Home visit

So Sunday my niece was born, Monday we had court and I started a new position at work, Tuesday I had a WIC appointment (always THE WORST), and yesterday we had a home visit with the baby's worker and also we brought dinner to my bro and his wife and the new baby twenty minutes away. Oh, and tonight we have dinner with my parents. Because of course we do. I am so, so glad that tomorrow is Friday.

So the home visits are scheduled for half an hour and are basically for the worker to confirm that the child is alive and the home is still standing. The old worker would stop in, say hello, ask if we had any questions, answer them if I did, usually check the baby's sleeping area, and then bounce. Yesterday the worker was here for an hour and a half.

This worker is pretty great. She answers all of my million questions and is way more forthcoming about information that might not be considered crucial for our case - like she'll share pieces of history about the brother's case or tell us about the dad's other kids' mom's situation - in a way that our first worker didn't. She also is really good at answering my questions about the process, so that's helpful in me seeing what possibilities are ahead of us.

She confirmed for me yesterday that there is very, very little chance that the baby will go anywhere between now and the scheduled court case in July. For her to go anywhere, the grandma's lawyer would have to petition the court to place the baby with the grandma, and I think there would have to be a hearing. The worker also reassured me that the county still wouldn't support that, even if her lawyer did petition the court (which is itself incredibly unlikely - it's just that I asked the worker exactly what would have to happen for her to go somewhere before July). The worker also told me that sometime in the next few months she'll talk to the mom about surrendering her rights. That isn't a likely outcome, but the worker says that the mom is doing very little to show any progress and might be persuaded to stop dragging it out. I asked what that would mean about the grandma wanting custody, and the worker said that if the mom voluntarily surrenders her rights, that removes the grandma from the equation. I did confirm that the dad would have to surrender his rights too (he's the adjudicated father, which means he has attested in court that he is her dad) and he might fight it because he's a pretty proud dude (and also because it gives him some power over the mom).

This is by far the longest we will have gone without a court date, which is really cool. We know we'll have the baby for my first niece's first birthday party. I can buy even more summery outfits for her. (Also, and this isn't a minor thing, I am going two months before my next WIC appointment instead of the every-month bullshit I had to do until now.) It is nice to think about our time together as a family doubling by July!

Do you guys have any questions about any of this shit, like the process or how it all works or anything? I'll answer if I can!

Trying to stay awake.

Here is what we've been up to this week:

• Monday: Met up with a friend I hadn't seen in months right after work, then two hours later we were joined by our menfolk for a lovely Mexican dinner at our favorite joint. Returned home around 8 to do two hours' worth of homework for foster class.
• Tuesday: CSA errand, doggy break, foster class, after which we discovered that one of the couples in the class is planning to do this awesome program where they'll foster babies between birth and six weeks, at which point they could come to a home - like, say, ours - with parents who work full-time, as babies in our state can't enter daycare before six weeks of age. This conversation was awesome but took a while, so we got home around 10.
• Wednesday: Art Night, which is a weekly thing where our good friend comes over and we all work on whatever respective art project we've got going. She was over from about 5:30 till a little after 10.
• Thursday: Dinner up the street with friends at 5:30, followed by Knitting Night with the same friend we do Art Night with. Got home around 10:15.
• Today: I'm waiting for the jars to finish in the dishwasher so I can can the second batch of peach butter, and then we're going out for birthday dinner then drinks for a good friend. Her birthday was earlier this week and also was the same day as her grandpa's funeral, so I don't feel particularly inclined to beg off tonight.
• Tomorrow will be a fourteen-hour-long fiasco train-wreck of a combined bachelor/bachelorette party for a wedding Andy's in at the end of the month. We're going on a wine tour, which sounds great, right? Well, we leave at 9 a.m., which means our first tasting will be around 10:30, we're in a limo with 28 other people (of whom I know maybe 10), and some of these people are the sort who think bringing coolers of cheap beer to pregame the first winery is a great plan. Oh, and after we get home from the day-long, drinking-in-the-hot-sun, Rachael-will-get-heat-exhaustion-so-she-stays-sober event, there's a barbecue/bonfire at the home of the bride and groom - who are nice enough or whatever but who are not people I would typically choose to spend 14 hours with. Remind me sometime to tell you about the wine tour we went on with these people last year, which ended up with the bride starting a fight and then storming off in tears, with the groom following her. Oh, and they were our ride. Cool.

Ugh. All I want to do right now is take my pants off, eat some chips and salsa (we made salsa!), and curl up with the four books I got out of the library. Is that so much to ask?

What advice do you have on how to be a good sport for fourteen hours spent with people you're done with after two?

So busy and important.

UPDATE: I fixed all the weird busted links. Sorry about that. But no, really, try the corn fritters.

Tuesdays are the new busy day, so you’ll probably get a little less awesome from me on Tuesdays in the next few weeks. I have to leave work around 4, drive half an hour to get our CSA share, drive half an hour home, feed the dogs and let them out and give them a little love, and drive fourteen minutes to our classes, which start on 6 on the nose and which include having to go through a security checkpoint. So, you know, a little rushed for time. If I were a better blogger, I’d have posts set up ahead of time, but you all know that ain’t me.

Today the coworker who sits in the cubicle right next to mine spent, oh, four and a half hours scrolling slowly through pdfs. I am not kidding. I already had a headache, and my passive aggressive response of eating a box of strawberry Nerds as loudly as I could just made my stomach hurt too. Ugh. Teeth on edge all day.

But! I’ve been spending some slow moments reading the last year’s worth of posts from Stephanie at I Need An Adult (http://haygirlhay.tumblr.com/!) and can happily point you towards three recipes she has linked to, all of which I need in my life:

Thai-style corn fritters (I need instruction on when to put Sweet Chili Sauce on things, so this is helpful).

Mushroom, spinach, and asparagus pasta (I don’t even mind that the sauce is basically cream cheese thinned with milk) (ugh, and when you’re done with that, drool over the homemade ricotta. I don’t even care about making homemade ricotta but this looks so freaking good.)

Oh, and for those of you with a sweet tooth, I’ve got you covered too: S’MORES COOKIES. Not kidding.

Oh, and I just got home and discovered that the shirt I'm wearing should only be worn with a skin-tone bra (NOT WEARING ONE) and also that bending over to pick up the car keys I just dropped makes me feel like my head is broken forever.

Please, for the love of everything holy, share something delightful with me.

So busy and important.

Dudes! We have been going like gangbusters, with plans every night, and are taking our rare evening off to finish staining our bedroom furniture. Hopefully several hours from now you'll find me relaxing in the air conditioning with a glass of Pimm's and a homemade pickle, basking in the glory of a job well done.

In the meantime, here are two websites to tide you over:
Gender-neutral nurseries, as pinned on Pinterest. So much awesome inspiration.

TV Tropes page for Full House. Prepare to be lost for hours in the wormhole that is TV Tropes. (I'm serious: I wrote this post fifteen minutes ago and just spent the time in between randomly clicking on that site.)

Your turn! Share an interesting site with me.

So busy and important.

It's a little cooler today, in the sixties instead of the nineties, so I'm celebrating with my first bike ride of the season! I can't seem to find my bike online, but it's pretty close to this one (same company, similar design) but mine has three speeds and foot breaks and it is PINK. I love it a lot. I'm waiting for this helmet which matches it to be back in stock in my size, but currently I ride around helmet-less like the badass I am. On my pink beach cruiser. Totally B.A.

Here's some shit to keep you busy:
Top 10 Blogs to Learn Something New. Via a link from something Mighty Girl wrote.
Funny parenting-focused blog The Daddy Complex. I may have been creeping on his archives pretty hard.
Pinterest. If you've got nothing to do for four hours, that time just filled up. Try searching for a color. Damn.
Mark Wahlberg Talks to Animals. This never fails to make me laugh. "Did you see The Perfect Storm, Goat?"

Do you have an awesome bike? Can you recommend an alternate helmet that is equally cute, equally not-covered-in-designs-or-flowers-or-shit, and equally life-saving? What links can you share?

So busy and important.

Sorry about no post yesterday, dudes. I'm sure you were all distraught. I've been busy as hell trying to get ready to go out of town for the weekend, and every time I come home I discover that Pancakes has done something like destroy Rooster's harness or spread my yarn all over the living room. Frustrating.

In lieu of an actual post, here's what I have to do before my train leaves in the morning:

• Finish the laundry so that I can
• Pack my duffel bag (I learned on my last trip that those great little suitcases with wheels weigh a fucking ton and suck to haul up and down subway stairs) with:
• 5 pairs of socks (it's important to me to always have clean socks available)
• 4 sets of unmentionables (if I phrase it like this, it sounds like coordinated expensive underwear/bra combos, instead of mismatched Hanes undies and bras I got on sale at J.C.Penney)
• 1 pair of jammies
• 1 pair of jeans
• 3 t-shirts
• 2 sweaters
• 2 pairs of shoes acceptable for walking around the city
• 1 stuffed cow
• Toiletries, which when you're me is code for deodorant and contact solution
• Pack my "carry-on" (the bag that I'll keep with me) with:
• Yarn, needles, and knitting pattern
• Mindless magazine
• A book (I'm trying to decide between Bill Bryson and David Sedaris. Help!)
• Since I'll be on the train for lunchtime:
• A pb&j on whole wheat bread
• Sour cream and onion chips (a traveling indulgence) (I know this is weird: I'm a really picky eater but I love the taste of pb&j with grape jelly mixed with the taste of sour cream and onion chips. It's okay if you think that's gross.)
• Trail mix (dried cranberries, almonds, sunflower seeds, and chocolate chips)
• An orange, peeled and sectioned, in a baggie
• A big bottle of water 
• A bottle of Coke and two homemade chocolate chip cookies, so you don't think I'm all healthy or anything
• Fully charged iPod with headphones
• Sunglasses
• Gum
• Set up three posts for this joint to keep my hordes of readers at bay
• Pick at my chipping nail polish for a while
• Have dinner over at my parents' house for my dad's birthday
• Get as close to 8 hours of sleep as possible
• Shave my legs, because I'm sharing a bed with the friend I'm visiting and I'd rather not have her think she's sharing a bed with a cactus (I'm a snuggler. What can I say?)
• Watch my neighbor's car get towed with great interest

So you can see, I'm a busy lady with lots of claims on my time. I'm going to go get stuff crossed off this here list, starting with picking at my nails and watching my neighbor's car get towed. See, I'm even multitasking!

Busy, busy, busy.

Gorgeous (and free!) pattern via feministy

I'm in the middle of trying to untangle some really pretty, soft, fluffy, pale grey alpaca yarn so I can start knitting the pattern above. It's a scarf! With leaves! And it's named after a character from Bones! I'm obviously pretty excited to get started, so I wish I had been a teeny bit more effing patient instead of making a giant mess out of winding the yarn from a skein into a ball.

I'm meeting up with my knitterly friends in a bit so we can trek to a new-to-us yarn store, and I'd seriously be ashamed for any legit knitter to see the mess I've made, so I have to go take care of that.

Before we go to the yarn store, Andy and I are taking Rooster to meet a possible new dog friend! The way it works at our pound is that they hold the dog until a certain date, and you can sign up for said dog during the holding period. On the day and time they release him, he goes to the first person on the list who's signed up for him. We signed up for a sweet little Dachshund mix (note to self: if we get this dog, learn to spell Daschshund) but we're third on the list, so we won't know if he's ours till Saturday! It's hard not to get my hopes up. Making sure he and Rooster aren't arch-enemies from birth is an important step, don't you think?

Also, we're accepting suggestions for names for Dog No. 2. I really like "Monster" but am worried about it sounding too close to Rooster. Thoughts?

Have you ever gotten a pet from the pound? Any tips on not making a mess out of winding yarn next time? What would you name my second dog?

Possible names for my band

When they eventually discover a cure for being almost-tone-deaf, I'll be ready. Here's a list of names for the band I'll start when I can identify a note. Most of these are phrases pulled from everyday conversations in my day-to-day life.

• Mike's Surprise Illegitimate Love Child
• Stick It to the Peanut Butter Man
• Bloodbeard
• Megatron Says Yes
• You Can't Make Me Be the Warthog [or maybe just Be the Warthog]
• Those Genies Are into Some Freaky Shit
• Downsy Russian
• Slow Seepage 
• Shadows and Screams
• The Bacon Situation
• The Matt B. Dynamic
• The Jelly Bitches

Obviously, most of these are best suited for punk bands. If you want to use any of them, contact me. They're all up for grabs. Except maybe The Jelly Bitches. That one just has a nice ring to it. Oh, and the Kid calls dibs on Megatron Says Yes. Sorry.

Do you have a list of possible band names at the ready? Share your ideas! (I keep my list as a memo in my phone, and add to it pretty often. I suggest you do the same.)

Quick post because I'm an exciting lady.

Delicious-looking picture via

I went to work early, left early, went to the bank, went to the garage where my poor car is resting, and in three minutes we're off to dinner with some friends. Without knowing we already had a corned beef feast this week, they offered us a second one - how could we say no?

Also, I thought you should know that I'm in the process of pioneering a new look: sweaters over sweaters. It's inspired by the early settlers of this country and the fact that my office is fucking cold. Look for it on the runways next fall.

To make up for this being a short post, here's a present: Hyperbole and a Half. If you don't already read this, go do so. You'll spend a few hours reading all the archives, at least. Just do yourself a favor and don't try to read them on the sly in a quiet office, because the snorting gets really obvious pretty quickly. And the more you try to squash the guffaws, the more you sound like you're birthing a water buffalo in your cubicle. Or maybe that's just me.

What busy and important things are you up to?

What it's like to be me today

Hello, beautiful

Here's what's going on in my head right now:

The insurance company has decided that my car is totaled. This means that the whole process is going to take longer than the week or so we planned for. We have to find out exactly why they totaled it, because if there's nothing structurally wrong with the car we'll probably buy it back from them and get it fixed. Either way, we decided it's smarter to stop paying for the rental I've been using all week, so it looks like this weekend will be spent learning to drive standard. That way I can drop Andy off at work and pick him up (he works longer days than I do) or, if I'm not confident enough to face rush hour on the highway yet, he can drop me off and pick me up, and I can work four ten-hour days next week. Hassle.

I need a haircut. And some dye. I dyed it black for Halloween but don't want to commit to black hair full time, so I've been rocking several inches of brownish roots for a while now. I can't decide what I want to do with it right now, but this website will make deciding really easy or a lot harder.

Thursdays have become Knitting Night for me and some friends. Tonight we're taking a field trip to the other side of the city so I can get more lovely, lovely Baby Alpaca Grande, which is pictured above. I'm halfway done with a gorgeous seed-stitch cowl in the softest coral yarn ever (that's it second from the right in the picture). I'll try to post a picture of the finished thing, because I made up the pattern because I'm a badass knitter like that.

I'm hungry.

What's it like to be you today?

Quick post because I'm an exciting lady.

This is what I'm knitting. Image via

This is going to be a short one, because I'm an important and busy person. I have a rushed schedule of watching Bones on DVD, working on my first knitting project for myself in months, and getting fancy to go out to a new restaurant (warning: sound!) for dinner with some awesome friends.

Regarding the restaurant, you'd think that as someone who was a vegetarian for ten years (no joke), I'd appreciate all the vegetarian/vegan options on their menu. But you'd be wrong, because I'm in the top ten picky eaters I know, so I just look at things like buffalo-spiced tempeh and pickled onions and vanilla bean tofu pudding and go, "Oh, that's nasty."

Also, sometimes I'm sad for you guys that this isn't a fashion blog, because I look awesome today. So, you know, too bad for you, or whatever.