into the light

Let's talk for a moment about light.

I don't have a lot of weird hang-ups (or so I'd like to think), but one that I am aware of is a sensitivity to light. Not in that vampire way, or like in that xeroderma pigmentosum Nicole-Kidman-in-"The Others" way, but just to the quantity and quality of light in my living space. Namely, I like a lot of light, and it has to be warm light. If it were up to me and I had no conscience or safety reservations or knowledge of our electricity bill whatsoever, I would outfit our entire house with 150 watt bulbs and keep them blazing all day long.

There are some lights in our new house that I hate, though. This is one of them.




It is a single bulb over the sink that Joe got to replace one that blew. He maintains that he got the same kind of power-saver bulb as the other bulbs are, and at the same wattage, but for some reason, while the other bulbs give off a vaguely yellowish warm light, this one bulb gives off a light that is to my eye a greyish blue. I hate it. I hate this light bulb. I mean, in as much as anyone can hate a light bulb. If I ever see it on, I flick it off instantly. It makes me jittery and anxious. It makes everything look cold and depressing. It makes the sink look like it's haunted.

There's another light in the living room that bothers me too, though to a somewhat lesser degree. It provides a fair amount of light, I suppose, but it is kind of a sickly yellowish green and when you listen closely, you can hear sort of a faint buzzing the the background whenever it is on, which leads me to believe that the bulb is flourescent. Once I started noticing the buzz, I could not tune it out. Also, there is, at some of the dimmer settings, a flicker. I cannot deal with a light that both buzzes and flickers and makes you look like you have some sort of liver disease. So I try to avoid using this light too.

I am all for saving money on electricity and "going green" and using energy efficient appliances as the next person. But I draw the line at light bulbs. And so I figure that the fact that I take mass transit to work every day buys me the right to use incandescent bulbs in my living room, so long as I turn them off when I leave the room.

(And on a related note, I tried to convince Joe last January to keep the Christmas tree up year-round, not as some sort of signifier of extreme sloth or mental illness, but as an additional source of ambient light. He said no. Let's hope he's too distracted this year with the baby and all that to notice and we can keep the tree up at least through March.)

33 weeks

First, a pictoral update




Biggie Smalls is getting more biggie, less smalls, and, I can only imagine, a little disgruntled at the increasingly cramped conditions of his living quarters. As, frankly, am I.

Cal's third set of grandparents came to visit us this weekend, which was fun. Cal got to do his cute act (like many kids, I imagine, he is always much more cute with adult guests than he is with his parents) and got to natter on about all manner of topics, each only tangentially related to the last. This last exchange amused me, though.


CAL
(lifting up Grandpa Bart's shirt)
Why is your belly big?

GRANDPA BART
(Patting Cal on the head)
Too many good meals.

CAL
Do you have a baby in there?

GRANDPA BART
No, just too much food.

CAL
Does the doctor need to fix your belly?

MICHELLE
(Explaining)
Cal's other grandpa has an umbilical hernia that he's getting fixed.

GRANDPA BART
(To Cal)
No, no doctor, just me. I just need to make some lifestyle modifications.

CAL
(Pause)
No. You need the doctor to fix it.


Reminds me of that "Simpsons" episode where Milhouse, upon being told that he needs more exercise asks, "Aw, can't I just have the surgery?"

cal's birthday will involve a beer exchange


Cal just got invited to a birthday party for a kid in his class at one of the local bouncy-house indoor inflatable playgrounds. The invitation stipulated that in lieu of presents for the birthday girl, all the guests are to bring a book, and at the end of the party all the kids will do a "book exchange," so that everyone can go home with a new book. Which, I have to say, is a really nice way to do things, and a cool way to send everyone home with a little something instead of a bag full of goody bag junk, promote non-materialism with respect to the birthday kid, all that good jazz. (Yes, it would be EVEN BETTER if we all brought toys and books to donate to ORPHANS or something, but hey, you can ask people to do that at your party.)

But another part of me is thinking, "No presents at your own birthday party? Man, that's cold."

100 steps (kinda)

Some time ago, I remember seeing a photo project on the internet called "100 steps" (or something like that) which challenged people to take a camera with them on a routine walk, and take a photo of something, anything interesting every 100 steps of that journey. I thought the idea was pretty cool, but at the time, I never really got around to it, because honestly, I am always in a big fat rush.

I don't get to pick up Cal from school that often, maybe once every week or two as my work (and OB appointment scheduling) allows, but every time I walk there to get him, it always seems like the weather is perfect and the light is just right and I always wish that I had a camera with me. So today I was walking to get Cal from school and thinking those same old thinks, when I realized, duh, I have a phone cam on me, don't I. I didn't obey the letter of the rules, in that I got tired of counting each 100 steps pretty early on, but I think I obeyed the spirit of the rules, which were basically to stop and observe and look at things that you might ordinarily just walk right by in your rush from Point A to Point B.

Anyway, it was fun. Full photo set here.

(Also, I think there's something wrong with the comments section, but damned if I know what it is. So I'm just going to wait until HaloScan figures out what's wrong fixes itself. That's my usual strategy when something internet-y goes wrong--defer to others. That, and the old standby for all manner of electronic equipment failure--turn it off, then turn it back on again. Works >50% of the time!)