By Julie

1. Thursday I watched a live webcast of J. K. Rowling at Harvard's commencement. Her speech was so good that when Kevin got home I made him listen to the archived recording with me. He thought Rowling would make a good motivational speaker. I agree.

2. This week I signed up for the drink pouch recycling program at TerraCycle. I designated Alex's school as the beneficiary of the 2 cents per pouch that my efforts will net.

3. Prior to Angie's arrival my only me time consisted of half hour soaks in the jacuzzi tub 2 or 3 times a week - not that I'm complaining, it really was all the me time I needed. But lately I haven't even had that because Angie refuses to be held by anyone else for more than 5 minutes at a time before she starts crying. I miss my soaks. It's not something I can outsource.

4. Legally Blonde: The Musical is looking for their next Elle Woods! Can't wait to watch this show on stage next August at the Pantages.

5. According to this doggy daycare employee, about half of all dogs eat their own poo. Good to know Daisy isn't such a freak after all. Now, if only she weren't incontinent.

6. My 6 week postpartum checkup went well. I'm still carrying 10 extra pounds, but at least my clothes are starting to fit again. I've started exercising to help speed up the process, mainly sit ups and push ups. Here are some desk friendly exercises that I plan to do when I go back to work in September.

7. These awesome travel tips make it seem like anyone can travel with small children. Even so, I don't plan on going anywhere until Angie is a year old.

Labels: books, environment, movies, music, parenting, pets, pregnancy, travel

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By Julie

Because we couldn't go to the Coachella Music Festival this year, the regrettably human and therefore illogically petty part of my brain wants to believe it has already jumped the shark. So why am I sitting here anxiously waiting for the live webcast to start?

Earlier today I was on ROFLCon watching this session's live webcast. The online chatters who were watching the discussion with me were all being "extra special," especially once the live Q and A turned to issues of gender and race, so I left. I guess I could have tried to challenge my fellow chatters, but I really wasn't in the mood. Now I wish I had watched the LOLCATS session. At least they were willing to address the gender issue.

A couple of friends suggested that I update my Facebook profile with the progress of my labor. (Not that it's started yet.) My response? So not gonna happen! But I offered to text them when I head to the hospital.

Labels: music, news, pregnancy

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By Julie

Monday morning, while I was still struggling to get out of bed, Kevin went to the kids' room. By the time I finally got up, they were already out of pajamas and in their school clothes. Kevin pointed out that he had dressed them both in green.

"That's nice," I said absent-mindedly. Meanwhile I dressed myself in blue. It wasn't until I got to work that I realized it was St. Patrick's Day. Duh.

I'm in the 34th week now. For some reason my weight hasn't changed. I'm still at +20, but it feels like +100. My backaches come and go with no apparent cause other than the fact that I'm in the 3rd trimester. When I sit too close to or on the ground, it takes me a long time to get up on my feet. And forget about climbing stairs. You might as well be suggesting I climb Mt. Everest.

The baby's movements have been intense. Sometimes she'll jab or kick so hard that you can actually see her fist or foot against my skin, stretching it several inches out. Kevin has been taking video. I'm too self conscious to share them at this moment. Maybe I'll change my mind later.


We've had American Idol Encore for 5 days now and we're still singing our hearts out. Alex has almost mastered "Black Hole Sun" and "Rio," and tonight he started learning "I Just Died in Your Arms." Kevin's been getting great scores on pretty much every song he tries, even ones with female vocals, like Madonna's "Holiday" and Fergie's "Glamorous." My (now not so) secret ambition is to get 100% on "Midnight Train to Georgia." You can stop laughing now...

Labels: kids, music, pregnancy, toys

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By Julie

Last night was Alex's last piano lesson. During the last 15 minutes he and his classmates performed a mini recital for the parents. It was adorable. I asked Alex if he wanted to sign up for another round of classes, and he said sure.

That picture up there is among the first I've taken since Ana's birthday party. I haven't been in a picture taking mood lately. In fact, I haven't been in a mood to do much of anything lately. The third trimester is taking its toll on me. I'm at +20 lbs but it feels like +50 lbs. For the last week and a half I've been coming home from work exhausted every evening with my back feeling wretched. The only recent day when I've felt good was during my last checkup, when my doctor expressed shock at how well I was doing. As he put it, this is usually when pregnant women feel the most miserable. Ah, the irony!

Meanwhile, the only thing that's been cheering me up is watching Youtube videos. Check out this hilarious interview with Daniel Radcliffe on the Ellen Degeneres Show. Hee! This interview with Emma Watson and Rupert Grint on French TV is pretty cool too (:

Labels: famous people, harry potter, kids, music

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By Julie

Two examples:

Today my sister came over and brought the kids Ratatouille on DVD as a belated Christmas gift. When we got to the scene where the food critic took a bite of his food and experienced the flashback, I started bawling.

Also, I've always appreciate opera, but I didn't LOVE it until a few months ago, when I caught Paul Potts's performance on Britain's Got Talent via Youtube. It turned me into a sobbing mess. Now I listen to the opera channel on Yahoo Radio.

Labels: famous people, food, music, pregnancy

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By Julie

I'm having a rough week. Somehow I managed to mess up my back. Yesterday I was in so much pain I had to take the afternoon off. After an hour of sitting on the massage chair and a good night's sleep, I've almost recovered, but there's still a huge tender spot on my back. Kevin thinks it's a pulled muscle.


Tuesday was Alex's 8th birthday. The party with family and friends isn't for another week, but we did have a cake for him to make a wish on and a present for him to open. I had to work late, so I didn't get to have dinner with the birthday boy, but I did get home in time to hear all about his day, eat cake with him, and watch his eyes light up when he opened the present.



Wednesday was Alex's first piano lesson. Kevin reported that there are four other kids in his group lessons. Also, the teacher seems to be really good at keeping the kids interested.

I'm thrilled. Music isn't supposed to be punishment, and if Alex told me tomorrow that he'd really rather not take piano lessons, I'd say fine, let's stop and find something better to do. But so far he likes it.

I asked if he'd want to play a band instrument when he hits 4th grade, and he said yes, he'd like to play the drums. (Yay for my wallet! Drumsticks and drum pads are cheap, haha!)

In other news, I'm a Second Life tard. A couple of friends and I got interviewed for an article about SL for a campus magazine, and the photographer wanted to take a picture of us with our avatars. Before we could get shooting, someone asked why my avatar had sticks for arms. I swear, I have no idea how they got that skinny. After much effort I found the setting for fattening up my arms, and in the process I managed to enlarge my hands until they looked like "man hands." By then we had to get going, so I ended up taking pictures with my avatar as is. I must be the only person in SL with an avatar that's uglier than I am in real life. How brilliant is that?

Labels: kids, music, parenting

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By Julie

We rang in the new year quietly this year. Last new year we went to a Flaming Lips/Gnarls Barkley concert, and the year before that we drove down to San Diego to see Matisyahu. This year we had considered going to New York to enjoy the chaos in Times Square, but we changed our minds and opted for a quiet evening at home in our pajamas instead.

The latter actually fits in with one of my new year's resolutions. (No, it's not to Be More Boring, harhar.) Last year I dubbed one of my resolutions the PJ Resolution. Here's how I described it: "I've decided to spend as many of my waking hours during 2007 as possible wearing pajamas." The real goal being to get more sleep, of course.

I want to believe that I got more sleep in 2007 than I did in past years. At the least, wearing pajamas made me painfully aware of when I should have been in bed when I wasn't, so I'll count the PJ Resolution a partial success.


In anticipation of needing a lot of rest with baby #3 on the way, I've decided to keep this resolution for 2008. This adorable bathrobe Kevin gave me for Christmas should help with my resolve. It's very cozy, and I was told it's the same robe Brad Pitt wore in Fight Club. I haven't seen the movie or read the book though. Does anyone die in it?

Other goals for 2008:

• Parenting
  
• Teach the kids Chinese. I've bought the workbooks. Now all I need to do is schedule the time to work with them. Easier said than done.
• Finances
  
• Pay off as much of the bathroom as possible. We didn't go anywhere near the limit on our HELOC, but it's going to take a bit of work to pay off what we did spend.
  
• Home Improvement
• Finish the floors and kitchen. We already have all the flooring, just need to buy the moulding. Also need to buy the rest of the kitchen cabinets and countertops.
  
• Philosophy
• Strive towards a simpler life.

* Getting Things Done

Labels: chinese, famous people, home improvement, music

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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

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

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By Kevin

Today we had a well-baby visit in celebration of making it to 15 weeks and out of the rather horrible (nausea 24/7) first trimester. Aside from the usual Q&A and the chance to listen to the heartbeat, it was results day for our first trimester screen. This test is supposed to give more accurate odds for the likelihood of Trisomy 18 and Trisomy 21 (Down Syndrome) than the older expanded AFP screen.

The age-related rate of these birth defects in the general populace is roughly one in a couple hundred. As we learned when we inquired about diagnostic testing for birth defects, the rate of miscarriage associated with amniocentesis is also roughly one in a couple hundred. Wow. We decided that we would avoid diagnostic testing unless the screen results came back strongly positive. Fortunately this turned out not to be the case as our updated odds turned out to be 1:10,000 for one and 1:7,500 for the other.

On the way home we talked about the fact that, despite all the new tests and whatnot, we're feeling pretty relaxed about this whole baby thing the third time around. The first time was stressful. Like waking up multiple times in the middle of the night to check on the baby stressful. The second time wasn't exactly a walk in the park but everything seemed more familiar and the paranoia levels more manageable. Now it's all good.

In other news, I could play with the Gracenote music map for days. When you put a music CD into your computer and your audio player does black magic and suddenly knows the album, artist, and track names, chances are it checked with Gracenote to get the info. It used to be called CDDB before it changed hands and it is one of the better sources of information about music that people are playing right now. As far as I know, the map is something relatively new - it allows you to select a region or country and it will display the current top ten bands being listened to in that area.

Select California and you get the usual suspects: The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Bruce Springsteen, J.K. Rowling, U2, Kanye West, Pink Floyd, 2Pac, Carrie Underwood, Linkin Park. Alright, how about India's top three? Linkin Park, Jagjit Singh, A.R. Rahman. Ukraine? Linkin Park, Enigma, Rammstein. Kazakhstan? Linkin Park, Genesis, Rammstein. Jordan? Eminem, Metallica, Linkin Park. Thailand? Bodyslam, Linkin Park, Clash.

Do we detect a pattern here? How can it be that in dozens of countries scattered throughout Europe, Asia, and the Middle East people are entranced by a Nu Metal band from Agoura Hills, CA? Is this really the music that unites the cultures of the world or a sign that MTV has taken us to the brink of Armageddon?

Labels: music, nablopomo, pregnancy

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