testing

Liam's favourite pastime now is running laps in the upstairs hall. He loves being chased, chasing the cats, and can turn around without falling over about half the time. He's also started a new trick of lifting up his shirt and sucking on the hem. I just can't wait until he starts stripping in public.

This was one of those "memes" (never heard of that term) that was on my sis-in-law's blog. You can do it if you want. Mostly I wanted to do this one because I wanted an excuse to complain about people. I hate it when someone comes back from a trip to another country and starts telling me about how the natives eat all these "weird things". I usually give them a stony look and tell them that it's probably not so weird to those countrymen. Anyway, I haven't eaten many things off this list (even excluding the teas and alcohol), but I don't take that a sign I haven't eaten many "weird" things.

Here are the instructions:

1) Copy this list into your blog or journal, including these instructions.
2) Bold all the items you’ve eaten. (I've highlighted everything I've tried in red)
3) Cross out any items that you would never consider eating. (I did them in italics and blue because I couldn't find how to strike out)
4) Optional extra: Post a comment here at http://www.verygoodtaste.co.uk/ linking to your results.

The VGT Omnivore’s Hundred:
1. Venison
2. Nettle tea
3. Huevos Rancheros
4. Steak tartare
5. Crocodile
6. Black pudding
7. Cheese fondue
8. Carp
9. Borscht
10. Baba ghanoush.
11. Calamari
12. Pho
13.PB&J sandwich
14. Aloo gobi
15. Hot dog from a street cart
16. Epoisses
17. Black truffle
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes
19. Steamed pork buns
20. Pistachio ice cream
21. Heirloom tomatoes
22. Fresh wild berries
23. Foie gras
24. Rice and beans
25. Brawn or head cheese
26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper
27. Dulce de leche
28. Oysters
29. Baklava
30. Bagna cauda
31. Wasabi peas
32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl
33. Salted lassi
34. Sauerkraut
35. Root beer float
36. Cognac with a fat cigar
37. Clotted cream tea
38. Vodka jelly/Jell-O
39. Gumbo
40. Oxtail
41. Curried goat
42. Whole insects
43. Phaal
44. Goat’s milk
45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more
46. Fugu
47. Chicken tikka masala
48. Eel
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut
50. Sea urchin
51. Prickly pear
52. Umeboshi
53. Abalone
54. >Paneer
55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal
56. Spaetzle
57. Dirty gin martini
58. Beer above 8% ABV
59. Poutine
60. Carob chips
61. S'mores
62. Sweetbreads
63. Kaolin
64. Currywurst
65. Durian
66. Frogs’ legs
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake
68. Haggis
69. Fried plantain
70. Chitterlings, or andouillette
71. Gazpacho
72. Caviar and blini
73. Louche absinthe
74. Gjetost, or brunost
75. Roadkill
76. Baijiu
77. Hostess Fruit Pie
78. Snail
79. Lapsang souchong
80. Bellini
81. Tom Yum
82. Eggs Benedict
83. Pocky
84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant.
85. Kobe beef
86. Hare
87. Goulash
88. Flowers
89. Horse
90. Criollo chocolate
91. Spam
92. Soft shell crab
93. Rose harissa
94. Catfish
95. Mole poblano
96. Bagel and lox
97. Lobster Thermidor
98. Polenta
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee
100. Snake

Where's the kim chi?

Question

So I liked having a baby in September. It was nice not to have a hot little heater on my shoulder during the summer like my mom said that spring babies are (I'll find out myself next April). I did have to worry the cold, but is there really a bad/good time to have a baby? However I'm finding myself running into this problem:

Most of the programs like library readings, Discovery Gateway, and Thanksgiving Pointe have a minimum age of 18 months. Liam will not hit that until next March. Until then, I'm stuck with a very active toddler indoors during the winter. Any suggestions?

Misnomers

I like to name objects. Not like naming the toaster "Poppy" or anything like that, but both our cars have names-Crowley and Lilith, which only makes sense if you read Neil Gaiman or know anything about Hebrew mythology. I also think that houses should have names. I'd like to think that when we buy our first house we'll name it something like "Pemberley" or "Serenewood", but if it's the typical starter house, "the Burrow" might be more appropriate.

There are however several names that make me pause. Like the mountain ridge right above where we live is named Lone Peak. The reason for this is because from the Salt Lake valley, it does look like just one peak, but from this side of the ridge, there are no less than 7 major peaks. There is also a street near the high school that runs through a golf course. It's named Caddie Lane. Near by is another street named Avanyu. Okay...

Any other weird names?

My faith in people has been (somewhat) restored

I had a doctor's appointment a couple of days ago and was planning on taking Liam with me. I did that last time, and they didn't have a problem with it-in fact the doctor sat and played with Liam when he kept dropping things overboard the stroller. However, I got a call from my visiting teacher, Sis. Stucki who had heard that I was pregnant and was having bad morning sickness. She was calling to see what she could do for me. I thought it was really sweet of her just to call, but she was pretty insistent and offered to watch Liam while I was at my appointment.

I dropped him off and was later very grateful I did because at the clinic, they stuck me in a room for a hour. When I finally got back to Sis. Stucki's to pick up Liam, she had made me dinner! I was blown away. Lately I've been having to deal with a lot of self absorbed, self centered, and selfish people. It's nice to know there are still people in the world who think about others. My faith in people has gone up a little in the past few days.

Books I've been re-reading

Due to the nausea, I've been fighting a bout of insomnia. So I've been reading a lot of the books out of my parent's collection that I haven't read for a while.

Rebecca-

Can I just say that Mrs. Danvers still takes the cake for being the coolest psycho ever? It is however a little hard to understand her motivations for the most part other than misplaced loyalty. Also when reading this book, all I can think about the movie and how Laurence Olivier and Joan Fontaine HATED each other.

Agatha Christie-

Poirot is much cooler than Ms. Marple.

The Oz books-

I started to collect these when I was ten. I think that I'm still missing three of them, but they're fun little reads. I love how these books are not consistent in anything. People can't die, but people die; people can't grow up, but people talk about growing up. Ah well, mostly I love how people insult each other all the time. John R Neill's illustrations are pretty cool too.

Liam is being a little stinker. He's refusing to take his naps lately and is getting into everything. There was a step latter in the kitchen that he discovered he can climb and then get up on to the counters. Yeah that was fun. He is also experimenting with this awful high pitched strangled screaming sound to get my attention. On the food front, he loves saltines and is refusing cheese, which was one of his favourite foods till now. Oh the joys of having a kid with my genes.

Our big headed runt

I took Liam to the doctor for his year checkup yesterday. He weights 19 lbs 11 oz, is 28 inches long, and has 45.9 cm head circumference. That makes his weight in the 25th percentile, height 5th, and head 50th. So his head is huge, his weight is piddling, and he's really shrimpy. Guess those Korean genes kicked in. He also sat on the floor of the office and gave the doctor one of the most hostile looks I've seen on a 12 month old.

Liam decided to reach for the thread (long life). However since his hanbok was so big, his hand was caught up his sleeve so he couldn't grasp it very well. So he knocked over the rice and nearly upset the table in his desperate attempt. Justin will eventually get the video up on photobucket (in which you can see my fat pregnant belly). I would have recorded his first cake, but he freaked out when people sang to him, grabbed some frosting and smeared it into his hair, and spat out the piece I put in his mouth. All in all, everything went well.

Last week all my shirts mysteriously decided to shrink. I'm now wearing some of my smaller maternity shirts, but I still feel swamped. Oh well.