Return from the West

I'm back. I survived. And I still love my in-laws.

For those of you not "in the know" I went on vacation to Big Bend and Carlsbad Caverns last week with husband's family. That is to say, his mom, dad, youngest brother and aunt. That's a total of 20+ hours in a vehicle with them. Turns out, his dad is a talker. Loves to talk about himself and finds himself very interesting. He assumes you do as well. Even if you are wearing headphones.

However my father-in-law has many good qualities and this is the only annoying one; so I consider myself pretty lucky. Also, I think his grandkids will probably like to listen to him. I hope. For their sakes.

Big Bend was BEAUTIFUL! We are definitely going back. We saw a bear! There was nature everywhere. I spotted several Scott's Orioles which are bright yellow and black birds. It was not hot most of the day. Keep in mind, though, that I define hot as 105+ temps and medium to high humidity. I did have to wear the pants portion of my shorts-and-pants with a sweat shirt in the morning. Later on I took off the sweat shirt and eventually removed the pants portion of my shorts-and-pants. The sunset from the basin is one of those spiritual events. I'm still reeling from all the beauty.

Carlsbad Caverns was a really big cave. the end.

Now I am back at work. The drudgery! Once again, productivity is at a minimum. I did manage to get through all my email and noticed that I have voicemail yesterday. I'm so whiny. I still do not have a job offer, though I hear that they are still working on it. Argh! Nothing kills your motivation at you current job like the prospect of a different job. I keep thinking of what processes I'd want to implement right away and what things I need to assess before suggesting any changes. However, none of that is pertinent to what I need to do right now.

On the fertility front... still barren! Isn't that a great word? I just *love* it. Makes me feel like a stretch of bad soil. awesome.

Really, it's just as well that we can't have children right now anyway, because we have been buh-lowing through our savings. I think I have this unconscious idea that if I make it so that a baby would really make life difficult, then we will get pregnant. The problem isn't that I'm not producing eggs regularly and that husband has sperm that fails in almost every way that sperm can fail. The problem is that we are too well prepared. The best way to increase fertility is to not want a baby. That seems to work for a lot of people.