Random blogging

Tomorrow is the day during all pregnancies everywhere that we wait for in anticipation. The ultrasound day! We are really looking forward to tomorrow. This pregnancy has had me fairly paranoid about a number of random things, but tomorrow should hopefully put my head to rest and reassure me that we have one healthy baby growing away. We won’t find out the gender because we love torturing our friends and loved ones, but really for the purely selfish reason of relishing that “It’s a (insert gender)” moment at delivery. Another thing to guess about!

Work is plodding along slowly. I finally came to the realization that I need another project to work on and so I set about in working on that yesterday. I e-mailed a handful of people in the area of my expertise asking if there are any openings on their projects for the coming year for a surface / vacuum / materials scientist. So far I have no takers. My former team lead came by to tell me he is in the same boat (great) and to encourage me to go over to the dark side since I have the radiation detection experience. I fear this. I worry about suddenly being on a project where travel is routine. If I have no takers by Monday I will have to wander over and talk to the PM for this particular multi multi million dollar project which I have avoided the gravitational pull from for years. I can already see it, “oh yes and I don’t want to travel more than once a month or so because as you know I have a toddler at home, I won’t be allowed to travel anymore in about 12 weeks due to our companies travel restrictions with pregnancy, oh and I didn’t tell you I am pregnant? Oh yeah, I will be out on maternity leave for about 12 weeks next spring.” Yeah. I can’t wait.

The advantage I have over others I suppose is that I am not looking for temporary work. I am looking to pick up a new project to replace my successfully finished project. About 30% time is what I am aiming for starting at the end of the month when my paper should be finished.

Leif is doing well. He does his best to crack us up daily. He has a new song that he sings regularly and AB and I struggled and struggled to learn the words. It doesn’t help that he speaks toddler language, so really getting what he is saying is difficult. The second hard point comes in the discovery yesterday that the song is really just a string of made up, but rhyming words! His teacher has promised to write it out for us because Leif really hates that AB and I don’t know this song when he wants us to sing it.

One of Leif’s funnier moments this weekend was when he announced to me that he too has a baby in his tummy. “You do?” I responded surprised. He then stuck his belly out and instructed me to “piss baby in my tummy” (kiss the baby in my tummy). I cracked up, and promptly did as he asked!

We are constantly impressed with Leif. He is working hard on the ABC's and has certain phrases down, "m,n,o,p" "s,t,u" and his favorite is "w,x,y,AND z". He is routinely counting to 14 without help or prompting if you have 14 things to count. What perplexes us though is his insistance that doing something on the count of three, like jumping or making the blocks crash is always "3,4,6!"

Last night I ventured out to get my haircut. I haven’t done this in ages it seems. Partly because I had a horrible cut last time and partly because I have been highly reclusive lately. But I ventured out to V’s stylist bravely last night. I left horrified. Seriously. I hated it. I even told the stylist I was extremely skeptical. I picked up Leif at V’s house and she worked hard to reassure me, but that was quickly eroded away by my husband who said, “woah” when he walked in the house. I said, “I am not sure what I think” and he replied “yeah, me either”. It is good I suppose to pride oneself with honesty, but there are times when it just isn’t the best policy.

The good news though is that the style vastly improved this morning when I styled it myself. At least today, I am quite happy with the cut. (AB still hasn’t told me he likes it, or offered a positive comment… but then again unless it was back to my waist I doubt he would rave. Dork.)

I am craving some free time lately. I have none. I have a little time in the evening after Leif goes down to blog a little and catch up on MySpace on occasion. About an hour to watch TV and then I am done for. My house is a disaster area. Serious disaster area. I am really hoping AB gets a job offer this week JUST so I can call our housecleaner back. AB’s intentions to keep the house clean while out of work were good, but they are just that, intentions. In the meantime I have 1” thick dog hair carpet on my side of the bedroom floor since Winny sleeps on the floor next to me. I am not sure when last our sheets were washed, my athroom sink is a frightening zone of filth. I struggle to get a load of laundry in everyday. My pantry is frightening as is my linen closet. I need a sign that says “Watch for Falling Objects When Opening” attached to the front of each. I think I am starting to nest. The mess is driving me insane. I fear that this weekend is going to be ALL about cleaning and that I am going to have to take time away from Leif to accomplish this. I hate that, but it is a must.

What I really want to do? Some crafts. I have marked off Thanksgiving week to be home all week (yay!) and my plan for that week is to make a quilt for this baby. (I will accomplish this by taking Leif to daycare Monday and Tuesday, thereby having some me time.) I plan to buy the fabric in advance and if I am lucky have cut my pieces so I can sew starting Monday morning. With any luck I will have a completed quilt by the end of the holiday week.

Even more than quilting, I have been craving some cross stitch time, I have a few gorgeous patterns begging for attention, UFO #1 Chat Noir (unfinished object) and UTO #1 Pates Baroni (untackled object) and my big prize UTO #2, The Orange Tree. I can’t even envision when I am next going to have a chance to sit down and tackle them. I took up cross stitching after one of my best friends, Vargas Girl, hooked me a number of years ago. I completed a number of small patterns… small compared to the above three that are each 50,000+ stitches. Then I delved into big patterns. I am not much for the ever present country style and cutesy cute patterns and so when I found sites that specialized in Vintage and Classic Artwork, my addiction was fed. I made a promise that I wouldn’t buy more until I completed one. That didn’t last long when I found Pates Baroni on sale for half price. Then I was browsing Golden Kite and found the Orange Tree and fell in love nearly immediately. Oh I also made the commitment to finish Chat Noir before Leif was born. Boy was *I* funny! In the past few weeks I have been seriously contemplating pulling out The Orange Tree. I am dying to stitch that. Then I think about all the work of pulling out my crates of supplies, going through my boxes of thread, buying the colors I need, spooling them all and organizing them… how to deal with Leif’s need to “howp” and I sigh and look at my dirty house and realize what REALLY needs to be tackled.

I also want to finish the October book club selection, The Red Tent, (that was already discussed). (Fantastic read, btw.) I am not even going to attempt the November book, Geek Something, Love maybe? I own it, but even putting it on my to do list is setting myself up for failure. I am a sucky book club member this second year. I haven’t been since June. Amazingly I have read most of the books, and on time too (with the exception of The Red Tent which I am SO close to finishing). For me 75% of it right now is purely scheduling difficulties, AB has class on my book club night. The other 25% of it is a mix between finding a babysitter (ok, I admit it, making the effort to find a babysitter) and feeling up to par (the problem with August and the partial problem with September). My FIL started the December book (Persepolis, The Story of a Childhood, a graphic novel) at the cabin this past weekend and told me he finds it worthwhile and interesting and that I should aim to read it, and I really want to. His endorsement is huge to me and seeing that he read 1/3 of it while “babysitting” Leif (as he napped) while AB and I dug clams, I am optimistic I can accomplish it.

What is occupying your time this Indian summer?