And he's better at making circuit boards too!

Bag Lunch

Henry uses a pacifier, a binky, a Nuk, whatever you want to call it. It helps sooth him and shut him up when he is crying. He enjoys spitting it out, and when he does, I promptly pick it up, suck it clean, and give it back, which reminded me of that insane fad of teenagers with pacifiers that happened in the 90's. What the hell was that!?! They sucked on real ones for babies and then they became a fashion statement. Here are some necklaces from the time:

I hate to admit that I had gold plastic pacifier earrings. And I thought they looked awesome. Interestingly enough, in looking for the fine jewelry photo above, I discovered that pacifiers were used by kids doing ecstasy to keep them from grinding their teeth, which is apparently a common issue with the drug. The jewelry was meant as a way to show that you were a raver. I was not. My research also found that ravers wear bright colors and dust masks rubbed with Vicks Vaporub to intensify the high.

This guy is having fun!

I then realized that American's missed the fad boat.

Lest the US miss out on the next fad, you're welcome.

Momming Ain't Easy

So, it has been one month since I became a Mom. That is crazy to me for so many reasons. First off, I'm a mom. Secondly, it seems like Henry was just born yesterday, and yet, it's like we have always had him. There is so much that I don't know about how to raise a child, and I guess I'll continuously feel that way, since right when you figure something out, they grow up a little more and change on you.

The first few weeks home were difficult. I have never been so emotional in my life. I was happy to have a baby, but the reality of "I have a baby" kicked in and then it was more like " Holy shit, I have a baby, who needs me constantly and who I will be responsible for for the next 18 years!" I don't think that Hallmark makes cards that say " Do you know what you have gotten yourself into!?!" but maybe they should, just to warn soon-to-be mothers. My hormones have gotten in check since then and I haven't cried in days, not even at those Johnson & Johnson commercials. (Damn, I just watched this and teared up. Set the Cryometer back to zero)

During the day, Henry wants to be held constantly. Even while he sleeps. So I have taken to learning how to clean the house, eat my meals and even put on makeup with a baby strapped to my chest. Until about 4 months old, you can't spoil a baby with too much physical interaction, so I know that I am not ruining things for future me to have some time alone, but it sure takes a lot of time out of your day. If you don't plan out your goals each morning, by the end of the day, you realize that you have done nothing but increase the size of the dent in the couch. Babies are time burglars.

The most difficult part has been the adjustment to my sleep schedule. I remember thinking, while I was pregnant, "Yeah, I know babies wake up a few times a night, but that shouldn't be that bad." And it wouldn't be, if they just needed to wake up for five minutes to use the bathroom. They need to eat, be changed, be burped, and that can quickly turn into an hour long ordeal. You get them to sleep and two hours later, they are ready to do it all again. Luckily, we learned quickly that Henry sleeps longer if he is in his own room. We now go to bed around 9 PM to ensure that we have enough extra hours in the night to really sleep. But seriously, 9PM? It feels insane to go to bed that early, and significantly limits the amount of time that we have to spend together as a family at night. (IE - the number of shows we can watch).

But even with the limited knowledge that I have gained, I am comfortable that, for the most part, we are doing the right thing. And if not, there is always Google. I can't be sure of it, but I think that the incidence of crazy mothers as dropped significantly since the invention of the Internet. Instead of worrying and taking your kids to the doctor tons of extra times, you can just look up why your son is pooping grass green. And here I thought it was the open grazing in the yard. Looks like we won't have to break out the lawnmower after all.

But at the end of the day, I have this to look forward to:

From Random Henry Pics

Dressing babies up in adorable clothes is the best! (BTW- does anyone else think that he looks like a representative of the Lollypop Guild?)

It's been one week since you looked at me

One week old already, I can hardly believe it. It's been an amazing week with you. Emotional, tiring, and wonderful. As much as I tried to prepare myself mentally for what it would be like to have a baby, there is just no possible way to be ready. You are so sweet and fragile, and all I want is to make you happy, whatever it takes, no matter how hard it is.

You have been the perfect baby. You were perfect in the womb, rarely giving me any of the classic uncomfortable pregnancy pains. Sure, I had heartburn and my pelvic muscles got sore, but no morning sickness or swelling, or excessive weight gain. In the week leading up to your delivery, no one could believe that I was 9 months pregnant. But like clockwork, on the due date set by your midwives, you came.

Labor was one of the most incredible experiences. I had committed to trying to have you naturally, with no drugs, but was also open to the idea that if I couldn't handle it, I had that option. I started feeling contractions at 2Pm on the 24th, they were frequent but not painful or regular. By 11:30 that night, they were something more. It was clear to me that this was it, maybe not for a while, but these were not the kind of contractions that were just going to go away. By 12:30, I accepted that I couldn't sleep through them, and decided to get up and close out my work, forwarding all my emails and calls to my boss. We called the midwife, she said to wait for an hour and see if the contractions got stronger and to call back. At 3AM, we told her that we were coming in.

We arrived at the hospital at 4, and confirmed that I was 3 centimeters dilated. I had to walk the halls of the labor and delivery floor for an hour to see if there would be progress. That hour seemed to take forever, but we made it through. 6 centimeters, 6 AM, time to be admitted.

The next few hours were a haze of people entering and exiting the room, checking monitors. I had decided before I went into labor that I would try to handle the labor as I have my three bouts of food poisoning from a year prior, including the one I had in Paris that marked the beginning of our attempt at your conception. I focused inward, and breathed through the pain of each contraction. Upon reflection, I think that I may have even been half asleep for most of the labor, rousing only during the sharpest contractions.

After about 3 hours, I told the midwife that I felt I needed to push. She checked and confirmed that it was time. 23 minutes later at 9:45 AM on October 25th, there you were. The final moments were surprisingly easy. Your first cry was so beautiful and strong. You were placed on my chest, and instantly, I was in love. Overcome with emotion, I couldn't cry, I just smiled and held you and kissed you. Your daddy cried and we hugged, having just gone through our first moment as a family. No drugs, no screaming, no blaming your father that "he did this to me"! Just 10 hours of focusing on what was most important, bringing you into the world, healthy.

Since then, it's been a whirlwind week of visitors, late night feedings, and diaper changes. You are showing your personality already. If you are full, you are happy. You don't cry much, but love to be held. You are a master at peeing on yourself during diaper changes, and some days have multiple wardrobe changes, which is difficult, since you have very few items of clothing that fit you. 7 pounds, 11 ounces at birth, you are not the hefty boy I thought I was sure to have, and I am eternally grateful to you for that. You are strong for your small stature though, and can already lift your head up if you are placed on your stomach.

You have melted my heart. Happy One Week Birthday, Henry! Momma loves you more than you know, but I'll be doing everything I can to try to show you how much.

Happy Halloween

Baby Daily

Name that Birthday

So, Henry's due date is Oct. 26th (my calculations), Oct. 25th (doctor's calculations) and Oct. 23rd (ultrasound's calculations). What do you think? (FYI- You can type in a date below if you think its not one of these.)

Pie Fail

Mabel Miller is one twisted individual.

I received a letter from my Grandmom a few months ago. She is the internet super sensation seen here. She also loves to cook. And think about cooking. She reads cookbooks like novels in bed before she goes to sleep and is so well versed in the art that she can imagine how it would taste just from the recipe and is satisfied by that alone. What a talent! She should start her own diet trend - Thought Calories don't pack on a single pound.

Anyway, she sent me a photocopy from a cookbook that she found at her boyfriend's house, which included a recipe for "Jenny Syms Pie". She joked that they must have mistyped and spelled the name wrong, and how in all her years of cooking, she had never had a recipe named after her. The recipe was by Mabel Miller, and Grandmom pondered if she could be related, we have Miller's in our family.

I was excited to try it. Anyone who knows me knows that I am not the cook of the family, and that Larry's main concern when he leaves for a business trip is how I will feed myself, seeing as how in previous attempts I have actually resorted to eating a can of mandarin oranges and a can of corn as my dinner. I am not too bad of a baker though, and actually enjoy it from time to time, especially when its my namesake dish.

From the start though, things looked questionable. Let's review the ingredients:

2 eggs
1 C. sugar
1 C. water
1 C. molasses
1/2 C. vinegar
1 t. cinnamon
1/2 t. allspice
1/4 t. cloves
1 t. baking soda

Hmmm, a few of these make sense; eggs, sugar, spices - I'm smelling what your stepping in, Mabel. But then there are the others; water (specifically an entire cup), baking soda, and, the most heinous, vinegar. And not just a tablespoon either, half of a cup!

Then we have the directions:
Mix together and bake in an unbaked pie shell at 350 degrees.

Short and to the point. No length of time for how long to cook the pie, but hey!, who needs that? I'll just keep an eye on it. And since there is no mention of it, I will just add the ingredients in whatever order.

Dinner was almost ready and the oven was already at 350, so it made sense to make the pie last night. I wanted to get as much ready as I could, so that I could just dump the mixture into the shell and straight into the oven as soon as dinner was finished cooking. I added all of the ingredients except the eggs and vinegar (my thought process - eggs should stay cold, and vinegar will make the house stink - this should be a bad sign whenever making dessert). At the last minute, I added the eggs and vinegar.

Did you ever make a volcano in grade school? The two main ingredients in lava are baking soda and vinegar. The pie mixture started to foam and bubble. It was also very watery. I poured it into the frozen pie shell. Well, 1/3 of it anyway. The rest I saved in a baking dish thinking, if its tasty, we can make a crustless pie with the rest. Ever the optimist!

I put it in the oven and baked it for about 30 minutes, checking it every few minutes. It started to burn, so I pulled it out. The liquid had soaked through the pie shell, and the shell was now floating on the top, with this syrupy liquid underneath. YUMMY!

Larry and I tasted a bit of the more cooked part. The flavor was not horrible, Larry described it as mince meat pie without the fruit.

I am pretty sure that my Grandmom's keen ability to taste what she reads should have been lead to this result, but alas, she sent me the recipe and I made a sad, sad nasty-water pie.

I didn't stop and neither did they

We saw Journey last night. And Heart. We were supposed to see Cheap Trick too, but someone decided that it made sense to put Nissan Pavilion in the middle of nowhere in Virginia at the end of 66, which has probably the worst traffic during rush hour known to man (or at least known to this girl, whose commute consists of walking downstairs).

Heart was great and Journey was great! Journey has a new album out and was very excited about showing off their new songs. Unfortunately, I think they were the only ones that were excited. They would play a classic, then a new song, and it was like watching musical chairs, where the good, old music made you run to your seat and new, bad music made you go get a hot dog.

The best thing about Journey's new album is the artwork. Behold!



I think the true Revelation is this, don't fix whats not broken. If flames and wings sold albums in the Seventies and Eighties, it will work again now. (Note- I have learned during this post that the Journey "logo" is a variation of this scarab beetle with bird wings, though I can't find a reason why. If anyone has the reason, or wants to make up a fake one, I would love to hear them. My guess is Journey is an ancient Egyptian band that used to play for the pharaohs, and were released in the mid seventies to rock again! Yeah, thats it!)

I had a revelation last night myself- Cheerwine slushies are delicious.

That's T-I-D-D-Y!

Though that is not what ANYONE is thinking.

Baby Bits

This is my new nickname for Henry, or more importantly, for the parts of him that are constantly poking at and out of my belly. We had another ultrasound today, and we were able to confirm from the visit:

1. He is facing head down, a good sign for the future (approx. 12 weeks from now).
2. He got fat! He is 3 pounds now.
3. He is hairy. We saw his full head of hair, though we didn't get a picture of it.
4.That is, in fact, his foot that is poking me in the ribs.

Pudgy little face

Foot in my ribs

Only 12 weeks to go!

Larry's reaction to my request that he smile for the camera.

Reflections from the road

Larry and I have been busy taking alternating trips these past few weeks. First, he went to Vancouver for a week. Last week, I stayed in DC for 3 days, over my birthday, for a conference. Tomorrow, he leaves for a work roadtrip(?) up to Ithaca, NY. And on Thursday night, Amanda and I leave for a girl's roadtrip weekend to NYC. When Henry gets here, much of this will change, so I guess it's good to get it all in now.

While at my conference, I learned a few things, or at least was reminded of a few that I had forgotten since the last conference.

1. Individuals are smart, groups are stupid lemmings. - Do you know how many architects asked me if they really had to use Number 2. pencil on their Scantron forms that they fill out to get CEU credits for coming to the conference? Because "I know it says that I need to, but I already filled it out in pen." I think it was 2,000. And there were only 1000 people there. First off, if you can't follow 1 simple instruction on a form to get the credits that you so desperately need, you don't derseve them. But more importantly, these forms are being used so that computers can do the reading. I didn't make these computers. I do not have control over what they can read. But I am guessing that they can only read Number 2 pencil. One stupid question like that, from one person, and you can write it off. But when they ask in rapid fire like that, it becomes clear that people are not as smart as they seem.

2.Hotels are not considered fancy until they refill the ice bucket every day for you.

3.People are cheap, no matter how much money they make, and are willing to make asses out of themselves to get something for free. - At every conference, you always get the cleaning crew and security guards for teh building asking for the free bags and SWAG that are there for the attendees. I have come to accept this. And have learned to tell them no, only because giving in opens the floodgates of all the other building personnel that also want free stuff. But on Thursday I had this altercation:
Gentleman architect who was attending the conference comes to the registration desk, his obnoxious green free bag hanging from his shoulder. We had run out of these bags earlier in thee day and were no giving out black bags that were leftovers from the prior year.

Architect - "Can I have one of those black bags?"

Me- "Well, we are running low, we only have 4 left."

A- "But I only want one."

M-"But you already have one." I point at his shoulder.

A- "Yeah, but I like them for grocery shopping"

M- "People are still showing up for the conference, so I need the bags for them. If you really want one, try coming back at 5:30, right before the conference ends, and if there are any left, you can have one then."

5:30- Architect returns, I see him coming and put one of the 2 bags that we have left up on the counter.

M-"Here you go, sir." He comes and picks it up and starts to walk away. "Happy shopping!" I say this as smugly as possible.

A- "Yeah, I like these, I hate having to throw away plastic bags."


So, this guy is too cheap to buy a 99 cent reusable bag, he would rather just use throw away plastic bags. But now, thanks to his perseverance, he has two FREE reusable bags. Clearly this conference on architecture, focusing on being green, has really sunk in.

A look into my alternate future

On the heels of yet another Amanda post, I present our beautiful baby:

If we had a girl, I would be Wanda Sykes' baby-momma.

Looks like someone's got a case of the Mondays!

In response to Amanda's "capcha" post, I received this gem today while posting on Amanda's site:

"cyfuwork"

I am pretty sure Blogger is unemployed.

It's a boy!

The baby ignored the voting results, went with those old wives and declared itself a boy. He is in great health and it was wonderful to see him on the ultrasound again.
I present to you:

Henry Awe Symms*


Look at that smile!






Little foot.



Proof of his manhood (at the top of the upside-down V)


* (No, we are not kidding. Look at this kid's guns! Clearly Awesymms is appropriate.)

Let's Talk about Sex, Baby!

We will be finding out the sex of the baby, hopefully, next Thursday. I have decided to test out some old wives tales and other myths about how to predict the baby's sex. Here are the results so far:

Chinese Pregnancy Chart #1: Boy
Chinese Pregnancy Chart #2: Boy
Chinese Pregnancy Chart #3:Girl
About.Com Quiz: Boy
Baby's Heartrate above 140: Girl
Hanging Pendant over belly moves in circles: Boy

There are also ones involving the color of my nipples, the color of my pee, and which breast is larger, but I will not go into those details.

Overall, results point to boy. We will see in about a week. In the meanwhile, I would like to here your predictions:

UPDATE: I had thought that the Other option would force you to enter your suggestion for what you thought that the "Other" would be, which would be funny. But apparently, that is not the case. Instead, it just looked like 2 people thought that we are going to have a hermaphrodite or a neuter, which is not funny, just sad, so I removed the "Other " option. If you voted other and have conviction in your selection, please describe in the Comments.

Power Hungry

Do you realize how much you rely on electricity in a given day? The quantifiable number is - a lot. In our house, we use more than the average person, what with the 4 computers running all day, every day, and the full sized freezer from the 1950's that I am sure costs more to run than the rest of my entire house. Just to be sure of that, we put it in the garage, so that all the pent up heat of summer could force it into overdrive.

Do you know how often the power goes out in Bowie? The stats show - all the time. Easily 6 times a year, which is actually a significant decrease from the number of outages that we dealt with in years prior. It used to be multiple times a week during the rainier months. And for some reason, Bowie seems to have a tornado magnet buried deep in its suburban core. We have been struck directly with one at our house, one within 10 miles, and at least 2 others have passed within 50 miles of us, in the past 5 years. The outages are always long - the worst was over 5 days.

Cut to Sunday night - its raining, hard. We go to bed, and I am awakened 15 minutes later to the sounds of silence. (Hello darkness my old friend!) The cacophony that is usually my bedroom is still. No fan, no TV/computer combo humming, and no sound machine. I spend the night restlessly trying to figure out where I am going to work from tomorrow, since working from home for a computer-based job is hard without a working computer.

Larry reminds me that he has created a generator out of our woodshed/Chevy S-10 Blazer. The Blazer that has been housing the remnants of a dug up stump for over a year. The same Blazer that has a back window made of Lexan, because a rolling stump smashed the old one out. The same Blazer that was stolen and now has an advanced-magnetic-relay-switch-dealy that starts it. Oh, and a light that blinks so that it looks like we have an alarm. And a solar panel to keep that light from killing the battery. Yeah, that Blazer. Truckasarous, how I love thee!

Larry connects extension cords from the truck and runs them into the house to power the Verizon box, the network stuff, my Vonage phone, and my laptop; my virtual office. He has some fancy battery thing that is supposed to keep the computers from shutting down instantly in case of a quick power loss, but Bowie always goes big, or goes home, so if the power is out for 5 minutes, it's usually out for at least 5 hours. The battery thing beeps every thirty seconds. Even with the power from the woodshed, it keeps beeping. And beeping. Then it starts frantically beeping and then only one second every thirty seconds does it NOT beep. Larry disconnects it, Thank God. Had he not, I would not be here to write this, due to my exploding head.

While I work, Larry adds gas to the woodshed from a small can he has, while its running. He swears this is not dangerous.

Oh, did I mention Larry was leaving for a business trip. Leaving me, his pregnant wife, in a house with no power, and therefore, no heat on a 49 degree day, to eat all of the food in our massive, ozone depleting freezer before it goes bad.

I appreciate everything he did for me to get my "office" up and running, and then, Larry leaves. I work the rest of the morning and early afternoon in cold silence. I have a conference call scheduled for 2:30, and receive a call at around 2:10. 5 minutes into the call, the phone dies. Everything dies. I run outside, and the truck is off. I use a magic decoder ring and ESP to get it started again. The tank reads EMPTY. Here lies my dilemma.

Do I:

A. take my car with the gas can to the gas station, fill it up, return home, and add the gas to the truck?

B. Take the truck, which is on E, and has just died from running out gas, and hope that I make it to the gas station?

Well, the only gas can I see is broken at the nozzle, which is, I assume, the reason Larry smelled like gas when he came in after filling the tank initially. I call my 2:30 client and pushed the meeting to 3. I run back outside, unhook the extension cords from the truck, and head to the gas station, all the while repeating the mantra "Please don't die, please don't die." To ensure that I would be completely screwed if it did die, I forget my phone at home.

I make it to the gas station. The most expensive gas station in town, the one I never go to. $67 later, the truck is full of gas. I gingerly drive home (the window-exploding stump is still rolling around in the trunk). As I pull up to the house, the porch lights are on.

The porch lights that need power to operate. Power that I am sure I would have seen lighting up my lights had I looked in the rear view mirror as I slowly rolled away, begging the combustion-engine gods to drink only what they absolutely needed.

So, how was your Monday?

Working on the Weekend

Hooray for the second trimester! I have energy again, and though I am not known for being "active", I have never been as lethargic as I was these past three months. I was in a cycle for a few weeks of napping almost daily, or at least going to bed 2 hours early. And it was tiring to walk, like, up a flight of stairs. But, yippee, all that is behind me. I had energy this weekend and so I proceeded to move as much as possible and make my soft, feeble body incredibly tired.

Saturday was gorgeous (I was just tempted to type gorge, like some sort of sassy, New York Jewish woman - yuck!) Larry and I decided to do some work outside, so Larry re-leveled the area were the pool lives in the summer and I scrubbed the vinyl fence with a small scrub brush to get off all of the nasty algae that had grown there over the past year. Larry suggested using the huge pool brush, but NOOO!, that won't work! I needed to destroy my hands to prove that my far inferior tool can make the job take twice as long and allow me to complain about being sore for the next three days.

Once that was done, I set up the carpeting that goes around the pool and then we set the pool up. This week of 65 degree weather is proving that that was a little eager on our part, but hey, its done. Anyone up for a swim? Feel free to stop by. And bring your parka, it will help us bring your core temperature back up once we scoop you from the bottom of the pool.

Sunday I went on a cleaning rampage, vacuuming every surface that I could find. I actually considered vacuuming the dog, if only she wasn't such a wimp. I swept, mopped, blah, blah, cleaning, blah, for about 5 hours. Then Larry and I went to the grocery store to amass the wares needed to create our own My Girlfriends Kitchen style assembly line of dinners. We planned and executed five meals, getting them to the stage that made the most sense to freeze them. I chopped easily a small farms worth of vegetables and Larry prepared and cooked what seemed like 50 pounds of meat. At 10 PM we had these dinners finished in the freezer:

French Onion Salisbury Steak
Beef Burgandy
Osso Bucco - an Italian veal dish
Chicken and Sausage Manicotti
Chicken Divan

The house smelled amazing and we had a great time. I think that, if it had not already been confirmed before, we are officially old, white people. And I didn't even mention that we went out to dinner on Saturday night at 5:30. While at the restaurant, I was certain that we had found an elderly-rich area of town, but then realized that everyone was just there early to make sure that they could get home in time to watch 48 Hours:Mystery. Old whities love them some murder mysteries.

Gone to the Dogs

This morning around 7, Larry and I awoke to the sound of a howling, barking beast who normally goes by the name of Jezebel. She will bark here and there from time to time, but not usually like this. We yelled at her a few times to stop and then Larry went to investigate. It seems that there were two German Shepards in the neighbors back yard. Larry locked Jez in her crate and went back to bed.

When we came down an hour later and let her out, the dogs were out and so was the neighbor. I thought that it would be nice to open the gate that connects our two yards and let them run together, as we had done in the past with our previous neighbors and their dog. I was worried that these new dogs were recent additions to the family and that every morning we would rise to the sound of a canine hellion, who felt the need to announce to the world "Hey the dogs in the next yard over are emptying their bladders! I would love to go out and stick my face in it! Please wake up and do my bidding!"

It turns out that the dogs are just there for the weekend, as the neighbor is dog sitting for his friend.

Me:"Are they nice?"

Him:"They wouldn't care if they knocked me over".

Me: "Are they good with other dogs?"

Him: "My friend said it would be a bad idea to take them to the dog park."

So basically this guy agreed to dog sit two huge, vicious dogs and the only thing keeping them from tearing into our yard is a vinyl fence that Larry and I installed ourselves and have had to reattach slats for using glue. I know I feel safe.

Ultrasound Advice

BABY PICS!

Here are my first ultrasound pictures. I will post the video that we took as soon as I can figure out the best way to upload it. YAY BABY!

Night School

Last night, I received a somewhat panicked call from the basement tenant of our single family home turned three-unit apartment building. The basement houses two 30-something brothers, as well as the hot water heater and boiler for the radiators. The boiler's pressure release valve was leaking an dripping, a lot, and they didn't know what to do. We had them put a crab pot under it to catch the drips, hung up, called the first floor tenant (who is in charge of the thermostat) and had him turn the heat off. I checked online as to what could be causing the leak, while Larry looked for the name of an HVAC company that we could have come out the next day.

I called the basement tenant back, and started talking with him about the possible issues that were causing the leak. I walked him through steps to check if it was an overflow tank that was too full (not the issue), then had him clear out the pressure release valve by opening it a few times and allowing the water to flush the line. And it worked! The leak completely stopped. After an hour, I had him call to let me know the update - still no leak. The tenant was happy to learn about the system and actually said "I love you as our landlord". And so, the Symms Hands-On Technician Night School was born. Sign up today!

Kiss my Glass, Pt. 3 and 4

It is way over due, but here are my pretties from my glass class that I have yet to display.

My glass ornament from class 2.

My tumbler from class 3.



My vase from class 4. It turned out a little wonky, but I still like it.

I have signed up to take another 4 week class, this time just with me and one other student, so hopefully I will be able to learn a lot more and get more time to make things.

Hoppy Easter!

Enerjezer Bunny

I told you not to stop!

Journey is Back!



Arnel Pineda, a Filipino singer from a little-know band called The Zoo, is the new lead singer of Journey, and they are in the studio recording a new album. They hired him after seeing his covers of their songs on YouTube (Amanda and Larry, you two were a close second with your amazing vocals). This guy is amazing! He sounds just like Steve Perry. I am hoping for big things in the year's to come!

It's Alive!

Amazing kinetic sculptures, powered by wind alone. Click the images to see them come to life.

Theo Jansen's Website

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Jezebel McStinkybutt

Kiss my Glass Pt. 2

I had my second glass blowing class on Saturday the 1st. This time I actually got to blow glass. But first, my glass snowman from the first class, completely annealed, in all its glory.

This class was all about learning to make starter bubbles in the glass and to expand and work a piece of blown glass.

You get a gather of glass out of the furnace onto the blowpipe, "marver" it by rolling it on a cold stainless steel table, which shapes it.

Then blow into the end of the pipe, and once you have built enough pressure, you cap the end with your thumb. Then you watch the glass gather as the starter bubble expands the glass.

Once you get it to the desired size, you can take it to the bench to begin working it, or you can gather more glass on top, allowing you to make a larger piece. It takes a lot of practice to be able to blow your own glass, so to start, when working the bench, someone else sits at the end of your blowpipe and blows for you when needed. Whenever the glass gets too cool, you need to put it in the glory hole (that's really what it's called) to heat it back up.

The glory hole on the left, studio pit bull in the middle, and the blowpipe heater on the right.

We started by making a one gather bubble, blowing them as large as we could and then tapping them off the pipe. You make the connection between the glass item and the pipe very thin, then, when you hit the pipe with your metal tool, the glass item just pops off.

A fellow student catches it, wearing heavy gloves and a face mask, and carries it to the annealing kiln.

These first bubbles have a small whole in the top.

Next, we made a bubble using two gathers of glass. When making my first bubble, I got nervous at the furnace (Man its hot in there! - 2000 degrees to be exact) and didn't gather much glass, so my bubble was small. For my second attempt, I over compensated a got a ton of glass. The teacher warned that if we blew it out all the way, it would be huge, and I said "Well then, let's do it." Towards the last reheating in the glory hole, he had to open the doors because the piece got too large to fit through the hole.

This time, when we were ready to break off the piece from the pipe, we did so over a pot that would hold it upright.

The pot held the bubble upright so that a loop of glass could be added to cover the hole and make a hook to hang it as an ornament.

Here's a video of Tim, the teacher, and John, my fellow student, adding the loop to John's ornament.

And as promised, here are a few shots of the glass studio.

I am looking forward to class on Sunday. I missed class this past weekend, so I am going in early to make up what I missed, and then the rest of the class will show up and we will have our fourth and final class.

Back to Life, Back to Reality, Back to the Here and Now

Besides my pregnancy posts, I have been postless for almost a month. Its been a long month for work, filled with lots of 12 hour days. But our last huge conference ended yesterday and... I'M FREEEEE!

I feel like I'm on vacation. It's 6:30 pm and I'm not working. I have been busy with other things besides work and now I have to update you. This will be a long, rambling post, so you should probably get something to drink and get comfortable. We are gonna be here awhile.

So....the day after Larry and I found out I was pregnant, we had plans to go to dinner at Fogo de Chão in Baltimore, a Brazilian style steakhouse where gauchos come around with spits of various delicious meats and carve unlimited meat for you right at your table. You have a coaster with red on one side and green on the other, and they will only visit you if you have your green light on. They also have a salad bar and sides that they serve, but mostly, it's about the meat. Mostly. And so, we ate A LOT of meat. I kept forgetting to turn my green light off, so they just kept coming by, and if I did have my red side showing, they would stop by someone else's green light at our twenty person party and, "Ohh, you have filet mignon wrapped in bacon", and just like that, my green light was on again. It was tasty, and I think it was worth the price ($48), if for nothing other than the experience, but I don't think that I would do it again, at least not for a while. Kind of like Medieval Times, if you've been there once, you get the point.

Random aside - while entering names for one of our conferences, I found the best porn name ever. Electra Cummings. But instead of being a porn star, she is a first grade teacher.

Andy and Amanda came by so that Amanda could encase me in tape as I have done to her, and immortalize my pre-baby form. Here are the "during" photos:

You may be wondering why I am laying down in three out of four of them. That would be because I almost passed out. Four times. The first time I realized I needed to lie down, Amanda thought I was kidding, apparently until she saw my face and I was ghost white. I proceeded to lay down three more times throughout the process, and ended up pushing our delicious homemade chicken carbonara dinner until 9 PM. But now it's done. Well almost done. I still need to stuff it and close off the bottom of it. I will post a picture once it's finished.

Another aside- ever since we found out that I am pregnant, Larry has been nesting. He has been cooking amazing meals for me most nights, and taking great care of me, mostly while I sat for hours on the couch working. He is just proving to me what I already knew, that he is going to make a great Dad.

Larry and I had a night out in Annapolis to celebrate Chrissy's 30th birthday with a surprise dinner party. About one minute in, Barbie, Chrissy's sister, accidentally let out the news that Chrissy is pregnant again. It was also David and Nicole's one year anniversary of their first date. Everyone was in a great mood, only half of us could actually drink, and we sat and talked for 4 hours. There was a whole-ma-lotta baby talk, and while it was interesting for awhile, I definitely got tired of it.
It's only three weeks into to pregnancy, so this worries me a little. It's not like I can hide it as I get farther along, and I have already been warned that complete strangers will want to talk to me about being pregnant and will touch my stomach without prompting, and that is not OK. Touching people that you do not know is not acceptable, and especially not on the stomach, and extra especially not when they are their most vulnerable. Its like touching some random person's sling when they have a broken arm. Or poking someone in the eye patch. You just don't do it.

This past weekend, I had my big conference in Arlington. It actually went very smoothly. Nothing went wrong with registration and the only drama had nothing to do with me. Sure, one of the employee's of the organization that put on the conference quit in the middle of the conference in a drunken, frustrated rage, but it made for good gossip. I hate office gossip, unless it's about someone else's office. Then I eat it up. And when I've had enough, I head home to my office, where I never have to worry about Jezebel and Putty talking about me behind my back.

Today, I went to a Fight the Tech Tax rally in Annapolis to urge Maryland state legislators to repeal the tech tax that was passed with very little research or thought as to its effects. It is a 6% tax on technology businesses, the highest in the country, and while it has been passed, it will not go into effect until July 1st. This tax will cause many technology businesses to move into one of the many neighboring states and will force those that currently employ Maryland-based technology companies to look out-of-state for their tech services. There were a couple hundred people there, carrying signs and chanting "Axe the tax!".

Many of the legislators are against it, but others want to know "If we don't tax you, who should we tax?". As one of the speakers today said, "We need to come up with a new solution, instead of making our deal at the expense of another group. Just remember, we were the last group's deal". It was exciting to see all of these business people out en mass, in their suits, carrying signs and chanting to get their point across. There are many more rallies to come. If you want to help repeal the tax, come to the next one.