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Monday, August 16, 2004
Would it kill a writer to do a quick Google search to see if the stupid joke they're writing makes sense?
Watching the Olympics (I'm a junkie), flipping between CBC and NBC. NBC starts a piece on swimmer Natalie Coughlin by mentioning that her birthday is next week, which is notable because "to see her swim, you'd think she was an Aquarius!"
So, the joke is comparing a swimmer to a water bearer, a man who holds a giant jug of water, which is ignorant and thus makes the joke only fit for people who don't know anything about the signs, and yet requires that they know enough to get that anyone born next week would not have an Aquarian Sun sign.
Le Sigh.
If the person had taken even a minute to think it through, they would chosen, oh, I dunno, maybe a Water sign that actually does live in the freakin' water. Like, "That makes her a Leo, which is surprising, cuz you'd think she was a Pisces--she swims like a fish! Ba da bum!"
[/me bangs head into desk just for self]
Just one of those things that happens on sitcoms a lot, but this one bothered me cuz I made up a better line for the idiot in half a second. ;-P I mean, if Freud and psychodynamicism can have a Woody Allen and the writing team at "Fraser" to make really intelligent, apt jokes that demonstrate as much understanding as humor, why can't anyone know just a smidge about astrology before writing a line? Mweh.
Fave "Fraser" quip: Niles is subbing for Fraser one day as host of his radio show. He opens with, "Unlike my brother, who is a Freudian, I am a Jungian. So there will be no blaming Mommy today!"
( Our Fun Weekend )
Belated happy anniversary to R and S!
Current mood:  content
This British songbird reviewed in the Aug 13 "EW" is the photo I'm taking to my next haircut appt. It's not wildly different from the current hair, just cleaned up and with more shape.
Friday, August 13, 2004
So, I'm totally over the brides and avoid that side of things so I don't get annoyed at people. But I am indebted for life to the women on the journey to and through motherhood. Basically, the power lies in always letting you know that you are not alone, and there are strangers who will aid and support you in reassuring you, and who will help find answers to your problems.
ETA: Gack! I'm ashamed to realize I failed to mention the very few but notable adoptive moms-to-be on the boards. They've got their own incredible quest that comes on top of the whole TTC mess.
I also got a big kick today when I found a brand new thread for "fly by the seat of your pants" moms who want to talk about parenting without taking sides in any of the Mom Wars on the boards. LOL, all too needed.
( Family Planning board )
( Women Over Age 35, Women With Fertility Issues, Pregnancy Losses )
( Preggo Support )
( Baby's Here! Let the Next Journey Begin )
Praise be!
Current mood:  contemplative
Wednesday, August 11, 2004
Um, why didn't I put my preggo weeks on my day planner earlier? Oh, yeah, so I could avoid reality checks like seeing that the first day of classes, Sept 13, is my Week 30.
Awwww, I'm so touched: My mom says my aunts (her sisters) Jeanne and Laura are throwing me a tiny family baby shower when J and I go visit MI for Canuck Thanksgiving Oct 9-11, at abt Week 34. It'll be nice to see everyone, esp since I missed the summer BBQ last weekend.
Then, my parents (and anyone else who cares to) are coming here for US Thanksgiving, Nov 25, for our second annual dinner. The idea is, of course, that there will be a very new newborn to visit.
Had a quickie OB appt today. She was thrilled that I haven't gained any weight in the past six weeks. I don't have quite the same knee-jerk positive reaction, but I comfort myself that the baby must be getting bigger and stronger, since the kicks are plentiful and detectable, by touch and sight, from the outside now (but NEVER when J is there to view or feel them--it's like a hide-and-seek game Vengeance is playing) and my waist is 0.5" bigger, for 4.5" total.
Baby HB: 156
My BP: 128/70
Woohoo: Sunday, Aug 15, will mark six months since my LMP (last menstrual period). Hurray for no bleeding!
Do tampons have expiration dates?
But, even better, my preggo ticker in the sig line of my WC posts says that there are 102 days left, meaning that this Saturday will take us down to 99 bottles of breastmilk on the wall--
C'mon, everybody, sing!--
or, ya know, not. But you get the idea. :-)
Find of the Week: Comfy Cotton (http://www.comfycotton.ca), a diaper service that serves Guelph (and everywhere else within 90 min of TO). Dude, having my cake and eating it, too! Cloth diapers, instead of dumping $45 and 70 diapers/week into a landfill, but someone else collects them each week and washes them for me. All for $15/week. T'dow!
Now I just have to learn how to use cloth diapers, b/c no one I've ever known or babysat for has used them. No. One.
Except J's great friend Katie, who is in BC answering all my silly questions by email while caring for her 9-month-old cutie. But that's not exactly a hands-on lesson in tying one on. :-/
Current mood: pleased
Fifteen minutes ago, our household awoke to find our squirrel pair out back, as usual. Time to feed them peanuts, right? The more aggressive of the two has gotten more demanding and less scared in recent weeks, standing on the BBQ a foot away from the Cat TV screen and screeching if we're late.
Except today they had other pursuits. Like, doing it like they do on the Discovery Channel. I looked out through the curtains to see Squirrel A mounted on Squirrel B and rutting, first in our tree and then on top of our wooden fence.
Eh, the cats still got their Cat TV entertainment. I just didn't know that they had ordered some cable channels. (Catemax?)
Good Morning! ;-)
Current mood: amused
Monday, August 9, 2004
Tigra, aka B11202, is now at the Humane Society awaiting adoption. We're not taking her. All her tests were negative, so they have no idea why she went on a hurl fest. Makes J and I nervous to adopt a cat who has/had *something* wrong with her that no one can diagnose. Plus, Nick & Gil's special, prescription teeth-care kibble is so expensive, it would be hard to up our feline costs by 50% right now.
Once again, the employee answering the phone at the Animal Hospital (third person overall) gushed about what a lovable scamp she is, purring for everyone and "bouncing off the walls."
Pray that she gets the good home she deserves.
( The End of Work )
( 'Sex' Discussions With Dad )
Hopefully, the rest of the week will be uneventful. I only have my regular OB appt on Wed morn. (Oh, goodie, a weigh-in.) J and I finally should get to see his friends--another IR couple even--who have been inviting us over for months to mooch off their old baby clothes. And I should have time now to write Bunny for tips on being a mommy in Guelph. She and her husband, Brooks, friends of ex-roommate Wayne, were congratulatory and ready to help when J let them know of our impending parenthood. :-) I'm just bummed she doesn't run her own in-home daycare anymore.
Current mood: Unsure Current music: "Dead Like Me"
Saturday, August 7, 2004
( Almost there... )
Tigra continues to improve, even eating solids again without vomiting. Everyone at the hospital is in love with her now that her spunky energy is back.
Our catsitter wants her to go "to a good home" so much that she will pay for half of her adoption fees if we'll take her. ($107! Don't know if I can accept that.)
I just don't know. I'm so happy that she's looking better, though. :-) They're still waitng for feline leukemia and some other tests to come back. Have to make sure she won't relapse or get us or our kitties sick.
Current mood: recumbent Current music: Soon to be Brazil's "City of God"
Sunday, August 1, 2004
I knew that when I decided last night to buy the baby t-shirt with two tigers on it and the words "Two of a Kind" that it would be fateful. I just didn't know if it would be happily prophetic of a reunion or if I would be punished for assuming any such thing would occur. :-(
The Cigarette Smoking Cat Lady in Unit 38 found Nick in our shared parking lot in the wee hours after midnight. She got our neighbor, Pam, Ginger's owner, to open our door and shove him in. Pam confirmed to CSCL that it was in fact Nick.
This morning, they called our caretaking Cat Lady with the news. She was afraid that it was another case of mistaken identity, and so did not call us until she had come in and seen a dirty, dirty Nick hanging out, with an anxious Gil following his every move from room to room.
Our two brothers were reunited. Poor Gil was no longer alone in the world, left to wonder where the soul with whom he shared a womb and every day of life after birth had disappeared to.
Cat Lady called us at 9:20am, while we were shopping at Target (yes, again--different week = different sales). J answered the ringing cellie, and I got down on my knees in the Liz Lange Maternity section and prayed that it was the news we wanted.
It was. :-D
After 40 hours of hell, J and I were able to hug, embrace, and hold hands in joy instead of solace.
While we watched "The Village," which I liked, but understand why others are disappointed and not getting the movie they might have wanted or expected, the cell rang again. The elderly woman in Unit 29 wanted to know if had found our "kitten," b/c she thought she heard him meowing at midnight last night. Very possible. I said we had and thanked her for her concern.
There were too few other moviegoers at this noon showing to get riled up enough to stone me for having the phone on.
Our whole village really came through for us to help bring the prodigal cat home.
My nerves were still jangled all day, as were J's, and Vengeance has been kicking like never before. I also think that the bebe has flipped since the ultrasound four weeks ago from being transverse with head on the left to having head on the right, and thus the powerful kicks on the left now. Either that, or those are some mighty punches being thrown on the left.
Anyway, I refused to let myself believe too much until we saw him. We drove up at about 10:45pm, and J opened the door to corral cats before I started carrying packages in. From the car parked 10 feet from our door, I saw a rush of white fur and J bending over. Gil's face pressed against the screen near the floor. J turned around and showed Nick leaning on his shoulder in his standard pose. This was real.
The only wrinkle was that the non-Nick cat kind Dan had picked up last night had no where to go. It's a holiday weekend here (so no work tomorrow, except for us retail slaves, and even we get 1.5 pay), and the Humane Society won't open until Tuesday. Cat Lady has a giant heart, but she already has nine of her own "fur babies" in her two-bedroom apartment. So, she told us non-Nick would be here waiting for us in our upstairs bathroom when we returned.
We have christened her Tigra, b/c she is much brighter orange than our own ginger part-tabbies. She is as tiny as Nick, but I suspect she really is still a kitten. Possibly with a home, cuz she is clean and her coat is marvelously soft. I pray she is chipped, so she can be returned. Dan was not crazy, since our posters were not in color.
Our cats, as usual, are following her around as soon as we let her out of the bathroom to roam the house freely, nothing but curious, but she will have none of it. Hissing, growling, the occasional left hook are all being tossed out. But she lets the humans hold and pet her.
She's lost interest in them now that J is cracking open a can of wet food for the striped household members to share.
In happy human-twin news, Aidan is now home, too!!! So, teeny Maia is no longer alone in her crib, and Jen and Amory do not have to commute in SF traffic to see him. Mazel tov! :-D
Current mood: relieved Current music: Pitter patter of twelve paws
Saturday, July 31, 2004
After dinner with my family, at 9:35pm J and I ran off to Target to grab some necessities before they closed. At 10:05pm, as we were checking out, the cell phone finally rang, as we had been hoping, praying, and staring at it demandingly for all day.
Dan says he thinks he found our cat over on Silvercreek. J put up flyers there, and the guy said it matched the photo.
We raced home to my parents' to get our cat caretaker's phone number and call her. She is headed over there right now, with the reward money.
She will know for sure if it is Nick or not. I'm worried b/c the posters are not in color, although he is described on them. J went to the Human Society this morning while I searched the neighborhood again, and he said there were some Nick/Gil look-alikes there, so I'm so afraid it's another ginger DSH.
Waiting impatiently to see if I will get the best present ever.
11:30pm ETA: It's not Nick. Cat Lady says so, and I know she is right. What sealed it for me is how she described this stray hissing at our neighbors Pomeranian-Poodle dog. Nick and Gil are curious about, not threatened by, dogs, and they know Ginger well.
I have never felt my heart plunge into my stomach like that. I'm shaking and feel swoony. I think I'm losing it a little. But Cat Lady is right: People are seeing the posters and keeping an eye out.
Dinner was nice. Got in some good shopping earlier at Troy's chi-chi, upscale Somerset Collection, including monster clearance deals on baby clothes at Talbot Kids, Baby Gap, and Marshall Fields. Even "clearance" items at Neiman Marcus were too rich for our blood. ;-P
My whole family thinks they know the gender--and they agree on said gender. They might be right.
Current mood:  anxious
Friday, July 30, 2004
It appears that, today of all days, Nick escaped out the front door as usual, but this time, no one noticed.
Today is extra bad b/c we were in a huge rush at 8am to get out the door and get everything done. J had to work; I had to work. I had errands to run. It wasn't until I got home around 3pm that I noticed he was gone.
We are supposed to be driving to Michigan right now for my party weekend.
Gil, probably sensing our stress, has decided that he's stressed, too, even though he was chill all afternoon, and is pacing the house and meowing.
We've been searching the giant park across the street and knocking on neighbors doors, although only the retirees are home right now.
Called the Humane Society, where we adopted him and where he was chipped.
We can't leave for MI until he's found.
And here I thought work sucked today.
Current mood:  worried
Thursday, July 29, 2004
At least occasionally.
I'm LMAO cuz of a tiny piece on page 32 of the current issue, with Cam Diaz on the cover. It's a photo of Kate Hudson carrying her son, Ryder, in a snugli outside a Babystyle store in the LA area.
I know that the description of her activities is true b/c S, the beautiful Israeli Angelena on my November Mommies list, was there!
She was perusing a rack of clothes for her baby-to-be, and thought she saw Kate on the other side. Before she could think, her head snapped up to see that, yes, it was Ms. Hudson. Then S was totally embarrassed for gawking and ducked her head back down in some onesies.
But Kate, described as stunningly gorgeous and teeny tiny (which is something, coming from itty bitty S), smiled at her and came around the rack for a chat.
She asked S when she was due and recommended a brand of clothing. (A small, designer line carried at the store) S got a good look at baby Ryder and declared him cute, but in an ordinary way, unlike his luminous mama.
Sounded like a class act.
And I'm now very very amused.
Current mood:  silly Current music: Hot, napping cats
Saturday, July 24, 2004
No time to post at length. J and I need a nap before we see "The Bourne Supremacy." Summer always bankrupts me at the movies.
Next weekend, I will see "The Village" with me family.
( Good news from Zehrs? Weird! )
( Even better news from H&R Block? 'I'm RICH, be-yatch!' )
Feel that yummy life goodness, what with being admitted, avoiding work pitfalls, and cashing in? That's the Sun moving into Leo, baby! :-D
Everyone, take a day off, go shopping, get a mani, and eat lunch somewhere fabulous! Because it's L'eo-ral, and I'm worth it, lol.
Current mood: cheerful
Thursday, July 22, 2004
Sunday, July 18, 2004
( I officially suck at being a cashier for a soulless Wal-Mart-wannabe corporation )
On the serious note abt Realities That Actually Matter, after my shift at Zehrs, I discovered that today truly is a hard day because J's paternal grandmother, Lois McG, died this morning.
I met her at Christmas 2002, and I liked her right away. She was telling all who would listen about how the docs had only given her 6 months to live after her diagnosis of liver cancer. But she was having none of it. Piss-and-vinegar insistence that she wasn't ready to go, TYVM. She lived for 3.5 years past the diagnosis.
RIP.
We'll be gone out east from tomorrow morn until Wed afternoon.
Current mood:  sad
Saturday, July 17, 2004
Pringles, Pampers, Oil of Olay, Crest, Scope, Tide, Always, Tampax, Folgers, Bounty, Pantene, Charmin, Downy, Iams:
( My relationship with Procter & Gamble )
( Anterior Placenta = No C/S )
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) silveraspen is right: I need to get out and meet some other young (in reference to the child's age) parents here. I want to, and it's why I have been planning on joining our city rec center's Mommy & Me "exercise" classes (sorry, they look fun, but not a workout) since I found them in 2002.
But a birthing class would involve partners, too, so there'd be double the chances of connecting, in the sense that I might connect with woman from Couple A while J might connect with the guy from Couple B. Plus, it's not like one can meet too many people.
( Prelude to a discussion of everything coming full circle? )
Current mood: contemplative
Friday, July 16, 2004
"If Madonna is the mother of all pop stars, then Britney is her favorite daughter, but Christina is the daughter who most takes after her."--Holly Millea in her cover-story interview with Xtina in this month's US "Elle"
J and I had another joint appt with our mutual GP, who indulges us by seeing us together and enduring our incessant questions abt both of our medical conditions. His nurse and he have always been even-keeled on the weight issue, telling me to avoid crap food, of which I do have some excess, and even praising me more for being on the light side of avg gains in pregnancy.
When I told him OB E said no more gain, he laughed. "Well, different clinicians have different views on the subject, but I think that it is normal and to be expected that you will gain some weight. I doubt you will get from here to birth without gaining any weight, and that is OK."
He also gave us the good news that OHIP might start covering the newer vaccinations for babies. Duh, public health means immunizing dozens of babies against chicken pox, meningitis, and one other I can't remember, is cheaper than hospitalizing even one kid for a week when they contract it. In the meantime, it's $80 a pop out of pocket. Remember that the next time you hear abt "free" health care.
Still gearing up for the UofG stuff, but I'm so far behind, and the only way I got through the wait was to tell myself that it wasn't happening and stop planning for it and go to Plan B. Now Plan A is back. GACK!
Current mood: calm Current music: Napping katten
Thursday, July 15, 2004
So, today I finally heard from U of G: I'm in. I can't believe how long they dicked around "transfer" students like me, who've had our apps in since Feb. I have to register by classes by next Fri, July 23, or suffer late fees. Thank God the Econ acad advisor already knows me from my earlier pushy visits, so she'll see me next week and give me permission to break the rules and take Micro and Macro together. With Calculus.
Why am I doing this again?
( Stupid OB visit )
ETA:
( The day improves )
Can someone just wake me when it's November?
Current mood: Getting kicked a lot
Saturday, July 10, 2004
Don't see "King Arthur."
( Because? )
CHarc: OK, I can't top the NYT preview article's deadly accurate description of Guinnie's battle gear as "a revealing Thierry Mugler-style S & M outfit," but the sight of it still made me guffaw. Even without real boobs, I still felt pain for Keira's chest bound in that leather. I think I'd prefer the disdained corset of "Pirates." Still, plenty of Halloween fun available this year for A-cup beanpoles with blue paint and a sure brushstroke.
Current mood:  apathetic
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