1. Thanks for all the info on dinners. Lately I find myself in a rotation of foods for Freebird that can be prepared in 15 minutes or less, because I don’t have that much time to make dinner. I get home at 5pm, feed the zoo, head out to get him, and I’m back by 5.45 or 550. He goes to bed at 7 so I have an hour or so to feed him and depending on what day it is, give him a bath. Our rotation is pb&j, chicken nuggets (which he loves omg), hot dogs, carrots, peas & carrots, corn, yogurt, mac & cheese, and gold fish crackers, chocolate bunny crackers, and similar snack foods. I also have to find out what new options I can come up with for lunches to pack. I suppose I need to stop worry about it; as long as he eats he’s fine.

2. Tonight I go to the midwife for my checkup; after this one I start going every 2 weeks as I’ve entered (dun dun dunnnnn) my third trimester. I found pictures of myself from my pregnancy with Freebird and I was nowhere NEAR as big as I am now, at about the same number of weeks. I look no-doubt pregnant. This does not help at all when it comes to getting a seat on a crowded subway car. Or with sleeping - it’s very difficult to get comfortable at times, as I prefer to sleep on my stomach.

3. Yesterday I went for my waxing appointment, and while I was there, the heat and the up and down the stairs and the subway smells combined to make me very light headed. I told Angela, and said that if I passed out on the table, she should keep going with the waxing because it would hurt a lot less if I was unconscious. She didn’t think that was as funny as I did. And I didn’t pass out.

4. I’m debating about whether to go get a pedicure today with a manicure, or if I ought to go tomorrow. Probably tomorrow. It’ll last until Sunday, and then I’ll have at least 2 days of looking somewhat put together. Heh. 

It’s not even a Woot-off, and I bought today’s Woot for Hubby. Bluetooth headset for $10. Woot!

And I’m not even caffeinated yet. 

Quick question: what do you feed your children? What did you eat when you were a kid? 

As I waddled around Manhattan, visiting the Apple Store (Oh, joy, oh joy, the smell and experience of new technology) with a huge crowd of people and trying not to experience too much of the ambiance of NYC (by “ambiance” I mean the scent of New York on a 90 degree day), I noticed a huge group of people. About 200 of them, all taking up room standing on the sidewalk.

And really, the sidewalk by CBS studios on 59th? Plenty freaking wide.

So there’s 200 people all standing around, looking at the same place, which either means someone famous or there’s a jumper.

I waddle on down the sidewalk and… there’s 200 people, sure enough, staring into a parking garage.

Seriously. Only in New York do you see a huge crowd of people staring into a parking garage. An EMPTY parking garage.

So I find a guy with the word “Security” on his back and say, “Sir, why are there 200 people staring at an empty parking garage?”
Guy *thick New Yawk accent* : “Some guy named Toby is in there.”
Morag: “Toby..Maguire?”
Guy: “Nah.”
Morag: “Toby...Keith?”
Guy: “Yeah, dats him.”
Morag: “There’s 200 people staring at an empty parking garage in case he drives out?”
Guy: “Yeah. Been here half an hour.”
Morag: “Wow.”
Guy: “Yeah. Only in New Yawk.”

It’s that time again. Time for me to agonize and waffle back and forth and debate and question and try to figure out if I’m doing the right thing. It’s time for me… to think about getting a new laptop.

Oh, the joy. Oh, the agony.

This will make the fourth Mac laptop I’ve acquired. I have a really really old PowerBook (the kind that Carrie writes on in Sex & the City), a blue Mac clamshell that is deader than a doornail and is currently Freebird’s play laptop, and my current PowerBook, which is NOT for Freebird to play with, though he LOVES the computers almost as much as he loves clickers.

I currently use as my center of operations a Mac G4 PowerBook. It’s 4.5 years old. That’s, like, geriatric for a laptop, and while 90% of the time it kicks ass, there are times when it’s incredibly slow and out of date. I can’t really use a lot of the brand spanky new Mac software that’s developing now, since it requires OS 10.4 and I’m running 10.3.9. I don’t think my laptop can handle a full OS upgrade, and it’s about time for me to just upgrade the whole machine.

However, the big question: software. I have a LOT of software that isn’t exactly mine, and I certainly don’t have the install disks for it. So the question is, can I transfer it over to a new Mac or will buying a new laptop require a great deal of software purchasing on my part? Suprnova, I miss you like you have no idea.

So today I’m going to go to the Mac store in NYC and play with the shiny new laptops. Gosh, they’re gorgeous. I’m sure I’ll be almost completely sold on getting a new one by the time I walk out of there, too.

A delightful feeling of total body exhaustion, even though you didn’t do anything that you thought was that strenuous.

1 pregnancy at 26 weeks
2.5 hours of beach time
1 toddler, 19 months
1 parent.

Up and down in the sand for 2 hours. Stir in moderate chasing of toddler who wants to eat sand and pebbles but mostly wants to run and fall down and roll in the sand. This recipe is fun preparation for the whole family.

Bake overnight with light cover, hydrating as necessary.

In morning, enjoy stiff, aching hips and sore back. Delicious!

I’m not so clever as to string this into a narrative, so here: a list of cool stuff from today:

1. Freebird and I went to the beach while Hubby assembled all manner of furniture with his trusty allen wrench. Table? Done! Adirondack chairs with ottomans, from a cheap sale link provided by Rbelle? Done! Morag and Freebird baking in the sun? Done!

2. Random bit of language trivia: In Spanish, you say hello by saying, “¡Hola!” Anyone who watches even five minutes of Dora or Diego knows that, or Sesame Street, or pretty much any random slightly bilingual tv show. BUT! Did you know that in Spanish, waves are called “holas” because they are “waving” at the shore, saying “Hello?” It’s true. Waves = holas.

3. Freebird was scared of the waves - every time one crashed he’d say, “No! No! No!” I had him sit on my lap and explained that the waves were saying “Hi!” and waving at him. “Here comes one now… Hi! Hello!” Once he figured out that the waves were going to keep saying hi to him, he started waving back and yelling, “HELLOOOOO!”

4. Freebird LOVES the sand, and finds having his feet buried to be among the most hilarious things ever. When he outgrows that, it’s going to suck. Because I love playing in the sand.

5. Driving home after our day at the beach, we drive into a huge thunderstorm that I could see coming from about 20 miles away - lightning, big sheets of rain, and thunder. It got so dark when we crossed under the storm that I had to take my sunglasses off. And on the road with me? Two old dudes in classic cars with their convertible tops down and no apparent inclination to pull over and put the tops up. They might not have even had a top with them to put up, because sure enough, they were driving in their ballcaps, soaking wet through the downpour. I don’t know what was worse - those poor men getting soaked or the leather interiors of their classic cars getting completely drenched.

6. Father’s Day is tomorrow and I am astonished to say that Hubby’s cards are ready and his present is wrapped. But unfortunately for him, we have exactly three kinds of wrapping paper: Hanukkah, Christmas-neutral (no Jesus, no Christmas trees, but clearly red and green ergo Xmas), and wedding. Since I need my Hanukkah and Christmas paper and NEVER want to buy it when it’s $90000 dollars a roll at Target during the holiday season, I decided Hubby’s father’s day gift would be wrapped in wedding paper. It’s all white with lace and rings and roses and crap. I might have to take a big Sharpie and draw penises all over it. Or fishhooks or clickers or whatever says, “Father’s Day.”

7. I have post-beach-sun fatigue, which is almost like being full of good stew and wine and feeling content enough to drift off. Only instead of stew and wine, I’m slightly salty from the sun and the wind and a little tanned as well. My hair, however, we should not speak of at this time.