Happy Wednesday

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Oh dear.

While you enjoy this adorable picture of my sweet friend Hazel, I will be marinating in the guilt I not noticing they had no water yesterday afternoon. I also decided to turn the heat up I their floor, so my guilt was doubled as I realized they were probably warmer than usual, and very thirsty. I brought them full quarter bottles, and a dish for faster drinking (they just flip dishes though, so we don't leave them in unless it's HOT out) and Orson sat there slurping for ages. The garage was silent, so I could hear his stomach gurgling as he drank. I FELT SO BAD! I hoped to make amends by bringing them a dish of snow to play with. I hope it worked.


Extreme leg stretch, oh yeah.

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A Weekend Alone

Friday afternoon, the other three big animals took off for Medicine Hat, so the human could find a new truck to get around in, and catch up with the cousins and aunts/uncles.

 

Right up until about 9pm on Friday, I was pretty stoked on the idea of a quiet weekend to myself. I planned to veg out, get lots of cleaning and organizing done, work out, and most importantly - fiddle around with my new spinning wheel!(on the right).
 I bought it out at the Alpaca Loft at TNC Alpacas (aka Cathy Merkley's place) on Thursday night, and after the snow storm I braved to drive out and pick it up, I was elated to have it home (and be alive!). However, my enthusiasm was rather swiftly thwarted by an ill-mannered sister visitor, who was swiftly and enthusiastically evicted shortly after arriving, but the damage was done. All I wanted to do was call Warren and bitch about how much of a pain in the ass it is not to live here in relative solitude (pun intended).
Anyway, after venting to him, I decided to get over it, and get to attempting to spin!

I was actually surprised at a couple of things: I had watched a bunch of videos on youtube of chicks my age spinning pretty confidently, and was rather convinced that it would be a whole lot easier that I had always assumed. I turned out to be right, yet wrong.

The actual process of spinning the yarn is somewhat uncomplicated, at least for someone like me who is used to handling fibers and working with their hands. That being what it may, I found that getting started was pretty tricky - the basic action of getting the start of the roving attached to the leader line proved to be a challenge for me. I have a lot of tweaking and learning to do when it comes to optimizing treadle'ing speed and using a light touch on the tension, but I grasp the basics. Alas, I found it really trick to get a good pace going, and move the part of the leader that starts outside the orifice, onto the bobbin. Once I got the motion of feeding the fibre towards the wheel, it all started to come together (above, left).
After I worked out a good chunk of the bobbin full of somewhat even-looking yarn, I rolled it all up into a little ball. Woo! I made yarn! And it actually looked pretty cool!(evidence at right). I might try and figure out a really small little project to make with it, even if it's just a square, to hang onto it as a keepsake. I later read that leaving the yarn on the bobbin for 24hrs is a good way to set the twist... I'll keep that in mind for next time!

Now, switching gears to all-things-mama...


Lately, I've grown somewhat disenchanted with a couple of the baby blogs I follow. I'm not overly excited about your fashion choices, so when I see multiple posts informing readers where the writer bought every item of clothing they are wearing in the super precious and clearly retouched photos that their husband's reflection is evident in, I start looking around the blogosphere for something that doesn't smack so strongly of narcissism. And yes, I'm aware of the irony in looking for a non-narcissistic blog about people cloning themselves and sharing their every related thought with the world, but there's a line to be crossed, I feel. Also, giveaways. They just feel so cheesy and commercial to me, and the appeal or parenting blogs (for me anyway) is the unfiltered nature of the information, and the sharing of an amazing human experience. Mingle that heavily enough with commercialism or fashion, and throw in a heaping serving of your love for Christ, and I'll catch you on the flip side.

I did find one interesting couple who just squirted out a spawn, and surprisingly, they're full-on Jesus happy. Not usually my style, but they both seem really dedicated to fitness and have a good sense of humour about their lives, so it makes for a humble and seemingly honest read. And while the mama/writer is super cute and has great style, it's rarely mentioned, and she certainly doesn't feel the need to do a big fashion photo shoot each week. Praise hosanna!  If you're interested, here's Martha's site .

I also started reading another baby book, one I've had sitting on my nightstand for a couple of months, and just haven't bothered to open and get in to. It's the Mayo Clinic version of What to Expect, and so far, a whole lot less cutesy/vomitworthy that the namesake. Don't get me wrong, the original was a good place to start. But that was about it. The layout was so cramped and confusing, and the inset boxes of text often went through the main text in a way that when you were finished whatever came up in the box, you had to go back and start again. On the whole, relatively overwhelming and the information was very vague and broad. I really didn't relate to the tone of the book either. The Mayo Clinic version, however, has a much nicer layout and, GASP real pictures of real people illustrating the text! The semi-computerized pictures on and throughout the first book were just awful. It felt like reading a manual on some sort of no-longer-in-use feminine product from decades ago.
The May book also has a cute little 'exercise of the month' section in each chapter, and that's the chronology of the whole book. The text is, so far, full of useful charts and options for comparison. I'll write some more about the read, surely.

This morning I found myself doing something backwards - I cognitively hoped that my ovulation test would remain 'negative' when I tested, and that I might ovulate (if at all this month, who knows?) later than planned, so the male human can come home and give me his seed at the appropriate interval, to optimize human-producing conditions in my lady garden (yep I totally stole that term from the aforementioned blog, get over it). I realized that since a snow storm has blown into the prairies, not only will his truck-search be slowed by at least one day, but that his departure from the south will like be at least one, if not several, days later than originally anticipated. Luckily, we both have the flexibility in our jobs that these types of situations don't cause a major ruckus, but it occurred to me that we should be swapping fluids prior to predicted ovulation, not exactly when I'm supposed to be eggywegged. We'll see how that goes! Praying (to a god I know doesn't exist) that he comes home sooner than later, or that I ovulate later than my little period tracker app predicts!

In related news, I was checking out a developmental chart in the Mayo book, and did some calculations, and figured that if we spawn on this cycle (stranger things happen than healthy people conceiving on their first 'try' but I'm not holding my breath or stressing) then Jorvulax (t's nice, and gender neutral, huh?) would be due just after December 4th - I think the chart in the book would predict about December 7th. Neat!

I would ask you to send me some fertility vibes, but the whole purpose of this blog is to keep this documented until after spawning has been confirmed, so you'll be seeing this knowing it worked, though maybe not this time. I chose to believe that you would have, if you had known.

Frustration

I was folding laundry on the bed in the master bedroom tonight, when I heard Darwin whining from the ensuite bathroom and realized it was very quiet... Too quiet. When you have two young dogs, a very quiet house means one of only two things: they're not home, or they're getting into some serious shit.

I crept over quietly to the bathroom door, hoping to catch them in the act of something dubious. When I peeked in, I couldn't resist tip toe'ing into the bedroom to grab my phone - he was leaning over the jacuzzi whimpering softly at the rubber duckie that he'd nudged over the edge, and was now too much of a chicken to jump in and retrieve.


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Some things just don't last...

I crocheted a cute little flower headband thing to put around Zu's neck, and it was adorable. For about thirty seconds. That's how long it took for her to become interested in chewing it to smithereens!



I'm glad we both enjoyed it, in our own way.


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Cheers!

Here's hoping that an alcohol-free 9 months is close on the horizon (for now, check out the Magnum in ice in the soup pot in the background)!


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Sunny Sunday

Warren's favorite restaurant in the world is this bizarre little Chinese food place in Maidstone, (about 55km from Llloyd) that has all dy breakfast and burgers. It's run by a guy named Sunny, and according to Warren, he's a gem. See, the thing with Sunny is, he puts up with feeding obnoxious customers (like Warren, riggers, and a host of racially insensitive seniors from nearby farms) and, certainly most importantly, he orders his bacon cut REALLY thick.
If you ask me, no matter how thick or thin, the best bacon on earth comes from Red Barn market in Victoria. (How do I know? I used to slice it when I worked in their deli and something about consuming pound after pound of raw bacon makes me an expect, even of I do say do myself.)
Suffice to say I am unimpressed with Sunny's, but they make decent chow mein, so I chow on that. Today, unfortunately, Darwin the Dog decided he too loves Sunny's pork chow mein. He ate basically an entire serving of it from the take out container we left on the truck floor, while we were in Walmart (the irony of the 'doggy bag' has never been so pungent). Can't wait to see what kind of diapers he's going to be making!

Anyway, this morning, for the first time in far too long, we slept in together, got up and ate breakky in the kitchen together, drank tea together, and went on an outing together. I love having family time on the weekends, and it certainly helps to grease the wheels by offering to hit up Sunny's on the way out.
We took the dogs for a walk down a lease road along some farmland, and it was beautiful.


The sun was glowing through some clouds, it was about -3 or -4 and hardly windy.



Zuzu hoping to be reimbursed for posing so nicely.











Listening to some crackling in the bushes - this calm attentiveness was shortly following by tough, big dog barking at whatever poor creature was scrambling in fear in the stand of birch.


What a nice way to spend a Sunday afternoon with your animals (all three of them!)

We made our way back into town, to discover that snow had fallen while we were out in sun country. It's strange to see such a change in the look of things when you've only been out for a couple of hours!

Wheb we picked up groceries, I gathered a couple of baby-friendly items, namely an ovulation kit. I had no idea they were to be had in stores, and for about $60! This discovery was a pleasant surprise after being (extremely rudely) told by a shoppers drug mart pharmacist that they were not only unavailable as a regular stock item, but also very expensive (and that I wouldn't be interested in them, as "they're verrrrry pricey". Could have put my foot up his ass after that comment. Do I look that poor? I think no!).

In a stroke of good luck, it happens that the test kit wants me to start testing ONLY on my 5th period day, and today is day 4, so I can start tomorrow! How exciting! Patience is not my strong suit.





Wish me luteinizing hormone calculation success!

Happy Family Day tomorrow!

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Getting the hang...

Phew! I'm pooped! Learning how to wrangle all these gadgets is exhausting, but check me out! I'm doin' it!



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First attempt at mobile blogging...

OH MAJOR VICTORY!


Tonight, not only did I start a blog, download instagram (finally) and use both, once each, successfully- I also bought a mobile blogging app and amalgamate my skills in order to create one epic event - polished looking photo post, right from my iPhone!
It's a technological documentation trifecta folks! SNAP!


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Location:Home, snuggle bed.

Day 1

Well, there, I said it - A Higgins. Me, Erika. Erika Higgins. Erika Anne Higgins. 


By the time you're reading this, I'm married. That much I can be sure of, because outside of asking hubby dearest what he thought of me opening a hotmail account using the married name I intend to take after we seal the deal in a couple of months, no one is supposed to know about this little blog until we have actually taken the plunge. (Confused? - I'm writing this on February 17th, 2012 as I intend to begin this blog now, and continue using it as a documenting tool as we embark upon some major adventures, namely cloning ourselves in what is surely the most narcissist act either of us will ever undertake, and I am EXCITED AND PROUD! Can I get a whoop whoop for reproduction? Yeah!) But, I'm not actually a Higgins yet, nor am I sperminated yet (this much I know with certainty). 
Hopefully though, you're reading this because we've spawned a mini Wiggsy, and I've decided to go public with the news, and this is where you should start, if you want the whole story, from before it was even much to tell, really!


Let's set a ground rule or two, though. Please feel free to read, enjoy, discuss, whatever - but under no circumstances do I want to hear your opinion on the choices I'm making for my family, thank you very much. Just as I promise not to read your diary and then let you know how I feel about your deeply personal thoughts, I expect you will afford my diary the same respect. 


Actually, that's pretty much the only rule. I'll be happy to connect with others in the blogosphere once we're actively gestating, but if you're looking for a soapbox, well basically just fuck off and don't bother. 


Thanks!