Poison, Bike, Trailer... Christmas!

I'm going to sum up my week with two words: Food poisoning.

To be fair, I actually contracted the food poisoning Thursday and started feeling ill in the afternoon, so really those two words only sum up the last two days. But they've been two very long and painful days, and I feel like it's been wrecking me for the whole week. If you've ever had food poisoning I'm sure you understand. The worst part is, I shared some of my lunch on Thursday with the baby, so I think she's been feeling sick too. Cranky, not sleeping well, not eating well, poop problems... poor kid. As if she didn't have enough troubles, what with being a baby and all.

Here's a picture of my bicycle (it's not my my bicycle, it's just the same make and model):

My bicycle is overdue for a tune-up, so I took it down to the bike shop yesterday. I was kinda forced to do it because I loosened (and couldn't seem to fix) the back brake in the process of putting on a new rear fender. Since I'm only going to be in the office one day next week, I figured this was a good window of time to get the tune up (okay yeah, and get the brake tightened and get the fender adjusted, since I screwed them up).

The bike shop owner put my bike on the rack to check things out. Turns out I've got a worn down something-er-rather and a loose something else, and a thing that's bent, and I could probably use thicker brake pads. Plus some other stuff that was totally optional but would be nice to fix. I don't even remember all the things the store owner listed, but I've noticed problems/challenges with all the stuff he mentioned, and I agree that it would make for much better cycling if I got it fixed. But by the time you add up the stuff that has to get done and everything that could possibly be improved, the total cost is about what my old bike is worth if I sell it.


I've actually been thinking about buying a new bike anyway, I tell the guy. Well now he gets excited -- which in this case means he went from a 1 on the Enthusiasm Meter to a 2; not really much change but perceivable on so dry a character -- and starts showing me some different options. At first he lists a few things that make sense to me, like a lighter frame, easier shifting, certain parts that are reinforced against damage, and standard sized wheels (because my bike is old, my current wheels are a wacky, non-standard size). Then he starts getting into nuances, listing all kinds of little details that don't mean anything to me, and when I ask what he means he launches into the nuances of the nuances. Are you getting a headache yet? I was. I was at the point where I just wanted him to stop talking and let me leave. TMI. Props for knowing his stuff, but yeesh.

I'm not ready to buy a new bike, and certainly not ready to drop the kind of money he's suggesting for "something that will last me 10, 15, 20 years." I'm only at the very beginning phase of buying, where I'm thinking about maybe buying something and I want to get some ideas. (I get this purchasing caution and patience from my awesome mother, bless her.)

So maybe in the next year I will get a new bike. Or maybe I'll just spend a whole lot less money and do some major improvements on my current bike. We'll just have to wait and see; I've got enough to worry about for now. I'm not even going to give it another thought until after the new year.

One of the other things on my mind is still bike related: Trailers. If you recall, this summer my mom bought us a used Burley Bee trailer for my bike. It has been such a blast to haul my daughter in it, and such a blessing since I commute via bike. But I've had some issues with the tires on the trailer... let's just be generous and say that they are very sensitive tired. After several frustrating experiences, I have decided that I am going to buy a brand new trailer. (I will resell the old one in the spring, hopefully for the same amount my mom paid.) I want to stick with the Burley brand, but move up to either the Encore (larger; see picture at left) or Cub (larger and burlier) model.

This story could get very long if I go into all the details, so I won't. Here's the short of it: The Cub (pictured below) has a hard plastic bottom, the Encore has a fabric bottom. This means the Cub is more durable and water proof, but it's also quite a bit heavier. I was really worried that the extra weight would be too much. After all, the uphills coming home from work are pretty brutal. But I love that the Cub is sturdier and built all-around to handle the harsh weather.

So I ordered the Cub, thinking I would take it for a test ride and send it back if it was too heavy. I've actually taken it out for two test rides... surprised myself when the extra weight really wasn't that much harder. But remember how the Cub is supposed to have a bunch of extra weather proofing? I got it home from the second ride, which I deliberately made on a rainy afternoon, and it was pretty wet inside the trailer. There are a couple of "vents" that allow water to enter the trailer. My daughter's socks were wet. Her blanket was damp. Yuck.

So what do I do? I don't know. Maybe the Encore is the better choice, since it doesn't have the water-allowing vents. I'll have to stew on it; more on this later.

Let's move on to...Christmas. It's just a couple of days away. I wrapped presents yesterday and today. Why did I get so many little things for my kid? She doesn't care. She'd rather I just slide the new books right onto her bookshelf, slip the jammies in her drawer, and drop the big yellow airplane in the bathtub. I guess I got them so I can enjoy watching her unwrap stuff. So hopefully she'll want to unwrap stuff!

I got Nate a new tool for Christmas. We decided that we want to use Christmas gifts as an opportunity to buy each other things that will be beneficial to the family. We figured that birthdays are a good time to be selfish, and we each have a monthly allowance if we want to get a toy, so why not put this gift-giving occasion to better use? Nate got me kitchen stuff, although I don't know exactly what.

Next year I think we're going to do Christmas differently. I would like to really focus on making Christ the center of Christmas. I don't know how to do that, I'm not really sure what that even means for us, but I know there's going to be a lot less of the worrying and working and frustration I've felt the last few years. More acts of service, more time with people we love, more time talking about the Savior... fewer presents, less shopping, no worrying about decorations and to-do lists. There's my outline; I'll figure out the specifics sometimes next autumn.

I took the last three days off work. Glorious. I'm off Monday and Tuesday, too, so that's a whole week away from the desk job. I almost never take time off (I haven't really been able to anyway); it's weird but nice to have some staycation time. Of course all of it went to running errands, housework, and rolling on the floor clutching my aching tummy.... it wasn't exactly a fun and relaxing time. Still, I suppose it's better than being in the cubicle.


I'm not sure how to end this somewhat random round of updates. Next week's post should be really good, though -- a recap on the year, whether I met my goals, highs and lows, and some deep thoughts. Check in with me again if you have time!


Until then, may your holidays be safe, fun, and filled with joy.

Interviews are over, went well (plus a few pictures)

You probably noticed that I didn't blog last week. It has certainly been on my mind, it's just been a busy time between recovering from sickness and interviewing for the new job...

As I mentioned in my post two weeks ago, I applied for a promotion at work and was then invited to the first round of interviews for said promotion. The interview took place last Wednesday (12/5). Many long hours were devoted to preparing for the interview -- researching possible questions, writing down responses, practicing what I would say, etc. I'm a bit of a nervous public speaker, and not just formal presentations, but really any kind of speaking up in group settings is outside my comfort zone. (I'm working to get better about this.)

On Monday (12/10) I was invited to participate in the second (and final) round of interviews. These took place yesterday, Friday (12/14) in the morning. I had the delightful (sarcasm) time slot of 8am. My very supportive and all-around awesome mom was at our house by 7am to take the baby and let me scoot out the door.

I feel like the second round went really well. I did my best, was fairly comfortable, and gave solid, honest answers to all of the questions. (It helps that we got all of the questions in advance, so we had a couple of days to gather our thoughts.) That said, I really have no idea if I will get the promotion. The other two candidates in the second round are also brilliant, fully qualified individuals. Either of them would also be great at the job. So really it comes down to what the managers and what they want, which of our skill sets they think is best suited to the position.

I know it's strange to say, but no matter how it comes out, I'll be content with the results. If I get the promotion, yay me, I will get to do some new (and much, much cooler) things, travel a little bit more, learn a lot of new stuff, and okay, a little bit more money. But it will also mean working quite a bit harder, sometimes putting in a few more hours, and having to be away from the family a little bit more. So if I don't get it, I retain more flexibility, I won't have quite as much work-related weight on my shoulders, and I can keep doing my relatively easy job. Win, win... right?

The difficult thing is that we have to wait 2-3 weeks before we get an answer. Schedules are really crazy during the holidays with people on vacation at different times, so the hiring manager is just going to wait until everyone is back in the office before getting the paperwork started and letting us know. It's hard to be patient, but anxiety won't do any good, so I'm just taking some deep breaths and putting it out of my mind. Or, well, I'm trying to!

THAT SAID, what else is new? Hmm....

Christmas is coming, of course. We have a stack of presents under the tree, but none of them have been wrapped yet. I'm really not feeling at all festive this year. No holiday spirit. It's not for lack of wanting; I'd certainly like to be decking the halls and humming happy tunes. But Baby Girl really likes to attack the Christmas decorations (she's destroyed a couple of ornaments already), and I can't help but think about how much effort it all takes. Effort that I just have to undo in a couple of weeks... as if we don't already have enough to do. So, I don't know, I guess maybe next year we'll be better about it. Right now I just don't see the point. (Sorry, that's not the most uplifting paragraph.)

My daughter is now 18 months old. Pretty neat. I have to go write her monthly "birthday" letter so I'm actually going to wrap this up. Here are some pictures from the last week...

Fell asleep in the truck on the way to Grandma's house last weekend (she never sleeps in the car, so this was kinda amazing):

Eating lunch at grandma's house (notice the towel used as a bib):

With grandma (and yes, this is the best of the 10+ pictures I took of the two of them):

Sitting around and eating some puffs, in what has got to be the most awkward position ever:

Parenting is such messy business (and other goodies)

Prior to having a child, I never knew, never even imagined, some of the things I would have to do as a parent. It's an unexpected and surprisingly disgusting journey. Today I got to experience five of those wonderful (sarcastic) new things; I share them with you for your amusement:

1. Sniff someone else's bottom (to check for poop)
2. Forcibly brush someone else's teeth
3. Read someone a story while I'm going to the bathroom
4. Catch vomit with my bare hand(s)
5. Use random noises and gestures because my brain is so tired that I can't form real words

I think I'm supposed to be able to make another list of the truly wonderful (not sarcastic) things that I never expected about parenting. Things like the thrill of being called mama or the smile-erupting joy of watching my daughter toddle around. There are, after all, a lot of upsides to being a mom. But since it was a diarrhetic, triple poop, vomit catching, five-hours-of sleep kind of day, I'm really not in a happy-sunshine, I-love-being-a-mom mood. Although I am feeling a tad more sympathetic to and grateful for my own mother these days. (Thanks mom.)

That said, I've got about ten minutes until I need to shut down my computer and call it a night. So I think I'll try to bullet point out the highlights from this week:

- Remember my friend who watches my daughter a couple of times a week? She moved last week. The difference is only about a mile, but it's a mile of steep downhills (from here to there) and makes for a totally different trip to work. Instead of going to her house, back to my house, and then on to the office, I have to go straight from her house to the office. On a very different, less safe route. I'm not thrilled. I don't at all mind the little bit of extra time or distance (I like that I'm getting a bit more and more challenging exercise), but there are a couple sections of road with no shoulder and crazy drivers. I love to bike. I don't like worrying about my safety when I'm doing it. Thankfully I traverse only a very small section of bad road with my daughter. Then there's the long uphill ride at the end of the day to get us home.... brutal. I did it twice this week; both times I had to stop and walk for a section of the hill because I don't have the cardiovascular strength for it. We'll get there.

(^^^So much for a brief bullet point. Sheesh.)

- Remember how I applied for a promotion recently? This coming week, I have an interview for the position. It's the first round of interviews; there will be two rounds. I feel confident that I can make it through the first round. It's the second round that's going to be the most challenging. But one thing a time! This week's goal is to knock one out of the park for Round 1.

- A lot of banks these days have an e-deposit program for checks. If you have a smart phone, you can take a picture of your check, send it to the bank, and it will be deposited. Amazing! My bank has this program. Unfortunately, we don't have smart phones, so I still have to go to the bank branch when I get a check. (Actually, let's be honest, my mom has been depositing most of my checks for me. Have I mentioned lately that she's awesome?) So speaking of my awesome mom, she pointed out to me this week that I can actually use the document scanner on my home printer/copier/scanner to do the same thing! I can scan the check, log into my bank account on my computer, and e-deposit. I tried it out on Tuesday and it was incredibly easy. Yay!

- Nate took down the autumn/Thanksgiving decorations yesterday. We got out our lights this morning and put them up. (But I just remembered, we forgot to turn them on! Ha!) I'm not going to rush into the Christmas decorations, but I am happy we're getting started a little earlier this year. I think maybe it will help me get into the Christmas spirit. Hopefully I can get my shopping done really early, too, and then I can just kick back for the rest of the month. Amazon is definitely going to receive the bulk of my transactions. I do not like holiday traffic on the roads and crowds of people in the stores. Makes me claustrophobic.

- Cooking. There's a lot I want to say about cooking but I have only one minute left before I need to wrap things up. Oh well, I'm just gong to go over time...

Remember my friend Kimmy who is oh-so amazing? She made some pea pesto this summer and gave me a  batch. It was delicious. I finally got a chance this week to try the recipe myself and it turned out yummy! It's really easy, too. I added 1 cup of cooked quinoa to a triple batch of the pesto so that it would have protein and thus be a "one stop" dish. I cooked the quinoa in chicken broth, which I think helped preserve the good flavor. I also made Moroccan Tofu this week, which is a variation of Nate's "famous" Moroccan chicken recipe. It turned out well. Surprisingly tasty. And my rice-and-quinoa stuffed bell peppers were so good that even after several bites, Nate hadn't noticed they were meatless. ("Wait, there's not any meat in this? Really?") Maybe just maybe my vegetarian ambitions will come true.

This coming week I'm going to make some tofu pad Thai. Nate scowled at me several times already ("I want chicken pad Thai!") but if it goes as well as the Moroccan tofu, he'll hardly notice. Let's all cross our fingers.

Finally, if you're mouth isn't watering yet: cranberry orange muffins. I want these, have been thinking about them all day. I'll have to print the recipe and get the ingredients next weekend... unless someone wants to show up at my door with a bag of groceries? I'll make the muffins and give you some in exchange? Anybody?