constant renovations

I'd meant to include knitting photos in this post, but honestly, renovation has been on my mind. Every day, we have some new surprising change. We haven't been up in my sunny office on the 3rd floor to work in a week--the plasterer was working up there so I relocated the laptop to the first floor to avoid any stinkiness or dust.

Meanwhile, on the first floor I can actually answer the door when people arrive without rushing down 2 flights of steps. This is fine except that Harry really misses going to work upstairs with me. Instead, every time there is a stranger trying to work in the house, the dogs have to go to their crates in order to avoid bad run-ins with fur/plaster/paint or other messes.

This morning, we were surprised to find a forklift in the backlane, delivering our shingles. They were deposited on our back yard path here. This is not a small delivery...you can see our (tall) fence and my car beyond it for a sense of scale. At the same time, the roofers are a bit concerned about the weather prediction for tomorrow (flurries and/or rain) so the insulation will happen tomorrow and the roof work will perhaps start on Thursday. Did I mention that tomorrow the painter arrives to work inside for the first time?

My bad postal service karma seems to be continuing. I still haven't received the yarn I ordered at the end of February (the seller is trying to track it down) and no big dresses have arrived yet to offer me enough for a week's worth of twin maternity clothing. I know it is just me because anything the professor orders arrives promptly. I am trying not to take it personally!

In the meanwhile, I present this wacky photo of my belly. It's not the best angle for seeing the whole thing....but last I measured, I was 45" around where there used to be a waist. For comparison --for those of you who know the professor in person? That is several inches bigger than his waist size. The mirror in the kitchen is a bit old and wavy so the best photo of my belly is streaky. Here it is on the left.

People say some mighty quirky things at this time...I'll be 30 weeks' pregnant on Thursday. I'm this big because I'm carrying twins--I don't have a cute little basketball bulge like the full-term folks in my childbirth class who are just expecting one kid. It's more like an old-fashioned watermelon!

I've heard everything from "Gosh, she's pregnant? I just thought she got really fat!" (gee, thanks, you look great too!) to "Oh, you're not that big, I was bigger" (Said in a disparaging way, like if I just tried harder, I could lug around an even bigger belly!) The test was going out to dinner last week. I just looked at what the other customers' expressions were. If I had to guess, it was something like "Oh my gosh, I hope she doesn't go into labor right here while I'm eating..." Of course, I still have roughly a couple of months before these fetuses are full term, so I will be even bigger then.

I meant to tell you about the dyeing I did today as well as some knitting and sewing stuff, but I imagine that will wait for another post. In the meanwhile, you might understand why taking a nap with Sally is top on my list for afternoon activities. I am not going out much anymore--I don't really enjoy the commentary I get all the time. Sally, on the other hand, says very little and curls up with me every day to be sure I am cared for. There is something to be said for the dog as nursemaid. Peter Pan's Nana had it right.