Monkey Buttons! Monkey Buttons!

Say that a few times. It's so fun you might not be able to stop.

The ribbon is actually light yellow...

For our soon-to-be little monkey, I present to you Monkey Buttons. This will be the first sweater in a small (because I don't want to be too insane) series. Now I have to figure out what to do with the luscious baby alpaca yarn that Karen gave me when I mentioned 3 years ago that I wanted to have a baby.

Feast on this Thanksgiving photo!

Turkey (brined-- such a good method!), brussel sprouts, cranberry sauce, sweet potato fries, rosemary foccacia, and apple-cranberry crumble.

Good evening, Sir. Won't you join me for this fine repast?

More Nice!

We thought we would let you all chew on that last entry for a while. Mmmmm, delicious.

For those of you who are wondering what is happening in my belly, the baby is now 6 cm. I had a doctor's appointment last Monday, and Jeremy and I got to see the little bugger again, but mostly just the head, and then the whole body in a very strange Edvard Munch ultrasound image that did not translate well to a printed version. The doctor was really behind and harried, so I barely got in my question about blutwurst (no) before we had to go. Everything else is going very well, but I swear I want people to STOP ASSUMING that I am throwing up all the time. I'm not. So just drop it.

Anyway, aside from eating up a mess of shellfish and amusing the locals, I spent our 48 hours in Nice Christmas shopping (ooh! and I bought an adorable maternity shirt that says "C'est pour Juin" or "this is for June" over my belly) and taking a pointless train trip. I wanted to see a preserved medieval village that was supposed to be reachable by train. It would be, if you then took a bus to the village that only leaves once an hour. I took a pass and went back to Nice in order to meet Jeremy for another dinner adventure.

On our last morning, we had breakfast at a snotty but delicious cafe (we asked-- badly, I admit-- for more butter, but ended up having to steal it from a table of Japanese tourists as they got up to leave), and took a last stroll along the ocean. I think I was filled to the brim with feel-good pregnancy hormones because I feel like I have never been that relaxed in my life.

But one of the very best parts of the trip was seeing Jeremy "at work", talking to another scientists, answering people's questions, and seeing how his boss really treats him like a colleague. In case you didn't know, his new nickname is Papa Remy Fancy Pants, PhD.


view from the Promenade







In the old town (also, Jeremy likes to take pictures of other people taking pictures...)





This has got to be Venus, right?



View from the train station of the town that turned out not to be a medieval town.



apparently a real office building



Nerds on parade
(I am also a nerd, so I am allowed to say that)



Jeremy and his student, Orhan. They appear to be "pondering" according to Stephanie Lynch's criteria.



Jeremy's boss squeezing out the last drop.

Jeremy demonstrates proper snail technique (**Consider alternate title: Excuse me sir, but there are *snails* on my plate--ed)

The title says it all.

More about Nice in the next few days as I collect my thoughts, upload pictures and attempt to be clever. Consider this a little "amuse-bouche".

We were packed in the restaurant, Grand Café de Turin, like sardines, and the group next to us was very amused by our silly picture-taking and video-making. On our other side was the most fantastic old man. He was on his oyster course when we squeezed in next to him (I was successful in not getting my behind in his dinner), and he continued leisurely to munch as we hemmed and hawed over the menu with our limited knowledge of French. As our plate of craziness arrived,


he ordered his very French dessert: a piece of Roquefort and a circle of cheesecake, and proceeded to eat the cheese with gusto after it had been slathered with butter. At one point, I accidentally tossed a french fry (I was eating the moules frites. No oysters for me. Boo.) in his direction, and he said, "No problem!". Adorable.

(**Update--Sarah forgot to mention the most awesome part--after he managed to settle the bill, the guy stood up and nonchalantly began rebuckling his belt. I guess he was having an early thanksgiving. --ed)
(**Also, notice in the above picture that I was shortchanged one bulot (larger sea snail), and instead got a hermit crab. I didn't have the heart, or indeed the skills, to eat him--ed)

Our other neighbors, the four who were so interested in our picture-taking, encouraged us to pose this shot:








This is called "Le Flottette", I think. A meringue floating in sabayon sauce. My chocolate mousse was better, but Jeremy really went for the spectacular that night.

**I also will add a picture of the complete main course, as well as a more flattering picture of me enjoying the desert--ed

ice-cream scheme

I am probably getting too excited for our little French excursion this weekend, but I have this crazy feeling that we won't be taking so many devil-may-care trips around Europe for a bit. Well, we'll see. I am hoping that we turn into the "drag your kid backpacking in a sling on the night train to Bukarest" kind of parents (all signs indicate this, right?), but you never know.

So, meanwhile, I am scheming which of the 96 ice-cream flavors at Fenocchio in the Place Rosetti I can fit into my 48 hour trip. Maybe 6?

Snaaack! Naaap! Show Tonight! and Nice

A few pregnancy symptoms have decided to come around again to keep me company (and to remind me, yes, you really are pregnant).

1. General sleepiness.
2. Ravenous hunger.
3. Dizziness. Weird. "What to Expect" says that I don't yet have an adequate blood supply for my little vampire.
4. My stomach is "delicate" when dealing with the post nasal drip in the morning. Eeewww.

AND, my tummy is poking out a little bit! It really just looks like I am kind of bloated, but I'll take it.

My show (as yet untitled-- oooh, so modern-arty) with Beate is tonight. I sincerely hope that people will come to see this thing... nothing is worse than performing to 5 people. Even having your pants fall down in a performance is preferable to having no one in the audience. I've grown to love this show, but I must admit that it took a while. Doing a whole show of new choreography (ok, I'll admit half new choreography and half baroque dances that I've already performed) RIGHT AFTER making a show that is my complete favorite was hard. Plus, I just wanted to sit on the couch and knit. But there will be plenty of time for that!

The big, fun news is that Jeremy and I will be in Nice next weekend! Jer has a conference there, and I'll join him for a couple of days of salade niçoise, Pan-bagnat (salade niçoise sandwich!), some kind of chickpea cake called socca, bouilliabaise, and ratatouille. And olives! And French bread! And slightly warmer weather!

I'm trying to decide whether I should stuff a couple of bottles of wine in Jeremy's bag (I cleverly will have only a carry-on) for when I can enjoy it again... We'll be moving apartments in February, and I have been very vigilant about not buying stuff that we will have to move. We'll see. Jeremy can have the thankless job of taste-tester, and if something fabulous surfaces, we may just have to bring it home.

Meow.

Folks, there is really nothing much happening in the baby-baking department. It makes me feel a little weird. Last week, I had a moderately impressive range of symptoms: I was dizzy one day, I had some nausea, and I felt pretty tired. This week.... ummm, I still like to take naps.

This is fantastic because I am working on another show with Beate for Nov. 14th. It's just the two of us, and she'll be playing medieval, renaissance (while I do contemporary dancing) and baroque music (baroque dancing). So, she will be going forward in time while I go backward! Now I just have to figure out how to add in the Four Humors and we will be set to go. I'm also working on a Renaissance only show for Nov. 29th in Frankfurt. It's been a hard slog reading all those treatises again, but now I think I am starting to get the hang of it...

Heidi is a total weirdo. Check it out:

Drumroll, please...

Ladies and Gentlemen, Boys and Girls,

Jeremy and I have a Big Announcement to make.

Are you ready? Sitting down? I imagine that you are because not many people read blogs while standing up...

We are having a baby!

Here's a sneak preview of our adorable plum-sized blob:




I am about 10 weeks along, and I've been feeling mostly pretty good. This weekend is a bit of a nausea-spectacular, but I think either I have an actual cold or all the morning sickness that I haven't really been experiencing the first two months is catching up with me all at once. It had better be gone by tomorrow, though, because being sick is booooring.

The due date is June 4th!