People and My Bump

I may name a book that.

Anyway, it is interesting to see the different looks you get when people see you are pregnant.

Little old ladies smile indulgently.

So do little old men.

Young working type women look a bit horrified.  But not as horrified as their male counter parts.  You can almost see them counting the condoms in their wallets.

Young mothers look knowing.  Young fathers don’t seem to notice!

It makes walking down the street at City Centre quite an adventure! 🙂

Slow Cooker Night One

So I received a slow cooker for my birthday from my brother and his family.  So I tried a beef stew in it today.

Potatoes just wouldn’t cook.  I wound up transferring it to my regular stew pot and boiling it madly for another 1/2 hour.

Also, half the meat was very tender and half was very dry.

I can fix the potato problem, just cut them up smaller.

But not sure what to do about the meat.

Oh and the onions remained big pieces.  They usually cook down to nothing.

Must ponder…

I Have Suddenly Realized

I am no longer a licensed driver.

My California Driver’s License expired yesterday.  I can’t get a UK one with the current state of my diabetes.

In some ways it is oddly freeing.

I am sure it will feel less freeing when I am in California later this year, after the baby is born, and I can’t drive!

We don’t have a car, we have no plans to get a car. So why should I worry about a license? I shouldn’t! 🙂

So Being an American in Belfast Means…

I get teased.  A lot.  Over the way I pronounce some Irish words.

Anyone who has ever seen the Irish Language written out, knows that pronunciation can be tricky.  Example, the name Sioban? Pronounced Sha-Von.

And yesterday in the office we were discussing a news story about a murder that occurred in Armagh.  One of my co-workers lives in Armagh.  And apparently I can’t pronouce it at all.  To me, the way I said it and the way they said it sounded the same.  Apparently not.

I take the teasing in good spirit, since it isn’t meant maliciously.  It is more amazement that I can’t pronounce these things, because to the natives it is second nature.

And when they really want a laugh?  They ask me to pronounce Carrickfergus.  Apparently the way I say that is hysterical!

Today I Preformed Major Surgery

On our old laptop.  We replaced it because it was having a severe overheating problem.  It kept shutting itself off, it was that bad.

So today, I took it apart. Completely.  From stem to stern.  From hard drive to mother board.

And found? Enough dust and other crap in it to make my own golem.  It was really really gross.

And then I put it back together.  And it works!  And its running much cooler!

So now it is defraging.  And then it will get a disk check.  And then maybe a fresh load of Windows.

And now we have two computers that work.  One is brand new and is good for *everything*.  And the other one is more or less refurbished and cruises the ‘net and can do word processing and such.

Also? I have my work laptop.  So really, we have three.  And the work laptop? Has Adobe CS.  So, when I bring it home, which I don’t always, I can do graphics on it.

And we have a wireless network at  home now.

So come on over, use a laptop.  Its here if you need it!

in other news, I’ve been doing a bit of freelancing, with my SMTs approval, on Belfast Rotary Club’s website.  My CEO is a member and he asked me to help them out.  The same company that did NISP’s site did that one, but I’m the overall web girl for it.  And I’ll be getting paid a bit to do it.

And i didn’t wind up actually losing any weight this week after all.  But I will.  Maybe this week.

So life is pretty good, technology wise.  If only I could sleep…