I am feeling much better today. So yes, the sunshine and the new day did the trick and raised me out of the dumps. I knew it would. That's the only thing that bugged me when I was really depressed a few weeks ago -- nothing was able to lift my spirits. And that's rare for me. Sorry for kvetching, but hey, everyone has bad days.

Did I mention it is HOT here today?! It's 88^o today, and it's supposed to be the same tomorrow. Friday will cool down just slightly to 87^o. Oh joyousness. It is INSANELY hot here. J is of the opinion that once this heat wave breaks (which was supposed to be earlier this week and has now been pushed back till at least the weekend), it will be the end of summer. The spiders are already out in force, spinning their webs everywhere they can, so I think she is right. Every time I leave the house, there is a web strung between my house and these small evergreen trees that line the front of my porch, which gets rather annoying. I don't like the feeling of spider webs on my skin; you never can seem to get it all off.

I feel badly for Kurt. Spider season was already over by the time he got home last year, and now he'll be home right in the thick of it. He's seriously arachnophobic, although he doesn't scream or overreact much. It just gives him the willies if he gets too close to a spider. He's also paranoid that one will jump on him. I can see his point. Last Christmas when we went to Tucson, Mom-mom regaled us with the story of a tarantula that had made it into the house, and since Dad wasn't home at the time, she had to call Uncle John to come take care of it. Then a couple of days later, Mom was vacuuming the floor and came across a dead scorpion behind the couch. Needless to say, between the story of the tarantula and the dead scorpion, I didn't sleep well the rest of the time we were there. I was petrified that a tarantula or a scorpion would bite/sting me in my sleep, and I'd never wake up again. Ick.

And speaking of heat, does it really make sense that it is currently 88^o in Seattle, while it's just 56^o in Chicago?! And they're supposed to get rain! Hmph. I am here to tell you all that IT NEVER RAINS IN SEATTLE, AND NEITHER IS IT COLD! At least, not in the summer. Our average high is 76^o during the summer, so we are way over that. I just hope I can make it through the next week without melting!

The days are moving pretty quickly. Of course, it didn't hurt that I was up until the insane hour of 2am last night, puttering around on the computer. I woke up at 5:30am because I could hear a fan running, but I was sure I had turned off all the fans before I went to bed. Finally I hauled myself out of bed and sure enough, the window in the office was wide open and the fan was running. Whoops. It's a good thing I have raspberry bushes right under the window -- I don't think a burglar would want to wade through the brambles to break into my house. But it was really cool looking this morning. Fog had rolled in, and it was just that time of day where it was as if you could see the dewdrops suspended in the air. The streetlight cast a warm glow over the cul-de-sac, and everything was just so calm and peaceful. Plus it was nice and chilly out. But seeing as I had been asleep for a mere three and a half hours at that point, there was no way I was staying awake, so I went back to bed. I woke up at 10am, after yelling at the cats for at least half an hour to leave me and my aluminum mini-blinds alone. They like to wake me and remind me that they need to be fed.

I don't even know what I was doing all day today. I know I watched my two hours of Birth Day, I chatted with Kurt most of the day, and I attempted to straighten the house. I've GOT to get the house in decent order before Kurt gets home. I am always on his case to keep the house straight, and here I am living in disorder and disarray. It's not bad -- just cluttered here and there. I need to clean up my magazines, write a letter to a friend so I can put away her letters to me, and then just vacuum because the cat hair is multiplying on the floor. I hate walking around in bare feet and getting my feet covered in cat hair.

My other problem is eating. It's so blasted hot that I just don't feel like eating. I know I am not getting enough calories, not what I am supposed to get for the baby, but I think it will be okay because once the heat dissipates, I'll go back to eating normally again. Plus I have my final childbirth class tonight, for which I have to leave at 6:15pm, so I won't be home at my normal dinner time. Besides, I am pretty chunky already, so my baby will be fine. I still eat at least two meals a day -- it just is more like two and a half meals instead of a full three meals. That will definitely change when Kurt gets home. I am completely handing over the kitchen duties to him for at least the week that he'll be off from work. I am very lucky to have a husband that loves to cook.

I did do a bit of shopping today. Thank God for the internet!! :o) Land's End, which is my new favorite website, has some awesome shoes on clearance, so I got two new pairs of shoes for $30, and they will be the shoes I wear all winter. I had also bought myself a small diaper bag on clearance from Land's End, in a color called Burnt Orange. I want to have two distinctly colored diaper bags so when I ask Kurt to grab one for me, I can just tell him what color to grab. He sometimes doesn't do too well if I just tell him what size to get. I think it's because he's so much larger than I am. :o) So I have the small diaper bag in orange, and I am torn between what color I should get for the larger one. Should I get navy (and then I would have orange and blue, which was both Kurt's and my high school colors, but we went to high school in different states), or should I get the deep claret, which is a beautiful deep purple?? I would rather buy the larger diaper bag from my local Sears store to save on shipping, but I think they only have the navy in the big diaper bag at Sears.

Plus I finally bought my steamer from QVC (I am a QVC junkie. When nothing is on, I am either watching QVC or the Weather Channel) that I've been wanting for forever. I want to be able to clean the highchair that HC gave me and make sure it's good to go with something other than harsh chemicals. Plus we have grout all over this house that needs a serious cleaning. I just never got around to buying the steamer. It was on Easy Pay today, which meant that the cost of the steamer is split between two payments. Not that I don't have the money for it, but hey, saving a bit this month never hurts.

Apparently my MIL is fishing for things to buy Kurt and me for the baby. She wanted to know if we have a crib (which HC is giving us) or a changing table or a stroller... I am a little surprised, not that she wants to buy us something, but that she wants to buy us one of the more expensive items. I always assume that folks are going to want to buy us the little stuff, which is just fine with me since the little stuff adds up to a lot of money! And every little bit helps! My MIL called Kurt today to confirm what I had told her in an email last night, that Kurt was coming home, and then she started fishing for ideas on what to get us. I think either she or Mom-mom is going to make a baby quilt, and that is MORE than enough for us. I think it's so cool we have folks to handmake us stuff like that.

Anyhow, I need to get ready for my childbirth class. And find some way of cooling down a bit! Arggh!! Oh well. I guess I'll live. :o)