Grab bag

[mamagotcha]

• I am thinking about shortening my CA visit in May to include a jaunt to WisCon. Good idea or not? Convince me!

• Bill made lavash last night. It was sublime.

• Clay found an obscure but excellent little anime called "Haibane Renmei." Only 13 short episodes, no sex or violence, but lots to think about, and very pretty music. Two thumbs up. (We didn't have the fourth disk, since you can only have 3 out from Netflix at a time, which was bad planning on my part, especially over a 3-day weekend. Let's hear it for YouTube and instant gratification!)

• I saw Girlyman on Saturday night. Two or three times the crowd size, but a much lower-energy concert. Poor Nate even forgot the words to "Postcards from Mexico," and there were other signs that their hearts just weren't 100% into it. That's OK, it was still awesome music, lots of new stuff from an upcoming CD (including some really pretty counterpoint, my favorite kind of harmony). I picked up "Joyful Sign," and got home before the rain turned to ice.

• It snowed yesterday, and Greg showed up. Bill offered him $10 to clear the driveway, and when G tried to angle for more, played the Christmas Eve card. Bill says he quit arguing after that.

• Binoculars are very cool. I keep forgetting we have them.

• I'm supposed to do the sleep study tomorrow night. They were going to send me info on what to expect, but it hasn't arrived yet. Not nervous... more curious. And a bit annoyed... the only "slot" they had open for the next few months ends at 6:30am; I have to be out by 7. Still... no baby heels in my ribs for a night, woot!

• Clay is still growing with no signs of slowing. The pants we bought in November are already going highwater. This kid is huge. He's also a bit aimless right now, but we're going to visit an artist friend today with intention of setting up a regular art lesson.

• We are thinking of selling the house this spring, and moving into a rental so we can launch more easily and quickly when Bill gets a job. This will also ease the financial crunch by bringing monthly housing costs down significantly, and clearing debt to nothing. There was a blurb in the paper yesterday about how housing costs in the KC area have flattened or dropped... except in a very few places, like our neighborhood, where they've increased (in our case, 57% in the last 7 years). I'm not looking forward to getting ready to move, but I like the actual moving part... it's a great chance to jettison crap, and while I've tried not to squirrel away too much in the last few years, it's inevitable.

• I'm volunteering with Union Station on the "Bodies: Revealed" exhibit. I haven't heard anything from the perinatal hospice in a few months... I guess either my pagany/pro-choice views scared 'em off, or they've got enough volunteers. I also have two KC mamas asking for my doula services, one due around the beginning of April and the other at the end of the summer. So while I'm a little sad that my services aren't needed by people I'd hoped to help, I guess that's the nature of volunteerism... you go where you are needed, not where you want. I think I'm also going to call the zoo and see if there are any volunteer positions working with the otters.

• I'm doing some self-hypnosis to augment my weight loss work. Anyone out there have any hypnosis experience with this? (I did some, with mixed results, for labor with Linc... it still felt like it hurt, but I think it helped me cope with the long dilation phase... it had been advertised as a "no-pain" thing, which I think was misleading.)

• Clapotis is going well so far... now I wish I'd used a nicer, softer yarn, but this project is going to eat up a LOT of yardage, and I only have two or three stashed yarns that qualify as far as quantity. This one will LOOK cool, it's just not going to feel quite as awesome as it looks. I think. I've just gotten to the first ladder of drop stitches, which was very satisfying... other dropstitch projects I've done just drop the stitches as you go along, but this one has you knit them up and drop them all at once. I thought that was kind of wasted effort, but now I see it's going to be quite motivational for the rest of the scarf!

• I'm incubating a fictional story, my first in something like 25 years. It's feeling sort of young-adultish, fantasy, "Juniper"-like. We'll see... oh, wow! I just got the name of the protagonist! Seriously, she just sprang into my head... that was cool. I guess we're really gonna write this thing now!

• A few days ago, I told Linc I wasn't going to put diapers on him anymore. He pees in the toilet just fine, he's just hung up on pooping there, so he asks for a diaper for BMs. Bill bought a bag of Pull-Ups, and I showed him how to put one on himself, so he runs up to his room and grabs one when he feels he needs to poop. Last night, he needed a change, and Bill started the job. He started laughing, and said that Linc had put on not one, but two diapers! Then he started laughing even harder... three! Still going... yep, he had put on four diapers, one right over the other. He was prepared for anything!

• Juggling festival next weekend, woohoo!

Comments

[ex-serenejo.livejournal.com]

From what I understand, Wiscon is ALWAYS a good idea.

[cheesepuppet.livejournal.com]

I want photos of the clapotis! I've heard those are so great, but I've never seen one in person.

[rikchik.livejournal.com]

Haibane Renmei is indeed wonderful.

[jedusor.livejournal.com]

It just struck me that you're probably into Hikaru No Go, aren't you? Pfire and I had fun analyzing Touya on AIM the other day. :P

[rikchik.livejournal.com]

Actually, I never really got into HnG - I tend to avoid series if I find out they're really long. (This is probably why I'm one of the few people who prefers Busou Renkin over Bleach.)

[wordweaverlynn.livejournal.com]

I'll be at Wiscon. Last year my very first lunch there included a discussion of breast-milk ice cream. I think you'd love it.

[jedusor.livejournal.com]

Phew. I thought you said your first lunch there included breast-milk ice cream.

[mamagotcha.livejournal.com]

One year, I was road-tripping with a carful of midwives to a midwifery conference. On the way home, one of them had to express her milk... it was the first time away from her 1-year-old daughter, and she'd gotten engorged over the 3 days. She just hand-expressed in the back seat while we were driving, and soon she had a little cup of milk. She held it up and said it was a shame just to dump it out the window, so I said I'd drink it, and I did.

It wouldn't have made much ice cream though... you would have had to augment with some other mammal's donations. And it would have been more ice-milky... people milk has very little fat comparatively. Like trying to make ice cream out of skim milk...

Getting to meet you would definitely be a big plus for going to WisCon! (*makes checkmark in the "go" column*)

[jedusor.livejournal.com]

Go, Mom! Write, write, write!

"Clapotis" sounds like an STI.

[lunacow]

"Clapotis" sounds like an STI.

I really do have to agree. We live a few towns away from Milpitas, which has the same problem.

But I'm also seconding that go go! and adding a yay yay yay! on the fiction writing. I look forward to hearing more about your progress.

[via-lens.livejournal.com]

I need to send you Magical Girl Squad Alice.

I'd say you could Netflix it, but I don't think it's ever coming out in the US. Not to worry, it has subtitles.