Yes, I see the irony

I've spent the past week at an Epidemiology of Infectious Diseases and Epidemiology of Man Made Disasters class. Hosted by the Blackwell center on OSU campus. The first day and the last day there were kind enough to provide lunch for us. Well, I ended up with a bit of food poisoning. Yeah. I tried to call my supervisor to see how she was feeling. I am holding the chicken salad accountable, but it might have been the soup or the potato salad. I was up at 3 puking while D quietly slept away. I had the chills and a fever while D quietly slept away.

D was a big help with the pickle today though as I spent most of the day sleeping and making trips to the bathroom. The pickle was not a big help as he only took 1 hour naps today. He took 3 of them, but a nice 3 hour nap would have worked for me. I am interested in returning to work on Monday to see if anyone else came down with something.

Big news on the pickle front. He can now blow kisses. I have been working with him for the past month or so, sending him a smooch when he was looking at me. Well today he did it right back. It was a big moment. I have started a little sign language, milk is what I'm working on now. I figure that it doesn't hurt to at least start exposing him to it.

I got my first CD!

I received my first CD from Katy! It's great. Rainy Morning music. I love the "I need a hero" re-mix. I have my song list done for my CD's and 2 of them burned. I'm out of the office all this week so I'm hoping I can get them burned on the computer here at home. Due to the heat I have had some issues booting up.

I have been an ice cream making fool lately. I am testing out several recipes, trying to find the perfect base. The first one I tried was the French style, which is like a custard and is cooked. The second recipe is an American style and does not cook the eggs. I bought pasturized eggs though, unlike my in-laws, I'm willing to cough up an extra buck or two in order to avoid bloody diarrhea!. So far my preference is the uncooked version, but it might be because I used double strength vanilla in the cooked version. I tried to cut the amount in half, but it might still have too much in it for my taste. D is doing the taste test this evening and will tell me what he thinks.

Friday Already!

What a great week. I could get used to this 5 days off two days on sort of work week. Next week will be good too, since I won't be going to the office. Instead I'll be taking 2 courses at OSU for the week.

Last night we took the Pickle to Rooster's for dinner. I went with a little trepidation knowing that the last time we were there he cried the whole time. This time went much better. We took the toy that we are calling his favorite, this weird green frog with plastic paddles for hands and a mirror on it's belly. He loves to chew on it and goes a little nuts, growling and shaking his head. He loves sucking on the bulbus eyes, but I think gets a little frustrated that nothing comes out of them!

Some how while I was home with him for those three day's I broke him. We were just getting into a bed time routine which consisted of nursing, then rocking either by D or me and then he would be sleepy and go down, find his thumb and fall asleep. The last few nights something has changed. The nursing is the same, but then the rocking peacefully has turned into full blown raging. This goes on for about an hour, until I take him outside to hit the 're-set' button on him. Once we open the door to walk out of his room he stops crying. Then he nurses a minute or two on the porch and falls right to sleep. I carry him up and put him down. He might fuss for 10 sec and then falls right to sleep, staying asleep for 6 1/2 hours or so. I'm not sure how I broke him but I wish we could fix it. The raging wears thin pretty quickly.

We are looking forward to a relaxing weekend at home. There was talk about going to the Jazz and Rib Fest, but then thinking about standing on black asphalt between charcoal grills when it is 97 degrees out doesn't seem like such a great idea. Plus while I love ribs, I couldn't care less about jazz. Hopefully I will be able to get the new sewing machine up and running. We might need to do a re-organization of the basement. At least it is a few degrees cooler down there.

LOOOOONG weekend

I have had the pleasure of a very long weekend. Due to my grandfather's memorial I had 3 bereivement days from work. They have been great. We did a lot of traveling this weekend so three days at home have given me a chance to unwind. And the napping! It has been great.

Saturday we went to Canfield to visit a friend of D's, and some of his cousins. We then drove over to my families on the west side of Cleveland. The car trips did give me time to sew the binding onto two of the fleece blankets.

Sunday was the memorial. It was very nice. Many of grandpa's friends and neighbors came and remembered grandpa. Dad had put together a whole photo wall and it was fun to see grandma and grandpa when they were young. We spent most of the day playing with the nieces and nephew. The Pickle loves his cousins and just giggled and smiled as they played with him. It was great to watch D play with all the kids. He convinced Ellie that he was her favorite uncle, and then had to entertain her the rest of the day.

Monday the pickle and I had a nice relaxing day. We went to baby lap time at the library which was so much fun. I am trying to figure out a way that I can go with him each week. It is hard to be jealous of the nanny. Each evening D has come home and asked if I resigned yet. I haven't yet, but would love to go part time. Still biding my time I suppose.

Today the pickle and I are going to head to the store to pick up some purse supplies. Oh and the biggest news? I got the long neck quilting machine. It is sitting in the basement as I type. I can't wait to get it set up and to get down to work. There seemed to be something fishy at the end of the auction. I was contacted by a lower bidder who said they were contacted by the seller offering to sell it to them at a lower price. Our thought is someone hacked into his account. Luckily the machine was delivered last night so there is no problem with him running out with my cash.

On the Road Again

It is going to be one busy weekend. We are off to Canton to visit a friend of D's on Saturday and then some family Saturday evening and then to my parents near Cleveland that evening. Sunday is my grandfather's memorial. He was 2 weeks past his 98th birthday when he died. He will be missed. 98 is an incredibly long life which he put a lot of living into. Before my grandmother died gpa was just a quite man who was with gma. After she died he opened himself up a bit more to us grandkids and the rest of the family I think. A few years after she died he and my father took a trip to Florida to visit the places he had seen on his honeymoon. I always thought that was so sweet, that he wanted to visit those places again. This turned into a yearly tradition for my father and grandfather. They would take a month and drive down to Florida. After the first couple of years of staying at places which held fond memories, but might not be the nicest places any longer they started renting condo's on the beach for their trips. Gpa would spend the day walking on the beach and as he got less mobile, sitting on the pier watching people fish. These trips lasted up until he was 96. I look forward to that longevity. Gpa always with it mentally, with the exception of the story about the gas and the break. He loved to tell how he decided at 90 years old to give up driving. He had enough friends and neighbors (he was still living in his own home at this time) who wanted to take him places that he no longer needed to drive himself and within a period of about 6 months he claims to have witnessed 5 incedences where drivers confused the gas and break pedals. The most shocking was the elderly gentelman who drove through the barbershop window just after gpa walk out of it. It was enough for gpa to learn from others mistakes than to make them on his own.

When gpa was in a good mood I liked to get him to talk about how he met my gma. They were at a wedding together and she was one of the brides maids and he was a guest. He says that the moment he saw her he knew that she was the one for him. Sometimes he will also talk about his trip to California. He started out in a Ford of some kind and it broke down in Salt Lake City, so he found the Hobo camp. At the camp they told him how ride the trains. He rode out to California and worked on an Almond farm picking Almonds for about 6 months. The people wanted him to stay on, but he had become so homesick he was ready to head home. He had worked enough on the farm to buy a passanger ticket on the train home and didn't have to hop on for his ride back. Sometimes he would talk about how when my dad was a kid, they got an egg incubator from someplace and loaded it full of eggs. The problem was that they didn't think about how many chickens that would yeild and since it was winter, once the eggs hatched they had a room just full of chicks. This always leads dad to say "Mom, sure made good chicken and dumplings!"

Sunday will be a day of sharing these and other fond memories of my grandfather with friends and family. He will be missed, but no one can say that his life was cut short! He was ready at the end to see my grandmother again and I believe passed with peace in his heart.

Project update

I have so many unfinished projects in various stages of completed that I have forced myself to start and finish some of them. To do this I am trying to do one crafty thing an evening. Two nights ago, I sewed a binding on one of the fleece baby blankets. I set it aside, because it is a good project that can be done in the car this weekend. Last night I tried to finish the machine quilting on a king size quilt commissioned by a woman at work. Unfortunately I tried to take the short cut of not pinning it properly. So, this evenings project will be ripping out stitches where I stitched wrinkels into the back and properly stretching and pin basting the rest of the quilt. Maybe Friday I can get it quilted. I have dragged my feet so long on this quilt, I feel terrible. I'm just not feeling it, but then it is not for me, and when you get paid to do something, you really should get it done!

We are headed toward a busy weekend. Saturday we are driving up to Canfield to see a friend of D's who is in town. Then we will head over to my parents because Sunday is my grand father's memorial. I told D that we would not be traveling with the pickel for a while, and then realised that it is all we will be doing for the next several weeks! It is just stressfull when he is not in his own house and does not sleep that well. Of course I'm the one who is most effected. When you are the kitchen ....

So for the car trip, I'm taking 2 fleece blankets that need bindings put on and probably a knitting project. I'm thinking of a stuffed animal of some sort and found a cute pattern for Mr. Dangly! I will probably not get to it, with the two bindings. Possibly three if I get that king size quilted. Although it probably isn't the best project to drag along. I think I'll go with the 2 fleece and supplies for Mr. Dangly.

I'm a joiner!

I joined a Mixed CD swap organized by piddleloop. I'm excited to find out who my CD's are for. Good thing D-just about finished loading all our CD's on to the computer to feed his Ipod. Hopefully the people I swap with don't hate alt. country/folk/americana sort of stuff. We sure do have a ton of it.

The pickle rolled over! Well, so I'm to believe we have yet to see it happen but discover him in his crib on his tummy when he was last left on his back. For a boy who hates tummy time with a passion I would think he would never roll over.

I think I'm over it....

I've been outbid. I'm not sure I'm willing to up the price. I was bidding on a long arm quilting machine and I'm to the point where upping the price makes it less of a deal on a used machine, and maybe should just be put toward a new one..... I have 5 days to think about it. Maybe I'll try and jump in at the last second with a final bid. Swooping it out from under the person who out bid me. They have no feedback, therefore are new to e-bay I assume.
On other fronts, my goal lately has been to do one piece of crafting a night. Last night I cut out bindings for fleece baby blankets. I'm sure D- is happy that I am slowly cleaning out the dining room and will be moving back up to the office where all this stuff belongs.

My life hangs in the balance....

of an e-bay auction. I won't say what I'm bidding on but I wait with baited breath ..... 6 days left. I have so many ideas of projects I want to try, of course they all are wrapped up in a way for me to quit this traditional 9-5 job and stay home with the pickle.

Me and the pickle 

My name's Katie and I'm new

So, it's like the first day of school. What does wear to the opening of their new blog?