Shopping Therapy

DH, bless his heart, is not good at picking out gifts.  A couple years into our relationship I had to explain to him that if you could get it at the gas station or Walgreens it probably isn't right for me.  Now we have a process that works well for both of us.  I give him a list of 5 - 10 things (complete with size, color, where to get and usually a picture) and send him on his way.  It works well for both of us.
This year I messed up the system.  I forgot to give him the list.  He'd been mentioning it, I just never got around to figuring out what I wanted.  So instead we went shopping together, which he really doesn't care for because it usually ends up costing him a lot more than when I just give him the list. By the time we left I got this insane pair of Michael Kors braided t-strap pumps, some Puma sneakers and this great DVF oversized tote.  It makes me happy, I love spending the day with my husband and not have to think about any of the stressers in our life.  We just laughed and joked around, ate greasy mall food and made out like teenagers.  It was wonderful.  So wonderful I'm having a few re-entry problems with reality.  Work is crazy right now, so crazy that I really need to go into the office this weekend but that hasn't happened yet & my house needs a little attention too.  I have this theory that, much like preacher's kids usually behave the worst, interior designers have the worst homes.  I think by the time I get home I just don't want to focus on picking furniture or accessories.
I need to get my act together, maybe I'll do that tomorrow because it doesn't look like it's going to happen today.

Iced Coffee and other Great Stuff

I live in the south where summers are ridiculous and seem to go on forever.  The average summer is two months longer than the Midwest summers I was used to growing up.  They are also relentless.  Up north we'd enjoy the random cool day, not here.  They go on forever here and there is no break.  Thru all this I still drink hot coffee.  I like a stout cup of coffee.  Iced coffee waters it down which I hate.  It randomly occurred to me the other day to get some old fashioned ice cube trays and freeze coffee ice cubes.  I'm in love.  Every night I make a pot of coffee and let it cool for a little while. Then I pour some into a tumbler and put it in the fridge so it's cool in the morning.  Whatever's left in the carafe gets poured into the ice cube tray.  In the morning I add cream, a little caramel syrup and some coffee cubes and head out.  I'm in love.  Starbucks ain't got nothin' on me.

Proof that my luck is finally changing, I'm finally getting a raise.

Further proof, I'm getting an ipad.

BFP to come.

The countdown to 37

My birthday's coming up.  I'm going to be 37.  I'm not sure how I feel about this.  37 was my scary age growing up - that was where 'old' kicked in.

I'm a rebel and because of this I treat birthday's like New Year's, only I take the resolutions a bit more seriously.  Maybe it's because I'm usually not in a drunken stupor when I make them, or maybe its because I'm not failing miserably right next to my friends at whatever goals I've set, but with a birthday resolution it's me against the world.  (To truly visualize this you have to have Beyonce's Run The World playing in your head.)

For this year I've been thinking a lot about getting all the chemicals out of my diet.  I'm not sure logistically how to do this yet, I'm still working on the details.  I read an article about the acceptable amount of bleach allowed in the beef that fast-food burgers get made out of and it made me sick.  I also read about a women who at all fresh organic food for two weeks and the physical changes she had (energy level, skin radiance, digestive routine, total lack of headaches, etc) were pretty dramatic.  We have a pretty decent farmers market and I'm not a bad cook, but I can't figure out what to do about the business lunches.  I have a lot of them in my job and I don't know how to work it with this plan.  The other thing is I'm going to have to get DH on board.  He really loves bacon, cheese and pringles (not together, just in general)  I think I can get some organic cheese but I'm not sure about bacon and chips are definitely out, maybe I can get him to try pita bread and hummus?  The last thing I have to figure out is the cost.  Buying grass-fed beef and organic produce is expensive and I don't want to blow our baby-making money on organic food.

I'm off to search the blogiverse for a like-minded trail blazer that's already figured out a lot of these details for me.  Then I'm gonna go looking for a few 'suggestions' to give DH for a birthday present.  Not a bad way to spend and evening.

Picking a Donor

I've been all over the Internet lately trying to decide what bank we are going to use next cycle.  I have some time because I think it's going to be late July before we try again.  I've looked at around 15 banks with prices ranging from $250 to $590 for a single vial of IUI ready sperm.  The other variable is shipping fees, those ranged from $90 to $210.  Some banks even charge a registration fee, which I think is ridiculous.  You want me to pay you to let you sell me something?  I don't think so.
For any of you looking for some comparisons on US sperm banks and how many black donors they have see the following list:

Midwest Sperm Banks $350/vial; $90 shipping - one biracial donor
Pacific Reproduction $565/vial; $210 shipping; $150 registration fee - 2 black donors
Cryos International $250/vial (5-10 mill count); $175 shipping - 1 black donor
New England Cryogenic Center $545/vial; $160 shipping - 3 black donors
Cryolab $260/vial (value donor) $395/vial (standard donor); $170 shipping - no black donors
Cryogam $335/vial; $95 shipping - no black donors
European Sperm Bank $590/vial; $150 shipping - 1 black donor
Xytex $365/vial (select donor) $530/vial (standard donor); $165 shipping - 2 black donors
California Cryobank $585/vial (premium donor); $185 shipping - 8 black donors
The Sperm Bank of California $485/vial; $200 shipping; $100 registration fee - 2 black donors
International Cryogenics $390/vial; $125-$165 shipping - 2 black donors
Genome Resources $420/vial; $145 shipping - 2 black donors
Northwest Cryobank $249/vial; $169 shipping (to my area) - no black donors
Fairfax Cryobank $400/vial (family solutions donor) $555/vial (Fairfax/Fairfax grad donor); $175 shipping - 3 black donors

I've left Manhattan Cryobank off this list because they aren't a viable option to me and I'd advise you stay away from them as well (read old posts).  I hesitated to add Midwest after the mess they created for so many women while closed for reorganization but their counts are incredible and their costs are reasonable so you'll have to decide for yourself.

Also, some banks charge for things like long profiles, photo matching, rush delivery, childhood photos... There were too many variables for me to keep track of but most of them (except the long profiles with medical histories) seemed like a waste of money to me.  Another thing to note is that if there was an option I priced anonymous donors.  DH and I aren't interested in open-ID donors.

I still don't know what bank we are going to choose, but hopefully I've saved some of you some research time.  Of the 26 donors I've found about 8 or 10 of them are in our price range.  There's a couple I'd consider postponing our cycle to save up for too so we have some decisions to make.  My plan is to get basic profiles on my favorites and without telling him the cost let DH pick his top two and decide from there.  We'll see how it goes.