Have a geeky Thanksgiving!

Maybe you're the sort of person who has always wondered what cranberry sauce looks like if you let the juice crystallize, then look at it under a microscope. Or maybe you get a thrill from saying "Please pass the Meleagris gallopavo!" Or perhaps you're just attracted to bright colors and shiny objects. If any of these apply to you, go check out this article at Wired.com.

http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/magazine/15-11/st_thanksgiving

In other non-Thanksgiving related geeky cheekiness, I recently found decorations for our little one's room when they move out of the nursery. Every child has to learn their ABC's, right?

http://www.tiffanyard.com/nerd.htm

Names

Here is a list of the first names that we're presently considering, in alphabetical order. Comment on which ones you like or don't like, and why. The middle name will probably be Rose, after her dad's grandmother.

For those of you looking at this list and wondering where the "interesting" ones are, do not fear. They're just posted on a different blog.

Amalia
Annika
Anya
Eleanor
Eliana
Eva
Evelina
Lily
Maia
Miriam
Stella
Sylvia

Pincushion

Many of the annoyances of pregnancy are generated by one's own body, but there are some that are external. This morning I went to get blood drawn for the second part of "sequential screening," which is a series of tests including ultrasound and bloodwork to look for Down's Syndrome and related chromosomal abnormalities. It's not the principle of such testing that annoys me, it's the practicality of the way it's implemented. It would be nice if there was a consolidated prenatal care center that served all the various needs, but at the two hospitals I've gone to for care the two times I've been pregnant, that's not how it works. You end up going to the ob/gyn's office for regular checkups, which are very brief after the first one. There's a separate facility for high-tech ultrasounds, and a lab across the hall where they collect blood samples for bloodwork, plus for my initial round of "test-everything-possible" bloodwork I had to go to Qwest Diagnostics. Between the ultrasound appointments, the regular prenatal checkups, and other stuff like the bloodwork, it seems like just about every week there's some appointment that demands my time. And it'll get worse - in month 8, the prenatal checkups will be every other week, and in month 9 they will be every week.

Looking on the bright side (sort of), I guess it's good training for the frequent visits to the pediatrician after the baby is born.

Peaches and fluffy clouds

The project of painting the baby's room is finally complete! For those who haven't seen this room in person: it is a very small room, about 8' x 10', that is connected by an open doorway to the master bedroom (in the picture, the door would be just outside the frame, to the left) and has a small closet and a door to the hallway. We imagine that its original purpose was either a sitting room or a nursery; the previous owners were using it as an office.

I'm pleased with the peachy-tan paint and most especially with the "sky" ceiling. The leafy wall lamps are a tad too big for this room; they'd look more at home in a living room or dining room, and we might very well re-use them at some point elsewhere in the house. But since none of the upstairs rooms in our home are equipped with light fixtures on the ceiling, our options are more or less limited to floor lamps or wall lamps unless we did some major re-wiring. Ignore the blue tape on the floor - we're not quite done cleaning up the painting mess.

Next we'll get a crib, move the dresser back into the room, equip the top with a changing pad, drag upstairs a comfy reclining chair that we inherited from my grandma, and the room will be about ready for its new occupant.