Disturbing news...

So, I got the "new" schedule of benefits. Seems that there WERE some changes from when we were under BCBS... We didn't actually get a new booklet showing the differences, we were simply told that we wouldn't see a significant change.

Well, from what I remember, prenatal including the birth and hospital care was supposed to be an initial co-pay, and everything else covered. However, this is not the case for Aetna. We now have to pay 80% of everything. Additionally there are a few items on the list that I have no understanding of at all... Like "Family Plan Payment Limit" - is that the limit of what _I_ pay? Or is it the limit of what THEY pay... Does that mean that after I reach that point I have to pay the rest? I have no clue.

Also, under prenatal services, it says only "Payable in accordance with the type of expense incurred and the place where service is provided"... Huh?

Have I mentioned that I absolutely HATE legal-eze and the health care system? Ugh. I'm currently facing over $4000 in bills for having Boo... I can't tell whether it's only 20% of the total cost or not, and the sheer physical number of bills and statements that come in are staggering regarding this... I can't really make heads or tails of it - and to make matters worse, Boo was born in February - Aetna still hasn't settled their portion of the bill yet... It's insane.

I'm asking this of anyone who can - if you can donate to help out the bills, please do so... Even fifty cents will help...

~M

Starting the week off right...

Conversation today with a social worker in psychiatry (I promised I wouldn’t give out her name – LOL):
SW: My pager is off – is it me that has to turn it on?
Me: Well, let’s take a look – No, your pager status is “in hospital, on page”.
SW: But the pager says “Pager off”… So, do I need to turn it on?
Me: Er, yes… You’d want to physically turn the pager on.
SW: How would I do that? I mean, I have no idea…
Me: Well, there should be a big button on the right front of the pager…
SW: Big… Button… Right… Side… You mean the one with the blue dash on it?
Me: Yep. Just hold that down and it should turn on.
SW: Wow… And they let me work here… Don’t tell anyone who this is, ok?

~M

Update...

I updated my wish list here - please feel free to peruse them and, if you're feeling generous, give a tip at the jar to help us toward things...

~M

And a huge loot pile to you, too!

This morning was the divesting of hours of wrapping time, days of worrying over what to buy, and evenings of anxiety worrying about whether the choice picked was the right one... All in all, I'd say that we all got a lot of what we wanted...

Fred's loot pile included a large bit from S, who got him watercolor pencils, a dremel, a foot spa treatment pack, Red Alert 3, and a DVD of Curious George, as well as a bar of Lindt dark chocolate with orange essence. I got him 3 new t-shirts with snarky sayings, and a new video game he's currently trying to beat - we're still waiting for the big gift, which is a 500 gb Seagate external hard drive/storage drive... It's been delayed due to the weather.

S's loot pile included a small carved dragon out of St Helen's ash, a russian birch box with some hair ties inside, 2 sets of watercolor paints with brushes, and a lavendar spa set from me (and the promise of a captain's coat soon), and a large knife and a small skinning blade, and a bellydance sword with placard to hang it on from Fred.

Boo's loot pile included a new skirt and sweater, a new dress, 3 Little People Pirate figurines, a bouncy ball, 2 books, a music maker toy, and a puppet monkey - oh, and a coconut and white chocolate Lindt bar.

My loot pile was the largest by far, I think... Fred ended up getting me a food saver vacuum sealer, 3 KitchenAid attachments, a 14" skillet, a puppet hedgie, 2 triangles for quilting, pins, and rotary blade replacements. S got me a 10 qt Black & Decker food processor, a beautiful black satin box with chinese lettering in red all over it, more pins, a seam ripper, some watercolors and brushes (yes, ironic, but still...), a very small stuffed moose, a "Tide-to-go" pen (because she understands me), and a dark chocolate with chili Lindt bar.

Us girls got a bellydance DVD from Fred as well, and the household got a nice gift of munchies and apple-cran Martinelli's from Jess.

All in all, an amazing day. Boo was so excited she was vibrating, and refused to go down for her second nap, afraid that she might miss yet another unwrapping of presents. LOL. We ended up having to put her down for bed early after a relaxing bath and a sing-song in her room.


Even the cat got a little something - a triple dose of catnip on his scratcher, and tons of lovin's.

Most of all, though, I got to spend Christmas warm, surrounded by those I love, and watching the snow melt away with warmer temperatures and rain. Yay me! I hope that you were able to have a similar experience, and I wish you all the Happiest of holidays.

~M

Happy whatever 2008

I'm about done with having a white christmas... Whomever ordered the weather should be beaten, tied, and left naked in the middle of the Alaskan tundra - or Siberia...

The constant on-again, off-again snow has impeded my travels to and from work, and the roads are crazy slick. Unfortunately, Oregon doesn't apparently believe in snow plows in the lower regions, so none of the roads are cleared at all. The busses are barely running on my road, and we have to head to the nearest stop that's flat - which means it's about 3 blocks away from my house, rather than the 1 block that's normally taken. Not a HUGE deal normally, but in the snow/ice/slush that has built up on our road has made the walk particularly hazardous - between dodging slick patches with feet, and random cars deciding to kareen down the road at high speeds with no chains or other traction devices, it was an exciting morning...

After waiting for 25 minutes on the side of the road for the bus, and narrowly missing being hit by 2 cars sliding down and across the road (one doing a 45 degree spin and then straightening out and heading off again at yet faster pacing than before), the bus finally got to me and I got on. The rest of the ride was uneventful, but filled with me praying to the Gods that we make it safely into town.

We did so, and I managed to make it to work within a half hour of my clock-in time - which is great, considering I woke up this morning and it was snowing... again...

So far, work has been same-old, same-old... The calls were pretty hectic at the beginning, but calmed down mostly by around 10am. I'm staying an extra hour to help out, since we are having such limited coverage on the phones, and things are just going to get worse since tomorrow is Christmas. I'm hoping that no one calls out tomorrow - I could possibly be guilted into working a few hours if only because I didn't make it in Monday or Tuesday due to the weather... Then again, if it freezes over, I'm not going to risk my life to make it in. On the up-shot, management is buying us lunch, apparently. I'm getting a turkey club with extra mustard. Yum.

Currently, S is home with Fred doing the dishes, and Boo is watching avidly. Apparently dishes are fascinating. LOL. S apparently bought out several stores getting presents for everyone - Fred and I both feel guilty with the lack of presents, but she looked at both of us and laughed - her statement was "I like to shop! The problem is getting me to STOP shopping... LOL." That's ok, though... Fred and I are hatching a plan for Valentine's Day. Mwa ha ha!

Speaking of presents, Fred's present has not arrived yet. It was just shipped from the Chehalis office on the 23rd at 2:30am, which means that it might make it here by Saturday - if I'm lucky... I'm debating on printing out a color photo and wrapping it... Bwa ha ha.

Fred's been off work due to the winter weather this week, though they're wanting to have him try and come in Friday. This will work out since, while Jess, our fabu babysitter has unfortunately been stuck at her house due to (yet again) the weather (we did mention that the weather was bad, right?), S has Friday off. So, Fred and I will head to work, and S will stay with Boo for the day. Yay us! I'm totally hoping that everything melts down to a reasonable level by Sunday, so that Jess is able to make it to our house, and Fred and I are able to head out to work. It's amazing how much we are all reliant upon one another to make it through a day sometimes... LOL. I'm thankful that I have such wonderful people around me.

I have grave on call Saturday night - this could prove to be interesting... I'm hoping that everyone makes it in, because I'd rather not go in at all... *sigh* But, if I do, at least I'll have extra time on my paycheck.

Amusing comment made by Lil today: "I'm pretty certain I know how skiing was invented - two drunk Norse guys on top of a mountain in the cold north decide it would be a great idea to goad one another: "Hey, Ole! I bet you can't make it down this mountain here!" "Just you wait 'til I get these planks strapped to my feet, and then we'll see!"" I can so totally imagine this one...

In any case, I am just about ready to head out - only 45 minutes until I'm off work tonight, and then I don't have to be back in until Friday morning.

So, I hope that you all have the best of holidays, and that the New Year brings you such joy that you can only imagine. Most of all, may you and yours be safe, loved, warm, and happy.

Blessed be!

~M

I am amused...

December 15, 2008, South Waterfront neighborhood, Portland, Oregon.

This was posted by a gentleman apparently living down by the new OHSU building on the south waterfront... "Looking from our condo we can see cars attempting, and most failing, to climb up a hill to get out of the neighborhood. I decided to put together a montage of sliding cars. Portland had a recent snowfall and we are expecting more tomorrow."

I especially like the soundtrack - really puts it into perspective.

~M

Snow day...

The party last night was a success. We had friends and family over and had lots of food and fun. Ended up NOT going to the zoo for zoo lights, as Ms Cranky-pants decided not to sleep for most of the day, and only got a 2 hr nap out of all of it... So, she was shuffled off to bed around 7 or so, and that was the end of the discussion.

This morning, I woke up at 7, couldn't see outside (it was still VERY dark), and went back to sleep. Woke up around 9, and the first words out of my mouth were:

"Hmmm It's snowing..."

And it was. Snowed for the rest of the day, until around 4:30 or so this afternoon. The bad news, it cancelled our photo shoot with Steve. The good news, it gave us time to do all our laundry, as no one wanted to walk 150 ft to the laundry room to do anything. LOL. The following is what happens when you show Boo snow for the first time... Enjoy!

Getting ready for the Holiday Party Saturday...

To do before Saturday Afternoon:

 Put away all necessary paperwork into office area
 Put away all D&D stuff
 Put away all extraneous toys and books to Boo’s room
 Put away all sewing items, fabric and machines into sewing area
 Put away all blankets and pillows
 Put away all clothes from front room, bathroom and hallway
 Fold and put away all towels
 Do dishes and clean kitchen
 Pull table out, and re-position baby gate
 Block the underside of the table against baby invasion
 Clean up dining room area
 Vacuum everywhere
 Put up tree
 Decorate
Things to do ON Saturday:
 Take out trash in all rooms, including Boo’s room and bathroom
 Take apart baby corral and put toy basket in Boo’s room
 Place baby corral against the entertainment center/bookshelf area, and brace
 Vacuum one more time

Whee!

~M

Lack of holiday spirit?

Yes, indeed, Virginia, there is a lack of holiday spirit of late. Why? Well, with budget cuts and layoffs at my work (not to mention my management team telling us repeatedly that we aren't doing enough in our job, and we don't deserve kudos or anything else unless we can account for every second of our time and justify it), not to mention a lack of funds and general exhaustion, I'm hoarding my holiday spirit for my family only, thank-you-very-much.

I have determined that, while I used to like my job and took pride in it, I can no longer even pretend. I am here to simply pick up the paycheck anymore... I can't even feel the urge to take an overall stance of personal pride in my work because I know that no matter how much I do, and how much I give to my job, my management team will continually tell me that it's not enough, that I need to do more, and that they're not impressed with how little we all do.

The latest in the list of things that management has decided to take from us under the guise of yet more budget cuts. Inclemate weather is looming, and our call center, being "vital", had given us the option to have them pay for a cab, should we be unable to get to work any other way (i.e., busses not running and too dangerous to drive due to snow/ice). Last year we didn't use this option at all. We had no real inclemate weather to speak of, and while the weather people love to threaten us with snow, we normally have about a 7% chance of snow for the whole winter. I think, in the last 10 years that I've lived in the area, we've only had 2 years where we were "snowed in", and that was only for about 4 days tops.

So, with that said, the management team decided yesterday to announce that that unless it's pre-approved by our department manager, we simply won't have the option of having our cab paid for to get us in. This is something that she's been trying to have cut for a while - it's just handy that she has an excuse now. This is the same woman who has repeatedly told us over the past 6 months that we, quite simply, suck. We don't do enough work in the call center; we should be accounting for every minute of every day when we're at work, and we shouldn't be allowed to do anything else while we're at work because it's not good for her bottom line. We don't answer the calls fast enough, we don't send the pages quickly enough, we don't get the confirmations done well enough, and we don't handle the calls with enough diplomacy... She likened us to a car repair shop... If we were at a car repair shop, we'd want to know why we were paying for an hour's work, when we saw the worker on the phone for a good half hour, and not working on the vehicle...

*sigh* I'm sorry, but I don't think she's done our job ever - and if she has, it was over 10 years ago, which means that she's forgotton what it's like to be here on the front lines. We deal with everyone - from cranky doctors to pissed off patients - we get them all. And we don't scream back, and we don't give them lip. We thank them for their call, we offer them what we can, and we get the request processed to the best of our abilities. And instead of concentrating on an equal part of what good we've done, we get a nonstop diet of 100% "you're bad and therefore must be treated like a 3-year-old" from her.

I've just pretty much had it with management's attitude. They don't know what it's like being on the front lines day in and day out. Some of them claim to have worked at this call center - and if they did, it's been so long, and they've been so far away from us for so long, that it's no longer real to them. They've forgotten what it's like and, even if they did remember, they apparently no longer care. I've been at different call centers throughout my 11 years as a call center rep... At least the prior ones didn't tell us on one hand that we were "vital" and then tell us that we were doing a crappy job regardless of what we actually WERE doing...

Weekend of turmoil...

This last weekend was full of turmoil, but not from my family, oddly enough. No, instead, it was the baby that was surly and full of hate - at least, when it came to sleeping.

She didn't like the drive up, didn't like sleeping in the same room with mommy and daddy, didn't like sleeping in a different place altogether, and absolutely HATED the dogs. Poor thing kept getting licked by them (the 3 labs LOVE babies, and will nuzzle them whenever possible) and she'd shriek and howl in indignation at the audacity of being touched by them.

Saturday was the family portrait, which wouldn't have been so bad but for the extra hour wait and the crappy photographer. Apparently, JCPennys now does all their booking through their corporate office, and corporate sets it up for every half hour. The photography area can't get most of the photos done in that short of time, but won't tell corporate. And the photographer was so hot that she was throwing up every hour or so...

When my sister went back to view the photos, there were none of the holiday background that ended up working, and only about 6 out of the 20 or so that were taken that were any good at all... I'm going to see about having Steve do photos for us. He's been wanting to get us in again and work with Boo some more, anyway, so it should be a lot more fruitful than the ones that were done prior.

Sunday found us up and ready to head back down by 11am, and we got home by 2:30 or so, where I collapsed with a migraine after putting the baby in for a "real" nap, as she hadn't really gotten any sleep at all over the weekend.

On the plus side, I got a body massage from S and Fred, and puddled for a while, then went out and picked up diapers for Boo (she's now in a size 4!).

As of today, I'm officially FUBAR'd as far as cash goes. We are $250 short for rent, so I'll have to write the check, the bank will cover it, and then I'll have to fork over the extra bounced check fee along with the missing cash when I get paid on the 12th. I'm so over doing this. From now on, all the extra cash is going to the BofA account, and I'm not going to do this ever again. Dammit. I'm so done with my stupidity.

~M

Aftermath of a sleep study...

Last night was the sleep study. Thankfully, Fred got a bedwarmer last night, so at least one of us got sleep... Me? I got a hairful of pommade and electrodes stuck every which way on my head, face, chest and legs... And pretty much no sleep at all.

I'm falling somewhere between stage 3 and stage 4...


And I'm pretty sure I'm going to be running at about this speed all day... Yippee me!

Thank the ever-loving Lord and Lady for caffeine.

~M

Because I had to...

Starting to get better...

So, I got the test results back for my thyroid - it's down to 2.9, so finally within the range it should be.

I've also had my other meds increased a bit, and that's been helping as well. I'm not feeling quite as tired and listless as I had been, and am actually beginning to start to do things around the house again. Which is nice. Means that I might actually get stuff done around the house prior to the family dinner...

Speaking of which...

ANNUAL FAMILY HOLIDAY DINNER!
When: 12-13-08
Where: The Wilcox Residence
Time: around 4-ish, to whenever
BYOB! - we will have some sparkling cider for toasting

This is a pot-luck dinner, with us providing the main meat dishes of Lamb and chicken. Please bring 1 dish that will feed about 8 people.

Please RSVP to me to let me know if you'll be joining us, so I can make sure to get enough meat. :-)

~M

And we're done...

For another 4 years. Sort of.

At least, for the presidential campaign. Our neck of the woods is still counting votes for the state elections. We probably won't know the final outcome until later on tonight for most of it.

Either way you voted, you have to admit that this has been an interesting campaign, and a monumental one, besides. The only terror that I have at this point was listening to two people in the last two weeks talk about their views on voting in one way or another.

The first one I listened to was a gal who was my friend Ronni's roommate. She apparently likes to read out loud, regardless of the actual content of what's on the paper she's reading... Her non-stop commentary was about as follows...

"Gee... Hmmmm... Oh, hey! There's a woman running. Did you know there's a woman running? I'm voting for her, then!"

"Um... both of these names sound russian. Don't they sound russian to you? But I can't tell about the third one. What? It's possibly Serbian? Or Polish? Oh. Well, I'll vote for one of the russians then, I guess."

"I don't get what this measure is all about. What do they mean? Hmm? Oh, I know the booklet is on the table over there, but I'm just going to vote randomly on these ones. Why don't they make this more clear?"

It really REALLY made me shudder to think that she was actually allowed a vote, considering she wasn't really even interested in what was going on, nor interested in learning...

The other was the gal I ran into last night on the bus on the way home, who apparently runs her life by the old testament scriptures...

"Well, my belief is that you have to learn how to govern your own person first, and Man should not create a system of justice against itself without that learning - it's up to God to do that. That's why I don't vote."

I see. Never mind that without some sort of government system, imperfect or not, made by man or not, you have absolute chaos, and you won't have ANYTHING at ALL. I mean, honestly... Let's see here - we aren't perfect, and our system certainly isn't - but it's the best we can do for now, until we can figure out how to get around that pesky human nature thing. We can choose to do the best we can with what we've got, and work within those confines, understanding that, even as an imperfect system, we are allowing each person the chance to make a difference within the world by creating, adjusting, and generally managing said system.

She didn't like it when I pointed that out to her.

Honestly, let's really think about this here - no, I don't believe that the Electoral College is a good thing. It's old, it's outdated, and with the technology that we have today, it should go the way of the Do-Do and be ousted out. One person, one vote. That's what we advocate, right? That's what people from all walks of life and all countries come here for, right? True democracy... So, let's have some.

Do I think that my vote counted... I can't tell, unfortunately. Because the Electoral College is what matters at this point, it's what made the final decision. It is possible that a president could lose the popular vote, but win the EC vote. That, to me isn't right. But, there it is. The system isn't perfect, but it's there. None-the-less, I vote. Why? Because it's my right to do so, and without voting, I don't have the right to bitch about how the country is run. I do my part, and cast my vote as part of the system to help direct my country. If you don't vote (regardless of which side you vote for), don't bitch. You didn't do your part.

~M

Who am I...

Your result for The Which Wife of Henry VIII Are You Test...

You are Jane Seymour!

Third wife of Henry VIII

You are a beauty to behold and the only one of the kings wifes to do your duty - provide a proper male heir. And your quietness is often mistaken for stupidness! But in all reality you are quite moral and quite smart. You would of been a great queen if you had lasted longer than 17 days after the birth of your son. You had everything that was considered proper in a lady - you cleaned, you sewed, you sang (although people hated it when you did), and you played the flute. The only thing that you could have done to better yourself was be educated. If you would have survived it is likely that the king would not have had to remarry, you giving him a son would of made you the apple of his eye. But it is okay. You will forever be known as the one who provided what England needed. Your marriage lasted a little over 11 months.

Take The Which Wife of Henry VIII Are You Test at HelloQuizzy

Self-Destructive Tendencies...

I know, from a psychological point of view (yes, I minored in it for 3 years...) that everyone has some degree of self-destructive tendancy. This is accepted, but normally not entertained on a wide scale by most people.

I don't mind people having these tendencies. I have them myself, and occasionally feel the need to bring them out, play with them quietly in a corner, and then put them back in their little box for another year or so. It's not a problem, honestly, as long as my self-destructive tendencies do NOT directly impact others over a lengthy period of time (like, longer than an hour or so), and they don't cause significant amounts of drama repeatedly to those around me.

Sometimes, some people just don't know when they are moving from venting to drama... Case in point, this last weekend. A friend of ours came to spend the weekend with us because of issues with her roommates. Suffice to say, the relationship she's had with them has ended, and now she is feeling very cut off, isolated, and rather uncomfortable in her own home. This is all understandable. When anything like that happens and it's a non-amecable break-up, it tends to make things very uncomfortable.

So, she asked if she could spend the weekend with us to get away and relax for a bit. This was fine. She also asked if she could bring over alcohol. This also was fine, as far as I was concerned. Not really cluing into anything, and having it not occur that something bad could happen with it, I didn't say anything about it, other than mentioning that I wouldn't mind having a tipple of something sweet myself.

So, she arrives at our house whilst Fred is out and about with Boo, bringing with her 5 bottles of alcohol - 4 of them 30 proof, and one bottle of 151... Friday night we decide we aren't going to do much - Saturday is going to be a big day for most of us, and while it's been a long week, we're too tired to actually enjoy any "real" drinking - so we put it off for Saturday. I promise to teach both S and our guest how to play tablero, and we go to bed.

SaturDAY was fine - our guest declined to join us for the quilter's volunteer circle at the hospital, so we headed out, picked up Rikki on the way and had a great time sewing, then wending through a local fabric shop, and then to lunch and home (picked up ribs for dinner, too).

That evening, however, was a different matter entirely.

Again, venting is perfectly natural, and acceptable. I have no issues with it. HOWEVER - you do not... NOT... mix venting in with alcohol - especially when you happen to be our guest, apparently. I taught her how to play tablero, and we went through a standard-sized bottle of mead together with it. I fwas feeling nice and tipsy, warm and pleasant, but not overly out-of-control. I was enjoying the feeling, and felt that, should the need arise, I would be perfectly happy to either sober up or go to sleep with no issues whatsoever.

Our guest, however, decided instead to start straight-shooting 151, with diet pepsi shooters. I didn't even WANT to see her blood sugar levels at that point (oh, did we not mention that she's an insulin-dependent diabetic?) After she'd had about 8 shots, she suddenly turned white and headed off to the bathroom just in time to throw up... By then it was around 9pm or so... This was the beginning of the major downslide to the evening.

She proceeded to continue to get more and more sick, punctuated by bouts of self-pitying soliloquies about how horrible she was, and how she didn't deserve anything that anyone might give her at all... ever...

By 1am, she was still drunk, and I'd gone to bed. Or at least, I'd attempted to go to bed. Instead, while Fred and S attempted to deal with her puking on herself, the blankets, the floor and the couch, I had to get up and calm down Boo because she was getting so upset and hyped up on what was going on.

Finally got Boo to go to sleep around 2-ish, when they plopped our guest into the tub to wash her off. We finally got to sleep around 3:30 or 4-ish Sunday morning.

Boo woke us up at 7:30, convinced that we all had to be up at that point. I felt NO remorse for bringing a very rambunctious and happily loud baby out to the front room to play. Mwa ha ha.

New rules in the house from this point forward:

If you want to bring alcohol to the house, that's fine.
You are only allowed 1 bottle, of 1 liter or less.
Said bottle cannot be more than 80 proof.
No self-destructive stuff around the baby. EVER.

This was NOT a good saturday.

Halloween Photos

This is Halloween...

Or at least, fairly close to it. I'll have pics of Boo at my work once she gets here Friday. Should be a lot of fun... Fred will be bringing her to my work for lunch, where I can show her off and let people fawn all over her. Which she loves.

This last week has been rather harsh for our poor Boo. She had 4 teeth decide to come through pretty much all at once. Three of them are completely broken through, but there's one more that's pushing on a particularly sensitive nerve. She was up all day yesterday (got about an hour or so of a nap, though we tried several times to put her down for one), and finally crashed aroun 7:30 or so last night (we put her in her crib at 6:45 - she was so tired she had bright red eyes, was rubbing them every 3 minutes, but still refused to go to sleep until I got her a dose of children's pain med and some orajel)...

On the up-shot, she slept better last night - woke up for a quick change and new bottle at 11:30, and for about 3 minutes at 4:30, whereupon she found a bottle all on her own and decided she didn't want mama, just the bottle - and went back to sleep. Yay me.

I'm working on final touches to my costume, a German Ren dress. I'll post pics of that, too. I have 1 chemise - the itchy one - that will work for it, so I'm hoping that at some point prior to the new year, I will be able to make another 2-3 of them that will work for everything. One can hope.

Steve is wanting us in for more pro pics... Going to have to find time to do that soon.

~M

Over the Weekend...

Fred, Ronnie and Boo went to the Harvest Festival at the TV Parks and Recreation center where we normally go for belly dance lessons. I would have gone, but for this little fella here:

who decided to make an entrance Saturday evening, after having his mama checked into the hospital at 6 in the morning... Actually, technically speaking, Mama was in hard labor for a good 36 hours prior to Hayden Riley Anderson showing up. And a stubborn boy, too, since he ended up being taken by c-section (head was just a wee bit too big). So, he was born at 9:30pm, weighed exactly at 9 lb, and has feet almost 4 inches long at birth!

As I was mama's birthing coach, I was there for most all of it, except the last 1/2 hour, when she was wheeled into the OR for the c-section and I went home and checked on her the next day.

Welcome to the world, baby boy! You'll soon be terrorizing everyone. :-)

All I want for Christmas...

Well, ok - it's not ALL I want for christmas, but it would make for a great start. LOL...


There's a great synopsis at Powells about the book. I caught a few pages while riding on the bus a few days ago, and have been fascinated about it since... Go figure.

So, there you go - if you can get a hold of a copy, I'd like one.

That is all...