Judecorp.

My e-mails and LJ comments are stacking up again. Oops. I just don't seem to have the drive to spend a lot of time in front of the computer when I'm not at a slow-paced office job where I am babysitting a desk and phone. Someday soon I need to go through those e-mails and comments, though, as there will eventually be a time where I don't have time to get to them! I also have two weeks of photos to upload, and I am a major slacker. Whoops. But my bathroom is nice and clean!

Netflix brought me the first disc of "Big Love" and what can I say, I am a sucker for that show. I originally put it in my queue because my /grandmother/ was really obsessed with the show. I love hearing her talk about the shows she loves, because she is quite a fan of the scandals. She likes to watch the spanish and portuguese soap operas on cable (she speaks neither portuguese nor spanish) because they are racier than US soaps. She watches them and will give you a detailed play-by-play - it's funny. All she would tell me about "Big Love" was that the man had to buy Vi@gra to please all of his wives. Hey, that's enough for me! (Actually, I wish there were no sex scenes in it, but hey, it's HBO.) It's actually a pretty interesting show, and hopefully I will get more episodes soon.

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Yesterday, Melis came to visit and she brought Baby Nolan, who is getting quite large (3mo) and handsome. It was kind of weird because here we have this house that is FULL of baby stuff, and no baby. And then there was a baby here! At one point, N was super fussy and she was like, "Hey, does that swing have batteries in it?" And for a little while there was an actual baby sleeping in our actual baby room. It just wasn't our baby. But he was cute!

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I'm supposed to go take a walk with Emily this afternoon, thank goodness. Not only is it an excuse to get out of the house, but it's about 20° cooler today than it has been the last two. It is the most amazing thing ever. I am /so/ ready to be outside all weekend since the weather is supposed to be in the manageable 70s as opposed to the humid and oppressive 90s. I'm also hoping that Jen and I can find lots of cutesy couple things to do over the weekend, because hey, this could be our last weekend as a cutesy couple, right?

I am so ready to meet this baby!

Hot today. REALLY hot today. It's 7:30pm and it's currently about 93°. That's not typical up in these parts. Good thing Jen installed the window A/C in the bedroom on Sunday. In an hour I'll crank it up so it will be good for comfy sleeping.

We're pretty lucky with our house, though, in terms of staying cool. High of 97° today, still 93°, and it's somewhere around 80° in here with no A/C. Not too bad.

I went swimming with Morgan over at his apartment complex pool today, which was a very welcome break from the heat. The pool was a bit chilly but it sure helped when we got out and could actually sit outside for a while. Tons of people from the apartment complex were there, including several young girls, one of whom was pregnant and had a cute, big belly with NO stretch marks! (WTF?). I try not to be a majorly judgmental about what people do, but when she started smoking I got really irritated. Grrrr.

But the swimming was awesome!

Jen took me away to a cute little B&B in Mystic, CT called "The Mermaid Inn." It was a little peculiar and I think it tried very hard to be fancy schmancy. I mean, there was a bidet in the bathroom but there was also a mermaid mural on the bathroom wall. With boobs. There were boobs on the bathroom wall. And a bidet on the floor. The shower was nice, though.

But because we went away for the weekend, and especially because we went somewhere coastal, it rained and was cold the entire time. (This happened in Ogunquit, ME a couple of years ago, and Provincetown for our last wedding anniversary, and on and on.) On Friday night, we got completely SOAKED trying to go get dinner somewhere, with that awful wind that flips your umbrellas up and drives the rain sideways into your legs anyway. I fell asleep at 9pm. I'm a party animal.

On Saturday it was still pretty crummy, but we walked around downtown anyway for a little bit going into shops. We were going to stay until lunchtime so we could have some Mystic Pizza, but there was not enough excitement in the shops to justify the cruddy weather. We went to the aquarium instead, which was fun but umm... ch-ching! Why are aquariums and zoos so expensive? So that was a good time, we saw a sea lion show and some penguin feeding and tried to touch some manta rays. (They were shy.) After the aquarium we walked through some shops and ate chocolate covered frozen bananas on a stick. (Yum.) And then went back and took a nap. We had dinner at a seafood place with a looooooong wait, and then Jen went to sleep and I watched TV. (Sensing a pattern about how lame we are?)

We had to leave after breakfast Sunday so we could get home, so of course it was beautiful out. It rained on and off through our drive home but was sunny and springy in Easthampton, which was good because we were having a few people over for an intimate baby shower/BBQ. Jen's coworker came over and put up some balloons and we ate a ton of junk food and it looks like a baby clothes store exploded in our house. A pink baby clothes explosion. (I hope they're right!!) It was very sweet and we had about 10-12 people here including my grandmother, which is awesome because it was an excuse to get her to our house. (I hope she thought it was clean enough.) Some of Jen's coworkers came (they are nice), and her godmother whom I had never met, and then just a couple of local folks from work or the area. It was a nice time with too much picnic food.

My grandmother surprised me with her gift for the baby - one of my great-grandmother's rings. It is so tiny and delicate, she must have had the smallest fingers. (That leads me to believe it was my grandfather's mother, because my grandmother's family doesn't always have the dainty gene.) Either way, it meant a lot to us and I know we will keep it safely put away until a special day. It was very sweet, and I am a sucker for that kind of thing. She gave some rings to my father when I was a kid but he misplaced them throughout my life and I only have one of them. Shucks.

So all in all we had a good weekend full of rain showers, showers with italian granite, and baby showers. All that showering really wears a person out, though, and I am dreading going into work because I feel totally knackered.

The sun is coming up around 6am these days, and when it is sunny it is glorious. Of course, the sun coming up means that I am coming up. It also means that Fin is coming up, and by "coming up," I mean, "coming up on the bed to knead my boobs and step on my neck and drool on me." So even if the sun didn't wake me up, I'd be up. You know?

I don't mind waking up early in the morning to the sun. I should probably go to bed earlier now that I'm getting an hour less sleep, but it's so comforting to wake up on my own to the sunshine and not need an alarm clock. And then at night there's just so much to do to try to wind down for the night. Sleeping is not my forte. I suppose this will be good in a few months. ;)

Sunny mornings give me energy, and I've already done the dishes, cleaned the kitchen, and gotten ready for work. I have to work an extra hour today (boo) because we're having a lecture in our office and someone needs to attend, and that just kills me because it's supposed to be positively gorgeous again today and rainy tomorrow. Maybe I should take a mid-day break to take a walk... except that no one but me is usually in the office in the afternoons and it's irresponsible to close the whole Center because I want to play outside.

We have two squirrels again on the patio. I feel like I should warn them.

I often need a weekend to recover from my weekend. This weekend is no exception.

We got up early yesterday and headed into Boston to have haircut appointments with The Dark Overlord. (It wasn't the reason for our trip, but since we were going to be there, what the heck, right?) Haircuts done, we ate some lunch and headed up to Somerville to spend some time with Olex, and then went over to Shani and Matt's place because Jen wanted to go to a Game Night before the baby comes and we aren't as able to make 2 hour drives/4 hour roundtrips for board games. After Game Night, we went back to Olex and Jen's place to crash for the night. Good lord, I was tired. I'd gotten crap sleep on Friday night. But we got to see some peeps, including Ms. Katherine who is getting too cute to live.

We got up this morning, showered, and headed to Ball Square with Olex and Jen to eat at SoundBites. It was delicious and also full of Brazilians. I am usually a strict "bowl of cereal" girl when it comes to breakfast, but had chocolate chip and strawberry pancakes, and then Jen and I split an order of home fries and an order of sausage. The home fries were like fried mashed potatoes and I could have eaten 20lbs of them. I didn't, but still felt like I was going to die after.

We went back to Olex and Jen's place and played a game of "Last Word" with them, which was fun. And then we bugged out so we could drop in on Melissa (the wife of our illustrious mortgage guy) and their new baby, Nolan. We dropped off a little baby gift and hung out there for several hours, enjoying the breeze coming in through the open windows and the smell of the neighbors burning lawn refuse. Mmm. When I started to drop into starvation land, we bid our goodbyes to Melis and Nolan (sorry, Jeff!) and decided to check out this diner that Melis said had awesome milkshakes. Which they did. Even if mine was frozen yogurt. It was still tasty! So we pigged out AGAIN and then drove back to the Valley, stopping at the grocery store briefly before getting home. Thud.

And then I realized that we'd gotten a bunch of our next-door neighbor's mail, which gave me an excuse to go next door and meet him. He was very nice, and was officially the first stranger to assume I'm pregnant and ask when the baby is due. This means, of course, that I am in love with him.<3 <3 <3 I have major belly going on these days so it isn't surprising, but still gratifying after all of the crap I got in earlier weeks.

Now I have to get to the Sunday Ritual stuff. The garbage is out but not the recycle, the laundry needs to be done and I should unpack from the weekend. Jen's gotta do the cat litter (good times) as well. But we got the screen doors up instead of the glass panels which is SO NICE.

I have to be at work by 9am tomorrow to interview some potential grad assistants for next year. It stinks to go to work so much earlier than usual. But it will be SO gratifying to leave at 2:30 instead of 5, especially when it's expected to be in the 80s tomorrow. GLORIOUS.

There is little lonelier than working on a college campus on the Friday of Spring Break. It is like a freaking ghost town around here. As I was walking the bazillion miles from my assigned parking lot to my job (I tend to call it the "Involuntary Employee Exercise Program") I realized that I could have totally parked in the tiny lot outside my office door - and sure enough, the whole lot was completely empty.

We went and came back from Florida with no hitches - no long lines, no cancelled flights, no emergencies - which is nice. The weather was gorgeous, 80s usually and sunny, and there was some pool floating. We also went to the big beach on Wednesday to walk around a little bit and it was HOT there. It was hard to believe we'd left big snowpiles behind at home, it just didn't seem like the same time of the year. I could never live in a place like that because I would NEVER do anything but soak around.

I wasn't great about eating, though, and think I put on 5lbs. during vacation alone. I'm not sure because our home scale is incredibly defective but there was a jump. Yikes. I am scared to go to the midwife and find out for sure, and I'm also scared that I've picked up the fun of GD since I stopped Metformin. (Glucose screen's in a little over a week.) I don't know why it seemed like a good idea at the time. It's nice to be drug-free but not at the expense of my health or my kid's.

Here's hoping it's just a vacation fluke and that things settle down when I go back to eating like a normal person. I tried to eat good breakfasts and stuff but when you go out to eat for almost every meal it's kind of inevitable. HOWEVER, we did go to a Bob Evans and because I hadn't had any since I left Ohio, I did indulge in a glass of their blue koolaid. It was the most disgustingly sweet thing I'd had in a long time (usually I drink about a gallon of water a day) but the kid LOVED it and was jonesing for more all day. Besides, it made me think of Sean (livinginfits) and all of the bloolaid we drank during our dinner dates. I sure do miss me some Sean.

Is it possible to gain like 10lbs in a month and NOT have GD? Please?

UMass is CLOSED! Wahooooo!!

(Of course, if I'm snowed in I can't get a Valentine for Jen. That sucks.)

How on earth are we supposed to spend this day packing when it is SO gorgeous outside? Argh!

Maybe I can con Jen into going for a little walk with me at some point to break up the monotony and get some fresh air. Or maybe we'll just open some windows and pretend.

Anyone feeling the desire to pack today? xoxo

This weather makes me want to sleep all day, not get up early, go to the doctor, and then run to the grandparents'. But aah well.

Jen and I have plans to earnestly clean our place in anticipation of my arriving mother. We started with a bang on Friday night and really got things done - Jen reorganized our storage closet so we could put more stuff in there, and I cleaned the bathroom like woah. I moved some stuff around in the kitchen and made a list of everything we needed to do. Then we collapsed for the evening.

Yesterday we intended to do more stuff but it did not happen. Jen did the cat boxes and that was it. We ended up spending longer than expected at Target, then went to eeka and Molly's wedding, then stopped by Shani's to say hi to people, and then went home and fell asleep ridiculously early. No cleaning.

We have SO MUCH TO DO tonight after Grandma's! EEK!

I never thought I would say this, but I think I'm getting sick of eating crap food. I had fish and chips for dinner last night on the shore, then after my usual light breakfast I had leftover pizza for lunch and chinese food for dinner. And I feel so lethargic and so heavy and gah, I just need to stop.

This TTC break has been H-E-Double-Hockeysticks on my good eating. It's like all of the work I'd been doing is flying right out the window. I haven't resorted to having ice cream every day (yet) but ugh, I am a major lardass. Because of this, I was going to go out to dinner tomorrow night with Jen and one of her friends but instead I think I will go walking with Marti Maraschino and then eat a light, sensible dinner. And make myself a big salad for lunch tomorrow.

Day One of the ZOMG MAJORZ HEATZ is winding down or segueing into Day Two. I have four home visits tomorrow. I know the first (a day care) and the last (a house) will have air conditioning. I'm pretty sure the third will also, as they have a very young baby. But #2? It could go either way. Let's hope.

The thing is, I love hot weather. I think summer days should be hot and sunny. I love beach weather (mostly for the beaching), I love shorts, I don't mind sweating when you're outside. But I also love cool nights - a breath of fresh air that sends all of the sticky mess from the day away and starts everything anew. New Mexico weather in the heart of Philmont country was my ideal scenario - mid/upper 80s in the summer sun, low 60s (or less) while you slept under blankets. It made early morning showers a little interesting (we slept in tents and had glorified outhouses afterall), but dude - perfect weather.

I wish the BSA weren't such fascists so I could go back to Philmont.