Saturday, June 28, 2008

hot weather.

today, it got up to above 100 outside. i kept all the windows open until it got in the mid 70's outside, & then shut all windows/shades. i went to the beaverton farmers market briefly & made a quick trip to the library, but didn't last long in the heat. i cut my list of errands short and just stayed at home watching tv. i was up early this morning (4:45am), and despite going back to bed at 8 for a bit, i felt groggy & sluggish the rest of the day. for some reason, my pulse keeps beating at above 100, resting. i'm normally below 60... it makes me feel uncomfortable.

j went climbing for the day - i can't believe he lasted as long as he did considering the heat. we spent the late afternoon watching "there will be blood" in our cool basement, before opting to go out for dinner to mingo. it's a restaurant in our neighborhood that we had never tried before, and it was decent italian food. it was nice to have a break from our meal of the week - red curry - and not have to cook in the heat! we do have air conditioning, but i'm trying not to use it. we're going to sleep in the basement tonight, as it's almost 10pm and still 86 outside.

pre-baby life

everyone has been telling us to go out and see as many movies as possible, and to go out to eat before the baby arrives. once he comes, we'll have little to no opportunities for such luxuries. i just cashed in a bunch of loyalty points from a credit card, and got a bunch of free movie tickets. we used two of them last sunday evening & saw "iron man" on a whim. it was actually REALLY great! a perfect end of the weekend movie - not serious, lots of fun & action & excitement. i highly recommend it!

crib assembling


unfortunately, the rods on the under-crib drawer are all bent out of shape, so we need to find new ones if we want to be able to use the drawer.

crib assembling

friday night, j & i assembled the crib we purchased last weekend. we found it in a resale shop. it feels good to have it all put together. we still have to purchase a mattress, though...


belly pic


this is at 23-ish weeks. i don't look that big, but i sure feel big!

baby re-arranging


part of the furniture re-arranging involved removing a large square coffee table that took up most of the living room, and replacing it with some sort of storage ottoman. this is what we recently found & purchased. the cushions on top open up, and they can also be pushed in together. i just hope the kids don't ruin the leather.... we found it ridiculously on sale at dania. we still need to move out the other end table so there are no hard corners for junior to fall on, not to mention freeing up extra play space.

baby re-arranging

last weekend, we were trying to figure out what to do with the furniture that's in the baby room-to-be. we just couldn't decide on the best setup, so i asked c to come over & see what she would recommend. she's an artist, and her house always looks spectacular, so we figured we could trust her opinion. happily for me, she brought over her adorable daughter l. l just turned 1 year old. it was a good opportunity to see just how un-baby proofed our house is, & everything that has to be removed! she was a lot of fun...

water marks

my friend c was over at my house early last week, and had the time to prove to me that ironing watermarks on wooden tables (with a thin cloth) makes them disappear!

b'day dinner

last saturday, j & i met my parents at serratto for a belated birthday dinner for j. the food was delicious as always, and the service was great.

Saturday, June 21, 2008

practice anniversary


looking at vinny from this angle, all i can think of is cartman from southpark, with his fat little face! how the hell did he get SO big???!

must be lots of love. :)

practice anniversary


vinny somehow escaped from the house, so we let him hang out with us for awhile. he's quite the monster kitty.

practice anniversary


we grilled an amazing meal last night - rib eye steak, red pepper, asparagus, portobello mushroom, parmesan garlic bread (which i love to undercook - it comes out so chewy that way), and strawberry bread pudding for dessert. a great evening! we watched notes on a scandal after dinner (and before dessert), which was a disturbing movie... it was difficult to keep watching. i'm glad it was only 90 min long.

strawberry picking


i forget the name of the farm where we picked strawberries yesterday, but they have goats & a playground for kids. here's a pic of my mom with the goats - she loved them!

evil feline


that's our vinny - attack the wine! he can be so funny sometimes.
i love pets. i'm so happy to live with them. they're so entertaining!
i met a nice "puppy" earlier this week on a walk. it was the large kind... looked like an irish setter or something. anyway, its owner was clueless to the fact that his dog was bounding all around me, full of excitement & energy & licks & general puppy love. luckily i didn't mind. i think the puppy was just trying to say hello to little ernie...

my body is totally wrecked from two hard days of strawberry picking, hulling, washing, & slicing. it's normally a bit wearing on one's body, but even more so with 12 extra pounds of babyness. i went to sauvie island on wed by myself, and went yesterday to some farm in beaverton with my mom. yesterday was hot & sunny, so i didn't get as much as the first time, as i was sore & dragging a bit. i think the berries were a little smaller than the sauvie island ones, but it was nice to not have to drive so far away to pick. i'll try that place again in the future. now our monster freezer finally has something in it! i just have to add some raspberries & blueberries now. j helped me clean yesterday's berries. we made a strawberry bread pudding. it came out a bit watery, most likely partly due to the fact that we used fresh berries instead of frozen, and i used 1% milk & half/half instead of whole milk/heavy cream like the recipe said.

edumacation

on wednesday evening, j & i had our second childbirth education class. this one was on infant safety & cpr. it was so much more interesting & informative than our last class (relaxation techniques for labor & life). we basically learned how to NOT kill the baby. very helpful. and we treated ourselves to burgerville afterwards (the baby is getting hungrier & hungrier every day)! i think it's a new tradition. we originally were schduled to take the class on a weekend in august, but the scheduling staff at ohsu notified us of an extra class on a weeknight, so j can now spend that weekend outdoors instead of learning baby stuff. and now we have a better idea as to what to purchase for the nursery (or, more importantly, what NOT to buy), which is our big task this weekend. i'm not a fan of shopping. i hope it's easier rather than harder...
we also got to take a tour of the birthing ward after the class, thanks to our instructor. now i have lots of time to visualize the whole thing... the rooms at ohsu aren't super plush, but i didn't choose the hospital for its appearance, i chose it for the care.

Thursday, June 19, 2008

usmle

this is a little late, but congrats to my sister-in-law m, for being finished with her board exams (usmle). enjoy your few days off before rotations begin!

father's day

last sunday, we all met at j's parents' house in canby for an early grilled dinner. the food was great, especially the dessert - strawberries & angel food cake.

good dinner + belly pics

last friday, j & i grilled salmon & other great things for dinner. i happened to go shopping at new seasons, and found that they have a mini farmer's market on fridays every week. i purchased asparagus & some kind of small potatoes that turned out so amazing! we had never grilled asparagus before, and it was absolute heaven.
below are some fun pics... i've finally surpassed j's "belly."

soccer party

kids will amuse themselves with such simple things. we gave them trash cans, and they came up with this "soup" and found it highly amusing. ...whatever works!!!

soccer party


j is so nurturing...

soccer party








two weekends ago, we hosted a bbq for our friends who are on j's soccer team. these are some pictures....

jain wedding





i'm pretty behind with posting pictures... the last weekend in may/1st in june, j went to cleveland for a college friend's wedding. i would've gone, but it would've been too busy for my pregnant existence... the ceremony began with the groom's bharat, and then there was the hasta melap, with other rituals, and then a long reception. these are just a few pictures.

Sunday, June 15, 2008

...

happy fathers day to all the good fathers out there!!!

Saturday, June 07, 2008

ahhh...better.

i like judith warner. i voted for obama, but i agree with a lot of what ms warner wrote in this article.

also check out this and this.

Thursday, June 05, 2008

...

i hate maureen dowd.

random thoughts.

an electrician is here at the house right now, first and foremost, to install an outlet in the basement for the freezer. we've had it for over a week, and haven't had the opportunity to see if the huge thing actually works. i'm praying...
there are also several other things on a checklist which we've needed to have done, so i'll be curious to see how many are taken care of (not to mention how much this will all cost) at the end of the day.

tonight we have our first childbirth class: relaxation skills for labor & life. i wanted to take it early in case there were any techniques i could practice throughout the next 4.5 months. it's a sort of "hypnotherapy" type of class. we'll have to wait & see to decide if it's actually helpful...

i had my bellybutton ring removed yesterday. i first got it in january of 2001, and have never ever removed it. my belly has been growing, and the ring was getting uncomfortable, & was standing straight up most of the time, so it was definitely necessary. it's sad to admit i'm becoming an adult! the piercer who removed it for me said it should be easy to re-insert after the birth, but i doubt i'll ever want to show off my stretch marked belly again. so sad. :(

just for the record, the recipe for sour cream coffee cake from the silver palate cookbook is simply amazing, and addictive! i made it for brunch last saturday. the recipe calls for it to be baked it in a bundt cake pan, which i was worried about, but it came out completely & perfectly, looking beautiful. the sour cream makes it REALLY moist! it's definitely a keeper!

Tuesday, June 03, 2008

first june weekend

this past weekend was a little more relaxed for me, but just as high powered for j. he flew to cleveland on friday for his college roommate's wedding. it was all day saturday, an indian jain ceremony. he stayed out late friday night, was up for the beginning of the wedding at 10am, was up past 2:30am, and then was at a 10am brunch hosted by the bride's family, & then arrived back home at 10:30pm sunday night.
i stayed home. i wanted to go, but it would've been too much for me to handle... that, and i prefer to take travel sickness medicine, and i'm not allowed to take in while pregnant, so i would've had to tough it out. had we been there for a longer period of time, i would've gone, but it was just too much in too short an amount of time.
i spent friday cleaning the house & teaching & cooking. saturday, i had three girl friends over for brunch, and then spent the rest of the day relaxing & watching movies. on sunday, i checked out the neighborhood community church, as j & i are searching for a good church home, and then attended friends' recital - viola burnout 2008. it was fun to see my old colleagues from the symphony, & the performers did a great job! unfortunately the community church won't fit the bill, i think, and we'll have to travel downtown to find the best fit. anyway, the weekend was busy enough, but much more relaxed. i'm still sleeping a lot, recovering from memorial day weekend...

memorial day weekend




the rest of memorial day weekend was super busy. we reached home after the sledding around 5pm, and i ran to the grocery store to pick up some things, and dropped off portions of j's birthday cake (so that we wouldn't end up eating the whole thing) with various friends.
at 7pm, we met up with j's uncle j & his girlfriend j, and his grammy for dinner at the kennedy school. near the end of dinner, the sky broke into pieces in a rare thunderstorm/downpour. the drive home was a bit dicey with the heavy rainfall. grammy came home with us & spent the night at our house.
sunday morning, we went to 9:30 mass, and then enjoyed a bit of birthday cake before heading out to wine country. we had 6 bottles to pick up at panther creek winery (which we had purchased at thanksgiving as futures), and tasted there and at domaine serene, and torii mor. we had wanted to go to domaine drouhin & archery summit, but evidently they're "above" the memorial day crowds. late afternoon, we drove grammy to canby & visited for awhile, then moved on to my parents' house for dinner, with my brother & the nephews.
monday started late, and it was spent picking up a freezer from sears & fitting it down the stairs into the basement. the whole ordeal was traumatic (see my facial expression in the picture in front of the freezer - also note the scale - the thing is huge!!!). luckily j asked his friend a (who also brought girlfriend k) to help. j would've never been able to handle it on his own! we took a & k out for dinner to mcmenamins that evening as thanks. i wish i could drink, because i really needed a beer after the whole weekend! it was nice to see everyone, but very tiring for me in my pregnant state.

memorial day weekend

on saturday (memorial day weekend), we drove up to timberline lodge and met my mother, brother, & two nephews for some fun in the snow. we had lunch first in the lodge, and then they sled down the bunny slopes.