Babies are mean

Mike Tyson only threatens to kick you in the uterus. Babies actually do
it. Today the offspring kicked me in the cervix for the first time. I
thiught being kicked in the bladder was unpleasant, but this is my new
unfavorite.

Duh

Under the list of ingredients on my package of airline peanuts it said,
"Produced in a facility that processes peanuts".

Waiting at the airport

Our flight to Reno (Oakland, actually-we'll catch a flight to Reno from
there) leaves in just under an hour. We had to get up before dawn to
get here o time, and the cold that Bill's been fighting has lodges
itself in my throat. Should be a fun day.

Last night was fun though. Gina, who works at ALACE and is going to be
at my birth came over for dinner. She and Bill got to meet each other
and they listened to the Hill spawn's heartbeat with a fetoscope.

This makes no sense

I eat dinner at 5pm, have coffee at 7pm, then get heartburn at 11pm, having sat up straight the whole time in between. What's all that crap about getting it after large meals or spicy food, or when you're lying down? I can eat two tons of salsa and go right to bed and be fine. I don't need this on top of being moody, thank you very much, pregnancy.

Sign language is fun!

I just got back from two and a half hours of signing at 1369. This is the second time we've met up. We're not that good, and in desperate need of deaf people to sign with so we improve, but we have a great time. Last time we met at Diesel and next time it will be Other Side Cafe, cool places all.

We scored another member. The girl playing scrabble at the next table has taken a class and want to join us. Our numbers increase, haha!

Abercrombie & Fitch Attitude

Wow, you don't usually see CEOs being so honest about what jerks they are

As far as Jeffries is concerned, America's unattractive, overweight or otherwise undesirable teens can shop elsewhere. "In every school there are the cool and popular kids, and then there are the not-so-cool kids," he says. "Candidly, we go after the cool kids. We go after the attractive all-American kid with a great attitude and a lot of friends. A lot of people don't belong [in our clothes], and they can't belong. Are we exclusionary? Absolutely. Those companies that are in trouble are trying to target everybody: young, old, fat, skinny. But then you become totally vanilla. You don't alienate anybody, but you don't excite anybody, either."

via Salon (you have to view an ad to get access)

ABCs

Bill has been on a Dr Seuss buying spree, and has particularly taken to the Dr Seuss ABC book, to the point where he goes around quoting it, or making up his own words. Hence the following exchange.

"Big E, little e. What begins with E? Effervescent Emily, E, e, E! ... Are you effervescent?"

"I don't know"

"I think you are. You're all bubbly!"

"Well, I'm certainly gassy."

The last two Saturdays Bill and I have gone to marathon childbirth
classes. (I'm actually on a break right now.) The info is good but
mostly redundant for us since I went to the doula training and we've
done so much reading. The most memorable part of the whole experience
has been the bus rides to class. The driver is a chatty local woman who
would. Not. Shut. Up. After finding out where we were headed (we asked
for directions to Isis Maternity), she went on about her daughter and
how wicked smaht she was. It was amusing at first, what with the accent
and all, but by the end we practically fled the bus. As we were waiting
today, Bill wondered if we'd get the same driver. Yup. We made sure to
sit toward the back of the bus.

"Do you think we'll be safe here? Is this far enough back?"
"I hope so."

We thoguht we were in the clear when she didn't acknowledge us when we
got on, too distracted by the bus being behind schedule. But a few
minutes in...

"You're not going to be late for your class, are you?"

I did realize at first that the question was directed at us, but my lack
of answer didn't phase her. Her mouth was off and running.

Omg! It's like, totally summertime

Who knows what's going on with the weather. It's actually 57 out, nice
enough to walk down to the park and watch the kids and the dogs run
around, which is what I'm doing right now, except I'm staring at my
Sidekick instead of watching. I can still enjoy the shrieks of,
"AAAAAHHHH, ice cream truck!!! I'm getting ice cream no matter what!"
And "Moooommm, mmoooommm, I need money!" Ice cream truck in New England
in Janruary. Odd.

Why I Love Grace

We've been emailing a bit prepping for my visit and the shower, and it's great how we're so on the same page sometimes; witness her quote, "I think favors that aren't useful or edible are dumb". Amen, because stuff like this? Retarded. Sure they've got some almonds in there, but $8 for a cutesy and utterly useless almond-wrapper? No thanks.

Also she makes me laugh:

BTW I just shipped something yesterday to you that should arrive by Wednesday. I really wanted to give it to you at the shower, but it's bulky and I had this image of you all pregnant trying to get it and your luggage on the plane and I felt bad. Well, part of me thought it might be a little funny, but MOST of me felt bad ;). Anyhow, keep an eye out for it.

Baby Shower

Yay, the shower is getting closer. On Thursday, Bill and I are flying to Reno to spend the weekend in Carson City at his uncles. His parents and sibs will be there too.

Then we're going our separate ways, him to a conference in LA, me to Pacifica for a week at Grace's house, where I will finally get a haircut to rid myself of these split ends, and, oh yeah, have a freaking BABY SHOWER, hurray! Hopefully we will get through the requisite games with a minimum of figiting and eye rolling and have a good time hanging out.

Btw, if you haven't RSVPd to Grace, please do so, she's trying to get a head count. And if you're coming, bring a baby picture of yourself, the younger the better. We'll use it in one of those games.

Hell Night, Here We Come!

A terrific local restaurant, East Coast Grill, is having their semi-annual Hell Night next Mon, Tue, Wed. They were booked almost solid, but I managed to score a table for two Monday at 5:30. I seared my palate last year with a friend, but Bill was out of town and rather pouty about missing it.

On Saturday, we're going to finally see Brokeback Mountain, and get to catch up with Lara and Chuck and hear about their recent cruise. Lara has even been so great as to offer to take some pics of me, so that's on the schedule as well.

There's a ton of other stuff on the calendar, which I'm too lazy to detail here. Just go and have a look yourself.

Driving from LA to NYC

A time-lapse video that is all kinds of awesome.

Via Cynical-C, once again.

It's a stop sign, hello

Apparently taxi drivers find it great sport to try to run over pregnant
ladies while talking on their cell phones. Bonus points for stoping
dead in front of her, forcing her to walk ouside the crosswalk around
you and causing maximal inconvenience and annoyance.

overloaded

The second trimester energy had been really carrying me along, especially the past few weeks - swimming with Bill, riding the exercise bike, going to yoga, new parent coffee hour, lunch with mom friend, lunch with doula friend, volunteering, mocktails with mom group, playgroup, La Leche League, sign language group, happy hour with Bill's group, all-day childbirth classes, dinner and movie with friends, and what seemed like a million other activities, more than two most days, but today I hit a brick wall, exhausted.

It might be the overstimulation, or it might be the hormones, but whatever it is I started off today tired, then dissolved into tears while thinking about how few pregnancy photos have been taken so far*, then got frustrated because I'm craving cookies and chocolate milk, but trying to eat better because I gained so much over the holidays that my midwife told me it was a huge jump and to lay off the carbs. My first trimester I didn't gain any weight, then in my second, which will be over on Sunday, I gained as much as 3 lbs a week for a total of 30 lbs. The "ideal" is to gain 5 lbs or so in the first, then 0.5-1 lb/wk for the rest for a TOTAL of 25-35. Well, I have approximately 14 weeks left, so we'll see where I end up.

I'm going swimming with Bill in about a half hour, so hopefully floating in the pool will make me feel better.

*we're pretty bad about taking pictures in general, so this isn't a huge surprise, but the crap camera isn't making it any easier. I feel like throwing through a window. Too bad that would let in all the -1000 degree weather out there.

Every Day Something New

Tonight was the first time I'd ever heard this from a panhandler:

"What's your name? I want to know your name. What's your name? Your first name. I don't care about your last name."

International delurking week

Hey, guess what week it is? If you said International Delurking Week, you'd be right, proving you're smart enough to read blog post titles! International Delurking Week, means that if you read reagularly but don't comment (ie, lurk), you are required by law to comment now. And as I'm posting this late, the week's almost over, so you better get to it.

Bill has decided to start training for a triathlon*, inspired partly by his brother's decision to do so, partly (originally mistyped as "party" wooo!) to get in shape for baby, and partly to keep from gaining pregnancy weight along with me. The first one he might participate in is in June, so we'll see how he does on no sleep with a weeks-old baby.

Last night he went for a swim workout at the gym, and I went with. I thought the new, larger belly would add buoyancy, but not so much. Lesson learned: swimming is harder than I remembered; it's freaking hard work! There has been recreational swimming in my life on and off in the past few years, but I don't think I've done laps since high school. Other than the hard work part, it was pretty fun being in the pool. I'm going to try to go tag along whenever he works out there.

*I always thought this word was triath-a-lon, but no, just triathlon, which is kind of hard to say, actually.

Ode to Flickr

None of my boring photos made it in, and that is just one of the reasons this video using Flickr photos is great.

via DaddyTypes

Scene from a pregnancy

Gets up, walks toward bedroom

"Shit, I forgot what I was going to do."

"Oh well, at least I can pee as long as I'm up."

I opened my mailbox today and smiled to see what I thought was a new
issue of Games magazine. Turns out it was my tax booklet.

Amusing

Best blond joke ever.

Via Cynical C

Oh, did you want to hear about our trip

I kinda skipped right over xmas and new years, didn't I? I didn't blog from Dad and Cyndi's since it was so busy (Cyndi had us scheduled for something every day) and their office computer is older than I am and can't run continuously for more than 30 seconds.

We had an awesome time, and it was not as hectic as anticipated, becuase a lot of the time, people came to us. There was the usual awesome family hang time and we got to see both of dad's bros and all of Cyndi's family, along with scoring some awesome loot, include a couple of games, yay. The non-fam highlights of the trip were a night at the Magic Castle and a day at the Getty.

We made it to all the shows at the Magic Castle, plus a bonus show while we were waiting to get into another. The end of evening guy in the close up parlor was unbelievable. I literally could not believe he was making the cards do the things they were doing.

The trip to the Getty was totally worth the heinous traffic we had to endure on the 405. When Bill first heard we were going to a museum up in LA, there was a bit of groaning, but we were both won over by the beautiful modern buildings, sound sculpture in the garden, numerous fountains and the panoramic view of LA and the ocean, plus the bonus sunset. We didn't get to see everything, but it's so beautiful there I wouldn't mind going back sometime.

Baby Names

There are some, uh, interesting names listed over at baby center. They're not all bad, though - we're considering a few on that list. I'll let you guess which.

via Blogging Baby