Medium

When I have macaroni and cottage cheese for lunch while washing it down with Apricot nectar, and I channeling Grandma?

Human Kindness

It is interesting how nice everyone is to me right now. I better not get used to it since it will not last forever.

Thousands Gather For Stuffing Of Giant Rockefeller Center Turkey | The Onion - America's Finest News Source

Thousands Gather For Stuffing Of Giant Rockefeller Center Turkey | The Onion - America's Finest News Source

It's a ...............

Baby! Ha you thought I would provide a spoiler eh? The nearly 20 week ultrasound was this AM. Everything is looking good.

Mike and the Mechanics

Well, tonight the car is fixed. The total car repair took about 2 weeks with intensive work last weekend, a little work this weekend and a couple of hours after work. We saved some cash so it is good that Mike has some skillz when it comes to engines at least.

I originally suspected that the gas was bad since the car immediately acted up after I filled the gas tank. It was idling rough and almost stalling at lights. So we figured that was the first most likely event, but we knew it could also be a coincidence.

The other weekend, Mike spent hours in the rain trying to siphon some of the gas. I filled it with 14 gallons. You never realize how huge a gas tank is until you realize the largest gas cans hold 5 gallons. They are pretty damn big. Of course that ended up being really complicated. You can not simply put it in where you fill up and suck it out. He had to take the wheel off and get to the tank some other way. Then he could not get my tire back on since for some reason my shocks relaxed a bit on the jack. Nothing was simple.

Then Mike bought an engine code thingy. Mike knew back from his Ford days how to do this stuff. It was saying one of the sensors was bad. We went all over Westchester to get the right sensor, and after we replaced it the car was still messed up. Then he decided it must be the EGR valve. We had to order it, and that took a few days. Mike brought it home Sat night and soon realized it was wrong. So he made a trip to the store yesterday and spent time with the guys there figuring out how to get it right. He kept taking the valve out to take with him to the store. We also did some pretty unscientific testing to determine if the valve was screwed up (Mike called it the suck and blow test). So the moment of truth....

Tonight we picked up the valve, and it looked just like our valve! He put it in (he is an expert by now on that part!), and it appears the car is working again. Hooray!

So Mike may have another career to fall back on if this finance stuff does not work out. I am sure he would not have to commute to the city either! Now I have to clean out all of my crap out of his car. My car is like a crazy rolling toy chest!

Mike asked me a weird question when he got home tonight. He asked if his car was running OK today (we swapped cars since I have to make a lot of stops all day). He then told me he filled the car last night from the gas he siphoned out of my car. So I think my gas will not go to waste! I love how he did not tell me about it! I would have been freaking out about his car, and he could have said, "Oh yeah, I put some of that bad gas into it last night".

I be growin'

I have been in a little denial about my expanding shape. I wear a lot of low rise jeans and yoga pants paired with Old Navy long shirts. No maternity clothes for me so far. I went to dinner last night, and I discovered that I do not fit well in some of my clothes. They fit but either the shirts get too short or look weird. My biggest issue is finding a suit that will fit me in a few months. I have been searching around for a solution. Everyone told me just buy bigger speedos, but that is easier said than done. I am running out of sizes already. The only maternity suits they have are not suitable for actually swimming (even the ones that Speedo makes!). I even found a discussion thread from some triathletes complaining about it. A lot suggested tankinis, but I do not want to offend other Y members with my big ole', super white belly.

Relocation

Last night Mike told me a house down the street was for sale. He planned on going for a late night walk to find out which one. Turns out it is across the street and over 2 houses on the ravine. It is one of the houses that I wanted to go on the market actually. So we will be at the open house this weekend, and this could result in the world's easiest move. Who needs a truck since it is all downhill.

And now for something completely different.....

I was oddly reassured this weekend. Mike and I were at an open house, and the owner started chatting Mike up. I was touring the house, and he disappeared. He was talking to some lady, but it turned out to be the owner. Mike likes to give me a hard time about how often I change topics when I speak. Well, we met the champion this weekend, and it was not me!

Re-productive

My energy level is really sapped. I have to get 9 hours of sleep or I am a wreck. I feel really good otherwise. I am good for nothing at night, and Mike has had a lot of time to himself to surf the internet and watch stuff on TV that I do not like! As a result, I have been fairly productive when I am awake after work since I know my hours are numbered! I feel good in the AM which does not jive with Mike.

I continue to entertain my current delusions:
1. The next 22 weeks will be just like it has been for the last 2-3 weeks, just bigger.
2. I will work until the bitter end.
3. I will work out a plan with Mike covering until 2 AM, and I get the wee hours so we both get some sleep. Sounds really good on paper!

Spartans' progress isn't award worthy | Freep.com | Detroit Free Press

Spartans' progress isn't award worthy | Freep.com | Detroit Free Press
One of the dumbest articles I have read in a while. As a long suffering Spartan it is nice to have a winning season for once, even though it was ugly at times.

Skype?

Anyone have Skype out there? We are thinking about signing up, but we wanted to know if anyone else was out there doing it.

Bad Carma

My car is getting a beating lately. First it was my ding that nobody fessed up to doing, now I am afraid my engine got damaged by a tank of bad gas. I filled up my car on Thursday, and immediately the car was running rough on idle and almost stalling out when I had to stop. Mike spent the day yesterday siphoning out about 11 gallons out of my tank with the hope that we could fill it and get a better mix of gas going. Hopefully it was just water in there. Today he is reading diagnostic codes to see what is going on with the engine. Just the thing we need to be worrying about right now!

Nursery Rhymes

Mike's mom wrote out a German nursery rhyme last night since I thought I could use it this week with one of my kiddos. She wrote out the first 4 lines, but I looked up the whole thing on line. I am pretty good with the first 2 lines, but I get a little fuzzy on 3-4. It is about a baker making good cake (and what you need to bake it).

Bakke, bakke, Kuchen,
Der Bäkker hat gerufen!
Wer will gute Kuchen bakken,
Der muß haben sieben Sachen:
Eier und Schmalz,
Butter und Salz,
Milch und Mehl,
Safran macht den Kuchen gelh:
Schieb in den Ofen rein.

We butter the bread with butter - Alle meine Entchen

Here is another German nursery rhyme we found on Youtube. I think Pat may approve of this one.

Bring me a bucket...

Sorry I have been so bad about posting. Hopefully I will find some time and energy to put something up her once in a while.

I started coming down with a cold on Thurs night, and I was off yesterday. I had to stick close to home anyways since I had to do a 24 hour urine collection. Since I had to collect it all day, doing home care and working in a school is not ideal (especially since I had to keep my output in the fridge). Could you imagine that request? They give you this big ole' container and you have to pee in it for 24 hours. This now becomes more challenging since I am now making nighttime runs to the bathroom. You can not sit and go into this container, so I had to go nearly like a man. I started to wonder how full I would get the container, and if the lab personnel would be appalled at my output. Mike asked to borrow the container to see if he could beat my output. I was happy to just go normally when it was done. When I went to the lab this AM, I had to put the container in a big ole' biohazard bag. On the check in counter there is a tray for specimins, but I figured that they really did not want me to leave it there! So hopefully I do not have to repeat that experience. I bet they just take out a syring and draw out 5 ccs of it.

The spartan game was fun today. They just make me too damn nervous. The showed the swimmers practicing outside at the IM west during the game which was a blast from the past. I got some MSU swag for the future Spartan from Anita last weekend when we went to watch the UM-MSU game with them. Out of fairness for Mike, there was UM swag too, but I do not plan on using the outfits. So if you see UM gear on the little one, Mike was responsible.