Leap Year Day! February 29, 2008
Posted by graciek in Life in General.Tags: 29th february, leap year
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Ah ha it’s Feb 29th – the scariest day for unmarried male commitment-phobes with long-term girlfriends! This is my eighth leap year (1980, 1984, 1988, 1992, 1996, 2000 and 2004). It doesn’t seem as much as a novelty as it did when I was at school. I wonder if you get paid more in a leap year (strictly speaking you’re working an extra 7 hours).
Summary of the day: Went back to working back in the office, Got a few more pages of report done, Sent a grovelling email about the report being a week late, Made a lasagne (I AM GARFIELD)
10 Pregnancy Grumbles February 28, 2008
Posted by graciek in 10 Things..., Life in General, Pregnancy.Tags: pregnancy grumbles
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Today we are 18 weeks! It’s not that I’m not happy to be expecting, but I have a number of things I wish didn’t have to currently happen. This week’s 10 things are 10 grumbles I have with pregnancy:
1. Brain fog – I am forgetting things straight away. I’ll go upstairs to get something and by the time I’m at the top I have no idea what it was I wanted. Or I’ll open up a program on the computer to do something and by the time it’s loaded up I have no idea what I was going to do (e.g. send an email, to who? surf the net, but for what?).
2. Looking fat, but not really looking obviously pregnant. You can almost see people wanting to ask but not wanting to seem rude.
3. Muscle pain/strain/snapping! Ouch. I think all the muscles around the stomach and possibly groin/upper leg start to be less effective and I keep forgetting and trying to get up too quickly. Also other muscles seem to be doing funny things such as biceps randomly twitching and calf and foot muscles beginning to cramp.
4. Backache. Baby seems to think it is amusing to play xylophone with my spinal discs!
5. Baby Irish Dancing on my internal organs – not comfortable!
6. Butterfingers. Nothing stays held in my hand for more than 3 seconds before it miraculously jumps onto the floor. Hubby is embarrassed to take me food shopping as I end up dropping everything on the floor.
7. Too hot. I get too hot at night and can’t sleep.
8. Everyone else gushing at you (particularly other females)
9. Thicker hair. Now most people would love to have thicker hair, but mine is already quite thick and poker straight. My only problem is that now I actually have to brush my hair properly in the morning (and I seem to get major bed hair every morning that I never used to have).
10. 4 months worth of PMT!! arrrrgh
So… who was it who said that the 2nd trimester was meant to be when women feel so wonderful??
Summary of the day: Worked from home in the morning (great, I had time to have cheese on toast for brekkie), Gave feedback to students all afternoons, Spent evening alone catching up on housework (hubby was at a parents’ evening).
Itchy Itchy February 27, 2008
Posted by graciek in Life in General, Pregnancy, Under the Weather.Tags: eczema, Pregnancy
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Had a bad night’s sleep. Think it’s mostly the stress of this report deadline and also the extra heat I seem to generate through being pregnant but my skin was crawling. I was sooo itchy. Thankfully I didn’t have to go to work so had a nice Oilatum bath to relieve the itching and then slathered myself with paraffin/wax ointment till I was as slippery and shiny as a seal! It’s so annoying having bad eczema. I’ve also noticed that people seem to be suggesting that the 2nd trimester is meant to be good for my skin – NO IT ISN’T. It’s worse now than before, I’m itchy, too hot, peeling, weepy and on top of that I seem to have managed to develop some spots (now, people who know me will know that as my skin is so dry I maybe get at most 10 spots in a year!). It makes me so irritated when people talk about this so called “Pregnancy Glow”. I think it’s actually a myth and that it only looks like a glow because you’re finally feeling better and not looking like s**t for the first time in 3 months.
Summary of the day: Scratched, scratched, Had a bath, Tried to do some work, Had an afternoon nap, Relaxed, Scratched some more
Working from Home = 12 hr day February 26, 2008
Posted by graciek in Life in General.Tags: working from home
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Well there are some benefits to working at home such as being more relaxed and being able to watch TV/listen to CDs whilst working. The only problem is that once I get going then I really don’t know when to stop. Today I had a 12 hr day of work at home. My 50 page document is now almost 90 pages long (odd though, I pretty sure I didn’t actually write much yet). When I’ve told people that I’m working from home this week they’re all like “yeah, you’re watching daytime telly and skiving off” – I wish! I have a deadline to finish my report by the end of the week! My brain is now totally addled and knackered.
Summary of the day: Worked from home, Had no meetings and no distractions (well, except the dog asking me to open the back door), Worked some more, Eyes went funny from all the models
I Saw A Mouse, Where, There! February 25, 2008
Posted by graciek in Life in General.Tags: pregnancy worries, vermin infestation at work
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Well, OK I didn’t actually see the mouse. I got into work after the weekend to find my desk had been used as a litter tray by the mice again! So after 1/2 hr of disinfecting my desk (grr, the disinfectant they gave us last week has almost run out) I was finally ready to start work. Apparently pest control only come on Thursdays. I lasted until 3pm at which point I noticed there was a box of poison placed strategically under my desk. Following this discovery I refused to stay sitting there and decided to work from home until the mice move out. One quick email to the maternity woman in personnel about H&S and I was off. Seriously can they expect me to sit there 2 ft from a box of poison with mice defecation on my desk whilst 4 months pregnant with nothing to clean up with but telephone/screen wipes and the place only cleaned on Thursdays? I don’t think I’m being unreasonable.
Summary of the day: Went to work, Sanitised my desk again, Had a meeting in another room (thankfully away from the mice), Went home, Worked from home, Rachy & Lou brought me chocolate muffins (yay made the day feel so much better)
Poached Eggs February 24, 2008
Posted by graciek in Life in General, Recipes, WTF?.Tags: how not to make poached eggs!
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I tried to make poached eggs for breakfast this morning! I think the only thing that could be used to describe it was - “hmmm”! I’ve not made them before but thought, hey how hard can it be? I boiled some water in a frying pan. Salted the water and then swirled it round while pouring the egg in. Well – the egg instantly decided to swirl out to the edges into millions of strands. I don’t think that’s right!! In the end I ended up cracking the egg into the water without swirling – kind of like frying an egg in water. Then folding up the edges where it spread too much while spooning hot water over the top. It didn’t look too pretty, but hey, I just grated some cheese on top and it was fine and extra runny yolks for hubby. My egg didn’t turn out too good – I don’t like yolks so it was made of only egg whites. Kind of reminded me of a slab of almond jelly. Again, nothing a bit of bacon and some cheese wouldn’t fix! Think I’ll stick to frying next time!
Summary of the day: Tried to make breakfast, Helped out at Sunday School, Work avoided, Played Zoo Tycoon II (again, it’s just so damned addictive)
It Must Be Spring February 23, 2008
Posted by graciek in Life in General.Tags: gardening
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Woke up this morning and the sun was streaming through the windows – it’s Spring! Yay! We spent most of the day sorting out the garden. Actually it was mostly hubby who did the raking of leaves and mowing of the lawn. I raked the lawn (bits of moss and cut grass piles). Mocha was happy running about chasing bits of conkers that we’d dug out of the lawn. The garden was in much better shape this year after Winter. It was a bit sad as it’s probably the last time we’ll have Spring in our garden if we move to Oz at the end of the year.
In the afternoon hubby decided to clean out the pond – oh dear 1 hr later and he and the dog come in and end up in the shower. Yuck filthy. Unfortunately the shower switch decided that was the opportune time to break and John had to wash the dog in a foot of water in the bath. Makes even more of a mess. After that John went out to buy a new shower switch (it needed replacing anyway as it was only on a shallow back box).
Summary of the day: Had breakfast in bed, Played on laptops, Tidied the garden, Cleaned the kitchen, Got on top of laundry, Procrastinated on doing a report for work, Relaxed.
Friday Night is Movie Night February 22, 2008
Posted by graciek in Life in General.Tags: dvd night at home
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This evening hubby and I did something that we haven’t done for ages. We stayed in and watched a DVD. Snuggled up with the blanket on the sofa, the dog bouncing about, and a nice open fire. We ended up watching Madagascar because we were both knackered from a long week at work and also because when watched it at the cinema when we were on hols in Australia. We even made popcorn (which the dog finished off before throwing the unpopped kernels into the fire). I love these kind of kid’s films because each time you watch you notice something different. I hope Baby K will like watching cartoons as much as me 
Summary of the day: Went to work, Saw student group in the morning, Had another student meeting in the afternoon, Didn’t finish work till 4.30 (which is late for a Friday), Felt quite nauseas and had a nap, Watched DVDs with hubby.
10 Decisions We Need to Make February 21, 2008
Posted by graciek in 10 Things..., Life in General.Tags: decisions
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I’m slowly running out of 10 things ideas! This week I’ll do 10 decisions that are preying on my mind lately:
1. Whether to try and find out the gender of the baby at our 20 week scan
2. Names for the baby (current ideas are Samuel, Elijah, Abigail and Lily)
3. When to move to Oz
4. What to move to Oz
5. What to pack and abandon in Oz at our next holiday
6. Things to do this weekend
7. Whether to go to the pharmacy on the way to work or in the afternoon
8. Whether to buy a new mobile phone
9. Whether to make a (largish) charity donation or not
10. Sleep now or play Zoo Tycoon! (the former probably)
Summary of the day: Went to work, Had student meetings, Gave a piano lesson, Went out to Wetherspoons for Curry Night
Birthday Treats at Work February 20, 2008
Posted by graciek in Life in General.Tags: birthday goodies at work
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This week seems to be a popular week for birthdays at work. Our usual tradition is to bring in some form of cake/pastry/muffin/etc on your birthday. Yesterday there were 2 birthdays, culminating in 3 different cakes on the side. Today a batch of muffins appeared. Tomorrow the guy next to me is bringing in some home-baked cakes (courtesy of his wife) and on Friday there’s another birthday! Gosh! That’s 5 birthdays in 4 days (which is a lot considering there’s only 40 people at most where I work). It’s beginning to feel a lot like Homer Simpson in Sector 7G with a constant supply of donuts, or in this case cakes and muffins. Whenever someone goes on holiday they usually bring back some kind of goodie back from that country so come Summer there is always an endless supply of weird and wonderful treats lying about the office.
Summary of the day: Went to work, Worked my a**e off all day and didn’t finish work till 6.30 (which is late for me), Made macaroni bolognese for dinner, Had a nice relaxing bath.
