Alien Spouse

Likes/Dislikes

Things Eva wants to put in her mouth:

• Anything - No really, keep an eye on her.
• Your glasses.
• Cat fur - Freshly plucked from the cat for preference.
• That bit of paper.
• Grass.
• Her own foot.
• Any toy.
• Any clothing.
• Home-made puree of roast organic sweet potato. Oh yes!
• Whatever you are eating at the restaurant.  Things will get shouty if you refuse.

Things Eva Refuses a Third Spoonful of:

• Beef Baby Food from a Jar.  The horror.

 

Meet the Neighbour.

Doc C went out to the laundry this evening, as a matter of some urgency so that the Eva had a clean nighty and a swaddler to go to bed in.

When he got back he met our downstairs neighbour for the first time; we had already left a card in her mail-box to pre-apologise for any disturbance the baby might cause though.  It turns out that she hadn't heard anything over the past week (and Eva has really been giving it some wellie...), which was very reassuring.

She also mentioned that she is a nanny, and Doc got the distinct impression she'd be up for the odd spot of babysitting. Ooooh!

Beer City Video.

Apart from moving house I was also very pleased to see the launch of a video that I've been working on for a couple of months now.

 

I am the project manager for production company that made this - which in this case meant I did everything from comissioning custom etched beer glasses; including child-care of an adorable little girl whilst her dad climbed into a beer vat; to sewing a teeny tiny kilt for a beer bottle.

It was a very unusual project I think, and I sort of doubt that anything is going to touch this for the having-fun-at-work factor - I mean really I got paid to hang out in bars and discuss jokes!  How much better could it get?

Comfortably Ensconced.

So, we moved this week! It was glorious! (note dripping sarcasm)

Actually it was mostly ok, just the usual pain of seemingly endless packing, which once that's finally over, is followed by apparently infinite amounts of unpacking.  Doc spent early Tuesday morning wandering around looking in boxes trying to find 1) the kettle (unsuccesful), and 2) his underpants (fortunately succesful).

Eva really doesn't seem to notice any difference in the apartments, she's just as happy here as anywhere else; I do think she's sleeping better in her own room though,  The cats, however, are noticeably happier.  There is distinctly kittenish gambolling about the place and they clearly love having free access to our bedroom at night again.  We thought they would miss the balcony (we do have one here too, but it faces east so it only gets the sun in the morning and it's enclosed by fly screens), but the additional space seems to make all the difference to them.

The best bit about this move is that we have much more room - I told Doc on the first morning we woke up here that this must be what toothpaste feels like once it gets out of the tube.  I loved the last place, and for a single person it would be amazing; for a couple it was a tight fit; for a nuclear family it was a squash; for two adults, a baby AND two cats it really was too small.  We really had to economise quite drastically when I left my job and we re-located here, but now I'm working again and Doc C has got tenure (Squee!  Jus this week!  I'm so proud of him!!!) we can afford to actually spread out a bit.

The other thing is that, whilst our old neighbours were all very sweet people, no one here has so far woken us up playing the mandolin.  Or the guitar.  Or exuberantly singing.  There are more than double the number of apartments here, and we've heard almost nothing of our new neighbours.  It's rather soothing.

A Time for Bed.

So it turns out that the baby really just wanted to go to bed at the same time every night, and she fairly organically has selected a time for that.  Eva likes to be changed into her pyjamas at 8, or a bit earlier if it's been a busy day, and then she likes to have both of us in the bedroom singing our (limited) repertoire of lullabies.

I am so sick of "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star".

I am also suddenly very much aware of how macabre British nursery rhymes are, I mean "Oranges and Lemons" is a charming little song about church bells, until out of nowhere it suddenly changes to "Here comes the chopper to chop off your head. Chip chop, chip chop the old man's DEAD!" I mean, really? Yikes! That is dark.  We just skip that bit for the moment.

Anyway, Eva seems to be doing well with a bedtime around 8ish.  She is still waking up at night, but usually only once at around 5ish; it's really tough but we are trying not to go to her then, because she will go back to sleep and then she won't wake up again until 7.  That is more like it.

 

Moving! Again!

We are moving next week to a new apartment, which is only at the corner of our current road - But it has two bedrooms (Squee!) and the unheard of luxury of a dining room (OMG!)

We actually had two months left on our contract here and were discussing maybe looking for something to buy after that, but having a baby and buying a house are supposed to be two of the most stressful things you can do in your lifetime - let's not do both within twelve months eh?  

Instead we noticed a for rent sign outside the apartments at the end of our street, and it's a really funky building so I was nosy about what it might look like.  Add to that it's actually managed by the letting agent we are currently renting from, so it seemed like a reasonable idea just to look, you know?

And... we liked it, and it turned out that not only is it managed by the same agents, but it's actually owned by the same person; so we could transfer our current lease to the new place and just move there at the end of the month.

Well.  How can you turn that down?  That seems far too much like something that's meant to happen doesn't it? If you believe such hippy illogical nonsense, which obviously we don't, but looking a gift horse in the mouth purely because it's logical is actually just daft don't you think?

So we are moving on Monday.  Squee!  Except packing. sigh. But mostly Squee!

Not Sleeping - Like a Baby...

Had I mentioned that Eva's good sleeping habits were merely a ruse?  The little mare was just waiting for me to start working, and she's been waking up every couple of hours for the past few weeks.  Urgh.

So I'm tired, the Doc's tired and even the cats seem pretty damn tired.  We need to do some serious sleep training fairly soon I think.  No one is looking forward to that, not one little bit.

Urgh.

A Damn Fine Breakfast.

It's Wednesday already?  Jeez!

Today Doc and I went to the Sunny Point Cafe, which we'd heard served the third best breakfast in America (I don't know who decided that though!) I cross-questioned the waitress about the maple syrup was real maple syrup or not, she was very nice about it and assured me it was.  With her guarantee on that important point I happily ordered waffles. It was a really good breakfast, Doc (who ordered sausage, eggs, potatoes and a biscuit) and I both thoroughly enjoyed it and it was only just over $20.

Eva had fun too.  She grinned happily at everyone else in the cafe and tipped a glass of ice water into her dad's lap.  Poor Doc had to sit through his delicious breakfast in cold soggy jeans.  I may have laughed.

Evalyn and Hobbes.

I was thrilled to find a soft toy tiger that looks almost exactly like Hobbes for $10; but I must admit I am feeling slightly guilty too.  This isn't an official Hobbes, and has no mention of Bill Waterson on it's tag... But on the other hand there don't appear to be any official Hobbes available... So...

Doc C pointed out that this tiger has a beard, Hobbes doesn't, and I then noticed that this tiger has a white tip to his tail, instead of black.  I suppose that is enough of a difference to not be a copyright infringement? Really?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Anyway, Eva has a Hobbes to get into scrapes with so let's not over analyse, eh?

 

Speed Mobility System - From Milan.

It is utterly bizarre to me that I have somehow stumbled into a life in which I am shopping for motorcycle accessories.  How the hell did that happen?

I bought a SMS Visione in pearl white with black stripes, and it arrived yesterday.  I am very happy with it; it fits snuggly whilst still being nice and light, and I love how it looks.  There is a definite hint of Princess from G-Force about it, now all I need is a pink dress, a white cloak and some high white boots.

Originally I was heavily leaning towards a sliver glitter helmet, which was rather stunning, but that didn't have a face visor and I decided that whilst looking like a mirror ball might be fun, it might also be a little over the top.  So I went with something classic (and a good $50 cheaper...).

The SMS website has the following information about their designers:

"SMS is an Italian designed helmet line.  Mr. Landi is the main designer behind these exclusive scooter helmets.  Mr. Landi lives and works in Milan, where he finds much of his design inspiration in this beautiful old European city in the heart of Italy.  Guiseppe is the other Italian designer, responsible for building high quality, safe helmets with a stylish look.  Together they have created this elite line of scooter helmets with a distinct European retro feel."

I love that!  Mr Landi and Guiseppe!  

Colour Change.

Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeehhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have red hair!  Well, actually it's decidedly ginger, which is what I wanted and I love it!

I have always wanted to try being a redhead, but just never got round to it.  Doc C has been encouraging me to branch out with funky hair, so when I went to get my hair cut yesterday I mentioned it to Naomi.  We talked about colour, and then chose a nice vibrant semi-permanent red - Fifteen minutes later and I'm a Ginger.

Squee!

A Tuesday in Asheville.

I had anticipated a relaxed start to my day, because I was going to a meeting round the corner at 12 instead of going to the studio at 10.  So naturally I woke up with a splitting headache, a vomitting cat and a baby in need of a bath - None of those things were connected, except that they all seemed to happen at once.

Still, my day itself was good.  We are filming in local bars at the moment, and one of the guys in the video has needed to bring his year old daughter with him to the sets.  As project manager I see my role as including taking care of any issues that might delay filming, so I've been the on-set British nanny as needed!  It was actually really nice to play with a toddler and get a glimpse of where Eva will be in a few months.  Apparently there will be a lot of climbing up and down stairs, as well as a fair amount of toothy grins.

Whilst I was trying to source props for Thursday (how hard is it to find DJ decks in Asheville on two days notice?), Doc C was taking Evalyn to her six month check up.  She's very healthy and now weighs nearly 16 pounds, so she's almost tripled in size since she was born.  I'm told she still hates having vaccination jabs, but then who could blame her for that really?

Drops of Water.

Eva is still very happy about baths, even if she always forgets that the baby bath stuff doesn't taste very nice.  She particularly likes when we squeeze the flannel out to let drops of water fall on her and catch the light.

Eva's reaction is always "Duuuuuudddddddddddddeeeeeeeeeee! That is amazing! I must catch it!"

 

Nice Cup of Tea.

Every time we have a cup of tea within her sight Eva r-e-a-c-h-e-s for our mugs.  Whilst there is any hot tea left we keep it well out if her reach, but, once the mug is empty, we sometimes let her touch it.

Usually she'll pull the mug to her mouth and start licking the the rim in a very determined manner.

Awww! Look at her!

She thinks she's people!

A Statement of Intent with Regard to Summer Clothing.

2013 will be a momentous year.

It will be the year that I finally drive a motorised vehicle after passing my driving test twenty flipping years ago AND it will be the year that I wear a bikini for the first time in my adult life.  Not at the same time of course, that would be foolish.

This is my two piece of choice, and, as if it could get any better than it already is, it actually is an Esther Williams design.  I haven't bought it yet, because I'm still hoping to lose/tone a little more tummy before the summer.  This is where the newly re-started pilates comes in, along with some yet-to-be-done calorie counting

That's all I had to say today.  Bikini. Yes.

A Cat and Her Girl.

When we're getting Eva ready for bed last night she was already pretty much zonked out, so we put her down on our bed for a bit whilst we got the crib ready.  Edith took the opportunity to snuggle with her for a few minutes.

Edith is so besotted with this child.  She doesn't complain when Eva grabs fistfulls of her fur or pats her a bit too hard; all Edith wants is some of Eva's attention and she seems to understand that Eva doesn't yet know quite how to behave with cats (or parents for that matter - My nose was bitten quite hard yesterday!)

"Whadda You Got?"

Saturday is my only day off at the moment (which sounds worse than it is!), and we have a nice little routine going.  I love listening to NPR's "Car Talk", "Wait, Wait Don't Tell Me" and "The Splendid Table" with Doc C and Eva whilst we eat a leisurely breakfast, play silly baby games and generally sit around in our pyjamas.  It's very civilised.

The afternoon varies depending on our mood; so today we got out the scooter for a short scoot and a short photo shoot.

The weather wasn't very nice today so I really didn't do much more than ride up and down in front of the house at a top speed of about 12 miles an hour.  It was exactly like something out of "The Wild One".

After that we went out for a lunch of burritos, a walk around the UNCA Botanical Gardens (Eva loves it there!) and then we went to three different motorcycle dealers to look at helmets.  A helmet was included with the scooter - but the previous owner was quite a heavy smoker, so it does smell of cigarettes and besides I have no idea how old it is and therefore how sound it still it is.  So I want a new one.  No luck today, but there's no rush.  I want to buy something that I really like the look of, co-ordinates with the scooter (obviously!) and that keeps me safe.

Today has been fun and we even have some frozen yogurt for desert.  Yum!

Blue and White with Chrome.

Well... I own a second-hand Keeway Agora scooter.  It's pretty cool looking, don't you think?

I chickened out of riding it home, which was probably a less than ten minutes journey, but I suddenly felt very aware that I haven't driven anything for twenty years.  Doc brought Eva and I home, walked back to collect it and then rode it home.  He liked it a lot - But he'd better not get too used to it, I tracked down a local motorcycle riding instructor and I've already e-mailed to set up some training.  Then those roads will be MINE!

Hello Again! Also - Pilates : Why It Rules!

A blog?  I have a blog?  Huh!  Well, who knew?

Anyway, we have come to an understanding with Eva (I hope), so she starts off the night in the crib and usually manages a couple of hours in there at least.  She still waking up around 2am, and I am sure it's because she's getting cold, so I've been bringing her into bed with us, and then she sleeps until around 6:30, which is acceptable.  Not great, but acceptable.

With slightly more sleep in hand I felt human enough to sign myself up for a pilates mat class this evening, this is a drop-in class and costs the amazingly low price of $9 - However when I got there I was the only student, so I basically got a private mat class.  It was terrific!  My back has been really tight and my legs have been aching just from being so tired, but after the class everything felt stretched and renewed.  It was like I was two inches taller and floating.  Bliss.  And it was NINE DOLLARS.  Amazing.

 

Lack of Sleep = Lack of Updates.

Ok, so Eva is no longer sleeping through the night now she is in the crib (although I don't think that is why, I think it's coincidental).  Hmmmm...  This is not quite what I was hoping for... I preferred her original operating system, this upgrade is rubbish...

Also, bloody hell, I am tired.

Cribbed.

Saturday night was Eva's first night in her new crib, and she slept like a little tiny snoring log.  It was most satisfactory.

Of course on Sunday night she woke up a couple of times to be fed, but it really wasn't anything to do with the crib.  I'm fairly sure she just wanted to illustrate her awe inspiring baby powers of control over her subservient parents.

Love Asheville.

On Sunday I was working at the shop, and it was fairly busy which was really quite fun.  I was saddened to see that the clock hand earrings I'd been eyeing up had been sold since Thursday, but I probably shouldn't wear attractive dangly earrings around Eva McGrabby-Hands anyway.

Sundays are a nice day to be working in one of the coolest shops in Asheville, because we get a lot of tourists who are visiting for the weekend and usually by Sunday they are relaxed and chatty.  I really enjoy meeting people when they are happily chilled out, so it's a win-win.  This week I was wearing my new "Love Asheville - Go Local" t -shirt

Even better this week I recognised one of our customers, but I couldn't immediately place her.  Fortunately I realised who she was before she left - It was Go Go Ren of the Appalachian Roller Girls!  Squee!  I, of course, fan girled out, and told her what a great jammer she was.  Go Go seemed quite surprised to be recognised, but she was lovely and didn't skate a lap around the shop at top speed or anything.  She mentioned that she had retired her skates, and asked if I'd considered joining a derby team myself (Don't worry Mum - I'm a wimp, I'm highly unlikely to strap on the knee guards) It was a definite highlight of a pleasant day at work.

Asheville.  You have got to love it.

A Logical Place to Sleep.

Well, the crib was quite easy to put together (as far as I could see anyway - Doc C actually built the crib, because I had built the changing table/chest of drawers earlier in the afternoon).  Eva doesn't seem to hate it or anything, but we will see what she makes of sleeping in it.  Please keep your fingers crossed that our little science officer decides this is a good place to take her r-and-r of a night.

Eva's New Furniture.

This evening we bought Eva her own bed, well, it's a crib that will convert into a bed when she's old enough. Point being she won't be sleeping in our bed for very much longer - first, we have to build the thing, and, second, get her comfortable with sleeping in it.  I'll report back on which is the most difficult.

Sleeping Like a Baby.

Remember how a while back I happened to nonchalently mention how well Eva slept? Well, pretty much since I've been working again, she's been experimenting with having a few mid-night snacks - Generally she likes to be fed at 2, 4 and 6.  It is ever so slightly bad timing on her part, but I'm struggling through somehow.

Coffee can do amazing things.

A Runabout.

Doc C has been doing our taxes today, and thinks we might have a bit of money coming back to us; which would be lovely.  We are doing some fantasy shopping with the money (which we'll probably end up paying bills with - but let's pretend, eh?); my current favourite notion is buying a scooter, so I can zoom around town on my own.  It would be so much easier than having to drag the entire family out in the car, not to mention it looks like fun.

Ideally I'd like something like a classic Vespa in a nice cream with a pearl finish, but I expect you pay over the odds for the name and I'm not that fussed about the colour - Just so long as it isn't pink!

 

Puree of Pea.

Eva, like her dad, is a big fan of mushy peas.

Me?  I'm not so keen, but then that was exactly the colour of my school uniform.

Shopping/Working.

It was a very, very quiet day at work; so much so tha,t after I'd printed bags and swept the floor, I browsed the racks and tried a few things on.

Long story short - I spent today's wages befoe they even made it into my pocket.  I do have three gorgeous new tops though, so it was totally worth it.  Next week I have my eye on a skirt...  Ooh!  And a pair of earrings made from vintage clock hands...

This job is clearly going to be dangerous to my wallet.

Day Trip Back.

It's been snowing today, but Doc C needed to go and get some books from his office - So we went on a day trip.  Eva slept on the way there, and on the way back (impressively I only slept on the way there); whilst we were in town she was a very sociable baby and smiled at everyone she saw.

We grabbed the books (fed and changed the baby), and then had lunch at one of the best sandwich places in town. I'd also called our favourite bakery yesterday to reserve a loaf of their Friday special - The chocolate cherry sourdough.  We also bought coffee and cookies for the road, so today was a total carbs-fest.

All in all, quite a pleasent day.

Warm Colour, Cold Shape.

I started off the week helping to build my new desk at work; it is a gorgeous glossy white, it looks like the desk that Apple would make if they made furniture.  It looks lovely with jusy my Mac on it, so I'm going to try and keep it that way, but I did need a coaster (this office is mostly fuelled by coffee) and my lovely Mum happened to have sent the ideal thing for Christmas.

It's a red felt snowflake, and it is exactly the pop of warmth my desk needed.  Perfect for a snowy day in January.

Working/Shopping.

The only problem with working at my favourite shop in town is that it can feel like I'm browsing for the whole of my working day - And then I just want to spend all of the money I'm earning before it's even in my wallet.

Today we got a big delivery, so I was unpacking, hanging and steaming some really lovely dresses, skirts and blouses.  I sent Doc C a phone pic of one particular dress in a gorgeous duck egg blue with a print of penny farthings, and he immediately responded "It's like it was made for you!".  I know.  Damn.

I resisted trying anything on today, mostly because I was super busy steaming everything, but I'm not sure I'll have the self-control when I'm in on Sunday.

Theraputic Bruising.

Today we were out on a video shoot that involved local spas, which made for a lovely day of filming which I very much enjoyed.  It's rather pleasent to have a nice relaxing day at work essentially touring spas.

The last filming location was an acupuncture and pilates studio (which has extremely reasonably priced classes - I'm making a nite of that!), and once we'd filmed the interview and footage of acupuncture, I volunteered to be the guinea pig for a quick demonstration of cupping therapy.  It wasn't actually filmed, but we did take some stills and I have some pretty impressive bruises.

It looks awful, doesn't it?  Which is weird because it felt really nice, like a particularly in-depth massage.  Still, I suppose that it means I shouldn't wear anything strappy for a few days!

A Skirmish.

Today I was at work (on a photo shoot actually!), and I had brought my bottle of water with me as I always do.  I unscrewed the lid, took a sip and something bumped against my top lip.  I looked down at the open bottle and was horrified by what I saw.

There was a stink bug swimming around in my water bottle.

Shudder.

This is unacceptable. UNACCEPTABLE.  It could have been worse I suppose, I mean I could have swallowed it (sh-u-dd-er) but really how far will these damn insects try to push me?

It is my opinion that this is a clear escalation of hostilities on the part of the stink bugs. This, of course, now means that I will exterminate any stink bug I see in the apartment as soon as it is sighted.  I will not suffer any further indignities.

Baby Noms.

 Eva has become very interested in food recently, she watches us very closely when we eat and gets really excited.  That's apparently a good sign that she's ready to try eating herself - So we decided to try her some baby food, even though she's only four months old.

For some reason Americans tend to start feeding babies on rice cereal, but that didn't sound very appetising, so we kicked off with a butternut squash puree.  Eva wasn't particularly excited by that, and I suspect it was quite bland.

When Doc C went shopping this week he bought a sweet potato puree instead and that has been going down an absolute storm with our diminutive gourmand.

Ah nom nom nom!  Tasty orange gloop!  She's actually only eating a teaspoon or so at a time, but it's clearly very satisfying for her (and Doc C!)

 

Six Days a Week.

So now that I have two jobs I actually only get one day off a week, but at least I have managed to make that one day a Saturday.  I don't know how well that is going to work in the long term, but as I'm not actually at work for nine hours a day any more (I was working from 8 to 5 with an unpaid lunch hour at the University), and as I am having so much fun with both of them it doesn't seem too daunting at the moment.

Having said that, I am pretty tired and I am going to sleep like a log tonight.  I sincerely hope that a certain someone, *cough*Eva*cough*, got that memo as well.

 

One Thing After Another.

What a day!  

First of all Eva woke up at three again.  This had better not become a habit - Actually I suspect she knew I had a long day ahead of me, she likes to make sure we know who is boss around here.

Anyway after that my nine o'clock (I have "nine o'clocks" now.  Hehehe!) was cancelled at the very last minute - So last minute that I was actually already at the client's office when I heard.  So I came home and had a bit of a nap.

Then I opened the shop and that all went fairly smoothly; it was freezing this morning so the shop was totally empty for the first hour.  I started unpacking a delivery of jeans, checking it against the invoice, pricing the merchandise and putting it out on display.  This is usually pretty straight forward, but today I found one pair of jeans had a hole in the crotch so those had to be kept to the side and I made a note of them.  No problem!

Then Doc C rang to tell me that he'd tried giving Eva some formula, because we were low on milk and that she had found it absolutely unacceptable and was inconsolable.  So he had to bring her to the shop for me to feed - And of course that's when the customers suddenly streamed in.  Fortunately she had calmed down enough that she could wait until we had a quiet moment and I could flip the closed sign on the door for a few minutes.

That crisis over I re-opened and Doc took Eva into the staff toilet to change her, this is just off the stock room which is seperated from the shop by a curtain.  The next set of customers brought a very friendly and inquisitive dog with them, and he was happily and politely  exploring the shop when he suddenly took an interest in the stock room.  I suspect he could smell Eva's nappy, and the next thing we knew he'd nipped behind the curtain to check things out.  He was very easy to get back out though, so again all was well.

Ok.  Then I was running a customer's credit card and the card reader first of all rejected her pin and then seemed to spontaenously void the sale on the next attempt.  So I tried a third time, and at that point it announced it was out of paper.  Good grief.  When I'd sorted that out it became clear that the card reader had read the customer's card twice, so I had to call the owners of the shop to ask how the hell to stop it doing that.

Around two-ish I vaguely remember hearing a distant crashing noise, like slates sliding against each other.  I didn't really pay too much attention - Until the street filled with fire engines and paramedic vans.  I could see where on the street they were focussing their attention, but I had no idea what was going on - until a customer told me a building that was being renovated had collapsed when they removed a load bearing wall.  Fortunately no one was hurt, but the street was closed off to traffic for most of the afternoon.

I started to unpack a delivery of socks, price those and display them.  I'm not sure why I was surprised when the gun that spikes those little plastic hanging hooks just came to pieces in my hand and refused to do it's job any further.  So I arranged the socks on a table instead of hanging them up, really not too much of an issue.

Moving on to my next task I set up the counter for bag printing (This is super fun - It's a hand stamp of the shop's logo, that's satmped onto each bag by hand), and got a stack of blank bags ready to print. I took the lid off the ink pad, and turned to put it on the side... And as I did that I knocked over a display of earrings, they flew off the counter and all over the floor behind the till.  Even better two of them went all the way under the cupboards; I had to get down on my hands and knees, and get my arm covered in dust and spider webs to retrieve them.

Let's recap:

1. Eva's three am snack.
2. Last minute meeting cancellation.
3. Holes in the merchandise.
4. Eva's complete rejection of formula on a day when we were low on pumped breast milk.
5. A dog maurading in the stock room.
6. Card reader madness!
7. A BUILDING COLLAPSED.
8. Tag gun malfunction.
9. Earrings knocked onto the floor.

Can you believe after all of those things that the till actually balanced?  And, whilst I was really tired by the end of the day, I was in a pretty good mood actually.

Doc C came to pick me up and when we got home he made me a nice cup of tea.  Then he ordered us a curry, because I'd had a slightly tricky day and also because it's our sixth wedding anniversary.

As I said - What a day. Still once I'd had a snuggle with my baby (and eaten a delicious salmon tikka with a locally brewed beer) I was totally chilled out and now I'm ready to sleep for, um, the next three days or so.

Job Satisfaction.

I had actually forgotten how nice it is to be looking forward to work the next day.  Tomorrow I have a 9 o'clock meeting about a film project, before going to open the shop at 11.

Um. I am LOVING this.  Is that weird?

Of course this is still week one with the production company and week two with the shop, but it has to be said they are both off to absolutely cracking starts.

Second First Day! Wheeeee!

Squee! First day at the video production company was great, and my new job title is "Production Manager".

Of course there always has to be something doesn't there? Today we hopped in the car with plenty of time to get there... And discovered that a road crew had started to dig a trench right across our street... Which is a dead end, so we had to wait for them to use the digger to fill it in a bit with rubble (it was like watching an enormous mechanised cat scrabbling in a litter tray).

So I was about twenty minutes late on my first day - But I had a really good explanation and a mobile phone photo to prove it should that be necessary.  Because that has to be the worst excuse ever, doesn't it?

Sunday Trading.

It was my second day at the shop, and for the second half I was flying solo; I even cashed up the till, set the alarm and locked up by myself (well, Doc C and Evalyn Alice were there to get me, but they didn't really help with closing up).

And it was actually a really fun way to spend a Sunday afternoon - How often do you get to say that about your job?

Working Hard for the Money.

Thursday was my first day back in retail, and it was good!  

Well, ok it was raining so hard ALL day that precisely eight people came into the shop & only two of them bought anything.  So not the best day for sales, but actually there was so very much to learn that it was probably no bad thing (for me anyway).

Of course this also gave me a great opportunity to really check out the stock thoroughly, and this has always been one of my favourite shops, so that is really quite dangerous for our budget. There's at least one necklace with my name on it already, and several really nice coats.  I do not need another coat.  Remind me of this.

I was exhausted by the time I got home, because you are just on your feet all day when you work in a shop.  You get used to it fairly quickly, and it's not a problem once you are back in condition, but the first few shifts are quite brutal.  It also hadn't helped that I didn't get much sleep the night before - I tried, I really did but it was not to be.  We went to bed at 11, which was later then intended but not awful, but then Doc's phone rang at midnight (it was the university's emergency broadcast system and it was a bloody test.  At midnight.  On a Wednesday.  Ugh.)  After that I got three hours sleep, before Eva woke up and requested feeding; this is a new thing, and I really don't approve.  She went back to sleep immediately, I dozed and eventually got back to sleep shortly before she woke up again at 5 to be fed again.

Whilst I was earning some money, Doc C was looking after Eva for the day.  She was very well behaved all day apparently, and was perfectly happy.  In fact she didn't seem to notice that I hadn't been there for seven hours; which is great obviously...

On Friday afternoon I had arranged to have coffee with the owner of a local video production company, because they happened to be looking for a part-time project manager.  It was a really good meeting, and reminded me of exactly why I love working with creative people and on film projects.  Keep your fingers crossed on that one, because it seems like it would be a perfect fit for me at the moment and I WANT IT!

All in all, Asheville has just been fantastic to me this week. *contented sigh*

Red Accents for a Pop of Colour.

Tomorrow I'll be starting my new job, and I am super excited about it.  In fact I tried on a whole bunch of different outfits this afternoon, because I want to look stylish tomorrow and, frankly, it's been a while since I felt able to really flex my fashion muscles.

I selected two quite different looks and I'll make the final decision tomorrow morning - It's either a short Mod-ish navy dress with brown boots or black jeans with a black scoop neck top and black boots (I can add my black wool poncho if it's colder than I expect!).  So boots are a given and there are red accessories for both.

I'm also going to wear... MAKE-UP.  How exciting is that?  I am seriously considering a bit of red lippy to really celebrate the novelty!

Ooh! and I get to pick the music tomorrow!  Time to put together a playlist. Dusty Springfield seems highly likely.

Molasses Cookies.

The Christmas before last (I think) I saw a recipe for gingerbread houses that looked really fun because they were designed to sit on the rim of a mug.  I had everything I needed to make them; except for molasses, so I bought that, and then totally didn't make them.

When we moved house the molasses moved with us, and I kept looking at it and feeling guilty.  This Christmas I looked at it again and realised that a) it needed to be used and b) it was not going to end up being gingerbread houses because Eva was not going to give me enough time for that!

I started looking for a molasses cookie recipe, and nothing in our small library of recipe books really seemed quite right.  So I used the one on the label of the bottle.

The batch I made this evening is the third time I've baked these in the past month.  They are delicious.

Molasses cookies.  Think about them.

Bathroom - Twenty/Tenned!

I've been following feeds on Tumblr for a while now, and I did swipe the Alien Spouse Tumblr name but I haven't actually posted anything there.  I find it's tricky enough to keep up with my blog, Facebook and Twitter, let's not add another epic time suck to the game right?  Still there are a number of great Tumblrs that I enjoy reading, and I have come to particularly like "Unfuck Your Habitat".

It's a sort of support hub, with motivational swearing, rewards in the form of celebratory gifs (The acolytes of UfYH regularly post before-and-after photos on their own Tumblrs, which they tag for the UfYH guru to share with the group and award gifs as appropriate) and a database of cleaning techniques.  The really genius part of the whole thing is that it follows a very basic rule, which is not to try marathoning your way through all the cleaning in one go, instead cleaning sessions are broken up into 20/10s; that is, work for twenty minutes and then take a break for ten minutes, and repeat until you have finished or run out of time for that day.

There is an app for the iPod (but not yet for the Android - She's working on it though!), and I bought it the other day so that I could both support the Tumblr and use the tools it provides.  Rather hilariously Apple will not allow any app to have the word fuck in the title, so it's been renamed Unfilth Your Habitat; equally hilarious and annoying is the fact that ALL of the negative reviews are about the use of bad language, when that's clearly mentioned in the app description and signposted by the bloody logo.  Honestly people.

Anyway...

So Doc and I have a new agreement in place where in we intend to bring the flat up to code, and then each do a one or two 20/10s a day to keep the place in order.  Today Doc did the recycling, cleaned the litter trays and emptied the bins - He marathoned it, because that's what he was in the mood for.  Then I used the apps 20/10 timer (I picked a very fun techno ring tone as my transitional alarm - Love it!) to clean the bath & the toilet; and then thoroughly scrub the bathroom floor (on my hands and knees with a scrubbing brush and everything).  It took four sessions to get it all done properly, but that was a lot less intimidating to me than marathon cleaning and I think I did a better job than if I'd allowed myself to get tired and frustrated halfway through.

I think we'll overhaul the kitchen next, and then it's just maintenance all around.  It feels distinctly pleasant to have such an elegantly manageable plan in mind, let's just hope we can stick to it.

An Evening Cocktail.

Doc C just made me a White Russian.  

It was delicious and I shall sleep well tonight.

Afternoon Snooze.

 

Today was a pleasantly stark contrast to yesterday, and Evalyn Alice was in a bloody lovely mood all day.

Ok, as far as Eva was concerned, the day did start promptly at 5:30, but it was all smiles and delightful cooing noises right from the start.

We took her for a walk to the Botanical Gardens at UNC Asheville this afternoon.  We hadn't taken her there before and the novelty of it was clearly rather exciting; she was smiling and doing her happy wriggles (these are very very different to her angry wriggles, beleive you me).  Several people said hello to us, and Eva gave them all a nice big gummy grin.

When we got home she had a lovely snooze, and was extremely photogenic about it.

All in all - Adorable.  That's what I signed up for!

Loud Day.

What?  Sorry?  I can't hear you, my ears are ringing from all the baby yelling in my ear today.

I think Eva's started to develop some seperation anxiety, because the moment that either myself or Doc C left her sight she would start fussing, and then she had a couple of major shouting fits for good measure when we didn't come back again soon enough for her liking.

It wasn't for the whole day, and she did have some smiley happy spells as well, but anyway, she finally fell asleep after her 8pm feed and I don't blame her, I have to say I'm a bit sleepy myself now.

Klingon Opera and Unwelcome Insects.

There is a possibility that we've been watching far too many of the series in the Star Trek family of TV shows, because Eva has developed a taste for Klingon opera and she spent most of last night treating us to a impromptu performance.

It's really sweet and no doubt an important developmental stage, but my goodness it is LOUD.

Naturally Eva was as fresh as a daisy at six o'clock this morning, whereas Doc C and I were pretty shattered.  Fortunately this is a very rare occurrence, but we do have an agreement in place that covers just this type of contingency; one of us will get up with her for two hours whilst the other parent sleeps, then we swap for two hours.  By eleven thirty we were all up to speed, and able to get on with our day.

It was pretty exciting actually - Doc C did the laundry and I got my hair cut.  It's amazing to think that this time last year neither of these things would have warranted mention, but now I am proud to log those achievements.

Oh, also; I have declared war on the stink bugs in our apartment.  In the summer I didn't mind them, in the autumn I almost admired their tenacity but now it's winter and I have had enough.  They really brought this on their own insectoid heads because a couple of them have climbed INTO my clothes, whilst I was wearing them no less, on two separate occasions.  And if they can do that to me, then they could do it to Eva and my protective mothering instincts have kicked in at the mere thought. I am not having that.

Weekend of Contrasts.

The bad news is that I spent the weekend fighting off the cold that Doc C had, and I managed it fairly well - At the cost of needing to sleep for the majority of Saturday and Sunday.  Fortunately the Doc was better so he could look after Eva, and, even more fortunately, Eva doesn't seem to have caught anything.

On the other hand, the good news is that I got a call on Saturday to say I'd got the job!  Squee!  I start my six week trial period in a fortnight's time - It's just two days a week, but it is at my very favourite shop in Asheville!  I cannot believe my luck!  Squee, Squeee, Squeeeeeeeeeee!

 

Sleep Eating.

Due to popular demand (Hi Mum!), here is another video of Eva!  

I filmed this one this afternoon, when she fell asleep on me after eating her afternoon tea.  Whenever she does this she tends to try to carry on eating even as she naps, babies are very single minded

 

Eva Naps on Doc C.

Eva sleeping in Doc C's arms.  

Cute. Cute. Cute!