Saul

Introducing

Saul Atticus Scott

8 lbs 12 oz; 21 inches long

Too much information?

I had a doctor's appointment today. I am now 3 cm dilated and the doctor stripped my membranes (I don't care what the link says, that is some serious pain right there).

I was going to set up an induction on Friday, but since I waited so long the only openings were for tomorrow or next Wednesday. So it looks like this kid's birthday is going to be 9/27.

Wish us luck.

Inspiration

Need inspiration to get in shape? Just get pregnant. I am fat and achy and tired. My back hurts and my knees hurt and going up and down the stairs is miserable. I used to think nothing of walking the dogs a couple of miles a day, even after spending an hour or two at the gym. Now it's an event when I can make it to the end of our street with them. It makes me realize just how important it is to be healthy.

I will have this baby sometime between now and Saturday. I will give myself next week to recover. Then, assuming I didn't have a C-section, I will get to work. I expect to have to start from zero. My goal right now is just to walk a mile once a day, with a baby strapped on for extra weight. Then, after I get the ok from my doctor, I will head back to the gym. It will be hard for B and I to keep up intensive workout schedules, but we have both agreed that it is in the baby's best interest to have healthy, fit parents.

Laundry Day

There are only so many things you can wrap a dog in. I am lacking inspiration. Also, he took off while still wearing this, blind and bumping into walls, and I had to chase him to get it back.

What can I say?

He was born for the spotlight.

Book

I recommend The Last of Her Kind by Sigrid Nunez. It's not life changing, but it made for an interesting and relaxing short weekend read. I think the best way to sum it up is this: it is what chick lit would be if chick lit went to college and acquired some brains.

You must be kidding

So what is the first thing I do on my first day off of work? I check my work email, of course. And I get a nasty shock - my second temp has found a permanent job and quit. I have now spent over four weeks training two people for nothing. Now that I am not at work, there is no one to cover for me, except the people who already have their own jobs and way too much to do.

I have offered to come in this week, or work from home, but it doesn't look like they are going to take me up on it. I am feeling incredibly guilty because I know this means a lot of extra work and overtime for people who are already overbooked.

Somehow, I just can't get everything to work out for this leave.

A funny (as long as you aren't an aggie)

Three guys are in a bar: an Aggie, a guy from California, and a guy from Austin. They drink and get a little rowdy.

Suddenly, completely without warning, the Aggie grabs a bottle of tequila, unscrews the top, takes a good swig, and throws the bottle in the air. He then jerks out a Colt .45 pistol and shoots the bottle, spraying tequila all over everything and everybody.

The patrons at the bar shout, "Hey bud, why'd you waste that tequila?"

The Aggie says, "Heck, it's just tequila. Us Aggies go across the border all the time and get all the tequila we want."

Not to be outdone, the Californian whips out a corkscrew and uncorks a bottle of wine. He pours a little bit into a glass, swirls it in the glass, sniffs, comments on the tart, insolent piquance of its bouquet, sips, tosses the bottle in the air, nicks it with a round from a silly little chrome-plated pistol, and showers a couple of patrons at the bar with wine.

The patrons, upset by the casual waste and general lack of concern for their safety, express their displeasure and astonishment, to which the Californian replies, "Well, I'm from the Napa valley, and we have more than enough wine where I come from."

The Austinite, up to this point a quiet observer, touches the crystal hanging from his neck, checks out his tattoo, flips back his ponytail, and puts down his guitar. He pops the top off his bottle of Shiner beer, hammers it back, throws the empty bottle into the air, pulls out a 9mm Beretta, takes careful aim, shoots both the Californian and the Aggie, and catches the falling bottle.

The patrons scream, "Why did you do that!?!" The Austinite replies, "I'm from Austin. We've got too many Aggies and WAY too many Californians, but glass bottles, now... THOSE can be recycled!"

Strange

I just finished my last day of work until December 17th. I should be elated, but instead I feel kind of weird. I spend so much of my life working that I'm not sure what I will do without it. Although I completely trust the people who are covering for me, it's hard to let go of everything. It doesn't help that I'm leaving in the middle of several projects, including the small matter of that little merger thing...

I know once the baby is here, work will probably be the very last thing on my mind, but until he arrives, I'm not really sure what to do with myself. The thought of going an entire week (I'm assuming that he's going to be stubborn and stay put until I get induced next Friday, one week past my due date) with absolutely nothing to do during the day is, honestly, kind of frightening. Normally, if I had a vacation at home, I would have lots of house projects and cleaning to do. Or B would be home with me to keep me entertained. But I'm really not good for much besides sitting around right now, and I'm on my own since B will continue working right up until the baby is born.

I guess I will spend my time catching up on a couple of years worth of book back log, but can I really do that all day, every day for an entire week? Normally that wouldn't seem like a problem, but I'm very restless lately, and I don't know if I can concentrate on anything.

Any suggestions? Anyone? Help me?

New slippers

My feet are happy. Although these are going to be way too big when my feet return to their normal size...

Adorable

Laney Kate Crowell was born yesterday. She was 8 1/2 pounds and 20 inches long. We took a team field trip from work this morning to visit our newest team member.

Poetry Thursday

This Is Just to Say

I have eaten
the plums
that were in
the icebox

and which
you were probably
saving
for breakfast

Forgive me
they were delicious
so sweet
and so cold

-William Carlos Williams

Is it just me or are plums the perfect fruit for poetry? I always like a poem that mentions plums. And in fact, I have a plum waiting for me in the break room refrigerator, so I will think of this poem when I eat it at lunchtime.

I am very happy to say that I got a book of Billy Collins poems for my birthday and have been saving them. The book is in my labor bag for short tidbits in between contractions. I have been told that a big part of labor is just waiting, so I have books and crosswords ready to go.

Still here, part two

I'm still here, but my friend Laura isn't. She's at the hospital at 9.5 cm. I hope to get pictures of her daughter Laney tomorrow.

Still here

If it weren't for all those lovely pregnancy hormones that are like a constant heroin drip, I would probably have had a major breakdown by now.

I hurt all over. All the time. Physically, I have never been so miserable in my life. And I'm having issues at work that are preventing me from working from home this week like I had planned. It's hard to sit, hard to lay down, hard to stand, impossible to sleep, and impossible to be comfortable.

But somehow I still find myself singing and bouncing along to happy music in the car and smiling at strangers and generally being annoyingly happy. Only poor B ever sees my bad side, mostly in the evenings when I am exhausted, but know I won't be able to sleep.

But we are only days away from finally getting to meet our son. If he hasn't decided to make his grand entrance by next Friday, he will very possibly be forced out. Currently, he is estimated to be about 8 pounds, so I'm a little frightened of waiting too long.

This is surreal.

Again?

I'm on a roll.

A very exciting day for Monster

We did not do a good job of keeping our dogs shaved this summer. After a single shave in spring, we didn't get around to it again until yesterday.

Sebastian is next.

Laundry Day

Monster is very excited about wearing a dress.

Excitement *updated with picture*

Bill Clinton is at BookPeople again today. As usual when there is a famous person signing books, we were all standing at the glass windows that overlook BookPeople's loading dock, waiting for a glimpse. We had noticed a few firetrucks going by with their sirens on, but we didn't think too much about it. That's when someone came by exclaiming that "ACL is on fire!" We rushed to the empty corner office with two glass walls so we could keep an eye out both directions. Sure enough, in the distance, we could see huge clouds of black smoke billowing up into the air.

It's been an interesting day around here.

Crazy

I went to the nail salon yesterday to get a manicure

pedicure

and eyebrow wax

I think this is all part of my nesting. I feel this overwhelming urge to have everything "taken care of," although my definition of "taken care of" changes and expands from day to day. I have also cleaned my desk at work, including digging through and organizing files from years ago, had my car washed, waxed, and detailed, and spent a ridiculous amount of time folding and organizing tiny baby clothes, blankets, and diapers. I have serious urges to get the rest of our house organized, but so far I'm just too tired to actually get up and do it. But every time I start having contractions, I tell B "if I'm in labor, you'll have to help me mop the floor before we can go to the hospital."

A new way to look at things

Lately, I look at everything in terms of how big it is in comparison to a newborn.

Bella the devil cat, for instance, weighed 12 pounds this morning.

So Bella is about 50% heavier than a newborn. And probably a lot bigger, since she has lots of weightless fluff.

That makes me nervous.

Poetry Thursday

Near the Wall of a House

Near the wall of a house painted
to look like stone,
I saw visions of God.

A sleepless night that gives others a headache
gave me flowers
opening beautifully inside my brain.

And he who was lost like a dog
will be found like a human being
and brought back home again.

Love is not the last room: there are others
after it, the whole length of the corridor
that has no end.

-Yehuda Amichai

Yay!

Again! This time a vintage picture from my second apartment many years ago. The one where Sebastian hadn't turned into a good dog yet and dug in the mud all the time and ate the dining room carpet.

Hello, Universe? Do you hate me?

So I've got this job. That I'm going to leave for three months. Two of my co-workers are going to cover some of my duties. But we hired a temp to do most of it.

So the temp showed up a few weeks ago. I've been working with him every day. He has Excel issues, which is a problem for an accountant, but he's smart and was picking up my complicated reconciliations fairly well.

Which makes it suck all that much more that he quit today. Apparently, he got a permanent job with the Texas Lottery Commission.

So now I have less than two weeks before I quit work. Assuming I don't go into labor earlier, which is a very real possibility. I was planning on mostly working from home next week to finish up some last minute things, but now it appears that I will be here after all, working long days and lots of overtime to train someone new.

I am not happy.

Twice in one day!

We're on Stuff on My Mutt TWICE today! Once for Sebastian and once for Monster. As B is fond of reminding me, your grasp will never exceed your reach. Aim high.

The Triumphant Return of Laundry Day

I think we're ready to give Monster another shave...

Gone

Madeleine L'Engle has died. As an adult, I find her books insipid and sentimental. But as a kid, her books introduced me to science fiction and the awesomeness of physics. They made me consider science and religion in new ways, and made me think of ideas that probably led directly to my agnosticism. They gave me lonely, outcast female characters that I could identify with, and presented those characters as heroines. They had an enormous effect on my childhood and are the first books that I remember devouring over and over again, to the exclusion of all else.

A few years ago, I bought all of her books that I could find at Half-Price so that they will be on the shelf waiting to be discovered by the next generation when the time comes.

Longing

I want one of the new Nanos so badly that my heart hurts. My Nano is two generations out of date, too small for all my music, scratched up, chipped, and generally all yucky looking.

Normally, if I wanted something this badly, I would just buy it. But since there will be a new baby here soon, I feel like I should save the space on my credit card for things like diaper service fees and bottles.

I suppose this is my first taste of the not so fun part of parenthood...

Shower

My team at work threw a joint shower for me and Laura. I have turned down or squirmed out of other showers, feeling like it would jinx everything, but for some reason a shower at work felt okay. I was expecting a small thing, with maybe some cake and punch, but they really went all out. I work with an amazing group of people.

Poetry Thursday

Sonnet

All we need is fourteen lines, well, thirteen now,
and after this one just a dozen
to launch a little ship on love's storm-tossed seas,
then only ten more left like rows of beans.
How easily it goes unless you get Elizabethan
and insist the iambic bongos must be played
and rhymes positioned at the ends of lines,
one for every station of the cross.
But hang on here while we make the turn
into the final six where all will be resolved,
where longing and heartache will find an end,
where Laura will tell Petrarch to put down his pen,
take off those crazy medieval tights,
blow out the lights, and come at last to bed.

-Billy Collins

One last recipe

I gave up on the 10 basic recipes. The only one left that sounded really good was for croissants, but I decided to skip it after I realized just how much butter goes into a croissant. Seriously. You might as well just skip the baking part and eat a couple sticks of butter.

So I decided to flip through The Book and find a nice, basic recipe that I thought I could make. I settled on vanilla pound cake with a lemon glaze. The Book still manages to make the recipe a little bit complicated, but I had my sister to help and we managed.

The batter was beautiful, all white and fluffy. It came together perfectly, although adding a teaspoon of egg at a time is a little harder than it sounds.


The completed cake was also beautiful, especially once we poured the lemon glaze all over the top.


And most importantly, this was some seriously good pound cake. It was moist and flavorful and dense and silky. I am in love with this cake. I eat more of it than is good for me. When I run out, I'm not sure what I will do. Make another, I guess.

I can't find the recipe online, but I will scan the pages from The Book and email it to anyone who wants. Keep in mind that The Book does not believe in short instructions. The book believes that a few paragraphs are necessary just to tell you how to add the eggs. But that's why it's good, right?

New research from Duh Laboratories

Rock stars more likely to die prematurely

Study: Men go for good looks

Poor Sebastian

There is an elite circle of people for whom Sebastian has an unswerving devotion. When these people come to the house, his whole body wriggles with joy and he bounces around and cries like a puppy. My sister is in this circle. She came to visit this weekend, and Sebastian's happiness was complete. He spent the whole weekend following her around, looking for chances to get close enough to lick her face or lean up against her leg. No matter where she was or what she was doing, he was hovering close by.

And this morning, with her gone, he couldn't even be bothered to get out of bed.