This time next week..... 38 weeks 3 days in utero

This time next week we'll be parents. Quite a thought. It's not often a person can make a flat statement like that, but with an induction scheduled for next Thursday, it's pretty safe to say that Pat will be here this time next week.

I've posted a series of photos I like of Pui as her pregnancy has advanced. You can see them if you click on this link. The first one is already posted in this blog, but I think only one other one is as well - most are new.

Yesterday we got to have a peek at normal childhood stuff when we went and saw my niece's science-fair project. I was really impressed with all of the kid's projects, though of course none of them were as nice as my niece's. She postulated that ice would melt at different rates when sitting out in the open depending on the surface it was sitting on. She made some predictions based on the hypothesis (namely, that ice on Styrofoam would melt slowest) and tested it out. Turns out, ice melts faster on Styrofoam than a piece of cloth - I would not have anticipated that. Nor would I have thought that it would take more than 2 hours for an ice cube out in the open to melt. Suddenly, those massive ice sculptures you see at parties and weddings seem a lot less transitory.

I can hardly wait until little Pat has a science fair. Though I also anticipate that he's going to have a hard time keeping his meddling father from taking over the project entirely. :-)

Today we also hung blackout drapes in our room. I was a little nervous - the last time I hung drapes (in my condo in Kirkland around 3 years ago) I totally botched the job. I had curtains hung, but I also had rows of holes - of various sizes and shapes - in the wall around them. That was bad enough - now I was going to do the same thing, only this time in a house I don't own. I drilled the holes and installed one set into a stud perfectly. But the next hole I drilled missed the stud. I had double-checked it with two different stud finders, but I still missed the stud with the drill. I decided to try another drill hole a little to the left, but as I tried to get back on the stool I was using to stand on, I lost my balance and stumbled back, hitting the wall with the drill and breaking the drill bit. I was not a happy camper - it was shaping up to be another fiasco like 3 years ago, and I still haven't heard the end of that one. We searched for the missing broken drill bit for some time, but never found it. It did give me time to calm down, and with a fresh drill bit I completed the rest of the two installations without any further problems. Whew! Putting together furniture doesn't daunt me, but ask me to hang a drape? Sheesh!

Pui and I also bought a copy of the game Guillotine, and played it this afternoon. (Don't tell anyone, but when she cleaned my clock playing the game, it was because I let her win. Really. I'm serious. I wasn't really trying. And besides, the sun was reflecting glare off the cards. It was!) We plan to bring the game with us to the hospital, to kill time when we have to wait around. Being crushed playing that game should be more entertaining than playing "I spy with my little eye..."