Made a call yesterday and set this up for Laura to do today...

Saturday, July 31, 2010

Please arrive at 8:00 a.m. (Your husband will drive you and pick you up.)

Mother-to-be Dream Spa Package

• Sensitive Skin Facial

• Customized Eye Contour

• Pregnancy Massage

• Makeup Refresher

• Spa Lunch

• Warm Cream Manicure

• Warm Cream Pedicure

Yep... I rock!

Got a new rug for the boy's room with a Pottery Barn Kids gift card we had:

Possibly inspired by Grrface buying a lunchbox, I ended up doing the same thing! We had a $100 gift card to Pottery Barn Kids and there's only one around here at a mall we never go to, so we trekked out there to use it. We got a plate and utensils set for the kid, and a rug shaped like a surfboard for his room (I'll post a pic of that. Can't believe I haven't yet!), and the appliques for the wall (showing a pirate treasure map, with dotted lines and islands and a ship!) and still had money left on the card, so L told me to grab the lunchbox we passed on the way in. Pretty sweet, huh?



A turkey sub, Cheetos, and a box of Cracker Jacks. Don't judge me. I had vegetarian Lebanese leftovers for dinner last night so I can skip things like fruit and vegetables for lunch!

So yesterday we went to the viewing and today we went to the funeral of the boyfriend of one my my wife's stepsisters (one of the stepsisters we rarely see, and a boyfriend we never met, even though they had dated about three years).

The stepsister told us last night that the sister of her dead boyfriend told her that he was planning to propose to her. He had apparently discussed it with his family, so everyone in his family knew. I guess it's some comfort for her to know this. But it's also "Holy shit, God, nice sense of humor you have."

The stepsister told us that last night in a matter-of-fact way (She's a little in shock at how everything went down, understandably), and it was just devastatingly sad. Not only did she have to go through this, but since she wasn't "officially" in the family, she didn't sit with the family at the funeral or get mentioned by the priest. The priest, who, incidentally, had never met the dead guy.

I think there should be a rule:

A MAN WHO NEVER MET YOU SHOULD NOT GIVE A SERMON AT YOUR FUNERAL.

I'm going to be cremated, and we can skip the whole church thing. Just some people who liked me, something good to drink, and an evening reminiscing about the dumb stuff I did and said that made you laugh. That's the way you do it.

Suck it up, it's Friday and I'm posting about food!


Here's lunch (from left to right): Hot horseradish, L's leftover half a filet mignon from dinner last night, slice of swiss cheese, and a club roll. I'll be assembling these ingredients to make a surprise meal*.





*Only a surprise if you're too dumb to figure out it will be a sandwich.

This was an interesting story (Hey Kate! Is this your paper?)

From The Commercial Appeal, July 19, 2010 (Click headline to go to story):

Renovator finds Graceland gems in stained glass

I don't know that they're as valuable as he hopes they are. They were never at Graceland. The builder had four left over and used them somewhere else. They were originally together when he brought them over from Spain in the 1960s. Hmmm.

On one hand, it's like instead of buying a piece of the Berlin Wall, you buy a rock from the quarry from which the Berlin Wall materials were mined.

On the other hand, there is a definite Elvis connection, and some people are freaks for anything Elvis. If I owned anything Elvis, I'd love an ornately designed jumpsuit (in a display case) or his famous gold suit:

It goes down like this: We win the lottery, I buy this suit (or, barring that, have an exact copy made) and wear it to work to announce I am quitting in memorable style!

So the baby on the way is supposedly a bit over 4 lbs. now and proportional to a pineapple. Huh.


We received a not-good update on the status of L's stepsister's boyfriend. They removed him from the sedation drugs, but he remains unconscious. A full neurological exam is being conducted. The doctors have advised that an MRI cannot be done due to his condition and warned that the neurological exam may reveal that his brain cannot recover from his injuries.

I've never met the guy (this stepsister lives in another town and we don't see her too often), but I certainly feel for all involved.

It was kind of a strange weekend. Laura and I are both itching to get the house in SOME KIND OF DAMN ORDER but we can't until the carpet is installed in that bedroom! Home Depot is coming this morning to measure, and we already chose the style we want when we went to the store on Saturday, so hopefully we can rush this thing along and get it done (by Friday maybe???). You'd think we asked that it be dipped in gold, it's been such a tedious process!

Saturday afternoon I started to mow the lawn (temps in the upper 90s be damned) when Laura came outside and said we were going to meet her father and stepmother for dinner in a few hours. Laura's stepsister's boyfriend had a serious motorcycle accident last week (a solo accident on a deserted stretch of road) and though her stepsister (her stepmother's blood daughter) had told her he was improving, it turns out that in reality he had a head injury and was on life support in a medically induced coma. Jeez. Now it seems like it's a waiting game, because he has a living will with a DNR (do not resuscitate) order. So his family has to decide when to remove the life support and see if he can survive on his own. And once they remove it, that's it. They can't start it again if he's unable to breathe on his own. I can't imagine having to make that decision. They're waiting to see if he improves any more, but L's father and stepmother came up from Wilmington because the verdict seemed grim.

Since nothing was going to change for the time being, they called us to meet for dinner and get an update on their future grandchild (the first among SIX sisters, have I mentioned that yet?). We met at a place we'd all been wanting to try, a Spanish tapas placed called Jaleo. We had a LOT of small plates between the four of us. My favorites were ajo blanco con cangrejo, a chilled almond and garlic soup with crab meat and green grapes (which sounds insane but was delicious!); datiles con tocino, fried dates wrapped in bacon; and berenjenas a la miel, lightly battered eggplant with honey.

Sunday started in a typical way, but L. started feeling hormonal and overwhelmed by the house being in SUCH a state of disarray that she started crying (seven weeks to go!). It didn't help that it was in the high 90s YET AGAIN. We have air conditioning, but it's an old house that needs the insulation updated, and when you're about eight months pregnant, you can't get comfortable and being hot just makes everything 50 times worse (so I have been told and I believe it). Hey, I had my own anxiety about things (wasn't a blog post a few days ago called "Freaking the fuck out"?), so I understand. A few hugs, Chinese takeout for dinner, and an unexpected Paul McCartney concert on TV and we were both feeling better.

In between trips and meals and such, I got some chores done too. I removed an unneeded dimmer switch from a room, touched up the paint in one of the rooms, did some laundry, and finished reading a book.

Had a doctor's appointment yesterday afternoon and stopped at the Goodwill store next door. You know I bought something, so let's have a look!

(1) Secrets of the Baby Whisperer. HORRIBLE, cliched name for a book, but when I showed it to Laura, she said the author was a respected doctor, so I chose wisely.

(2) AIA (American Institute of Architects) Guide to the Architecture of Washington, D.C. This book is awesome. Broken down by neighborhood, it gives a photo, the architect, year it was built, and background behind both the design and implementation. Example: The site for the Lincoln Memorial (built in 1911) was still swampland at the time! The senator from Illinois said, "I will NEVER let it be built on that SWAMP!"

(3) A 45 (with picture sleeve!) of "Burning Flame" by Vitamin Z. A one-hit wonder (a one-NEAR-hit wonder, really, as it barely made the top 40). I loved this song back in the day, and at 50 cents, it was a bargain! Don't know/remember the song? Listen to it (and watch the video in all its '80s glory) here!

(4) Elvis 56. The organizing principle of Elvis 56 is simple: that's the year Presley recorded these 22 tracks (description from Amazon). C'mon! This is the year Elvis made his mark, became a star, and began his ascension to become "The King." 22 songs that straddle the line between rockabilly and what would be known as rock 'n roll! ($2, baby!)

(5) I paid $2 for this picture frame, not so much for the frame (though it is nice) but for what is inside it. It's a signed photo of G. Love! I wasn't sure it was real (though why would someone fake G. Love's signature?), but yep, it's signed in ink (and has additional writing by him on the back!) It matches the signature (and his same guitar) here. What a random(ly awesome) thing to find at Goodwill!

So Laura had another doctor's appointment the other day, and the baby is already head down (ready for launch!) and now I'm thinking "Oh shit, he could conceivably come at any time now! He doesn't know he's not due for 7.5 weeks!" And we still have furniture piled everywhere because we don't have carpet in the other bedroom yet!

Oh, I forgot to mention I received a "diaper dude" bag at the wedding shower. Hate the name, but I have to admit it's going to be handy. It looks like a red messenger bag, with lots of zipper pockets, for when the boy and I are hanging out somewhere together and one of us poops himself (likely him. Hopefully him!).


Hey Kate:

Elvis on Tour: 75th Anniversary Celebration, a special in-theater event that celebrates the timeless music of the rock 'n' roll icon. This one night event on July 29, 2010 in select movie theaters nationwide will feature much of the last film footage shot with Elvis as well as never-before-seen footage. More than 25 numbers spotlighting Elvis Presley's talent, range and showmanship fill this lively chronicle of his multi-city 1972 series of concerts. Plus montage sequences (supervised by Martin Scorsese) showcase Presley's early career in music and movies. The unique split-screen presentation conveys the whirlwind, "you-are-there" energy and performance thrills of Elvis on Tour.

I got my ticket for the show! I didn't even ask my pregnant wife if she wanted to go, as I knew she'd pass. Anyone interested? De? Otherwise, it will be me and 100 cougars at the Ballston Mall cinema, I guess!

After 11 days on vacation (including weekends), I'm back home. From Friday, July 2, to Friday, July 9, it was lazy days spent sleeping in, reading, napping, lazing in the pool in the late afternoon, and idly wondering what to have for dinner.

On Friday the 9th my family showed up for the weekend. We had a baby shower on Saturday afternoon, with about 20 people attending. There were three kids, so we had a pinata shaped like a monkey. Good times.

On Sunday I had figured we'd have a late breakfast for everyone and get on the road. However... it turned out that Laura's retired parents and my retired parents were having too much fun and didn't want to pack up and leave! They went out in the boat (TWICE), once trolling my two nephews behind it on an inner tube. We told them they were welcome to come back any time (including in August, when our house would be empty).

Anyway, we ended up getting out after 2, then getting back home around 5. Hot and tired, I still worked two more hours (recall that last week the rooms were all painted, meaning I had left furniture in piles all over while paint dried!

I reinstalled bathroom cabinets on walls, installed the bedroom closet hardware so Laura could start hanging up little outfits (she's been waiting to do that for months!), and tried to whittle the piles down (and scratch a few items off the "to-do" list).

Speaking of deadlines, tomorrow it will be eight weeks until Laura's due date!

We have to get the other bedroom carpeted before we can move any more furniture back into its place. So I still have mattresses standing in the sun porch, night stands in the kitchen, and much of my clothes sitting in piles waiting for me to build the new dresser for them (which will go in the bedroom once the carpet is installed...). I feel like I'm positioning dominoes and the first one has to be placed (carpet) before the rest can fall. And the kid is not going to wait until we're done!

A census worker just stopped by our river place. I thought about tweeting a joke:


but I'm scared that a number of people would take that seriously and it would become a Tea Party rallying cry and/or lead to violence against census workers.

Seriously.

And thank goodness for that. I'll spare you my high school photo, but let's just say I am proud to say I was not someone who peaked in high school!

The 4th of July at the river means the neighbor who is in charge of setting off the fireworks for the county puts on a hell of a show right next door! We've been here at least six times to see it.

Despite the recent grumblings I've made to my wife about some aspects of my job (got a promotion and no raise last year, got the standard cost-of-living raise this year with no bump taking into account the promotion of the previous year, no merit raises despite the fact that our department had its best sales record in the history of the company for our books again this year, beating the best-ever record we set last year, despite the crappy economy!)...

The painters finished the two bedrooms and their closets today and will finish the bathroom tomorrow. Being here alone, I wanted to make a little progress somehow.

Now that I had the opportunity, I decided to finally assemble the crib!