all things wide and wonderfull...

Things have been going well here. At the moment, I'm beginning to attain the size of a baby whale, but am enjoying the wonders of being pregnant.

Nick laughs becuase he has to help me tie my shoes -- I CAN do it, but it becomes a marathon effort to reach my feet with my big old belly in the way. In a recent issue of Parenting that I was reading in the doctor's office, one writer compared being pregnant to having a "small planet attatched to your midsection". Ah... how aptly put. Perhaps I should nickname the baby Pluto. :P

By the way, we are having a boy. :) Nick is pretty excited -- he's already dreaming of the bonding that will occur while he teaches him soccer and football and baseball and...

I hope the child doesn't take after me, as I liked to read and daydream. I wasn't much for sports, although I was a bit of a daredevil and liked to explore. The exploring bit was a thorn in my mother's side, as I would disappear and run off down a strange trail and she would have no idea where I was. Eventually I would come back, dirty, hot and tired, but exhilarated from my findings; however, she never shared my enthusiasm for exploring nature. Perhaps it had something to do with the fact that we were always visiting somewhere when I did it, and it was usually always a park that was surrounded by a remote wooded area. Hence the wonderful exploring opportunity.

Of course, I didn't fully appreciate that there could be any DANGER from doing this...

It's a wonder my mother's hair didn't turn pure white before my 18th birthday.

Speaking of nature, I got a little too close to it the other day. However, I did accidentally discover that apparently, baby skunks can't spray very well.

There's a baby skunk that's been hanging around where I work; his mother was hit by a car a few weeks ago. He seems to be fending for himself alright; which is a relief, since skunks aren't exactly the type of animal you rescue and take home...

Well, anyway, I was getting out of the truck at work, and heard some rustling in the yard. It was too dark to see what it was, but I could tell it was very close. Before I had a chance to react or get back in the truck, something burst through the shadows, and I did what any professional security officer would do -- I screamed, and then jumped back in horror when I realized that it was a skunk. Of course, the skunk was alarmed, and his tail shot straight up. Meanwhile, I hurled myself back into the truck, banging my hip in the process. I slammed the door, waiting for the awful smell to permeate the air.

The skunk was by now long gone. Hip throbbing, I cautiously opened the door, and limped to the building I was supposed to go into. When I later left the building, I'm sure I looked like a nut case, opening the door slowly and peering out before walking cautiously back to the truck.

So I encountered a skunk and escaped unscathed -- or should I say, unsprayed? Anyway, don't take my word for it that baby skunks can't spray, or I'll get an angry letter from you telling me that they can TOO spray, and that you were the unhappy person to discover this fact.

Maybe I'm just lucky. :P