sueeeus

I’m feeling excited about the prospect of a snuggly little tiny baby to add to my family. I’m not even half-way there yet (but close!) and I find myself fast-forwarding my life. I spent far too much time looking at baby wrap styles again. I even ordered 10 yards of bamboo french terry material today. It’s supposed to be great for diapers, but I’m thinking of making towels and wraps. We’re not quite cut out for the cloth diapering experience.

As Two of Nine, I’ve cleaned many a nasty diaper in years gone by. I can hardly fathom Gadget sharing in such a task. It’s a stretch to get him to show enthusiasm for diaper patrol at all. So we will be doing our share of adding to the local landfill. Again.

Now, I don’t need any wraps! I made MANY in BamBam’s early days. I will be getting them back from my sister, soon. I might make one native type pouch. I made a couple for my sister, but they might not fit me, so we’ll see. It’s just… …I’m so easily addicted to making baby things!

The house rearranging is coming along. The sleeping room now sports a king sized bed. HUGE! The queen consumes most of the guest room. We had two queen memory foam toppers. I left one on the guest bed, and cut the other into a twin and added it to BamBam’s bed. As if he’ll ever sleep in it. It’s comfy, though. I’m thinking of using the extra foam to make some specialty pillows, or perhaps a small comfy sleeping mat for BamBam to use in our room. He’s using a toddler mattress now, and it’s heavy and hard. Considering how often I have to dissemble and launder the bedding, the sleeping mat might be a good thing.

I boxed up the entire VHS video collection to donate somewhere, except my 4-minute wedding video and my 4-d ultrasound. I don’t even know if our VCR is hooked up or works. I think it does, but it’s been so long. I need to move the old taped stuff to DVD. Future project. Tedious. It can wait.

I sure would like to paint and get some fresh new colors going on in here, but will have to wait until Baby is several months old, and by then, will probably be far too exhausted to consider anything on the lines of home improvement. Maybe I can tackle one or two rooms, when we can open up the windows and get plenty of ventilation. Of course, ventilation is only part of the equation. I need to enlist the efforts of one Mister Gadget, and that is the more daunting task, I’m afraid.

Once I have things settled and arranged on the home front, I think I will start into a little sewing. It’s been a long time! I have a gorgeous felt dragon kit that I brought home from Winterwood. I also copied several of Suse’s fabulous felt animal patterns, and hope to make some of them too.

I loved the Splendid Cornelius, but it had an overall dark effect which I decided to remedy with a happier blue. First I decided to go back to a white ceiling. To brighten up the room. Harry wanted to help, so rather than ruin his clothes, I just stripped him down. He’s quite an Artiste.

I almost hated to paint over this. Splendid Cornelius sure photographs nicely, but the Wild Blue Yonder, it called to me. I studied so many color chips and this one made me feel so happy. I just love some of the color names they come up with.

I moved Blue Lady above the thunderbox. Warm Gingerbread is the color I chose to contrast the Wild Blue Yonder, but once up, I’m not so happy with it. It reminds me more of putty than gingerbread. I adore how the dark dark browns look against the blue, though.

I tried a little crunched paper effect to segue, but it’s a little too loving-hands-at-home for me. Too lazy to change it though, so it will stay for a while. Besides, I doubt Home Depot is open today, and I don’t think I have any yummy dark chocolate brown paint in the garage. I thought if I could manage a drizzled look with a dark chocolate over that putty beige, it would look lovely next to that blue. And remind me of cappuccinos drizzled with chocolate, which also makes me happy.

The nebulae have moved from behind the thinking chair to the left of the sink. I adore these miniatures. And a tall bookcase has taken Blue Lady’s former place. What better place for reading material, than the reading room that gets most used in this house?

Horizontal cabinet handles were added to the cabinet doors, and these are just right for towel holders.

I had much grander plans for my holiday makeover. I planned to redo my office and repaint the entire downstairs. It took all the energy I could muster to just finish one small bathroom. To my credit, however, I did go through my files and rid myself of three waste bins full of papers that I don’t need to save. I also decided to recycle most of my magazines, which frees up quite a lot of book shelf space. And while Mr. Gadget was sleeping by the fire watching Harry, I organized and alphabetized the DVD collection. He’s so helpful.

There are a few days left to my holiday, so I may actually get the office done. Although I don’t love that Warm Gingerbread paint, I do have a gallon of it, so perhaps will use it in the office. There is quite a lot of the Wild Blue Yonder left, and I was toying with a kitchen redo, but after seeing it in the bathroom, it’s not quite the color I was envisioning. Maybe I’ll add a little white to it. Or mix some of my exterior dark blue with it.

I’ve got at least a little fresh new look for a fresh new year, and that’s a nice start.

The things one does to keep one’s mind occupied, so as not to think too much about things that are beyond one’s control…

I’m generally a wash and wear kind of person, as the things I wear are often covered in toddler goo of some sort or another, but I had some pretty fabric that I’ve had stashed in a closet for years, and decided it would make a nice apron. I wanted a specific style, and after a little googling, found that the style I like is often referred to as a 1940’s apron. I found a few cover shots of vintage patterns to get a general idea of construction, then made my own pattern.  I love one of the vintage pattern descriptions. It said something like “crisp as celery, neat as a pin.” Of course the models have 18 inch waistlines. That would be one of my arms, maybe, or a calf, perhaps, but not a waist. Not since I was maybe 4 yrs old or so. The end result isn’t neat as a pin, or crisp as celery, but I guess I like how it turned out. It’s fully lined and I even hid some pockets among the front seams.

In other news, we shopped until we dropped this weekend, and it’s been a very long time since we’ve done anything like that.  It all started with a quest for a coat.  Not just any coat.  I decided I wanted a black hooded peacoat.  Either that or a duffle coat.  It’s been several years since I’ve bought a coat.  A little online browsing revealed that the average duffle coat costs way more than I’d ever be interested in spending, and most of the available hooded pea coats did as well, and of course, they generally aren’t available in extended sizes.  After an exhausting and fruitless journey through the mall, and I loathe shopping malls, by the way, I happened into a Lane Bryant outlet store that actually had black wool peacoats (sans hood, though) for 50% off.  Add to that some gimick they were running whereby you get to take 25% off of one item if you buy their magazine for $3.95, and then if you open a credit account, you get an extra 15% off.  It would have been sweet if one could have added all those percentages together.  That would have been 90% off.  But instead it’s 50% off, then 25% off the remainder, then 15% off the next remainder.  Even so, I walked out of that store with my black peacoat for $41.  Now I have to cancel that credit card after I pay the bill.  I’m very much against having a menagerie of credit cards.

In our shopping fervor, Mr. Gadget got the notion that he needed a suit.  We found a couple possibilities while at the mall, but decided to check out another store today.  He’s had his heart set on one of those swanky tuxedo vests.  He’s probably secretly thinking 007 or something!  We put together the full sh’bang — a suit, shirt, and vest/tie/hanky combo, for under $150.  Suits generally cost a fortune, so we did well.  No more new clothes for MG for quite some time, though.  He’ll be very dapper in his own special and very color coordinated way if ever we have an occasion that calls for a suit.  Either that, or perhaps one of these days we’ll dress up for dinner at home, just for fun.  I would actually quite enjoy that.

I love potato chips because they are salty, crispy, and oh so satisfying.  Duh.  Now, as to why I love engineers, or rather, working with engineers.  If I didn’t work with engineers, what is the likelihood that I would have viewed Mercury in its path across the sun on this very day   Would anybody have brought a solarscope in to the office   Methinks the chances are slim.  How fascinating!  This experience has made my day!

I hope my little one becomes interested in astronomy.  I recently went on a quest for a planetarium of sorts.  I wanted a night light that projects a night sky on his ceiling, so we could look up and talk about it while he drifts off to sleep.  I didn’t find much of anything with any sort of decent customer reviews.  There was a turtle toy with a shell that had little perforations in it, that supposedly projected a night sky when lit, but it seemed a little meh.  Instead, I gave up the quest and got a multicolored LED nightlight that slowly changes colors, from red to green to blue to violet and back again.  It’s a hit, but it casts an eery shape on the wall, reminiscent of a horned devil, and nearly no imagination at all is needed to get spooked during the red rotation.  I’m not so fond of this night light.

Oh yes.  I nearly forgot.  Another reason why I love working with engineers.  Some of the old timers were wondering about the new person we are getting this week.  New to their group, not new to the company. 

I wonder how old she is, said one. 

(What does it matter )  About my age, says I.  (I know of her, from days gone by.  There aren’t so many women engineers around, so the names are easily remembered.) 

Twenties, then   said they. 

God BLESS them! 

Forties, said I. 

I love them dearly, yes I do.

The first trick-or-treaters have arrived! The Boo Boy enjoyed holding the candy bowl for the first wave of costumed visitors. He was very brave when it came time to open the door, but the skeletons and goblins that soon followed proved to be too scary for this little one to handle. Not having seen skeletons and goblins and scary things like that before, and all. Poor little guy, whimpering and giving me that look. The furrowed brow. Deep concern etched all over that sweet little face.
We had fun carving the pumpkins. Mine projects a shadow of a cat looming over a pair of rats in the foreground. Mr. Gadget chose a grim reaper skeleton with a scythe projection in back, but he decided to light his with a strobe light rather than a candle, so the background shadow effect is lost. Ingenious technique, though! I’ve never ventured into such creative pumpkin carving territories before. The patterns and techniques came from a book I found on clearance last year at JoAnn’s. Fun fun!

I was going to entitle this entry, from moustache to boobs, the transformation of my front, but thought better of it, what with google searches and all.

Slight attempts at improved curb appeal have been made of late. There was the moustache removal. Although a definite improvement, the satisfaction quickly waned, but the wildly successful median transformation project ignited sufficient inspiration to take action and further spruce up the front. However, and I should have already known this (yes, all right, I did know this, but chose to be blissfully optomistic about the prospects, as I am wont to be), things don’t always go as one would hope.  Nevertheless, a little action was taken, and this is the end result.  I can live with it.  I am living with it.  I do very much like the new maple tree and the burning bushes.  Perhaps next year we will work on the lawn.

I have been conducting some field experimentation on the nuances of communication and the resulting contribution toward conflict management. I have an unwitting gadget oriented study participant.
Scenario I:
Casual conversation. Express a vague idea: “I’d like to plant a tree and some shrubs out front.”
Theoretical Outcome I:
Interchange of words. Exploration of the idea. Examples: “What sorts of shrubs/tree ” “I’d love a sweet gum and a burning bush or two, and a heavenly bamboo and perhaps a few other hardy, low-growing evergreens.” “Do you have a time frame in mind ” “It would be nice to do something in the next few weeks, before the weather changes dramatically.” “Is there a particular place you’d like to put the tree and shrubs ” “Why, yes, I have some ideas.” “Do you have an idea of how you’d like the front to look ” “Why yes, I could draw a picture so you could see what I have in mind.”
Actual Outcome I:
“We need some topsoil. You can’t just plant a tree in the ground.” “Why not ” “Do you want to go get the plants or not ” “Well, yes, but… (we don’t have a plan, and we haven’t done any prep work and surely there is some necessary groundwork),” unsaid and unheard. “Let’s go.” Followed by a nearly silent trip to the nursery, a selection of plants, a load of topsoil. “Where do you want the tree ” “I’d like to form a slight mound near the street lamp, and center it there. I’d like to form another mound near the driveway, …” Followed by topsoil shoveled in the general area of the street lamp. And so and and so forth, and so forth and so on, with the final result being a half-ass poorly planned execution of what could have been a decent piece of landscaping. Not to mention a disgruntled and unsatisfied party, frustrated that all parties weren’t interested in developing and executing a plan, and achieving a meeting of the minds and an accord of vision. Also, said party wondering how long to wait before insisting that the job be redone, this time according to plan and design, ignoring the pick your battles phrase that’s flashing relentlessly like a stock exchange ticker symbol across her mind.
Scenario II:
Casual conversation. Express a specific idea: “I’d like to make a concrete bench, and I have the instructions in a book, but I want to slightly modify the design.”
Theoretical Outcome II:
Follow the instructions in the book. Modify the design as specified. Build a bench.
Actual Outcome II:
Modify the design as desired. Follow the instructions in the book. “Why do we have to do it this way What do they know ” “We do it this way because it’s what the instructions say. They know, because they’re the experts. That’s why they wrote the book.” And so on. Exhausting, but in the end, there is a bench, and the prize-winning remark, “That went well. We hardly argued, and you didn’t mutter anything about divorce.”

The key, therefore, is to have a concrete (ahem), detailed plan in place, prior to initiating a conversation or expressing an idea. There is much weight placed on the old addage, “Think before you speak.”

Scenario I (reprise):
Rather than insisting the job be redone, while heeding the pick your battles self-advice, gather the tools and start re-working the offending area. Alone.
Theoretical Outcome I (reprise):
Unencumbered experimentation to determine a satisfactory solution. Potential second party expression of interest and voluntary assistance.
Actual Outcome I (reprise):
Compromise and settle on a solution that, although not the original vision, is deemed acceptable.

I’ve had five days off.  Five!  Sadly, I feel as though I need many many more.  The first was necessarily spent cleaning in a sanity-restoring fervor.  Errands, preparations for a wedding, a road trip, a wedding, and a return trip consumed the next three.  The last day I wasted, mainly on the computer, although I did run some errands.  In retrospect, I should have relaxed and regrouped.  But I didn’t, and today, it’s back to the grind.  I managed well for most of the day, but the anxiety wormed its way back in, temporarily.  Luckily, it didn’t take hold.  I’ve kept it at bay, but am distraught that it could so swiftly rear its ugly head.  I wonder if I’m on the verge of a mid-life crisis, or in the midst of one, or if I’m simply tumbling on the waves of hormones gone awry.  Perhaps I’m just full up.  Tired.  I need to find more restorative things to do.  A schedule.  A plan.  Order.  I feel better when there is order in my universe.

On a more positive note, what a beautiful wedding!  The bride arrived by horse drawn carriage.

  The ever-faithful ring bearer stole the show. 

Solemn vows were made.  The bride was a vision in cream fairy tale silk.  The groom emanated love for his bride.

A dapper young man was mostly well-behaved.  For a one and three quarter year old on a beautiful fall day.

There was dancing     and champagne.

A fabulous time was had by all.  My youngest sister.  Married.  It’s a beautiful thing.

Once upon a time there was an eyesore. A wasteland of exceeding desolation. Passersby would shake their heads and look away. The eyesore grew. The homeowners looked upon the eyesore, and muttered among themselves. Years passed. At times there would be talk about a remedy for the eyesore. But nothing ever came of it. More time passed. Then one day, the heavens opened up, and a catalyst arrived, in the form of machinery. An earth mover.

The machine roared to life, and Project Median was born. The machine moved the earth, this way and that. Then the machine went away. But the eyesore remained. It was time for action. A design emerged. Some green. Some color. Some contour. Some function. The ideas whirred around until they took hold. Scouting missions ensued. Trees and shrubs appeared. A sunny day arrived.

The homeowners converged upon the median, with rakes and shovels in hand. Side by side, the neighborhood got to the business of working together to make the world a better place. And lo, they did. At the end of the day, a thing of beauty emerged.

The neighborhood looked upon the fruits of their labor and saw that it was good. The homeowners bid one another good night, and smiled among themselves, basking in the warmth of camaraderie and contentment.

The dream is alive. Now, it’s just a matter of choice. What view would I like best, from my kitchen window

Shall it be water and mountains Or a grove of white barked trees. With large rock outcroppings scattered in the distance

I think I’d like the water view from a covered porch, where I can sit and enjoy the evening air.
I’d like to make the most of passive thermal heating and cooling properties, so I’m going to have to figure out the lay of the land, North and South, East and West. The dream is for a green home that uses energy wisely.  I like a woodsy, Asian, contemporary flair.  It will be a Pacific Northwest Zen home, at one with the environment and the family. So many things to consider, but oh! The possibilities!

The clock is ticking, but I’m not sure when we can take those steps and boldly go forth and immerse ourselves in Rural America. Mr. Gadget’s heart isn’t there yet. But I’m working on him.

For now, this piece of paradise is ours.  It’s a step.  A leap, in fact.