Today's Purple Scare FAQ: (Previous editions in June and August archives)

Where have you been all week? Yeah, yeah, I took a few days off. At 37 weeks of pregnancy I'm really tired a lot of the time, and my sleep schedule is totally whacked (what a great preview, eh?) And I don't have ready access to a computer for most of the day anymore, so I don't always get to post even when I want to.

37 Weeks? What's your due date? I went to the doctor on Friday, and we're maintaining an ETA of October 15 for Bizzleburp. Of course, we all know that maybe 5% of all babies show up on their actual "due date" as predicted by those fancy little wheels at the OB/GYN's office. One way or another Bizzleburp should be home by Halloween.

Okay, Bizzleburp. You're not really gonna call the baby that, are you? Of course not! Well, maybe as a nickname. But we are looking at alternatives for the birth certificate.

So, Big Question: Pink or Blue? The doctor's office has been really good about honoring our request that Biz's sex remain a mystery until The Big Day. At my last sonogram, I didn't spend as much time looking at the screen, just in case I inadvertently saw something that would give it away. But we got some great pictures from the neck up: another one of baby waving hello at us! Technology rocks.

What's up with the house? We close on October 1. The stuff we've had in storage for the past two years will be delivered the following week, as well as the stuff we had shipped by air from Europe. The surface shipment from Europe will probably arrive shortly after Bizzleburp (oh what fun that will be!!!!)

So you're moving into a new house and having a baby in the same month, maybe even the same two-week period. What are you, nuts? Sure sounds like it, doesn't it? It could be worse, I could be in Florida. Though I can relate to the folks with "hurricane fatigue" - you just get over one storm when another one pops up on the horizon.

This is part of the reason I removed work from the equation for a little while: I wanted to have some degree of control of the amount of stress I was dealing with.

So are you going back to work after your sabbatical is up? Uuuhhhh...Reply Hazy. Ask Again Later.

With the way we've financed the house, I don't have to go back to work. I could decide to stay home for a while. Or I could switch to a job that requires less traveling (which would be strange, as I work in the travel industry, but it is an option). Or I could get a totally new job in a different field. There are lots of choices out there - but none that I have to decide on right now. First things first: that means getting Bizzleburp home safe and sound.