1. Work/Programming
No change so far with my work situation. I’m employed through the end of the year.. and still up in the air as to what will happen next year.
Two more people in a nearby department were laid off this week. I spoke to a manager person and this was attributed to budget cuts. Still.. lay offs staggered over many months do not make me feel like this is a happy and stable work environment.
On a happier note, I’m making good progress on the project I got pulled into by the CTO. At the moment folks are reviewing my findings so far and rounding up with the CTO to see if he can nail down “actual” requirements (instead of having me us the requirements I made up for this since the silly project is so lacking in structure I was essentially told to “go learn stuff”). Hopefully in the next week or so the team will know what the CTO wants so they can tell me.. so I can figure out how to do it.
In the meantime I get to adopt projects from one of the two people laid off. On the plus side, more work.. and the high probability of needing a re-write to work with the new systems. On the minus side, inherited code is always “fun” to figure out. The future threatens to make me learn to write stuff either in Symfony 2 or in Salesforce. Since both are new to me, either one is a learning experience.. since Highlander is using Symfony I guess if I’m future-looking at staying at this company then the better choice would be for me to work in Symfony. Honestly of the two I favor Symfony, it looks most interesting.
Regardless.. my todo list for the next week includes “read a book about Symfony 2”.. and “Deploy pet projects to productions”.
2. Home
Right now I have a sewing room. It’s lovely. Unfortunately we offered it as a room for someone to stay in for summer classes. So in a few weeks it’ll be back to being a spare bedroom. Ah well. I know in the long term it’s destined to be a nursery.
3. Health
Yeah.. so today, finally, we made the big announcement.
Fearghus and I are very pleased to finally announce that we are pregnant (well.. I’m pregnant.. and Fearghus is having the morning sickness). We wanted to wait until the end of the first trimester before we shared the news. We will be having a little boy in November.
Let’s see.. this week I’m at 12 weeks. Since I’m an older mother there’s a few increased concerns with genetics.. so a few weeks ago we had CVS genetic testing done. That came back yesterday as all normal.. and identified that the baby is a boy. So we’re finally willing to share publicly about the pregnancy.
I miss sushi, coffee, and alcohol. Not that I ever had a lot of any of those.. but being denied just makes them all the more alluring. Honestly I also miss dieting. My first indication that I might be pregnant was when I gained 15 lbs almost overnight. This now on top of the 15 lbs I gained almost over night when we were pregnant (and then miscarried) in November/December means that I’ve pretty much gained back all of the weight I lost a few years ago. This annoys me.. but I am resolved to be ok with it.
Since the initial weight gain I’ve gone up a total of 1.4 lbs. My doctor has recommended I try to keep the weight gain down to 11-20 lbs over the course of the pregnancy. For the most part this means eating sensibly.. and eating whole foods. You know.. that thing I’ve been doing over the last two years and maintaining. Yeah me for being good at this.
4. SCA/Projects
Last time I wrote this:
I’ve decided, for a couple of different reasons, to focus on Kentish Anglo-Saxon clothing for at least the next year or so.**…
** I realize this is a bit of an about-face since I’ve spent the last year or so focused on French 15th century waisted kirtles.. but believe me, I have several very good reasons. Add to that.. the little bit of heavy research I’ve already done into the Kentish stuff is SO DAMN COOL!
So yea.. really good reason. It looks to me like the Kentish Anglo-saxon dress style IV will be perfect for maternity and breast feeding. Now I just need to find time to work on it.
Knighting stuff is progressing well. I just need more hours in the days.
Project list:
(done) – Black Linen Rus pants for Fearghus (Due June 22)
– Blue Black Linen Tunic to try out new pattern for Fearghus (Due ASAP) I decided to do the trial run in black, not blue.. and I’ve washed the fabric.. but other than that, no progress so far.
– White Linen Tunic for Fearghus (Due June 22)
(in progress) – Trim for white tunic for Fearghus (Due June 22) Started on this. I’m 20% done with the hard trim.. and not yet started on the easy trim.
– Viborg undershirt for Fearghus (Due June 22) This is now a stretch project. I may not have time to get to it.
5.
So it’s shaping up to be a very busy year. Between the Knighting, Wedding, Baby and my job ending.. yeah.. a bit much for one year.
Hopefully on Sunday we’ll be able to stuff/address and send out wedding invitations. We still need to setup the tux rentals.. and get wedding rings. Oh.. and I need to “fix” my wedding dress. To accommodate the pregnancy I’m going to remove the zipper and fake buttons on the back of the dress and replace that with lacing rings and a wide lace. Busy busy busy.
Future:
May 11 Mists-Cyn War (daytrip)
May 18: FREE WEEKEND!!! (We’re not attending Mists Spring Investiture)
May 24-26: Cynaguan Coronet
June 1: Golden River’s Championship (daytrip)
June 8 A&S Tournament (daytrip)
June 14: Attending a wedding (hotel)
June 21-23: June Crown
June 29: Attending a wedding, Nevada City (hotel)
July 6: FREE WEEKEND!!! (We’re not attending West/An Tir War)
July 13: Cynaguan Summer Investiture (daytrip)
July 20: FREE WEEKEND!!! (We’re not attending Pennsic)
July 27: Bachelorette Party in VEGAS!
August 3: FREE WEEKEND!!!
August 10: Potential fitting someone for German dress.
August 17: FREE WEEKEND!!!
August 23-25: Purgatorio (not sure if we’re attending)
August 31, 2013 My wedding in Billings Montana (Wedding website: https://sites.google.com/site/stroudwed/)