the one where we're just elves doing chores.
Has everyone else been doing weird recently? Yes? Us, too. Lovely. A quick buffet of rapid-fire updates this week:
The project waterbear update.
So, we don’t have any ‘results’ to report as of right now; as we outlined here, we’re giving ourselves a month or so lag to report whether a cycle ‘worked’ or not.
Here’s what we’re doing, though:
- I did a month where I went on post-ovulation progesterone supplements. The idea was to raise my abysmally poor progesterone levels before we started ovulation meds, because sometimes that can help with egg quality?
- This cycle, I started the fertility experimentation bright and early by taking eight real pills of low-dose letrozole on day two of my cycle. (My NaPro recommended this specific, somewhat weird strategy; it’s not common, so, you know, don’t try this at home.)
- LUCKILY, we didn’t really notice any super dramatic side effects. Or, at least, anything half so horrible as our Clomid experience. We’ll do a femara-v-clomid comparison shortly…….which I’m looking forward to, because Ted has been taking notes on my Femara symptoms that he hasn’t yet shared with me. (So, I guess I should say—I haven’t noticed any super dramatic side effects; stay tuned for Ted’s full reveal?)
- We followed this up with post-ovulatory progesterone; and that brings us to now. Luckily - again - we have already noticed that this progesterone-and-letrozole cocktail is doing something. Voila:
So, that’s fun. February’s update will … be another update.
The rebrand.
One of the milestones I hit in 2020 was a full year working for myself; and, as that year was by any metric pretty successful (we were surprised, too!), I decided that it would be worth it to invest a little bit into how my site and socials look and feel. [I already ‘invest in my business’ by paying for Google Suites (that’s how my email has a custom domain), web hosting (that’s how my site has a custom domain) and quickbooks for accounting, as well as occasional courses to teach myself things like SEO and content strategy].
So! I downloaded a paid Wordpress theme from a lovely UK design boutique to makeover the site, and I found a graphic designer on Etsy who’s currently helping me design a simple logo - and the process has been so fun! I clearly need to prioritize actually finishing the site; I can see my daily traffic bemusedly checking out my ‘services’ page which is definitely still just the template I got online. (I am extremely professional.)
My graphic designer (who is wonderful!) is also helping me pick out colors and fonts, which is the real+justifiable reason I’ve been procrastinating on the copy…clearly. In my defense, unremarkably tiny things take sheer AGES; I spent a real 90 minutes of my life today figuring out how to make the four words that make up the menu at the top of my home page lowercase+italic. (Excuses aside, the plan is to get all website copy updated this week.)
The queen’s goons.
We just wanted to establish a fun family tradition that would a) get us out of bed on sleepy holiday mornings and b) give us a reason to not have our noses stuck in books or pointed at screens over break. That’s all we wanted.
Somehow, that morphed into an [expletive] three-hour game of chess. On Christmas. Basically, sometime in early December, the subliminal messaging of The Queen’s Gambit (which neither of us has watched) got through to us and convinced us that chess would be Intriguing and Dramatic and Fun.
We played a game online, to try it out. Ted beat me in about four seconds. This caused something chemical to twang in my brain. The world shook and tilted, just a hair. I experienced a Need to Prove Myself (I took chess lessons in third grade! What was this disgrace?). So, Ted lovingly got me a Wizarding Chess set for Christmas, and I, in a very normal and equal and opposite reaction, downloaded a chess app on my phone and began to vengefully train myself to be The Greatest Chessmaster Of All Time. Ted thought this was hilarious. I did not. This was serious business.
Days passed. I began to win. A lot. (Against a computer, set on ‘easy’). I became convinced that Revenge Would Be Mine.
12/23. We opened the chess set early to celebrate being on break. We played a game. Ted won, instantly. I sulked.
12/24. We played a rematch - me, sure that my ten days of halfhearted chess bootcamp would kick in any…moment…now. Ted won, instantly. My sulking escalated.
12/25. Merry Christmas! We played a rematch. I drank five cups of coffee and played the most annoyingly defensive game of all time - like, basically building a boring, impenetrable barricade around each of my players that Ted really didn’t have a chance against. I didn’t take a single [expletive] risk until about two hours in. IT WAS AGONIZING. We both looked at each other, bleary-eyed, as the minutes turned to hours. We were hungry. We were tired. We were committed to this stupid new tradition. I ended up winning………………….and we haven’t played since.
Good fun!
The reno.
New year, new bathroom. YES.
I’ll let Ted take this one.
Ted, here. Ahem. A photo from the demolition:
Our old shower was bad, and our new one is better. The bathroom had been renovated by the previous homeowners, and most of it is great, but the shower facilities were…unusual. They decided to build a wall in front of an original window and install a weird jacuzzi tub with virtually zero insulation on exterior walls. It was ugly and cold.
The upgrade was a long time in development. It’s one of the projects we had envisioned when we got the house. And while it was scheduled as a 2-day project, after 5 workdays it is still not quite finished. There were issues with a defective plumbing seal and collateral drywall damage, which thankfully were definitely covered by warranty.
It was a long few days of keeping the windows open and wearing PPE while the contractor worked. My colleagues were thankful that we’re all working from home so they weren’t around unshowered Ted. But we really appreciate our showers now!
(Quick Rebecca note: before-before of our bathroom is on my Insta under highlight ‘batcave’, if you’re interested; we did, in fact, find a bat in there one fine evening. I’ve still gotta finish the ceiling/etc. Curtain’s from Anthro, courtesy black friday.)
The readlist/watchlist.
- I blew through Bridgerton in 48 hours; I finally watched Vanity Fair. (The former is the light, fluffy, gorgeous Emily-In-Paris of period soaps; the latter frightened me. Was it supposed to be Thackeray’s Les Mis? Perhaps it’s just that my name’s Rebecca - the brilliantly cold and calculating protag’s name - but I found it convicting, and I don’t think that was the goal?) (Both were good; don’t watch Bridgerton with littles or your parents.)
- I’ve been (re)watching Mostly Walking, a Twitch stream featuring three thirtysomething web developers who play through adventure games. I find them and their jokes hilarious; and they’ve played through three Nancy Drew games, and I’ve probably watched each of those streams ten times each. (I have a niche obsession with the genre of ‘guys my age or slightly older enjoying/making fun of teen girl entertainment, but not in a weird way’. See also: Bros Watch PLL Too, podcasts hosted by male comedians about the Bachelor franchise, etc.)
- Speaking of Nancy Drew: Ted’s next pick for our TV forays is Amazon’s The Hardy Boys? Has anyone watched this? Is it good?
- The New Year Doctor Who special: Ted loved it. I found it meh, but this was probably because I had impossibly high expectations.
- The Queen’s Gambit is not on our watch list, despite universal acclaim and many personal recommendations. I saw that Netflix had described it as ‘cerebral’, and my eyes rolled into the back of my skull. Maybe later; my bandwidth for overly think-y+sincere media is completely tapped out at the moment. Right now, I require snark and fluff and ease.
- See also: The Bachelor.
- We also decided that our Christmas movies include Space Jam and Ghostbusters and we are very proud of / happy with that decision.
- Here’s what we’ve read over the last month or so:
Rebecca: In the Woods, The 7.5 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle, Ready Player Two, The Wife Upstairs, and now The Survivors and The Likeness, the sorta-sequel to In the Woods. Has anyone else read The Likeness? I’m a fifth of the way in and I know how I want it to end, based on my suspicions about the ambiguous ending of In the Woods…we’ll see if Tana French thought so as well 😂
Ted: Over Christmas break, I finished reading Economic Dignity. 9/10, with a full 10 being reserved for stupendous work. The author uses his vast experience with national economics to explore questions like what is a good economy? What should a strong economy be? Where do theory and real families’ finances meet?
Over the New Year’s holiday, I read my requested Christmas present, What Unites Us by Dan Rather. My underlined and dog-eared copy will be kept nearby for re-reading. My time reading it was the most hopeful of the whole year. Here’s a link at a local Cincinnati bookshop.
Neil Gaiman’s Unnatural Creatures was a fun read. Maybe he’ll do a sequel in partnership with Doctor Who monsters.
Currently, I’m working through Stamped From The Beginning for a book club. I’ll give it 7/10 so far, but in fairness it is a gigantic book. The more I read the documented and quoted history of that side of America, the less I am surprised by the 1/6/2021 insurrection or whatever we’re calling it. Even though the political names are different now, did you know about the Colfax Massacre? I sure didn’t. The American flag on my Scout uniform is important to me, but now I’m seeing more of what it represents.
Yes, I know I am a spontaneous and fun-loving person who likes to read economics and history to rest and recharge. My wife loves me anyway.
Screentime. Tenet > Soul > Wonder Woman ’84. Our IT Crowd rewatch is gold.
Space Jam is our new favorite Christmas movie.
Rebecca: It’s good to see that Ted and I agree on that :)
The elves with a task list.
(Disclaimer: I don’t think Link is actually an elf)
(I showed that to Ted, and the following convo ensued:)
Ted: …What else do you think Link is?
Me: I mean, Zelda’s the one with the ears, so.
Ted: Link’s got the same ears…….
Me: [abruptly goes back to figuring out how to make everything on website lowercase]
I’ll let Ted take this one, too:
Ted: I know I’m late to the Breath of the Wild party, but ZELDA GAMES WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN ALL MY LIFE??
Those dungeon puzzles and monster fights are so dang good! With my newly acquired Master Sword, it’s so cathartic to farm those harassing Guardians. Ganon, I’m coming for ya. Definitely no hubris or overconfidence there. Lynels still be scary though.
So that’s what we’re doing in the time not spent researching infertility.
Rebecca: I’m also playing Zelda! But I’m spending more of my time hiking over mountains and leveling up my armor and hunting Koroks than necessarily playing the game. Still fun.
What’s on deck this week.
- Fairytales.
- Percept, p1.
- Why writers need to read.
- LUFS, next week.
Probably on a Tues/Thurs/Sat schedule, with our next project waterbear post on Sunday.