Normally, I'm not one to complain about the cold. Really - I like winter and I like living in Minnesota in the cold months. I get annoyed when long time residents complain about the weather and generally think - if you don't like the cold, then move. But this? Well this is just something else.
That's right, it says "Pipe-rupturing, battery-draining cold" and above, it says today's high will be -5 , and will feel like -30. That's just outright insane.
This column tells me today is the coldest morning in the twin cities since January 30, 2004, which blows my mind a little bit. 5 years ago we were living in the little house without a furnace, and Dave was leaving for work at 6 am. I don't remember it being this cold, so the heat of new love must have been keeping us warm.
The thermometer on our porch only goes down to -10. This morning it looked like this:
Yowza. Don't worry. Gus and I are still planning to walk to our class this afternoon. It'll be warmer by 1:00, right?
I know, this post needs a photo. I do not have one. Rest assured that I am indeed showing already, and I have not felt the baby move yet. According to babycenter.com, the little one is the size of an avocado this week. I was shocked to weigh myself at the gym (yay me! I went to the gym!) last night and find out that I have not gained any weight. Apparently my belly is sticking out, I feel bloated and huge, and I weigh the exact same as I did 10 weeks ago. Pregnancy is weird.
I was looking back recently, seeing what I posted about this early stage of pregnancy with Gus. I really enjoyed reading those old posts, and I'm looking forward to reading more. So far it seems as if things are just about the same as far as how I'm feeling and what I'm doing. A little less conscious of what I eat, a little more lax about the whole working out thing, but for the most part the pregnancies are similar so far.
In other news, it was a busy weekend. Gus went to both an art opening and an art museum, yet we did not bring the cameras At the museum he saw a string quartet, which was pretty neat. He got a visit from his grand-dad, and got to eat a delicious blueberry pancake at Al's (he gets to do that most weekends). We both got to see our midwives and that's always fun. They love seeing Gus, and I appreciate that they come to me this time around. Not exactly relaxing, but definitely a lot of fun.
I read a lot in 2008. For all those parenting books that say it will be many years before you finish a book again, I say ppppppptbtt. After Gus was a few months old, it was impossible to knit while nursing. There's a lot of nursing...so what was I supposed to do?
All the Fishes Come Home To Roost by Rachel Manjia Brown was by far my favorite book this year. I may have technically read it in 2007, but lordy, this book was good.
I Was Told There'd be Cake by Sloane Crosley was also a favorite. It's rare for me to read nonfiction, but this book was hilarious and fun to read.
Also this year, I read the Narnia books again, The Old Man and the Sea (Hemingway), The Grapes of Wrath (Steinbeck), The Sailor Who Fell From Grace with the Sea (Mishimia), Pigs in Heaven (Kingsolver), and a few random things from the library that aren't immediately coming to mind. It was nice to check some big ones off the list, so I can no longer claim that despite the English degree I've never read Hemingway or Steinbeck. I still find that shocking how little you have to read to get a degree in literature, but honestly I think the University is so concerned with getting you out that they don't care how you do it. They're cranking out those liberal arts degrees, sending us all out into the world totally equipped to diagram a sentence and write a book report.
This is more fun that babycenter. And has different vegetables. This week - the baby is the size of a beefsteak tomato! Who knew?
Mo, the bad cat.
