Hiccups?

I have never celebrated St. Patrick's day.  I'm not Irish.  I'm not Catholic.  I'm not a heavy drinker.  I remember in elementary school, I would go to class and some classmates would either ask why I wasn't wearing green and or they would pinch me.  I didn't even know St. Patrick's day existed.  As the years progressed, I occasionally made an effort to wear something green on St. Patrick's day, but the holiday still means nothing to me.  This year, we "celebrated" St. Patrick's Day by going out to an Indian restaurant downtown.  I say "celebrated" because the fact that we were going out on St. Patrick's Day was pure coincidence.  We had Indian food, we didn't wear green, and we didn't drink beer of any kind.  The food was delicious though.  And it was a wonderful evening out with my wonderful husband.

Just had another talk with a Netflix customer service representative about their "Your List" fiasco.  I don't like it.  The instant queue was so much better.  Because of this change, I've been avoiding Netflix (at least on the computer).  I simply can't stand to even look at my list.  It just annoys me too much.  All the work I put into organizing it is gone.  I can't find anything easily.  I'm forced to look at meaningless cover art instead of helpful information (title, genre, and rating).  At least the list on the Blu-ray and tablet haven't changed (yet).  Oh, and another thing that Netflix has done to annoy me is that I can't see anything about movies that aren't available for streaming.  If I watched it somewhere else, I can't rate it.  I can't see the reviews or the plot or anything.  This has been going on for a looooong time now, but I just thought I'd take the time to complain about it.  Really, since the plan change, Netflix has seriously been going down hill.

In other news, the stroller and pack 'n play are assembled.  The car seat base still needs to be installed in the car, and the baby's room is a complete mess, but we're getting there.  Slowly, slowly.  Ok, time to sleep now.  I hope it will go better than the last few nights... right side=sore hip, left side=sore ribs, back=can't breathe.  All of this added up to a position change every hour or so.  Good night, good night.

Kicks, Punches, Squirms, and Jabs

Sunday was a nice spring day.  I wanted to open the windows, but it was only in the 50's (but maybe 60's, actually).  I guess since our thermostat is only set at 65, the 50's aren't that much of a jump.  Today was nice a sunny day (after the nice little snowstorm yesterday or the day before), but it wasn't very warm.  Spring is almost here!

Student loans are a pain in the butt.  We both have them, it's a ton of money, and it's going to take forever to pay them off.  However, I checked my account recently and it said that mine were all paid off.  If only that were true.  I had irrational hope for a few minutes, and then I saw that they were transferred to a different servicer.  Bah.  Speaking of money, we're both annoyed because at the hubby's job, he didn't get a promotion because they gave it to another guy.  Now, if this other guy were actually better and more qualified, then fine.  But this guy is a complete idiot that doesn't do anything, pawns his work off on others, is arrogant and unethical, and whose scores were lower than hubbo's scores.  Please tell me how this idiot without even possibly a college education is better qualified for the position than my husband, the man with  1) the MBA, 2) an excellent record at the company, and 3) better scores.  Hmm?  I say idiocy and corruption are to blame.  I try not to let it bother me, but it's just so unbelievably wrong that it makes my blood boil.

So... you know how Facebook sometimes throws suggested pages on your newsfeed?  Today, Facebook thoughtfully suggested the page "HipSlimmer" for me... a post-pregnancy hip-slimming corset.  Thanks, Facebook.  Thanks a lot.  (Please, note the sarcasm.)

And, finally, a baby update.  The car seat and stroller came in the mail today, and the UPS man was very nice.  He even carried the heavy box inside for me.  Sometimes, nice people like that can just make your day.

Oh, Baby!

The baby shower has come and gone.  It was fun even though I don't particularly enjoy being the center of attention.  The best part was seeing a bunch of people that I hadn't seen is forever.  And, I have to say, I received a ton of nice things.  They're all piled up in my living room, organized by category.  I like looking at all the blankets and cute clothes.

We still need to get some things for the baby, but we have a couple 20% off coupons for Babies'R'Us, so that'll help a little.  This getting-the-best-deal thing is a real balancing act, though, because there are multiple stores to look at, and then you have to factor in sales tax for some and coupons for others and it's just so complicated.  For example, I was tempted to buy a baby swing at Babies'R'Us because we have the 20% off coupons, but then I compared it with Amazon and realized that it would still be cheaper to get it from Amazon (and that wasn't even considering the sales tax from BRU).  And then there's the diapers.  At first, diapers didn't seem that expensive, but then I realized how quickly I'd be going through them.  I've heard the Huggies and Pampers are good, but are there any store brands that are just as good?  I looked at the Walmart store brand online, and there were some good reviews and some very negative reviews.  We're trying to boycott Target (it's an evil store that only cares about a profit and its image and truly couldn't care less about its employees... I have stories to back this up), but if the diapers are cheap and good there, we'd be willing to ignore our principles to save some money.  After all, I'm not opposed to buying their clearance stuff.  But, you know, I've noticed that the quality of their products has gone down significantly since I worked there (that was about four years ago).  Anyway, enough about evil Target for now.  We're also trying to squeeze some coupons out of Buy Buy Baby, but they haven't sent any since the initial 20% off one item coupon.

Speaking of the baby, she's up to 3 stuffed animals now (elephant, bear, and owl).  She only has a few books and a couple toys, too.  I guess we'll have to work on the books and toys now that we have most of the essentials.  I spent a few hours today trying to clear out the closet in what will be her room.  It was stuffed full of everything.  There's still a lot to do before she comes!