Week 17: Turn it Up

In this week's news, the Baby's skeleton is developing from cartilage into bone. Is that a legit excuse for weight gain? haha! The only other useful tidbit this week was that the baby is developing sweat glands. Hopefully they aren't overactive. Hyperhidrosis is no laughing matter. As for what you have all been waiting for, here you go.

thedailygreen.com

These are turnips if you don't have a green thumb. This is a baby turnip.

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Although oddly I am not craving root veggies, I have been craving some delicious cucumber gazpacho that my favorite God Mother made over the weekend. It is healthy, refreshing and soooo good and I plan on making a big batch to sip on over the next few weeks. Click here for the recipe, Cucumber Gazpacho.

thelunacafe.com

This is probably the closest thing to a pregnancy craving I have had. With the cucumbers and vinegar, it had a hint of pickle taste to it and since I haven't craved pickles directly, this gazpacho is close enough. SOOOO good! Another perk to this recipe is that potentially I can get Matt (who rarely cooks) to make it for me. Why you ask? Because this soup requires a blender and Matt is now obsessed with his latest toy...

myopure.com.au

The Blendtec. Will It Blend? Anyway, Matt has been a blending machine since he made this little investment and I'm sure he'd love to puree me some cucumber gazpacho. I have to admit, it is a sweet blender. I might put him on homemade baby food research duty now that we have some serious liquefying capabilities. To go with our new blender, we decided to upgrade another appliance too, our dishwasher.

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The issue with our old dishwasher was that I thought I was hallucinating. I SWORE the dumb thing did NOT fit the dishes our old house's did. I SWORE the bottom rack did not allow the height of dishes my old one had and neither did the top rack. Normal glasses only fit at an angle. Absurd! Unfortunately, we learned dishwashers are fairly standard in their height and depth (which added to the "Katy is crazy" theory) with the exception of some rare models with a kick plate on the bottom the makes the insides about 8 inches shorter. Why anyone would want this is beyond me. The outside takes up the same amount of space, so who elects for less space for dishes? Dumb. Needless to say, we had one of these rare models and Matt decided that in order to keep me happily doing dishes, we better fix this problem. I'm just glad I wasn't crazy.

One of Matt's bittersweet qualities is that he researches things. He is a mini-consumer report (which is why we have a Blendtec). This is good because I'd like to think we make smart purchases and have quality crap in our house. This is bad because he becomes a brand snob and our new dishwasher (that is unnecessary in the first place since our stupid mini-model does work) becomes more of an investment than I initially expected. Matt's research had him telling the NFM salesperson facts about brands and models that she didn't even know. One of the features (that I didn't know was a feature) that Matt was interested in was a hidden heating element (only present in models $$$+). Here is where his skills really kicked into play. "Katy, now that we are going to have baby, its important to have things like this. We wouldn't want the baby burning their fingers on the heating element." (insert smirky, pathetic, pouty smile) Good thing I'm not one of those loony moms scared of everything now that he is raising what should be non-existent concerns. Since when do babies get into the dishwasher, pull out the bottom rack and with Stretch Armstong arms, and reach into the base to touch the heating element? Whatever. Matt wins. We have a new kickass dishwasher.

Oh yea, and the best upgrade yet...

Our new granite went in today! Goodbye crappiest of all crappy white, linoleum countertops that even something as white as milk would stain! Goodbye crappiest sink in the world that was so small a glass would stick out the top! Good bye old owner's germs and crappy taste! Our final upgrades will be the backsplash and new hardware (which is currently little spoons, forks and knifes alternating around the room) and then we are done! Wait, the fire engine red sponge paint will probably be going soon too. But after that, ALL MONIES ON THE TURNIP!