My mouth is numb. I can’t feel the left side of my tongue and the girls at work are laughing at the way I talk.

Just got back from the dentist, where I had to have two cavities filled. Actually, the cavities weren’t nearly as bad as the cleaning, and I swear if my mouth wasn’t already half-numb from the cavities, I would have cried during the cleaning. I think she removed several pieces of my gum with that little pick. I could taste the blood and she kept having to rinse it off. You would think that would be a sign that hey, this doesn’t feel too good…but no, I had to ask her to quit making me bleed because it HURTS.

They also took a chunk out of my pocketbook because, as we recently found out, there is a 12-month waiting period on my new dental insurance.

Anyway, on to other news.

J is out of a job. Can’t spill too many details because of the whole “blogging isn’t as anonymous as you think it is” thing…although, what would they do - fire him???

But basically, ThirdParty found out from J that CEO was doing something behind his back…J wasn’t gossiping, he had just ASSUMED that ThirdParty was already involved, since it was ThirdParty’s project. So ThirdParty got mad at CEO for going around him without telling him and basically CEO took it out on J for “sharing proprietary information.”

J should have known better than to assume his company was acting in a completely ethical manner. But I’m not bitter.

Anyway, tomorrow is his last day.

Funny, the other day I was saying that I kind of preferred life to move at a faster pace than it seemed to be going for us at the time.

Um…this isn’t exactly what I had in mind. J was on vacation on Monday, out of a job by Wednesday, and Friday will be his last day. Yeah, that’s fast paced.

On the bright side, I won the Whine of Substance Award over at Phantom Scribbler’s Place.

Poo. Double Poo.

Little Button may be at work with me again tomorrow. She spent yesterday accompanying the nanny to doctor after specialist after hospital because the Nanny’s son had inhaled a cracker and gotten it lodged in his lung. He spent the night in the hospital and today they’re doing a procedure to remove it, which hopefully will be somewhat minor but there’s always a worst-case scenario. Regardless, I’m kind of doubtful that the nanny will be up for a day of work tomorrow.

I just hope they have health insurance.

I had a dream last night that J and I were hearing music from outside the front window of our house (which, of course wasn’t actually a house we’ve ever lived in).
We opened the front door to see what was going on and found a highschool friend of mine (who now lives in Hollywood and whom I haven’t seen in 7+ years), completely drunk, playing music on his guitar and singing very, very loudly.
J got really mad and yelled at him to go home, which he did…next door to the house he was renting from my boss.

Duh.

Yeah, I know. It’s been a while. I do think about blogging almost every day when things come up and I think “I need to tell the internet about that.” But it’s always when I’m in the car or the shower or someplace where a computer is completely inaccessible.

…Not that there are actually that many things in the shower that I feel the need to tell you about…but you get the idea.

So here’s a really random fast update because when I am near a computer, it’s because I’m at work and completely swamped with things to do.

• Button turns 4 months old this week. She’s going through a growth spurt and eating us out of house and home. Consequently, we’re starting cereal and soon other solids. I guess the days of odor-free diapers are quickly coming to an end.
• After a bout of food poisoning over a week ago, my milk supply is finally starting to show up again. There’s no way I’m going to be able to catch up to her eating habbits now, so we’ve been forced to suppliment with formula.
• She’s babbling now. Blah, Blah, Blah. She wakes up talking to herself and goes to sleep chattering. We know she’s asleep after the noises start sounding like yawns and get quieter and longer until they eventually drift away. But if there’s something to complain about, she’ll give you an earful. Gripe, gripe, gripe, it’s like getting a lecture from a very long-winded teacher.
• J is trying to get her to say “Dada” and each time he says “Can you say Da-Da? Da-Da??” she looks at him and laughs, like “You silly little man.”
• I have a new addiction. The clearance racks of the baby section in Dillards. Yikes.
• Button was dedicated this past sunday at church. She got lots of “oohs” and “awwws” and looked adorable in her flouncey dress. Pictures hopefully coming soon. She slept through the whole thing, which is her way when things get loud. We were right in front of the speakers that broadcast to a 10,000 person auditorium. I don’t know how she does that.
• Congrats to LEIGH who had her baby on Groundhog Day!!! I hope to get to see little Madelyn soon!
• Congrats to TODD & KATHY who are having a baby sometime in the next 8 months or so!
• This Whole Mess absolutely disgusts me. It’s a CARTOON, people. GET OVER IT and have a little self-control. Having someone poke fun at your religion - which, by the way, has been going on for centuries with EVERY RELIGION KNOWN TO MAN - is absolutely in no way a reason to start KILLING, VANDALIZING and/or RETALIATING in the completely inappropriate manner we have seen so far. That is sick and unjustifiable. Muhammad himself would be embarrassed to be associated with this kind of violence.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to return to work. After which, I must go burn down Canada as retribution for South Park.

My suspicions about the bed sheets have been confirmed. J woke up with a sore neck this morning. Aha! And you all thought I was making that up. But it’s true: Satin sheets are bad for the bod. And I think they will be sentenced to the “emergency laundry backup” drawer tonight.

We had some old friends from Seattle visiting last night and enjoyed reminiscing about college days. Somewhere between complaining about my sore neck, rehashing the stupid things we did in college, and a conversation about vacuums, it hit us: we’re getting old.

Seriously, if you had told us four years ago that at this point we would be living in Texas, expecting a baby, and sitting around comparing the suction power of assorted vacuums, we would have imagined a very chilly day in hell.

And yet here we are.

It’s amazing how time flies and what a drastic mental change happens during the early twenties. Fantasies about traveling the world as a vagrant artist and living on Ramen just for the intrinsic value of rebelling against the black hole of Corporate America are replaced with the desire to find a stable job and have the means to support a larger family. Where ‘Planning for the Future’ used to mean bringing an extra pair of underwear on that impromptu out-of-state camping trip, now it’s contemplating a savings plan for our baby’s college expenses.

And forget about those 2AM trips to Denny’s for hot wings. Or spur of the moment treks across the city to hear a live band. I can just feel the grey seeping into my hair. Sigh.

Although, being old and stable does have its advantages. Like cool TVs that were only the stuff dreams were made of at age 20.

PLASMA, baby. Plasma.

Whew! What a weekend! We are mostly moved into our new house now after a weekend of lifting and hauling…well, after a weekend of me watching other people lift and haul (pregnancy does have its advantages).

My best friend came up for the weekend and it was wonderful to have a guest room that any normal guest would actually want to sleep in. It’s also wonderful to, after 2 years, be back in a house that will clean when you clean it, stay light during the day, and has plumbing that actually works!

My parents also gave me a vacuum as a housewarming gift - it’s one of those cool bagless never-lose-suction Dyson vacs. Love it. I’m looking forward to taking it back to the rental house when we clean up there to really put it to work. It’s kind of like that sick obsession that makes you let the glue dry on the outside of the cap, just so you can peel it off in chunks. Or maybe that’s just me.

Speaking of chunks (don’t you just love a transition like that), J received a somewhat (totally) shocking surprise when he closed the glass hatch on our Blazer this weekend and the entire hatch exploded back out at him into a hundred thousand million tiny bitty chunks of glass. He and my dad spent a good hour and a half at the old house cleaning up glass from the blazer and garage (and J). We have no broom and our dust-buster only holds a charge for 10.5 seconds. All they had was an old vacuum cleaner with ONE vacuum bag, which I understand was filled, emptied and recycled multiple times, and currently looks as though it’s been sent through the garbage disposal. I knew I was in for a good story when he walked into the new house with “You know how I always wanted a convertible…?”

Just in case anybody out there was wondering, we now know that it costs approximately $800 to replace a glass hatch on a 10 year old Blazer. Because I know that important question has probably been buring in your mind for the last several days.

Our new house was officially christened this weekend by a can of Diet Coke that slipped out of my hand and proceeded to spray in circles all over the kitchen. It was amazing. Seriously. The ENTIRE CAN of coke emptied itself on the walls, floors, counters, and even managed to make its way into the living room. There are places in that kitchen in which any liquid would have had to DEFY THE LAWS OF NATURE to reach…and yet there we were, mopping it up on the other side of the island, around the corner of the wall, etc. Like wow.

So we’re moved in and making it home. Fun stuff. Oh, and by the way, $1000 at Linens & Things (compliments of our real estate agent) can go REALLY FAST. Sheesh.