Counting the Days at Home

Well, today is my third day at home on maternity leave.  It feels strange not having to go to work, and I can't remember the last time I had this type of freedom.  Even when I was in school, summers "off" were reserved for work. There are still some open matters for work that I have to take care off while I am at home waiting for the baby to arrive, but until the baby is actually born, having this stuff to do won't be so bad.

Yesterday, I went to tea at the Secret Garden with my friend P and her newborn little girl.   It was my first time at the Secret Garden and it was charming.  The Secret Garden is a small Victorian-style tea house in San Francisco's Inner Sunset neighborhood. It is much more casual than going to tea at the Ritz or the Rotunda, but it is sweet and lovely (and much less expensive!). 

High tea is something I don't really do. I am pretty much an on-the-go coffee drinker, but every once in a while, spending an hour or two at a formal tea with delicate china, little crustless sandwiches, and scones with Devonshire cream, feels indulgent and fun.

Wondering what I should be doing next.  I don't like feeling unproductive, but trying to wind down and relax before things get really crazy!

Completed Moderne Baby Blanket with Applied I-Cord Border

I finished the Moderne Baby Blanket.  Miles and miles of garter stitch.  While some people might find this tedious, I found this blanket to be comforting and pleasant to knit.  I would definitely knit this blanket again, and plan to try some of the other log cabin knitting blankets in the Mason Dixon book.  

Instead of using the mitered edging suggested for the blanket, I used an applied i-cord edging.  I can't say this was my original idea; I got the idea from Kelly Petkun's KnitPicks podcast.  Kelly, the owner of KnitPicks, also has an excellent video tutorial on the applied i-cord and how it specifically works with the Moderne Baby Blanket.

Happy Birthday to My Baby Daddy!

Happy birthday to my husband and soon-to-be-baby daddy!  I know he secretly wanted the baby to arrive early so they could share the same birthday, but not going to happen.  We don't have any really exciting plans for today, dinner with some friends, then probably going to hang out together, doing nothing in particular.  The past few weekends have been tiring, so this one will be mellow and relaxing.  Probably will be one of the last of these kinds of weekends once the baby arrives.

When the Stupid Just Doesn't Go Away

Ok, so I know that a baby is a joyous thing and most people get happy when they think about babies, but seriously, there are some dumbass people out there. For example:

- You should not randomly touch a pregnant woman's belly without asking first. And don't be offended if she says no to your request. It is her baby, her body, and she has the right to say no to someone (even family) touching her body.

- Don't say stupid things like "My god, you are big!" or "You look like you are ready to pop!" or "Good lord, your breasts are huge!" (this was said to me by a man, no less) to a pregnant woman. While you may think that these are funny or amusing to say, I can guarantee that most pregnant women feel enormous in the last trimester and do not need people to remind her of it.

- If it isn't a boy, then it must be a girl, right? Logic, people, it is out there, so use it. I was in a store and someone said to me, "You look like you are having a boy." (First of all, how can one "look like" she is having one sex or the other? All wives' tales.) I said "No, I am not having a boy." I was tired, didn't really feel like talking to a stranger at that point since it was a quick transaction and I wanted to go home. The person then asked, "Oh, then what is it?" almost like this person was angry with me. I wanted to answer "It is an alien." But I restrained myself, answered politely and left the store.

- I know that millions of women have been pregnant and it is not some rare condition, but please, be polite and realize that it may be harder for a pregnant woman to move as quickly as a non-pregnant woman. Don't push her out of the way if you are trying to get past her, and certainly don't push past her on stairs or on public transportation. A pregnant woman's center of gravity is off and she could fall.

All these things have happened to me, and now with my pregnant belly being very obvious, some are happening with more frequency. I try not to get too grumpy about it, but sometimes, no matter how hard you close your eyes and wish it away, the stupid just doesn't go away.

Update on the Moderne Baby Blanket

Here is an updated picture showing the progress on the blanket,

I am going to run out of the red yarn before I finish the in-progress squares.  However, I don't really have a desire to order 1 ball of yarn from Knit Picks where the cost of shipping and handling on the order would be double the price of the 1 ball of yarn, so it will end up being whatever size the square ends up being once the yarn runs out. The in-progress squares of red and orange use the intarsia method of knitting.  This is the first time I have tried this method.  It isn't bad, but admittedly, two intarsia squares is a very light intro to the world of intarsia. Crossing over the two strands at color change portion does end up tangling up the two different strands of yarn.  I have to stop and untangle every few rows.  I have seen little doodads out there designed to keep the strands from getting wound up over each other, but since I don't plan on making a lot of intarsia sweaters/projects (sweaters with tigers or crazy clowns on them, anyone?), I won't be buying these knitting doodads.

I don't know about the color combination anymore.  Like I said, it looks a little bit seventies.  But, I do like that it isn't the traditional baby pastels.  The blanket is rather larger than I thought it would be, so this will be something that even I will be able to use as a lap blanket for myself.

Summer Bean Salad

I don't usually like beans, but in the summertime, I like to eat chilled bean salads.  Each bean salad I make is different, based on what I have in the pantry and the fridge.  Tonight, we had nothing prepared for dinner, so I threw together a bean salad to eat with some bread, and it was delicious.  It would be even better when allowed to chill and marinate further in the fridge:

Summer Bean Salad:

Salad Ingredients:

1 can black beans

1 can cannellini beans

1 can kidney beans

1 can garbanzo beans

3 Roma tomatoes, chopped

1 jalepeno, seeded and diced finely

1 avocado, diced

1/2 red onion, diced

I also added some summer corn that we had grilled earlier this week.  You could also add a can of corn, but fresh summer corn is wonderful!

Dressing:

1/3 - 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

Juice of 1 lemon or lime (whichever you have)

2-3 tablespoons red wine vinegar (I like tangy dressing, so I usually add more, rather than less, vinegar.)

2-3 tablespoons honey (add more or less to taste.)

Salt and pepper

Whisk together all ingredients for dressing.   Drain and rinse all beans.  In a large bowl, combine beans with rest of salad ingredients and pour prepared dressing on top.  Gently stir together (so you don't smash the avocado!).  Chill, eat and enjoy!  This recipe makes quite a lot, but this salad keeps for a few days in the fridge.

Hooded Baby Blanket and Monogamous Knitting

I finished the Hooded Baby Blanket and am really pleased with the results.  I was inspired to make a smaller sized blanket to wrap up baby during feedings when I saw my friend P's newborn, Ava, wrapped in a beautiful small crocheted afghan that her mother-in-law generously made for P.  The crocheted afghan is very pretty, with small squares of puffed flowers surrounded in white.  My blanket is not intricate, but it is very practical and easy to make.  And since I made it with inexpensive Cotton-Ease (machine washable!) from my stash, it cost me nothing (we'll just gloss over the "nothing" part, since I guess I did shell out money at some point long ago to buy the yarn).  Baby obviously isn't here yet, and I toyed with the idea of using Monkey as a model, but then I thought better of it when I realized she would probably squirm and just mess up my finished object.  So I used the baby's teddy bear for perspective on the size of the blanket.

I find it extremely hard to remain monogamous in my knitting.  I usually have 3-4 projects going at any time.  It seems that I cannot have one project at a time.  In fact, if I do try to limit myself to one project, chances are I end up hating that project and abandon and banish it to my knitting bins, never to show its face again.  I have a few of these abandoned projects, actually, and it is embarrassing to think about them.  Some of them were intended as gifts, and needless to say, those gifts never got gifted.  There is the Irish Hiking Scarf (for husband), the Poppy Beret (for sister-in-law), the Baby Hooded Tunic (which was intended for P's first born, and never got finished and now her boy is too big to fit into the thing, even if I did finish it) and others.  I suppose this is the knitter's curse, because I have read other knitters' blogs who have the same problem.  This is also probably how my stash of yarn has grown to what my husband thinks is an unreasonable amount, but to me, seems pretty reasonable when I see other knitters' stashes.  There is no way that I have as much as Jenny and Nicole from Stash and Burn (a very fun knitting podcast run by two lovely young knitters who live in San Francisco - as a total aside I ran into Nicole once at Imagiknit and she must have thought I had some serious problems because I acted all nervous and ridiculous when I gathered up the courage to speak to her).  But, Jenny and Nicole are also way more talented than I, and much more prolific.  I can't believe how fast Nicole churns out those sweaters, and they always look professionally made and beautiful!

More Layoffs

Here we go again - round two of the official layoffs happened today (this is not counting the stealth ones that happened before the "official" layoffs). People from other departments and floors came by and poked their heads into offices to see who survived the layoffs. I felt like saying to those rubberneckers, "I am still here, you, motherf-rs!". But, I didn't. I am trying to remain zen about this whole thing, since I could fall victim to round three (I bet there will be one if the economy and business not pick up). I mean, none of this stuff is really in my control. The decisions are made waaaaaaayyyyy above my corporate peon level. Best not to stress with just a month left in my pregnancy. Ironically, however, even with the slowdown, I have been really busy at work recently and quite a few late nights have been required.

I just hope that those who were let go today land on their feet and are able to move on to bigger and better things. I don't know if this is a case of the grass being greener, but when I meet up with those who have left, they seem healthier and happier (of course after they have gotten over the initial sadness) and many of them have told me that it seems like a big weight has been lifted off their shoulders. I just wish that those people would have been allowed to choose the way in which they left, instead of being forced or asked to leave.

Bathroom Finished!

Well, almost...there is one more part required to be installed (the sink stopper), then that's it!  Who knew that our vanity would require a special stopper to be special ordered? 

Anyway, we spent all weekend shopping for bathroom accessories, moving back upstairs into the condo, and cleaning, cleaning, cleaning.  It wasn't a very relaxing long weekend, but we got a lot done.  The baby nursery is also almost complete, and we did loads and loads of new baby laundry.  This baby has more clothes than I do!!!  And it still feels like there is tons left to clean and do.

We are really happy with the results of the bathroom, and it came out better than we expected.  The only sour part is that the windows still look pretty crappy, but we are not going to be replacing these because it would require changing the framing and the outside of the building, which in turn would require that we get our condo association's approval.  Too much hassle for a place which will not be our permanent home.

 

Our Poor Kitties

Poor Monkey and Elvis.  I am sure they are feeling neglected with all the goings on - the bathroom remodel and future baby and all her trappings.