Just got back from a checkup about 20 minutes ago. I am now about 3cm dilated and 90% effaced, I have lost 1 pound, and the baby has indeed dropped. Last week they could move his head up out of the birth canal, but this week they couldn't. His head is happily corked in there, so when my water breaks, I don't have to worry about the cord prolapsing. Yay! Also, my nurse said she actually could have broken my water this morning, but she didn't cuz I'm not all "Get it out of me NOW!" yet, so she swept my membranes again and sent me on my way.

Oh, and she guestimates he's about 7lb right now. Nice normal-sized baby.

FINALLY!!!!! You can now download individual episodes of a TV series at Amazon! They call them "Unbox video downloads" and they cost about $2 each. They have mostly current series so far, including some like NCIS and Bones and Eureka that I really like. And off-the-air things like Buffy and Firefly (but no Angel yet). But they do have Classic Star Trek and I Love Lucy, so there's hope that they'll start offering other older shows too. They don't have all the seasons for every show -- I think they only have seasons one and two of Buffy available so far. But it's a start. A brilliant start.

Because for a couple years now, Cowboy and I (and others, like DKoren) have been wishing that we could pick and choose individual episodes of certain series and make our own "best of" collections. For instance, I get the biggest kick out of the character Colonel Flagg on M*A*S*H, but he's only in about five episodes, scattered over several seasons. So I would love to just download his eps, burn them to a disc, and have them to enjoy without shelling out for several full seasons.

I'm not sure if you can burn these to a dvd once you download them, but I'm assuming you can, because you've paid for them. And they've got some movies available too, for about $10 apiece, except some of the movies are only $2 and say "rental." Which makes me believe that the individual eps you download are going to be yours to keep. Especially since you can download them to either your computer or your TiVo.

Anyway, I am way excited about this!

Cowboy got his results back for his final exam -- 100%! In fact, he passed "with distinction," and so has now earned his Masters degree in Comparative Politics. The professor who administered the exam commented that "This was an absolutely brilliant exam, among the best I've received."

I married a smart one! :-D

Blech! Remember how I said it had gotten cold really suddenly a couple weeks ago? Well, that only lasted for about a week. We had frost once, and then last week, it got warm again. I just took some laundry out to the little laundry room in our duplex complex, and it's so warm and muggy I wanted to peel off a couple layers right then and there. And last night, it was so hot I had to curtail my walk (I try to go on a walk every other day, like down to the library and back, which is about 2 miles round-trip).

Nope, no baby yet -- but my due date is still a week from today, so I'm not getting all antsy and anxious or anything. At least, not about the baby. I am getting impatient about this job Cowboy almost has... we were supposed to find out if they'll hire him during the first week of September. It is now the last week of September, and the answer is still the same: we're not sure yet, if you haven't heard from us by next Monday, give us a call.

Grr. I could be packing right now, people! I'm not working, I have all kinds of time to pack. I mean, it's good in a way that they haven't hired him, because every week that goes past that they haven't made up their minds is another week before we'd have to move. And I'd really like to not have to move until Gumdrop is at least three weeks old. Long enough for me to get the hang of this whole mommy thing a little and for him to have a couple of checkups before I have to find a new pediatrician.

Anyway, that's life right now: waiting.

Hooray! Cowboy took his final exam for his Masters degree last night! He's done done done done done! He was allotted 6 hours for it, and it took him 5 hours and 45 minutes. He had to answer 5 essay questions, and his responses added up to 22 double-spaced pages. Whew!

Well, I could have baby news of an official sort in the next week or so. As in, I visited my nurse/midwife this morning for my weekly checkup, and I am approximately 2 cm dilated and 80% effaced! So she went ahead and stripped my membranes (far less painful than it sounds). I've been having mild Braxton-Hicks contractions for the past few days, like two or three a day, usually up in just the top half of my tummy and usually lasting 15-30 seconds. So it seems I'm warming up for the big day. Guess the raspberry-leaf tea and Evening Primrose Oil pills I've been taking have been doing their jobs of stimulating my uteran muscles and ripening my cervix.

Which means I probably should actually pack my bag for the hospital instead of just tossing random things into a pile. And clear out the baby's room at least enough so that you can walk around in there.