Butternut baby

Butternut baby by Corinne S.

This past week--week 29--the baby was supposed to be the size of a butternut squash. When at the grocery store the other day I decided to get a sense of this size relative to my belly. To clarify though, I think BabyCenter's baby-fruit comparisons are based solely on length and don't take mass or weight into account. I think our baby is still a little under 3 pounds. (Sorry about the crappy perspective, BTW. It's hard to get good photos of one's own pregnant belly without aid of mirrors.)

TV: Angel - Season 4

It's not Buffy, but it's the best of Angel

While Angel has never been as good as Buffy (in my opinion), Season 4 is the best season I’ve seen. For the first time we burned through the discs similar to how we do with Buffy. In previous seasons, Angel seemed to take about 10x longer to get through than Buffy.

In Season 4 things were really happening and the pace was good. The ongoing story was compelling and there were a couple of Buffy character crossovers that made our day since we’ve already finished the entire Buffy series and we’re jonesing for more (that doesn’t exist).

We just started season 5 and so far it’s a big disappointment. I’m going to persevere and watch it all, but it’s looking like the show many have “jumped the shark.” If that’s the case I’ll end up recommending to others that they just stop at the end of Season 4 and call it good. I hope I’m wrong—stay tuned.

John Lennon Interview with Animation

This is a pretty inspiring conversation in our current world state. The animation is beautiful, compelling, and fluid.

Thanks to Richard for the link. rb.log» Blog Archive » John Lennon Interview Animation

Mabry has dinner at the pool

Mabry has dinner at the pool by Corinne S.

I fed Mabry her quinoa dinner at the pool tonight while her mommy swam. She's got the sign for "more" down. ;-)

Oregon roads

Oregon roads by Corinne S.

Benjamin and I are making a circuit in NW and central Oregon this weekend. While the scenery is beautiful, the hours in the car are wreaking havoc on my now third-trimester body.

We've also had hellishly bad luck with traffic on our journey, at least whenever I5 is involved. Friday we drove from Seattle to Salem and it took us 7 hours (4 hours is the expected travel time). We got caught behind two different major vehicle fires--one a Metro bus, the other caught the entire I5 median on fire and closed the freeway in both directions for a couple of hours. We also hit every misc and typical backup I5 has to offer. We were 2 hours late for the wedding that instigated this entire trip.

Yesterday we drove from Salem to Bend to meet up with my brother and sister-in-law who're living in John Day, OR. What little time we spend on I5 was a trafficy mess. My mom and Rich were at the wedding in Salem and drove to Bend, too.

In Bend we visited with my family, ate at McMennamin's, and had dessert at Goody (yummy, hard, cold ice cream). Then this morning we all ate breakfast at our B&B before disbanding.

The whole weekend it's been over 100 degrees during the day. Though I haven't been out in the sun much at all, I think I got dehydrated yesterday so I was pretty miserable last night.

Today we're driving from Bend to Portland for one last night in OR before we head home.

Excercise, outdoors, sun "tans"

Sadly these are things that don't go together often in my Seattle tech-worker existence. But they do on summer weekends at Colman Pool!

I resumed swimming a few weeks ago after an extended hiatus. The hiatus began when I was sick for three weeks and then lingered on when my swim buddies were unavailable and my motivation was low.

Now I'm swimming one evening a week with Miller again and trekking over to the big outdoor pool as often as I can on weekends. I've been to Colman pool 3 times so far and I went to the Titlow outdoor pool in Tacoma with my mom last weekend.

I have to get as much outdoor swimming in as I can before the pool closes for the fall.

Progress

Blueberry's family - week 26 by Corinne S.

I'm doing a crappy job of blogging lately, but I'm still out here growing a baby and working full time. We're also making good progress on turning my office into the baby's room. I even signed us up for our childbirth class in September, made progress on baby shower plans, and made the arrangements for our weekend in Oregon later this month (we're going to a wedding).

I've been having a lot of physical problems lately with my back and shoulder, as well as various other inconveniences. Nothing major, but a lot of minor and it's impacting my sleep. I'm just 9 days away from 3rd trimester at this point and 3 more months is starting to look like a long time from a body standpoint.

The transformation of office to nursery isn't as dramatic in these pictures as it could be because I am having trouble letting go of my drafting table and craft area in the corner. But you can see that my computer setup and TV are gone and the baby's dressing and changing table have been moved in. Also since this picture was taken I've made arrangements to get rid of the desk, chair, and TV cabinet. They're all on the porch right now awaiting picked in the next 2 days.

In addition to having Piper help me most Saturdays with cleaning out my office and moving downstairs (did I mention Benjamin and I are now sharing an office in the basement--that's where I am now), my dad has been helping us with household projects. We've gotten a bunch of small indoor and outdoor projects done and it feels great to be crossing things off the list. Yes, nesting. I know. I guess I can't be unique in every way. ;-)