Pitcher a Piece

We tried out the new mediterranean restaurant in town this evening. A bit disappointing, over priced. Oli had shrimp pasta, it was shrimp on top of pasta, with a grilled under-ripe tomato, $15. Oli and Dieter both ordered a pint of Mack and Jacks (beer). The waiter comes out with a pitcher and two glasses and says "the other one will be out in a minute, we didn't have anymore pitchers clean." I am not sure exactly what he was thinking... that Oli and Dieter would each drink a pitcher of beer (strongly alcoholic beer) after which I will be dragging them out to the car, through mud puddles, which hopefully sobers them up enough to get in the car because I can't lift them that high. Maybe Dieter wouldn't be that bad off his liver has been in conditioning but Oli would be.
I will not be having fun this weekend. I have grading, lots and lots of grading. This is a 20 min./section quiz instead of a 10 min./section quiz. And I need to be studying for an evolution exam. Livin' it up at WSU.
There is a kinda strange guy in my ecology in evolution classes. One day a couple weeks ago he sits down right next to me in ecology lecture and proceeds to invade my personal bubble and quiz through out the lecture on what the professor just said. Then he sits next to me in evolution lab and when he looks over at my paper he rests his head on my shoulder. I'm just confused. He knows I'm married (though at one point he kept referring to Oli as my boyfriend), and that I am pregnant (though he did have to be told, he hadn't noticed). So, yeah, confused. Maybe he just doesn't have a personal bubble. He isn't creepy and it doesn't seem like he is hitting on me, but then as far as I know nobody has ever hit on me, maybe I am just oblivous. But that would make him awfully desperate (a pregnant married lady?) so still not flattering.
We are watching Chris Rock stand up. Pretty funny. He did a bit about how he likes rap but it is getting hard to justify it on an intellectual level. Lyrics like "Till the sweat drips from my balls..."
Well I should really either get some grading done or go to bed.

How to have a baby

Last night we had our first class to learn how to have a baby. Or more importantly how to squeeze something the size of a cantalope out a hole the size of a grape with as little pain as possible. We are giving the Bradley Method a try. Basically they focus on education and relaxation. They don't make us breath in crazy patterns, no who-who-hee or hee-who-hah or anything like that, just normal abdominal breathing. Which is for the best because I don't think I would remember the breathing patterns, I would get my whos and hees and hahs all mixed up. Apparently Dr. Bradley based his method on his observations of animals giving birth growing up on a farm. He was also the first doctor to allow the husband to be in the delivery room with the wife (he had noticed that all the ladies ended up forming a bond with him after he coached them through birth and decided that it would be much better if they formed that bond with their husband).

Cleanliness

Oli and I cracked down on the house today and it is now in some semblance of order. Most exciting is the kitchen. Now to figure out how to maintain it without spending all my free time cleaning because, even though cleanliness is next to godliness, something tells me gods don't have to do their own housework. Dieter just got back, we shall see if he notices. Salmon for dinner tonight, mmm. It was kinda strange, the wild caught salmon was cheaper than the farmed salmon. Speaking of salmon, I'm hungry, dinner time.
He did notice, even said it looks nice. How sweet.

New Baby

Here is our new baby. Practice for the next one that will be even more expensive. It is a base model but when you are used to a Tercel it is very fancy and powerful (128 hp seems like a lot when you are used to 90). Lots of fun. Now I am just terrified of hurting it. The first scratch or stain will be tough but knowing me I should get over it quick because, knowing me, it is inevitable.

Crash test dummies

It is kinda disturbing to watch these crash tests. They have ratings online for most vehicles, you can watch your own car get all busticated.
Frontal Crash
Side Impact

Olaus MT ASCP

Well Oli passed his boards just like I knew he would. He is now a ASCP certified Medical Technologist. Sadly he is still in training at the hospital so he is bouncing back and forth between night and day shift. So, I need to get on top of making some curtains for the bedroom so he can get some sleep. On the bright side he will be able to go to Joe's wedding with me and meet whatever of my friends from high school are there.
We go to the dealer today to iron out the final details on the Corolla. Sadly it turns out that the person who emailed me about buying the Tercel was probably scamming me. He says he is from Scotland and offered me $50 more than I was asking. Oli tells me it is a common scam to claim to want to buy a car and have it shipped and then mess around with bouncing cashier's checks and such.

Quick

I posted the Tercel on the U of I trading post website this afternoon and I have already gotten an email from some one who is interested in buying it! He want's to know what our lowest price is and I don't know how to respond to that. I posted the Tercel as 3000 OBO. What does he expect me to say? I want 3000 or as much as I can get out of him but I doubt that would be the best response.

Multitasking

Blonde on campus overheard saying "I can't talk now I'm walking."

Tercel anyone?

Well it looks like this will be the car we end up getting. 2006 Toyota Corolla CE. High end of what we want to pay but it is reliable, great gas mileage (32/41), new = warranty and so roomy, compared to the Tercel. Anyone want a '95 Toyota Tercel. It runs real good.

Vote for Butch

As part of the Capital One College Bowl they have an All-America Mascot Team. Each week they pair up the mascots and you vote for the one you like better. You can vote once a day and the important thing is that you vote for Butch. So stop reading my blog and vote for Butch. No more blog til you vote! :)

Fresh babies

Jakob told me today that he does not like holding "fresh" babies. He might drop it.

Car Shopping

Well we went to Lewiston today and looked at cars. We found a 2002 Honda Civic that was pretty nice, we also liked a Subaru Outback but funny thing was it wouldn't turn on. Wouldn't start, electric locks didn't work, nothing, couldn't even get it to jumpstart so we decided it might not be the best choice. The salesman was pretty embarrassed, poor guy. We also test drove an Accord and a Suzuki Verona but didn't like either of those too much. I guess at heart I just want a sports car. Accords just aren't too nimble feeling. The Verona was the size of a civic with the features of an accord. So you just pay for bells and whistles and no extra space. We wanted to test drive an xB but the one they had at the dealership was sold as we got there. A very popular car apparently.
Oli is working night shift tonight 9pm-7am. Poor boy, the cafe isn't open at this time at night so no free coffee for him. Harsh, but definitely for the best if he has to draw any blood. So he will be spending tomorrow sleeping.
Only 11 weeks til my due date, it sounds so much sooner that way then when you say 3 months. It is getting very very very real. Exciting and just a bit scary. So much to do to get ready and so much to buy. Expensive little bugger. Clothes, toys, blankets, carseats.....

Oops again

Well it turns out that I did not sing today in the choir because I neglected to set my alarm clock and did not wake up until well after I was supposed to be there. Oh well, I didn't really feel like sitting through a sermon anyways. I am not sure I will stay in choir just because I suspect I will be similarily unmotivated to get up early on a weekend morning just to have to sit through a church service and sing for 5 minutes.
Today we went looking at carpet cleaners. The carpet was new when we moved in and sadly it no longer looks so new. Apparently they chose the super duper dirt showing brand (I am guessing the cheapest brand). It even has a beer stain already from a beer Dieter knocked over and did not immediately notice. And something tells me it will only get worse when baby and puppy/kitten are added to the equation. No luck today in finding them but the two specialty vacuum stores were both closed so we will try again some other time.
Oli is out enjoying his lawn again. Though to me weeding doesn't seem very enjoyable but he is quite eager to do it so he can't mind too much. He gives the worms he finds to Bruce who seems to like them quite a bit and gulps them right down. The worms occasionally try to wriggle away but it doesn't do them much good.

Clarification

Perhaps I may have mislead certain parties with my last post. I am not really going to church per say. I am going to choir and as such I will have to go to church on the occasional Sunday but that's about it. I like singing and it is good to get out every once and a while to see different people, I am not really sure yet if I will stay in the choir, I will have to see how it goes.

Tra la la

I went to choir practice with Elizabeth tonight. We had gone the week before last also. It turns out we are singing this sunday. We'll see how it goes, I still don't really know the song all that well.

For reference I wish that I had taken those photos but alas other people took them. Someday I hope to get that good but it will take time I don't have. Incidently I was using that time I don't have to randomly search for pretty pictures.
Photos
Photos

cheeky rocks

Well the apartment is starting to approach order. We made some shelves for in the spare bedroom closet so now our tools and other assorted crap has a home. Now all we need is some shelves for our books and most everything will be unpacked.
As I was unpacking I found certain boxes where I had to ask myself "What the heck were you thinking?" Totally unrelated items should not be packed together. For example match books should not be packed with paint stripper.
Oli's diploma is framed and on the wall now with an extra frame for when he passes his boards. We got lucky at office depot and found nice document frames for $3 each. Now I just need to get a diploma so he can stop showing me up.
It seems like even Bruce is happy to be in Pullman rather than Yakima he is much more active and I have actually seen him trying to eat a guppy (I have not yet seen him succeed, though I theorize that he must occasionally because we have fewer fishes than we began with and some of them are significantly smaller than any we bought). However it is also possible that he is just pissy from being sloshed around. He is taking out his aggression on one of his rocks which seems to particularily annoy him, or maybe he is playing, or maybe the rock is cheeky, I don't know.
Layden is keeping busy hiccuping, doing summersaults and occaisionally a pommel horse routine. Now when he moves I can see my tummy developing assorted lumps and bumps. It reminds me of that scene in Alien, which I haven't actually ever since but since getting pregnant have had described enough times that I feel like I have.
Oli is enjoying his new job, his lawn and push reel mower, Dieter's XBox, and reminding me that HE no longer has homework. He is proud of his shelves (and rightly so) and working on plans for a bed frame.
Planarity it turns out is much more addictive than I would have anticipated for a game that is the computer version of untangling increasingly tangled balls of string. So far I have made it through level 21. That is 21 balls of string, I have to ask myself why that is so entertaining.

Abelskivers

If there is a god I am quite convinced she eats abelskivers. How could she not? She can eat anything she wants and blueberry abelskivers with real whipped cream are one of the best tasting things in the world and quite possible heaven. Though I suppose she could be keeping the really good stuff to herself.