Hill's Science Diet Recognizes April 27 as National Hairball Awareness Day

Yes, I am a pet nerd. I get emails from Science Diet monthly because they sometimes contain great coupons. This month's newsletter contained the above headline---one of their best ever.

I just thought I would share it in case you too are one of the millions of Americans suffering from pesky hairballs...I hope you find comfort today and always.

Thoughts, shared.

Tonight husband and I met a couple that we know for dinner. He is a state legislator who Jff campaigned for in 2004 and she was my Ob/Gyn before I got pregnant (She is not my delivery doctor because I didn't want to deliver at the hospital where she works). It was fun to hang out with them and to do a bit of shop talk interspersed with personal fun. It seems like it would be strange given how we know them, and that they are married, but not one bit. Very fun.

When we got home, there was a call from my yoga instructor on the machine. Calling to see how we were... "and how the baby is." Now this might sound strange, but he has been my yoga instructor for three years- which means that summer or fall or winter or spring I have seen him every Thursday for the last three years. Plus he also teaches other fitness classes that LLC and I would occaisionally make, or husband and I would run into him on our "running days" at the YW.  About four weeks ago, I stopped yoga because it was causing groin pain AND things just got a little impossible. I also have been doing any walking I can do outside (mostly) and haven't run into him at the Y. Although he is mistaken about the baby, I couldn't believe how nice it was to notice he hadn't seen us at all lately and to call to see how we were.

In other news, all is getting wrapped up at work. Amazing, never thought it would happen. But if I am there through this Friday all other things that are left will be trivial matters that can be handled by someone else. Hooray! Hooray! Another week would be bonus time for really wrapping EVERY thing up, although I don't know if I want there to be 'another week'. I have very few clothes that still fit, this belly is getting too large to lug around, and man, days at work really wear me out!

Last weekend we hung out with friends and had our first bonfire of the year- it was fabulous. Although I can still smell campfire in my hair every morning when I it wet in the shower, it is a great sign of everything NOT winter. So is the slight garden redesign that was hatched last weekend- I am excited to embark on that adventure sometime this summer. Garden and outside plans are so fun in the spring- it is as though a great new fun adventure is unfolding before you every year as you begin.

Two weekends ago marked the first weekend of clothes drying on the line. It was marvelous to put clothes out and have them dry two hours later. All winter I have dried a lot of maternity clothes just by hanging them to dry in the house. Lack of sun and wind make for slow drying periods and with my lastest lack of clothing, I need them as fast as they are washed!

Many of my students are saying good bye for the summer this week as next week are final exams already! I am closest to the students in the program that I run, and some of them are so cute- friending me on FB so they can see baby pictures and updates, others hoping that I will be there next week so when their parents come pick them up they can introduce them to me... I guess the benefit and joy of working with first-years. If you help them get through the first year of college- helping them create some good memories and personal achievements, they love you at the end. Much easier than teaching high school. Amen to career changes and great jobs.

In more random drivel, the nursery is not done being decorated because I can't figure out what to do with it. You know what? I guess I don't really care.

Today Ben and Jerry's was giving out free ice cream cones (I assume to test out new flavors and get people hooked) so at 2:30 today husband picked me up from work and we went to get free ice cream. Two testers, a good dose of sunny weather, and a half hour later I was returned to work. Yummy- both to the new flavors and seeing husband in the middle of the work day.

Finally, we are working on moving down to the basement for the summer. The coolness, the bathroom on the same floor, and the nice sitting area for middle of the night feedings will be nice. It will also be great to use the space that we worked so hard to finish in an everyday sort of way and not just on weekends.

Nerdy life revealed through landscaping reflections...

Today we have landscape work happening in our yard thanks to husband and brother-in-law. No amazing garden will result, there are no beautiful stones or bushes being put in, but there are some pretty awesome drainage pipes now in our yard!

All day we had neighbors stopping by to check on the pregnancy and also to find out "what was going on in the yard" and when I would respond that we were putting drainage in, they would say, "Oh, I thought it was going to be something fun" and I wanted to say "OH, it IS fun."

It is fun because we can now prevent the swimming pool of water that collects near our front steps when it rains, because we no longer have to worry about moving drain pipes on the sidewalk, and the best part: we are making sure we will never have any water problems in the basement since we have the water moving out to the street now.

Admittedly to neighbors (and probably most of you) it is not very noteworthy or interesting, however, to me it feels downright exciting! Hmmm, could that possibly be a reflection on my nerdy, nerdy life?

Accumulated Thoughts...

Yesterday as husband and I were walking by the lake, we watched a couple paddle by in their canoe. It was a perfect day for it and I wanted nothing more than to be paddling that boat. It looked so wonderful and the water was so calm, now I feel it like a craving. I want to be out on the water. Maybe we can find someone to babysit for us this summer so we can head out.

Last weekend we picked up sticks, raked the yard, cleared out the gardens and mixed in some compost. It felt great to get that done and to really get ready for growing season on the outside. Darn, I didn't start any seeds this year.

For husband's 30th birthday, his parents and I got him a LCD television. He had spent the last year talking about them, researching them, and basically drooling over them. I was really intimidated to try and purchase a TV for him without his knowledge of them, but thanks to advice from a few friends, a consumer reports password, and some internet research, I managed to find one that he is very happy with. It has a great picture, it is energy star, and best of all was one of the best deals I could find. Although the TV doesn't make me super excited like it does him, I am really excited how excited he is about an electronics item that I purchased ALL BY MYSELF! (Thanks to KS for helping me move the TV box around).

Yesterday we found out that the three month baby streak continues in our neighborhood and amoungst our friends- and so far- all boys. Friends C &J had a baby boy in the end of February, we will give birth sometime in May, our neighbors will have their little boy in August, and now, our other friends who live near by are due in November.... Who is signing up for the January or February slot? The time to act is now.

Last night we had friends C & J over with their 7 week old. When the baby would cry, Nora the cat was totally out of sorts. Crying, running around, not sure where to sit, hiding. I wouldn't have guessed, but it gave us a glimpse of someone who is going to have a hard time with the new addition for a few weeks.

I think there is something special about spring when experienced on a college campus. This week, with its warm weather and sunny evenings has reminded me how great it feels when the weather changes and you are in college. As I walked through the park that is the middle of campus the other evening on my way to my car students were playing frisbee, drinking SODA (I am sure), and studying in the grass, it brought me back to the days of studying on the newly green grass, in my crazy creek, behind Slichter Hall. What a fun time of year- anticipation for summer, the promise of no studying, and lots of fun things going on with friends. The pace at work, as a result, is absolutely frenetic but still kind of fun.

I have to go to the mall this morning for a few things- just a quick trip, but for some reason, I am really excited about it. Strange!

The Yogurt of Legends

Since our three week vacation to Europe last year, I have been thinking about, tasting for, and shopping for yogurt that fit the bill of the Danes or the French or the Icelandic peoples. The yogurt in Denmark was my favorite: much more runny than ours, much less sugary than ours, a pleasant tartness and a full taste that always made me want more. The French yogurt was less tart, but again smoother and creamier with much less sugar than that of which you can find here in the grocery store. The Icelandic yogurt, very different from either the Danish or the French, is a type of cheese but it was excellent. Custard-style and thick but again a pleasant tartness and a wonderful texture.

Anyways, I have not been able to recreate my yogurt experience since returning to the U.S. I have looked at Ikea, specialty European food stores, Co-ops and high-end grocery stores to no avail. I have played around in my mind with trying to make my own, but have never quite had the confidence or good directions... Today the New York Times changed all that:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/15/dining/15curi.html?em

Now I just need to find someone with a yogurt starter, a really good liquid thermometer, and some patience. Then maybe I can spend more time eating yogurt again instead of dreaming about the good stuff I used to eat once upon a time on my European vacation.

Less than a month to go; big as a house.

I am now at the point of pregnancy where I am undeniably, uncontrollably noticeable. My belly just sticks way out. People stare, they offer me a seat, they talk to me as if they know me.

The thing is that I am so used to being pregnant that I forget to notice, as evidenced by the following:

I often surprise myself when I walk up to a counter and can't truly be very close to it.  I always forget to stop short and first feel my belly hit and then look down in what must look like a bewildered expression of "huh? Oh, how did that get there?".  I am also having the problem of opening doors into myself, or more specifically, my belly. I constantly misjudge how much space to leave when I am opening a door towards myself and usually I end up opening the door into my belly.

Even though I am aware that I am pregnant: I am constantly reminded by the soreness, the tiredness, the yanking up and down on clothes that don't fit quite right, or by how out of breath I get doing simple things. I don't often spend much of the day thinking about it. While I am at work talking to different people, visiting different offices, meeting students, I am not focused on myself or what I look like but on what I am doing. The same thing goes for when I am out shopping or doing anything else in public.  I am just living my life - one that just happens to include a large stomach appendage at the moment.

Because of this, I am often caught off guard in public. I forget that I am walking around with a major physical 'condition'- kind of like having casts on both arms or a tattoo on my forehead. I completely forget it is there, even when I can feel the baby moving... (Doesn't everyone get kicked from something inside of them every few minutes or so?) When I see people watching me, I have to remember that they are just curious about my belly (the physics are pretty astounding, after all) or are surprised when they notice how much of me there is currently. 

However, what I have to get used to most recently, the real shocker, is how willing people are to make comments about my 'condition'. (Wow, I thought I lived in the the tight-lipped land of the North.) But no, just this last weekend I got several: "Any day now, huh?", "Oh, wow, you have a little one in there, but not for long", or the preferred, "When are you due?" from absolute strangers.

At first when this happens, I am really surprised. I find myself looking down at my belly as if I have a "helpful hints" card tapped to the top of my bump that will help me answer related questions, or better yet, as if I have to remember that I am pregnant before I can answer questions.

I wonder if people know that it is kind of embarrassing to stick out this far and it is not necessarily exciting to get random comments as you are walking around. But then I realize it is just people's way of acknowledging that they are looking at me, excited about a baby, or wanting to share in my (apparently absent) joy. I think people say something out of excitement more than anything, no matter how unneeded the comments are. (Plus, I am sure some mothers-to-be like all the attention).

The most wise response to me and my very obvious state at this point are mothers with babies or toddlers in strollers. They most often observe me by not staring at my belly, but looking at my face (they are not fascinated by the physics, they have experienced it) and giving me a small smile and a look that says, "good luck, I remember when I was in your shoes."

So next time you see someone who is as big as a house, you might take a moment to remember, there is no need to acknowledge their state. They are regular people, doing regular things, probably not even thinking about the very obvious thing that they live with 24/7, that is mind-blowing to you.