August 2008 Archives
Brad and I are undertaking a minor renovation of our bathroom. This will involve installing a new sink, new faucets, and painting the room. And probably some grout repair. It's one of those things we've been meaning to do since we moved in three and a half years ago. And here's the reason we're finally getting to it:
The faucet has been persnickety for months, but it's become almost unusable at this point. Besides, it may just be the ugliest faucet I've ever seen.
Brad and I were both pretty wiped out after work today. I'd worked nine hours (as I have almost every day this week) and he was just tired from a long day. But suddenly he was motivated to start on the project tonight rather than tomorrow. He just got back from the hardware store, monkey wrench and plumber's putty in hand.
Hopefully nothing goes wrong and I'll have some much more beautiful bathroom photos to show by the end of the weekend. We weren't planning on painting this weekend, but just maybe if this sink/faucet installation goes well, we'll finish the entire room.
We did it all by ourselves. I know, people do stuff like this all the time and don't make a big deal about it, but Brad and I are most definitely not This Old House type people. I can rearrange furniture and paint walls and that's about it.
I have to admit, Brad did almost all the work. But I offered moral support and (mostly unhelpful) advice. Now I am feeling a heady confidence about home improvement projects, which is good because there's a lot to do between now and January 19.
I'm now sixteen weeks pregnant. That's getting alarmingly close to halfway there. In some ways I feel like I just started all this, and in some ways it feels like I've been pregnant forever.
According to various books and websites (all of which contradict each other), the Muppet is now about 4-4 1/2 inches from crown to rump, or about the size of an average avocado. The fruit/vegetable analogy is something the books and websites use a lot of, though I find it not entirely helpful. Avocados do tend to vary in size quite a bit. I'm sure fetuses do as well, which is why it's sort of silly to expect a book to tell me exactly how big my baby is right now.
Other landmarks in fetal development, according to the books and websites: its kidneys are functioning; its facial muscles are developing and it's beginning to be able to make faces; its heart is pumping 25 quarts of blood per day; and, although its eyelids are still fused together, it's beginning to be able to move its eyes.
As for me, I can almost forget how miserable I was just a few short weeks ago. I've never in my life enjoyed eating like I enjoy eating these days. I have much more energy and mental acuity and feel really productive at home and at work. The only symptom that's really getting me right now is this hip pain that makes me feel like an old lady. Some nights I toss and turn and get so little sleep I'm like a zombie the next day. A little old lady zombie.
People often ask if we're planning on finding out the sex. The answer is YES, definitely. I used to think I'd want it to be a surprise, but that hasn't turned out to be true at all. My cousin said that it's a surprise no matter when you find out and it turns out I agree with that. I'd rather have that surprise earlier, and at a time when I'm not exhausted after having gone through the most harrowing experience of my life. This means that in about a month, assuming the baby cooperates, we'll find out if we're having a boy or a girl.
We also get asked if we have a preference one way or another. I've thought about this a lot because I don't want to say I don't have a preference just because I think I shouldn't have a preference. But really, I don't. It's mind-boggling enough to be procreating as it is; I can hardly imagine what it will be like having any kind of baby at all. I guess I'm not equipped to speculate beyond that. I just want a healthy one, please. Who sleeps through the night and doesn't end up hating me later in life.
Hopefully that's not too much to ask for!
Spent most of the day getting the bathroom ready to paint it. That was a lot more work than I thought it would be. I didn't think it would actually involve a hacksaw or that much spackle. Alas, it was sort of bad timing. Now I've got a room ready to paint, but it's Sunday night. I've effectively made our bathroom fairly unusable for the rest of the week. Good job, me.
Working on it in the evenings is a possibility, but I also have a big non-work-related design project that absolutely has to be done by Wednesday, so that will have to take precedence. I guess we'll be showering in the cat-litter bathroom for the week.
On top of all of this, I signed up for Ravelympics (a knitting event sort of thing wherein you choose a difficult project and try to start and complete it all within the 17 days of the Olympics). I guess of all these things, this is the least important, but it's also arguably the most fun, so it's a terrible distraction/temptation.
Though I feel stretched a little thin right now, I know I've only taken on all of these things because I actually have energy again. And now that I'm seeing a chiropractor, I feel at least hopeful that I'll be physically and mentally able to do all these things (I say "mentally able" because the back/hip/leg pain is so bad I've only been getting about four hours of fitful sleep every night for the past 3-4 weeks. That takes a mental toll that might even be worse than the physical one).
I also feel a sense of urgency because I have a coworker in her third trimester of pregnancy and so I have a daily reminder of how I'll soon feel rather crappy again and I should accomplish as much as I can while I can still get around relatively comfortably. And now excuse me, I must go accomplish some things.
In an attempt to deal with the truckloads of comment spam I get every day, I am going to be making a few changes to the site over the weekend. Please excuse me if comments don't work or if something else breaks.
On a somewhat related note, I can't believe Movable Type isn't smart enough to realize that comments from people with the words "Viagra" or "WOWgold" in their names/e-mail addresses/comments aren't legit, especially after I keep junking their comments time after time.
Movable Type 3, I am so over you. And yet I am so too lazy to move my site to another CMS or try to upgrade this one.
