Happy Imbolc!

Here's a list of books read in January 2011 (exceptional volumes are in bold):

1. Maryanne Wolf, Proust and the Squid: The Story and Science of the Reading Brain
2. Barbara Demick, Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea
3. Oliver Sacks, Uncle Tungsten: Memories of a Chemical Boyhood (good read, but way too many times I wished ( Read more... )

There are aliens amongst us. They are called 'people who do not like naps', and I am one of them. I am pretty sure I stopped napping when I was three and never looked back. It makes me feel groggy, disoriented, and pretty much ill (yeah, shocking, isn't it). I hate naps with a passion. And now I can't function without them. Some days are worse than ( Read more... )

The adventure that is getting a flu shot in this town if you are pregnant is complete. I forgot to ask my doctor to give me one last Friday, so I thought 'I'll just pop by RiteAid, and they'll give me one, right?' Well, RiteAid doesn't do flu shots on Saturdays, okay, and apparently they have shortages of said flu shots, so 'call us Monday and ask ( Read more... )

My sleep patterns are all screwed up. I am now wide awake at 2 am and can barely crawl out of bed at 10 am. In addition, my dreams have gotten weirder. When they tell you you are going to have strange dreams during pregnancy, it's not a joke. There have been some truly bizarre and incredibly vivid dreams. I also occasionally slip into lucid ( Read more... )

Went to do some exploratory baby 'shopping' today. I say 'shopping' because all we did was walk around the store, taking pictures of things we liked, so we could buy them later (hopefully cheaper online). Several thoughts:

1) $1000 stroller. Really? really? At that price, it better have a GPS and be self-propelled and take my child out for walks by ( Read more... )

None. They are just a way to make yourself feel bad. Besides, I can only make resolutions up to July, at which point there will be a baby and all resolutions like 'will sleep 8 hours a night' or 'will get up at 6 daily to run a mile' will go out the window.

Since I'm incredibly anal, I like making lists. So it's time for the 'Read in 2010' book list (I apparently follow a lot of similarly anal people, since about 70% of the blogs I read posted lists like that in the past two days). The items in bold were particularly awesome (I tried to be picky, there were a lot of good books).

It's funny how looking ( Read more... )

The sun is born again. Happy Yule and merry Christmas (really, it celebrates the same thing, let's be honest). And if it doesn't seem like spring is coming... A couple of days ago a fox on our deck was barking and calling for boy foxes. :) Haven't heard her since then, so there's probably going to be tiny kits in a couple of months.

Christmas ( Read more... )

So, Washington DC gets some snow every year. Every year the people into full-blown panic, SHUT DOWN EVERYTHING a la Madagascar in Pandemic, then, when the snow melts, they go into denial until next year, insisting that no, this is a Southern city and snow just doesn't happen here. Then the next year comes, rinse, repeat.

We got an inch of snow ( Read more... )

We got some wild bird seed, and I've been putting some of it on our deck every day. Here's the visitor's list for today: four cardinals (two males and two females); an assortment of nuthatches; what I think is some kind of titmouse; what I think is junco (my knowledge of birds is extensive, as you can see); a finch, who is a bully and who keeps ( Read more... )