We had the ultrasound this morning... weird, but so precious to see the heart beating, the leg bones, the spine, the little black smudge that is the stomach...

( Pictures and gender... We are pretty sure that it's a... )

11. Needle in a Timestack by Robert Silverberg - This is a collection of 10 short stories, all classic sci-fi. Every story has a twist somewhere, usually ones that made me laugh out loud at the protagonist's expense. Silverberg is very good at getting you into the story quickly without bogging down in details. Some of the stories were a bit more gruesome than I expected (not full of gory details, just lots of folks meeting an untimely end), but even these had their share of dark humor.

Highly recommended. A+

OK, who was playing with the laws of physics and managed to open up a tiny black hole inside my stomach?



I am incredibly hungry ALL THE TIME, and I am consuming calories at an alarming rate.

I had a bedtime snack last night, and when I got up 9 hours later, I was so hungry that my body tried to throw up (stupid body, there's nothing IN there to throw up).

I am turning into a human incubator - all I want to do is eat and sleep. Too bad life has other things in store for me. I might be getting warmer, too... it's hard to tell with the wacky weather lately.



P.S. Ultrasound tomorrow morning!!! (I hope I can eat enough for breakfast so I don't have to get up to find food in the middle of my appointment...)

My appetite has certainly ramped up in the past few days. I've already eaten my lunch and three out of four snacks I brought for the day... and I'm STILL hungry.

I'm also kind of sleepy, so I'm thinking a walk to Dunkin Donuts for a coolatta is in the cards for this lunch hour.

In better news, I'm really starting to feel the baby move every day. Right now, I think maybe baby is hungry too.

Edit: Decided to be financially responsible and went to the grocery store instead... where they had Ben & Jerry's on sale. Mmmm... hopefully the two pints I got will last me the rest of the week (at least).

I really need to stop buying candy from the vending machine during my lunch break. I spent $1.25 today to buy a candy bar that had almost twice as many calories as my (pre-packaged microwaveable) lunch.

I probably need more variety in my pile-o-snacks. The same apple, tangerine, cereal bar, and yogurt is not cutting it. Maybe I should go back to making some trail mix that contains chocolate, or something else that will satisfy my sweet tooth. I just need less of it, and to spend less money on it - if I plan ahead, I can do both.

I forgot about the book I just finished today... It's one of the ones I picked up in my $5 bag from the West Boylston library.

10. Alternate Generals, a compilation edited by Harry Turtledove.
All the stories are good, full of alternate history and military fiction, but I wish there had been an introduction to the book as a whole and/or an introduction to each story. As it is, I found myself looking up a lot of people on Wikipedia, asking "how is this different from the way it really happened?" Maybe I'm just not a good enough student of history. I doubt I'll read it again, but it's a B

If anyone's interested in this book, I'd be happy to give it away.

I finished both of these books over a month ago, when I was still feeling pretty sick on a daily basis. I've been re-reading the song of ice & fire saga since then. These reviews aren't as complete as I'd like to make them, since I don't have the books in front of me, and it's been a month.. but if I don't write them now, I may never get around to it...

8. Beginning Operations (A Sector General Omnibus) by James White - actually three books in one. The first is a series of short stories telling how the Sector General hospital comes to be. The other two books are novels with much more complete plots.

A little dry at times, also chauvinistic, both of which I expect from older sci-fi. Especially annoying: certain descriptions (of the hospital, of how to classify life-forms, etc.) are copied word-for-word from one book to the next. Interesting takes on how life forms with vastly different physical needs and social structures would be able to relate to each other. Although the main/recurring characters are mostly human, the books are less human-centric than most of their counterparts (space opera, etc.) A solid B

9. The Road to Damascus by John Ringo and Linda Evans - I'm becoming a John Ringo fan; reading his work is a guilty pleasure. I also liked what little I've read of the Bolo series (mostly written by Keith Laumer)... so when I saw this in March, I figured it was worth the $6. I was not disappointed. The female characters in this book made a good antidote to James White's fragile nurses; here there are several women and girls who are warriors, whether overtly or covertly. Also good at covering the causes and timeline of a rebel uprising, as seen from both sides. Gripping, but trite at times, which is the only reason I don't give this a perfect score. A

Don't forget, tomorrow is Free Cone Day at Ben & Jerry's. If you're going to be in the Natick/Framingham area, you should go and get your free cone. :)

Stopped at Dairy Queen on the way home from work. Honestly, I liked the el-cheapo "chicken wrap" better than the Blizzard I got.

If Abbott's ever comes to Massachusetts, I am SO there.

(Hey, the page says they're opening a franchise in Needham, so it's not entirely wishful thinking on my part. And yes, I would be willing to drive 40 miles for Abbott's frozen custard... it's a heck of a lot closer than driving to Rochester.)

yoinked from etherial

There was a library sale. We stopped on the way home from church. I am now $5 poorer and a (grocery-sized) paper bag FULL of books richer.

It wasn't completely for me, though - I did pick up about 6 books for the coming kiddo... :P

Paglia Family Dental
Marlborough MA

Highly recommended.

And hey, I got to see a female dentist for the first time in my life.

(They did skip a couple of things, like X-rays, because I'm pregnant. But it also meant they tried to be extra gentle, since anesthesia is not an option at this point, and the preggo hormones make your gums tender and swollen.)

I've been putting off a visit to the dentist for many years now. Why? Mostly because it's inconvenient, and I didn't know of any dentists in the Worcester area that might be "good". Well, my friend D solved the second problem last month, and I've just circumvented the first problem by waiting too long.

I just chipped a tooth. I must now go to the dentist. It's still not emergency-level urgent, because it's not actually my tooth that broke; it's a cap [edit: technically a veneer, not a cap] that I've had for roughly 15 years, ever since I broke off my two front teeth running around playing tag in a church basement.

I should have realized the cap wouldn't be permanent - it pretty much disintegrated today while eating my afternoon snack. It's probably been weak for years now - but no one would know, because I haven't been going to the dentist.

Hence, I am an idiot. No one should skip going to the dentist for years on end... but ESPECIALLY not if you have any dental work more complex than fillings.

Had my "16-week" appointment with the obstetrician today. Good news all around - baby heartbeat was still strong and easy to find (I'm not surprised, since nightskyre thinks he's been able to hear it with an ear up to my belly); I have had textbook weight gain since my last appointment (4 weeks ago); my blood-sugar test came back well within normal ranges; all other vitals they looked at are normal.

Next appointment is at 20 weeks, including an ultrasound!

I'm starting to feel like a normal person again! I'm still a tad queasy, but my appetite has finally come back, and "normal" foods (fruits, vegetables, etc.) don't turn me off anymore! I had an apple yesterday, and tortellini with tomato sauce last night (which tasted so good that I ate two huge servings and over-stuffed myself a little). I'm able to drink plain water again instead of only ginger ale and clear juice!

(I know this sounds dumb, but my constant nausea has forced me into a VERY limited diet. I am incredibly happy that it looks like I can eat a balanced diet again; although I'm trying not to rush it, in case the nasty symptoms come back.)

Sour cream & onion potato chip face-off:

Wachusett beats Lay's, hands down. (Normally I buy Wachusett because they're cheap, but Lay's was on sale this week. Now I know to stick with the cheap local brand.) Why is this important information? Potato chips are one of the few snack foods that work to keep my stomach occupied and not nauseous during the day.

Picked up a cold, which threw me for a loop on Friday; stayed home from work and in bed until 4pm. After getting extra rest on Saturday and Sunday, I seem to be back to "normal" now - although I still have some cold symptoms.

Bad days are still bad (for nausea), but the good days seem to be getting better. I hope I don't have too many more bad days, since I'm now out of sick time and will start using vacation days.

So... I have big news that I've been dying to share... and now I've gotten the OK... so here goes...

I'M PREGNANT!

Baby Smith is due near the end of September. nightskyre and I wanted to wait to make this news public until I was near the end of the first trimester, had seen an obstetrician and heard the baby's heartbeat. I've had 24/7 nausea for the past six weeks, so there are quite a few people I had to tell out of necessity; but now everyone can know. :)

By the way, it was super-cool to hear the heartbeat this morning. Nightskyre and I were amazed at how quickly and strongly it came through on the hand-held Doppler device.

I've lived through 92/158 of these things (58%)

( cut for length )

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