salve

Oh, and also...

...funny thing. The real Irish person I contacted about my steel cut oatmeal problem recommended I use this brand of oats:

Notice anything? Yeah. these are rolled oats. Not steel cut. So now what?

The Culbertson Strategic Milk Reserves are Low

Maybe this is weird, but I tend to think of the amount of frozen breast milk stored in our freezer in terms of how many days Julian could survive on it if I got hit by a bus. Our little guy (just like his sister before him) is a milk snob and won't take formula, and while I know that if he got hungry enough of course he'd drink formula, it still weirds me out to think that I'm his sole source of nutrition. Meaning if I were to get hit by a bus, his food source would be gone.

Granted, he's now eating plenty of solids. And like I said, he'd cotton on to formula if he really, really had to, I'm sure. But today we only have enough frozen breast milk for him to get by for about two days if I bit it unexpectedly. Supplies are low because of several instances of frozen bags leaking during the defrosting process (which I goddamn hate - nothing worse than watching the precious bodily fluids you pumped out in not the most enjoyable or comfortable way go to waste), as well as having to pump and dump milk all day today while at a conference where I wasn't able to sterilize my pump parts or keep the milk cold. Grrrr.

Must build up strategic reserves again. Now that he's in daycare all day he drinks so damn much though - I can only pump enough each day to keep up with demand for the next day. Which means I need to pump a little extra on weekends, if I can. And one of my current favorite things about weekends is NOT having to pump. Sigh. Must prepare for possible bus accident though, right?

Oh the crushing disappointment!

My steel cut oatmeal was gross! Well, edible. But not anything like the Progress Coffee oatmeal. Where did I go wrong?

I have contacted a genuine Irish person for advice.

Grains

A few months back when I was worrying about my milk supply, a nice lady at Special Addition told me that oatmeal is a galatagogue. I'm not usually a big oatmeal eater, but I've been eating a ton of it lately, and was recently turned on to the wonders of steel cut oats by trying the oatmeal at Progress Coffee. Oh my god but it's head and shoulders above regular old 1-minute oats. So tonight I cooked up my own batch for the first time. Behold!:

Ok, it looks a little gross here, I grant you. But I'm so excited to try it in the morning with warm milk, apples, almonds and honey.

While I was at it I decided to cook up some millet for Julian. I used to cook all of Norah's baby cereal myself, from the recipes in Super Baby Food. Up until now I hadn't done any of that for Julian (the difference between life as a stay-at-home-mom and a full-time-working-mom I guess), but as the boxed baby cereal seems to leave him so constipated, I decided to try cooking my own whole grains again. Doesn't it look appetizing??:

Come over to my house! Gruel for everyone!

Cello

Rather than rant about the hideous two hours I just spent chasing down an old debt (not actually ours) that it turns out has been fouling up one of my credit reports, I'm going to talk about something that is currently making me happy. Yep! Believe it!

I'm in the process of trying to sell my cello and bow (they're on consignment with Blackerby here in Austin) - that part makes me sad. But when I was cleaning out my cello case I found a handful of old strings, and decided to find out whether anyone out there can make jewelry with instrument strings. Luckily, I found Xavior Symown of Strings - and a Dare. I got in touch to see if she would be willing to take on a special order and make me something out of my strings if I sent them to her. She has been nothing but wonderful and gracious and agreed to work with me. She has created some sample designs for me to choose from, and I think I'm going to go with this bracelet design (this is just a mock-up, but you get the idea):

Really, the coolest thing about this has been the communication back and forth with Xavior and seeing what she has been able to come up with. I've never commissioned a piece of jewelry before, but I recommend it!

Le Mac

I'm typing this post on the MacBook I'm considering buying for law school from my employer. It's shiny and pretty and shiny and sleek - and also shiny. It's also about a year and a half old and not quite as sleek as the current MacBooks, but it's also much less expensive, and in good shape. Except for a small chip in the casing around the keyboard. But that's neither here nor there, as I don't have the money to be very picky at the moment.

It feels really funny being back on a Mac after 10 years. Despite the obvious progress over the past 10 years, the OS still feels kind of the same, which is nice. And the reassuring "boinggg" sound the computer made when I booted it up took me straight back to my dorm room, circa 1997.

So - meanwhile. Let's see. Current complaints - waiting to hear on kindergartens for Norah. She didn't get a spot at ADS (she's currently number 17 on the waiting list of 57), so that's one option down, and two left we're waiting on. AISD and UT Elementary won't notify us until May, and meanwhile we're asking Child's Day to hold a kindergarten spot open for Norah, not that we can afford it. Sigh.

Speaking of Child's Day and not being able to afford it, today is Julian's first day in the Chicks classroom. Drop-off went well (no tears from either of us) and when I called at lunch-time they said his first day was going "amazingly well" and he had taken a bottle, eaten some solids, taken a 30 minute nap and was lying on a mat on the floor playing with toys and smiling at everyone. He's a keeper, this kid.

This is my first day working in the office a full eight hours since September 15th of 2008 - it's amazing how much more time it feels like I have to get things done, despite the fact that I was working at home in the afternoons before. I miss the easy access to chocolate and tea that I had at home though.

That's the latest, really. Jeff and I have started watching The Wire, finally, and I think I'm hooked after only four episodes. I'm knitting again - a really cool scarf from the Lynn Barr scarf book - I'll post some pictures soon.

Happy Easter!

Me: I think that second cupcake was a tactical error.

Jeff: What was your strategy, exactly?

Me: I don't know. Eat cupcakes?

Jeff: There's your problem - no clear exit strategy.

Me: Maybe a marshmallow egg will help.

Jeff: Sure - send in more troops.

Me: Troop surge!

Heresy?

I feel like as someone who holds a Bachelor of Arts degree it's somehow not ok for me to say this, but here goes: I don't like short stories. I'm reading Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri right now, and, while I recognize that her writing is truly excellent, I find myself wishing over and over that the book was a novel and I could stay with one set of characters and situations rather than moving from one to the next to the next to the next.

My friend Patrick pointed out to me that it doesn't help that this particular book of short stories is incredibly depressing (although I believe book reviewers have preferred to use the terms "thoughtful" and "meditative"). It's not just that though - short stories are disorienting for me. I feel like I'm dropping in from nowhere, and then swooping back out again all too quickly. Each of the stories in Unaccustomed Earth is like a small, shimmering pearl (like I said, Lahiri never puts a foot wrong when it comes to her writing), but I get creeped out by the lack of context and the lack of closure.

I only mention this now because I was thinking about all of this last night and trying to think of other short story collections I've read, and how I felt while reading them. Nine Stories? Made me feel the same dislocation, and my love for Salinger borders on worship. Thinking of Salinger last night then made me think "Wait a second, is he dead yet? Surely I'd remember if he'd died?". He's still with us (I double-checked), but he's 90, so he's going on my celebrity deathwatch list along with Peter O'Toole (only 76?? Can that be true?) and Amy Winehouse (25, but I think you're with me on this).

But, I digress. Point being, short stories often leave me feeling icky, somehow. Lahiri's so good though that I'm going to power on through, icky feelings and all.

What I didn't know could have filled a book

Here's the latest Financial Aid update. Man was I naive when I started this process! I had blithely assumed that obviously, because I have a full-time job and a household to support, someone would give me the money to keep that household running once I was no longer working full-time. I'm adorable!

So - no. There's something called the Cost of Attendance, and it's calculated and fixed and no matter what combination of grants, loans, etc. you end up with, they will only ever add up to your Cost of Attendance. The trick is to convince the school to increase your Cost of Attendance budget. Which they will only consider doing to help cover the cost of childcare. Which kind of works out perfectly because other than our mortgage, that's our single biggest Culbertson expense. So I'm headed back to the Financial Aid office this afternoon to kick of that discussion. And I'm bringing Julian with me. Maybe I'll pinch him to make him cry if the finaid lady starts being mean to me.

Hello Financial Aid

So I'm sitting in the waiting area of the UT Law Financial Aid office waiting to talk to one of the counselors to review my current aid offer. The aid approved so far is great, in that it's enough to cover tuition and Julian's daycare for a year. What isn't great is that I still need money to contribute to paying my mortgage, car payments, utilities, food, blah blah blah. As I know fuck-all about the financial aid process, I am throwing myself on their mercy to see what additional money they can find for me.

I shall keep you posted.