19w 4d

I have an ultrasound tomorrow, just to check general health and measure some bones. They suspect that I might be a little further along than we first thought, probably only by a few days.

We've been pretty miserable the last couple of weeks. The cold and the wind and the snow have been relentless. Everyone up on the mountain assures us that this winter is by far the worst they've seen in years, but I'm not buying it. I miss my house in town, I miss being close to home even when I'm at work. Alex and I continue to disagree about just how long we have to stay in the mountain house (I'm lobbying hard for a move in April, but he isn't budging). The truth is that I probably won't feel like moving until at least this fall, and by then hopefully we'd have a new one year lease tenant in the old house. I can make it through one more winter, although preferably not one like this.

15w 6d

Things are good. The little monkey hasn't been giving me any trouble at all. Aside from an occasional pinch or pull (especially when I sneeze), it's been a very smooth process, growing this baby. Most of my early symptoms have passed, and I can now get comfortable in my bed and sometimes sleep through the night without having to get up to pee. I have a doctor appointment next week, and will get to hear the heartbeat again. I haven't started to feel the baby move yet, so hearing the heartbeat will reassure me that everything is as it should be.

A local store was having a huge sale post-Christmas, and I picked up a box of Trumpette Monkey socks - they are wonderful! I also got a box of alphabet flash cards that are based on a vintage children's French dictionary. Obviously we won't need the flash cards for a while, but they were too sweet to pass up.

I'm snowed in (again!) today, but hopeful that the big plow will make it up to my neighborhood later this morning and I'll be able to go to town. I have lots of errands to run in preparation for a quick trip to LA next week. I can't wait, I get so homesick for Los Angeles sometimes. First order of business, Trader Joe's. Second, at least one trip to IKEA (oh, the joy....). I found a cool dresser/changing table at IKEA online, I'm going to try to get it and ship it home. They also had some wonderful lamps and ceiling light fixtures that would be perfect for a little monkey's room.

Happy 2007

I hope you all had a happy and safe holiday! The photo is my sister and my dog, taken last Thursday.

We've been busy digging out from the latest storm to hit Colorado (yeah, merry Christmas!). I took some time off work last week to hang out with my sister, but since we were stranded for a full day, I ended up working on and off throughout the day. Many movies were watched, many fresh baked cookies were consumed. In the end, we had about four feet of snow at our place. We had to phone a neighbor with a snow plow to come dig out our driveway, otherwise I might still be up there.

New Year's Eve was a great time. We had met a neighbor who lives even further back into the forest than we do, and he hosts a bonfire every year on New Year's Eve. We went up there about 7:30pm, and there was plenty to eat and drink. People trickled in to the party over the next couple of hours, and in the end there were about 25 of us there. It was all neighbors, so it was really nice for us to meet everyone. They're mostly a little older than us (on average probably late 40s or early 50s), and they're all so excited that there'll be a baby in the summer. Apparently they do a music festival in June every year, but have decided that they want to move it to July so that I can bring the baby and they can all meet him/her.

Let It Snow

Some of you may remember that I live in Boulder. Some of you may have noticed on the news that most of Colorado has been gripped by a freak storm. Yeah. In the mountains above Boulder, we got a lot. Enough so that I haven't left my house by choice for two days.

Actually, I had to go to town yesterday morning and pick up the kids - they were at their house, waiting on my mother to fly back from LA. Only problem is that NO ONE flew in yesterday afternoon. The Denver International Airport has been closed since about 10:30 Wednesday morning, and isn't scheduled to resume operations until midday tomorrow (Friday). My mom is stuck in LA until Saturday night, the first time there was a seat available to Denver on any airline that flies here.

It's been sort of charming to be stuck up here. We have plenty of food, and have power, TV and internet, so we're set. The kids have been out playing with the dogs, shoveling the snow every few hours. They weren't able to make any headway with the driveway though - it's about 75 feet long and under more than 3 feet of snow. Just when I thought I'd never be able to leave again, I heard a motor outside. Alex and I went out and found a total stranger using his snowblower on my driveway. Turns out that he's the son of the elderly woman across the street, and he came up to check on her and decided to do her neighbors' driveways as well.

A guy like that makes me remember the good in people.

A meme!

Via Amber:

1. What is your occupation? Engineer, home-improver, professional
auntie.

2. What color are your socks right now? Green. It is a day for
wool.

3. What are you listening to right now? Local news coverage of freak
holiday storm.

4. What was the last thing that you ate? Chocolate chip cookie that my
niece just baked.

5. Can you drive a stick shift? Of course! Can't you?

6. If you were a crayon, what color would you be? Purple.

7. Last person you spoke to on the phone? My mom. She's stuck in LA,
unable to fly home (see freak holiday storm above).

8. Do you like the person who sent this to you? I like the person who
posted this on her blog :-)

9. How old are you today? 36 years, 1 month, 6 days.

10. Favorite drink: This used to be an easy question - Heineken.
However, pregnancy has killed my beer buds, so I'll have to go with red wine (preferably a Barolo) or Pellegrino with lime.

11. What is your favorite sport to watch? If it's live, hockey. On TV,
football.

12. Have you ever dyed your hair? A better question would be, have you
ever not dyed your hair?

13. Pets? Oh yes. The lovely one-eyed, deaf Ruby the Wonder Dog. I also currently have in my home two yellow labs, Thor and Daisy. Two more dogs are coming up tonight to stay, Halle Berry and Blu Berry.

14. Favorite Food. This is a tough one. Cheese and red bell peppers.

15. What was the last movie you watched? The Holiday.

16. Favorite day of the year? Gotta go with Christmas. It starts off
well, then you get a break to watch football, then you get one of the best
meals of the year.

17. Least favorite day of the year? I can't think of one.

18. What was your favorite toy as a child? Stuffed Snoopy dog.

19. What is your favorite, Fall or Spring? Fall, totally.

20. Hugs or kisses? Hugs. Big ones.

21. Cherry or Blueberry? Blueberry. It's a superfood, you know.

22. Do you want your friends to email you back? Usually....oh, I get it.
In the context of this post, yes, I'd like to hear from you all.

23. Who is most likely to respond? Probably Ali.

24. Who is least likely to respond? Someone I don't even know.

25. Living arrangements? With hubby and lots of dogs in a draft old
house in the mountains.

26. What’s on the floor of your closet? Shoes and a big bag full of baby
clothes that I haven't laundered yet.

27. Who is the friend you have had the longest that you are sending
this to hoping will read this? This is an easy one. Victoria.

28. What did you do last night? Went to the home of my husband's boss
for a little impromptu happy hour, then came home and sprawled on the couch and bonded with TiVo.

29. Favorite smell? Lavender, fresh coffee, jasmine, the ocean.

30. What inspires you? Reading Anne Lamott, watching Helen Mirren do
anything, figuring out some new application on my Mac, seeing my husband talk to new people.

31. What are you afraid of? Spiders. People I love getting sick or hurt. Driving down the hill in really shitty weather.

32. Plain, cheese or spicy hamburgers? Cheesy as hell.

33. Favorite car? My car. Silver Toyota 4Runner.

34. Favorite dog breed? The Ruby breed. Whatever she is.

35. Number of keys on your key ring? Uh....six, maybe? Car, house, three or four others that I have no idea what they open.

36. How many years at your current job? One. Woo!

37. Favorite day of the week? Saturday

38. How many states/provinces have you lived in? Four. Florida, Utah, California, Colorado.

39. Favorite holiday(s)? I'm a sucker for Christmas, although I don't even really decorate my house. I still don't even have a tree up.

40. Ever driven a motorcycle or heavy machinery? I've driven a motorcycle (reluctantly) around the block, but I used to drive a fire engine while on
the local rescue squad.

The Times They Are A-Changin'

So. Yeah. A lot has been going on, as you can see. I'm just over 13 weeks pregnant, now in my second trimester. I've been wanting to spill for ages, but on some level it just didn't feel right to blog about it. Now that I've worn pregnancy comfortably for several weeks, I can talk about it. I had read a number of posts on other blogs about people announcing their pregnancies, and I wanted to shout "Me too! Me too!", but I just couldn't bring myself to do it. This feeling sort of led to my being generally discontented with my blog, so yet another reason that I've not posted.

Anyhoo....baby on the way. I'm terribly excited, and for the most part I love being pregnant. I don't know that I've ever felt healthier, and haven't had any sickness or food aversions or anything like that (okay, I apologize to every single woman who has suffered through morning sickness and suddenly hating her favorite foods). I haven't put on any weight yet, but my belly suddenly popped out and began being quite noticeable this week. In a way, that's a relief, because now I can just let it hang out and not worry about looking fat instead of pregnant.

My husband is growing accustomed to the idea - it's hard for Peter Pan to accept the idea of fatherhood. But I've seen him with his nieces and nephews, and with Joey & Mare, and I know that he'll do just fine.

Look for lots of belly shots and baby comments in the near future. Hopefully that won't be all that I have to write about, but I confess that for now, it occupies pretty much every waking moment for me.

mags is temporarily on hiatus. check back soon. thanks.

Happy Birthday, Baby

Today is Alex's birthday. He hates it when I remind him. I think he would prefer to just ignore birthdays, anniversaries, really holidays of any kind. It has to do with becoming the center of attention, a place where he is truly uncomfortable. I can understand that, but I refuse to ignore things like this. I told him this morning that if he didn't cheer up and start acting like a good sport, then I'd email every single one of his coworkers and remind them of just what a special day this is.

Tonight is also an Avalanche home game, against the San Jose Sharks, so we'll be taking the little people and heading down to Denver for the game. I love going to the games, especially with this motley crew. It'll be a blast.

Gah!

Based on the way the last 24 hours have gone, you'd hardly be able to tell that I live a quiet little life, just my husband and me and the dog. Suddenly there are two teenagers, three dogs, and an out-of-commission septic system at my house. Thank goodness we can all crash at my mother's house this week while she is out of town.

The kids are normally no trouble, they're great and fun to have around. But since we moved up to the mountains, everything is just a little more complicated. On the one hand, the dogs love it because there is so much more room, and it's much more relaxed than being in town (leashes optional, etc.). On the other hand, the kids can't just catch the bus to school, so in order to get Joey to the high school on time, we have to leave my house by 7am. That means kids fed and dressed, dogs walked and fed, and of course all of my normal morning ablutions - all finished by 7. I think we could have done it, were it not for the minor problem of our septic system backing up last night. Oh no.

It could have been worse, it didn't actually back up into the house. However, we can't use the toilet or any of the sinks until we get someone up there to figure out the problem. Alex and I each showered at our respective offices today, luckily the kids both had showers yesterday before the problem. The boys took advantage of the situation and gleefully ran into the woods to pee this morning. I would have done the same thing ordinarily, but it was about 15 degrees when we left the house, and I just wasn't up for it.

The picture is of said dogs, resting in front of the stove in my kitchen.

More Italy

Just because....this is a small castle in Alba (home of Nutella!).

Privilege, Right, Responsibility

I tried to find a banner ad from MoveOn.org, but couldn't locate one on their site. Oh well. In lieu of a pretty, colorful ad, I give you my own voice (well, my written voice).

GO VOTE!

If you've already visited your local polling place or voted via absentee ballot, thank you. If not, stop what you're doing right now and go vote, or at least commit to a plan to do it before your polling place closes tonight. I know that it's easy to wonder if your individual vote really matters, but it does. One of the best experiences about having moved from a large city (Los Angeles) to a small one (Boulder) is that you can really see, in numbers that seem real, how narrow a victory or loss can sometimes be. I've often found my voice on the losing end of an issue, but I'm never tempted to stay quiet. I believe that you never lose when you speak your mind.

I've been a member of MoveOn.org since the elections in 2000. I've been one of those people who sits outside a polling place to answer questions from voters. I've watched a stranger's child so that she could go vote. I've driven an elderly voter to her local polling place so she could make her voice heard. I truly believe that voting is not just a right, and is so much more than a privilege. It is the responsibility of every person. How can you live in our society and not care about how we are led?

I found a great quote recently, and it struck me as particularly relevant today.

Always vote for principle, though you may vote alone, and you may cherish the sweetest reflection that your vote is never lost. -- John Quincy Adams

Scattered

Sometimes it takes an email from your oldest friend to remind you of when you're being a slacker. It's not that I don't want to post or don't have anything to say, rather that I'm feeling a little ambivalent about it right now. I have a lot going on at work and in my personal life, some of which I can talk about and some that I can't. This has made it difficult to post, since I don't want to bore you with what I had for lunch (because as we all know, no one cares what you had for lunch). Oh well, I'll do my best for now, you let me know how it goes.

One of the things that Alex and I have discussed since moving to the middle of nowhere is getting another dog, so that Ruby will have company while we're at work. The other purpose this would serve is to alert Ruby to when there is danger, whether it is a car or a coyote or mountain lion (yes, we have those here). I have mixed feelings about this, because Ruby is really our baby, and I would hate for her to feel jealous or think that we loved her any less. Plus, I know that it's a whole lot more work looking after two than one. But they would (hopefully) be friends and would bond much the way my mother's lab Daisy bonded when we brought Thor home to be with her. Those two are so happy together, it's hard to imagine one without the other. Ruby should be so lucky.

We haven't reached a decision on the whole second dog issue. We have a lot of work left to do on the house, and we're both working long hours to get ahead a bit on the extra mortgage, etc., so the idea makes us both feel a little overwhelmed. It may be that we have to revisit this in the spring, when we've made some headway with the work on the house and Ruby is fully adjusted to her new life as a mountain dog.

The photo is Ruby at our lake, on our last hike before it started snowing like a bitch two weeks ago. I'm guessing it'll be many months before Rube is ready to put one little dog toe in that cold water again.

Free Hugs

Via City Mama.

Snowbound

It has been difficult to get back into the groove at work since we returned from Italy. Yesterday's weather didn't help. It was wet and threatening snow all day, then starting snowing hard on my drive home at about 4:30, and by 7pm last night, I knew I wasn't going anywhere for a couple of days.

So I'm sitting here at my makeshift desk (since unpacking and organizing my home office has been pretty far down the list of "new house priorities"), trying to get some work done so I can bill for my time today and not go broke. Joey is here with me, because Alex is out of town and I'm not yet ready to stay here alone. We're making soup to have for dinner later (Giada's lentil soup), and in a couple of hours I'm going to put some pork ribs in the oven to cook slowly for about three hours.

Tomorrow should be warmer, and the roads should be better. Joey will need to get back to school, and I need to go to work. I'm no good at working from home, I don't know how people do it. There are just too many things (couch! TV! Internet! dog! unpack! cook!) that distract me when I'm here with a whole day on my hands. It was all I could do this morning to change out of my pajamas - how's that for being motivated?

The picture today is from one of our glorious lunches at Anna's house in Italy. I think it only shows a couple of antipasti, plus some wine....there were probably another 5 or 6 courses waiting for us.

Buongiorno!

I'm back. We had a lovely time in Italy. There were so many wonderful days and sights and meals, it will take me months to share it all. In the meantime, the picture is from a day trip to Lago Maggiore. I like that the madonna is guarding the boats.

Leavin' on a Jet Plane

I'm still here in Boulder, but my mind is already across the great wide ocean. I wouldn't normally quote John Denver, but the song is rolling around in my head like a soundtrack for this week. Work has been tedious these past few days, and so it is that much harder to concentrate on getting anything done. We leave Friday morning, and I'm mostly ready (except for packing and arranging transport to the airport).

I thought I'd tell you about Fern and little Jake. Fern is the little old lady that lives across the way from us (I could say "street", but there is no paved road anywhere near my house, so we like to pretend that it's just wide open space). We met her one day last week while we were out walking Ruby. I wish I had a picture of her, she has such a wonderful, weathered old face. Her wrinkles and creases are deeply defined, and I like to think of how many smiles and laughs it must have taken to carve them like that.

Fern lost her dog of 15 years earlier this year. I think she's a widow, she mentioned grandchildren but not her husband. I can't imagine how hard it must have been to lose her longtime canine companion, especially if he was the only companion she had left. The area where we live is very remote, and I can already tell how easy it is to isolate and become lonely.

A couple of months ago, Fern went down to the humane society and adopted a six-year-old beagle, named Jake. He's a fierce little thing, with a full gray muzzle. He's a barker, very protective of Fern and of his "yard" (couple of acres of land bordering on our road). As soon as Jake spotted Alex, Ruby and I walking on the road, he cranked up the volume on the barking, straining at his leash to get to us. Ruby is, of course, deaf as a post, so she didn't react to the barking at all, just the appearance of another dog (look! friend! playmate!). She walked right up to Jake, who was barking so hard he looked like he might fall over with the effort. It wasn't until Ruby was about a foot away that she realized something was wrong, it was either the vibration of his barking or the blasts of air to her face that caught her attention. She cocked her head at him, then leaned down a little further toward him......and he stopped. The tail started wagging, there was much sniffing of behinds, and no more barking. I felt comfortable kneeling down and offering him my hand, and he came over and let me pet him.

Fern says it was a good sign that Jake liked us, that he knows things about people. It's the first step in becoming part of our 'hood.

One of the Good Guys

Former Texas Governor Ann Richards Dies

It's a sad day. The world needs more women who are smart, funny, gracious, and unfraid to say what they think, and mean what they say.

The View From Up There

This is my boy, admiring our view.

I've been trying to keep a list of stuff to post, but it gets away from me. There is really too much going on as I prepare for our LONG VACATION(!). That's right, Alex and I are leaving on holiday next week, so blogging will be light for about three weeks (unless I feel the urge to post from some lovely little village in Italy, which I sincerely doubt).

In the meantime, here's a short list of stuff I might eventually tell you about:

trash on the sidewalk at work
coyotes in my driveway
Fern and little Jake

I'm out.

The "Vacation"

So, where to start? It's such a long and sad tale of woe.

My grandparents celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary last month. They're wonderful, lovely people, and I love them dearly. I spent every summer with them for the first 15 or so years of my life, and in the years since, I've visited them in Florida about once a year. For the past three years, they've come to Boulder in the summers and spent about 6 weeks with us.

This year, we wanted to do something special for their big anniversary. After much discussion between my mom, my sister and myself, we decided that renting a houseboat on Lake Powell for a few days was a good plan. It's pretty expensive, and a long drive from Boulder, but we agreed to split the costs and decided each kid could bring a friend so they a) wouldn't be bored and b) wouldn't pester us all day long.

My sister flew out from California, and we left for Lake Powell the next morning. We got to the marina at about 6pm, at which point the leasing office was closed - but they'd left us a note with our boat number and told us to have a good night and to check in for paperwork in the morning.

To make this already long story short, the boat had fucking mice. Aggressive, taunting mice that would sit on the counters at night and casually help themselves to our food. The leasing office told us there wasn't anything they could do - they're not allowed to kill them (it's a national park), and "mice are a fact of life in the desert." We decided to give it a try and set out for parts unknown in the big lake.

The second night with mice was even worse, and I got no sleep again. The next morning, I told my family that we needed to head back, because one more night without sleep was going to turn me into a complete raving lunatic. That's a bad thing. Plus, it's really not much of a vacation. Everyone agreed, we headed back, drove home that same day. One thing I will say for the leasing company, they refunded our entire rental fee. Pretty cool of them.

P.S. I didn't even go into the typhoon-like weather that hit the afternoon of our one-and-only day on the boat.

Worth Watching

Even Stevphen - Islam vs. Christianity