Atomictumor

Yesterday marked the 20^th week of pregnancy – the official half-way point.  Thankfully, morning sickness ended a month or so ago, as did the frustrating first-trimester exhaustion.  Right now, it’s smooth sailing.

I’ve started showing a little, and am finding that maternity shirts are becoming the preferred attire.  The switch from regular to maternity clothes inevitably makes me look more pregnant than I am, though, just from the huge amounts of fabric that are needed for these big belly garments.

I’ve settled on a name I like and am relatively sure that Bos likes it, too.  NewBaby is wiggly.

Ice cream has become a nightly necessity.  Currently we’re working on a tub of Edy’s low-fat raspberry royale, which is actually quite good.

***

Anyone who knows me well knows that I’m an obsessive-compulsive planner.  If you don’t know me, just ask Bos, who grew increasingly frustrated at me yesterday for planning my own birthday surprise.

Anyway, this week I began a new planning project:  The Cemestos Gardens 20-Year Plan.  Basically, it’s a chart of the next 20 years, with information such as when which kid will be in what school and the estimated times our long-term debts will be paid off.  It was a lot of fun to create, and despite the fact that I know nothing is set in stone, I think it will be very helpful.

It also provides interesting tidbits about our future:

• If we continue on the same payment plan we are currently on, Bos’ school loans will be paid off the year that October graduates college herself.
• The earliest we can even consider moving to a bigger house is 2009, but financially speaking, it could be as far off as 2012.  Six people and 1 bathroom for the next 6 years….greatttttttttttttt.
• The kids will all be exactly 3 grades apart.
• The 2016-2017 school year will see all four kids in different schools:  October at her first year in college, Spotz in high school, Lugnut in middle school, and NewBaby in elementary school.
• October will graduate high school exactly 20 years after I graduated high school.
• NewBaby will graduate high school in 2025, and I will be 48 years old.  Bos will be pushing 50.

We’ve stumbled into something big…

Tonight, Chattanooga is throwing a beer festival downtown.  Thats going to be hard to avoid, particularly because Highland Brewing is going to be there, and their Oatmeal Porter and Tisgall Ale is some damn, damn good drinkin.

15 bucks a head, and one free token, tho.  God knows how much subsequent tokens are. 

Can I let brokassatude keep me from enjoying tons and tons of microbrews? 

We’ll see.  Update to come.

 

BTW, with regards to last night, I highly, highly highly, highly highly highly recommend the band Ballroom Dancing. 

Yes, its a pain in the ass to Google them because all you get is, well, links about ballroom dancing, but they were the most high energy kickass opening band I’ve seen since Whirlwind Heat. 

They’re out of Cleveland, TN, and I don’t see any Knox shows coming up, but surely we can talk em into it.

Because they kicked hella ass.

 

 

Damn, this is a long assed picture.

 

And theres no photo editing software at the farm to do a decent size of shrinking it. 

 So I’m still talkin.

Illness may prevent me from doing many things (taxes, going to work, Drs Appts, birthdays, anniversaries, bar mitzvahs, the list goes on and on), but it won’t prevent me from going to see a kick ass concert, especially when the show is free, and when its Of Montreal. 

I got into this band fairly recently, and their latest record The Sunlandic Twins has almost incessantly been playing in the Volvo.  Except for when GAC steals it out to play it in the Van.  Regardless, its a damn catchy album.

Its almost easy to play Of Montreal off as being another one of those bands remaking the ’80s for all these little dumb kids too young to remember how lame most it was the first time, but once you listen to it for a while, what you see is a manic little pop band putting a sugar high to music.  Even tho the first song on the album sounds so much like the Cars that there is a point when GAC and I both go “I GUESS YOU’RE JUST WHAT I NEEDED” in unison, well, things like that you just have to take with the territory. 

Anyway, they’re great.  If my word doesn’t persuade you, well, head to their website and listen to a bit o’the music yourself.  The head to Pitchfork and read a review of one of their shows.  Not paying much attention because you never heard of the band?  Well, now you have.  Just because its new music don’t mean you won’t like it.

Anyway, if you’ve got nothing to do, mosey on down to Chatt Town and check em out.  Afterwards, we’re going to the Mud Pie to get loaded up on caffeine and beer, so you’re welcome to join us. 

Just don’t drink out of my cup.

The other night GAC and I rented Brick, and I found it to be one of the best damn movies I think I may have ever seen. Now, I’m not ol’ Joe Powell, and I can’t write a movie review as eloquently as he, but I feel that I must compell you to watch this movie on account of the amount of rockin it did. Not unlike Dokken.

I digress.

The preview for the movie led me to understand that it was about highschools, and probably one of those indie angster kinda things. Something about a dead girl, or somesuch. It looked OK.

But that wasn’t what it was about.

No, this beast channels the spirit of Dashiell Hammett, with the kid from Third Rock doing a DAMN GOOD Bogie. Damn, the dialogue. What you can understand it, because its all deadpan and coming at you a mile a minute, is brilliant. Gems like
“Brendan Frye: Emily said four words I didn’t know. Tell me if they catch. Brick?
The Brain: No.
Brendan Frye: Or Bad Brick?
The Brain: Nope.
Brendan Frye: Tug?
The Brain: Tug? Tug might be a drink, like milk and vodka, or something.
Brendan Frye: Poor Frisco?
The Brain: Frisco? Frisco Farr was a sophomore last year, real trash. Maybe had a class a week, I didn’t know him then, haven’t seen him around.
Brendan Frye: Pin?
The Brain: Pin. The Pin?
Brendan Frye: The Pin, yeah?
The Brain: The Pin is kinda a local spook story, yeah know the King Pin.
Brendan Frye: Yeah, I’ve heard it.
The Brain: Same thing, he’s supposed to be old, like 26. Lives in town.
Brendan Frye: Dope runner, right?
The Brain: Big time. See the Pin pipes it from the lowest scraper for Brad Bramish to sell, maybe. Ask any dope rat where their junk sprang and they’ll say they scraped it from that, who scored it from this, who bought it off so, and after four or five connections the list always ends with The Pin. But I bet you, if you got every rat in town together and said “Show your hands” if any of them’ve actually seen The Pin, you’d get a crowd of full pockets.
Brendan Frye: You think The Pin’s just a tale to take whatever heat?
The Brain: Hmm… So what’s first?
Brendan Frye: Show of hands. “

Freakin awesome. Go see it just for that, if you have to.

You know what sealed it for me, tho? Out of nowhere, the end credits smack you upside the head with Velvet Underground’s Sister Ray. Yep, 2.5 hours of sunny California high school pulp noir, and you get rewarded with the noisiest music from the ’60s on the black screen. Excellent.

I may actually have to buy this movie.

I’d like to thank both the Oak Ridger and the Oak Ridge Observer for putting something in their papers today about the efforts of the ACES and supportoakridgeschools.com.

I’d like very much to put a shout out to Stan Mitchell of the Observer for mentioning the effort in his editorial today.  Hell yeah!

I’ve always dismissed the idea that normal people like me and you can change the world, but things like this are proof that you don’t have to be in the system, or a political player, to start making a difference.  Come on folks, get yourself a bumper sticker and help us straighten this town out!

Now, today’d be perfect if I hadn’t woken up sick… bleah.