Doctor's visit: The doctor I was supposed to see was at a meeting, so we waited for about an hour before finally seeing the doctor they re-scheduled me for. The baby is still sounding good and right on target. We got an updated form to send to the hospital for our pre-admission (as soon as my $!@^ insurance card comes in). They did a routine test to see if I'm harboring a bacteria that's completely benign in adults, but could prove harmful to the baby if undetected.

And I asked the doctor about one of my big fears, and was entirely unreassured by his answer. Maybe it was because he was feeling hurried, trying to squash in the other doctor's appointments as well as his own. Maybe I didn't make clear the depth of my concern. Whatever the reason, Baby Fear Number One remains, and he told me that I have a higher risk of having a C-section because of my weight. Which goes against what the woman doctor in the practice told me, that I was at no higher a risk than anyone else.

I'm beginning to think they're all making it up.

Just when I thought I might get my Thursday nights back, we got a notice that there was going to be a meeting last night to address some concerns about our neighborhood's Homeowner's Association.

So Matt and I went to that. It was about two and a half hours, an hour and a half of which could have been scrapped. People were complaining about things that needed to be brought before the HA Board of Directors, before we had elected our Board of Directors. It took the first hour and a half or so of the meeting to get all the irritable people to shut up.

I think my favorite was the Angry Woman With No Brain who refused to grasp the concept that just because the HA has been turned over to the residents does not mean that the builder is relieved of his contracted responsibilities. She must have asked the same question about twelve times, in various different ways, and never did actually listen to the answer. Thank the gods she wasn't one of the people who volunteered for the Board of Directors.

But finally, we got our Board elected, and they hired the new managing company, accepted the new budget (which was much more reasonable than the old one), and everyone was told that they needed to write up their complaints and concerns (mostly having to do with the builder not ever finishing the things he's contracted to finish) and mail them in to the managing company.

The Board itself is a pretty good mix - we've got people from each of the major sections of the neighborhood, and they all seem pretty solid and reasonable. And an interesting mix of professions, too - a fireman, a deputy sherrif, a high school science teacher (who moonlights as a waiter), an Episcopal minister (with twenty-odd years as a lawyer before that), and a security systems installation/repair guy.

I just wish we could've had a motion to slap some duct tape around the Angry Woman With No Brain's face.

--Liz