Labor Day

24 hours of contractions, another 18.5 hours at the hospital, and look what we got!

Fun with False Labor

I trooped along to my weekly doctor appointment yesterday evening and he, um, had his way with me. I’d say he went a bit far for a first date, but then again I’ve been seeing him since February, so it’s not as hoydenish as you might think.

And then I spent the rest of the evening having contractions and trying not to freak out.

I mean, I’m not due until Tuesday, I’m not having weird nesting urges or bursts or energy or backaches, and the doctor had JUST examined me and nothing was imminent. So it was definitely false labor and Braxton-Hicks contractions.

Right?

The only thing is, I *kept* having contractions. As in every five minutes or so, sometimes less. They weren’t PAINFUL contractions . . . and they weren’t increasing in strength . . . so I reminded myself that it wasn’t real labor and went on tidying the kitchen.

That pretty much continued all evening. And my sleep is very interrupted nowadays anyway, but I do recall waking up for a few more of them.

But this morning they seem to have calmed down, and I didn’t wake up to a soaked bed or anything. So I think I’m good for another few days.

I really do have to make the guest room ready, though, because for a while I thought last night might be It.

Give me a few more days, BabyKitty, and then everything will be prepared!

Why I don’t expect the current donor scandal to go anywhere

Oh gosh, did you hear? Pres. Barack Obama is accepting foreign contributions to his campaign! The website is deliberately set up to allow donations without address verification! Gasp and ye gods!

*yawn*

We already did this, don’t you remember? Last election he received contributions from Adolf Hitler, John Galt, Nodda Realperson, and I think perhaps the leader of Iran.

I’m not real pleased about it, but neither do I see any differences in this go-round compared to four years ago. If no one cared then, why do we expect anyone to care now?

On the other hand, Benghazi just keeps looking worse and worse.

Turtles and Rajahs and snakes, oh my!

Yes, one of those is not exactly Florida wildlife, but I needed a third to make it all flow, so whatever.

First up: Meet the Florida softshell turtle!

This fine specimen of Apalone ferox was stranded crossing the main road in our neighborhood. We pulled over, I yanked on some latex gloves and we attempted to rescue him.

I’ve rescued a few box turtles in the neighborhood but this dude was in a different family. When I tried to pick him up (with my hands grabbing the shell towards the back – I know enough to avoid the bitey parts in front), it was soft and flexible and he SKITTERED away. I think at one point he practically ran over Mike’s foot. The damn thing scuttled under my car and out. Happily, I’ve had a bag for Goodwill rattling about in my car for a while … which included an iron skillet. Using that – which absorbed a few bites in the process – we chivvied him back up over the curb into the pond.

Next up: an exemplar of the rare species Panthera tigris raveneous:

Have I posted that one before? I’m not sure. After a while all his adorably fuzzy sleepy pix begin to look the same!

Which leads us to something that is not at all adorable or fuzzy:

I was away at a doctor’s appointment the morning that this little dude showed up. I can’t say I’m very sorry about that, although I feel bad for Mike. He doesn’t like snakes.

I do generally like snakes – I think they’re cool and pretty and useful – but NOT INSIDE MY HOUSE!!!!!!

We cannot for the life of us figure out how the HELL it got into our bathroom. It was on the floor in front of Mike’s sink, where he’d stood not ten minutes before shaving. I’m completely baffled.

Oh, and our dummy cat was completely worthless and didn’t notice AT ALL that there was a reptilian intruder. Nice going there, Mr. Rajah.

Have a happy, and snakeless, Friday!

Failed Obama operation provides guns used to massacre Mexican teenagers*

First, let’s remind everyone that Fast and Furious is not a “botched” operation. To be merely “botched,” one would have to show how shuffling weapons over the border to Mexico without tracking devices or any attempt to keep an eye on them, and without informing the Mexican government, was going to have any kind of a useful or desirable result. Lacking grounds for “botched,” I’ve labeled the operation “failed.”

(Although some of my fellow gunbloggers are quite confident that the operation worked exactly as it was supposed to. I.e., American guns were used to kill Mexicans, so we obviously need to crack down on the sale of American guns. All that’s missing is the legislation to do so, and it’s only missing because the details of the mess came out. But I digress.)

Univision broke a story recently that guns from Fast and Furious were used in the massacre of teens at a party. Photographs of a body in the street and leftover pools of blood the next day provide the kind of gory attention-grabbing that news media *usually* love and would play every hour on the hour for the next week and a half.

Looking Glass News can’t cover this, because my imagination isn’t that good. How’s yours? Can YOU imagine how it would play out if President McCain’s administration started an operation that resulted in Mexican cartel members using American and American-provided guns to murder teenagers at a party in Mexico?

Somehow I do NOT think it would result in McCain going on The View to be eye candy. Nor do I think NBC News’ home page would include as its main article a story about rhinos in India.

Our mainstream media is an utterly biased disgrace.

*Note: This was my first try at Truthaganda

Here There Be (Little-bitty) Dragons!!!

Look look it’s a dragon!!!!

Don’t worry, the researchers said they let it go right after they took the pictures. And fed it a few mini-maidens. 🙂