Japan confirmed

We finally have a date for Japan. Mark's soon-to-be-employer wants him in Japan on April 1st. That leaves us with approximately 10 weeks to get everything ready and move. Eep!

The Week Ahead

I've been staring at this screen for an hour trying to think of something positive to say. Last week was long and hard. Coming back from the holidays with a 6 day work week is never easy and by Thursday I was a mess. I'm hoping this week will not be so bad.



Some of the things I'm looking forward to this week are:

• a new RPG campaign that I am not GMing. Mark has got me into table-top role-playing games and I tried my hand at being the Game Master for a couple of months. But that campaign is now over and someone else in our group is running the next one. I'm looking forward to just being a player again and not worrying about plot lines and monster statistics.
• The next childbirth class. Mark and I signed up for a childbirth class designed for first time parents. We're learning more about anatomy and medical terminology and it is such a relief to get this information in English instead of Japanese. Although Mark is working on translating a lot of the terminology into Japanese so we can communicate better the doctors there.
• Picking out new title for the kitchen. I redid the kitchen floor with stick-on tiles a couple of years ago, but I didn't get them under the over, dishwasher or refrigerator. I just had no way of moving them. So the tiles have slowly been separating and sliding under the appliances. But we're going to re-tile the floor on MLK day and are looking at patterns this week.
• This could be the highlight of the week. I have a doctor's appointment on Thursday and we may be able to find out the sex of the baby. I think its a boy. Mark thinks it'll be a girl, but mostly just to contrary. We could find out who's right.

Day Trips

Mark and I went on a couple of day trips recently. The first was to the zoo. Our local zoo is very bird friendly. The city where is live is a migration point for many different types of birds, so the zoo just leaves open habitats for them. There are a lot of cranes and pelicans, but also a lot of parrots and flamingos. One surprise was a bald eagle. The eagle had been wounded and could no longer fly, so he was walking around in an open habitat too.

He's somewhere in here:

My favorite animal is the cat. We were lucky that so many cats were up and awake, the jaguars and cheetahs, and almost the lions.

Our other trip was to the Texas Renaissance Fair. We saw jugglers and jousting and lots and lots of weapons and jewelry. Mark got a private sword lesson and we both practiced our archery. I managed to hit the dragon, and the ceiling. The best part of the birds of prey show. Owls and hawks are gorgeous birds. I wish I had some better pictures, but these will have to do.

Changes to come

In case you haven't heard, or haven't noticed the nifty new gadget I just installed, Mark and I are going to have a baby! We're due on June 21, 2011.

Answers to questions I'm sure you have:

I'm feeling fine. I've been a little more tired then usual and have had some morning/afternoon queasiness, but other than that, I'm good.

No, we don't know if its a boy or a girl yet, but we will be finding out. Whether or not we're going to tell everyone else is another matter.

I've gained some weight, but am not showing yet. Although with how quickly I'm gaining weight, it probably won't be much longer until I start.

No, its not twins. We've had an ultrasound, there's only one baby in there.

Reading Plan Complete

The last two books I read for my chick-lit reading plan were not really chick-lit. They had some similar appeal factors but were not mainstream chick-lit books, but were more like appendage's. The first was Bitter is the New Black: confessions of a condescending, egomaniacal, self-centered, smart-@$$ or, why you should never carry a Prada bag to the unemployment office: a memoir by Jen Lancaster. (Great title, eh?) The second was Best Friends Forever by Jennifer Weiner.

Bitter is the new Black is non-fiction. A memoir to be precise, about a 30's something woman who is living the life. She's got a job that makes her oodles of money, a fabulous apartment, and has a committed boyfriend. There are things she would like to change, like she would like to move to New York, but otherwise, things are good. Until she looses her job. And then her boyfriend looses his job. And they have to move. And their car gets reposed. And you get the picture.

The author has a lot in common with many characters I see in, or associate with, chick-lit. She has the big-paying job, and all the latest fashions, the monthly hair appointment with the best stylist in the city. She is not currently looking for a man, because she already has one, but her mother does occasionally bug her about when she's going to marry the guy. The tone is light and snarky and fun, despite the huge life crisis she goes through. And it is a crisis. It takes two years before someone offers her a job. But despite the snarkiness, you can see how her attitude towards work and money and life change. She starts up as the stuck-up princess type and ends up as the funny, blunt, girl-to-hang-out with type.

I'm not sure which category to put Best Friends Forever. It could be women's fiction, or chick-lit, or mainstream fiction. Addie has always been shy, and lately, she's become something of a recluse. After high school, her father died suddenly from and aneurysm and it was left to her to care for her ill mother. Val is a mix of dare-devil and beauty queen. If you cross her, she'll get you back. Addie and Val have been best friends since they were nine. But an incident in high school caused a falling out between them. Now, the night of their high school reunion, Val is at Addie's door, asking for help.

There is a little bit of mystery in what actually happened at the reunion and back in high school, but it is the relationship between Addie and Val that really drives the novel. The mystery is actual a bit anti-climatic, but it does allow Addie to get together with the cute local sheriff, so I suppose it serves its purpose.

So that's it. My 2010 reading plan is complete. And I still have a whole month left over.

Fuzzy's Journey

Mark and I like to go on walks on Sunday afternoons. We may not live in a neighborhood, but there are several nearby that are good for strolling around. Today we went a road that went behind some of those neighborhoods. On one side of the street were fences and the other side were fields. While we were walking, we saw a fuzzy caterpillar. It was pretty big and it moved very fast. Well, fast for a caterpillar. We named it Fuzzy.

But, isn't it the wrong of year for Fuzzy to still be a caterpillar? Shouldn't he be in a cocoon by now? Yes, we asked ourselves these same questions. We found out that Fuzzy is the last of his kind. The rest of his clan was destroyed by Grackles and he is on a quest to find a new homeland and rebuild. He cannot start his cocoon until he has found a safe place to call home.

We wished Fuzzy luck and went on our way. We did not see him on the way back.

Book Suggestions

As part of my work duties, I get to review the titles that our patrons request that we buy. I really enjoy this part of my work because it means I get read reviews and buy books. A lot of what gets suggested are the blockbuster bestseller authors whose next book won't be out for three months, but they have to have it now anyway. Those request I just toss because our vendor sends those to us automatically. No request needed.

There's been a lot of requests for out of print romance titles, in large print. I've been getting the same three or four titles over and over again, all by the same author. I may have inadvertently encouraged this person to submit titles by actually buying one of his/her requests. Sometimes I wish I could contact patrons like this to tell them to "Give it up!" Their beloved romance author is no longer writing and no one wants to print their books anymore. Its time to start hunting the used book stores and Amazon because the library is never going to get it.

Of course, if I ever did run into the person requesting these titles, I'd never have to courage to tell them that.