Last week for about 24 hours I lived one long perpetual blond moment. It felt like everything I touched turned to ripe pile of dog poo. The biggest offenses?

1) I went to McDonalds for dinner. I really don’t like McDonalds but neither Ben nor myself could figure out what we wanted and Cassidy was standing 10 feet away practically hyperventilating chanting MCDONLDS!! MCDONALDS!! MCDONALDS!! So I gave in and we went… and they completely SCREWED up the order. Well, Ben’s order. So after having to fix it TWICE I was just REALLY frustrated and wasn’t thinking and threw the bank card into the spot where I keep receipts. I had PROMISED Ben I’d not do this anymore since a month ago we had to cancel all the bank cards and have them reissued because I lost mine. heh heh.

2) The next morning Ben was taking my M3 in to have new tires mounted and put on the car. So I got up early and took the tires out of the Range Rover, into the M3 and took the Rover to work. When I got there I sat down and realized… where the heck was Cassidy going to sit to get to school!? The night before Ben had told me to put one of the tires in the spare spot and I completely forgot and the car was filled to the brim with tire in every spot EXCEPT the drivers seat… and the spare tire compartment. And the bank card still in the car.

See!? Those where just a few things. Imagine stuff like that, all. day. long.

So, to make up for it (or start) I cooked. For the first time in probably two months I cooked dinner. We live in the Silicon Valley and there’s always 60 restaurants with 5 miles of every home so it’s hard to convince myself to actually turn on the oven at night. heh As a matter of fact, the last thing I cooked was lasagna for Ben’s birthday.

The End.

P.S. - I didn’t get to robbing the bank. I figured that if things kept going the way they were, the bank I went into would run out of money just before I got there and I’d not even come out with enough to cover bail. But we are meeting up with Stuart and Lisa tonight for mini golf, Cambodian food and Spiderman 3! So I’m sure there will be SOMETHING to blog about tomorrow. Like how I totally kicked Ben’s ass at golf.

So, HI! How have you been? I’m great. Just swell, thanks for asking!

We ended up going to the track this weekend. After Cassidy got up Friday around 10ish her fever was back to normal and she was STARVING which usually means she’s better and lets get this show on the road, people!

The car did amazingly well with the new Functional Blingâ„¢ (carbon fibre wing) and Fantastic Sticky Rubberâ„¢ (Hankook slicks tires). I didn’t ride along with Ben at all because 1) my tummy has been consistently upset for about two weeks now and even with a DOUBLE dose of Dramamine I get nauseated after 20 minutes on the track, and 2) Ben was racking up REALLY fast times and I’d have just slowed him down.

As a matter of fact! He has a new personal best for Thunderhill. Prior to this weekend his best time was 2:07.18 and this weekend he turned SEVERAL 2:05’s with the lowest a 2:05.09. SO CLOSE to a 2:04 and the last session he wasn’t going to go out but a lot of cars had left and I was like, “Dude, you’re gonna have clean, clear track and it’s not that hot.” So he went, and was flying around the track and I just KNEW he’d gotten the 2:04 and… the Hot Lap Timer failed and no times were recorded. DOH!

Now I’m trying to talk him into running some Time Trial races. Looking at the times they are running, I think that he’ll do well.

It was great to see Stuart, Andrew, Ivan, Raza, Walter and Florian on the track too. I love it when the NorCalBMW crew makes it to a track day too because you get to make fun of people all day and nobody gets upset and your belly hurts from laughing and your cheeks are sore from smiling. I have big Reid cheeks so it’s a LOT of sore.

I also had the chance to hang out with Lisa quite a bit and away from the party scene for the first time. She’s a pretty cool chick with a wicked sense of humor. And! Cassidy took to her RIGHT AWAY.

Speaking of Cassidy… Ben got a hotel room with a hot tub because it wasn’t much more and thought it would be cool to relax after a long track day. He dropped us off at the hotel and headed to the track right away to unload the trailor and secure a spot under the awning. When Cassidy walked in the room and saw the hot tub she immediately started ripping off her clothes. It was funny. “I HAVE TO GET IN, MOM! I CAN SWIM IN THERE! IT WILL BE SO MUCH FUN! WHERE’S MY SWIMSUIT?! ARE THERE TOYS TO PLAY WITH?! MOM DON’T SIT DOWN WE HAVE TO FILL IT UP RIGHT NOW!!!” I grabbed the mini bottle of shampoo out of the bathroom and dumped the whole thing in and GOOD LORD the bubbles! It was crazy. She was happy and fever free and didn’t bother me for almost 45 minutes.

The next night Ben got in and put in some bubble bath I’d bought at The Black Bear cafe that afternoon when Cassidy, Lisa and I had lunch. When I went to turn the jets on for him, I had forgotten that the bubbles got really bad AFTER the jets were on when Cassidy was in so I added more to the water. By the time I looked over at him again there was about THREE FEET of bubble over the top of the water. I’m not kidding, it was HILARIOUS and I snapped a picture that I’ve been banned from posting online even though all you can see is bubbles and Ben’s head. The picture didn’t turn out all that well anyway because I was laughing so hard I couldn’t hold still enough.

And that’s about it. I wish I had more, or something TOTALLY FANTASTIC to share but that’s really…about it. Really. Before my next blog I’ll rob a bank or something that will make for a more interesting post.

Timeline:

Last Saturday - I lay on couch all day trying to fight back vomit. Have headache also.

Tuesday - Up till 2AM with Ben who has headache so bad he’s actually laying in bed moaning. Never seen him in so much pain before. Not even when the local pain medicine we didn’t know he’d been given wore off the day after meniscus surgery… and that pain was pretty bad.

Wednesday - After school Cassidy complains of a headache. Notice the rosy cheeks at about 8:00PM, fever already at 102.4 degrees. Give Tylenol, water, bed.

Thursday - Stay home. Cassidy’s fever bounces between 100 and 102.6 degrees. Clean, laundry, cater to Princess. My head starts hurting. Suck it up, kid sick. No time for me to be sick too.

Today - Up at 4:30AM. Cassidy’s fever is 101.3 degrees. *sigh* Have to call in sick again. Boss is probably pissed, I’ve lost 16 hours of PTO. Suck. Sit at computer to check email, flickr, etc. notice it hurts head to look at screen. Take temperature, 99.9. Great. Supposed to leave in 6.5 hours to spend weekend at track with Ben.

Right now - Going back to bed. Getting up @ 8:00AM to take us to Urgent Care. Crossing fingers. Sorry there’s no blog/flickr updates. Check back next week with The World isn’t crumbling around me.

Last week I bought a Canon 100mm f/2.8 USM Macro lens for the XTi. It’s. Amazing. Simply amazing. I’ve only just begun to explore around and play with it and so far it’s just blown me away. I should have gotten this MONTHS ago but I guess now was a perfect time because the weather is clearing up and I’ve realized natural sun light + this lens = MAGIC!!

Here are a few of my favorites so far but there will be many, many, many more to come. Oh, and I started 365 again and I promise not to be a complete failure this time. *grin*

I really wasn’t going to go ‘there’. The abortion debate is everywhere and when reading blogs and message boards I’ve managed to stay out of it but GOOD LORD are people misinformed about this latest ruling by the Supreme Court regarding “Partial Birth” and “Late-Term Abortion”. It’s okay to HAVE an opinion. I have good friends that powerfully disagree with me on this topic but at least they KNOW and UNDERSTAND what they are talking about so I’m able to respect their opinions knowing they come from a full understanding of the facts.

So before I go further, I want to warn you that I’m going to explain different abortion techniques in detail below. I think that it’s important and you HAVE to understand the differences to understand the ruling that was made because the ruling was about abortion TYPE, not abortion in regards to DATE.

The form of abortion that was banned was Intact Dilation and Evacuation (or eXtraction so I’ll refer to as IDX from here) and accounts for .17% of abortions performed in the United States (source). In this procedure, the woman’s cervix is dilated and the fetus is extracted whole from the uterus. The fetus is pulled out feet first (breech position) up to the neck and there is a small incision made in the base of the skull and the brain matter is suctioned out of the head to make the head smaller and passage through the cervix easier.

This is a form of ‘Partial Birth Abortion’ which is defined by the federal government as any abortion in which the fetus is extracted “past the navel [of the fetus] . . . outside the body of the mother,” or “in the case of head-first presentation, the entire fetal head is outside the body of the mother,” before the fetus is terminated.

Late-term abortions (abortions at 21 weeks or later) account for 1.4% of all abortions in the USA. Of that 1.4% of late-term abortions IDX is used in 15%. So about 2,500 to 3000 of these abortions are performed annually by about 30 doctors… out of 1.3 MILLION abortions (according to the most recent Guttmacher Institute research) (source).

There are other forms of late-term abortion still legal. DE’s (Dilation and Evacuation) are one. The difference between IDX and DE is that in DE’s, the fetus is dismembered prior to being extracted a piece at a time rather than whole. This is more trying for the woman because 1) the cervix has to be farther expanded, and 2) It’s more time consuming. There are many doctors out there who say this is more dangerous especially in emergent situations, such as a woman suffering from an acute Placental Abruption where because IDX is faster it’s a better option if saving the woman’s life is the priority.

What the Supreme Court said in this decision is that there is NEVER a case when IDX is the beneficial procedure but after listening to many debates on the radio and doing QUITE a bit of reading, this is simply not true. A case in point would be Hydrocephalus, when the fetus has head growth to as much as over 200% the normal size. Now that IDX is illegal there are less options:

1) Deliver normally. Mother and fetus die.
2) DE. Fetus still dies.
3) C-Section with bigger than normal incision. Mother lives, baby dies shortly after childbirth.

A midwifery web site quotes Dr. William F. Harrison, a diplomate of the American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology. He wrote that “approximately 1 in 2000 fetuses develop hydrocephalus while in the womb.” About 5000 fetuses develop hydrocephalus each year in the U.S. This is not usually discovered until late in the second trimester. Some cases are not severe. After birth, shunts can be installed to relieve the excess fluid on the newborn’s brain. A pre-natal method of removing the excess fluid is being experimentally evaluated. However, some cases are much more serious. “It is not unusual for the fetal head to be as large as 50 centimeters (nearly 20 inches) in diameter and may contain…close to two gallons of cerebrospinal fluid.” In comparison, the average adult skull is about 7 to 8 inches in diameter. A fetus with severe hydrocephalus is alive, but as a newborn cannot live for long; it cannot achieve consciousness. The physician may elect to perform a D&X by draining off the fluid from the brain area, collapsing the fetal skull and withdrawing the dead fetus. Or, he might elect to perform a type of caesarian section. The former kills a fetus before birth; the latter allows the newborn to die after birth, on its own. A caesarian section is a major operation. It does expose the woman to a greatly increased chance of infection. It “poses its own dangers to a woman and any future pregnancies.” Allowing a woman to continue in labor with a severely hydrocephalic fetus is not an option; an attempted vaginal delivery would kill her and the fetus. source)

So it wasn’t “late-term abortion” that was outlawed. It wasn’t “partial-birth abortion” that was outlawed. It was VERY SPECIFICALLY Intact Dilation and Evacuation regardless of the woman’s health that was outlawed. “Regardless of the woman’s health” is the most important wording because this form of abortion had ALREADY been outlawed, EXCEPT in the case where a doctor found it medically necessary. Now, the doctor doesn’t have the option of choosing IDX as an option at all.

Now, the million dollar question, What do I think? I think that the ACT of an abortion is disgusting. Even typing out the procedures above made me a little queezy. I myself, knowing what I know now (being a mommy) would probably not opt for one. I say probably because there ARE situations out there when I’d never rule it out: Rape, major risk of my own life, severe birth defects, etc.

However, I firmly believe that each woman should be allowed the freedom to make that decision for herself. I find it pretty insulting that five MEN on the Supreme Court don’t seem to think that I’m capable of making that decision myself without a counselor stepping in to describe to me in detail what will happen. I also find it troubling that the government has the power to decide what medical procedure is better for me, overruling what my doctor might think. They don’t have the best track record after all. It was just under two years ago that Senator Frist had to unstick his foot from his mouth after swearing on the floor of the Senate that Terri Schiavo was “not somebody in persistent vegetative state”.

Women who believe they they should be in control of their medical future should be scared. Doctors who believe they should be an important factor in the treatment of patient’s life threatening conditions should be scared. I am scared.