently started working on Christmas Eve so I like to think the first sounds were of singing and family.

Tonight I need to prep for the trip and squeeze in extra Niamh and Lars time. I’ll be leaving for the airport around 10am on Friday.

We survived the day before christmas

Merry Christmas and Happy other Holidays. Sorry about not blogging, I’ve failed the Holiday challenge but there are plenty of other people making sure there is something to read. I do appreciate the collection of people writing because most of my blog people are taking a vacation. Personally we had a super busy week that the weather threw a monkey wrench into by predicting the worst storm system since 1997 in the Midwest. I tried to get out ahead of it by moving the flight to Wednesday thereby crunching all my packing, cleaning, gift exchanging into two days rather then three. We went to the airport and it was a big FAIL since we ended up spending 2 hours waiting around to just go home again re booked for the same flight we were originally on (but we still got to keep the lower fare). I had no faith we would not be bumped again since it started snowing that afternoon but we got up early, dug out since we were already plowed in and we actually got to the airport and onto the plane and to NY! We were late getting to the airport so we are paying the higher park at the airport rate, and we had nasty stewardesses but other then that it worked out well.

The following 24 hours were on the crazy side and need their own post. I did get a new fancy camera for Christmas so there are 400 new photos to go through and upload so I’ll do some of that today hopefully. Later today we are going rock climbing and then who knows, no further plans for the week until new years.

Monday

Today has turned into one of those busy work days. I expected a ghost town this week and its pretty busy so I can’t just plow through my stuff. My unexpected quandary of the day is the fact that there is a vague Malaria risk in one of the countries I plan on going to in early Jan. It isn’t a high risk but possible. I think I also need to contact my pediatrician and get a shot record for myself to prove I have all the standards plus the Hep A and B and C. Not what I was expecting today at all!

We are also expecting snow here so I juggled our travel plans to leave on Wednesday rather then Thursday to hopefully avoid the storm. I love that south west airlines lets you do that fee free, in fact I get ‘back’ $180 in the difference. They don’t actually give you money back but they give you credit toward another trip so that is practically another whole trip for one person in the bank. So now I have one less day to get everything done and that is another shuffle and re-shuffle. All for the good I think but it will just keep me extra busy.

Thirty years 1 day

So yesterday I turned thirty and it was a busy busy day.  Work was pretty annoying because everyone is sugared up and can’t wait for vacation and we had our yearly business review (good) followed by a rehash of the exact same info by someone in our group (dull).  I had alot of work to do and I really didn’t want to spend the entire morning in repetitive meetings.  Anyway, the afternoon proved enough time to get what I had to done and off to the sonograms.  It was a good apt and baby was very cooperative in reveling gender.  I want to tell a few more people in person before I tell the world, plus, there is that whole contingency of people who feel strongly about it being a surprise so in respect to their choice I’ll let this be a surprise too.  For those of you with no such compulsion let me know.

The limits of a toddler

I love that Niamh is getting so good at being out. Last night we went to my work christmas party and she did her best barnicle impression for the first 10min after that she was pretty congenial.  She was still scared enough of the other people to not run away at all but outgoing enough to talk and smile some.  She even said ‘Nei How’ to our Chinese coworkers (visiting from China).  She was not a show stealer but she did get many cute looks when she clapped for the ugly sweater contest and toasted with her sippy cup.  The mimic stage can be pretty cool.  I psyched her up for this by telling her she is going to a PARTY! and being excited and I think she understood.  We more or less ate some dinner and mingled so it was easy for her to blend.  She did say ‘bye bye’ loud enough that half the team said bye bye back but it wasn’t all that loud.

The limit came when we got to the car and she wanted her nuk and I didn’t have it.  I forgot in my rush to get to the party and a meltdown occurred.  I did get her strapped in and she screamed the whole 8 miles back to our house not listening to reason or logic that her nuk was at home.  Once we were at home she was fine again and then peacefully reading a book and to bed.  The meltdown was understandable, I don’t mind that she saved her ‘bad’ for me.  Everyone from work thinks she is a darling child and I’ll be glad to have them keep that impression.

Yesterday I got all but a few cards in the mail and all my packages sent.  There were a few cards that didn’t fit into their envelopes by like a millimeter but that is big when it comes to card and envelopes.  I need to give them a little trim.  Why these 4 didn’t fit I have no idea, all 37 others were fine.  Speaking of cards, since my job is connected to a group of suppliers I get cards and gifts around this time of year.  We always share all the candy we get and this year there is less due to the economy etc and truly, that is fine with me, but I am keeping a tally of my cards.  Not who sends them and who does not but what vague non offensive greetings are on them.  Out of 9 cards I have 1 Merry Christmas, 1 Noel (with an angel), 4 Seasons Greetings and 3 Happy Holidays.  We are very very PC I suppose.  The point of the card is not lost on me, I’m glad we still send greetings and good wishes nomatter what the phrase says exactly.

same sex marriage

So this is not a holiday post, hopefully it is not a volatile post either.

Yesterday NPR was talking about the gay marriage act and while I don’t have much personal stake in the matter since I am married, not gay, and not threatened by gay people or gay marriage I suppose I have just let the idea be discussed by others but one point really struck me as odd in the NPR conversation. The phrase that “marriage is defined as the union of a man and a woman” is what got me – who has made this the (single) definition of marriage? I suppose you can say the definition of any word is anything you want and other people can believe it too, but it does not mean you are correct, the entire game of balderdash is founded on that premise more or less.

I would argue there is equal enough evidence that the word marriage means committed for life because I’ve heard plenty of people say they are married to their job or a hobby but they don’t mean it in a blasphemous way just that they are committed forever to the certain thing. People also say swans and geese that mate for life are married.

I agree that the catholic/Christian church defines that marriage is between a man and a woman but they also have a fair number of other rules around marriage that disqualify a good chunk of man/woman unions however they still get to say they are married and gain the will/hospital/power of attorney style benefits. I can fully support the church declining to perform the wedding sacrament to a same sex couple just the same as I can support the other reasons they will not perform the sacrament for other people that don’t fit the bill.

However, marriage in the constitution or in state laws would be defined as a US law so when did US law and policy decide to follow the catholic church so closely on this portion of the church’s criteria for marriage? If this is a state regulated act like my marriage license says then the state needs to set the criteria and the definition. I know that is what they are voting on right now in a few states but that is were I argue that they can’t take a chunk of the church’s dogma and just say “well that makes a good law” and on top of that leave off the extra bits like the couple needing to not be pregnant and be baptized etc. I have a sister, aunt and cousin and a bunch of friends all perfectly married in courthouse style weddings (one in the actual courthouse) and they are committed as well as those that a priest in a church performed the ceremony. I know there are a lot of feelings around the issue but if you look at the state involvement it is issuing a license, just like a license to fish, hunt, or drive. Each has criteria and fees and are recorded and even vary from state to state but they are not exclusionary based on race, religion, or sexual orientation just like all the civil rights laws dictate employers follow. They do regulate based on age but for valid reasons and age may be the only reason to exclude someone from marriage (and it actually is in most states).

Anyway, I reject the argument of ‘definition’ as being flawed in a dozen ways. Start from scratch states. I can see that the cost to the system may be a reason to protest since divorces are very expensive and if you increase the number of marriages you statistically increase the number of divorces so maybe they should focus on fixing that. If two people want to commit for life that is a big decision, one I wish many men and women took more seriously but I don’t think its fair that a big segment of the population are excluded from the benefits. One coworker suggested beefing up what a civil union benefit was, that isn’t a bad idea, but to be consistent in terminology marriage should be the term for those married in the church, civil union for those not. After that distinction is clear and of equal value the same sex couples can take on the church about the religious side of the argument.

Enough for today – hope I didn’t offend anyone but this is how I feel as someone who values fairness in the law.

Week 17 – checkup

No long post today because I spent too much time at the Dr to have any extra time. My 15min apt took an hour because the Dr was with someone else for a LONG time. I don’t begrudge her the time, I’m glad he is the type of Dr that will stay until you are ready and I just hope she had a ton of questions not something actually wrong. Anyway, I have gained 3 pounds and 4 inches and he is very pleased. We found the heartbeat nice and quickly and it was a good visit. As a testament to his good Doctorness, even though he was atleast half and hour behind he made sure to chat a little with me and not be rushed. People at work were a tad worried because I always said if I get bad news I’m just not coming back but its nice to know they care.

Otherwise, yesterday was a fairly uneventful day. Niamh was a dry diaper girl all day except for #2 and she even whimpered in the car and when we asked if she had to go she said yes and she held it for a few miles until we could find a bathroom for her. I have a feeling there are a lot of store and roadside bathrooms in my future… We got the picture for the Christmas card done, today I got the labels but I still need to write the letter and get stamps. I got our flex stuff done and faxed and had a generally productive weekend.

Ok, must go, lots to get done and not enough time to do it.

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17 weeks

I’m trying to match the weeks from #1 to #2 so here is the side by side (depending on screen size).  So I don’t recall if I was trying to be bigger last time or if the time of day mattered but I think I’m actually smaller this time.  I know I’m lighter by a bit, who knows, maybe that is it.  Oh well, other stuff happened but I’ll post it later, nothing bad just late and wanted to post today before bedtime.  Next comparison scheduled for 20 weeks.

Happy Birthday Josie

Today is my youngest sister’s birthday, I won’t reveal her age just in case she is not telling the truth to everyone although considering my audience is either people who never met her, met her only a few times, or are family I doubt her age is a mystery or a concern. I still remember her being born and helping when she was little. I have a very clear memory of wanting to get donuts the day she was born to celebrate before I was even allowed to see her (who knows, she might not have even been born yet, but the parents were in the hospital and we were home with grandparents, who by the way, did not get us donuts.)

I have absolutely no memory of my other sister being born at all since I was only 20 months old, the same age Niamh is now. I guess she won’t remember her sibling in processes birth either. Oh well, less worry about traumatizing her I guess since she won’t remember it anyway.

In other news, my beloved credit card – the one I have had since I was 17 and that I have memorized the number for has been compromised. Chase fraud prevention, usually an annoyance, actually caught a bad guy. There was a 600 something dollar charge in Walmart in AZ that triggered the flag. I’m not sure if it was the AZ part or the $600 but really, if you steal a credit card and your basically guaranteed to get caught, why shop at walmart? I kinda want to know what the criminal bought, it could be a mystery box to open on Christmas. I believe chase canceled it and hopefully so did Walmart. The card is now canceled and now I have to memorize a new number and even more annoying update all my online files that let me check out fast (I know, possibly how it was stolen in the first place). We actually have a good idea where it got stolen really, Lars put an order into a pretty shady website for something for me on the recommendation of my dad, so dad watch out if you used it too. Apparently the order is still ‘processing’ and according to the internet the site has a pretty torrid reputation. If Lars will tell me the site I’ll put it here to add to their bad rap. Chase, in their fast action, canceled our card already but that means my online history is gone. That stinks because I track all my purchases that way, and, I use it for taxes for a few things every year. I also would like to review the last weeks purchases to see if Mr. Bad Guy used the card for anything else and I can’t. I’ll see if they can send me the history, at the very least they need to send me my bill for this month since I just got the notice yesterday it was available so it isn’t paid yet.

So that was today’s drama… it over shadows the continuing annoying behavior exhibited by my poorly sleeping offspring, today’s treat was refusing to give up her nuk to go to school, there was much screaming. Tonight she and I are staying home so maybe we will go get donuts to celebrate Josie’s birthday.

No pictures other then her in a frog poncho in heels.

I went home with the best intentions to make the house more Christmas like but I forgot that Niamh had her flu shot (booster) and was in a not good mood. Her moods change like the wind but you can usually tell what end of the spectrum she is on by a few factors.

1. What extra objects is she insisting on having or not having
2. is she demanding her Nuk (pacifier)
3. how much TV she will sit through (more = worse mood)

So when I saw her wearing her frog towel/poncho, nuk in mouth, holding her cup, no pants or shoes or socks and half through the second Dora of the day I knew this was not going to be a good Christmas picture evening.

Hard to blame her, she has a cold on top of it all so she (and we by extension) have not been sleeping great. I tried the medicated vaporizer last night with moderate success but the evening was not as much fun as it was survival until bedtime. We did get the frog towel off, I did get PJ pants and later the shirt on, for a while she pitched a fit that she wanted to go outside, no easy task when it is -10 outside, dark, and snowing. I was going to give in too and was collecting our gear when she got distracted by my shoes and a few laps around the kitchen in my shiny green and gold Kenneth Cole heeled mules made the world a better place. I need to remember that shoes are a good distraction. Anyway after that she finally ate some dinner and went to bed. She has had this cough getting progressively worse for about 3 days – no fever, no other symptoms, just barking like a seal, and I know they won’t do anything for her so we are waiting it out. Maybe pictures today? Who knows, maybe I can squeeze it in between getting home from work and getting to class.

This is the second to last class and since I believe my teacher may be reading I’ll reserve judgment on my group until after tonight. Who knows, maybe they all got a ton done and just didn’t tell me but they ignored my efforts to get us to work as a group before class. Oh well, I have a good idea on what we need to do and how so it will get done.

Last night was not a total loss, I got my e-mail done, did the laundry and cleaned two rooms to nice neat status. We watched Top Chef, had dinner and we both turned in early since we are both wondering if we are catching Niamh kennel cough.

I thought we had no plans for the weekend but I just noticed we were invited to a poker game. Nice way to pass the afternoon, Lars plays poker, I hang out with the hostess and Niamh plays with her boyfriend from school. Maybe I will be able to get my Christmas cards done there? I bet I can bring all the components etc…. this is dependent on me getting a good enough picture but in the worst case I could add the picture last. Maybe the world will hear from us via USmail this season.

Christmas update

I thought I was doing so well! I had a good had start with black Friday and I kept the momentum going but then I just ran out of steam. There were a few easy ones that I had good ideas for and knocked off the list right away. Then there are the harder ones, you know who you are, who just get stuff they want and don’t generally want stuff! I think I’m to the point of making stuff. Our church also has ‘gift of faith’ cards so a few people get those ~

I am most seriously behind on the decorating and general stuff. The lights are up but I didn’t do any of the inside stuff. We are not getting a tree because we are going to NY but then again we might this weekend, who knows. I have all the gifts but no will to wrap. And, the Christmas picture has not happened yet so cards are not done although I have the cards so that is a very good start.

Although snow is a pain to drive in it does make the world a bit more Christmassy looking – we only got a few inches but it is pretty.

Maybe tonight I’ll give decorating and pictures a shot, maybe there will be results to vote on tomorrow J

Snow is truly falling today all over the Midwest. I suppose being mid December it is ok for it to be ‘winter’ already. We enjoyed many more weekends then normal outside playing or biking. Since it is only light out for about five hours a day it might as well be cold and snowy too just to complete the package. However, if snow continues to fall too much I might be making a run for it early (and work from home) because I’m at the factory today and there is a huge hill between me and home I don’t want to be going backwards on.

Anyway, today was a nice day for baby planning. I successfully scheduled my gender finding out sonogram for my birthday. I think that is one of the better things possible for one’s 30th birthday. It took a bit of convincing to get past the guard dog nurse to the Dr but once I got to the Dr I knew he would say yes. I’ll be 18w and that should be plenty far to see if we are having a girl or a boy. I’m thinking boy just because the symptoms are really different then last time and similar to my sister’s three boy yielding pregnancies. I’m really fine with either gender, I would love another girl, they are so close in season I have all the cute dresses and everything and it will be fun to have two girls. A boy would be fun too, a whole different sort of baby, maybe one that will be a bit more mellow and possibly sleep all night before they are one. Who knows, the only thing for sure is it will be different then the first one.

I don’t know if I’ve written about this before so if you recognize it just skip ahead. I know a lot of people that don’t want to know the babies gender. I am not one of those people. I always joke that I like to plan or paint or whatever but really it is a Schrodinger’s cat issue. Before the babies gender is known to me, in a lot of ways I have a vision of a girl and a vision of a boy, both equally real. When I know what the gender is I have to say goodbye to the other one and even though it really is not a ‘lost’ child it is a weird feeling to me and something I would rather get done with nice and early. After I know I can think more about the baby that will be rather then splitting between two possible paths. I don’t think I’m alone in this theory and I support those that want to have a surprise in the delivery room but just having the actual baby in my arms is surprise enough for me. Another surprise is just how much poo will this one produce….

So as of Dec 18th I will know one way or the other, only 2 weeks to wait!

Hello Holidailies

First day of Holidailies 2009! I’m not positive if this will auto post to their site or if I need to do something, this will just have to be an experimental first post.

Yesterday I braved church again. I had a good reason to not go for a while other then enjoying sleeping, Niamh insisted on comfort nursing the entire time except when something got her attention leaving me flashing the church. It was just too hard to do so we quit for a few months and now that nursing is a thing she only simi remembers it was ok to go again. Unfortunately I ended up having either a hormone fit, or, a touch of something cold like since Lars said he felt the same way on Sat so it was a harrowing experience. On top of it all, the priest took an extra 30 min to do all sorts of stuff with the confirmation class… Niamh was a trooper and was decent the whole time but I was glad to leave in the end. We got our donut bribe and arrived home to fresh made coffee. There is one benefit from a heathen husband The rest of the Sunday was blah, I blame hormones and/or cold and we watched 3 episodes of The Wire causing me to have gritty nightmares all night too! I’m glad yesterday is over, I feel fine today, and I’m ready for the week.

Christmas shopping is well underway and I have real plans on updating my wish list. Maybe tonight…

In the gift a day theme, today I took on someone else’s tour duty for a supplier. It isn’t too big a deal for me to do and he was really happy to be clear of his double booking. I consider that a pretty decent gift.

I must get back to the day job, lunch is almost over, but let the Holidailies begin

Sat Night

Well, I have had many Saturday nights in my life.  Some very exciting, many very dull and tonight I stepped out of my regular comfort zone and went to ‘hang out’ with about 20ish other MN people, most of whom blog but all of whom read one particular blog.  I suppose the fact that she spent many years dealing with infertility would skew her audience toward women and women who had trouble with getting pregnant in some way but it was really funny to find myself being the dead center demographic of people there.

We were 99% women, 100% white (not hard in MN), I would say the youngest person was maybe 25 but there were very few people over 40 and I sat next to two pregnant women and in a cluster of 5 who were all 30 or very close to 30.  I don’t know if that speaks to the readers or just the subset of readers who would take the chance to go to a random bar in St Paul at 5pm on a Saturday.  Anyway, “HI” to anyone from the party that is visiting, I’m glad I went and I had a good time talking with my end of the table.  I gave the waiter a 100% tip (I only had a soda) because he was really nice letting us hang out as long as we wanted but in reality we were all cleared out by 9.

Otherwise today we had a fun family day.  We played then went to spend my Kohls cash and we got a few dresses for Niamh at once upon a child and then we went out to lunch at Noodles and I’m so glad Niamh is both good eating out and a decent eater because it was fun going to lunch as a family.  We even managed to get to the bank and the post office all before naptime.  During naptime I made the big wardrobe swap, summer to winter for Lars and summer to maternity for me.  I’m leaving out a few things non maternity but I know it is only a matter of weeks before they just won’t fit.  I also cleaned the room a bit, I’ve been living out of boxes because I was unwilling to move summer to winter when I knew maternity was looming.  So, I had boxes of maternity just sitting, boxes of winter open and rummaged through and piles of summer that I didn’t want to put back in the drawers because it was summer but I had no empty boxes to put it away.  Oh well, this is long winded but I feel good for accomplishing that nagging task, I’m glad I went out tonight, and I’m happy with the shopping trip and lunch out so over all a very good day.

Now it is 10pm so I need to figure out what I can eat exactly so I won’t be hungry in the middle of the night but I’m not all that super hungry now….

Haircut

I’m going to a MN bloggers network/meeting thing tomorrow night so I thought I might as well get a haircut before I meet 25-50 simi random strangers.  I go to Fantastic Sams where I know I’ll get a decent cut but like the Mystery Mexican place you might not get what you ordered.  I thought I was clear about not wanting a layered back but the girl felt she knew better.  She also cut the front a bit too short because I can’t put it behind my ears.  Oh well, it will grow fast and it looks cute now.

I’m excited about meeting other blogging people in the area.  I’m not sure why, I’m sure we all have fairly different lives except for the two common threads of living in MN, and, enjoying writing enough to have a blog.  I ‘know’ one of the people going, she is the organizer, but other then that I’m curious about who I will meet.  Originally I wasn’t going to go because I was supposed to be in Asia this week (I’m not) and then I was supposed to go to Boars head (I’m not) so this is a fun thing to do on a Saturday night.

Today we had our first real snowy day with flurries all day long, so, I turned the snow on the blog on.  Enjoy!

Oh, I also signed up for a new holiday blogging challenge, hopefully it will keep me going until Jan 7 (goes Dec 7- Jan 7, I know not why).  Thanks for the suggestion GeekwKids

Off the wagon

Oops, well there go my lofty ambition to post every day for the rest of the year. This week has been about normal, work needs doing, house needs cleaning, papers need writing.  I’m almost done with my class and it is turning out pretty fun in the end.  I need to decide what to do about next semester, I have two decent options; one a leadership class, the other a real estate law class.  I’m actually pretty interested in the law aspect and realeatate is one of those things you can’t be too prepared with.  It reads as a fairly general overview class anyway so I think I’m going to go with that one.

I can’t believe it is suddenly Thursday though, the weekend snuck up on me.  I need to eat something so more tomorrow~

Joss Whedon call HBO!

I came late to the Joss Whedon party, even though a ton of people raved about him I just could not watch Buffy.  Then I saw the Dr Horrible Sing along Blog and it was just awesome so we started looking into other series (not Buffy).  We found Firefly that was also awesome.  He created a very believable cast in a believable yet science fiction world and although they were basically space cowboys it was still a really great show.  The biggest problem is that it was over after one season!  There was a movie that more or less tied up some loose ends but I really really wanted more Firefly.  Lars loved it too and so he did obsessive research on the show and apparently Fox is basically to blame for all the problems including canceling the show.  They showed it in a wierd order and then they canceled it.  Then for some reason he sticks with Fox and does Doll House.  We watched the first season on DVD and loved it too, another great concept with limitless episode possibilities and Fox goes and cancels it too!

I think I know the problem (other then this otherwise brilliant writer working for a bunch of asshats) Fox is very very very bad at marketing.  I thought that Dollhouse must be an older show when we started it because I had never heard of it.  Reason why is that Fox never had a commercial or even a mention of it anywhere.  Maybe they wanted it to fail?  The only thing I know about fox from its marketing is ‘anamation domination’ meaning a whole bunch of dumb adult oriented animated shows that I could not care less about.  Maybe Fox needs to go back to school for marketing, realize that there is more then just the dumb college boy target market.  Maybe tap into that class of people that are intelligent (and therefore probably have decent jobs) and enjoy a good satire or drama or something?  They had the show, they just didn’t let anyone know!!!

HBO has way better marketing and I don’t even get the channel.  I know exactly what is playing and the shows I want I go for the series the minute it is out.  If HBO can float Big Love for 4 seasons it could do Firefly or the Doll House.  I would love either one on network tv but if it will cease to exist otherwise I’ll wait for he dvd or maybe even go buy the channel if there were a few shows I liked.

NBC and ABC bury Fox in marketing.  ABC did an awesome job hyping up V and then they actually used the base of the V commercial to tie in the premier of Scrubs.  Someone there is really thinking…  Oh well, off to watch some TV, not on Fox, I might just boycott them on principle although it won’t be hard because I have no idea what is even on the channel…

I won the challenge

Last day of the November challenge and I believe I made it! Not all the posts were awesome but there was a trip to NY, a midterm paper, and a major holiday in the middle of trying to post daily. On the bright side, I had more stuff planned that I never got around to posting so I’ll try and keep up the more frequents posts. Maybe even join the December challenge, it is not just about blogging, it is about giving something to someone and then blogging about it. I like the concept and it is in the holiday spirit and they don’t mean giving a physical gift daily but giving ‘something’ every day. The only provision they had was to not give someone a black eye and I think I can handle that!

I always say this after a holiday or time off, I love not working but life can be exhausting so I’m always glad to get back to my predictable day at work. We got a fair amount of stuff done over the weekend. Nowhere near everything on the list but Niamh also seems to be fighting a cold. Nothing really bad just makes her more cranky toward bedtime. She is doing well with the potty training. She tells us sometimes when she has to go and there have even been some dry diapers and then pee in the potty. She is refusing to poop in the potty and won’t even admit that she is going although you would need to be lacking a sense of smell and hearing to miss it if you are in the room. I’m sure she will come around one of these days. I tweeted that we are doing the night time pee and it has worked out three days straight now. The first morning she still woke up at 6 to go but yesterday and today she slept until 7 and then went. Not that we aren’t still buying diapers in bulk but maybe someday.

The real accomplishment of the weekend was putting up the Christmas lights. We even have a huge wreath this year! I have pictures to upload when I get home (after bedtime) so look for them later (or in the sidebar depending on when you read this). We still have one string of LED snowflakes to put somewhere but the plug is incompatible with all the other plugs and the timer so I need to figure that one out.

Hope everyone else’s holiday weekend was good too~

Comment/blogs I read part 2

Well, there are a few blogs on my list that never ever post so I’m skipping them.  I should really remove them from my list but you never know when they may start up again.

 

Next alphabetically is http://www.jonandamber.com/ and while Amber does not post all that regularly I also read her LJ and talk to her fairly often online and sometimes even in person.  Our kids are in the same ‘class’ at daycare and we have all had fun on various play dates over the past year.  I commented on the awesomeness of pumpkin pie although I didn’t tell her that I ate it for breakfast Friday.

 

http://julia.typepad.com/julia/   - this is a blogger I found semi randomly and she actually lives in MN too.  She has a very sweet little boy and a pair of twins just older then Niamh.  Her posts are always half a novel and everytime I see one of her posts pop up I get a cup of coffee and settle in for a good read.  I commented on her most recent post  about the new school she is considering for her older son.  He is very smart and needs the challenge but my ‘assvice’ was to make sure her son doesn’t think he is in charge, even if he does have input.

 

http://lyneya.wordpress.com is another person I actually know, she has a cool craft blog and she is so fun to do craft stuff with.  I told her how big her little boy is, not news to her, but he is getting so big!  I read her LJ too (wow I read a lot of stuff) but the public blog is all about crafts.

 

http://www.misszoot.com/ – I think she was the first person I didn’t know that I started reading and she was working on having a baby just the same time as the two other ‘blog babies’.  She was talking about money well spend on preschool and I completely agree with daycare.  While I would love to be a stay at home mom sometimes I have no idea if I would be able to teach Niamh as many things as she learns at daycare.

 

http://www.notesfromthetrenches.com – someone I do not know but has an interesting life full of kids and good photography.  I agreed with her little boy about pie for breakfast, is it a good thing once a year…

 

http://www.beanmom.com – someone I do know, kinda, like 8k I know a million more things from her blog then from ever talking since she is the wife of one of Lars’s friends and while you can not tell from her blog she is super shy in person.  Anyway, she made a cool observation that Christmas starting very early (like Halloween time practically) might be a reaction to the bunch of craptastic months the world has endured in the past year.  My life is fairly good really but I am finding myself more in the mood for Christmas then usual.

 

http://renalfailure.wordpress.com  -  Is a person I know and I’m glad to keep in general contact even though is blog is entirely crazy fiction.  It is well written fiction and I like to think sometimes his real life shines through.  Anyway, apparently he won a contest so I gave him a congratulations even though I know he takes Nov off to go write something ’substantial’ like a novel or something.

 

http://knitknot.blogspot.com/ – another person I know but she ran away to a foreign state and claims she is too busy working or knitting to blog J  I left her a comment saying I know she knits fast enough to have finished something new for her blog.  She is an incredible and insanely fast knitter…

 

and that is it!  All the blogs that post semi regularly that I read.  Hope my comments were well received and maybe one of you will check them out.  

 

Its time for dinner, yum, leftovers… again…

Ack!  Almost missed a day!  Today has been an odd mess of stuff but we did get most of the christmas lights up.  I also am writing a paper for class so that sucked up alot of my time today.  More tomorrow….

Leftovers

Sorry, my ‘comment pII’ post is still in the works but here is my recap of the big Tday.

Bottom line first, it went really well.  Only minor stress over the stuffing and we forgot to put napkins on the table but everyone said everything was awesome and their plates were clean so I believe them.  Lars was a huge help by peeling everything and chopping and stepping in when the Niamh got in a needy mood.  We did the classics and they turned out well, the only experiment was the stuffing that was a semi complicated recipe and I ran out of pots to cook it in (plus it suggested a dutch oven) so I put it in the crock pot.  It turned out well enough that Lars had seconds and he usually does not like stuffing at all.  The recipe also called for using the gross guts of the turkey but hey, the turkey went through the trouble of growing a huge liver and heart, they shouldn’t be wasted.

I made gravy out of the drippings and it was also well received.  I avoided making meat glue like I have in the past (too much flour) and even though it took all day to do the work was pretty balanced with only a slight rush at the end steaming veggies.  We sent the guests home with leftovers and we have atleast another meal or two but not an overwhelming amount.

I was looking forward to today, Black Friday, for a month.  This is my vacation day!  Niamh is in daycare and I have the whole day free.  I slept a little late, I read my book over breakfast that included a slice of pumpkin pie, and I went shopping with a friend.  We only went to one store and we went late enough that the line was only about 15m long and we still got the doorbuster deals.  I did some online shopping too and I would say I’m better then 50% done now.  The plan for the rest of the day is a decadent mid day movie with Lars (New Moon) and then hanging out at a friends house tonight.  I even managed to wash most of the dishes from yesterday and reclaim the kitchen.  The only thing left is the pots, I washed all dishware, lids, glasses and bowels.  We also spent some time cleaning for the guests so I can continue to enjoy a pretty and clean house for the day.

This weekend is pretty plan free, I have a few house projects in mind but nothing major, I do have to get moving on a few school papers though.  The class is almost done, only 3 classes left so getting to crunch time.  Ok, time for lunch then movie – hope everyone’s thanksgiving was fun too.

Happy Thanksgiving

we started ours a bit early, 6am, with a little girl yelling potty from her bed. She did indeed need to potty. So I’m thankful for a potty training girl and the extra hour of sleep Lars took her for.

comment day

Day before Thanksgiving at work is rather empty. There are other people here but not the people I actually need to get much work done. I’m more or less through all the backed up e-mail from last week and so I took my coffee break time to do some commenting on the blogs I love to read. I love comments, I think most people do, so my thanksgiving gift is to comment on every blog on my feed reader list that I can get to today, I’ll do the rest later, I read too many.

http://www.sundrymourning.com/ – I like her sense of humor and writing style, I’ve been reading her for 3 or 4 years and it is great that she did the parent thing before me so I could learn from her some. She asked about holiday tradition desserts and I told her about the trifle I like to make. Not that my family ever made it but I got the perfect crystal bowel as a wedding gift and so I make my version any chance I get. My version being; Store bought sponge cake soaked in fruit juice (today’s is pomegranate), then a layer of jam (strawberry) then a layer of blue berries, then a layer of vanilla pudding, then a layer of strawberries, then cool wip on top.

http://www.amalah.com/amalah/ – she is a semi famous blogger and I like to hear about her life because it is so different then mine. First she had the cool foodie DC life, then she had a baby (before me by 2 y) so that was interesting too, then her baby showed signs of an autism like issue and their journey through it has taught me a lot even though I hope to never need the information. She put up a picture of the art project turkey that came home from school so I commented that I had something similar but not so bright. Niamh actually ‘made’ a pretty cute turkey that will be on the table, She painted on some paper that they cut out into feathers and put a brown construction paper body in front. It actually looks pretty cute.

.Then I commented on my friend Vienna’s facebook but no point in linking since it is mostly friends only. I like to hear her take on all things SCA because it reminds me of my home kingdom. Sadly, I hardly know anyone there anymore but she still is a friend even if we only actually talk like 2x a year. God bless blogs! Anyway, she had the same turkey defrost issue I did so I commiserated. By the way, turkey is about half defrosted and back in the fridge while I’m at work.

http://www.dooce.com I can’t actually comment on without a login to her site and I can’t do that at work so it isn’t happening. I like her style, both writing and furniture / lighting. She is one the ‘top bloggers’ who simi started it all but I read because her writing is good and her pictures are cool. She also gave a really good explanation of post partum depression that helped me know that nope, I’m just tired, not depressed for the few weeks after Niamh when I wanted to simultaneously hold her at all times yet sell her to the gypsies.

http://eightk-8k.blogspot.com/ – a person I actually know in real life although she was a freshman when I was a senior so I probably know more from her blog then I ever did in school. She was also one of the people who inspired me to start this blog. She just got hit by a deer, something that happened to us to, so I sent her some sympathy. On the bright side she has a nice sounding new boyfriend to help her through it.

http://gonesouth.blogspot.com/ – one of the random blogs I found when I started reading them that I have stuck with over the years. I like hearing about her life and her parrots and random thoughts about stuff. I let her know that we stalk her on flickr and that Niamh likes to look at the pictures of her birds Lucy and Charlie.

http://quicklyunravel.blogspot.com/ – another person I know for real, she jumps between knitting and SCA and is one of the more productive people I know. I just left a quick note about the pretty new thing she knit~

http://gullybogan.wordpress.com/ – I’m not sure how he found me but I’ve been reading about his very different life in Australia where he is currently complaining about a heat wave. It is flirting with freezing here and I’m technically thankful because 32 isn’t really all that cold when you have been in -30 once or twice.

http://toonormalforthis.blogspot.com/ – Sorta a highschool friend. The reverse of the 8K situation, he was the senior, I was the freshman and he dated a girlfriend of mine and I don’t think we have spoken more then 20 words in person ever. I found him through a short story about Sayville and since I recognized him I added him to the feed reader. He hops around on topics and has a kid a bit less then a year older then Niamh so it is nice to see what may be to come. I commented on his most recent list of books he is counting toward his 100 this year and he is in the home stretch however he is counting books he reads outloud to his kid. I suppose agree that kids books should count. I spend alot of time reading those books, maybe I should start counting too.

That is close to half the list, more tomorrow or this weekend

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two days to turkey day

Thank you for the turkey suggestions. It is out of the freezer and in the fridge as of 9ish this morning. I think it will be getting some water bathing tonight to assist with the thaw process and then into a bucket of brine! I found a recipe for stuffing that sounds good, times and temps for my turkey, and I only double booked the oven once and I think it can share for the 20m overlap. I’m pretty pleased that I guessed all but one ingredient of the stuffing based on vague memory of what my mother or grandmother cooked (depending on the year).

I don’t know if it is a good thing or a bad thing that I’m cooking my first Thanksgiving Dinner (capitalization required) at almost 30. On the one hand it shows that my mothers generation is still kicking and they are in charge of Thanksgiving and I’ve been lucky enough to be with them for the majority of my thanksgivings over the years. On the other hand, I’m not exactly a super wife if I’ve never cooked the traditional Thanksgiving meal. It isn’t a big secret that Lars actually does the vast majority of the cooking but its because I do most of the other household chores and he likes the experimental side of cooking. If it were me, I would probably rotate the same 10 recipes all the time, he is constantly trying something new. Anyway, I have no idea who will be cooking this particular big meal but I think we will both share in it.

For the Thanksgivings we have not been in NY we have:

2004 – went out to eat, found out that nothing was open, ended up at Bennagans

2005/6 – invited to a friends house but she covered everything in marshmallows or cheese (sometimes both) and it was just not how I see the holiday.

2008 – We stayed home, just the three of us, and we were all sick. I think we made a Jeneo turkey breast and I just followed the bag directions.

So a few more then half our thanksgivings since moving we have stayed in MN but this is the first year we got it together to do the holiday our way (ok, my way, but Lars doesn’t care).

Biggest pro to having this at our house is I’m not at the kids table J

The rest of the trip

Sorry, I have to blog every day so I am stretching the NY trip just a bit

Other then two days in museums we did a few other things;

1. hang out in the hotel – this was the point of the trip in some ways, my grandmother was turning 80 and wanted us all in the city for a few days to party.  We certainly did and her post birthday dinner after party in her hotel room got broken up by security.  I do feel bad for the 2 people on the floor that were not in our family but it was funny to have security come to an 80 year olds room.  Otherwise the hotel was very nice, the uncomfortable sofa bed was balanced out by the blitz worthy blackout curtains that granted me an extra hour of sleep because Niamh didn’t know the sun was up.  We were close to many deli’s and places to eat and 2 blocks from central park.

2. Walked a lot!  We definitely got our exercise, we walked from Penn station to Broadway and 56.  Then from the museum back to the hotel (56th).  To various deli’s and even a diner.  To the dinner location 5 blocks away, and back.  To the park and around it a bunch and then from Central Park down to Penn station again via 5th ave for the windows then 7th for the fashion district.  Too bad we were in a bit of a rush, I could spend all day (sans baby) on 7th ave.

3. Hung out in Central Park – I have pictures, just need to transfer them, but we did the highlights and I had a pocket full of old granola that we fed the pidgins with and let the toddlers terrorize them.  Niamh had a great time chasing pidgins and listening to the jazz sax players working for tips in the park.  We had a glorious day on Friday, 60+ degrees and sunny, perfect for time in the park.

When we got back to NY we went to see Mom and Dad do an Akeido test and generally socialized with a few of my highschool friend who could stop by.  Miss Math wins for most visits  She even got co-opeted into family errands so I could get my bribe/present for Lars and stop by my aunts house to say hello and goodbye.  My grandmothers friend party was on sunday so we all pitched in on Saturday to spruce up the house and run around to aunts houses to collect chairs and supplies etc.  It is funny how easily one can fall right back into the swing of things, I was not a visitor, I was a family member

Finally, the plane ride back was uneventful, the only annoyance was being over weight but I had a plan just in case that happened.  I had my roller bag in my big bag so I pulled it out and checked it separately and put our coats and my baby carrying backpack into the big bag.  That meant I had to haul around the car seat plus laptop bag and diaper bag but I had the stroller to assist so it was pretty ok.  I can wear the carseat like a backpack with minimal discomfort, way easier than pushing a stroller and pulling a roller bag.

So now I am home, even got a few things done yesterday.  I arrived to a scene akin to Lord of the Flies and when I told Lars that I found out he never had to read that… what is wrong with the NJ school system.  He even claims to have cleaned before I got back but I apologize to anyone who visited while I was gone….

Next task on the horizon is Thanksgiving.  We are having 3 friends over for dinner and I only have a theoretical knowledge of how to cook a turkey or stuffing.  I’m sure the internet will help because I have a 12lb turkey sitting in the freezer.  (I think I need to take it out tonight?)

Why the Natural Histroy Museum is better then The Metropolital Museum of Art

Obviously, the first reason is dinosaurs… but, a close second is fairly nice guards.  The natural history museum had guards around but I don’t think they said one word to us all day.  We let the kids run and play and they had a great time looking at everything.  The guards in the Met were rejects from a prison where they were rejected for being too mean… these people were expecting us to be awful and treated us like criminals that they grudgingly allowed to walk through their museum.  They also seemed to make up rules;  did you know you can’t talk on a cell phone in some exhibits?  not all exhibits, just some, maybe the cell phone waves will degrade the ancient whatever?  You are also not allowed to carry a child on your shoulders; this was the last straw since the day was full of them glaring, following, and sniping at us to finally have Niamh peacefully on my shoulders and be yelled at for it.  The final guard to take me on about this was particularly nasty, he may have had a poor command of english but he said I could not have her on my shoulders ‘on principal’ and he began the entire encounter with an angry and demanding tone, he wanted to fight.  We walked away and he kept it up at my back so I went back and demanded he ’say that again!’  now I was not being nice to him either but he started it, escalated, and when I asked him his name he refused and covered his badge.  We went directly to the central information desk and told them all about it.  My opening line was ‘do you have a full list of Met rules?’ and they don’t, and then I told them a slightly longer version of this.  I’m sure this guard has a sad life  in general but he really should be just a bit nicer if he does not want complaints.  Dad said I should have taken his picture and while I didn’t think of it I bet if I had he would have yelled about me taking a picture too!

The final reason why the Met is inferior is because it is an Esher like labyrinth of stairs and the elevators are in random locations and are not in any sort of flow.  Heaven help the handicapped, they will log an extra 20 miles because they have to redouble the trip to get back to the only elevator and they probably can’t even get to a few places because I didn’t see any elevators on a few levels.  We had the stroller and discovered this major inconvenience, if I had been alone it would have been impossible and this was the reason we resorted to shoulder holding because we were in a particularly bad stairs area. The Natural History Museum in contrast has very well laid out halls with elevators in the exact same spot on every floor so you can circle the floor and end up back at the elevator you need.  They had no other steps in the entire place.

Anyway, the day was saved by our petty cab ride back to the hotel.  The driver was fun and he bent every traffic law out there.  The only thing he didn’t do was drive on the sidewalk.  It was exactly the fun, rule braking, experience we needed to reverse some of the nasty Met out of our mind.  The museum was not all bad, there was a very tasty cookie in the sculpture garden where Niamh played a little bit.  There were also some nice galleries with period needlework and illumination.  The cutest thing was going around a corner and seeing a huge painting and Niamh inhaled in excitement and exclaimed; “a Monet!”  Well, thats what it sounded like and it was a Monet but I doubt she is a budding art genius but that was the only thing all day that impressed her in the least.  The dinos, apes, and even the fish impressed her far more in the Natural History museum.

More about the rest of the trip tomorrow, but, I am now officially giving the acronym MoA to the Mall of America, the Museum of Art is now stripped of all acronyms and is officially off my list unless I get some sort of apology from them (they have my e-mail).

Ps. there was one nice guard, a woman near the burial art who tried to cheer up the crying Niamh, talked about art with me (imagine that!) and suggested a few paintings near by that little girls tend to like.  She was the only helpful or nice guard in the entire building.

Back home again

Another busy busy day including traversing 7 states but everything was on time and relatively easy and I’m back at my home computer checking in for the day.  More tomorrow~

Last NYC day

We made it back out of the city and we are now back in Sayville for about 24h.  Tons of stuff to talk about but I’ve stayed up too late too many days in a row so it will have to be saved for later.  I’ll hopefully have some new flickr photos soon, I’m going through what I took today.

NYC day two

We are still in the city hanging out in the hotel and Niamh is napping so I actually have a few minutes to write more then 5 lines.  The other big reason I have time to blog is I FINALLY finished my midterm.  I stayed up to 1am on Tuesday and Wednesday and I finished last night.  I’m pretty happy with the results, all the math made sence and my explanations were complete, I just hope it was what he wanted.  The teacher most definitely wanted us to do the test, even though he gave a paper option, because I think he is backed up with grading.  Since I figured that is the case I kept it to 3 pages and that seemed like a reasonable length to me.  All my spare time has gone toward this paper so sorry if I have not replied to any of your e-mails or facebook posts, the plan is to catch up later…

Today has started off well.  Niamh slept soundly until 7am and then was content to watch her movie until 8am.  Then Josie and I ran in central park but the route we took was not the route we mapped and we ended up on the wrong side and a bit lost.  It is sad that I can navigate better in Shanghai  then NYC.  Our 2.5m run turned into a 5m run at least but is was still pretty fun.  Some of our problems were due to ‘ooh shiny’ syndrome because we both got distracted by random things and ended up going the wrong direction.  The other problem was construction blocking the way we (thought we) needed to go but all in all we found our way back.  The saving grace was knowing that we were across the road from a hooters and that sign is visible for blocks in either direction. 

We had a nice brunch and family time with those who did not choose to go to the circus and now we are waiting on sleeping babies to go out for the afternoon to the met and the park.  Niamh LOVED the natural history museum, I have no idea how she knew those big bones were dinosaurs but she immediately knew and started doing the dinosaurs dance from a video we have.  She dinosaurs  stomped all over the museum, I tried to get it on video and I think I might have but you can’t hear her singing in it.  I guess we are entering the dinosaur phase…  She also really liked the ape/evolution section where they have Lucy’s bones.  I don’t know what she liked about it but she had a good time there too.  We let her and Connor run free in some of the more empty areas and they were tired out nicely.  I hope the met goes as well today and the offical party tonight~

The trip is half over already I need to maximize the time more.

Pictures are up

we took the train into the city, then we walked through the mobs and mobs to the hotel.  Taxi to the museum and then we saw everything fun for a pair of 1 year olds.  Stroll back to the hotel and now we are making dinner plans.  I posted basically unedited photos of the  day on flickr, see you tomorrow!