Back in graduate school I had a research assistant who tried to help back up my data while I was away at a conference and ended up deleting one of my dissertation experiments entirely (also known as “data lost due to technical difficulties” in the academic literature).

I’ve been a multiple copy backup hound ever since, and whether you share those habits, or need inspiration to take care of this tedious but critical task, check out the chic, patterned Mixit CD Stickers from See Jane Work ($7.50 for 8). These lovely labels no doubt will inspire your own data protection system, or make for a cool finish for music, photo, or video CD gifts for family and friends.

Classic New England. Lull your residents into submission with a few days of spring weather, then hit them with another dose of winter.

If you’re in need of a fun indoor activity this slushy weekend, check out this week’s On The Farm feature from Kids Craft Weekly. Laurel – who loves singing Mary Had a Little Lamb and Baa Baa Black Sheep – went crazy over the Wild and Woolly Sheep project (shown, from KCW). This project is ultra low maintenance, easy to knock together with little other than basic bathroom supplies. And as if in homage to her urban exposure to animals, Laurel pointed out that we ought to make a fire hydrant to go with the sheep, which we executed by taping construction paper to a toilet paper roll, then rolling and taping a paper cone for the top.

We’ve recently partnered up with some fellow stylish bloggers to bring you a weekly dose of cool web finds for your weekend reading. This week’s treats include:

A very fetching round up of the best-fitting, figure-flattering maternity jeans, from SheFindsMom. Kudos for Babyproofing Your Marriage, from OneChicMama. Tips on how to use color to inspire kids, from Coochicoos. The peaceful deal behind the names of Angelina Jolie’s kids, from CelebrityMoms. And the baby photo of the week, from Babyfaces.

Inquiring minds want to know about the double burner griddle that’s perfectly sized to cook an entire batch of chicken tenders (posted earlier this week).

Ours was purchased at Williams-Sonoma with generous gift credit; you can get a comparable model such as the Lodge griddle at Amazon. Along with our panini press, the double griddle is one of the workhorses of our kitchen. The only time it has moved farther than the stovetop to kitchen sink was when we moved house.

It’s never too late to go to Harvard.

For parents interested in learning more about how babies and kids perceive musical features and other auditory materials, contact the Auditory Cognition and Development Lab at Harvard (director Erin Hannon is a new mama herself and a colleague from my days in the field). This lab conducts short studies for infants, toddlers, and elementary school aged children to learn about how the perception of melody, rhythm and other auditory stimuli develops over time. Parents will receive information about the goals of the study their child is participating in, as well as follow-up newsletters outlining the results. Parents also can request a DVD of their child participating in the study.

UPDATE 8/7/07: Erin Hannon has moved to the University of Nevada.

UPDATE 11/20/07: Rebecca from Medford wrote in regarding Harvard’s Laboratory for Developmental Studies (the arm in which the Hannon lab used to reside). She writes, “My older daughter participated in a couple of studies when she was a baby. They were simple activities where she was held on her dad's lap and shown pictures of adults with different emotional facial expressions. I think it is interesting work and I like being able to help with the research…My new baby is going to help by participating in a study next week. They are looking for infants that are 3-4 months old and they are having trouble finding enough young babies.”

To learn more about participating (infants, toddlers, and kids welcome), click here.

With kids on the go, it’s typically tough to resist the convenience of carb heavy snacks. But now toting healthy fruit snacks that kids will love (and won't get mushy or bruised in transit) is a snap.

From the original makers of fruit leather comes FruitaBü Organic Smoooshed Fruit. Offered in flats (fruit wedges) and twirls (unwrap and unroll fruit sheets), these no-mess snacks are made from organic fruits and fruit juices, with no added sugar, hydrogenated oils, or other preservatives or artificial flavors. These snacks are intended for kids, but grownups will want to sneak some into their lunch too.

Available nationwide in natural health food stores and major grocery chains.

It’s the perfect pairing in a way; a mom who couldn’t possibly have prepared for what lay ahead and a mom on a mission to help parents be prepared on a daily basis. The former is Jordana Holovach, a mom who, in the face of her son Jacob’s struggle with Canavan disease (a degenerative birth disorder with severe physical and perceptual consequences), founded Jacob’s Cure to raise awareness and funds for clinical research. The latter is Stacie Mindich-Jordan, the mom behind BabyDish’s BabyBeReady Diaper Bag Survival Kit, a baby essentials tote that helps take some of the guesswork out of on the go infant care.
Inspired by Holovach’s passionate fight and Jacob’s bright smile (he is beating the odds at age 10), Mindich-Jordan created the Jacob's Cure Smiley Bag (shown), a limited edition addition to her line of waterproof, compact diaper bags that can be purchased empty ($45-$50) or fully loaded with gear stowed neatly in the two inner zipped sections ($99; includes onesie, sun hat, bib, burp cloth, diapers, changing pad, travel wipes, rattle, bottle, and pacifier). Not only will you have peace of mind in being prepared, but you’ll feel good knowing that 40% of the proceeds from this bag go directly to Jacob’s Cure.

Tonight my sister and I were talking about how lonely it can be to be alone.  She doesn't talk about her personal life much on her excellent blog, so I won't go into her business here, but suffice it to say that the good men of Chicago are totally missing out on one hot, intelligent, gainfully employed and funny young woman.  Shame on them.

She told me it's hard for me to imagine being in her shoes, and I know she's right. I've talked about that with other single friends.  It is nearly impossible to imagine being in someone else's relationship or someone else's lack of a relationship.  We only have our own compasses with which to navigate.  Sometimes, though, it helps to read the stories of others.

Which leads me to my latest review:  The Honeymoon's Over:  True Stories of Love, Marriage and Relationships.  I'm going to have to beat Hachette to start sending me bad books, or ya'll are going to think I've gone soft, but I loved this one, too.  God, the writing!

For the past two weeks, I've though I might be pregnant.  This morning, I found out I'm definitely not.

I wasn't trying to get pregnant.  There was some carelessness on vacation.  Mistakes were made. But as the days without the familiar achiness slid by, I started to wonder.  I did a little mental calculation. I realized if I were pregnant, the baby would be due in December.  Of 2007. This year.

And though there was a little bit of disappointment this morning when I saw it was not to be, I realized I am not ready, not this moment, to do it again. 

I have written extensively in the past about whether or not to have another child.  We were staunchly against it when the little angel was eight months old and we were still mourning our old lives.  We were against it at 18 months when she began the Six Months of No Sleeping Hell. We questioned our thinking when she went from a nonsleeping mess machine to a freakishly verbal, making-up-poop-jokes-and-helping-set-the-table two-year-old.  As we round the corner bumping up against three, we're on board with giving the little angel a sibling on whom she can blame all of her problems later in life.  It will give her someone else to blame besides us, and we're giving like that.

Somehow finding out I'm not pregnant made me think hard about where we are in our grand plan.  We know we want to move to a house with a safer yard, a better school district.  We've been talking about moving for years, and we even put our house on the market for a very unfortunate period of time in 2004.  I started thinking about being pregnant and moving and taking the little angel out of The Emerald City all at once, and how horribly unfair that would be to her.  I realized we have to start tackling these changes one at a time, so it doesn't all happen at once to her. I know kids are resilient, but as her parents, we should try to make her transitions as easy as we can.

Driving to work this morning, I noticed all the construction going on in downtown Kansas City. When I moved here in 1998, you could shoot a bazooka down Main Street at 5:15 p.m. and not hit a living soul. Now you can't move for all the cranes and shiny newness. For a long time, Kansas City was afraid to improve.  Change = scary.  I love the change downtown.  I love how vibrant it makes the city feel.  As much as my beloved and I can be cautious financially, I think it's time to start looking at making some of the changes we've known for years it's time to make. 

As the Editor Across the Aisle said this afternoon, "You are a woman of action!"  I called a contractor to get a bid on fixing the plaster, replacing the front door, doing the things we need to do to sell the house.  Let's get this show on the road. Someday there will be a baby, and I don't want to have to store it in the office closet.