14 posts tagged “blather”

Well, it seems that I've settled down since my somewhat frantic fertility post last week.  (It's amazing what chemically enhanced hormones can do to a person, huh?)

I had another appointment with my OB today.  I told him that I had really expected to get pregnant last month, and that there was much sobbing and gnashing of teeth when I found out that I wasn't.  We discussed a few options, and we stuck with the idea of just continuing the old fashioned way for one more month.  (He accused me of developing an eye twitch when he mentioned the more invasive/embarrassing test that I talked him out of last month, but I swear my contact was just dry. lol)

If we don't get pregnant this month, I'm probably going to go ahead with the test to find out what's going on.  He said that depending on the results of that test, we might want to think about artificial insemination. 

The pragmatic me asked about cost at the desk on my way out.  I found out that they can bill for the test in such a way that it doesn't seem like a fertility thing, so insurance would cover it.  The insemination (IUI) would cost about $310 out of pocket, but that includes an ultrasound and all of the steps to get everything ready.  I also found out that they'd break it up into payments if we needed them to.  (I told Steve I think we should start putting back $100 from each check so we'll have it waiting if we need it for that purpose.)

In other (completely unrelated) news, it seems somebody's poisoned the waterhole!  Steve threw a load of jeans in the washer last night, and about midway through the wash our water went off!  I was already asleep, but he said that the water stayed off for a few hours.  He told me about it this morning, but I didn't think much about it until I saw a notice in the paper that our little town of Bumblyburg is under a boil order until Saturday at the earliest.

I've never been under a boil order before.  It isn't nearly as exciting as you'd think.  I'm just glad I happened to read the newspaper online this afternoon or we wouldn't have known.

Unfortunately we can't do any laundry because the water's orange, and I don't think you're supposed to wash dishes in water that is potentially hazardous, so I guess I won't be doing either of those things tomorrow.  Rats darn.

Today is a school holiday for Steve and Simon.  I like having them home to keep me company, but I'm really glad that Simon is home because he woke up not feeling well.  He had a cough this morning, and has been listless all day.  We've been watching "The Presidents" on The History Channel, and Simon is sound asleep on the sofa.  Actually, Linus is asleep on his doggy sofa, and the cats are sound asleep on our bed.  I've been a lazy bum all day, but I haven't actually gotten in any shuteye.

We went to Costco last night, and I picked up a cookbook and a book on organic gardening.  I flipped through the gardening book, but it's mostly a reference of organic solutions for gardening problems I'm not currently experiencing.  It's actually a compilation of Rodale's All-New Encyclopedia of Organic Gardening and The Organic Gardener's Handbook of Natural Insect and Disease Control. I think it'll come in handy later, but for now I'm all engrossed in my new cookbook.

The cookbook I got was How to Cook Everything: Vegetarian by Mark Bittman.  They also had his older (omnivorous) How to Cook Everything, so I had decide which one I wanted.  Since my ultimate goal is to eat less meat, I decided to get the veggie version.  I haven't looked at the non-veggie version, but I'm not at all disappointed with the one I got.

I spent a good portion of my lazy day coming up with a menu and grocery list to get us through to next Tuesday. 

So far I've got the following:

• chicken and dumplings (I still have the stuff from the other day.)
• stir fried leek dumpling with miso carrot sauce with ginger and salad greens
• stir fried tofu with fried rice
• white bean and mushroom ragu with polenta
• homemade pizza
• either salmon or scallops with risotto and sauteed spinach & mushrooms
• edamame stew with couscous
• Chicago Diner burgers with sweet potato fries and salad
• seitan "chops" with sides of some sort

We'll see if that's what we wind up having.

I couldn't let Pancake Tuesday pass without remark, since my very blog is named in this saint's honor!  ;)

Actually, I'm not even making pancakes today.  I overslept this morning, so poor Simon had a cereal bar for breakfast.  They are serving pancakes at our church tonight though.  Steve will be running late to get over there from work, so he won't have time to swing by and pick me up.  He's going to try to get Simon over there early enough to get some pancakes, but Steve'll have to get right to work on setting things up for children's choir.  That should be done by 6:30 so I'm planning to have dinner ready at 7:00 tonight.  I'm not making pancakes for dinner though.  I have stuff in the fridge that needs to be used before it turns south, so I'm finally making the Parmesan Crusted Chicken topped with lemon dressed greens and broccoli and bow ties on the side.  I'm actually glad I'm making it today.  It's lemony, and kind of springy, so it'll be good for today since it's kind of warm and springy outside today.  (It's only 9:00 am, and it's already 56 degrees.)

I can't believe how warm it is outside!  We actually had thunderstorms last night.  It's obnoxiously humid, but I'm still considering opening the windows and airing out the house this afternoon if we get above 60.  It seems so springlike, that I'm actually feeling motivated to get some stuff done around the house!  (And no, I'm not nesting. Flo is officially visiting. I'm sending Steve to pick up my Clomid this afternoon.)

This house is a disaster area right now.  It started when I spent more time over at my mom's house cleaning everything out, and I've never caught up.  It is truly driving me nuts having my house this messy, but I've been feeling overwhelmed.  (I'm sure the hormone roller coaster that I've been no hasn't helped.)   I've actually had days when I just sat here because I couldn't begin to figure out where to start.  It's sad.  Fortunately, I'm feeling this awesome, spring weather motivation today, so I'm going to try to take advantage of it!  I might start out with some FlyLady chaos cleaning.  (Where you just move from room to room and spend 15 minutes at a time in each room.)  The best part about that method is when you're done you at least see some progress all over the place.  Wish me luck!

I'm so not kidding, either.

This morning I saw a commercial for Daytona 500 for Men cologne.  First off, I'm so thankful that they specified that it's for men, because you know we ladies would be chompin' at the bit!

Next, I've never seen NASCAR advertised for it's sexy smells.  Can you think of a single thing at a NASCAR race that would be known for its good scent?  I've never actually been to a NASCAR race, so I must be missing something.  The smells that immediately jump to my mind would be burnt rubber, fuel fumes, sweat, possibly cigarette smoke, and the like. 

What is Elizabeth Arden thinking?

We went out for sandwiches last night for dinner, and before our food arrived I went to wash my hands.  On the way, I noticed that they had a jukebox.  (We've eaten in this restaurant for at least 15 years, and I never once remember hearing it play.)

I took a look at it.  There were a lot of old songs, so I was going to play a dollar's worth.  That's when I noticed that songs were three for a dollar or seven for two dollars.  Jukebox songs should be five for a dollar!  I realize that I haven't used a jukebox in a while, but are they all so expensive now?  I wouldn't have payed that much for those songs when they were new.  Why would I pay that much for them now that they're old and stale?

Steve pointed out that I could buy the song on iTunes for the cost of playing it three times on that jukebox.  He volunteered to let me download whatever song I wanted. Then he'd put it on his iPod, put the ear buds in his ears, turn it up really loud, and sing it as many times as I wanted.  I'm sure that would have been the highlight of the other patrons' dining experience. 

Isn't he such a thoughtful and caring guy??

This morning, after Steve left to play for church, Simon and I sat down at the table to a breakfast of buttermilk pancakes (from scratch might I add) with REAL butter and REAL maple syrup.  Just like Martha Stewart.

Simon looked at me and said: "Mom, how much snot do you think Leroy had?"
Me: "Leroy who?"
Simon: "You know, from Leroy and Stitch."
Me: "I don't know how much snot Leroy had, I've never seen Leroy and Stitch."
Simon:  "Well, I bet it was a bunch because Stitch had a lot and they're clones."

See, just like Martha Stewart.

Well, it seems Simon is not starting swimming today.  He has a cold that is prohibiting him from breathing, and I'm told they value breathing when you're learning to swim.  In addition, Steve has twelve other places to be today.  We've decided to either skip swimming for this session, or just find out if we can start him next week.  (This is his third time in level two, so I don't think he will have missed much this first lesson.) 

Simon spent the morning in his jammies, on the living room floor, surrounded by Tinkertoy weapons, watching Scooby Doo.  Somehow, that seems more like the correct thing for him to be doing on this particular Saturday morning.

Steve is on his way to accompany our friend (and favorite 16 yo babysitter) Katie at Solo & Ensemble contest.  She is very talented, and has two music teacher parents, so I have no doubt she'll get a first.  After that, he's off to St Mary to play for their 4:00 mass.  He should be home around 6:00, and I'll finally get to go to the grocery--which I've been trying to do since last Tuesday.  I might even break down and go to the new Super Wally, even though I've been trying to avoid it like the plague.

I have been thinking seriously about cleaning up this house before it is condemned.  It is amazing to me how quickly a home can go to heck in a handbasket when mom is sick.  I think we might also actually need or want some clean clothes at some point during the weekend.  Big fun afoot around here!

Wheeeeeee!

Ok, I am incredulous that the Colts just won a playoff game.  They are going to the Super Bowl!  They tell me the Bears won, too.  That means we'll have an I-65 Super Bowl.  I'm still in shock.  (And feeling bad for my friends who are Pats fans.)

I've always said that if I watch the game we lose.  I am not kidding when I say that I have NEVER seen the Colts score a touchdown.  They never do it when I'm in the room.  I have to admit that I watched the entire first half of the game, and we sucked.  I got bored and discouraged after half time, and spent a while talking to people in the kitchen.  When I came back we had made a record breaking comeback, and were tied!  I pointed out that once again if I watch the game they don't do well, and they made me leave the room for the last few minutes until we won.    They pointed out that Super Bowl is going to be very boring for me from the other room, but at least everyone there thanked me for helping the Colts win tonight.  Hey, I do what I can for the team.

While I was going through boxes in the basement, I ran across a book about "The Real World" that I bought back in 1995.  It has info on the first three seasons of "The Real World".  Synopses, pictures, and where-are-they-now kind of stuff.  (Which wasn't all that interesting because it was printed just a year or two after the shows aired.)

I remember buying the book because I had gotten to sucked into the San Francisco season.  I hadn't ever watched the show before, but watched an episode or two of San Francisco toward the beginning of the season, became hooked, and wound up watching it for hours at a time when they'd play marathons of it on MTV.  

For those of you who don't remember (and how could you not remember) San Francisco was the season with Pedro, Rachel, Cory, Mohamed, Pam, Judd, Puck, and Jo.  Pedro was the adorable guy from Cuba who was the AIDS educator. Rachel was the conservative brunette who started sowing her oats by getting tatoos and piercings the minute she joined the house. Cory was the cutesy, blonde doormat. Mo was the super-cool rappin' hipster with the dreads.  Pam was the super-smart Asian chick with orange hair, who was going to med school at Harvard.  Judd was the cartoonist who was perpetually looking for love.  Puck was the obnoxious bike messenger who was kicked out, and Jo was the British vegan chick with the abusive ex-husband who came in a replaced Puck after they kicked him out.

I wasted spent a little time this morning Googling them to find out what's happened to them in the almost 15 years since then.  Of course we all know that poor Pedro passed away from complications of AIDS the day after the last episode aired.  (We all watched the memorial episode and cried like babies.  If I'm not mistaken, Steve watched it with me and he even cried like a baby.)   Rachel wound up marrying Sean Duffy from the Boston season, and they're living in Wisconsin with their two daughters and son.  As of 2004, Cory was living in Anaheim with her husband and teaching English and French.  Mohamed got his masters and is now a speaker who tries to train people to be more tolerant of each other.  Pam is a now a doctor, and in 2000 she married Judd who wrote a book about his experience with Pedro, illustrated a bunch of the "Idiot's Guide" books, and created "The Life and Times of Juniper Lee" (if you have Nickelodean addicted children you know who that is.)  Puck managed to irritate people a little past his alloted 15 minutes, had a few appearances and bit parts, but doesn't seem to be doing anthing noteworthy.  I couldn't find much on Jo, but I saw that she did have a bit part in the remake of "Sabrina", playing one of Sabrina's Paris friends. (I'll have to pull out that DVD and watch it to see if I can spot her.)

So there you go, more than you ever wanted to know.