Clarification

It is always amazing to me a) who reads this thing and b) what they get out of it.

Apparently some of our closest friends have taken "She thinks I am mostly full of crap and that people should mostly keep their wisdom to themselves." and applied it to help and advice they have been giving. So let me clarify: our friends and family have been exceptionally helpful during our pregnancy and their wisdom is not only helpful but also sought. This comment really applies to those strangers and acquaintances who have provided such gems as:

• "you don't know what you are getting into"
• "too late to turn back now"
• "get enough sleep now because you won't get any later"
• "I don't know how we got through it"
• "life as you know it is over"
• "birth is the most painful thing ever"
  

These could even be marginally helpful if friends said them, because at lease we have some shared context for the comments. But generally they aren't from friends and aren't really helpful - and you have to question if they were even really meant to be helpful.

So, friends and family please continue to share your wisdom.
Everyone else, shhh.

mostly

We are officially "normal" now. We are T-13 days from birthday, and +/- 14 days is spot-on normal. It is a little freaky because a family friend just had their baby with a rim-shot on normal in the -14 day range, so we really are at "any day now".

We put the car seat in the car today and had the nice men at the fire station make sure it was all done correctly. We had it mostly right. We have the baby room mostly ready and the bags are mostly packed. I think this is actually a theme for our life right now: "mostly". We are mostly ready for baby - not that anyone can every be fully ready I am sure. Most people who have had kids have this look about them when we say how close we are. It is a cross between fond recollection, sympathy, and pity. People have been mostly helpful, although I am somewhat tired of hearing how much my life is going to change. Really? change you say? We are only going to have a helpless child totally and completely dependant on us for the foreseeable future, how could that possibly imply change! I know this comes out of a good place for people, but there are only so many answers one can come up with for this without getting repetitive, or snarky, or both.

I was actually commenting to Kristine on this the other day. In some way being pregnant is like being famous: part of you is given over to the wider community. People want to be part of it, to share somehow in this fundamental miracle of life. So, as celebrities must do, the pregnant woman must play the part - to let people share their advice, and wisdom and stories - it is part of the experience! ... yeah, Kristine didn't really buy it either. She thinks I am mostly full of crap and that people should mostly keep their wisdom to themselves. Kristine is also 9 months pregnant and can pretty much have whatever opinion she wants at this point.

As I said, we are mostly ready: Me, in the "I think I have my life mostly together enough that I won't totally screw this up" way, and Kristine in the "get this out of me now" kinda way.

Karma

Tuesday was class day, in that I had to attend class, not a day to celebrate antiquated social structures. Class starts at 2:30. That will be important in a minute, but first some history. Back in the day... the day the early nineties.. so I guess back 'in the decade' would be more accurate... wow, three lines and 2 digressions, I am totally on a role. So there I am going to university. Me and Dan are driving, that is to say Dan is driving and I am riding. We aren't so into the whole 'parking pass' thing - not sure why, but we didn't really get one. So we parked in what we lovingly referred to as 'hell lot'. This is the sort of place where you get in your car, back out of the driveway, drive around the block, park next to your house, then walk across the city to university. It was far, it was cold, and it sucked, but it was cheap - a buck a day to park. Done.

Fast forward. The university now as a fancy shmancy parkade with (theoretically) lots of room. And to keep all the rabble (ie students) away, they charge standard downtown parking lot rates. This I am good with, since I am only going once a week for a few hours and I am actually making more than 8 bucks an hour these days.

2:05. I am precisely 8 minutes away from the university if I punch it - which I do. I drive straight to the centre of the university to the parking lot. Full plus lineup. 2:13. Backup plan. Drive to another parking lot and pull in. 2:21. Lineup. No spots. Crap. Pull out. Last option: hell lot. Seriously? I am 38 years old with a real career and an Audi and I still need to do hell lot? Grumble. 2:26 pull into hell lot. Stall 1 is available - cool. As soon as I get out of the car I start to bee-line to to the pay station when someone says "sir". Sir?! "yes?". "I paid for the full day but I am leaving now, could you use my ticket?". "Totally! that would be awesome! Thanks!" huh, not so bad, saves some time. So I throw the ticket onto the dash and run for class.

Now the story would be nice if it ended there, but not only did I make it to class just in time (it is a solid 10 minute run, so figure how that time warp happened), but I realized that I had actually not brought by wallet - it was safely at home. This meant that not only would I not have been able to pay at hell lot, but, had I actually gotten in at the parkade, I would never have been able to leave.

Apparently I did something good once, because this is clearly good karma coming back to me.

Who owns the potato?

Apparently - and I don't yet understand the full story - but the potato market in Manitoba is actually controlled by Peak of the Market. This means that potato farmers must sell to Peak of the Market and only Peak of the Market. Crampton's potato suppliers have been visited by suits who have told them to stop their nefarious ways and follow the true path laid out by their legal contracts wherein they only sell to the Peak of the Market.

Now, I don't quite get this and I doesn't smell quite right to me, but Crampton's has posted a fairly complete update on this on their blog, which I would encourage you to visit.

http://cramptonsmarket.blogspot.com/2009/09/bad-news-for-manitoba-potato-eatersand.html

I would love to hear Peak of the Market's side to see what they think is going on. We have other monopolies - like the wheat board - that many find quite helpful, however this is a private company controlling the market, which brings up all sorts of questions about who actually owns the food and who controls the farmers ability to produce - in this case, apparently Peak of the Marked does.

Random Connections: 999

Today is September 9, 2009 or 999.

999 is the name of some band that has had 276657 hits on their website since Sept 24, 1999. September 24 1999 is the name of a song by Xavier Rudd. Xavier Rudd plays with a guy named Dave Tolley who was born in Kitchener in 1978. There are currently 4 1978 Corvettes for sale in Kitchener. 1978 was the year that the Corvette was 25 years old, and to commemorate, a version with a two-tone paint job was produced, of which 15,283 were sold. 15283 in roman numerals is MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMCCLXXXIII. Mmmmmmmmmmm is one of the lyrics in Xavier Rudd’s song September 24, 1999. Coincidence? I think not.

The year 999 is also CMXICX is roman numerals. CMXICX is the website of one of those classic Finnish thrash metal bands. They have a video on their site that made me laugh – which was the opposite of their point I think. Their name is Survivors Zero. Zero is the amount of work I have accomplished in the last 15 minutes while following this path of randomness.

baby pictures

I have been fairly remiss about posting our most recent pre-birth pictures. Here are the last ultrasound pictures of baby. They are posted on flickr.



This started to make it pretty real. When you start seeing elbows it is pretty hard to deny. Baby wasn't as cooperative this time around, apparently s/he has a bit of grandma Hagyard in him/her and s/he seems to want to avoid pictures.

Movies on a Plane

Although it sounds really cool and important to say that you are “going to Calgary tomorrow for a meeting”. The reality tends to be less so. I mean, it is still cool an important, it just also sucks. It doesn’t really need to suck, but plane travel is never super great, and spending 6 hours traveling for a 2 hour meeting is sub-optimal at best. And 6 hours of plan travel is like 50 hours of non-plane travel because it has so much more process involved... and waiting, lots of waiting. Car travel isn’t so bad – longer maybe, but you just get in your car and start going, no screening, no pre boarding, just driving. As soon as you go you are going. Plane travel is all in fits and spurts: you rush to the airport; then wait to check in; then rush to security; then wait to be wanded; then rush to the gate, then wait be boarded; then mush onto the plan; then wait pushback; then wait for taxi; then wait for takeoff; then, and only then, are you really on your way. You are basically like a package: checked, screened, loaded, delivered.

I was lucky enough to have Air Canada’s in-flight commercials on my flights. Don’t get me wrong. Air Canada gets more points then West Jet in my books, but they do show an awful lot of commercials that you can’t avoid. It wouldn’t be so bad if they started the in-flight systems earlier, but no, not until we have taken off, leveled out and the first class passengers have all been shampooed and manicured, only then to they turn on the system. Which then starts with 15 minutes of commercials. Why can’t then have it on from the second you sit down? Then interrupt it anyway for announcements. Is it because they are worried we will kill ourselves with those headsets? Because I have gotten those things caught plenty of time and if there is a fire and we need to evacuate, they aren’t holding me back let me tell ya. Here is a tradeoff – let us watch our pictures starting the moment we have achieved seat, and you can show us a few of your adverts. Otherwise, you are taking up many moments of my pre-constrained movie-watch time!

I now have two movies that I have not seen the ending too. And as my facebook status indicates, I am in the process of using nefarious means to discover the ending! Air Canada made me do it!