Veteran's Day

Mac had a very productive Veteran's Day. He got up early and headed off to 6 am spin class. He got home and climbed back into bed to read just as my alarm was going off. As I headed off for work, Mac was still in bed with The Streets of Laredo, and I figured he had a lazy day off planned for himself.

When I got home from work, Mac was gone - this time at the 6 pm spin class! I put my bag down and headed to the kitchen and was immediately struck by its cleanliness: dishes done, counters wiped, sink scrubbed, floor swept. "Oh, wow!," I thought, "I wonder if he cleaned our bathroom, too," - something I had been hinting at for a while. Turns out he did! As I headed back to the kitchen I got a glimpse into his room. "OH MY GOD!" - this time it wasn't a thought; I said it out loud - Mac had cleaned the whole room, INCLUDING THE DESK! I admired the rarely seen wood surface a few moments before deciding I better hang up my small clothes pile to avoid criticism. One of Mac's sweatshirts was in the pile so I went to hang it up - HIS CLOSET WAS ORGANIZED, with a pile of stuff out for goodwill! While looking at the stuff on the floor, I noticed something else: VACUUM TRACKS!

Back in the kitchen I set out to make dinner, but took extreme caution to be neat and not use many dishes. When I went to put some recycling in the garage, my eye immediately fell on a light fixture box. "No way!" - I ran to the guest bath, empty can still in hand, and saw a beautifully installed (and more important, unbroken) new light fixture above the mirror! At that point, I figured I better make dessert, too!

Too bad we don't have a few more military holidays throughout the year!

Tough Tittie II

On Monday night we went to a breast feeding class. Mac and I got there a couple of minutes early and the instructor was still in the process of setting out the hand-outs. As she put one down labeled "Prevention of Breast and Nipple Soreness," I made sarcastic comments to Mac about how his mom would love that. The instructor wondered what I was sniggering about and so I summarized my mother-in-law's advice. The instructor assured me that no pre-treatment was necessary, I would be just fine without doing anything ahead of time. Unfortunately, she didn't have the same "no experience necessary" attitude when it came to positioning and holding a baby for feeding. She handed out some plastic dolls complete with gaping mouths and told us to practice. As I demonstrated bringing a baby to my breast using a proper "football hold," Mac couldn't help but point out my discomfort - "You are bright red! Are you embarassed!?" Ok, yes, maybe a little bit (ok a lot), but at least I didn't have to go home and do nipple exercises!

Flu Shot

Last Tuesday I finally got the very elusive flu-shot, a recommendation for all pregnant women this flu season. I was fairly resolved that I would have to go without when I got an e-mail saying the VA has a surplus and would vaccinate any OHSU residents who were going to rotate at the VA in the medicine or ICU departments (to keep the Vets safe, not the residents). Since I fit none of these categories, I headed over to the VA, where Nurse Ratchet was in charge of distributing the vaccine. She did not like that I didn't work for the VA, that I was a pathologist, that I was pregnant, and she ceratinly wasn't buying my story about pathologists seeing Vets to do FNA procedures. Fortunately, Florence Nightengale was working back-up and kept winking and waving me over to her side, where I got my shot.

Today, one person is absent from work with the "flu" and another thinks she is coming down with it. Meanwhile, I am feeling much better about my VA escapades and I hope I'll be fairly safe if the flu does circulate at work.

Yard Work

This weekend, in an attempt to get everything cleaned up fot he winter, I spent about five hours outside, cutting plants back. Being especially aggressive this year, I wound up with five huge piles of debris. Mac was out for a bit, too, doing some mowing and seeding - possibly the last grass haircut until spring.

Since the garden is near dormant, I gave the chickens a special treat and let them out to "work in the yard" as well. They had a great time.

An Egg-regious Tragedy

Yesterday, for only the second time in nearly two years, I had to buy eggs (the first time was actually due to a conflict in my egg generosity and my baking schedule, not an actual shortage). Ruby and Ada had an impressive egg record since they started laying, but they are getting old and the decrease in sunny hours hit them hard this year - they haven't laid in three or four weeks. And Pearl has always been a bit of a disappointment - still a little too wild (and smart) for our domestic egg desires. I suspect the spring will rejuvenate their ovaries a bit, but I think the height of fertility has passed them by. And while I wait for spring to come, I will begrudgingly fork over $1.39 for mere AA large eggs and remember fondly the time when I used to gather three super-jumbo sized eggs in a single day.

Pure and Noble

I consider myself highly ignorant when it comes to computer stuff, which is why I am always astounded at the depth of computer inadequacy below mine.

Yesterday at work, two people were standing around the printer complaining about its annoying malfunction. I came up to the communal device after attempting to print my own material. "The printer is broken," they told me. "We've tried several times, but we haven't been able to get our stuff."

Noticing the "out-of-paper" light was blinking, I deftly inserted a new stack. Instantly, repetative copies of my colleagues' desired document began to roll out. Feeling especially magnanimous after saving these damsels in distress, I immediately ran down the hall to tell the first person I could find how retarded these two were; ah, yes, I make such a noble heroine. ;)

Adult Costumes

On Saturday night I went to a Halloween party thrown by a friend at work. Due to restrictions in size, energy, and time, I recycled an old costume and headed off into the sunset.

My department has a theme-based costume party every year, but I don't think I've celebrated Halloween to its full extent since college, which is possibly why I was unaware that adults fall into one of two categories at Halloween:
1) those that put on a wig or silly hat and call it a costume, and
2) those that dress in black, goth, or some sort of raised-from-the-dead costume.

With this in mind it seems I should have forgone the knocked-up cow-girl costume, and instead gone as a zombie-vampiress impregnated with the devil's child.