Six minutes

I should have gone to bed a long time ago. It's been a very long week and I'm exhausted. Even conking out at K's bedtime last night wasn't enough to overcome the sleep deficit. But I'm giving myself six minutes for a catch-up post.

Work: I compose lots of blog posts in my head about work. They never make it up here because on the nights that I'm not actually working after K's bedtime, I don't want to sit in front of the computer and risk getting sucked in. Work is busy, except when it's not and I sit around all day but still need to be next to my phone in case somebody calls. I'm nowhere near making my hours for the year, but I think most people are in the same boat. Reviews are coming up and in the back of my head, I'm always worried about being fired. I enjoy my job. Substantively, my favorite part is a very small percentage of what I do, technology transactions and IP licensing. I also enjoy working with startups -- you get access at the highest levels of the company (often because the company consists of three guys at first) and you can really help them progress with their vision. Plus, different companies often have variations on the same problem, so you can develop some expertise quickly. The largest percentage of what I do is helping startups raise money. Frankly, this is not my passion, and neither is M&A, which is also a fairly large chunk of my work. But it's been interesting and educational to see how these deals work and what people negotiate over. Qualitatively, I like most of the people I work with and think it's a friendly, interesting, and smart group, and I like the flexibility. I hate billable hours. I know this is nothing new, but really, I would be so much more productive if I weren't constantly trying to keep track of every six minutes of my time and if I weren't always worried about my numbers.

Pregnancy: Going smoothly so far, thank goodness, because between work, K, a town commitment that I'm involved in (and have been making waves in a very polite but somewhat controversial way), the move, the refinance, and all the negotiations involved in selling our old place, I have more than enough on my mind. Will give it more thought once everything else calms down. K has been getting more excited about the idea of having a new baby -- he was never interested in babies before, but he exclaimed over the cuteness of his newborn cousin and said, while we watched a little girl toddle by, "Look at her shiny shoes! We should get a baby like that."

Oh, I finally told at work. As somebody (LL?) said to me when I asked about what this was like: "We work at a law firm. Nobody is going to say anything but 'congratulations.'" Yup. Not a big deal.

K: Is awesome. I am so impressed at his ability to regulate and talk about his emotions. Tonight he was having a bit of a meltdown right before bed, which I was more or less ignoring, and he just pulled himself together and said matter-of-factly, "Wipe my tears. I have a lot of them tonight," and then we continued with our bedtime routine. Maybe I'd prefer if I didn't hear "Mommy?" every thirty seconds, especially when I am trying to focus on anything else but him, but I know I'll miss that one day.

House: Getting there. In another two weeks or so maybe I'll be ready to have people over. Would love to have one K-less day to get house stuff done, but it's not going to happen.

Baking experiments: Profiteroles were excellent (a little deflated, I never cook my choux paste for long enough), and I loved having a cup full of chocolate ganache in the fridge, even though I developed a hot fudge sundae habit. Bouchons au thon smelled and looked repulsive to me and I have to admit I didn't even try one. I brought them to a party where they were all eaten, so apparently they were edible. I overcooked the Nutella brownies because I got distracted by a potty situation, so I can't really judge them fairly, but I think that unless company's coming and I have ten minutes to get something in the oven, I'd rather just eat Nutella out of the jar.

The end! More when I get some of that elusive free time.