"I like all my children, even the squat and ugly ones." - Howard Nemerov

From a friend's FB page

As I type this it's 1 p.m. and Sundae shows no signs of impending labor. Tomorrow she'll be one week past her due date. We stayed home from church yesterday certain that we would otherwise miss the big event. Nothing. Marta stopped by on her way home from church and is equally puzzled. Marta suspects that given her girth and lateness Sundae is probably only going to give us one kid. She should be HUGE, nearly bursting, if she had the normal two kids inside. That she isn't means there's probably just one in there and it has extra room, thus extending its stay. But it also means that instead of 9-10 pounds we'll probably get a kid at 10-12 pounds.

Yesterday afternoon we left for about 30 minutes to run Sally up to the guy who's doing the front end work. He called an hour ago to say it's ready. What??? He's not allowed to be that fast; it violates all standards of auto mechanic businesses.
Pam's in town doing the laundry and when she gets home we'll go pick it up. New pitman arm, new center link bar, new upper and lower A-arms wth ball joints and bushings, and a tightened steering box. I'm eager to experience the new ride.

I *think* the swelling in my big toe is starting to go down. If I keep my foot elevated it feels OK, and it's only after I've been on it for awhile that it gets pretty painful. That's a good sign, right? I haven't had a bandage on it for about 12 hours and the nail bed itself is OK except for when I take my sock off. It's just the pain of the swelling now.
It's been almost two weeks.

I'm seriously encouraged by the Supreme Court's rulings. They decided to hear the case of the Colorado bakery that declined to do a wedding cake for a gay wedding (despite adverse rulings from all lower courts) and to overturn a Missouri ruling that barred a church-run day care from receiving public funds in a program to retrofit school playgrounds with a surface made from crushed tires. I guess I'm also pleased that the President's "travel ban" was largely upheld, not because I'm convinced it's a good plan but because it preserves the powers of one of the branches of govt. in the face of what strikes me as judicial overreach.

Note: it's not a travel ban because it doesn't ban travel. It's a temporary restriction on people from six countries identified by our govt. as nations without adequate controls who want to come to the U.S. Calling it a travel ban is a little like calling Obamacare the Affordable Care Act.

I spent time in Fred this morning working on that journal article. Because it's a journal I'm being very careful and precise, checking verb tenses and syntax, reading in the commentaries.... When I came up to eat lunch I had a desk stacked with open books from my shelves and a head that was spinning. Getting to the bottom of one verse, in this case Matt. 18:19, leads to another related passage that has to be worked, and from there to another, and.... One of those passages (Matt 16:19) has all kinds of knots to be undone with significantly diverging views from every book I opened. So I'm getting that mental workout I wanted.

4 p.m., back from the auto shop, and Sally is MUCH improved. Money well spent, especially given that sloppy steering eventually becomes a safety hazard.
And Sundae shows no signs of kidding.

8 p.m. and no kids. Certainly tomorrow, right?