Maternity Leave Taxed? Who knows

While I won't turn this post into a rant about the lack of available paid maternity leave in the US, which is chronicled very well in other settings, I'm still trying to figure out if the short term disability payments that I will receive as part of my maternity leave will be subject to federal income tax (Texas has no state income tax :) ). I should note: yes, giving birth is a "disability" according to the law. I'm rolling my eyes right now.

Disability insurance is different from other non-taxable insurance payments from accidents since it is part of a benefits package from my employer. It looks like if the employer pays the premiums, then the insurance payments are taxed, but if employee pays the premiums after tax, then the payments are not subject to income tax. I pay a portion of the premiums before tax and my employer pays a portion. My HR person says that it is subject to tax and that the insurance company will take care of the withholding, but I guess I'm just trying to figure out a way around it and I'm not sure I understand the logic behind whether to tax or not.

While I don't agree with the flat tax proposals, one should be able to figure out his or her own taxes.

Still Pregnant

Yes, the baby is coming...sometime. The doctor's visit today was good. Dr. is on call all this weekend, so hopefully baby will come some time while the dr. is on call.

In the meantime we are trying to distract ourselves. We did a good job by going to the Dave Matthews concert on Saturday night and will go to arboretum on Thursday night for Cool Thursdays, for a picnic and concert with some friends. We are both having problems sleeping some nights, so hopefully we can both rest up.

Lola has found her favorite place under the bassinet in our room, it is quite cute.

Night in the Kitchen at Abacus

About a year ago, Sean and I bought at an auction the opportunity to spend a night in the kitchen for three hours and then have dinner at Abacus, one of the best restaurants in Dallas. Since then, their chef de cuisine, Tre Wilcox, was featured on the Bravo Show Top Chef, Season 3. It was a fabulous experience. I arrived at about 4:45pm, to get a tour of the kitchen and watch final preparations for that evening's meal. Last night they served about 130 people, with their weekend nights serving around 300. I started the evening shadowing a sous chef, Jason and then ended the night talking with Tre.

Tre was all business, I really didn't talk much about Top Chef, of which Sean and I are fans. I really enjoyed seeing how they operate, how they prepare the food, who manages what and so forth. They do sales analysis of what dishes are selling; if something is not selling, they take it off the menu immediately. The menu also changes on what seafood or meat is available. A type of fish might only be available for one or two days for example. Tre does all of the seafood ordering with auctioneers, preferring that to wholesalers. He really has to have a relationship with them because he deals with them over the phone and can't see the product before it is delivered by Fed Ex. He lets his other chefs order their own meats and what they may need for their stations. He really encourages chefs to have their own dishes on the menu as well as most of the dishes he creates himself. Tre did mention that they do have a couple of dishes on the menu with foams, which is the new "in" thing in cooking, but they don't call them foams, but emulsions, because foams would not sell marketing wise in Dallas.

Sean and I both had the tasting menu, which was fabulous. Sean's favorite was the Duck Three Ways, while mine was either this salmon over blue corn cheese spicy grits or this pork dish with a green puree of goodness. Tre eventually wants to open his own high end restaurant, but for right now, we're glad that he is in town. :)

Parenting

Sean and I went to our first night of our child care class last night given at the hospital. It was full of "This is what the American Academy of Pediatrics says..." type of stuff, but it was interesting none-the-less. Tonight, we go for round 2 including CPR training. Even if I was a psychology major in college, I had forgotten the stages of child development, and I still feel as though I need more of a reminder and a primer for Sean, who never had a child psych or even regular psych class. I'm trying to find a good child psych or child development primer, without all the "You need to do this for your child to be a good person later on in life" type of book on Amazon. Any recommendations of that type of book and a basic family medical guide would be helpful and please feel free to send this way.

Also any recommendations for nice sounding children's music is always appreciated. Upon recommendation from mom, I have downloaded some Woody Guthrie and some nice classical lullabies as well as just some soothing bluegrass or folk music that both Sean and I like. Our baby will get his own playlists in my ipod so that he can have music in his room or on the go. Itunes has smartly included School House Rock and Electric Company videos, counting on nostalgia from my generation as we raise our own kids. I hope they continue this trend.

Won't You Be My Neighbor?

Yesterday evening, our neighbors actually invited us to curbside cocktails. We met nearly everyone who lives near us and it was great. This is a contrast to getting a certified letter 10 days after moving in to our old place telling us that one of our neighbors was suing us because of a fence. While most of them are older than us by about 5 to 10 years at least, we've come to think this is commonplace for us. We're glad to know that we have nice people in our neighborhood and that kind of community still exists.

Baby Watch Week 37

See the lines coming off of the big sun looking thing? That's our baby's hair. I know it is hard to tell on this sonogram, but apparently it is hair. We didn't think he would have hair, but he does. He is about 6 pounds 6 ounces already! Not to get too much into it, but I'm not dilated yet, but he's moving down there getting ready to be born. He's making his mommy a little uncomfortable with heartburn/cramping, but apparently he's just practicing.

Sean's birthday is today. He is getting home from business travel this afternoon and we'll have a nice homemade meal here at the house tonight. It has been beautiful in Dallas these last 2 days--cool enough to turn off the a/c and let real air circulate through the house, which is nice.

Baby Shower Time

Thanks to my good friends Maurie and Sarah, I had a baby shower on Saturday afternoon. Thanks to all who came. My mother-in-law and sister-in-law came for the weekend from Houston to spend the weekend with me and do baby shopping stuff. We're getting pretty excited and anxious about this baby coming, but we're hanging in there.

Driving

Sean, my wonderful husband, is restricting my driving as much as possible this close to delivery. It is a good thing, for those familiar with my driving record.

Constructing a Life, Edited by Mom

I have the most wonderful mom, who emails me that I have made grammatical and/or spelling errors in my blog entries, all of which I have corrected now. I thought I'd give her editorial credit so that she could have her name on here in print :)

Curried Butternut Squash Soup

Today I did some "nesting cooking" as I'm calling it, trying to prepare when I don't feel like cooking and to have stuff in the freezer. This time I made Curried Butternut Squash Soup, the recipe which has evolved in the last couple of years.

Ingredients:

1 butternut squash, peeled and cut into 1-inch pieces

2 carrots, peeled and cut into 1-inch pieces

2-3 stalks celery, cut into 1-inch pieces

1 onion

2 cloves garlic

1/4 c. molasses

1/4 c. extra virgin olive oil

1 c. chopped mushrooms (optional)

2 parsnips, peeled and cut into 1-inch pieces (optional)

1 T. Chinese 5 spice powder

1 sweet potato, peeled and chopped into 1-inch pieces (optional)

1 can fat-free evaporated milk

1-1.5 cans 100% fat free, reduced sodium chicken broth (2.5 c.)

2 T. or more curry powder (to taste)

salt and pepper to taste

Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees. Combine all ingredients up to and including the sweet potato, if using, in roasting pan. Roast in oven at least 1 hour or until squash/sweet potato is a little past fork tender. Pour all roasted vegetables and juices into 8 quart stock pot. Add chicken broth and evaporated milk. Either use immersion mixer or regular blender to puree all ingredients. (If using regular blender you can skip putting everything in the stock pot) Add curry powder and salt and pepper to taste.

Labor Day

We used to own a house here (shown on the left), where we lived for 2 and a half years, but now it is gone. Destroyed by us. We are both a little sad because we enjoyed our time living here and the neighborhood, but know/hope it is for the best. Yes, we are crazy for undergoing a project developing three townhouses to sell on this lot while we are having a baby and while the housing slump may or may not come our way, but apparently we like to have a lot going on. :)Fortunately for us, we choose the lot in the best area we could, rented out the upstairs to make money while living in it, and hopefully will sell the townhouses by this time next year. We've learned a lot already in our short time as homeowners and developers. Mainly, that local government is full of bureaucracy.

On the baby front, I'm feeling a little more uncomfortable physically, but I guess that is to be expected. Sleeping is getting a little more difficult too. Early this morning, I got some laughs by watching Bill Cosby's "Himself" about natural child birth. The guy is a genius and his comedy is still relevant and hilarious 24 years later.