Forest Magic

There is a little trail near our house. It's a mile end-to-end and meanders through a forest. I walk it every day. 2 miles round-trip. It takes me longer to walk it now than it used to of course, but I keep a good pace. I think Baby Girl enjoys it too. She's usually pretty calm and quiet after one of my walks.

On sunny days the trail and the park at the end are filled with dogs and kids and parents. Today was slightly cloudy and a little damp, having rained earlier this morning, so it wasn't too crowded but there was still some activity. I was fairly oblivious to it all though, strolling along the trail deeply immersed in my favourite pasttime on these walks: thinking up middle names for Baby Girl :-)

As I followed the trail into the woods, mulling over names and themes (names of great canadian women; names of our favourite places; names of beloved family members; etc) I came across the little clearing that marks the half-way point of the trail. As I did so, the clouds that were intent on blocking the sun made a small opening. Sunshine came streaming through the late spring foliage in the branches above me, casting a golden-green cone of light onto my patch of forest and pathway. I stopped and looked up, savouring the subtle warmth of the filtered sun on my face and admiring the light playing on the leaves. And there half way to the top of the cone sat an owl. He was quietly surveying everything below him in the branches and along the path, including me. I stared at the owl. The owl stared back and blinked once. A brilliant blue Jay hopped into a tree opposite and stared at us both, while chattering away. Other little birds twittered and chirped in the higher branches. Leaves rustled in a slight breeze. But there were no other sounds. The owl was huge - definitely a mature adult. As I watched he turned his head slowly as sounds from further within the forest caught his attention. Sounds I couldn't hear. But he always returned his gaze to me.

I have always thought of owls as magical creatures. Their strange and unique appearance, the way they move their head so slowly and evenly, and yet so calculating. Their piercing eyes, their calm demeanour. And yet with that calmness there is also a sense of majesty and power. And mystery.

I stood there watching the owl watching me for several minutes, half expecting some dog or person to come bounding down the trail, ending the moment. But no one came. It was very peaceful. When my neck started to ache, and my lower back and pregnant belly started to feel uncomfortable, and a cloud moved in obscuring the sun, I finally said my goodbyes and moved on.

As I continued on my way I saw a woman with two dogs approaching. I thought about telling the woman about the owl. As she got closer, I smiled. She stared at me and barked at her dogs sniffing at a rotting log to "leave it, and come on". I didn't say anything. I looked back after she passed to see if she noticed the owl above her, but she didn't. Neither did her dogs. The owl was watching them though. The owl was my secret.

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"Whispering Blue"

No - it's not a band name :-). It's the colour of the marmoleum we selected for the laundry room floor and counter top. As you can see, it's been installed :-)

Other happenings: Hardwood floor installation has begun! The flooring has been installed in the bedrooms, bathrooms, closet, hallway and entrance way and also in the family room. Installation in dining room is in progress.

The silestone countertop and sink in the guest bath has been installed, as has the silestone for the tub deck in the master bath. We also found that some of the pocket doors had been hung, and so had the closet doors for the hall closet.

Here are a few more photos of the progress made this week.

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The first time

Ever I saw your face
I thought the sun rose in your eyes
And the moon and the stars were the gifts you gave
To the dark and the endless skies, my love
...
-E. MacColl

Baby Girl, your dad and I can't wait to meet you out here in the big world and hold you in our arms!

This was the final picture from our 20 week ultrasound back in march. She is so adorable! The rest of the pictures are here in our previous post :-)

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Wave hello to the world, Baby Girl!

Baby Girl's left hand at 20 weeks. Doesn't she have a cute hand?! :-) We finally got around to scanning our pictures from our 20-week ultrasound back in March :-)

Here's her right foot:

and a cute little profile shot:

There's still one more picture we want to scan so stay tuned :-)

Since these were taken (I hit 26 weeks tomorrow) she's been quite an active little girl and moreso with every day that passes - she's wiggly and bouncy pretty much non stop day and night! The only time I don't feel her moving is when I'm walking around. I think the motion and rhythm when I'm walking puts her to sleep. She will sometimes quiet down for an hour or so mid-afternoon, and after 11pm too, but then starts up again around 4 or 5am. Luckily I can usually avoid waking up fully during those. I actually I find her wiggles comforting :-) And when I'm sitting in dull meetings all day at work she provides great entertainment and distraction for me :-)

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Good Customer Service vs Bad Customer Service

Ok - so some of you checking out the blog yesterday might have seen my huge rant about customer service - in particular, bad customer service. And more specifically, one of my special pet peeves, Customer Service Representatives Who Interrupt You. It was only posted for a very brief time. I took it down after reading it because it was written in the heat of the moment, and came across as very holier-than-thou (because I was PISSED) and I didn't want to offend anyone out there in the customer service field who actually knows what their job is and are really good at what they do.

So I decided to take down the post, cool off, and try one last time today to contact customer service for the company with whom I was having the issue. And may I say: Wow. What a difference.

Let me first give you some background. I am trying to transfer money between two bank accounts at two different financial institutions. We'll call them Financial Institution "A" and Financial Institution "B". Financial Institution "A" provides a service, for free, that does electronic funds transfer to any bank account at any other financial institution. It seemed like the easiest way to go. I entered all the relevant information and then waited the requisite 5-8 business days for the service to be activated. On the 8th day, I checked the status, and found it was inactive. I called customer service, was transferred to a specialist, who proceeded to tell me that it would be active by the following Monday. It just hadn't been processed yet.

So Monday I checked the status again, and found it to be still inactive. So I called customer service again, was transferred to a different specialist, who proceeded to tell me the first specialist was wrong, and that the reason the service was inactive was because the service initiation transaction had been rejected by Financial Institution B, which meant that the information I had entered was incorrect. I had several issues with this response. First and foremost, the woman wouldn't let me get a word in edgewise to explain my problem. She believed she had figured out all on her own what my problem was. Whenever I tried to provide information she would cut me off or interrupt me. Second, she was dead wrong. The information I had entered was all correct. I knew this to be fact. Third, she proceeded to take an attitude with me despite my attempts to remain calm and unoffended and to give her the benefit of the doubt (maybe she was having a bad day?) and fourth, she was completely unhelpful and offered up absolutely no solutions to my problem. By the end of the call she was downright rude, and I had had enough. That's when I vented by writing my blog entry which I subsequently tore down :-)

So today I called back again. 3rd time is the charm, right? I got a different customer service rep, who transferred me to yet another specialist. I braced myself for the worst. What I got instead was a polished, professional, courteous representative who listened to my problem, asked me relevant questions, looked up my case history and summarized my issue back to me so I could be confident that he understood, provided me with a status update on their investigation of my issue, offered me a temporary solution without my having to ask ("how about I overnight a check to you for your money, at no charge, while we sort out this transfer issue?") and then thanked me for my patience while they continued to investigate why the money transfer service wouldn't activate.

Now THAT's customer service.

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Unhinged

No... I'm not talking about me. Or about Tim. Although Tim might beg to differ on both counts (it's been a stressful couple of weeks for us both!)

We went and checked the house out today after baby class (which admittedly maybe did leave us feeling a tad unhinged ;-)). Not a lot of changes since Tim's visit earlier this week, but there were a few. They've prepped the laundry room for laying down the marmoleum floor and countertop. They've also got almost all of the trim complete throughout the house. I noticed some hinges installed in preparation for doors, and Baby Girl's room even had closet doors already hung!

Here are More photos from today

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Pregnant Ramblings, Part Deux

Knit one, perl two... and then PUSH... and BREATHE

As Tim mentioned in his recent entry, this past weekend we attended our first of two "Preparing for Labour and Childbirth" class (of course, being in the US, Labour was spelled without the "u" but that's their problem, not mine. I intend for my labour to consist of a "u" - probably several, pronounced "uuuuuuh" or, if directed at my loving husband, "what in the $%*& did 'u' do to me?!" but I digress ;-)).

The class was informative. A little scary. Very real. But what I really want to share was this little gem:

http://www.birthinternational.com/product/model/ta011.html

That's right. It's a uterus. Complete with baby inside. "Knitted in a ribbed design for ease of use in two tone pink wool". This is the tool our instructor used to demonstrate the dilation of the cervix during labour, and the crowning of the baby. There were actually a whole lot of results that came up when I put "knitted uterus" into the search text box, but this one was Australian - so they put the "u" in labour just like me. But I've belaboured that point enough :-).

Note, per the description, that "The fetal doll and placenta will fit inside and the vaginal extension is attached by snap fasteners". It's a very thorough little mockup.

Wait a minute... "and placenta"? What's this? Surely they jest.

But no. The doll really does come with its very own placenta!

http://www.birthinternational.com/product/model/ta003.html

Hmm. Our instructor must have been saving this lovely feature for "Day 2". What other treats lie in store for us this Saturday, I wonder?

The Winds of Change

On a completely separate note (but of course still within the subject of pregnancy ;-)) according to "Pregnancy, Childbirth and the Newborn", the book our doctor gave us, in the 2nd trimester I should expect to experience some or all of the following common emotional changes:

- Greater feeling of dependancy
- Acceptance of pregnancy
- Increased interest in babies and parenting
- Introspectiveness
- More daydreaming and dreaming at night
- Developing sense of growth and creativity
- Varying feelings about changing appearance.

I would say that "Acceptance of pregancy" pretty much came when I first saw the 2nd line appear on the stick :-) It's true it's definitely become more real for both of us in the 2nd trimester though.

On the increased interest in babies and parenting - that might explain my sudden urge to watch "Dateline" last night to hear about parents who condone (and even encourage) teen drinking in their homes as a way of "deterring" drinking and driving. (Don't get me started. That's a whole separate blog entry). And it probably also explains why, when channel surfing this evening, I stopped on "Nanny 911" and watched in amazement and horror as the details of the King Family's completely dysfunctional, chaotic and disrespectful household was revealed before my very eyes. I couldn't turn away. I tried. But I couldn't. It held me captive. After which I immediately ran into the office and told Tim to NEVER NEVER let me watch another one of those shows, and to promise me in 5 years we wouldn't be the subject of some disfunctional family reality TV or talk show.

I would also agree with the introspectiveness. If this blog entry isn't enough proof, then you can go back through the archives :-)

And I would definitely have to agree with the varying feelings about changing appearance. Although I have to admit I've surprised myself by overall how positive I've felt about how I look. Of course, the decision to stop weighing myself around week 11 (or even looking at the scale at the dr's office) was absolutely the right one. Wise move :-) I have no clue how much I weigh. And I'm absolutely ecstatic now that I'm actually showing. It makes me feel "real". Like I've EARNED something now that you can see I'm pregnant. And I have when you think about what all is going on in this body of mine right now! But I do have my moments of self conciousness about my appearance and fits of frustration when things don't fit right. Tim is witness to most of these, and he's been great, even during the worst of them :-)

"Developing sense of growth and creativity" is actually probably the most obvious change that's taken place within me. I was quite surprised to see it printed in black and white in my book and then realize that's exactly what's been happening. It explains why I spent an entire weekend searching the internet for nursery artwork - looking specifically for images depicting little girls in bright colours engaged in gender-neutral or non-traditional activities. For example - there are lots of pictures of little boys in planes, little boys sailing ships, little boys playing soccer. There are very few of girls flying planes or sailing ships or playing sports. "Girl" art consists of flowers and fairies and princesses and ballet dancers. It's even a category on many art/poster web sites in the Nursery art area. And there's nothing wrong with those images - but I'd like our little girl to have a balance, and the gender-neutral animal theme can only go so far. The two images I did find of a little girl wearing a baseball outfit and a little girl playing soccer were done in light pastels, not bright, happy, interesting colours. Exasperated with the options available for purchase but having a vivid vision in my mind of what it was I wanted framed and hanging on our daughter's nursery wall, I promptly went out and bought paints, brushes, paper, and a book on watercolour, and set about creating my own masterpiece. A little girl in flying cap, scarf, and goggles, with reddish/brown hair streaming behind her, flying a bright green, blue and red bi-plane over rolling hills of trees and farmlands. Eh... it's ok (I'm very critical of my own artwork). It's not bad for a first attempt, for sure. And framed, it will make a lovely addition to the nursery and a nice compliment to some of the other nice artwork we've found (and the nice frame job might help minimize some of the beginner-artist flaws :-)). I doubt it'll last on the wall much past the age of 5. She'll get embarassed by it and take it down eventually. But maybe someday when she's older she'll understand that even though it isn't a great work of art, it was painted by her Mom with love and purpose - to let her know she can do and be anything she wants. The sky's the limit.

...

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Dogdays of... spring??

Tommy would have you believe so.

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If at first you don't succeed, Try, try again...

It was just such a fun little story I had to share.

Man passes driving test after 272 attempts (Reuters)

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First Light...

Our first electrical light in the house :-) Yes - we turned it off again before leaving ;-)

Tim, surveying this week's progress, and admiring the view from the back entrance stairway :-)

And then we discovered that not only do we have a working interior light but we also have RUNNING WATER!

At this point, the cabinets are all installed in the kitchen, master bathroom, and guest bathroom. Doors and handles still need to be applied to the cabinets but the basics are in and our fridge has been set in its place as well.

Slate tile is all done and grouted, as is the dog wash tile.

Doorways have been trimmed, and lots of progress made on the crown molding throughout the house.

The dehumidifiers and heaters are still running. Not sure what the moisture level is at or when they anticipate being able to start the hardwood floors. We should learn more next week at our next site meeting.

More photos here, of this week's progress!

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And another apprentice wanna-be bites the dust...

Tana disappointed me this week. I guess I spoke too soon when I praised her performance in the last episode. Abandoning her team because she needed her beauty sleep? Under normal circumstances I'm the first to say pace yourself, maintain a good work/life balance, stay healthy, don't burn yourself out or your team. But these aren't normal circumstances. These people choose to compete against 16 other "type A" personalities on national TV to be "The Donald's" apprentice. They watched the first two seasons. They knew what to expect. They all had to know there'd need to be some all-nighters. Come ON! And to actually state that she's willing to hide behind her immunity so she can get a little rest - in other words, willing for her team to fail because she know she can't be fired... so sad. I'm thinking the stamina is starting to wane. I'm sure it must be exhausting. But you gotta want it. The person who wants it bad enough is going to be the one who wins.

Kendra on the other hand surprised me. I still think she's whiney, but she got it done, and did a damn fine job. She oughtta be proud. But while I do agree she was completely abandoned by her team for the night, she also appeared to have a selective memory when it came to acknowledging what contributions her team members had made earlier in the day. And I think she probably could have done more to rally her team and pep them up and keep them going longer but instead chose to direct that energy into assuming the martyr role. But hey - in the end - they won the task so it's all moot.

Next, Craig: There WAS a vision and a theme - it was EMOTION. Duh! I got it it. The Pontiac dudes got it. Get with the program. You can't say that there wasn't one just because it didn't happen to be yours or because it wasn't a theme you liked. How quickly he seemed to forget his own run as PM where his team abandoned him because they thought his "box" idea was lame.

And as for Chris - it would appear from recent events that the little message The Donald had for Chris after firing him (watch your emotions and temper) didn't sink in, huh...

To sum it up: Apprentice is still good entertainment on a thursday night.

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Too soon for separation anxiety?

Well, today we enrolled Baby Girl into Day Care.

She starts in November.

She's not even born yet.

I already miss her.

Sigh :-(

On the plus side, we were thorough in our search and we're very pleased with our choice! She will be safe, secure, and well cared for in a clean, bright, stimulating environment with attentive and nurturing teachers. At least - that is our impression from our visits and interviews and research and I just hope it is right.

Next stop: Pediatricians.

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The Art of the Upsell

So the tax software we used to do our own taxes this year (I will not name it because I refuse to contribute further to their revenue stream, but I'm sure you can guess it anyway because afterall - how many tax software companies are there out there) offered a special "service" whereby you could submit your tax forms to a professional tax firm (for a fee) electronically via the software application (securely of course) to have them review it and provide you with an electronic report.

As I mentioned, we owe money, and our taxes were complicated this year, and I figured it couldn't hurt to have someone do a quick review to make sure we didn't make any mistakes or miss anything, and given the timing and the relatively low fee, thought this might be the most expeditious and cost effective means of doing just that.

So I paid the fee, and submitted the forms electronically, and waited for my report.

I got the report today. Let me give you the highlights.

1) the first part was most definitely "form letter" material - "Your tax return contains a lot of information about you... we have analyzed your return and have found the following profile... if any of the following statements are not true, you may need to make corrections to your tax return" and it proceeded to regurgitate a bunch of information back at us that I had filled out about us, our employment, our income sources, our deductions, etc. Basically the same stuff that the tax software asked us with answers in plain english. Duh - that was helpful and a good use of our money. Not.

2) The end of the report had an "overall assessment" section in which it stated "Based on the information you provided, your reviewer has identified significant problems in this return. Do not file this return until you have carefully reviewed all of the issues within this report and made the appropriate adjustments. You may want to consider purchasing the unlimited telephone consultation service described at the end of this report".

Ack! Significant problems! Oh my god! Panic! Panic! What to do? Oh wait - they're offering a solution (for a fee)! Must sign up for unlimited telephone service! Now!

Yeah. I wasn't born yesterday.

It isn't about the money they make from getting you to buy a "professional tax review and report". It's about the ADDITIONAL SERVICES they make you believe you need as a result of that report so they can suck more cash out of you. No way. I ain't buyin'.

On the plus side, the report did point out a few errors we had made - a couple of which I easily corrected on my own, and a big one that I didn't fully understand but that a friend of ours (THANKS CHRIS!!!) explained and helped us correct that ended up saving us a nice chunk of change! So the initial investment in the report was money well spent... but they still didn't suck me into their real upsell, which was the unlimited phone support :-) Still you gotta give them some kind of credit for having an approach that probably does actually generate a lot of business for them... the "put the fear of god (and the IRS) into you" upsell pitch for additional services.

Hey - that reminds me of the time when Rich, a friend of ours and my boss at the time, made me believe I was going to jail because I forgot to file my US taxes (Sorry Rich - you know I have to bring it up every year at this time... it is a great story ;-))...

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What a surprise...

Apprentice contestant Chris Shelton was arrested in Tampa Florida on disorderly conduct charges.

For those of you who have been following the show you'll know Chris as the tobacco-chewing asshole who gets in everyone's face, and to whom Trump has called on more than one occasion in the board room "a loose cannon" who can't control his temper.

Somehow Chris has managed to avoid getting fired thus far despite his temper and attitude problems and general instability and unreliability.

However I think in light of this little gem we can safely assume that he doesn't go much further in the competition - according to the article, the thing that set him off on this latest meltdown was a $20 cover charge for the hotel bar. While I don't put a whole lot of stock in Trump's "interview" methodology (it just makes for some good entertainment but that's about it) I'd be totally disappointed if such behaviour, as witnessed week after week ON CAMERA, was left unchecked and ignored right up to the final episode. Come on Trump - get a clue. Would you really be ok if one of your "execs" were to have a public temper-tantrum to the point where he's actually arrested and charged over something as piddly as a $20 hotel bar cover? If that sets him off, imagine what he'll do under REAL pressure. Unless, of course, the apprentice job is just a cushy little puppet position with no real responsibility, authority, or decision-making power ;-)

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A week off

In case it wasn't inherently obvious from the timing of my entries this week, I actually took the week off. Actually, I should qualify that - I took the week off work. I was however busy doing many many other things.

Let's see - starting with the most recent:

Today I completed a 12-hour tax marathon. Our taxes were complicated this year. Of course, not nearly as complicated as next year is gonna be. Suffice it to say - we owe money. Wow - what a shocker.

Yesterday was baby class, a trip to the property, and a major cleaning-out-and packing of the master and guest bedroom closets and nick-nacks. Everything that doesn't fit? packed. Trinkets collecting dust in the bedrooms? Packed. It was a flurry of activity. 5 boxes I think. And the house is clean, thanks to Tim!

Friday was 3 child care center visits and interviews.

Thursday was another child care center visit, Tim's dentist appt, another visit to the property (since we were in the neighbourhood) with the rest of the day frequently punctuated with mails between Tim, myself, the architect, and our builders on our house construction.

Wednesday was child care research and just generally running errands.

Tuesday was our regular site meeting and our fireplace mantle meeting (I figured it out - it's been driving me crazy! I keep wanting to spell it m-a-n-t-l-e but I always see it spelled m-a-n-t-e-l on all the signs and pamphlets and web sites and yellow pages ads. So I thought I was crazy and resigned myself to spelling it e-l. Until I looked it up and figured out that e-l is the darn american spelling! I've been wanting to spell it correctly the entire time, so be damned with y'all now that I know l-e is correct. That's how I'm spelling it from now on ;-))

Monday was a visit to Ann Sacks for selecting tile, and the Mariner's season opener (brrr - it was COLD!)

Last Sunday and Saturday are but a distant memory at this point. I think there was another house visit in there somewhere, and I know I got up extra early on Saturday to take care of the 2 remaining work items that were preventing me from being able to start my week "off" with a clean slate and concience.

And now? Now it's back to work tomorrow. Woohoo. Wonder what joys await me - I've been VERY good and have not checked work email ONCE since signing off last saturday morning. Nor have I received any cell phone calls - so I'm assuming all is well ;-) We shall see ;-)

And now to spend the rest of the waning evening with my most WONDERFUL husband - the greatest guy in the world who cooked me my favourite comfort food tonight for dinner AND served me chocolate raspberry cheesecake for dessert to boot! He's so good to me ;-)

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And Voila! A Baby Burrito!

As I alluded to in my previous entry, Tim and I had our first baby class yesterday. The class was entitled "Newborn Care". It covered the basics of baby equipment, newborn behaviour and characteristics, what to expect after giving birth, and diapering and swaddling practice (with dolls! ;-)). Probably the most interesting portion of the class was the photo presentation - the teacher showed a tonne of photos of newborns - many of them only seconds or minutes old - and explained in detail what we were looking at so we could see what the little munchkins REALLY look like when they make their debut, and dispel those tv-perfect gerber baby images from our minds. But the teacher did reassure us that no matter what, our baby would be the most beautiful baby we've ever seen. Of course she will be! I already KNEW that ;-). And just as proof of that, looking at all those photos of tiny wee little babies made me quite emotional. In a good way. I just sat there beaming at picture after picture, eyes alight and brimming with tears, happy in anticipation and totally in love with our own little baby girl, who, incidentally, acknowledged this little onrush of emotion with a flurry of wiggling and kicking and squirming ;-)

Half way through class we got a diapering and swaddling demo, and then the teacher let us loose on the little baby dolls so we could practice building our own "baby burrito". Because that's essentially what you're doing ;-). I'm proud to say I diapered like a true champion (despite Tim's injection of "realism" into our little practice session by taking the baby doll's legs and making them kick at me while I attempted to fasten the diaper ;-)) and also happy to report that Tim's burrito was a fine work of art.

Next week: Part 1 of our "Labour and Birth Preparation" class. I'm thinking that class might be the one that triggers the end of the "fed-ex baby" dreams and the beginning of the real labour dreams that my mind has successfully managed to avoid thus far ;-).

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Saturday House Update

Tim and I stopped by the house after our first baby class (!!!) to see the progress since earlier this week. We knew they'd be starting to install the cabinets that had been delivered, and continue working on the interior trim and tile installation so wanted to see where things were at.

Cabinet installation in the laundry room has started, and they also have about two thirds of the wall tile in the dog wash installed. They've started setting the cabinets in the guest and master bathrooms, have finished the wonderboard installation in the master shower, continued to make progress on the crown molding, and have installed almost all of the interior window sills.

Hardwood flooring installation is on hold while we continue to dry out the house. Apparently a moisture reading taken last week revealed the floor moisture content is at around 18% and it needs to be max 12% for the hardwood floor guys to be able to guarantee the install. So they've brought back in the big heater, dehumidifier, and fans, and are pumping hot air throughout the house to continue to dry it out. Hopefully it won't take too long. Guess this is one of the challenges when building in the Pacific Northwest. It could be worse, I suppose. We had a relatively dry winter this year.

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Today's topic is: Drinking and Driving

I had no idea that there were states that actually allowed drinking and driving...

No more drinking and driving in Mont.

I had thought that all states had some kind of law around drinking and driving. Just call me a Naive Canadian, I guess :-)

I found it interesting that the argument in Montana FOR drinking and driving is that they "think we�re a very different place than other places and that we don�t have to run by the rules that other people have to in more congested areas� and yet "Montana has the highest rate of alcohol-related deaths, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration"...

I guess one could argue on the "personal freedom" side that one has the right to endanger or even kill one's self by drinking and driving if one chooses, (without knowing what the suicide laws in Montana are), but you can't assume when you drink and drive that the only one who would be in any danger is you. Even in a "less congested area".

Not that having a law there now is going to make a difference though since the penalty for violation is "a $100 fine, and the offense does not show up on a person�s driving record" assuming, of course, they are caught in the first place.

Anyway - didn't realize there were places that existed in the US where it wasn't against the law to drink and drive. I knew there were LOTS of places where it is very common, but didn't realize it was actually LEGAL too. Interesting. So of course, I had to learn more :-)

I found this survey of Drinking and Driving Laws by country, state, and province, of North America and Europe done by the National Highway Transportation and Safety Association.

I also found the "Setting Limits Saving Lives: Case for .08 BAC Laws" which explained to me that in October 2000 Congress passed a .08 BAC as the national standard for impaired driving as part of the Transportation Appropriations Bill. States that don't adopt .08 BAC laws by 2004 would have 2% of certain highway construction funds withheld, with the penalty increasing to 8% by 2007. States adopting the standard by 2007 would be reimbursed for any lost funds.

Which helped me understand the statement in the Montana article that "Montana had stood to lose $5 million a year in federal highway funds if it failed to pass the law".

I also learned that at the time the report was published almost all states had a BAC limit (exception being Massacusetts) but that the limit in many of those states, Montana and Mississipi included (which were the states referenced in the original article) was .10 at the time.

Anyway... enough research and ramblings. It's almost time for our Friday Night festivities. And I'm the designated driver of the family these days ;-)

(P.S: All of the links I listed in this entry and in previous entries I discovered by using MSN's new Search Engine. Never even had to go past the first page of results for any of them. I tell ya - I'm lovin' it! Oh... wait... wrong tag line ;-)).

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Go Tana!

Tana's definitely my pick for the next apprentice. She cracks me up, has a lot of fun with the projects, has given 200% to almost all of the assignments, has a 2-0 record as PM, and never loses her cool. She admits when she's been wrong, she motivates her team, and she gives credit where credit is due.

If only she can avoid getting picked to move to Net Worth next week. They're due for a reorg to even out the teams again, given that Net Worth has just lost their 6th assignment in a row :-)

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Clean Slate

Hmm... all my entries these days are either about our house or our baby / pregnancy. You'd think we have nothing else going on in our lives. Oh... wait... we don't ;-) Hehe. However those two things alone is PLENTY :-)

Anyway, since we were in the neighbourhood running errands, we thought we'd stop by the house and check in on progress since tuesday. The guys were at lunch, but that was cool because it meant we could wander and take pictures without being in anyone's way. The main changes since tuesday? Well, as you can see, they've finished laying the slate tile in the front entry. They've also finished laying the slate tile in the guest bath, and have started the master bathroom. It's looking absolutely gorgeous! They've also started installing the crown molding in the living room and family room.

Apparently the hardwood floor guys will be getting started today, and the cabinets installation will begin tomorrow. By Saturday when we make our usual weekend check-in, it should look like a whole different house on the inside! Check out the rest of the photos from today.

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Randomly firing synapses within a pregnant mind

Dreams

Been having a lot of them lately. Most of them rather mundane - from shopping for and inspecting a crib to ensure baby girl's head wouldn't get stuck in the slates and the sides wouldn't fall down - to the comical. Here was my most recent favourite.

I arrive home from work as I do every day. Oblivious to the fact that I am no longer sporting my pregnant belly. Walk in the front door to find Tim standing there with a big grin on his face. He's holding something. I look down in his hands and he's grasping the handle of the baby carrier we bought at Babies R Us and inside is a cute, teeny weeny snuggly happy looking baby girl fast asleep. I look back up at Tim. He says in an excited but hushed voice, "Guess what! The baby came while you were at work! See? Isn't she adorable?" as he extends the carrier towards me for me to get a closer look. "Oh my god! That's amazing! I didn't think it happened like that" I reply. Then I wake up.

Note - I've had MANY dreams at this point about life after the baby is born. I've had none about the actual process of giving birth. For which I am grateful. I'm quite happy for that to remain a mystery until "it's time". Kinda like planning to run a marathon. I'd go as far as 20 miles during training but no further - not really wanting to know what 26.2 felt like before "it's time" ;-)

The Ironies of Child Care

Before I launch into the ironies of child care, let me give you some background :-)

It is a fact of life that we are a two-income family. This is even more true given the house we are building and the baby we are having. I wish with all my heart we could afford for either me or Tim (or both, ideally ;-)) to stay home to care for our daughter when she is born - full time or part time - but wishing does not make it so. If it did, we'd have won the fifty million dollar lottery 10 times over by now, and I'd be writing an entirely different blog entry right now. From the Italian Riviera.

On the plus side, I love my job - it's awesome, rewarding and challenging. And my employer provides for a number of weeks of paid leave as well as additional unpaid leave, with guarantee that I'l come back to a job. So I'll be taking 16 weeks off. But I'm already heartbroken at the prospect of having to go back to work after that and be away from our baby girl, and she isn't even born yet. (Some of you more experienced moms may want to tell me that I feel that way now, but I'll actually find that I'll be glad to have a "break" and something other than baby caring to do. You can try, but I won't believe you. You can say I told you so later but I probably won't remember ;-)).

So given that child care is going to have to be a reality for us, we've started researching the options. In-home nanny? Family Child Care Home? Child Care Center? Found some excellent resources online which I thought worth sharing (feel free to skip ahead if you're not interested in the resources ;-))

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Child Care Resources is a not-for-profit child care resource and referral agency serving King County Washington. They have what appears to be a pretty extensive database of Family Child Care Homes and Child Care Centers along with current information on capacity, rates, contact information, etc. $40.00 for a 6 month subscription to unlimited access of their database.

I was actually led to the Child Care Resources web site when I came across their 10th Anniversary Whitepaper they published in 2000 on Child Care accessibility, affordability and quality changes between 1990 and 2000.

I also found an interesting and helpful Working Parents forum.

The National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) organization web site proved to be informative and useful and I learned about their accreditation program.

The National Child Care Information Center is a national clearinghouse and technical assistance center that links parents, providers, policy-makers, researchers, and the public to early care and education information

The National Network for Child Care is an informative source of information relating to child care

The National Resource Center for Health and Safety in Child Care also provides resources for parents to help in choosing a quality care child program,links to all fifty states' licensing requirements which providers should be complying with, along with links to your state child care licensing agency for researching facilities, checking to see if there have been any complaints on facilities you are considering, etc.

Child Care Aware is a non-profit initiative committed to helping parents find the best information on locating quality child care and child care resources in their community. has a resource referral line (1-800-424-2246) which provides access to a database of all local daycare options, along with detailed information including licensing and accreditation for each.

The American Academy of Pediatrics publishes a free brochure "Child Care: What's Best for your Family, Guidelines for Parents" which includes a detailed checklist for assessing each facility. You can request the brochure by sending a self-addressed, stamped envelope to 'Child Care Brochure', The American Academy of Pediatrics, Dept. C, P.O. Box 927, Elk Grove Village, Illinois, 60009-0927.
I read through a whitepaper published by Washington State DSHS on Licensed Child Care in Washington State 2002 (published June 2004)

And finally, I read through, in depth, the Washington State Licensing Standards for DayCare Centers and Family DayCare to familiarize myself with state requirements and standards and arm myself with information in preparation for touring daycare facilities and family child care homes.

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You can now anticipate that after conducting all of this research I also came up with 5 pages of detailed questions for when we meet with, tour, and interview various care facilities and family child care homes. Would you expect anything less? :-) I'll publish the questions later.

I also came across a national Nanny referral web site that left me feeling even more anxious than I was already about the prospect of going with the in-home nanny option. While there are definitely pros and cons to in-home nannies vs family home care and day care facilities that warrant thorough investigation into each, I was rather depressed after reading through the nanny-for-hire pages on this web site. An 18-year old "Christian girl who helped raise her two little brothers, loves to play with babies, and has 6 years of experience taking care of infants" is NOT exactly instilling me with a lot of confidence. There were 5 pages of such "qualified" candidates for our area. I'm going to have to do a lot more research and find some local nanny referral agencies to get a better sense of what is available in our area.

Anyway, it was during the course of all of this research and question compilation - qualifications, training, background and education and in early childhood development and education, years of experience, First aid and CPR certification, ratios of staff to infants, employee health benefits and turnover rates, etc - that the irony slowly revealed itself to me. Neither Tim nor I have degrees in early childhood development and education. Neither Tim nor I have "years" of experience caring for infants or children beyond babysitting our younger siblings as teens, neither of us are certified in First Aid or Infant CPR. We aren't accredited by a national agency, nor did we have to be licensed with the state to actually have the child. Aside from being filled with love, having some good sense, and being financially stable, we have NO IDEA WHAT THE HELL WE ARE DOING when it comes to raising a baby (we're a tad nervous about that too ;-)). Yet it never occurred to us to turn over responsibility of caring for our child for 8 hours a day, 5 days a week, to anyone outside our family who doesn't meet these requirements and have a great, kind, loving, nurturing, responsible personality to boot.

The second irony is that if you calculate the typical day care center costs at least in our area, it amounts to anywhere between $10,000 - $13,000 a year for one child. According to what I've read so far on the rates of family child care homes, they tend to run a bit cheaper - say $7,000 - $10,000 per year. Nanny rates can vary widely depending on experience, responsibilities etc, but there are Nannies available within that price range as well which is not a significant amount of income for an individual considering that if they are nannying full time, there's not a whole lotta time in there for them to be doing something else that is making them money. I guess the thing that strikes me is that if you asked me to put a price on years of experience, professional education/training, first aid/CPR certification, a loving, nurturing, responsible personality, and a secure yet warm and friendly environment, I'd say it's worth a hell of a lot more than $10K a year. Yet it can still feel daunting.

The final irony that revealed itself to me was the fact that as I was learning the current family home care and day care facility costs in our area, it became apparent that in order to AFFORD day care, we both have to be working. However on the flip side, if only one of us were to work, we can't afford to have the other stay home to care for our baby. So we both work, so we can afford to put our child through day care, which is necessary because we both work (and can't afford not to). This is a fact of life for most American families, but it really just sorta hit me as I was going through and doing the math, that we are now such a family. I always knew it to be true, but the math kinda made it real.

In the end

It's all going to work out. Somehow. Other families make it all work. We will have a baby (although I suspect it will involve me going to the hospital and giving birth, rather than just coming home from work one day to find the baby has arrived ;-)) and we will pay our mortgage, and we will find the right child care for our daughter, and we will work hard, and we will provide for her, and love her and cherish her and raise her well and send her off to college, and... well... it will all be ok. I didn't say it would be EASY - I'm no fool, but it will all work out in the end, and it will be infinitely rewarding :-)

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House Update

Today was our weekly site meeting. It was also invoice day - those are the days I dread the most because it reminds me that we actually need to PAY for all this house construction stuff ;-) Heh. I still have a slight heart attack every month on invoice day, and every month I have a bit of a panic attack and the lyrics of one of my favourite Talking Heads songs plays non-stop over and over again in the back of my head all day - "My God, what have we done". You'll see that has pretty much been our theme song for the duration of this project if you read back through all of our house building blog entries. It's just automatic now. I wake up with it in my head. Very Ally McBealish :-). But - we'll survive. Tim told me so this morning while he consoled me after my latest bout of panic. "Everything's going to be ok". And it will I'm sure. Still. It scares me. More than having the baby, actually!

Anyway, on to the updates. According to our builder, our cabinets are getting installed this week - we actually saw them sitting there waiting to be installed at our site meeting today. They look great. As Tim said, "They better"! Yeah - we're at that point in the project now ;-). Hardwood flooring has also been delivered and will start getting installed end of this week/early next I think. The tile guys were there today too installing the wonderboard, and I believe they'll be laying the slate down shortly in the bathrooms and entry ways. Painting will be done close to last to minimize the chances of marring the paint job while the rest of the finish work continues in the house. Exterior painting should start soon though!

Yesterday, before heading off to the Mariner's Season Opener we had a successful trip to Ann Sacks Tile in downtown Seattle. What a fun place! If you ever have a need for tile, start there - even if it is just for inspiration and/or some friendly advice (while their stuff is absolutely incredibly totally gorgeous, a lot of it is also pricey! But their staff is extremely helpful, and as I mentioned it is a great place to get inspired!)

There we made our final tile selections for the Master Bathroom shower floor, and for the kitchen backsplash. The shower floor tile we picked fit neatly within our budget. We went a bit over for the kitchen backsplash though (and that was after going with our 3rd choice, since the first two, although absolutely to die for, were completely outside our price range. sigh!) but because the area is so small we figured out we could get away with spending a little extra.

I tried to take some photos of the combinations we picked out for a few of the spaces in the house and had varying degrees of success (that being a fairly subjective statement). A professional photographer I am not, and there really isn't any place in our house with adequate lighting for taking pictures of this kind of stuff, so this is what I ended up with.

Master Bathroom

The photo doesn't really show the richness and warmth of the browns in the tiles that we selected - it makes everything look more yellow and rust. But we're pretty excited about how this is going to look together.

Large Left Square - Crossville/Colour Blox 6"x6" Ceramic Tile in "Treehouse" A114 - for Shower walls, vanity backsplash, and tub backsplash

Small off-center Square - Sonoma/Tantrum 1"x1" Ceramic Tile in "Pewter" - for 2" high feature strip around Shower wall, vanity backsplash, and tub backsplash

circles - Ann Sacks Paris Pennies Ceramic Tile in "Barley" - for Shower Floor (will give more traction than the larger tiles).

Center Square - Silestone quartz surface in "Capri Limestone" with gloss finish for vanity top and bathtub deck.

Upper and Lower Right Squares - OTM 12"x12" slate tile in "Yellow Rustic" 634G (same as what we are using elsewhere in the house wherever we have slate floors).

Lower left rectangle - clear finish fir for vanity cabinetry.

Kitchen

We really loved the contrast between the pretty green of the tile with the copper flecks throughout, and the reds in the brazilian cherry floors and the clear finish fir cabinets and the paint colour we selected for the walls. Again you can't tell in the photo but the green is really rich, and the colour along with the flecks of copper vary from tile to tile - no two tiles are the same. I think it's going to look awesome.

Upper left square - Ann Sacks Nottingham 4"x4" ceramic tile in "Verdigris Copper" for kitchen backsplash

Center rectangle - clear finish fir for vanity cabinetry

lower left square - Silestone quartz surface in "Ebony Pearl" with gloss finish, for kitchen countertops. All of our appliances are in black as well.

Bottom center square - C2 paint colour in "Tiger Lily" C2-2309 A - for kitchen wall colour

Right rectangle - Brazilian Cherry for kitchen floor (actually, this will be the flooring used throughout the house except for the entry ways and bathrooms and laundry room)

Laundry Room

Left rectangle - C2 paint colour in "Shine" C2-3163 P for wall paint colour

Right square with cutout - Marmoleum in "Whispering Blue" for counter top and floor. The cabinetry will be white melamine and the tile in the dog shower will be white as well. Can you think of a happier combination of colours for a room in which you'll be doing a lot of laundry? The idea was to make it cheerful (to distract from the stinky diapers we'll be washing in here ;-)). Marmoleum comes in such fun colours it was tough settling on just one. I'm thinking when we finish the basement (some day in the very distant future ;-)) we're going to have to find an excuse to go with some fun marmoleum colours down there too ;-)

Dining Room

The dining room is my favourite. we chose the paint colour for the walls after selecting the fabric we'll be using to cover the dining room chairs. I think it's going to be pretty gorgeous.

left rectangle - our dining room chair fabric

upper right rectangle - C2 paint colour in "Amontillado" C2-3086 M for the wall colour.

Lower right rectangle - Honey finish maple - the colour of our dining room table, chairs and china cabinet

I think this will all look so beautiful with the brazilian cherry floors.

Entry and Stairway
The entry and stairway wall colours will be C2 "Outback" green - as suggested by Rob, our architect - it goes nicely with the colour we chose for the living room, and it also looks really nice with all of the outdoor scenery that you see immediately as you walk in, through our back french glass doors and windows.

Nursery and Guest Bath

The Nursery and Guest Bath will be done in C2 "Pod" green. The guest bath shower tile and backsplash will be a pretty cream coloured ceramic tile - Crossville/Color Blox "Sandbox", with a 2" high features strip in 1"x2" glass tile in "Lily Green". The same Capri Limestone as in the master bath will be used for the vanity top in the guest bath, the cabinets will be the same clear finish fir, and the floor will be the same slate tile.

All in all, we're pretty darned excited to see the end product of all of this! We had some great guidance from Rob our Architect on colour and tile selection but I'm proud to say that we also seemed to have our own good instincts and ideas and everything going into the house is very "us" - Rob just made sure we had "the right tools" as he puts it :-)

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A Tale of Two Coasts

This is what it looked like today at our place here in Seattle:

It was a little cool and rainy and fairly grey most of the day. But eventually the sun peaked out for a bit. And as you can see, our irises are looking glorious!

Now, for comparison, here is what Mom and Dad woke up to this morning in Simcoe, Ontario (this is their back deck):

Brrrr! Sorry Dad :-)

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Primed

As you can see, Tim and I were out at the house today. This was the first time I had actually been there since they finished the decks, the bridge, the mud & tape, and the interior priming.

My goal today was to finalize our colour selection for the entry / stairway and for the living room - those were the only two colours left for us to choose. Tim's goal was to finish running conduit, with the help of his new drill [insert Tim the Tool Man Taylor 'Har-Har' laugh here] and our friend Rich (thanks Rich!).

Both goals were accomplished successfully. Conduit is run, and I am proud to tell you we will be going with "Outback" C2-3289 P in the entry and stairway, and "Radiate" C2-2386 P in the living room. Like you have any more idea now of what the finished product is going to look like than before I shared those colours with you :-) You'll see them taped up in the photos I took but they will still be useless to you, since they were taken with a digital camera and you are looking at them on a PC screen. But hey - that's the best we can do for now ;-)

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