Adorable travel companion

Adorable travel companion by Corinne S.

Maple accompanied me to my cousin's 40th birthday BBQ last night in
Everett. Maple had on her extra adorable face on during our ride there.

At one point she even laid her chin onto the center console and looked
up at me with her big brown eyes. Cute! Blueberry's gonna have a run
for her money is the cuteness department. ;-)

Blueberry's first books

Sex books for baby by Corinne S.

The other night I was getting sandwiches to go from Honey Hole so I went over to Toys in Babeland to browse while I waited. (Can I take this opportunity to note the lack of pregnancy and trying-to-conceive toys, lubes, and books at TIB? Would it kill them to carry Pre~Seed and a book or two about getting it on while pregnant?)

Anywho, while I was browsing the books I saw that they had several books on sex topics for kids of various ages. I was immediately curious about the ones for the littlest kids, since I am a big fan of not making sex something you have to learn about at age X, but instead just learning progressively as you go along.

So I sat down and read through these books (yes, I was late getting back to our sandwiches) and I ended up taking two home: First Comes Love and What's the Big Secret. It tickles me that my first book purchases for Blueberry are about sex. I guess that's the kind of parent I want to be, even if she won't be reading these for a while yet. ;-)

Hot day

12:00 Friday. The corporate throngs are out enjoying our first very
nice day in quite a while.

Sedaris' autograph

Sedaris' autograph by Corinne S.

Today there was an "author fishbowl"
for Amazon.com employees with David Sedaris. It was very cool to see
him in person and hear him talk off-the-cuff. It took me 5 minutes or
so to make his voice and face go together in my head though--with such
a unique voice he's a pretty ordinary-looking guy.

I didn't have any of his books for him to sign, so I cut the end off
of one of the boxes from his new book they raffles off. He didn't mind
signing my cardboard though.

The line to get stuff signed took an hour to get through because he
was being his chatty self and shooting the shit with everyone. He was
drawing odd little pictures in people's books too.

He was narrating as he drew in the book of a woman before me in line--
apparently the sketch was of a turtle that lives in an abortion
clinic. He inquired of the room at large what a turtle who lives in an
abortion clinic should be named. We had no brilliant retort.

I'm ordering the audio version of his new book from the library asap.

Boys

Tonight Alan came over and we barbequed for the first time this year.
It was the first time I'd seen him since my bithday party last year.

Alan was nice and patient enough to help us get the grill up and
running, sweet the porch, clean off the chairs, and even chop onion.
What a guy.

The food was yummy and the talk was good. It was really pleasant
hanging out in the yard again too.

After cigar time and complete darkness, we moved indoors and the guys
talked music. In this picture Benjamin and Alan are both looking at
Benjamin's MacBook Pro. See any similarities? ;-)

Here she is

Wiggly baby by Corinne S.

Presenting Miss Blueberry--our baby girl. :-) 19 weeks old today. Current estimated delivery date November 5th.

18 weeks and a cold

I'm 18 weeks pregnant as of Friday and this Friday we have our big mid-pregnancy ultrasound, at which we'll hopefully learn Bluberry's gender.

In celebration of week 18, I've come down with a bad cold. I'm thankful I managed not to get sick until second trimester so I can take some basic meds. But on day 4 I'm feeling quite tired of this!

Here we are

Blueberry's family (week 17) by Corinne S.

Though I'm hanging onto my regular pants by the skin of my teeth, Blueberry is starting to peek out (in the form of my belly). Here we are--17 weeks into the pregnancy--in my insanely cluttered home office, which will eventually be Blueberry's room.

Sex and the City

Sex and the City by Corinne S.

On Friday night Ola took Steph, Maddy, and me to see the Sex and the City movie. It was an amazing estrogen fest at the theater. The impossibly long lines consisted of 98% women, many of them more dressed up than is normal for Seattle.

During the movie, the theater was filled with gasps, oohs, aahs, and laughter. It was a corny and fairly predictable movie, but an interesting event.

Birthday wish

Birthday wish by Corinne S.

Last weekend Benjamin and I went to Christy's surprise birthday BBQ. I held baby Mia for a while so her parents could eat and socialize. Took Christy's pic instead of Mia's though.

Grin

Grin by Corinne S.

When I visited Claire last weekend, Amelia gave me big smiles. But she's a bit too fast-moving for my iPhone's camera. ;-)

Industry humor?

A co-worker sent me a link to this article and his introductory comment cracked me up: "In other news, Blockbuster is getting ready to offer downloadable movies, from the comfort and convenience of your couch a Blockbuster Store." Your Blockbuster movie download is just a drive away

Yummy baby

This week the baby is about the size of an avocado, according to BabyCenter.com's fruit-oriented size comparisons. This is an especially pleasing size to me since I'm a big avocado fan. Just remind me not to eat the baby.

My belly is starting to show a bit and my pants are getting tighter. Now that we're officially 4 months in, it might be coming up on time for me to start wearing maternity pants. But I'm still in that awkward transition phase where I mostly don't need them and they feel funny and tend to be a little big (or just fit really oddly) so I will probably continue to push the boundaries of my pants a little longer. ;)

To learn more about what little "Blueberry" is up to developmentally this week, check out Your pregnancy: 16 weeks on BabyCenter.

PS> I stole this picture from Becca's Baby Blog.

Sunday, lazy Sunday

Mabry, upright by Corinne S.

On Sunday, Benjamin and I went to brunch with Nathan, Miller, and Michael for a much-belated birthday celebration of Miller.

We went to the new South Lake Union neighborhood location of the Portage Bay Cafe. The food was as good as ever, but the atmosphere wasn't as warm and personal as the U District location.

Afterward we wandered over to Guitar Center, I got a latte at Uptown Espresso (too much vanilla syrup!), and we trilled through the merchandise at Antique Liquidators (there were several things I liked, but nothing I needed). It was a nice, warm, plan-free afternoon.

Bird adventure

I discovered this injured crow in my yard this morning as I got ready for work. I ended up missing my first meeting as I tried to figure out what to do with it (it could barely walk).

After a web search and several calls I found out that Seattle Animal Shelter will come pick the bird up. This is a huge relief since I didn't think I should be handling a wild bird while I'm pregnant (if ever).

I did find myself wondering about the wisdom of where we draw the line for creatures worth saving, but it looked so forlorn and I didn't feel right just waiting for it to die so I could throw it in the trash. Dismal. At least now it has a chance.

Backyard antics

Backyard antics by Corinne S.

My neighbor has a new temporary housemate who comes with a little brown shitzu-bichon frise mix dog. Our combined back yards are now even more of a small dog park.

Carol loved it on her last day here when the new dog moved in. Maple, on the other hand, mostly barks at Pepper and Kaia for playing. ;-)

Cute?

Cute? by Corinne S.

I didn't realize there's such a thing as cute graffiti.

Graphic design + Politics

Logoblink has an interesting collection of presidental logos from 1960 to the present. It's makes for a fun scroll. USA political election logos 2008 - 1960

Thanks Portland!

Benjamin and I thoroughly enjoyed our weekend in Portland even though it felt predictably too short. We didn't make it to Saturday Market or the Rose Garden. We did go to Powell's, though briefly.

We slept, ate, wandered, saw Iron Man at the theater, and read books in our King sized bed. We stayed in a new-to-us hotel (the Embassy Suites downtown in the historic Multanomah Hotel building) and it was good. We slept through our complimentary breakfast both days though. ;-)

We ate at mostly at new-to-us places too and we weren't disappointed. We tried Manzana Rotisserie Grill on more or less a whim when the hotel concierge's recommendations didn't appeal. Not a 10 for atmosphere, but good food (especially their unusual creamy-cheesy tortilla soup). We did return to the Portland Steak & Chophouse since it was right in our hotel lobby. We ate new dishes this time though--both were pretty good.

But the culinary hit of the weekend was a recommendation from a valet at the hotel for our lunch on our last day. Muu-Muu's World Grill was extremely tasty and the bartender/server was friendly, helpful, and cute. :-) The menu was so wide-ranging we were dubious it could all be good, but our 2 entrees and 2 appetizers were all fabulous. I wish I could go again tomorrow.

Pug love

Three ways to sleep in my bed.. by Puggy & Me

I sometimes post photos of Maple to one of the many pug groups on Flickr. There a Portuguese family with a pug puppy found me and added me as a contact. Looking at their photos is like walking down memory lane--their pug is super adorable and looks so much like Maple. Go back to page 1 to see the earliest photos from Puggy & Me.