Shana Orton's blog

I love to read, so...

“The Big Read reckons that the average adult has only read 6 of the top 100 books they’ve printed.”
1) Look at the list and bold those you have read.
2) Italicize those you intend to read.
3) Underline the books you LOVE.
4) Strike out the books you have no intention of ever reading, or were forced to read at school and hated.
5) Reprint this list in your own LJ blog so we can try and track down these people who’ve read 6 and force books upon them ;-)

1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2 The Lord of the Rings - J.R.R. Tolkien
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4 The Harry Potter Series - JK Rowling
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6 The Bible
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations – Charles Dickens
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveler's Wife
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy 
32 David Copperfield – Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34 Emma - Jane Austen
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving (my absolute favorite book ever. One of my cat's is named Owen for the title character)
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52 Dune - Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding
69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses - James Joyce
76 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77 Swallows and Amazons
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession - AS Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple, Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte’s Web - EB White
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven – Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection – Enid Blyton
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince – Antoine de St. Exupery
93 The Wasp Factory – Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces – John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice – Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100 Les Miserables – Victor Hugo

Slightly Annoying...

• People who slam on their brakes on the freeway when they see a CHP.  For no good reason.  You do NOT have to slam on the brakes if you're not doing anything wrong.  Especially when you're going under the speed limit already for no apparent reason.  It's dangerous!!!
• Which brings me to people who go under the speed limit for no good reason.  You should go at least the speed limit if there are no conditions (visibility, traffic, weather, etc) that make it dangerous.  It's dangerous to do otherwise.  Not to mention really annoying.  If you're not confident enough to drive the speed limit, you shouldn't be on the road.  And if that's not the problem, you're probably just an a--hole who likes to inconvenience everyone else.  Or totally clueless.
• Gas pumps that cut your credit card off at $74.  I don't even understand why they do that.  And why is it only at some stations and not others?  At these prices, that's not enough to fill your tank!
• Paying $4.79 for lowest grade gas.  Not b/c it's so expensive, but b/c it's so much more expensive than nearly anywhere else in this country.  More than pretty much anywhere else in this state, even!  Again, I don't understand why this should be.  Do they do this just b/c everything in the Bay Area is expected to be more expensive? 
• Having to tell our pediatrician's office that they are part of Sutter Health and Sutter Select insurance.  Why do I know more about them than their insurance specialists do?  I mean, seriously, the person I spoke to didn't even know that b/c they are part of MPH and MPH is a Sutter Health affiliate that they were therefore part of Sutter Health!  At least it got cleared up quickly and we didn't have to pay out of pocket for all those newborn well baby visits!
• Having to call HR multiple times b/c they keep screwing up my LOA paychecks.  As in I'm still getting paid when I shouldn't be.  Don't get me wrong, the money's nice, but it's depleting all my PTO and probably screwing up my STD (which I still haven't recieved a payment for after over a month on disability!).

First Month Recap

Caden turned 1 month old yesterday!  We had his check up this morning, and he weighed in at 9 lb 15 oz and 22.25 inches.  Since I've been horrible about posting lately, here are a few highlights from Cade's first month:

Cade actually enjoyed his first bath at home...

First Bath at Home

He loves "tummy time"...

Belly Surfing

He discovered how yummy his thumb is...

Thumbsucker

Big brother finally held him, even if it was only for a minute...

Brothers

He and big brother gave Daddy an awesome Father's Day gift (more about this later}...

Daddy's Boys

Cade also did a few things we don't have pics of like his first trip to the park, first trip to the beach (we've had some unbearably hot weather lately), and getting his passport for our upcoming trip to Mexico.

The beautiful portrait that he and Jake gave Daddy was done by Laura Torres, lctorres on etsy.  I think she did an amazing job, especially considering that she had to create the portrait from 2 separate photos since Jake still wouldn't hold Cade at the time I asked her to do it.  Here are the photos she worked from:

 And here's our little bruiser on his 1 month birthday.  He's already almost outgrown the longies I made for him!

1 Month Old

I'd forgotten about the blowouts...

...and how baby poo always seems to find a way out of what appear to be snug and secure diapers.  Luckily it's easy to get out in the wash!

And, speaking of laundry, how one little being can create so much of it.

And how much noise can come out of such a tiny pair of lungs.

And the round-the-clock q 2 hr feedings.

And how they seem to pick the 2 seconds that you have the diaper off them to pee (you'd think we'd not had any experience with boys before!)

And how they always seem to want to be held and fed just when your dinner is ready.

But I'd also forgotten how incredibly tiny, adorable, and utterly innocent they are.

And how relaxing it is to doze with them curled up peacefully sleeping on your chest.

And how sweet their little noises are.

And how adorable their little fingers and toes are.

And how wonderful it is when they stare up at you like you're the only person in the world (even if they can't really see that well).

And how comforting it is to watch them as they sleep.

And how much one tiny little being can totally change your life.  Again.

 

It's almost enough to make you want another!  Almost.

Waiting for Baby

 

38 weeks

Nearly 39 weeks and still no baby!  This little guy is proving quite stubborn.  I know I'm still over a week away from my due date, but I really thought that since things had begun progressing rather early, that he'd be here sooner rather than later.  We officially have missed the opportunity for my OB to deliver him given that she leaves for Korea tomorrow.  I'm very disappointed as I'd really hoped she'd deliver both boys.  Now that's just not going to happen...unless #2 decides not to come until after June 2, which I'm really hoping doesn't happen! 

Although on Tuesday and Wednesday I was having quite a few strong Braxton-Hicks contractions, things became pretty quiet on Thursday.  I was hoping this would be the calm before the storm, but obviously not, even though I definitely got some of that whole "nesting" thing going on on Saturday.  I started having contractions again as of yesterday, but they're few and far between.  At least this reprieve and the little guy's reluctance to make his grand entrance has let us attend and celebrate a bunch of special events we've had recently. 

Anniversary lobster

Thursday was our 4th anniversary, and even though I'd declined my husband's offer to go out for a nice dinner since I didn't want to waste a night out when I probably wouldn't really enjoy it, he surprised me by bringing home a live Maine lobster for me!  I'd never actually cooked one myself before, and I made him do the deed.  It was absolutely delicious, and we had nice romantic candle light dinner on our deck.  Am I married to a great guy, or what?

On Friday, since I hadn't been having trouble driving, Jake and I headed across the bay to Anya's birthday party.  All Jake could talk about on the way over was Anya.  And all he's been able to talk about since the party is "fun...Anya", so clearly he had fun at Anya's party, even though he didn't exactly play with Anya (or any other kids) while he was there.  He's a bit shy.  I can't imagine where he gets that from!

They call me "Crazy Hair"

On Saturday we went to the wedding of one of my closest friends from college.  Luckily, they got married up here in his parents' backyard, so we were able to attend.  It was a really fun and beautiful wedding.  They have a big old gorgeous oak in their backyard, and the ceremony was held under it.  Jake came with us since my in-laws were out of town, and although he was a bit of a handful, he was a good boy.  And king of the dance floor!  The bride and groom actually used the caterer and photographer that we used for our wedding, and it was nice that both of them actually recognized and remembered us!

Yesterday was a low-key day since I started having some contractions again.  We did end up buying a laptop to replace our desktop which has been giving us quite a bit of trouble lately.  When it didn't come back on for 2 days after a (heat-related?) power outage last week, we decided we'd better get a new computer sooner rather than later.  We were pretty sure that we'd lost a lot of our pictures and all of our friends and family's addresses since, although we do have an external hard drive, we apparently never back things up, so I figured I'd go into labor soon thereafter just because we'd have no way to send out birth announcements!  Obviously the birth part didn't work out, but luckily the computer randomly turned on and has been working ever since (even after another power outage on Friday).  Needless to say, we've backed all the important stuff up and got the new computer anyway.

Other than that, I've been avoiding going out much because I'm so huge that I get stares and weird looks when I do go out.  I'm definitely not used to this, and I find it incredibly rude.  In fact, the other day while I was at the store a woman walked by the aisle I was in and said something like "that lady's going to have a baby in the store", and I had to bite my tongue not to say something rude back to her.  I mean, really, did she think I wouldn't hear her?  Or that it wasn't an incredibly rude thing to say?  I know I look ridiculously hugely pregnant.  I can't help that I'm a small person who has slightly above average-sized babies (I never would've guessed the average birth weight was only 7lb 5oz, but apparently it is!) which thus makes me look unnaturally large at this point.  I mean, would she have commented on my size if I was obese?  I would hope not, though maybe she actually would've.  But I don't think this is really all that different than making inappropriate comments about someone who's overweight.  I'm huge, I know it, and I don't need obnoxious people to remind me of it.  It also didn't help that we had triple-digit or near triple-digit temps for most of last week which made being 9 months pregnant and huge that much more enjoyable.  At least it was a dry heat!

On a happier note, we did find out that, thanks to Jake (and only because of him), we are actually going to get a bit out of this whole "economic stimulus" thing after all.  It's pretty much a joke, but at least now that we're getting something, I can't be self-righteously indignant about being considered among the "wealthiest tax payers" (the concept of which was actually funnier than the amount of money we're getting back!).  And speaking of taxes, having been home for about a week now and watching daytime TV (which sucks, by the way), I've been seeing a lot of tax lawyer ads.  What I'd like to know is how on earth can people end up being $50K behind on taxes through no fault of their own???  It boggles my mind.  The year we bought our house we ended up owing quite a bit (not in the tens of thousands, though), but we had prepared for the huge tax bill we knew we'd end up with.  What is wrong with people?  I wish I could pay only a fraction of what I owe like all of these "innocent" people.  I guess I really shouldn't watch daytime TV...for many reasons.

 

Eating Out...While We Still Can!

Thanks in no small part to my wonderful in-laws, we've had the opportunity to have quite a few nice dinners out recently.  And we've taken advantage of this to try a few new (at least to us) places in the area:

Pampas is a Brazilian steakhouse that just opened in Palo Alto.  And I mean, it just opened -- as in, it opened on Tuesday, 4/29, and we went that weekend.  Not because we're in tune with the buzz on hot new restaurants, of course.  We went because we happened to find it on Open Table; it was in the right location and had an opening at the right time, so we went.  Neither of us had ever been to a Brazilian steakhouse before, but we both enjoyed it quite a bit and thought it would be a really fun place to go for a special event.  We each ordered the rodizio and sidebar which gives you unlimited churrasco-grilled meats and trips to the sidebar.  Considering the amount of meat you can get and the huge number of offerings on the sidebar, the $44 price tag is very reasonable.  We tried a little of each of the meats since we'd never been there before, and our favorites were the picanha, maminha, sirloin filet with garlic and herbs, and the fraldinha; now that we've sampled everything, I think we'll get more of our money's worth the next time we go.  The sidebar was extensive, but I'll admit that with all that yummy meat to try, I didn't pay too much attention to it.  I couldn't tell you what I tried off it, but everything was very good (though obviously nothing was amazing enough for me to be able to remember 1.5 weeks later!).

On Friday, we had dinner with Eric's team and their spouses at Bix.  This was my first Michelin star restaurant experience (I'd have loved to have gone to one of Gordon Ramsay's while we were in London last time, but that wasn't very practical with 3-month-old Jake in tow).  I thought it was pretty amazing, though not the best meal I've ever had.  We shared the  Firecracker Shrimp with Chile Aioli and Tuna Tartare on Olive Toasts appetizers.  The shrimp were just OK, and the aioli was the only thing that saved them from complete mediocrity.  I was a bit apprehensive about the tuna tartare given that I absolutely hate olives, but it was absolutely delicious.  And, yes, I did eat raw fish (tuna, no less) while pregnant (gasp!).  Eric and I shared the arugula salad which hit the spot for me with the earthy arugula greens, tangy citrus, and roasted hazelnuts; Eric's not a huge fan of arugula or hazelnuts and really only got it because I wanted it, but he still seemed to enjoy it.  I chose the Fresh Maine Lobster Spaghetti with Lobster Cream as my entree, and I thought it was great. I was a bit wary of getting it because I usually find spaghetti to be a bit thick and heavy, but this spaghetti was actually very light and delicate and did not overpower the delicate flavor of the lobster.  And there was lots of lobster flavor in this, too, between the lobster cream sauce and the huge chunks of claw meat (which I find to be more delicate and flavorful than tail meat).  And best of all, since Eric doesn't like lobster, I didn't even have to share any with him :)  He had the Kobe "Bavette" Steak which was really good, too.  We also shared a side of the Truffle French Fries for the table.  They were amazing, and I ate so many of them that I was actually a little self-conscious about having so many when no one else was really partaking!  For dessert, Eric and I shared the sorbet of the day which was 2 scoops of strawberry and 2 scoops of mandarin orange which was a refreshing end to an otherwise very rich dinner.  The restaurant is a cool old brick building that you enter from an alley -- very old San Francisco -- and the live music was wonderful.

38 weeks, and still no baby

My hopes that the baby would come far enough before our anniversary to be able to legitimately celebrate his birthday the weekend before our anniversary weekend have not panned out.  With our luck, he'll come tomorrow, on our anniversary.  But we could just celebrate it (his birthday, that is) the weekend before, anyways, I guess...

Actually, now that I've finally given up on working, I'm almost hoping he'll wait until 5/19 so that we can keep his birthday away from our anniversary, we can still make it to some festivities we have planned this weekend, and he'll be born before my OB leaves for Korea on 5/20.  Of course, off work or not, there's still the major discomfort factor that makes me want to have him NOW, no matter what.

Thursday at work I started really feeling some Braxton-Hicks, and being in the car seems to make them worse.  Over the weekend, I found that it didn't really matter if I was driving or just a passenger -- it seems to be something about the movement that sets them off.  On Monday I worked from home, but I decided that since I was having rather strong, painful contractions whenever I was in the car, perhaps the 40 mile drive each way to and from work was not the best idea, and I officially began my LOA yesterday.

Given that I'd been feeling so many strong contractions over the past few days, I was surprised and disappointed to learn at my appointment yesterday afternoon that I hadn't really progressed much -- I'd only dilated another 1 cm or so.  My OB does seem to think he'll come before she leaves on the 20th, but I'm not holding my breath.

In the meantime, I couldn't have planned a better time to be "on vacation".  The weather here has been beautiful, and I've been getting a lot of knitting done.  I should probably be out walking around since that should make things progress faster, but I'm enjoying relaxing a bit too much, I guess.

Look-alike Meter

MyHeritage: Family trees - Genealogy - Celebrities - Collage - Morph

Look-alike Meter

Chugga-Chugga Choo-Choo! Jake is 2!

Birthday Boy

Well, it's only taken me a week and a half, but I've finally got all the thank yous in the mail and am finally posting about the cool party we had last Saturday.  As you may have guessed, it was a zoo train theme (I added the zoo part in when it became clear that it would be impossible to find all the choo-choo themed partyware that I'd need and not go with Thomas the Tank).  Since Jake loves animals and choo-choos, we did the zoo train thing.  We had all his choo-choo toys out, including a small Thomas the Tank track set up on the coffee table for the kids to play with.

Yard play

Lots of Jake's friends came -- mostly girls -- if only Jake realized how lucky he was!  The lovely Anya and her mom and dad came, and we're pretty sure Jake has a little crush on her because he frequently says "Aya" for no apparent reason at all, but he clearly means Anya.  The kids had lots of fun playing on the yard toy that Jake got from his grandma and grandpa the night before.  Jake also got lots of train-themed presents (as well as other presents, all of which he loved).  It was a lot of work, especially the cake, but I think it was worth it as all the kids seemed to have a really good time playing together.

Zoo choo-choo cake

Yes, I went a little overboard on the cake, and I definitely paid for it (well, and the party prep, in general) for the rest of the weekend and then some -- I was absolutely exhausted.  But I'm happy with the way it turned out in the end.  It definitely wasn't a professional result by any means, but it was cute and fun.  I used 2 packages of cake mix (I'm crazy, but I'm not insane enough to make the cake from scratch) and baked it up in 8 mini-loaf pans.  I then cut the engine to create the "cab" and cut the bottom off the 8th loaf to create the top of the caboose.  I used all different types of candy to decorate the cars (we now have more left over candy in the house than I know what to do with -- luckily hubby likes the real sugary crap -- and I didn't even know that Twizzlers came in different flavors and colors!).  The engine wheels are Oreos with m&ms in the middle, and the "smoke stack" is a marshmallow coated in candy beads.  The "coal" is crushed Oreos, and I got the baby animals from Michael's.  The inspiration from this cake came from this website.

Catch-up Part II: The Grown Ups

So now that we're caught up on the kids, I finally get to share the fun stuff that we've been doing. Not that we haven't been having fun with Jake, of course.  But our trip to Kauai sans Jake was just what we needed! 

We were lucky enough to get away for a long weekend at the very end of March for 5 sunny days in Kauai.  This was our first tropical vacation since our honeymoon.  I think we definitely got spoiled by Fiji, but our short trip to Kauai was pretty amazing.  We stayed on the Coconut Coast near Kapa'a.  The eastern side of the island is fairly windy as they get trade winds all year long, so we didn't spend much time around the resort.  Although the beaches where we stayed aren't that great, it is a great central location from which to do day trips all over the island.  Our first full day, we went down to Poipu Beach on the south shore.  It was actually a bit windy that day, though usually the south shore is very calm. It was probably the best weather on the island that day, though, and the water was still pretty calm so that we were able to get some snorkeling in.  No reefs down there, but the fish were amazing.  The second day we headed up to Tunnels Beach on the north shore where Eric really enjoyed the snorkeling.  It can get pretty dicey up there, but luckily it was pretty calm while we were there and I was able to do some snorkeling there, as well.  The reef was pretty neat, and there were some great fish, too, but with such a big belly, the proximity of the coral made for a less than completely enjoyable snorkeling experience for me.  Of course, just sitting on the beach reading and soaking up some rays was more than enough for me!  Unfortunately, the morning we had to go to the airport, we realized we'd left our good camera in Jake's diaper bag at the in-laws', so we had to take our backup camera.  The photos didn't come out so great :(

In general, the food was nothing special.  I'll never understand why there's so much heavy fried food there.  With warm

Surf to Sunset Luau

weather, all I usually ever want is something light and refreshing, but you just don't see a whole lot of that available there.  We did have one dinner which was excellent -- at the Kauai Coast Resort at the Beachboy of all places (which is owned by the vacation club we belong to, though we weren't lucky enough to stay at that resort)!  Our dinner at the Hukilau Lanai was definitely the best one we had on the island, and probably the best dinner out I've had anywhere in quite a while.  It's run by the owners of Gaylord's in Lihue, which is supposed to be one of the best restaurants on the island.  The other stand-out meal we had was actually at the Surf to Sunset Luau at the Sheraton in Poipu, which we went to our last night on the island.  They say that you go to a luau for the show, not the food, but I actually found it to be the opposite with this one.  The show was good (here, again, I think we may have been spoiled by the meke in Fiji), but the food was surprisingly delicious for a luau!  I'll admit, I couldn't resist the poke, but I figure a little bit couldn't hurt.

 

A brief moment with the groomsman

We returned from Kauai late Tuesday night and it was time to get right into wedding mode as festivities for our friends' long-awaited wedding began Friday night with the rehearsal dinner.  Eric was a groomsman, so I was a "wedding party widow" for most of the wedding, but lots of people we don't get to see very often were there, and it was nice to have a chance to catch up with them.  The wedding was beautiful, though the ceremony was a bit chilly as it was outdoors at the St. Francis Yacht Club.  Luckily, it was short and sweet (and very unique and personal -- in a good way!) and held in a somewhat sheltered courtyard!  As dancing is bit difficult when you're 33 weeks pregnant and huge, the highlight for me was the food rather than the dancing (I only managed 2 dances the entire night!).  The appetizers were very yummy, though I wished I'd been able to snag a few more to quench my nearly endless appetite.  In retrospect, however, I'm glad I had some extra room for the entree, because the filet mignon they served was not only hands down the best filet I've had at any large event (at which they usually use less than ideal steaks and overcook them), but perhaps the best filet I've ever had.  OK, so I'm obsessed with food these days, but the filet really was amazing.  I also managed to finish the Ribbed Lace Bolero I was making specifically to wear to the wedding.  It came out a bit larger than I would've liked, and I had to do a bit of tweaking when seaming it, but I think it looks OK (though it isn't big enough to hide the fact that I'm a bit larger all over than I was the last time I wore that maternity cocktail dress and am consequently busting out of the damn thing!).  Maybe the real problem with the bolero was with the fiber I chose -- I used cashmere instead of cotton to make it dressier, but I think it also made it have less structure.  Oh well...