My Halloween outfit

Here it is:


For Halloween I decided to be that guy who got pregnant, Thomas Beatie. I don't look very much like him, but he's got a pretty original look:

Pregnant lady Halloween costumes

The best Halloween costume is one that is a great idea but not too much work. Like the following:


This year I have THREE Halloween costumes, first I was an MSN butterfly for the Studly Hubby's NERD party, then for work tomorrow I will be that dude who got pregnant (Thomas Beatie), and on Saturday I will be a doctor (so I can wear a mask and gloves and protect myself from all the germy kids while handing out the Halloween candy).

Happy Halloween everyone!!

First baby present!

The Studly Hubby and I got our first baby present, and it is a bumbo chair!! Thanks Caetano and Rosana! You guys supplied us with an entire night of entertainment (clearly we are easy to entertain).

We spent a lot of time putting together a very long baby registry at Target and at Amazon that includes a few fun things but mostly things we really really need (at least what we think we need). Not only is it fun to get gifts, but it felt really good to get our 'to buy' list organized and spend lots of time thinking hard about what we want (which we really like to do). So I am super-duper excited about our baby lists (and the upcoming shower(s) that are being thrown for us when we go back to the homeland in November - thanks A&D and L&L for organizing these!!). Note that the Target gift list is super-short because 1) we wanted to encourage people to send us things (which is easy through Amazon) rather than buy them and give them to us when we are traveling and 2) Target locked me out of their system after I had only put a few things on the list because they wanted to 'verify' I was really me and asked me some hard questions I couldn't answer right.

BABY BOOK!

In the spirit of the upcoming baby, and all things baby, The Studly Hubby and I have been looking at our own baby pictures.

First I dragged out my baby book, which I take with me wherever I move to, but unfortunately has seen some hard years (31 of them to be exact). This baby book is totally awesome - not only does it have a lot of great pictures of ME but it also has great pictures of my mom and dad from way back when they were totally different people and lived in the alter-universe of pre-babies. My aunt Lisa made it when she was 16, which I think makes it even better, because she did a lot of excited teenage journaling and wrote about things like where she was when my mom went into labor (study hall), the place my mom lived (Dodge Street in Iowa City), all the stuff they bought for me and who came to visit after I was born, and she even got my dad to write a little note in it while he was waiting for me to arrive (as per usual I was exceptionally late - 3 weeks!) - and everyone in the family doodled cute little things all over the pages.

Unfortunately the pages are starting to fade and the pictures have all fallen out several times, so I think it's finally time to digitize it. I am hoping the Studly Hubby will be a hero and scan it all for me because looking through it Friday gave me some horrible allergies that lasted clear into today.

Here are two of my favorite pictures from the baby book:

Me and my beautiful mom (who looks 14, but is actually the same age as me right now):
Me, at 3-6 months:

Second we looked at the Power Point presentation that was also made by my very Studly Aunt Lisa for our wedding (and my Studly Uncle hooked up a sweet sound system to play the slideshow to a rockin' awesome soundtrack). Here are a few of our favorite photos from the power point (including the ones above):

Me, on the potty. This one actually didn't get included but was part of the collection of photos she dug up.

The Studly Hubby on his swing:
Thanks Aunt Lisa!! Hopefully the entire photo album will get digitized soon and then I can post more from it. For now it is safely stowed away from my traumatized immune system.

The Studly Hubby's NERD party

Last weekend The Studly Hubby threw a 'Windows 7 Release Party' (aka NERD party). Microsoft sent him a party pack full of games, decorations, party gifts, and a free copy of Windows 7 in exchange for the loose promise of inviting some people over and advertising Windows 7. We actually like Windows 7 and thought that was a neat idea so we hooked the computer up to the TV and showed it off like we were supposed to. We also made people dress up like their favorite Windows icon - below is a 'My Pictures' icon (who won second prize) and a 'Windows defendor' (who won first prize).



In the spirit of the party, we put up a 'Penalty Box' for crimes against Windows 7, but I was the only one that ended up in it all night.


The Studly Hubby bought himself a blue unitard for the party, which he was pretty excited about. He originally had a sign around his neck with his favorite logo, XAML (a Silverlight programming language), but the sign was unwieldy and was eventually left behind somewhere. Fortunately when one's costume includes a blue unitard it's interesting with or without the main feature.


Here we are with our full costumes. I was the MSN butterfly (the Studly Hubby's idea - I stole it) and he was XAML. The butterfly wings were also a bit unwieldy, and required some extra maintenance to keep the wings from drooping - but we made it work.

Little baby bump

I think this was taken last weekend, at exactly 5 months. I have gained about 10 lbs now (shooting for 20-25 total, so I'm on track). The second trimester is as good as they say; other than the belly growing, I've been feeling pretty normal.

EWWWWWW...!

This just in from one of my nerdy friends...

Cymothoa exigua or the Tongue eating louse is a parasitic crustacean of the family Cymothoidae. It tends to be 3 to 4 cm long. This parasite attaches itself at the base of the spotted rose snapper’s (Lutjanus guttatus) tongue, entering the fish’s mouth through its gills. It then proceeds to extract blood through the claws on its front three pairs of legs. As the parasite grows, less and less blood reaches the tongue, and eventually the organ atrophies from lack of blood. The parasite then replaces the fish’s tongue by attaching its own body to the muscles of the tongue stub. The fish is able to use the parasite just like a normal tongue. It appears that the parasite does not cause any other damage to the host fish.^[1] Once C. exigua replaces the tongue, some feed on the host’s blood and many others feed on fish mucus. They do not eat scraps of the fish’s food.^[2] This is the only known case of a parasite functionally replacing a host organ.^{[citation needed]}

There are many species of Cymothoa,^[3] but only C. exigua is known to consume and replace its host’s tongue. (via wiki)

It's FALL!!

We've had such a crazy, chaotic summer that I was REALLY looking forward to fall this year.

Plus fall is the season for my favorite foods:

Apple crisp!

Our favorite recipe is the one by America's Test Kitchen - it is SO delicious! But my old stand-by, the Joy of Cooking apple crisp recipe (with oatmeal) is pretty good too.

And Pumpkin Pie!!


My favorite pumpkin pie recipe is the one on the Libby's pumpkin can - although it's still good without Libby's brand pumpkin. And homemade whip cream is not necessary but certainly delicious.

Another fall favorite - going to the APPLE FARM!!

In Minneapolis we would always go to Aamodt's apple farm, which sold the locally invented Honeycrisp apple (mmm-mmm delicious!) and had loads of good food to eat and fun stuff to do.

We're still looking for that perfect apple farm in Washington - we went to one two years ago with a corn maze but we got lost and stuck in the mud and it wasn't as fun as it sounds. Plus they didn't have any apple-flavored popcorn.

Another great thing about fall is that it provides the perfect excuse to GO SHOPPING! Which I have been doing a lot of this year, as my belly is popping out of all my normal clothes. I also managed to convince the Studly Hubby that some hip fall boots would be really good for the baby:

And they are WARM, too!

Happy fall everyone!!

Ivar's Seafood Underwater Billboards

Ivar's Seafood ("Acres of Clams") was opened by Ivar Haglund in 1938 in Seattle. Ivar was an eccentric Seattle character and pulled many stunts to advertise his restaurant. The restaurant has since turned into a local chain and is still a well-known destination for Seattleites (we have taken many visitors there).

A historian recently discovered yet another stunt of Ivar's - underwater billboard advertising (the first of its kind!) - put in during the 1950s and then forgotten. The locations of the billboards were discovered in some of Ivar's old documents in his office and a diving excursion was initiated to go find them - and about half of them were there! At underwater locations all over Seattle, they were cemented into the ground and advertised great deals for underwater divers and submarine riders.

Apparently Ivar's dream was that submarines would become a major mode of transportation for Seattle area residents and he would be the first to catch their attention. Unfortunately, these billboards didn't catch anyone's attention until the map of their location was recently discovered by the historian. But as far as anyone knows they are the world's first example of underwater advertising so even though nobody ever noticed them they are getting some attention now.

Of course, the chain is using this as yet another eccentric stunt to advertise their restaurants. The entire story is on Ivar's website, as well as in local TV ads and the media. They are also advertising some of the deals that were offered on the billboards in the 1950s - you can really get 75 cent chowder for a limited time! Yum!