7 Quick Takes (Vol. 8)

--- 1 ---

I'm impressed with how David is becoming more & more vocal in his opinions of what to do with Walter, especially since his ideas are usually the ones that work. Our biggest challenge right now is working on Walter's sleep, which is quite draining. David was the one to bite the bullet and begin the 'crying to sleep' method, which is hopefully working (and at least spares me some sanity come evening). Sir has a tooth coming through, and I'm hoping that once it's fully out he will stop waking up so frequently at night. I miss the brief period of time when he'd sleep from 8pm-5am, drink a bottle of milk, and then sleep until 7:30.

--- 2 ---

Love is in the air and recently a few close friends of mine have gotten engaged, which has improved my otherwise grumpy mood (the baby now weighs two pounds and apparently that excess weight is having an impact on my levels of cheer). Weddings usually make me happy, but when I can see just how solid the relationship of the to-wed couple is I kind of go over the moon in ecstasy. This world needs more solid, happy families in it.

--- 3 ---

I think that the UK forgot that it's mid-spring, if the downpour outside my window is anything to base it on. I'd originally requested today off work in the hopes of going to Cambridge and having a fun afternoon picnic at the CAMRA Beer Festival. Instead, I think that I'll be spending most of the day indoors and ending off the evening with some chocolat chaud.

Enjoying the Beer Festival last year. I had to stick to cola, but the other two usual suspects got rather merry on mead...

--- 4 ---

The internet provider we signed up with when we moved gave us £100 of Marks & Spencer gift cards for our service. It kind of sweetens the blow in which the quote they gave me is dreadfully off what they're trying to bill me (LeAnna takes on the Internet Company) and it came at a perfect time, since there's household stuff I wanted but didn't quite need, and Walter was needing some new clothing. When David was in his end-of-year meeting yesterday, Walter & I hit up M&S and went 'wild'. My favourite part was buying new baby clothing and only having to be mildly frugal. Normally if I buy anything new for Walter it's off the sale rack or comes from the 'basics' section (thankfully he gets a lot of lovely clothing gifts from his aunts, uncle, and grandparents) so it was fun to only watch price tags a bit to ensure that we got some value for our money. Walter helped pick out his clothing, by shouting at certain outfits and hugging others, and then went wild over a 5-pair set of monkey socks.

--- 5 ---

Pregnancy has been kicking my butt lately, and David & Walter have also been a little under the weather, so I'm trying to figure out if our diet can be adjusted at all. It leaves me with the following puzzle: how do we eat more fresh, homecooked food when from Mon-Fri we are mostly too busy to cook and one of us has weird pregnancy aversions. It's lunches that seem to be the problem -- we used to eat leftovers but now those are being saved for weekday dinners. Trying to find a lunch solution that isn't heavily processed (or soup, which I can't easily eat right now) but manages to be quick & affordable is a bit of a headache. Maybe we'll just start living on bread & cheese.

--- 6 ---

An afternoon in downtown Cambridge made me quickly realise how much more relaxed I'm feeling in Ely. Right now I'm sitting at David's desk, looking over rooftops and towards the trees (and bird nests) in the Cathedral park. What I most notice about Ely is the lack of traffic -- as the UK's 7th smallest city I can actually walk down the street without constantly dodging cars, pedestrians, tourists, and cyclists. Just trying to walk from Marks & Spencer to Starbucks yesterday in Cambridge was a nightmare that took way longer than it should've (the Cambridge traffic problem is so bad that my BUS arrived at the train station 10 minutes later than David did, and he was walking and we left the same place at the same time). So at least for the moment I'm somewhat more relaxed than usual.

--- 7 ---

I'm super behind on blogging, for two reasons. The first, is that David had to block off my computer in his ever changing strategic defense against the forces of Walter (Walter needs access to David's office during the day, but once inside the office he likes to see what he can destroy, so David has to constantly change his line of defense. At the moment there is a huge barricade of heavy cardboard boxes protecting the books and laptops from Walter's explorations, but in the organising of this my stuff got blocked off for a bit). The second is that for some reason I can't figure out, my picture uploader isn't working and travel posts without pictures are a little dull. So eventually they will come... thanks for bearing with all the theology/faith posts until then (they are a little less picture-requiring).

For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!