The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger

I finished the The Time Traveler's Wife.  It was awesome.  I honestly haven't read such a good book in a long time.  I definitely just put it in the modern literature catagory.  The character development was amazing.  It was so in depth.  The author describes everything in such detail that you can picture each moment.  I definitely recommend this book.

It is about a man who randomly jumps around in time and the life he has with his wife.  I know, not very specific, but if I were to say more, I would feel like I am giving things away.  It takes place in Chicago, so if you are at all familiar with this city, it will be even easier for you to visualize.  Ok, that is all I have to say.  Go read it.

The state of our relationship

Justin finds a few sucked on Mike and Ike's on a cd case on the end table, neither of which belong on the end table.

J:  Ewww.  Who left her sucked on candy on my cd case?

M (laughing): Who do you think?

J: You, actually.

Ava, the waiting room champion

We had two different doctor's appointments today in the same office.  Ava had a physical at 2:45.  We get there right on time and get taken into a room.  We then wait for 45 minutes for the doctor.  15 minutes later we are all done.  So it is 3:45.  My appointment is at 4:10.  Not really enough time to make it worth going anywhere in between.  Meanwhile I have promised Ava that we can go to the park when we are all done with the doctors.  I check in and then begins the waiting.  (She had started watching 101 Dalmations on her DVD player when we were waiting in the room during her appointment.)  She played and colored in the waiting room and eventually got bored and started watching her movie again.  They call us into a room at 4:50.  I wait in the room for my 3 minute doctor appointment.  We finished at 5:15.  Ava had enough time to finish the entire movie.  She did really well.  She did not forget about the park.  I said, "Ok, we are all done.  Let's  go."  She said, "Ok!  Let's go to the park to play!"  She was patient enough to let us go home, eat dinner, and then we went to the park.  At least we still had time to be able to follow through on the promise. 

Stats from the doctor's appointments:
Ava weighs 24 pounds 4 ounces.
I weigh enough.  I have gained 2 pounds in 2 months. 
My blood pressure is 110/60. 
My pee is good.
The baby's heart rate was 144 bpm.

finished!

I finally finished my blanket that I have been working on (off and on, but it still was an extensive project) since January. 

The blanket's pattern is called the "Heirloom blanket."  I am supposed to weave ribbon through the edging, I tried it and didn't like how it looked with it, so I have decided to forgo it.  The blanket is made of this yarn I got from www.knitpicks.com.  After seeing the end results, it makes question why on earth I have or will continue to make anything from the synthetic yarns.  The way this blanket drapes is like a really nice sweater.  It reminds me of a throw from my grandma's house.   I tried to take pictures to show the drape but that is very difficult to do. 

Shine Sport Yarn- Butter

Content:

60% Pima Cotton, 40% Modal® natural beech wood fiber

Weight:

Sport Weight

Gauge:

6 sts = 1" on #3 - 5 needles

Amount:

110 yards/50 gram ball

Care:

Machine Washable/Tumble Dry Low

The touch of Modal® natural beech wood fiber
gives the pima cotton a lustrous depth akin to silk, but without the
cost or special care silk requires. The knit fabric is deliciously soft
and smooth to the touch, with very little pilling. Enjoy the way Shine Sport
reflects light from textured stitches and cables; also fine enough for
two-color knitting. Its easy washability and long-wearing traits make
it ideal for baby and kid knits.

The color is much more yellowy than it appeared in the picture when I bought the yarn. It is weird because at the same time I bought a couple skeins of hydrangea and cream and both of them turned out to be very close to the colors shown. 

Here is an added bonus picture.  Ava on the paddle boats at Pirate's Cove last week.

The storm this past Sunday destroyed one of my pots of plants.  I have them on the table because the rabbit living in our bushes was attempting to eat all my peppers.  This is a risk with the wind, but up until Sunday it was fine.  Well really Saturday.  It dumped on Saturday, i was able to just put it right back.  Sunday it dumped again but this time all the dirt was so wet that it just spilled out like mud.  I let it dry out for a couple days so I could actually handle it.  I left a couple plants in the planter.  Most of them I have attempted to transplant into another big pot that won't blow over...but they might get eaten.  We will see how this goes.  I don't think I have room for the cucumbers to grow in the container they are in.  Another wait and see, I guess.

I got the new association guidelines in the mail today...We are allowed to plant flowers, etc. in the current landscaped areas as long as we don't pull out stuff that is already there.  So the question is, so I go buy a flat of flowers and plant some???  Is it too late in the season?

I haven't said much about this pregnancy.  Things are going well.  I am able to stay up much later than I was with Ava, which is good since I now work until midnight.  I wouldn't say I am less tired though.  I just get tired through out the day.  It is like if I am up for 2 hours, I am drained and ready to go back to bed.  I have to watch myself lying on the couch with Ava or I will fall asleep and she doesn't...

Baby Proof and Tequi

I took a brief break and read Baby Proof by Emily Griffin.  I could have sworn I read it before, but I think I had just considered it many times.  I think I have read a book with a similar story line.  Either way, it was enjoyable and sucked me in.  It was an easy read.  I would say it took me about 5 hours in total. 

I decided last night that our cat, Tequi, is an interesting beast.  He got shut in a bedroom for a little less than 24 hours.  Instead of coming downstairs to use the litter box or eat, he came downstairs to yell at us.  He sat in the livingroom and just meowed for about five minutes after his release, and then went back upstairs.  I have also decided that if Tequi were to speak English, he would talk like Antonio Bandares, but with a really high voice, since he is; after all, a maine coon.  He has now just reminded us, once again, to get better food for him.  He has the ability to clear out the room.  I am now going to quit writing and head upstairs since my livingroom now smells like the pachyderm house at the zoo.

Everyone Worth Knowing

I finished Everyone Worth Knowing last Friday.  It is written by the same author that wrote The Devil Wears Prada.  It is the story of a single 28 year old, who works at a high end PR firm in New York.  Similar format to the Devil Wears Prada.  You will feel like a big loser who gets their clothes from Old Navy and Target, when they say Banana Republic and Ann Taylor are wannabe clothes.  I wish I could get clothes from those stores.  Anyway, it was an enjoyable read, especially for a poolside book...if you have a pool.   I read it sitting next to the kiddie pool.  Well at least a few chapters.

Next up/current read:  The Time Travelers Wife....author unknown because it is upstairs.   I have heard very good things about it.  We will see.  I heard it is kind of a sci fi romance...I am three chapters in and the term "chrono-impaired" has been tossed out.

In TV news, I am glad that summer tv is starting.  I do like some shows.  I like that there aren't as many on at once though, so it is nice.  Summer favorites include:  So You Think You Can Dance (first week of competition tomorrow!!!), Army Wives, My Boys, and Rescue Me.  Rescue Me is only having mini episodes this summer and will be on for a 24 episode run in March of 2009.  By the way, I didn't look that up.  I saw an interview a week ago and just remember those tidbits.  I am shockingly good at remembering specific pieces of information, like rates of things, stats, etc.  Like the whole presentation at Feed My Starving Children.  I can tell you how many children die each day from starvation, vs last year.  What percentage of their funds go to the actual feeding of the children, etc.

I am currently lying on my new mattress. It is kind of squishy but firm.  It squishes where you need it to, but doesn't all cave in.  I think it is comfy.  I was still stiff when I woke up this morning but I think that had to do with the fact that I didn't change positions once after falling asleep.  That does say a lot about the mattress because before I would have woken up repeatedly to flip around. 

I finally finished that book I was reading. (Giants of the Earth) I don't remember my rating scale.  I would still suggest you give it a read.  It was interesting how it turned out.  It just kind of was like random snapshots in time, when you look at the book as a whole.  I don't love it as much now as I did starting out, but it is still good.

I am currently reading Everyone Worth Knowing by Lauren Weisberger. 

Here is somethings that I can definitely recommend.  Movies.  Watch Once and Atonement.  I tried reading the book Atonement.  I couldn't quite get into it at the time, but that doesn't mean I won't try to read it again.  It maybe wasn't the right time for me.  I tried to read Cold Mountain and the first Harry Potter books several times before I got far enough in, to really get me and they both turned out to be excellent books.  Atonement, the movie, was excellent.  Story-excellent, visually-excellent, score-excellent.  Loved it. 

FYI, Bertolli spinach cheese tortellini are super good.  Ava calls them turtles and eats them right up.

I haven't posted in a while.  We are just getting started with the summer of craziness.  I think we have stuff going on almost every weekend until mid July right now.  Good times.

We ordered a new mattress and it is coming tomorrow.  We cleaned our room to prepare for it.  I now can barely move from crawling around on the ground, picking up.  I am a little sad that I have also just figured out that our economic stimulus check (what we bought the mattress with it) could have covered over a year of biweekly cleaning services....