Yay · Me!

Right after the Eclipse four-day this weekend, I'm heading out with my mom and SAM to Texas for relative-visiting and beach. For two weeks. :) I'll be back on the 20th or so. So I really should be packing right now.

( Alphabet meme. )

( Music meme. )

Durn spot in my eye. It will be very odd if I get a migraine again after so long. But it's bedtime anyway, that will probably help keep it from happening.

I really need to do a few picture posts and get caught up through the Chicago trip while I still remember it. But I have four more days to do laundry, clean the house, and pack for the event. I kind of doubt that it will happen.

I've been reading a microbiology textbook, because there was one in the free bin at McKay's. It amuses me greatly that SAM keeps asking me to read him parts of it. He particularly likes the diagrams of how enzymes work. :) I guess most of my books don't have so many pictures. He has been showing more interest in them lately, though - I can't go through the sci-fi/fantasy section anymore without him taking a book off the shelf and asking me to read it to him there in the store.

My great-grandmother(we called her Granny) was born 100 years ago today. She died not long after SAM was born.

We're back from Chicago. Hoshiadam's sister is now Doctor Jenna, yay. The trip was fun. We made it in a day both times, 12 hours with stops. On the way we were in a traffic jam for an hour... SAM did really well though. We only had to stop on the side of the road for an emergency potty break once.

I left a casserole in the oven all weekend. It is sad, I was looking forward to seeing if it was any good. But Wednesday night when I was cooking it was when the big storm came through, and the power loss turned off the timer, so I completely forgot about it. Luckily, the power loss also turned off the oven heat... otherwise we might not have had a house when we got back. :P I didn't even remember it until we reached Knoxville. It was stinky.

Now I have huge piles of junk to clean. I was supposed to get my oil changed, but can't find my car keys - of course, because I kept seeing them somewhere all evening and morning. Whenever that happens they're sure to have disappeared by the time I want them. :) Ugh. And I'm so horrifically tired...

There was an event or two, a wedding, all sorts of things to write about... but I didn't have time. So instead, you get ( a meme! )

Back to working on genealogy. After not touching it for more than a year, they finally fixed the program so I can combine what I got together when I was working on it with what my grandmother has been working on. Rekindled interest, yay! Some of that might have to do with not playing WoW for months. *shrug* Better thing to do. Still need to learn Italian.

EDIT: Meme cut fail! Fixed now. :)

Very stuffy and sick-feeling today. This is not the best thing to have at the first four-day in so long. Plus, everyone else seems to have it too! I hereby decree that everyone must be healthy and non-infectious by 8 PM tomorrow at the latest. So it is written, so shall it be. :P

I like the state meme, but I can't remember what states I haven't been to. Maine, I think, plus a few more. Not sure. So I did it for SAM, I have the states he's visited written in his baby book.

visited 16 states (32%)
Create your own visited map of The United States or Like this? try: The Next President

Also, Canada.

Today would have been week 20 if I were still pregnant. :( I'm doing okay. I think I'm still having some cognitive dissonance - this isn't something that fits with the life story I thought I had. I always knew it didn't make sense, but whenever I looked at my life it was quite clear how good I had things. Nothing really horrible ever happened to me or my immediate family. I wanted it to stay that way, but I was always a bit worried that I hadn't had my fair share of suffering yet. *shrug* Guess that's how it goes.

Physically I'm doing very well, except for weight. I gained 14 pounds in the 14 weeks of the pregnancy, and I managed to lose four by the middle of last week, but this week I think I've gained about 7 back. :P I thought I did better than usual at the event - most events I stuff myself nonstop. We'll see, it might be just water retention. I know it would be good anyway for me to drop all the weight at once, but it's still frustrating to see my little Wii Fit graph going up instead of down.

It's been six weeks, I can go give blood now. Maybe tomorrow, the weekend seems busy. They have been trying desperately to get people to donate, they say there's an emergency need for blood.

Got another CSA pickup this week. We got green garlic, green onions, a bigger bunch of radishes, a bunch of parsley and one of cilantro, and some broccoli rabe. We made a great big bowl of guacamole yesterday - I put too much lemon in but it was still not bad. Then for dinner we went out to our garden and picked a salad. It was a very healthy day. I'm thinking about making creamed spinach for dinner and throwing in the parsley and radish greens and maybe even the broccoli rabe, who knows. The biggest benefit from the CSA so far is getting me to cook, and to cook imaginative things. The cheese and vegetable soup from two weeks ago was excellent, even though it bore little resemblance to the recipe by the time I was done. I need to think of more stuff that's freezable, though, the fridge is full.

For getting me to Eclipse, the plan as of this morning was for me to drive SAM to Memphis tomorrow (6 hours or more, depending on how much SAM had to stop), and spend the night there. Then Friday I would drive the 8 hours to the event. Yay playing Eclipse. Then Sunday I would drive back to Memphis, and stay there for an unspecified number of days, then come home with SAM. It's not quite as crazy a plan as it sounds; SAM has been wanting to go to my parents' house anyway, and they've kind of been wanting us to visit, but when they're here every two weeks, I have no incentive to drive SAM down there. *shrug* So the plan has merit - I get to play and SAM gets to visit, I just have to drive 28 hours, and hoshiadam has to drive to the event and back by himself.

Then when I called my mom this morning to tell her the plan, she suggested an alternative. She can cancel her plans for tomorrow and come meet me in Nashville, then take SAM back to her house. Then around Tuesday or so she'd head back up here (she was planning to come up next Thursday anyway). This saves me about 12 hours of driving, which is nice, and I get some extra alone time with hoshiadam, which is nicer. I have to be away from SAM longer, but he's getting old enough to be fine with it. He says he doesn't mind, anyway. The major drawback to this plan is that I feel bad about my mom having to cancel her stuff. She does a whole lot for us already, and I feel like I'm imposing. *sigh*

Blah, I don't like decisions lately.

So, I asked my mom twice about this next event, whether she was all set for taking care of SAM and all... Apparently "next event" for her means the next event she's going to be at, which is the KG event, not the Eclipse event. Blah! I hereby abolish any sort of planning talk between me and my mother unless we both have in front of us a physical calendar, on which we write stuff down. Otherwise things just don't work. *sigh*

I think I can still make the event, with some juggling (involving driving to Memphis, I suspect), but ack.

Hmm, by February photos it appears I meant February, March, and part of April. :) That ought to mean I'm caught up on pictures, but no. I'll get to April once I finish uploading some other stuff.

On Tuesday I had my first CSA pickup! I was very excited. They didn't think they were going to get to start until next week, but we had some very sunny days and things grew, so they went ahead and gave us a few things. We got half a pound of pea greens, a bunch of wild mint, a tiny bundle of radishes, one green garlic, and a small bunch of parsley. I'm going to make vegetable soup tonight, I have a new recipe to try.

Had a good weekend. But now it's time for
( February photos! )

Well, hoshiadam is off to the KG event, and I'm not going with him. I think this is probably the first event I've skipped just because I felt like it. It's kind of sad, but I just didn't want to deal with all the preparation and packing and talking to people. (Nothing to do with the game, of course.) *shrug* I think it will be good, in the end, to have this break.

Continuing saga of the baby bunnies:
Remember the baby bunny adventures from last spring? Well, yesterday morning SAM, DAT, and I were in the kitchen getting ready for lunch. We'd let the cats play outside a bit and the doors were open for them to come back in, since it was such a nice day. Suddenly we heard a very loud squeaking coming from the entryway. It sounded just like the little horn on our neighbor's little tricycle. I ran in there and the kitten was carrying a baby bunny inside! I yelled at him and made him drop it, and it rushed under the shoe rack and hid. I had the boys hold the cats, and fished it out - luckily it didn't seem hurt at all. It was pretty tiny, but bigger than the ones last year, and its eyes were open. We took it outside and put it in the tall grass we've left unmown so that the bunnies could have babies there to avoid a repeat of last year's drama. Then as we were coming back around the house, I saw the mother rabbit running across the side yard, so I was afraid we'd put the bunny too far from its home. We let the kitten back out hoping he'd show us the nest - of course he just started rolling around on the driveway looking innocent. But after a few minutes he went back to the scene of the crime, and showed me the bunny nest in the neighbor's English ivy against their house. I didn't see any more bunnies, they probably scattered or else were hiding deep under the fur. So then we had to catch the little bunny again, which almost went off without a hitch, then he wiggled and I lost my hold on him. He was running the wrong way, so I got to chase him all over the yard. I caught him again without too much trauma - he was fast, but tiny hops don't get you very far, and he kept trying to stop and hide again. He was returned safely to the ivy, hurray, and I'm sure his mother found him again. Now I just have to deal with the cats crying to go out all the time so they can sneak back over there to look for bunnies again. I'm only letting them out when I can keep an eye on them for the next few weeks. Of course, just an hour or so later, the kitten caught a skink right in front of us. I took it away from him and it scurried away where I couldn't see it, but apparently the kitten still could, since he went over in the garden and pounced again. That time he got to keep the tail. (Very wriggly, SAM wasn't sure what to think about that.)

( January part two, SAM's birthday. )

The other day wayferny brought SAM and DAT some lollipops with mealworms in them, and a chocolate-covered grasshopper and mealworm. Once we told SAM that he was indeed allowed to eat the lollipop with a bug in it, he declared that he was a frog. He ate the mealworm first - apparently it was the most delicious part of the lollipop. :) He also liked the chocolate-coated ones. He was kind enough to share, but I found them all rather tasteless, like eating shrimp shells. :)

Our farmer's market has opened back up, yay. We went to the first one last Friday, and I got some Solomon's Seal. Now I just have to get it planted. I'm almost catching up with my gardening. I'm glad to be allowed to dig and lift stuff again. We dug a garden bed for SAM this afternoon (after a long trip to the zoo - I got about four times my normal amount of exercise today, and still did my 30 minutes on Wii Fit, go me), but I still need to dig one more new bed. Maybe I can get it done tomorrow, then I'll be able to plant my seeds that have been waiting for months.

( January photos part one - ski trips to Cataloochee and Ober Gatlinburg! )

My mom looked out the window this morning and noticed that a ball SAM had left in the yard was moving. We watched it and could see that there was something furry behind it - I thought it was a bunny, but then it popped out and we could see it was a squirrel. It was playing with the ball - it kept hopping on top of it and rolling it around. Very cute. SAM did not approve.

For those who don't know already, last weekend I had a miscarriage. It looks like the baby just never really developed. I was 14 and a half weeks, but I think things must have stopped going right quite a while ago, and my body just held on to the pregnancy. I'm very sad, but we're all doing okay, considering. Seems like this happens to lots of people - both my neighbors with kids have had at least one. I'm going to post about it, because I want to. You can read it if you feel like it, but I don't really recommend doing so. It's the kind of thing that would have upset me even before I had kids, and I'm not sparing the details.

( Miscarriage. )

Almost two weeks ago, before I knew I was miscarrying, I had a dream about the end of the world. I think it was basically the Rapture. A light brighter than anything was shining on me, dissolving me away. I knew I'd have to go to heaven, and I didn't want to - I wasn't done with my life, I wanted to find out what would happen. But there wasn't anything I could do about it; I was disappearing into the light - nothing to do but surrender to it and try to be excited about a different adventure than I'd planned on. In hindsight, it's an interesting dream.

Hmm, I was going to post this last week and didn't, I shall post anyway. :)

I can feel the baby moving, for about a week now! :) Last time I couldn't until about 16 weeks, but second babies are easier.

KG was soggy, but fun! :) I had really good intentions to get my yurtchi stuff done right away this time, but it hasn't happened yet. Too much other stuff going on. The deadline will make me do it.

Mostly this week I've been trying to get naps, doing my Wii Fit exercises, and gardening. Stuff is sprouting, even my Israeli tomatoes, yay! I finally got the new front flowerbeds all ready for planting. Now I just have to make one on the side yard. I was considering waiting until next year for that one, but my back one is pretty much full already, once I plant a few more herbs and transplant the tomatoes. I need to get some oregano. I think I'll put the carrots in the side yard this time, I can make sure to dig the ground extra deep for them, instead of having to redig the old bed. Last time they hit the layer of clay about six inches down and became mutant carrots. :) Going to try again with the bell peppers and turnips, too - I think they need really frequent watering. Maybe if I start them indoors they'll do better.

Mowing will start tomorrow, it is sadness. Mowing is dumb. This year I want to leave a patch of grass unmown, so maybe the rabbit will have her babies there, instead of in the middle of where we walk every day. :)

SAM and I, and probably hoshiadam, all got a cold from somewhere this week. :P SAM's cough sounds pretty icky, but I think he was feeling somewhat better today. Yesterday was the roughest day for me too, maybe we're all on the mend.

Update from the present: I think we are mostly over the cold, except now my mom has it and is miserable. :(

I got a bunch of plants from wayferny, huzzah, and have gotten most of them planted, but there are still a few more. I think I even know where I want to put almost all of them.

I got my yurtchi stuff done but still need to do checkout, eek!

The heat is turned off, the windows are open. It is happiness.

I've been getting fake Hallmark E-cards in my spam folder. They are probably some kind of virus. Deleted!

Still feeling much better, yay! Still "exercising" with the Wii Fit. Still sore, it must be doing something. I got my age down to 27 the other day. :) And hoshiadam got his real age the very first time he tried! He has really good balance, it seems - he's started beating my scores! Hmph. :)

Some of the things I planted last year are showing signs of life! It's very exciting, I was afraid the fall things were going to be permanently dead, since I never saw them alive. But my spiderwort, which was immediately eaten to the ground by rabbits last fall, has started growing again, and even one of my tiny baby hazelnut trees has buds. I fear greatly for my plum tree, it's the barest twig. We'll see.

My computer was slowly dying, so I finally switched it over to phoeclipse's old machine that he gave us. Thanks phoeclipse! It seems to be working a bit faster. Still working on getting everything switched over.

Oh, and we saw Watchmen. I enjoyed the soundtrack, but I'm still trying to figure out what the moral is... (The end justifies the means?) *shrug*
SPOILERS IN THE COMMENTS!