Last weekend Elise and I went grocery shopping. I was browsing the produce section and my eye caught a jar of kimchee. Next my eye caught a package of eggroll wraps. Elise saw my eyebrows lift and she said, “Ooh, ooh, make eggrolls!”
So I put the wraps and necessary vegetables in which to make eggrolls in the shopping cart.
On Wednesday evening I pulled a pork hind quarter from the freezer to thaw. Last night I stewed the pork with vegetables and veal stock to be used as part of the filling for the eggrolls that I plan on making tonight. I left the pork simmering on the stove for a few hours so It would fall off the bone. Keep in mind, this is wild baby pig that was caught on my parents’ land. Even when cooked properly, there can still be a hint of gaminess that can linger when cooked.
I left the pot simmering in the kitchen. Elise sat in the living room and watched a rerun of ER. I went into my office and nerded out while watching Steve Jobs’ Special Event presentation on the iPod nano and the Motorola ROKR iTunes phone.
An hour into the presentation Elise walked into the office.
“Uhhh… ummmm… are you going to be cooking that stuff much longer?”
“Yeah. Probably another hour or so. Why?” I asked.
“Because that smell is making me nauseous… I think I’m going to go into the bedroom and close the door and see if that’ll will block out the smell” she said.
It wasn’t a bad smell. It smelled no different than any other time I’ve cooked wild pig.
So that was the first time I witnessed a food or smell aversion from Elise. She’s told me that the smell of cigarettes really bothers her now as well.
Things should be better tonight when I make the eggrolls. Hopefully. Or I’ll have a lot of eggrolls to eat by myself. Outside. Surrounded by citronella candles.
In other news: things are going along great for the mom-to-be. There’s not a whole lot to report as we’re just now 9 weeks along. I think. I still haven’t figured the weeks thing out yet. Elise said she has the inclination to be “bitchy” more often now. If you know Elise, you know “bitchy” really isn’t her social repertoire.
And then there is the sleep thing. Elise can sleep like a champ. She comes home from work, sits on the couch, turns on the tube and it’s pretty much lights out after that. She’s a borderline narcoleptic. I think she’s been sleeping the whole night through. She might get up once during the night to use the restroom, but I don’t think the constant need to pee has quite set in. She tells me she’s been drinking a lot of water. Maybe she’s a narcoleptic camel. Now that’s a good name for a band!
Last weekend Elise told her boss, office manager and assistant that she was pregnant. We agreed that she needed to tell them as soon as possible as her job is pretty demanding. We also agreed that Elise needs to cut back on the physical and emotional stress that her job requires. The news was well-received by the coworkers but her boss might need to be hit over the head a few times before it sets in that we’re serious about Elise scaling back on hours and stress.
I sent an e-mail to my boss today giving him and update on the happenings around the office. I manage all operations for our company so my boss isn’t around that much. We usually correspond via e-mail as needed. At the end of the e-mail that I sent I wrote, “And we need to have a mano y mano next time you’re in the office.”
I want to tell my boss as soon as possible because 1) I want it to be out as soon as possible so when I want to take time off it won’t be a surprise and 2) my boss is a pharmacist and I want to milk him for all of the free medical advice I can get!
I also want to telecommute to work for 90 days or so after the baby is born. I want to run that by him early on to see if we can work something out so I can be with Elise and the baby as much as possible. I work 60 miles from home so it’s not like I can just run home during my lunch break to see my family.