Happy anniversary Mom and Dad!

Grrr.

I almost never mix politics and (blog) pleasure, but I'm steaming mad! Did such "highly-regarded" journalists like Tim Russert and Brian Williams really just ask some of our candidates for the presidency of the United States what costumes they plan to wear on Halloween and whether they have seen U.F.O.'s?

You've got to be kidding me. We've got a war going on and a health care crisis. Whatever side of the political fence you're on, surely you would prefer questions centered on those issues, right?

C'mon!

And now Chris Matthews won't stop talking about it. Geez. No wonder people are disgusted with journalists!

The incredible shrinking belly button

When I stare straight down at my bare tummy, it looks kind of like a full moon topped by a tiny crater (my belly button). But as my stomach stretches out to make room for baby M, my belly button has been getting tinier every day, retreating into itself. Perhaps one day, it'll be an outie, as many pregnant women experience. Then it'll look like a little mountain atop the moon.

Whether it will remain a crater, turn into a mountain or remain a mountain forever -- even after the baby is born -- is anyone's guess.

Apparently, the incredible shrinking belly button is just one of the many millions of little amazing (and strange) changes a woman's body experiences when having a baby.

Spooky staircase

I love Halloween, as anyone who knows me knows.

A football and pot pie kinda day

Oh, the bourgeoisie!

Saw Cyrano de Bergerac, the opera, over the weekend. The sets were phenomenal and the music, especially the soprano lead, was lovely. It was a coup for the Michigan Opera Theater and Detroit because it was created by MOT's own director, David DiChiera.

And hey, I like anything that includes a scene with hundreds of baguettes.

But the highlight may have been the two biddies who sat next to us. After Act Two, they got up, "having seen enough" and then proceeded to gasp when they saw the line of unwrapped "candy," which was really a line of cough drops, that I had on my program.

"My world, child, how much candy have you got there?" one of them asked.

I told her they were actually cough drops that I unwrapped before that act so I wouldn't make a bunch of noise during the singing.

"You're sick?" she exclaimed and gasped again. "Good lord, get me away from here."

And then I'm pretty sure she made the sign of the cross. They were so grumpy that I couldn't help but to be amused.

I thoroughly enjoyed Act Three -- and my cough drops -- in peace.

Wow!

I caught the last moments of this beautiful sky as I was leaving the office. I was lucky, too, because it was gone by the time I got to the car.

Park picnic

Give me caulk or else!

Some pregnant people crave pickles...or pickles on top of ice-cream. Some even crave dirt.

Me? I crave stuff like caulk. Not to eat, mind you. I'm just talking about craving working with my hands and fixing things. Some of that was cured by taking our plumbing and electrical class. But I just hit my limit of not being able to tinker with things this morning.

See, I was on a disinfecting binge because I'm battling a nasty cold. (The cold has curbed some of my pregnant energy, but it couldn't stop me today.) After disinfecting, I got into a mood where I wanted to throw stuff out. Not having a house of my own, my poor mom had to endure having me point out all the empty pots, raggedy stuffed animals and unknown cords laying around. We got a whole garbage bag of stuff tossed by the time that bout of energy passed.

Well, I couldn't sit for long and decided I really wanted to paint some of the kitchen. Mom nixed that because I'm pregnant but she couldn't hold me back entirely and had to give in when I decided I just had to caulk the kitchen sink.

I've got some other projects in mind but those will have to wait. It's beautiful outside and the dog could use a walk. So could I. I guess I could crave worse things, huh?

Nothin' like fresh flowers

I have another cold coming on so Patrick brought home orange juice at my request. The flowers were his idea. The bouquet even came with my fave flower -- sunflowers -- which featured prominently in our wedding.

What an awesome husband!

This is more than a bump, no?

Happy fall

Festive D

Is chicken soup really good for the soul and a cold?

Researchers from the U of Nebraksa Medical Center say grandma's home remedy to thwart a cold with chicken soup really may work.

Check out the New York Times article on the subject and see the recipe below...

Grandma’s Chicken Soup Recipe
(other chicken soup recipes also are effective, including many store-bought)
1 5- to 6-pound stewing hen or baking chicken
1 package of chicken wings
3 large onions
1 large sweet potato
3 parsnips
2 turnips
11 to 12 large carrots
5 to 6 celery stems
1 bunch of parsley
Salt and pepper to taste

Clean the chicken, put it in a large pot and cover it with cold water. Bring the water to boil. Add the chicken wings, onions, sweet potato, parsnips, turnips and carrots. Boil about 1 and a half hours.

Remove fat from the surface as it accumulates. Add the parsley and celery. Cook the mixture about 45 min. longer. Remove the chicken. The chicken is not used further for the soup. (The meat makes excellent chicken parmesan.)

Put the vegetables in a food processor until they are chopped fine or pass through a strainer. Both were performed in the present study. Salt and pepper to taste. (Note: this soup freezes well.) Matzoh balls were prepared according to the recipe on the back of the box of matzoh meal (Manischewitz).

*Picture from WholeFoodsMarket.com

Pierogi mania

Oh my. I can't believe I've recovered from my crazy six-hour pierogi-making class. For those non-Poles out there, pierogis are similar to dumplings and are made with a variety of fillings. I never learned how to make them from my grandma, who crafted the best pierogis I've ever had (and cooked up my favorite apple ones which I can't find anywhere) so I figured I'd better learn this trade on my own so I could pass some true Polish culture to our kids.


This class really did give me everything I needed on how to make some scrumptious pierogis, and it was amazing to see what we accomplished in just a few hours. Many of us had never touched pierogi dough before, let alone made it from scratch. Yet by the end of this whirlwind class, we came away with about 10 different types that were all made with our own little hands.

These pix show some of the highlights. We learned to make the dough, roll it out into the little pierogi rounds, stuff them with all the delicious fillings and press them together. The mushroom filling, for example, had shitake, button and portabella shrooms. MMMM. The photo here shows the saurkraut, I believe.


Then after pressing our pierogis closed, which is a true art form, they were ready to be boiled, brushed with oil and then packaged -- or devoured. Some of the fillings, by the way, included cherry; blueberry; saurkraut; farmer cheese with onion and potato; mushroom, cabbage and onion; potato and cheddar cheese; and potato with cheddar cheese and bacon. My faves were the cherry and the mushroom versions.


It still stuns me that we were able to create all those different pierogis from scratch. As you can imagine, the hours were filled with busy hands chopping mushrooms and onions, shredding cheese and cabbage, prying sticky dough off fingers and tossing salt and garlic powder from table to table. We rolled, stuffed, folded and pressed like you would not believe. And let me tell you -- flour was a-flying.


A highlight, though, was talking to all the Polish people and debating the best places to buy kielbasa and purchase authentic pierogis or reminiscing about St. Francis Catholic Church, which I've mentioned I attended as a kid. (It was one of the main Polish parishes in Detroit and quite a few of my fellow pierogi-makers had a relative who was baptized or married there.)

Yes, I came away with some terrific recipes and a new skill, but it's the comraderie of pierogi-making that makes it so much fun. I can't wait to try to make my own this Christmas with my mom...and eventually my kids. Now, if only Patrick would eat them...

Signs of fall

This would be less alarming if we hadn't had 90 degree weather earlier this week.

Tis the season!

Yay! Xmas lights are going up downtown in the D.

First Big Oil, Big Government and now Big Formula?

The Washington Post had a compelling story about how the powerful baby formula lobby got some hired guns to try to kill a planned breastfeeding ad campaign. Oh, and it worked.

Now, anyone who has read anything about babies, who has a girlfriend who had a baby, saw a baby once in a store or was a baby once themselves knows that breast milk is better for babies than formula. Look, we can't all breastfeed, but we know that breastfeeding is better for babies and has been shown to improve a baby's immunity, right?

Even the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services found through an analysis of studies by its own Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) that breastfeeding is "associated with fewer ear and gastrointestinal infections, as well as lower rates of diabetes, leukemia, obesity, asthma and sudden infant death syndrome," according to the Post story.

So how did it come to be that a series of albeit provocative ads touting the benefits of breastfeeding were not only diluted, but destroyed? Well, read the story and get mad!

Baby M's theme song

I don't know what these springy, futuristic objects are on the YouTube screen, but I sure am glad YouTube actually had the Onion Song in its entirety for your listening pleasure.

World, meet beautiful Baby M!

What an incredible day! I cannot even describe the feeling Patrick and I had watching baby M's little toes and feet and hands come up on the ultrasound screen. I know everybody says this: but the child is beautiful. You can make out a head, nose, lips, etc. in the above photo. In the one below, check out the feet and toes. The nurse said the baby has long toes. (I hope he or she doesn't have my dad's feet!)



In the photo below, you can apparently make out the sex of the baby. We know what's on the horizon, but Patrick swore me to secrecy. He doesn't make a lot of requests with stuff like this, so I'm going along. Anyway, check out where the arrow is pointing to see whether you can tell if there is a lack or a prominence of certain genitalia. I got it wrong when I looked, but I can't tell you why. Your guesses are welcome. (That little heart-shaped thing at the right is the baby's bottom.)



And the last one shows the baby's face as clear as day, as far as I'm concerned. This was a special 3D look to detect a possible problem, and thankfully, no problems surfaced. They checked everything right down to the number of ventricles on the baby's amzing little heart. So far so good, and we were overjoyed to get such a close look at Baby M's perfect little nose, lips, eyelids, etc. That thing that looks like an ear, by the way, is likely the cord, the nurse said. (So Baby M might escape having Patrick's big ears. Ha ha!)

Since the baby's ears are developing well around 20 weeks, I've secured a pair of giant headphones that I wear around my belly. I got a splitter over the weekend so we can both listen to the iPod at the same time when I go for a walk. I'm pretty determined that this baby will come out of the womb singin' Motown.

I asked my mom and dad what song baby M would bust out after the initial gasps for air, and mom came up with "The Onion Song" by Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell. I'm going to take that one because I would love Baby M to have that song as his or her theme song.

Here are some lyrics, baby. Start practicing:

The world is just a great big onion
and pain and fear are the spices that make you cry.
Oh, and the only way to get rid of this great big onion
Is to plant love seeds until it dies, uh huh!