Scene from aliens.

I've been feeling baby girl kick for about a month now, but nothing like last night! She kicked so hard it moved my hand! It is like a scene from the movie, alien. You can SEE something moving around in there. And the wife, albeit still tiny everywhere else is so big in front! She looks like ET. It's going by fast! 16 weeks till our due date. Well past halfway. In fact, we are 3/5 the way through! Holy hell! I can't wait till august!

catastrophe over (almost)

This weekend was hellacious! Torture with a capital T. My advisor has been a huge pain in my ass for months now. This weekend he decided that he wanted me to completely restructure the discussion section of my paper. I was supposed to have mailed a copy of the pre-defense draft to the graduate school on Monday in order to defend in 3 1/2 weeks. So monday rolls around, after me spending the entire weekend chipping away at stylistic changes (which means bullshit, basically) and I am not entirely sure if the defense is happening or not. He alluded to the idea of changing the defense date if I don't satisfy his need for an organizational change of the draft. It was more than fine before. Finally at 4pm on Monday he called and said we were okay to go to defense....so I had to haul ass to print up 6 copies of this 200-page monstrosity of a document and I ended up shipping it overnight this morning. $100 later...I'm still silently fuming. I hate him. But at least I'm defending. Then he has no more power over me. Oh buddha will that feel good!

On a different note, we ended up at the hematologist's office on Monday afternoon because the wife almost fainted in the shower that morning. She has thalassemia minor...a blood disorder involving inefficient binding of iron in red-blood cells. So she looks anemic all of the time. Well, now that baby is taking all her iron and red blood cells, for that matter, the wife is feeling constantly dizzy and nauseous. We go back in 2 weeks for follow-up blood-work. If her levels haven't improved she will be getting a blood transfusion (one now and probably one during labor). Good times hey?

ugh...

It's been a bit of a dissertation nightmare around our house lately. My defense is scheduled for 3 weeks and 6 days from now. I have to have drafts to all committee members and the graduate school in 6 days. I live 1000 miles away from my graduate school (because I'm on internship/residency) so I have to essentially mail them by Monday. My advisor is an asshole and I feel like he is trying to dangle his power over me for as long as he can by picking at each little thing. And he is being somewhat snippy and mean about things too. One of his most recent comments about ONE SENTENCE in the entire discussion of the paper, was that it sounded like a high-schooler wrote it. Gee, thanks Asshole. And he recently commented that he feels like I am just throwing in the towell and saying good enough.

This is actually true. I am saying good enough...because it's GOOD ENOUGH!!!!

His main criticisms are that the discussion is somewhat repetitive and redundant in some areas and he would like me to speculate more. I have news for him: 200 page documents that discuss all aspects of a scientific study ARE redundant and repetitive sometimes. It's not a literary piece. It's a scientific paper. There is a certain way to write a scientific paper and that methodical nature of the paper can be boring at times. SORRY!!!!

Although, really I'm not. I really think it's bullshit. It doesn't have to be perfect before going to the defense. So let us just see what other committee members think. Perhaps they think its fine (actually I know two of them do, because they've already said so).

Also, if I may vent, it is not a publication. It is a nightmare of a document that I have been working on for over 2 years now. There are a lot of mundane results to be discuss. If people can read English, they should be able to ascertain for themselves that some of the results are a "Really big deal." To assert this over and over is an opinion, first of all, and unecessary.

Anyhoo. I've now spent about 25 hours this week revising bullshit to make him happy...this is on top of the 45 hours I worked at my real job.

only 3 weeks 6 days to go...only 3 weeks 6 days to go....

this is my new mantra.

I FELT IT! I FELT IT!! I FELT BABY GIRL!!!!

The wife has been feeling the baby for about a month and this week she has felt the baby kick from the outside too. Until tonight, I spent countless hours with my hands on my wife's belly trying to catch baby girl doing a cartwheel...and she has refused to grace me with her presence. But tonight, I felt the baby kick so hard that my hand moved!!!! It was so great. I was feeling a little left out these past few weeks!

She's really in there!!!!!

Holy cannoli!!!!

It's a GIRL!!!!

Ultrasound tech said she's never seen a clearer shot!!!!!

Eighteen hours to go!

I'm going nuts here!!!! I've been thinking it's a girl for the past eight weeks, but now I'm not so sure. We will find out really soon!!!!