shazgirl

So at the supermarket the other day I see some meat marked down due to being close to the use by date. Original price was $9.76 and it is now $5.51. The sticker with the price drop describes it as being 33% off. That doesn't work out to 33% as it is around a dollar lower than the calculations but okay if they want to underestimate the saving that's fine. The tray of meat next to it was also marked down to $5.51 and noted as being 33% off. However the original price was around $8.50. Huh? You can't take two different figures and drop them both down to $5.51 and accurately claim the same discount on both. I understand that they are working in bulk and approximations but it still looked a little odd with the two sitting right next to each other.

For the record, I went with the one with the best price per kilo and best discount. :)

I was feeling sick the other day and the world kept spinning around so I went to the doctor. He asked me questions including whether I had any numbness. Eventually he advised it was probably just a virus that was also affecting my inner ear but that if I started to feel any numbness in my face or arms that I needed to return as it might be a stroke. So, in one visit a GP considered the possiblity of dizziness being related to a stroke while as far as we can tell Danny's expensive neurologist in Melbourne never seemed to once consider the possibility in several months. Grrr.

It amuses me that Danny the ex-drover and meat worker who has worked with blood and waded hip deep in shit gets grossed out by the sight of Lex with his food spread all over his face. Danny "I've waded through liquid shit" Oz just goes "Ewwwwww!"

Timing is everything in comedy.

I used to go the Farmers Market at EPIC and buy my fruit and vegetables every Saturday morning. I liked the quality and price of the produce and that you can talk with the stall holders and have them tell you that they dug up those potatoes on Thursday. Then I would go to Aldi and then a supermarket to get anything I couldn't get at the first two.

I haven't managed it since Lex was born. It is only on from 8-11am. With broken sleep and the demands of a full time job, a baby and household stuff I find that not having to go charging out the door early on Saturday morning helps with my permanent sleep debt. Also, any time I have thought about doing it I found that after feeding Lex, changing him etc it ended up a bit late in the morning. Besides, with my lack of time I hadn't quite got around to figuring out what I would cook that week yet.

Last Saturday I finally went. I worked out menus the night before, did a shopping list and managed to feed and change Lex in time to get to the market. I was so proud of myself. Approaching EPIC I noticed an extraordinarily large amount of cars, and people directing said cars into car parks before even reaching EPIC. A glimmer of dread crept into my soul. I stopped and spoke with one of the car ushers. Yes, the Canberra show was on that weekend. And therefore the Farmers Market was *not* on. I went to Woolworths instead. ;)

What are the odds that I managed to pick the only weekend in six months that the show was on? Still, it was funny.

I would just like to give a public "Thank You" to arcadiagt5 . For a few weeks after Lex's birth John did grocery shopping for us. He would solicit a shopping list, go to the supermarket and then ride to our place hauling our shopping in the trailer behind his bike, even though he was working long hours at work. This made life so much easier for us. We were so tired and exhausted and leaving the house to do shopping just took so much effort. Either I went out and had to time things to make sure that Lex was fed before and after or had to take Lex with me. Either way took a huge effort. Even making up a shopping list took an amazing amount of effort - John ended up prompting me to get organised enough to even decide what we needed!

I was talking to an assistant in the chemist today who said that her 19 year old friend was having a baby. I told her that if she wanted to help, don't give yet another toy as a present, do her grocery shopping or cook her some meals - she'll love you for it.

So thank you very much John - your help was invaluable and greatly appreciated.

Apart from morning sickness until halfway through the pregnancy I have come through fairly well. I am fortunate (as is Danny!) that I haven't had the mood swings that a lot of women seem to experience. Although I did have a crying fit over tea the other day. :(

Well, here we are 5 days late and counting. Considering that bub made a try at coming 10 weeks early it seems odd that he is now running late! I had a little chat with him earlier in the pregnancy after the scare and advised that he was better off staying in rather than coming out as once he was out everything was no longer on tap - his stomach would empty and he would get hungry, he could get cold etc. That was advice for that particular point in time kid - it wasn't being proposed as a permanent set up! He's going to be one of those kids that doesn't want to leave home isn't he? Danny and I will be on the Age Pension and still have a child living with us.
I am starting to struggle a bit more - my back is complaining and my heels have started giving me shooting pains. Not my ankles, my heels - strange. We are just waiting at this point in time. We know that we will have a baby soon but just don't know when it will be. I have another midwife appointment next Monday. Wonder if I will keep it?

The other day Danny looked at the skin on the back of my hand and wrist and claimed that it was looking dry and wrinkly. He claimed that I was becoming old and crone-like while he was still smoothly youthful.

I pointed out that the difference between us was that while he was married to me, I, on the other hand was married to him. :)

All is going well. I am 38 1/2 weeks pregnant. In the photos the other week I was actually pushing out my stomach to look as big as I was. I don't have to do that anymore. :) My belly button has almost popped out.
I saw the midwife yesterday and she was very happy with everything. The only thing not quite right is that a few weeks ago bub was head down and on my left side (optimal position). He is now head down and on my right side the little bugger. You were perfectly placed before kid - why did you go and move?
My labour bag is packed and the child seat is installed after paying $260 to get an anchor point added to the car. My mother has cheerfully advised me that this is just the start of the fortune we will spend in the future. Thanks Mum.
Things could start at any second. I thought that they might have the other day but it was a false alarm. I really wouldn't mind having a timetable. I like to know when things are going to happen. Mum tells me that this is just the start of the baby controlling things and to think of this as a taste of things to come. Gee thanks Mum. I think she is enjoying this a bit too much!

Well, I am doing pretty well with the pregnancy. I am now 36 and a half weeks - over 8 months. And I actually look pregnant at last! I still don't look massively pregnant, I seem to be looking reasonably small and compact compared to some women who look like they might explode. I don't know if that is just the way it was going to happen or if it is due to my stomach muscle exercises. Early in the pregnancy I ended up spending 1 1/2 days in Emergency with a back muscle spasm. I don't recommend it to anyone. It hurt incredibly - so much so that I was throwing up in pain and I couldn't manage to either breath deeply or lie down. Apparently I went white from the pain when trying to lie down flat. Modern pain killers are a wonderful invention. Anyway, l had some visits with the hospital physio and she had me do some stomach tightening exercises to help support my back. I have been dong them all the way through and they may or may not have made a difference to the size of my belly.
I could have finished work 2 1/2 weeks ago but decided to work a bit closer to the due date as I figure that I will need the time more afterwards than before and I also had some work I wanted to get finished. Also, if bub decides to arrive later than due date I won't be running short on Maternity Leave. I am planning to finish at the end of this week which will mean that I have worked until 3 weeks before my due date which is not too shabby. I think that may be about my limit as I am struggling this last week. Yesterday and today I have just been so horribly tired at the end of the day. Apart from that I am doing pretty well, my lower back is starting to complain a bit but some women seem struggle physically at this stage more than I am. Go me! I even rode a recumbent trike for a few kilometres the other day as Danny has documented. I couldn't go too fast however as if I did I ended up with my thighs hitting a tattoo on my belly and it just felt wrong. I also failed at getting up the steep hills leading to the Commonwealth bridge. I stalled halfway up the first time and a kindly passerby assisted me up and I "almost* made it up the whole way the second time with a better run up but Danny had to help me the last little bit. I never would have expected that I would be doing a test ride at 8 months!
Danny took some photos of me in the shower the other day and is trying to persuade me to let him post them friends locked. However I am not sure that everyone wants to see me like that. I am also not sure that *I* want everyone to see me like that! :)

So my mobile rang the other day. It was a Victorian number and I didn't recognise it. I answer it and it is from someone I shall call A, to avoid any possibility of her getting into trouble. A works at the country hospital, where I ended up with early labour signs at 30 weeks. Danny posted about it on LiveJournal. Anyway, A's husband was searching the internet, I believe it was about the BeeGees. Somehow he found Danny's post on our time at the local hospital (don't ask me how the BeeGees lead to the hospital!) and drew her attention to it. So at work she looked up the records and called me. In the past I worked in Customer Service at Centrelink and had it drummed into me that you do *NOT* look at customer details out of curiosity (browsing). Part of me was chanting "Browsing is bad". But she was so innocently interested in how things were going and wondering who "Auntie Gwen" that I wasn't going to complain either to her or anyone in authority. She knows Gwen by the way, her son was good friends with Gwen's son. Small towns - everyone knows everyone else and their business. She was glad to hear that all was going well. It was all a little unexpected but she meant well. Small towns have now added the internet to their methods of finding out what is going on around them.

Well I have hit 28 weeks. I have been queasy from time to time but haven't thrown up from morning sickness for 7 weeks now. I am quite pleased about that. I am somewhat less impressed however with the new symptom of leg cramps yanking me out of sleep at 5am. There I am, peacefully dreaming and suddenly, "Oww. What? Why am I awake - Owww. Oh that's why. Crap that hurts." Cue attempting to get out of bed to lean against the wall and stretch my calf muscle. This operation is made slightly more awkward by the fact that it is easier to get out of bed if your leg isn't cramping.

Apologies if this is slightly incoherent - I need to vent.
I caught the earliest bus home from work today as I had had enough of work. My project at the moment is to do with a link between Centrelink and Immigration. We are supposed to start electronically getting data from Immigration about when people leave and enter the country which will make it easier to pay people correctly. Previously the code read a data group directly but that data group is now being deleted and replaced with a few others. Now we are supposed to call up other code that will read the information off the new groups and then use the information they pass to us. All fine, except they don't frigging work yet.

I am sorting through some stuff to cut down the amount of stuff I have.I was wondering if anyone would be interested in some old fanzines. I hate the thought of just throwing them out but I can't justify keeping them.They are all free. I will just have to transport them to anyone interested.

I have copies of:
Spock (story and art fanzine for Austrek). Copies 49, 51and 53 -65.
Eridani 2 and 3 (Star Trek The Next Generation)
Wild Justice 1 and 2 (The Professionals)
Backtrack 2 (The Professionals)

A recent conversation between myself and Kal:

I am sitting at my desk getting done some things that should have been done some time ago and sorting through some papers.

Kal comes up to me. I pat him and talk to him for a while and then return to work. He leaves. A short time later he is back. I pat, talk and return to work. And again. I wonder if he is missing Danny, who is down in Melbourne. And again. I wonder if he is stressed over something. This time I take him on my lap for a while. Eventually I decide to take my papers down to the lounge. I can sort them there and Kal can sit next to me and get the attention he obviously needs. Down in the lounge the sliding door catches my eye and a thought occurs to me. I open it and Kal trots out into the night. Strangely, once he comes back he no longer seems to be craving my attention.

I picture the conversation from Kal's point of view:
"I need to go outside for a pee." Pat, pat, talk, talk.
"I really need to pee." Pat, pat, talk, talk.
"Listen, it's pretty simple. Let me out!" Pat, pat, talk, talk.
"Look, I really need to ....No! For the love of God don't pick me up - I have a full bladder!" Cuddle, pat, pat, talk, talk.
"Finally! She's not too bright this one, is she?"

Sorry Kal.

As Danny has mentioned previously we were interviewed for The Australian for an article on sperm donation. On Wednesday night we had a photographer come out to take photos for the article. A nice chap named Andy turned up to take shots of us. He had already been to Brisbane that day to take photos for two articles and then flew down to Canberra to shoot us. He was in and out in about half an hour, charging off to catch his plane. It must be a breathless whirl of a life.
He arrived brimming with enthusiasm for a location he'd spotted coming down the road to our house. The nearby sports field was lit up with spot lights for the practicing kids which meant that the conifer trees around the sports ground looked like a lit up forest. Andy was all for taking advantage of this freely provided lighting. He had us standing in various positions, including in the soccer goals as an analogy for "getting one through the goal" regarding pregnancy. However, after a few shots he decided that, although it was a lovely concept the lighting didn't work in that spot and had us move. Towards the end of the shoot a fireworks display started (another sex analogy) and Andy was over the moon at the idea of getting both fireworks and flood lit forest in his series of shots and anticipated his editor being quite impressed with him.
We then came back for a few shots in the lounge room (with an amazingly clear floor after Danny worked on clearing it earlier in the day - just don't open the cupboard doors!) Andy was quite impressed with Danny's stripy socks and made sure he got them in shot.
Of course he turned out to like Dr Who and he and Danny discussed various Doctors. It was quite a pleasant visit.
Danny has been sent the text for the article although we don't yet know when it will be published. After Danny read it I got sent a SMS which said "It makes me look like a bloody hero for wanking into a jar!" It is quite favourable about us both. I am described as being "serene". Of course it is rather easy to look serene when you have Danny as a backdrop. :)

Well I am 15 weeks now and things seem to be going well at the moment. Apart from morning sickness making an unannounced Surprise Return yesterday morning. On the bus. Ewww. I was so glad I had one of the air sickness bags I pinched from a plane trip in my backpack.

I made it to 15 1/2 weeks last time so am feeling a little nervous at the moment. I am telling myself that there is no good reason for it to happen again but still ..... I will be very glad to get past this weekend.

Bump 2.0, meet the world. World, meet Bump 2.0 (nicknamed Niblet by Danny).

I am 13 weeks pregnant so we have got safely through the first trimester which is generally the most dangerous section. We are just hoping to make it all the way through this time.
We have several shots of bub that the sonographer burnt to CD for us. This one is in profile so you can see the head and the hand up near the face. We also have some movie files with bub moving. One of them looks like bub managed to hit itself in the head with it's hand while we were watching. That is probably my favourite.

I'm hoping that soon I will stop being a walking zombie and spent slightly more hours a day awake. Alison, that is why I was partly unconscious during your visit in December - Bump had sucked all of the life out of me. Sean, this is what I would have told you if we could have managed to meet up in Adelaide. I would have loved to have your enthusiasm bubble all over me. :)

We will never forget Tracy but we are desperately waiting to meet this child.