Just go to that page, look toward the very bottom (Or do Ctrl+F and search for Parsing Nonsense), and then click “I Like This Blogger”.  Easy peasy.  I’m flattered to be nominated, but still feel rather like a guppy who got lost and ended up at Sea World.

Heaven help me if I mess up and call him a nerd, because he is SO not a nerd.

I was reminded of this distinction when we watched the new Star Trek movie last night.  I enjoyed the movie, it was a lot of fun, but it was definitely a lot different than the Star Trek series I used to watch with my Dad.  This movie was a lot flashier, with more action and less of an emphasis on technical/scientific jargon.

It used to confuse the heck out me when I was younger, because I grew up a fan of both Star Wars and Star Trek, and couldn’t understand why people chose one with such fervor.  If you ask Wes if he was a Trekkie he will look down his nose at you and scoff.

The reason?  Geeks like Star Wars and nerds like Star Trek, and never the twain shall meet.  I’m sure there are exceptions (like me), but this has turned out to be true among the people I know.  So now, I’m curious:

**Edited to add: I added a third option because, as I said above and Delisa reminded me in the comments, sometimes people like both!**

It’s really cool to see something you’ve worked on come to fruition.  Like, back in July it was just an idea, and now it’s a verifiable entity.  With posts.  And comments.  I think that’s the one-of-a-kind rush you get from launching a new website: You send it out into the world, and when you started getting responses it’s a very heady feeling.

That’s not to say I was feeling 100% awesome last night.  No no.  I had a headache that could have crushed a donkey and it stuck around all freaking day.  I tried eating some M&M’s for the caffeine factor (and because they’re yummy) but to no avail.  I’m avoiding drugs during pregnancy just because I enjoy playing it safe when it comes to my fetus, but even the self-gratifying rush that comes from doing the best I can to be an awesome pregnant chick did nothing to help me feel better last night.

What did make me feel better was watching Doc act like a complete goof.  The first thing he did was fart, loudly.  Then, because he always surprises himself when that happens, he craned his neck around so that he could smell his own butt.  When I asked him what in the blue heck he was doing, he smiled at me and wagged his tail.  Whatever makes him happy, I guess.

The second thing he did was whine and pace in front of the sliding glass door because, wait for it, there were leaves blowing by.  Menacing leaves, that obviously meant the two of us no good at all, and the only thing for it was to stand guard at the door to ensure those suckers didn’t come charging in, crumbling all over the place.  It’s a good thing he was there.

Truthfully, I’m finding myself in the very familiar situation of not knowing where to set boundaries for myself with work.  There’s always something I could be doing, but doesn’t mean it’s healthy for me, or for Squishy, to work constantly.  Sure, my kitchen is immaculate, the laundry is folded, dinner is set for tomorrow, and I’ve written five posts, but I’m also exhausted and can barely muster up the energy to shower and then succumb to the luscious pillows on my bed.

I determined last night that I had better get my act together and start parceling out time to relax, or I’ll be in very sorry shape once this baby’s done cooking.  If I refuse to give myself time and space to do something relaxing now, what will become of me when I have four times as much laundry to do and a child I have to feed with my boobs?

A big soggy mess, that’s what will become of me.  A big, soggy, miserable mess who will find it very hard to distill pleasure and enjoyment from my new little family, and will instead just be resentful and bitter.

That being said…Does anyone know of a way to get chores to do themselves?

I wish I had more to say at the moment, but unfortunately every time I open my mouth the only thing that comes out is either “Baby!” or “Offbeat Mama!” or “Windows!” because that’s pretty much the majority of what I’m thinking about at any given moment.  Baby because, well, duh.  Offbeat Mama, which is the name of the new site I’m helping to launch, because we’re launching next week and I’m juggling a whole heap of things to get that going.  Windows because we’re getting ours replaced.

I’m actually pretty darn tickled about getting our windows replaced.  Our house has two kinds of windows: vinyl and aluminum frame.  The vinyl windows are newer and work great.  The aluminum ones?  Not so much.

They’re as old as the house and you can certainly tell.  They leak heat like a sieve during the winter, and let it come pouring in during the summer.  The winter is the worst though, because they collect condensed water and then it pools on the window sills and I have to mop it up every morning to prevent it from dripping onto the carpet.  All that moisture eventually leads to mold growth, so every week during the winter I have to disinfect and clean out our window tracts.  Just so you know, winter in Washington?  Lasts a long frigging time.

Adding insult to injury, the seal on the windows in our bedroom broke and now there are little white spots on the insides of the panes of glass.  This means we can no longer see through the windows in our bedroom.  Super fancy nice, huh?

Wes’ brother is an excellent contractor, so he’s going to replace our windows when his schedule clears up.  Not only will this save us buckets of money on our heating bill this winter, it’ll update the heck out of our house and enable us to see clearly through our bedroom windows.

I’m excited about these things, but what I’m most excited about is the prospect of bringing Squishy home in February (the deep, dark depth of winter) and being able to keep the house warm enough.  Also, being able to put the baby to sleep in his/her bassinet next to a window that doesn’t grow mold?  That tickles me too.

Now, as for Offbeat Mama.  I’m really excited about that too.  Ariel and I have been working on it all summer and the official launch is on Monday.  But.  If you want to, you can come sneak a peek extra early-like.  You just need the login / password, which are: mamasays / timeforbed

The site is really fun already.  It’s basically an online community where offbeat parents don’t have to apologize for being who they are and where we can all collectively ooh and ahh over one another’s adorable progeny without wondering whether someone’s judging us for whatever decision they think is weird/wrong/whatever.

So yeah.  Come check it out, at the very least so you can see the adorable shoes I blogged about last week :)

PS: A new belly pic is coming up tomorrow!  I’ve decided I’d like to do those every two weeks, so we’ll see if I can keep it up!

The reason for all this self-loathe is simple: I have a meeting tonight to discuss a new project.  I’ve been going back and forth with someone else about the project for awhile now, and we’re meeting tonight to see if I’m a good fit for said project and whether it’s possible.

Obviously with my full time job, personal blog, novel-in-the-making, and really excellent relationship with my husband (the excellent state of which I’d rather like to maintain), I am awash in extra time.  I kinda have, like, five minutes every now and then that I’m not using for things like eating and sleeping.  Clearly, I am just aching for something with which to fill my extra hours.

This is, of course, a lie.  I’m already humming along quite nicely with the projects I have going right now.  Coming up with content for my personal blog (which you’re reading right now!), work blog, and novel is hard enough.  Adding another blog, with frequently updated content no less, is just asking for trouble.  Who in their right mind would do this to herself?

Well, I would.  It’s a really cool project, and really cool projects just don’t pop their noses around very often.  They’re elusive, like pixies, and you have to catch them with your wiles before they twinkle out of existence.  As a professional blogger/content queen, I have an almost freelance relationship with my job.  Not my full-time one, of course, but my other projects.  If an opportunity catches my eye and I can squeeze it in, it almost behooves me to do so.

Who knows who you’ll meet during the course of a project?  I learn so much from every site I help run, and meet so many neat people, that starting new projects feels like the start of the new school year.  I usually can’t wait to see who I end up eating glue with.

So that’s what’s going on today.  A meeting with a really cool chick to see if this is something the both of us can handle.  If I land the project, well,  I may just have to stop sleeping.  I’ll get through it the way I got through NaNoWriMo…Taking every day a little at a time and eating ice cream until it doesn’t hurt anymore.

Rene Descartes walks into a bar.  The bartender asks him, “Will you be having the usual tonight, sir?”  Rene thinks for a moment and replies, “I think not.”  Then he disappears into a puff of smoke.

My husband has the most delicious wit.

Speaking of my husband, there’s been quite a lot of talk about him lately here at Casa de Mitchell.  In a totally good way, I promise.  Let’s see, where to start?  Do I start in the past or the present?  Let’s start in the past and I’ll bring you up to the present.

Wes didn’t finish college.  There, I said it.  He was in college studying music composition.  He’s a gifted musician and had aspirations of writing film scores when we first met.  He completed an internship, had several projects under his belt, and was doing really well.  This interest naturally led to an interest in music production, which he’s extremely good at.  After producing several albums for local (small) bands, an opportunity opened up in sales at a car dealership.

He jumped at the sales opportunity because producing albums pays next to nothing.  Unless you’re Timbaland.  He excelled at sales, and quickly moved through the ranks at the dealership and won all kinds of awards.  Then, an opportunity opened up at Wells Fargo as a home mortgage consultant and he seized that particular day.

The job was awesome at first.  He loved the work, his boss, and the income was steady and enough to allow us to start making some financial progress (hooray!).  Tragedy struck last year in the form of the economic crisis and ensuing credit lockdown.  Home loans became close to impossible to attain, ergo so did his paychecks.

He toughed it out as long as he could, but he and Wells Fargo parted ways in October of last year and he signed on to be the national sales director for a company that does loan modifications.  It’s a decent gig, but it’s still sales.

Therein lies the rub, which also happens to be the entire point of me writing about my husband’s work history.

Sales.  It’s a tough industry.  You never know how much you’ll be making in any given month, and you’re subject to the whims of the economy and consumers.  Even though Wes is one heckuva salesman, he’s looking out at the future and it is bleak.  He doesn’t want to wait until it’s too late to make a switch, so he started eyeing going back to school.

Wesley has a ton of natural strengths, but by far one of his most discerning characteristics is his geekdom.  He’s a hardware whiz, a software warlock, and has yet to meet a computer/programming problem he couldn’t figure out.  Seeing as how we’re located square in the middle of one of the software capitals of the nation, he looked into going back to school to learn software programming.

He researched the most stable career in the most stable industry and selected the best program at the best school with the aim of achieving the best qualifications to do the most stable career.  He met with a reputable local school, took a personality test, and discussed options.  We palavered, we researched, and we planned.  It’s official: Wes is going back to school.

He’ll be in classes at least two nights every week for five months, but by the time he’s done he will be qualified and eminently hireable (as affirmed by the recruiters he talked to during his research).  We’re taking on more student loan debt (hooray!) but it’s worth it to know that Wes will be able to do a new career he loves and make the kind of income with the kind of stability that will give me the chance to (hopefully) be a stay-at-home mother.  Who blogs.  And writes novels.  And maybe compulsively takes on new projects because she gets bored easily.

With this decision made and behind us, we can cross one Big Life Issue off our list of issues to discuss.  There are times when even my bones feel weary from making so many big decisions all the time.  I want to surrender my Adult Club card and go eat cookies and play outside.  I feel dwarfed and exhausted, unsure and too sure simultaneously.

But.  No matter what decisions me make well or screw up, there’s one thing I can trust: My husband is a geek.  Even if all else falls apart I know that, which is why I feel so certain Wes will be an excellent software developer.  And stand-up philosophy comic.  But mostly I feel good about the software developing.

This image courtesy of Erik Johansson, who photoshops his pictures into beautiful art.

I…have not had the best day.  It wasn’t haunted by any one looming terrible thing that I can think of, just a lot of the tiny little irritations that wash over you until you’re ready to grab your paperclips and fashion tiny war weapons with them. 

That would actually be a pretty fun past-time, if you had tough hands that didn’t bruise from all the wire twisting and shaping.  I wonder which time period would give you the best weapons to form from paperclips.  Are you more a trebuchet and broadsword kind of person, or would you have more fun fashioning bayonets and tanks?

Me?  I think I’d probably content myself by crafting a couple lightsabers and having a duel between Darth Vader and Obi Wan Kenobi.  Except in my fights, Obi Wan would always win because his lightsaber would not accidentally-on-purpose fail, leaving him defenseless and helpless at the worst possible second.

There sure has been a lot of Star Wars around here lately.  I think it’s because I’ve finally finished all the published Dresden Files books and I’m in mourning.  They’ve been such a big part of my life since December and now I have to wait for the next one to get published just like the other unwashed masses.  I felt a similar sense of mourning and sadness when I finished the Harry Potter books, with the main difference being that at least with the Dresden Files I know more are forthcoming.  I can’t really think of what that has to do with Star Wars, but give me a couple hours and I’m sure I can put together a BS answer that will sounds reputable enough.

In addition to mourning my ready supply of Dresden, I’m also a bit distracted.  I started my next novel last weekend and it’s gotten me worked up in knots.  I’ve laid aside my first novel for a time because it needs to be completely rewritten and I’m not in touch with the story anymore.

When I wrote the first story, I was reading oodles of wedding blogs every day and that’s really where my head was at.  I’ve exhausted my wedding blog marketing at work, though, and in my personal life I’ve moved onto the making babies phase of things, so my writing’s reflecting that.

The new story is about a woman who tries to get pregnant and, in the course of things, finds out she has fertility issues.  I’ve decided to pour all the insecurity I have about being able to get pregnant into a story.  This seems a healthier way of dealing with it than either ice cream or avoidance.

The story’s written in 3rd person, which I learned this weekend is difficult for me.  It’s like walking up the stairs backwards: I can do it, but it feels funky and takes me four times as long.  It took me two hours to write ten pages, which is virtually unheard of for me.  My writing group is critiquing the first chapter this weekend and I’m anxious to hear their thoughts.  The story will either fly or it won’t, and I’d rather know now than 200 pages into the thing.

Let’s see…paperclips, Dresden Files, second novel.  I feel pretty good about what we’ve accomplished here today.  I really do want to know what kind of weapons you would fashion from paperclips if you had the time or inclination, though, so pipe up if you feel the urge.

Word on the street has it that a really awesome movie is coming out tomorrow: Watchmen.  As a proud geek, Wes is beside himself with elation.  He’s read the graphic novel and practically let out a shout of jubilation when we saw the first preview for the movie.  I have no idea what the story is about and I’ve never read a graphic novel, but it looks like fun so I’m happy to go along.

So that’s this week’s Thing That Does Not Suck.  Yes, it’s seriously expensive to go to the movies, but just knowing that this movie is out there, and made well, and that rabid fans are pleased with the production makes me happy.  It’s a sign that no matter how horrible life gets, and how much we have to sacrifice for our dreams, there will be movies out there to entertain and transport us whenever we scrape together enough quarters to pay for the pleasure.

I could add in here that Wes and I have decided to go see the movie on Sunday, and the prospect of an imminent date qualifies as a Thing That Does Not Suck  for me, but the date itself can’t be this week’s Thing because, well, it’s not nearly as much fun for you as it will be for me.

You know what else doesn’t suck?  Polls.  I love them.  I love to take them, and I love to put them in posts.  Have a vote, won’t you?Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

I was telling Wes today (during the laborious 12 hour process of getting everything set up here) that my new blog feels a lot like a new house.  It’s like I got the keys when my Dad registered my domain name for me and I moved in today.  My room is unpacked, the bed is made, and the kitchen is unpacked enough for me to be able to cook dinner.

But.  There are still boxes in untold corners of the house just waiting to be unloaded, my garage is still full of that stuff you accumulate but can never seem to find room for in the house, and I haven’t figured out how the thermostat works.

You see, my blog looks really freaking awesome.  I have my (surprisingly HTML and CSS-savvy) husband to thank for that.  He made a ton of progress today and I can safely say that I have the coolest blog I’ve ever seen.

Even with this said, however, we still have a lot of other stuff we want to do with this blog.  There are more colors to be changed, sidebars to figure out, and more fun gizmos to explore.  So, even though I’ve officially moved into this blog, there are still some changes ahead.

I apologize for the (seriously over-stretched metaphor) unpacked boxes, but I’m still just too darn excited about my new digs to keep quiet any longer.  With a blog this pretty, wouldn’t you be?!

Wes is working on re-designing my blog for me so things are going to be a bit messy around here for a little while. Maybe you’ll be looking at this blog and everything will seem normal. Maybe you’ll barely even recognize the place.

Don’t worry. I’m still here. So’s the nonsense. If you have a desperate need to verify my identity, feel free to ask me questions with answers only the real Erika Mitchell would know.