Today's best thing

My mom likes to ask what your "best thing" is each day. When she asked me this question at 11:30am today all I had to offer was snuggling in the bed with the dog this morning.

While my day is still pretty far from over, I have a much more substantial "best thing" to offer now: Amazon announced this morning that, effective August 1st, they're increasing the percentage of salary paid and extending the duration of pay during maternity leave. That's great news at a great time for me. Woohoo!

I welcome additional great things to continue happening for the rest of the day (and beyond).

TV: Buffy the Vampire Slayer - The Complete Seventh Season

Last night Benjamin and I watched the series finale of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. It’s so sad it’s over. It was great fun to watch and I imagine we’ll always associate it with this pregnancy since we watched it from start to finish since I got pregnant.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer - The Complete Seventh Season

Week 24

Blueberry's family - week 24 by Corinne S.

Here we are 24 weeks into the pregnancy. I know this still looks like a messy office, but with Piper's help I am making incredible progress on cleaning out my stuff, moving into Benjamin's office, and turning this room into a nursery. Seriously.

Dashiell - Day 2

Dashiell - Day 2 by Corinne S.

I went to the hosptial again last night and got some good pictures of Dashiell. You can see them in Dashiell & Amelia's new group on Flickr.

Dashiell - Day 1

Dashiell - Day 1 by Corinne S.

This is a newborn pic Erik took of little Dashiell yesterday. I haven't been using my iPhone for my pics so I haven't posted any of mine yet. Soon.

I visited sweet, quiet Dash last night and I'm here at the hospital again today. So far he's a really mellow, sleepy little guy. I guess with the early delivery and c-section he didn't get the message to wake up yet. ;-) I suspect we'll all enjoy the mellowness while we can.

Claire's baby is here (on the outside)

Claire & Erik's new son Dashiell Alexander was born this morning at 10:10 am via planned c-section after an amniocentesis yesterday to confirm that his lungs were ready for the outside world. The c-section was necessary due to Claire's placenta acretia, but the surgery went quickly and flawlessly and mom and baby are now resting comfortably.

Dashiell weighed in at 7 pounds 6 ounces with a length of 19-3/4 inches. Head circumference was 13-1/8 inches. He cried a little on arrival and has since had his first bath and he's enjoying snuggling with mom on the outside of the womb.

I'm going over to the hospital later today so I'll take pictures and hopefully get some posted tonight.

New car

New car by Corinne S.

Yesterday Benjamin and I bought a brand new Toyota RAV4 to replace his 1996 Honda Passport that was totaled a few weeks ago.

I've never been involved in the purchase of a *new* car before and I'll admit freely that I was extremely hard to convince. But it happened.

Buying the vehicle outright, I've determined that this was my single biggest cash outlay ever. Our house had a *much* bigger overall pricetag, but I had less savings back then so my personal cash investment was lower for the house purchase (shocking in a way).

Giving (Technology) Birth

A project I've been working on for a number of months is going to public beta as we speak and The New York Times wrote an article about it: Amazon Plans Online Store for Films and TV Shows.

"In a significant step toward vanquishing the local video store and keeping couch potatoes planted firmly in front of their televisions and computers, Amazon.com will roll out a new online store of TV shows and movies on Thursday, called Amazon Video on Demand.

Customers of Amazon’s new store will be able to start watching any of 40,000 movies and television programs immediately after ordering them because they stream, just like programs like a cable video-on-demand service. That is different from most Internet video stores, like Apple’s iTunes and the original incarnation of Amazon’s video store, which require users to endure lengthy waits as video files are downloaded to their hard drives."

You can join the beta if you're interested in trying it out, though sign ups are limited so do it now if you want to try it out. If it's full, try back later.

Too cute

Too cute by Corinne S.

On Friday I went to an unofficial reunion of the Tablet PC team from Microsoft. Lots of folks came and it was people from all different eras of the team's lifespan. I got the see several of my UX colleagues who I hadn't seen since leaving MS over a year ago. It was really nice. One friend brought her adorable daughter along, so I snapped a picture of her in her little Sherrif's hat (blinged-out flip-flops not shown). Little Tate is cute and quite funny, if very contrary (as toddlers are inclined to be).

Thump, thump

Birthday belly by Corinne S.

It's official--Blueberry is in there and she's an active little berry. Last night Benjamin felt her move for the first time. Up until a few days ago her movements were pretty indistinct and I only felt them sometimes. It's still not super dramatic, but I've noticed lately that when I eat she does sommersaults--yowza. I think that might hurt when she's bigger.

So last night Benjamin and I were watching Buffy and had jsut eaten a late dinner. I was feeling her move around a lot and started trying to see if I could feel it from the outside. She started repeatedly kicking the side of my belly in one spot and I could feel it a bit from the outside so I quickly put Benjamin's hand there. He was skeptical that he'd really feel anything, but he did.

Go little berry go--start kicking your parents and letting them know who's boss right from the start. ;-)

Psychology experiment

It's interesting to walk around the workplace with a bandage on your face. It's been informative to see who pretends it's not there, who immediately asks if I'm okay, and a few other responses (like "what's that?"). It's an unexpected opportunity to learn about my coworkers. ;-)

Oh, if you're wondering--I had a "hemangioma" (big red vascular lump) removed from my temple yesterday. It was growing fast (normal in pregnancy) and was "too red" so they took it off to be safe. Biopsy results are expected to be negative.

Mabry and Miller

Mabry and Miller by Corinne S.

Last night the weather was gorgeous. Maple and I met Miller and Mabry at Magnuson Park for a nice walk. We stopped on the waterfront to feed Mabry her quinoa dinner. She was pleased.

Another decade under my belt

Birthday girl by sben

This past holiday weekend the tens digit on my age-ometer turned over. I turned 30 on the 4th of July, surrounded by friends and family. It was a great party, good weather, fantastic turnout.

As a bonus, I worked my ass off cleaning up the house before the party so I'm reaping the benefits of that post-party. :)

For more pictures from the party, check out the Corinne's Birthdays group on Flickr. Adorable toddlers and babies are heavily featured.

Adorable travel companion

Adorable travel companion by Corinne S.

Maple accompanied me to my cousin's 40th birthday BBQ last night in Everett. Maple had on her extra adorable face on during our ride there. At one point she even laid her chin onto the center console and looked up at me with her big brown eyes. Cute! Blueberry's gonna have a run for her money is the cuteness department. ;-)