Friday, April 30, 2004
Torture in Iraq
I hadn’t seen anything about this, probably because I’ve only been skimming war and political news for the last few days, until Nathan pointed the story out to me.
He has some excellent thoughts about how such a thing could happen, and how to keep it from happening again, that it would be worth your time to go read.
Dietary madness.
Good Lord! Now there’s even a weblog touting its low-carb offerings.
ROFL! I think Atkins has officially jumped the shark. Hell, saying jumped the shark jumped the shark quite a while ago, but you don’t see anyone giving that up, either, do you?
This post has been brought to you by my morning bagel.
Ok, I’ll play.
Following Laurence:
1. Grab the nearest CD.
2. Put it in your CD-Player (or start your mp3-player, I-tunes, etc.).
3. Skip to Song 3 (or load the 3rd song in your 3rd playlist)
4. Post the first verse in your journal along with these instructions. Don’t name the band, nor the album-title.
I’m just tryin’ to be a father
Raise a daughter and a son
Be a lover to their mother
Everything to everyone
Up and at ‘em bright and early
I’m all business in my suit
Yeah I’m dressed up for success
From my head down to my boots.
I don’t do it for the money
There’s bills that I can’t pay
I don’t do it for the glory
I just do it anyway
Providing for our future’s
My responsibility
Yeah I’m real good under pressure
Bein’ all that I can be.
Funny User Tricks
I was just reminded of a computer user anecdote that may or may not translate well into writing. This was a part time secretary for a client, who now does a small amount of work for them out of her home instead.
What made me think of her was the question posed to me of whether we could put Juris Timesheet on her home computer, so she could relieve a burdensome volume of manual time entry for one of the full time secretaries. The main obstacle will be comfort level with her regularly receiving and copying or saving to the right place the client/matter validation database. I have confidence the secretary in the building will be able to save e-mailed batches to the right place on the network, and be able to send the database to her external helper.
Anyway, this reminded me when the woman was new there. Her first few months were chronic, seemingly hallucinatory computer problems I had to keep checking. When I swapped her Pentium 100 for a Pentium 60, it was like a placebo effect that made it all go away.
Her thing seemed to be impatience. She would click click click urgently, and in their document manager, that would cause such problems that everything would completely freeze. At first she didn’t listen to me when I explained what she was doing.
One day she was especially frantic to get something or another done. She utterly immobilized her computer, then started trying other secretary’s computers. She immobilized three of them! The fourth person was guarding her computer and not allowing this woman to touch it when I walked in to see what was happening. Had to reboot all of them, and naturally when I tried her computer it worked just fine.
Click click click…
In fairness, after a while she stopped having problems, apparently chilled a little, and never needed my help anymore. If she did, I knew there was a real problem. I really doubt there would be a problem having her save an MDB file to a folder and replace the old one, even if it’s complicated by also having her delete the LDB file. After all this time, I suspect she’s come that far, despite having been one of the most trying users ever once upon a time. Some people start out not that bad, and never progress. They start out not understanding basic concepts, and they are never willing or able to learn anything.
But to this day, it still amazes me that the act of her attempting to use three other computers hung them all. That’s impressive.
Trusty Mount
I was impressed with myself yesterday. My new client had a Novell server emergency and I actually remember how to get around in Novell, as if it hadn’t been over four years since last time, quickly identified it as a problem with SYS unmounting itself, and remembered or intuited the use of the mount command. Go me.
What I expected to be a heinous experience was pretty mild. The worst part was the degree of panic and discussion about it that ensued, not the actual problem.
While I was there, I also managed to fix the Norton Corporate problem. Had to kill and reinstall the LiveUpdate program, and once I ran LiveUpdate on the “server,” the workstations all picked up the new definitions. Except the same one that had stopped doing forced scans inexplicably.
Fundamental interconnectedness of all things came into play here. The same reason that computer had the worst problem with Novell being down, and remained unable to print when it came back, was a problem with using the wrong login. That and the automatic LiveUpdate setting was inexplicably turned off.
It worked out nicely and maybe for a few days they can manage without me. In a copuple weeks, the network will be replaced and there should be no more problems from old servers. I swear the machines know they are being replaced, and are making their displeasure known.
Watcher Needed
Want to be a Watcher? It’s almost as much fun as being a 9/11 Commissioner. If you’d like to be on the Council, here’s your opening.
Thursday, April 29, 2004
Fiendly Reminder
Did you know that the next Carnival of the Capitalists will be hosted by Brain Brew Radio? It’s true!
That would be the May 3rd edition, to be exact. That means entries should be sent to capitalists -at- elhide.com through, say, early Sunday evening to make it into that one. You probably know the deal by now.
Update.
Or really, just a post, over at the baby’s page.
Hypnotize Me
So I’ve started thinking about HypnoBirthing, which was one of the strategies suggested by the midwife this week to help relax me now as much as when the time comes.
(Hysterically funny digression about telling me, the original walking ball of stress, that my blood pressure might hurt my baby, so I really need to relax. You have got to love that catch-22...all of these really bad things can happen, and I need you to really not think about them, even as you rearrange your life around your medical schedule, because thinking about them probably makes them more likely, since thinking about them should raise your blood pressure, so just relax, m’kay, and everything may or may not be all right...we’ll let you know as soon as we do, if we’re ever sure. Hmmm...I was intending to say digression omitted, but I went right on ahead with it, didn’t I? I hate it when I do that.)
It’s not that I’m a total non-believer when it comes to this mind-over-matter stuff. After all, I did once run until I literally could not walk in a weeks-long Drill Instructor inspired bout of fervor. (For those of you who don’t know the story, that injury led to my discharge from the Navy and is, as far as I know, the reason my legs were swollen before I ever became pregnant just like they have been for the last 3 years, which is making things interesting now and will make things far more interesting, I’m sure, in the weeks to come, especially as my pain level ratchets upward under the stress of the extra weight and the shift in how it’s arranged. One of the reasons that I am so in love with my primary doc is that when I told him that I still had pain sometimes, he said that he’d expect so, instead of looking at me like I was crazy. He’s also got good hair, which doesn’t hurt.)
Where was I?
It’s not that I’m a total non-believer in this mind-over-matter stuff, it’s that it tends to smell like hippie. It seems that any time I encounter information about natural childbirth, it comes with crunchy-granola baggage that I’m just not interested in. Why, oh why, is there some sort of assumption that if you’re open to the idea of not using drugs during birth that you also think cloth diapers are morally superior and that bottlefeeding moms are abusers?
Anyway, from what I’ve seen so far poking around online, I’m starting to see why she would have recommended it, and soon, as a way of looking at things that might be useful for my particular personality malfunctions. It also seems to lack the proudly braided toe-hair that sometimes hangs out of natural childbirth’s Birkenstocks. It certainly merits further investigation. I’ll keep y’all updated on what I find out.
Kitten alert.
Since I’m pretty sure that even if I beg him, my husband will refuse to drive to Michigan just to get me a kitten, I’m begging y’all instead to be a home or help find a home for these ridiculously cute little kitties.
‘Scuse me while I go find a tissue. Cute makes me weepy lately. Damn hormones.
It’s Not Friedman Without Kyoto
Amusing, but he forgot to include the obligatory, off the wall way in which this relates to Kyoto, which the Bush Team™ foolishly abandoned without adopting something at least as bad in its place.
Hey Kofi, There’s An Elephant In The Room
I sat in front of the TV shortly after 2300 last night and started flipping through channels while I ate supper. (Late night at work.)
When I got to the News Hour on PBS, I saw Kofi and stopped, figuring he must be talking about UNSCAM, perhaps owning up to it.
Nope. He was saying that we must give dialogue and negotiation a chance in Fallujah! I snorted at the screen and continued flipping.
I am no activist, but maybe it’s time for a “why aren’t you covering this story” letter-writing campaign, as it were, to various media outlets seen not to be reporting on UNSCAM.
The Charisma Factor
A couple times in the past several weeks, I have expounded to Deb on what I see as a commonality between recent losers versus winners of races for President.
Charisma.
Dubya had it to some degree, if not as intensely as some. Gore didn’t have it at all.
Clinton had it in spades. Bob Dole was a terrible candidate; the candidate you put forth when you know you have little chance of winning anyway, and just want to reward a dues-paid guy in the party with the privilege of having run for historical footnote. Bush lacked it, especially beside Clinton.
Yet beside Dukakis, Bush wasn’t so lacking, and had the boost of being a continuation from one of the Great Presidents. This was closer to a contest of equals in that department.
Reagan was Mr. Charisma. Mondale had no chance against that. Carter wasn’t as totally lacking in Charisma as some, but again, couldn’t hold a candle to Reagan, on top of his other failings.
Even Carter versus Ford, you could say Carter had an edge in charisma, at least before we knew him well enough to regret it. Like Bush and Dukakis, it was closer to a contest of equals. This time history was on Carter’s side, due to the associations Ford had with Nixon and other issues.
Finally, Nixon was so not charismatic, and breaks the pattern. Not that McGovern being an opponent makes it much of a mystery why he won in 1972, no paranoia or shady business required.
Which brings us to 2004 and Kerry. I told my wife weeks ago that Kerry reminded me of Bob Dole in light of the charisma factor, so it amused me to see a comparison of the two men mentioned on Instapundit before I got around to posting these thoughts.
Kerry is one of the charisma-free candidates whose chances of winning are limited. Dubya is not a high charisma candidate, but he has some of “it” and that has only grown with his Presidency. He has a form of likability that might not be described as charisma, but surely doesn’t hurt. He also has history on his side. From here, Kerry doesn’t appear to have much chance even without all his real flaws.
You know you have a bad candidate when you find yourself wishing for Hillary or even Dean as the opposition to Bush, just in case Bush does lose and we’re letting the other guy loose at the wheel. Take a bad candidate, add a lack of charisma, Bush is the next President unless something truly weird happens. Even if he doesn’t lose Cheney and switch to Rice as his running mate.
Wednesday, April 28, 2004
Dear MCI
Inspired by my wife’s post a couple before this one, I thought I would write a more directed phone ire missive.
MCI, you keep calling my office. Every day. Sometimes several times. My caller ID says so, you know.
I’ve been bad, ignoring the calls. I know you really want to pry me away from my beloved Verizon plan. Couldn’t you leave me a voicemail saying that’s why you are calling? Couldn’t you get the impression nobody wants to talk about your offer and give it a rest? I don’t, and you should.
Ah, but today I decided to be different, perhaps put an end to the torment of at least 50% of the incoming calls to the office being from MCI, just dying for me to answer so the pitch can be set forth. I picked it up today. I answered, pleasantly, and waited for the salesperson to start. Then I said “hello? hello!” and finally something ruder when nobody was on the line.
Hanging up, I did a sanity check. Was the caller really MCI, or was the caller someone else? Used the call log and dialed 1-713-331-0146 and, sure enough, it was MCI, offering to place me in automated phone call routing purgatory. Having learned what I needed to know, I hung up.
A little while later, for the fourth time today, MCI called again! This has to stop. MCI, I have two words for you: Fuck off.
Thank you.
If any of you are following along…
There’s a new post over at the baby’s page.
To whoever keeps hanging up on my answering machine:
Leave a fucking message, asshole, or quit calling. Your choice.
This has been a public service announcement. We now return you to your regularly scheduled blogging.
Thank you.
The reason for the drama…
I suppose I should apologize for having gotten all dramatic, but I’m not going to. It’s taken me the last couple of days to just wrap my head around the idea that a medical problem currently so minor that my doctor said he wouldn’t even treat it if I weren’t pregnant has the potential to cause really serious problems for the little one, which potential is weighty enough to provoke thousands--if not tens of thousands--of dollars worth of medical care. It’s fairly unlikely that anything bad will happen, but that’s an incredibly intimidating thing to be facing nonetheless.
I have high blood pressure. Very mild high blood pressure. Blood pressure so incredibly borderline that it was normal before the last time they changed the standards. Blood pressure so non-impressively high that my doctor had trouble making up his mind whether or not to treat me for it, even with the pregnancy, and finally decided on half the normal starting dose of labetalol, just because it made him feel better. His words, not mine. The funny bit is that I wouldn’t be pregnant right now if it weren’t for my slightly dysfunctional circulatory system, but that’s another story, and truly a funny one (if irony sometimes makes you laugh out loud, anyway), so remind me to tell it eventually, m’kay?
Where was I?
Oh, yeah. Anyway, for some reason my blood pressure always reads higher when it’s taken over on the obstetrical side of the house, but even so, I expected that there would be some sort of harmony between what the midwife thought of it and what my own doctor thought of it.
One of these days, I’m planning to learn about expectations and where they get you. God, plans, laughter, you know?
So anyway, I was completely blindsided when the midwife I saw last Monday night (and whom I love, and who stayed at work very, very late answering questions for me, despite the fact that she’s pregnant, too, and had her husband waiting for her) started in with all of this high-risk stuff. I do want to point out that she was so damned slick at slipping that information into the conversation and making it seem like a totally normal kind of overreacting sort of precaution that I didn’t even panic until we were halfway home. That’s some sort of record for me, I think. She was talking to us about the AFP test when she pointed out that we’d be getting “the Cadillac of ultrasounds” anyway, if we were thinking that it might be reassuring. Very slick.
I’m pretty sure that Jay remembers the rest of the conversation a lot better than I do. I remember something about bad placentas, something about small babies, something about babies wanting to show up early, something about a higher chance of preeclampsia, and being totally confused as she tried to explain to me the whole thing with the ultrasound with the perinatologist, the rotation between the midwives and OB, how the primary care guy would be fitting in there...blood pressure monitoring, more ultrasounds, more visits with the perinatologist, some sort of fetal monitoring, monitoring for preeclampsia down the line, the possibility that the baby might not be able to tolerate labor...I feel like I need a medical degree to get a handle on it.
I know that I should be very, very grateful for all of this monitoring and all of this technology. Because of those good things, the chances that the wee one will suffer from the slightly toxic environment my body apparently is are pretty damned small, and if problems do develop, they’ll be spotted pretty damned quick. But oh my God, this all scares the beejeebus out of me anyway.
I don’t do drama well in the first place, and this is my baby we’re talking about here. The same sweet little baby who was kicking the heck out of me the other night when I came home from this appointment and cried and cried and cried. The little alien was probably just pissed that I was crying, but I prefer to believe that all of that kicking was alien-speak for, “calm down, mommy, I’m ok.”
Since I just made myself cry writing that, I’m going to wrap it up for the evening. More to come, including the inevitable post about how saying “more to come” makes me miss Johnny Carson.
Luck
Here’s a post that my husband put up at the other site yesterday but which is very much a baby post so I’m putting it here, too:
Frequently I have the most amazing, perverse luck, which I told Deb now applies to her too. It manifests itself in strange ways, with health insurance being a prime example.
I have a cheesy policy through one of those “groups” that supplies “affordable” insurance for the self-employed. It’s managed by PHCS and pays almost enough to be worth having. Sometimes. With a deductible and a 20% portion I have to cover. On most things. Which are seemingly random and unpredictable.
When we tried to get Deb onto the plan, which was a “can’t be turned down” no-brainer and would have cost a mere $168 per month on top of my
$288$309, the company jerked us around and found the one possible excuse they could invent for refusing to add her.Bad luck, right? Nope.
The woman, Angie, who sells the cheesy “affordable” plan, recommended, at no benefit to her, that we not even try to talk sense into my insurer, and instead go with Blue Cross/Blue Shield’s Direct HMO for Deb. It would have been like $700 for the two of us, but for her alone is was a mere $275 a month. No deductible. Minor co-pay on some things. Maternity 100% covered, period, no matter what happens. A nice, stress-free plan you barely have to think about, long as you can afford it.
Here we are at week 17, with the Little Alien bouncing gleefully off those comfy uterine walls (we got to hear a kick as well as heartbeat last night, and learn that, yes, those are kicks she’s been feeling), when we learn we are “high risk.”
This really means they put the pregnancy under a CYA microscope just in case a tendency toward hypertension might lead to problems. Deb is not so sanguine about it, but I am more excited about the huge volume of ultrasound documentation we will have than I am worried about the little squirt. Of course, I am not the one whose body has been hijacked mercilessly. But I figure if I lived through what I had to handle in the womb and shortly after, so can my kid. But I digress.
There will be appointments for primary care, the primary care nurse, the rotating set of four midwives, the OB, the neonatologist (or whatever it’s called), and lots of “Cadillac of ultrasounds” to examine baby’s organs and watch baby’s progress, what sounds like it’ll average once a week. All covered. My luck got us on superlative insurance rather than crappy insurance, which has worked out better than I’d have imagined.
I had to look it up, but the word he was looking for is “perinatologist”:
Perinatologist:
An obstetrical subspecialist concerned with the care of the mother and fetus at
higher-than-normal risk for complications. Since the perinatal period, depending
on the definition, starts at the 20th to 28th week of gestation and ends 1 to 4
weeks after birth, a perinatologist logically could be a obstetrician or
pediatrician but, in practice, a perinatologist is an obstetrician. The
comparable area of pediatrics is neonatology. A high-risk baby might be cared
for by a perinatologist before birth and by a neonatologist after birth. The
word “perinatologist” is a linguistic sandwich of the Greek “peri-” meaning
“around or about”, “natal” from the Latin “natus” meaning “born” and “ologist”
from the Greek “logos” meaning “student of.”
All of this is terribly confusing. I do have to say, though, that I’m glad I married a lucky guy.
More to come soon, now that I’m more or less past the shock of finding out that my body may not be all that good at this after all.
E-Mail, That Newfangled Business Tool
E-Mail went all awry as a marketing tool when the first spammer hit the electronwaves and gave it a bad name. Yet that doesn’t mean it can’t be used as a business tool, or even have marketing implications in the process. Heck, the problem with “unsolicited bulk commercial e-mail” is primarily the unsolicited and secondarily the bulk.
That said, this is intended to point up one cool way I have seen a company use e-mail, and to express a wish for another business use of e-mail.
I ordered business checks last week, finally, from a fine company called Checks In The Mail. I wonder if my wife knows they have a line of SpongeBob items...
Lo and behold, a few days later I receive an e-mail that says, in part:
Thank you for your recent order!
You are always #1 at Checks In The Mail!This automated e-mail message confirms that the
following item has been processed and is about
to be produced.ITEM: 600 Antique Duplicate Business Register Checks
STATUS: IN PRODUCTIONYou will receive a daily status email until this
product is shipped.After this item is produced, you will receive another
email notification advising you that we are about to
ship your product. If you ordered multiple items,
then you will receive an e-mail notification for
each item, including multiple boxes of checks that
were ordered.Our goal is to provide 100% customer satisfaction!
Our Online Support team is available to assist you.
I was all excited at what a nice touch it was; a system to keep you informed when your checks were produced and shipped. It’s a marketing tool without being spam. Not a sales tool per se, but a marketing tool that enhances the image of the company and encourages repeat or referral business.
What a neat idea.
Well, if imperfectly executed. That one was mailed 4/25 at 0707. An identical e-mail was sent by them at 1000 on 4/27, and another, still unchanged, on 4/28 at 0728. They all say “in production.”
I would have expected it to be going to production, production complete, now shipping; or something along those lines. Even though it only promises to tell you they are still working it through the pipeline and have yet to ship. Still, good idea, well-intentioned, with a definite future. It’s a step beyond good prices, designs and service, which they had over fifteen years ago when I first ordered personal checks there. I like it.
We recently talked about how nice it would be to e-mail the doctor questions. Or to have them e-mail results or instructions.
I know there must be doctors doing this, if only answering e-mailed questions for a fee. And I’d be happy to get answers to real questions for a fee, alongside the use of e-mail as a communication tool between the doctor’s office and patient. I’d love to be able to e-mail “when was that next appointment again?” or “my Lisinopril prescription has expired, could you call it into CVS please?” That second one they have an automated voicemail system for, but still.
I’d love to have been able to e-mail about the sleep test results and the abortive efforts to sell me a CPAP and so forth.
I suppose they might consider e-mail to be too insecure to be HIPAA compliant. Mostly I think it’s a failure of imagination, and slowness to adopt to new ways of doing business in a profession everyone needs, where marketing and differentiating yourself isn’t a big need.
How would you use, or like to see used, e-mail as a business tool?
Culled from the collection of windows I currently have open because I meant to blog about them somet
Word good but also lucky.
Teenage lifeguards also lucky.
OK, that’s enough. I’ll save my frustration about the way that pMachine does trackbacks for another post.
I’ve really got to go back to reading the transcipts of Rumsfeld’s press conferences.
Signs of Competence Abound
So I go to the new client for the presumably simple problem of one workstation not having done the once a week virus scan everyone else did using a corporate edition of Norton Antivirus. Of course, I should know that when they call me there for a simple 15 minute thing, they also have other things they have not mentioned, and the thing will prove not so simple.
In this case, I could see absolutely no reason the one machine didn’t scan. Best thing would be force a manual scan and watch to see that it does it right on the next weekly. Perhaps it was turned off. Perhaps there was a transient connectivity problem. Whatever. If autoprotect works, the full scans aren’t such a big deal.
I saw no rhyme or reason for that, but I did find the guy who set it up made it so each workstation did LiveUpdate directly across the internet, rather than the “server” doing one anc pushing to the workstations. I almost can’t blame him, because the screen to make it do internal virus definition updates is hopelessly cryptic, and in their case it’s not a big deal.
Then I saw that the last updates on all the machines happened on March 28.
What day did the other guy install and configure it? March 28. Took him six hours.
It was a simple matter to discover that the Control Panel icon for LiveUpdate was set to do manual updates. Took a couple seconds per computer to modify it to update automatically. Doh.
I left them watching and waiting for the virus definition updates to download on schedule, and they are going to tweak the schedule, since the other guy set it to midnight and noon, but at midnight all the computers are off except the night they stay on for the weekly virus scan. I’ll go back as needed.
By the time I looked at Norton and installed Adobe Acrobat reader - and IE6 as it required - for one of them, two hours of the expected simple 15 minute visit had elapsed, and it was the end of the day. Well, I also looked at the proposals for upgrading everything and building their e-commerce site. At least it was a better Tuesday than the last one.
On another note besides marveling at how bad the old computer guy was, why is it that everything has to use MMC (Microsoft Management Console) for its management and configuration screen? It’s just silly.
How do you troubleshoot a problem…
When every time you go try the thing that doesn’t work, it works just fine?
Sheesh.
Tuesday, April 27, 2004
OK, one more, then I promise I’m done with this for the day.
Heh. Heheh. Heheheheheh.
Whew!
I just love a good comparison.
And in the “analogies that made me laugh” category today we have this post from Ricky over at North Georgia Dogma.
I feel like being mysterious, so just go take a look.
Luck
Frequently I have the most amazing, perverse luck, which I told Deb now applies to her too. It manifests itself in strange ways, with health insurance being a prime example.
I have a cheesy policy through one of those “groups” that supplies “affordable” insurance for the self-employed. It’s managed by PHCS and pays almost enough to be worth having. Sometimes. With a deductible and a 20% portion I have to cover. On most things. Which are seemingly random and unpredictable.
When we tried to get Deb onto the plan, which was a “can’t be turned down” no-brainer and would have cost a mere $168 per month on top of my $288 $309, the company jerked us around and found the one possible excuse they could invent for refusing to add her.
Bad luck, right? Nope.
The woman, Angie, who sells the cheesy “affordable” plan, recommended, at no benefit to her, that we not even try to talk sense into my insurer, and instead go with Blue Cross/Blue Shield’s Direct HMO for Deb. It would have been like $700 for the two of us, but for her alone is was a mere $275 a month. No deductible. Minor co-pay on some things. Maternity 100% covered, period, no matter what happens. A nice, stress-free plan you barely have to think about, long as you can afford it.
Here we are at week 17, with the Little Alien bouncing gleefully off those comfy uterine walls (we got to hear a kick as well as heartbeat last night, and learn that, yes, those are kicks she’s been feeling), when we learn we are “high risk.”
This really means they put the pregnancy under a CYA microscope just in case a tendency toward hypertension might lead to problems. Deb is not so sanguine about it, but I am more excited about the huge volume of ultrasound documentation we will have than I am worried about the little squirt. Of course, I am not the one whose body has been hijacked mercilessly. But I figure if I lived through what I had to handle in the womb and shortly after, so can my kid. But I digress.
There will be appointments for primary care, the primary care nurse, the rotating set of four midwives, the OB, the neonatologist (or whatever it’s called), and lots of “Cadillac of ultrasounds” to examine baby’s organs and watch baby’s progress, what sounds like it’ll average once a week. All covered. My luck got us on superlative insurance rather than crappy insurance, which has worked out better than I’d have imagined.
I’ll take inept Senators from Massachusetts for $100, Alex.
Steven Taylor just won my understatement of the day award, with the following statement in reference to Kerry’s response to the whole medal kerfuffle:
Heh.This isn’t shaping up as a particularly well-run campaign.
It’s 0300.
Do you know where your Jedi is?
Right here, having a bout of insomnia.
I added a brief update to the baby page, if anyone’s interested.
I’m going to go try this sleep thing again now.
Goodnight!
In the middle of the night…
I think this is the first time since I’ve been pregnant that I haven’t been able to sleep at all. I also think that this has much to do with the fact that I have another appointment at 0815 and so need to be up in, oh, four hours or so. Sheesh.
I’m definitely going to have to blog about what’s going on medically, because it’s interesting in a weird way and it may be helpful at some point in the future to someone who freaks out as easily as I do. I’m going to save it for some time when I really feel like talking about it, but let me tell you, I’m tired of it already. And it’s only going to get worse as things progress, since I am now officially “high risk.”
Have I ever mentioned that I’m terrified of doctors? God has a funny sense of humor. I now have 3 doctors and a midwife. I’m praying it doesn’t get any worse than that. They scare me silly, even though they’re there primarily to monitor--trouble is not expected, just more likely than it might otherwise be. Which is why I can’t sleep now, I’m sure. I was just starting to relax about all of this, dammit.
Baby doesn’t seem to be intimidated, though. The little alien kicked the doppler in disgust when we dared listen too long. The little darling is still protesting, too. My mother has got to be thrilled at the thought that the little one is awake and kicking at 0230. She’ll be gloating...she’s been waiting almost 30 years for this indirect revenge.
I can’t wait to find out when the ultrasound will be...we’re getting some kind of souped-up version, too, which is kind of cool. Should be in the next 2-3 weeks...then I should be able to redo this page in pinks or blues rather than writing in it. *grin*
I’m finally sleepy, so I’m going to go crawl onto the couch and nap for a couple of hours. I’ll try to fill in the blanks soon...it’s surprisingly difficult for me to talk about all of this. I’m too well trained as Little Mary Sunshine, I suppose. Not in an inner-optimist sort of way, but more in a cover-up-how-stressed-you-really-are-’cause-imperfection-is-rude kind of way. That’s why I leave the upsides to my husband. He’s got a much bigger dose of natural optimism than I do.
Monday, April 26, 2004
Barring the Jedi
It’s amazing how little things needing to be done can accumulate. Sending this, organizing that, etc.
Given the gloom of the day, my eventual lateness, and my need to be home early to go to an appointment with Deb, and the lack of pleas for help from the proles users, I ended up staying home, but on a working basis.
Thus Deb is not at the computer to read blogs or entertain y’all by posting snippets of wisdom and/or humor here. We really must get her computer built soon. Chances are that will happen during the week of the 3rd. I already have the case and power supply, plus I can use some other parts already on hand to limit the all at once outlay for it.
Anyway, I am troubleshooting, billing, and so forth, barring her from the computer and not posting or reading much myself. Though I did read enough bloggage today to see that Kerry toasted himself even more crisply today. It has a car wreck-like fascination to it, watching his campaign to be the next Jimmy Carter.
Oh well. I am sure one or both of us will post tonight. Meanwhile, I really am trying to get work done. What a concept.