Moon Over Peridot

(Underrated movie by the way.)

So as July winds down and the new moon (and month) appears, it's looking like this baby's birthstone will indeed be August's peridot. See, he/she is fashion sensible -- coordinating with his/her room color already! Meh has been spending some time in the to-be-baby's-room, visualizing and pondering the infinite furniture placement options.

As the count-up continues, every outgoing phone call starts with family and friends thinking it's The Call. And every incoming call is similarly checking to confirm that they didn't inadvertently miss (or get skipped over on) The Call. I think there were perhaps three or four of the latter yesterday while Meredith was taking a nap? Time to unplug/mute the upstairs phone -- such pressure and anticipation!

The neighbors are getting in on the act as well - two inquiries this morning while I was walking Korby (without Meredith, who was sleeping), and a few others over the past couple of days. And in a hilarious turn of events, Meh told me that while she tried to work in the front garden yesterday (cue the Jewish grandmother voice: "In your condition?!?"), two different neighbors saw her, stopped by, tried to get her to stop, and then proceeded to at least help out with weeding. Hooray for close and supportive neighborhoods!

Of course, once the family and friends recover from the fact that nothing has happened yet (did I mention the inquiries appear in instant messages and e-mails too?), the next best topic of discussion is these increasingly exotic techniques for inducing labor. Beyond the medically recommended ones, there's spicy foods, raspberry leaf tea, acupuncture/massage techniques, standing on your head while walking up steep hills (okay, so I made that one up), and even that recurring story about certain dishes at specific restaurants. No, we're not flying to Georgia to go try some eggplant parmesan, thank you very much.

Anyway, for now we'll just do our best to keep Meh comfortable. And finally discuss Harry Potter, which I finished last night.

Today's random trivia factoid of the day: Tuesday is the most frequent birthday for babies (I've seen numbers indicating 15% above average), and Saturdays and Sundays (20-30% below average) are the least frequent. So perhaps August 7 will be the day?