Siren

We happen to have a $50 gift card for Amazon.com that can ONLY be used for AMAZON offered items and, at this point, are at a total loss for how to spend it. We want to spend ONLY $50 as our budget at the moment doesn't really allow us to supplement it any. Suggestions?

So there's a couple of incriminating photos posted on all2swift's site. Let me explain.

We got new cell phones recently. I carry mine at all times usually in case the day care calls with bad news. Since Verizon doesn't have super small phones-- (yes, my fingertips can handle tiny buttons) in fact they're all pretty lame--, I ended up with your standard clam shell camera etc etc phone. Turns out, it's a bit big for most of my pockets, so I commonly wear it using the holster. Yah, I know. GEEKY. But that's beside the point. The holster exposes the entire front of the phone to hazards abound leaving it completely vulnerable to open attack. Which is exactly what happened last Thursday while I was having a exceedingly klutzy moment, I rammed into the side of a lab bench pointing the corner of the countertop right at the external LCD. The poor phone never had a chance. Now the LCD is cracked precariously, but every thing else seems to be in working order. Unfortunately I declined the insurance when I bought the phone and don't really have the balls to claim that the blemish is a manufacturing defect. (blemish is putting it mildly)

I did a bad bad thing to my last phone too. It fell into a puddle (read: toilet) at one point and would not turn back on. This is even after I dried it completely before trying to power it up again. So I took it into the Verizon store and the friendly technical support guy put a new battery in it, held down the power button, and it worked! He let me walk out the door without charging me a penny. It was sweetness.

Others told me of similar experiences with Verizon technical support. One friend had cracked his LCD as well, went into the shop with some great story but ended up not needing to use it as the tech support guy simply handed over a new phone, no questions asked.

I often have better luck than my husband at having my requests responded to. We were once trying to get change for the meters in NYC. The shopkeeper he asked declined to give him change and declined to make change for a 5 cent piece of candy. Hubby was required to buy 5 of the pieces of candy. I think I got at least $2 at my first try.

He chalks it up to "legs and a pretty face". So I figured I'd give the strategy a try this weekend. (don't tell me you haven't tried it yourselves, ladies =P) I put on the pretty face just to go to the Verizon store but this time, no luck. :'( Apparently orders handed down from "management" do not allow the tech guys to simply replace broken phones any longer. I guess that makes sense. He was nice in showing me a protective case, however. (bleh)

A ran a couple of other errands since I was out anyhow. They have never been nicer to me at Home Depot. Haha.

Well, it seemed a waste to have primped for no reason. So we decided to use the primping for a "modeling" session. It was something that needed to be done anyhow. I'd recently received a large number of clothing items from one of my husband's aunts. Requests had been made that I take some pictures while wearing the gifts. And so we did. You can't tell from the black and white photo, but that top is HOT PINK. It is part of a twin-set with the outer jacket being just as HOT and just as PINK. There were a couple of pashmina shawls also-- one HOT the other powder PINK. The best was a fur shoulder covering thing. Would you believe it? HOT PINK.

So the primping turned out to be a two-fer.

And now he's decided to post the pics on LJ. (three-fer?) You all are missing out on the hot pink though. :)

I am continually astonished (and pleased) with how regular the baby is. There was a time when she was constantly constipated, but now that she likes drinking water it's not a problem at all. We've even stopped the daily prune regimen. So every morning while I'm sitting on the toilet (sorry, TMI?), she starts bearing down too. As soon as I'm done, we go for a diaper change and almost without fail, she's got a neat little present for me. I figure this is a perfect opportunity for potty training. Mama sits on the potty, baby sits on the potty. So I started reading amazon reviews for baby potties and THEY ARE HILARIOUS.

1. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000067DXS/qid%3D1121441196/sr%3D11-1/ref%3Dsr%5F11%5F1/103-3344052-3181414

2. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B000056JGW/ref=pd_cps_ba_1/103-3344052-3181414?v=glance&s=baby

3. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B000065AE4/qid=1121440900/sr=8-1/ref=pd_bbs_1/103-3344052-3181414?v=glance&s=baby&n=507846

But totally serious at the same time! I surely don't want my baby hurting her tush on any splash guard that she doesn't need, nor do I want her to be traumatized by splash back, nor do I want her falling into the toilet! Gotta love the mommies that give amazon reviews.

"Was this review helpful to you?" YES! AND it helped me to laugh. :)

I just had my mercy chocolate (See's almond buds that have lasted forever in our fridge) and now it's time to get to work. Speaking of chocolate, I love Rowling's use of it in the Harry Potter Books. I'm curious to see how it will be delivered to us on Sat. morning. I'm also curious to see how a2s and I will share the book. I'll probably let him at it first since I have a number of projects for the weekend. One is to wipe the hard drives of a couple of old computers we're donating to the baby's child care center. I am so happy to get rid of them! Hopefully the tax deduction will be nice. Another is to take another look at our water heater/ac condensation issue. As a homeowner, there is so much to worry about. I called in the gas company this morning since I thought it was our hot water heater that was leaking. Mr. Gas Guy was supposed to come sometime between 8:30 and 10:30 and he came at 8:30 ON THE DOT! I was so unprepared, having spent the previous 30 minutes getting the baby to go down for her morning nap and not getting the chance to dress myself yet. I thundered down the stairs, threw on a FLEECE over my pj's from our bench/coat rack in the entry way and buzzed gasguy in. He must have thought I was insane to be wearing what I was. I'm not insane. I'm a mother. Anyhow, it turns out that ac condensation is collecting in the pan under the water heater. It's not really supposed to do that so we need a solution. Bleh. These are the times I wish I could just call a landlord.

My laptop is dying a slow painful death. This is one of the reasons I need a fellowship. I've already spent the "institutional allowance" in my head. I should do a complete backup. Anybody want to get me this for graduating? Kidding.

Alright. Now that my juices are flowing, I should get to writing. Thank you LJ for your help. You shall be duly acknowledged.

Ok science muse, time to kick in! Sadly, fellowship number 6 or 7 (I'm losing count really I am) is due. I have to polish up the research proposal tonight and tomorrow (night, probably) I will upload it. They advise against waiting until the last day to upload as increased traffic on their server might slow down or stall the process. yah yah yah. So I'm gonna do it THE DAY BEFORE. I applied for one of my graduate fellowships online, submitting it a WHOLE THREE MINUTES before the midnight deadline. I then proceeded to nearly have a heartattack as it bounced back to me saying there were errors in the application (I didn't input my birthday in the xx-xx-xxxx format as both the month and date for me are single digits). Luckily, I had the presence of mind to fix the errors and resubmit leaving at most a minute to spare. Wahooo! I fedexed another July application on Monday forgetting to sign the application. dumb dumb dumb dumb dumb Fortunately, the secretary for our lab suggested I fax a signed copy so I did that and the fellowship administrator was nice enough to call me to say the fax had been received and everything would be ok. Now I've spent over 30 minutes procrastinating and working up the activation energy needed to START WRITING. Ready, set, go!

We seem to have contracted an ant problem. There were two types of ants: small ones and large ones. It was never a HUGE problem. About two weeks ago, I saw a few here and there and dealt with them by smashing them with my index finger. About one week ago, there were too way to many and they got into my Kashi crunch. I threw the cereal out, "put the baby down for her morning nap", and proceeded to comb the internet for: HOW TO GET RID OF ANTS. The chili powder method is a complete waste of time, soap water only washes away the ones presently visible, and rubbing alcohol does do a pretty good job of drowning the ones exposed to it. Unfortunately, it evaporates quickly and the surviving ants some scrambling out of their wherever in just a few moments.

I rescued the baby from her "nap" and we went to the store to get some ant motels or whatever they're called. I put them in some key locations and when I returned from work that day, only a few remained, SLOWLY wandering around the other carcasses, wondering when their time would come. This was the end of the small ones. The large ones were at the other end of our kitchen near the carpet and harder to get rid of. I moved the motels over there and while the large ants didn't seem to be quite as readily attracted, there do seem to be fewer now. At least I don't see a full-fledged colony.

Watching ants walk around is mesmerizing. Watching them carry things around is even more entertaining. Each of us has so far been guilty of "Here take the baby, I've got to go _________" (but really I'm going to go squat over there and watch the ants) at least a couple of times. It's never intentional, of course. We're just easily distracted and the ants are fascinating.

One aspect of my pyromania is the sense of awe that wells up inside me when I see fireworks. 'Tis the season! I drove us back from Falls River, Mass., last night after a wedding for one of a2s's co-workers. Falls River is that quirky looking town just north of Providence RI that you see on your way to the Cape. You pass over a big bridge and see a little town rising up from the river (Falls River?) packed in so tight it looks like it might slide into the water at any point. Anyhow, driving back, I had tremendous views of at least 3-4 fireworks shows. And they were directly in front of me so it's not like I was doing anything dangerous like looking off to the side while hurtling down I95 at 80 miles an hour. At one point, they were so impressive looking that EVERYONE was stopping on the side of the interstate to watch. Alas, we had to get back as daddy's is on (backup) call today and had to go into the hospital at the wee hour of way-too-early this morning.

It's been a long time since I've properly seen a fireworks show. I used to go every year with my family and neighbors to the highest hill in Kiwanis Park where we could view the shows around various parts of the East Valley. The first year we moved to Chandler, we brought lawn chairs out to the street, the neighbors brought watermelon and we watched some show out on the south horizon, which we could see because most of the lots in the neighborhood were empty still and we had an unobstructed view. After moving out east, I've seen DC's show from the foot of Washington Monument, Boston's show from the shores of the Charles River, and New Haven's show from a friends balcony at Madison Towers. Two of these were impressive.

I can't wait for the first time we go with baby to watch the fireworks. Actually she did see a few at my brother's high school graduation last month but I'm not sure it made much of an impression. Someday it will though and for me, it will be doubly awesome-- to see not only the fireworks but her response to them as well.

Woop! I got to sleep in until 6:45 this morning. Yeeeeah, baby! First off, baby slept until 5:50 this morning (which is pretty good by my book since her wakeup times can be as early as 4 am), then she came to our bed for awhile. Since papa has today off (remarkably), he played with her until I decided it was time to give her breakfast. She comes to our bed every morning since she gets her first feeding there and since I really can't bear to get up before 6 am. After eating she's wide wide awake whereas I am in the opposite state but fighting to maintain some semblance of consciousness so that I can keep her from falling off the bed. Papa is long gone by this time. I often wish *I* slept in a crib so that our bed would have borders to keep her safe. I give her a couple of toys and her favorite game is to throw them off the bed and then hang over the edge to look for them. *heartattack* Yesterday one of my lab mates was telling me about his rock climbing adventures (he called it bouldering) and how he brings these boulder pads (I think that's what they're called) FOR FALLING ONTO. I guess the idea is that you climb up to some spot and then the only way to get down from there is to put your pad down and then throw yourself onto it. Hey, I thought! That would be totally useful for rimming our bed! It would protect the baby, right? We gotta get us some boulder pads.

Happy July everyone! Maybe it's the two drinks I had tonight, but I have foolishly decided to revive my LJ. Let's see how long this lasts. I'm just going to write about whatever's on my mind. It's not meant to impress or shock or entertain. I mean I'm not going to go out of my way to do any of these things. There is simply no time. And I haven't the energy. Or the skills. It's just for fun. And I do think that being part of this community is fun. I've re-done my friends list so that I don't have to mooch off of a2s's anymore.

Let's see. What's going on in my life? Not too much. I'm still trying to win a fellowship. The post-doc-ing is kicking my butt. Parenthood is hard. I am tired. I am watching one episode of Sex and the City each night. Soon it will all be over. We're going to wedding #2 with the baby this weekend. I hope the traffic will be merciful. Next weekend we're having a birthday party for the baby. We need to babyproof more. She has already pulled out one of the outlet covers. She is so savvy. We are in so much trouble.

Tagged by a2s


I really don't have time for this. But I'm going to cheat and use his as a template.

1. Total number of films I own on DVD/VHS
5. Six, including mine.

2. The last film I bought
Ocean's Eleven for him.

3.The last film I watched
Star Wars, Episode III. I thought it was just ok. What was lacking was the suspense factor since I felt as if I knew how every fight was going end.

On DVD? The Terminal.


4. Five films I watch often
I don't watch much anymore. But these, I suppose, in ascending order of frequency:
5. The Matrix (the first, and for years only, DVD I owned)
4. Ocean's Eleven (which I now also own)
3. Sex and the City DVD (though I can't get my hands on Season 6, part II)
2. Anything on cable I can stand that they play over and over (the American President, is a good example)
1. Home movies of my daughter. It's amazing to see how quickly she changes.

5. Tag five people!
eh. By the time I'm tagged, I would think everyone's been tagged already. oh wait.
intipa_ususin
pukarua

Where we all aspire to have our blogs show up:

http://2005.bloggies.com/

and hey, a $20.05 gift certificate to amazon is nothing to turn your nose up at.

wow. livejournal update looks a lot different since the last time I updated.

and why am I updating, you ask?

why, because I have three long a** fellowship applications due this Friday (actually, I just got an extension til Monday so I am celebrating by way of livejournal update. actually, it's going to be a very busy weekend so I should probably get back to work.)

I guess I'd really call this the home stretch now. (I know I keep saying it but this really is it!) Up until this weekend, all I felt was extra pressure in the pelvis indicating, I think, that the baby had dropped. Now I'm starting to feel some cramping. A friend who had just delivered hers about a month ago said that she felt like she had bad menstrual cramps while watching Troy a couple days before she went into labor. I felt okay while watching Spiderman 2 this weekend, though the baby was frequently startled by the loud sounds.

There is much to do still. I have errands to run, and yet another post-doc interview tomorrow for which I am supposed to be preparing today. So far, I've just surfed the web and am currently backing up my computer because...

...yesterday, while I had it on my lap, and was simply putzing around on it, smoke started spewing forth from the keyboard-- I kid you not. Even more remarkable is the fact that after some furious attempts at cooling off the machine and then feeble moments of not wanting to try to turn it back on, it actually started up again and everything (except for the lingering burning smell) seemed to be alright. I can't believe it. I am the luckiest girl in the world. So now I am backing up what seems to be important, such as articles that I've been writing and attempts at formatting a thesis, but it's hard since I don't have a real backup program and also if file names are inappropriate (you can make them just about ANYTHING on mac but that's not the case for the hard drive onto which I'm backing up which is FAT32 formatted so that it can be read on either PC or MAC-- can't we all just get-along?!?!) the copying doesn't happen so smoothly and it's not always clear where the hiccup occurred. It's driving me crazy.

Still it must be done, or else I'd be REALLY sorry.

We went to an amazing Spanish restaurant tonight, which the Times claims to be a sophisticated outpost of Spain near Yale and one of the top five Spanish restaurants in the US, to celebrate yet another amazing accomplishment by A2S-- and it did not disappoint! We passed on the wine list as well as the complimentary dessert cocktail but got more than our fair share of goodies in the warm bread, the tiny-bites-of-heaven amuse bouches, the grilled oyster appetizer, salted cod entree (and his lamb shanks) and fancy chocolate mousse and banana dessert. YUMMY! There was a tasting menu offered which both of us passed on this time (me because I wasn't sure I'd like the lamb on it but having tasted his entree I'd be more than okay with it and him because he didn't think he could stomach it all on this particular night) but we agreed that we'd try it next time. The couple sitting behind us had ordered it and though I had to crane my neck time and time again to see the parade of dishes being brought out, it really looked amazing.

Next time. Though I can't say I know when that will be...!

The baby has dropped. Over the past few days, I've felt progressively more pressure in my pelvis. It started Tuesday early early morning. I do typically have to get out of bed in the middle of the night to empty my bladder, but this morning was ridiculous. I was at the toilet about 5 times in the span of 2 hours. And my hips were hurting like crazy. One of my friends told me she thought it looked like I was tilting more yesterday. And if you thought I was waddling before-- that was nothing compared to now.

So I went and did a quick bit of reading. How much time do I have left now that she's dropped? Apparently, there's no definite answer: this occurs anytime between 2 and 4 weeks before delivery generally, but could be earlier or later who knows. I'm guessing my due date is pretty accurate, however, since they established it "medically" and not "anecdotally".

Since I happened to be in the neighborhood, I stopped by Babies R Us this morning to indulge in some browsing and updating of the registry (my sweet co-workers have re-scheduled the shower for NEXT week-- I hope we hold out til then!!). Wow, the baby-sized socks and hats and hair clips are SOOOOOOOOOOO cute! My swollen legs could barely keep from melting. This is gonna be so much fun.

We've stopped taking belly pictures. (Here's one from a wedding I was a part of at the end of May) I guess it's getting old now. We're at the home stretch and while I can't really say I want her out soon (since there is much to accomplish still), it is starting to get uncomfortable. For one, I'm SO slow now. And I can't streak up four flights of stairs like I used to. I have to take the elevator now which I hate waiting for. My legs and feet are still swelling though I try to keep them up as much as possible. Keeping them up is not exactly an easy task since bending at the "waist" is not exactly an easy task.

I'm not about to just sit around waiting for the baby to come but it's really hard to get stuff done these days. Dood and there is so much to do! Apart from work, I need to clean house before my mom comes, cook meals to freeze for the week after the baby comes, go shopping for the last bit of bare essentials (diapers, etc), pack bags for the hospital... plus just regular cooking, cleaning, grocery shopping, and household upkeep.

Time to get to work.

I stayed up so late last night and then completely slept through my alarm this morning. not that it matters much, I had no pressing appointments this morning-- not that any appointments of mine are ever all that pressing. I haven't achieved the status of having pressing appointments as yet.

Talked to my brother for quite awhile last night. I hope he sends me that prom picture like he promised. I hope I don't put too much pressure on him. I know he gets it from my parents already. And with me being 11 years older than him makes it seem like he's got 3 parents. Anyhow, I just want the best for him-- to have a happy, comfortable, successful life. He has a job interview tomorrow-- telemarketing or something. The hours would be 6 pm - 9 pm M-F. And he's got swim practice daily from 3:30 - 5:30 pm. When is he gonna eat dinner!?!? And he's looking for a volunteer/get lots of experience position in the field in which he wants to major in at ASU for during the day.

I am swelling a lot now. Just call me Ms. Elephant Legs. It's not always feasible to put my feet up especially when I'm sitting at my desk at work like now. I mean, I can put a chair beside me on which to prop my feet up but then my torso is all twisted and what an enormous torso it is! I hope when the heat dies down, the swelling will too. It makes doing EVERYTHING a torturous chore. Just loading the dishwasher last night made me swell. How am I supposed to get anything done? This sucks.

Well, fortunately (or not), I have a lot of writing of the thesis to do and that can be done more or less sitting. I guess I should get to that now.

At least we never take it to this point.

Or do we? ::raise one eye brow::

I had one of the most painful experiences of my life today (which I'm sure will pale in comparison to childbirth-- but this is what is fresh in my mind so I will complain accordingly): a thorough eye exam complete with pupil dilation but no glaucoma test! I think I'm photo-sensitive-- not to the extent of being vampire-ish, mind you, but to the extent of tears streaming down my face and through my nose (I've learned that they're connected thanks to my ENT source of information) making it difficult for the optometrist to hold onto the surface of my face in order to pry open my eyes for the exam. That's what you get for shining bright lights into my eyes for long periods of time, dood! And then my eyesight was TOTALLY messed up, though mainly in just my right eye, following the dilation procedure. I really do need both eyes to maintain my sanity. So prior to going insane, and after turning in various and sundry graduate school forms stating that I'm going to finish and defend my thesis prior to my due date though I'm beginning to think it's debatable, I went home since I am useless at work without proper functioning of both eyes.

With a new prescription, however, I may get new glasses. And I definitely need new contacts. Somehow I must con some optical store into giving me my contact lens prescription and pupil distance so that I can order both on the web myself at substantial savings. Don't know how that will be accomplished. Anyhow, you like these frames?

Plastic not wire since that is now trendy and perhaps they will be more sturdy and survive when my baby rips them off my face and tosses them across the room because she doesn't know any better. And we will think, "sigh, how cute" and take lots of pictures and send them to relatives.

Excuse me while I go to the bathroom AGAIN.