Things I will never do, but ...

Wednesday, 7 March 2007

I think people who do are totally cool and impressive.

Like this: Iditarod

This is a kid I hung out with growing up. More later, this was just too cool.

Butt Ruffle

Saturday, 3 March 2007

My ultra feminist mother did her job well. Raised to poo-poo gender stereo types, I do the plumbing in the house, used the miter saw, and hate pink. So much have I been raised to hate all things traditionally feminine that I have been doing all that I can to find the perfect going home outfit for Sprout that isn't pink. Today I finally caved to the shopping bug and branched out beyond online to actual stores. I spent what was I beleive well over half an hour in the newborn section of Babies-r-Us searching everywhere for a cute, soft, non pink, hopefully non pastel outfit for Sprout. Going over things twice to make sure I didn't miss anything. Getting increasingly frustrated by the fact that while boy stuff comes in nice rich blues and greens, girl stuff comes in pink, maybe purple, and sometimes yellow or green with pink. They had one thing with frogs and pink (which wouldn't have been completely horrible), but it was for a premie, and after Thursdays fall, I didn't think I should tempt fate and get it just because it was cute.
As I got more frustrated, the oddest thing happened... I started really liking the pink. I think it was the butt ruffles. I realize they're a girly thing, but I like how it sounds. Butt ruffle, butt ruffle, butt ruffle...
I really don't know how it happened, but I almost walked out of the store with a large variety of pink things. Maybe it was something in the air. I managed to resist, and just get something cute and purple that says something about daddy (awww). And the world's softest pair of baby socks, which I am sure will never stay on her feet, and will end up being a dog toy.
I did realize something though, maybe I don't hate pink so much, just the idea of pink. A color that is expressly suposed to be girly. Even beyond the world of newborn attire, its girly. There may be a few men out there who own a pink hued dress shirt, but those men tend to be girly metro sexuals, or ones that think because it cost over 100 the color doesn't matter. Boys don't have anything like that. Blue is a universal color, or else we wouldn't have our great American love affair with our jeans. Green as well is everywhere. When my mom was working so hard to tear down gender stereotypes with me, did she dress my brother in pastels... No. She dressed him in primary colors. Not always easy for any infant, but far easier for a boy. Colored onsies for girls come in shades of light pink and white. For boys they come in white to navy. I found one multi color pack for girls with a darker purple, but that was one, out of many.
The end result, I'm rebelling by dressing my daughter in pink. Not exclusively pink, but there will be pink. Among other things, the risk of telling everyone you're having a girl means that you will get lots of pink. I'll stop fighting it, and give in to the pink. Especially knowing that people who really know me, know I'm a non traditional type of girl. The kind that thinks black on babies is uber cool. (especially when it looks like this: http://www.blacksheepbaby.com) They'll branch out from the pink so Sprout will have variety in her life.

I do believe I'm getting closer to have the outfit for going home figured out. Still can't explain why I'm obsessed.

I found a yellow with pink printed stuff on it coverall thingy. No mitten hands, but you can't have everything.

A green and pink flowered romper thingy, but I would need to get socks and such for it. Maybe for a party later or something.

And, kid you not, a blue and white floral, with ruffles, so I know its "girl" body suit. Again, no on the mitten hands. Oh well.

What I wouldn't give for a little DayQuil.

Tuesday, 27 February 2007

...10, 11, 12, 13, 14 15, 16... out through the nose...

It takes a lot for me to wimp out of work. I have to have lost my ability to talk, or have the drugs just not work, or be losing sleep and need the catchup that only comes with bad daytime TV.

However, I have bronchitus, and I'm pregnant. And, I didn't get a flu shot, because I never get a flu shot. So I'm paranoid, and its not a little cold, I'm wheezing so bad I can't sleep. My own breathing is actually keeping me awake. The doc gave me antibiotics, and an inhailer. The inhailer is the weirdest. I'm not even sure its working.

I would do anything for some cold medication, some really wacky, drugged up, I can see the pretty unicorns cold medication.

Enough whining. I'm a baby, I know it, it will be a miracle if I make it through delivery... so on to the good stuff.

9 Weeks! (less than that actually) Whee! Yes, I know I can go late, but we're not thinking about that now. We're getting excited because all of the coughing and sneezing is had the kid moving all over the place. Like I can hear her going "whee! that was fun, again, mommy, again.". I'm sure she's just pissed off because I won't let her sleep, but I prefer to think of her as an in utero thrill seeker. I'm way behind on room setup, but I'm feeling safe enough about her arrival that I'm actually shopping a little. Still on a mission for a cute, soft, go home kind of outfit that isn't pastel, but you can't have everything. Looking forward to making ajd run to Midtown Global Market for tamales, and falling asleep with Sprout on my chest, and puppy on my lap (I see puppy waking up to lick Sprout's toes, but thats another matter) I know, because I watched A Baby Story today, that labor sucks, and its hard to be a parent, but I'm trying to focus on the good stuff. Oh, if anyone is up for it in say, 8 months or so, how about this: Baby Loves Disco

Temperature control

Wednesday, 21 February 2007

A post, in three parts.

Part 1 : Last week, there was a day in the office when it was, kid you not, 84 degrees in my cube. I'm pretty sure that I have the warmest spot on the floor. Our admin seriously laughed at my discomfort and near fainting because was comfortable for the first time ever in the office. I was not amused while I tried not to be sick.

Part 2: Last Thursday I came home and the house was 57 degrees. It should be somewhere around 67. Turns out the furnace was having some issues. If anyone has any interest in electrical engineering, I can explain in more detail. Basically, its old, and the young punk who looked at it at first thought for sure it would need to be replaced. That included tearing out the asbestos taped duct work. He gave us a couple of miniature space heaters, and left us until Friday when one of the old guys, who do "modernization" work, would come take a look at it. I spent all of Thursday night and Friday waiting for the guy trying to figure out how we could afford a new furnace, daycare, and a crib for the sprout to sleep in. He showed up, said, oh yeah, let me just replace this part (that young guy said wasn't replaceable) and we'll have you up and running. He finished in less than an hour because it "was a near perfect fit". The bad news, its not completely perfect and may not last 20-30 years, only 10-15, when it will need to be replaced again. My fear is mostly that he won't be there anymore, and I'll be left to young punk who wants me to give up my nice quiet gravity furnace. I love the old guy, partially because he loved my dog.

Part three: I came in to work on Tuesday after enjoying the nice working furnace all weekend, only to have the heat now be broken at work. Which means, its tolerable. It was 67 when I got in, and today is still only up to 73. I'm in heaven. My manager was taking notes in a meeting wearing mittens. I would feel bad, but I'm in heaven.

Summary: I really really am amazed at those of you who were very pregnant in summer. I feel like my thermostat is all messed up. So much so I carry a thermometer with me to make sure I haven't completely lost it. (And because I'm fighting a cold at the moment and I because of outside temp issues, can't always tell if I have a fever or not) Ajd gets worried when I don't wear a big winter coat unless its sub zero, while I'm basking in the 40 degrees like it was 60 out. We'll put this on the list of things I didn't know about before I said, "Oh, lets get pregnant".

I don't know how to breathe...

Sunday, 18 February 2007

Ok, so I do, but according to this class we took, I don't. Maybe its because I've always been the kid in the back of the class, or wanted to be the kid in the back of the class, that we just giggled most of our way through baby class. It didn't help that ajd was all cranky about having to get up at the same time we do to go to work to go to a class on a Saturday. I think I'm the only one of the group to deliver at Abbott, so I'm hoping not everyone else's fun videos were produced in Boulder. I like Boulder, nice place, very pretty, my mom lives there... but way to much "sharing" for my taste. I'm a Dragnet type of girl, just the facts ma'am.

I can do this, even though we left class without going through all the different ways to hee and hoo. I know, I'm sure I'm being to confident about it, but I can do this. Maybe read a little more, but if I got anything out of the whole thing, its that I can really do this. I'm not as confident as I was before I found out that when you have a really bad contraction you can't laugh, but I'm still feeling good. So far I've gotten through the gas, the dog kicking, weight gain, and nausea, by realizing its all pretty funny. Example: Farts are funny, especially when they smell bad, so why can't having a good reason to fart be really funny.

Oh, one more thing about the class, since I feel the need to bitch, but who the hell has a class for women who are really pregnant and doesn't give them a place to put their feet up. Seriously, I don't know what super women there were there, but I was not having fun.

Have you seen my dog?

Sunday, 11 February 2007

Recently, I seem to have misplaced the dog. I ask her where she is, expecting to see her waiting for me to take her outside. I get a little irked that she's not there since she was just whining to go out. Then I move slightly, look down, and realize she was there all along. Hidden by my massive pregnant self. I was prepared for losing the ability to see my feet, but not my dog. I have also recently kicked her a couple of times, not meaning to of course, its just that if she's standing in front of me, I can't see her and I kick her... I feel bad. However, given I have almost three months left to go, I don't see that there is a lot I can do. Maybe this will teach the stinker that hanging out around feet isn't a good idea.

This weekend was my first one on call for work. I realized its been around 7 years or so since I was last officially on call. So far, the pager and blackberry have gone off in the middle of the night, but there were no issues, and I got a call at 5:30 this morning to say that power had been restored early to a site that was having a planned outage. I may need to change the ringer on my phone. The lumberjack song is an odd way to wake up for work. Especially when its a random person from a building in Texas who doesn't understand why you don't know the name of the building. You know there is an office in Houston, but you've never actually seen it.

I also realized that I am closely related to Pusher. To figure out how to schedule the shutdown of a server because of planned power outage, I had to open up a piece of documentation. I found myself editing the dang thing. Their instead of there, random capitalization for no good reason. I'm a snob when it comes to business writing. I can screw up as much as I want on my blog, but if you write something for work, try not to look like you have a mere 4th grade education. We won't even get into my issues with borrow and lend. And its not like I'm the best at knowing what is right. I'm sure people who actually have degrees in the stuff cringe at my writing. Which I'm pretty sure makes it all the more sad how often I see people making stupid mistakes.

Just for the record, I'm not criticizing anyone's blogging, emails, evite, etc. We're all friends and anyone here who has actually read my casual writing can tell I'm horrible.

The cold makes people cranky.

Monday, 5 February 2007

I always thought of us hardy Minnesota types as pretty accepting of our weather. After all, this is the state where use of "It could be worse..." is so common no one really notices it. Something I can tell you is noticed if you happen to travel/live somewhere else. "You know, it could be worse, we haven't broken any records yet."

However, after waiting patiently for three parking spots, only to have them stolen or nearly stolen from me, I've changed my mind. The cold makes people cranky. I see the cold as a good reason to pull out the sweaters, the blankets, to snuggle. Be cranky and selfish when its hot outside and the thought of touching anything, let alone another sweaty person, makes you queezy. Two visits to the grocery store, three spots. Add this to pregnancy hormones, and I'm beginning to understand why some stores had parking spots for expectant mothers. Its not because we can't walk a few extra feet, its because we're at risk of being homicical if take away something we've had our turn signal and our eyes on for five minutes. I'm beginning to side with my brother. People suck.

I did however have a good, if unproductive weekend. Little to no room progress, gaming at my house, and ajd got up at 4 this morning to fly to Atlanta, for the day. I bought a nifty new screwdriver for work, but I still haven't found a pink one. Why pink, because I work with guys who like to steal tools. Chances are that they would be less likely to steal something if its pink. So, if you have a hot lead on a pink screwdrive/tool set, let me know.