Dancing Kicker

I was frying diced chicken for lunch and I was just eagerly waiting for the rest of the liquid to evaporate when suddenly there was a VERY LOUD NOISE!!!! I freaked and reacted by covering my ears. Fire alarm? But this isn't the first time I was frying meat here and it wasn't even getting brown, let alone burned. Then I realized I had closed the balcony door earlier because it was too cold in the apartment. So it must be the fire alarm! I turned off the stove. I was home alone, my roommate is visiting her family for a couple of days. I quickly looked around for the fire alarm.

I noticed the water sprinkler in the ceiling. NOOOOoooooo!!!!! I ran and opened the balcony door!

Such a small thing making such a horrible sound!

Then I took a chair and got up to look at the fire alarm thingy in the ceiling. "<-ON - Twist - OFF->" so I turned it off, but it still didn't shut up. I was running back and forth, tried to call my roommate and got voice-mail... But then it got quiet. Ah, what a relief.

A couple of days ago I thought I actually felt the baby move. I'm not sure, but it felt like someone tapping very softly with a finger from the inside. Initially felt like something digestion-related, but then I felt the exact same thing the next day twice in the exact same place and once again one day later. I was going to wait a few days to confirm if it happens again and more frequently, but I haven't felt it so clearly anymore. I'm assuming that it actually was the real thing, but now the baby found a more comfortable position and now dances around inside, without desperately stretching out with claustrophobia and lack of space. Good for her, I guess. Actually I should start feeling the baby three weeks from now because I'm in my 17th week and even second pregnancy mothers often don't feel the baby as early as 17 weeks. My friend felt the first baby at 16 weeks, so there's no rule really.

I spent the day in. Mostly tried to write an essay for Tartu University. If I finish this, then I will rest easier at night. It would be ideal to finish it by Monday morning in Estonia. I'm also getting a bit stressed. Only two weeks left. I feel like I'm running out of time.

Book about Geralt the Witcher

And on other news... YAY! giggle...giggle! I wish someone was online so I could enthusiastically tell them, oh I'm so satisfied right now! Basically I finished my book and was a bit sad that it's all over now, but then I saw that the last page was an advertisement: "The Witcher. For PC". A game?! About this book? I made a google search and it's got very good reviews and in fall 2009 they're releasing it for Xbox 360! YAY! I have this odd sense like I've actually seen the game before. It would be funny if my husband has played that on PC.

Serving size

Serving size is a total joke! I can not stand it. As in Europe, the manufacturers in US have to write nutrition data on their edible products. In Europe, it's all nice and easy to read/compare - everything is given according to 100 grams. Nutrition data lists the amount of carbohydrates, fats and proteins in 100 grams. Sometimes it also lists those things for the serving and then the serving is usually the entire content of the package.

8 servings per pack

In USA, the nutrition data presenting way is, to put it mildly, horribly idiotic. All the products have nutrition data written on them, but it's given according to "1 serving". Oh that's so convenient and wise. This makes it so much more simple, you think! Well, let me elaborate how this works. I went to the store to find good granola (processed muesli) for breakfast. I am quite interested in nutrition so I wasn't only comparing package and price, I was also trying to see what's inside it. I really want to avoid low-fat "healthy" stuff so I have to be very careful what I buy. So I compared - "so many grams of fat, so many grams of protein - oooh, more protein here! ... Oh wait, serving size! 40g vs 48g... How do I calculate this... ummm..." I tried for 10 seconds and then picked the granola with prettier picture.

Another time, I was trying to buy a snack. Just something simple but I don't know any of the products so I had to somehow make sure what I pick is not 50% fat or anything like that. I read the label. "5g of fat per serving, altogether 120kcal. Ah that's not much. Oh wait, how many servings are in this package - 2.5?! What?! Who the hell would split this small thing for two and a HALF people?! And now...2.5 times 120kcal...". Next time I didn't even bother to read the label.

Tiny macaroni.

Today I was going to cook a tiny pack of macaroni. I think it should last me two meals, because it's 200g of uncooked pasta, and usually at home we shared 400g pack for three people and that was a good amount for dinner. We also had at least 100g of meat plus some sauce with it. Well, take a wild guess how many portions 200g of pasta really is. Think how many plates, how many meals could you get from one 200g pack of macaroni. And the real answer is *drums* 4.5 portions! That means that if you have 9 people coming over, cook one 400g pack of pasta and some side-dishes and you're done! And pasta is quite healthy as well - only 160 kcal per serving!

Anyway, change of topic.

Today was a very sunny day. I spent 3 and a half hours of prime noon time sunbathing by the pool. I am almost starting to look like I have a tan. For a while I thought my skin is absolutely sun-resistant. First time in the sun it usually burns and then I can spend hours in the sun without my skin even realizing it's being brutally radiated. Days of sunbathing can have no visible effect at all.

I spent that entire time reading my book. The main character is the coolest book character ever! He kicks ass! Kills baddies and gets the girls. Without my speed reading husband around, I don't feel so horrible about being such a terribly slow reader. And yes, it's been a month and I'm still reading the SAME book.

First Christmas

First of all, the gift I bought was a big hit. The person who got it liked it very much and other people were also excited about it. There was joking about using the cocktail recipe book to make a cocktail into the thermos mug and pretend it's coffee. I never doubted I made the right choice with my gift and I was right.

So anyway, we found out that the party was like a 3-minute walk from my home. Katrin, however, lives 1 hour bus ride away and she would have had time to go home, stay there for half an hour and then turn back for the party. So I just invited her to my place. We sat and watched TV. It was nice.

Then we went to the party. Like wow, so many people from the lab. That's cool! There was some Wii playing, but I didn't play. There was a lot of interesting small-talk with people I had never talked with before. Fun! Pizza, ice cream, fresh baked gingerbread cookies from home-made dough. Mmmmmm...

Real cookies! Real Christmas cookies!!!

And then we distributed the gifts. We wrote numbers on all the gifts and then numbers on pieces of paper. Everyone took a piece of paper and the matching gift. We opened them one at a time so the group commented on all the gifts. One gift card, one monopoly game, cool cookie-cutters and so on. And now to the gift that I got.

The gift I got.

It's kitchen stuff! Yay! One is a cupcake decorator and the other is a set of angel food cake pans. My first question (after the happy reaction), "What's angel food cake?". Something very soft and fluffy. I'm gonna have to eat it at least once in USA so I can make it from recipe later. And the cupcake decorator - I don't really make cupcakes but I really like the tool itself. I can decorate cakes or do whatever like that. I will definitely use it.

Cupcake decorator or a pipette?

I opened it up, looked at it, smirked and said, "looks like a pipette!". People laughed and agreed. Then Katrin started laughing again and said, "You think about lab too much! Yesterday I asked if you have plans for the weekend and you asked me, 'plants?'". That did happen. 30 minutes later I admitted I was kinda sleepy because I slept only 4 hours during the night. I went to sleep at 12:30 and I woke up three times during the night until I woke up at 4:30 and started thinking about the things I wished I had done the earlier day. I didn't fall asleep for an hour and then just took out my laptop and did the things I had wanted to do. People were like, " I would have just watched TV" and " working would be the last thing I'd do when I wake up in the middle of the night." I laughed, then paused, thought for a moment and told them, "I'M NOT A WORKAHOLIC! REALLY! "

Did anyone say "chicken"?

I bought a gift today! I needed the impossible: $20, never met the person receiving it. Fortunately, I had a gift idea - I decided to get a really nice fancy notebook, something like an idea diary but very cool and black and a matching high-quality black and metal fancy pen. Coupled with some nice note saying "...so none of the best ideas are forgotten.", it would make a great gift for almost anyone. And it's stylish and asexual.

And if that fails I'll just get a chemistry cocktail set that I once saw in the same store, so I'm all covered. The cocktail set was a bit silly but can be used and seemed like it would make a great gift. So today I went to the bookstore and looked at the prices. The kind of notebooks that I was looking for cost $30-40 and the chemistry cocktail set costs $43. Like OH MY GOD - the prices! Oh well, have to find something else.

Dull red of fall.

I looked around the store and got another idea! I bought a thermos cup - people love those here! They're almost as popular as flip-flops! Every morning on the bus there's at least 3 people with a thermos cup and at least 3 more with coffee cups from some coffee place like Starbucks. I don't like take-out coffee but even I would find a use for a good thermos cup if I got it as a gift. Just a thermos cup alone would, however, be boring. So I also got a small book that lists all the cocktail recipes that you could possibly imagine! And the best part - together, they were only a little over $20 and the store has free gift-wrapping with the store receipt. I've done the impossible!

Bright red of fall.

I ate so much fruit today. I ate apple and 2/3 of a big watermelon, half of the reddest pomegranate I'd ever seen and I also ate some oranges. And I feel great! Ah, fruits just rule!

I also eat a lot of meat too as it turns out! On Monday I bought 2 pounds (1kg) of ground beef and 4 chicken legs. All for myself! This is a good amount for a whole family, enough for 3 or 4 meals. Well, I'm eating all I buy, so I thought that amount would last me for a while. I initially decided to freeze some of it. Well, it's all gone now! That was good for 6 meals! But I'm very proud of myself - with all that fruit and meat, I haven't bought any pastries or chocolate.

Costco's shopping warehouse.

My roommate told me she's going to Costco's today and asked if I wanted to come. Sure! My entire San Diego trip is about saying "yes" to anything that I haven't done before (except for things I just wouldn't ever do). Costco's looks like a plane hangar on the outside and like a huge warehouse on the inside. This is the real American warehouse store with some shelves up to the ceiling. Only people with a member card can get in and fortunately also people who go there with someone with a member card. They sell things for a small price in large quantities. I was hoping to find really nice oranges, but in stead, I bought 4lbs of chicken. That should last me awhile, right?

Anyway, it seems I keep impressing people with how much I eat. First I impressed Rachel with the amount of popcorn I ate in the movie theatre in LA and now I impressed my roommate with the amount of chicken I won't even freeze because I know it will be long gone by the time I get to the expiration date!

Giftshopping

Today I'm going to bed early. That will be nice to get some sleep as a change. Today I already tried to sleep in on purpose but woke up at 6:30 and couldn't fall asleep again.

Katrin (the German girl) came to me today and said that there will be a smaller Christmas party on Friday. Everyone will buy a $20 gift and the gifts get randomly shuffled. People will bake cookies and have fun. Katrin asked if I wanted to come as well. Of course! It sounds like a lot of fun!

We went out looking for the gifts. We went to a big shopping center area which was quite close to where I live. Wow, so many stores. Among other things, I saw a maternity clothing store with many sales. We didn't have time to go clothing shopping but if I continue to grow out of my clothes with this rate then I'll have no other choice but to go shopping. I might as well pack some of my clothes because they barely fit me now.

Statues in the open air mall.

Katrin already had a gift idea and we were looking around to see if we get anything for me. We didn't. I'm not worried though. I got two ideas that both work and I know where to get them. Tomorrow I'll go to the right store. Fortunately it's in a convenient place in campus.

Like a stomach without a bellybutton.

I got some fruits today - and I had been circling watermelons in almost every store I visited for a week already, and I always assumed they're too big for one person, but today I decided to buy one. I love watermelons! I know I'm gonna eat it all, have no doubt! I noticed it said "seedless" but I ignored it. I thought it would just have really small seeds and holes inside. When I cut it open I saw that it really is SEEDLESS! Cool! I had never seen such a thing before. Oh I know my husband would love that! He loves watermelons but hates picking out seeds from them.

Boiled Alive

I was just about finished with the blog post when Dreamweaver program crashed and it all disappeared. One other day I lost a part of my post due to Internet problems, so blogger couldn't autosave it anymore. Well, today I lost more of my post than that other time, so from now on, I won't use any external programs to write blog posts, no matter how much simpler they might seem.

Today I had a very long day in lab and when I finally got home, I also had a lot of work on the computer. I decided I didn't want the entire day to be about that, so I got an idea!

I wish the luring soft steam would have been caught in picture

In the cold and pitch dark outside, there was something nice and warm - a hot tub by the pool. I once tried it during a moderately warm day and the water seemed REALLY HOT! So during a cold and dark evening after a long cool day, it should be perfect! Khmm, right?! ... WROOOONG!

I went outside with my swimming suite and easy-to-remove clothing and sandals. I dipped my toe in the water and I realized I had made a huge miscalculation in my theory! As it turns out, when you dip your freezing purple toes in "really uncomfortably hot" water, the water feels REALLY BLOODY BOILING!

So in stead I swam a couple of laps in the previously "uncomfortably cold" but now "really nice and warmer than air" pool and decided it was okay to go back inside.

Sugar Wanted

Today has been totally about food! I didn't realize it last week, but I got hooked on sugar. This is one thing I feared quite a lot when I came to USA. A few months ago I didn't eat anything sweet. It's not that I didn't like sweets - I just never bought them. My husband was secretly eating candy when I wasn't around. I was just glad he rarely did it near me. My avoidance of carbohydrates didn't seem so extreme then, but actually I didn't eat anything with sugar or excess carbohydrates. I didn't even eat pasta or rice or potatoes. When someone offered such food, I gladly accepted, but I acknowledged it as a sugary treat. I also limited fruits and rarely ever drank sugary drinks. When I got pregnant, I reintroduced pasta into my diet.

Gained 1,2 kg in 8 days. Seems all of it on my belly.

Soon after I got arrived in USA I started making exceptions for things that I "had to try once". Then I started making exceptions for other things, thinking it wasn't good to limit myself too much when pregnant. I still kept to my regular diet of three meals per day, very regular breakfast, diverse lunch and a healthy dinner. I did eat snacks, but I still ate at the right time.

In LA, it changed. I tried to keep to my regular diet. I made sure I have basic breakfast material - granola (semi-processed version of muesli) and yogurt. But then most of the time my lunch wasn't at 12 o'clock like usually and it was always different food. My dinners also varied a lot, most extreme case was of course Thanksgiving, but I think it wasn't so bad that the big meal was so huge, I think it was much worse that I skipped lunch that day. After a few days of this kind of eating I stopped needing breakfast and I didn't even notice when it was 12 o'clock and I was supposed to eat lunch. I was snacking on different tasty things and I didn't feel hungry but I wasn't keeping to my eating schedule. And as easy as that, I was hooked on sugar.

Pretty. I wish it was something natural like fireflies.

Anyway, I came back to continue with my regular life rhythm. And things weren't bad, but I constantly felt like eating something sweet. I couldn't stop thinking about peanut butter and jelly sandwiches which I still haven't tried yet. I kept imagining how good all the pastries are that I passed by in the morning when I was buying myself lunch. I was thinking about various kinds of sugary sweets and I did that even when I wasn't really hungry. I ate two apples after my lunch although I always eat just one. It sounds pretty stupid but I REALLY wanted a sugar-covered pastry even though I had eaten lunch 3 hours earlier.

Haven't seen a spider yet, but I won't walk through here.

So yeah, now it all starts from the beginning. No eating out for a few days because then I have better control over what I eat. I restocked on healthy food today - bought vegetables, fruits and meat. You can only imagine how many times I had to use pure willpower to walk past cookies or cakes... The following few days will be like a tasty diet. According to plan, everything I eat will be very appealing, but it will be low in sugar. No snacking between meals. No sugary drinks. The only allowed sugar is fruits - oranges and apples. And of course my sugary breakfast granola and I'm not allowed to snack on it at any other time. I will eat pasta and other non-sweet carbs during a proper meal, but only if the majority or calories is still coming from proteins/fats and I'm not overeating. And once I stop dreaming about bagels, I will buy bread again.