Four months after I had Olivia, we were in Puerto Rico at a conference for DH's work. One of his co-workers mistakenly thought I hadn't had the baby yet. Maybe he thought I said, "Four months along" instead of "Four months old." But it was ignored as an easy mistake considering this guy never saw me and I was wearing a loose dress.

My mother was with me in the hospital when a friend came to visit after Liv was born. My mother asked her when her baby was due. She laughed it off and said, "I'm just fat." I nearly died and my mother turned four shades of red with embarrassment.

yes, the prenatal care of a beer baby definitely involves more drinking than that of a regular (human) baby.

Both Saudi Arabia and Iran have the death Penalty for homosexual acts, so it's likely not something people shout from the rooftops about there.

Why don't we consider Saudi Arabia evil if Iran is?

Saudia Arabia is nicer about sharing the oil.

Why don't we consider Saudi Arabia evil if Iran is?

Because they've given the Bush family and their friends so much nice oil?

Saudia Arabia is nicer about sharing the oil.

Heh. We were playing Taboo last night, and one of the words we were trying to guess...well, the person talking said "What the war is about!" and we all shouted "OIL!"

Welcome Colin! Are you new, or am I skimming too much?

I hate empire waists, because I always fear I look pregnant. However, were I actually pregnant, this would've been an awesome time, save a lot of money on maternity wear!

My friend loved the empire thing when she was pregnant. She said "I actually look fashionable, and I don't have to worry about looking pregnant, because I AM!"

We're getting a new director next week. The hospital is not allocating an extra office for her, however, so we're going to have to do some shifting to give her the private office someone in her position requires.

This means I just spent 45 minutes with the other senior staff kerfuffling over who was going to share, who was going to move, etc. As I'm the only one who's primarily administrative rather than educational/clinical in function, I knew I'd need to move and/or share, and only wanted to make sure I didn't get stuck with the least acceptable of the three options on offer.

I had the hardest time not laughing during the most heated argument between two of my colleagues, because I happen to be reading a book on the Congress of Vienna, wherein the great powers of Europe kerfuffled over what to do with the continent post-Napoleon. I just couldn't make up my mind who was Tsar Alexander and who was Metternich.

At the end I explained what I'd been thinking and said that we could solve all our problems if we just partitioned Poland and invaded Saxony (indicating the two nearest offices belonging to other departments.) It defused the tension.

The mystery of the Mysterious Disease-causing Mystery Meteorite of Doom has been solved.

Nearby residents who visited the impact crater complained of headaches and nausea, spurring speculation that the explosion was a subterranean geyser eruption or a release of noxious gas from decayed matter underground.

But the illness was the result of inhaling arsenic fumes, according to Luisa Macedo, a researcher for Peru's Mining, Metallurgy, and Geology Institute (INGEMMET), who visited the crash site.

The meteorite created the gases when the object's hot surface met an underground water supply tainted with arsenic, the scientists said.

Numerous arsenic deposits have been found in the subsoils of southern Peru, explained Modesto Montoya, a nuclear physicist who collaborated with the team. The naturally formed deposits contaminate local drinking water.

[link]

I have no strong feelings about the term "tramp stamp" other than finding it a bit demeaning and vulgar (the term, not the tat). But I couldn't really read that article because this line had me fuming:

Men, you can relax. You are no longer the enemy. Instead, judging by recent events in America, modern feminists have a much shapelier target in their sights - other women.

I always want to bitch slap young women who reduce feminism to "man hating" and then reject it as having nothing to do with them. I'm assuming the author is English, not American, and therefore less likely to be in danger of losing some of her reproductive rights, but still....