One Down, Fifty-One To Go

Weeks in 2008, that is. Well, work weeks. Or something like that. Somehow, for a week with a day off in the middle, it sure was long. Monday seems like it was forever ago. Almost like it was . . . last year!

So, what have we been up to, in the shiny new year?

I've been doing pretty well with the Five Day Pouch Test, and am at the tail-end of Day Three - Soft Proteins. I had a scrambled egg for breakfast, a couple of servings of leftover black-eyed peas at work and most of a small bowl of chili when I met Shrike for dinner. Since I've been home, I've scrambled up another egg, finished off the chili, and whipped up some very-light-on-the-mayo chicken salad. Maybe not salad, maybe just chicken with some stuff in it.

Still pissed about the cottage cheese / sour cream mix-up.

On the baby front, we got our "not crazy" letter from Dr. T yesterday morning (Thanks, Dr T!), and then the check from my parents arrived in the mail that afternoon. (Big thanks, Anonyparents!)

We were kind of freaking out about the check, looking for a "safe place" to put it, where it'll come to no harm, but we'll remember to take it with us to our appointments on Monday.

Silly, really. It's a check. A big check, but still a check.

It's not a briefcase full of hundred dollar bills.

And it's from my parents. Who would trust me if I had to tell them that BigGaloot had eaten it or something and it needed replaced.

And who would know where to find us if both checks were somehow cashed, after all.

(Or not, depending on what we did with the money, I suppose.)

And who are smart enough to stop payment on a missing big-ass check.

But, so far, so good. I'm looking at it right now, it's out of Galoot's reach, and I can't imagine we'll forget it on Monday.

It wouldn't be a huge thing if we were to forget it, anyway. Right now we just owe a $4000 deposit, which is less than the part we'll be paying, anyway.

As far as that goes, we've got a home equity line of credit lined up with our credit union. We just have to get hold of the mortgage bank (phone tag) and have them close the line that we have with them, and then tell the credit union about it, before they'll let us sign the paperwork.

No huge rush on that, as we have room on our credit card for it. We'll just put our share on there and then use the line of credit to pay that off when the bill comes. I just mailed off a payment, so we've got some time before the next one is due.

Sidebar:
"Our share" is the most efficient way that I can think of to say "the portion of the IVF bill that we'll be paying ourselves, after using my parents' incredibly generous contribution to pay the majority of it," but, on the other hand, it doesn't sit quite right, in my mind.

If we have "a share" that's anything less that 100%, that would seem to indicate that my parents' contribution is somehow "their share" or the portion that they "owe" when it's nothing of the sort.

Every penny of the money they are giving us is way above and beyond the parental call of duty - not to mention the grandparental call of duty which, really, only requires love and spoilage - and I certainly don't want my language to give a false impression that we don't fully realize that.

Other than that, the only other news of note here is that, a couple of hours ago, my throat started feeling funky, and I'm not optimistic about what that might be foreshadowing. Which is just fucking ridiculous, given that I've only been over my last cold for a few weeks. Maybe it's just a fake. I hope.