Money

I'm a few days in to Camp Mommy.  I am taking unpaid time off from work to focus more on me and being a mom.

Hopefully, I'll write a post up soon about our Camp Mommy adventures, but this post is about MONEY.

(1) I decided that my 7 year old MacBook was about to die and take with it all the photos that are in iPhoto.  Backup solutions weren't working because my computer seemed too old to get its data somewhere else.

So I bought a 1 year old refurbished MacBook Pro.  It came yesterday.  I set up the Migration Assistant so my old computer could tell my new computer all its secrets, and 15 hours later, I love my new laptop!  It seems so smart and efficient.

$1,100

(2) I took my car to the shop.  The bumper was hanging off and I suspected it needed some sort of service.  They agreed to bang in the bumpers so that nothing would be hanging off.  I don't need it to be pretty, but functional.  And, my car was due for a major service.  We bought it 3 years ago and it was time for all its parts to be checked out.

$500

(3) While the car was at the shop, they discovered that the tread on all 4 tires was dangerously low.  One of the tires had 0 tread on it.  The others had 1, 2 and 3 units (?) of tread.  They said that I had to replace all the tires and it was dangerous to drive on them this way.

$600

The car is running great now.  Scott and I went hiking this morning, and the acceleration up the hills was way better than it used to be.  I think it was money well spent.  But, $2,200 out the door during my unpaid time!  Ugh.

The Royal Vagina Watch (also known as crotch watch)

I am obsessed by Princesses.  Not the Disney ones; the real ones. 

So, yesterday, I was hitting refresh on People.com and the New York Times until the royal news was announced that Princess Kate gave birth to a boy who is now third in line to become King. 

Before the birth, the official statement was that Kate's labour labor was progressing normally.  What does that mean when the vagina from which said baby will be emerging is a royal one?

Does it mean that Kate was swearing at the other women laboring in the triage cubicles adjacent to her?

Does it mean that a nurse told her that she couldn't make her labor progress by walking stairs?

Does it mean that the nurse who made that comment later apologized with a coupon for the cafeteria downstairs?

Is a normal labor one where a doctor demands attention claiming that he is the most important person in the room?

Or, is that only the normal labor experience for non royal vaginas like mine?

4 Days Away

The job that pays me money is as a Law Librarian.  I often feel lucky that I found this career.  In law school, I knew I didn't want to practice law.  After law school, I worked as a mediator for a number of years until I met a woman at a conference who was a librarian.  I started library school and the rest is history.

One great thing about being a law librarian, is our national association called AALL, the American Association of Law Libraries.  I used to be quite active in AALL.  I am the founder of the Gen X / Gen Y caucus, and I've always enjoyed the conferences.  But, the last conference I went to was in 2007.

Since then, I've focused on getting pregnant, being pregnant, having a kid, raising a kid, and getting back into my profession.

Tomorrow, I leave for this year's AALL conference which will be held in Seattle.  I am going without my husband and without our daughter.  Things that used to be normal, flying by myself, staying in a hotel by myself, are now totally foreign to me. 

I'm worried that I will miss my daughter.  I'm worried that she'll miss me.  I'm worried that she won't miss me.  I'm worried that she'll get hurt.  I'm worried that I won't sleep well without my husband beside me.  I'm worried that the conference food will not work for my specific eating habits.

I hope I'll be able to enjoy Seattle and enjoy my profession.  Star says that she'll text me pictures.  I hope she does.  I hope we both have a happy 4 days. 

So, What Does a Vegetarian Wheat Free Diet Look Like?

Once the horrible wheat detox week finished, being vegetarian and wheat free is actually quite easy.  One of the main things that I've noticed is that my appetite has decreased dramatically.  All these years that I've been eating wheat, it seems like it has been acting as a stimulant.  The more wheat I ate, the more I wanted and the more weight I gained.  

In these 3 weeks that I've been wheat free, I eat less.  So, the first question is what do I eat?

Breakfast.  That's easy since I didn't usually have any wheat for breakfast even in my wheat eating days (unless we went out to breakfast).  So, at home, I normally eat a smoothie or yogurt with fruit and nuts.  If we go out, which isn't often, I'll eat an egg or tofu scramble with veggies and/or cheese (hold the toast).

Lunch.  If I'm at work, I'll eat a soup, or salad, or on a fancy day, I'll have a brown rice or a quinoa bowl with veggies.  If I'm at home, I'll eat an egg scramble or some dinner leftovers.

Dinner.  I generally eat veggies and tofu in some combination.

The second question is am I losing weight?

Not yet, but I have some excuses.  First, my wight does seem to be shifting around for the better.  My tummy looks flatter; my pants are loose.  My second excuse is that I haven't been exercising.  Dealing with pneumonia, the wheat detox, the recovery from pneumonia, and now the BART strike which has doubled my usual 2 hour daily commute, I'm only now getting back to working out.