Fascinating, Captain*

Well, we made it through the weekend! Keith's family came to visit and we had a great time hanging out. Overall, it was pretty laid back. But even so, and with all the help they gave me, I was still pretty worn out by Sunday evening. I'm very glad this is a 4-day week! (For my international readers: Friday we have off to celebrate our Independence Day.)

Most of the weekend we used paper plates for everything, because it just made life a whole lot easier. But I decided to really step it up a notch on Sunday morning and use real plates. I set the table with placemats, the smaller square plates, silverware, juice glasses, napkins—the works! If you didn't know better, you might actually think that Keith and I eat meals at the table on a regular basis.

So anyway, I turned all of the square plates at an angle to the rectangular placements, so they appeared as a diamond-shape to the diners. I liked the contrast of shapes. I did this as I set the table, and then completely forgot about it.

Maybe a half-hour later, after all of the eggs, goetta, watermelon, etc. had been consumed, Keith's sister Jessica looked around the table. She realized that half of us had left our plates as set, and the other half had turned them so the straight edge was against the table edge. Upon further inspection, we realized that all of the engineers (which includes Keith's dad, because his mom argues the kids got their engineering brains from him) had turned their plates so the straight edge was facing them. All of us non-engineers had left them cock-eyed.

I hadn't meant for the plates to be a psychological experiment, but I think the results were very telling!


* In case you're not as big a dork as I am, you may not realize the title is a reference to Spock on the original Star Trek television series.

Happy Birthday Keith!

Finally! Yesterday was Keith's 30th birthday, so the long 3 months when I am older than he are now over for another year.

It was our usual, laid-back affair. We went with some couple friends (that is, friends who are a couple, not two un-related friends) to dinner at a Mexican restaurant and to see the new(ish?) Indiana Jones movie. Beckett must even have known it was a special occasion, because he behaved himself while we were gone. This is more impressive when you know that, while we were at work on Tuesday, he got into the trash and pantry—and ate my Oreos!—, pooped in the attic, and peed in the basement. All in a day's work.

So even the dog behaved himself and when we got home from the movie, we actually got to bed at a decent hour. That part was very important because tonight is going to be a long night. Keith's family is coming up this weekend to celebrate Keith being old, and also to see the Reds play the Indians at Progressive Field. As always, we had the best intentions of cleaning every night this week so it wouldn't be so bad tonight. And we tried, but never really got as far as we wanted. So tonight will be a cleaning extravaganza. I hope the old man's knees don't give out when he's scrubbing the floor at 1 am!;)

The camera loves the kitten

Since getting the new camera, Keith has taken a million pictures of random items around our house, trying to get the depth of field, focus, lighting, etc., just right. He wants to get used to all of the features so that the first pictures of Little L come out perfect.

So far, I would say that the kitten has been his favorite subject, and the dog is a close second. Followed by inanimate objects within 2 inches of the lens (he really likes that short depth of field option), and then me.

Wednesday night was my last official writing group meeting before the baby arrives. I said I may show up in July or not .... it all depends on when Little L shows up. So my writing group members turned our meeting into a mini-shower and gave me all sorts of wonderful toys and clothes for the baby. When I got home, I showed the latest acquisitions to Keith and Gomez showed up to investigate. So the picture above is Gomez modeling a hand-crocheted frog hat from a girl in my writing group. Isn't it adorable?

The only problem is that Gomez seems to think all of the new goodies are for her. She's in for a rude awakening, but I don't have the heart to break it to her just yet.

And it just keeps growing

Just when you think the belly can't get any bigger ... surprise!





Keep in mind, the cropping is a bit different in the most recent photo. And it was taken with our new camera that Keith, dutiful citizen that he is, spent our "Economic Stimulus Check" on. We both knew we wanted a camera that took better indoor pictures than our old one, and he did all the research to decide we had to have a Canon XSI. So that explains the better detail, different colors, etc.

But anyway, this isn't about the camera. It's about the belly. Isn't it impressive?

Missing in Action

Sorry I've been MIA for such a long time. I've been trying to put my finger on why I haven't written lately, but I'm not exactly sure. There's plenty to write about, but I just never seem to have the energy to sit down and write about it. And maybe that's the problem; I'm just too tired.

The short version of what's going on today is:
1) We've recently learned that we need to replace all of our windows, due to lead paint issues. Just when we were coming to terms with that, our roof started leaking. So we'll go from being in a pretty good financial position (1 student loan paid off a few months ago, nearly ready to pay off the car loan that isn't even a year old yet) to looking at taking out a substantial home improvement loan just to get our house livable again.
2) On the other hand, remember when I was talking about my gardening project? Apparently, by buying 5 bags of mulch, we got entered into a raffle to win a $100 gift certificate to our local garden center ... and we won! We were shocked; Keith and I never win random games of chance. Unfortunately, we can't really spend the money because we're waiting for the soil testing results to come back. If the soil around our house is contaminated with lead, any hot spots need to be dug out down to 2 feet to get rid of the hazard. So not much point in planting new flowers.

Old houses can be so charming! See, just writing this brief summary makes me want to take a nap.

Hazards of the Doctor's Office

My perception of the doctor's office has been shaped by the fact that, for the most part, I am a healthy person. The doctor's office is someplace you go when you're not well, and they make you better. In general, it's a place I don't see the inside of very often. When I do, it's usually for another sinus infection or, say, breaking my finger.

This has changed since I've been pregnant. I'm at the doctor's office all the time now, it feels like. And not for any reason other than the fact that I'm still pregnant. I don't have any complaints or symptoms that need addressing, I just go in because I have another scheduled appointment.

It had never really occurred to me before that there's hazards to hanging around the doctor's office too much. Because you know who spends a lot of time there? Sick people! And the elderly. The elderly who really shouldn't be driving. Their ancient, enormous cars fill the parking lots of doctors' offices across the country.

I had another check-up this past week. It went well. I'm still pregnant. The doctor said the baby was a "good size." I haven't figure out yet if that's a euphemism for "rather large" or really just a good size. I'm not sure if I want to narrow it down.

When leaving the medical building, I pulled up to the left-turn lane. The driveway to the building is three lanes wide—one lane for incoming traffic, a center lane for outgoing traffic turning left or going straight, and the right-hand lane for outgoing traffic turning right. So I'm in the center lane, waiting for the light to turn green so I can turn left and be on my way.

The light turns green in surprisingly short order, and I'm just starting to pull out and curve left .... when I notice that there's another outbound car on the left-side of me, also turning left at the light.

Which would be fine, except that lane is for INCOMING traffic. Not that basic traffic rules stopped this elderly woman from calmly going out the inbound lane, and gracefully turning left onto the road.

What could I do? I also turned left, right along-side her, and into the curb lane. It's a good thing that we were turning onto a street that had four lanes, so there were two lanes headed in our direction, and we could each turn into one. The situation was only marked by its complete lack of alarm or distress. I'm driving alone in my car, wondering "Did that really just happen?". But she drives calmly on, no one honks or shakes a fist .... and I'm left to ponder the hazards of visiting a place where the elderly are known to congregate.

I will not be visiting a bingo hall anytime soon.

That Joke? Still Not Funny

Mr. "Alright for a Monday" strikes again. He's been driving me crazy all week and there's no sign that it will abate any time soon.

I feel the need to reiterate, once again, that he is a very kind person and a good human being. Would give you the shirt off his back and all that. " But although he is truly nice ... he is also genuinely not funny. Or rather, every once in a great while, lightning strikes and he says something hilarious. That has not been the case this week.

The biggest problem is if he finds a "joke" that he likes the sound of, he repeats it over and over and over again. And it wasn't even funny the first time.

When I saw him on Monday, he feigned amazement. "You still around?" he said. "You haven't had that baby yet?"

I gritted my teeth and hope he mistook the grimace for a friendly grin. "Not yet!" I replied. Because what else can I say? It's true; I haven't had the baby yet. I'm not due for 6 or 7 more weeks.

But right away I knew. THIS was going to become his next favorite joke. So for the next six weeks, I'll have to endure him asking if I'm still here, or acting surprised to see me around the office. AND IT WILL DRIVE ME INSANE.

Just like this morning. When he said "Still here, huh?" and I twitched, ever so slightly.

Weekend of the Project: #5 The Belly

And of course, the main project! The 9-month project for whom all these other projects are taking place. Here's the belly picture from May.

Shockingly, my belly button is still hanging in there. I thought it was a goner weeks ago. And yet, it's still around! It may not be so much of an "innie" but it' s not quite an "outie" yet, so I'm happy with that. For month 8, that's not too shabby!

Some days I wake up in the morning and feel like The Belly has grown during the night. I have a hard time imagining what the next picture will be like. It might be on panoramic setting.