5 December 2002

Yesterday was... kind of neat.

I spent most of the day reading Brothers In Arms. I got about a quarter of the way through it. I still like it pretty well, though my fingers did twitch occasionally toward my red pen.

We were making up the grocery list when I said to Matt, "You know what I really want for dinner tonight? Chili."

Matt looked at me. "You know, we are about to go to the grocery store."

So in addition to the regular weekly gunk, I got a pound of hamburger and a green pepper and some tomato sauce and some beans, and when we got home, I fried the hamburger and onion (I don't usually fry onions before I put them in chili, but this wasn't going to have time to slow-simmer) and threw everything else in the pot with a big dose of chili and garlic powder.

I prefer slow-simmered chili, but I put in a can of tomato paste to thicken it up, and it was pretty good after only about half an hour.

I don't know why I don't make chili more often. It's fast, it's easy, and it's great as leftovers.

We got some good news that I'm not talking about in my journal for a while, but those of you who know how to read between the lines will know what it is.

Aren't you clever? Here we are, between the lines, and the good news is: I'm pregnant. Or at least, we're 95% certain I'm pregnant. The new pregnancy test that we got at the grocery store showed two very distinct pink lines. I'll be calling my doctor this morning to make an appointment for the last 5% of certainty.

The reason I'm not talking about it in my journal yet is that we're going to wait until Christmas to tell our parents - what a present, huh? - so we don't want to put the news out where they, or someone who knows them, might stumble across it. The last thing I want is for someone to call my dad and say, "Hey, congratulations about Liz!" and for my dad to say, "Um... what?"

So if you happen to know my parents, don't tell them, please.

A conversation between Matt and Braz, after I called to tell Kris:

Braz: So, are you panicking yet?

Matt: Braz, the news is only half an hour old.

Braz: ::laughing maniacally:: Call me back when you're panicking.

Of course, as we said to Jeremy - we actually planned this, so our panic will be less "Holy shit, what have we done?!" and more "Holy shit, what have we gotten ourselves into?!"

And then, to cap it all off, as I was turning off the candles to go to bed, I looked out the windows and saw - snow!

I have some words to eat. I swore it wouldn't snow here before January.

Though this morning it had turned to an icy rain, which was not a lot of fun to clean off the cars or drive through. I shudder to think of the number of accidents on the roads today.

But the way the Christmas lights shone off the snow piled under the tree in the front yard was worth the hassle this morning. I could've spent half the night just standing there looking at it.

So with all that, plus having finished the novel rough draft on Sunday, this has been a damned good week for me, all in all.

May it continue.

--Liz