Man, I am in a nesting *frenzy* lately! If I had to guess this baby's arrival date based on how strong my nesting instinct is, I would say he should have arrived about two days ago! :-)

I have cleaned out all the closets now, all the bathroom cabinets, kitchen cabinets, and most of the garage. I filled our trash can up, packed up huge bags of clothes to take to Goodwill, sold a bunch of things on eBay, and gave away a ton of stuff free to people on my Freecycle mailing list.

Freecycle is really, really great. One of the best uses of the internet. Just today I had people come by to pick up an Iomega zip drive, an extra breastmilk cooler bag that I got from my insurance provider, and 10 assorted silk ties that Dan doesn't wear anymore. It's a great way to give away and get stuff. Way better than just leaving stuff out on the curb, which is what I used to do before. People give away some interesting stuff too, like Wurlitzer organs, motorcycles, you name it. I was going to get some free lily bulbs yesterday from a lady in Saratoga, but then I thought that bending over planting bulbs is probably the last thing I need to be doing right now, especially when I have about a zillion daffodils coming up outside already.

Whew! It feels great to have reduced the clutter we don't really need or aren't using, and get a little extra space around here in return.

Honestly though, I feel like I am going a little nutty with nesting. I have been having really weird sleep lately. It's like the kind of sleep you have when you are sick or have a fever...lots of very strange lucid intense dreams, interrupted by lots of waking up intervals in between. The dreams are so nonsensical for the most part. So many of them lately are about cleaning/organizing. I do all these organization projects in my dreams. I cleaned out my closet all night long about a week ago. I woke up feeling like, "OK! OK! I'll clean out the closet today! Geez!" Once I get all this cleaning/organizing done, I don't know what I'll be dreaming about. First it was organizing the nursery and baby stuff, then it was closets and cabinets. Now that I'm done with that, what's next on my dreamscape?

The night before last I was dreaming about barbecued chicken and ribs all night long. Boring repetitive dreams about what's the best way to make ribs, going over recipes and preparation methods, how I really needed to have some BBQ chicken on hand for the birth (!) and crazy stuff like that. I woke up and laughed out loud at dreaming about such a crazy thing. Barbecue! I have never in my life made ribs of any sort, and I've only eaten them about 3 times. I like them OK I guess. Usually they have been too greasy or fatty for me, so I'm not sure why I would dream about them so much. Rib symbolism? If any of you have ideas on this, feel free to send an email and enlighten me. My best guess is that I am worried that I will starve to death after the baby comes, since I probably won't be cooking and Dan is almost useless in the kitchen. He can certainly go get takeout though. And he can dial Waiters on Wheels. So I'm not too worried.

I ended up making broiled chicken smothered in BBQ sauce for dinner that night due to my dream. Middle of winter and Dan and I had BBQ chicken, corn on the cob and a carrot/cucumber salad. Total mid-summer meal. But it tasted great. I'm getting so tired of my own cooking, eating it 3X day. Tonight we're back to winter...split pea soup with hot Italian sausages. I'm so hungry all the time and yet so bored with all the food in the house. I can't think of what I want to eat.

Oh wow, am I turning into a boring mom/housewife already? I think about babies, food, and whether my closets are clean or not. Ugh. Well, I also think about the politics and current events a lot, and I seem to be writing a lot of faxes and emails to people on behalf of environmental causes and reproductive rights. OK, I guess I'm not a total Stepford Wife or anything.

Time to walk the dog and get some grocery shopping done. I don't feel so great by the end of my hour walk, but I can't NOT walk, because then my ankles swell up. Plus, the more I exercise, the better I sleep. I swam *and* walked yesterday and I was able to take an hour and a half nap before dinner PLUS eight hours of regular shuteye. Ahhhh, sleep. Bugs passes out cold when we get back too. We're totally in sync. Go out, walk for an hour, come back, eat something, pass out together on the couch. It's a dog's life.