When Mark and Megan were over last night, Megan realized she was going into labor. She had had contractions yesterday morning, but they subsided. She wasn't getting a repeat tonight.

Around 8:30, after an hour of contractions spaced by five minutes, she called her parents to let them know they should head down to take care of Mirabelle when Mark and Megan went to the hospital. Around 9:30, Mark, Megan, Mirabelle and I drove back to their place for Megan to shower before heading to the hospital. The plan was I'd watch Mirabelle until Megan's parents arrived, Mark and Megan would head to the hospital.

Megan's parents arrived around 10:30, before Megan had left for the hospital, so my work there was light.

This morning at 7:30, Megan left me a message on my cell phone. Mayanna Kathleen Smith was born at 6:31 AM, 10 fingers, 10 toes and a shock of blonde hair.

I'm never sure when hospital visits are okay. I know when Kris is in the hospital, he doesn't want visitors. When I'm with him, I don't want visitors, because I don't like having to explain what's going on with him. We try to skip that whole thing by just not telling anyone he's gone into the hospital unless we really need to tell them.

Kris' hospital stays aren't the joyous occassions births are. So, I called Mark to explain my hesitation in visiting, that I didn't want to add to the cacophany of visitors. He laughed, said he understood, and hung up. He called back a couple hours later to tell me visiting would be good now, so I left a delicious dinner at Andy's and dashed over.

Megan and I talked for a while. She told me about her day, which made me happy I hadn't come over earlier - lots of people, not so much sleep. But I'm very glad they invited me over when they did.

For future reference: when a hospital says visiting hours are over, visiting hours are over. Waiting two hours to leave means the hospital is locked down, and you'll have to walk 3/4 of a mile through and around the hospital, looking for the approved (and un-alarmed) exit back to your car.

Mark and Megan came over tonight to visit. They brought half of dinner; we made the other half. While we were socializing after dinner, the television was on, providing background noise. At one point, we noticed they were talking about remodels, and noticed they were talking about an inconvenient structural pole in the middle of the room.

Mark commented he used to have one of those inconvenient structural poles in the downstairs of their house. I didn't recall it, so Megan explained where it was before Mark explained how he removed it after installing stronger cross beams in the ceiling.

Kris then told us of the structural poles in his parents' basement. When he told us that, as kids, he and his friends would close all the doors and played hide and go seek in the dark, I thought we were in for a good story about how one of his friends ran into the pole in the dark. It was a new story, so I was immediately interested in hearing it.

He started laughing before he was even able to start the story.

Turns out, during one instance of hide-and-go-seek, he decided to hide at the top of one of the poles. So, he climbed up, and spent the next ten minutes trying to stay at the top of the pole, first with his hands, then with his feet, then back with his hands, anything to stay at the top of the pole.

I couldn't help but start laughing with Kris, imagining this young kid, climbing up quickly, trying hard to stay up on the top of the pole. I'm still laughing. I think I could laugh for days on this one. Yay, new story!

This morning, we had the Orange Meal, Part 2. We invited Andy over for pumpkin waffles before the usual dog Saturday morning dog hike. He walked in with a huge weighted bag, a hefty machine and the question, "Have you ever had carrot juice?"

Oh, my, no we hadn't.

While I was mixing the waffle ingredients together, Andy washed the carrots and oranges and started juicing them in the juicer he had brought over.

I was surprised at the amount of pulp that came out of carrots. I can't say I had ever considered carrots for their pulp or fiber, though I realize they have a lot of both. More in retrospect I realize this.

Andy also juiced a bunch of oranges. He suggested we mix them. Although the carrot juice was quite tasty, the orange juice mixed in sweetened it a bit, making it REALLY tasty.

Though, if you let it sit too long, the various parts separated. A good swirl and they were all remixed and just as tasty.

Eventually, the waffles were done. The recipe we're using makes enough batter for 20 waffles, which is twice the batter most of the recipes I usually use. Our waffle maker (Thanks Jen and Bharat!) hasn't failed to entertain any waffle guest, as it makes barnyard shaped waffles: cow, barn, pig and chicken (maybe a rooster). I never quite put enough batter in the barn well, though, causing my barns to be blocks on sticks. I'll get it eventually, though.

Because we have so many waffles, we're able to share with all house guests. Even the small(ish), furry ones.

After breakfast, Andy installed the programmable thermostat Mark and Megan had given us LAST winter. Nothing like losing an item on the task list. Fortunately, I knew what box to look in, and Andy was able to actually find the thermostat (and instructions!). When he was done, he even checked our furnance filter.

Did I mention how much we love Andy?

Today's hotline training was a stark contrast to last week's training. Where last week was a non-stop answer of phones and garden research, this week was a relatively quiet ordeal, with only three of us at the hotline. We did have phone calls, but they were few, and Sue Bell did most of the talking. Which seemed to suit both Jack and me just fine.

The highlight of the day was the seed search. The Master Gardening program will often receive donations of seed packets. Seeds are packed for a season/year, with date expirations. If the seeds don't sell by the end of the season, they can't be sold, so they are donated to the Master Gardening program. The Master Gardeners then use them in trials or volunteer projects.

For this project, a group of people were going to grow chile peppers to make holiday wreaths (next year, of course). This year's project included the gift of these seeds.

Since the seeds aren't fully organized, Jonica asked us to flip through the seed packets and pull out all the pepper plants. As an added bonus, if we found seeds we want, we could have them. What a deal!

I looked for yellow flowers, to match the front yard yellow design. I pulled out a few vegetable plants, and excitedly took them with me.

At work, I mentioned them to Doyle. He suggested I mention them to Shirley. When I did, wow, did her face light up. She sifted through the packs I had, and found Chinese chives. Apparently, she's wanted to grow them, but couldn't find them in the store. Her mom couldn't find the seeds, either.

So, yay! Serendipity!

And seeds!

I mentioned to Doyle at lunch today that I was visiting Mom next Tuesday and Wednesday. His first reaction was surprise (in the middle of the work week?); his second was curiousity. "So, do you schedule these visits months in advance and just forget to tell me, or is this a 'Hey, a trip sounds good!' and you bought tickets just now so I'm letting you know?"

No, no, nothing like that. I had booked the tickets yesterday with a Southwest credit that was, well, expiring at the end of the month. Not that I have credits to burn or something. Or something. Given my schedule for the holidays and various weekends' activities, this was the best time to go, so off I'm going. I mentioned I had to spend another $40 over my credit, but better to spend $40 not to lose $200 than to lose the $200.

Who would have thought such logic would send Doyle into a rant? I didn't, but off he went.

"Why do people think they're saving money by spending it? It's like spending A and B going to the Sports Basement at a sale and spending $400 on crap. She showed me her stuff and said, 'Look what I got! I saved 80%!' She didn't save 80%, she spent $400! 'But look at these yoga pants! They were only $20! Normally, they're $80!' But you don't even do yoga!"

He kept going all the way to the restaurant we were going to for lunch. I think that was the most words I'd ever heard from him in one string. Ever.

I need to find more of his trigger buttons. These rants are fun.