pre-birth story

I spent three hours this morning in labor and delivery getting my blood pressure monitored to make sure that I hadn't developed full-blown preeclampsia.  It was not the most fun, but as long as I stayed down, my blood pressure went back to normal levels, which was good enough for them to release me after the monitoring, but concerning enough to put me on modified bed rest with a planned induction for this week.  Given our options (one of which was leap year and not acceptable), we went with tomorrow.  Unless I manage to spontaneously go into labor myself (the chances seem slim right now), I'll have my water broken at around 7:00 AM in order to attempt to induce labor.  Hopefully this works and I'll be able to proceed into the natural childbirth I paid $300 to learn about, otherwise it'll be a synthetic hormone that imperfectly mimics the one that the body produces when it goes into labor.

So, what I think I'm saying, is catch you on the flip side.

blogging together alone and a menu

A few weeks ago, a bunch of the Austin Food Blogger Association people got together at Genuine Joe' and did a blog-together.  I ended up getting three posts written, which was nice.  They're having another one tonight, but I'm sitting at home.  We had a late dinner and I've been having non-labor contractions all day, which don't do much except for prime my body for baby-having and make me crazy unfcomfortble.  I'm so over being pregnant and I'm ready for this fetus to turn into a baby.

In the spirit of blogging-together, I'm posting a menu for this upcoming week.

the making of chicken and 40 cloves... om nom

Monday:
Chicken and spinach salad with whatever random veggies we have in the fridge - I'm keeping dinner light because we're getting paczkis that day from the people who run Hill Country Pierogi. Paczkis are supposed to be consumed on Paczki Day, which isn't until (Fat) Tuesday, but, damnit, I don't think I'll be able to contain myself.

Tuesday:
Tacos - we're finally done with our birthing class, so I can actually make dinner on Tuesday nights. Yay!

Wednesday:
Tomato, chicken, artichoke, spinach pasta toss - This is definitely me trying to use up random things from the fridge.

Thursday:
bacon, avocado, tomato sandwiches on sourdough - something simple and delicious, since I've been craving bacon and avocado lately

Friday:
Chicken and 40 cloves

The upside of this menu is that Colby can basically make all of this without too much trouble.  I haven't been cooking a lot lately because we've been going out to eat a lot with all the February birthdays and Valentine's Day, but I wanted to try to eat at home as much as possible this week to balance this out.  And then again, if I do happen to go into labor, this entire menu is out the window and we'll be eating hospital food and things that I've frozen for the future.

Amusing things on the internet

Aside from Colby locking my keys in the car, I had a ridiculously nice birthday, complete with a zillion facebook messages, snuggles with Kimchi, and one of the best meals I've had in recent memory.  I took pictures, so I definitely plan to post about that soon.  In the meantime, posting around here has been sparse, so I figured I'd share some interesting things I've been reading on the internet, some of which are actually about food.  And in no particular order, here we go:

Jeremy Lin

 This McSweeny's piece on Jeremy Lin is fantastic, but it has nothing on the Disgrasian post about who should be his basketball wife.  Personally, my choice is Michelle Wie because she could finally wear heels without dwarfing a dude.  If you don't know who Jeremy Lin is, he's a point guard from Harvard who's the biggest sensation in the NBA right now.  Oh, and he's the first American NBA player of Chinese or Taiwanese descent.

Baby Shit (not literally)

Apparently, in France, the government provides services to women to get back "in shape" post-baby.  And by "in shape", they mean vaginally.  It sort of sounds like the best idea ever, especially considering the "cooter pac man".

There's a shit ton of sugar in baby formula and the FDA doesn't require companies to reveal how much.  I'm firmly in the camp of "breast is best", but for those people who aren't, or don't breast feed for whatever reason they choose, they deserve the right to know what the hell they're feeding their kids.

Random things I find amusing


Rick Santorum is winning in Michigan.

a) it's called the Daily Santorum.  When I see the word "Santorum" I think of this (LSWF)

b) they used a picture of the Sufjan Stevens album, Michigan.

c) the only county in which Mitt Romney is winning is where all the "new money" in south-eastern Michigan lives.  This goes to show that Mitt Romney is a rich-people republican's rich person republican.

Stop motion animation of a Michael Pollan talk.

I honestly didn't even read this article, but, um, like... look at the title and then laugh your face off.

Kimchi thought these articles were interesting too!

birthdays are the best days.

Greetings from my birthday presents!  Unforunately, the birthday shoes didn't fit well, but the birthday tablet birthday tablet works really well, especially in conjunction with the birthday tablet keyboard.  I was super excited to use the tablet to blog, but then I realized that getting pictures onto the tablet was going to be a challenge.  I haven't figured it out just yet (hence a picture-less post), but I have a feeling that the tablet and keyboard are going to come in handy to help me keep sane once the baby gets here.  Speaking of which, according to my OB, this could happen at any point, because as of tomorrow, I'll be full term.  I guess it's time to start with the spicy food, red raspberry leaf tea, and excessive walking.

I am busy and my dog is cute.

Whenever I take home a bland meal from a restaurant, I always feel so crafty when I add things to it to make it tasty from my own kitchen at first.  And then I remember that I paid $13 for shitty shepherd's pie and I start to feel way less clever.

Sorry for the lack of posts lately.  Between school, doctors appointments, and getting the house ready for our permanent guest, I've been swamped.  I'll try to post some things this weekend.  Perhaps it's time for another AFBA blog-together, eh?  In the meantime, here's a picture of my dog because she's cute and it's almost like writing about food since her name is Kimchi.

I'm pretty sure that Colby (feet+arms) had food that she wanted

Late Night Musings

My calendar has never been so jam-packed before in my life.  Partly, it's due to the fact that I'm actually writing out what I'm up to, but there's also so much baby-prep going on that it makes my head spin.  Who knew that finding a pediatrician would prove to be so difficult?

I was going to post a menu for this week, but it was rather uninspired and most of the week we haven't cooked anything because we've been out of the house so much.  Kimchi is not amused.

I've never seen a dog whine so much that she wasn't in bed.  Not that she couldn't go by herself, she's just needy like that.