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Sunday, March 1, 2009

Relaxing Yet Productive

What a wonderful, relaxing-yet-productive weekend!

My mom came to Davis on Thursday evening and took me out to Thai food. She spent Friday morning hanging around the house with Dave while I was at school getting the remainder of my compost samples sieved. Then she took me to the doctor for my hour-long glucose tolerance and AFP tests (I had no idea being pregnant required so many blood tests and doctors visits!).

After a scrumptious lunch of Czech goulash and dumplings downtown, the three of us headed to Sacramento to check out used baby stuff at Once Upon a Child. We were all impressed with how cheap clothing is--we even picked out two of the teeniest newborn onsies I've ever seen. Since newborns grow so fast, it doesn't make sense to spend money on newborn sized clothing. But we couldn't resist the darling tininess of these things. For only a dollar a piece, we figured we could indulge our baby craziness this one time. (I still can't believe my normally-pear-sized uterus is going to expand to a size capable of accomodating something that will fit into those onsies. These onsies are small but they aren't that small. Holy crap, that's a lot of stretching.)

Then we ended up at the Room Source to buy a new coffee table. Up to this point, Dave's parents were lending us a gorgeous antique (and really expensive) redwood burl table that belonged to Dave's late Papa. This table was so nice that the only "house rules" for guests were to not damage the table in any way and to haul it outside in the event of a fire. Seriously. So now with our little parasite on the way, we decided we needed to get a coffee table that could withstand a few dings and chew marks.

All Room Source stores are closing so I was able to talk the price down to 50% off. Not too bad. Plus it is a cool lift-top table with storage underneath.
Saturday, after my mom left for Livermore, Dave and I just worked around the house finishing up a million little projects that have been left undone for way too long. Our list included:

-giving Dave a haircut
-painting the door trim in the hallway and master bedrooms (10 doors!!!!)
-attach the china hutch to the wall for earthquake safety
-connect speakers to wires (last weekend we pulled speaker wire up through the wall behind the entertainment center, into the attic, and through the living room ceiling)
-bake olive bread for family lunch on Sunday
-make banana muffins from old bananas
-weed vegetable garden
-thin beets

We got everything done on our list. I love it when that happens.

Check out all the beet greens we harvested. Last year I didn't thin them at all so my beet root harvest was pitiful. Hopefully this year we'll get more...but if we don't that's okay because we actually like the greens more than the roots. Chopped beet greens + crushed tomatoes + browned polish sausage + pasta = amazing. This dish is becoming a winter garden harvest tradition at our house.
Today we braved the torrential rains and drove separate cars up to Dave's uncle's cabin near Yorkville (read: out in the boonies). His parents joined us a little late because the south part of their hotel in downtown Gualala caught on fire this morning. Luckily (I suppose), the hotel is broken up into 5 buildings and only one of them was affected. Anyway, hanging out with Uncle Bill, Aunt Suki, Cousin Don and his little girl, Eloise, was really fun and relaxing.
Their cabin is gorgeous and is surrounded by forest and vineyards. They grow grapes for pinot noir wine made by Williams Selyem winery...pinot is hands down my favorite wine. It was tortuous watching everyone enjoy my favorite wine when I coudn't have more than a sip. That sip was soooooooooo good.
Mark my words, my first real meal after giving birth will be a thick rare steak served on a platter of sizzling hot butter with a glass of pinot. I can't wait.

3 comments:

Kaitlin said...

a)a weekend similar to ours...yay!

b)indulge in your baby....i bought way too much for iva and have hardly purchased anything for this kid....boy stuff is not nearly as cute as girl stuff...when do you find out what you're having?

c)how many tests have you had? i only had a blood test at my first appointment and my glucose at 20 something weeks for both pregnancies...poor you!

d)i love the new coffee table!

e)i also love steak. are you not eating meat while preg?

The Bowers! said...

We find out what variety of baby we're having on March 20. I feel like I've had oodles of blood tests, but I'm probably also confusing some of the heart-related ones with the pregnancy ones.

And I'm eating meat (although we really don't eat much meat normally)...but it is supposed to be much more cooked than I really like. To me, steak, salmon, and tuna should all be eaten a little rare for optimal flavor. I'll get my rare steak later.

steph.kelley said...

Rare steak and pinot will still come out in the breast milk, no? I can foresee such yummy semi-toxic indulgences being preceded by a breast pumping — get it while it's still good! Hee hee! Luscious. :D