OK, since I've been absent from the blogosphere for a few days, I thought I would write a quick note to let you all know that I'm still sane and alive. We've had a great weekend hanging out with my family, and now the big day is here. I'm spending some time now getting myself mentally focused, my mom is prepping food for the BBQ later, and Jay is handling all the random things that come up. It's a busy house for this time of day.

 

I'm feeling good about my talk - my last two practices went really well, and I went through it again quickly last night. I think I'll run through an entire practice this morning just so that it's really fresh in my mind. My talk is at 1:00, so I should be at the lab party by 2:30 after all the formalities with my committee are completed. We'll probably be back at the house at 4, and then people will start coming over for the party soon after. It's going to be a fun - and completely surreal - day. I'll let you know how it all goes!

What a miserable day. It was the worst physical day I've had in a long time, and it still isn't all resolved. Who would have thought that a little extra sugar this morning could have this kind of impact on my system...sheesh. Since the effects were so immediate after drinking the drink, I'm sure that it's to blame. Stupid, stupid blood screen.

 

I had yet another practice talk today - it's getting better, and I think everyone is finally in agreement about the organization of the slides. I think I've mentioned that my thesis got to be a little convoluted in the last 8 months (after being very straightforward for years), so trying to present multiple topics without having the audience realize that there are multiple topics has been a little challenging. I have two more practices scheduled - one for tomorrow morning and one for Friday morning. The real thing is Monday!!! For God's sake, how in the world did that  happen??

 

My dad, Linda, my grandma, and her friend John all arrive tomorrow, so maybe when guests start showing up it'll really hit me that I'm graduating. I think we'll have dinner at our house tomorrow night - just nice and relaxed so that we can all catch up. They'll spend Friday sightseeing (I may join them in the afternoon), and then Saturday my aunt and uncle from Portland will come into town to hang out for the weekend. My mom will arrive Saturday evening, Sunday we'll all hang out, and then Monday is the big day. I'm so excited to see my parents.

 

I think I'm all set to have guests view our place. *lol* I always get a little anal when my parents come to town, so I've been cleaning pretty much constantly for the last week. The house needed it, so I'm not complaining - and it's all done now. I'm doing some laundry tonight, and that's about it. I'll be practicing my talk some, I guess. OK, that's enough from me - I'm off to finish dinner and get myself organized for the next few days.

Today was my 28 week ob appt - and the day of the infamous glucose screen. For all of you that aren't really up on the whole slew of pregnancy tests, this is the preliminary test for gestational diabetes. The screen consists of drinking a 10oz drink that contains 50g of sugar in it within a 5 minute period; an hour later your blood is drawn. 50g of sugar is A LOT, and I had an almost immediate reaction to it (nausea, dizziness, and diarrhea are all common side effects). The drink itself wasn't too bad, but to ingest that kind of sugar first thing in the morning in such a short timeframe...ugh. Once you drink this concoction nothing else can go into your mouth until the blood draw is over, so there's no easy way to mitigate the effects of the sugar. My blood pressure at the doc's office was higher than normal - my heart was racing, after all - so that was a bummer (138/60). I pride myself on my good blood pressure; hopefully it'll be nice and low at the next appt. If the results from the blood draw come back abnormal I'll get a call tomorrow. *crossing fingers for normal results* I was told to eat some protein as soon as possible in order to counteract the effects of the drink - I just had some bacon, and hopefully that will be effective. I saw the nurse practitioner today (awesome woman), and it was a very routine appt. I gained 2 1/2 pounds again - woo-hoo! - for a grand total of ~14 pounds. Kate's heartbeat is steady and strong, so that's that. I'll go back in 2 weeks...

Can you believe these people? Bit by bit, the US that existed prior to Bush's inauguration in 2001 is being completely undermined and dismantled...Here's one more way.

I can sum up the weekend very easily: too freakin' hot. Oh man, we have been cooking up here in the Northwest. Friday: 95 (new record), Saturday: 92, Sunday: 91 (so far, today: 84). Now I know that those temps aren't the worst many of you have seen recently, but they are totally abnormal in Seattle - we simply aren't prepared for them! Luckily it looks like the heat wave is over - there's supposed to be a substantial cool down over the next few days. Although Friday was a hotter day, Saturday was totally unbearable. I'll spare you the details. Luckily yesterday was a little cooler, and I cleaned for most of the day. Yippee. The house looks great now, though, and hopefully we'll keep it looking good until our guests get in at the end of the week. I still have errands to run/things to take care of for the next few nights, but it's all very manageable.

 

OK, I don't have much to say without just complaining, so I'll spare you that. Kate is doing well, and I'm sure she's happy that we're in a temperature controlled environment today. The cats on the other hand, are probably losing their minds being in a closed up house without fans...

It hit 92 today - for Seattle, that's about as hot as it gets. It's pretty toasty out there (no humidity, though), and it's supposed to continue through the weekend. Fun, fun.

 

Today is our 5th anniversary! I can't believe that it's already been that long, yet that short. The wedding doesn't seem all that long ago, but then...so much has changed since then that you just know it's been a while. It's been a great 5 years - with a couple of tough MBA ones in the middle - and I expect the next 5 will sail by just as easily. Jay and I are going out to eat at an Italian place tonight (new to us) that looks out over Puget Sound - very romantic - but we couldn't get reservations until 9:00. We're going to head down to the waterfront beforehand just to enjoy the scenery. A relatively mild celebration, I guess, but it's going to be nice. Remember, Hawaii was partly to celebrate this occasion as well...

 

After reading Claire's post last night about her trip out here in November I sat down and booked ours back to see her in September. Yay! I can't believe that we're going to see her at least two more times before the end of the year. How fun! I can't wait to see Anna and Molly, too...I'm going to be pretty big when I head back to VA (in my 35th week), so Anna probably won't have to worry too much about me holding her. *lol* (inside joke, sorry) Anyway, it's so nice to know that there are so many upcoming family visits. My dad, Linda, my grandma, and her friend John will all be in town next Thursday, and then my mom gets here on Saturday evening. It's going to be so much fun to have them all around.

 

I gave my first practice talk in front of the lab this morning. I really needed some advice, and I got some great ideas from them, so that was fantastic. Leo wasn't in, and that also worked out well. It's never good to give your very first practice talk in front of your advisor because things are generally shaky enough that they want to change everything. Once you've been through it once and gotten some feedback the whole thing solidifies quite a bit - that's when the advisor can start tweaking. Anyway, I got some great feedback and spent the rest of my day editing and rearranging slides.

 

I'm planning on doing a bunch of work this weekend, both on my talk and on my thesis, but there will be some fun as well. Allison and I are getting lunch and pedicures tomorrow - some mom-to-be bonding as well as prettying up our feet time. Allison knows that painting her toes is not going to be possible once her girls show up (34 weeks along now), and I know that reaching my toes is going to become harder and harder. A professional pedicure can last 2 months (or more), so we'll both be set for quite some time. So that should be fun. Jay and I have some chores to do around the house in preparation for out-of-towners, but I think it's all quite do-able. It should be a good weekend - and a hot one.

I noticed sometime in the last couple of days that my back seems to be in a different position than normal - namely, it's that lower back arching thing that happens with pregnant women. I guess I must really be getting bigger for this to have started...so far there isn't too much pain, but I have noticed a bit here and there. Sleeping is still pretty comfortable, but the nights that I have to prop myself up to keep my sinuses clear (like last night) always end up a little less comfy. I guess between the abnormal strain on my back from the baby that builds up all day and the abnormal sleep position I shouldn't be all that surprised. I should have Jay take a picture of me - it's been a couple of weeks anyway, and I'm curious to see what my back looks like in profile. Today is the first day of my third trimester (can you believe it?!?), so I guess the back issues are coming up at just the expected time.

 

I'd been thinking about doing prenatal yoga, so Monday night I bought a video and tried it. It is very low key, but my quads were still a bit sore yesterday. I think I'll do it again tonight; it felt pretty good, and I know it's good for me. I should really be exercising more, but I'm just so lazy...

 

Last complaint - the tiredness is really kicking in again. This pregnancy is textbook, isn't it? The 2nd trimester was cake, and now the third trimester is going to be back in the realm of tiredness with the added bonus of discomfort. I've been getting around 8 hours of sleep at night and have been tired during the day, so last night I made sure to get more (9 1/2 hours), and here I am yawning incessantly. I will say that the yawning was substantially delayed today compared to the last few days, but still! 9 1/2 hours?! That's a huge amount of sleep. Maybe I'll start adding in a short early evening nap plus the 9-10 hours - I need to be able to get through the day without completely crashing in the middle of the afternoon. Sheesh.

 

Oh, ok, one more thing. I have a zillion tiny skin tags that are driving me insane! I guess they must itch a little as they form, because I'll reach up to scratch an area (mostly my neck), and there's a tag there! Augh, they're driving me crazy! I've never really had any, and once I know a new one has formed it's all I can do to keep my hands of of it. I really hope they go away after Kate is born. Luckily since they're brand new they're itty-bitty and not really visible at all. Only to me...

OK, so it occurred to me that there are a few more topics that I didn't mention the other day, so I figured that I'd finish up what I started. Things with Kate continue to be good - she moved quite a bit yesterday. Maybe it was all in my head, or maybe I truly was so distracted (over the weekend, though?) that I just wasn't noticing all of her antics. Anyway, after the doc calls yesterday morning I was completely exhausted. At first I chalked it up to the crash after the Coke/donut combo spiked my blood sugar, but then I began to wonder if maybe I was way more freaked out than I realized - once I knew things were ok the emotional release just did me in. Anyway, it was all I could do to get through the day. Sooo tired.

 

So, my first additional topic: maternity clothes. I had a pretty rough week last week for some reason. Out of nowhere, I was sooo jealous of my skinny friends. I think Kat thought I was nuts because I kept telling her how cute and skinny she is. *lol* I don't feel like I'm huge by any stretch, but I'm big enough now to have small impacts on my day. For example, it's not uncommon for me to turn sideways to fit through small spaces - that doesn't work very well anymore. Jay and I have been able to squeeze by each other in the bathroom, but...not anymore. So, it was a rough week, and I finally decided that I needed to go buy some clothes. I love shopping for clothes, and it's been killing me (for months now) that when I'm out I just have to ignore all of the cute clothes that surround me. I have an adequate maternity wardrobe, but mostly it consists of t-shirts. I decided that a trip to the Gap maternity department might just be what I needed. I got a couple of really cute tops, and though I didn't need to spend the money, it boosted my spirits. I also felt more like me - it's highly unusual for me to go months without buying some clothes. The bonus was that I ran into Meghan while I was shopping, and it was great to see her growing belly and find out that she's having a boy. She's 7 weeks behind me but not much smaller than I am - I don't know if that means she's big or I'm small, or what.

 

I had a brilliant idea while I was talking to Claire the other day. For some reason it had never occurred to me that the attic can be used for normal living space, but it definitely can be. Jay's office set up will be up there once Kate is born, but his slew of furniture will be dramatically reduced compared to his current set up. It's probably going to be just his desk, really. There's no cable outlet, so the tv isn't going to be set up, and the recliner will probably get put into the living room because there's no need to have that upstairs if there's no tv to watch while he sits in it. Anyway, his office set up isn't going to take up much room, and it struck me that we could very easily use the remaining space for a play area. There's very nice carpet up there, and I just can't get past the idea that learning to roll around and crawl on hardwood just wouldn't be very comfy. I'm thinking that we can get one of those play area things (something like this one) to restrict the space that Kate can be in - to keep her away from both the stairs and Jay's electronics. My concerns about using the attic for the nursery are twofold: 1. she'll be upstairs while we're downstairs and 2. there's no temperature regulation up there (cold in winter, hot in summer). I think both of those issues don't matter very much if the space is just being used for play time during the day. I think it's an excellent idea, personally. Now that I had this idea, I can't stop thinking about playing with an adorable baby girl...

 

Alright, I guess I can't remember what other topics I wanted to mention, so I'll cut this short. I should probably go do some work now.

I called the doc's office this morning, and one of the nurses told me to drink something cold, sugary, and caffeinated then sit quietly and count her movements over the next hour. So, I had a Coke - and I added a donut just to ensure that there was enough sugar in my system.  I counted 44 movements in the course of the last hour, and the nurses said that that was great. So, we're fine. They also told me that it's a little early to be expecting regular movements - that won't happen until 28-30 weeks (I'm in my 27th week). I figured everything was fine, but I'm glad I called to get reassured. So, that's that - we're back to the status quo.

I keep saying that things are fine with the baby, but I figured maybe it was time for a little more detail...

 

Jay and I still haven't made any purchases. Partly that's because we've been pretty busy, but partly it's because my mom and I have major shopping planned for her visit in a couple of weeks. Wednesday marks the start of my third trimester, so it's definitely time to start finalizing some decisions and making some lists, etc. I'm hopeful that in the time she's here my mom will help me pick out a crib and bedding as well as the stroller - and then a million other items, I'm sure. Jay will have some input, don't worry, but he really doesn't care about the crib, etc. all that much. Oh, actually the biggest thing I'm going to need help with is the glider - choosing an upholstery fabric. I guess that will have to wait until we finalize the bedding decision...so, that's the state of the purchases - in the imminent future! I guess I'll assemble a registry at that time, too.

 

We went and toured a daycare this past Tuesday, and I'm seeing another one this Tuesday. We liked the one last week enough, but neither of us were blown away by it. I have high hopes for this next one on the list...we'll definitely be putting ourselves onto the waiting list with one of these two places, so we'll just see which one is better. The daycare decision is pretty complicated for us, but I don't want to get into it right now. I'll explain it at some point.

 

I'm finally going to step away from my 'everything is fine' mantra. I think I mentioned earlier that the baby's movements seemed to have slowed down over the last two weeks, and I was attributing it to stress and a lack of adequate sleep. I thought that once my thesis was done and my sleep (and eating) were resolved, we'd be back to normal. We're not. She's really just not moving a whole lot - I can go hours without feeling anything. Yesterday Jay and I pulled out the Doppler (from Claire) to make sure that her heart was sounding ok, and it was, so I relaxed. But today...she's just not moving very much. It's really starting to bother me, so I'm going to call the doctor in the morning and see what he says. I've tried drinking juice to see if that gets her going, but it doesn't seem to (although I don't know if it did previously when she was a wild child). I don't think I've done anything that would caused her serious harm, and it seems weird that things would have gone from hunky-dory to traumatic so quickly, but I just don't know. Doctor call tomorrow, for sure. It's possible she's just turned around to face my back, so I'm not feeling things, but who knows. Oh, there was a little kick, so that's good.

 

Back to a lighter topic - her name! Yes, that's right, I promised to tell you all, and today is the day. I had a favorite name for a girl in mind, and Jay decided that he liked it too. We picked a middle name on our way through Idaho, so it's all set. *drum roll* Our baby is going to be Katherine Marie, but we'll call her Kate exclusively. So, Jay and I constantly refer to Kate now, and we both really like it. I think it's a really pretty name that works for a child and an adult, and giving her some options with Katherine seems like a good idea. It's hard for me to envision a blond Kate, so I'm laying bets on a brown haired child. I think Jay's laying bets on her being a miniature version of me - he must be terrified.

 

OK, well, I think that's it for the update. I'll let you know what the doc says tomorrow - keep your fingers crossed that I'm just overreacting.

Jay and I had a great day yesterday. We got a number of things done at home that I've been itching to do, and we took care of some stuff outside as well. We ran some errands, went out for dinner...it was great to spend the day with him. After we each had absolutely insane work weeks, we both needed to relax and enjoy ourselves a bit. I really didn't see him at all between last Saturday and yesterday, and that always just feels crummy. So, yesterday was the reward for that. We bought two standing, oscillating fans yesterday, and one of them is in our bedroom. We both slept sooo well last night! It's a good way to start the day. 

 

Today is going to be spent mostly outside, I think - well, I'm going to be outside, that is. Jay's going into the office around noon, so I'm going to take advantage of his presence before then, but after that it's all me. *lol* The yard needs some work - the planters need attention, the beds need weeding, some plants are going to get seriously pruned. It's going to take a lot of time, but it's nice to be outside, so I don't mind. I have some errands to run as well, and I'd like to talk to Claire, so there's a lot to do. I decided that this weekend is the weekend to really get things in order for all of our out of town guests - I really want to have nothing to worry about next weekend because I'll probably be doing serious work on my talk, and I don't need the added worry about things that need attention at home. Certainly there will be some things to do as the visits get closer, but the major, hard things will be done. I can't wait to see my family, and their visits always motivate my need to get my act together.

I turned in my thesis yesterday! Yay! Today I get to ignore it completely, and I might just do that this weekend, too.  I need to start working on my talk, but that can wait as well. Our weather is looking up, it's Friday, and my thesis is turned in!!!!

 

Sorry that I didn't blog all week, but the thought of any more writing than I had to do just didn't really do it for me. I hope you all had a better week than I did. Lots of very late night, lots of stress, and far too much sitting on my ass in front of my computer. I don't know if I can even stomach the thought of sitting at my desk today!

 

Today is Kat's last day in the lab (sooo sad) and next Friday is Lauren's last day, so we're all going out to lunch today to say goodbye to the girls. The lab is shrinking, and soon I'll be done, too. We're going out to lunch, and then Lauren and I have a training session to go to at 2, so from 11:30 until the end of the day is completely booked. I had been hoping to start going through Lauren's experiments with her today so that I can figure out how to take over all of it when she leaves, but I think that's going to have to wait until Monday. There are a lot of things I want to do in the lab before I move out for good (still shooting for mid-September), but there's not a lot of time left. The only way any of it is going to happen is if I get on it now and keep pretty organized. Hopefully all of my experiments will just work the first time around so that I can be ultra-efficient. *lol* That's like wishing to win the lottery.  

 

What a boring entry this is - I guess that's because I haven't gotten a moment to think about anything but lab and my project since I got back from Colorado. I'm looking forward to spending a little time this weekend thinking about the baby again...

 

Happy Friday!

So I'm sitting at my desk earlier today (typing away, of course) when I start to feel this really strange tingly feeling in an area I'd call my diaphragm. A very strange feeling. Initially I thought to myself, oh, here we go - the rib kicking is about to start. But then I thought about it a little more, and I decided that wasn't quite the right explanation for the feeling. The top of my uterus is still a good inch and a half below this 'diaphragm' area...I think she was just pushing against the top of my uterus which caused some organ movement and then pressure on my diaphragm. It's happened a number of times today, this tingly, strange feeling, and I can never feel her moving down lower when it's present, so I'm pretty sure that I can attribute it to her antics. It's definitely more of a sustained pushing feeling than kicking, so I guess I still have a little time before the good, solid kicks to the ribs get going. I'm betting that I'm not more than a couple of weeks out from that, though.

 

My mom was asking me last week if I've had any heartburn problems - nope, none at all. I left lab today around 4 to come home and take a nap (a long one), and when I was driving home I thought to myself that my stomach and throat felt weird. I considered that it could be some very mild heartburn and figured that I'd probably know for sure once I laid down to go to sleep. I didn't have any issues while laying down, so I figured I was wrong. But now, again, I'm having the same feeling and it's happening almost exactly at the same time (relative to eating) as last time. It's not a feeling I would normally call heartburn, but I'm really thinking that it's probably being caused by a similar issue. We'll see if I develop full blown heartburn problems - I guess that would be my first major pregnancy complaint, huh?

 

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I have this form to turn in to the grad school this afternoon and I'm waiting on one more signature - Jim apparently doesn't feel the need to work in the morning. *lol* Once the grad school gets the form, that's it, it's official - I'm graduating in three weeks! HOLY CRAP!

 

My readers have decided that they actually don't want to see my thesis yet, so that's kind of nice. It means I can finish up the work I have left at a much more reasonable and sane pace - and it means I can sleep! woo-hoo! I'll finish it up easily in the next couple of days, and I think everyone (ie, Leo and I) is happy to have a little more time to pretty it up. On the other hand it's always nice to just pass things along the chain and move onto the next item of business. Nah, I think I'll be happy that I'll be able to have a real night's sleep tonight.

UGH, the work. Carmen and I were commiserating yesterday about our shared ridiculous habit of procrastinating. I said to her that the problem is that I've never had any major ramifications for procrastinating - things always work out fine. So I continue to do so, and that means that there's a flurry of activity right at the end. AUGH! I've gotten an absolute ton done this weekend, and I'm confident that I'll get my completed and improved thesis to my committee by Tuesday afternoon. And then I will sleep...

 

There were a few non-thesis related things today, mostly involving the cats. When Jay got up this morning we bathed them - damn fleas! A handful came off of Cory in the bath water and a few off of Cleo, too, so I was feeling pretty good about the baths. But man, do they ever hate the bath. We did it down in our basement today, and I think that helped b/c normally the first cat totally freaks out the second cat with all of its yowling. Cleo was second today and I don't think she had any idea what was going on when I fetched her. *lol* Anyway, the baths were good. So I thought. I went home for dinner and a break around 7:00, and Cleo was sitting on my lap - and I can see fleas right in front of her ear! I was sure they must be dead, but when I went to get them out of her fur they ran away. Oooh, I was so mad. I got a big bowl of water and the flea comb and both cats got a serious combing. In total I found about 7 more fleas and drown them all - goddamn fleas! I had applied Advantage to the cats when I got home, so the fleas would be dead soon enough anyway, but once I knew they were still around there was no way I could ignore that fact. I bought some flea powder for the attic carpet, and hopefully Jay will get that taken care of tomorrow night. When we were out of town we moved the litter box into the living room for Mike and Melinda to get to (thanks again, you guys!), and the cats haven't had access to the upstairs for a few days. I think we'll lay down the flea powder, give it the full 24 hours recommended before vacuuming, and then keep the door closed for a couple more days. Sure, the litter box is in the living room, but that's a small price to pay to keep them from getting re-infested. The Advantage dose should really prevent that from happening - it really is an amazing treatment - but even so...

 

So, other than the disgusting flea episodes from today, I watered the hemlocks and the back yard tonight while I watched the first half of the WC final that was recorded earlier and ate dinner. I took a quick nap, turned off the sprinkler, and stopped by Starbucks on the way back to lab. Jay is working overnight tonight, too - aren't we going to be great role models for the baby? I've promised myself to work hard until 2am and then I'll re-evaluate whether I should push on or go home for at least a couple of hours of sleep. I'm functioning on 9 hours in the last two days (overnight sleep, that is. I've had lots of 20min naps.), and I'm really starting to feel the effects. It's one thing to pull stunts like this when you're not pregnant, but I'm finding out that it's a much harder thing to do while you're growing a baby. Here's to some sleep tonight!

It's 7:45 and I am fully dressed, etc. It's going to be another long day, so I figured I'd might as well get started. Allison's baby shower is today (Carmen is hosting), and I'm going to head over to help her set up, etc around 11. I need to run to the store and pick up my new registration stickers for my car beforehand, but I'm still hopeful that I'll at least get a to do list put together for the inevitable work later on.

 

Yesterday ended up being a roller coaster. I finally got Leo's comments back (a downer, unfortunately), but then things started looking up in the afternoon. I got a lot done, and I also got permission from my committee to give it to them on Tuesday. I hate pushing back on deadlines, but they'll be a whole lot happier to get a better document a day later - besides, they won't even read it until the week before my defense, I guarantee it. It's just the way of things. Anyway, I have 6 weeks from yesterday to actually turn in the final thesis to the grad school, so I'm really not worried in the long term - it's just the short term that's doing me in. Leo and I may not see eye to eye on what I give the committee this week, but there's plenty of time to hash all of that out. Anyway, yesterday was not all fun and games, and it was a very long day in lab. I'm going to head straight there after the shower today, and I expect to work until pretty late again. Tomorrow, more of the same...

Oh man, here it comes. The last weekend before I have to give my thesis to my reading committee - OMG, where has the time gone??? I'm STILL waiting on Leo for comments; he's promised me that I'd get them today, and man, I'd better. Otherwise it's going to be very interesting next week...I have an official form to turn in on Monday as well so that the graduate school can confirm my eligibility to graduate (something I've already had done unofficially, so no worries there). Then, that's it! I have to put together my talk, but hopefully that shouldn't be too awful; I expect that I'll give my first practice talk toward the end of the week of the 17th. Oh, but there's so much to do for Monday...

 

 

OK, that's enough of that - I have serious work to get done today, and getting myself worked into a frenzy simply isn't going to help. *deep breaths*

 

I know I haven't talked much about the baby recently - everything remains the same. She's definitely more feisty since we've gotten back to town. I think the combination of so much time in the car and the altitude slowed her down a bit while we were out of town. The additional adrenaline running through my system for the last few days (AUGH! my thesis is due Monday!) is probably helping her kick up her legs a bit as well. I'm feeling fine still, and I'm counting my lucky stars for that. It would be great if things could continue to be this smooth through my official graduation at the end of August. *crossing fingers* Oh, and we've now crossed the line - babies born at this age have a 90% survival rate, even though they're super little (she's about 1 1/2 pounds now) and obviously need a lot of care. It's kind of nice to know, though, that each additional week from this point forward just adds a little bit of health to an already viable baby.

 

OK, seriously, I have work to do. Have a good day - and wish me luck!!!

About a week and a half ago I saw some 'stuff' on Cleo's fur that I wondered about - could it be flea detritus? I mentioned it to Jay, and we both kept our eyes out for any serious scratching. Well, last night, I came upon a live flea on Cleo - ew, ew, ew! I guess they picked them up out on the porch, thus ending all future porch visits. So, although they are currently unaware of it, the cats are going to get a good bath this weekend with flea shampoo, combed with our flea comb, and then dosed with Advantage. What a freakin' pain. Laurie just told me that I can get the Advantage at the pet store, so that was a nice surprise - I thought I'd need to call the vet. They don't really seem to be scratching very much, so I don't think the flea population is very big, but I know that we need to get on it ASAP now that I've confirmed their presence. What a nice welcome home present...

We're home. We were a little slow getting onto the road this morning, so we weren't enroute until 7:30. I dropped Jay off at work at 2:15 (remember, we gained an hour), so that wasn't too bad. The cherry picking - sadly - didn't happen. On the way through Yakima on Friday I made a point to look for signs to direct us off of the highway, but didn't take note of exit numbers (I assumed I'd see the signs again). Well, today there were no signs. I don't know what to make of that, but I really didn't see any. Jay said I should turn around, but that just seemed a little silly, so no cherries for us. So sad. We did stop a little later at an exit with a produce stand to buy some fresh cherries, and Jay got a peach while I got some HUGE apricots. Very yummy. Maybe I will have to plan a 4 hour trip sometime to pick fruit...

 

Anyway, today's drive was pretty easy. I'm in lab now for a bit, and there's a whole lot of laundry to do at home, so I'll probably get out of here pretty quickly. I ran a couple of errands on the way to lab, so that was good to do. I need to get all of this stuff behind me so that I can get back to the business of finishing up my thesis. Fun, right?

 

Oh, btw, I didn't have any allergy problems today! I really kept expecting them to kick in, but not yet. Woo-hoo! Maybe I just needed a break from the area to clear out my system...wishful thinking, I'm sure. I'm preparing myself to have a difficult time sleeping and a completely clogged head in the morning.