Keep your eyes on the ground!

I love looking into the lives of strangers through the random debris we shed, via book or online form. Since Vancouver's pretty clean, I rarely find anything good floating around! For some fun reading, try the well-known Found Magazine - a series of books, a magazine and accompanying website. The author collects "FOUND stuff: love letters, birthday cards, kids' homework, to-do lists, ticket stubs, poetry on napkins, telephone bills, doodles - anything that gives a glimpse into someone else's life."

Check out the website and click back through the "finds of the day" for some entertaining coffee/lunch browsing. And if you find something good that strikes you, send it in! Here are some finds from the website that made me laugh, laugh harder, wonder and shudder in holy terror, in that order:

FOUND by Linn in Oslo, Norway I found this on the street eight years ago and I've kept it in a box ever since. On the back it says "Step on the gas" in Norwegian. I love this boy who drinks soda and becomes a superhero!

FOUND by David Gonzalez in Los Angeles, California

I found this at the MOCA information desk.

FOUND by Anne Kuhns in Atlanta, Georgia

My roommate and I were walking to the corner store on a rainy Saturday morning, and we found this lying on the sidewalk. I can only assume that the writer and the recipient are BOTH psychos.



FOUND by Kevin Habberstad in Portland, Oregon
I found this while cleaning an office building. It chills me to the bone.

Week 19!

PJs is now the size of a mango, according to one website. I love mangoes, but alas, I am allergic. Our doctor's appointment last week went well, and we have our ultrasound scheduled for two weeks from now. We are really excited to see what PJs looks like, although it's a little nerve-wracking too! I hope they'll be able to see what the sex is during the scan - we would love to know! PJs is really moving around and it's so exciting to feel the movements getting stronger.

What PJs is up to:
The fetus measures around 15 centimetres long from crown to rump and weighs about 240 grams.

Your baby has started to swallow amniotic fluid, and the kidneys continue to make urine. Hair on the scalp is sprouting. Vernix caseosa, a greasy white substance made of lanugo, oil and dead skin cells (yum) now coats baby's skin, shielding it from the amniotic fluid. (Picture yourself after a nine-month bath, and the need for protection makes sense.)

Sensory development reaches its peak this week. The nerve cells serving each of the senses -- taste, smell, hearing, seeing, and touch -- are now developing in their specialised areas of the brain. Nerve cell production slows down as existing nerve cells grow larger and make more complex connections. If you're carrying a baby girl, she already has roughly six million eggs in her ovaries. By the time she's born, she'll have about one million.

Speaking of food...

Tis the season! Last year Jamie and I did a big Christmas grocery shop of non-perishables and dropped the whole thing into the food bank box. It was really uplifting to walk through the grocery store and think of what special holiday items and food staples would make a difference to hungry people using the food bank. Funny how the most satisfying shopping is for those other than yourself. This year we are going to do the same thing again, and I'm looking forward to it. I urge everyone reading this to do a good deed to support the hungry in your community this Christmas, in whatever way is equal to your means.

I'm also happy to share that I was able to convince my company to do e-cards this holiday season, so rather than spending all the money on postage and custom designed cards by yours truly, we are donating the $10,000 it would have cost to the National Food Bank. I still design the ecard, so I'm not talking myself out of a job just yet! :-)

One cool movement I read about recently in Good Magazine is Replate.

Basically, it's giving your packaged-up restaurant leftovers to the homeless, either directly, or by leaving them in an accessible location, such as on top of a trash can. Many of us already do this, and this movement is trying to draw more folks to do the same. Check out their FAQs. Next time you can't finish your restaurant dinner ask for a doggie bag and replate it!

Nothing tastes like a cupcake!

Had a really strong craving for cupcakes the other day. Sure, I could go to Cupcakes, the store, (which I love and am sometimes known to do!) but I felt like baking, so searched online for a good recipe. I wanted lemon, vanilla and coconut flavours. Found this great recipe from Martha Stewart for vanilla cupcakes and this recipe for buttercream. Just modified half the buttercream by adding some lemon extract, and toasted a bit of coconut for topping some of the others. Both the batter and icing were really easy, and while the ingredients list of butter, white flour, white sugar and confectioner's sugar won't win any nutritional prizes, I did use organic eggs and had to spend time whisking (exercise!!).

So good! I did vanilla-vanilla, vanilla-lemon and vanilla-vanilla-coconut. I adore coconut. Brought some to Bonnie's yesterday, where we had a wonderful lunch of carrot soup, salad and wild salmon. Still have a few cupcakes left and am wishing I had one right about now! And more of that carrot soup!

Dear cheese thief...

On Tuesday I bought some delicious Babybel cheese for a snack at work. Each package comes with six adorably small cheeses. I ate one and then left the rest in the fridge at work for future consumption... Well, the following day I went to enjoy some more of my tasty cheese, and lo and behold, some thieving jerk had eaten 3 of my cheesy treats! I left a post-it on the fridge with this note:

Dear cheese thief. YOU STINK! Buy your own food. -M

I bought some more little cheeses today and put them in a container with a note just in case someone breached my not-too-secure system:

Dear cheese thief. Don't you dare steal food from a pregnant lady! -M

I am curious if I'll have any cheese tomorrow! Maybe this person will rub their butt on my keyboard or something to get back at me for, um, not appreciating them stealing from me... Anyway, it reminded me of a new book, Passive Aggressive Notes. Check out the website for some reader-submitted notes, and if you spot any good ones send them in! Here's a snippet from the site:

Good to know that so many people experience the bitter pain of food thievery! And if you see anyone with cheese breath, let me know!

Maternity clothes - who knew!?!

I finally caved in and bought some proper maternity clothes. Over our honeymoon my bump started to show, and I eventually began to wonder if loose fitting regular clothes are less flattering than actual maternity clothes (yes). That, and I became very sick of wearing my too-large jeans over Ireland for two weeks with hardly a break! :-)

I normally don't shop much at the Gap. Their stuff is usually pretty basic, but I must admit, a trip to the Maternity Gap out in the sticks (Coquitlam Centre) is well worth it. There's only a small selection of maternity versions of regular styles, but I everything I tried on fit! Very reassuring too - I got to go back to my regular pre-pregnancy size! So far I have found a few stretchy dresses (2 from the regular section), a pair of the most comfortable herringbone pants for work, a great pair of jeans and a nice top. The pants and jeans have the stretchy band built right in!

Stretchy dresses, I adore you! Maternity pants - how did I ever live without your comforting presence? I can breathe again, and it's nice to look pregnant and not just fat! I need a few tops, a skirt and a few pairs of maternity tights, but things are looking up!

Need some bathtub reading?

I need magazines when I fly. Plural. I normally cave and buy a trashy gossip rag and at least one other magazine that I wouldn't be ashamed to be seen reading. Not including British Glamour, because that's still kind of embarrassing. In Seattle before our flight out to Europe, I bought an issue of GOOD, enticed by the cover article on game theory.

It's terrific - insightful, funny and environmentally-focused, with excellent design that meant it was easy on the eyes! I normally jettison my used magazines in hotels as I travel, but I liked this one so much that I've brought it back. I liked it so much, in fact, that I've just subscribed. When you subscribe 100% of the subscription fee goes to the charity of your choice from a list of great ones. How can they offer such a deal, you might ask? Magazines make money from advertising, not subscriptions (why do you think the phone book is free?). Higher circulation & subscription numbers help magazines sell ad space, so it's win-win.

Speaking of phone books, I read the most disturbing fact today. 10% of landfill waste is phonebooks. Can you believe that? I was so pissed to see phone books on our doorstep when we got back from holidays. We don't even have a house phone!!! Leave us alone with the phonebooks already. I must add emailing a grouchy note to Telus to my list of chores.

Now on the way home from our honeymoon it was a different story. We didn't have time to airport shop (oh, the agony!) and I didn't get a chance to buy more magazines. I gave up on reading the leftover British Glamour and instead suffered through Transformers, Hot Rod and some other equally terrible movie that I can't remember. I didn't realize that movies aimed at teenage boys had gotten so bad!

Week 18!

Yahoo! Week 18! PJs this week is the size of a sweet potato! I love sweet potatoes!! Since I couldn't find a photogenic photo of an actual sweet potato, I've substituted Mr. Potato Head. I am sure PJs does not have a bowler hat or a mustache, and no child of mine would be born wearing those hideous shoes! ;-)

Later this week we have an appointment with our Doctor and then we'll be able to plan for getting an ultrasound. It's nerve-wracking, all the tests and such, but we're both very much looking forward to getting a look at PJs!

I can feel PJs moving around - have been feeling flutters for about two weeks, and they're getting more definite. Not really hard kicks yet, but quite vigorous butterflies and wiggles! So exciting - it puts a big smile on my face every time.

What PJs is up to this week:
Your baby is approximately 14.2 centimetres long from crown to rump and she weighs about 190 grams. Her chest moves up and down to mimic breathing but she's not taking in air, only amniotic fluid.

Your baby is starting to sense the world, albeit for now this world is limited to your safe, warm womb.

• Baby can hear. The small bones inside the ear that transmit sound have formed. In addition, the part of the brain that processes sound has matured. So, begin to talk to your baby or play music regularly.

• Baby can see. Even though the eyes have been developing since the early weeks of pregnancy, and the eyelids are sealed shut, your baby's retinas have developed to a point where he or she can sense light. If you let bright sun shine on your bare abdomen, your baby will be able to perceive a reddish glow.

• Baby can move. Because your uterus is much larger than your baby, your baby can move around quite a bit. He or she might turn summersaults, sit Indian-style or suck a thumb while reclining. Starting this week, you may start to feel a lot of fetal movement.

Just married!

Now that we're back from our honeymoon, I can post these photos from our wedding earlier this month. We were married in Queen Elizabeth Park in Vancouver, outdoors (in the misty rain under an umbrella!) and it was perfect. We had scoped out a beautiful, quiet nook a few weeks earlier, surrounded by trees overlooking the lower park, and because it was raining the park was absolutely empty and so peaceful.

The ceremony was beautiful and moving, led by a really lovely marriage commissioner and witnessed by our good friends, Mike (also the purse handler) and Mi ae (our photographer!).

As far as the details go, I made the simple bouquet in about 5 minutes right before we left in the morning, with Jamie's help to tie the ribbon. I'm not actually wearing all black despite what it looks like - I have a champagne silk blouse and sparkly gold cardigan on underneath... ;-) Like our matching coats? That was unintentional!

After we signed all the paperwork and took all our photos we went off for lunch with Mike and Mi ae and then drove to the airport in Seattle for our Irish honeymoon. More posts to come on our trip itself... I think I'll have to set up an online album for the bulk of them - the last of my 1500 photos are downloading now... ;-)

Here we go, on our path together as a married couple!! Our official marriage certificate arrived in the mail while we were gone - are we supposed to post it in the hallway at home, like how a restaurant displays their business license or maximum occupancy sign? ;-)

Week 17!

Glad to hear that you're still reading the blog! By next week there should be more to read! We're just heading out of Cork now, up towards Dublin for a few nights. We are going to aim for the Rock of Cashel, a historic sight in the midlands. We#ve had such a great time down here in the South - in the last few days we visited many sights and small towns, pubs and seasides. We drove the Ring of Kerry and yesterday visited Blarney Castle (and kissed the stone - watch out for eloquence!!). Looking forward to seeing you all again soon though.

PJs this week is approximately the size of a large apple. The information on my favourite development website says that it would be fun to get a special stethoscope so I can listen to PJs heartbeat but, knowing me, I really don't think I could have special medical equipment around the house and not get all weird and hypochondriachy about it! I think I'll stick to listening to PJs heartbeat at each doctor's visit as well as the recording I took back in week 15.

What PJs is up to this week:
Your baby is now nearly 13 centimetres long from crown to rump and weighs approximately 140 grams. Her skeleton is mostly rubbery cartilage, which will harden later. A protective substance called myelin slowly begins to wrap around the spinal cord. With the help of a special stethoscope, you can now hear your baby's heartbeat. There's almost nothing more comforting or exciting than hearing your baby's heartbeat galloping along. On days when you're worried about how your pregnancy is progressing, hearing the heartbeat lets you know that your baby's developing and growing. For times when boredom strikes and you feel as if you'll be pregnant forever, it can be a pleasant reminder of what will come at the end of 40 weeks of waiting.

Week 16!

Hello!!! We are sitting in the business centre at the Sheraton Fota Island, outside of Cork. This UK keyboard is driving me bonkers £££ so I'll keep this short. We are thoroughly enjoying our honeymoon - a night in Dublin and a couple days in Northern Ireland have been terrific so far. We took an amazing drive along the coast from Belfast to the top of N. Ireland to see some amazing sights, including the most amazing castle, Dunluce. Today we bummed around Cork and enjoyed the tastes and sights. We've been getting really awesome hotel upgrades everywhere, so after our long days of traveling and sightseeing we're assured of a good night's rest! So much more to tell - we'll have to wait to share all the details - and lordy, the photos.

Now, a belated update on PJs this week (who I can feel moving around!)...

Fruit is king again! I love pears, even though this fall my experience making pear jam (or attempting to) really put me off for a few weeks!

I had bought a bunch of yummy organic pears and began peeling and cutting them up to make reduced sugar jam (I usually make regular). Then I realized that the light Certo packet didn't have the proportions for pear jam and sent Jamie out to get some regular Certo (he's such a gem for going). Well, Urban Fare doesn't seem to cater to the jam-making crowd (they don't sell bifocals or cane tips either) and he came back with some gelatin instead. Well, by then I was in a state and also about a cup short of mashed pears. I was also nauseous and tired (about six weeks pregnant at that stage) and I promptly decided to give up and throw it all away. I didn't regain my interest before pears were out of season locally... I regret it now, cause I could sure go for some home-made pear jam!

Well, things going pear-shaped aside (har har), I am glad to hear that PJs is about to go in for a big growth spurt! How exciting!!

What PJs is up to this week:
Your baby is now about the size of an avocado or pear (about 11.6 centimetres long from crown to rump and weighing approximately 100 grams). In the next three weeks he'll go through a tremendous growth spurt, doubling his weight and adding inches to his length.

In or out of the womb, babies are playful creatures. Yours may already have discovered his first toy -- the umbilical cord -- which he'll enjoy pulling and grabbing. Sometimes he may even clutch it so tight that less oxygen gets through, but don't worry - he doesn't hold onto it long enough to harm himself. The circulatory system and urinary tract are in full working order, and he's inhaling and exhaling amniotic fluid through his lungs.

Mmmm-armalade

On the weekend I bought this delicious MacKays Scottish 3 fruit marmalade from Stongs. It's really tasty! Bitter and tart enough, but sweet too. I am going to try to make my own marmalade again this year (haven't done it for a few years). I hope it turns out better than my ill-fated attempt at making low-sugar pear jam earlier this Fall (more on that later!!).

This marmalade is great on extra crispy toasted English muffins. I think I'm going to have this for dinner tonight with scrambled eggs and tea. If only the marmalade folks and the muffin people had gotten to know each other centuries ago - the border region may have been more peaceful! ;-)