By popular request

For Chris O, Jenna, Fran, and others wanting more pictures, I hereby create a new post. I've been slack on updating this blog because not much has been going on. I've been doing some cooking, a lot of sleeping, and general tidying of the slowly-growing baby-related mound accumulating in the spare bedroom.

Without further ado:
Bruno and "Hector," the retired racing greyhound his parents adopted. Hector is a great dog - calm and happy and affectionate without being overbearing.

And a less-recent picture: B about to set off on the trek up Helvellyn, in the Lake District (near Ullswater, the second largest lake in England). He's stayed in that building behind him a few times; it's a youth hostel. Actually, it's fairly off the beaten path. The gravel road he's standing on extends quite a ways from the outskirts of the small town it borders. And woe betide you if you're driving and you meet another car. One of you has to back up until the next turn-around.

Here I am in Budapest last September. B has a knack of taking photos before I'm quite ready! This is overlooking one of the bridges over the Danube. We took the funicular (pictured earlier on the blog) shortly after this.

And here I am in Greece, again last September. This is in Chora (the port town) on Naxos, at the top of the hill near the church. You get here by walking up a series of convoluted streets and alleyways and hills and steps. It's a very pretty town, our favorite island (so far).

Against my better judgment, here's a picture of me looking fat and pregnant. Yes. That is a chocolate eclair in that takeaway bag. And yes, I did eat it. Every bit of it. And I make no apology for that. This is actually just across the street from the cafe I wrote about earlier, in Clapham Common.

Right, that's about it for now. We don't have many pictures of us together because, well, one of us has to man the camera. Why do you think we're having a kid? Hey presto, instant photographer on hand! (Just kidding.)

Tea

One of my favorite things to do on a lazy day is to go out and have tea somewhere with Bruno. A friend introduced me to a cafe that serves tea and fancy pastries on real china, and I was hooked on it from the moment I stepped inside. It sits just across from a large park, overlooking a statue in the midst of greenery and a fountain that children are free to splash around in.

It serves some very interesting varieties of tea. The tea in the cup pictured above is a type of green tea, served with bits of flower in it. Unless I need it, I prefer to drink decaf, so green tea is a good option for me.

We had lunch with a friend from the U.S. a few weeks ago at the cafe. I got to catch up with the news from my old church while sitting outside sipping tea. It was really nice. And when you're nearly 32 weeks pregnant, you tend to cherish being able to linger over a nice hot cup of something. I know I won't get many of these moments in the years to come!

Bawth

We headed to Bath (Bawth, as the natives say it) via train this weekend and enjoyed a few days of hot weather and sightseeing. I took this picture at the Roman Baths - you can see St. George's flag fluttering away atop the abbey in the background. Bath is an interesting mix of history. The statues were built in the mid to late 1800's, the abbey hails from medieval times, and the baths underneath were constructed by the Romans:

We were there on a Monday, so it wasn't too busy. Still, I was surprised by the amount of tourists gadding about (note my very British terminology there) town. I can honestly say that despite the kooky hat B made me wear, I fit right in.

Now, I don't consider myself a gourmet. I'm not pretentious. I can enjoy something without making stupid exaggerated faces of enjoyment, and I keep my comments about restaurants simple without going into the details of how horrible/good it was because the sauce had too much coriander in it and therefore that threw off the lemony-basilness of the dish. To wit: Mexican food in the UK generally sucks. Full stop. So when we found a good Mexican restaurant in Bath, we ate there two nights in a row. It was even better than the full-on tea service we had on Monday afternoon.

But the best part? Spa visit. 4 hours. Able to float with my chin propped up on one of those blue styrofoamy things in the water... belly down. Seriously, I just lay there like a croc in the water half the time. You have no idea how much you miss sleeping on your stomach until it's taken away from you....

Leftovers

In an attempt to recreate the attitude of "make do and mend," I decided to cook dinner using leftovers. We'd roasted a chicken the night before and there was still enough meat on it to cobble a meal out of, so I decided to make risotto.

I'm proud I was able to throw it together in the end, given my distinct disinterest in cooking in general. I skimmed a few recipes off the internet and modified one to meet my needs.

In a wok pan (hey, it was the biggest thing we had around), I combined a scoopful of butter and a few dashes of chili olive oil (for spice), chopped half a red onion into fine pieces, and simmered them over low heat. Then I added uncooked rice, swirled it around to coat it fully in butter, oil and onions, and added enough water to cover it.

After the water had boiled off/soaked in (reduced? I'm no chef, whatever!) I added more water again and then about a bowlful of shredded chicken pieces. The chicken added some more flavor to the dish. (Some recipes call for white wine and chicken stock; I didn't have any on hand so just used water. It worked fine.)

In another pot, I steamed broccoli and then added them to the mix. After about 20-25 mins, the rice was tender enough, so I served up:

Note: You don't have to use salt. I didn't. I added some black pepper and some garlic pepper. It worked nicely. In the future I might add 1/4 a cup of wine and some diced garlic. At the end, I diced some aged cheddar and mixed it in for a nice cheesy flavor.

Made for a nice meal. If I'd had the energy and the ingredients, I would have made a salad, but I was lazy and stuck the last of the spinach leaves on the plate.

To keep to the theme of "leftovers" I dished up the remaining lowfat vanilla yogurt and the dregs of the strawberries. We're still good on bananas, but I added them anyway:

Mmmgh, yum. I don't have a recipe book or anything fruity and housewifey like that but I'm definitely going to remember this and make it again.

Snow and other things

It snowed on Sunday, and a bunch actually stuck to the ground (well, until noon or so...). I took this picture from the kitchen looking out onto our balcony and down the steps to the yard. Our back yard isn't shown - the two you see on either side are our downstairs neighbors'. Our yard is actually behind that reddish snow-covered tree and a bit off to the right.

Went in for an ultrasound on Friday - It's a hermaphrodite! We're so excit-- wait, what? April Fools was when? Oh. Right.

Well, it's a BOY! And yes, I'm finally starting to show. And yes, it does kick like crazy. He, even. I'll have to get used to calling him that.

Crazy consumerism

So on the one hand, you have these people who say: "All you really need for the baby is a few outfits and a dresser drawer for it to sleep in!"

Then you have the people who want you to buy everything and the kitchen sink, and spend a lot of time convincing you of the need to own one knick-knack or another.

In the middle, you have confused parents-to-be trying to gauge what, exactly, they DO need. It's hard, because what might work for one family, won't for another, and vice versa. Then there's the mild guilt trip you get from seeing all those expensive organic items and wondering if you should try and tweak the budget to include those somehow. Like, seriously, baby wipes made from tea tree oil and pure completely edible ingredients. Slings made from organic cotton or fleece or what-have-you.

It's all very confusing. And potentially quite expensive.

We've decided to close our ears, go LALALA, and try and save as much money as possible. So far we've gotten a crib (one of the travel kind with soft-mesh sides) on sale, and 20 cloth diapers (reusable nappies as they call them here). Hopefully we can find other things at the English equivalent of garage sales or off Freecycle. Here's to looking!

Though I suppose we might also pick up an outfit or two once we find out the flavor at the gender scan on Friday...!

All right...

I'd like to know who awarded the fetus its black belt. Flying judo chops to the bellybutton at 3am are very disconcerting.

In other news, I found some pictures of our visit to the Lake District on a CD:




Only have time to post one. We were a little more than halfway up Helvellyn when we took this picture. You can tell how high we are by squinting - those specks coming up the path below are other people. The peak was even higher than this. I'd love to get back up there someday and go to the very top.