I did it!

I successfully raised a baby! In three days!

If only real parenthood was like the SIMS computer game. In my SIMS neighborhood, babies grow from newborn to 10-years-old in 3 days. You tell the kids what to do, and they do it. And when you're doing really boring stuff like cleaning up the house, you can fast-foward time so that an hour passes in a few seconds.

If I could be a SIMS character, though, I wouldn't fast forward through my last two months of pregnacy. Just 6 weeks (or so) left and things are going well. It's nice to have time to read, putter around the garden, lunch with my husband, and play computer games.

My Pagan Baby Shower part 2

A while back, I introduced Sancho the baby-shower Pinata from My Pagan Baby Shower. Well, now I have photos to help remember the day.

That's me, on the right,wielding the pie iron. Meanwhile, on the left, a friend enjoys a tasty treat from the pie iron. (We found out about a month ago that he and his wife are also expecting!)



Soon I'll be having another shower, of the more traditional variety. At first, I was going to avoid registering in an misguided anti-consumerism protest because : 1) We are new parents, so we need about everything 2) I'm not really sure what we'll need, so I'm open to suggestions from experienced parents 3) It discourages people giving us their gently used items, home-made items, or random items they find on discount somewhere

Then I realized that a couple that doesn't register before a shower is a major pain in the ass. So I finally broke down and registered. It's actually pretty fun to register / plan out my future purchases. Long live consumerism.

Calling all Carnies...

"The Carnival of the Mundane" is coming up next Friday, and they are currently seeking submissions.

The focus is to celebrate the ordinary in everyday life, and those who write about it in anything but a mundane manner. Although I can get obsessed with music and gardening in my blogging life, one thing I really enjoy is when people blog about the random little stuff of their daily existence, especially when they get a big laugh out of me.

The official site:
http://carnivalofthemundane.blogspot.com/

There you can find links to old carnivals and find out more about the guidelines for contributing.

(The carnival is scheduled to pitch it's tent here September 15th. So you've been warned!)

Hazards of Outdoor Concerts

My husband and I really enjoyed seeing Bruce Hornsby and the Noisemakers this week. The band is a remarkable set of musicians, including JV Collier on bass. (Click his name to visit his official website.)

A couple of random moments from the concert:

** At the beginning of a ballad, Bruce suddenly stopped and said "Let's start over again- my fault." I assumed he had somehow messed up the chord progression, since JV was giving him a strange look. After reading JV's website today, I found out that JV had *swallowed a bug* and Bruce was covering for him.

**At first I was confused and thought someone was booing the band, since "Bruuuuuuce" sounds a lot like "Booooooo" .

**At one point, Bruce jumped up on the piano to escape a crazy dancing lady on stage.

**Listening to musicians that aren't afraid to take risks and go with the flow is a lot more fun than hearing a concert that's an exact replay of the radio hits. In Bruce's words: "I was never a very good Top 40 band guy because I never liked to play the same thing every time."

**Our baby's hearing should be well-developed now, at 32 weeks, and she was kicking up her heels in the womb.

A mommy playing bass?

After writing the previous post, I realized I may have stumbled across a another bass-playing mommy.

Kerri Kenney-Silver (currently Deputy Trudy Weigel on Reno911!) was bassist and lead vocalist in the indie band Cake Like in the 90's. They dissolved when Kenney moved to LA in 1999.

This is where story will probably really irk Alex, who recently fumed at Paris Hilton's record deal . Neither Kenney nor guitarist Nina Hellman had picked up an instrument before 1993, and by the end of the year they had a record contract.

If you watch their video for "Lorraine's Car" on YouTube , it's easy to tell they don't have much musical training, but at least they have decent voices and I'm sure they were entertaining in concert.

But the important question: is Kenney-Silver a "mommy playing bass"? Well she has a 1-year old son, and perhaps she does find time to pick up the bass if she still occasionally hangs out with former band members in NYC.

We've come a long way, baby

Neil recently got me thinking about pregnancy and TV sitcoms.

1950's - Lucille Ball's idea to have her second pregnancy written into the show " I Love Lucy" was met with controversy. At first, CBS insisted a pregnant woman could not be shown on television, nor could the word "pregnant" be spoken on-air.

2006- The show Reno 911 has decided to glean all possible comedic potential of the real-life pregnacy of Kerri Kenny-Silver (who plays Trudy Wiegel). During a "panty raid" in a recent episode, the male officers discover a naked Wiegel in the ladies locker-room. Censors were careful to add some strategic black boxes so that the view of her naked, pregnant belly was not obstructed.