Undecided

This is a time of much decision making. 

What will we name the baby?  Will we circumcise him or not? What kind of stroller, baby seat, crib do we buy?  What do we put on our registry? Should we get our name on more daycare wait lists? Will we take full parental leaves even though our employers don’t top up the wage for the whole time?

This weekend’s decision was “what car do we buy?”.  Oh sure, we already own a car.  And it runs fine.  But it’s a 2 door, and we really don’t want to have to get baby in and out of a 2 door.  2010s will soon be arriving, so now’s the time to get a 2009 at a good price.

The new ride would:

• need to accommodate 4 adults and junior, for the times we visit my mother. 
• have enough cargo space so when we visit S’s family, especially at Xmas, we can fit the necessary baby gear into it (as well as everything else for xmas). 
• be somewhat environmentally friendly.
• have sufficient ground clearance to make shovelling our laneway less of a necessity.

So our options have been narrowed down to the Subaru Outback PZEV and the VW Jetta Wagon TDI.  Yep – station wagons.

They each  have similar cargo volume.

They are similar in size inside ( the in-laws came for the test drive on the weekend and say the VW’s rear seat is a bit roomier).

The VW is peppier.

The PZEV has next to no smog emissions and is manufactured at a zero landfill plant.  The TDI has fabulous mileage.   Of the two, the VW is probably better for the environment during operation. Plus it would use around $600-$1000 less fuel each year.

The Subaru has ground clearance, the VW not so much.  The Subaru also has AWD – so might make driving on snow covered highways in winter a bit less of a torture.

The Subaru has a lot of extra niceties for the same price (because the Subaru is currently discounted, but the VW is not).

Both S and I are leaning toward the Subaru.  But as soon as we say it out loud, we right away go “but the VW has better mileage, is peppier, has a roomier back seat…and if we have winter tires, it will probably get through the laneway ok.  Or we coud buy a snowblower”.

 We know that each car’s pros and cons render them more or less equal, so either would do the trick. Which means there is no clear winner.  Subaru seems to be the emotional choice, and the VW the logical choice. So – we are undecided.

May is over.  Will June have the same incentives?  Let’s hope so.

the Kicker

I’ve been waiting for S’s belly to get big and tight so I could feel Junior kick.  Her belly doesn’t seem as popped out as some other pregnant women just entering the third trimester.   Her belly is around 22 or 23 cm, which is perhaps marginally small for 24 weeks.  We suspect that S’s wide hips are the culprit – encouraging Junior to lay as though he were in a hammock.  Nice setup for Junior though!

I finally got to feel Junior kick a couple of days ago.  S noticed Junior was kicking extra hard, low on her belly - so I held my hand there and yep – I could finally feel it.  It felt pretty much like a gas bubble. 

We learned today (at the midwife’s) that the placenta is on the front of the uterus, cushioning his kung-fu action – which really must be a godsend to S, but gets in the way of me feeling what’s going on in there.  But that’s ok, I can wait until he can kick me in person.

Star Trek

I saw Star Trek last night and it totally rocked.  

Totally.

X-Men of Summer

S and I went to see X Men Origins: Wolverine last night.  I remember seeing the trailer for it for the first time recently and thought “wow!”.  Plus, I hadn’t heard it was coming.  What a great surprise!  Woo- hoo,  lets go see it.  Not that I was expecting it to be good.  But I was expecting a certain kick-ass-ness.

As expected, it was not good.  Unexpectedly, thought,  it was actually boring in parts.  Maybe if you’re a huge X-Men / Marvel fan it would have been interesting – I don’t know.  Liev Schreiber did a good job, though.

I’ve also recently seen a trailer for the new Terminator movie.  It too looks kick-ass-ey … but will it be just another slow boring disappointment?  The Star Trek movie too?

And what ever happened to Harry Potter.  It was postponed from xmas, but there have been no trailers for a summer release.  ‘Sup?  Things are not boding well for summer blockbusters.

Baby Swag

S’s family will be throwing us a shower, which is great.  I never cease to be impressed by what a close family they are. 

The problem, though, is the baby shower registry.  We thought that we’d go to Babies R Us to register, with the view that in addition to being a chain (so S’s family could find one near them) they’d have a lot of selection.   So we drove to Don Mills, because the Toys R Us website said the Don Mills store had a larger selection than some of the other Toys R Us stores within a similar distance.  I’m not sure if Babies R Us are all like this, but the experience was frustrating, annoying, exhausting… hours of my life I’ll never get back again.

The people who worked there were the equivalent of the stereotypical Canadian Tire employee.  They either could not be found, or could be found in groups being  studiously unhelpful.  The selection was not particularly good, but we managed to put a few things on the registry.  Still, I don’t particularly want to reward this shitty chain by encouraging people to buy there.

We’ve also been to Dearborn, CanaBee Baby, Mamas to be and More and Li’l Niblets and Sprouts.  Each of those provided a better experience.  Our favourite so far is Li’l Niblets and Sprouts.  

And of course, there’s always Craigslist.

Solid

When we bought the house, my insurance company sent someone out to inspect it.  He said we needed to install a handrail in our narrow stairwell – that simply being able to reach out and touch both walls at the same time was not enough.  But there was no deadline to get the work done.

The handrail was only an issue when we had visitors who weren’t so good on their feet, which isn’t that often really.   But S’s mother kept asking when we were having one installed, and when S got pregnant the asking became more frequent.

I visualized how it would have to be done:  To join the two lengths together, I’d need to saw them on an angle and have them overlap each other.  The ends would have to be sawn off  at an angle and the cut-off pieces could be used for returns.  I checked the Ontario Building Code to see what the requirements were there…  The things holding me back were: knowing it would be a pain in the ass and perhaps impossible to find the studs, needing a mitre saw, knowing it was likely I’d fuck up the angles when using the mitre saw, needing a chalk line and maybe a 4 foot level.  

Eventually, S let me know that her loosening ligaments  (care of the pregnancy progression) made her feel less stable on the stairs.  With the view of it being better to have a half-assed installation than none at all,  I put up the handrail by simply butting the ends of the two lengths together.  There are no returns.  The handrail simple ends bluntly at the top and bottom. 

Still, prep-work took time –  finding the studs through the the old lathe and plaster, setting up a make-shift chalk line to guide where I’d install the brackets so they’d be at the exact same height as each other, painting the handrail (should have sanded it first – even though it was pre-sanded it feels rough in spots.  Who knew?!) and applying varathane, buying attractive brackets instead of the shitty ones at Home Depot, buying screws in the right lengths.  Plus, even with all the care in the prep stage, the railing needed shimming here and there because it didn’t rest on all of the brackets (WTF?!).

Overall, even with the blunt ends and the mm wide gap between the two lengths (it bugs me, ok?) the railing looks pretty good.  More importantly, it’s secure and solid.