By Julie

We finished putting together the last of our Christmas cards today. The one advantage in waiting so long is that we were able to include a family portrait taken in front of our own tree. Ana and I had sent Kevin and Alex off to Home Depot to get "the biggest, prettiest tree they've got," and they chose this gorgeous, 7 foot tall Noble fir. It makes the house smell nice.

Today, while the kids were playing in the living room, we took all the presents into our bedroom and wrapped them there, leaving a few unlabeled, from "Santa." Believing in the chubby bearded guy was Kevin's tradition growing up, not mine, but the kids hear about Santa from school, daycare, and pop culture, and I don't see any harm in it, so we're preserving the tradition as long as the kids keep believing.

So all the prep work is done. The ingredients for our holiday meal are in the kitchen, waiting to be cooked. What's left to do but to start planning for Alex and Ana's birthday parties in January and February? Today I called up a party place and made a reservation for Alex's party. Apparently everybody else too busy with Christmas to think about January birthday parties, because I got my number one choice of date and time, yay!

Tomorrow's our last day at work before a week-long holiday. If you don't hear from us, it's because we'll be eating lots, sleeping late, hanging out with the kids, working just a teensy bit from home, and buying up all the good deals at the after-Christmas sales. See you in the new year!

Labels: kids, parenting, shopping

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By Julie

Today as I was waiting for my lunch at the counter in a diner, an elderly woman sat down next to me. After she placed her order, she watched intently as I sent a text message with my cell phone.

"Is that an iPod?" she asked. No, it's my cell phone, I explained.

The conversation went on longer than I would have liked, with her playing the part of the self-righteous luddite, demanding to know why there's so much unnecessary technology in the world, and me being respectful to my elders and trying not show my annoyance.

She owns a business, she bragged, and she still banks the old-fashioned way - by walking into the building. She doesn't want a computer because of hackers. She doesn't want cable television when her TV antenna works just fine. Yada yada yada.

I was polite. I didn't tell her that evil hackers wouldn't be interested in her computer; they would much rather hack into her bank's servers. The only thing I did allow myself to say was that many municipalities do not allow installation of unsightly TV antennas. She muttered that wasn't the case in HER neighborhood. That's when I bade her good bye.

I consider myself to be a reluctant technophile. I don't automatically lust for every new gadget on the market. Heck, I don't have cable TV OR an iPod. But I do embrace technologies that obviously enhance my life. (I LOVE my cell phone!!!) What annoyed me about this woman was her outright rejection of individual differences, her ignorant belief that there is no need for new-fangled things like computers, and most of all, her lack of reciprocation in the manners department.

I mean, really, old people these days are SO rude.

Labels: lusers, toys

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By Julie

I must really be in nesting mode. I got an email offer for a new hotel in Vegas that has not one but three LCD TVs in every suite plus a host of other amenities, and my only reaction was, so what? Right now I can think of many other things to do with $200 than to blow it on one night at a luxury hotel. Like open a college savings account for baby number 3.

Today Kevin and I went to the bank and maxed out the contributions for Alex and Ana's college savings accounts for the year. If we max out our contributions every year, which we've been doing since both kids were infants, by the time they hit age 18, we'll have contributed 6-digits towards their college education.

It sounds more impressive than it really is. Seeing how college costs keep rising, that could very well be just one year's tuition. I do take solace in the fact that at least we're saving something though.

The other thing I've been doing is taking fish oil capsules and eating tuna regularly. Eating fish during pregnancy is supposed to help with the baby's brain development. You can always go to college on student loans, but you can't go without a brain.

Labels: parenting, pregnancy

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By Julie

On top of my usual vitamins, I'm taking antibiotics for the sinus thing, acidophilus to offset the side effects of the antibiotic thing, and Tums and enzymes to deal with the indigestion resulting from the antibiotic thing colliding with the pregnancy thing. But I'm feeling positively grand compared to last week.

Not bothering to step on the scale has also kept my spirits up. I can already tell the baby weight is not going to come off easily this time. It's karmic, really. First time I got back to pre-baby weight in a week. (A week!!!) Second time it took 6 weeks. This time I'll be lucky to get my body back within the year.



I've been meaning to share more of Alex's artwork. He drew the one on the left recently. It really puts me in the spirit of the holidays. The one on the right he drew several months ago, back in 1st grade. Yes, that's the Statue of Liberty. Click to enlarge and read the fabulous story.



Over the weekend Kevin and I celebrated our 13th wedding anniversary by taking in some good old fashioned big band music, "The Rat Pack: Live at the Sands" at the Wilshire Theater in Beverly Hills. It was a fun show. Kevin and I both thought the Dean Martin impersonator was the most entertaining of the three. The theater was beautiful too. The only thing missing was a dance floor.



We also attended a birthday party. If it's possible I think Kevin had more fun than the kids!

To our dear friends D and J: we've got our fingers crossed for you!

Labels: kids, meds, music, pregnancy

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By Julie

You know that moment in a sci-fi/fantasy movie when the hero/ine grabs their head, crashes to their knees, and experiences a cgi-induced vision that implies they are either 1) psychic, 2) being controlled by unseen forces, or 3) more powerful than they could ever imagine? I had one of those visions on Thursday, except all it told me was that I was 4) suffering from a bad sinus infection. I immediately popped an extra-strength Tylenol, then picked up the phone and scheduled a doctor's appointment for early this morning.

I took Ana along to my appointment because I didn't have time to drop her off at daycare beforehand. In the middle of my appointment, while I was discussing with the PA which antibiotic would best take care of my little problem, Ana calmly informed me that she needed to go to the bathroom. If you know kids, you know that meant I had about 10 seconds to get her on a toilet or else suffer the consequences. As I picked Ana up and ran for the nearest bathroom, the PA called after me and said she would send a prescription for my antibiotic of choice to my pharmacy. I yelled thanks back over my shoulder.

These days Ana's favorite toy is a magnifying glass. She likes to use it to look up my nose. I'm just glad she doesn't use it to torture ants.

Tonight, while Kevin and I discussed our evil plans to take over the world, aka the finances, I told him that on Monday, as I got on the plane for my meeting in San Jose, I suddenly remembered that we still hadn't signed me up for life insurance.

Where's the form? I asked, you were supposed to help me get that done.

It's somewhere around here, he motioned vaguely. Then he told the kids to get ready for their bedtime story.

Months and months of forced conversations, changes in topic, and now missing forms. It was just as hard when we signed him up for life insurance. Neither of us wants to think about the possibility, but I'm not going to be able to avoid plane rides for the rest of my life.

Labels: kids, meds, parenting, pregnancy, toys

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By Julie

I'm still sick, hence the grumpiness. I can't believe I'm still sick. Why the heck am I still sick???



Saturday I took Kevin to see Wicked. It was good. So good, in fact, that I felt compelled to buy my very first Broadway musical shirt, a green thermal with the words, "Green for Good" emblazoned across my ample pregnant chest. I felt slightly less grumpy.

We also celebrated Kevin's birthday with my family. My mom prepared a delicious hot pot, which didn't quite clear my sinuses. Over dinner, I grumped that my colds often turned into sinus infections, and my sis the doctor advised me to get a sinus cleansing kit. Apparently everybody else in the universe has already been told about this product by their doctors, because when we stopped at the drugstore on the way home, that section of the store was cleaned out.



Sunday Ana helped me baked birthday cookies for Kevin. Afterwards I collapsed on the couch from exhaustion, but I was slightly less grumpy.

Monday morning, after a bad night's sleep, I had to wake up at an ungodly hour to drive myself to the airport for a meeting in San Jose. During the flights there and back my ears hurt even more than usual from being sick. Also, it was REALLY COLD in San Jose. I had the foresight to wear a knit cap, gloves, and ski jacket, but my jeans didn't provide much protection. I was extra grumpy.



Tuesday I took the day off to recover from Monday, and I kept Ana home from daycare to cheer myself up. My grumpiness petered off into a mostly manageable lethargy.

Today I went back to work. I answered a bunch of emails, attended some meetings, and blew my nose a LOT. I'm grumpy again.

Now I'm going to go cleanse my sinuses. Have you ever cleansed your sinuses? It's not an attractive procedure. So unattractive, in fact, that I feel more sorry for the model in the instruction booklet that came with my sinus cleansing kit than I do for myself, because modeling the right way to cleanse one's sinuses is right up there with modeling support hose and nursing bras.

Labels: food, kids, meds, music, shopping, work

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By Julie

I'm sick. I'm exhausted, misanthropic, and full of boogers.

To-do list:
* Finish holiday shopping (50% done, due 12/25)
* Buy a tree (0% done, due yesterday)
* Review two books (0% done, due yesterday)
* Buy a toilet paper holder and door hook for our new bathroom (0% done, due whenever)
* Research answer to question from colleague (10% done, due yesterday)
* Cook veggies in fridge before they all go bad (25% done, due this weekend for mushrooms, next Wednesday for everything else)
* Review an article for a journal (0% done, due -- believe it or not -- 12/26)
* Prep for meeting on Monday (50% done, due this weekend)
* Do lit review for poster session on the off chance it actually gets accepted (10% done, due -- too close to baby time!)
* Replace carpet in study with wood floors (0% done, due whenever I guess :P)
* Write script for two videos (0.5% done, due -- would have been nice this term, but I'll settle for next term)
* Get haircuts for Alex and Kevin (0% done, due a month ago! They look like hippies!)
* Make holiday cards (0% done, due -- is it gonna happen this year???)
* Celebrate Kevin's birthday (50% done, due this weekend! :D )

Labels: food, home improvement, shopping, work

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By Kevin

1. Where My Time Goes

The kind clerk in the jury room gave me some things to think about when she discussed the way Los Angeles County maintains its juror master list. Essentially, they merge the DMV and voter records for the county and the unique combination of your name and address is used to determine when someone is on the list twice. The problem is that if the DMV shows a John Q. Public at 123 Main St. and the voter roll lists a John Quincy Public at the same address, Jury Services considers this to be two different people. If you're on the list twice, you get called, on average, twice as often.

Thank you, kind Jury Services lady, for finally explaining to me why I had more jury experience than any of the 34 other potential jurors in the courtroom today. Seriously, some of these people are old enough that they could have witnessed the LA Superior Court system being founded in 1851 and they've only been called once before. I have been summoned no less than seven times to participate in the fine tradition of ensuring justice for my fellow man and have ended up on three juries. Now should I try to get my middle name added to my voter registration or get it removed from my driver's license?

2. I Speed, You Speed, We (don't) All Speed

My assigned court was a relatively small one for LA, but it's not like there's any empty space around here. There are probably around half-a-million people who would indicate that this courthouse is closer to them than any other. So why do all the people in line to deal with traffic citations know each other? I kid you not, I walked past this line six times over two days and three of those times I got to witness a mini reunion of long-lost pals. Hey Joe, they caught you?! Hah, they're always on me, it can't be stopped! Nothin' to do for it, eh?? Nah man, you know... so how's the wife?

3. The Shopping Factor

These days it's quite difficult to get excused from jury service altogether. What is relatively easy (for those of us who pick up the kids from childcare at least) is getting your service moved to a more convenient location. I got the courthouse with a shopping mall across the street. I wish I could say that I planned this, but fate can be a wonderful companion.

It turns out that the judge doesn't rearrange his schedule just because there are 34 people waiting around for a particular case so that they can find out which twenty get to go home and which fourteen don't. He spends a couple hours in the morning with his "normal case load" which is followed by a fifteen minute break. After the break he'll either finish up the last batch or just chill with the Deputy DA and the defense counsel for a while. We, the potential jurors, the mass of humanity clogging up the hallway for a couple hours, don't get invited in until, oh, about 40 minutes before the hour-and-a-half lunch break. After lunch it improves somewhat with a little over two hours of jury selection action peppered with breaks and a few leftover morning cases. Then the court closes at 4:15 and ends the milling around until the next day.

The major benefit of all this is that I finally caught up on some of my shopping, and the next time you get a summons, I expect you to do the same!

4. Why Our Government Shouldn't Meddle In The Market

Did you know that more or less the first time the up-and-coming industrialists of England stood up to the landed gents in Parliament it was over protective corn tariffs? 1813 or thereabouts, if my information is correct. Well, the landowners were a tad pissed because the whole war with Napoleon and some bad weather made for a pretty lousy harvest and some entrepreneurial chaps decided to run a little import business to take advantage of the high corn prices. The Parliament naturally went along with the idea of massive corn import tariffs because they'd rolled over for the landowners for hundreds of years (think feudalism) and it would have all gone swimmingly except for one thing. The price of corn directly impacted what the industrialists had to pay their labor - hard to run the cogs of industry when you're dead of starvation apparently. This cut into their bottom line and they weren't having it any more.

It would all sound remarkably like today except for the fact that now industry is in bed with the legislators and the land owners and the only bottom line suffering is mine and yours. ADM gets to buy subsidized fake sugar and ethanol that takes more fossil fuel to produce than it saves at the pump. Corn growers get fat subsidies. We The People pay for it, come April 15.

What does this have to do with Jury Duty you may well ask? Well, aside from shopping I got a chance to catch up on some of my long overdue reading. Any activity that carries the side benefit of hours of reading time is a good one.

5. They Aren't My Peers

I'm not sure who started this mis-quoting of the Sixth Amendment as a "jury of your peers" because I just looked it up and it doesn't say anything about your peers. It says you get an "impartial jury of the State and district where in the crime shall have been committed". This has been said before, and I'm not generally one to beat a dead horse (is that saying correct? why would anybody do that?) but these people are definitely not my peers.

When it was time for the defense council to have a chat with the first twenty potential jurors, he tried to get off to a good start by asking some leading questions. Questions which could only be answered in the affirmative by any US citizen. Or so he thought.

Defense: So, juror number... four. Would you say that it's a good idea that we have here in this country that the defendant doesn't have the burden of proof? Do you think that's a good thing?

Four: No.

Defense: ???

Four: I think that if he's arrested and all, he better have a pretty good excuse for why he shouldn't go to jail, right?

Defense: Okay, honest opinion. That's good. (maybe they didn't understand, lets go back to the start...) Juror number... eight. Do you think the way it is here, with the defendant assumed to be innocent, is a good system? Or do you think it would be better if we just believed what the arresting officer says and assume them to be guilty?

Eight: I trust police.

Defense: Okaaay. Right. But, isn't it plausible that an officer might make a mistake?

Eight: I guess that's possible.

Defense: Right. So we assume that the defendant is innocent until proven guilty so th

Eight: But I trust police more than criminals.

And so on.

Honestly I could write pages and pages of this crap except that by this point I was trying so damn hard not to laugh because I was right in front of the judge and he was looking all grim at the state of society and wondering why he bothered coming to work anyway and it wouldn't do to laugh and... well, I sort of tuned the rest out.

6. What You Absolutely Should Not Say If You Want To Serve

I really didn't have an opinion one way or the other about serving, honestly. The case was only expected to last a week at the outside and I already mentioned the shopping and reading benefits. That was until the lawyers and the judge made nice and agreed on The Twelve. I was number thirteen.

Allow me a short digression here on why thirteen is bad. I show up for a week. Pretend I'm a real juror. Listen to everything the boring people say. Take notes. Form opinions about the credibility of witnesses. Get all the information I need in order to decide the case. Then I sit in the hall for as long as it takes the real jurors to decide what to do with the guy. I'm against completely pointless effort on principle and this passed all obvious tests for qualification as such.

Even given all that, I wasn't exactly trying to sabotage my chances when they started questioning the group of eight potential alternate jurors. I was actually thinking about my (non) peers back in the previous point when he asked me the ridiculous question.

Defense: Juror number thirteen. How do you feel about the burden of proof?

Me: I'm sorry, what was the question?

Defense: Do you think it's good that [the Deputy DA] must prove my client's guilt beyond a reasonable doubt before a guilty verdict can be returned?

Me: I'm in favor of The Constitution, yes.

That was his last question. Immediately afterwards I was excused by the Deputy DA.

Labels: books, politics, shopping

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By Julie

So, what I was saying is this. Any third world mutt given a dinner of leftover chicken meat (sans bones even!) to complement some boring dry dog food would be totally happy, not to mention healthy. What does our purebred first world dog go and do? Have another heaving attack of diarrhea, all over the dining room.

Here's where I share my trick for deoderizing a room: microwave popcorn. The stuff is amazing, better than Lysol. Just pop a bag and wave it around. It will mask the foulest odors.

(Eating the popcorn after using it for this purpose is totally optional. I know I couldn't bring myself to do it.)

In other potty news, Ana is done using her little potty chair, yay! Now we can pack it away in the garage until number three is ready to use it.

And speaking of number three, I'm now at week 19. Within the last two weeks I gained a disconcerting 4 pounds for a total weight gain of 5 pounds. While putting on a sweater with a geometric design, I had a full on panic attack, complete with a self diagnosis of gestational diabetes.

"I look like a FAT ABSTRACT PAINTING!!!" I wailed.

Then Kevin reminded me that I went through similar growth spurts when I was pregnant with Ana. He wondered if it had something to do with the girly hormones, because my weight gain with Alex had been much more steady. I'm just glad that one of us remembers stuff like this. Hopefully my glucose test next month confirms it.

My belly is huge now. Not wearing a maternity belt is no longer an option. For weeks I tried and failed to find my old belt, and I was despairing at the thought of having to brave holiday crowds at the mall just to get a replacement when I finally found it in the last box of baby stuff, huzzah!

I've also started wearing nursing bras. Yeah, real sexy :P but none of my normal bras fit anymore, and I'm too cheap to buy new bras in a bigger cup size only to have to give them away in five months.



Here I've recruited Alex and Ana to my cause of cultivating plants that Mommy isn't allergic to. Costco apples come in these plastic packages perfect for sprouting seeds, sunflower seeds in this case. The kids are spooning potting soil on top of the seeds. Now the trays will sit in the garden window in my kitchen, where it's all snug and warm, until the seedlings get a few inches tall, and then we'll plant them in the back yard.

Recently Kevin wore a dark red sweater over a button down shirt.

Ana: Daddy, you look funny!

Me: Ana, that's not a nice thing to say!

Ana: (in a stage whisper) But mommy, he looks like a TEACHER.

Labels: allergies, food, gardening, kids, pets

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