So much happiness and love to you on your birthday, Beverly!

Oh, Sparky, that sucks. I had forgotten about the pregnancy rhinitis (obviously blocked it right out because it was such a misery).

We no longer speak of a good night's sleep in our house. The very phrase fills us all with shaky rage (except Matilda, who has not only permanently invaded our bed but has just developed an unbelievably loud snore). Lots and lots of groggy sympathy to the insomnistas.

So I just switched to Geico. State Farm's actual quote for me was $200 lower than the one for the generic customer on the website, and they tried to get me to stay for the loyalty discount and whatnot, but I didn't want more conflict in my life.

I got a quote for renters insurance. The woman said the average amount was for $30,000, which seemed like waaaay too much. Even $20,000 seemed like a lot, so she gave me a quote for $25,000. I have no idea how many dollars' worth of stuff I have. The quote she gave me was something like $279 a year ($23 a month), which seemed way higher than I thought it would be. I thought it was supposed to be cheap. I guess most of you insured for much lower than $25,000? I can't imagine I have that much stuff. Even with all my books and DVDs and comics, it's probably only in the four-digit range.

Poor JZ. I totally feel for you there. I can promise you that eventually they come back, the good night's sleep, however I have yet to see them appear two nights in a row.

Yeah, but think how much it would cost to replace all of it if you had to start from scratch. New computer, printer, DVD collection, TV, DVD player, music system, music library, book and comic book library, clothing, shoes, kitchen stuff--I'd be shocked if you could replicate everything you've accumulated for only 4 figures.

I had forgotten about the pregnancy rhinitis (obviously blocked it right out because it was such a misery).

I'd just like to take this time to observe that you were HAWT pregnant. Also, you had the kickingest maternity wear ever.

I shudder to think what it would cost to replace my genealogy stuff. Granted, there's no way to replace the documents, photos, 20+ years of research time, but I'll take a coupld of K to soothe the anguish.

I think I insured $20K last time, P-C...and it was about $100/yr. Maybe it's more expensive in Cali because of earthquakes? Does it cover earthquakes? Or does that have a really low deductible?

Aw, thanks, Emily! It was ridiculously hard putting that wardrobe together; there's tons of extremely expensive stylish maternity wear out there, and tons of cheap generic/ugly stuff, and it took some effort to hunt down things I could afford that actually felt like me.

The real hell is dressing the post-pregnancy in-between body. That's a big ball of no fun at all.

Teppy, insent.

tons of cheap generic/ugly stuff

This is me, because "cheap" is something I like, and "generic" is something that makes it easy to get away with at work and apply to the fact that I'll have to wear it in 12 degree weather and 80 degree weather. And I have to cut everything down, so cheap and generic usually means this is easy to do because there's nothing but straight lines.

The real hell is dressing the post-pregnancy in-between body.

Oh, crap.

In better news, I just got to give the Dean news that won't make her day. I'm mad at her for how she handled a staffing issue and then pretended she couldn't do anything about it, when, being Dean, she damn well could have. So, I enjoyed being the bearer of bad news.