Another pregnancy milestone: I ordered my first maternity clothes yesterday. One pair of pants, one pair of leggings, and a t-shirt. Just over a hundred bucks. Maternity clothes are not inexpensive.

Obviously, that's not enough to get me through the pregnancy, but that's okay - I won't actually need maternity clothes for another four to six weeks anyway. The thing is, since there are no maternity stores in the local area that stock clothes for fat chicks like me, I'm having to internet-order.

And I wear anything from an XL to a 3X, depending on the manufacturer, so I'm guessing at sizes. I'll use this order to figure out what size I am with this company, and then I can order more. Though at those prices, I'm going to be ordering as little as possible. I think two more pairs of pants, a dress or skirt, a couple pairs of shorts, and a few more short-sleeved shirts should get me through. Oh, and a bathing suit.

Unlike normal clothes, I don't have to worry about wearing them out faster or picking things that can be worn year-round. I'll be done with these by September. Should there happen to be a brisk day in spring or early fall, I've got a cardigan.

It's still a little staggering to realize I have to buy at a full wardrobe (or most of one) that I'm only going to wear for six months. Bear with my mild obsessiveness, here.

Speaking of obsessiveness, (maybe early February is just a time for obsessiveness for me - check the last-year link!) I am such an utterly compulsive geek, I can't begin to tell you...

I need a new car. I've narrowed the search down to either the Toyota Prius, or Honda's Civic Hybrid. (Yes, I like hybrids. They get excellent mileage, and they're environmentally happy. They're a little on the expensive side - we're still paying for the technology, so to speak - but I feel good about putting my money where my mouth is.)

But I haven't been able to decide between the two cars. The Prius has the better environmental rating, and I like its aesthetics better; but the Civic is several thousand dollars cheaper and is available with a manual transmission, which I like. And I need to get on with it - Matt's Prius took four months to come in; if I'm going to have this car before I go into labor, I need to make a decision before the end of March.

So, geek that I am, I made a spreadsheet. With categories (Safety, Comfort, Cost, Aesthetics) and sub-categories (airbags, leg room, sticker price, color) and assigned everything a point value. The points get divided between the two cars. (So, for the 20-point Environmental category, the Prius, which has a slight edge, got 11 points, leaving the Civic with 9.)

It's not even finished, because there are things I don't know about one or both cars. For instance, I haven't driven the Civic yet, so I don't know if I like the way it handles on the road or how its pickup compares to the Prius'.

Yup. Big enormous geek.

Even Matt got a little disturbed when I was telling him about it, and he's usually a big fan of any geekazoid compulsiveness.

And, just to have one bit in here that isn't linking somehow back to my pregnancy...

Those damned voices in my head still won't shut up.

We're actually home tonight, and once the grocery-shopping is done I don't have any major plans. Maybe I'll get a chance to jot down all these things they keep telling me, and hope that will shut them up.

It probably won't. But I can hope, right?

(Would this be a good time to mention the sign in my office that says, "ABANDON HOPE, ALL YE WHO ENTER HERE"?)

--Liz