Gabriel...

No, not the angel, though he is awfully cute!

Gabriel William...aka "the Turkey"...was born November 19th at 8:09pm. He was 7lb. 7 oz (so much for a gigantor baby!).

We are tired. And very happy. VERY happy!!

All the stuff I should Have been posting...

We had an historic election! Where the guy who won did so on his own merits and also happens to be the first African-American president-elect in our nation's history!! Even MY state, a traditional Republican stronghold, went blue! And 70% of the voters of my state came out to vote, also historic! Yay!!

Also, I have been diagnosed with gestational diabetes, and for the last month I've had to test my blood sugar four times a day and watch my diet verrrry carefully. Fortunately my case is mild and controllable by such methods...I have a grand new respect for all those who suffer from this condition. I really miss ice cream. Not to mention that when a person with diabetes gets a cold or the flu their sugars become even more difficult to control and asthma meds also spike sugar levels. In the future I will not only be taking preventative measures for myself to prevent a repeat of this, but if I'm sick with a cold I will endeavor even more than usual not to get anyone else sick - sheesh.
ANd having a cold while pregnant is by itself no fun! Fortunately you have extra cards to pull in order to get extra rest, which is nice and makes it a little easier :)

It also helps greatly with ALL of the above when you have a lovely husband who puts up with ALL of this and continues to be loving and sweet and supportive. Thanks STM!

SO...the Turkay. My due date is November 28th. On the 14th we had an ultrasound and they estimated this little munchkin to already be about 7 lb. 11 oz. Eeek! At that point the word 'induction' started popping up with ever greater frequency, as you can imagine. So, if the Turkey does not arrive by this Wednesday, the 19th, I will most likely be induced that evening and the Turkey would then be born, hopefully, by Thursday the 20th.

Which segues to my next bit...how does a first-time mom know she's in early labor?? I know what the book says, I know what my mom says (which was that she wasn't sure and had a doc appt, so she went to the appt and they sent her right into the hospital....) but I'm still not sure what this will be like for ME. So. But I'm having an awful lot more Braxton-Hicks. Enough that I'm going to start counting them today. And I'm getting a bit crampier every day. So.

Updates to follow!

Moving...

Is a lengthy process. Sigh.

Once we ARE moved in, however, our place will be really nice :) Until then we are tripping over things and having unnecessary arguments.

Which is compounded by the fact that I can't lift or move anything, seeing as how the Turkey needs approximately the space twins normally use. I checked a picture of myself against a picture of my sister on the day she gave birth to her baby girl - at six months I'm as big as she was at nine.

My mother found this very amusing. SO far I don't mind, but if I get to the point at the end where I can't drive because I can't sit behind the wheel of a car without my belly getting in the way it will make me cranky.

Little It?

My dad dubbed the Turkey "Little It" in an email. This immediately brings to mind images of It from the Addams family and It's very hairy offspring with pacifiers in their...mouths? I laughed a lot :) This was compounded by the fact that between us STM and I have approximately three feet of hair.*


*two feet of which is STM's

Hi All!

Wow - it's been a really long time since I posted. At first I had no interest in looking at a computer screen, I'd just gotten away from a job that required looking at one allllllll dayyyyyyyyy. Also, I had news that I was all too likely to share early....since then I've been both busy and lazy, if that's possible. STM and I and the Turkey are moving to Leesburg this weekend, I've taken a new job pouring wine tastings at a local winery, we've been to Puerto Rico and for our 1 year anniversary we went to Annapolis/Chincoteague...but the big news, which most everyone who reads this already knows, is the Turkey!

STM and I are having a baby just around Thanksgiving time this year :D

I have discovered many things, one of which is that when one is pregnant and has a full bladder, apparently said bladder is irresistible to tiny kicks. And punches. And occasionally a head-butt. This is a very strange sensation. I suppose it's like having a balloon in there to play with...and seeing as how it's probably kinda boring in there I can't actually blame the Turkey. Even stranger is when the little person decides that kicking is necessary NOW and must be done hard enough so that mommy can feel both the kick AND the head hitting the other side.

This whole baby thing is fascinating. Although I will be happy when my nose stops running constantly.

Today and Monday.

And then I am finished with this office. My poor office orchid, which was so happy in my previous location where it got plenty of light, is now losing all of its flower buds due to the new location (the dungeon!).
All three of the office orchids will come home on Monday when STM will let me have the car for the day :)

Work

I'm in my last week at this office. It's not bloody happening fast enough, that's all I have to say about it!!!
After today: 5 business days left, four if I use my sick time...well, actually, 3 1/2. I've got plenty of sick time.
7 calendar days.

I should get one of those little countdown boxes!

Crochet. Sigh.

I have now tackled several crochet projects, pictures of which will be posted as I:

A) give the completed projects to their intended recipients and
B) get off my lazy butt long enough to post the pics. Which reminds me, I need to photograph a couple of things.

Question: why do so many published and/or free patterns have mistakes in them? I've come across this a couple of times now, and it's quite irritating.

For example, I am currently wrestling with this pattern, a cute free shrug pattern from Berroco called 'Beatrice.' I'm using different colors and yarn, since I like wool and such :) My issue is that it doesn't seem to make any sense. I got through the first row with difficulty, but now I'm trying to make the directions work for the second row. It appears that the stitch count is off somewhere.

Argh!

On the other hand, I still like the look of the theoretical finished product. I will keep trying for now.

Because some things are worth publicising.....

Neil Gaiman, of Sandman fame and author of many books which I have read, is offering one of his books for your free perusal.

Check it out now - it's only being posted for free for a limited time!!

ANTMC Part Deux...

And I really don't need to hear about your troubles with getting worker's comp for your 'foot injury', nor do I need to know what your doctor recommended (surgery) and how he must know best since he didn't recommend therapy, and how it's really been giving you trouble and how you have TRIED the orthotics but it's just NOT ENOUGH....

Ahem. You get the picture.

Lest you think I've morphed into a full time PITA

Super Thin Man and I had our three year anniversary of our first date this past Friday :) Yes, I know we are now married and have a wedding anniversary, but hey, it's more meaningful than Valentine's Day and it's a nice excuse to spend some time with my DH.

We went to the U.S. Botanical Gardens Orchid Show on Saturday, and Westmoreland State Park on Sunday. It almost made up for Daylight Savings Time, which is screwing with my brain.

For those of you who have not been, the Botanical Gardens is a classic Victorian style greenhouse on the National Mall right next to the Capitol Building. It's a really nice place to visit anytime, especially in winter when it's grey and cold outside. They always have an abundance of green, living, sometimes flowering things to perk up your mood.

Also, Westmoreland State Park is a tiny little park (1 mile square, really!) with a gorgeous beachfront, some lovely woods, bald eagles, tons of other avian life, pretty trails, and a spectacular view of the Potomac from the Northern Neck of Virginia, where the river is 5 miles wide. I highly recommend a visit.

A Note to My Coworker...

I KNOW you've had this space of cubicles to yourself for quite a while. It still doesn't belong to you, lady.

Talking on the phone about whether you packed the car or whether they should remove some sort of charge from your credit card is none of my damned business, nor do I have any interest in hearing about it. I understand that you may have some business related calls to make, and that's fine, but keep it DOWN when you're on a personal call. We share this space.

Sigh

I miscounted.

After Today, I have 15 days more of being in this office.
23 Calendar Days until my last day.

I'm going to have to take my office orchids home much sooner, though. With this awful new cubicle I'm now occupying they only have office lighting, no natural light.

I'm trying though - I printed out a number of photographs and pictures to try to brighten things up...and distract people walking by so they look at the pictures, not me.

I'm not an exhibit in the zoo, people.

WTF!??!

I have worked at my current office in various jobs for over 2 1/2 years at this point. I started as an intern during grad school and gradually worked up to full time beginning last August. During that time I'm sure I've had bad days, but I've also tried to be a decent worker.

As a result, when I was hired full time I was moved from a desk in an office with a window to a cubicle without a door. Luckily there was still sunlight. Apparently this made sense.

Now, with 3 1/2 weeks until my final day here (13 days I will actually be required to be in this office...) they are moving me again.

To one of the smallest cubicles in the office, with no window, sandwiched between an intern and an administrative assistant.

"Thank you for all the hard work Vika, we really appreciate the time you've spent here!!"

No...Can't...Resist...ahhhhhhhhhhh

Apparently Jessica Simpson had a movie.

No kidding. It apparently also made about $.02 in the US.

BUT - in Ukraine it made over $250,000.00 (which, considering a movie ticket costs about $1 there, is a lot.)
Ukrainians apparently feel about Jessica Simpson the way Germans feel about David Hasselhof. They think she's just like Barbie. No Kidding.

And in slightly less philosophical news...

PRETTY!

Life, the universe, etc.

My sister and her husband recently became parents to a lovely baby girl. She's really da*& cute, I'm serious. This has gotten me thinking about parenthood and the trials and tribulations facing parents today. So many people wait to have children until they can 'afford' to do so. (This is a fallacy. One never really knows what the costs and benefits of parenthood are until one is actually doing it.) I have a slightly different philosophy. Granted, what I'm about to write is probably what many people are thinking about but don't put into words, but hear me out.

Having children has much less to do with finances than with the readiness of the parents. For example: my sister and her husband are at a point in their lives where they will be better able to give that gorgeous little darling the attention and love she deserves than if they'd tried having a child earlier, what with grad school and working etc. While their lives haven't stopped and they will still be working, etc, they've chosen this time in order to benefit their child. In my mind this is one example of how ready they are to be parents.

I only hope that when it's my turn I'm able to be a good mom.

Yup.

<3<3<3<3

I love this plane.

I LOVE this plane.

I think I want one. I'm sure I could rig it up to carry two and recoup my investment by giving rides. Sure! It would Work!

Okay, Okay, I know Celeb watching is silly....but...

I have a theory. Angelina Jolie is pregnant again. While I think most people would agree that she is normally a smoking hot woman that kind of oozes sensuality, it is also true that she has, in recent years, a tendency to be incredibly stick thin.

So, my theory is that Brad keeps knocking her up to get her to gain weight. It looks good on her, it really does, so why not? They can certainly afford the kids, and unlike other folks in Hollywood whose woeful stories shall remain anonymous because I feel bad for them, they seem to be good parents.

So let'em be happy and start a clan all by themselves. Why not? Babies are adorable!

Lunar Eclipse

On Wednesday night STM and I witnessed a really neat thing - a full lunar eclipse. It was snowing lightly earlier that day (note: my office was open, no early closures that day either. Idiots...) but the wind picked up and blew all of the clouds away. It turned out to be beautifully clear and crisp! I must admit, the picture is NASA's, our camera doesn't have a tripod so all the pics are a little blurry.

The neatest thing in my mind was that the full moon was exactly 10:41pm EST, and the height of the eclipse was from 10:01pm to about 11pm. It was pretty awesome!

%&*%^$&$#$%&!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Our office follows the standard set by the Federal Government concerning inclement weather.

If there is so much as 1/2 inch of snow in this region, the gummint will usually shut down, often for the whole day.

1/2 inch of ICE, however, which seems to me to be a little bit more...well, I don't know...likely to CAUSE ACCIDENTS.........

Unscheduled Leave. Meaning: we're open, but if you can't drag your sorry butt into work we'll not dock your pay.
How does this translate to my office? Open.

Sigh.

Anne Boleyn, Part Deux

Okay, so I did a little research.

It turns out that Anne Boleyn was noted as wearing her hair unbound. It happened often enough and was UNUSUAL enough for the time period that it was written about her.

That still doesn't excuse the rest of the bloody cast. Nor does it take away from the fact that she wore a French style headdress often enough (see here for an example from The Other Boleyn Girl) that she made it fashionable in England to wear such headgear.

On Life

On Tuesday I finally made a move I've been thinking about, planning, obsessing over, and generally giving Super Thin Man migraines over for the last three months. I gave notice at my job. At the latest my last day will be April 15th, to give me time to train the newbies (note: plural) and get certain things finished before I go.

Well, what next you ask? It looks like I'll be a housewife for a bit.

Wow.

Housewife. Domestic Engineer. One who does house-type things and perhaps cooks.

I'm also going to be writing a plan for a home-based business creating my own line of ointments, creams, soaps, etc. along with a possible line of home-spun, hand-dyed yarns in small batches.

First, though, I'm gonna take some time off. For this I have STM to thank. He has a very stable, very secure position and they keep telling him how great he is (I agree, BTW). Thus, if we are careful and sensible with the finances, and if we make definite plans to move somewhere cheaper (which could be any number of places, especially in comparison with Fairfax, home of the $500K 800 square foot condo) we can afford this for a while. We are thinking maybe Leesburg or Frederick...maybe as far out as Front Royal. Someplace not too far from said decent workplace of STM's.

Wow. Life changes fast.

The Tudors

While looking for nice images to illustrate my rant about the Tudors, I came across this.

Yeah. Henry VIII's sister would pose like this in public. Sure. Again, also with the hair down.

On TV shows

As many of you who read my blog may know, I usually watch only those things which do NOT have commercials. On Demand and the movie channels are my friends.

Then there's Project Runway. PR isn't really my fault, you see, my friends from grad school started a tradition a year ago, for season three. Every Wednesday we would gather at the house of one of the gang and eat junk food, drink too much for a weeknight and watch Project Runway. The silliness of this (in terms of having a Thursday morning life...) was compounded by the fact that PR comes on at 10PM on the East Coast. So....we would all be getting to bed after drinking and eating too much at about midnight on an either school or work night, depending.

Sigh.

Needless to say these nights were grand fun, and though they didn't continue this year my addiction to the show continues. I think it has a great deal to do with the fact that they actually DO stuff. Granted, the soap opera factor is kind of fascinating, but the reason I really watch is to see what kookie assignments they get and watch how they all deal with it. I know personally I would not have been up to the challenges they are presented! Also - I love the end products. Even the terrible ones are fun to see, just to see how terrible it CAN be.

Although I still think Christian is a little twat and Jack should have gotten the fan favorite (all season I was hoping they would bring him back. I LOVE Jack!) Unfortunately I also must admit that Christian is a talented little twat, and does really deserve to be in the final with Jillian. Sigh.

And, in a rather related statement - I COVET Anne Boleyn and Catharine of Aragon's entire wardrobes from The Tudors.

COVET. And cannot afford.

But I do have to make, yet again, my standard complaint about one very common mistake in such period shows - one which I don't think they made in the movie The Other Boleyn Girl, but I digress - the HAIR. I don't care how much of a grasping power-hungry little wench Anne was or is portrayed to be, at court the chick would have ALWAYS worn her hair up. None of this part-up Part-down BS either. It most likely would have been totally covered, not even just up in a 'do. Sigh. Yes, having her long flowing locks down shows how GORGEOUS she is and how EASY it was for Henry to get hooked, but come ON. Sheesh. Look at a painting or two. Really. The paintings of ANNE, even. There is even a DOLL that's more accurate. Scroll down and you'll see the tidbit about the headpiece on the doll.

Ahem...and now back to our regularly scheduled insanity. Personality #1529 has been locked up and put in a straight jacket. That should keep her occupied for a while.

Being a reason not to post on one's blog

Awwwwww!

I especially like the pics of the new grandparents.

Skiing and other pursuits

Last week STM and I went with my good friend to Maine to ski at Sugarloaf for a week. Little did we know that they take the term 'ski in-ski out condo' quite literally. We could watch the nearest lift out of one bay window to see when they started running in the morning and had to walk a whole 50 feet to the edge of the nearest slope. It was tough. STM and I have only really been skiing a few times, so going for a whole week was a real treat. Also, blueberry beer is intriguing, but that's beside the point. At the beginning of the week I was certainly the Queen of Green, the greener the better! We had daily lessons included in our ridiculously cheap ski package, so STM and I took advantage. By the week's end I was very sore from using all those muscles differently than usual, however, I was also up to the 'dark' blue slopes. I'm hoping that in the next trip I'll get to do some black diamond slopes. STM and my friend are still more advanced than I, but I'm narrowing the gap.

Also, I started a new crochet project. It's going to be a shawl for my grandmother. I'm planning to make one for each of them, actually, but the other will be made on my new 7' triangle loom, which FINALLY arrived! It sorta hangs like a picture on the wall, which is neat!

My sister, SWMBO, had her little girl on January 18th. Needless to say my sister hasn't posted a blog entry since, lol! I am now addicted to watching the Flickr account with the pictures to see when they post more :)

So. Today is my first day back from vacation, and I had 95 emails in my box this morning. I'm still going through them. I suppose I should go continue with that....

Ahhhhh!!!

My sister is having her baby!

I am keeping them all in my thoughts and prayers, please do the same.

WOW!

Orchid Care

So, as you may (or may not...I don't know how closely anyone other than myself actually looks at my blog...) have noticed, the picture of the orchid on the top right over there has had some changes to the notes on it. I thought, in retrospect, that it may be nice to explain a bit for those who may have no f-ing clue what I mean by some of those terms. Orchids are an obsession, often leading one to learn Latin and certain Asian words and such...but I digress.

The orchid pictured on the right here is a Phalaenopsis type orchid. They have a low profile and wide, flat leaves and very thick roots which often perform photosynthesis. This is quite helpful to the plant, and is also rather unusual in the plant world. It normally (if it weren't a greenhouse-bred fancy hybrid) would have found itself a nice spot on the upper section of a tree somewhere in Southeast Asia. This particular orchid was purchased in flower at the King of Prussia Orchid Show in February 2006.

About two months ago it developed crown rot. This is an infection of the plant by which water remaining in the crown (the bit where all the leaves join together) carried an organism which caused the plant to die from the center out. I have never heard of a plant being rescued from this. ALL the leaves died, and we were left with only a group of very healthy roots.

STM decided, as an experiment, to see what would happen if we just kept watering it. Since one orchid more or less in the bathtub doesn't really make that much difference when you have about 40 of them (I told you it was an obsession!) I didn't mind. Also, since it was most likely me that caused the crown rot (orchids usually only get it when there is too much water on them, especially late in the day or at night. The organism that causes it is most active at night. This is why responsible orchid growers will usually water in the morning, to allow the plant's upper bits to dry completely before nightfall.) I felt a bit guilty.

About a week and a half ago we were spritzing the orchids, which we do almost every morning, when I noticed a new growth on the roots (!!). I immediately called STM over to see, and we both could tell it was growing a keiki!!!! A keiki is a baby orchid which normally grows from a fully mature orchid which, for reasons of it's own, chooses to reproduce by cloning rather than through seeds. Phals have this tendency, but I've never seen one keiki off of the roots. I have another keiki which grew off of another plant in the usual way - the plant put out a flower spike with no buds and then the baby grew at the end.

So now we have a new baby orchid, but one with an adult, mature root system. This is a major advantage, since many keikis die from lack of water when they have an immature root system (once they are detached from the parent plant)

I'm really interested to see where this goes next. And by now you are probably thoroughly sick of orchid talk.

Tea and Sleep.

So this morning STM and I were slowly awakening. This is pretty normal, as is the fact that NPR was what was interrupting our morning snooze time. There was a piece this morning that made it even harder to get out of bed, and explains a bit why I have such trouble sleeping earlier in the evening, especially recently.

Sigh.

Modern society does not respect sleep. This is a terrible thing.

So, as with a usual day, my chronic sleep deprivation hit me in the middle of the afternoon. I'm eschewing coffee (again) because in addition to being too much caffeine it's tough on my stomach.

My sister's tea saved me. One of the teas she gifted me for Christmas is called 'grapefruit.' it's black tea with some bits of grapefruit in it and it smells divine. Also, as you may guess from the description, it's quite the picker-upper.

Thank you CGB!

Historic Markers, Update

So, my sister pointed out that we may have seen that "Pile of Rocks" historical marker in New York State while on vacation many years back. I therefore have checked the NYS historical marker catalog, but didn't find it there either.

It is entirely possible that the marker got pulled simply due to complaints over its inherent silliness. On the other hand, considering some of the markers I DID find, it speaks more of a clever commentary on the silliness of many historical markers.

This is the link to the website, where you can find such markers as 'Old Indian Path.' I'm not kidding. The Pile of Rocks one was at least imaginative.

Historic Markers

For those who may not have noticed or not be US-based, there are historic markers all over the US countryside. They exist in other countries as well, (Facebook link, may not work if you don't have an account. Let me know and I'll find another way to post that one.) but they are truly prolific in the US, especially near sites from the Revolutionary or Civil Wars. For certain readers, those wars can often be referred to by other names including the War of Independence or the War of Northern Aggression, etc.

In any case....how do such markers get placed? It turns out that in the US, such markers are placed on a state-by-state basis. In Pennsylvania, for example, there is a commission assigned to placing these signs. Apparently there is more oversight now, but in the past they placed them based on petitions from the general public and had the right to place a sign anywhere. ANYWHERE in Pennsylvania, be it public or private property. Thus you get signs from the savvy (and silly) types such as historic marker placed on a pile of rocks by a group of Penn State students some time back. Since there was indeed a pile of rocks at the given location, the marker was deemed valid and placed, at the cost of who knows how much state funding.

Sigh.

Now, since I can't locate it on the site they may have removed this marker or it may be an urban legend. If someone has more information on this you are welcome to post it in the comments.

May the strike soon end!

Or we may see more silliness like this.

Although I did nearly bust a gut trying not to laugh out loud at work in response to that.

Christmas!!!

Okay, so I didn't write about the holidays at all in the midst of my dental issues.

Christmas we spent with my family, except for my very pregnant sister and her husband who can't travel right now. I hope they had a wonderful holiday!!
We went to STM's family party as it was on the day of mom's family's party and we'd spen the actual holiday with my family.

All in all they were both really lovely and everyone seemed truly happy to see one another and spend some time together - which is the real spirit of the holiday as far as I'm concerned, so all is good :)

My sister gave me a lovely assortment of teas, which I now have at my desk at work. It's kind of like having a mini tea shop - whenever I need tea (which is often...) I get to browse. My other sister, who has apparently decided to enable my burgeoning fiber habit, found more of this one amazing type of the softest merino roving you've probably ever felt - she got me enough to possibly make enough yarn for a sweater. Which is a lot of yarn. My third sister gave us Quelf, that oh so amusing board game we were considering purchasing - very nice :) It will get broken in when we go to Maine to go skiing with my good friend later this month. My parents gave me a gorgeous box in which to keep mementos from our wedding this past summer, and some really pretty tree ornaments. We got ornaments from several folks, in fact. I LOVE the ornaments, they make the tree look so much more 'family' and less 'hotel-lobby' lol.

Speaking of trees...I heard that my sister, the one who is expecting, had some trouble finding a tree. I hope they have better luck next year! We also waited until the weekend before Christmas to get our tree, but luckily the weather has been quite mild in the DC area, and though it rained heavily that day we were able to find an open tree farm. Since it wasn't too far away and we needed to stop by to pick up some gifts anyway we went to Lost Creek first. Rose, the events and tasting bar manager, fed us wine (whenever we go up there she always gives us wine), let us stay until the rain ebbed a bit, and then we went over to the tree farm. We almost got lost in the Loudon county back roads, but the drive is so pretty that we weren't worried about that :) We made it to the tree farm with time to spare and were directed first to the pre-cut trees. Seeing no reason to cut one if we could find a nice pre-cut tree, STM and I searched through, and sure enough we found a little 4' tree in the precut section that suited us just fine! Best part - it was a whole $10. They claimed it had probably been cut a week or more earlier, but we've had it for almost three weeks now and it's not even dropping needles. I'm very impressed. When I get home I will try to remember to post some pics of it!

Antibiotics

I usually try to avoid taking antibiotics, especially since I was on so many as a child that my immune system doesn't handle them well. Since I got my wisdom teeth out, however, I felt it prudent to fill the prescription this time - last thing I need is a massive infection that close to my brain :) One of the reasons I try to avoid antibiotics is that I, like many women, often get yeast infections when I take them.

Not this time. Huh. I did some research - apparently that taking of multivitamins thing can actually help prevent yeast infections too, just by balancing the overall health of the body.

Everybody, take your vitamins, they're good for you! And watch out for mercury if you take fish oil supplements!

The thing about wisdom teeth....

MAN! Did that hurt. But it's starting to not hurt anymore, which is good. At this point I'm mainly down to avoiding chewing with my back teeth for another two weeks or so and getting tension headaches from only chewing with my front teeth. I've lost about 10 lbs. so far, and I'm still mainly on soft/liquid foods, so I anticipate that I'll lose more weight before I'm able to eat normally again. I'm very happy that I had the forethought (or something) to start taking vitamins again about a month ago or I'd probably be much worse off. The goal now is to keep losing weight - to really be a healthy weight I need to lose about 20-30 more lbs. - and to eat properly and exercise so it doesn't come creeping back. I was a size 8 when I came back from Russia, and I felt really good as a size 8. I'm currently a size 12-14, and I feel like a ton of bricks whenever I try to climb stairs. Not good. I don't need to be a stick, and Super Thin Man would DEFINITELY object if I tried to become one, but it's long since time I spent more time on keeping myself in shape and eating well. The truth of being Jack Sprat's wife is that he LIKES curvy women. That's part of why he likes me. This is nice, since I don't even think anorexia would get me back to a size 4 like I was in high school, and I like food way too much to stop eating it anyway.

I know I'm rambling, but I don't care. It's that sort of morning. So I'm going to ramble a bit more - warning, this bit will be somewhat sappy, so if you don't care for it don't read it.

I like my husband. He's a really nice guy. I feel like I hit the jackpot in a big way when I had the good sense (or something) to go out with him that first time. He's smart, funny, and he kind of looks like George Harrison (with the goatee especially). He's slender, and will probably not develop much of a gut (if his grandpa is anything to go by...) and cares about keeping himself healthy. He's brilliant at all the things that frustrate me, like anything involving more than googling or pointing and clicking where computers are involved or playing instruments. I can sing, and some say I do it well, but i don't have much talent for playing an instrument. He's quiet, gentle and kind, but strong. He has amazing eyes. Did I mention that I think he's really good looking? Because I do. He's got much better hair than I do, and since I'm married to him I get to run my fingers through it whenever I want. He's a good driver, and has the good fortune to have found a solid, respectable job that he LIKES. And is really GOOD at. Which is more than I've found thus far, but there's hope :). But I think one of the most unique and wonderful things about him is that he manages to live with me, and enjoy it. All of you who know me understand this, but for those who don't, I'm kind of a handful. Very willful, and a bit crazy to boot, but he helps keep me centered. So. I think that may be enough for now, though I could easily keep going...