Went to bed at 11:30 after reading 10 pages of _Gravity's Rainbow_. Did I tell you that Monstro and I are reading Pynchon's epic this summer? Third time for him, first time for me. So far, it's funny, though the alliteration is a bit strong for my taste. But I like the songs, and want to set them all to 'ukulele. We'll see. Anyway, asleep at 11:30, awake at 2:00 when Monstro got home, sans keys, from Warhammer, awake again at 3:40, with baby screaming bloody murder, and awake again at 6:20, when baby was awake for good. This is some tough stuff, especially considering baby's been sleeping through the night for months now. Ugh. Is it naptime yet???

It was announced today that Syd Barrett, founder of Pink Floyd, died in his hometown of Cambridge, where he'd lived reclusively since leaving the band. This news has profoundly saddened me. I first heard Pink Floyd on a buddy's Walkman, while riding a bus to Denver with my high-school youth group. My friend Julie, amazed I'd never heard them, commandeered Steve's cassette player and plugged two headsets into it. We lied down in the aisle and closed our eyes. By the end of the song — something from Dark Side — I was a convert. Julie later became fanatical about Zep but I was always a Floyd girl. It was something I shared in common with my best friend, who is half a world away in New Zealand now, and all I want is for it to finally be 5:00 in the afternoon so I can call him and not wake him up tomorrow morning.

I didn't hear the group until loooooong after he'd already left it, but Syd was the progenitor of my high-school awakening, and for that I will always be grateful.

Rest in Peace, Syd. Have a cigar.

Yeah, you probably think I'm going to announce that I'm pregnant again. You could not be more high, uh, I mean wrong. In fact, it's almost the opposite: I'm on a quest to LOSE THIS FREAKIN' BABY WEIGHT. Seven months is long enough, and though I think I'm down around 30 pounds, I've got many, many more to go.

So I'm introducing (drum roll, please) my new blog: Exercise like Olympians, where I shall chronicle my new fitness plan of eating right and Rhythmballing. I'm off to a good start and would really appreciate your support!

Love and plankton,
Shamu

“Born today, you derive a great deal of strength and motivation from those things that do not seem to be going well in your life. While others may find themselves succumbing to frustration and depression when the going gets tough, you prefer to strengthen your resolve and face difficulties with renewed vigor and determination. This is a skill that will serve you well throughout your life — and enable you, upon occasion, to do great things for others as well as yourself, for you're not the only one to benefit from the strength you display under fire.

“You have a great deal of staying power, which will serve you well in both your personal life and your professional endeavors. Once you taste success, you're sure to make a steady diet of it — and all your rivals should beware your ability to turn one success into another, and another…”

Born today: President George W. Bush. Surprised? Yeah, me neither.

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???