The lovers, the dreamers, and me

All hail Baby Einstein videos. I'm just saying.

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Attempting to take Drew to Disneyland today for the first time without Bryan. How I'm going to manage his stroller, 2 bags, front carrier and him alone on the parking tram is anyone's guess. At least I'll be travelling with C and her son, but as they'll have just as much stuff as us it will probably be more like a french farce or comedy of errors than anything else.

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Best friend Hadley is visiting from London next week. Joy! But that means I actually have to clean this place in preparation of her arrival. A daunting task...

We've been spending some time each weekend for the past couple of months trying to make the garage usable and more efficient. Essentially trying to make it something other than a repository for junk and things that we don't know where else to put. We're almost done, and one of the last things we have to do is to take down the things that the previous owner, Jeff, had stored up on plywood sheets in the rafters. Bryan took down a box today with some surprising magazines. There were several stacks of Playboy magazines from the 80s, a bunch of Life magazines from the later 70s (these we're keeping temporarily until I can check and se if they'd go for anything on Ebay), and a few old Rolling Stones. These aren't abnormal to me. Instead, what surprised me that at the bottom of the box contained what looked like a year's worth of Soviet Life magazines, as well as a small book entitled something like "Socialism: the Philosophy of the New World Order." Um, yeah. Right.

I'm half tempted to ring him up and tell him we found his stash of Playboys, and did he want them back? Just to see what he would say.

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Oh, and those Sorel snow boots I'm selling on Ebay? They've now got 20 watchers and 8 bids, and there's still a little over 3 days to go. 20 watchers? Seriously? We've never sold anything that had 20 watchers before. You'd think with that much interest in the boots they'd be going for more than $15.50 right now. Gah.

There were no riots yesterday. What a nice trend! Let's hope it continues.

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An email conversation I had yesterday with Bryan:

Bryan: Check it out. project watch - Cesar Pelli Finally Sees Red -"Long-awaited LA building will complete triad at Pacific Design Center - First there was the iconic "Blue" building, known affectionately as "The Blue Whale." Then there was the distinctive "Green" building. And now there will be the "Red" building, the long-awaited addition the Pacific Design Center complex, designed by Cesar Pelli, FAIA, Pelli Clark Pelli Associates, and executive architect Gruen Associates. "Red" completes the triad of buildings the architect first envisioned for the 14-acre site in the mid-1970s. "The PDC is an idea that has been pending to be completed. It will complete the composition, but most importantly, it will help define a public space," Pelli says.
Me: What's next – yellow?
Bryan: Primary colors.
Me: Green is not a primary color. Yellow, red, and blue are the only primary colors.
Bryan: Hey, you're right. I wonder why he didn't do that. That's usually a very architect type of thing.

And he's the designer in the family. Right.

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I don't live in a small town - There are something like 90,000 people in my city. And even so, Yesterday I ran into my neighbor at Costco (literally - I ran into him with a cart. Whoops. Luckily he has a good sense of humor about those things), and when I was at the grocery store a woman stopped me in the produce aisle and said "aren't you [my MIL]'s daughter-in-law? She's so excited about your pregnancy. How are you feeling?" It was bizarre, and though I vaguely remembered meeting her before I didn't remember who she was. It was only after I got in my car that I remembered she and her husband own one of my favorite restaurants (Keely - she owns Tutti Mangia in the village, Spaghetti Eddie's in Glendora, and Eddie's New York Pizzeria in Claremont). Damn. I should have kept her talking longer.

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I got a prenatal workout video from Amazon a few weeks ago and I've been pretty good about doing it a few times a week. I've really enjoyed the salsa dancing segment so that's what I've done each time, and while I'm sweaty at the end I always feel great the next day. Yesterday I decided to try the yoga segment, and I feel like I've been hit with stones and stretched on the rack. And what's sad is that this isn't my first time doing yoga - Bryan and I used to do it together. Granted, that was many moons ago. 

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I've found a 7 day Alaskan cruise on Princess that is r/t out of Seattle for $629/person, and I found airfare for $280/person. I'm hoping we'll do that or something similar.

I absolutely adored having a 4-day weekend. It was divine. I should have them more often.

Wednesday: I told the gals at work about the pg, as well as making the strategic decision to tell a friend in the Financial Aid Office, Jack. Which means that between these gals and Jack the entire university knew in about three nanoseconds. Including the HR office. Word travels fast 'round these parts.

Thursday: I cleaned the house a bit, made italian sausages, peppers, and onions in the crock pot, and lounged around doing a whole lot of nothing. I bought a few of my favorite Disney DVDs at Costco, including Alice in Wonderland, Robin Hood (I used to adore this movie when I was growing up), and the Aristocats.

Friday: More of nothing, mostly. Did a bit more cleaning (house is now clean, finally), watched Bring It On for the first time, and went to a Dr's appt in the morning. The only thing worth mentioning there is that my blood work was fine and I had already decided to switch to an OB nearby (this other person I visited does Family Practice) so I also made an appt for this coming Wednesday with my new OB. Oh, and I cut up my new medical insurance card accidentally. I meant to cut up my old one, so it was a bit of a nasty surprise to look down and see the old card nice and whole and the one I just got three days prior sitting in shreds on the kitchen counter. Whoops. Bryan's parents invited us over for dinner and when I got there they gave me a card [the viewpoint was looking over a big-ole pg belly to a scale below with the words "You Grow Girl" on it, which I think is mostly funny, and a little bit apprehensive-making] and inside was a note saying they got me a subscription to ePregnancy magazine. That was very sweet of them.

Saturday: We did our taxes. Good lord, I freaking LOVE owning a house. Really. In the evening we went out with our friends Jose and Maribel to the Yard House. I'd never been there before and it's really rather... loud. Good food, the drink list looked good, and we had a good time, but damn that place was packed. After dinner we wandered over to CB&TL for drinks and I got a Hot Vanilla. Like a hot chocolate, but pure vanilla taste. Sooo good. And caffeine free and I got in some calcium. Score! I liked it so much I went back today and bought a tub of their powder mix so I can have my very own vanilla-y goodness at home.

Today: We wandered over to Sam's Club while Bryan's car was being smogged and tried to decide if it was worth it to get a membership there, too. We decided that it wasn't. They have some different things than Costco, but we'd rather just pay the extra 10% for a one-day shopping pass if there's something we really want and save the $40 membership fee. Then we test-drove the Toyota FJ Cruiser, which was a huge dissapointment in terms of visibility and pricing, so all signs point to me buying the Mazda5 in a couple of months. This evening we're eating leftover sausage and peppers, and watching Robin Hood on tv and waiting to see if I won an auction on ebay for a book I want. And I'll probably make another mug of Hot Vanilla. Because Hot Vanilla is a sign that God exists.

Sitting here cozily under a blanket on the couch with the wind ripping through the trees outside the windows and with Scout sleeping peacefully on my lap reminds me that life is good. It really is.

Spent yesterday doing house stuff all day - raked leaves for 2 hours and filled up two HUGE cans, trip to the hardware store for varnish so we can start on the doors today, and cleaned and conditioned the leather couch again. While I was doing those things that amazing husband of mine was doing ductwork in the attic and installing a new super-quiet fan for our master bath. He really is incredible.

Last night he went off to go to a concert with his friend and I went over to Darci's place to hang with her and some of her swing dance friends. They refer to themselves as swingers, which made me internally grin several times throughout the evening. There was much mirth and many pop-culture references to Labyrinth (The babe with the power. What power? The power of voodoo. Who do? You do.) and The Princess Bride and all Ramstein. Best not to ask, really. When I left at around 11-ish I went home and turned on the beginning of LA Confidential and waited for B to get home.

And now Bryan's come out to sit on the couch with me and is playing with the cat trying to intice her to paw at his toes by wiggling them under the blanket (Ha! she just tryed to bite his feet! The joke's on him). Oh, yes, life is good.

When did Old Navy stop having good clothes? I mean, a couple of years ago it was virtually guaranteed that I could go in and easily spend (or wish to spend) $100. And Bryan? Oi, Bryan could spend that much alone on shirts. But yesterday we went in with two gift cards and had to search for things to buy - made only somewhat easier by the fact that the only pair of pants I wanted were $25 and not on sale (and then I bought a short length rather than regular which means I have to go back sometime soon and exchange it). Why is practically everything in the store either low rise or ultra low rise? I don’t have a problem if they sell that in addition to the just below or at waist stuff but they no longer seem to be carrying those styles or anything – !god forbid!- without stretch. Let’s face it: you don’t need to see that much of my ass, and you certainly don’t need the fabric to stretch across what you do see. I should have used the gift cards to get stuff at the Gap, but there's an ON right by our house. Last time I make that mistake, I tell you. Grump.

I haven't been getting on as much as I would have liked, lately. Grump.

In a nutshell:

Work is good. Very, very busy, though. We're implementing some new strategies to aid with student recruitment and it's taking up a large portion of my time these days. All I can say is thank god I hired a work study who knows her stuff. I need to start hiring some more part-time work study students, and if I could clone mine I'd do it in a heartbeat.

We went to Bryan's company party on Saturday night, where I spent the majority of the time hanging out with two of the partners' wives, because they're just so darn fun. I used to hate his company gatherings because I didn't know anyone. It still don't know the vast majority of the poeple he works with (obviously - it's a 75 person firm), but I know ten or so along with their spouses. So when it came time to go gamble at the party (it was sort of a monte carlo-esq night) I could just walk up to a table and feel fairly confident that there would be at least one person I could talk to. And we won stuff at the raffle! Hit diggity dog - we NEVER win stuff. :) We got $100 in gift certificates to various restaurants. Oh, and we got a $25 gift card to Old Navy... which we weren't technically supposed to get, but there are times that it's good to have friends in high places, and this was one of those times.

We painted one of our master bedroom walls with our accent color - a gorgeous rich greyish-brown. Picture a cross between a Hershey bar and a very foggy morning. It's absolutely luscious and I adore it. The other walls are trimmed (but not rolled with paint) and the baseboards are cut, which means next weekend we could theoretically install our carpet. BE STILL MY BEATING HEART. After two and a half years we'll actually have carpet rather than concrete floors in the bedroom. And you know what that means, right? We'll actually get to put our furniture in there! In case my excitement over this isn't clearly evident let me just say that I've been using a fucking DAIRY CRATE FOR A NIGHTSTAND FOR OVER TWO YEARS. Soon our room will contain it's intended nightstands along with their intended bedside lamps. It was also contain much, much joy. So excited, so excited, so excited.

All Harry Potter fans should download and listen to PotterCast Episode #14 on iTunes (it's in the podcast section and it's free). Those are so my peeps.

I met with my broker last week. (I still can hardly fathom the fact that I have a broker, but whatever, I do.) I was exceedingly pleased that what he recommended we do is the exact conclusion we had come to on our own after doing our research. Makes me feel somewhat vindicated, and I fully plan on throwing it in the faces of whomever doubts our financial planning in the future.

I spent the day at Cal State Northridge today meeting with some faculty. Makes me doubt the days of just being a student with nothing but a part-time job as my other responsibility. When I'm at the university I work for it's different since I associate it so much with ongoing work issues- that building ver there? I have a meeting there on Monday. This pathway over here? That's where I got into a conversation with the dean about faculty member X who's being a problem. This building is where the other members of that committee I'm on all have their offices... But a foreign campus thrusts into focus the students who populate it. What are they studying? Do they enjoy it? Do they have grand plans to go out and change the world, change some lives? I hope so. We need people like that around us to make us re-examine our own issues.

We're in the midst of trying to select a new cell phone plan since our old two-year contract is about to run out. It's looking like we'll be taking the Pay As You Go option from T-mobile, since that seems to match our needs most closely. Anyone have any experiences with that? Yea or Nay? (please say Yea. I've don't too damn much research on this already and I'm ready to just buy the stupid thing and get it over with.)