| today's plans: a to-do list of great verbosity |
[Jul. 6th, 2009|09:32 am] |
1)Shopping. I think Emily will need more short sleeved vests in the 3-6 month size (and possibly 6-9 month as well), and there's some cute ones in M&S, so that'll be me spending some more of the work christmas voucher (they give us vouchers every year. I forgot to use mine last year. and the year before that.) I could visit the car boot sale some Sunday to fulfill this need, but I can't be bothered. Plus I really like these vests (here's the link, so I may as well buy them for her BEFORE they get discontinued and sold out. Especially since she needs more short sleeved vests anyway.
2)Phoning. I'll continue calling nurseries and childminders today, setting up appointments to visit. I'll also concentrate on the ones that are on the way TO work, as opposed to a short walk from work, but in the opposite direction as home (like the childminder we're visiting Weds, sigh. I can't help it, I'm lazy. I dont want to walk any more than I have to, especially since the amount of walking I'll have to do is already 40min or so). Does anyone have advice on how to find a good one? The one we're seeing volunteered a reference, which is prob a good sign (depending on what the ref says of course!)
3)Internet. I'll also look up the reports of all the places... I wonder if a "good" report means just that, or whether it's like ebay and if it's anything less than "excellent", then there's something wrong... (you know, how everyone gives 5 star ratings, and you'll only do 4 1/2 stars if it's really slow to arrive... rather than like Amazon, where the ratings actually MEAN something, so 3 stars mean acceptable, and 5 stars mean OMG fantastic!)
I've also got laundry to do (fold and put away clean dry clothes and nappies, hang up the towels, and maybe run another load of something depending on the spirit and the drying space), dishes (dry ones to put away, dirty ones to wash), and if I'm feeling really keen, tidying in my room or going through emily's tangled drawer of Clothes That Fit Now. (or a few other chores that need doing that i'm not thinking about since I prob won't get a chance to do them anyway).
In other news: as mentioned before, I've picked up the shoes again. OMG do my fingers hurt now! I'm at the heel reinforcing, and it says to tunnel stitch it in the directions I'm using (an article on shoemaking by Cynawulf). After doing a bit of it, and wondering how and why I managed to get such fine, neat stitching on the other heel, I googled tunnel stitch, and learned that you're not supposed to just force the needle through the leather, but you should use a curved awl to make the holes first... oops. I think I need a new needle! |
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| (no subject) |
[Jul. 3rd, 2009|02:25 pm] |
Further to tuesday's entry, the recycling was NOT collected, as I feared. ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) loupblanc emailed the council and today I got a call from Andrew from recycling at the council. They will deliver new lids "at somepoint in the next few weeks", and are arranging a new collection (it could have been today but monday or tues would be easier for me). He will have a word with the guys about damagin the boxes and keeping an eye out between the cars for our box (which is what happened this week). He was very nice and helpful and it makes me wish we'd taken the trouble to complain before we got all cranky... |
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| A Crafty Update |
[Jul. 2nd, 2009|06:57 pm] |
Yesterday, I made it to a Weds night knitting stitch n bitch for the first time in AGES (yay for a husband willing to stay home to hang out with his daughter and not even entertain thoughts of fencing so I could catch up with thereyougothen!) So, I got to see the lovely lady aforementioned, plus A, H, R, and a couple of other people who's names I forget/I don't actually know :-) I had such a lovely time :-)
I brought along 3 projects: my unfinished Dragone shawl, a half-finished wooly rain hat, and a ball of wool yarn (I'm going native, eeep!) to make a guage swatch for a dress for Em (with some new babmboo tape yarn that matches her eyes, so maybe I should do that soonish...).
Meanwhile, I was going to put away/rearrange Emily's dresser this afternoon, but she wanted my company in the bedroom, so I went through the box of partially finished projects instaid (while she didn't nap on the bed. A mother is apparently that entertaining...). The projects are:
( Read more... ) |
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| (no subject) |
[Jun. 30th, 2009|03:08 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  worried | ] |
the recycling people are the council have a bit of a jobsworth attitude, so we need to carefully put our recycling by a driveway, not the entry to the stair (because only people with driveways recycle, or something), and it needs to be visible from the main street, because we're the only ones on our street who recycle, so they don't go down it. So I did that this morning.
I looked out the window to see if I can bring the box in, and someone's parked in front of it (totally blocking my nice neighbour's driveway in, but that's happened before so hopefully it's his visitor...)
:-( |
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| (no subject) |
[Jun. 25th, 2009|11:12 am] |
oops, meant to do something other than sleep durring Em's last nap... today I have buggy strides at 1 and a doc apt at 4-something.
Before buggy strides, I'd like to:
shower
dress
finish tidying the lounge
hang the wet nappies
fold and put away dry clothes
eat lunch
before the apt:
eat a large pot work out snack
work out when the apt is, exactly apparently, "4-something"=3:40!!
finish putting dishes away
work on the budget
we'll see how much actually gets done :) |
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| Baby/Not-Baby (House!) update |
[Jun. 22nd, 2009|09:02 am] |
Baby:
We bought a 2nd hand baby arch/playgym thing for Em, since she loves staring at her mobile(1) and Everyone indicates that it's a good toy for them to have. I put her down on it this morning for the first time, and she started crying... I suspect some of this was due to tiredness, and will try again after her nap (she just went down, horray!) but yeah. Good thing we spent £8 and not £30 (the cheapest these things go for 1sthand).
(1)where loves=looks quietly and intently at it
Not Baby:
It's amazing what a difference new curtains make to a room! We had purple and blue curtains in the bedroom (they were onsale, had a nice pattern, and were something we could agree on when we went curtain shopping), and have now replaced them with thin white curtains and a light green blackout blind (which doesn't work, incidentally. well, maybe it would work if we fitted it into the window recess, instaid of over it, but as it stands, light leaks out the sides...) The room is so much more light and airy now!
The catch with this is that the Grown Up feeling the room was starting to get is gone now... There's a "feature" wall in a brownish purple that the curtains accidentally coordinated with, and we have a print of Hokusai's "Great Wave", so there was a purple/light blue/cream thing going on. It was all matchy and grown up and cool and stuff. I've been wanting to get rid of the mauve back wall for a while now, and we settled on a steely blue that went with the curtains and the print, went to Homebase this weekend to buy the paint, and got a loveley pea green paint instaid! They didn't have the blue we wanted, and we both liked this green... it meant that the window dressing had to change. I want to change the artwork for something with a bit more green in it, but himself dissagrees, so we'll see how it looks when the feature wall is in a colour of our taste and choosing. All my best descisions have been made on impulse; hopefully this is one of them.
I'm also itching to re-do the bathroom (from granny-splendour(!) to something more modern and tasteful) but that will have to wait until we've quite a bit of time and money, as it involves plumbing (the current plan is to swap the pink toilet and sink for white ones, hopefully with a sink that has a cabinet under it. I'd prefer to retile in white with green accent colours and leave one wall plastered but that's way more work... of course, I did just read about the Neken fake tiles that you can cut to shape and put up over existing tiles... but that still costs and so will need to wait.)
Some other time, I'll post on Why Real Nappies are Better than Disposables (with photos!), and other stuff about the recent road-trip to Loch Lomond with emo_mz and silvermoonsnake, about life in general, and other stuff. |
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| boo :-( |
[Jun. 17th, 2009|10:24 am] |
Since Emily is sick, it's a bit, well, dumb, to take her to a group where there's lots of babies to catch her cold. duh.
:-(
(I totally didn't realize how much I was looking forward to seeing all the other mommies until just now when I realized that it's prob wisest if it doesn't happen...) |
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| (no subject) |
[Jun. 4th, 2009|01:50 pm] |
It occurs to me that I should post more. Instaid, I'm reading Questionable content having been rather late in discoving this web comic. things like this make me giggle, but it's also a bit obessive-making.
I blame credit ekatarina, who recently posted another v funny one... ETA: fixed spelling. I don't know that ekatErina chick, but the EkatArina lady is pretty cool! |
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| A Really Goode Job |
[Jun. 3rd, 2009|06:13 pm] |
Liz Scott submitted a video application to act as media person for some Sonoma county winery (kinda like the New Zealand tourist board job application that happened recently I think, but for nor cal...); there's a certain amount of "video popularity" going on, so I am plugging her video: http://www.areallygoodejob.com/video-view.aspx?vid=Cr8VvdyIBSs
Its better than the one other video on there I could be bothered watching (the one with the viking helmets). |
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| I read too fast |
[May. 30th, 2009|04:40 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  amused | ] |
I read the following title "Reglan has been known to cause facial tremors", and thought it was someone plugging Ffaire Rhaglan, the SCA event at Raglan Castle, Wales. Then when I started to read the email, "Have you or a loved one used Reglan? (Also commonly known as Metoclopramide, Maxolon, Degan, Maxeran, Primperan, Pylomid)
Reglan may have caused unusual side effects that could have adversely affected you. Use of Reglan has been linked to the serious illness Tardive Dyskinesia.
Click here to read more..."
I got really confused.
Then I realised: It's SPAM! |
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| unblocking a toilet |
[May. 27th, 2009|04:26 pm] |
me-2, toilet-0
For future reference (because I didn't remember how i did it last time, and my hunt for the websites I found the method failed):
0.PUT ON MARIGOLD GLOVES!
1.wrap buisness end of toilet brush in 2 plastic bags
2. jam it into toilet, as deep as it can go
3. flush, and pull brush up and down
repeat if necissary
this site gave enough hints to remember how to do it:
http://www.howtomendit.com/answers.php?id=55828 |
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| on breastfeeding |
[May. 24th, 2009|08:25 pm] |
A while back, I promised to whinge about breastfeeding, then ran out of time to write it up... we've been at it for 5+ weeks now, and it looks like I've settled into it.
It isn't as easy as what people who are interested in getting more people to BF would have you believe... I'm hardly an expert, and am rather bitter about all this, but here's my experience, for what it's worth.( Read more... )
The moral to the story: breastfeeding DOES hurt at first, but gets better. I'm glad I stuck it out, and wish EVERYONE didn't downplay the initial "discomfort". |
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| 1 month today |
[May. 15th, 2009|01:40 pm] |
well, my daughter is 1 month exactly today! as such, i thought I'd post the best things about this mommy buisness...
*hearing her giggle, in her sleep, around the breast, and just in general...
*seing her smile around the nipple when she falls asleep while eating
*the cuddliness of early morning feeds while lying down in bed
*when she's a "lap baby" (streatched out on my lap, whether asleep, awake, or almost asleep...) bonus points if i'm knitting on her tummy :-)
*the rare occasions when she's in Real Clothes (and not the baby uniform of a streatch suit... those have gotten boring)
ETA 5th good thing: all the cute and interesting real nappies out there :-) |
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| real nappies: 3 weeks in |
[May. 8th, 2009|04:57 pm] |
So, a while back I did an inventory of the nappies we'd collected... at 3 weeks, our daughter is now 8 1/2 lbs, which means there's only so much longer that the prowraps that have been our mainstay will fit her. and meanwhile, there's a couple pound gap before the next wraps fit. And, to update: I bowed to "ooh, shiny" and bought a Modern Baby Pop-in trial pack.
I thought we'd wash nappies every day, but it's worked out to be every other day... we've also gone through 3 nappy buckets so far (the free one was big enough for nappies AND laundry, but someone didn't like keeping them all in one bin, we then bought a smart nappy bucket and it's better suited size-wise as a trash bin for all the cotton balls we use, and finally bought a 25L kitchen bin which seems to be just the right size for 2 days worth of newborn nappies...)
So far, we've tried:( Read more... ) |
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| Amazon Fail |
[Apr. 13th, 2009|08:06 pm] |
I'm watching the whole Amazon Fail drama with interest... the first I heard of it was this post linked to by snakewhisperer... Copperbadge has also posted a couple interesting follow up things...
the blog of the guy in the centre, who's observations kicked this whole thing off: http://markprobst.livejournal.com/
This gets a bit technical into how it might have been a "glitch"-- though SOMEONE set "Gay or lesbian = adult"...
this is also interesting in how it got seemingly ignored: http://atara.livejournal.com/582330.html
and meanwhile, there's a troll claiming responsibility, someone pointing out that the troll is lying, and the of the other communities also affected yet not in the media: http://lisybabe.blogspot.com/2009/04/amazonfail.html
Meanwhile, what I want to know is: where's a reliable source to find information out about things? And, if it is just an innocent glitch, is this related to my difficulties in finding in-print copies of Babbar books (in the origional) last week? |
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| twice a year Polish |
[Apr. 10th, 2009|05:54 pm] |
I used to joke sometimes that my family was "Polish twice a year", in the same way you get twice a year Catholics (people who turn up for mass at Christmas and Easter and that's it).
We follow the Wiglia on Christmas eve and have the traditional brunch at Easter (borsht, with kielbasa, mashed potatoes, boiled eggs, beetroot, and horseradish sauce added in to the desired quantities, with unsalted butter and rye bread on the side and babka for dessert-- it's v. yummy!), but I hardly know anything else about Polish culture and a handful of words in the language.
Today I was at one of the Polish stores in town getting the kielbasa, rye bread, and horseradish sauce, and it was a bit weird (just like it was weird at Christmas, come to think on it)... see, in America, it was perfectly normal and natural for everything to have English translations, for the other customers in the Polish stores to speak American by preference if not by default. But so many Polish people have started moving to Edinburgh that, while it's nice to have a wide variety of choice on where to get stuff, it also means that to step into the Polish deli is to step into a place where people HAVEN'T assimilated... I felt like I was the only person in the store who couldn't speak Polish, and almost like I'm a fraud for keeping these customs alive when they're from so many generations back (all 4 maternal great-grandparents are from Poland).
It's kinda hard to exlain, this feeling like I have no right to the culture since I'm Polish-American and not pure Polish... |
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| bento lunches |
[Mar. 30th, 2009|07:18 pm] |
I just entered a contest over at http://maisieeatsbento.blogspot.com/
Which is as good an intro as any into how I've done lunch over the past few months: Bento lunches :-) It's been a fun way of making sure I pack my lunch for work, and seems to have gotten me eating lots of dried fruit and nuts and not so much of the cereal bars... I fell out of the packed lunch thing early in pregnancy because I'd gone off ham and cheap bread (but didn't realize it was cheap white bread I didn't like-- I thought i'd just gone off bread!), and we didn't always have leftovers... also, I've been trying to follow the "use by" dates of things, which meant that I would only eat the turkey we'd buy for 3 days, and the pack lasts longer than that, even with both of us eating it. So anyway, bento lunches have been great!
Photos later, but I unexpectedly have the pleasure of loupblanc's company this evening, so will stop posting for now! |
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| Earth Hour |
[Mar. 30th, 2009|09:50 am] |
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Sat night, to celebrate earth hour, loupblanc and I played Trivia Pursuit by candlelight. We should do board games more often, it was a lot of fun :-) |
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