Inspection update

After some confusion and me staying home to wait on him so that he could no-show - the Inspector finally showed up! Breakdown goes like this:

Electrical Final = PASSED!
Plumbing Final = Failed.
Mechanical Final = Failed.
Can't call for the Final Building Inspection until those three finals are passed.

All we need to pass the plumbing is a silly (and ugly) overflow switch off valve on my otherwise beautiful faucet on the clawfoot tub. Mr. Price already trippity-tropped on down to Lowe's and picked up this $30 part and installed it. Ready to
call for inspection again!

Mechanical - need a bit more:
-extra decking in the attic (isn't that building/framing?),
-the vent flew to be moved to a different angle (there's a whole calculation and it's a massive pain to deal with... cutting new holes in the roof, patching the shingles, etc)
-find a 3rd party inspector to test all vents and such (this is going to take some time...)

Did I mention that we can't 'move in' until we pass final?

When our king sized new bed arrived a couple weeks ago, I dare any inspector or other city representative to tell me I can't sleep in it. but nonetheless - we can't move other furniture up there or look like we're living in up there. which is driving me nuts. I AM READY FOR THE MASSIVE FURNITURE MOVE AROUND in this house. let's GO already!

To help the cause - Mr. Price did make a plea to the last inspector that he has 'a pregnant wife who is chomping at the bit to move up there' so we got unofficial approval to live up there (i.e. we don't have to take our toothbrushes and towels, etc back downstairs each time an inspector shows up) but we can't "move" up there yet.

Tyler's very bad, horrible, terrible, no good day

he REFUSED to come out of the carrier. they finally had to take it apart to get him out...

it then took three people to hold him still. bless his heart.

Fun at the vet!

Poor Tyler.  Poor Joe.  They had a less than optimal day.

I think you can *pretty much* figure out the story based on this picture, but I'll post more soon

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: J Price
Date: Tue, Sep 29, 2009 at 2:50 PM
Subject: Fun at the vet!
To: E Price

Sent from my iPhone

Cruel and Unusual Punishment

So, we can't move furniture upstairs until we pass inspection- nor clothing. These two bars in my currently unfinished closet represent more hanging space than is available im the rest of my closets in the house-- yet I can't go spreading my hangers out just yet. Nope- I have to wait. Excruciating days between now and whenever that may be because lord only knows when the inspector will finally show up, if we will have any advance notice to show up and meet him and what creative things he may find to fail us on (and what magic number of times we will fail) before we finally get the green light to move in.

So until then...... I wait. In agony.

Poolside in Montauk

Arrival in the city

I took the trade off f landing at JFK over having a layover and
arriving in my favorite airport: la guardia.

Heading to west village now to hang out with Amy. Jess is super busy
wrapping things up for fashion week, so we won't meet up until tonight.

Blogging from the back of my cab on the Van Wyck Expy. Kinda fun and
feeling productive but not terribly exciting. Signing off.

Sweet Surprise

That clever Mr Price tricked me into fetching something for him from the fridge when I got home today. Much to my surprise, instead, there were some "hey-thanks-for-growing-our-kid" flowers in there!

Awwww

Wedged right in there between the mini Sprites, the organic milk, the calcium-enriched OJ, some ginger ale and chocolate icing. Now if that fridge doesn't scream "pregnant lady lives here!" ... i don't know what does.

Good times, good times...

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Shower Story

It's been awhile since my last 'gross' post - but what can I say, this one just fell in my lap.

So as previously mentioned, my car got smashed by a massive falling tree limb. With the rain we've gotten over the past few days (yay for rain!) we realized that the damage also included pulling the door away from the frame just enough to no longer be water-tight. Therefore: raining outside = raining in the car. Awesome. --but this is just background building up to the funny part-- So sweet Mr. Price scurried to get the car into the shop only to get a "CUBE" of a car. Strange little thing that it is-- i've actually never seen a real-live car that so closely resembles a cartoon-mobile.

While the cartoon-mobile is entertaining, it doesn't exactly feel like a fortress of security. Therefore: (per Mr. Price) I am in the truck until further notice. =)

Meanwhile: Manager Man (who is more like a brother than a boss) was giving me a hard time yesterday for my nails. Well, really just my thumb nail. Admittedly, it was way too long, but i kept forgetting to cut it and thinking that it would break off like all the others did last week. So I was already self-conscious of it. this morning he teases me again. rat farts!

--okay, set-up is done. starting to feel like this has been a long haul for a short slide. oh well, too late now--

So i go to the truck to leave to get lunch today and... lo and behold! there is a nail clipper! way to go Mr. Price! how handy. so I pick it up to go to town on my thumb nail - bring it over my lap and... a confetti-like shower of nail clippings! so gross, but i suddenly can't stop laughing. looked at the clippers and they were some fancy kind that has a 'clip catcher' (think along the lines of a hole punch).

anyway- there's the short slide. i'm quite sure this story didn't convey nearly as funny as it was to me at the time. surely just as gross. but man, i AM still laughing on the inside.

And in the mornin' we'll make WAFFLES!!

Mmmmm is for morning....

To Do Today

We will labor today to check off our rapidly shrinking upstairs list:

1) New bed & matress
2) Closet organizers/shelves etc

We call for inspections tomorrow :)

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Lights, Camera, Action & Missing in Action

Lights:

The electrician came on Wednesday and finished installing all the fixtures and switches!! We have light upstairs! Friday the plumber came and installed the plumbing fixtures and he wanted to finish before the weekend (and not return today) -so bless his heart- he stayed until 9pm (which didn't bother me because my lazy @ss was laying on the couch.

Camera:

Wednesday we had a sonogram and learned that our little babino is a baby BOY! Good times, party people. Good times. It is a bit surreal to think in terms of our baby being a little boy rather than a just a baby - the loss of ambiguity has been a pretty cool thing to wrap our heads around. As my brother put it: it really changes things when you can think in shades of pink or blue instead of shades of gray. Agreed.

Action:

TONS of rain yesterday and last night in Austin. YAY!! We need it. Most severe drought after the hottest summer on record (was it 68? days of triple-digit heat?) so the rain was welcomed. And the new door was installed yesterday (excellent timeing, fellas) and I did a little dance after darting the house out of the rain, heading upstairs and noticing not a drop of water on our wood floors. whew!

Now for the 'action' part: heard a few loud noises this morning but went back to sleep thinking maybe the house was settling. I woke up super early [for me] and you know something is headed your way when you hear in a gentle voice: "okay, now don't be mad..." right after 'good mornings'

A large tree branch fell on my car from one of our massive elms that I love so much. Don't know which I'm more disappointed in- the car getting all banged up -again (hail storm last year did a few grand of damage) or the tree losing a branch. oh well... just another trip to the body shop and a call the arborist.

Missing in Action:

We sold our 4 season tickets this year but today is opening day. You gotta know I love me some Texas Football. I've had these season tickets since 2001. I consider "Football" to be one of the 4 seasons in the calendar year besides for Spring, Summer and Winter. However, there is a certain liberation I am feeling that I will miss multiple home games this year and not stressing over it.

Having the tickets in-hand gives you this feeling of obligation: "I've already paid a couple hundy for these cute little pieces of cardboard; hell if I'm not using these to walk into that game!" But it isn't just walking into the game: it is an all-day, 6-8 hour + time for preparation + the next day of recovery kind of event. It rules the weekend. Which I'm okay with, but as it turns out... I'm also okay with missing a bit of that action this go-round.

I'll still be cheering them on, it's just that I may be poolside. Hook 'em.

Shorty Price

Leading with the big item - as I do seem to walking the talk lately:

We've got a bun in the oven! That's right, party people: a Shorty of our own will arrive in just 6 short months - which is easy to believe if you've seen me lately because I already have at least 10' additional inches on the area formerly known as my waist... it changes by time of day (implying it is bigger at the end of the day than in the morning when the muscles are more fatigued).

Rest assured that my belly is massive. Now for the Question and Answer session of this blog post:

How have you been feeling? If there is a pregnancy symptom out there, I've had it in spades. I spent the entire month of July with all-day-long morning sickness. Ironic and taunting little name for that symptom, eh? Food aversions like mad and cravings that have done resulted in the following scenario:

Me: Hey, what are you doing?
Mr. Price: Working. You?
Me: Thinking about carrots. Anyway you could help out with that? Since most veggies have been abhorrent to me lately, I thought I should act quickly.
Mr. Price: I can run to the store now.
Me: That would be super-wonderful.

-30 minutes later-
Mr. Price walks in the door and proudly holds the carrots up for me to see.
I see them and immediately want to vomit.
Me: (moaning) put 'em away!!! I don't want to SEE them...
I reach for one of my 20 ginger candy/lozenge/anti-nausea treats and start sniffing the nearest half-a-lime until the sensation subsides.

Much like the Nordics can have 10 different words to identify the shade of white due to their exposure to constant snow... I can now identify at least 10 levels of nausea. So really, behind a month of supreme nausea and my newly formed ability - the other symptoms: dizziness, fatigue, blood pressure drops, constant trips to the bathroom and forgetfulness -- all a walk in the park.

What kind of cravings have you had? No peculiar combos, but the cravings are strong and definite!! Things I can recall:

-Cream Cheese & Pickapeppa sauce which I inhaled for about 2 days straight
-White cake with white buttercream icing
-one meal in particular consisted of the following: a salad from Central Market, soup from La Madeleine, and french fries from P. Terry's. No substitutions, please. And bless Mr. Price's heart if he didn't walk in the door from his 3 stops and realize that our ranch dressing had expired (which he won't have any part of me eating anything with a remote chance that it's gone bad) - so back out he went to the grocery store for some ranch dressing.
-Cucumber sandwiches - just like my grandmother and I used to make. Annie and I would smear a thin line of cream cheese on both sides of white bread (crusts removed), cucumber slices, salt and dill. Mmmmm.. I didn't think it was strange until I heard Mr. Price telling someone (for the second time in my presence) that I was carrying them in my purse.
-Daddy and I made a few ice cream sundaes - complete with a cherry. But really - that's not out of the ordinary for me, now is it?
-Popcorn dipped in melted butter (again, not exactly out of the ordinary)
-Crab Rangoons from the nearby Chinese place. They deliver =)
-I'll think of more...
-Things I normally LOVE and cannot fathom eating: tomatoes, spinach, chicken salad
-Speaking of 'chicken salad,' for about two weeks I couldn't say "chicken salad" without gagging/dry heaving 3-5 times uncontrollably

Are you going to find out the gender? Yes! Can't wait. My wonderful doctor will guess early rather than waiting for the more typical 18-22 weeks. So long as Shorty cooperates, we could know very soon. I'll keep you posted.

What names do you have picked out? Yes - the same ones we've had for several years now. Many of you already know them but I told someone a year ago who was 3 months along who didn't have any names picked out yet and lo-and-behold when 6 months later we got an announcement that their baby -with our name- was born. Yes, a name stealer. (Did you see the Sex & the City episode? hilarious. and incredibly similar to my situation) So for now, no baby name posts. Call me gun shy =) ...I know, I know... it's a bit late for that!



Those are the most frequent questions and at this point, this is a SUPER long post so I'll sign off. Just one last question:

Is this going to become a baby blog? Nope, that's not the plan. While I am sure that our lives will be greatly impacted by many more baby-related or baby-growing themes in the future, we have actually started a separate blog for Shorty. You can expect continued rants, updates, confessions and other non-mommy like commentary here. However, if you are interested, shoot me a note and I'll add you to the reading list for that one. We're keeping it private since our Shorty is a bit shy at this point in development. ;)

That's all for now.

Love from the three of us,
EmPrice, Mr. Price, and Shorty