Alas, vacation is over. Tomorrow we go back to work. I don’t want to get on an airplane or sit in an airport again for many months. The trip went well; I’m just sick of sitting in airports and airplanes. But . . . I got another 14 jars of peanut butter, thanks to the spouse’s cousin, who drove it all the way to Indiana from Nebraska. I am now stocked for a year, or maybe two.?

I finished Henci Goer’s book on the plane yesterday and finished HP book 5 today, while I sat at home doing nothing more strenuous than a load of laundry. We ventured out only to buy groceries and pick up my new glasses. All in all, a good day. And, it is Percy’s birthday, or rather, the anniversary of the day we brought her home from the humane society. Considering she spent at least half the day curled up beside either me or the spouse, purring loudly, I’d say she also had a relaxing day.?

Election day is coming in only seven days. Anyone interested in getting together to stare at the TV or computer screen for polling results?

Today I found out my blood type: A negative. That means that today at my OB visit, I got a RhoGAM shot. Joy. And I get another one after labor. The shot wasn’t that bad, though my arm is a little tender still. Also learned I gained four more pounds this last month. Doctor K. says I need to watch my carbs and focus on fruit and veggies. Sigh. I love bread. But I am dutifully eating my squash before I head to my aquatics class.

Asked the doc about the no-eating/drinking thing and once again, realized that I love my OB. She’s very much in tune with my “labor is natural; don’t treat it as a medical event” idea. This means that I can drink water during labor (very important since I consider myself a water-powered human) and she encourages moving around in labor as opposed to immediately getting an epidural and staying in bed. I’m not demeaning epidurals; in fact, I’m very much leaving the option open. (Thank you, everyone, for the advice and birth stories that came in through the comments on my previous post. I really appreciate all the viewpoints.) But I see myself trying to walk around and cope rather than getting an epidural and sitting passively in bed. We’ll see how it all goes. Birth plan is still in progress.

And here is a new picture with my extra four pounds (and my new haircut)

Go ye, therefore, and vote.

The stock market went up, up, up today, even as the cat’s happiness dropped exponentially: we took Percy to the vet. She meowed pitifully in the car on the way over, sat through the vet checking her eyes, ears, and teeth. But things started going downhill when she got her temperature taken. (You try having a thermometer stuck up your butt without warning while someone holds you down. I doubt it would be very pleasant.) Her trust in her humans dropped at that point. And then, when all she wanted to do was hide under something, I held her in my arms and on my lap while the vet did some checking in her medical books on options for eye care.

Unfortunately for Percy, the recommendation was to have blood work done to test for anything relating to the “possible chronic uveitis” in her right eye (on top of the fact that she has a cataract). She didn’t do so well for the blood draw, apparently. We were not present for that part; they had to put her under anesthesia so they could do the blood draw because she wouldn’t let them do it otherwise.

Needless to say, she hasn’t been super cuddly this afternoon, though she’s finally consented to sitting on the spouse’s lap while he plays hours of video games. (She’s still not sure about me since I held her down the whole time the vet checked her.) And she has a funny little shaved patch on her chest where I assume they did the anesthesia or the blood draw.

We have to wait to see the results of the blood work, and then the vet may refer us to a veterinary?ophthalmologist?in TC. I hope they can find something else so we don’t have to make the drive with a very unhappy cat to a very expensive cat specialist for possible cat cataract surgery.

Either it was my very bad day at the office or my inherent dislike of authority, but I wanted to challenge everything our childbirth instructor said this evening. More specifically, what the medical profession views as the appropriate way for me to give birth (as in, hooked up to an IV, prodded and poked constantly, with strange little contraptions and breaking my water whenever they darn well feel like it).

I like our instructor, and I don’t think she was meaning to come off that way at all. (I’m enjoying the class overall, for the record.) It was just really irking me to hear, “It’s common for your water to be broken” (or to be hooked up to an IV, or blah blah). Also, for the record, I have relatives and friends who are nurses (and at least one who is specifically an OB nurse) and I like them all and have no grudges against their profession.

I really don’t see myself as the rah! rah! natural childbirth is the only way to go. I just don’t like being told that the medical way is the way to go either.

Anyone want to share their experiences and give me some perspective? (Going to bed would probably also help said perspective. And I’ll do that now.)

Today, I did not go to work. I took the spouse to work, then took the car to the mechanic, then walked home. I read my childbirth class homework, took a very long nap with Percy, and pretty much lazed around the rest of the afternoon. Then I walked to the mechanic’s to pick up the car (that’s 45 minutes exercise and about six podcasts total for the day).

Results of car’s doctor visit: new radiator needed. The perpetual leak that has gotten worse in the last couple of weeks was caused by the plastic top of the radiator separating from the bottom. At least, that’s what I made of what the mechanic said. I’d noticed the radiator fluid by the upper radiator hose and commented that maybe whatever the slow leak was had finally gotten big enough that it could be found now. Yep, it’s found. And it has a $300 solution. But at least the problem will be solved.

In other news of the day, I funded the WaMu/JPMorgan Chase CD I opened last week. (Had to wait for the account validation, etc. to clear.) If I haven’t already told you about the 5% 12- or 13-month CD offering, I am now. Get it before it’s gone. At 5%, our money is now almost keeping pace with inflation. Still kept a majority of the emergency fund more liquid at 3% online savings account rate, but I couldn’t pass up 5%.

Also, here are a few of the pictures I’ve been promising: peanut butter

and pregnant lady.

This last weekend, I finished the Lamaze book?it was pretty good and I’m recommending the spouse at least skim it?and HP book 2. And went on a baking blitz: applesauce cake, experimental pumpkin chocolate chip muffins, and pumpkin chocolate chip cookies with homemade cream cheese frosting. Yum. I didn’t eat them all myself. In fact, there are still some left . . . but you have to come see me to get them.

Dowd puts the smack down for all the grammar nerds out there. At least I’m not the only one who cringes when Palin speaks (I can hardly make it past the voice itself; I’m on edge just listening to the nasally, fingers-on-chalkboard sound).