Contemplations of a Closet Curmudgeon

Yesterday started out pretty well - felt rested, good lunch break where I was able to get Kate down for a nap before heading back, some quality time with the massage chair at work. 

Then some time in mid-afternoon things started to go downhill. I began feeling very poorly, so I tried to limit the amount of time I spent running around. M called just as I was leaving work to say that the Jeep was ready, so as soon as I got home we bundled up Kate and headed right back out to go retrieve the car. As soon as we were back with all the vehicles, M turned right back around and went out again to go and sell a couple of his shotguns that he doesn't like, so it was just me and Kate for a few hours.

Kate was so excited about having her shoes on because it almost always means going for a walk, which is The Best, and it felt terrible to disappoint her, so I pushed myself to take her on a short walk around the complex. I tried to keep it close to the house, but she was in explore mode, and we ended up crossing the entire complex. She knew what I was doing every time I tried to steer her back home, and darted away from me to do more acorn collecting or running around, so by the time we were finally back home I had completely overdone it and was feeling awful. 

Attempted to make soup from the gifted potatoes, but didn't get far. Between having to take many breaks to rest, Kate was also very full of energy and wanted to play together, or she was stripping naked, or climbing furniture she shouldn't be, so the evening was A LOT. 

Thankfully, M called on his way home and offered to pick up pizza, so I didn't feel like I needed to finish the soup that night. And it absolutely did not get finished.

Kate went down at her normal bedtime, and I finally had a chance to eat my pizza and have a bit of ice cream. At around 10, I went to tell M that I was going to bed, and we decided to just move Kate to her crib so we could go to bed together. 

Then she was up at 5AM, because of course she was. A little cheese, some juice, and she went back down within 30 minutes. Victory! 

Tired today but feeling okay. Leaving work a little early because M has to be in Dallas this evening for a client dinner that he was invited to at the last minute. If I feel up to it and have the time, I may poke at the 1872 corset tonight. We'll see.

Roller coaster weekend. Started with leaving work early on Friday to help M limp the Jeep over to the repair shop. They couldn't get to it right away, so we had to wait on the results of the diagnostic until Monday. The rest of the evening was fine, uneventful.

Saturday was a good day. Everyone was in good spirits, and M got to visit with a friend that was in town unexpectedly and came home in a great mood. I was feeling boxed in to the house with all the damned stuff we've somehow accumulated, so I ended up doing a big clean up of the living room and kitchen so I could breathe again. Felt accomplished, ended the night well.

Then Sunday went downhill suddenly. It started well enough, but then M and I had a very stupid fight about fried chicken, then when he went to the car to go and get us lunch, he discovered that the Honda had been towed. -_- This is, of course, even though I had registered the Honda with the complex precisely so it WOULDN'T get towed. We were able to track down where it was being held hostage and liberate it, but dammit, we should not have had that $300 hit for no reason. I double checked the registration, and yes, the Honda was clearly listed as registered to our unit. The towing company said that they took it because the car's registration didn't match the name on the unit lease. -_- So incredibly stupid. That should not matter as long as it's registered with the office, which it was!

So yeah, we're going to contest that.

Big fight about the car, after stupid chicken fight, so the day was just garbage. 

Heard from the mechanic this morning, and the inspection turned up all sorts of problems. The Jeep was overheating because the thermostat is borked AGAIN, which means this will be the fourth time we're replacing the same damned part. The clonking sound that M heard was the water pump basically beating itself to death because there was no water circulating though the system. They also found all sorts of mystery crud built up in the coolant lines. Biggest surprise was that the front differential is going out. Our rear differential has been sort of crunchy ever since we got the car, but the front is now also being dumb. There's also a pinion something something that is bad. M told the shop to fix the thermostat, water pump, and the crud buildup, and that he'll take care of the rest himself.

Since I had to leave work early on Halloween in order to do car stuff with M, I didn't get a chance to do a final drive-through of the spider neighborhood. Heading to work this morning, many of the houses had already taken down their decorations, which means that this year's final spider count stands at 63!

NoNewSewMo has started, and I've decided to dig out a few nearly-finished projects and try to wrap them up. On the list are the 1830s stays, which just need eyelets and a drawstring at the neck, the corded petticoat, which just needs to be starched dammit, and the 1872 corset, which needs the most work, but it's a small and portable project that I can work on at my desk without having to drag out a bunch of stuff, and I need it to make new dresses next year.

M and I talked about the timeline for house hunting, since the end of the year is nearly upon us, and I said that I'd ideally like to start looking in January so we can be out of the apartment as soon as our lease is up. He wants to stay in the apartment right until the lease is up, and then start looking, meaning a couple of months of month-to-month rent, and a probably move out of something more like May or June. That sticks a fork in my plans to hit the reenactment in May, so I'm shifting focus to Dickens. Plan right now is to finish up the dresses that I had planned for my last trip so I have a full 1850s wardrobe to take with me, AND to make an early 1870s wardrobe so that I have options in case I don't feel like doing 1850s next year. It's honestly all probably a bit much, but eh, I have a year!

It has been a week, man.

Yesterday I had my last sonogram. We'd rescheduled it already a couple of times so M could be there, then just before we were set to go, he got added to a work meeting. -_- So, I packed up some distractions for Katie and wrangled her into the car, and we took care of the appointment on our own. She had snacks and crayons to keep her occupied, which worked wonders and she was sufficiently entertained that she wasn't upset at all during the visit.

Even though she did really well, wrangling a toddler while attempting to get through my own appointment was exhausting, especially since I hadn't really eaten, so I was tired and cranky by the end of it all. Nevertheless, the appointment went well, everything looks healthy and on track, and she's ahead of her weight expectations, so she's going to be a big baby when she's born, the opposite of her 4lb 6oz sister.

On the way home, the Jeep started overheating. It got all the way up to the red line while we were waiting at a stoplight, so I cranked the heater and rolled down the windows and tried to keep us moving so the air could circulate. It went down to about 70% of max, and I was able to get it home. M and I both figured it was just another leak and we would just top off the coolant as we've had to do before, but when he left to go get us dinner later that evening, it overheated again, despite being freshly topped off, and it started making an exciting new clanking sound. 

M made the executive decision that the Jeep is just going to go into the shop and he's not going to attempt to repair it himself. He's already replaced the thermostat and all the hoses multiple times, and apparently Jeep radiators are hell to work on, so he's just going to have someone else do it. 

He called and had Chance pick him up, and they brought the '97 Honda back to the house so I could drive it to work. It's a project car, so it's not at 100% of anything, but it's drivable right now and that's what we need. Its tires were low because of our current cold spell, so this morning I left a little bit early so I could air them up at the station across the street. And the car would not turn back on after that. M had said that this might happen, so I called him, he walked over, diagnosed it as a dead battery, and since there is an O'Reilly's right next to the gas station, we went over there and procured a new battery. Swapped it out, headed back to the house for a bit to go over contingencies in case the Honda acted up again, and then I finally made it to work, only 1.5 hours late. 

Taking a half-day again today so we can limp the Jeep over to the mechanic and I can follow him over. 

C-section has been scheduled for December 10th, so now we have a definitive date. 5 weeks to go.

Katie was up early yesterday, and then went back down at 8AM, so she was just waking up at 11 when it was time for her speech therapy appointment. She wandered into the living room under a pile of her blankets and was in a good mood for the appointment, so it went well. Therapist is still extremely pleased with her progress. We scheduled out the appointments for the next two weeks, and left the rest for later since I'll only be a few weeks out from delivery and things may or may not change unexpectedly. 

After work, M and I scanned the necessary documents and got the entire family signed up for his new work insurance, so that bit of paperwork is finally taken care of. Now when open enrollment for my job starts next week, I can drop the county's insurance and hopefully have a slightly larger paycheck for it.

The rest of the evening was quiet. Katie hadn't napped again, so she was ready for bed relatively early, and went down with zero fuss at 7:30, which was really nice. We may be facing the end of naptime, which I'm not thrilled about, but it is what it is. 

Very done with being pregnant. There was a lot of walking back and forth between places yesterday, and it was incredibly taxing and I was in a lot of pain by the end of the day. Bodies are so stupid, evolution has not done enough to make this process easier.

63 spiders today!

Went home on my lunch break and was greeted at the door by a naked toddler yelling "HI!" very cheerily. XD

Lunch break was brief, Kate had only been awake for an hour or so by then, so I didn't have to put her down for a nap. M requested that I be home in time for his 3pm meeting, so I left work early, only for him to call me just as I was parking at home to tell me that the meeting had been cancelled. Ah, well.

Put Kate down for a late nap, and M went out to run some errands since he had the time available, so I had a bit of quiet time to myself. I'm enjoying these little breaks as much as I can right now, because who knows how things will be once there are TWO kids in the picture. Not quiet, that's for sure.

Fast food for dinner, played with Kate until it was her bedtime. She did not want to go to sleep at all, and when she wants me to come see her but isn't upset or anything, she does this polite little knock on the wall, which is very cute. So it was put baby down -> 15 minutes of quiet -> polite knock -> 5 minutes of negotiating with her (Food? No, no more food. TV? No, we're all done with TV. Kitties? No, kitties are sleeping now because it's bedtime) -> repeat 3 more times before she's tired enough to actually go to sleep.

Last night's gothic horror movie was a rewatch of Crimson Peak. Such a pretty movie, still want the entire cast's wardrobe. Not sure what I'll put on tonight, but I'm leaning toward The Pale Blue Eye. It's not really a horror movie, but it fits the vibe I've been going for.

I've been really wanting to make some early 1870s bustle dresses, the really cupcakey ones. Don't have the ability to right now, of course, but maybe once I'm on leave and can finesse my schedule a bit more, I might be able to get a bit of sewing time in. There's this black dress that's been on my to-do list since forever (I actually made that dress when I was a baby costumer and had no idea what I was doing, and I've wanted to remake it ever since), and this glorious purple dress that I actually purchased a bolt of fabric for and never got around to actually making. My idea is to finish up my 1872 corset and to make the crinolette and petticoats over my leave, and see where I am after that, time-wise. I vaguely recall finding my old crinolette petticoats the last time I was rummaging around in storage, so I may not have to even make petticoats again, which would be great. 

An even 60 spiders today!