21 July 2010

Delay

Mike's flight out of Buj tonight was cancelled. So rather than waiting for him to arrive on Thursday afternoon, constantly updating the flight status on the websites of the various airlines he was supposed to be flying, I'm waiting for him to find out his new itinerary and let me know what it is. Worst case scenario is he's on the exact same itinerary starting on Thursday night instead of tonight. But I'm hoping he can find an earlier flight because I'm selfish and anxious and ready for him to be home now. (And I know he's ready to be home now, too.)

Pregnancy update: 37 weeks, 3 days. The doctor is confident the baby will wait until Mike's here, even if he arrives Friday or Saturday instead of tomorrow.

16 July 2010

She Ate My Moth

This morning I woke up with a funny feeling. I realized that I'd slept well and it's been several weeks since that happened. It was cool last night, which helped. But mostly I think my peaceful rest came from the fact that I wasn't awakened even once during the night by the cat. That's unusual but it didn't cause me any alarm until I found the mess downstairs. The cat greeted me, sitting on the counter with a very pleased look on her face.

She was too busy with a demolition derby to bother me last night. Something was shredded all over the floor. It was the same color as the carpet, but it wasn't pieces of carpet. I couldn't figure out what it was. It looked sort of like wood chips, but it was light and fragile. Also, a bunch of stuff that had been on the counter was on the floor, too: keys, business cards, change. It's like there was a party all night while I was upstairs asleep.

Another thing missing from the counter: the large, yellow moth I'd picked up on one of my walks a few days ago. It was long dead and dried out and I didn't know exactly what I was going to do with it. But it was a moth I'd never seen in this area before and it was beautiful so I thought I'd hold onto it for a few days, maybe take some photos and then see if Mike wanted to take even better photos of it. I'd left it on the porch but when it started raining a few days ago I brought it inside and tucked it into a corner of the counter.

The yellow flakes on the floor were bits of shredded moth wing. I'm disappointed about the moth's demise. But I'm even more annoyed by the fact that I have to drag out the big, unwieldy vacuum cleaner today. I really miss the Dust Buster (which is en route in our air freight from Burundi--Mike packed up the house this week!).

It's been Dullsville around here and I've generally been okay with the quiet, slow pace. If I wanted to break up the monotony, cleaning up moth bits is not how I envisioned doing that. The messes are only going to get weirder when there's a kid around, aren't they?


All that remains of my moth

05 July 2010

Speaking of the Fourth of July

One thing I love about New England is all the history. I remember being in California and seeing "old" towns that were established in the 1800s, thinking that's so young compared to where I grew up. The house I grew up in was older than many states. I've been thinking a lot lately about making sure the baby knows his or her roots, because my own family geneology is part of New England history.

My dad has traced his mother's ancestors back to Plymouth Plantation. At Plymouth they have a replica of the original settlement with actors playing the parts of the settlers and one summer we spent a day there, meeting our ancestor. (He supposedly was eventually asked to leave the settlement due to some shady business deals and being too friendly with Roger Williams, who was the founder of Rhode Island. Even though there's no evidence my ancestor resettled in Rhode Island, I still like to think I'm descended from one of the original Rhode Islanders.) My dad has found the graves of ancestors who fought in King Philip's War and the Revolutionary War.

And it's the Revolutionary War that I'm thinking of today. A couple weeks ago we braved the poison ivy and ticks to visit our war ancestors in the cemetery.



John Gould and Nicholas Gould (click photos for bigger)

We aren't the only country celebrating our independence from colonialism this week. Rwanda and Burundi are too. And July 1 through 3 is also the anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg. It's a busy week, history-wise.

04 July 2010

Tired

Just a quick check-in. I'm at 35 weeks today and I'm tired all the time. I'm catching up on movies and TV shows and I'm doing lots of reading. I'm resting up today so I can stay awake long enough for fireworks tonight.

Happy Independence Day!