are things complicated yet?

7 Quick Takes: King Leck, a Cooking Rat, Stokke, and The Worst Chore

1. I read Graceling and several weeks later I bought Bitterblue. (I had no idea I'd missed Fire, the second book, until sometime yesterday.) The book is firmly YA dystopian fiction and Graceling (the first book) hinted at a bad thing King Leck had done. Bitterblue picks right up with this storyline and I endured several chapters of suspense on the topic before I was positively DYING to know just WHAT had King Leck been DOING?? It was really awful and really mysterious and I JUST WANTED TO KNOW.

I went ahead a few chapters and found nothing. I went to the end of the book and found nothing. I Googled and found nothing. (RARE.) I was really frustrated I could not figure out what this horrible King had done and I was feeling really inconvenienced that I would have to READ THE ENTIRE BOOK to find out. But, I resolved to read it, like a good, literate human. Approximately five minutes later, I got bored reading the book because I was so distracted by KING LECK! KING LECK! WHAT DID HE DOOOOOO? 

I finally figured out how to use the search feature on my iPad for "King Leck" and I paged through the book in fifteen-word blurbs via the search window in the margin, until I finally found out what horrible things King Leck had done. (They were very horrible things.) Now I could concentrate on the other storylines and themes of the book. (Digital reading, FTW!) (Pretty sure this is NOT what the author intended.)

I do this a lot with books and television shows and movies. I want to find out what's going to happen so I Wikipedia and immediately feel better. (I have recently done this with Game of Thrones, Sons of Anarchy, and Breaking Bad.) Then I continue watching or reading, happy with the knowledge of what's coming, whatever it is. I know, it sounds like I'm RUINING everything but I'm not! I promise I still enjoy the books, movies and TV shows.

2. The airplane is going in for its annual mechanical inspection next week so everyone think good, non-breaky thoughts for it. I would love it if I did not have to replace a $400 blinky light this year (as we did in 2010).

3. I hardly ever break out the DVDs any more, thanks to Netflix and Amazon, but the other night I wanted to watch Ratatouille with Claire and I could not find that stupid DVD to save my life. I spent a full thirty minutes double checking the soft-sided DVD cases, the linen closet, behind a cabinet, in a drawer, perhaps in the office? The cooking rat movie was nowhere to be found.

This is why DVDs are dying/dead. Even when you OWN the movie you want to watch, it's still a giant pain in the ass to actually watch it. (Not to mention the fact that it's a stupid Blu-Ray, which means it would take like ten minutes to even start up, OMG I hate Blu-Ray.)

We never got to watch the cartoon rat cook a meal. (Four days later, I still haven't found it.)

4. I spent a large part of my afternoon sorting clothes for the children. (Is there anything worse than this chore? No, there is not.) Charlotte is kind of shrimpy (about 20th percentile) and at almost 14 months she's still comfortably wearing a lot of 6-12 month items. Claire, on the other hand, is wearing a wide variety of sizes and this whole 4T/5T/4/5 sizing is very confusing.

The brands don't seem to be consistent at this age (she's 3 and will be 4 in October) and it's a total crapshoot as to whether a dress will be scandalously short or sister-wife long. Same with the shirts and shorts: will there be four extra inches in the chest/waist or will it not even go on her body because it's cut so slim? Since her Grandma and Grammie buy ALL THE CLOTHES, this is putting a cramp into my sizing advice for them. (I have big problems, I know.)

5. Charlotte really likes to dance to Super Why.

6. Thank you to everyone for the thoughts on the lime green Stokke a few weeks ago. You convinced me to get it and when it arrived it was...electric green. Kind of Mountain Dew green, actually. It hurt my eyes.

Eagle-eye reader Meaghan suggested WHITE, which was not one of the options on the table, which was actually very genius of her. I traded the green for white and it's fantastic. THANK YOU MEAGHAN! (Also, WHY NO BLOG MEAGHAN? You are obvs very clever!)

7. I purchased all of the turquoise zig-zag fabric for the curtains in the kitchen (as seen above, still thumbtacked to the wall), and I have even sewn the panels, but they remain laying on a chair upstairs and not hanging on the window. I can't find the right curtain rod. The windows in the kitchen are on a wall that meets at an angle, (it's kind of like half a bay window) and any curtain rod with a finial won't work.

So, I found this and thought, "Oh! That is perfect!"

Low profile and slim enough to hang on adjacent windows (that meet at an angle) without them knocking into each other. Also? Not ugly. Perfect! Except...they're $50 and I need two of them and I wasn't really thinking this was a $100, plus tax, plus shipping project. These also do not appear to be $50 curtain rods, I mean, there's just not a lot TO them. These appear to be worth...$35. AT MOST.

I keep looking for a not-PB version but apparently the people in charge of PB knock-offs are not really clued into these curtain rods, and it's the only version like in all of America.

Because, of course.

7 Quick Takes: Dallas, Stokke, Pot Roast

1. Jennie and I went to a screening of TNT's new show, Dallas, last night.

The invitation said business casual but there were women there in floor-length gowns with sequins, men in very nice suits, model/reality television types in obviously styled outfits whom I FELT like I should know, but I did not because I just don't watch a lot of TV. It was very pseudo-fancy, is what I'm saying. There was a red carpet, which was hilarious because they told US to walk on it, and HA HA HA this is the silliest event I've ever been to, and I have been to a lot of schmoozy, uppity events with self-important people.

As you might imagine, we had a great time people-watching and making comments to ourselves.

The show is terrible, by the way, and I wonder if they had the premiere in Dallas on purpose, to keep it away from Los Angeles and its far more critical eyes. I mean, I will watch almost anything with bemused enjoyment (after all, I was out on the town away from my kids!) and this was just terrible writing, terrible acting, and even the production was uninspired. It was boring. I wanted to go home.

It felt disjointed and trite at times, with two characters meeting at Cowboys Stadium, on the field, on the star, to discuss their evil plans. That's...not really a place you go to discuss evil plans, all casual-like. I get that you wanted to show the stadium in the pilot (and I am SURE Jerry was ALL OVER THAT IDEA), but perhaps ten more minutes of creative thought would have resulted in something more believable/natural/organic. It feels like there was a lot they could have done with the amazing story they already had and they turned it into something really boring. I mean, even the clothes were BLAH. It was not for me.

It started later than scheduled and we left half-way through the screening. Yo, we live in the suburbs. Some people have to get home at a reasonable hour.

2.  The baby was waking up at lot at night because she was losing her binky through the crib slats. I put the bumper back in and then next day she slept until 830. Today she slept until 7. Oh, crib bumper, you are my new best friend.

3. We've had some high winds here and two days ago I backed out of the garage and found this:

Yeahhhhhh. That's half a Bradford Pear tree in my front yard. We called the tree guy and he said that the split had weakened the remaining branches a great deal and the tree was not salvageable. If we left it, and it split again (which it would) it would fall on the house. On his recommendation, we had him take the entire tree out and now my front yard is very strange looking. That makes two trees we've cut down this year, leaving only the scrappy Magnolia.

4. I'm making pot roast for dinner.

5. I am going to buy another Stokke high chair, because Charlotte is getting to an age where she can sit in it and I would be VERY EXCITED to take this piece of shit Chicco Polly to the curb (SO HARD TO CLEAN OMG). Now, we already have one Stokke Tripp Trapp, that used to be mine when I was a kid. It's kind of a natural/cherry color. A smart person might get another one in the same hue, but I kind of want this green one.

Am I crazy? I mean, I expect to have this chair for....the rest of my life. These chairs last forever. My grandchildren will eat at them, just as my mother's grandchildren do. It matches the color scheme I'm going for in my kitchen these days. I just...I dunno, I like the green! I think it would look fun! I dunno, what do we think? Crazy? Imprudent? Or, Very Stylish and Brave Of Me? I have not mentioned my green chair idea to Chris yet, but I'll bet he votes Safe, Neutral Color Chair. What I'd REALLY like to do is buy TWO green chairs and send the neutral one back to my mom's house, so she can have two matching chairs and I can have two matching chairs, but I am not sure I feel like spending $400 on TWO CHAIRS FOR MESSY CHILDREN OMG. We'll start with one.

For comparison, the Neutral Chair we already have. (Boring! It's so boring!)

6. I know I already told you I love my Jack Rogers sandals, but two weeks later I STILL LOVE THEM. They're really comfortable and I'm not having any wearing-in issues AT ALL which I expect when I spent $100+ on what is basically a shiny flip-flop. I've been wearing them almost every day and they are certainly elevating my (rather extensive) collection of Old Navy dresses. I'm already dreaming about other colors I'd like to own.

7. I took this picture a few days ago and it makes me laugh so much.

7 Quick Takes: I CREATED A TOMATO! Also, I hate chicken and cemeteries are creepy (WHO KNEW?)

1. Firstly, a housekeeping matter. Here are results of the Are You A Card Person survey from a week or two ago.

About 46% claim to NOT be Card People, 20% are, and 35% of you fall somewhere in the middle. So, rather evenly split actually, which surprised me. (And, if you took the survey, thank you for clicking three whole extra times. CLICKING IS HARD, I KNOW.)

2. I should probably save this for a Legit Garden Update, but this is kind of a big deal and I felt those of you who are emotionally invested in The Garden might be rather interested to know a tomato has appeared, which proves I can do anything with the help of the internet.

You hear that? I CREATED A TOMATO!

3. We are back from New Orleans and I have been mentally composing a big recap post, but let's be honest, who knows when that will actually happen, as I never got around to actually recapping my trip in January 2011. If you would like to sneak peek and browse the photos, they're over at Flickr.

We toured a cemetery and I still have the creepies about it, several days later.

4. I have recently decided I am going to stop buying chicken. I stopped eating chicken in restaurants ages ago, because it just felt like FILLER to me. I didn't enjoy eating it and it tastes pretty BLAH (hence the phrase, "tastes like chicken," I suppose). I even started calling it "Token Chicken." This phrase refers to mostly to Thai dishes with vegetables, noodles, sauce, and some kind of bits of chicken thrown in to satisfy meat-eaters that need meat to call something DINNER. I also find Token Chicken in pasta dishes, burritos, sandwiches (just gimme the vegetables), pizzas, etc. About the only chicken I get excited to eat these days is hot wings and that's like, a once-a-quarter thing for me.

I just...kind of find chicken to be really disgusting. I don't like touching it raw, I hate cooking with it (slimy, veiny, disgusting), I don't enjoy eating it all that much and.....meh. I talked about it so much in such a negative light that Chris kind of agrees with me at this point. I'd much rather have beef (good beef, that is) or just straight-up vegetables. So, yeah. Kind of out on chicken these days.

5. The Blathering is in six months! Oh, I can't wait to see everyone. 

6. I finally bought my Jack Rogers sandals in silver and THEY ARE FANTASTIC. I had to order a half size up, because the 9 was very, very narrow. My pinky toe was actually hanging off, which was not super attractive. The 9.5 though was perfect and I wore then all over New Orleans and I just love these shoes. I am so mad I waited so many years to try them.

7. The baby woke up. There will be no 7th take today.

7 Quick Takes: Summer Plans, Dystopian Fiction, Kale

1. I found out there are only three weeks of preschool left. I mean, I knew it was coming, at some point, and I had in my head that it was probably in May...ish? And then April had like, ten Mondays in it and GAH WHEN IS APRIL OVER? and I kind of forgot about the end of preschool coming up soon. 

Well, turns out I should have been ENJOYING my April, because there are only three weeks of preschool in May and after that I won't have any place to turn the three-year-old over to when she gets rude. 

2. What is everyone doing this summer? Even if you aren't on the preschool track, or even if you don't have kids, you must be doing SOMETHING this summer, right? We are going to do swim lessons at the Y. It's M-Th, an hour each day in June. This is a lot of time at the Y but you know what? I could use some more time at the Y. Plus, it's only $55 for all those lessons so....sold. That's what we're going to do for the entire month of June. I will run, Claire will learn how to swim (we hope), Charlotte will tear up the kid's room. (Related: I BETTER BE A LOT THINNER COME JULY.)

I also have a Groupon for a month of dance class so maybe we'll do that in July. Our neighborhood pool opened last weekend so we can do that some, until it gets over 100 every day. After that I'm out of ideas. Give me your ideas.

3. Charlotte's first birthday is in a week. (!)

4. I read Divergent. And, it was okay. [SPOILER ALERT}

I liked it a lot up until the part where the fictional world imploded on itself. I would like to read a YA dystopian novel about just living in the dystopian world. I do not care to read about the upheaval of the world as the whole interesting part is learning about the world itself and things that go on in the world. I mean, why can't we just have a nice, dystopian world where everything is weird and The End? Perhaps it would not be exactly dystopian, but I'd read that book.

5. I would like a device (a token, chip, card, etc) I can carry around for when I visit a doctor's office that wants me to fill out a handful of forms with my pertinent information. I would be able to just hand them the device, they swipe it, and VOILA, all relevant information is automatically filled in and nobody needs a clip board and nobody has to arrive twenty minutes early and I don't have to put my name and address on seven different forms, seven different times. (WHY DO THEY DO THAT TO US?) Then I can review it, omit information they don't need about me, and approve it.

It would be a lot like the Auto-Fill preferences in a browser, except it would be in real life.

OH WAIT. WHAT IF THESE DOCTOR'S OFFICES JUST SENT YOU THE FORM IN ADVANCE, ONLINE, TO FILL OUT WITH THE AUTO-FILL PREFERENCES WE ALL ALREADY HAVE IN PLACE? AND THEN NOBODY WOULD HAVE TO TRANSCRIBE ANYTHING! Oh! That would be TERRIBLY efficient, wouldn't it??

6. People on the Smoothie Train: What in the hell kind of blender are you using? I don't have a blender, mostly because I think a blender is a huge pain in the ass to own. It takes up a bunch of space on a counter, in the cabinet, and in the dishwasher. It has limited utility when I already own a Cuisinart and a stick blender.

And yet, I see all you people sticking kale (I DON'T EVEN REALLY KNOW WHAT THAT IS) in a smoothie and going, "YUM YUM!" And, I have to be very honest, I don't believe that any of you actually enjoy drinking liquefied kale (whatever that is) because isn't it like...lettuce? Of some kind?

Are your blenders...smaller? Easier to clean? What is going on? Why is everyone a smoothie groupie now? Is salad suddenly not on-trend?

7. Yeah, I'm done. Mad Men is on at my house.

7 Quick Takes: Not A Single One About The Garden

1. I'm weaning the baby. Mostly because she isn't all that interested and partly because it would be great to release myself from that physical obligation of Mandatory Presence. There are movies I want to see, vacations I want to take, things I'd like to do AWAY FROM MY BABY. 

The thing about Charlotte is she has never been the kind of baby that loves to nurse. Sure, she was comforted by it and she was into the nutritional part but she just never, ever seemed to WANT to nurse.   She never fell asleep while nursing. She never got into a legit schedule with nursing. If I offered, she accepted and that's about as far as it went with her.

This gets a little hilarious now that we know she's a baby that eyes your plate of enchiladas and then EATS AN ENTIRE ONE. (With jalapenos and onions!) She will eat anything. It feels almost like she's been holding out for the good stuff and now that she's mastered a sippy cup she's really not interested in me. I think we'll be done in the next two weeks or so.

Oddly, I don't feel any wah-wah-this-might-be-my-last-baby feelings on the topic. Looking at her, it's hard to see her as a BABY, since she's all huge and wiggly and can mimic sounds like UH-OH and DADA and HIIIIII. (I hesitate to call these true words because she really is only mirroring what she hears, when she hears it. I have yet to get a HIIIII when someone enters the room.) I feel like we left that sweet-sleepy-baby nursing part a few months back. Claire weaned at 11 months and it appears Charlotte will as well.

2. I found a totally sweet new fabric shop. I went to my normal online fabric shop to finally purchase a yard of the Bermuda Zig Zag, after eyeing it for months. 

I might use it for kitchen curtains, but I'm not sure. I'll thumbtack the yard up and see what I think. If I like it, I'll use it along with a larger order and if I don't like it on the wall I will turn it into sofa pillows. Anyway, my normal place didn't have it, so I had to Google and I found my new sweet shop where I ordered my yard of fabric PLUS another yard of sweet fabric that I am going to use to make a little cushion for this rocking chair I used to sit in at my Grandad's house:

I could have ordered a LOT more fabric but I restrained myself. They shipped this stuff to me for a flat $3.75, which I was a big, big fan of.

3. Every time we go to Walmart these days, Claire sees the chocolate bunnies and says, very solemnly,

"I really hope the Easter Bunny comes shopping here and brings me one of those chocolate bunnies."

(Her bunny of choice is a Lindt chocolate rabbit.)

So, HRM. This appears to be a topic the literature doesn't address: How does the Easter Bunny acquire his goods for distribution to children? Santa has a workshop and the Easter Bunny has.....Walmart? According to Claire, he has Walmart.

4. Because I am an amazing mother, I let Claire paint with legit tempura paint today. In the house. She did a really good job with keeping it reasonably clean and only painting when Charlotte was napping.

5. Look at what I found in the washing machine. (Bloated, dead.) (Oh my gosh, just typing that made me vomit a little.)

I don't think it's as bad as the time I found a tail-less gecko (bloated, dead) in the washing machine but it's SURE CLOSE.

6. Elizabeth posted about her summer uniform a few weeks ago and while I LOVE Elizabeth's idea and plan it is just not for me because there is no way all of those things would be clean, folded and easily accessible all at the same time at my house. Perhaps Elizabeth is better at laundry than I am, but I know I'd have a pile of orange and navy garments in a corner of my room within two weeks. (Why is the folding and putting away so haaaaaaard?)

For the past few summers, all I have let myself buy are dresses. This works for me because it's waaaaay harder to find a dress I like than a cheapie shirt at Target or Old Navy, and this cuts down on frivolous purchases that fall apart. I have no use in the hot Texas summer for jeans and I already have enough shorts to make a good rotation, so this leaves dresses/skirts. And, I know myself, if I bought "uniform" shirts to go with skirts I would just spill salad dressing on them and turn them into pajama shirts and never, ever get rid of them and be reluctant to replace them and I HAVE ENOUGH OF THAT SHIRT THANK YOU VERY MUCH.

So. Dresses. They make me feel less frumpy, I look semi dressed-up, I can wear them with flip-flops, they require no matching. That's my plan for Summer 2012. (There's also the part about how I figure since someone barfed on me for all of last summer my "look" will be much improved no matter what I wear.)

7. This is the first dress I think I want to buy. $35! Yes! WINNAH!

Some quick takes, others not so much

1. There is a Christmas tree in my living room and while it is undecorated and I know that Epiphany isn't until tomorrow (or, Saturday? I don't know) and TECHNICALLY if I wanted to give myself that long of a grace period for tree removal I could, the truth is that I am very annoyed at this giant TREE in my living room and I can't wait to move it to its proper off-season storage location.

2. All of the other Christmas paraphernalia is in the dining room and since ignoring things I don't like to deal with is a coping mechanism that works for me, I just don't go in there.

3. I started working with a trainer yesterday and my arms realllllllly hurt today. It's not that aggravating and bright, "it hurts but it feels good!" hurt, that annoying people talk about sometimes, just to brag that they've been working out. No, it just hurts. Ouch. I have damaged my extremities. This is perhaps telling of how long it has been since I've done any weight work with my arms (I don't think a 7 to 20-pound blob that needs bouncing/shushing/swaying counts).

4. I sent in my first-gen iPod Nano, per the recall, and they sent me back a BRAND NEW ONE! At first they were sending back refurbished OLD ones, but I let the box rattle around in my car for a few weeks (remember, I ignore things I don't like to deal with) and by the time I sent it in they had run out of OLD Nanos so they sent me a teeny-tiny new (silver!) one. This would be super kick-ass, except I use my iPhone at the gym for music because I like Pandora (thank you to Holly for pointing me towards Pop and Hip Hop Power Workout). I had zero use for this new Nano, which explains why the old one had been sitting in a drawer since 2008 when I got my first iPhone. I gave it to Chris. This is what western civilization has come to: Too Many Apple Products With Overlapping Utility.

5. I wrote about some bowls and then they sold out and it made me feel like a retail superstar. Crate and Barrel, where is my commission? 

6. I am feeling a bit more normal these days. I am well-past feeling hugely pregnant, I don't feel any post-partum-y crazy hormones that make me cry when the dishwasher leaves food on things, and my hair stopped falling out in giant, scary clumps. My body is still squishy but I'm going to the Y regularly and eating well (better than I have in years, actually) and I feel good. I wake up every day at 5am to the pterodactyl cries of Charlotte and I don't want to strangle anyone or cry because I'm so tired. I'm pretty well-rested these days. I have always been happy (sometimes GROUCHY, but still happy) but I am finally starting to feel like a normal person who didn't just have a baby. And, eight moths later, that sounds about right. I'll bet by month 9 I feel whole again.

7. Um, yes. EIGHT MONTHS. She's eight months old this week, which means her first birthday is a scant four months away. If I was the kind of person that throws a one-year-old a birthday party I might start planning that throwdown, but I'm not that kind of person so instead I'm planning the Miles-Bankrupt vacation Chris and I are going to take once this kid gets weaned. (Which, I don't know when that will be but it will be sometime this year, probably sooner rather than later if she follows in her sister's footsteps.) We're going to use ALL THE MILES and go first class and then change credit cards as soon as it's booked so we'll stop accruing American Airlines miles. (Still not sure which one we're switching to.) Right now we are thinking Caribbean but I'm not sure exactly where. Chris has voiced votes for Aruba, St John, Turks and Caicos and Barbados. I just want to go somewhere and sit on a beach and not have anyone whine at me for a couple of days. (I am easy to please.)

8. My birthday is coming up at the end of the month and I have made a very big decision that I hemmed and hawed over for an embarrassing number of weeks: I am going to buy myself the giant chocolate Costco cake for my birthday cake. I know, you want to come over for my birthday now, don't you? YUM. I can't wait.

9. We hired someone to help us in the kitchen and she's actually quite terrible at helping clean, but she's rather cute so I think we'll keep her.

7 quick takes: My hair, Cars 2, Tree Skirt, Steve Jobs

1. I got my hair cut a few weeks ago and it's the best haircut I've had in YEARS. The lady that did it took her time and I could tell that I was getting a very good cut with no room for swoopy "I'll just take some off....here!" garbage. She followed directions, took no creative liberties and it's amazing how that resulted in the exact haircut I wanted.

Then she blew it dry with a round brush and, wow, I had forgotten how GOOD my hair looks when someone else blows it dry. My hair was awesome for about 36 hours and then it turned into a grease ball (guessing it was all the extra product in there). I tried to replicate the look at home and sometimes I'm about 80% successful and sometimes the baby is screaming and it air dries and it looks....not the same. I get a D+ in Blow Drying With A Round Brush. It is not one of the talents God bestowed upon me.

Here's what it looked like the evening after I got the cut. I will definitely be going back to her.

2. The weather has changed here in Texas and it is cold outside at night and lovely and pleasant during the day. I was sitting on the sofa this morning with my coffee (Starbucks Breakfast Blend, which I am newly in love with) and I was thinking about how much warmer and cozier my house feels when it is not hot outside. This sounds really stupid, I know, but the effect is profound on my attitude. The house feels warmer and better and happier. My mood has changed and it might be the season or it might be the baby getting to that magic 6-month mark but things continue to slope upwards, getting better every day, more organized, less frenzied...less newborn-y.

3. We rented Cars 2 on Amazon and within 20 minutes Claire was watching Sesame Street on my iPhone. That's all I have to say about that.

4. I have become bored with DIY fro-yo. I have tried all of them (in my very educated opinion, Yogurtland is the best) and eaten so much fro-yo in the past 90 days that the thought of any more DIY fro-yo kind of grosses me out. So, that's kind of sad.

5. I bought a $5 red felt tree skirt at Target the other day and I have grand plans for it. I have wanted, for years, a nice tree skirt but I do not care to pay $80 (or more, omg) for a tree skirt that will be covered up with gifts pretty fast. So, I will take my new $5 red felt tree skirt and I am going to dress it up with some green pom-poms around the edge or maybe some contrasting satin ribbon. Perhaps grosgrain. THEN I will take it to my mother and she is going to take her embroidery machine to it and write "The S____ Family" and then our first names all the way around the edges, evenly spaced. I have this exaggerated vision for how classy and sentimental and lovely it will look and I am really hoping it works out because, dudes, FIVE DOLLA TREE SKIRT. (I will keep you posted.)

6. I switched from Crest to Colgate, for no particular reason, after 30-odd years.

7. I bought and read the Steve Jobs biography and, holy cow you guys, this is a great book. I wouldn't call myself devoted to Apple but I do own several devices and I have an appreciation for them. Jobs' life and the creation (and turnaround) of Apple are FASCINATING.

What was most riveting is that I found my own life mirrors that of Apple's quite closely. (Apple introduced the Apple II in 1977, I was born in 1979.) I thought the first time I'd really come to "know" Apple was when I bought an iPhone in 2007 but it had really been much, much earlier.

I logged significant hours on early Apple products with phosphorescent green letters (Oregon Trail, yo!), and even more on later models in 7th and 8th grade newspaper classes. In high school we had THREE Apple machines for the entire class and we TOOK TURNS typing our stories. At one point, we got 30 new machines (one for each student, OH THE LUXURY) and they were all Apples. In college I laid out the Athletics section of the Aggieland for two years on a Power Mac G4 and as a professional I worked in advertising agencies that were some of Apple's first and best customers. As an adult I'm already on my second iPhone, I have an iPod nano, a Macbook and an iPad. Chris has the same, plus there's a Mac Mini in the living room running the TV. I hadn't even realized it until I read this book, but I've been interacting with Apple products since (at my earliest recollection) third grade. THIRD GRADE!

The incredible story behind the development of these products is really amazing (to the point that you think it's a miracle they exist at all) and until I'd read this book I had never really given much thought to how Apple and Jobs' timeline parallels my own. But, as I read the book and remembered the products, it rooted me firmly in those years. As the author was describing an early Apple machine, I could hear the distinctive clacking of those beige keys and remember exactly what it was like to cram a 5" floppy in the drive when Oregon Trail locked up (which it frequently did). There is an entire section devoted to the way the GUI allowed open Finder windows to layer upon one another and, yes, I remember that screen shot from seventh grade! I remember thinking that it was SO SIMPLE to just drag an item where I wanted it to live. (I actually remember thinking "Hey, that's cool.") When I really take in the idea that my elementary school had 28 Apple IIe machines and we all went to the Computer Lab once a week and thought it was a very "gee whiz" thing and now? Now, this company and their products fit in my back pocket and perform thousands more tasks? That's amazing. AMAZING.

I came away feeling impressed by Jobs' intuition, devotion and uncompromising attitude. I also came away thinking he was realllllly weird in some areas but all genius has a little bit of crazy behind it somewhere. Highly, highly recommend this one.

7 quick takes about nothing in particular but that all seem to end up being about New Baby anyway

1. I am only working for three days this week. Starting on Thursday I'll be on maternity leave. This fills me with a great deal of joy (WOOOOOO NO WORKING FOR A LONG TIME) and a great deal of panic (OMG THE BABY IS GOING TO BE HERE SOON MUST SLEEP WHILE WE CAN).

2. Claire is only going to school for three days this week as well and the reason we're not going to send her while I am on leave is complicated and involves me getting angry at someone and perhaps I'll tell the story to you later, but for now the simple reality is that I'll be a 9-months-pregnant and on maternity leave SAHM in about 72 hours.

3. Holy crap, what in the hell are we going to do all day? Especially if New Baby is late and I end up pregnant for 4 more weeks? (AUGHHHH PLEASE NO, NOT AGAIN.) I mean, normally I would be so excited about not working and playing around all day long but I am trying to keep my activity to a minimum and Claire is, um, not really on board with that idea. We have a lot of lunch dates planned and the neighborhood pool opens this week but I have to wonder, does anyone care to see a 38-weeks pregnant woman at the pool?  Probably no.

4. Did you know that once you get to be 37-38 weeks pregnant that your maternity shirts that used to fit?  Haaa, they don't fit any more. Is very insulting.

5. Today my parents were in town and I was showing them New Baby's room and my dad asked Claire who was going to be sleeping in this room.  Claire, ever the show-off, obliged him with "Baby (Her Actual Name) will sleep here!" My parents got kind of wide-eyed and I laughed and didn't say anything to confirm or deny the name she spouted off (but it was her actual, real, going-on-the-birth-certificate name).  We just sort of laughed about it and acted like it never happened.  Later on, my Mom said something about baby Michelle. Nope, her name's not Michelle. Not even close. Thank goodness for the garbled English of a two-year-old.

6. Things I still need to do, that will probably not get done: See optometrist and dentist. Get haircut.

7. The other day an Annoying Daycare Mom that I haaaaaate for a lot of reasons (primary one being that she parks her car in the handicapped spot EVERY DAY even though there are TONS of empty places elsewhere) saw me walking in and said, "Oh! You're going to be delivering soon, aren't you!?" First of all, who says "delivering"?? It's a little too exact on the events that will eventually transpire, don't you think? Particularly for casual conversation? And second of all, if you don't know a pregnant lady it's just not wise to comment on her obvious pregnant-ness. You just DON'T. I told her, "Nope. Not really very soon at all actually." She just said "Oh."  I don't think she felt badly or anything, because she's really just that disconnected from reality which drove me up the wall even more.

7 quick getting ready for baby takes

1. Yesterday Claire climbed into my bathroom sink (no small feat) so that she could get her hands on the four binkys that I'd been hiding/collecting in the corner of my vanity. Chris found her in the sink, clutching the binkys, with a look on her face that said, "What? You're acting like something is odd." Yeah. I've been trying to wean her off of the binky for weeks, half-heartedly.  I've not been very consistent because mostly I don't actually care. In the past week though it's become a major behavior issue and she's using them as leverage for things that she wants and pitching fits over them and intentionally losing them in her bed so she can come out and request help to find them and...I'm so done with that crap.

I took them all away and the first night she whined a bit for an hour and the second night when she asked for one Chris said no and she didn't say anything else.  If it turns out to be this simple, I'll be amazed.

2. I went to see my midwife yesterday and things are good. I am actually DOWN a pound in the last two weeks, which makes absolutely no sense as I have eaten at least four pints (perhaps six, I can't actually remember) of Chocolate Peanut Butter Haagen Dazs in that time. My uterus also measures 33 weeks (I'm 31). I have been comparing photos and I feel like I AM bigger at this point than I was with Claire so that made me feel a bit validated.  We're taking the L&D tour next week (different facility than where I delivered Claire) and my midwife was very specific that we should absolutely, positively NOT PAY for the extra fancy suites (which we weren't going to) but she was like, "They would kill me if they knew I was telling you that, but just DO NOT. So not worth it."  Ha, ha, ha. She also said that earlier that afternoon she delivered a 10 pound, 3 ounce baby and WHOA don't say that because it totally freaks me out with my measuring-ahead belly.

3.  But speaking of the measuring-ahead belly, I am actually at the point where I am DAYDREAMING about labor. Like, "Oh wow, I would SO LOVE to go ahead and give birth because then I won't be pregnant any more and I won't feel like this!" Obviously, I don't want to go into labor NOW, because _____ is not finished baking yet, but the fact that I'm looking forward to labor is kind of weird, right? I'm anticipating it like one might anticipate a vacation. (You know, a vacation where you bleed a lot and then don't get to sleep for 6 months. Sounds fun, right?)

4. I'm planning on a medication free labor because the two epidurals I had last time didn't exactly work and I WAS able to go for 11 hours without pain relief while on steadily increasing doses of Pitocin (to my great surprise), so I have this idea in my head that not only can I do it, I can maybe rock it out and do it awesome.  I might be totally wrong, but this is my mindest. It is kind of easy to get this mindset (medication free) when you know an epidural isn't a reliable option for you. I feel more like I'm backed into a corner than making an informed choice though. (I know epidurals have their issues but man, was it nice to just turn off the pain for that 20 minutes when it worked.) I wish it WAS a good option for me because I am the kind of person that simply enjoys having options available rather than none at all. (I don't like those loopy other drugs they can give you. I want to be alert.)

5. Can we talk about how much easier it is to prep for a second baby? I don't mean in material goods, but the mindset is just less stressy.  I once read an article about people with one child that are afraid to have two, for reasons of overly complicating their lives.  The article was saying that they don't actually realize they already took the great majority of the emotional, fiscal, time-management and relationship hit with the first one.  That is, the second child will not change your life NEARLY as much as the first, so the "cost" is far less (and, in fact, the article was making that point that the benefit/joy far outweighs the "cost" since you've already sunk most of it into the first).  It was a really interesting article and I wish I could find it for you but it was a couple of years ago. (Was in either WSJ or NYT though, if anyone has better Google skills than I do.)

Anyway, I think that's so true because not only do Chris and I feel like we know what's coming, we feel like we know how to handle it and how it impacts other parts of our lives. I think we're rather good at juggling All Of The Things That Have To Be Done And Taken Care Of and I've been thinking a lot lately about how nice it is to have a good idea of what we're getting into.  It's not that I think we're going to be really good at two or that it will be easy (HA HA), it's just that I think being aware of our individual strengths and weaknesses as parents (rather than having no clue and learning it all day-to-day) will play to our advantage the second time around.

6. Your thoughts on cloth diapering were OUTSTANDING. Really, THANK YOU!  I am beyond impressed with the time you took to share so much with me.  We are mulling a few things over but I think we're definitely going to cloth diaper, I just have to figure out what to buy and how to set it all up. I promise I will update you when purchases have been made.

7. They gave me the form to request her birth certificate yesterday. THIS SHIT IS GETTING REAL.

7 quick takes about decorating rooms for kids who could care less what they look like

1. The Big Girl Bed is a huge, huge success. Claire has been doing a pretty good job of going to bed (and STAYING in bed) and she's still very excited about the whole thing. I am so, so, so happy that we went with the full size bed because it is AWESOME to read her stories in that thing.  Nice and roomy for both of us.

There is the small matter of her getting up too early, but it's really not any earlier than she was in her crib. The thing now is that she's free to get OUT of her bed the moment she wakes up rather than being forced to sit and read books until we deign to rescue her and, well, this getting up whenever thing is no bueno. For the past week my reality has been this:

5 am: Claire creeps into our bedroom and comes up to my side of the bed.  NEVER Chris' side of the bed because, "Daddy's sleeping." (Apparently, only Daddy gets to retain sleeping privileges?)

She puts her chin on the bed, right by my face and whispers, "Mommy? Mommy? Moooooooommy!" As soon as I mumble anything signaling that I am conscious she shouts, "I AWAKE!"

Thusly, our day starts.

I'm looking for ideas on how to modify this behavior.  Really, I am open to considering any idea as long as it does not involve duct tape.  I cannot wake up at 5 am every day when I will have a newborn in three months IT IS JUST NOT FAIR. I was thinking about getting one of those "okay to be awake" clock things but the reviews on Amazon are kind of dicey.

Anyone have one of these? Anyone have a trick to get her to stay in bed later, that does not involve a later bedtime because WHOA that is not an option, Mommy needs her free time in the evenings.

2. The nursery is coming along. With the BGB in place we were free to finally put the crib and rocker into the baby's room and, whaddya know, that made it look more suitable for a baby.

There is still a loooooong way to go on this one though. For one, I initially thought that all of the pink stuff I had would be enough to make the blue room girly in a sassy, kind of funky way but now I totally disagree. It feels like I took a bunch of baby girl pink stuff and crammed it in a blue room and hoped for the best (which, HA HA is exactly what I did).

I think I am going to try and Craigslist a lot of my pink stuff so that I can replace it with some red and hot pink items that are a bit more bold. If anyone knows someone doing a baby girl pink nursery and needs some sweet PBK things secondhand and cheap, send 'em my way.

3. After I decided to sell all the pink stuff I went on an Etsy Mission to find cute red things for the nursery.  Did you know that red has been assigned to boys? Yes, it has. If you look at any baby site all of the red stuff has trucks and puppies and firemen and airplanes on it, all screaming BOY! BOY! BOY! Annoying.

But, I did find a few things.

4. The Things:

The left image is some bedding from PBK that is too expensive, but I LOVE IT and I got the sheet (for $30 after tax and shipping, OMG) and I think I might model the rest of the room on it. It's a really big, graphic floral print with red, hot pink and blue (the very same blue as the walls).  It feels bold and feminine rather than soft and feminine, which is where we went with Claire's room.

The second image is a little red print with two birds and I just think it's darling. That, along with an ABC print in red tones will definitely be on my list of wall art.

The third are some paper butterflies to put on the wall. I like that they're three-dimensional (and red and not for a boy), but I kind of wish they were red flowers and not butterflies. Or maybe the butterflies would be okay but it's that stripey background they're on that's throwing me off. I haven't decided yet.  I have lots more links and ideas but I'm still mulling them over.

Anyway, red, hot pink, brown (in the chair) and dusky gray blue. I think I'm going to like it. At the very least, I'm making the best of that blue room.

5. We are going to a rodeo tomorrow and I am very interested to see what Claire thinks about it.

6. It is freaking cold in Texas.

7. Really, all I had to talk about was the baby's room and this format was the easiest way to get that done quickly so I can go to bed.