The Mystery of the Anonymous Mobile

Maybe one of my readers can help D and me solve this mystery, so I'm reprinting the email we sent to our parents:

Yesterday we received a lovely gift in the mail: a Fisher-Price Ocean Wonders Mobile with Remote Control.
It was shipped from a company called Albee Baby, and the packing slip was uninformative regarding who it was from.

Here is a link to the item, as it is listed on the Albee Baby website:
http://www.specialtybaby.com/fiprocwomowi.html

DOES ANYONE KNOW WHO SENT THIS TO US?

I'd like to send a thank-you note.

UPDATE 3/6/07: No claimers yet. Here's a photo:

UPDATE 3/20/07: Perpetrator has been found! See new post.

The Much Awaited Cat Travel Post

I know many of you have been eagerly waiting to hear how it went this weekend, when D and I drove 5 hours to his parents with our cat. For the purposes of blog-nicknames, I'll call our cat Mittens, because that's what I call her around the house anyway. Because it rhymes with kitten. What?
In preparation for the trip, I bought disposable "puppy pads" to line her carrying cage in case of an accident, and I made a portable litterbox out of a 12x12 plastic storage box full of her regular litter, which is clumping and flushable, perfect for travel!

Here's the lowdown on what a good kitty she was:
Mittens was a very good kitty on her long journey with us this weekend. She meowed a lot, but she did quiet down after the first hour, and she was very good about using her litterbox at the house once we were there. She was quiet on the way back, and I think she now understands that just because she's in the carrier, that doesn't mean we're going to abandon her. She spent the weekend hiding on the floor next to the bed on the far side of our bedroom, but when I would come in to check on her, she was happy to hop up on the bed for pettings. She was complacent when we'd carry her downstairs to meet new people, and she did figure out how to run up the stairs back to her room if we put her down in the front hallway.
She only used her litterbox at night, which is her usual pattern anyway, and D and I suspect that she likes digging in her litterbox as a pasttime, because it woke us both up the second night, and we lay there listening to her paw-paw-paw-paw-paw-paw-paw-paw at the litter.
I'm just glad she has a hobby.
We'll still leave her at home for weekend trips, but the next time we have a long trip that we're driving, we might take her with us; she was so good!

Answering the Craving Question

It seems that everyone else's craving is to ask me about my food cravings.
Below is the latest response I have given. If I develop any new cravings during the rest of my pregnancy, or ever, I promise I'll post an update.

In my first trimester, when I was nauseated, I developed an affection for pickles. That wore off when the nausea subsided. These days, I don't know if it's a craving, but I really like breakfast foods. Specifically, I would rather have fresh fruit than a salty snack, and after 8 years of generally avoiding cereal, I'm all about my old-school favorite: Product 19. Every so often I'll treat myself to Corn Pops, but mostly it's P19 or granola. And for snacks, apples, pears, grapefruit, or I'll make a fruit salad. Sometimes I'll make pancakes. I made them for dinner once; that was awesome.
Other than the pancakes, it's all weirdly healthy of me.
I don't have any big aversions; I'll pretty much eat anything I ate before, except for all the stuff I'm not supposed to eat when pregnant.

The Many Uses For Machine-Gun Jubblies

It's a cure-all. Please check out this post over on Parent Hacks about the many "off-label" uses for breastmilk. I say many because though the post is about healing infant eye infections by squirting breastmilk at your baby, the comments bring it all to a higher plane.
I may be going to Hell, though, because this discussion reminded me of this Drawn Together episode.

Pregnancy Date-Tracking is starting to fall apart

According to iVillage and Wikipedia, I'm in my 2nd trimester; 3rd starts at week 28.
According to the pregnancy book Great Expectations, I'm in my 3rd trimester; 3rd starts at week 25.

According to iVillage's pregnancy calendar, I'm in my 26th week of pregnancy.
According to Ticker Factory's countdown, I'm in my 25th week of pregnancy.

I'll use my doctor's time-table as a tie-breaker; she has me at 25 weeks.

A Dish Is Just A Dish

To celebrate Valentine's Day, D and I went out for a romantic dinner Saturday night. We like to go the weekend before instead of the weekend after, because it's much easier to get a reservation. We tried Casablanca, the restaurant under the Brattle Theatre in Harvard Square. It has big murals on the walls of scenes and characters from the film, which is interesting, but what's really post-worthy is the FOOD. The food was exquisite. You really should go.

Every dish we had was delicious, but the most outstanding was the grilled breast served as part of my entree of "Duck Two Ways" (grilled breast and confit with wilted spinach over wild rice and roasted pear). Even though I had to get it pretty thoroughly cooked due to pregnancy, even medium-well-to-well it was soft and tender and not dry. D, who generally doesn't eat poultry, was amazed at the flavor; it tasted like a tender steak.

We need a better selection of stamps.

I just put a Hawkman stamp on a sorry-your-mom-died card. It doesn't seem right.
But then again, I'm already tardy in sending it, and if I waited until I got some more-appropriate stamps, the letter would be even later.
I could have used some old stamps of lower denomination, but a regular card littered with a variety of stamps probably looks stranger than a lesser-known crimefighter.
I could have used Wonder Woman for a female theme, but that felt even more wrong.
Why not the Green Arrow, or Superman? I thought Hawkman's yellow background would blend better on the yellow envelope. I'm doing my best with the materials I have. I just have to get better materials.