Playing Fair

This is probably pretty odd, but I often think about how some times and numbers are used far less than others.

For example, it is social convention to have events or meetings start on the hour or half hour. TV shows, sporting events - even movies tend to start on the 5's at the very least. This being the case, there are so many times of the day that are underutilized. When was the last time you asked someone to meet you for coffee at 8:03pm? Or that you scheduled a conference call for 47 minutes? (And yes, my Outlook calendar does allow this!)

In an attempt to "share the love" amongst the underutilized times of the day I try to use unusual times whenever I can. I don't do it with work because I don't want people to think that I'm a weirdo, but I'll do things like set my alarm clock for 7:27am.

I also wonder about things like: one day will the zero button on the microwave will wear out, if I keep cooking things for 1:00, 2:00, or 3:00 minutes? It's always a crapshoot when I need to select how long to nuke things for, so I'll just pick oddball times like 1:23 minutes, or 99 seconds in hopes of "preserving" the longevity of the zero button and letting some other numbers get some glory.

Baby Prep - Online Shopping

Dearest Baby,

I don't know anything about being a parent and having not met you it's hard for me to judge what you are going to like/want/need since everybody and every baby is different.

Over the past months I have talked to/read the blogs of new moms and done hours of online research and review reading. I hope my careful selection of only the most highly rated items on Amazon, Babies R Us, and various other websites for you makes me somewhat of a good parent!

Love,
Your mommy-to-be

Crying Wolf

The other night I awoke to a painful leg cramp in my right calf. Pre-pregnancy I had only experienced this once before - maybe sometime back in 2002? Yes, it was that memorable :)

I have read that leg cramps are common amongst those in their third trimester. So far I have experienced two and am not looking forward to any more.

Every time I have had a leg cramp (even pre-pregnancy) it has been at night while I'm sleeping - is that weird? It totally catches me off guard. The twitching of my calf muscle sort of rouses me from my slumber and then before I am fully aware of what is going on - the muscle seizes up.

The first time I had one a few weeks ago I woke up screeching in pain. Poor Christopher - he woke up right away and thought I was going into labor! At least this time I had the good sense to say "LEG CRAMP!" so he didn't freak out quite so much.

A labor of love...

Don't worry, this isn't a gruesome birth/delivery story. Not yet anyways...


I recently finished working on this hand-sewn mobile for the nursery. In total it probably took me 30-35 hrs, but I am happy with how it turned out. It was nice to have something to work on while Christopher watched football on Sundays (and Mondays, some Thursdays, a couple Saturdays, and one Friday too - tee hee!). The idea & pattern came from here.

Balancing it took some patience, but I figure that's just a taste of what's in store for me as a mother-to-be. Definitely a labor of love :)

Nothing like pregnancy hormones to bring out the inner-crafter in you!

So that's how you train a dog...

My dog Tyson knows some commands and some words. I'll be the first to admit, I could probably teach him a whole bunch more, but I have just grown complacent and enjoy spending time with him.

Here are the words he knows (some better than others):

• sit
• down/lie down
  
• stand
• stay
• come
  
• off
• OK!
  
• out (as in drop whatever is in your mouth - obviously more effective with some items than others)
• ah ah (kind of like no)
  
• walk
• bang! (as in "bang your dead" and he flops over and plays dead)
  
• bed (as in "go to your bed")
  
• ball
• Bango (the cat's name)
• cat
  
• Nancy
• Christopher
• cookie
• treat
• whoops!

Yes that's right - he knows the word "whoops". I was definitely the one responsible for teaching him this word.

Whenever I am cooking or eating in the kitchen and drop something or make a mistake, I just blurt out "whoops!". The first time it happened if Tyson was in the kitchen he probably came running over and I let him eat/lick up whatever had hit the floor. If he wasn't in the room at the time I probably called him to come over to enjoy the fruits of my clumsiness.

And now, whenever I happen to say "whoops!" he comes running, often with this cute look on his face as if to say "what did you do, where is my snack" :) Sometimes the "whoops" isn't as good as others. It's not particularly interesting when I knock my recipe book to the ground, but it can get pretty good and those are probably the times that give him all the positive reinforcement that he needs to remember the word. See - dog training is easy!