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June 27, 2007
Marys of the Sea
29 wks
Vote for Pete and Jay. Every day. Many Times.
see, people don't believe me, but one hits the third trimester and one balloons. i think it is because a lot of the weight is going to the baby and he's already taken up any available room, so he has to expand out. At this point the baby is around 2 lbs. for the next 10 weeks he'll add a half a pound a week to make his goal weight of 7 lbs. That means (hopefully only) 10 more pounds for me. which will put me right in the middle of the 25-35 lb recommended weight gain. So i am happy with that. Though as one might expect, i've been a little obsessive about my weight, to the point where my OB made ben hide the scale. so it goes. she wants me to eat when i'm hungry and not worry about gaining weight. i, of course, know that i eat when i'm hungry and when i'm bored and usually knowing how much i weigh keeps the boredom eating down. data, i like data. i am always interested in my blood pressure and any lab numbers as well as my weight. I went to my neurlogoist Tuesday to have a little chat about epidurals and such (i am cleared for anything). They take your bp there with an automatic blood pressure cuff and the thing killed my arm! It hurt so bad that it made my upper reading be really high. In the middle the nurse asked if I had any pain and I said the blood pressure cuff! My lower reading was normal (in the 70s), but my upper reading was as high as i've ever seen it. It reminded me of becca's problem with automatic cuffs.
Posted by christina at 8:16 PM | Comments (0)
June 23, 2007
soul meets body
saturdays around here
so there is this southwestern airlines "want to get away ads" that features a couple trying to break into what they think is their car, but it isn't. i commented to ben that wouldn't you notice that the stuff inside the car was different before you tried to break the window with a brick?
Thursday night we went to dinner. Ben got a spot right outside the restaurant. After dinner we walked out and walked to his car. We both opened our doors and I noticed that my book was missing and in its place was a chicago wedding magazine. My first thought was who would steal my book and leave a wedding magazine in its place? As I was asking ben if he didn't lock the car, I noticed that there was other stuff in the car, and low and behold it was not our car. We figure this out the spilt second before ben sat down. It was the same color and was a sedan, but wasn't a camery. The camery was the next car. and there you have it. one does notice. well, i notice, ben would have sat down and tried to start the car.
Posted by christina at 1:19 PM | Comments (0)
June 19, 2007
lights go down
picture by rachel
so i wonder if ben would rather i wasn't such an engineer and needed his help doing handy stuff around the house. i must admit, usually i am lazy and let him do all the "handyman" things like replace the ceiling fan and put together furniture. Maybe it wasn't so much that i was lazy as I always had some school thing to do.
Now that I have time I have accomplished the four projects that have been on my list.
1. the bottom drawer of my ikea dresser has had a warped bottom for like ever. This weekend i got a big piece of particleboard to replace it. I thought that the utility knife would cut it, but not so much. I used the pruning shears to very slowly and painfully cut the board to size. It wasn't pretty but it worked beautifully and now i have a better than new dresser as the new board is definitely more stiff than the old one.
2. shelves for the cabinets above the computer. weird that there were no shelves in the huge cabinet. now there are selves. it took 4 trips to home depot, but now they are beautiful.
3. hanging the picture frame thing with all the wedding pics.
4. planting a tomato plant. VERY excited about this one.
the crib and bookshelf came today. they sent it ups. crazy. it wasn't like we ordered it from wal-mart....
i kept the dog so busy today with the three trip to HD. she is so funny when she is tired.
Posted by christina at 5:57 PM | Comments (1)
June 17, 2007
the power of orange knickers
It drives me crazy when some commercials are way louder than the tv show. Discovery Health is having a Untold Stories of the ER marathon this afternoon, so I've had it on while I've ironed a million things. I have been successful in cleaning off the to be ironed papasan chair so it can be moved down to storage. We ordered all the baby's furniture Thursday. We basically ordered the room - the crib, dresser, glider. We feel in love with the wood and really found nothing else we liked (and we look elsewhere). Ben and I are both people who once we find something we like we just look for it elsewhere.
We also, finally, found a tv stand. We looked at like 15 places - furniture places, tv places, random places and finally found the perfect stand at target. of course. it was nice to finally find it, but seriously, target? somewhere we go there somewhat often. but, in the end, we knew exactly what we want and can never say we didn't look hard enough...not that we would, because it is fabulous.
the life of leisure is tiring. all this tv watching really takes it out of you. well, yesterday we did venture out to take the cat to the vet. she had to get some more blood drawn so she could be typed to become a blood donor. since i currently can't give blood, i've been all about trying to encourage others in my life to. not that the cat has a choice...
i've been doing more research on cloth diapers. I have to admit that I am back on the fence about a diaper service. There is only one in the entire chicago area, so i figure, they are probably driving by my street anyways, so how much more CO2 would using them contribute? How is that offset by their economies of scale with water and dryer heat? Turns out you have to wash the diapers a couple of times... Add the convenience and i'm leaning toward the service. I am leaning mainly because it turns out the service isn't that expensive (less than disposables) and it offset somewhat by the avoiding having to buy the diapers.
Posted by christina at 3:39 PM | Comments (1)
June 13, 2007
cars and guitars
the weather in chicago has been perfect. it was perfect weather as we spent sunday wandering around downtown. After Steve's panel thing (rumor has it i was on book tv some), ben and i wandered around the book fair tents. There were a lot of cheap used books, but i never did find anything that i wanted to get. ben got a couple of books for the sack of organs and the dog. both like to be read to. then we did some shopping enjoying the afternoon until we met emily and david for dinner.
life has been quite busy despite no school (yay!) , i've been "working". yesterday we day tripped out to Schaumburg for some Ikea action. We did the babies r us thing - picked out strollers and swings and stuff. tomorrow we'll do the furniture thing/sheet thing at pottery barn. my sister did all the little stuff at target because she is far more knowledgeable than me on bottles and stuff. it seems like we actually might be having this baby. it is weird, though this week is the third trimester. crazy.
Posted by christina at 9:49 PM | Comments (1)
June 10, 2007
Well there are always words that could’ve been used
two of my loves. my apple. and the sack of organs.
It is funny to me how we care about people's opinions about us. People who were aren't friends with. Or people we are. As i've mentioned, since i got pregnant, my caring about what people think has diminish greatly. I think that it might be due to having a life instead your body. One that you worry about. You worry for the first 12 weeks. Then you worry whenever it has gone too long without feeling a kick. You worry if the shock from the elevator buttons hurt the baby. You hold your breath until you get home and lay down on your right side, which is currently a sure-fire way to feel some don't lay this way kicks. Feeling the kicks are a reminder that things are still okay. They remind you that you are so lucky to have gotten pregnant easily, to have had (so far) a very easy pregnancy. When the boy rubs your feet and your back you feel lucky that you know this dude is going to be an awesome father.
And in all this you cease to care if your neighbors like you. You are quicker to voice your annoyance. You aren't afraid to tell your neighbors, be considerate, because it is the right thing to do, to let everyone know you are drilling into the side of the building. to not take up the entire common area with your stroller? To not destroy the common area with the said stroller? Just to remember that we are a community. But I really don't care about that, but feel some sort of responsibility since we got drafted to be "president". By collective action theory, we are suppose to stand up for the group. This is a classic collection action problem - the cost far outweighs any benefits. But with such a small building, do you care more about what your neighbors think of you or what is right? or are you even right? should you care that people totally disregard the common area? and that makes you think that they would do the same with the holes in the building? But i really don't care about the holes because they are below our apartment and so won't cause water damage to us, but may other people and so as president do we stand up for those people? Even if they are silent? Do we stand up for the other apartments in regards to the damaged common area even if they are silent? or do we just lay low and try not to upset the boat? as long as no one complains to us, why do I feel compelled to act? why do i feel compelled to act? maybe too much collective action theory. maybe too much liberal public policy education about caring about the idea of a community.
why do I care about the community as a whole while others care what people think? or is caring about the community caring what people think?
at this point the costs are faaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrr outweighing any benefits - even summed benefits and that is when groups fail.
Posted by christina at 9:46 PM | Comments (0)
and in this moment...
Last night we were walking back from Rachel's when a lot of bicyclists started passing us. First it was weird that there was a parade of bicyclists riding down the street at 10:45 at night. Then we noticed that some were dressed weird. And then we noticed that some weren't dressed at all! It was at least 200 bicyclist is various states of undress (many completely naked) riding down the street. It was by far the strangest thing I've ever seen.
When we got back, I looked it up on the internet. It turns out that it was world naked bike ride day. They were advocating decreased dependence on oil.
Later today, my father-in-law will be speaking at the Printer's Row Book Fair at 1pm. You can watch him at the same time on C-Span 2. In case you miss it, it will be repeated at 1 am. Tune in!
Posted by christina at 8:03 AM | Comments (0)
June 7, 2007
counting the stars
me. 27 weeks.
My father-in-law was on Chicago Public Radio's news magazine 848. He talked about his book he wrote: Crossing Hoffa. It just came out. I've read a good bit of it (and will finish now that i am done with school yay!), and it is quite good. The interview was interesting. I'm fairly jealous as I love 848.
So, yes, i am done with school. it is a little weird, as I am not sure what to do with myself. Though i do have a million of little things i've been putting off for 10 weeks...like the wedding album. i was busy today dropping my paper off, making my quarterly trip to target, and getting my glucose test done. And tomorrow I "work".
The glucose test involves going to the doctor's office building lab and drinking an orange soda. You wait an hour and then they draw your blood. There are some interesting (annoying) people that come through the waiting room. There was a pair of 19 year olds girls with a one year old. One of them was there for the same test I was and so I spent the time trying to figure out whose kid it was. I think it was the pregnant chick's kid. so. sad. Then there was the really old lady who complained that the waiting area was cold (it was 90 degrees today) and the older man who told me that reading was a good choice as everything on the tv is trash. (The tv was on people's court and it was TRASH. One case involved them describing a 50 year-old man as a sex boy toy.) It was a pretty strange hour. I was so. happy. when they calling my name. I hope i don't have diabetes. I more hope i didn't screw up the test by having a granola bar for lunch. i didn't really plan eating today very well.
Posted by christina at 4:53 PM | Comments (0)
June 6, 2007
i love the sky when it's blue
oh summer. life is good.
Chicago has had some random temperature swings. 90 one day (like tomorrow) 67 the next (like yesterday). From my morning on the elliptical tv watching (there is nothing on at 7 am except really stupid morning shows), i know it is because the jet stream is right on us, so any movement can drastically change our temps. When it is mild (normal) like today (upper 70s), I open the balcony door. The puppy loves the balcony, now that she has gotten over her fear of scary porch monster. For a while she would not go out there, but a couple of trips out in our arms and a visit from a dog who loved the balcony got her over her fear. Now she loves to lay out there in the sun and look at people walk by. It took ben and i a while to trust her to not find a way to fall off, but now we just let her go.
i am having some major motivation issue in relation to writing this last paper. It is my last school thing for at least 6 months.
Posted by christina at 9:57 AM | Comments (0)
June 5, 2007
i love the sun when it shines
oscar on the table
So i decided long ago that we would do cloth diapers. Here is an interesting wired article comparison of disposable vs. cloth. To me, it would be a no briainer that cloth would better. Not only are you not filling up landfills with diapers, but the filler in diapers is a huge consumer of trees. The article says that cloth diapers could be bad due to the amount of water used to wash the diaper. This, i think, incomparable to the landfill/tree issue. Water can be recycled (i.e. in some regions grey water is recycled to flush toilets or to water things). The author also cites the energy consumption of diaper services. I agree, driving diapers around town is not good either. (we are not using a diaper service.) therefore i am pretty happy with my choice, especially since other things i have read say that cloth is better for skin and stuff.
my stats prof is quoted extensively in this article.
Posted by christina at 7:09 PM | Comments (0)
June 2, 2007
We're in new york with ben's parents. to see his brother's band play. I couldn't see them when they were in chicago (b/c of the smoke) so it was a good excuse to join his parents for a trip out here. The best thing about traveling with his parents (besides having someone else to talk to) is not having to think about any sort of plans...or at least the execution of them. Things just happen, like dinner at an excellent restaurant last night. mmmmm. yum. it was excellent. i am said that i couldn't get the steak tartar or the halibut (raw meat and mercury fish), but my roast chicken was excellent. i would never get chicken when we go out (as i can cook chicken at home), but the restriction on my diet have made me branch out and for that I am happy.
Posted by christina at 9:39 AM | Comments (1)