So we’re in the playroom today which also happens to house my Gazelle.  LB makes the announcement that she’s going to go do some exercise and starts walking toward the machine, which she knows she’s not allowed to touch.

Before she reached it, I used my warning voice: “Button, do you remember what Mama said about touching the exercise machine?”

She stops, as if considering the consequences.  Then she turns to me, and with a most sober look on her face says, “More or less.”

I couldn’t help but laugh.  So she started to laugh.  Between giggles, she says, “Mama, you say that all the time!”

I had no idea that “more or less” is one of my pet phrases… but J agrees, so apparently it’s true.

Who’d have thought?  My kid actually listens to what I say.

I’ve been busy recently, which has been nice.  For several months I only had a job in the loosest sense, as there was no work for me to do because my project was being held up by technical and personnel difficulties that were quite beyond my control.  Not a good thing when you get paid hourly.

Now things are running on several fronts, which is keeping me busy and even allowing me some creativity in my work - which is essential to my job satisfaction.  And the fact that I’m getting paid again is making life a little easier.

However, sometimes being a contract worker is difficult.  I try to do things to the best of my ability, and I want to deliver a good product.  But ultimately, I have to give the client what they want.  At times, those two goals can be in total conflict.

Things my current client has said to me thus far:

• We have a logo?
• The logo on the current website isn’t our actual logo.
• We don’t have a digital file of our logo.  Just recreate it in Photoshop.
• We may want to redesign our logo.
• We don’t want to redesign our logo.
• We want you to redesign our logo.
• Ok, we understand your point that we should use a unique font instead of Times New Roman for our logo.  Perhaps we can try the standard default font in Microsoft Word 2007 instead.
• Don’t optimize our website for search engines.
• Here are some example websites for what we’re looking for: (followed by a list of websites that have absolutely nothing in common, and in the end, none of them were really what they were looking for).
• We don’t want the website to make a bad impression, but we’re not really concerned about making a great impression.
• We don’t want to put a lot of information on the website, just a general idea of what we do.
• The main purpose of our website is to show our portfolio and make it look good, even though all the pictures we’ve given you to use are bad.

Fortunately, I think I HAVE persuaded them to hire a professional photographer and retake the pictures.  At least that’s one step in the right direction.  I’m kind of looking forward to when this project is over.

Yesterday J walked into the kitchen while LB and I were enjoying our respective bowls of Cheerios.

J: “Are you guys eating some O’s?”

Button: “Actually, we’re eating cereal.”

* * *

You know how sometimes when you’re on the phone and it will start echoing - and all of a sudden you can hardly talk to the other person because you’re so distracted by listening to everything you say repeated back to you with a 2-second delay?

That’s totally what it’s like to take Button to Subway and try to order a sandwich.

* * *

Hey, thanks for all the name suggestions you guys!  I’ve tagged a couple that I like and have added them to my “list.”  Perhaps this kid will get a name before he’s born after all

I haven’t talked a whole lot about this pregnancy.  Somewhat because it’s been relatively uneventful (a good thing) and somewhat because it’s hard for me to really wrap my mind around a child entering this house until I know its gender.  Which I know would have made pregnancy very difficult for me 20 years ago.  But I can’t envision a genderless baby, so I usually don’t try.

Anyway, we found out yesterday.  Looks like we’re having a BOY.  I can finally start planning the nursery.

Let the Great Name Debate of 2008 commence.

And now I’m totally wishing that I had one of those blogs that 500 people read and comment on so I could start asking for name suggestions.  See, J and I struggle with names, especially boy names.  Until yesterday, I didn’t have a single one that I even liked.  And when I do come up with some that I like, J is sure to hate them.  So I need plenty of backups.

We both agree that we don’t like common names.  I grew up as an Amy, which meant being one of six in every class.  I will not do that to my child.  We both have a fondness for Gaelic names, and (it seems) names that end in “N.”  Due to our last name, we really shouldn’t pick a first name that ends in “L.”

Anybody wanna play?

“Failure is not an option. It comes bundled with your Microsoft products.”

Well, the new computer is a beauty. It’s fast, sleek and has plenty of room and strength to handle my 5 quadzillion photos and big (expensive) software programs. I spent most of the afternoon setting it up.

And then I spent most of the evening troubleshooting. My screensaver stopped working. I had this happen on my old laptop but figured it had to do with the fact that several of the programs had quit working. I never solved it on the old computer, but was not about to let it go with my brand new one.

I found plenty of forums with people having the same issue. Apparently there is a common conflict with the startup programs running in the background and the Microsoft Wireless mouse. Most of the people reporting the problem were using a Dell computer with a Microsoft wireless keyboard/mouse.

I followed all the suggestions, disabling most everything from my startup. Most of the programs they said to disable aren’t even on my machine. I sought help in the Microsoft Knowledge Base and got the same answers. Everybody said “disable this program” or “remove that program.”

To no avail.

Finally, I came across a solution that I was shocked did not appear in any of the forums or websites.

I SWITCHED MY MOUSE.

Problem solved. Except, now I have to buy J a new Logitech wireless mouse because I stole his and he’s grumpy about it.