A Full-bodied polar fox.

Lyolik telegrammed it to me the other day, with a brief annotation Полный Песец , which was such a great laconic description of my life right now I could not help setting it as my laptop desktop.

*****

Sometimes it becomes hard to just pull myself up off the floor and go and do anything useful at all.

Some doctors just know their stuff.

My new ob/gyn is prescribing me a new type of oral contraceptive ("just in case"), and meanwhile is refreshing my memory on its proper use (apparently, again, "just in case"):

-It's important that you take the pill every day...
-Yep.
-... preferably- at the same time every day.
-Yep.
-For example, every evening at dinner.
-Yep.
-So it's best for you to keep the pack in the kitchen: when you cook dinner, and the kids are tired, running around and screaming, and throwing tantrums - you think "Please, God, don't let me have any more kids!", and then you remember to take your pill!

...Too bad she switched to the next subject before I could ask her how on Earth she knew...

One of the pregnancy paradoxes

is that you get a huge fruit bowl feeling like you're going to pass out if you don't eat every single piece of fruit RIGHT NOW.

                                         maybe one just like that

20 minutes later and only 1/3 way through the bowl you realize you can't have any more. Physically. The bottom of your stomach is somewhere 3 inches above your solar plexus, last bite of mango wouldn't move down the throat; no fruit physically would fit in.

But you still feel like you're going to pass out if you don't finish every single piece of fruit RIGHT NOW!

**** All characters are ficticious. Any resemblence to eating habbits, beahaviour or feelings of real pregnant women is purely coincidental :)   ***

Watching and giggling

Finally could start to watch the 3rd season of the House of Cards (American version) - very entertaining. Kudos to the movie crew for bringing in the real Pussy Riot, I was surprised to find out it was actually them! Not sure the girls were invited to star in any similar projects in Russia after they were released.  Kudos to Lars Mikkelsen for picking up Russian and putting on some Russian accent for his role, I assume that couldn't have been easy :).
My only two questions on the dinner at the White House scene were:

1. Why would the Pussy Riot bother to make a provocative toast in the language very few of the present would understand? Why not speak out in English - if you really want to shame off your president in front of everyone?

2.  Even with all the Cold-war era and post-Cold-war era stereotypical behaviour the Russian president demonstrated - teaching the American president how to drink vodka, how to chase it with pickles, singing Russian folk songs and hitting on the first lady - is still too  shallow and superficial. Why wouldn't he bring in his pet bear? :) Or show his hosts and other guests at the dinner how to have a shot of vodka AND eat the shot glass after that? :) Or pull everyone into a paint ball shooting or fishing contest right after the dinner? :)  There seems to be no growth  in the outrageousness and insanity of the Russians - as perceived by the West - within the past couple of decades... very disappointing :)

Meanwhile... (couldn't resist)

                                                     (taken from http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-31901078)

I had a feeling there would be something crazy about this week

when I found myself dancing at Bistro Al Vino around midnight on Saturday, shocking the clubbers around with the mere looks of my 3-rd trimester belly (at least I think this time it was the looks of belly at the dancefloor that widened the eyes of those around).

In the next 4 days I managed to cover the Litigation section of REG (to those who find themselves having an urge to do the same - don't even attempt!); survive the last week of Dr. Chill's daycare; take a Friday exam and while running errands all day after that - to get a huge screw in my rear tyre and to actually discover I have one - by the hissing sound I heard while unloading my truck. Some things just need to happen 1.5 hours before you need to pick up your kid from the daycare, and on the day when you need to also get ALL his things out of there, so you DO need the car! Thank God, miracles do still happen to me :) and the car shop across the road from the daycare fixed the hole in less than an hour!

Next day I assembled Dr. Chill's new furniture in his new room. Never again! - the skin on the palms is rubbed and hurts like crazy. I was lucky to get help from Dr. Chill though - he does an amazing job putting the screws in the proper wholes, bringing and holding parts and pieces. And once he got a hold of the screwdriver - he immediately personalized his table by punching a dozen of holes in his brand new table top, before I could reach out and take away the screwdriver. What a sweet cutie, aaaargh...

Sunday, after brunch with friends - the annual pregnancy and baby-wear swap took place. Now there are a few minor things to get, and I'm ready for enhancement of my motherhood experience :)

Little project of the week  - Dr. Chill allowed to brush his teeth every single day of this week. Another little victory, given his gums are full of bumps, and the teeth are not showing yet!..

On a larger - scale - in the month of February -  the trip to the 2nd new place to visit this year has been booked.  The date of the month has been arranged, but not taken care of, for health reasons. Still counts though :) 

5 new books read in February. Plans for the on-going education modified slightly. Plans for the education for the side-project - are moving forward. 

I wonder now, how do you take an international trip with a 4-5 month old baby and a 2 year old toddler? Say, to even Canada? And how do you find time to study for 3 different areas all at once? And what comes first in my side project - education or experience? :)

Lunatic's notes.

The best way to burn dinner is to cook it in almost complete darkness outside, with a very-energetic toddler handing on you once you step indoors.

And I mean not just have a crust a little too thick, but to set the whole set of meat and veggies on fire.
So that the flames almost reach the house wall. And there's so much smoke as if boyscouts invaded our backyard and chopped the fence and the garden beds to firewood. And that the grill would burn for another 10 minutes after the gas is shut off.

Just as Liz explained a quarter of an hour later when ordering pizza: "When you said you can't check on the burgers because the flames burst all the way up when you try lifting the grill lid - I realized things'd gone reeeeally wrong!".

I believe it all started last week when I tried to drink compote from Dr. Chill's sippy cup, mistakenly grabbing it instead of my champagne flute with juice.

Or a few days before that, when I was running around Dr Chill's classroom in daycare looking for a bag I brought his diapers supply in, and which mysteriously disappeared after I took out the diapers. Until one of his teachers tactfully suggested: "Like the big red bag behind your shoulder?".

Closing curtain.

I begin suspecting it's either my oldest one or the youngest one - doing something to my brain. Or maybe both of them.

While pulling the trash bin from the driveway into the garage

Noticed a little envelope taped to the lid, with  Happy Holidays! written on it.
And a small Season's greeting card inside.
With a poem and wishes of Happy Holidays.
From our trash collector guy.
Wow.

*****

Putting together reciprocal Greetings, for next week :)
But still - wow!

DOOM

As Von Zobel was watching me taking a 10 minute stress management break, chasing monsters with a shotgun, I remember a little anecdote I had to tell him.

DOOM-II was quite a popular game when I was about 8; I played it on my uncle's computer when I access to it was granted to me :) and I knew a few more kids who played it too. However, we all were in groups learning English as the second language, we were of course interested in understanding the name of the game - but we could not.
Because none of the dictionaries we could get our hands on had the word.
I can't remember what the deal was with the English-speaking adults around, the teachers of English or IT in school, but the fact was - we could not dig up the word anywhere.
So then we decided, that the word "DOOM" must be made up specifically for this game (yep, because if something is not in a dictionary for school-aged kids it simply does not exist!), and - that it is a combination of the words DOor and roOM (because you have to move through corridors between all sorts of rooms with monsters, and open all sorts of doors!).
Makes perfect sense, right?

...It was in a couple of years when either my best friend got a computer WITH internet connection, or I inherited a huge Oxford English dictionary from ex-owners of our new apartment, or we got one of our computers in computer lab hooked up to Internet at school... that we did at some point look up the word.
The meaning was definite, but somewhat disappointing.

The cure.

I love days when absolutely everything is in my favour. I get up earlier than usual, there is no traffic on the way to daycare and back, the study material gets organized and memorized ok by the brain :), there is no line at the gas station (and that calls for some special star alliance I'd say), I get in and out of stores in a minute, with precisely what I was looking for, and the coupons work even if they were not supposed to, and a nail polish of precisely the colour I want gets founded, and the hormones are down, and the dinner gets cooked quickly and easily, and jogging is quite bearable, and the new book I started is so enjoyable!
Days like this save a tremendous amount of time and energy. :)

And then there are days when I have the weirdest dreams and I can't figure them out, and the morning is freezing and grey, and I feel lost and can't focus, and then miss gym because the insurance agent needs to stop by and take a look at the solar panels at a short notice.

And the best cure to this is not to wait for it all to end, but to twist the course of the day and let my little hooligan out. To do something irrational, unpredictable, and unexpected,  stick out the tongue and giggle. Then the universe shakes a little, things fall back into their places, but the day continues on a new trajectory, thoughts and body get lighter, the head becomes clearer, the smile stretches wider.

Woman's intuition works in such a mysterious way

that it can drag you into a store you weren't even planning to set your foot in, and helps  you leave with 4 pairs of shoes.

For $120 total.
Saving 2/3 on this whole purchase.

Should listen to my intuition more often.

Ok, I got it.

Knowing that  I am a weird and unpredictable type of a person with a sophisticated character, and patience that tends to run out sometimes before a burning match goes out - God/Universe sent me my two absolutely perfect boys as my family.

Over 7 mln views on Youtube...

 

Somebody just had to come up with this!

 

The funniest part though is how quickly the popular song was picked up and played around with close to November 6 :

Of course Republicans could not have leaft this unanswered!

And next weekend we're going to a Gangnam Style dance Flash Mob in Washington Park =)