I got accepted to my Wales program! Which I'm going to in the fall now for certain. Thank god.

Also not sure if this passes the current Beep Me threshold, but....

Milk-ma requested.

Annabel had her routine pediatric visit today, and though she is in most ways a very healthy baby, she's yet to regain any of the 7-8 oz. or so she lost in the first few days after birth. (The losing the weight is normal, and many babies lose more. What's not normal is that she didn't start regaining once my milk came in.) So there's concern about my milk supply, and I'm now supposed to feed her every two hours during the day and every three at night even if I have to wake her up, supplement each feeding with formula, and take various steps to improve my supply. Hopefully after a week or so of this regimen, she'll be gaining well and we'll be able to resume demand feeding, with longer gaps between night feedings.

I feel terrible. Here I thought Annabel was fussy and insistent upon constant feeding the past two days because she was about to enter a growth spurt, and it turns out the poor thing was hungry. And while the pediatrician reassured me that we caught this well before it could harm her developmentally, I'm having a hard time not thinking things like, "What if she could've gone to Harvard t or insert other marker of extreme intelligence here , but now I've screwed up her brain?"

I am going dark-ish with a range of houseguests and baby showers. I'll be checking e-mail if anyone needs anything F2F-ish.

(tosses glitter behind her as she exits)

Not the apocalypse. Not even an apocalypse. But, if anyone's got spare test-ma tomorrow (Really, anytime after 10 est as long as there's daylight, it's probably fair game. Either that or the Level 2 people are screwing with us.), I'm taking my first krav test, and would appreciate it.

Hi All - I don't wanna wear out my welcome, but I need to ask for some more ~ma for my family.

My mom was supposed to be discharged today, so I took the kids to go pick her up. She was just returning from dialysis and had expected to get dressed and go home. As she was sitting on the edge of the bed, sorting out her street clothes, she went all shaky and then lost consciousness. It was scary as heck as we called for help. Anyway, long story short, her blood pressure dropped too low due to the dialysis and they kept her another night. We try again in the morning.

I called my father since I have not talked to him in over a week and found out that my uncle (his brother) passed away yesterday. It was the first time I have ever heard my father cry. My uncle had brain cancer and has had 4 rough years, so this was a definite case of it being both expected and sudden.

Both the kids and I are shaken, mom is doing better, and I hope my dad is coping.

I'll need some unexplained-ma for the next week or so. Call it week and a half. Just cause, and maybe one day I'll actually tell y'all why.

I have unlimited comps for todays 3pm and 7pm shows of My Old Lady at Apple Tree Theatre. If any Chicago area people would like to go, just call the box office and ask for comps courtesy of Gina Patterson.

One of my sister's best friendsneeds some ma. T has been one of the people that has always been there for my sister. T is not quite 40. She has breast cancer , stage 4. I like some right decsion makeing to go towards T. and some hair pats for my sister.

I'm in Kansas City from Wednesday Evening through Sunday (I think Sunday, not totally sure yet as UMKC still hasn't sent me my itinerary, go figure). It looks like I'll be busy each day from 8 AM to around 6 PM, but so far my evenings will be free. Last time I was out there the grad students made sure I was in a bar every night, but I'm sure that efforts can be combined and I can add any Buffistas that might be interested into one of those bar journeys. So, if anyone would like to hook up later this week email me at my profile address.

Shameless self-pimpage moment coming up.

The second book in my series, Famous Flower of Serving Men, is now available for very early pre-order at Amazon.