(no subject)

New Thing(s) I Learned:

Sowbugs and pillbugs are actually crustaceans, their nearest relatives are marine.

On Halloween night I was... buying potatoes and I noticed that they came from a farm in the Arcata bottoms, and I just thought that was really cool for some reason. It occurs to me belatedly that going door-to-door with a trick-or-treater can't be an exciting thing to do on a chilly October evening. Thanks Mom. We ran errands all day and then had dinner at Alan's grandmother's. Ginger and her on-again husband were there with their kids which tends to be depressing. It's kind of interesting to watch 'natural' parents in action. I get to see interesting behaviors like corporal punishment, and using the kids as a go-betweens in a argument, etc. As far as I can tell, parenting skills are pretty much like relationship skills in general. You treat your partner with respect, you don't let 'em walk all over you, you do your best to put yourself in their shoes and keep your cool even under provocation so you don't say or do things you'll regret, and you don't hit 'em. How spanking parents expect to teach their kids that a) they should never hit something smaller and weaker than they are, and that b) there's something really wrong when someone who's supposed to love you hits you, I do not know. But her kids, who were both sick, have given Connor a delightful cold. Please, please, don't let Alan come down with it. Driving test and client on Tuesday. I really want for him to pass that test.

Midwife appt. tomorrow. :P Alan's HIV results were negative. Big surprise there. I asked him to arrange for the results to be mailed, but they wouldn't. This made sense on further reflection, it is a deadly disease after all. It would be a bit like mailing the results of a biopsy. It seems like I got big overnight. It seems few weeks ago I was just showing, but now all the sudden I've got a belly and I there's not so much room in my stomach as there was. I feel like I'm doing maternity aerobics all the sudden now too. I really should walk or do machines instead, too bad they're so boring. For a few days after a workout I get pretty stiff in the hips if I sit for awhile, and I'm pretty sure that the style of exercise is a big part of the cause. I'll probably feel like that every day in 30 years or so.

Whenever I write in my journal these days I experience feelings of deja vu. Have I said all I that have to say? Am I one of those people that tells the same stories over and over? Wouldn't surprise me in the least. *sigh*

The gardening is going pretty well. The deer or deer that keep mowing my anise hyssop that I grew from seed all by myself (for some reason growing a perennial from seed makes me feel like a gardening stud), and my columbine are really making me mad. I dream of a future garden with raised beds and a fence. I've learned that basil and tomatoes may never grow all that well for me, but it's a welcome trade for the more mild climate. Alan has grown used to me muttering dorky things like: "Yesssss, I'm in the zooone!" while perusing seed catalogs. Climate Zone 9. Hee! [Frost] can't touch this!