Ambys are wonderful. I'm a total Amby evangelist, because I'm convinced it's a big part of the reason Annabel was such a good sleeper starting so young.

The Seattle library assesses fines, but doesn't make any major effort to collect them until they're above $10 or so. I've owed $0.45 forever, and they don't even mention the fine's existence when I check out books. I think if you owe more than $15 you can't use interlibrary loan, which would be a real penalty for Research Girl me, and eventually I hear they send you Stern Notices.

I've owed $0.45 forever

Exactly. In this age of hiring freezes & declining budges, fewer people are asked to do more work. Chasing down people who owe $0.45 is not a good way to spend my time. Unfortunately, I still have to spend time telling students they may not eat their french fries near the rare book room.

I'm thinking the BayAreaistas can take her out to lunch one day and then Target or Bed Bath & Beyond, arm her with the little guns you use to register and make her pick out new stuff.

This sounds like an excellent idea. Any idea how long she's going to be staying in California? Since I'm coming out to visit, I may just bring her tiara along instead of mailing it. Otherwise, I'll just send it out as one more item for the care package.

We can include a card in the care package

Card is good. Who would we send the money to in order to contribute to it? Perkins, as point, would you be willing to collect the dough?

Would I be a horrible person if I suggested stashing the (Jessica's) baby's bed in the unused fireplace?

Would I be a horrible person if I suggested stashing the (Jessica's) baby's bed in the unused fireplace?

I think it sounds like a perfect guarantee of a baby right out of one of the better Tim Burton movies!

Don't forget -- Natterers may want to help out -t too...

Bwah! Toddson, the only problem there is that it's not an unused fireplace, it's a fake fireplace. As in, a big honking piece of plaster shaped kind of like a fireplace, but completely filled in. It's a nice mantle, but other than that, a pure waste of space. (I have no idea why anyone would build such a thing, and I've never seen them anywhere but NYC. The architectural detail is nice, but...why not just put a shelf there, without making the space underneath it completely unusable? Why?)

Man, I wish I'd known about the Amby! That looks great. I also wish I'd known that a lot of babies won't sleep in cribs at first, as it would've saved a lot of wear and tear on us and on Mal. I'm glad we had the baby papasan at least.

The bedrooms in this place are too small for even the baby hammock - they are too small for nightstands once the bed is in the room - but at least we have multiple bedrooms. Dunno what we'll do when we go back to the States.

So, today during a break, a classmate approached me and asked me out. He said I seemed cool and was cute and he was adorably nervous. We got lunch after class. I think I'm in some sort of bizarro world. I was asked out once in middle school, never in high school, and never in 2 years of college. Last month a different guy asked me out. (Didn't work out). I could get used to this bizarro world.

Card is good. Who would we send the money to in order to contribute to it? Perkins, as point, would you be willing to collect the dough?

We wouldn't put up the money now. She and H could register for the things they want and then we'd buy them and send them to the new place.

And, as much as a big outing sounds great it could really be too much. It could be awesome to plan and everything, but the day of might be one where she just needs to lie around and cry. It's real easy to get overwhelmed, even by happy things.

I'm going to strongly suggest little, easily cancelled, lunches and visits for now for that reason. I don't want to claim 'complete expert,' and of course everyone has their own psyche... but odds are solid that I'm right.