Meme Time

Wow, I am really scraping here. A meme! I think it's my first! Claire did this today, and I also saw it on And She Knits Too, so you know it's sweeping the internets.

The Omnivore's Hundred is a list of foods the gastronomic Andrew Wheeler thinks everyone should try at least once in their lives.

The rules of the meme:
Bold those you have tried.
Strikethrough those you wouldn't eat on a bet.
Italicize any item you'll never eat again.
Asterisk any items you'd be interested in trying but have not yet.

You know, I think of myself as a picky eater, but there is plenty on this list that I like and would try again, and the list of things that I "should" try isn't at all overwhelming. I think my priority is the tasting menu, I'll get right on that...


1. Venison
2. Nettle tea
3. Huevos rancheros
4. Steak tartare
5. Crocodile
6. Black pudding
7. Cheese fondue
8. Carp
9. Borscht*
10. Baba ghanoush
11. Calamari
12. Pho*
13. PB&J sandwich
14. Aloo gobi*
15. Hot dog from a street cart
16. Epoisses
17. Black truffle
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes
19. Steamed pork buns
20. Pistachio ice cream
21. Heirloom tomatoes
22. Fresh wild berries
23. Foie gras
24. Rice and beans
25. Brawn, or head cheese
26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper
27. Dulce de leche
28. Oysters
29. Baklava
30. Bagna cauda
31. Wasabi peas
32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl
33. Salted lassi
34. Sauerkraut
35. Root beer float
36. Cognac with a fat cigar
37. Clotted cream tea
38. Vodka jelly*
39. Gumbo
40. Oxtail
41. Curried goat
42. Whole insects
43. Phaal
44. Goat's milk
45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth
46. Fugu
47. Chicken tikka masala
48. Eel
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut
50. Sea urchin
51. Prickly pear
52. Umeboshi
53. Abalone
54. Paneer
55. McDonald's Big Mac Meal
56. Spaetzle
57. Dirty gin martini
58. Beer above 8% ABV
59. Poutine*
60. Carob chips
61. S'mores
62. Sweetbreads
63. Kaolin
64. Currywurst
65. Durian*
66. Frogs' legs
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake
68. Haggis
69. Fried plantain
70. Chitterlings, or andouillette
71. Gazpacho
72. Caviar and blini
73. Louche absinthe
74. Gjetost, or brunost
75. Roadkill
76. Baijiu
77. Hostess Fruit Pie
78. Snail
79. Lapsang souchong
80. Bellini
81. Tom yum
82. Eggs Benedict
83. Pocky
84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant*
85. Kobe beef
86. Hare
87. Goulash
88. Flowers
89. Horse
90. Criollo chocolate
91. Spam
92. Soft shell crab
93. Rose harissa
94. Catfish
95. Mole poblano
96. Bagel and lox
97. Lobster Thermidor*
98. Polenta
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee
100. Snake

Further Developments

Sorry that I've not been updating el blog of late. There have actually been some developments that may be of interest.

I had an ultrasound last week, when I was 12 weeks 4 days, and they said everything looked great. Perfect. I had to ask "and the heartbeat?" even, because I couldn't hear it and I needed that specific reassurance - yes, still alive. Whenever I get good news I mentally add the "for now" at the end. Things look perfect, for now. I am still pregnant, for now.

I have scans from the ultrasound but they look weird in iPhoto and I am not sure how to make it better, so I can't share. But we appear to be beyond the bean stage now. I thought that once I made it to 12 weeks my anxiety would be better, and it sort of is, but I'm not done with it. My next ultrasound appointment is more than a month away, my next OB appointment is more than a week, and although I feel the constant need for reassurance, I know that I won't quite get it. So I try not to go crazy but there's a low-level fear with me most of the time. Now I'm hoping that if I make it to 16 weeks I will calm down. That's Labor Day.

Also, I turned in my paper (5 minutes before the deadline) and so am done with school for the summer. The paper I feel kinda meh about, but the quilt I made I'm pretty happy with - I stretched my abilities and I think it doesn't suck!

For the back, I made a lightbulb. That required curves, which was not easy and involved many pins.


Don't look closely as there are wrinkles and such.


For the front, I just sliced up some fabric and cobbled together the tree shape and trunk, and then did some vague APPLIQUE-ish thing to get them to be attached to the sky/ground backing I made. I even looked up how to do satin stitch on my machine for this! So fancy.


It's all symbolic and shit.

Teacher School

Okay, so this is theoretically the last week of summer school. Friday is the last class. I was meant to turn in a completed rough draft yesterday. I turned in an incomplete rough draft, and when it was handed back today I got a lovely comment in front of the class about procrastination. Uh, thanks. I know I suck! I know the professor really likes me a lot, and she said that because she knows that I know that she likes me, but really. I had gotten a ticket on the way to class that day, so it was kind of the icing on my crap cake for the afternoon.

What is it about us Smith girls and procrastination? In fact, here I am writing a blog post instead of working on said paper. PEOPLE! WTF!? My professor told us weeks ago that the absolute deadline for this thing is next Wednesday. So why on EARTH would I have it done in time to turn in on Friday? So that I can enjoy my weekend in Bryan, America with a clear conscience? Um, I think not.

As part of this class we also have to do an art-based interpretation of our research. My art is going to be a quilt. Wanna guess how far I've gotten on the quilt?



That's right - I've bought some fabric, I've washed the fabric. I've cut out a template. THAT'S IT. Now this, this really is due on Friday. This really must get done in the next 48 hours.

So naturally, on Sunday afternoon, when I should have been working on either the quilt that is due on Friday, or the draft that was due the next day, I put this together:



Genius.

p.s. on the pregnancy front, I have started on the belly portion and actually exhibited some symptoms! today is 11weeks and 4 days, and I have the next ultrasound on Monday. Lanell loaned me a doppler with which to try to hear the heartbeat, but I am so twisted around in my anxiety that I am worried that using it will somehow make me MORE anxious. I guess that's something to discuss with the therapist tomorrow morning?

Makin Pies

K has been in a pie-baking mood lately, and I am not gonna stop him. So far we've had a peach-blueberry, a fresh cherry-lime, and this weekend brought a plain peach pie. That shit is GOOD, y'all. Yet another reason to be glad that I married that man.

He makes his own pie crust. With LARD.







Anyway, I was thinking about posting about the pies, but what else is there to add about pies, right? They're pretty, taste good, Barack likes them, yay pie.

Then I remembered the Patty Griffin song Making Pies. Of course - it's a Patty Griffin song, so it's pretty brutal. Beautiful but like her best songs I think it gives an emotional gut punch.



Not too long ago I had a conversation about that song - my coworker (at the part-time gig which is now done) had it playing as she was working one day, and I said in passing "Wow, I love Patty Griffin but I could not work with that on. That song is a killer" and she was perplexed. Said it had never occurred to her that it was a sad song. A few days later she came in and said "you were so right about that pie song! I listened to the lyrics last night and they are so sad!"

Mmm-hmm. Patty Griffin also sings my old steady I'm-sad-and-want-to-cry song, Goodbye.



Patty Griffin, sad songs, it's like homemade pie and Blue Bell homemade vanilla. Two great tastes that taste great together.

1994

The Wackness. We saw it last night and I keep thinking about it today, which I think is a sign of a good movie. I loved it, and I don't know if it is because I am simply nostalgic about 1994, or if it is because I loved the music (of course I loved the music), or what.

Like Luke, I graduated from high school in 1994, and I think was somewhere between being the most popular loser or the least popular popular kid. I don't remember much about that summer, I think it was full of babysitting and anticipation - I was very ready to leave for college. That was the summer that I went to Alaska with my dad, and of course there was freshman orientation, probably a family beach trip, the girls weekend at the ranch where we played Liz Phair. I think I went to a lot of parties with friends who were doing summer theatre productions, and now that I think about it there was some making out with a certain older boy for that last month before I left. I think the possibilities of the summer were bigger because I knew I was leaving soon - I could wreak a little havoc and escape consequences. I wanted to be "ready" for the real fun of college, because I knew that some bets would be off once I got to Austin.

Laura and I were talking the other day about how spotty our memories are, how there are certain things that are crystal-clear, but so many fuzzy spots. I know that only increases with age, as new events crowd out the pile of old ones. So it's nice to find something that evokes that feeling, if not specific well-lit moments, of being a young person with an open road ahead. Because these days my sense of possibility can often feel more like a sense of impending doom. There was no doom that summer of 1994, and I can remember how good it felt.

Buy Local

So I've been feeling quilty of late, and feeling like I should make something for an impending niece/nephew. So when I saw a layer cake on sale at the Fat Quarter Shop, I actually bought it, along with enough yardage for a back and binding. I felt kind of badly about buying online instead of supporting the lovely store down the street, but then I realized - Fat Quarter IS local! How grand. I immediately picked it apart and put it all out on the floor.



Whatta deal. There was a load of fabric in that thing. I don't have a lot of time before the baby is supposed to be here, so I decided to just use the squares whole. I spent a nice chunk of time choosing the squares I thought would work well together, then arranging them on the floor in the pattern I thought was best. I came up with this:



and then promptly realized that I needed to wash and dry the fabric before I started sewing. Duh. So, they got popped into the laundry and are now a wrinkled, stringy pile awaiting pressing and cutting. I guess I got a leetle bit ahead of myself, eh?

Thank you for all of the positive pregnancy wishes. I continue to live in terror and find it hard to believe that things could turn out well. I knew that getting pregnant was not the ultimate goal, that it was merely the first step. But the destination seems painfully far away, with endless possibilities for disaster. I am trying to keep my wits about me, but finding it challenging. I had an appointment with the nurse at my OB's office on Thursday, and she was not able to find the heartbeat. That's not all that unusual at 10 weeks, but of course it kind of freaked me out. Then today I went in to see the doctor (my new hobby is going to medical appointments, yay) and I saw the nurse again. She tried again with the doppler and this time was successful! So I heard the heartbeat, such a relief. My next appointment is two weeks away, for an ultrasound. Deep breaths.

How I Bean

We went to the ultrasound appointment this morning assuming that we would have confirmation that I had miscarried, that the embryo was not viable. I had a positive pregnancy test about 10 days ago but have continued to have spotting since then. My doctor had me go in on Thursday to get my hcg level, and back on Saturday to have it checked again. Hcg should double every 48 hours in the first 8 weeks. Monday morning I got the results - my levels were about the same, very slightly down. That wasn't good news, probably meant that I was losing the pregnancy, but I already had the ultrasound scheduled for Tuesday. Rather than have another blood draw, the nurse suggested I go to the appointment as that would give me more information anyway.

On the way to the appointment, K and I discussed what would probably happen. What questions we might need to ask. We wondered if I would need to have a D&C scheduled.

When the nurse entered, we explained the situation and she put the ultrasound on my abdomen. As soon as I saw the picture I was confused. That was way bigger than what we were looking for, something that would have ended at 6 weeks or less. Did I have fibroids? Was she looking at my ovary? Then she turned on the microphone and I heard the heartbeat - a strong, steady heartbeat.



I'm not sure quite what happened after that other than tears, shock, more tears, asking how? what does this mean?

The nurse was very positive - the bean was measured at 9 weeks 4 days, which means that I got pregnant in May. I've had plenty of spotting, some of which I thought was my period in early June, but she said that was not unusual, and not to be too worried. They checked the hcg level thing and it is normal enough for it to level off after 8 weeks, it isn't cause for concern she said.

I am shocked, shocked. I have been charting my temperature and other assorted details. I have been using an ovulation predictor that said I ovulated on June 10! I had negative pregnancy tests at the end of May. Perhaps it is a little gift - one month of being pregnant without the associated terror and paranoia that at any moment it could all be over.

So, due date is February 13. If all goes as I fervently hope that it will, we might bring a baby home in January. I'm still not sure I believe it could happen that way.