craftygeekette

Happy birthday to me

eowynmn@gmail.com — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 09:06:16 GMT

It was my birthday Sat. I don't know why but 27 seems soooo much older than 26. Oliver's grandma came and babysat while we went and saw the Batman movie.

...best comic book movie ever.

My husband forgot to get me something for my birthday (not even a card) despite my reminding him that my birthday was coming for two weeks straight...mainly because I was so excited about the batman movie. I really don't think he will forget next year.

So I went shopping for myself Sunday. I am now the owner of a new digital camera that will take much better pictures than our old 3 megapixel camera.
I also bought myself 84 gel pens at costco. I'm sorry but I have a gel pen addiction, and it needs to be fed.

WII Story and Update...I have a code

eowynmn@gmail.com — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 22:56:26 GMT

Here's my wii code
3874-6391-6079-0616

Can someone add me and let me know, so I can check?
I tried adding the people who responded to my last post so hopefully I did it right...I dunno.

So here's the story:

I'm at a party for my cousin last night and my brother is all like "Erica, just give Oliver to someone else for a minute and come out to my car, I want to show you something.

So I eventually go out to his car with him cause he seemed pretty excited, so I took a second away from whoring out my baby to go see what he had to show me.

He opens the truck and something is covered up and me makes me uncover it, when what do I see? Is this my eyes playing tricks on me? A shiny new Wii in it's package. I'm confused. Why is there a shiny new Wii in ken's trunk. He already has a wii. I give him the puzzled look and he explains that it's for me. He won it at a work raffle, and he even had people at work trying to buy it from him for over full price and he said no to them. He gave it to me because he knows how much I've wanted a Wii and could never justifiy the expense because of the baby. So he just gave it to me.

I have a pretty awesome brother. I'm still flabbergasted....you know, between trying to find time to actually play it. ;) My brother rocks.

I HAVE A WII!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

eowynmn@gmail.com — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 23:00:06 GMT

Now how do I get me friends on there? Do I need your code to contact your wii?
If so, please leave it in screened comments and I will figure it out tonight when the kiddo wont go to sleep.

My brother gave me a wii...story later, have to take care of baby now.

Oliver Dean is here!

eowynmn@gmail.com — Wed, 28 May 2008 08:24:30 GMT

Oliver Dean S. was born on May 20th at 11:58 AM. He was 7 lbs, 1 ounce and 21 inches long with a full head of beautiful hair.

I was induced due to preeclampsia after being on bedrest for 2 weeks. I have a very long birth story, which I will post...someday.

We've been having a very difficult time since we got home with feeding and were on a feed every other hour schedule which means basically the most sleep Ive gotten in the past week is one hour at a time. He also was headed down a slipper jaundice slope there for a while.

Luckily, due to our combined efforts Ollie came out like a champ at yesterday's pedeatric appointment and we are on a more relaxed schedule now, and everything is going better. woohoo!

Sorry I didn't post sooner but my computer was downstairs, and I was upstairs...and uhh...being a mom is super freakin hard.

Lots of pictures at my flickr site here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/92324796@N00/

I wish I could have gone

eowynmn@gmail.com — Sat, 03 May 2008 16:35:25 GMT

...to the show on May 1st. :(

Sadly enough, my back hurts way too much to stand in one spot for that long.

T minus 4 weeks, 6 days to go.

Speaking of that - Nick thought it would be ingenous to get Eddie Izzard tickets for Tuesday, May 27th and in the event that I have a baby then, which I probably wont - let me know if you would be interested in buying them.

Ok I'm posting - Had a blood clot...Now a high risk pregnancy

eowynmn@gmail.com — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 02:11:11 GMT

Don't ask me why I've avoided telling people about this for three weeks, but I think I'm just still coming to terms with it.
Half of me thinks it's no big deal, and half of me is scared shitless.

First of all: For those who don't know - Blood clots are scary because they can happen in your legs, but then they have a 10-15% chance of traveling up to your lungs causing a blockage known as a pulmonary embolism and that can kill you.

About three weeks ago at an OB appt, I noticed that my left ankle was about twice the size of my right ankle all of a sudden. I had no pain or other symptoms, but just to be safe they sent me to the hospital to get an ultrasound of my leg. I sat there cracking jokes with the sonographer, when she all of a sudden got very quiet. I knew something was wrong and she pointed out that there might be a clot but she needs the doctor to look.

Sure enough, there's a clot in my left calf and I'm going to be admitted to the hospital. So Nick came up at this point in time. They were getting a room ready for me, so I'm stuck in the stupid birth room at methodist (however I did try to distract myself by watching battlestar (it was a Friday night) only to find another episode surrounding Baltar, and I can't stand that dude. Nick finally makes it up to the hospital, and we are admitted.

After about 3-4 hours of sitting there with nobody knowing what the hell to do with me, as apparently it's pretty rare to actually present with a blood clot during pregnancy, an internal med doc came down. I was prescribed Lovenox(a low molecular heparin) shots twice daily (and that shit burns). Before that, these crazy nurses were talking about bedrest, and csections and who knows what else. Neither nurse I had had even seen a situation like mine before...so rare is it.

They kept me overnight to monitor me, and another doc came in the morning and explained more. I'm now a high risk pregnancy. I can no longer see the midwives group that I was seeing, and most scary to me....No epidural. That's right. Apparently if you get an epidural when you are on Lovenox, it can paralyze you.
I can handle that....unless I have a csection, in which I would have to be under general anestesia.

However, there was hope. I could get on heparin around week 37 and then I can get an epidural 12 hours after my last shot if needed.
Today I had a meeting with my perinatologist (high risk OB doc), and she says "sorry, but no heparin for you"...apparently every last vile of heparin was tainted and sent back to China, and they wont prescribe it until they know it's good and safe, so I wont get it.

So no epidural, and no c-section without being put under if needed if needed and I feel totally unprepared....but you know, I have diapers and wipes ready to go.

I'm dealing with it better now than I did a couple weeks ago. I'm glad that I saw a perinatologist finally today. She made me feel a bit better about it, and it was good to see Oliver....although he has fluid in his kidneys which could or could not mean infection, but they made it sound like he was ok.

I'm also a little paranoid about my post partum recovery, as you are more likely to clot postpartum than during pregnancy so lets hope everything goes ok.

Now I just need to uhh read up on some natural birthing methods, cause apparently needles in the spine are out.

/end drama

Face of Boe baby

eowynmn@gmail.com — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 20:57:33 GMT

Is it just me, or does my baby look WAY too similar to the Face of Boe?

Dear baby, please don't come out with a smooshed face because you look that way in utero.

(he's sitting on his side)

Stolen from Cheb - because you know, it's important.

eowynmn@gmail.com — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 04:13:13 GMT

The CONvergence panel list for this year is something to behold. As with prior years, there's something for everyone... only this year, there's MORE of it.

But there is one hurdle that must be cleared before these spectacular panel ideas come to fruition at CONvergence. These shiny new panels need panelists.

That's right! If you're going to CONvergence and want to help out, sign up to do a panel (or eight)! You don't need to work in the field or be an authority. All you need is a passion, an opinion, and a willingness to sit at a table and talk.

How do you sign up for CONvergence panels? It's easy!

Step 1) Go here: http://www.michaell.org/schedule.phtml

Step 2) Oggle the pretty list.

Step 3) List your preferred panels in an e-mail.

Step 4) Send e-mail to programming@convergence-con.org.

That's all you need to do!

But Cheb, I hear some of you say, what if I have a wicked cool panel idea that is NOT on the list?

Why, you should put that idea in the e-mail, too! If the idea doesn't get used this year, it could be used next year!

But Cheb, I hear some others say, I've been living under a rock/in a different country/on the moon and know not of this CONvergence of which you speak.

CONvergence is a smorgasbord-style science-fiction/fantasy/general geekery convention, held in Minneapolis over the 4th of July weekend every year. It's so lively, so rich, so positively crammed with cool, creative people that it's hard to compare to any other event. In all my years of attending conventions of different stripes, I haven't seen anything quite like CONvergence.

This year is the 10th CONvergence, which means that it's going a mother of a blowout. We've added a day (for a total of four days of solid convention goodness) and invited back about 20 of our previous Guests of Honor, AND invited a couple new ones. On the guest list are:

( Spectacular List Within )

But it's not all about the Guests of Honor! It's about:
* the panels,
* the events,
* the parties,
* the costuming,
* the art,
* the gaming,
* the creativity,
* the silliness,
* the weird conversations you have in an elevator at 3 AM with a drunk Klingon,
* the best movie and anime rooms I've ever seen at a convention (including San Diego Comic Con),
* and, most of all, YOU. That's right, YOUR GEEKY SELF, plus about 3,000 other like-minded geeks.

Interest piqued? Go here for more info: http://www.convergence-con.org/

Are you already sold, and CONvergence-hunger bothers you during the rest of the year? Go to http://www.misfit.org/ for information about other geek-friendly events that happen year round!

People are funny with their baby advice.

eowynmn@gmail.com — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 19:30:37 GMT

So I find this completely hillarious:

A while ago, someone from Convegence basically went off on me because I said I didn't feel comfortable bringing my baby to convergence for the weekend.
My reasons:
He will probably only be 2-4 weeks old.
I will bring him for a couple hours, but not the whole weekend.
I don't want to have to worry about tons of germs that weekend, as we all know that many people get sick after convergence with so many people in an enclosed space.
If a baby DOES come down with something at under 6 weeks old, it's an auto trip to the pediatrician or hospital.
On top of all that, I will have just had a baby, and wont exactly be up to convergence style partying.

I basically got told I was crazy for sheltering my child so much and there's no way he's going to get sick because of the natural immunities he gets from me in the first three weeks and the immunities he gets from breastmilk, and apparently this person is an expert because they have two kids. Unfortunately, viruses can mutate at any point in time and any cold you get is basically a new virus, so just because my child has my immunities, does not mean he's immune from every virus out there he could pick up at convergence.

Then I told my Sister in law that I was planning on going to the state fair with some friends in August and bringing my then 2-3 month old baby with. She told me I was crazy for bringing my baby around germs so much, and apparently this person is ALSO an expert because they have two kids. I think that's over protective personally.

I think once the baby is 4-6 weeks old, you are ok bringing them out in dense croweded situations where there is a high probability of getting sick. I don't think the probability is even that bad at the fair, as it's outside and in August. However, bringing them into a dense, indoor condition like convergence at 2 weeks is just...well stupid and irresponsible, so I wont do it.

Basically, opinions are like assholes, everyone has one. Nobody is an expert at raising my child, but me. And if ANYONE is an expert at germs, how they spread, and how they will affect my child, it's me because I'm currently getting an A in my uber-tough Microbiology class. ;)

Now don't get me wrong. I like hearing people's opinions, but don't tell me what I have to do, and don't get visibly upset with me because I am making my own decisions about my child's wellbeing. I do love advice, and perspectives, and I want you to tell me what you like to do and why, but leave it at that. I'm going to make my own decisions about my child, and his health. Period.

I don't like to "talk" about my feelings...

eowynmn@gmail.com — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 01:43:41 GMT

I'm much better at writing my feelings. Whenever I actually speak about feelings, I end up crying...especially with all these hormones.

So this is what I have to say about Roadkill.

I remember my first hint of this Roadkill guy.
It was after my first Convergence, Cleo convinced me to go to this Ice cream Social thing at this guy named roadkill's house. She tried explaining this Roadkill guy as a big, scary looking dude who's all teddy bear on the inside. That didn't work well. I was still awkwardly new at this Geek community thing, and semi-terrified to go alone to some guy's house named "Roadkill."

I got to the house and kinda waited outside for about five minutes, because meeting new people can actually be scary for me sometimes. Then I went around back, and I can honestly say Amada was right on the money. Roadkill, although semi-scary looking on the outside, but not nearly as scary as I had imagined was a very warm-hearted, welcoming gentleman. I clearly remember meeting him, because you don't get a chance to meet people like that that often.

Over the next few years, Roadkill was always willing to host the party at his home, he was always willing to man up to any task, come in last minute and build a facade, and of course, take over the grill. I remember being a Misfits officer and going "who's going to man the grill at the picnic" and Roadkill always volunteered. He was always being helpful. Sure he could be gruff at time, but usually sweet, always creative, and always fun to look at, that's for sure!

He was a sweet, giving, caring man and although I didn't know him as long or as well as some others, I can say that he touched my heart and that the world needs more people who are willing to think of others first and willing to help out and be there in the ways he always was.

It's Return of the Jedi time

eowynmn@gmail.com — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 14:30:04 GMT

Return of the King
Part Three
The end is near
Revelations...ok maybe not the last one.

In any case, I'm now officially in my third trimester, and this pregnancy is going fast so far.

I mean sure my back hurts like hell, I'm tired all the time, and I'm starting to walk slower but eh. It's not so horrible, and my husband is quite useful.

See we have no ceiling lights in the bedrooms at our house, and apparently my husband can figure out electrical wiring. 2 weekends ago he put a ceiling light in the baby's room WITH a dimmer switch, and a light in the closet, because its too dark in there, you can't really see anything. It's awesome. Either this weekend or next, he's going to put a light in our bedroom too.

The crib is together. The cheapest matching dresser/changing table combo thing we could find is on it's way from target (baby furniture is expensive!!! I don't think we even spent this much on our own dressers...then again our dressers are from ikea).

Still lots to go, but I feel pretty confident. I've been having lots of dreams about my lil Oliver lately. It's kinda fun and makes me excited, yet also scared to death.

I feel like I want to "do everything I can" before he gets here, but the ironic part is that it's hard to do a lot as you get more and more waddlish every day. Guess I will just have to take life as is.

At work yesterday

eowynmn@gmail.com — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 14:19:56 GMT

I overhear part of a conversation while walking by someone's desk at work yesterday...

Coworker Marsi: "I'm going to have a beer after work today, it's Friday! I don't care if I'm drinking alone."
Coworker Kris: "It's ok to drink alone. Who cares?"
Me butting into conversation: "Well, I never drink alone...my fetus is always with me."

Marsi and Kris: Gasp....then realize it's a joke and die laughing.

I must say I was pretty humorous and wanted to share.

Hold the phone!!! Velcro tabs!?!

eowynmn@gmail.com — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 14:00:32 GMT

Say what?

I haven’t changed a diaper in about ten years probably, but I used to change lots of them. I was a babysitter, but not just any babysitter…I was the one you had to book three weeks ahead cause the kids loved me. The point is that diapers DID NOT have Velcro back then. They had sticky tabs, and if you left your stickytab untabbed and it got on the kid – bad news. Now we have Velcro tab diapers. I’m so happy! I hate stickers anyway, so this is just a great improvement for me.

What will they come out with next? Swings that rock side to side as well as front to back and plug into the wall instead of using countless batteries?
Oh wait, they did that too.

So I’m officially a dumbass. Nick was painting our son’s room this weekend, and I was so excited that while we were waiting for the paint to dry, we put together the crib. It’s beautiful and I love it. It only took 30-45 minutes to put together and I was SO excited! Then I just had to and ruin it by saying “So how are we going to actually get this into the room?” Our hallways are too narrow, and cribs are freakin big. Needless to say, once Nick is done with the second coat in the baby’s room, we have to take the crib half apart to even get it in. *doh*

Babies R Us + Jebus =??? WTF

eowynmn@gmail.com — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 17:52:07 GMT

So I went into Babies R Us friday night to pick up a roll of the border we are using in the baby room. Yep we are doing a cheesy "ABC" border. I was quite annoyed however to find that the border only went to E. I'm going to be teaching my son the alphabet, and he's only going to know the first five letters. That's ok....it was cute.

Anyway, It was late at night so the store was calm and serene. I notice the song "God is great" playing over the intercom. I'm thinking WTF? Usually store mix tapes are pretty non-specific, crowd pleasing music...so maybe they are listening to a radio station and the manager is Christian and picked out some highly inappropriate music. (Note - this BRU would be one that not just Atheists, but Muslims would go to as well).

The next song is Amy Grant
The next song is a country song about some dude who's blessed by god to have his baby.

So as I check out, I ask the cashier "So who chooses the music, because I'm wondering why you guys are playing christian music in this non-christian store?" I expect it from Northwestern Book Store, but not Babies R us. He says nobody picked it out, it is indeed the store "tape" that plays over and over, but assures me that Gwen Stefani is on the tape so it's ok.

Umm when I worked in retail, I know those tapes were made general and neutral to NOT offend anyone. I wonder if the Babies R Us tape nazi is a dedicated, conservative Christian trying to get at "us" one song at a time. Either way, if I get the willpower up, I will find a way to write a letter..

My election results...because it's funny

eowynmn@gmail.com — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 03:10:02 GMT

Well after having a big mouth and offering to play secretary for the night, I got elected a delegate...and some associate precinct thing so now I have to go to meetings once a month maybe (optional).

Here were the results in my precinct:

77 for Obama
39 for Clinton
1 for AL FRANKEN FOR PRESIDENT

Seriously, there was a Franken write in. I mean I love the dude too, don't get me wrong but why write in Al Franken? At least USE your vote, and vote for Al when we are talking about the senate seat.

I did my own LOL cat

eowynmn@gmail.com — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 22:22:52 GMT

....poor hiro had to try out the baby clothes for me.

First sign of the end of the world

eowynmn@gmail.com — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 17:42:37 GMT

My mom is going to CAUCUS for the DEMOCRATS and choose Hillary Clinton.

I think hell just froze over.

Let me explain:

My parents have been lifetime republicans (except that they did like Slick Willy Clinton as they called him).
They've never given 2shits about politics before. They voted in the elections, but they never got involved.
I'm just really proud that they care.

Barack Obama

eowynmn@gmail.com — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 23:43:08 GMT

Anyone want to go see Barack at the target center with me on Saturday? I will pay for parking! I need a friend.

Costume opinions needed

eowynmn@gmail.com — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 15:21:13 GMT

I would really like to make the Joker Costume for the new Batman movie, The Dark Knight for nick this year. I think he would look great in it.

My question. Too soon or weird because Heath Ledger died?

Onsie for my fetus

eowynmn@gmail.com — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 00:06:42 GMT

Just wanted to share for all my fellow lost fans. :)

School

eowynmn@gmail.com — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 16:36:53 GMT

I’m just going to say it.

I LOVE my Microbiology Professor. No seriously, if he could teach every class I have, I would take him. The weird part is that he got pretty mixed/bad reviews on ratemyprofessor.com, but I think most of those are from just lazy students.

Why I love my teacher:
He is enthusiastic about the subject he teaches.
He talks about Evolution all the time – and when some chick tried to bring up religion to him and that he shouldn’t teach evolution in COLLEGE, he basically was like “sooooo….why did you take a Microbiology class?” He basically shut her the hell up.

And most importantly ….

Last night in class, he referenced Lord of the Rings, Star Wars AND made fun of the president’s made up words all in one class. I heart him very much.

Because politics is TEH fun!

eowynmn@gmail.com — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 13:54:11 GMT

....less than 1 year til Bush leaves office now. YAY!

I was talking to my Mother in Law last night, also a die-hard Democrat. She had a theory that Republicans are crossing lines and voting for Hillary, and that's why New Hampshire swung like it did. I could actually see that happening. I mean WAY too many people in the middle of the road do NOT like Hillary, but like Obama. I could see why someone might want to use this strategy. However, if it were happening, I think it would catch the news somehow. Thoughts?

It's a boy!

eowynmn@gmail.com — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 14:23:47 GMT

It's official. My baby has a penis. At first I was a little bummed at not getting to dress my child in every cute little polka dotted dress ever made, but now I'm pretty happy. Anyway, I always appreciated having my older brother to bite people in his vampire phase. I'm sure my son will do the same for any little siblings.

I wish I had HBO

eowynmn@gmail.com — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 14:27:33 GMT

I was watching Conan this morning (from 2 nights ago) when Bill Mahr was on. He proceeded to talk about politics, make fun of Huckabee, and then call all religious people Schizophrenics. i about spit out my cereal.

He blasted Huckabee for not thinking Evolution to be real, and made the all to easy and simple to make Gravity/Evolution comparison. (As we have more evidence for Evolution than Gravity, yet people can choose to believe Gravity and not Evolution).

Conan was all uncomfortable, trying to change the subject by saying "Heh, hrm uhh so tell me something funny about Bush?"

I mean it's one thing these days to come out and talk about being Gay on TV. At least that is MODERATELY accepted in society. However, to come out and blatently voice Atheist viewpoints on public tv.... *tear* The only person who I've ever seen do that is Dawkins, and then it's like 'no shit Sherlock, we KNOW he's an Atheist.'

That's all. I was just stunned to see that this morning. Seriously on Conan O'Brian, calling all religiosos Schizo and batshit crazy...you just can't buy that shock value.

Political survey - I'm right where I thought.

eowynmn@gmail.com — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 15:21:15 GMT

87% John Edwards
87% Barack Obama
83% Hillary Clinton
80% Joe Biden
80% Chris Dodd
79% Mike Gravel
77% Dennis Kucinich
76% Bill Richardson
41% Rudy Giuliani
30% John McCain
25% Mitt Romney
24% Tom Tancredo
22% Mike Huckabee
13% Fred Thompson
11% Ron Paul

2008 Presidential Candidate Matching Quiz