October 2007

I feel as though I’ve entered an alternate dimension or something.  I swear, I’m such a creature of habit that if you throw a wrench (or two) into my life that I feel so out of whack.  First off, Harry isn’t here.  He’s staying with his grandparents and aunts and uncles in Elko for the week.  We sent him off over the weekend, along with his pup.  He was so excited that I’d be surprised if he slept very well the night before we took him.  But in true Harrison form, he didn’t show his excitement outwardly very much.  His excitement looks like another kid’s boredom, but as his parents, we can always tell.

Still, it’s strange not having him here during the day.  I’m sure he’s much happier where he is.  There’s a lot more to do, more kids to play with and just a different change of pace.  Around home here, playing out in the (still unlandscaped) backyard with the pup is about as exciting as it gets.  That and keeping Liam out of the dog water.

Then, we’ve got this new cable stuff going on.  It’s an adjustment to get used to a new system (and we got most o the kinks out just in time last need to see Marie fall on her tukus on DWTS and record Heroes).  I’m missing the old DVR’d movies and the loss of an “auto-tune” feature.  But on the other hand, there’s a lot more channels and nifty features to explore and enjoy.  And so far so good on the internet.

Still, these are kinks.  And my week feels all akimbo because of them.  I’m not used to how quiet it is around here and I’m not used to the new remote control for the television.  Everyone should have such problems, don’t you think?

You can tell it’s a Monday because I can’t tell i I spelled “difficulties” correctly.  Even my computer is being slow and the “f” key isn’t working properly for some reason.  Sometimes I go to type “for” and it comes out “or”.  Not cool.  Anyhow, the point of this post is to alert you all to my changing internet status this afternoon.  The guy from the cable company is gonna come over and get us all hooked up.  Today we’re getting cable and internet.  My husband is particularly excited about the internet because it’s a 5 meg connection and our DSL is like 1.2 meg or something.  And believe me, we’ve noticed.  Of course, I don’t think I can entirely blame the DSL for how slow my laptop is being.  It’ll also be fun to have the cable and the extra channels it will bring.  I will at last be able to watch the Hallmark Channel (shut it, I’ve been wanting to watch it though I don’t know if hte shows I wanted to watch on it are even on it anymore it’s been so long).  We’ll also have FX and Bravo and a bunch of other cool stations again at last.  We’ll also have a new DVR, and while I’m mourning the loss of the flicks we have recorded to our current DVR (not “O Brother, Where Art Thou”!!), it’ll be fun to try something new out.

There will be implications.  For one thing, I’ll be without internet until my husband gets home and sets up the wireless to work with the new cable modem.  Unless I wanted to use the computer upstairs and HA, as if I’ll do that.  Also, my flickr might go wonky for a while.  See, I have a free flickr pro account as long as I’m using AT&T Yahoo DSL, and since I won’t anymore, well… I imagine some of my sets and photos might take a flying leap for the time being.  I may not renew my account until we get past the Christmas hump.  YIKES.

So, consider yourself duly warned.  Wee!

I love Fridays.  I know, I know… who doesn’t?  But I’ve always felt a special kinship with the last day of the workweek.  For one, I was born on a Friday.  If that isn’t a good omen, I don’t know what is.  You always look forward to Fridays, don’t you?  Regardless if you have any plans or not.  Everyone is happy to wake up and realize it’s a Friday.  You have the weekend stretching before you, even if you plan to do nothing more exciting than sitting around in your pajamas and watching cheesy  flicks on TBS all weekend long.  Liam was born on a Friday, on what may be the best Friday of my entire life.  Friday speaks of pizza for dinner, movies to watch and blowing off steam after five o’clock.

Dang, I love Fridays.

This Friday is no different.  So far there have been two landmark events today:

1. We have gone back to Charter.  GASP!  I know we said it would never happen, but hubby wants to try their internet service which is supposed to kick the pants off DSL which we’ve had for AGES now.  Our DSL now seems slow to us so we’re interested to see the difference.  We’re also switching our phone and television to them as well.  I’m a little nervous at trying out a new DVR service plus I’m going to lose all the movies I have on my DVR right now which makes me very sad.  But as of Monday evening, we’ll have Charter service.  GULP.
2. Liam is eating mac n’ cheese right now.  And he LIKES it.  This is groundbreaking news in the Porter household.  Before now, he has always acted like we were trying to murder him when feeding him mac n’ cheese.  But it’s been several months and I decided to give it another shot.  So far, so good.  AWESOME.

I’m going to enjoy my weekend as best I can.  We drop Harry with the in-laws on Sunday and won’t see him for a whole week.  The good news is he’s taking his pup with him.  But I know I’ll miss the pants off him.  It’s going to be strange not having him around.  Quieter, that’s for sure!

I seem to be utterly incapable of having a “normal” pregnancy.  But really, what is a normal pregnancy?  Does anyone have one of those anymore?  I would classify normal as being the sort of pregnancy where you have an uneventful (if green-gilled) first trimester, a glowing and adorable second trimester filled with an ultrasound where you discover the gender of your child and other boring but heartbeat-filled appointments followed by a voluptuous third trimester where your belly defies all logic, you’re filled with various aches and pains and you anxiously anticipate the date of delivery, whenever that will be.  My pregnancies always seem to be as different from that normal as you could possibly get.

First of all, pregnancy turns me into a slug.  Sleep becomes a precious commodity and even that doesn’t ever seem to help the situation.  If I don’t eat every second of every day then I become extremely green-gilled.  Even then, I’m wracked with worry until safely out of that trimester with a heartbeat intact.  The second trimester is when the worry ramps up, instead of ramping down.  There’s always SOMETHING to worry about.  And the baby NEVER cooperates on the ultrasound so I virtually never find out the gender at 20 weeks like everyone else.  In the third trimester, I’m a mess, counting down the weeks to the end, going to non-stress tests twice a week and generally falling apart physically.

This time looks to be no different.   I don’t need any antibodies livening up the party.