35 weeks ... or so

Mike was recently transferred for his job.  Instead of working ten minutes away and carrying the same schedule each week, he now has a forty-five minute commute with a completely unstructured schedule that changes week-to-week, with no weekends off.  We work opposite shifts and I have weekends off, so we no longer have any days off together.  Most days we only see each other for a half-hour when he meets me at work for lunch.  It sucks.  It really sucks.  But I’m trying to be grateful that he even still has a job in this economy, and we’re trying to make it work by taking the half-day we have here and there and making sure to do something together.

Saturday morning we went to estate sales.  I’m always torn about estate sales.  On the one hand, you can’t deny the creepy awkardness of sorting through the belongings of a deceased person.  With the family watching.  But on the other, they’re having the sale, right?  And I can’t justify buying things new when you can find a higher quality whatever in good shape and for less money. 

I also get all uncomfortable with the fact that our world is filled with STUFF.  There’s so much STUFF!!  It’s everywhere!  I love my Stuff as much as the next person, but it creeps me out to think of the world being overrun with Stuff.  We just keep making it!  And then I really can’t buy new.

Anyway, speaking of gorging onesself on Stuff, I went to the estate sales looking for fall decorations and for shelving for Gloria’s room.  I came home with an old recipe box, a rolling pin, baking pans, a loaf mold, and a slightly used batch of cinnamon potpourri.  That’s right, folks, slightly used potpourri.  I go to sales telling myself that I’m out for one particular item.  But then I get there and convince myself that I NEED those 1960s monogrammed napkins.  In case I have a dinner party.  Not once in my life have I had a dinner party, but if I do, I’ll really need fancy monogrammed napkins for it.  I’m sure the weird stains will come out. 

Baking has become really therapeutic for me lately.  I baked the best brownies this past weekend.  I couldn’t eat any, but I snuck a taste anyway.  Oh my god, they were incredible.  The recipe is at the end of this entry if you’re interested.  I also practiced frosting technique on them.  That didn’t come out great, but I’m learning.  The green frosting was a half-and-half buttercream and it wasn’t as stiff as it should have been for piping, so the leaves lost their form.  I also need to find a darker food coloring for my colored frostings.  Version 2.0 of this will be coming out this weekend!

On the pregnancy end of things, I cried over peanut butter the other day.  I forgot my peanut butter at work, and got really sad about it when I pulled into the driveway at home.  Then I started thinking about peanut butter in relation to world hunger and cried for another fifteen minutes.

Then I came back to sanity.  Pregnancy is dumb.  Once, in the second trimester, Mike and I got into a really big fight in the grocery store over whether I like provolone cheese.  I was really angry with him and didn’t talk to him for an hour afterward. 

I had an ultrasound last week for a growth-check.  My extra fluid went down, from abnormally high to the high end of normal (love medical expressions), and Gloria was measuring at 5lbs 11oz at nearly 35 weeks.  I’ve been on the gestational diabetes diet for two weeks now, so it’s possible that I am diabetic and the diet is working.  I don’t know, I meet with my doctor on Thursday and go from there.

AND NOW, A 3D PHOTO OF INSIDE MY UTERUS.  I like to warn people.

LOOK AT HER CHUBBY LITTLE FACE.  SHE'S GORGEOUS.

Mike and I will be finishing up the nursery this week, so be ready for photos of that!

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Ingredients:  (This made a very small batch, so for a regular 9x13 pan you'll need to double it.)

1/2 C white sugar

2 tbsp butter

2 tbsp water

1 1/2 C semisweet chocolate chips

2 eggs

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

2/3 C flour

1/4 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

Directions:

1.  Preheat oven to 325.  Grease pan.

2.  In a medium saucepan, combine sugar, butter, and water.  Cook over medium  heat until boiling.  Remove from heat and stir in chocolate chips until melted and smooth.  Mix in eggs and vanilla.  

3.  Combine flour, baking soda, and salt in another bowl, then stir dry mixture into the chocolate mixture.  Spread evenly into the pan.

4.  Bake for 25 minutes.  Cool and cut into squares.

Note about brownies in general:  DO NOT use the "toothpick method" to test if brownies are done.  If your brownies pass the toothpick method (the toothpick comes out clean), your brownies are already overdone.  Instead, keep checking on them and watch for the edges to come away from the pan and the top to become shiny.  If you insert a toothpick, the toothpick should not come out clean (it'll have brownie crumbs and a bit of moisture on it), but should not have raw batter on it either.