He passed!

That man who walked into a bar in a previous post? Well, he conquered said bar with ease. Just six hours ago (yes, I'm awake at 4am... ah, pregnancy), Chris was vacuuming the house in anticipation of my Mom's arrival today and I was looking on the Internet to find a good place to take her to dinner on Friday. Chris had mentioned the NM bar results would probably be posted sometime next week, so I decided to go to the NM bar exam webpage and bookmark it so I could check every day. Weeeeelllll... turns out the NM bar examiners were much more efficient than we expected, because results were posted yesterday.

I sat there looking at the top of the page (labeled February 2007 Bar Exam Results) wondering whether I should scroll down and look for Chris's name, whether I should quickly close the webpage and pretend I'd never gone there, or whether to scream Chris's name at the top of my lungs and make him look first. I took the cowardly way out, deciding that I'd check the list and if he wasn't on it, then I'd decide whether to tell him the results were in or not. Don't get me wrong; I fully expected Chris to pass. It's just that I recognized that my ability to predict the future is still not 100% accurate.

So... after a few deep breaths, I scrolled down and lo and behold, there was his full name sitting all pretty in the PASSED and ready to be admitted to the Bar list. How fantastic. I can not begin to tell all of you, my Internet friends, just how thrilled I am for Chris. Four years ago next month we were in Chicago celebrating my MBA graduation (much cooler than actually going to the silly ceremony) and Chris mentioned that he had always wanted to go to law school and thought that maybe it was time to take the first step.

And now here we are... in New Mexico; with the entire law school experience behind us. It's so great to watch someone you love set a goal and completely achieve it, even surpass it.

So congratulations sweetheart. You worked hard. And you deserve all this success. Chris's grandparents are coming out from California to attend the swearing in ceremony. I am now taking bets as to which of us starts crying first.

Bye bye bellybutton

My bellybutton is slowly being consumed by my ever expanding abdomen. Several weeks back it appeared ready to totally disappear. Now, it's much the same... although every day I check and think I see movement. Then when Chris gets home from work he checks for me too and laughs and tells me it's exactly the same. I think he's lying.

Either way, what was once a perfectly formed innie (really... I had quite a nice bellybutton) is now a lopsided, shallow indentation in the middle of a large watermelon sized growth on my front. I can even see the back of my bellybutton without pushing on it. Scary. It's like seeing the end of the universe.

Spring has sprung

Have I mentioned lately how wonderful New Mexico weather is? It's the middle of March and temperatures have been in the 60s and 70s for two weeks. I love this place.

We're having a fun time watching our yard develop, since we saw it for the first time last June. Spring is a whole new season to us. Who knew that the almond (or olive?) tree would be awash in huge showy pink flowers? Or that the scary almost-dead tree by the house was an ornamental cherry, with delicate white blooms? The biggest suprise to me is that the awful ground cover -- in my book, all ground cover is, by nature, awful -- produces gorgeous purple flowers tucked in among the greenery. I'm still bent on pulling out each and every tendril of ground cover, but perhaps that will wait until after next Spring. Sadly, our grass is still quite dead looking and yellow. Maybe it's a late bloomer.

Pictures soon!

I continue to grow...

I am now at the stage where everywhere I go people smile at my belly and ask me when I'm due. I ususally say the end of May and the response is either 'Oh my goodness, you're so big. You have a long way to go' or some form of niceity like 'good luck'. I think I like the latter better, because when people tell me I'm huge I have to explain about twins and then I find myself in a 15 minute discussion with a total stranger. It's odd. Being pregnant makes you a public commodity. Like we're all in it together for the future of the human race. If that were the case, I would think that by now, someone else should have taken up this pregnancy so I could get some sleep at night and not be so achy. But anyway, here's me at 26 weeks:

Dragon

She is the queen of the house, and don't you ever forget it.



We are continually grateful that Dragon allows us to live with her, love her, and cater to her every need.

The flower that makes you feel like a woman

When I was growing up, every Christmas my mom would receive flowers for Christmas from my grandmother or aunt. Not cut flowers; these were little packaged amaryllis bulbs that my mom would grow into flowers. She would take them out of the cardboard packaging and pour water over the little compact disk of nutrients and put the plastic pot on the windowsill. In about six weeks we would see a green shoot poking up and a few weeks later have a beautiful red or white flower towering over the paper towels and counter clutter.

This year, my mom and brother came to visit around New Years and my mom brought me a amaryllis bulb in the same packaging that I saw every year as a child. She thought it was a hokey present and told me she wrapped it just so there would be more for me to open (who said that mom's don't worry about present equity when thier children are grown?!).

I hadn't thought about these flowers in years, but over the past two months, I have really enjoyed watching mine grow. It's like I have been validated as a woman. I mean, my mom used to get these when I was a kid. Now I'm getting them. I have arrived!



It doesn't hurt that the flower is just about the most beautiful I've ever seen...

So a man walks into a bar...

Chris took the NM bar exam yesterday and today, and is now slowly recovering from the stress of the last few weeks of preparation. Over the past three years, I have frequently wished there was something I could do (like snap my fingers) to make everything right in his world again... and tonight we are finally in sight of the finish line. Apparently all I ever needed to do was pop in the Cinema Paridisio DVD and make him martinis. Or perhaps that would not have worked as well six months ago or two years ago. Hmmm...

I have come to understand that the bar exam is really taxing. It's the culmination of three years of law school, all boiled down into two days. And if you don't pass, you usually can't practice law. I can't think of really anything else in life that carries that much weight in such a small time period (well, maybe birth). No wonder people can't sleep the night before.

I'm just glad that it's over and that Chris made it through without losing his sanity. He's told me some stories of people in his bar review class and those he saw during the exam this week, and I question whether their wives/boyfriends/families are getting back a whole person.

But anyway... congratulations Chris! You did it. You made a decision four years ago to apply to law school, and between then and now, you got into a great law school, we moved twice, you completed law school in 2.5 years instead of the normal 3, had two wonderful internships, made great contacts, graduated from the University of fuc*ing Wisconsin, got an amazing job that starts in just three weeks, and now... you finished the bar exam. Congratulations babe. I'm so happy to be here with you.

My growing belly, part two

I can definately feel that my belly is getting bigger, but I had no idea just how much bigger until I looked at the previous pictures as compared to the ones I took yesterday. Yikes. Here's the new set. And yes, you are allowed to call me and tell me just how distended my stomach looks. I am well aware. I am also aware that I'm only 23 weeks pregnant. That means there are still a lot of weeks (and a lot of growing) to go. Double yikes. Scroll down the page for the first set of pictures if you feel the need...




What's that you say? That my belly doesn't look so big in that picture? Well let me tell you... it is much more impressive in this next one.

Just call me Martha

This weekend I turned into a domestic godess. I cooked beef stew, baked two loaves of bread, spent many hours sewing, and even contemplated doing laundry. I suspect this may be pregnancy hormones taking over, but even if it is, I'm having fun.

I found a wonderful recipe for beef stew (a fairly typical one with sirloin, carrots, onions, potatoes, red wine, beef stock, thyme, etc.) and had lots of fun chopping and stirring on Sunday. And I have finally, according to my loyal taste tester/husband, mastered the art of French bread. I made one loaf of that and one of jalapeno cheese bread, which isn't half bad either.

It's the sewing, though, that amazes me. Sewing is so much fun. How did I never know this? I received a sewing machine for Christmas and already have grandiose plans of making curtains, pillow covers, baby clothes, and all sorts of other items. My skill level so far consists of straight lines, basic sewing, and not much else. I have made five "door dogs" and a sewing machine cover. Door dogs are those long snakey-things that you put down at the bottom of outside doors to block drafts. We have somewhat drafty doors, so the door dogs were a necessity. They're harder to sew than they look because how the heck do you sew up that last end? I wasted a fair amount of material learning how to sew up the last end after the dog had been stuffed. (tip: you must cut the material longer than you need in order to turn the ends in and make this look finished)

The sewing machine cover was a last minute project yesterday that I undertook because I had extra material. It was actually quite hard to make, but lots of fun because I used all sorts of crazy stiches (my sewing machine has 135 of them!). The best part is that the cover fits on the sewing machine and looks pretty decent. Next up is a pillowcase cover for my new body pillow. I have to find a zipper first and learn how to sew a zipper onto a piece of cloth.

Stay tuned!

New due date

Yesterday Chris and I went to a perinatologist and had our second ultrasound. It was a really neat experience; the office was quite swanky with bottled water (with labels advertising the peri's office), good magazines to read while we waited (and boy did we wait), and a dentist-like chair that I got to sit in during the ultrasound. For those of you who have not had an ultrasound recently, the first place we went to had me lie down on a table for the ultrasound. It wasn't a problem at the time, but I worried that I'd be too huge this time and in the future to comfortably get up on a flat table.

So... getting to sit in a comfy chair that reclined was really nice. The ultrasound technician was pretty cool too; she explained everything that we were seeing and even used slow motion instant replay to show us Baby A kicking Baby B in the head. Yes folks, they're fighting already. Both of the girls looked healthy and seem to be growing well. We got to see their hearts beating, and looked at all of their internal organs. I had always thought ultrasounds were only black and white, but the tech pushed some button and we saw the blood flows in blue and red. I was amazed to see circulation to/from their umbilical cords and through their hearts. It was so neat.

All went well, but the bad news is that the second ultrasound confirmed what the first one said... I'm less pregnant than I had thought (and hoped). So, my new due date is June 12, although with twins there's virtually no chance that they'll stay in that long. Any day after May 1st is acceptable (34 weeks), but not good. Better would be after May 15th (36 weeks), and the doctor would probably induce me by May 29th (38 weeks). They told me all this like it would help with my planning. Ha! Don't they know that I'm a project manager? I need definate dates! I need firm slack time estimates! I need to know the critical path!

And all they could say is that I'll probably be pregnant for two weeks longer than I had planned. Sigh.

There's a mouse in my house!!

Eeeeeeeeekkkkkkkk! There is a mouse in my house. A literal corporeal mouse. Last night I was lying on the couch (as I am wont to do frequently these days) and Chris was upstairs in our bedroom. I heard him yell "go get it Monster" and then heard some banging and furniture moving sounds and quite a bit of scuffling. It turns out that a wee little field mouse had found it's way through a hole in the wall next to an outlet box (which was covered from our view by a big shelving unit) into our bedroom and the cats had it cornered.

However, they then got confused because the mouse didn't play dead like the wadded up paper "mice" we throw for them to chase. So Chris had to get in on the action. He chased it all over the room and finally yelled down for me to grab a bucket and join in the fun. It's a long story... but the end result is... we have a mouse in our house. Somewhere. Not sure where. You see, it escaped. It manged to outsmart two people and two cats in a confined space. It ducked into the baseboard heat unit, where we were sure we had it cornered. But no, turns out there's a hole in the wall there too, just big enough for a little mouse to shimmy off to somewhere else.

If you're getting the impression that there are lots of holes in our walls, you're right. The previous owners were, shall we say, less than worried about small holes, electrical outlets meeting code, and other minor home improvement details. Don't get me wrong. My house does not look like Swiss cheese. All of the holes are covered up by heating covers, shelving units or cabinets, but since we have moved in we have found quite a few gaps and holes and little things that we need to plug up, insulate, and/or fix.

All that said, there's still a little mouse somewhere in my house. Or maybe by now he's found another exit. I bought some of those sticky traps and we're going to put them out eventually. Just like we're going to seal up all the holes. Eventually.

We've got priorities you see. And lying on the couch is number one.

I am huge

So it's official. I am absolutely huge. I just got back from an appointment with Hillary, my fantastic midwife, and I'm measuring 28 weeks. That is six full weeks ahead. For those of you who are mathmatically inclined, that is a full 27% bigger than where I "should" be if I was having just one baby. How cool is that?

I heard two heartbeats, and Hillary explained where they both are (one head up by my ribs on the right side, baby lying sort of diagonal with her feet down at the lower left side, the other lying across the lower part of me with her head to the right). They were also moving all over the place, which apparently you can hear on a stethoscope.

In other news, my mom has been bitten by the baby bug. She actually sat down the other day and did research on where I should register. Many of you know my mom and will probably agree with me that the fact that she spent several hours sitting and researching says a lot. She sent me a list of places to look for cool baby cloths and furniture, and I hate to admit it... but she found better places than I did. And up until now I have considered myself the queen of Internet research. I guess now all I am is the queen of lying on the couch whining about being achy and tired. Or hungry.

And speaking of... it's time to go eat again.

Belly pictures, as requested

So yeah, I am giving in and posting pictures of my growing belly here so that you people stop bugging me for photos. (you know who you are) To the rest of you who have absolutely no desire to see my skin, sorry. Close your eyes quick.

This first picture is of me all covered up in my favorite hanging around the house outfit. I look either pudgy or pregnant depending on what mood I'm in when I see the picture.



This picture, however, leaves no doubt that I'm pregnant (in my opinion). It's much more obvious with the shirt pulled up. There are two little aliens in there!

Ode to my body pillow

Oh wonderfully enormous and fluffy body pillow, let me tell you how much I love thee...

Seriously, for anyone pregnant out there, run out to Costco and buy yourself a $10.43 body pillow immediately. I thought all the hype about body pillows was just hype. And who wants to pay $50 for hype? Then I found the cheap version at Costco and figured why not?



This is not actually me sleeping, but you get the idea.

Previous to the lovely pillow, I had been waking up two or three times a night because my hips were hurting, or my belly was unsupported, or multiple other painful reasons. Now, no wakeups. It's bliss! Of course, body pillows are fairly large, and I think Chris is feeling the downside since we now basically have three full sized people in our queen sized bed plus the two cats when they're in the mood. But I do love my pillow. I have to travel to DC in two weeks and I'm wondering how I'll fit it in my suitcase. It is about 4 feet tall and very puffy. I guess I'll be bringing the large suitcase!

So sick of protein

Pregnant women need a lot of protein. Women pregnant with twins need even more. I have read anything between 100 grams and 175 grams a day. It's unreal. The "best" pregnancy diet according to many experts recommends 2 eggs, 12 oz of chicken or beef, a quart of milk, 2 oz hard cheese, and 4 servings of nuts or seeds each day. Plus a baked potato, 2 servings of leafy green vegetables, 1 yellow or orange colored fruit, 2 green peppers or lemons or tomatoes and 5 servings of whole grains. Each day! How am I supposed to pack all that in? I have always loved to eat, so you'd think I'd be deliriously happy.

But sadly, there's no onion ring requirement. Or mashed potato requirement. Sigh.

A friend reminded me that pregnancy is now my job, and eating healthy is the number one requirement. I'm not exactly falling down on the job yet, but I'm not loving my new tasks either.

Maybe if the two little aliens inside me would start kicking and putting on a show, I'd feel like I was getting something back in return. But right now all I do is shovel food into my mouth. Or at least that's how it feels.

TWINS!!

Oh my goodness. Oh my goodness. There are two of them in there. Two little girl aliens. I went in for an ultrasound on Tuesday and the ultrasound technician found two heads as soon as she put the gooey wand on my stomach. Chris figured it out immediately, but I had no clue. I saw two little round things up on the screen, but I just figured those were two elbows. Or maybe some other alien shapes inside me. When the U/S lady said "yup, just what I thought, twins", I would have fallen over, but fortunately I was already lying down. She was able to confirm just a few minutes later that both are girls, but wasn't 100% sure if they're sharing the same chorion (which would mean they're identical).

The perinatologist who reviewed the videotape is pretty certain they're identical, but won't guarantee. (as if perhaps we'd want our money back)

I have gone through all range of emotions. First, shock. Absolute shock. Then excitement. Then fear. Then excitement again. Then more fear. Now I'm excited and a bit apprehensive, but in general quite happy. And I'm feeling well and healthy and enjoying my growing belly. I definately look pregnant now but am no where near huge. Perhaps in a month or two.

Pregnancy cravings

Everyone who knows I'm pregnant asks me what I'm craving. I hate to admit it, but not much of anything. I bought myself organic pickles just in case I wake in the middle of the night, but so far, the jar is mostly full. I have two varities of ice cream in the freezer, but haven't once wanted to dish myself out a bowl. Am I a boring pregnant lady, or what?

The only thing that even comes close to a craving is my recent need for popcorn. Actually, thinking about it, perhaps this does qualify as a craving because I daydream at work about making popcorn. And I make it as soon as I walk into the house. We don't have a microwave, so I have learned to make popcorn on the stove. It's really good and not nearly as fake tasting as microwave popcorn.

It snowed!

Oh my goodness... this is wonderful! This morning I woke up to snow. Snow coming down, snow covering the bushes, snow on the trees, snow everywhere! It's winter! I can not begin to tell you how happy I was and how much I love weather events. Well, the fact that I immediately rushed back up the stairs and woke my slumbering husband so he could share my happiness probably says a lot. This is the same husband had been very careful to tell me last night that he was going to sleep in because he was tired and his first class didn't start until 1pm. Sorry babe.

Now, before you think that we had Rochester snow, or even DC snow... not quite. I'd say that we got perhaps 3/4 of an inch. But hey, snow is snow. The coolest part is that as I was driving to work, the snow disappeared. There was snow on the ground in our neighborhood, but less so by the time I reached the first major street. By the second intersection, just a dusting. By the third, only frost. And then about 3 miles from my house, no hint that it was snowing just a ways away. That's New Mexico for you folks.

More later (and yes... I have been absent for almost two months. I know. I know. I'm a bad blogger).

Nothing to report...

Lest you think I have forgotten you, oh Internet friends... I have not. I just have not had anything worth writing about in the past week. Work is still annoying, the house is good, the kitties are enjoying the hot afternoon sun streaming in through the windows, and Chris and I plan to go camping this weekend.

That's about it. Check back in a few days; I'll have pictures from the Trinity site (where the first atomic bomb was exploded... in southern New Mexico) and our camping trip.

Holy hair batman!

Today I finally got around to getting my hair cut. It's funny, but I always feel better about the world after a hair cut. It's like I start again all clean and shiny and all is good. Then, slowly, I get shaggier and shaggier and I get annoyed with the world. Given this logic, tomorrow should be a great day.

The funny thing with my haircut, though, is that Margie, my hair cutter, put more shit in my hair than I have ever had in it. Cumulutively. Seriously, she used about five dollops of gel throughout the cut. Not only that, but she put in a fist full of silk something or other -- it looked and smelled just like gel. And then sprayed the entire creation with a gallon and a half of hairspray. I hate hairspray. She sprayed so much that it got on my face, and my shirt, and all over the place. Then, as I was unsticking myself from the chair (hairspray is sticky), she threw on an extra dollop of gel for good measure. Have you ever heard of gel AFTER hairspray?

Suffice to say, I went straight to my car, drove home, and jumped into the shower, where I shampooed twice to get all of the crap out. It's actually a nice haircut now that it's not covered in a spaceage sheen.

The house, part one

So people keep asking for photos of the house, and I keep forgetting to put them up on the web. But today I remembered! So here are the pictures we have so far. Some turned out better than others. This first picture is the "family room". This space is open to the kitchen, separated by a long counter and area for a couple of stools. We spend most weekend mornings here; there's lots of early morning sun and the windows to the east keep the room fairly warm in the AM. There are reddish burgundy blinds in this room, and I planned to replace them within minutes of moving in. However, they're not nearly as bad as I thought and they match the couch quite nicely. Go figure.



This shot is the counter/bar that separates the family room from the kitchen, and the view into the kitchen. The cabinets are willow and are functional but not exactly pretty. Someday we'll replace them.



The kitchen has a huge window facing south that looks out over the ridge (just barely visible at the left side of the picture) and a smaller window visible from the sink that looks southwest. Nice city lights view from here. The window is actually in the stairway, but the kitchen is open on one side to the stairs so you can see through the window too. Not sure if it's obvious in the picture, but our countertops are teal green with a hot pink stripe at the front edge. Oh yeah baby. Welcome to the 80s.



The counters will be torn out or covered over at some point. After all the renovations in Madison, though, we're feeling lazy.

More house...

Our house is designed to take advantage of the hillside; the second floor rooms aren't actually over the first floor rooms, they're above and behind them. It is sort of like a stairway effect. The other interesting design feature is that all of the rooms on the first floor are open to one another. And they're all in a line. The family room is the furthest east, then the kitchen. The stairs are next, followed by the dining room, and furthest west is the living room. This picture is of the dining room; the half wall on the right separates the dining room from the living room (which is also three steps lower, so the half wall is almost a full wall on the living room side).



Here are the steps leading from the living room to the dining room and a view all the way down the hall past the stairs into the kitchen area (turn right past the wall that looks like it has a cut out), and at the end is the glass door in the family room leading to the east patio.



And finally... the living room. The fireplace takes up the entire corner of the room with nice tile and leaf detailing. This week I'm going to get a chimney sweep to come out and make sure it is usable. The glass door leads to the west patio, which is great in the evenings.

The upstairs

I haven't taken many pictures of the upstairs. In fact, I only have two pictures! I have somehow forgotten the guest room and the extra bedroom that Chris uses as his personal study-place. So, here is picture one. This is our bedroom, probably the least typical master bedroom that I have seen. The opening you can see on the left creates airflow between the first floor and second. In fact, you can stand in the bedroom and look directly down on the living room. From parts of the bedroom you can see the chimney (it's the pinky tile column through the opening on the left). The cats use the opening as a means to get down to a ledge above the fireplace that affords a great view of the entire downstairs.



The steps in the bedroom lead up to a raised area by the glass door to a large wooden deck. I have no idea why one section of the room needed to be higher than the other, but it makes a good spot for our cushy ottoman (we threw the couch out years ago but always loved the ottoman).

This next picture is the view from the second floor hallway down over the study (we're not quite sure what to call this room. It has built in cabinets and houses our computer and lots of books) into the dining room. The study isn't on the first floor or the second; it is six steps up from the first level and five down from the second. From the study (where I am right now), I can see out of the top half of the dining room windows. Lovely view of our across-the-stree neighbor's red tile roof and the ridge behind them.



You can also see the house construction in this picture. There are four steel I beams that run from the peak of the house down to the south wall. Then, four wooden beams span the entire house from east to west.

I am just not convinced...

So the lovely house we live in has baseboard heating. Hot water baseboard heat, I think it is technically called. I have never lived somewhere with this type of heat and I'm a bit suspicious. How can these little metal baseboards heat my entire house? They're arrayed around the outside of most rooms under windows, and there are four zones within the house, each controlled by it's own thermostat.



Last night the heat came on for the first time ever. Predicted low of 41, so I guess heat makes sense. We heard a lot of little popping noises (the metal exanding?) and finally figured out it was the baseboards. However, even after about an hour, the baseboards don't seem hot. They're marginally warm, but how exactly will that heat the house?

I went to bed shortly after so I have no idea if the house stayed warm all night. This morning it wasn't freezing cold in the house, but it wasn't warm either. Hmmmmm.... Like I said, I am just not convinced.

Thank you Mom

Yesterday I bought a morter and pestle as the second part of my Mom's housewarming/birthday gift to me. It is made of granite and weighs about 15 pounds. As soon as I got it home I ground up some corriander seed, cumin seed, fennel, cardamom pods, cinnamon and spearmint and made a very delicious tea.



The first present arrived about two weeks ago and has been happily residing in the alcove between our bathroom and closet. We think of you every time we sit down to put our shoes on or when we throw stuff on the bench. So thank you Mom!



We also store extra towels inside the bench... and Dragon likes to climb inside every time we open it. So it's fun for the whole family.

You know you have acclimated when...

1. A cloudy day is such a suprise that you want to discuss it with people

2. You start to recognize the individual lizards and hummingbirds that live in your yard

3. People stop you on the street and ask you for directions... and you can answer!

4. You reach for the green chili before the catsup

Home improvements, slowly taking place

The first home improvement project that we decided to tackle is the wine cellar. When we moved in, the room looked like this:



It is a small space off of the family room. The lower walls are granite; they stick up into the house. There aren't any upper walls, it's just open to the crawl space and plumbing, wiring and foundation. The two wooden wine racks block the views of most of the infrastructure, but not all. The plan is to pull those out and replace them with real walls and our own wine racks that we brought with us from Virginia. Until we have time to do demolition, though, we're using the room as our liquor cabinet:



(update)

We started demolition this weekend by tearing down the old wooden wine boxes. Then we framed for new upper walls. It was actually more difficult than I expected because there is no level surface upon which to rest the wall framing. The hillside just comes into the back of the lower wall, so it's all loose gravel and stone. Chris affixed the framing to the ceiling and then dug out the gravel to create a trench in which to place the framing. The back wall isn't going to support anything, so it doesn't have to be rock-solid, thank goodness.



Next on the list is sheeting the walls and then painting. After that, Chris is going to build support columns to hold up the wine racks and we'll tile the base where the wine racks will sit.

Somedays I really hate my job...

Today is one of them. Can I tell you all the things I hate about my job? Let me create a list:

1. Getting up in the dark
2. A boss who can not stand up for himself or our department
3. A vice president who makes decisions without asking for any facts
4. A contracting officer in bed with our vendor
5. A vendor that delights in making things hard for our customers
6. Wanting to make a difference and not being able to
7. Having to do stupid briefing sheets instead of being able to make simple decisions

This is certainly not a full list. But it's a start and makes me feel a bit better to write it all down.

I love the state fair

I have always loved big community events like county fairs. Even street festivals are fun to me. I grew up in a small town/suburb where the highlight of the year was a festival called Canal Days (yes, my town was on a canal). Every first weekend in June the center of the village would be transformed into a block party, complete with kiddie rides, funnel cakes, and vendors selling just about any arts and crafts thing you could imagine.

Now that I'm an adult, going to the state fair is just as exciting as it has always been. Chris and I went to the fair on Friday afternoon and spent HOURS wandering around. We shared a corn dog (my first ever, I think), saw the goats, watched a cattle auction, wandered through the demonstration area where men with head microphones were hawking squeegee mops guaranteed to keep your floors shiny and other people showed off nonstick pots that could never scratch. A short break to have some fry bread and we were off to the flower building and agriculture displays. Sadly, there was no dairy barn. A state fair without prize winning cheese is not nearly as good as one with, but hey, it's New Mexico. Not a big dairy state. All in all, it was a great time.

I didn't exactly drag Chris, but large crowds of people and kitchy displays aren't really his thing, so I know he went just to be nice to me. That probably made the day even more special.

When it rains... it pours

One of the most amazing things about living here is the rain. It's a desert, so I didn't expect much. And most days, that is what happens. No rain. Since we moved here we have had three totally overcast days where a big cloud blanket covered the sky and threatened rain at any minute. It rained in the evening on each of those days, for about 1/2 hour each. We haven't had any days where it rained or even drizzled from morning to night.

What we do get, though, are massive rainstorms complete with lightning, thunder and hail. It has hailed more times this summer than there have been overcast days. (how cool is that?!) Here's what it looks like when it rains in Albuquerque. First, a river runs down our street.



Then, a river runs down our patio steps. The patio river brings with it mud from up on the hillside, so after each big rain (there have been maybe four of them), we have to shovel out the mud that now covers our nice brick patio.

I am a karma kicker

Yesterday afternoon Chris and I went to the New Mexico State Fair. We didn't feel like paying seven dollars for parking, so we bypassed the parking lot and looked for free parking on the street nearby. We saw a spot almost immediately, wedged in between two very large pickup trucks along side a dead end street. On one side of the street was a surface parking lot, the other was an auto body shop and a few other car related industrial shops. As we pulled into the open space along the curb, I noticed a white sign saying that this section of the curb was reserved for the auto body shop only and that all other cars would be towed.

I pointed this out and suggested we park elsewhere because it would stink to be towed. A long discussion ensued... did you know that it is not possible for a business to reserve the curb? The curb is a public space and you can't block it off for private use. It would be like me putting a sign in front of our house telling people not to park there and towing anyone who did. That wouldn't go over well.

That said, neither of us really felt like tempting fate and having to argue legalities after we left the fair with an auto body shop who had already towed our car away. So we circled around and found another spot. As we were getting out of the car, Chris told me that parking in the second spot was just better karma. He explained that if I hadn't pointed out the 'no parking' sign, he would have parked there. He saw the sign and decided to ignore it, but since I brought it up, it would be bad karma to park there. I am apparently a karma kicker...

The view

I have raved about the view here before, but haven't though to post a picture. Ooooops. So here is the daytime shot. Come back tomorrow and I will have posted the same view at night.



In the foreground is the ridge just southwest of us. Then behind that are some tall buildings that are mostly located near Central Avenue (the old Route 66). In the distance the next set of buildings is downtown Albuquerque. Behind that is the west mesa, just miles and miles of high desert dust and scrubbrush.

I could stand at the window for hours watching the skyline change as the sun moves, the little tiny cars driving on the streets, the plants on the mountain swaying in the breeze, and the miniature planes taking off from the airport 10 miles away.

(update)

I took picture after picture, but I don't think the camera does justice to the city lights. Ah well. Some things you just have to see in person. All of you people out there in cyber-land who know me... come visit! Until then, here's the best I could do:

Desert landscaping...

Desert landscaping is much more colorful than I expected. This is, of course, due to the invention of the drip watering system. That and deep wells that drain our aquifers quickly. When we moved in two months ago, our landscaping contained many colorful bushes and flowers. Over the past two months, I have really enjoyed watching new plants start to bloom while the summer ones have faded. Here are the current flowers we have. First, a really lovely evergreen style bush with vibrant blue flowers. I have no idea what it is called, but it just started blooming the other day and I really like it.



This is a view of part of the east side yard. The red flowers have been blooming since the day we first saw the house in June. That's over three months ago. I should go check to make sure they're not plastic. That would be a good trick...



One of my personal favorite flowering plants is this tall pink one. Again, no idea what it is called. This is sort of a theme in my gardening knowledge. It's called no clue. I took a bunch of pictures last weekend and I plan to bring them to the Albuqurque Gardening Center in the near future. I was told that the master gardeners there will take pity on a garden idiot such as myself and tell me what my plants are and how to care for them. Wouldn't that be nice?



One of the only plants I can identify is rosemary, and we have a huge bush of it! I didn't even know rosemary grew like this. I think it stays green all winter, so we'll have plenty of rosemary to make stuffing at Thanksgiving, seasoning for pork chops, rosemary biscuits, and anything else I can find that includes rosemary. Now if only I had a basil bush, or dill tree.



These pink flowers just showed up a few days ago. The leaves are really thick and pliable, which makes me think this is some type of succulent, distantly related to the cactuses that grow all over the place in New Mexico. It doesn't smell, but it is quite pretty.



Stay tuned for more garden updates as the season progresses...

We have lizards too...

Not only are there snakes living nearby; there are lizards too. So far I am pretty sure that at least three lizards live in our yard. I have named them West Side Andy (he lives on the patio to the west of our house... and I once went to a concert of a local musician in Madison called West Side Andy, so the name seemed to fit), The Lizard (this guy was the first we saw, he's out just about every day sunning himself on the stucco walls of the east side patio), and The Little Lizard (self explantory, right?). Here's a picture of West Side Andy half in the shadow of a tree and half in the sun. He's about four inches long.



West Side Andy is the dumbest of the three lizards, in my opinion. He seems to think that if he freezes, you can't see him. While this might work when he's lying on a twig in dappled shade, it's not so convincing as he's sunning himself on our tan stucco patio or the red brick patio floor. But we pretend because I don't want to hurt his feelings.

The snake who lives in my yard

The other night Chris and I were about to make dinner. The only ingredient we were sure of was homemade green chili sauce (it is so good we put it on everything). We were standing around in the kitchen just chatting when Chris grabbed the binoculars and ran to the window. I followed, hoping to see a bear up on the mountain, or maybe a bobcat in a neighbor's yard.

Instead, there was a very large snake slithering out of our front yard and across the street. And by very large, I mean perhaps five or six feet long. We tore ourselves away from the window long enough to grab our handy guide to the Sandia Mountains. According to the book, the snake was a cross between a western rattlesnake and a bull snake. His coloring looked like a rattlesnake, but he had no rattle. Hence, the cross.



But, of course, there are no mixed rattlesnake/bullsnakes out there. Our guy was probably a regular bull snake. You can't tell from the picture but his diameter around the middle was over six inches. This snake was huge. We watched him snake his way across the street -- he moved in a very cool S fashion, sideways and forward with all the curves in his body staying curved. When he reached the other side, he raised his head and sniffed (do snakes sniff?) at the overhanging bush, then snaked his way over the curb and into the bushes.

Ahhhhh... wildlife. I am a big fan, but I would prefer to be a fan from afar to snakes. Perhaps this big snake could stay on his side of the street and I will remain on mine?