And She Was...

I've taken to using this as a spot for just dumping things...I save them up and then make posts that are a collection of all the various things that have been going on.

Things like the weird dreams I've been having-most of them are about places that I used to have to go, like junior high school, where I had to talk about the people I had crushes on back then, or high school where I forgot my locker combination. And then there was the airplane dream. No one needs to tell me that the airplane dream was a birth dream....I dreamed about airplanes, on the ground, rolling through tunnels and into hangars that were smaller than their wingspans. Yeah, that was a birth dream.

There was the strange experience this morning. I got up and got out of bed and heard noise. Before I went to the bathroom or brushed my teeth, I went to investigate what it was, thinking that Cayne had left the TV on or something when he was getting ready for work, only to discover Cayne sitting on the couch watching TV-about an hour later than he usually leaves for work. I asked him what he was doing, and he responded "Sitting on the couch." I asked if he was taking the day off from work and he said "No, it's Saturday." I reminded him it was Friday and he looked shocked. He scurried off, got dressed very quickly and sheepishly headed in to work.

We got the second trimester screening results back-this looked at the risk of Down's Syndrome-1/3000, Trisomy 18 (Edward's Synrome)-1/10,000 and Spina Bifida-1/1600. That of course still means that there are plenty of other thing that could go wrong, but at least that's somewhat reassuring.

We bought a chair last weekend...it arrived the other day and is in a box in the living room, on it's side. It will probably stay there until we figure out what to do with the two chairs it's replacing (one spot is getting a chair, the other is getting a new filing cabinet, but I need to decide if I'm going to Freecycle or Craig's List or what with the old chairs.) But the box is right where a coffee table would go if/when we buy one for the living room. And it's become a hot spot for cats to nap in lately. I wonder if the same thing would happen with a coffee table.

The craving for salty foods is going to drive me crazy. I really wish I could cut back on them, but I can't get enough pickles. I'm going to go open another jar when I'm done with this post.

I hope the writer's strike doesn't mean that the new shoes I like on TV disappear. Not much in the way of new shows that we're watching, just Big Bang Theory and Chuck, I think. And on the subject of TV...NBC Universal has been going on and on this week about all sorts of environmental stuff. They also sent correspondents to the Equator, the Arctic Circle and Antarctica. And my first thought when I heard about this was "I wonder if they accounted for the environmental impact of moving crew and equipment there, and what they did to balance it."

We've both been reading Scott Westerfield's books-in particular the Uglies series. I finished the first one about a year ago, on one of our winter trips, picked up the second one months later and caught the third one on a remainder table at Borders recently. They're adolescent fiction, so they're quick reads, but they're pretty good. Someone at Border's suggested them to me last year. I gave Cayne the fist one when we were traveling recently and he liked it, devoured the second and third within a matter of days, and insisted on having the fourth one, which had just come out in hardcover, and between a coupon and a sale, it was reasonable. The third one felt unevenly written, but the fourth one, the writing has gone back to what we expected, but the concept is really interesting. I'm enjoying the concept of a reputation economy, though I'm wondering how different some of that is from the way adolescents currently live today.


And the links, since I collect them.

This one talks about post partum sex...someone fears that her vagina will be too loose after giving birth. And also on the subject of vaginae, slinkr pointed me at The New York Times on the word Va-jay-jay.

This one (text follows behind the cut) is about a woman who was asked to cover up or leave Universal Studios because she was breastfeeding. (The end result, by the way, is that Universal apologized to her, because Florida law allows her to breastfeed in public.)

( The Cut )


There's also Abstinence Doesn't Curb Teen Sex

( Read about how abstinence fails )

Has anyone looked into Sony's Digital Book Reader? Despite his hatred of Sony, zedrikcayne has suggested that if I want one, I should get it. I haven't really investigated it much yet, but the idea of being able to read while nursing late at night in the dark if I'm awake, for example, is kind of appealing. It's bigger than a Palm, which is also appealing, as I've always found reading on my Palm screen rather irritating. Does anyone know more about it than I do?

We're also starting to shop for cameras-it's amazing what's become lumped in with "baby expenses" even though they really have very little to do with the baby. The two things that first come to mind are more life insurance and the camera. We're looking for a point and shoot, throw into the diaper bag kind of camera. I bought Mom a Canon of some variety last year, and the camera that I'm replacing (nothing wrong with it but the LCD screen is shot, and frankly, the cost of the LCD replacement isn't worth it) is also a Canon.

In case you haven't read about it already, comment editing is in place for paid users. Can't edit a comment that's already been replied to, but it was nice when it helped me correct some bad HTML today.

Okay, that's enough. It's time for pickles.

Pre-emptively, because I know not everyone wants to read about this stuff, there are probably a couple of public, pregnancy-ish related posts forthcoming. There are things I need feedback from a wider range of people than a pregnancy filter might include.

I will try and cut them/tag them appropriately so that anyone who wants to scroll past them can.

We thank you for your support. And hope you enjoy today.

cf_but_sane might be of interest to some people on my f'list. Thank kageneko and pal(s) for it.

Also, amusing IRC conversation about Lisa Nowak, the astronaut charged with attempted murder (which is, of course, local news here, being 1. Astronaut country and 2. where it happened.)

srakkt you know why the denied her bail?
srakkt so she couldn't escape on the shuttle!
srakkt *ba-dum-bum*
geminigirl Hee.
geminigirl It's local news here, it's finally replaced the tornadoes as the top story
srakkt There's no extradition treaty with the Mooninites, you see.


(For those of you who usually follow my exploits on freenode, this was on EFNet.)

and it's a rather mild 61F/16 C. Quite pleasant. Holiday lights, however, still seem ridiculous to me, in this warm weather-two homes on our street are decked out. We haven't bothered with lights for the last two years because we travel at the end of the month. We might this year-don't know yet. A total blue and white Chanukah experince or something, since I have decorative Chanukah lights. And I still need to dress Jaques the Garden Moose for the holidays.

Still, it's that season, we've already gotten our first holiday card, and so, I put this out there for you. (Please please please, if you were on our card list last year, respond again-the list wasn't backed up anywhere, and zedrikcayne had to reformat his computer. This year, the list will end up on my computer and be backed up elsewhere.)

Alternative ways to get me the info

-comments to this entry are screened, so you can post it there (if you do post a comment that isn't your address, since that happens, let me know if it's okay to unscreen it.)
-send me an e-mail to geminigirl livejournal, etc, you know the drill

[Poll #881929]

This is the meme that's going around in LJ circles lately...

"'Why is it that, as a culture, we are more comfortable seeing two men holding guns than holding hands?'- Ernest Gaines

We would like to know who really believes in gay rights* on LiveJournal. There is no bribe of a miracle or anything like that. If you truly believe in gay rights*, then repost this and title the post as "Gay Rights". If you don't believe in gay rights*, then just ignore this. Thanks. "

(Yes I posted it, mostly so I can write what follows with context for people who haven't seen it yet.)

I'm sure there's no question among readers of this journal what my feelings are on gay rights. I won't sit here and write about my feelings on guns.

I will say that I'd rather see two men holding hands than holding guns. I will say that whether or not someone chooses to post this says nothing about where that person stands on the issue of gay rights, civil rights or human rights in general. I will say that the "you're with us or against us" rhetoric is a lot like the language that came from the Bush administration about the "War on Terror" which many people have mentioned strong, negative feelings about.

In summary, if you are curious about I feel about an issue, ask. If I feel strongly about an issue, I might post about it. I might not. But I'm not likely to resort to memes to express my feelings.