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It's not that I haven't had anything to talk about, it's just that I'm out of the habit of sitting down and writing it out. I've been dealing with a few different thoughts in my head, and maybe I'll get to writing them out.

First some narrative to get my fingers warmed up.

Blake and I took last week off work. We didn't go anywhere or visit anybody; rather, it was the kind of week which functions as an extended weekend. We spent a lot of time reading, and a lot of time napping, and we read the paper and did the cryptic crossword. We went to Indigo, and we bought a car seat, and we saw Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress in the theatre and rented The Importance of Being Earnest and Josie and the Pussycats.

The most adventurous thing we did was go to the zoo. I always say I'll go to the zoo in winter, but we never actually do; this was the first time. It was as successful as I expected it to be -- there was hardly anybody there so you could stand around and look at the interesting critters as long as you wanted, and you don't have to listen to the incredibly stupid things people tell their children.

We spent most of our looking-time in the indoor pavilions -- I think the only outdoor animals we stopped for were the beaver and the Siberian tiger. The naked mole rats were, as always, ridiculously amusing. They have them in a complex of plastic tubes, like a Habitrail; it made me want to set up a huge Habitrail and have lots of rats (the regular, hairy kind). You could have it as, like, a coffee table or something.

The mandrills were more entertaining than usual; they had a baby who kept tormenting his uncles and trying to get them to play tag. Other surprise hits were the huge tanks of gorgeous fish, and the dive-bombing kookaburra. What I really enjoyed, though, was imagining bringing my kids to the zoo; what they would like, what they would learn. It will be so much fun to do this stuff with them.

We found a replacement for me at work; she's actually a friend of mine, which would be horrible and nepotic, except that she genuinely aced the interview. My boss (who had been interviewing candidates with me) was the one who brought up her name when we were deciding who to hire. I'm completely confident that she will be able to handle my job.

The interview process was interesting. We interviewed four people; two men and two women, although I don't suppose that's relevant. One of the men just wouldn't shut up, which I guess isn't a deal-breaker in technical support, but it was annoying. The other man didn't have any experience in tech support, and seemed very laid-back in the interview -- too laid back, almost unresponsive.

The other woman we interviewed was energetic and enthusiastic, and seemed very bright. I would have hired her, but my boss's bullshit-detector went off (I don't have a bullshit-detector.) She was using too much jargon and pumping herself up too much, to the point where her self-proclaimed talents were improbable.

We asked everyone to answer a couple of problem-solving, puzzle-type questions (the kind you'll find at techinterview.org) and the two guys really didn't seem to get it. The chatty guy took the approach that he would look up the answer to the puzzle rather than try and solve it logically, which is fair enough, I guess, unless you're working at a small company where almost nothing is documented. The laid-back guy seemed to understand the basic concept, but was unable to make his solutions understood verbally; not a strong point in a phone tech support monkey.

The other woman's problem-solving was pretty good -- she got the idea pretty quickly and made her solutions understood quite well, although she also insisted that finding outside information was a vital part of the problem-solving process, which wasn't true for the problems we posed. But my friend's problem-solving was fantastic; she had brought a pen and paper to the interview (such a good idea!) and immediately seized upon the problems and solved them using a good set of initial assumptions along with logic and basic mathematics. It was fast, it was elegant, and it was the yardstick by which we judged all the other candidates, since she interviewed first.

So my problem-solving-genius friend starts on March 24, and I'm looking forward to it. It's going to be fun having her around.

Here's a conversation I had with a guy at the office today:

Him: The sales guys have been sending technical support questions to me lately. [He's in Professional Services.] Normally I wouldn't answer them, but since you're leaving I figured I should.

Me: We are hiring a replacement for me, you know.

Him: But they haven't started yet!

Me: She's starting March 24th!

Him: It's a girl?!

Me: (nothing to say here)

Him: Is she cute?

It was one of those conversations that you can't really believe you're having while you're having it, and as a result you can't think of anything to say until afterwards, when it's too late. Really. Do Neanderthals like this actually still exist? And they walk amongst normal men?

We took the cats to the vet to have their teeth done this week. It came to $800, because Mimi needed two x-rays and an extraction, Thomas needed an x-ray, and that was on top of the anaesthesia and cleaning.

It's no problem, actually. The insurance will cover part of it, and $800 is well within the amount of money we have extra each month. But not for long! (Insert ominous music here.) The insouciant ease with which we paid the vet bill made me realize what a contrast life after-DINKdom will be. We will so not have $800 just sitting around waiting to be spent. We'll have to save and be sensible and plan ahead for things like major vet bills and furniture purchases. And it's petty and childish but wah! I don't wanna. I so enjoy having all this disposable income, and I'm so going to miss it when it's gone. I hope it won't be as bad as I fear -- Blake still makes an assload of money, and we'll still live within our means, but without all this lovely lovely extra money.

I'm so spoiled.

Back to the cats, though; Mimi gained 3 lbs and Thomas gained 2 lbs on the "lite" cat food we've been feeding them. So we've switched to another brand, except it's the expensive vet brand. We got a free bag from the vet, but I don't think we'll get any more (see "poor", above). The catch, apparently, is that cat food companies don't publish the number of calories in their food, so you have to call their info lines and ask them. The right number of calories for a cat on a weight-loss diet is 220 per day, but some of the diet foods have as much as 350 calories in a day's serving. So before we buy any other brands we have to do the research.

Here's the stuff I'm thinking about. I don't think I'll tackle anything in depth today, but here's where I'm at.

Post-baby Money Fears

I pretty much covered this one above: two incomes, no kid: good, fun, happy. One income, one kid: scary, bad.

Post-baby no-job fears

I'm a little freaked out by not having a "real" job after the baby comes. I guess I shouldn't, but I hinge an absurd amount of my identity on being technical support, on being in software, on being a (low-grade) computer geek. When I'm not working, all that will be gone. Poof.

Plus, I won't be contributing financially to the household. This exacerbates (one might even say, causes) the money problem, but it also leaves me feeling like I'm all take and no give. I realize there's more to the give-and-take of a marriage than money, but money means so much. Money is huge. Now, if I want to buy myself, say, a new $40 book or something, I just do. After, I will feel really weird doing something like that. But on the other hand, I don't want to feel like I should ask permission whenever I want to buy something just for me. Hopefully Blake and I can work something out.

Post-baby new career thoughts

I don't want to go back into software. I know, before I said my identity is hinged on being in software, but I more like the idea of it than the reality. I'd like my next job to be a different kind of job, a job that:

• makes a positive difference in the world
• doesn't involve sitting around all day
• is fun to do on a day-to-day basis

I guess there might be some other requirements that I can't think of now. The problem of devising a new career is far enough in the future that I haven't thought much about it just yet. It's just percolating, for now.