Yesterday the Dotytron went with me to Sunnybrook and got to experience first-hand how efficient and organized maternity wards in big teaching hospitals are. For instance! We waited the standard 2.5 hours to be seen by an OB. The OB we did see was not my "regular" OB (who I've interacted with once out of the three times I've been there). The OB who was covering apparently opted not to read my chart or my file and had no idea why I was there or what the protocols were for my care. We saw him for about 3 minutes and then he left the room. Also, he was thoughtful enough to neglect to update my "travelling record" (which is this file I'm supposed to carry around with me on the twerps, and which I've augmented myself to make sure is a complete record). I had to ask for it to be updated at the reception desk. If it wasn't for the unusually chatty ultrasound technician, who assured us the doppler on Twin B was fine this time, I wouldn't have known anything.
Anyway, I have one more visit with them in 3 weeks and that will hopefully be the last time I have to be there and I can just deliver with my other OB and my midwives at my local hospital. I did pack a hospital bag and pull out all the stuff to sterilize and reorganize the kitchen cupboards for the bottle brigade. We're just putting the finishing touches on the twerps room and then we'll have pretty much knocked through the list. Phew - and yay!
This past weekend was very, very lovely. Bamiyan on Friday was just what the Afghani doctor ordered. That rice!!! It's insanely, insanely delicious. One of the more satisfying Friday Night Takeout Night iterations in recent memory:
Saturday we went to a birthday party for a special lil' lady in Kdubs. We drove Eddie Van Halen and blew through a million litres of gas, but it was a comfy ride. It helped that the Dotytron's issue of his professional magazine had come in so we spent a good chunk of time reading the "blue pages" (aka US Magazine for teachers) and alternating between giggling at some of them and being horrified. A funny one was about a teacher who lived next door to a student. The (female) student was watching a movie with her boyfriend and heard a rustling. She went to the window and saw a naked man running away from the house. She called the police, who arrived, saw the naked man on the property, and the naked man bolted back to his house and was apprehended. Naked man was the teacher!!! He claimed he had been sitting in the hot tub and heard a disturbance and came to help but neglected to grab a towel or his trunks. The police charges against him were dropped, but I think he was fired from the school board he taught in. LOL!!!
Then another teacher was accused of using the internet and Facebook to lure a young (elementary aged) student for sexual purposes. GROSS. He had his teaching certificate revoked, of course, but the criminal charges were like, 3 months of house arrest and 1 year probation. SICK. How the heck does that work? On Saturday night we had dinner at JJ & S's house. Discerning Coyote and his gf were there too and we had a long discussion about the death penalty. The Dotytron was saying that he was fine with killing recidivist pederasts, whereas S was fine with paying their airfare to a desert island. Everyone but the Dotytron was against the death penalty. I thought that I could do it but the only way I could kill someone was to get into a car with them and then roll out when the carbon monoxide started to build up. Ha. I'm also against the death penalty though, for the record.
Following that discussion and on a recommendation from JJ, we watched Werner Herzog's Into the Abyss: A Tale of Life, A Tale of Death, which is about the aftermath of a 2001 triple homicide but more ostensibly is about the death penalty in general. Herzog interviews the two convicted of the crime (one of whom is sentenced to the death penalty) as well as the victim's family, a prison chaplain, and other people associated with that particular case. It's pretty harrowing and depressing and (for me) reinforces my opinion that we shouldn't have state sanctioned murder. That being said, even though Herzog's fingerprints and editorial viewpoint are all over the film, the film does try to give a forum for those affected by the crime. What came across above and beyond that for me, is what an extraordinary individual Werner Herzog is. He is incredibly gifted. He's truly operating on a higher mode of existence than you or I. His ability to ask the right questions and to be so neutral towards his subjects is astounding. He's just so zen. He allows the world to wash over him in a very pure way. It's a fascinating state to be in and it makes him an extraordinarily gifted documentary filmmaker. He's so bada**.
On a lighter note, our dinner at JJ & S's was outstanding. We had prime rib, I made roasted garlic mash, we had broccoli salad, yorkshire puddings, and a red wine reduction:
Then, because things always get that way when this crew hangs out...we ended up with three desserts (!). Discerning Coyote and gf brought this bee sting cake (in German, Bienenstich) which is a yeasted cake split and filled with pastry cream and topped with a sticky almond honey topping. Then JJ & S made this triple chocolate fudge cake. And I made Thomas Keller Oreos. BUCKTOWN.
On Sunday we had Ehmdo over and I made those black bean and spelt burgers with an avocado ranch, that red pepper and feta dip, and my beloved Greek salad:
I also made a rhubarb crisp pie that was near-perfect. No strawberries, just pure, unadulterated, lightly sweetened rhubarb. So good.
Monday night's dinner was slow cooker chicken tinga tostadas with lettuce, guacamole, sour cream, and purchased salsa. I need to concentrate the flavour of the chicken tingas some more. It was a little weak.
Last night's dinner was buffalo shrimp sandwiches on buttered, toasted hamburger buns with more guacamole. So tasty.
In other news, I somehow gained 7lbs between last week and this week. RUH-ROH. To be honest, I know EXACTLY how it happens. I start off with an on-the-record day with My Fitness Pal. Last night, I had a big piece of that triple chocolate fudge cake and a glass of milk (on the record). Then things went sideways. And by "sideways" I mean, I then ate a slice of rhubarb pie with an equal volume of whipped cream (off the record), and then I took my piping bag of leftover TKO filling and made these weird Frankenstein oreos by splotching the filling on top of graham crackers and Mr. Christie chocolate wafer cookies (totally off the record). I concluded the evening by rolling around on the couch and crying about what a whale of a tale I was and trying to make the Dotytron the person responsible for my lack of self-control. It was me in fine form, folks.
Definitely one of my prouder gestational moments. Then, probably due to my excesses, I woke up at 2am and couldn't get back to sleep until 3:30am, whereupon I decided to apply myself to looking for a kimono robe on Etsy, because I've decided that it's important for me to have a kimono robe before giving birth - the idea being that I can swan around a hospital and the twerps will have easy access to my chesticular region for skin to skin and feeding, but that I can still feel kind of glam in a Grey Gardens-y kind of way (?) My priorities are mad jacked up right now, sons.
I had to stay at work late tonight so I called home to see what the Dotytron was making for dinner. Classic Dotytron dinner - hot dogs and KD. I can hear the Big Yam in the background, chirping something about dinner and then the Dotytron is like, "We're having hot dogs." And the Big Yam goes, "But HOWWWWWW" and the Dotytron goes, "I don't know! They're in the pan!" So I asked him to make some for me and the Dotytron says, "I'll make you two hot dogs when you get home" and the Big Yam says, "I want five!" Which is all to say that hot dog consumption genetics run strong in my bloodline, apparently.
Fin.
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Rhubarb Crisp Pie
stolen from Martha Stewart
1 9" pastry crust in a pie plate
1 3/4 lbs rhubarb, trimmed and cut into 3/4" pieces
1 cup granulated sugar
2 T. cornstarch
pinch salt
Crisp Topping
3/4 c. all purpose flour
1/3 c. packed brown sugar
3 T. granulated sugar
1/2 t. salt
6 T. cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
- Have your pie crust in the pie plate chilling in the fridge or freezer
- Preheat oven to 400F
- Stir together all the dry ingredients for the crisp topping. Rub the butter pieces into the dry ingredients until it's all broken up into small pea-sized lumps. Set aside
- Toss together the rhubarb, sugar, cornstarch and salt in a bowl. Pile into pie crust. Top with crisp topping.
- Put the pie crust on parchment lined sheet pan, put in the oven. Immediately reduce oven temperature to 375F and bake until topping is browned and crust is golden, about 1-1 1/2 hours.
- Let cool and serve warm with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.
