Binary Mom

I couldn't find my post where I wrote about our babe being the product of our absolute nerdiness, but I'm sure it's in the archives somewhere. If you're not up to date on the baby situation, here's a quick recap. If you are already fully aware of our nerdiness, then you can skip this part and go on to our cool news.

We've been planning a 10-10-10 baby for over a year.
Miraculously it worked out so that my due date is exactly 1 week past October 10th.
This is good because I have big babies and being induced a week early is prime as far as I'm concerned.
10-10-10 is binary.
It equals 42.
I don't know how binary works, but Nathan does.
Have you read Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy? If so, you may already understand the magnitude of our nerdiness.
If not, then here it is: a civilization builds a super computer to come up with the answer to "life, the universe, and everything."
The computer does the work and years and years later comes up with the answer. 

42.

The answer to life, the universe and everything is 42.

Again, 10-10-10 in binary is 42.

This is how nerdy we are.


Cool News

So, a few weeks ago I had a doctor appointment and asked about how to get this thing scheduled. Do we schedule it? Him? Anyway, he asked what day October 10th falls on and when I told him it was a Sunday, he was not optimistic about us being able to schedule it for that day. Apparently, the hospital is usually short staffed on weekends. He talked about getting me in the Friday before or the Monday after.

I tried to reconcile myself to the idea of it not working out. Nathan and I joked about ways to get in on the 10th, but we knew none of them would really work. Then I joked and said, we should contact the news station and tell them about what we've planned and see if they'd want to do a human interest story on us. Then the hospital would have to let us come in on the 10th because, hey, free advertising. Can't pass that up.

Well, Friday I decided to go for it. What did I have to lose? So I went to the Fox News site, emailed them with our story and in less than two hours I had a woman calling me back to tell me not to offer the story to anyone else because they want it! Crazy, eh? So now on Monday I have to call my doctor to tell him he has to get me in on the 10th.

I'll let you know what happens on Monday when I call my doctor.

I Dreamed a Dream

It's official. It's back to school season. Want to know how I know?

A) The fact that I saw brown leaves falling from a tree today could be it, but it isn't.

B) Maybe that the school bus drivers are out learning their routes? Nope.

C) The annoying commercials on Hulu with the junior high kids wearing my fourth grade wardrobe as they dance around and claim to have the beat? Wrong again. They also claim to look sweet, but that's debatable. 

D) Not even the endless paperwork associated with getting my kids ready or the kindergarten kickoffs and school park play dates are the real tipper-offer here.

No, the right answer would be. . . I'm having my routine nightmare. I'm in high school, in the front office, late for class, and I don't even know what my classes are. I can't find my schedule card. Or my locker. Or the person I'm supposed to talk to about getting a new one. I wander around, lost, and thinking I am going to fail high school because I don't even know what classes I'm in.

I hate this dream. Yet, I have it about 50 times a year and almost always during the school year.

This is how I know it is back to school time.

Baby Business

Remember this post? It's happening again. These three examples are all within 3 or 4 weeks of each other, btw.

The first time this is how it went down.

Guy at register: So, this is your last one, right?
Me: Huh?
Guy at register: This is your last one.
Me: [My last what? Box of Oreos? He notices my confused look and points at Emma, Jeremy, then my bulging stomach.] No, and actually I have another one, too. I've got three kids, this will be my fourth, and I want one more after that.
Guy at register: Seriously? Wow. [Goes back to his job.]

Second time.

Girl bagging my groceries: Are you done after this one?
Me: No.
Girl bagging my groceries: Really? How many do you want?
Me: [Is she talking about scoops of ice cream?] I've always wanted five, so one more after this.
Girl bagging my groceries: I've got one and that's all I can handle. God bless you.
Me: Yeah. [walk away]

Today.

Guy with a cart: Here mam. [Pushes a cart with a broken restraining strap and an annoying wheel at me]
Me: Thanks.
Guy no longer with a cart: [Eyes wide, head shaking] God bless you.
Me: [Very confused look on face] Huh?
Guy no longer with a cart: This is your last one, right?
Me: [Still confused] Last what?
Guy no longer with a cart: [Points to my belly] Your last one.
Me: [Look down at my own belly] Um, no.
Guy no longer with cart: [Head cocks to the side, eyebrows furrow] Last one?
Me: [Shaking my head] NO. [Slowly and loudly, enunciating each word] I want one more after this.
Guy no longer with cart: What?
Me: I want five kids. [Guy starts to back away] I plan on having one more after this. Is it really any of your business?

Really? And why do all of these idiots work at the same grocery store? That was the last straw so I went to customer service and spoke to a manager. Luckily, he was horrified that I'd had these experiences in his store. I expect to not be asked any more baby related questions or have God's blessings called down upon me by strangers wearing grocery store smocks.

Book Review--The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory

The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


I liked this book, but I have a hard time recommending it to anyone I know. If you are an avid European history person (while it wasn't my emphasis, I did study this era), then you'd probably be ok with it because you'd know most of it already. I wasn't too shocked about anything. Besides all my history classes, I remember watching the movie and not being shocked at all, while everyone else I know who saw the movie was extremely shocked and felt scandalized;) If you were one of these people, don't read the book!

The movie leaves a lot out and changes things up. So if you saw the movie and expect it to be like the book, you'll be disappointed. Or possibly feel more scandalized.

All in all, it really was an enjoyable read for me. I really like how Gregory wrote Mary Boleyn. She's a very complex person that's hard to like and hard to dislike at the same time. Now I feel like I need to read a text book, though.


View all my reviews >>

It's So Nice . . .

I love having Nathan home during the week. I don't know what I'll do once school starts again. Cry, probably.

Anyway, today we have had lots of fun! Monday is the "free" day at the Cleveland Zoo. I say "free" because while all we have to do is show our licenses to prove we live in the county to get into the zoo, we also pay a lot of taxes for this one free day a week that we only take advantage of about 3 times a year.

However, today was more free than usual. We hadn't been in the zoo for five minutes when a lady came up to me and asked if we wanted her Zoo Bucks. Zoo Bucks work like money for the extras that the zoo charges for: the dinosaur exhibit, feeding the birds, riding the train, camel rides, etc. They were leaving and she said her son hadn't wanted to do any thing extra and so she had an entire book of Zoo Bucks (which equals $12, but costs $10 to buy). So this is what we did with them!

Megan wouldn't let go of a flamingo feather she found. She carried it through the whole zoo.

I wanted a picture of Nathan getting his head eaten by this dinosaur,

but there were lots of people waiting for pictures. Dang.

Jeremy insisted that he doesn't like robot dinosaurs, only real dinosaurs. That's too bad.

I don't think he'll find many exhibits with those.

And here's Nathan's favorite quote of the day from Jeremy:

"Tyrannosaurus is a meat eater and we're meat!" 

Megan and Jeremy asked if they could do the camel ride as we were driving into the zoo and Nathan told them no "because it probably costs $4 a person." Which is exactly what we found it does cost.

But with our Zoo Bucks . . . ta da! 

Free!

So a happy time was had by all. We also. . .