I have one! I have one! OH MY GOD I have one! And it’s blue, and it’s wonderful, and Mr. Brett gave it to me because he’s totally superior in every way, and I love it!

It’s my brand new Apple iPod mini, and YES IT IS every bit as tiny and geeky and cute as you’re thinking it is! Oh joy and happiness! I’m in heaven!

(Yes, we realize you’re supposed to wait until Christmas to open gifts, but hell – we’re both over 30 and we don’t care. Whee!)

I hate trying to buy ebooks for Microsoft Reader.

I only do it when I want a particular book that isn’t offered in any other format – today, for instance, it was Robin Hobb’s Assassin’s Apprentice/Royal Assasin bundle – and even then it’s almost not worth it.

After you purchase the book, the site contacts your computer to see if you have a registered copy of Reader installed. If you’re not using Internet Explorer, it tells you that you must install, upgrade, or register Reader in order to download the book you just paid for. Then you’re blithely pointed to MS’s site… to download an 8-11 MB file you don’t need. Wouldn’t it be better if the site just said, “Hey, you need to use IE for this ’cause that’s how MS is.”

If you’re lucky enough to figure out that you should try with IE instead of your beloved Firefox, it saves you an hour of downloading software you already have.

And if you’re me, you must have Reader open and running or IE can’t find it!

After the book is downloaded, you can’t find it to copy it to your PPC because Windows stashes it in an unbelievably obscure system subdirectory and Reader doesn’t have a built-in “transfer to PPC” option.

On top of all of that, Reader for PPC is a resource hog, takes forever to load, and only displays about half as many words per page as other readers. And God help you if your device decides to crash in the middle of a giant book!

Reader is inelegant, awkward, and I look forward to the day when all ebooks are offered in other formats.

I figured it was time for another uterine update. (This may be TMI for some of you delicate readers, but there isn’t anything terribly gross if you want to plunge on ahead.)

My midwife thinks – and I agree – that what I’m experiencing is a blighted ovum, or anembryonic pregnancy. This means that due to a chromosomal anomaly, the gestational sac grows but there’s no baby inhabiting it – it’s an empty placenta, basically.

Spontaneous abortion in this situation takes a long time, because the placenta can continue to grow and support itself without a baby for up to two months, and so body-fooling pregnancy hormone levels exist for quite awhile. Loss of pregnancy symptoms, “not feeling pregnant,” and spotting and bleeding are common experiences with this condition.
Continue reading 10w+4d →

Does ‘Spotting’ Foretell a Miscarriage?

Yes.

Fuck yes it does. All those articles to the contrary are bullshit, designed to minimize panic. The simple truth is that when you’re pregnant and you bleed, you’re about to have a miscarriage. Trust me, I’m an expert on this.

I just went pee and there it was: a tiny little bit of pink on the TP. This is exactly how it started last time. First, an innocent streak of color. Next, bleeding… days and daysof light bleeding. Then weird, dark bleeding.

Then horrible, gut-wrenching cramps, and then my period will really start.

In a few days my hormones will be so utterly fucked up that I won’t be able to work or see anyone other than Brett, and him I’ll just cry all over. The poor, poor man.

Miscarriage makes you insane. Literally. It’s a state of temporary insanity. You know you’re acting nuts, but you can’t stop it ’cause your brain is full of weird hormones and chemicals and you can’t tell if you’re coming or going.

You know what? Screw this. I obviously can’t have a baby because my hormones are too fucked up, and I’m beginning to get too old for a first child anyway. I do get bummed about losing potential babies, but not half as much as I hate going through the suffering of the purely physical aspects of miscarriage: it’s hard and it hurts.

I should get my tubes tied and resign myself to a life of spending all our money on ourselves and our dogs.
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I am aware that there are problems with comments.

This problem is the fault of spammers, who are bastards all, and deserve seeping venerial diseases for filling my server up with such total crap.

Because of spammers, I have to run a plugin called MT-Blacklist, and MT-Blacklist occasionally just freaks out and stops working properly. I personally read through my entire list and couldn’t find anything that should be blocking comments from, for instance, “Cooter”. So I shut off the plugin, deleted the list, and installed the latest one.

Please send a carrier pigeon if you continue to experience problems with comments.

I think I’m going to take a stab at the upcoming Wisbar/PocketBreeze contest. I’m no Juni of course, but no harm in trying. Especially since the prizes are so great. This’ll be my first attempt at skinning PocketBreeze icons, but I read the tutorial last night and I don’t think it’s too impossible. Right now I’m working on two skins with the intention of submitting the best. If they’re both good I’ll turn them both in. Wish me luck!

Seven things I thought about while I was in the bathroom this afternoon showering, drying my hair, fixing my face, and getting dressed.

1. Ganglion cyst
My accursed cyst disappeared sometime yesterday afternoon ALL BY ITSELF! I mean, it was there around three or four yesterday afternoon, I remember because I was trying on a mitten I was knitting and I saw it there, then at dinner at Noodle House last night with Tahmi & Jason I noticed that IT WAS GONE! Halleluia. For real.

Some might not consider a ganglion cyst a ‘personal hygiene’ issue, but I hated it the way I hate a mutant eyebrow hair or a hangnail or a zit.

2. Pudgelette
My God, how did I get so fat?!?

I put on a pair of jeans today (that I last wore before my BFP, a mere seven weeks ago) and damn if I can barely breathe in them. Damn!

3. Perfect nails
I had perfect nails just three days ago. Like, PERFECT. Like, “Are you drinking gelatin?” perfect.

Then life happened. Now I have a bunch of no-nails and about four freakishly long ones, like those sickening coke nails hipsters and dudes called Huggy grew in the 70’s.

4. Body hair
If I didn’t love y’all, I’d take a post a picture of the HUGE WAD OF HAIR that coagulated forlornly in the drain after my shower today, but I do so I won’t.

Suffice it to say that whatever wonder pregnancy hormones had wrought is well past now, and I’m back to going bald again. GOD DAMN IT.

To add insult to injury, my amusing and dismaying colony of chest hair has grown back since its last shave with a fucking vengeance.

5. Makeup
I saw The Mummy the other night. There’s a scene in it where the female lead is dressed up like a Bedoin or something, in veils and black eyeliner.

I just happen to own a container of honest-to-goodness middle eastern kohl, given to me by Ilana Iguana for my birthday about a decade ago. It came with a metal applicator – basically a giant, round-pointed toothpick – which I’ve lost. But the lid unscrews and it has a built in plastic applicator in it. To apply this wondrous eyeliner, you just put the applicator between your lids, close your eyes, and draw it from the inner to outer corners. When you open your eyes, YOU LOOK FANTASTIC. Seriously. Dude.

As a contact wearer, I don’t apply it that way: I draw it on like a pencil, and only on the lower lid. Then I swoop on some mascara and I feel pretty and Eastern-looking. (Fat, but pretty.)

6. Teeth
I need to get my teeth cleaned.

About two years ago.

7. Sex appeal
The wonderful thing about my husband is that no matter what, no matter if I’m pudgy or losing my hair or if I have a giant zit on my nose or I haven’t bothered to bathe in three days or I haven’t bothered to wear clothes that MATCH let alone take any care whatsoever with my appearance and I look frumpy and unloveable, he always makes it perfectly clear that he still wants to Do It with me.

Because he’s wonderful. 🙂

I just went to Mi-T-Mart for a treat. It smells like rancid chicken fat and melted engine parts in the parking lot.

It was so intense I decided to share.

No doubt it will blow away soon.
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