If only I was as productive as our new president...

I think Barack Obama pretty much rocks. I teared up in the middle of a bunch of Steve's co-workers at the inauguration (the theater put up a big screen and sound system to watch it Tuesday morning!) - and then he comes in Wednesday morning to work, takes off his suit jacket, and sends up some pretty amazing executive orders in about 2 hours. Damn. I have no excuse for not finishing up revisions on a 32 page chapter, ya know? And then Thursday, he shows me up again and issues a few more... at this rate, I think they will actually close Git-mo before my darn dissertation is completed.

In a positive light - Steve mentioned the other night at dinner that little Speedy will grow up only knowing a black president for the first years of her life. How cool is that? Part of me wants to explain to her how important that is, and then again, I would love it if she just took it for granted... that it was just something that was a part of life here in America. Now that's a pretty awesome thought.

In other news - here's my big belly. 26 weeks (a little over 6 months)...
In other news, we went to the Velodrome last weekend to celebrate a friend's 50th birthday. She is the head official at the track and I worked with her all season flipping the lap cards for her. She was doing 3 round of 50 laps to celebrate - how awesome is that? (that's about 50 miles my friends! 50 miles!) She was resplendent in all pink - including a new black track bike with pink bar tape, pink pedals, and a pink bike chain. Here she is, with some pink accessories given to her by friends.
I hope I look that happy after doing 100 laps on a bicycle track at 50. We can only hope. I flipped lap cards for a round for them, and then everyone got pink sunglasses to wear when we ate cake. Speedy looks pretty good with them eh?
And last but not least, here is Scupper new favorite spot. No, not just the bed, but my belly. Steve had not put him in his crate for the night, and as he was brushing his teeth, Scupper scampered up with me - and promptly found a good spot. Last week while watching a movie, he also preferred laying his head on my belly to sleeping on his poobah pillow. Go figure. Wonder what Speedy thinks?
Sorry there are no recent pics of Steve, but he's had a hold of the camera lately.

In other news... we got another bicycle. When I get a good pic of it, i'll post it, but let's just say the grand total is up to 15.

Yes. 15. Steve has some up for sale on craigslist today, so maybe that number will go down soon. I can't complain though, b/c the bike is for me - it's a pre-WW2 ladies touring bike - very rare, made in Germany, all original parts and paint and let me tell you how good a condition it's in. Wow. We picked it up at the swap meet this weekend for pittance. I mean, we couldn't help ourselves... how awesome is a baby carrier going to look on that? ;)

Oh focus, where did you go?

Dear Aimee's Focus:

I miss you. You used to be there for me - making me sit for hours on end, writing dissertation chapters, reading dissertation books, and without a care in the world.

Now, you come for 15 minutes to a half an hour, and leave without notice. You leave, and then I sit and doodle on the internet or send emails.

Somehow, you like to reappear when I'm researching baby things. Why is that? Why do you want to reappear then? Then, you stay for hours and hours, letting me concentrate on the knitted dress I am making, on the blogs about pregnancy and raising children, about all sorts of information related to the little person growing inside me. Then you stick around.

But frankly, I need you to come back once and awhile to help me on my work. Distractions are so multiple these days (including the little bumps and kicks inside my body).

I'll make you baked goods, Focus. I'll make you the best chocolate chip/oatmeal whole wheat cookies you've ever had.

Just come back, for a little while. Say, until April 15. Is that ok?

Missing you,
Aimee

For your consideration

So just to put things in perspective.

My uterus used to be the size of this:

And now it's the size of this:
'nuff said.

Happy New Year from SASS!

Here's hoping 2009 is WAY better than 2008... well, at least we know it's going to be radically different!

Love to everyone -

SASS (Steve, Aimee, Scupper & Speedy)

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.