So, what's up with the baby ( Read more... )

I bought a digital ear thermometer--we need to have two digital thermometers, according to the checklist, and while I'd already acquired one small one (just so we'd have 2), we did want an ear thermometer because, let's face it, sticking something up a screaming baby's bum isn't going to make him scream any less. It was expensive, but wow, was it ( Read more... )

I try not to be annoyed at Karel when he helps out around the apartment. But sometimes it's just so hard not to be, because he's so stubborn about doing things his way even though, had he asked, I could have told him how to hang clothes so that they dry in 24 hours rather than 48, and at the very least I would have had dry underwear this morning ( Read more... )

For a while, we were contemplating having my mom come and help us with the child care aspect of taking care of the Little It, in the ballpark of a month or two--a fairly typical arrangement in Asian families, as I'm given to understand. Then we discovered that the wait list for child care is a year, so that plan went to hell ( Read more... )

We're both hoping that Karel gets into a training residency in a nearby German hospital. Not only would his commuting time be axed in half, but the working conditions are positively luxurious compared to American residencies, and really nice compared to the Dutch standard. Plus he'd be getting paid more--up to double his current salary, which, ( Read more... )

About 3 weeks ago I woke up with a sore thumb. That is, the joint between my thumb and my wrist suddenly started to hurt, but only if I pushed on it in a certain way. Well, I didn't think anything of it--my carpal-tunnel syndrome had just resolved after a few months, so I thought "Well, I probably just nudged something in my sleep and it'll go ( Read more... )

Oatmeal cookies and maple-buttercream were a bit too successful: they tasted great together, but they're so filling that you can only have one cookie with a bit of buttercream at a time. That being said, they're so damn good together that I'm pretty sure we'll finish them, regardless ( Read more... )

I've been dying to make oatmeal cookies sandwched with maple buttercream frosting. The process of making it isn't too difficult, but getting my hands on enough powdered sugar is a bit of a pain. With S&H, it's not worth going through Amazon, but at the same time, I can't imagine that the C1000 would take kindly to me buying out their entire stock ( Read more... )

Christmas is always a PITA for me. Not because I'm normally tasked with hosting Karel's immediate family, like we are this year (on account of the Little It being too little to take on the train), but because I'm usually the one who gets stuck with the task of finding presents for everybody. Karel usually tries to help by bludgeoning a shopping ( Read more... )

I've been kinda-sorta bitten by the sewing bug again: making our own clothes. It took me a while to understand fabrics, and a bit longer to understand my machines, and learn how to do a serger cheat with a non-serging machine. But now that I've gotten all of that, I'm sorely tempted to try clothing again ( Read more... )