What we've been up to

The work web-blocker thing is down, and I was able to upload a stash of pictures I've been collecting since May 18th. You know what that means.

I found a teeny-tiny baby praying mantis, about the size of my thumbnail, hiding on my basil plants.



Our house is finally nearing completion, although our move-in date has gone from June 18 to June 25 to June 29, and now July 2. Hahahaha, le sigh.



My child was adorably weird. I'm not sure what he was thinking here, but I appreciate that it required a butter bucket for a helmet.



He was also adorably wistful, watching Daddy drive the lawnmower. The tragedy of being almost two is that no one ever lets you drive lawnmowers or operate heavy equipment, no matter how much you beg.



We've been really enjoying the neighborhood pool. There's usually no one there in the mornings on the weekend, so we pretty much have it all to ourselves.





Micah, though, seems to regard the pool merely as a means to a snack.



Oh, and then there was that time I let Micah play with the markers exactly how he wanted.





This necessitated a bath.



And then there are all the random, fun moments that fill up our days. Micah is in such an incredible stage right now. He's sweet, well behaved, cuddly, and hilarious. He's into everything, climbing and crawling, and dissassembling various objects. He wakes up talking, goes to bed talking, and in between it's a nonstop string of fire truck, helicopter, excavator, aih-pane, police car, dump truck, lie down Mommy, book book book, PURPLE TRUCK, unka joshhhh, puppy dog, rabbit naptime, snack, UH OH, bye-bye backhoe, waffles! The chatter is constant and it is so amazing to hear what he's thinking about at any given moment. (Hint: it's usually either food or construction equipment.)

We've been having a pretty awesome summer so far. And hopefully, once this move is complete, it'll just get better.

Next, we all come down with food poisoning!

Todd is gone this week. How's it going so far?

Monday evening:

Micah slips and cuts his mouth on one of our lawn chairs. Blood everywhere. MEDIC!

Tuesday morning:

Upon arrival at daycare, I realize Micah has no diapers and will probably end up wearing paper towels by the end of the day. I fetch four out of the diaper bag and cross my fingers they last the day. MOM FAIL.

Early Wednesday morning:

The smoke alarm goes off at 2:30 AM. I freak the hell out before realizing it's a low battery issue, and I will not, in fact, be chucking flaming cats out the bedroom window while a stranger holds my wailing child outside. Then I had to climb up on a chair and wrestle batteries out while standing on tiptoe. At 3 AM. Potential for death or significant injury: HIGH, but somehow avoided.

Wednesday morning:

Due to the 2:30 AM adrenaline spike and the subsequent insomnia (example, 3:30 AM: OMG, we need wills! RIGHT NOW. Let me begin mentally composing my last will and testament...), I drag myself out of bed twenty minutes late. Micah wakes up while I'm in the middle of washing my hair, of course, so now I'm hurrying to get done and fetch him before he tries to climb out. I round the corner out of the bathroom, moving at a fairly high rate of speed. All three cats sense a moment of opportunity, and intersect right in my path. As two of them trip me, the third and fattest ricochets back into my right leg, sweeping it behind me. I stagger backwards and land on my freakishly-twisted right foot. Now my big toe is twice the size it should be and turning black, and I can hardly walk. Awesome. I would have saved you from the fire, you furry f**kers. IS THIS HOW YOU REPAY ME?

Thursday:

Todd comes home and saves us all from ourselves. Glory, glory, halleluiah!

A small correction, NPR

Nun Excommunicated For Allowing Abortion

Actually, that headline should read, "Nun Excommunicated For Saving The Life Of A Woman Mother of 4* Who Would Otherwise Have Died, Along With Her Baby." But, you know, whatever.

*Further corrected by my mom, who pointed out that four children would have been left motherless had the woman died.

I have to say I find that entire story incredibly appalling. Having lost not one, but two babies of my own, I think I can say for certain that mother grieves every day for the circumstances that meant her child would never be born, one way or the other, and even more for the circumstances that meant she had to choose whether or not to die with her baby. However, she obviously wanted to live (see: four other children), and because of the actions of the medical staff, she did. For the hospital to decide, against her wishes, to just let her and her baby die, would have been unconscionable.

I think we can all agree it's a terribly sad situation, but that by any measure, a life saved is a good thing. I cannot believe good would have been better served by allowing two lives to end, instead of one.

Good thing I'm not actually a geotechnical engineer

Well, the PE results are in.

FAIL

I chose to take the Geotechnical exam because it's the closest to my actual career in Environmental Engineering. Well, closest in that I work on subsurface plumes and geotech engineering involves dirt. So, not really related at all, but more so than my other test options, is what I'm saying.

Uhm, yeah, how did that work out?

Percent Correct

100% - Subsurface Exploration & Sampling
80% - Soil Mechanics Analysis
80% - Other Topics (WTF does that even include?)
75% - Construction
75% - Earth Structures
67% - Shallow Foundations
60% - Engineering Properties of Soils and Materials

And then it goes downhill, WAY downhill, from there.

50% - Earthquake Engineering (50%? It's a Christmas miracle!)
33% - Earth Retaining Structures
25% - Deep Foundations

I had to laugh, because when it comes to shit I actually do in my job, I got a 100%. GO FIGURE. When it comes to things I haven't seen since that introductory soils class eight years ago, well, 25% means I just happened to fill in a correct bubble when I was blindly guessing.

Maybe we can say this is an acceptable score for someone who never took even a single Foundations Engineering class, and just move on? No?

Anyway, what this means is I have to take this thing again in October. And sometime in the next three months, I have to learn about retaining walls, seismic design, piles, and a bunch of other crap.

I'm...going to go drink now.

Square One

Things that are pretty awesome:

• Turning on the radio to hear Vanilla Ice, then looking in the backseat and seeing your almost-two-year-old bobbing his head to the music.
  
  
• Teaching the almost-two-year-old to say "Ice Ice Baby."
  
  
• @BpGlobalPR Favorite one so far: "We are very sorry, but due to an increased amount of accidental immolations, all beach volleyball tournaments are now non-smoking. #bpcares"
  
  
• This post by the guy behind BPGlobalPR.
  
  
• This tutorial on booming explaining how to do it right, and how and why all the booming is the gulf is currently WRONG. Warning: Contains approximately 2,037 instances of the f-bomb. It is, however, entirely consistent with actual driller vocabulary. (At least based on my own experience with drillers.)

Things that are not at all awesome:

So, remember that time I said our computer had died and I had no unblocked internet access? Well, since we'd been planning to buy a new computer for a while, we went ahead and ordered a brand new, shiny desktop. It arrived Saturday, and we immediately set it up so I could hop online and screw around on Facebook.

PRIORITIES, people. God.

Shortly after that we got kind of busy with being parents and stuff, and we didn't have a chance to do much else with the computer. And then on Tuesday, lightning struck a power pole outside our house, and phffffttt I have no unblocked internet access.

(Please don't ask me for details on the problem, because I might accidentally hurt myself trying to explain how the thingy that connects the thingum to the whatsit got all not-working and stuff. Look, if you need help with dirt, you call me.)