Well, working from home today. We had a doctor's appointment which determined that everything was on track. We also added a few items to our baby registry. I'll probably go over and add some more stuff to the registry in the next week or so. As of right now we will be working right up until the 9th of February -- Rebecca's due date is the 12th

Going home yesterday was interesting. I found what I at first thought was a stray bit of a coat on the Metro, but then when I sat on a seat that became available, found that there was a whole mess of these things.

My first thought, said out loud, was that someone's coat was hurting, but then I realized I was wrong (with the help of the girls doing GRE prep across from me.) It was hair extensions. There were about 50 or 60 hair extensions sitting on the floor of that Metro car.

Then at the Court House station, I saw a security guard come on and talk to someone else. Turns out there was some sort of medical emergency on the other car and in about five minutes we were on our way.

Scheduled estimates for the two bathrooms pretty much all next week, every morning. I talked with Rebecca some about the need for this work, and hopefully the other estimates will come in lower than Case's estimate. She was really put off -- they played the "ohnomoldwillkillyourbaby" card and then when we asked about the schedule were like, "Oh, if one phase is done on Wednesday we'll just wait until Monday to finish the next phase." I think the mold is real -- I didn't even mention the pregnancy until the guy was saying it'd take three weeks to refinish the bathroom, during which the bathroom would of course be unusable.

Putting in a birdsnest or some sort of temporary bathtub probably wouldn't help much -- we'd still have to hook up the plumbing to the temporary bathtub, ventilation would still be nonexistent, and the thought of taking a bath in a giant tub like the pioneers is still offputting, especially when we can afford to put in a second bathroom -- and the house will need one if we ever sell it to anyone other than some mega-developer that will erect a 12-story condo in our neighborhood. Seriously, we are two traffic lights from I-395. The neighborhood is surprisingly quiet from I-395 and we have a gas station blocking us from the traffic of Glebe Road.

Then at some random point in the next year, I get to have the floors replaced with some sort of hardword imitation made from metal or ceramic or something. At least in the dining room -- I don't relish (heh) the thought of cleaning up Melanie's food if she goes through phases where she accidentally or deliberately makes a big mess.

I suppose I should be working on the VHSL questions about now. Tomorrow I am going over to Edison to see the Northern Region's Scholastic Bowl tournament (and in the morning the District "regular seasons.")

Well -- we have a promising lead on an in home daycare in South Arlington. We will be visiting it before too long, hopefully tomorrow.

However the big news is that we will have to get our bathroom redone due to mold. We had been talking about putting a full bathroom downstairs but now it is time to do it. Once that's done we'll be able to totally renovate the bathroom upstairs. Right now we're getting estimates -- we've called some companies in Northern Virginia and I'm asking some of the Scholastic Bowl folks from outside the area if they know anyone. If some guy from the Northern Neck is able to come up and do the work for half the price of the local folks, then I'm all for it.

When we renovated the house before moving in the estimates ranged from about $12,000 to over $25,000. We took the lowest estimate after he provided a six month warranty. I was going to try and call the folks that did those remodelings but they seem to have gone out of business.

One of these days I'm going to have to organize the Scholastic Bowl questions for state into matches. I won't be able to do any more tournaments but I think Jason Mueller might be able to oversee writing of tournaments. Plus we have 8 full Missouri-format matches, 150 short tossups, 50 pyramidal tossup and 50 bonuses sitting around.

I need to fill out the 1099-MISC forms I have lying around. This will require me to do a bit of research. Of course there's the Mystery Box of stuff I have yet to unpack in the basement study room as well. Lots of things to do. I think tonight I'll be able to unpack the Mystery Box. Wish me luck!

Well, today we offered the nanny job to Maria -- I think she has to check with the folks who are employing her currently. So we're keeping our ears to the ground until a contract and a start date is agreed on.

I'm still conflicted whether I should want Rebecca to stay home. Right now, she wants to go back to work, but she seems to change her mind on this every day or so. Given that she will get most of the criticism, and do most of the work, no matter what decision she makes, I figure the decision ought to be hers to make -- as long as having a nanny or day care doesn't end up being a giant money loser for us.

I finished up the Rock Bridge tournament this morning and got the questions off to them.

Posted twice on a Fark thread where they discussed labor -- it seems off to me to discuss supply and demand for labor when we're talking about actual human lives here. But then again, the Market is like any other human institution -- it is capable of taking a life of its own and becoming the master instead of the servant.

Work wasn't so bad. I started off like I was going through molasses, but by the end I had gotten pretty productive.

And that is another day in the life of a father to be.

Well, it's MLK day. We set up the pack n' play in the living room and I have to move a few things around. I finally finished the Rock Bridge tournament but I should go through and check for repeats, which will take a while.

We interviewed a nanny yesterday. Maria seemed very conscientious, thoughtful, etc. The only problem might be that her English is moderate, but her current employer said it was improving. So, I've told Rebecca we should hire her, at least for three months while we see how it goes.

Home improvement continues, we have a pile of stuff to go through in the basement adult room and I'm going to call a handyman to replace the Windowsill of the Rotting Wood ASAP. Then the replacement of the carpet made of dog hair (I'm sure it was made of something else once) will follow. In other words, a laundry list of the things I wanted to do but was too lazy/cheap to do.

Today I'm getting a DVD of ultrasound pictures that I'll post up here if I am smart enough to do that and will also pick up some hangers. We'll need to get some new wardrobes and the such, too, in the next few months. The sort of thing that is meant to be a Family Heirloom as opposed to Twentysomethings That Can't Afford Anything Else (which we were when we got most of this stuff.)

Well, I'm signing off as I sit on hold at the handyman's office. Case will be expensive but I can be assured that they will actually do the work as opposed to simply not returning my calls.