Recent content by Katiebug

Absurdly expensive stainless steel interchangeable knitting needles, gift cards, and cash. All in all, a win-win. Mr. Bug and I got a joint gift of new silverware from my parents.

I'm a mechanical engineer who's starting a master's program in fire protection engineering (online and part time), so this should be helpful. I'm undecided as of yet if I will take the mechanical or fire protection PE exam but am leaning towards fire protection, as I can prep for it while...

Amen to that. Bug1 was in cloth part time (disposables at daycare) and Bug2 has been in cloth full time since she was 3 days old, including at daycare. Even with buying fancy pockets for daycare use for the second kid, we broke even on cloth diaper costs vs. disposables around a month ago...

So the last time I was here, my grand plan was to prep for the April 2013 mechanical PE exam - those plans were totally waylaid by getting pregnant again. Our second baby girl arrived healthy in June 2013 and life has been sort of hectic ever since. I came to the realization that I've burned...

I'm back - I've been gone a while! For reference, I'm a mechanical engineer, have been working in my current gig for 9 years, married to a non-engineer, one kid who will be 2 in August. I picked up my EIT in 2008, 5.5 years after graduation - I passed the FE on the first try but spent a solid...

I'm very happy to announce that Baby Bug arrived on August 5th! My office held a surprise party for me on July 30th with cake and a very generous gift. Baby gave me a bit of a scare when the sugar from the cake didn't cause more vigorous movement, and I called my OB's office. Since my...

Based on experience in college, I'd have to say chemical engineers. I've never met one who can be described as sane. In my workplace we only have mechanical, materials, electrical, and software engineers. Based on that pool, I'd have to call our small materials engineering crew the kooky...

My doctor doesn't routinely check a first time mom until 38 weeks. At first it felt weird because on all of the online message boards it seems that many OBs and midwives start checking at 36 weeks or even earlier...but this practice doesn't. I can't say that I mind not knowing! From what my...

So glad to hear that Emily is doing well. The Medela pumps seem to be the "best" based on reviews...I bought a Medela Freestyle for myself. Our friends who had the 32-week preemie went through the exclusive pumping thing - it was hard on her to pump round the clock but that milk was so...

The timing really sucks because of the pregnancy, but hopefully it'll all work out in the end. You'll get unemployment at least, although compared to a typical engineer's salary it's not a ton of money. If you are able and willing to work you can get that unemployment check. It can't hurt...

Congrats on your little one's arrival, klk! I'm glad Emily is doing well. We have friends whose first arrived at 32 weeks - she spent almost a month in the NICU to grow and gain weight, but today she's a healthy, active three year old. I'm 35 weeks tomorrow. My, how time flies! Last week...

The editing monkeys are really playing up the Phil foreshadowing this season. The end of this week's episode had me nearly in tears, but I liked the scene with Phil and Jake. It seemed like Phil knew he was on borrowed time after the clot and he knew that being out on the boat could kill him...

Yeah, my parents were newlyweds at the Bicentennial - I'm the firstborn and didn't come along until '81.

I thought that picture was photoshopped the first time I saw it. But apparently it's not - scary!

We spend about $85/week on average for two adults (breakfast, lunch, and dinner). We don't eat many processed foods and there aren't many coupons for produce, meat, and dairy foods. We only buy organic milk and yogurt and avoid high fructose corn syrup - which I swear is in everything...