Announcing . . .

Theodore James
Born 3/25/11
Weight: 7 pounds, 13 ounces
Length: 22 inches

Mom and baby are doing great.

Ready To Go

The house is relatively tidy.
The bathrooms are clean.
The nursery is ready (and stocked with clothing).
The place the baby will sleep at first is also ready.
Oh, and I'm ready, too.
Except for . . . (is one ever fully ready for anything?)

What's not to love about book club?

Where I Work

I have a corner office, but this isn't as glamorous as it sounds. For one thing, it's in a corner of my living room. For another, it's a bit drafty there near all the windows. And, possibly related to the draftiness, when it pours rain occasionally my to-be-filed pile gets completely soaked.

But the view and the light are lovely. Plus, I get to work in my pajamas and the commute can't be beat.

Freelancing

Chime!

An email arrives and in it is a lovely little present: a simple-yet-interesting project. It looks very straightforward. We'll send you electronic files for a textbook along with a text file of the glossary. You find the words in the text and copy the definitions over into the glossary.

No problem! Estimate: 2 weeks.

The chapter files arrive and I collect them into a Master Document. I open the glossary file and begin to work. Hmm, that's odd. The second and third terms aren't defined in the text. (They're used in the text, just not succinctly defined in one place.) Let's go about this a different way, chapter by chapter. No, that's no better. Chapter 1 list of key terms: the first three are not included in the glossary. Should they be?

So what looked simple is not.

Question 1: How should the glossary be formatted? (Colons? Complete sentences?)
Question 2: Should all the key terms be included in the glossary?
Question 3: if I write my own definitions, is someone checking my work? I admit that this is the fun part: I'm writing, I'm using my college biology and chemistry education, I'm exercising my brain. But I never did take that advanced biochem class and college was a little while ago. What if I'm wrong?

Thinking I might need to revise that project estimate. As long as I can still turn this one around before the baby comes . . .

You know you're in your ninth month of pregnancy when . . .

1. It's easier to get out of bed and lie down again than to "simply" roll over.
   
2. People point and laugh at your belly.
   
3. Other people express disbelief that you're not either overdue or carrying sextuplets.
   
4. Even your closest loved one deems your swollen extremities "unattractive." (Redemption comes in the form of foot rubs!)
   
5. Someone else's child tells you that you look "sorta fat."
   
6. Sleep with a newborn in the house seems more likely than sleeping through the night right now.

But I know that soon enough I'll be nostalgic for this time. Let this post serve as a lighthearted reminder to me of the good ole' days of pregnancy! And now I'm off to bed - just kidding, a lot of good that would do. I'm off to do a little yoga in hopes of restoring some circulation. Then bed!