Painted Frog Toes and "the Boov"

What an awesome weekend! Trying to fit everything into one post would kill me AND you, so I'll divide the recounting.

The Mary Frog Toes weekend of fun kicked off with a visit to our friend Dar Williams at The Ark in Ann Arbor on Thursday night. The hour-long drive was a great chance to start our catching up and although we FELT hopelessly late, we arrived just as the lights were being turned up after the opening act. It was the second performance in a weeknight series, so it wasn't tough to get two seats together. And, there really isn't a bad seat in The Ark. I still felt like Dar was singing to me personally (which she was, of course).

She played a variety of music that I haven't heard her perform live before (one TOTALLY new song), and she sang a calm, soothing set overall. It was a nice counter-experience to the last performance I attended where she rocked out with her band and played almost all new stuff. She gave into the screaming young banshees in front of us and sang Iowa in her finale', even though us seasoned (and OLD) Dar fans know that she'd like to move away from that tradition. It was still comforting to sing "Ten miles above the limit and with no seatbelt... and I'd do it again" sitting next to my best friend and feeling my baby boy kick and move in response to his louder-than-usual surroundings.

I'm really lucky to have Mary as my best friend. We can do the comfortable silence or nonstop talking thing without any problem, and considering how bad I am at calling and her lackluster emailing behaviors, we are always able to pick up where we left off. The best example of this is her CD mix that just happened to include three of my newest favorite songs. She found them on iTunes and Pandora introduced me to them on my "Tracy Chapman" channel, but even five years after we lived together we fell into our familiar singing-along-to-the-radio together routine. It felt so good.

Although our trips to salons and spas together have been somewhat limited, Mary has an unfortunate (yet hilarious) ability to get assigned to the weird "service provider" where ever we go. In Vegas, we got massages at the Flamingo spa. Mine was the most amazing deep tissue massage I've EVER had. Mary signed up for the Swedish massage, but was unaware that her massage would be given by a large Swedish woman named something stereotypical like Helga or Olga who was experiencing some SERIOUS gastrointestinal issues the day of Mary's treatment and would be farting loudly and leaving the room periodically to relieve herself. Poor Mary!

So we had pedicure appointments at the local Aveda teaching salon on Friday morning. My toes are a lovely shade called "KangaRuby" and my swollen preggo feet were perfectly massaged, trimmed and painted by Keia. I took her card, she was SO good. Mary's toes are also lovely, but her experience was FAR more entertaining than mine. Mary's pedicurist was Candi. Yes, Candi with an I. Candi has a 4-pound Pomeranian named Mr. Couscous Beauvoir who she affectionately referred to as "The Boov." She was fascinated by my knowledge of pollinators "If a bee was, like, right here, how far could he fly? Like, could he make it to Grand Rapids?" and Mary's work with a nun who lives in an Indianapolis convent, "Like, what if they need new clothes?" She had the attention of the entire spa when she told her own story of using "The Boov" to get out of speeding ticket, "Officer, his trachea is collapsed and the vet said if I don't get there in 10 minutes he won't make it. Well, the Boov kept jumping around in the backseat and the officer said 'he looks fine to me, ma'am.' But he ended up letting me go."

We got LOTS of mileage out of Candi's stories throughout the weekend. We finished our Friday by having lunch at Cosi, grocery shopping, laying on my couch feeling Baby Cute move, checking our email on my free wireless network, eating dinner at Red Robin and doing some last-minute cleaning and sprucing for the shower. Talk about quality time!

I feel good today. I feel large, and larger every day. I'm anxiously awaiting our Alliance OB marathon experience tomorrow. Am I growing a 10-pound Baby Cute? We have an ultrasound, then our 36-week check and then our first expectant parent seminar. Three hours at the OB office, oh my! It's getting harder and harder to sleep at night, but Dave continues to earn his MVP husband status by rubbing my back and helping me move my pillows around in the middle of the night so I am as comfortable as possible. What a guy! His middle of the night skills will also come in handy after Baby Cute arrives. We're a good team after almost 8 years together.

Today is Uncle Nate's birthday. I told Baby Cute all about his Uncle Nate this morning before everyone else arrived at the office. "He's going to be a lot of fun to play with. Maybe he'll show you how to play the guitar and take apart a computer and play disc golf. Don't believe him when he tells you about me stabbing him with a pencil, all lies." Baby Cute's kicking and moving responses were certainly not about the Mocha Frappuccino, but clearly his only way to say "Happy 25th Birthday Uncle Nate!"