I don't blog on Blogger anymore but the majority of my friends do, so I find myself on blogspot.com rather freqently. One of the best features of Blogger is the “Next Blog” button. Nobody you know posted anything recently? Hit “Next Blog” and let the wonder begin! I've found some great blogs via this method — my favorite is Kika Sailing, wherein a couple is documenting their efforts in sailing the intrepid Kika around the world — and even if the Next Blog is boring, you can push “Next Blog” again and end up somewhere entirely different.

Unfortunately, this “entirely different” strategy can massively backfire. I ended up on sptrans(dot)blogspot(dot)com and not only was I treated to a foreign blog with pictures of people who had real fake breasts and real real penises, but the designer of said site had figured out how to eradicate the “Next Blog” button, so there was nowhere to go but Back. And now I want to wash out my eyes with soap!!!

Our house is our own again… and after 14 days of houseguests, and 10 days of being houseguests/on vacation prior to that, the stillness is hypnotic and sensuous. I wrapped myself in it last night at 9:30 and slept through until 8:30 this morning (with a quick 5:30 ayem hiatus to change the young prince).

I hadn't foreseen how challenging it would be to play hostess now that Alexander is in the fray. Even though Monstro is the best father ever and inspiringly “hands-on”, I simply cannot leave baby with him as I go off all day to cavort. I get homesick.

So now it's time to get back to work. I finished one Web site shortly before leaving on vacation — please check it out at Coaching Caregivers, LLC. This was a wonderful project with a good-hearted, fun, intelligent client who is doing his part to improve the world.

And, I'm happy to announce the debut of Rhythmball, which is a new exercise being introduced to North America. They've been doing it in China for years and it is shortlisted to be a demonstration sport at the 2008 Olympics. Exercise like Olympians! Order your set today and avoid the rush!

And, speaking of exercising like Olympians, Becky of Beck's Blog is running a one-hundred-mile race this weekend. Prayers for her and everyone involved in the Western States 100 would be greatly appreciated — especially because the temperatures are forecasted to be beastly, beastly hot. Go, Becky!!!

Ha ha. Been quite a month of vacation and houseguests and visitors. Still in the thick of it, hence my radio silence. We had a lovely family vacation in Maui and I'll tell you, the most stressful day in Maui, still pretty much beats the pants off any other day in non-Maui. That's all for now.

To Anne, Comtesse, Drivler's wife, et al… Happy Mother's Day!

I find it ironic that today falls after two days of doing the least amount of baby care I've done since actually getting pregnant. But I got a gift certificate to a day spa, anyway. Thanks, fellas. You're my guys.

Most of this week was spent being apprehensive about the oral surgery I endured this morning. The gum around one of my teeth is the consistency of one of those Listerine PocketPal sheets so the periodontist informed me that he'd need to remove skin from my soft palate and graft it around my tooth, with the help of two assistants and a bazillion stitches, some of which will self-dissolve but the rest will need to be manually removed in another office visit a week from now.

Yes indeed, the procedure sucked every bit as much as anticipated. The only thing that got me through it was the mp3 player I gave Monstro for Christmas. Oh, and about fourteen quarts of injectible Novacaine.

So I got home, iced the area, popped a Vicodin and a fistful of Advil (a Clint Eastwood sequel coming soon!), rested for four hours, bled out the roof of my mouth, and finally felt well enough to crawl over to the computer, where I learned that 1) the woman from my Chico church who died this week was actually the parter of that church's previous pastor, a lady who retired before Monstro and I joined the congregation and 2) Scoble's mom suffered a massive stroke and is not expected to live. And suddenly, hours of gum surgery might as well have been April in Paris.

The funeral for Joan will be in Chico at our former church, and will involve the very conservative Calvary congregation where Joan's son is in the ministry, as well as our own recently reconciled congregation (reconciled to be welcoming to gays by, like, nine votes — it was a bloody battle and I refused to transfer my membership to our new church until I was able to send in a “yes, please” ballot to Chico), plus the gay community. I pray that all hearts are touched by the proceedings.

I've known Robert Scoble since Macintosh System Seven and shall pray fo them that family is able to provide the loving fellowship for one another that I'm afraid Chico might not be able to do.

And they didn't invite me???

At least, that's what the Dems should be calling him. The Republicans might prefer “Donald Rumsfeld is a fan of revisionist history.” You make the call.

So I've been thinking of selling this watch I have, because, even though it's pretty, I don't retain very good memories of the person who gave it to me, and hey, I could use the bucks. So I've been online looking for it, so I can get an idea of what it's worth. And I can't find the freakin' thing ANYWHERE. It's seriously Twilight Zone. Like it never existed, except in the alternate dimension in which I live.

In this day and age, is it unreasonable for me to expect that EVERYTHING is available on the Internet, somewhere?

And, anyone know a good watch appraiser? I might bring him something he's never seen before.

It's official — the baby is now sleeping better than I am. Ugh. He woke up at 2:30 and went right back to sleep. Nearly three hours later, I'm still awake. Even my new book on the history of the NSA didn't put me under. And I'm still nursing, so that means Tylenol PM is out. Grrr. My brain is too full, and my Brian is too wheezy for me to wake him up with a clear conscience, and I can't clean house because that would be too loud (I'm kind of a maniac when I clean the house).

So, here I am. Anyone up for a game of cards?