Thursday, November 03, 2005
Update: 24 Weeks
(For my darling Margi, who asked so sweetly.)
It’s really hard to believe that we’re this far along already. The time, it doth make like a birdie and fly away. Yikes.
Things are, thank-the-power-of-your-choice, going very well. As of my last appointment a couple of weeks ago, I was still without blood pressure problems and had gained all of two pounds the whole pregnancy, which is actually better than I was doing not-pregnant. Heh. I predict a bit gain next time, though, since we had an awful lot of Halloween candy left over. *grin* Actually, overall this time around seems to be so much easier than it was with Sadie. By this point with her I was sleeping with my feet up on pillows every night to try to get the swelling in my legs and feet down to a manageable level; with this one, no swelling at all so far. See, there are benefits to having a winter baby! I’m much more comfortable all around, though. Apart from a bit of digestive slowness, the occasional nightmare and a case of absolutely raging irritibility that shows no signs of abating any time soon, I feel fantastic, probably better than I did before I got pregnant. Now if I could just get this kid to roll over so her kicking wasn’t directed at my nether regions, we’d be in business, lol!
Next appointments are Monday, starting with a a growth scan at the much-adored-perinatologist’s office and followed by an appointment with the midwife. Hopefully we’ll get a decent picture of the little one this time.
And speaking of pictures, could a pregnancy update be complete without them? First, the view of my toes:
The obligatory belly shot:
And another for good measure and because those panel pants are sooooo attractive:
These were taken Monday, btw.
Sadie Antics: Mommy’s Lament Edition
Oh why, oh why, oh why did I mention within her hearing that I was thinking of showering during her nap? We all know there’s nothing closer to coffee for toddlers than the chance to keep mom from showering…
Solved?
I mentioned mystery symptoms rather cryptically the other day, not wanting to elaborate partly so as not to panic people, given what some of the possibilities could be.
Looks like I was in the process of coming down with a cold or a somewhat odder bug than that, which finally broke through and started showing more normal behavior and ameliorating the oddness. Kleenex usage skyrocketed. Dizziness subsided. Yay.
It’s still odd, as it’s not full on, knocking me on my ass. If anything, I feel more energized, even as I feel, well, sick, in a has something akin to a cold sort of way. Or maybe I feel energized because I need to return to taking my daily handfuls of pills, having established that those probably was little or none of the problem.
Mmmm… Veggies (Plus Other Food Digressions and More!)
We regularly have meatless suppers. It can save money, which is always good, and you know how cheap I am most of the time. Depending what it is, it can be extra healthy. And it’s good.
Speaking of which, due to the silly Papa Ginos commercials, if you say “Sadie, is it good?” or simply “it’s good!” to Sadie, she throws her arms up the way they do in the commercial.
Last night we used three sweet potatoes I bought a week or so ago. It’s been ages since we had those, and it’s not that common because they aren’t cheap. Plus Sadie eats a huge range of foods now, so there’s no need to have those a couple times a week for her exposure to first real foods. They were always her favorite. Those we baked into submission, until they were drooling sweet syrup and done to perfection. Those went in when we first thought about what we might have for supper.
We decided on veggies, feeling a bit tired of chicken, and rice, but we are almost out of rice. We’ve been buying brown rice, and no more of the huge 10 or 12 pound bags like I used to buy. Though I still think there’s merit in that, from a “firm belief in stocking up on versatile nonperishables in case I ever need to eat without being able to replenish supplies for an extended period” perspective. I’d make a good Mormon, in terms of wanting to be prepared for down times. I think I get it from my mother’s side, where the Depression and early loss of fathers shaped the outlooks of my grandparents. Growing up poor myself contributed. Finally, my own personal “great depression” era, circa the Papa Bush administration, made me absolutely paranoid about having enough food around to go through times of no money. To paraphrase the Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers, “food will get you through times of no money better than money will get you through times of no food.” Or something like that. At the same time, that personal down period gave me later difficulty eating certain foods, or buying certain rock bottom goods.
How can I digress this much in a quick and dirty post about a surprisingly yummy supper? Sheesh.
The lack of rice led to the bag of potatoes I’d bought that we hadn’t opened yet. Rather than baking or mashing, I surprised Deb by making homemade fries. Damn, they’re good! And so easy. Peel, cut, cook in hot melted Crisco in a cast iron pan. Sadie approves. Though she didn’t like the ones that got a little overdone while I rescued her. She apaprently was well on the way to climbing to the top of the utility cart - the one with the three metal basket drawers, one regular drawer, and leafs that fold up to give extra work space. We had gotten it to make up for the lack of counter space in Stoughton. She thudded onto the floor from however high she’d gotten behind my back, enough to make me run at the thud, nevermind the screaming. Silly kid.
I decided that the fries were the “meat” portion of the meal. Heh.
Along with that, we had corn and lima beans. The whole thing felt almost earthy. Sort of an Inca de Maya celebration, if you will.
Sadie was in food heaven. A shame she’d had so many fries while I was cooking, as she didn’t dive into the beans as much as normal, and didn’t devour every last bit of her half a sweet potato. To give an idea of her appetite, she ate probably a dozen fries - say the equivalent of a small fries from McDonald’s, almost half of a medium or larger sweet potato, a hefty serving spoonful of corn, and about half of a hefty serving spoonful of lima beans. Starting not that long after her previous meal.
Of course, we don’t always do meatless so interestingly. Usually it’s beans and chips. That is, heat a can of refried beans, adding some jack or cheddar cheese to melt into it. Put it in a couple bowls, maybe with a little more shredded cheese on top, and with a dab of sour cream. Serve with tortilla chips to dip in it. That’s a quickie meal, too. But tasty! And the price of cans of refried beans at Wal-Mart is less than the case price at BJ’s works out to.
We also use flour tortillas not only with cheese alone, but also with beans and cheese. Put some beans sort of thin on one half of a flour tortilla, add ample cheddar or jack cheese, fold over, heat in a frying pan on each side until hot and the cheese is melty. Mmmm.
A lot of our meatless meals feature Rice-a-Roni as the main component, with other veggies on the side. Sometimes, of course, it’s rice. Which reminds me of the time I invented taco “meat” filling, with almost the same texture, out of rice, refried beans, and some salsa. Plus the normal seasoning packet and some chili powder. Haven’t made tacos lately. Just homemade burritos using the flour tortillas. Which can be made with chicken, steak, burger, pork, or no meat at all. I used to eat hard shell tacos all the time, and eventually found I preferred them made with ground turkey rather than beef. Weird.
But I digress, and we all know that almost never happens.
Wednesday, November 02, 2005
Marty Meehan
I knew he was evil already, but really.
No Barrel Required
Sadie’s rubber ducky now has a name.
Bob.
Because it does.
Mmmm… Blackberry Jam
House MD
I pause my work to observe… great episode last night!
One of the things I love about the show is their willingness to observe aloud what people are usually shy about saying, even if they recognize the truth, about various things. The celebrity charity ego doctor was only the latest example.
Sick Mystery
I’ve been having various symptoms, some a bit odd, or unusual for me, that have had us trying to puzzle out what’s wrong. I think it’s multiple sources, starting with stress, moving on to my body parts disliking a particular chair and car seat, and landing squarely on coming down with some kind of cold or bug. Also suspect are season changes and wild weather and temperature shifts, an overly effective set of prescriptions, unusually high coffee consumption, teeth, and reactions to odors or particulates in the air. Poor sleep most of the time since I moved can’t be helping, but is that a cause or symptom, and if the latter, what causes it.
One of the problems, dizziness, has not applied at all while driving, which is great, but odd. When that changed, it was caused by accelerating rapidly from 63 to 80 to pass someone on the highway. Since then, I’ve gotten clearer indications that the problem may be sinuses and an associated, if strange, cold or whatever it is.
Oh well. I hope it clears up soon. Scary season is over. I’m also tired of being hyper irritable.
Tuesday, November 01, 2005
Happy Birthday
To blogger Jared Wilson of Thinklings, celebrated here, and Mysterium Tremendum, celebrated here.
PR Nightmare for Sony Begins
Start with Kevin’s post, which explains rootkits and what is going on in reasonably simple terms for non-geeks.
From there, go to the originating SysInternals post about the discovery that Sony is messing too deeply with systems in the name of DRM. Remove it and your CD drive gets disabled. Nice.
Turnout
It’s turned into a hectic day, thus the lack of posts. I did want to remark about how Halloween went. It’s our first year here, and an apartment building, so I had no idea how many kids would show, if any. Figured we’d get some nieces and nephews, but ironically that’s who we didn’t get.
I had a full grocery bag of small candy bars of many varieties. We had around 16 total kids show, so got rid of maybe half the bag. There were some cute costumes! This is probably the most I’ve ever gotten trick-or-treating anywhere I’ve lived.
When I lived in Quincy, kids didn’t go into the apartment buildings to speak of. My nephews would go out in that neighborhood, so I’d get word of mouth on the street that I was open for business, but never anything like the turnout here. Despite the fact that they had to go to the back door, and even lit up, it’s not lit impressively. Turns out the lady on the first floor happily gives out candy, and she was sending them up to me too, but apparently word was out that the gal on the third floor was not playing.
Now that I know the first floor people like Halloween and the kids don’t automatically stay away because it’s apartments, next year should be fun. Maybe Sadie can dress up next year and at least help us hand out candy. She was all excited that there were kids coming to the door.