I'm a winner!

So, today I am an Ebay ninja!

 

With a last minute sneak attack bid, I just won a Clear Blue Easy Fertility Monitor, along with 5 test sticks, for $48.50!  Throw in $10.40 for shipping and I think I did pretty well!   It's not new (that's a little weird?), but supposedly it is "barely used" and the seller has perfect feedback.  Woo hoo!  Plus, if buying pregnancy tests mean you're going to get KU and not need them, this almost certainly assures that I'll be getting a BFP next month and thus never use this thing.  Yes?

Here's a funny blog entry about ebay:  Raspy Wit: Why I'm Banned from eBay

     
Oh, btw.  While on ebay.  I saw this:
 Weird expensive fertility monitor I've never heard of before

and it comes with a vaginal wand.  

old habits die hard

So after writing about how I was perfectly fine not charting in any way this month, like a gluten-free wannabe in a bakery, I had a little Fertility Friend binge fest this afternoon.  As I was driving to Trader Joe's, somewhere between wondering if they have banana peppers and if I have time to pass one more car before my turn off, it occurred to me: all that info I have been entering (since May 2011) to help FF predict my cycle needs to be fed, like a little houseplant.  In all honesty, I doubt it would matter much if one cycle had no data, but I just.couldn't.risk it.  So when I got to the parking lot I opened up my trusty app and entered in ~5 days of CM and sex data (including one double whammy day, woohoo).  I felt a little wellspring of happiness to see the predicted O date match up with what I was thinking.  

• half of me:  SEE!  IT'S NOT ALL FOR NOTHING.  FF predicted my O date to exactly when I am pretty sure I O'd.  If I didn't enter this info in WHO KNOWS what it might predict next month?!    
• other half:  You are sick.  This is a sickness.  You didn't even temp, this is not important.  AND, you parked in a 30 minute spot.  You're wasting valuable shopping time.   
  
• 1st half:  STFU.  I have data to enter.   THIS IS SCIENCE!!!

Now I am dying to half pondering entering in a fake OPK so I can look at CH's, and those very meaningful little scores FF gives you for your timing.  But since I know it's meaningless, I won't go that far.  Maybe.  Next thing you know I'll be back to cataloging all my phantom symptoms and making up new categories.  

Also, I may or may not have picked up a whole pineapple while I was at Trader Joe's.  And I will probably continue to put the core at the bottom of the bowl so DH doesn't eat it all before me.   It's okay though, because my neurosis is not getting in the way of every day life.  Yet.       

balance

Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving!   The holiday that is basically centered around lack of balance, ah...

Today in the aftermath, I went for a run for the first time in about 2 months and it was great! I went with the hubby, and always push myself more when I'm with him.  He is so kind to slow down for me.  It was definitely more of a jog than a run, and there was definitely still some walking involved.  The "easy hill" was not so easy today! 

However, as they say, we lapped everyone on the couch.  ;)

TTC wise, I have taken a huge step back, so if I don't write about it as much, that is why.  Right after our loss I went a little even more nutso trying to do everything perfectly.  Then last cycle I dialed back the cray, mostly because I knew we'd miss my FW due to travel.  It was a little strange great to get a break from the 2WW despite the odd phantom symptoms I still had! 

This cycle I have taken it down another notch, anti-Emeril style.  I stopped temping, charting CM, and after (an overly long) AF I stopped entering things into FF.  I guess I feel a little guilty, like I need to justify this step back, but it has been a huge relief and I think I needed this break. 

The way I see it, every time I've charted, I ovulate (according to the signs) around the same time.  We have sex at least EOD during my FW and ~EOD the rest of the time.  But here I am, not KU.   Since I feel I know my cycle pretty well, I think it is healthier for me right now to just chill the eff out and not give myself extra work and extra fodder for over analysis.   So I'm maintaining my best "it happens when it happens" mode.  So far it has been very relaxing.  We'll see how it goes.

Recently I've been making not as many as I thought I'd have made by now a ton of cards for this craft show I'm doing in a week.   I hope it goes well!  I also canned some of my special adults only cranberry sauce and hope to entice some people to buy that too.  It's been nice having this goal to work towards.  I'd really like to open an Etsy shop for my cards.  Maybe.   
  
Hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving weekend and gets some good shopping/snooze/family time in! 

Now it's on to....Christmas season...?  Aah! 

Our Brain on Tea

I saw this little article today and thought it was neat.

I happen to agree with their description of tea as "...a warm cup of therapy."

They are also doing a drive to bring hot tea to Sandy victims, and that is nice.  

~~~~~
Teamotions: Our Brain on Tea: Tea is so synonymous with feeling better it is almost like it has magical powers to sooth away whatever ails you. Unlike coffee, soda, ...

Just one stomach virus away from my goal weight...

Who doesn't love The Devil Wears Prada.  I think even guys like that movie.  Anyways, if you haven't seen it, that's where this blog title comes from.  

So this is officially a mostly self-centered whine post.  Does that mean I'm blining?  ;)  Well, it is my bline, so whateva whateva I do what I want.

I was down for the count this weekend.  Who am I kidding, I still haven't progressed past soup and my brain is definitely not all there (see above word creation).  Some crazy stomach thing knocked me on my arse.  I've had the stomach flu before but this was different and I really don't know what it was.  The sad thing is that we had a formal event this weekend to attend (ie, military ball) and I could not go.  This was me, (except I was not supposed to be wearing Valentino, but it was a nice dress): 

I tried so hard to rally but there was just no way.  Poor hubby had to go all alone.  I guess it's not a huge deal but I felt bad about that.  And hey, I was looking forward to it too actually.  Luckily he could go with some friends of ours, but it's not the same.  He wanted to just stay home and feed me saltines but it was important for him to be there and I'm glad he went.

This is trivial as well, but I'm bummed we don't have any nice pictures to send home, because the family always loves them (there's not much more handsome than my hubby in his dress uniform) and I was going to use this awesome vintage purse our dear friend who is ill gave me.   I thought it would be so cool to show her the pictures of her purse going out on the town.  I'll have to think of some other way to use it and send pictures.  First world problems, right? 

On a more positive note, now I have a nice dress ready to go for next year!  And shoes.  And purse.

Somewhat related to not keeping food down, our dear friend was put on hospice today.  She has lost a ton of weight and her scans came back much worse.  There is basically nothing else medically that can be done for her.  It's sad news.  I wish I could be there, but it's only about 4 weeks until I go back and she promised to make it at least that long.  She really has been a trooper throughout this and her doctor said she is his idol.  That's big praise coming from someone who sees cancer patients for his job.  She is one special lady.

Gettin crafty

So I sometimes like to make things....cards, jewelry, the occasional scarf (scarves are about as far as I have gone with knitting), or folk art piece.  I put a few pictures of some recent stuff at the bottom.  I don't have many pictures of what I make since I usually give them away before I think to photograph them.  I've been especially bad about this with jewelry.   

Anyways, last year there was a craft fair that I wanted to sign up for, but I vacillated on whether I'd have enough inventory for my own table until the deadline passed.     

Well, I just signed up for this year's craft fair!  Guess I better get to work... I think I'll make a bunch of Christmas cards and some jewelry.  Luckily I have a lot of Xmas themed stuff left over from last year's cards.   It would be great if I could sell food items, because I make a killer cranberry sauce!   

Maybe I can entice people to my booth with free cupcakes...?  

chocolate cupcakes with raspberry frosting

This Father's Day card said something like "Happy Father's Day to the leader of the pack!"

a birthday card