Baby?

Emily and I have been talking, and we would both like to have kids. We're just not ready at this point in time. We have figured out what we feel like we need to do to get ready.

1. Finish the bathroom. This isn't really necessary, but we just bought all, or at least most, of the things we need to redo it and we might as well get it done as soon as we can. We're thinking after Denise leaves.

2. Get a new car. We're thinking a hatch-back car, good gas mileage, safe, dependable, and ideally purple. Our Neon is still working, but at this point it's not the most reliable. It's ok for driving around Northfield, but it makes us a little nervous on long distance trips.

3. Install a dishwasher. This one will be a little tricky, seeing as our kitchen isn't dishwasher ready. We'd need to set-up the pot rack to store our pots and pans to make space in our cabinets to fit a dishwasher. Then of course there's the plumbing and electrical that would need to be done. Our thoughts on this is that it'll not only make our lives easier, but it's a great way to sterilize baby bottles, which we'll probably be using a lot since it's pretty likely that Emily will be on anxiety meds and won't be able to breast feed.

4. Get a new stove. Our current stove only has like 2 1/2 burners that work and the oven preheats to your desired temperature and then turns off for a few hours before deciding to heat back up to that temperature. It's just dumb and annoying and a new one would also be safer.

Some things I think we would like to get done, but don't feel like it's quite as necessary:

* Clean out and organize the garage, so we can use it for entertaining, art studio, car storage, get a freezer set-up in there.
* Really, just clean and organize the rest of the house. We already have a lot of stuff that we don't use or even know about and we just need to make more space. Not only to make room for a child, but just to make our lives a little less stressful. I guess it's also safer for a baby if there's not all this random crap around.
*Pay off our debts. To be honest, we've been pretty good about this so far. Depending on how well we handle our finances, we should be able to pay off all of our credit cards by the end of this year, just leaving school loans and our mortgage left. That would free up so much money.

So, uh, yeah. That's where we're at on the baby situation, in case you were wondering.

Cat Conclusion

Simon came through alright. I won't go into any major details, but he had some liver problems and had to be fed through a tube for a while, but now he's doing well. He's still recuperating and has to take medicine, much to his and Melanie's dismay, but he's showing signs of getting back to his old self. I'm glad he's doing ok and Melanie's happy to have him up and about again. She's still taking donations towards the Simon Relief Fund, if you feel inclined to contribute.

Cat Concerns

It's not any of our cats, but my sister-in-laws' cat Simon has some medical issues. They're not sure exactly what is wrong, but it seems to be liver related. They're going to conduct some more test and put him through medical test and what not to find out what's going on and how to save him from it. Melanie's not sure how much this going to end up costing. In that vein, they are planning on holding a yard sale at their place (5246 34th St, Minneapolis) this weekend. If you can, stop buy and give your well wishes, and possible buy something as well.