oloriel | Mixed bag (Reply)

> Weather feels positively autumnal: grey, cold and wet. I am not objecting to cold: Monday was too hot for my tastes and it wasn't even particularly warm for summer. Yesterday was grey and had the sort of drizzle that can't decide whether it's rain or fog, which also appears to be the weather of choice today. I'd rather have proper honest rain, but I doubt the weather cares. Oh well, at least with the foggle no one has to worry about stuff getting washed away in the garden or elsewhere.

> It's due date day! So far, however, no change is noticeable aside from some light twinging. CTG showed a whole lot of action including some powerful contractions, but I am not really feeling anything. I'm wondering whether maybe it's actually noting down some of the more powerful baby movement as contractions? Offspring has, at any rate, grown very strong, and when he turns, my entire midsection moves along. The day before yesterday Jörg was surprised and delighted to actually see proper mini-human outlines move around under my skin!
The bump now looks ridiculous - whenever I think it can't grow any further it does, and it still grows only to the front. I look totally un-pregnant from behind, quite confusing some judo parents when I accompanied Jörg to a belt testing (he was the examiner, not a testee) yesterday...

> Offspring has also grown quite "vocal", in his way (that is, voicelessly). When I kind of need to go to the toilet but am too lazy to get up, for instance, he'll PUSH and PUSH and PUSH against my bladder until I have no choice. He'll do the same with my intestines if he somehow feels they restrict his movement. PUSH push push push push push. Sweety, I understand it's getting crowded down there, but mommy needs to eat and drink occasionally, yes? For your sake, too. If it's getting too cramped, why, there's a whole new world out here.

> Today's CTG session meant that I finally read those last two chapters of A Game of Thrones that were still missing. The pathetic attempt at epic promise in the last-but-one, and the hysterical masturbatory fantasy (with dragons!) in the final chapter, certainly drove home the point that I have no interest whatsoever to re-read this book or take a look at any of the sequels. Oh God. So bad. SO BAD. I couldn't even feel relieved when I'd finally finished it because I felt so horrible about reading it. I'll probably have to write a lengthy rant just to purge this from my brain. I know some of you gals really like these books and I'm trying to respect that just as you respect my shameless Tolkienism, but gods. I don't even. I don't think I want to take a look at the TV series, either, no matter how well it is done. Ye Valar, I had more fun reading Twilight and that's saying something. And I was really trying to like it this time around, too.
Maybe those contractions on the CTG were actually my stomach turning at the sheer awfulness of it all?

> Yesterday we sort of accidentally watched football. Sort of accidentally because so far we've only rarely zapped into some of the Women's World Cup games, quickly got bored, and switched the channel (neither of us care overmuch for football-for-its-own-sake, so watching a game just because it's a football game - even a world cup game - isn't really our thing). Now yesterday we zapped into the Japan vs. Sweden semi-final, and wow, that was intense and gripping and fast and actually quite exciting. So we ended up watching the whole thing. If football looked like that all the time, I'd probably be a proper fan. Seriously, that was beautiful. And Japan won, woo hoo! (Sorry, Sweden. At least you can kick for third place, now?) Now I just hope the Japan vs. USA game on Sunday turns out to be equally watchable.

> I've sorted various paper-y things that I've been procrastinating to tackle (some of them for years), finally decided to cancel my membership at the Cologne kendô club (I haven't gone to practice ever since I returned from Japan, and that was three and a half years ago), and sent out the CfL artwork for