This, that, and the other thing with some random asides.

Bullet points today because none of the below qualify for a post of their own (but together they make one long-ass post):

• For those of you who own stock: Just say no to the In-Bev buyout of Anheuser Busch. Living in an area with 4 of the largest employers (Anheuser Busch brewery, Busch Gardens - Europe, Water Country USA, and Kingsmill Resort) being related to the Busch family of companies, this buyout thing is a little stressful since there has been no indication of how long before the 3 non-essential entities (ie: breweries are considered essential) will be sold off by In-Bev in order to raise $ for the buyout of Anheuser Busch (this makes no sense to me: either you have the money up front in cash or via financing, or you don't). (If you want, boycott In-Bev's products, and continue to buy Busch products. That would be really super.)
  
• Work is dead slow. It's become the norm for me to have no more than a handful of calls each day. Unfortunately this means the percentage of solicitation calls to "real" calls is way up. I'm getting a little fed up with the guys (it's always a pushy guy) who tell me they've talked to my boss about x, y, or z. He's never in the office to take your call, and if you don't tell me what you are calling regarding (it's a personal financial matter doesn't cut it buddy), he's not going to take your call. And don't hang up on me when I tell you he's not available, I'm supposed to hang up on you!
  
• Though to liven things up, I did had one person I had hung up on call me back to tell me it's rude to hang up on people and then hang up on me. That was mature!
• But back to the dead slow work - we've got two custom houses in production, and one spec. After they are completed, we have no work. That scares me a bit because I'm not sure I'm going to be able to find another job in this economy, much less one I am so happy with. (If I get pregnant it won't be an issue because I'm not planning to work after we have kid(s), but until that happens, I'm just trying to enjoy all the time I can spend on the internet!)
  
• DH's new semen analysis came back with some improvement in morphology (up to 4% from 3%), but slight drops in the other categories. The RE doesn't seem concerned, so continue to keep your fingers crossed that I don't have to fight my fear of needles. Though I am thinking hypnosis might be a good idea to lessen my fear of needles, blood, pain, and maybe snakes too while I'm at it.
• Did I mention my unhealthy fear of snakes? Yeah. Even a picture of a itty bitty harmless garden snake gives me the creeps. I'm all for banning snake images from newspapers and widely read magazines. Just thinking about it sends a shiver down my back.
• We drove 8 hours total this weekend for a 3 hour event in Maryland outside Baltimore Saturday night. We took the Mini to show off to family up there who also have one, and since my FIL rode back with us (it's a long story related to my BIL's ongoing heath issues) I made the return trip in the back seat. I think it was actually a little more comfortable than the front seat, though we did take more breaks on the return than on the trip north.
• We spent the night in one of those "suite" hotels. I thought the bed was comfortable, DH said it would have been better with a pillow-top, at which point I had to point out that it did have a pillow-top. So yeah, we look for different things in a mattress. Our mattress at home is a pillow-top Kingsdown, and it's still holding up after 5 years. When we went to the store they had a computer aided system which would calculate the best mattress for you. Of course, DH and I had different results, but were able to find one that felt good to both of us without having to try out every mattress in the store! And it says something that we are still very happy with it 5 years out. This is my 2nd Kingsdown mattress. The first is still in use and still comfortable, but is a double so serves as a guest bed. I won't tell you these are cheap mattresses and box springs, but they are well worth the additional $ in years of use and in improved sleep.
  

I feel better for sharing all that.