Scupper the Wonder Pup never ceases

My two favorite Scupper photos of late:

Scupper the Yule Dog - or St. Lucia - or whatever you think he looks like:
And my personal favorite:
Steve's new napping partner. I was so totally ousted.
To be fair, it was me who originally invited him on the bed about a month ago - just on Sunday mornings, because he is so cute and would sit at the door to the bedroom and just whine enough that I felt bad. Now, on the weekends, if we try to go back to sleep in the morning without him, he has a little hissy fit. Usually, if we do invite him up, he'll sleep at the foot of the bed, and then we ALL can go back to sleep for an hour, as opposed to listening to him whine at the door and NONE of us going back to sleep. This particular afternoon, he pushed the door to the bedroom open himself (the sneak) and crawled up right in between us. and then slowly inched himself over enough that I had no room. Ah well. I wasn't really sleepy anyway. Steve has no recollection of any of this because he was fast asleep. Awwww.....

Some thoughts on holiday baking...

In an effort to warm up the house, I decided to make yet another batch or two of holiday tasties. This year, I have truly felt like a domestic goddess. Not only do I have the Kitchen Aid mixer as prime accoutrement on my path to domestic goddess-dom, but this year I feel that I have finally used it to some of its amazing potential. Three years after its birthday surprise, I am still amazed and awed by the act of hands-free mixing. It really is way too cool. This year in particular it has truly come in handy because I can play fetch or tug with Scupper AND cream my butter and sugar until smooth. And with our old/new stove, I can soften the butter in a bowl over the pilot light area on the stove top. Rock on.

The only downfall about baking now is the fact that I can't test the batter before I bake it. Argh. No raw eggs for Speedy. I didn't realize how much I actually did that until I was reaching into the biscotti batter last week and went, wait a sec. If I'm not even eating poached eggs for breakfast, do I assume unbaked dough is safe? Oh well. Until May. (Like I'll want to cook homemade cookies right after her birth. Yah right.)

On the other hand, I did make some tasty breads and treats this year - all from my Whole Grain baking cookbook. The UCSD theater department staff & the local dog walkers had their choice of:
Lemon Poppy Seed Bread (made with white whole wheat and oat flour)
Pumpking Cranberry Bread (made regular whole wheat flour)
and Toffee Almond Biscotti (also made with regular whole wheat flour).
And you know, they all turned out pretty good. I think they are much denser than breads/biscotti made with all-purpose white flour, but the whole wheat lends a nutty texture and taste that's rather good, especially with the biscotti of all things.

Tonight, in an attempt to warm up the house yet again (it's 50 and rainy here - so much for a sunny Pacific paradise) I just made Molasses Rye Snap dough (we'll see how they taste) and another rough of the Toffee Biscotti because I had requests for more. The house is now at 70 and smelling delicious and I'm finally warm.

Let me know if you want any recipes. I think i'm done for the season. I have one more loaf of French bread to make for our annual Christmas Eve bagna cauda (anchoives, butter, garlic sauce with raw veggies dipped in) but that's it.

In other news, Speedy is growing just fine. She is "totally normal" according to the midwife's reading of the mid-point ultrasound results. Totally normal? Is she really our kid? ;) I feel as big as a house, wondering how my stomach flesh is going to stretch anymore. I was in pre-natal yoga today with a woman who was at term (good for her - doing yoga until the end!) and I got a little scared seeing how large she was. I mean, does the belly really expand THAT MUCH? Holy cow. I ran home and lathered my stomach up with lots of body butter just in case. I checked in the shower this morning that if i stand straight, can I still see my toes? yes. but just barely. It's about time for another picture of said belly, so once I get Steve to take it, I'll post another one... At least my belly button is still in. For now...

And so it begins...

One of the most amazing things about this whole pregnancy thing is that I just can't get over how incredible the body is. I mean really - i was thinking about this last night at dinner. All however many miles of my intestines are just getting smooshed by the day, and I haven't keeled over yet. I may have had to add more fiber to my diet recently, but let's not talk about poo just yet. I'm sure there will be time when our lives revolve around poo 24-7. My uterus is now the size of a prize-winning extra large cantelope at the county fair and it used to be a dainty pear. And even better, the body starts to prepare you for waking up ever 2-3 hours. Yes, I'm writing this blog post at 3:30 in the morning because I woke up at 2am to the sounds of the dog barfing in his crate, had to pee, and couldn't fall back to sleep. Scupper and Steve are snoring peacefully and (I assume, so is Speedy), and here I am, making Christmas card lists in my head, wondering what the weather is like in Oregon in December should we decide to take our long-awaited road trip, and the question of the hours...

cloth or disposables.

I'm leaning towards the cloth my friends... I found a brand (that they now sell online at Target no less!) that grows with the child - that's right. No sizes, just keep readjusting the snaps. So when you think about it, $17/diaper over 2-3 years isn't a bad deal. Stock up to about 20 and you're good, right? the initial outlay seems a bit steep, but overtime, i think it's worth it. I'm going to have to do laundry every day anyway, right?

So weigh in on the poll - cloth or disposables. Wasting water or filling landfills.

Yep. Heavy thoughts at 3:30am. I could be working on my dissertation, but trying to discern satirical tendencies in a play right now might be more than my brain can handle. I've been translating French for three days in a last minute effort to prove that I can pass my second language exam about 6 months later than I was supposed to. Sadly, all I can really remember from my 4 years of high school French are drinking songs, Impressionist painters names, and how to make a yule log holiday cake. Mmm.... chocolate yule logs.

No pink please...

but purple, lavender, yellow, green, blue, and red are all ok!

Congrats to those of you who voted - Speedy is a....

GIRL!

True to her name, she was moving all over the place this morning - but the ultrasound lady manged to get these two relatively decent photos. Even if she does look like an alien, she's our alien. ;)


In other cool news, our dog learned to play hide and seek with a bone this weekend. It's the best new game ever. He waits in the living room while Steve runs around the house and then we tell him to go find it - and he does. Scupper thinks it's fun for hours.

Things to be thankful for... the selfish edition

....that we have four days off together because Steve didn't have to work.
.... that Scupper wanted to sleep in until 9:30am on Friday
....that Turkey Day dinner was only 15 minutes off my master schedule and everything tasted good.
.... that it was sunny and 70 here today and not 40 and sleeting.
.... that our families understood that traveling on Thanksgiving just sucks and didn't make us feel guilty for having to fly 1000s of miles.

I am sure that I don't have to get sappy and tell you why i'm REALLY thankful this year - ya'll will get that in my cheesy annual Xmas letter, I'm sure.

Here are some of my favorite pics from the weekend.

The table barely fit - and I didn't have enough cloth napkins that matched. Shame on me.
Steve carves the turkey while Scupper prays little bits will fall from the sky.

I clean up after all the drinkers. Manhattans happened to be the drink of choice as the evening wore on - I didn't partake, obviously, but those cherries drowned in bourbon sure sounded good.

We took a post- Turkey day hike on Friday to walk off the food - at the local urban park which actually has 50 miles of trails. This is the view from 2/3 up the 1,500ft mountain. Metro San Diego and the ocean beyond.
Our very handsome hiking partner - who practically pulled Steve's arm out of his socket while on the trail. Next time, we'll put on the "no-pull harness." ;)

Jobs and the Future

Small update - so amidst all this baby nonsense, i have to keep moving on with the goal that was originally at hand - finishing the degree. Oh yes. It has to get done. Right now, Speedy is winning, as I haven't written a lick of anything since about September. I've kept up with lesson plans, prepared my conference paper (which was delivered in Boston last weekend at the conference - an exhausting weekend of listening to people talk at me, but an enjoyable weekend catching up with old friends), and haven't done much else school work.

What I HAVE been working on is applying for jobs and fellowships. Eek. Of course, all the cover letters say, "I am scheduled to defend my dissertation in June 2009, and will have my PhD in hand by the time of the job appointment."

Oh i hope i'm not lying. So here's the plan - either get the diss done and get a decent job OR find out that there isn't a decent job and get an awesome dissertation fellowship to finish the dissertation next year while taking care of a 6 month old and applying for jobs next year.

Both seem daunting, but frankly, I'd rather the "finish the diss and get the hell out of here" option. But i guess I had better stop blogging and get back to writing if i want to pick door #1. Don't you think?

In other news, i did get a phone interview on thursday with a college I applied to - kinda cool. Felt good to be at least short-listed for something. I have no idea how the interview went - phone interviews are contrived and weird and not good for a person like me that reads people by body language.

Ah well. At least it was good practice and gave me some sort of hope that some college out there might want me.

Even a little.

Here's a favorite picture of mine from recently - my two favorite boys doing what they love to do - Scupper is passed out and Steve is building a bicycle wheel.

Oh - and here's me at the start of 4 months. What's weird is that i'm only 5 pounds heavier than when I wasn't pregnant. How weird it is to watch the body change.

Historic Election Reaction

So of course Steve and I were a bit excited to vote today... exercising your constitutional right never seemed so amazing - or a bit scary - because, of course, we're Democrats, so we have to think that MAYBE something bad is still going to happen tonight and can't be too excited. The aching pit of despair that i felt in my stomach while watching the 2004 returns is still a feeling i can viscerally recall.

However, I thought it was pretty cool that Speedy and I got to vote together today... I checked with him/her just to make sure s/he was an Obama baby and it seemed the case. Woohoo. Mamas for Obama, right?

Best new dog toy ever

This thing is great. it bounced erratically, squeaks really loud, and is durable. Two thumbs up. So far, Scupper-proof.

You know it's a good day when...

someone gives you a bone, and then you proceed to bury and re-bury it throughout the day. It's like hiding a present and then finding it over and over again.

Like, under the orange tree. Or in the corner of the yard. Or in the corner of the living room. Or under the fridge. Or by the tomato plants.

But it's a better day when you are the person that gave the dog said bone and get to watch all this unfold.

Ah, if we only could be this satisfied by bones.

End of Track Season

So I just have to brag -

This past Tuesday was the last night of track season - which usually means that there is one good race, followed by bicycle insanity in the form of tricycle racing (for adults, mind you), a slow race (which means how slow you can actually go on your bike - and remember, no brakes or coasting), a pinata race, where you have to ride your bike around the track and try to hit the pinata while you are riding (someone broke their collarbone two years ago), and of course, lots of beer and pizza. A great way to end a 6 month season...

But back to the bragging - Steve's last race of the year on the San Diego Velodrome was a 60 lap scratch race - basically, ride 60 laps and whomever crosses first, wins. They sweetened the deal by adding that every 3 laps, womever is first gets $5. 60 laps around the velodrome is 13 miles. Steve's average speed was 28.8 mph (yes, average),

and his top speed was ...

37.5mph.

HOLY COW! No gears! no hills! no brakes!

and he won $5.

Pretty cool, if you ask me. I hardly go 37mph down hills. ;)

Anyway, it was a great season. He hung in there with the top group -the "A" riders, some of whom are former World Champions, Olympians, and National title holders... We are looking forward to next season when he gets to do it all over again... and if this whole dissertation job search goes well, even if we're moving, he'll still get about 4 months of racing in... and who knows? Maybe there will be a job position just for me right next to a velodrome. Steve can only hope.

Lazy Lazy Lazy

Sorry if any of you are actually out there checking this. I kinda thought my mom was the only one - but it seems that I have received a little flack lately for not updating this in, oh, about 6 weeks. You know, things to do...

So I thought I'd recap in pictures.

We went to Delaware to celebrate my mother's retirement - the whole family was there - my father's sister (Aunt MaryAnn) and my mom's sister and brother and wife (Aunt Liza, and Uncle Pete and Aunt Mel) - the last time we'd seen all of them was when we moved to California, so it was a great time visiting with the extended family.

We, of course, had a crab feast.
And, of course, my mom and my aunt hid from me taking their pictures... although i think they were a few sheets blowing in the wind at this point, if you know what I mean. Liza makes some mean sangria. ;)

Steve did another team time trial with the boys from the Adams Avenue team (the bike shop that he races for) - they would have come in 3rd place overall, but the ijits forgot which lap they were on around the island and forgot to go into the special finish line... so "technically" they "DNF" - did not finish - but we'd like to think they would have come in third.

He's so cool in his aero helmet... even if it does look like a sperm. ;)
We grew tomatoes this summer - 2 regular and 6 heirloom plants. Unfortunately, 4 of the heirlooms bit the dust. Two produced some really neat stripey tomatoes (red to orange to yellow all in the same fruit!) and the 2 regular plants are still going strong. That's after I picked about 4 pounds of them off the plants last week and made homemade sauce. Steve is just about up to his eyeballs in eating fresh tomatoes (b/c I don't like them sliced raw) but I think the season is winding down. (Not that the weather is - it was freakin' 86 on our back patio today).

Here is one of the good heirloom tomatoes being devoured by (what we have learned) is a tomato hookworm. Luckily, he was so far into this one before I found him that I let him finish it before I picked him off and sent him packing. If my mom still taught kindergarten, he would be a dead ringer for Eric Carle's the Very Hungry Catepillar... but I don't think he gets to turn into a butterfly. (and if you have kids and don't own that book, run, not walk, to the nearest bookstore.) BTW, if you look closely at the tomato, my aunt Melanie says you can see a little old man's face in the profile of the tomato.... hmmm.... what would Freud say?
And last, but certainly not least, here's the latest of Scupper. We found him all wrapped up on the couch the other morning. Yup. He got up at 6:30am, we let him out, brought him back inside and figured he'd go back to sleep on his pooba bed like he always does. When we all woke up around 8am, he was happily playing hide and seek in our fleece afghan. Wasn't that sweet? :) the little sneak. He's looking at Steve in this picture who is ordering him to "off" - you can see how well that's working.
And I guess the last bit of news is that I passed my qualifying exam last Tuesday, which means I'm ABD (all but dissertation). That means that now all i have to do is write. And since our school is different, my "exam" was to turn in two major papers and a prospectus that will (theorectically) become part of my diss. So I'm saying that I have now have my intro and two chapters done (with revisions to do of course) and now I have 3 more to go. I'm 28 pages into the next one, so then "technically" I only have 2 1/2, right?? And this will all be done by June 2009, right? Who's with me?

Why we love our pup

besides the fact that he is darn cute...

I was musing upon this today, as this week, Scupper turned 5 months old - which means he's been with us longer than he was at the shelter. Here are some great reasons for owning a dog:
1) I get a 2-3 mile walk with him everyday. If that's not a good workout, I'm not sure what is. I, however, come home and write more on the dissertation, instead of taking a 2 hour nap.
2) Watching him try to bury a bone is the cutest darn thing you have ever seen. He gets all anxious going around the whole house and yard looking for that "perfect" place. When he finds he, he does the requisite digging, and then pushes the dirt/stones/grass back over the bone to cover it up.
3) Coming home is a wonderful thing. There is nothing like pure, unadulterated puppy joy at your returning to the house.
4) His little noises when he's thoughtful or grumpy are hilarious. If i could upload sound to this blog, I would.
5) He's a great food vacuum. Except of course, if it's mushrooms. Other than that, he likes most anything that gets dropped to the floor in a moment of cooking flourish. Like, cantelope. Or peaches. Or pea pods. Or carrots.
6) Sometimes, you just have to find joy in chasing your tail. Scupper does.
7) Although tempted by many other doggies at the park, he always checks back in to make sure we're still there. I like that someone checks in to make sure we're here. It's a good feeling.
8) He's got the best nails around. Who else can have black, white, and gray nails? He was punk before it was punk.
9) He doesn't need the fancy things - his favorite toy recently has been empty milk cartons. Go figure.
10) He lives each moment to its best. I think we can all take a lesson from that. Play, sleep, eat, receive attention, play, sleep, eat, receive attention. I think i could get used to that.

A new kid on the block

Meet Evan Pettigrew, born on a very auspicious day - 08/08/08. Here is his "big" brother Jayden holding him for the first time. Jayden is almost 3 years old, and Evan is about 30 hours old in this picture.

And did you notice the hat? ;)

Will it make me write better?

I'm a big dork, but I've always wanted a roll top desk, with all those cubbies and drawers and places to put things. My type-A personality loves that kind of stuff, but my procrastinating, lazy self thinks it will just be a mess.

However, searching randomly on craigslist last week, we came across this - for $50. Yup. Steal of the century. I spent more on gas las week to fill up the Honda. Older couple downsizing to a smaller house and just didn't need it. It's from the 1950s, we think, and has a beautiful oak patina and antique smell about it.

Will it make me write my dissertation faster? So far, i'm still pretty good at procrastinating and searching random websites instead of thinking astutely, but I'll keep you posted.
At least i can hide things away when i REALLY don't want to write. ;)

Hot Stuff at State Champs

Okay, well, I at least thought he was hot stuff. Now here's the stats - he did a men's points race (race around, but the winners are ones who win points in the sprints, not who comes across the line first). It was a 75 lap points race - 75 laps! Usually he does between 20-40 laps at the track. 75 laps is the equivalent of 15 miles. Now on the road, 15 miles ain't much, but at an average of 28mph... yes folks, you read that right, 28 mph AVERAGE for 15 miles, we'd all be dead tired. 'Cept for these guys. Steve said his max speed was 38mph at one point. All I know is they looked freaking fast out there. He came in 4th place in his category - so not bad for never racing in states before and racing against guys who are in the top categories. So we're proud of him here at Casa Germonski.



Here are biking buddies that came to cheer him on (and buy pizza later!)

Mark - the Brit and Scupper

Dave, wearing a cowboy hat in honor of Mark's impending move to Texas

Bob, the pizza buyer extraordinaire

Michael, bringing a flask of Scotch, just 'cause

What's a girl to do?

when you have this to look at from your office door each morning? Now how could I write dissertation pages with such cuteness snoring across the room? Seriously though, I do have all my materials done for the qualfying exam in September - all 109 pages of it. 30 of which will probably get throw out or chopped, so that means I'm approx. 80 pages towards the completion of my diss. Only about 120-150 more to go. Eek.

Steve races at Master State Track Championships this weekend - yes folks. it's a biggie. The state championships here in San Diego. I am aiming to take the dog AND the camera, so I will hopefully have pictures of Steve in his racing finest, and - cross your fingers - possibly in a state champ jersey - by Sunday evening.

check out the little bitty pink tongue....

Looking good for 39

So this blog has become all about Scupper as of late, and I want to take a second to brag about my oh so lovely partner. Steve's 39th birthday was this weekend and even though he had to work and missed a bike race he was so excited about doing, he took another year with grace and ease. I don't know many people who are 39 who are practically the same weight they were in high school, who bike 150 miles a week, swallow the crap at work so that I can sit at home and whine about not writing 5 pages, and who dedicate themselves so fully to taking care of the people they love. I feel exceptionally lucky and proud.

But just 'cause, here's one with Scupper, the other cute little man in my life.

We dressed up a bit to go out for birthday dinner, and I realized when we got home that we haven't had a pic of the two of us in awhile. Here we are!

The Poobah Bed

So we're calling this the poobah bed... b/c Scupper acts like a Grand Poobah whenever he jumps, sits, sleeps, chews, on this bed. (Poobah was originally used in the Gilbert and Sullivan light opera The Mikado, which is classic piece of operetta AND totally stereotypical racist piece against the Asian continent, but regardless). I got the bigger size so he could grow into it, but it is a little much. (but it was at Target so it wasn't a lot in monetary terms). Is this dog loved or what?

Hanging out. Check out the spotted stomach. For some reason, this makes him part terrier. Maybe that's why he has so much energy all the time!

He doesn't like baths, but he loves playing in water. However, it seems he doesn't quite fit all the way in this plastic bin. Ah well. doesn't seem to bother him.

Huge!

So I go away to a conference for 4 days, and the dog is bigger when I return. Oh dear. We're in for it - and the shelter said 40-50 lbs. Yah right.

Anyway, here are the latest shots. We are pretty dorky taking pictures of our dog all the time, but he is pretty damn cute. What are we going to be like when we have kids? I think we'll have to get a special memory card just to save all the photos.

Luckily, the weather is cooler today so I feel like getting things done. We were melting this weekend - 95 degrees and 7% humidity on the back patio and then by the evening, 95 in the house. I know, I know, it's not like east coast humidity, but when that hits, all ya'll have A/C and we just have a box fan.

Mid-drink on a hike

Do I look like a German Shepherd mix now?

I don't play catch with the frisbee, I hoard it.

All 22 lbs of energy

It's not a bird bath, it's a doggie fountain.

Our Economic Stimulus Package at Work

So here are the two things that Steve and I have spent our "economic stimulus package" on (well, not all of it, and to be honest, we still haven't received the checks in the mail).

One of them you know already: Scupper the Wonderpup ( a recent pic of how big he's getting and his lovely but wacky spots and colors)


And - TADA! We bought a vintage stove:
Now I hear you saying, why do Steve and Aimee need a vintage stove. Well, we don't. But it was on craigslist for a steal of a deal and it's just so damn cool. (and the one that came with this house was not a full size stove and you KNOW how much cooking we do....)

This is an O'Keefe and Merritt 1955 rare model. It has the 4 burners, which have this AMAZING function where you can turn them on the big ring for full blast gas heat and then turn the knob down really low and there are smaller rings called "simmer cups" that just turn on - and yes... simmer. Perfect for spaghetti sauce and soups. Kick ass. You'll notice the oh so cool griddle in the center that should cook up some tasty pancakes and grilled cheese sandwiches this weekend. The four different doors are up left) a "Grillavator" - which is this neat broiler pan that raises and lowers with a spring loaded lever so you can get closer or farther from the flame. upright) oven; bottom left) utility drawer; and bottom right) oven heating unit.

The best part?? (Besides the simmer cups) Behind the tea kettle on the back right burner you'll see a little window. that is a PERISCOPE down to the oven. Yes sirs. I can turn the oven light on and peek in the window and see what's down in the oven without opening the oven door. !!!

Now why don't they make stoves like this anymore? Viking eat your heart out.

I'll keep you posted on its progress with cooking. So far, the quiche I made in the oven today turned out beautifully. And it looked pretty good through the periscope as well. ;)

Here are some more pics if you are so inclined:

Brilliant!

My aunt just sent me this link this morning - run, not walk, to see these - and vote for the worst album cover ever.

Here's one of my favorites:

The Power of Ice

Ah Ice. People were fascinated by its wondrous appeal when the idea of making ice became not magic but possibly, and now dogs too find the power of ice irresistible. Okay, well, at least OUR dog thinks it's great.

We're just happy because 1) ice is cheap and 2) it soothes Scupper's teething gums. and that means 1) he won't chew on the furniture and 2) chew on us.

Woohoo ice.

Week Two

So it was two weeks ago yesterday that this newest chapter of our lives began unexpectedly. At least with children you have 9 months of mental prep (not that, of course, children are any easier), but nonetheless, we are fairing well. Less sleep, but that's ok. We went to puppy training class yesterday (more for us than for him) and learned a good deal - the most important thing is that the trainer declared - wow! he's a smart one. You're going to have to work with him a lot because he's going to figure out all your games, so you'll have to keep coming up with new things so he doesn't get bored. Hmmm... Great. Not that having a smart dog is a bother, but we definitely have to work with him a bunch. We also learned that we can "train" him about the length of a "car commercial" (according to the trainer) so his little puppy attention span is about nil. However, we can do it lots of times a day, so we're going through puppy treats like nobody's business. He's good with "Sit" and getting better with "leave it" (which we really want him to learn since he tends to pick anything and everything up) and working on "down." He is also pretty good about responding to his name. Steve and I are still trying to take him on walks, but he's a fraidy-cat and barely gets around the block sometimes. Oh well. He'll get better. This afternoon we're taking him to play with a 3 yr old boy. Eek. We'll see how that one goes.

But for all of you who continue to check this - here are new pics:

I don't fit in my mom's lap as well as I used to...

A pic of the paws that are getting bigger...

Scupper helps Dad win at spades...

And a sneaky slideshow from Picasa that i just discovered which will make posting much easier!!