li_99

For the past month I've been working out of our new Hayward office. It's temporary, I'm filling in for someone on a LOA. I love working out of a new area. I get to explore- on my lunch breaks I'll look for new eateries, I figure out different routes, and generally familiarize myself with the area. There are two things on my route that I've been wanting to explore since I started working here, and I finally got to the second one today. (The first one I did a week or so ago.) In reverse chronological order:

There's this little store front with about 6 shopping carts out front called the Mumbai Bazaar. This has been screaming at me to see what it is. There's just something about the work 'bazaar' that is enticing. Who knows what kind of exotic things they'll have? Today I finally had the opportunity to stop and go in. The first thing that struck me was the smell. It was a combination of incense and spice. Which is a good 25% of what they have for sale, and it's a HUGE store! I have never seen so many kinds of rice, and the spices... I didn't know what most of it was. The store turned out to be an Indian/Pakistani market- selling dry and canned goods, colorful embroidered fabrics (table cloths I think, but I didn't have time to really check it out) specialized cooking implements & other tchatskis (sp?), as well as the previously mentioned rice, spices and incense. Unfortunately, I got a phone call from work and had to run back to the office before I really had a chance to explore. But I find myself wanting to buy something (anything) I've never heard of before, just to try it out. Maybe I've watched too much Bizarre Foods, but I'm going to have to go back and check it out again.

Along my route, as I drive down W. Winton I kept seeing something huge and colorful behind the warehouses and between the trees. I drove slowly enough to see it, and it looked to be a 3-4 story tall Hindu(?) god? An elephant-headed man with a bowl of oranges in one of his (many) hands. This more than peaked my curiosity. The other day, I decided to find this elephant-man. A couple of guesses (turn left here, follow this road...) and I found myself in front of.... a foam company. And a 50 foot tall dragon. So neat. The elephant-headed man was around the back of the building in their storage yard, so I haven't been able to get a good look at it, but I'm hoping to take my camera over there one afternoon (maybe tomorrow if I get off work early enough) and take some pictures. I'd love to play around with focus and perspective on 50 foot tall foam constructions. I'm planning to ask if they mind me going into there yard to take photos of the construction(s) in the back.

It's the silly little things some times that are so much fun.

Now that's a hat.

How can a person tell the mother of his child that if she can't take care of said child (without his assistance, financial or otherwise), she should give child up for adoption?


When said child is 5 years old.


Edited for clarity. Twice.

So, since hotmail is eating my evites, I'm going to create a gmail account. I need some help with a username. I am not creative when it comes to things like this. I want something that kinda describes me and/or is funny, and ends in "ly". Some examples of the type of word I want are crypticly, bubbly, terrifyingly... Then I can change the ly to Li. So far the best I've come up with is illegib_Li@... And it doesn't really describe me, just my handwriting. Any help would be appreciated!

One of my co-workers has provided quotes in Latin for several people to put up outside their cubes. This one is not mine, however I thought all of you out there would appreciate it.

The translation reads:
Don't let the bastards grind you down.

Not that Mark has an LJ account, but for those who know him, it's his B-day!

Was successful. You never know when you pull a random recipe of the internet. But I wanted to make Rick a b-day cake from scratch, and it worked. You have to love a cake that involves boiling water. Here's the link, if anyone's interested.

http://jas.familyfun.go.com/recipefinder/display?id=50455

MEME!
Yes or no, no explainations unless asked.


Taken a picture naked? Yes.
Made money illegally? Yes
Had a one night stand? Yes
Been in a fist fight? No
Slept with your best friend? Yes
Had sex in a public place? Yes
Ditched work to have sex? No
Slept with a member of the same sex? No
Seen someone die? Yes
Ran from the police? No
Woke up somewhere and not remember how you got there? Yes
Worn your partners unmentionables? Yes
Fallen asleep at work? Yes
Used toys in the bedroom? Yes
Ran a red light? Yes
Been fired? No
Been in a car accident? Yes
Pole danced or done a striptease? Yes
Loved someone you shouldn't? Yes
Sang karaoke? Yes
Done something you told yourself you wouldn't? Yes
Laughed so hard you peed your pants? Yes
Caught someone having sex? Yes
Kissed a perfect stranger? No
Shaved your partner? Yes
Given your private parts a nickname? No
Ever gone in public without underwear? Yes
Had sex on a roof top? No
Played chicken? No
Mooned/flashed someone? Yes
Do you sleep naked? No
Blacked out from drinking? Yes
Felt like killing someone? Yes
Had sex more than 5 times in one day? No
Been with someone because they were in a band? No
Taken 10 shots of liquor in a day? No
Shot a gun? Yes
Gone outside naked? Yes


Sorry, I don't know how to cut

So Cosimo (the cat) did something today that's got me worried, and I'm hoping that someone out there might be able to offer some insight. 

He's always been attracted by loud vocalizations.  Especially singing, since I'm usually loudest while singing.  If I'm singing, he finds me and rubs up against my leg, or the outside of the shower, etc.  Other loud vocalizations attract him, too. 

This evening I was laying down with Jonathan on my chest.  Jonathan was making all kinds of noises.  When the cat came up and started watching us, I wasn't surprised, 'cause his cooing was really loud, and sounded like singing.  When the cat leaned in toward the back of Jonathan's neck with his mouth open, I shooed him back.  A moment later, the cat went in again, but this time faster and clearly looking like he was trying to bite.  I pushed him away with more force that time, and he went back to ignoring the baby.  As you can see from the picture, they normally get along fine.

Oh, one more thing.  Several months ago the cat slowly and deliberately bit me on the inside of my elbow, and just held it, looking at me.  He didn't break the skin.  I had the impression that this is what he was trying to do this time.

Obviously, this is a problem.  I'm trying to figure out what the cat was trying to do, in order to figure out whether I should be worried about him trying this again. 

1) The cat was trying to protect me. 
2) The cat was trying to treat Jonathan like a kitten. 
3) He was trying to show dominance over the baby. 
4) He was trying to mount the baby, again for dominance I would assume.  (He's fixed, and has never done that to anyone or thing before.)


Anyone have any insight?

Since I'm home all day long I've been watching a lot of TV.  It's on in the background even if I'm paying attention or not.  There's one commercial that seems to play every commercial break, and it's driving me nuts (no pun intended). 

It's not like I'm paying attention to the commercials, so when that line comes out of no where, it just doesn't sound right.

ETA- the commercial just came up again, it's an extrordinary nut snack, not exceptional. 

So I've started working on my households.  So far I've got the bodice cut out and figured out the boning structure.  At least, the boning for now.  I may end up using rope boning eventually.  I'll have to see what happens once it's put together.  I'm sure it won't fit that well by next weekend, but it'll be servicable.  I'm thinking I'll be able to get the dress done, but I'm hoping to get some other things done as well. 

On the other hand, we still haven't figured out if we're going to take Jonathan or not.  Originally we'd planned not to, because SLO is such a dusty faire, but how can the air quality be any worse than what we've been living in for the last few weeks.  It might even be an improvement.  Rick and I still have to talk it over and figure it out. 


Also, for those of you who insist on calling my son by the wrong name, my userpic should clarify it for you.  Cosimo is the one on the left.  (picture taken today)

I'm a lurker.  I regularly read what's on my friends page.  I just don't reply very often. 

I was chastised the other day, something along the lines of  "you never post, you never reply...".  So here, I've posted. 

Now, I'm not saying I'm going to stop lurking.  I could post more often, but lets face it, there's only so much you can say about a 7-week-old.  Or rather, there's plenty I could say, but only so much that the rest of you would want to read.  And I'm afraid I'm slightly one-dimensional at the moment. 

So, now you know. 

So I'm sure everyone already know that Jonathan was born on Wed.  It turned out to be quite an ordeal.  I checked into the hospital on Tuesday (the 6th) around one in the afternoon, and checked out around 11am today.  Here's the story for anyone who's interested.  I've tried to leave out the TMI details.  If I leave any in, well, my TMI threshold is probably out of whack after the events of the last few days. 

I've had high blood pressure for the last month or so, and because of that I've had to go to the doctor for tests twice a week.  I failed one last week, and had to go to the hospital for more tests.  They wanted to induce me then, but I chose not to.  On Tuesday the doctor convinced me that there was no benefit to waiting any further, and 'cause I was overdue and my high blood pressure could only get worse that I should go ahead and get induced.  Given that my body didn't seem to have any  interest in progressing on it's own, I agreed. 

We checked in and they started me on Pitocin (which brings on contractions) about 2 o'clock.  For the rest of the Tuesday and all of Wednesday they tried various tricks to make things happen, but when nothing changed from 2 to 830 pm Wednesday despite regular hard contractions, it was time to make a decision.  Either keep going for who knows how long, or a c-section.  Since I'd been going for 30 plus hours at that point, I went for the c-section. 

The C-section happened pretty quickly at that point.  Rick has a different view point than me, obviously, but I was more focused on some crippling upper back pain that couldn't be helped by the epidural.  They had me prepped and ready and in the OR before I knew it.  There was a short time of trying not to tell the anesthesiologist where to go (she kept stroking my face and telling me I was doing a good job and telling me to take a deep breath, oh and telling Rick to sing to me, I just wanted to tell her to shut up and leave me alone, I'm not scared I'm in pain and your attempt to distract me from my fear is only distracting me from my attempt to relax my back muscles).  Then the back pain was forgotten as the actual c-section was performed.  There was no real pain, but a lot of pressure. 

Then the doctor said something about the cord, and then "four times!"  I thought they were saying he had 4 knots in the cord, but it turns out it was wrapped around his neck 4 times!  That's why there hadn't been any progress, he didn't have enough slack to go anywhere.  So the c-section was necessary the whole time.  If I'd only known, we could have saved a lot of trouble and time. 

Then I heard a short cry from the baby.  They carried Jonathan over to the warmer to clean him off, and Rick saw part of him as they carried him over.  Rick's first comment was "He's white!"  (I guess it takes a bit for the babies to pink up, so they're very white when they're first born.)  He went over and cut the cord, then they wrapped Jonathan up and brought him over for me to see for a couple of minutes.  Then Rick and Jonathan went to the nursery for his first bath and all that other stuff, and they put me back together and I went to the recovery room.  I got to see him again after an hour or so, and he's been with me pretty much ever since.  

Stats, born at 9:54 pm, 7 pounds 11.6 ounces, 21 inches long.  Rick and I are figuring it out together, and although there've been a few speedbumps, it's going really well. 

Thanks to everyone who's sent well wishes and congratulations.  I haven't had the energy to respond to peoples texts, and haven't checked my emails yet. 

There's more to post, including pictures, but I'm running out of steam.  ( I've had maybe a total of 10 hours of sleep in the last 4 days.)  Hopefully I'll get to it tomorrow. 

So after telling everone I'd join LJ as soon as I started maternity leave, here I am finally doing it a month later.  And two days overdue.