Weekend!
After a spat of snowstorms that felt downright retro, we’re finally going to have temps in the 40’s and 50’s for a week (if the interwebs can be trusted).
Which is good. As James Lileks said a million years ago (paraphrased): “The beauty of the seasons is that each one lasts just a little bit too long.”
Winter is my favorite of the seasons… but if, for whatever reason, one is unable to say “I’ma sit in my basement with two blankets and three cats” and one has to go to the Big Blue Room (or Grey one, in this case), it’s much, much, much less pleasant.
This weekend, I have to spend a lot of time out in the Big Blue Room. Stuff we hadn’t been able to do over the last few weekends due to the Grey. So we have to go to Costco (AND NOT BUY ANY MOVIES THIS TIME), and the pet store, and the grocery store, and probably the library, and, goodness knows, there’s always a reason to go to another little place for that one thing that you haven’t been able to get since January. (OH! We left the peacock feathers in the car! The cats need those!)
Also, awesomely, we have gaming on Saturday night which will be nice because a half foot of snow prevented us from leaving the house last time (which was also kinda nice).
So… what’s on your docket?
(Photo is “Footrace finish line, 1925” from the Seattle Municipal Archives, used under a creative commons license)
Fly to Long Beach tomorrow, see family on Sunday, and spend two days of father-son sun time in southern CA (Aquarium of the Pacific will be in there, among other things).Report
I wouldn’t presume to intrude on family time and my Sunday is now spoken for. Enjoy the LBC!Report
Just got back from the aquarium. The phrase “This is AWESOME!” was exclaimed many times by the offspring.
He’s passed out now.Report
Two of my friends are celebrating their birthdays this Saturday, so I will be partying with them.Report
The good news is that Clancy has a cane! (Instead of crutches.) The bad news is that Lain thinks she has a cane… Seriously, this is big news. She is walking around without it, albeit uncomfortably. But this is the last step to being able to walk around again freely.
We had a huge snow dump yesterday. I mean, huge.Report
Awesome!Report
Glad to hear she’s healing well.
How many things has Lain broken with the cane?Report
Not that we know of… yet. The dog’s level of nervousness has increased considerably, however.Report
The dog’s level of nervousness has increased considerably, however.
My granddaughter — about six months younger than Lain, I believe — lives with two large dogs. “Level of nervousness has increased considerably” is an excellent description of those dogs when granddaughter finds something that can be used as a flail. An amazing array of things fall into the “can be used as a flail” category.Report
Helping my brother get his house in order. He starts chemo and radiation a week from Monday. Ironically, he’ll probably feel better once he’s getting treatment. He’ll be able to breath again.
Other than that, got some family time planned with the extended family on Saturday, and probably sinking some time into Minecraft.Report
Best to your brother. That isn’t any fun but hopefully he feels better and the treatment prevails.Report
Turns out it wasn’t a mass in his lung. It was his lymph nodes. Hodgkin’s lymphoma is pretty high up the “If you have to get cancer, get this one” list. They’re not sure of it’s stage (it’s not into the lung, so it’s confined there — but it could have traveled from another lymph node. The rest of the tests are next week to see if it’s anywhere else) but even the stage IV ‘riddled with it’ 5-year rates are 65%. And he’s young and otherwise healthy, which helps even more.
Given the rates for the other possibilities? We’ll take this.
Very curable, as far as cancer’s go. Could have been a lot worse.Report
That is much more pleasant to read than a lot of other alternatives could have been.Report
As crappy news goes, I’m pleased that you got the good crappy news rather than the really bad crappy news.Report
Oh, glad to hear it is not the worst case scenario at least. I was wondering the other day.Report
Other than gaming, my big excitements for the weekend are all medication- or sleep-related. Which you would think would be depressing but it’s probably going to be quite pleasant.
I’ll probably spend a bunch of time on tidying, too. The closet of doom has been de-doomified and now it’s time to tackle the in-between-the-bookshelves corner of doom.Report
Date night with the wife tonight, golf Saturday, likely a hike in the Tehachipis on Sunday followed by a bit of grape juice.Report
Correction: the poppies bloomed today in the bumper crop that had been widely predicted; the desert looks like a celestial Jackson Pollack treated it like a canvas which had somehow offended the artist.
So tomorrow will be spent hiking Antelope Butte and gathering snapshots with the phone. I’ll share the best ones with y’all.
People from somewhere other than California may not realize just how unique our poppies are, for instance by thinking that poppies are red, which in California they aren’t.Report
Baby is due today. Seems to have alternate plans.Report
WHAT ALREADYReport
This kid is going to be late for every meeting ever, I can tell.Report
Wha wha now? Baby? Another one?
Congrats! Again!Report
Haha… @burt-likko I announced it back in August or September, methinks, but haven’t talked much about it here on the blog since. Yes, another Kazzy male is en route… just what the world needs.Report
Did the baby text Zazzy instead of you on the schedule change?Report
@kolohe
Surprisingly, he used a carrier pigeon. This one time, Zazzy was enthused he didn’t set a second one.Report
Baby time! I was wondering when s/he was going to make her/himself known.
Hoping all goes smoothly, and hoping Mayo isn’t too shocked to have his world interrupted so rudely. (My first got a huge case of the runs at the stress of it all. Lasted for days.)Report
@zic
We are now in day 2 ADD (after due date). WHAT THE F??? WHAT DO WE DO?!?!Report
There are numbers of things I’ve heard suggested. First is that word with the ???’s in it (or more to the point, her pleasures here, which sets off a similar set of contractions). Rides on bumpy roads. Walking. Hot baths.
Is she having braxton hicks? Is she dilated at all? I don’t think there’s generally much concern until a week after; sometimes it’s easy to get the date off by a few days. But there’s going to be a point where she’ll pretty much demand this be over; that she’s not doing it any more. (This is a deep, spiritual thing, not a a simple, “I’m tired.” At that point, it’s time to consider talking to her doctor/midwife; numbers of things to be done including breaking her water and inducing labor; I wouldn’t want that last if I could avoid it, it’s a little more violent than normal labor contractions.
So what can you do? Be patient. Get a lot of rest so that when the time comes, you’re able to be alert. And remember when she’s in transition, keep that fist planted into her lower back whenever you see what appears to be a contraction starting without request. Because that’s probably the most helpful thing of all.Report
Back when we were expecting my daughter, one of my work friends had the same due date as we did. Ours came two weeks early and hers two weeks late, so they were born a month apart. It happens.Report
Thanks, @zic . She had to be induced with Mayo. He arrived on his due date. Water broke the day before but no contractions started. Doctors were afraid of the risk of infection given that the sac had ruptured so they induced her. It was a very difficult process, eventually requiring an epi to get her to stop fighting the contractions and work with her body to dilate, soften, and all that good stuff.
At her last OB appointment on Thursday (one day prior to the due date), she was not at all dilated. We’ll be back in on Tuesday and depending on how things progress, may schedule an inducement for later that week or early the following week. She’d really like to avoid being induced, instead allowing her body to do what it needs to do. But she also is very ready to be done and we are both super excited to meet the little guy. I am currently on spring break (two weeks) and can probably get up to two weeks off for family leave, meaning if the little guy arrives soon I can be home with him and available to Zazzy and Mayo (whom we hope to have stay home full time with her) for almost a month, which would be ideal. Of course, this little bugger seems to have other plans.
We’ve been walking, resting, stair climbing, drinking pineapple juice… all the old wive’s tales. We have avoided what her doctor called the “Italian induction*” (a.k.a., sex) because she is just not feeling up to that right now, which is totally understandable.
As you said, all we can REALLY do is wait!
* Because there is nothing more comfortable than ethnic sex jokes when someone has their feet up in stirrups!Report
In the end, @kazzy the only thing that really matters is a healthy baby and mom. How we get there get’s a lot of emphasis, but is meaningless compared to mother and baby in good health.
And for the Italian induction, if you want to try, simply focus on her and let that be your pleasure; it’s the contractions that matter, not the sex.Report
Can’t blame him. Its cold outside.Report
AUGH DAYLIGHT SAVING TIME STARTS THIS WEEKEND
I hate daylight saving time.
I hate it.Report
Yes.Report
@jaybird
Agreed, it is the worst.Report
Y’all crazy.Report
Wait, WHAT?? BAH.
(I don’t especially hate any particular time scheme, BUT I REALLY HATE FISHING CHANGING TIMES!!!!)Report
The forecasts for tomorrow and Sunday are sunny with highs of 48 and 46. So tomorrow shapes up as fencing in the AM, then shovel the snow off the rest of the deck and get the propane tank filled. On Sunday it stays light late enough, so I grill. Chicken? Fish? Maybe a piece of salmon in a teriyaki marinade…Report
Crap. And I have an early meeting on Monday, too.Report
Got home last night from my third week on the road. Having a bit of trouble transitioning back to civillian life as I caught myself checking work emails last night which I normally would never do at home. Hoping to stay home for the next 3-4 weeks. All sorts of fun actitivities planned to fill that time.
Apparently we’re going mattress shopping. Haven’t bought one in 10 years. Suggestions are apprrciated. Sounds like a nee one is going to cost more than my first car.
So-so UFC card tonight. Lots of couch time planned before Monday morning.Report
I have this theory that we spend too much on mattresses and expect them to last too long. My plan has been to go for mid-range, and so more affordable, and to replace every five years; which is our chiropractor’s recommendation for better back health for my sweetie (who has stenosis).
Don’t shirk the pillow shopping, while you’r at it. Good pillows are as important to back health, since they support the neck.Report
They’re telling us a good memory foam mattress is good for 20 years…we got 10 years out of our pillow top.Report
I’m kind of in the market soon too, so here are my questions about memory foam (if anyone has one and can comment).
1 – Do they get hot? I would imagine something that you sink into and molds itself to your shape means less air movement, and therefore more heat.
2 – Are they TOO comfortable, so that you sink into them and don’t move all night and then wake up stiff from not moving for eight hours?
3 – I am assuming they don’t need to be flipped/rotated as much (or possibly at all), but IIRC mattresses gain weight over time from – gross – dead skin particles, and I think MF may be a bit heavier to begin with. So is a 15-year-old memory foam mattress going to weigh a gazillion pounds and be a pain to move around if you need to do so?
Supposedly on the plus side, they don’t transfer much motion from one partner to the other, which is a plus if you have a restless co-sleeper.Report
@glyph
You have to try them. My wife and I don’t like how memory foam feels. We don’t like the traditional innerspring either. But we both like the way individually pocketed coils feel.
Second @zic on the pillow. I can sleep on pretty much any old mattress, but take my buckwheat hull pillow away from me and I’m miserable.Report
I’ve slept on memory foam at hotels; good ones don’t get hot; and that’s happened once. Most do seem to get hot. And this really matters for women of an age (late 40’s through mid 50’s) who are prone to hot flashes. It matters enormously.Report
And just to add: my favorite is a platform with a memory-foam futon topped by a feather bed, which, together, equals the thickness of a standard mattress sans box spring.Report
I have a memory foam pillow that I love (so much that I take it on the road whenever I can). I don’t find it gets hot but we have also heard the concerns about the memory foam beds.
Costco has an awesome deal on the Tempurpedic right now but we’re a bit scared to pull the trigger. It’s a big expense and part of me likes the idea of paying less and getting a new one every 5-10 years. Having a bed for 20 years sounds kind of gross.Report
I have two birthday parties to attend this Saturday. One at the banya, followed by a night on the town.Report
I just watched the first episode of The Americans. (My son forgot to cancel his free trial of Amazon Prime, so now we have yet more TV available.) I can’t say I loved it (Gur SOV thl zbirf va arkg qbbe. Frevbhfyl?), but it certainly warrants another look.Report
It’s a great show. There are a few things that you just have to go with, but it’s amazing. Very perceptive about marriage, great period details, stellar acting.
I’ve watched the first several Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt (the Tina Fey series that NBC passed on, and Netflix picked up). Amazing. Very much in the 30 Rock mold, although it’s paced just a bit slower with slightly fewer jokes-per-minute.
Episode six of Fortitude finally answered a few (by no means all) questions; but holy cow I love watching that show (shot in Iceland, I’d watch it for the stark and beautiful visuals even if I wasn’t susceptible to a series that seems to possibly be attempting to cross Twin Peaks with The Thing). Will watch ep.7 tonight.Report
I THOUGHT THIS WAS THE SUNDAY THREAD I AM SO CONFUSEDReport