Aunt Anna and Uncle Jason came down from New York City for the weekend and finished up Mom’s great start on painting the nursery with adorable big and little animals.
Here are my 2 favorite pics from the nursery — the rest are in a new album.
The puppy wants to play with the squirrels! (And the paintbrushes in the foreground?)
The turtles…what can I say? They’re too cute for words.
At least I show up an appropriate age to become a Mom…according to the "What Age Do You Act?" quiz.
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You Are 27 Years Old |
Under 12: You are a kid at heart. You still have an optimistic life view – and you look at the world with awe. 13-19: You are a teenager at heart. You question authority and are still trying to find your place in this world. 20-29: You are a twentysomething at heart. You feel excited about what’s to come… love, work, and new experiences. 30-39: You are a thirtysomething at heart. You’ve had a taste of success and true love, but you want more! 40+: You are a mature adult. You’ve been through most of the ups and downs of life already. Now you get to sit back and relax. |
Apparently, Lil Smudge is a Leftist:
I’ve been good with the fruit & veg the last few days, but I’ve noticed that I can’t keep track for more than one day at a time. Let’s say an average of 2.5 servings Fri & Sat, and 3 today. I also convinced Corby that the organic gala apples from the DeKalb Farmer’s Market are the best apples ever grown.
My sister and her husband arrive today for a long weekend visit! They’re going to be finishing up the animal-painting in the nursery, helping us put together some Ikea furniture (no, not the recalled crib), and hopefully doing some fun Atlanta activities. Jason’s a foodie, so I’m taking him to the DeKalb Farmer’s Market.
The last time we saw them was in July, when I was roughly 2 months pregnant and barely able to stay awake through an entire conversation. I was getting bigger — the bridesmaid dress had to have gussets inserted, which wound up looking like racing stripes — but I didn’t actually look pregnant.
Now, people look surprised when I tell them I’m not due until February. And if we’re lucky, they’ll get to see Smudge moving around.
I think it’s going to be amazing for Smudge when he is old enough to understand how much of his family helped out with the room.
OH, and we got big big news from Jill’s Mom!
Her parents are a lot more naturally reticent than my family, with a small circle of friends, and a tight rein on sharing information about their lives. But Jill’s Mom went shopping for baby things for Lil Smudge — with her best friend! And told her that I’m having a baby and she’s going to be a grandma!!! (I think Mrs Best Friend already knew that Jill was a lesbian and in a relationship, but I’m not sure she knew any more than that.)
Of course Mrs Best Friend was excited for all of us, and they had a wonderful time shopping for baby clothes.
Jill’s Mom also reminded us that she wanted to buy us a stroller, so we should go buy it and let her know what it cost. I’d forgotten, so that goes on the list of activities for the weekend.
Fruit & Veg Count, 10/27: 1 banana, 1 cup fruit salad, 1/2 cup cooked broccoli
Leg cramp update – Yesterday was more comfortable than I’ve been in at least a week. I stretched a lot after yoga, as well as doing all the food things. Today I’m feeling a little ‘pre-crampy’ even though I stretched again last night. I’m going to try all the food things advised, except for the natural sea salt, which I forgot to buy at the Farmer’s Market yesterday, and stretch again this morning.
I’m having a moment of being really proud of what I do.
Here’s a nice AP article about a project that has consumed a ton of my energy over the last few months.
I think the Anti Spyware Coalition has the potential to really educate consumers, the media, policymakers, and the Internet industry on how to avoid and combat spyware, and for companies, how to engage in responsible software downloading practices. I’m excited to be working on this stuff.
I’m mostly a wanna-be geek, but in some ways, I’m a authentic geek.
One of the ways that I am a geek is that I manage my own email, and also my Mom’s, through several domains that I own. I would also do Jill’s if she let me, but she’s attached to the bells and whistles of her ISP.
Since I own the domains, I have an infinite supply of potential email addresses. When I sign up for a mailing list, or purchase something from a new Internet site, I create a unique email address for that list or store. (I got the idea from the wonderful geek world of Slashdot.)
That way, I can both filter the mail from them to an appropriate folder, and I can tell if they are a source of spam. For example, if I bought something from store123, and give them my email address as store123@mydomain, then I get email from store456 that is addressed to store123@mydomain, I know that store123 is giving away my email address.
At big mainstream web sites, this is no big deal. No human being ever even sees my email address.
But at obscure expensive (and typo-filled) Mom & Pop web sites that sell sun-protective gear, this is worrisome and confusing. So they called the house yesterday, and reached my lovely wife. Fortunately, she knows I do this, so they didn’t manage to get her worried. She assured them that I wasn’t doing anything illegal (!!!), it was just so that I could filter my email.
BTW, I own some cool domain names, and the odds of my using my full allotment of email bandwidth and storage are extremely low. So if you want a vanity email address or 2, leave a comment and I’ll follow up with you by email. (These aren’t the ones I actually use for these email projects; these are others that I own. Believe it or not, I own 22 domains.)
Basically what happens is that I have a cool idea for a web site, I register a domain (or several) with the idea of actually doing my idea, and then life gets in the way and I don’t do anything with the domain after all. But I don’t want to give them up! I don’t know why — they’re just cool. 
I have lots of "small thoughts" for today, in no particular order.
Until the charming email from the currently-coolest-brand-name-Internet-company’s recruiter arrived earlier this week.
It was the kind of invitation that I had to fantasize about, but after enjoying the daydream (including the "I wonder if they’d pay enough for us to actually enjoy life in the Bay Area?" part), the facts "I’m having a baby in 4 months and Jill just moved down here in June!" brought me back to reality.
I sent back a nice note saying that I was flattered by their interest but not interested in changing jobs — or regions of the country! — at this time. I can’t even imagine taking on another big change right now. But wow was it flattering to be asked to dance.
My prenatal yoga class* has added an interesting layer to all of that.
Over the last few years, I’ve come to ‘get it’ that I have a thing about being supposed to know how to do "this" — whatever "this" is. It doesn’t make any sense, it’s just a thing I do.
In most of life, I’ve learned how catch when I’m doing it and laugh at myself.
In the physical realm, not so much. I suspect that’s why the last few times I’ve tried to start exercising, I’ve made it about 3 weeks and then given up or gotten hurt. (I believe in the power of subconcious sabotage. Sometimes an accident is just an accident, but sometimes it fits into a pattern.)
My point is that this prenatal yoga class has been incredibly confronting for me. I know I’m not as good at this stuff as the other people in the class, and I hate that feeling. It brings up that thing I do.
So yesterday, I did a new thing I’ve been learning to do to handle myself and the situation when I catch myself doing that thing I do. I busted myself to the instructor after class. We talked about how much I was resisting her corrections in class, and how confronted I was. I think it helped her too, so she knew it wasn’t personal or anything she was doing wrong.
And now I have a friendly ally who will help and support me getting physically ready for Smudge to be born, and who will be able to remind me that I’m doing this because of a commitment that’s bigger than me.
And was anyone surprised to hear Jeb Bush ‘take complete responsibility’ for problems getting water/ice/food to survivors of Hurricane Wilma? W can’t blame the locals in the gulf coast but not in Florida, so Jeb has to be the fall guy for FEMA failures there. Speaking of government "actions" that hopefully will lead to people being indicted at some point.
* The prenatal class is not ‘hot yoga,’ in case anyone was worried.
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