Congrats to Hil and to P-C, for their varied achievements, and job-ma to Karl for what looks to be a v. cool job.

And yay to billytea for playing D&D all day. (What? I miss gaming. Pain relief and social interaction are good too, of course.)

So are Braxton-Hicks contractions supposed to make you unable to walk? If my core tightens up while I'm sitting, I can't actually stand up straight for a bit. Or is that just normal and not a B-H contraction?

I'm in a fairly depressed place today. My friend who has a Downs Syndrome child has been writing, and all I can do is listen, but I want so much to be able to do more. Also, final grandparent has informed us they won't be coming out for the arrival of the baby, or at all, and that in fact they are moving so "don't know when we'll hook up." Which in a way was better than the reaction of the second-to-last grandparent: "Oh, you're having a boy? I wanted a girl." and no communication since. I mean, I knew if we had kids we'd be on our own, but when you are sitting on the bathroom floor in the middle of the night, trying to not throw up and wondering if you've made a good decision, having someone else be happy about your decision would help.

t /whining

Why are espresso machines so frigging expensive?

Just looking at that The Team site.... it might not be a pyramid scheme. It might just be sales. Or maybe it's sales, involving you recruiting more people, which I guess would make it a pyramid scheme.

you were vacationing on Ospedale Island

Ah, those halcyon days of being woken at 4 AM by surly vampires.

Ah damn, Raquel, that's rough, both the contractions and the parental response. I know this won't help that situation, but I am happy there is going to be Raquel sprog.

Why are espresso machines so frigging expensive?

Worth it though. They'll pry mine from my cold dead overcaffienated hands.

Wish I had something to say about the bigger problems, but all I'm coming up with is sometimes people just suck.

Which in a way was better than the reaction of the second-to-last grandparent: "Oh, you're having a boy? I wanted a girl." and no communication since.

Ack. {{Raquel}}

Just looking at that The Team site.... it might not be a pyramid scheme. It might just be sales. Or maybe it's sales, involving you recruiting more people, which I guess would make it a pyramid scheme.

From what I gathered, you recruit people into teams who proceed to shop at affiliate websites, and then you get the money saved from cutting out the middleman, which of course encourages you to continue shopping at said websites. It's the magic of e-commerce! Michael Dell said so!

Also, heh, they made a point to note that it's not a pyramid scheme because the shape of recruitment is not a pyramid. There's no one at the top, and the entire team reaps the benefits. So it's a pyramid-y scheme.

But I'm not a big fan of being brainwashed.

Job-ma for Karl and his perfect job.

All the jobma in the world, Karl!(Except the tiniest deadline-ma, which I'm using) Timelies... The city of Phoenix has some problem with our tap water(Ew!)Allegedly, it is a combination of a plant under maintenance and increased sediment from the mountains...um, but there's a reason I relate to the Munchkin, cause part of me is, like, "as if! And would they ever tell us *to* panic. Um, no." Not that I have any specific reason not to believe. except 1000 x-files. My mom is making me a little nuts, though, as the World's Cleanest Hippie. It's like living with Lady MacBeth right now, straight up...if Water Treatment doesn't get on the stick, I'm "suggesting" she spend her lunch hour with them...I bet they'd work real fast.

Raquel, that does suck. Sometimes B-H contractions can be pretty severe. Their official description is that they are painless so I called the painful ones false labor, to differentiate in my own head. I don't know why, but that helped. And yeah, I had lots of those.

Boys are fun. I'm glad you're having a boy. Unfortunately, relatives are strange creatures who only sometimes give us the support we need.

Many congratulations Hil!

extra-strength job~ma to Karl.

Yay for D&D, and a home and pain-relief for BT.

Timelies. I'm behind in all my work and the babies are evil. IOW, nothing new here.

Which in a way was better than the reaction of the second-to-last grandparent: "Oh, you're having a boy? I wanted a girl." and no communication since.

Raquel, I hear you, although I got the exact opposite response (re: gender). Perhaps I should offer to FIL that we switch. I didn't know you were having a boy - that's cool. I'm not asking about names because I get asked that question every fricking day and I have no answer yet.

{{Raquel}} damn that's harsh.