HELL YEAH NAP

Today I really needed Nathan to take a nap.

Nathan does not nap anymore. Unless he's in the car and we're driving. But today, he napped, and it was awesome. Mike had surgery on his shoulder Monday, so he's almost entirely out of commission and I have to take care of Nathan and also fetch things for Mike. He banished us upstairs because he was exhausted and felt like poo, and I laid on the guest bed while Nathan played with his trains. Eventually he came up, lay next to me, threw his arm around me, and stared at me. For ten minutes. While kicking his legs against the side of the bed. Then I sort of drifted off, opened one eye, and realized that at some point he had totally passed out. We slept for an hour. HELLS YES.

Do you like free things? I like free things!

My friend Christa at How Is Babby Formed is giving away a $55 gift certificate to CSNstores.com. It ends at midnight, though, so hurry up!

MEE MEE

So, it's been awhile. Yep.

We've recently come across the first instance of Nathan using a word in his own language to describe something, and us actually understanding it. He does not say airplane. He says MEEMEE.

Nathan: Meemee! *points to airplane in sky*
KT: Actually, that's an airplane. Plane.
Nathan: MEEMEE!
KT: Still a plane.
Nathan: MEEMEEEEEEE! *plaintive wail as airplane dissapears from sky*

He also says bapple for apple, which has gotten us into the terrible habit of calling them bapples in our regular conversations to each other in front of him. As in, "Did Nathan enjoy his bapple for lunch?". OH GOD OUR KID'S GOING TO NEED SPEECH THERAPY BECAUSE WE'RE HORRIBLE PARENTS.



Also, Nathan was a dragon for Halloween. I'll post about that later. You know, like in January or whatever.

I Made it With Love! And Cursing.

Oh hey, I haven't updated in a very long time. I am now a full-time student, taking 5 classes this semester, so I've been doing all kinds of classwork and going to bed before the 10 O'clock news. Ok, the 9 O'clock news.

But before class really started, I tackled one more thing I really wanted to get done before the winter/new baby. Nathan's been so into trucks, and trains, and basically anything that emits potent diesel fumes, that I decided to suck it up and get him a train table. Only, I didn't really dig anything I found on Craigslist or even could purchase new. People were tending to charge a lot for them, and it would've taken a lot of coordination to bring one home.

So I thought hey, I'll just make one. None of the plans I found for free really called to me, and I hate you know, doing any sort of logical planning. So I kind of made one up as I went along.



Basically, 1x4s in a box shape, with 1x6 legs and 1x3 braces across it (meaning the lip would extend 1 inch up so trains wouldn't fall off easily). This was the first attempt, but I quickly realized this wouldn't hold up to toddler climbing, and I needed to make it sturdier.



The two added crossbeams are actually from an IKEA bedframe. I cut a few inches off the ends and they were perfect 1x3s. I wish I'd known earlier, could've saved like $3 by buying fewer 1x3s! And the L-shaped legs make it super sturdy, I can't shake it at all at this point. It's one solid piece.



Closeup of the sanded edges. This took awhile, even with a power sander my brother left here awhile ago. But it came out really good!



The finished product. I'm sort of miffed that I dropped $12 on Minwax Polyshades and it wasn't nearly as dark as it was supposed to be. I wanted it as dark as his bed, chair, and bureau are, but it wasn't any darker than the light colored stain I already owned from a previous project. The sample at the store lied! Eventually I may stain it darker, but honestly I'm just happy it's done.



Nathan is glad too. He's been playing with it a lot since I showed it to him, and I've had fun making the track configurations. I hope someday he appreciates all the work and cursing and broken drill bits I put into this thing (two drill bits, but who's counting). In the end, it only cost about $75 between the wood, stain, and green spray paint for the top and it could be done in a leisurely weekend. Not that I'm telling you to try it. You might just wanna buy one off Craigslist. But I'm super happy the way it turned out.

Homemade Lobsta Roll!

Lobster is on sale at Market Basket this week for $3.99. I decided I really need to learn to make my own - I do live really close to an amazing array of seafood choices (JT Farnham's lobster roll is EXCEPTIONAL), but I'm also broke.

I kind of just winged it, I boiled the lobster, let it cool, and took out the claw meat. For the tail, I cut off the top 1/4 or so, because I didn't want the nasty green goo in my nice lobster roll (and even with a small new-shell lobster, there's still plenty of meat left). I tore up the meat by hand and added mayo, salt, pepper, and a tiny bit of Old Bay. I would've added lemon, but I didn't have any on hand. Probably would've made it taste AWESOME if I had, though. I let it sit overnight.

Of course, you can't have a lobster roll without a toasted hot dog bun.



It came out pretty decent! In the end, though, $5 worth of lobster and a hell of a lot of work and cleanup was worth it for the experiment, but I'll probably just save up longer and buy one at Farnham's for $15 - they have more meat and they've got the recipe down pat.

Seriously?

I named this blog because in reality, living here isn't always easy. I try to keep a positive outlook, but sometimes it's just frustrating.

Last night the guy across the street (who is apparently pretty notorious around town) and another lady got into a scream fest about whether he drives drunk and also about him throwing beer cans in her yard. I'm not sure who she is, she may live on the street behind ours. But she you know, had a point. So then the lady next door to him mentioned here started screaming at her too, telling her she wasn't anybody and it ended with the drunk guy saying he'd kill her. I wanted to call the cops but the original lady disappeared.

Then today some homeless guy knocked on our door, almost letting our dog out of our fenced yard. He kept asking to buy a bike, and eventually Mike sold him one that worked. He kept leaving to go get money and coming up short, and acting like HE was all put out because Mike wanted $60 for the bike. Like, the hell? You came up to US and begged for a bike. He then said he should get a break on the price because "he could've just stolen one from us but didn't." Thanks? For not being a total jerk? Yeah. He is friends with the people across the street (see vignette above).

This is all in the same week that there was a street fight nearby that ended in the arson of a triple-decker. Insane.

I'm glad that we have some good neighbors who have been here awhile and who are nice and don't cause trouble. It's disheartening when troublemakers move in, but that's to be expected in lower middle class neighborhoods with drug/alcohol issues. It seemed like for awhile that Gloucester could be headed in a positive direction, but the economy seems to have stalled that out. Still, this is where I live now, and that's not changing anytime soon.

Anyway, we'll most likely install a moveable gate across the end of the driveway to keep people from entering our driveway/carport at night (stuff's been stolen before), and also so Nathan can play in the driveway without fear of him running into the street.

TRUCK!

They're tearing up our street to re-do it, and Nathan's in heaven watching the trucks.



TRUCK! is his favorite word. By far.



We had a pavementhenge hanging out in front of our house for a little bit. It's gone now.



Fun with his car! He's still a terrible driver.

Nathan's Big Boy Bed

I remember my brother having this bed growing up. Apparently it originally hails from UMass Lowell (or at that time, Lowell State College). It's utilitarian, but it's also free and it works perfectly as a little boy's bed and matches the dresser I have for him.

Shed Loft

For the last couple of weeks I've envisioned a smallish project where I put a loft/attic over one side of our new shed, for storage on top and bike hanging underneath. I finally grabbed all the stuff from Home Depot this week and today was the day to do it.

I'd measured from side to side, and the shed was 89 inches across - meaning we could hang 7 bikes with hooks 11 inches apart. That also meant I needed to learn how to master a circular saw.

All in all, the parts were cheap. I got 2 2x4s and 4 brackets, but only ended up using one (the other will be re-used to make the same loft on the opposite side), and 2 2footx4foot 1/2inch thick plywood boards. It was about $45 for parts and $20 in gas because I drove all the way to Foxboro and back to borrow my brother's pickup truck.



The loft part came together pretty quickly! Once I mastered the circular saw, anyway. I only had to cut the 2x4 down by 7 inches, and one of the plywood boards down by 7 inches as well. The brackets were easy enough to nail in, and I only smashed my thumb once!



I hadn't bought any hooks but we had bunches lying around - we're still missing one in the middle, but oh well. Two are rated heavier than the other ones, but those work perfectly for the heavier bikes.

I'm proud of myself - I did the whole thing by myself while Mike watched Nathan - even hung the bikes myself. Not bad for 21 weeks pregnant! It came out awesome! Usually my projects end up Homer Simpsonesque.



EXACTLY LIKE THAT.

FWSHSH

That's the sound Nathan is making as he blows bubbles. He's actually managed to figure out the bubble wand, how to stick it into the jar, and he can blow bubbles. I mean, most of the time he's just making a mess and/or ingesting trace amounts of bubble solution, but it's so goddamn cute.



Of course, right after that he spilled the entire bottle on the coffee table and floor. Hey, at least it's just soap!