Unwarned belly patting: don’t do it (unless its me)

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I’m almost 14 weeks pregnant, and I’ve only really been showing for the past two. Already, there have been three accounts of people patting or rubbing my abdomen without asking. From what I hear, this is common. Strangers on the train will put their hands on my expanded middle.

For me, this is not a big deal. It’s not that I don’t have personal space, it’s that my bubble includes everyone else.

For others, I can imagine this would be startling at the very least, and bring on atavistic rage at the most.

I do find this incredibly interesting, from a sociological perspective. Our culture seems to celebrate pregnant women, which I assume is a celebration that we haven’t become inept at procreation. Pregnancy is also a temporary state, so unless you troll maternity wards, you don’t tend to have a steady stream of pregnant women in your life. It’s powerful that growing a baby is something gives everyone else the go-ahead to cross the don’t-touch-strangers-in-the-midsection boundary.

Just so you know, I’m totally willing to let anyone touch my belly. I wonder if that will change as the baby (and I) get larger, and I start to get that mama animal, primal thing. I’ll let you know.

Another tacky announcement! My blog wants to tell you I’m pregnant.

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Following in the tradition of marriage and moving, there’s no better way to tell a group of people you’re (insert pregnancy euphemism here).

I figure you’re all as excited as we are, so I’ll skip the blathering and just give you the goods:

  • We’re expecting a human baby around May 20th, 2010.
  • That makes me almost 14 weeks pregnant.
  • Yes, I had first-trimester nausea.
  • No, I didn’t ever actually puke.
  • Yes, I plan on blogging all about it.
  • That makes this a mostly knitting and pregnancy blog at this point.
  • As I am an open person, you are going to hear about controversial, weird and potentially gross stuff. Consider yourself warned.

7 weeks 13 Weeks

(That’s 7 weeks and 14 weeks.)

Next to come: sonogram headshot of what we’re referring to as The Soybean, results of genetic testing, ruminations on the first three months, and more.

Let’s play “Where’s Sonya?”

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Let’s play "Where’s Sonya?", originally uploaded by sundaykofax.

Can you guess? If you happen to read my Twitter (also referred to as
‘microblogging’ on the sidebar here, you’ll deduce that I’m at a book
conference, in Charleston, SC.

I pinch hit for Abby (who’s sick) by booking a flight then getting on
said flight yesterday.

My talk was on what LibraryThing is, and about social cataloging. I
think it was good – passable. I think it could be great if I get to
practice it more than once.

AmeriCorps flashbacks from Project Runway

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Whaaaaa?

You wouldn’t think a show about designing and making clothes would trigger a flashback to my days in Americorps, you really wouldn’t. If you were never in AmeriCorps National Civilian Community Corps, then there’s a lot about the day-to-day organization of our lives that you probably wouldn’t have thought of.

Since we worked in teams of up to 15 people, we share living quarters, a big 15-passenger van, and a food budget. While watching the contestants run around Mood (the fabric store) trying to find what they wanted within a limited amount of time, with a limited budget, I found myself remembering how I would do the same. We’d run around the Jewel, Shaw’s, Piggly Wiggly (whatever grocery store was local to our project) and try to spend as much of our budget as possible without going over. Our pantry depended on our choices, and we quickly learned to buy staples a maximum number of people could eat.

It was really fun, like having a giant family. By the end of the year, I knew I could buy Star Crunches or Nutella and it would make particular teammates happy to have a favorite treat. Oh, once I bought all the fixings for energy bars, and spent an evening making a quadruple batch. I wrapped them all in tin foil, and stacked them in a cupboard like silver bars. It meant not having to prepare a lunch, and they were popular. It made me feel good to prepare food for so many people, probably vestigial mother hen thing.

Kipping Sox

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Sox redux, originally uploaded by sundaykofax.

Our game Friday was rained out. We’re back at Fenway for more baseball.



Kipping Sox,
originally uploaded by sundaykofax.

But not kipping socks.

Sox redux

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Sox redux, originally uploaded by sundaykofax.

Our game Friday was rained out. We’re back at Fenway for more baseball.

We can be only one place

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We can be only one place, originally uploaded by sundaykofax.

Oh, Red Sox Nation, you’re so intense. It’s mostly fun except when
it’s scary. Also, you can’t escape the loving warmth of Dunkin Donuts.

I know you might wonder – I did not bring knitting. I did once knit
dome Red Sox red socks for a friend after they won that first time in
recent history. Who knew I’d end up living in Boston? Not me.

Vegan chocolate cake

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I’ve been having the same conversation over and over, so I thought I’d shortcut the “oh, I’ll email you that!” and go for a blog post instead.

Alternate diets (vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, peanut-free, meat-only) are becoming culturally accepted, and it’s now considered standard in many circles factor in the eating habits of others when cooking for others. When you’re going to a potluck or other food event where you don’t know the eating habits of everyone, this can be tough. Jason and I ran into this when we attended am anniversary party/wedding reenactment/potluck. We knew the bride was vegan, and the invite said to bring a label for whatever you made, so it could be known if there were any peanuts, animal products, gluten, etc. We made a pasta salad with egg-free noodles, making it vegan-friendly. It also was peanut-free, but it did have gluten.

I got the BEST chocolate cake recipe, which happens to be vegan, from Susan. It’s now my standard chocolate cake recipe. No one needs to know it’s vegan, and it certainly doesn’t taste funny or have a strange texture.

You can see the amazingness that is Susan’s cake-decorating handiwork here. The recipe is on the page, but the version she gave me is half as much, which is more reasonable if you’re not making a two-tiered wedding cake.

I made this cake first for a library science school potluck. I had worried how I could indicate it was OK for vegans, so I turned it into a MARC (book) record.
MARC cake.JPG

Are you ready for the best cake ever? It has everything going for it, outside of being gluten-free.

Vegan Chocolate Cake
2 1/4 c flour
1/3 c cocoa
1 1/2 c sugar
3/4 t salt
1 1/2 t baking soda
6 T oil
1 1/2T white vinegar
2 t vanilla
1 1/2 c cold water
1 c chocolate chips (optional, for a more rich and decadent cake)

Preheat oven to 350F. Grease a pan (it makes a thinner 9×11″ or a thick 9×9″). Combine dry ingredients and mix them thoroughly. Make three wells in the dry mixture and add the oil to one, vanilla to the second, and vinegar to the last. Pour the cold water over the whole thing and mix very well, adding chocolate chips if using.

Pour batter into the oiled pan and bake at 350 for about 30 minutes. The cake is done when the center is set.

Bonus!
Vegan Chocolate Icing
1 c semi-sweet chocolate chips, melted in a saucepan or microwave with enough soy milk (vanilla soy milk is best!) for consistency, cocoa powder to taste, and some sort of fun flavoring extract.

It’s mighty, all right.

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It’s mighty, all right., originally uploaded by sundaykofax.

Jason and I visited his parents this weekend, and we went to one of
those local chain restaurants that Jason frequented as a teen. My
equivalent is Hungry Hobo. With either, the nostalgia is better than
the actual quality. He had the namesake, and I had a buffito, which is
a buffalo-sauce burrito.

Sundaymooch

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I was going to Bookmooch some books, but then I thought “if I’m going to mail these anyway, I might as well see if any friends want them”. It’s the selfish/altruistic thing – I get to feel good about sharing, and gain some shelf space.

So, I have a couple of books I’d love to get off my shelves. Email or leave a comment if you want me to mail it to you.

Blood, Sweat and Tea: Real-life adventures in an inner-city ambulance
It’s a blog-to-book by a London EMT. He writes about his experiences driving an ambulance through London responding to calls. It’s not too gory, but it is a great day-in-the-life of someone who has a really interesting job.

Best Friends Forever
I read this because the publisher sent it to me. It is NOT my style. It was almost good – there are two main characters, women with different kinds of fucked-up high school lives, who turned out OK. So, you can choose to empathize with the former fatty, or the cute and poor.

I Know This Much Is True
Wally Lamb writes great novels, but this was fits into the category of books you can’t read because there’s something too close to your life.