Tea Time

After four months of schedule conflicts and holiday busy-ness, I was able to see my friend Terri for lunch today. She gave me a container of Cranberry-Blood Orange tea as part of my Christmas gift; I'm drinking some now and loving it! I figured I'd post an update while I drink my tea, though there's not much exciting to report.

Markus' job is exciting, I suppose. Not exciting like getting ready for vacation exciting, but busy exciting. He's working late almost every night almost every week; his company is rolling out a new phone system in all of their offices, so he's leading the team that goes to all the satellite offices and sets up the phones, the software for the phones, and makes sure that the new phones work. It requires a lot of time and is challenging, but Markus thrives on challenging projects so while it's tiring I think he's enjoying it.

This has left me with a bit of extra time on my hands so I've been passing the time in a couple of different ways. I got myself hooked on American Idol this season when I started watching the try-outs one night. Markus and I have both said that this season has interested us more than most others because there are several talented people performing. Personally, I like Laquisha (not sure if that's the correct spelling) and am rooting for her. Her performance last week of the Jennifer Hudson song from Dreamgirls was just amazing - and it was only the first real week! I can't wait to see how she does through the rest of the season. I think I have a soft spot for her, too, because she's a single mom working hard to support her daughter, she's articulate, yet somewhat shy about her abilities as a singer. I'd love to see her go all the way and create an amazing career and life for herself and her daughter. She seems really deserving.

When American Idol isn't on, I watch Grey's Anatomy and last night, the Oscars. It was longer than it needed to be, but I'm a sucker for seeing who's wearing what, who gives the best speeches, and any other hits or misses in the show. Personally, I loved seeing Jennifer Hudson's surprise at her victory, thought it was awesome that Martin Scorcese finally (FINALLY!!) won a well-deserved and long overdue Oscar, and was pleased that Al Gore's documentary won for best documentary and Melissa Etheridge won for best song from that documentary. Who would've thought that Al Gore would have a rock-star type of celebrity at this point in his life and career?

Aside from TV, I've finally gotten back to baking. I feel like vacation renewed my energy and my spirit; now that I have more energy, I feel a little more like cooking and baking. Markus has always liked Millet Muffins from the Metropolitan Bakery, so I made some for him last weekend. Millet is a crunchy type of grain; I have a whole bag of it and decided I should use it (or trash it), hence the millet muffins. They're not sweet because they're made with whole wheat flour, honey instead of sugar, and when I ran out of honey I substituted brown rice syrup for the remainder of the honey. If you've ever seen Christina Perillo of Christina Cooks on PBS, she uses brown rice syrup as a sweetener in her recipes (she's very much into whole foods, organic, natural, healthy cooking). So, for the first time using millet and brown rice syrup, it was an experimental attempt that turned out just fine. :-) Tonight, I made chocolate cookies with mint chips (anyone who knows Markus knows the boy loves the chocolate-mint flavor combo). Also tasty, though chocolate has lost a bit of its luster for me throughout the pregnancy. Don't get me wrong, I still eat it, but it's just not as good as it was before.

Finally, I did some shopping over the weekend. Markus and I rarely have the occasion to get really dressed up, and wouldn't you know that this spring, we have not one but two black tie events. Finding a gown is hard enough, let alone finding a maternity dress appropriate for a black tie event. So, I went shopping this weekend to begin my search. Surprisingly, I found a dress that will be fine, I just need to wait until closer to the event date because I'm not sure how much weight I'll gain between now and then, and therefore, what size dress to buy. I also went to Babies R Us, which is becoming a more regular part of our shopping/browsing routine. We registered there last weekend and I needed to update a few things and buy a pillow to help with my back pain. It's called a Snoogle - it's shaped like a G and basically curves around my back and then comes up between my legs (supposed to reduce pressure on the spine). It is quite the pillow...it's helped with my back pain which has been a relief.

While at Babies R Us, I also bought some diapers. Here's why: last week, I had my first baby anxiety dream. I dreamt that the baby arrived early (healthy, just earlier than we expected) and we had no diapers. In my dream, I went to Target 4 times in the same day and they had no diapers so of course I was freaking out in my dream. Since I had a coupon and was there, I figured I'd buy some diapers just to have around. I know we won't need them for a long time, but hey, once the baby's here we'll go through them like there's no tomorrow. Hopefully no more anxiety dreams for a little while!

I've finished my tea and realize that I've written a long post about nothing, essentially. I think I'll call it a night. Hopefully the next update will be a little more exciting! Maybe I'll add an American Idol poll to the blog so all 2 or 3 of our faithful readers can vote for their favorite Idol. :-)