Under Construction Daily

I've moved!

2006-07-11T10:17:00.000-07:00

From now on I'll be at my new site. Come visit anytime:
http://underconstructionblog.typepad.com

Snippets of a Trip Update

2006-07-06T09:27:00.000-07:00

We're back! Fortunately I had the foresight to take the rest of the week off work so it's a Thursday morning and jet lagged baby is (now was) asleep, Mr. H is watching NASCAR (recorded from last weekend) and I have a minute to provide you, my faithful readers, with a few photos and some snippets of updates.

On our porch in Switzerland
Portrait of the happy traveler on a train

I'm having a hard time remembering back almost two weeks ago when we were racing to catch our flight in Dallas but here's a few things I do recall:

Why we aren't at all surprised American Airlines isn't doing well
We had 4 separate flights with American (and two with British Air) and three of the four were delayed (only one weather related). That caused our luggage to miss the connection and left us in Switzerland the first two days with no luggage. Of course I packed 3 outfits and plenty of food and diapers for Biscuit and nary a pair of clean underwear for myself.

The thing I never thought I would do
Drug the baby. But I gotta tell ya, a half teaspoon of Benadryl makes an international flight a lot more tolerable for all involved. She was a real trooper (and I don't think this will lead to any lasting drug problems! :)

A beautiful view
We celebrated our 6th wedding anniversary in Europe and used it as an excuse (twice) to go out together (without Biscuit) and go to the top of tall mountains for the views. I think a picture is worth a thousand words here. The other mountain we visited was in a solid fog bank, no views there.

To sleep, perchance to dream
Despite a jet lagged 8 month old we did get some sleep. She napped (or didn't) on the road every day (on trains, busses, in her backpack etc.) and slept in our bed with us at night.

The cutest thing we didn't capture on film
Biscuit helping me hold onto the metal pole on the Airtram at the Dallas Airport. Her chubby little hand gripping the pole. Trust me, it was adorable.

First runner up on the cutest thing we didn't capture on film
The cute new tricks on licking her lips and then puckering up and making a fish face with her cheeks pulled in

Constipation update
remember that last post? We got FOUR POOPS THAT SAME DAY! I guess it resolved!

Crawling update
So she gave up on learning to crawl during our trip and cut her first tooth instead. We're still waiting for a full appearance but it's broken through the skin as of the Fourth of July

Baby Travel Tip
Snap tape (that you buy at the fabric store) makes the best pacifier holder ever. And, for us, the pacifier was perhaps the most critical equipment we had with us

There are approximately a million other fun things to tell you about but I don't want to bore so here's a picture

Report from foreign lands

2006-07-03T01:00:00.000-07:00

Short version: the trip is going even better than we could have hoped!

Highlights:

Biscuit slept the entire international flight from Texas to London except the 2 hours we spent on the runway awaiting a repair to the airplane
The views everywhere have been amazing (in Adelboden, Switzerland and Chamonix, France)
The family has been getting along great

Lowlights:

Biscuit did not sleep at all the first night in Geneva
Biscuit learned to sleep with her "taggie" but the taggie now resides near the train station in Spiez
Our trip is almost over :( We leave Chamonix tomorrow for Geneva then home

Random:

We needn't have brought any baby toys, the child has a new paper obsession and has been shredding magazines, napkins and placemats across Europe and when she needs a break from that, an empty water bottle is the toy of choice
I think I fed her sour cream (or maybe cream cheese) in an attempt to give her plain yogurt last night. Whatever it was, she loved it!
Now she is constipated...bananas or sour cream? Who knows....pears and peaches only today.

Ok, the internet is 1 Euro per 10 minutes (yikes) must go without proofreading

Au revoir!

Cast of Characters

2006-06-24T11:51:00.000-07:00

Unlike Sactownkid, I haven't been posting too frequently but for the next 2 weeks I may not post at all. And here's why......(drumroll)....

We'll be in EUROPE.

More specifically SWITZERLAND

More specifically, right here in Adelboden.

But lest you think this trip will be all fun and games, let me introduce you to the cast of characters with whom the hills will be alive:

Me

Mr. H: the only one who isn't a blood relative

Biscuit: Who, conveniently, decided that THIS WEEK is the EXACT WEEK she would like to learn to crawl. Last week she'd sit in my lap for hours. This week she only wants to work on her new skill. This also mean she's stopped sleeping. Hmm, 12 hour plane ride is looking good.

Aunt Laura (my 22 year old sister): She just graduated from college and at one point was going to get a trip to Nepal with Grandpa D (our dad) for a gift. Through a little bait and switch she got a trip to Switzerland with the whole fam. This trip is a bit tame for the child that just spent 4 months in Southeast Asia. Not that a girl can complain about a trip to Switzerland but let me introduce the rest of the traveling party.....

Grandma D (my mom): She's really gotten into traveling over the last 10 years (I think this is her fourth trip to Europe) but she's usually been on a formal tour (with a tour bus and guide). The one trip she did without a guide was planned to the minute with excursions and sights. It is KILLING her that we have NO PLANS WHATSOVER. Just some hotel rooms and a rail pass. I should also mention (and she can't get offended because she has to agree this is true) she's a wee bit emotional lately. Not sure of the cause but in the past 3 months I can't recall a family outing that didn't involve spontaneous crying. Now if that doesn't make the son-in-law uncomfortable, I don't know what does. And remember Aunt Laura? Great girl, love her to death, she has identified EVERY BUTTON our mom has and exactly how to push them. As an added bonus, I seem to have inherited the spontaneous crying gene and Biscuit is a baby so spontaneous crying is what she does.

Get ready for the waterworks.

Grandpa D (my dad): The sugar daddy of the extravaganza. He basically hates to travel unless it involves a car ride across Nevada, a tent and a national park. As far as I can tell his last international trip was to Vietnam (for the war) and I'm pretty sure he stayed on the ship. Needless to say this is a big step for him. He's trying to ease into the big wide world by pretending he's in a national park (called the Alps). Day hikes and coffee drinking are the only things on his itinerary.

So there you go. You aren't so jealous anymore are you?

I'll try to find a computer in Adelboden and post updates on this trip for your amusement.

If this website happens to move over to Clubmom in my absence, hello! Pleasure to meet you! Stop by after July 6 for a recap and in the meantime, take a gander through the archives.

I needn't have rushed home

2006-06-19T21:06:00.000-07:00

So when I called Mr. H at 5 pm as I was getting ready to leave work, he alerted me that Biscuit had missed her afternoon nap and was likely to melt down soon. I hurried home hoping to have a few minutes before she fell asleep. I needn't have rushed.
This was the scene when I arrived home at 6 p.m. The best part of this photo is what you can't see. The Speed Network showing the car race that lulled them both to sleep. Biscuit has inherited a love of cars from her father and car races are one of the few things that hold her attention on TV (although not tonight).

And now, for what I was actually planning to blog about, my before and after project.
Before (a pillow case): After (a dress) on a rather uncooperative model: And, finally, a belated Happy Father's Day!

Construction Zone

2006-06-17T19:56:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the lack of blogging lately, I've been taking it easy. Finals were over last Saturday and graduation was today and work was super busy in between so the blogging just had to give. Photos of graduation coming soon.

But now, a very exciting update about our home, our construction zone. Since Mr. H is on summer vacation, he's had time to rent a jackhammer and go to town on the back steps in preparation for our new deck.
Before:

After: Proof that Mr. H could totally be a contractor if he decided to give up the teaching gig:

Have you ever noticed on construction sites how the workers just leave food trash ALL over? At my sister-in-law's house the hole for the tub was filled with fast food wrappers. I heard someone say they had to remodel and found soda cans in their walls. Um, ever heard of a trash can folks? Me either, the soda bottles and cups are still lying in the yard.

Happy Father's Day Mr. H!

Put a fork in me

2006-06-11T22:20:00.000-07:00

I'M DONE (with school that is). I finished my last final Saturday morning and we hopped in the car to attend my sister's college graduation. Photos coming soon but just a note to say how lovely it is on a Sunday evening to not even be considering how many pages I have to read or papers I have to write or presentations I have to practice or ANYTHING. A bit funny when just a baby and a full time job feels like a vacation.

And speaking of vacation, Mr. H is officially on summer break. Teachers put up with a lot of crap but the words: June, July and August might just make it worthwhile.

For the nerds

2006-06-04T14:46:00.000-07:00

A first "sorority" shirt for Biscuit. Get it? This is the technique I used.

As for the surprise...it has nothing to do with a pet, it actually has to do with the blog itself (and it's probably only exciting to me)

The Whole Yard

2006-06-03T19:31:00.000-07:00

This is the design our friend Mike whipped up recommending what we plant to replace our dying and overgrown shrub areas in the front yard. Over the last weeks we've been tearing out and moving all this: This morning while I was at class, Mr. H, Mike and my father-in-law rototilled the area and redid all the irrigation while my mom-in-law watched Biscuit. After class (my LAST ONE THAT ISN'T A FINAL!!) I finished up the plant shopping and then we all planted the plants and hooked up the irrigation. Here's the result, our all new front planters (we still need to add the bark mulch). For the moment they look a little bare since we bought itty bitty perrenials (who can afford those 5 gallon plants?). I'll show another shot at the end of summer and I hope it will have filled in. It really does look better than the photos.

As always, a few lessons learned:

Never shop for plants on a sunny, spring Saturday afternoon
If you do HAVE to shop for plants along with EVERY other homeowner in the county, be mentally prepared to visit at least 5 places to get what you need
Don't overlook Wal-mart and Target for plants, not much selection but they're cheap
Learn to accept the fact that after visiting 4 locations all over town you will discover that the hardware store a quarter mile away had everything you needed all along

Happy gardening!

And I'll finish with a teaser about some exciting upcoming changes to this blog...stay tuned for exciting changes...and a photo of my sister-in-law's new puppy.

Amazing Super Productivity

2006-05-28T20:33:00.000-07:00

First a cute photo of Biscuit and her adorable, edible red shoes:

My 'baby' sister is graduating in 2 weeks so I wanted to finish her graduation gift today. Randomly I decided to make her a skirt. Here it is:

Then I decided to make a matching purse/tote but first I had to make a practice one. I used an ugly, free canvas tote I got at a conference for the lining. It worked great, I used the existing handles and the canvas gave the bag a nice stiffness:

And the real bag (rather tiny). There is a pocket inside, like the tote above.Then I made a matching dress for Biscuit. Messed up the interfacing and the sizing but it'll work It was a learning experience. I did use some adorable vintage buttons.The dress also has a matching bib. Finally, I made a "taggie" blanket out of super soft fur/fleece. Biscuit has discovered the tags on all her toys and is obsessed with sucking on them.

Pretty soon I need to get going on some HOMEWORK!

HOW TO: What to do with all those baby photos

2006-05-26T21:17:00.000-07:00

This is the first in what I would like to be an irregular series of how-to posts. Just in case anyone ever reads this blog and wishes to have some project instructions. Happy crafting...

I've always been one to give homemade gifs for the holidays. Conveniently in 2005 I was on maternity leave for the 2 months leading up to Christmas. I took advantage of the fact that the baby slept a lot and Michaels is a nice walking distance away and I made gifts. I created advents filled with miniature, homemade ornaments for a miniature tree, baby quilts for the grandmothers, dyed and screen printed onesies for all the babies we know and magnets for family and friends.

The magnets took about 1 minute each and they were the biggest hit of all (next year, I will not be gluing together advent calendars!)

Here's how you can turn photo index prints into fabulous gifts.

Take the index print that comes with your photos (the one with all the tiny photos showing the negative number in the corner). If you have old fashioned film, just develop it at Costco or, if you are digital, you can order prints at Costco. Either way, you get an index print. If you aren't a Costco member, check around. Lots of places do it.

Go to Michaels (or some other craft store) and buy fish tank glass beads (you can also buy these at the fish store). They are clear glass, rounded on one side, flat on the other and about 5/8 inch across. Also purchase small round magnets (or tacks) and strong, glass glue (I used E6000 one time and a glue called "Goop" this time).

Have you figured it out yet? If not, here are the instructions:

Cut the photo into a little circle (or oval) the approximate shape and size of your glass bead
put a dab of glue on the bead and squish on the photo (face down)
put a dab of glue on the back of the photo and squish on the magnet (or tack)
allow to dry
wrap in a fancy jewelry box and give to grandparents who will love having a little bald baby face on the fridge.

Don't Hate Me

2006-05-22T22:50:00.000-07:00

Do you remember that commercial for, what was it, shampoo? where the woman tosses her hair and says, "don't hate be because I'm beautiful." I always replied to the television set, "trust me, that's not why I hate you right now." How should those sentences be punctuated? Beyond my editing abilities!

Anyway, that's all to say, don't hate me because I married so well. I was reading a momblog from Clubmom (can't find the exact link right now) on the popular topic of what does (or doesn't) your husband do around the house. I decided to make lists of regular household chores completed by Mr. H and me and compare. I have a feeling I've got it pretty good. Here goes:

BTW--our baby will officially be called Biscuit from here on out, that's mostly what she's called at home anyway and I have a weird thing about posting names on the internet

Mr. H
Grocery shopping (85%)
Picking Biscuit up from daycare (95%)
Dishes (20%)
Cooking dinner (30%)
Lawnmowing (100%)
Putting the trash cans on the curb (95%)
Paying bills (70%)
Replacing toilet paper rolls (75%)
Laundry (10%)
Vacuuming (10%)
Random home repairs (100%)

Melissa
Grocery shopping (15%)
Picking "Biscuit" up from daycare (5%)
Getting "Biscuit" ready in the morning and taking her to daycare (100%)
Making food for Biscuit (100%)
Dishes (80%)
Cooking dinner (30%)
Putting the trash cans on the curb (5%)
Paying bills (30%)
Replacing toilet paper rolls (25%)
Laundry (90%)
Vacuuming (10%)
Cleaning bathrooms (60%)

Nobody
Cooking dinner (40%)
Daily making of the bed (100%)
Vacuuming (80%)
Cleaning bathrooms (40%)

Not bad, eh? And, on Monday nights when I have class, he buys me dinner and drops it off so I don't go hungry. What a guy!

Whiplash Finale

2006-05-21T13:13:00.000-07:00

Week 6 of Whiplash--I made it!
And I finally made the project I wanted to make from the beginning, a onesie quilt. It's colorful, it fits the theme of "colors," right? Our little biscuit is outgrowing the onesies I dyed and screenprinted for her Christmas gift and I love them so I made them into a quilt with a few other special onesies made by friends and family. Here they are this morning:
And here they are now (the following 3 pictures are for my Whiplash! entry--the limit is technically 3):
This quilt brought to you by the 2 hour nap!
And a close up:
I've made a number of t-shirt quilts out of adult shirts but this one might be my favorite. I ran to the store last night to get the backing fabric and interfacing. The shirts are each surrounded by scrap fabric to make a COLORFUL quilt. The whole thing is tied with embroidery floss and top stitched on the edge. It has cotton batting. All in all, it took a few hours and came out great (much better than last week!)

And, in case you saw last week's entry and got a chuckle out of the misfitting t-shirt, an update that Leopold got some new clothes (the secret is stretchy knits from a thrift store sweater!) and is now at his new home with one year old Matthew. Hope he's loved (despite his 70's style vest and weird ascot).

And one last shot of a very sad baby moments before I took her cutest onesie and cut it up.

Vegan Lunch Box

2006-05-18T21:43:00.000-07:00

So Vegan Lunch Box won a well deserved Bloggie award and I've been hooked ever since. That lady is amazing! Tonight as I was avoiding papers and grinding some bundt cakes I realized that I make a vegan lunch box every day too (if human milk is vegan--still a mental debate). Here it is:
French Green Beans and Carrots with Rice Cereal (and a purple spoon) and milk:

A little low on the milk but that's what formula is for!

And finally, a cute photo from our Mother's Day trip to the Whole Earth Festival

Are you impressed with the number of links I created in this post?

When Crafts Go Wrong

2006-05-14T21:28:00.000-07:00

So, I promised myself I would enter Whiplash!

every week and this is week 5 of 6. I am seriously regretting that promise right now! The theme is "yarn" and I had bunches of ideas and finally settled on trying to make my first ever softie as a gift for my friend's son's first birthday. I had this fabulous brown, wool yarn that I thought would make an amazng lion mane. Sounds cute, huh?

Tip for you: never try to make a softie with no pattern and no clue when you have no time and no patience. You will end up with this:

You can't exactly tell but lion head number 2 looked like an alien so I cut it off with scissors. Lion head number one was an equal disaster. Mr. Lion looked pretty scary with the stuffing just hacked off in a smooth cut like a guilliotine would make.

And yet, since I was hours into this project and had no time to start something new...

Head number three Still no good but I had to quit and get this **** thing done.
I thought clothes might help disguise his freakishly proportioned body, but no, the clothes didn't work any better than the lion. Much too small! (and, I might add, the completely wrong color!)

Lessons learned:

Until I can make a stuffed animal with a pattern, I probably shouldn't go it alone
When it's Mother's Day weekend and school and work are kicking your *** stick with a SIMPLE project (my yarn art "yart" is sounding much better right now)
If you do have a crafting disaster, be sure to post it online so all the really talented crafters will at least have an ego boost
If at first you don't succeed, it may be a sign that you should cut your losses!

Happy Mother's Day!

Winner, Winner Chicken Dinner

2006-05-11T20:40:00.000-07:00

Yup, I'm a winner. The phone book art brought home the bronze for Whiplash week 4. There were a bunch of good entries (ok, but not as many as last week, thus the win). The theme for week 5 is "yarn." I'm on it...

Off to write a paper.

Happy Hallway, Happy Home

2006-05-09T21:39:00.000-07:00

Umm, this is supposed to be a home renovation blog but it's been disguised as a crafting blog. I'm trying to refocus. It was a very productive weekend (for Mr. H anyway) but randomly all the projects were hallway related.

The hallway when we moved in. Note the ugly light, nasty carpet and boring white paint.

And here's the hallway now. New hardwood floors, yellow paint, a phone in the nook and stuff on the walls (other than dirt).

Just this last weekend, here's what got done in the hall:
I completed my phone book art to finish off the phone nook

Mr. H and Grandpa H installed a whole house fan (here's the in-progress shot, it's done now)

And finally, Grandpa H stuccoed the outside of the previous owner's cat door (still needs paint) . Ok, it's on the outside of the hall and the picture is boring but it's another done project. Not bad!

Phone Book Art

2006-05-07T15:27:00.000-07:00

It's week 4 of Whiplash and entries are down for the Chic to Classic theme. This was perfect for me as I received a classic style phone for my nook for Christmas which Mr. H installed for my birthday. It looks and works great but the nook needed a little something more...something chic.

I was inspired to make a piece of art entirely out of phone books so last night I tore up my yellow and white pages. I wove 1 inch strips of white pages into a grid and topped with squares from the yellow pages and the color coded edges of the yellow pages. Can you tell I usually do quilting?

Here it is hanging in the nook. Yes, a bit small but better than nothing. See the "classic" phone? I rather like the whole project and even Mr. H commented that it was neat (although he's still more impressed with his installation).

And now a bit of trivia I picked up in the course of this project:

There is a website, phoneart.com. devoted to images of phones. Some guy maintains it, "for fun."
The yellow pages are now color coded (see photo below, not part of my Whiplash entry). The orange section is....attorneys! Green is coupons.
You can make a custom phone cord of any length using a special tool (that we now own). Again, see photo below of our perfect, 8" phone cord.

Overwhelmed

2006-05-04T21:51:00.000-07:00

Ok, I'm officially overwhelmed. You know that feeling when you have so much to do you don't quite know where to begin so you get stressed so you go into avoidance mode and waste time which gives you less time and just as much to do leading to more stress and it's just a vicious circle.

That's me at work and home these days (so of course I'm taking the time to blog). I started a new class today, only 5 weeks long but 6 hours per week with a lot of reading and 3 group projects. That's on top of two other classes. Then there is the house. A total disaster.

On Wednesday I went around taking "before" pictures (usually I think of this half way through a project) but now whenever we make improvements I'll have a "before" picture. This one is just plain scary, no sugar coating, just a lot of laundry and mess and no decoration. Hope to have an "after" shot SOON.

AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Ok, I feel better. Now, as Jon Stewart would say, "your moment of zen:"

Have a great weekend! I'll be avoiding real work by working on my Whiplash! project. Theme is "classy to chic."

The List

2006-05-01T20:58:00.000-07:00

Modify Cal Poly sweatshirt and make matching pants
Tote for KL birthday
Learn to make softies
Submission for art-o-mat
Bathroom redo

Mostly Friendly Monster

2006-04-30T10:05:00.000-07:00

Have no fear, the mostly friendly monster is here.
Can you guess what this is? It's my No Fear "mostly friendly monster" for the third week of the Whip Up! competition.

I thought the mostly friendly monster would make the baby have no fear of the dark 'cause he's a nightlight and will scare all of the other monsters away!
Sorry for the bad photography!
I covered the old nighlight with white tissue paper for the whites of the eyes then covered with green fur and embellished with felt in the eyes and mouth. You can switch the light off and on through his mouth.

Picnic Day Aftermath

2006-04-23T13:47:00.000-07:00

Surly before coffee

2006-04-23T13:16:00.000-07:00

I had so much fun last week with the Whiplash competition! (congrats to the very deserving winners)

I promised myself I'd enter every week and use the competition as inspiration to get stuff done.

I've had one side of a duvet cover done for, oh, about two years and never could decide how to finish it off. The front is an ivory eylet I cut into squares and then put back together with a bit of detail in the seams (you can sort of see it below).

Yesterday I realized that it's the BACK of a duvet cover, who cares what it looks like! So I took my inspiration from the Whiplash theme, "your surly side" and made a surly side to my duvet.

After all, I'm not a very surly person except when the alarm goes off and I don't want to get out of bed (read, every morning).
Here's the final product:
Mostly green to match the walls with a smattering of pink to go with the nightstand I painted.
Other inspirations

Freezer paper (except I used letter stickers 'cause I'm not patient enough to cut all that out of freezer paper and screen printing ink because it's all I had on hand)
Use what you have month (I didn't buy a single thing for this project except the stickers)
The random checked fabric I bought for a baby quilt and love but never used
The idea of a surly SIDE as in a 2 sided object (eleleo had the same concept with much better execution)

P.S. After seeing this I thought everyone would make placemats with one surly side and one girly side. So far no placemats....

You win some, you lose some

2006-04-21T10:32:00.000-07:00

So I didn't win the Whip Up! competition. Oh well.

After seeing all the entries, I wasn't expecting to win anyway. There are some very crafty folks out there! In any case, I told myself I'd enter weekly just to inspire me to get some projects done. I've been mulling the (challenging) new topic, "your surly side" and I'll let you know what I come up with. Leave a comment with your ideas about surliness, I've only got 2 days to get this done.

Glad to be an American (baby)

2006-04-20T22:25:00.000-07:00

Beyond the whole stable democracy and availability of cute baby clothes, the munchkin should be glad to live somewhere arranged marriages just aren't the norm. If I could, I'd have her married off already to one of the wonderful little boys we know (based solely on the qualities of their parents). There are some great options out there:
Kyson
An older man by 12 months. If he turns out half as nice as his parents, our baby would have a very kind and generous husband.

Ryan
Older by only 2 days. They'd be able to celebrate their birthdays together every year and, if he inherits his sense of humor from his parents, Ryan will be a riot.

Corey
Younger by 2 months but quite a catch. If he takes after his (adopted) older brother, he'll be smart as a whip. Everyone likes a boy with brains.

Matthew
(no picture of Matthew right now)
Another older man by 6 months. He's an active little fellow and given his mom's athleticism he's got pro athlete written all over him.

And finally, Sid
Believe it or not, he's the product of an arranged marriage and look at those curls and those eyes! He'll be a looker.

So maybe it's lucky I can't arrange her marriage. It'd be too hard to choose among all these adorable little boys. Plus, who wants to save for a dowry anyway?

And when is one of my friends going to have another little girl??

Whip it!

2006-04-16T17:40:00.000-07:00

...and whip it good. Do you remember that song? Takes me right back to junior high school.

So anyway, discovered another crafty site and it turns out the name is Whip Up! (not Whip It!) but I've got the song in my head anyway. Whip up! is sponsoring Whiplash which is a crafty competition. I really want to win the prize so here's my entry:

The theme for the week is "Everyday Creativity." I've been mulling this topic for the last 12 hours (many of them in the middle of the night with the baby who never sleeps). I wanted to enter a creative and crafty solution to an everyday problem.

My problem is ongoing rainy/cold weather and a baby who is outgrowing all her cozy footed outfits. (see the toes poking out?)

No point in buying a bigger size because soon it will be warm but I need to get a few more weeks out of the ones she's got. Here are the solutions I devised:

For more spring-like weather, the hemmed cut offs:

And in case it rains forever, the extended legs:My original design didn't work out but I still managed to whip up both outfits during a one hour afternoon nap. Thanks for the inspiration, Whip Up!

Homework procrastination reaches new levels

2006-04-12T21:41:00.000-07:00

I have grand plans for updating the links on this blog to include all the fun crafty sites I've been discovering like this and this. But I've barely had time to post, let alone accomplish anything worth posting about. My postings may be infrequent for the next 8 weeks until I graduate (!) but don't abandon me, loyal readers, I'll try to stay in touch!

Mr. H has been consumed with a paid project he's working on in the garage but he did find time to hang the medicine cabinet so the bathroom is more or less done (other than the lingering water pressure issue) You can't really tell but the knob is a cool starfish.

I have managed to avoid homework by working on baby's scrapbook. Sactownkid's pages put mine to shame but I'm more about quantity than quality at this point. Here are some highlights (sorry about the glare):

Thanks, Kristy for the cool babyfood paper. I've been waiting for her to eat solids just so I could use it. That's definitely my favorite page!

Baby Bundt Cakes

2006-04-04T22:46:00.000-07:00

Taking a quick blog break from writing a paper on agency relationships for my "Managers and the Legal Environment" class. One week into this class, I can tell you I made a wise decision when I decided not to go to law school (not that I was ever even considering law school).

Just before the blog break, I took a break to freeze another tray of baby food. I've been on a baby food making kick now that baby is eating solids. My mom made all my baby food for me (liver and carrots!) and for some reason I always thought it would be fun to do for my baby.

Of course I probably never would have gotten around it except that, in a not so subtle hint, I was given a baby food grinder and a baby cookbook for Christmas from my mom

Now I've been having fun cooking and mashing produce and forming it into little cakes in the oddly shaped ice cube tray I bought at Ikea.

Here is a lovely display of the nine flavors I have created to date. Can you guess what they are?

Here are the answers (front to back; left to right): sweet potato; pear; spaghetti squash; green beans; carrots; asparagus; apple; potato; cantaloupe. So far, baby likes sweet potato, pear and spaghetti squash for sure. She's reserving judgement on green beans, carrots and potato and hasn't tried the others. I'll keep you posted. Feel free to submit additional food ideas. I'm planning strawberries and bananas soon....

Where is spring?

2006-04-02T18:52:00.000-07:00

Our patio is ready, I've planted trees, I'm all set to relandscape the front yard in flowers but where is spring?? Apparently this is was the rainiest March since 1849 here in Sacramento! Now it's April 2 and the rain continues.

On the upside, it's nearly 7 p.m. and still light out and baby has taken up napping again (hence the time to blog). What I should be doing is homework, not due until next Saturday but I just realized I have to work almost every night this week so I'd better get on it! Instead I think I'll scrapbook.

Anyway, the real point of this blog, I wanted to show you, loyal readers, my homage to spring and to Easter.

Used a pot I've had sitting around for ages and filled it with moss from the front flower bed. Cute, eh? I was inspired by Thriftcraft to do an Easter scene.

Ok, off to take advantage of the rest of this random nap!

Primetime

2006-03-28T22:10:00.000-08:00

Unless you live in the Midwest, network primetime is 8-10 p.m. That's my primetime too. The prime time for getting just about anything accomplished.

Now, before you say that raising my child is the most important work of all and sure to be my greatest accomplishment, let me say that I agree. But, the important work of parenting just doesn't get the dishes any cleaner.

We have miraculously managed to establish a bedtime. After a week or so of screaming at bedtime we finally figured out that 10 p.m. was far too late for bed and the poor child was exhausted. Mr. H and I determined that 8 p.m. was the ideal bedtime (through the very scientific method of deciding that 8 p.m. worked for us). Then I made up an elaborate bedtime routine (all the books say that babies need routines). Here's the schedule
7:30 p.m.--bath
7:40 p.m.--dry off and put pajamas on
7:45 p.m.--story in rocking chair (unless prevented by grumpiness)
7:50 p.m.--boob time
7:58 p.m.--swaddling (yes, still swaddled at 5 months, weird but it works)
7:59 p.m.--animal alphabet
8:00 p.m.--in bed and off to dreamland
8-10 p.m.--primetime

During the precious 2 hours between baby's bedtime and my eventual collapse from exhaustion, all the household stuff has to happen. Dinner, dishes and laundry of course. Plus internet surfing, blogging and mail reading. And, ideally, a few projects around the house.

Tonight, between 8 p.m. and now (10 p.m.), I got my shopping done at Target, did the dishes and finished the nightstand. I took the advice of by blogging pals and tried the destressed finish. It sort of didn't work and now the table looks kind of crappy but hey, it's done. And really it doesn't matter 'cause the top will be covered with books and crap in no time. I do appreciate the feedback from my loyal readers.

And just because I said I wouldn't do any more posts without photos:
Baby is now eating solids. This was spaghetti squash. Mmmm

Spring is in the air

2006-03-28T21:53:00.000-08:00

It was another productive weekend. Enjoyed a day of wine tasting and then brunch with friends (including baby's "boyfriend" who is 2 days older than her). Awww, so cute!Made the requisite trip to Home Depot on Sunday (the only time all day Sunday that baby stopped fussing) and purchased four new fruit trees. So far only one has toppled over in the rain storm. Also bought paint for my nightstand. Here's the unfinished nightstand I got from Mr. H for my birthday. And here it is painted. The upside of being up for 1-3 hours in the dead of night with a fussy baby is you have time to mull projects. I was inspired to do a spring flowering branch design on the table to allow some of the wood grain to show. It also goes with the floral theme of the bedroom and the pink is complementary to the all green color scheme we have so far.

If any of the 4ish readers care to comment, I'd like to get your opinion on how to finish this project. I could just put on some clear coat poly or I could sand and "distress" the paint and finish it with some wax. Thoughts? Ideas? I want to get it out of the living room and back by my bed...my books are hard to reach on the floor.

The Bunny Blog

2006-03-23T22:13:00.000-08:00

So this is another favorite new site. She offered a free bunny pattern. At first I thought the bunny was ugly (actually, I still think it's a bit ugly) but that didn't stop me from making three of them for Easter presents.

I was additionally inspired by this site which pointed out that my "original" idea of making pillows out of thrift store sweaters is about as far from original as you can get. Oh well.

I took baby to Goodwill the other night and bought this sweater for $3 (seemed a bit overpriced considering my mom can find far better stuff at garage sales for $1 max)
washed it and turned it into these bunnies:
One each for my nieces and daughter.

Here is a bunny enjoying some tummy time and showing off her sweater ball tail.
HAPPY EASTER (almost)

Work Shoes

2006-03-21T22:10:00.000-08:00

Blogger=Tractor Beam

2006-03-20T20:44:00.000-08:00

So Sactownkid referred to Blogger as a Tractor Beam and I think she's right. I am up to five readers and have my first family member reader, my dad. And now he started his very own blog to chronicle his impending retirement. I put a link on my favorites page. The half ounce part refers to the approximate weight of backpacking stoves he's been obsessed with making out of Pepsi cans. I'm sure he'll post a photo of the stoves sometime soon.

I've also gotten mildly obsessed with some crafty blogs. I'll post a some sites every few days as I discover them. Here is a current fave. I love the title!

Finally, I reviewed my recent postings and decided that photos make the blog much more fun so I will include a photo in every post (Lord knows I have plenty of baby photos to choose from).

Here is a photo from about 3 months ago of baby in one of my favorite outfits (that she's completely outgrown).
Is that the cutest sweater or what?

Oh weekend how do I love thee? Let me count the ways

2006-03-19T21:36:00.000-08:00

It has been an excellent weekend. Here are some highlights in photographic form.

1. Friday night: Mr. H had a poker party in the garage and baby was asleep so I had the whole house to myself (a rare and treasured event). I celebrated with 2 cups of coffee and a serious case of the caffeine jitters but wow was I productive. I finished all the pillows for the day bed in the craft room.

2. Saturday morning we got up and went camping near Point Reyes with a group of friends and family. It was a lovely day and we had 10 adults and 3 kids at dinner. I got to go to bed at 8 p.m. so I got tons of sleep. We ate well at every meal. All in all it was a great first camping outing for baby. (Just a touch too cold). Here's baby trying out the new tent. (you can just barely see her little head)

And here is a partial group shot. It was us, my parents, our friends and their 3 year old and 3 month old and their two sets of parents. Their little baby didn't sleep over.

Here is a chipmunk that was eating bacon grease off the spatula. Nine of us ate FOUR pounds of bacon this morning (along with fruit, eggs and pancakes)

Here is baby with Grandpa trying on his hat. Awwww

Here is the aftermath of the trip. Baby slept in the car BOTH ways. Not a single tear was shed over 5 hours of driving!

3. At home, the patio project remained in limbo. Here it was at 5 p.m. tonight. As you can see we got the forms in and a whole bunch of sand. Under the sand is "road bed" gravel. The shrubs on the left are the ones we transplanted.

And here's the patio at 10 p.m.! We ended up buying 900 pounds of sand (sadly not a typo!) and then had to buy about 170 bricks. The 100 or so bricks I found around the yard just weren't enough.

And the good weekend continued!!

4. Appropriately numbered, I found out I have a fourth reader. U.C.D. has gone international. A week or so ago I got a very exciting email from my college freshman roomate. We had lost touch since she is quite a globetrotter. I had heard she might be moving to Turkey a few years ago and lo and behold she found me from Istanbul and sent an email. Turns out she saw my photo in the alumni magazine (pregnant) and emailed to tell me she had a daughter in January. I was SO excited to hear from her that I gave her the link to this blog and now I find she's a regular reader. How cool is that?

5. Our new DVR on our cable remembered to tape West Wing for me even though I totally forgot it was on.

6. Baby has a checkup at the doctor at 9 a.m. so we get to sleep in tomorrow and continue this really good weekend just a bit longer.

Eight ways to make sure the new owners really hate the house you sold them (or at least hate you)

2006-03-19T17:25:00.000-08:00

1. Paint exterior being careful to caulk all windows CLOSED and then paint them shut to be sure nobody ever breaks in through a window (at least not without breaking the glass)

2. Leave the electric stove but take all the burners with you

3. Install fancy new GFI outlets in the kitchen and baths but just screw in the outlets without actually attaching the wires

4. Remove all exterior lighting (i.e. porch lights)

5. Rip out your own deck leaving random concrete stairs with no railings

6. Leave a cup of Starbucks coffee hidden in the back of your bathroom vanity until it molds, soaks through the cup and into the vanity and smells like vomit

7. Leave the alarm set but don't give the realtor the code

8. Bury sprinker lines throughout the yard but don't actually attach them to sprinkler heads

Sadly, this post is more of a documentary than a fiction novel. I wish I were this creative.

It Didn't Start With the Wisteria

2006-03-15T22:03:00.000-08:00

The dedicated reader will recall the first post to this blog involved an overgrown wisteria and a professional grade chipper. This might lead the reader to believe that the wisteria was the first project around here. That would be inaccurate.

Additional detail will be provided in further posts, but here are the highlights of the home renovation completed pre-baby. For reference, move in date was August 8, 2005. Baby due date was October 20, 2005. Baby arrival was October 16, 2005. Here's the timeline:

August 8: This sucks!
Officially a really sucky day involving: work, damaging an uninsured moving van, a car accident in our personal vehicle, an emergency trip to labor and delivery and our first night in our new home.

August 9: What's that smell?
Recognition that the incredibly disgusting stench emanating from the guest bathroom would require that the bathroom remodel move up on the priority list (stench ultimately traced to a moldy cup of Starbucks left in the vanity and soaked into the vanity plywood). Ripped out entire vanity.

August 15-17: We really know how to party
Painting "party" involving all the family we could rope in and priming and painting the entire interior of the house (including trim)

August 17-30 (approx): Bye bye carpet
Ripping up all the carpet to reveal hardwood floors in bad condition and a hallway made of patched plywood. Installing new hardwood in hall and refinishing all hardwoods.

September-October: Pregnant ladies pee a alot
But fortunately this house has 2 bathrooms. Remind me to tell you about redoing our ONLY bathroom in the former house. Gutted the guest bathroom down to the studs and then put it all back. The vanity was installed October 14. We still don't have a medicine cabinet

Despite the fumes, our baby is incredibly normal! Those waterbased finishes are good stuff.

You can lead a baby to her crib

2006-03-12T20:57:00.000-08:00

and, you guessed it, you can't force her to sleep.

Welcome to our world. Our perfect little sleeper (who made me feel superior to other parents when, at about 3 months she was only waking up once per night) has started boycotting sleep. Just when we think she could sleep all night without food, she's decided she'll get up every 2 hours or so. Fun times.

She's also sworn off napping in increments longer than 30 minutes.

You'd think this would have a detrimental effect on project progress but it's actually been a very productive weekend.

2005 taxes--done (and wow, what a refund!! Kids are quite the deduction)
brick collection--done (still need to wash the bricks)
patio development--serious progress made

And, in other VERY exciting news, we got DISH network today. Never in my life have I had cable (that's what hotels are for) yet I still know more about cable then most of my cable subscribing friends. For example, I can tell you that Trading Spaces is on on Saturdays and TLC only runs one program a day. Unfortunately, for our first day of cable, it's running shows about REALLY fat people such as, "The Half Ton Man." Gross!

So that sums up the weekend. As dusk was falling and the baby was fussing in her chair on the porch and we were hauling and raking the last bits of gravel from the truck to the patio Mr. H commented sarcastically on what a "relaxing" weekend we'd had. Funny thing is, I thought it was pretty relaxing. Getting things done feels like a weight off my shoulders so I can really relax. Now all I need is a glass of wine (and a sleeping baby!)

iheartikea

2006-03-06T22:48:00.000-08:00

So Ikea West Sacramento opened last week. Mr. H and I decided to brave opening day but by the time we got organized and out the door, picked up Panda Express for dinner and drove around the giant parking lot for 20 minutes, it was 7:30 p.m. and baby was tired and fussy so we sat in our car, ate bad Chinese food and viewed the wonder that is the Ikea warehouse from our parking spot about a quarter mile away.

We still haven't seen the inside of this exciting addition to the Sacramento region but, according to my mom who has already visited, they have toilet bowl brushes for $0.79 (where is the cent key??) so I"m sold on Ikea. For $0.79 you even get a holder for your brush!

Another cool thing about Ikea is the kitchen planner tool. I had hoped to paste in one of the 8 kitchen designes Mr. H and I are considering but the program isn't quite cool enough to create pdfs. What it does do is allow you to enter the size of your kitchen, fill it with windows and doors, add in appliances and cabinets then tour your creation in 3-D. Trust me, hours can be wasted spinning around a virtual 3-D kitchen.

If you are planning a kitchen remodel, I would recommend this tool. That is at least until I have the results to prove that professional kitchen designers exist for a reason!

On other updates:

I plan to try to stay more true to the theme of this blog (but won't ever be able to resist posting adorable baby photos)
Still only one pillow done in the craft room...
Mr. H has constructed a few more shutters but can't paint due to rain
Found the mother lode of bricks but haven't collected due to rain
The inspiration for this blog, is celebrating a milestone of nearly 50 posts. This is a personal fave (oh, and this).

The shrubs go marching

2006-03-04T18:53:00.000-08:00

It was a really lazy day. I did manage to vacuum and fold some laundry but mostly we just hung out with the family and ate too much and took pictures of the baby.
At about 6 p.m. the guilt of not getting anything accomplished started to eat at me so in the waning light I moved one last shrub for the patio project. Then, in the almost dark, I went on a brick hunt. It's the uncommon home where you can wander about for 5 minutes and manage to find 20 loose bricks. It was like an Easter egg hunt. I figure if I search while it's light, I'm sure to have enough for the patio. I'll keep you "posted."

I see why the mommy bloggers are mostly full time moms

2006-03-03T16:37:00.000-08:00

So I just learned that I may have a second reader which inspired me to make another post (instead of working). It's been an absolutely nutty week. We got baby back to daycare on Monday after much illness last week. Monday was another road trip but with a boss that is more understanding of the needs of the boobs.

Tuesday night we had a meeting with an insurance broker about life insurance (the things you think about when you have a baby). As an aside, never try to get life insurance for a diabetic. As another aside, the guy had a serious overshare problem. Within 5 minutes of meeting him, I knew that his parent's had divorced when he was in high school, he and his wife are trying to get pregnant and he has some sort of problem with his testicles that involves pooling blood.

But let's talk about life insurance!!

So he left and about 20 minutes later baby threw up all over. And then she threw up again. And then she wouldn't stop so we raced off to the ER on the advice of the doctor on call. Well, we got to the hospital at about 9 p.m. with a baby we could barely wake up. We saw the triage nurse and we waited...

and waited....

at about 10:30 she started to perk up and seem much better. And still
we waited....

and then, at midnight I finally gave her a little snack and she kept it down and just then they called our name.

So we went into a little room in the ER and, you guessed it, we waited!

We gave the same story of what happened over and over and by this time, baby was so happy and healthy we had to swear she'd been sick at all.

I guess when you've waited that long they want to make it worth your while so we got to see two doctors (one of whom had the distinct pleasure of sticking his finger up her little baby butt to look for blood in her stool), then we got to have x-rays, then more x-rays, then finally, at 4 a.m. they said, "nothing appears to be wrong, just keep an eye on her."

Gosh, thanks for that insight, she's been fine since 10:30 p.m. Of course I can't complain. I'd rather wait until 4 a.m. to find out she's fine than learn that something is seriously wrong!
And, she's still fine. A bit of a lingering cough from her cold but that's it. All meals are staying safely in her stomach until they (not so safely) exit into the diaper.

So, in the good old ER, Tuesday became Wednesday and Wednesday was a blur of tiredness at work and I got home and passed out and Wednesday became Thursday and now it's Friday with no posts. You can tell I've been busy as I was three posts behind on reading Dooce.com. Thank you to my faithful reader(s). I'll try to be better next week.

Making progress

2006-02-27T21:54:00.000-08:00

Over the weekend I finally finished the curtains for the craft room (and even made one of the pillows)

Cool, eh? I know my mom will hate them; she doesn't like toile. As an aside, to hear the word "toile" properly pronounced, go here. This site will also provide TWO pronounciations of the word "shit." Not that I would ever ask my computer to say shit...

And on another front, teamwork in the garage led to the installation of the first set of shutters (just to make sure they're okay before investing in finishing the shutters for the other six windows). So here you go:

I think they look better in person.

So the title of this blog entry relates nicely to the home rennovation theme of this website but as usual I was reading Dooce.com and today's post got me to thinking about progress for women. She brings up the whole, "is it wrong for educated women to stay home to raise children" debate. Read her stuff, I won't try to paraphrase, but as a new mom it's an issue I think about a lot.

Pre-pregnancy Mr. H and I discussed him being a stay at home dad. He seemed to have all the maternal instinct in the family and for the first five years of our marriage he was the one who wanted children. When it came down to it (and after we bought a new house) having one of us stay home just didn't make financial sense so I knew from the beginning I would be going back to work.

At first, I assumed this was definitely the right choice. I have never been particularly fond of babies and couldn't imagine spending every day at home with one. Then baby was born and I spent 2.5 months at home with her, all day, every day and couldn't imagine going back to work and leaving her in daycare.

Before long, January 1 arrived and maternity leave was over. To be honest, going back to work wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. About 4 p.m. I want to give baby a hug but generally I drop her off in the morning and look forward to seeing her when I get home but during the day I'm busy with work.

Being a working mom is less convenient when it comes to breastfeeding. Pumping in my office three times a day works reasonably well but what's a girl to do when stuck traveling all day in a car with the bosses' bosses' boss? I spent two days stuck in a car with the equivalent of the company CEO going from meeting to meeting with nary a potty break. The boobs do not go 6 hours people! I couldn't come up with a tactful way to say, "can we be late to this next meeting? I really need to go milk myself."

But, travel days aside, work is okay. Until I start to think about it and feel guilty about not being home all day with the munchkin. Most of my friends who have kids have decided to stay at home nearly full time adding to the guilt. My sister in law (a working mom of two) assures me that she is a better parent because she's working. Different strokes for different folks.

So I guess my take on the whole feminism thing is that what all those NOW members fought for was the right for women to get an education and make their own choice. Stay at home, go to work, baby in daycare, stay at home dads, the options are endless and many women today can choose what's right for their family.

That's cool, I just wish I knew what was right for me.

Full time blogging works for Heather but I've seen the competition out there and unless Home Depot wants to sponsor this drivel, I think I'll go to work tomorrow.

Blogging lesson learned

2006-02-25T09:19:00.000-08:00

So, if you start a post and then get distracted and write other posts and then go back to the original draft and post it, it'll show up on the date you started it, not the date you published.

Therefore, those (hundreds of dedicated readers) looking for my post of Four Things should scroll down to 2/15/06.

Lesson learned.

What would you rather be doing?

2006-02-19T16:13:00.000-08:00

The plan for today was to go to Mr. H's parent's house to watch the Daytona 500. The solitary reader may not realize (being a Californian and all) but NASCAR season has begun. I was personally trying to think of a way out of spending the entire day watching cars go in circles.

We woke up after about 2 hours of solid sleep (sick babies DO NOT SLEEP) and Mr. H announced that before heading out he wanted to get going on the project we discussed yesterday of moving some shrubs in the front yard and making a space for a patio set. It seemed like a great idea. Since I anticipated spending an hour or two on the shrub project before heading off to watch the race, I dressed the baby in her NASCAR bib featuring Carl Edwards. It wasn't good luck for Carl, he crashed.

So during the morning nap we pulled out our shovels and went to town digging out and transplanting shrubs and chainsawing the ones that were too big to move. That left us with a giant stump which required a few hours of pick ax and chainsaw action to remove. Then Mr. H, who as already explained does not half ass his work, cleaned the entire area and put the tools away and finally left for his parent's house with about 30 laps left in a 200 lap race. (It's 500 miles and apparently that translates to 200 laps).

Now we have a nicely cleared area for a patio. All we have left is moving a few more shrubs, laying a patio and perhaps, a picket fence.

Add this to the list of projects in progress...

Anger

2006-02-18T16:56:00.000-08:00

Cuteness

2006-02-18T16:55:00.000-08:00

You can only nag so much....before you have to look in the mirror

2006-02-18T16:34:00.000-08:00

So I've been nagging Mr. H pretty much since the day we moved in (August 2005 for the record) to make me some shutters for the NINE giant windows in the front room. Without shutters the house is a fishbowl.

He bought the wood, we ordered the hardware, a prototype got partially completed and then the whole thing stalled in favor of other projects (more on those later). So this is how our windows look right now: See what I mean? We eat in a fishbowl (ok, to be honest, we never eat at the table)

But still I've been nagging
and nagging
to no avail.

And then I decided it was time to look in the mirror.

I am queen of the unfinished project. Here's a partial list:

curtains for the craft room (1/3 done)
pillows for the craft room (supplies purchased)
duvet cover (one side done)
wedding gift from a 2004 wedding (ok, that's embarrassing) (half done)
baby quilt for our baby (half done)

I'm hoping confessing to my solitary reader will increase my motivation to get this stuff done!

But maybe I'd rather just nag.

Overkill

2006-02-15T21:32:00.000-08:00

Unlike me, Mr. H never does a half ass job on any home project.

The ant invasion of our very small pantry was promptly squashed by 5, yes FIVE!, ant killer things. Watch out rouses in the attic!

I never was a trendsetter

2006-02-15T13:07:00.001-08:00

So all the cool blogs I read (all three of them) have been tagging one another about Four Things. Now, I'm not cool enough to have been tagged and at this point the Four Things concept is getting stale in the blogging world but I figured the solitary reader might still enjoy so here goes:

Four jobs I’ve had:

Fabric store sales clerk. First long term job (I'm not counting the holiday stints at the Christmas tree farm before I was legally old enough for a worker permit or the Christmas job at a packing and shipping store--which reminds me, someday I'll share the story of my interview for that job)
House painter for Student Works Painting. No, I wasn't one of those high acheiving student managers getting real career experience, I was the actual house painter. Actually a good skill that has come in handy many times (but somehow, as Mr. H can attest, I am still the messiest painter known to human kind. I always paint my hair and body as much as the walls)
Cook for a college fraternity. For a whole academic year I cooked four nights a week for the 15 or so guys that lived in the frat house. Only had to order emergency pizza once
Customer service rep for a company that tests transformer oil. I bet you've never heard of that industry.

Four movies I can watch over and over:

I'm just not that into movies so, in staying with the website theme I will list four ill conceived homeowner projects I have helped with:

Grouting terra cotta tile that wasn't fully sealed (grout REALLY sticks to terra cotta)
Installing a cast iron tub in a bathroom that was too small for the tub (advanced pregnancy prevented my full participation in this fiasco)
Removing a perfectly good picket fence we later had to re-install
Changing all the door hardware in the house before painting and before realizing we'd also have to change all the hinges which would then not fit properly

Four places I have lived

Escondido, California, raised (not born)
Davis, California
Adelboden, Switzerland (for three months)
Sacramento, California (three different locations so far)

Four TV shows I (currently) love

Grey's Anatomy
West Wing
Alias
Trading Spaces (oh to have cable and be able to watch regularly)

Show I am currently (as in right this exact moment) watching:

This Old House Hour

Four (international) places I’ve vacationed

Pune, India
Wackersdorf, Germany
Cuernavaca, Mexico
Bangkok, Thailand

Four of my favorite dishes (Now I love food as much as the next person but again, I will modify)

Four foods that go well with home rennovation:

Beer
Pizza
Del Taco (there's one in the Lowe's parking lot)
Starbucks (there's one in every Home Depot parking lot)

Four sites I visit daily

Yay Toast
Dooce
Google
UC Davis (every weekday)

Four places I'd rather be right now:

Actually, I'm pretty satisfied. After two days in Bakersfield I'm sitting in my own bed holding my adorable, sleeping baby. What could be better? Instead,

Four more projects I realized I have in progress or REALLY* need to start:

Painting the nightstand Mr. H made me for my birthday
Helping Mr. H fill in the trench in the backyard
Complete kitchen remodel*
2005 Tax Return*

Four people I am tagging:

Nobody since everyone's already done this...

Sick Day and thus Some Blog History

2006-02-15T08:43:00.000-08:00

Apparently Portland was a bit much for the baby because now she is sick. She doesn't really seem sick but has a fever of 102. Day care took her when she was hacking up a lung and could barely breathe through her stuffy nose (when her parents had to go to work and thus, with much guilt, abandoned her at day care) but no way will they take her with a fever. I don't really get it but I guess fever means contagious. It takes a while to sort out how things work in the world of parenthood.

Here she is enjoying her sick day with a nap on the couch, medical record card conveniently close. For the paranoid out there, she has no idea how to roll over and I am just an arm's length away!

But I digress.

Since I'll now be spending the morning at home until the doctor's appointment, Mr. H suggested I get the oil changed in the car.

That sounds productive.

As a person who has literally never taken a sick day in my life (if you don't count naternity leave and the one day I took for gum surgery) I plan to enjoy my few hours of unexpected freedom. If baby is asleep, I plan to catch up on all the blogging that has been rattling around in my head.

So, some history.

I didn't know anything about blogs or bloggers or blogging or anything until my friend "sactownkid" started a blog. And she had a link to Dooce which I started reading daily and was promptly hooked.

I caught myself going through my day thinking how various events would sound written up on my very own blog. Like the time I mocked the frozen pizza instructions for reminding consumers, "don't eat while frozen" and proceeded to bake the pizza with the cardboard underneath (for the record that's pretty much like cooking a turkey with the bag of guts still inside).

My life seemed to be shaping up into serious blogger material (or is that materiel?).

I starting reading all these mommy blogs and thought, "hey, I'm a new mom, I could be a mommy blogger" but I realized I could never be nearly as good as what I was already reading. Check out the monthy newsletter archives on Dooce. I seriously start crying everytime I read them.

After spending some time thinking about what my blogger niche might be, I realized that Mr. H and I are unusually addicted to do-it-yourself (DIY) projects and my solitary reader might enjoy a home repair diary to remind her why she really likes living in an apartment.

So there you go. Under Construction Daily was born (and I particularly like that the acronym is UCD, a favorite university of mine). Don't think I didn't plan that!

Sick baby is awake. Off to get the oil changed.

Portland Trailblazers

2006-02-15T08:25:00.000-08:00

So this weekend involved no home repair projects whatsoever. We went to Portland. I consider us trailblazers because we took the baby (before her 4 month birthday). First airplane ride, second hotel stay, first trip to a zoo, you get the idea. I won't bore you (my solitary blog reader) with the photos but check this out.
Do you see the similarity? Our baby and a rhino, roly poly creatures with 2 horns on their head.

And speaking of critters, I'm pretty sure we have a rat/mouse in the attic. (a rouse? a mat?) Mr. H got out of the shower and swore he heard something then I heard it too. My fingers are crossed that it was really the birds on the roof. Maybe it was an auditory illusion that the sound was from the attic.

Clearly time for another trip to the hardware store.

Big Tool

2006-02-10T16:33:00.000-08:00

Not as dirty as it sounds (unlike all the spam I get). This really is a big tool. A professional grade chipper as in, "is that your partner there in the chipper?" kind of chipper. You can chip for 2 hours for $86. What a bargain.

And to think some people spend their weekends at the mall.