It's been light years since I have posted at Hairy Alien! It's winter here--a time for turning inward and nourishing the new growth that will make itself visible in spring. Besides the Amazing Growing Belly and an increasingly wiggly Bug who seems some nights to be racking up a high score on Dance Dance Revolution, the changes a-brewing around here include a little house remodel and a redesign here at Hairy Alien. Stay tuned. Soon there will be a more dynamic design using MT plugins and tools and whiz-bang inventions created by my very own in-house software engineer, more frequent posts, and cloth napkins.

Meanwhile, here are some things I am enjoying:

Tea Cake Bake Shop: A charming independent business making its way amid the homogenous mall shops on Emeryville's Bay Street. The place is so cute, you could eat it--but luckily their cupcakes and cookies are delicious enough to sate even the fiercest sweet tooth. If you are in the East Bay, please patronize this place, if only to ensure my (and The Bug's) easy access to chocolate cupcakes with pink buttercream frosting for a little while longer. We thank you.

Olive Body Butter from The Body Shop: The cocoa and shea butters make this rich lotion ideal for moisturizing a stretching belly and dry winter elbows, and the subtle, fresh scent means you don't have to smell like a fruit salad all day.

My boots from Aerosoles: Even the kitten heels on my usual winter boots were wreaking havoc on my newly loridotic lower back, so I went on a quest for cute flat-soled boots that were tall enough and nice enough to wear with skirts and comfy enough to allow a pregnant woman to walk all over the city while wearing them. This turned out to be quite a quest--like jeans with more than a 2-inch rise, flat-heeled boots seem to have been largely forgotten by the retail fashion world. Enter Aerosoles, a place I'd never shopped before, but from which I somehow left with two pairs of boots that I now can't stop wearing (I must not have been the only one, because the styles appear to be sold out; no photos online). Bonus: If an Aerosoles store is out of a shoe in your size, you can have it shipped to you from another store for free. If the shoe don't fit, return it to any store, no questions asked. Lovely.

Netflix: Why oh why did I wait so long to get on board with this service? My favorite part of the whole thing is that when I miss a movie that I wanted to see at the theater, I just enter the film into my queue and forget about it until the DVD is released and it arrives in my mail basket. Byrne's favorite part is putting the disc into the prepaid return envelope the second we are finished watching it. Fun for the whole family!

Oakland Museum White Elephant Sale: The preview sale for the East Bay's most fabulous annual flea market is coming this weekend! My browsing will be more tactical this year, as I am shopping for two and yet am on a strict clutter-reduction diet, but the thrill of the hunt will still be there.