Labor Negotiations

Honey, 2007 has definitely been your year!(in case you're reading)

D has had the perfect cap to an already great year. Congratulations, dear. I hope the twins were the better gift, though?

Friggin' power lines!

Battery on laptop almost dead.

On dial-up from D's work at 3 cents a minute.

Ice storm in midwest.

Power out since Thursday night.

20 ish degrees out (Fahrenheit)

Gas heat + Electric blower = no heat.

Toughing it out in 50 ish degree (Fahrenheit) house.

Have hot water.

Stove works.

Food is in garage.

Babies like hot chocolate.

Will try to update soon.

Everybody Hates Patricia

I did my civic duty and it was my privilege, to vote in the hotly contested Missouri election. I also got two of my friends to vote today, too, when they thought they weren't registered. D and I dragged ourselves down to our polling place at 7:00 a.m., only waited 30 - 45 minutes and cast our ballots. Of course, we were accosted by "pollsters," on the way in, asking us to vote against stem cell research (maybe you've heard of the Patricia Heat0n/MichaeI J. F0x ads? Yep. That's Missouri. Here. Millie already has links, and I'm feeling lazy today.) It was all I could do, to not go hormonal on their asses and say "I'm pregnant with donor egg twins, how do you think your ads made me want to vote on this issue?" But I got my point across in a more civil tone and simply said, "No, thanks," to their pamphlets. Whatever your political affiliation, get out there and vote.

25 weeks tomorrow. I promise I'll update...

The Birdhouse

When we closed on this house two months ago, I wasn't too thrilled. After all, I was moving from a great 4 bedroom, 2 1/2 bath, new house, done to my specifications, in a lovely natural setting with much wildlife, to a teensy, plain, mid-suburban 2 bedroom, 1 bath, post-war hovel, with old house problems. (like $10,500 worth of foundation and waterproofing repair...) Sure, it had some nice features, but hell, we're only three blocks away from my inlaws, how comfortable could I feel?

The one thing that kept me going, was the little birdhouse in the front yard, that some previous owner had left behind. I imagined a little kid had made it at scout camp or something. A few days after closing, I noticed two little brown sparrows making a nest in it. They were so funny. The male would bring some nesting material to the opening, stick it in, and fly off. Then the female would fly over and pluck it out. The male would find on the ground, the same piece of fluff and put it back in, as if to say, "you women don't know anything about construction!" (a recurring theme around here...but not because of D, I should add) On it went. I had to assume they managed to get over their bickering, because I was traveling back and forth from the old house for the next month and a half, packing, etc. About a month ago, I noticed that they were really going at it, in the biblical sense. "Awww," I thought, "someone out there is fertile, and can reproduce the old fashioned way." It gave me a sense of belonging, to be in on their "action." A little over a week ago, I noticed the male was flying down to my birdfeeder, and bringing it up to the nest.  He would hit my feeder a few times and then fly off to another feeder somewhere else and bring that nugget to the nest. I wasn't sure of the gestation period for sparrows, so I imagined it was the female sending him out for "pickles and ice cream," down the street. Even my dad laughed about it.

This past weekend, we had high winds and terrible thunderstorms. When I got back from spending the weekend in Austin at a family wedding, I notice the birdhouse was a little crooked. There weren't any birds around, so I went over and straightened it, lightly, barely touching it, so they wouldn't catch my "predator scent." We walked under it all the time, anyway. Monday morning, I noticed a bit of nest sticking out, sort of blocking the hole. I debated what to do, and decided to pull it off, gently. Later that morning, I saw the male again. He was frantically pecking at, who I thought, was the female in the nest. There was a beak poking out of the hole. Something didn't look right. I watched for a few minutes from my window, and decided to investigate again. It wasn't the female, it was a baby. Dead. Apparently, the male wanted to get the dead baby out of the nest, but wasn't succeeding. I wanted to help, so I performed a "forceps delivery" on the birdhouse, with a pair of kitchen tongs.

The baby was almost full grown, but almost featherless. I'm not sure how it died. I imagine the storms played a part. Or maybe it had a birth defect. It was pretty bald after all. However it died, it has been really hard to not see it as a metaphor. Alex thinks it is a sign that my new house has bad vibes and needs a spiritual cleansing. I'm sure you can guess what metaphor I'm thinking about. For the last few days, another bird has been "hawking" the birdhouse, and, although the male has valiantly been defending it, I think he has finally lost. I saw the other bird putting some material in it yesterday. I haven't seen the female since last week. Maybe she abandoned her nest, then.

That pretty much sums up how I've been feeling. I called my US clinic yesterday, to update my contact info, and inquire about my donor matching (just in case). It's been almost nine months since I signed up with their donor program. They told me I was on their "high priority list." Whatever. I start estrogen tablets and Lovenox on Wednesday, and fly to Cape Town two weeks from tomorrow. It will be a lovely vacation. We did see a beautiful rainbow while driving back from Texas, with my grandfather, Sunday. The wedding was great, the drive was nice, except for the weather. Talk about biblical! And I got to listen to some great stories. Didn't have the radio on, much at all, I was so entertained. My grandfather got to see his other grandaughter wear my grandmother's wedding dress. Very bittersweet for him, since my grandmother is wasting away, with Alzheimer's, in a nursing home. I see a pattern developing here. If I'm going to persist in seeing signs everywhere, maybe I should focus on the good ones?