26 October 2005

There was only one thing I was looking forward to with bed rest - and that was that Civilization IV was scheduled to come out just in time for me to spend the long months ahead wrapping myself in the game.

We got the game today, purchased two copies so that we could multiplayer, and my hsuband took the rest of the week off to play.

Civilization IV won't run on my less-than-a-year-old laptop. The terrain shows up black, making it impossible to see where I'm going, and the faces of the civilization leaders look like Cheshire cats, with eyeballs and teeth being the only visible body parts.

I've looked and posted on the CivFanatics forum and the Apolyton forum, and Firaxis is conspicuously absent from answering any posts regarding this issue, even though many many people seem to be having the problem. One person said he actually managed to get Firaxis tech support on the phone. Firaxis doesn't plan to fix it. Apparently my 64 meg video card doesn't meet the minimum system requirements since it doesn't support Transform & Lighting or pixel shading. WTF does a turn-based strategy game need T&L or pixel shading for? Civ III is not a game I played because it looks pretty - it's a game I played because it's FUN. This isn't Doom, Quake, or HalfLife, there's no great amount of 3D motion required - it's played on a flat wraparound map.

As another plagued user put it, "I don't need the bling."

19 October 2005

Dangerous people in cars

Yesterday my husband was walking to his car, crossing 9th at Grant in Denver, when he was hit by a car making a right turn.

He's OK, his knee is banged up, but I'm really irked at the driver. The driver didn't stop, just yelled, "Sorry!" out the window and drove on. My husband was knocked down and shocked and didn't manage to get a license plate off the car, but he did notice that there was a kid in the car as a passenger. Some example the driver is setting for his kid.

Then this morning, when I was driving Rich to the doctor's to get his knee checked out, we arrived upon an accident a block and a half from our house. A woman in a ginormous truck had just run over a high school kid on a bike. The woman who had hit him was holding his head up, so I took off my coat and put it under his head to keep it still and comfortable. I think the kid will be OK, maybe a broken arm, and he had a little blood coming from his mouth but I think he had possibly bitten his tongue or the inside of his mouth. He may have been in shock, or possibly had a head injury, because he knew his name but not his parents', or his phone number, and he kept trying to pass out. I just stuck around long enough to keep the kid awake long enough for the emergency crews to arrive. The first group of firefighters on the scene had things under control, so I gave him my name and phone number, told him I hadn't seen the actual accident, that I needed to take my husband to the doctor, and asked him to call me when I could get my coat.

Is it shallow of me to hope that I get my coat back? Even though it's only a $25 coat, I really like it.

UPDATE: I got my coat back. Went by the kid's house (I had his last name, and there's someone down the street with the same fairly uncommon last name, so I am guessing it's his house, anyway), they're not home, which either means his injuries were minor and they're out shopping or eating dinner or something, or they're still at the hospital, which may be not so good news. The hospital he was taken to is in downtown Denver, and I live in a far north suburb, so I'm not going to drop by to see how he's doing. I left a message on what I hope is their phone.

13 October 2005

Blackmail photos

I wish I'd had my camera with me today.

Boo and I went to the grocery store for a few items. He's very into asking for everything, even if it's not something he could possibly want or need - i.e. colorful bottles of deodorant and frozen buffalo wings. We were standing in the checkout aisle and he asked for a bag of M&Ms, which I refused to buy. He got upset, pulled his overalls straps down over his arms, and took off running down the store aisle with his pants around his knees, showing off his Bob the Builder underwear. He stopped about halfway down the aisle and refused to come back. Boo finally grabbed a box of pasta and I told him to bring it to me and we would buy it. I handed it to the cashier and whispered to her that we didn't really want it, then pulled Boo's pants back up.

If only I'd had a camera - that would be a wonderful picture to threaten to show the girlfriend when he's sixteen and refusing to do...anything.

09 October 2005

Snow snow snow

We're probably going to get our first snow of the winter tonight.

I wonder if Boo will remember what snow is. Since we didn't get the late snows last year, it's been a while since he's seen any snow. We have one book we read on a regular basis that is about snow (The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats), but other than that there hasn't been much exposure. He remembers snowmen, though.

I wonder too if he will still pronounce it 'hnow'.

It's supposed to snow 4 to 8 inches tonight, we'll see how much we actually get, and how much sticks around.

UPDATE: When Boo got up this morning, I picked him up and carried him to the window. He said, "Snows? Snows?! I LOVE snows! Oh, thank you mommy!" and threw his arms around my neck. It was the sweetest thing he's done in a long time. He's been asking to go play in the snow all day, but it hasn't really been sticking and it has been alternating between snow and rain as the temperature fluctuates.

07 October 2005

On the upside...

The best thing about pregnancy pants is they have no front pockets. This means I don't have to worry about washing my cell phone (which I have done three times in the past two years) or washing pens.

06 October 2005

Neuticles

I remember discussing Neuticles with a nurse friend of mine after he brought one of the human versions to dinner after it was dropped in surgery (rendering it unusable because it was no longer sterile). CNN has an article about the inventor receiving a prize for his invention - but what I am not sure of is if he's sold 150,000 of them (meaning 75,000 pairs), or if there are 150,000 happier dogs running around out there.

02 October 2005

Starting again too soon

When I was pregnant with Boo, I was diagnosed with gestational hypertension that gradually moved to mild preeclampsia. I was on bed rest from 29 weeks (June 24) to 37 weeks (August 19), when I had a blood pressure of 170/120 even with bed rest and labor was induced. We had put a house under contract on May 10 with a move-in date of July 3, and I had put off most of my baby shopping until we moved in to the house so as to have less stuff to move - we only had a stroller-car seat combination that my dad had bought us on learning about our baby registry, and some diapers that I had been buying here and there on sale. I didn't get to organize my new kitchen or be the first person to cook in my kitchen, and I didn't get to help with putting the nursery together or shop for baby clothes. I was lucky that when I was leaving my chiropractor the day of my adjustment prior to induction, I passed a garage sale with a changing table and a bassinet and was able to mentally justify at least purchasing those since I only had to get out of the car for a minute.

My blood pressure has been creeping up for weeks, and I had my first reading that had an isolated diastolic of over 90 earlier this week. I am only 16 weeks along, but I am hoping that I am no worse off than I was when I was pregnant with Boo since I know I was having swelling of the hands, feet, and face as early as 20 weeks. My doctor said that if I keep getting readings with a diastolic in the 90s I need to lay down until my BP comes down, and if it starts going over 100 it's time to park on the couch on my left side. At least this time I don't have to worry about moving in to a house, although I was joking with someone that if I was unlucky, I would find out the gender of the baby (and hopefully time to go shopping for little girl clothes) at the same time as I was told not to get out of bed. At this point, I will be thrilled if I make it to 24 weeks without having to spend most of my time laying down.

I'm lucky to have an awesome neighbor who has offered to watch Boo while my husband works if I get put on bed rest. Not only is she kind and generous, but my only hesitation when I quit my job was pulling Boo out of her wonderful child care, so I have no worries about him staying there.