Our four month doctor appointment went very well. The doctor says baby is perfect. Woo hoo! She cried less than her mother during the immunizations (not that anyone was surprised) and impressed the doctor with her advanced social skills. And we have new stats! She weighs 16 pounds 9 ounces now! And she’s a tall baby — 25 inches. Best of all, she has the most excellent head circumference. 42 centimeters! Considering Douglas Adams is among her favorite authors… well, it’s just right.
Speaking of DNA, a previously unpublished interview with him has recently come out in a new internest [sic] SF magazine called Darker Matter. There doesn’t seem to be a great amount of new information in there so far (only two of three parts have yet come out) but it’s still exciting to me. I only wish someone would unearth another book or two….
The magazine itself has had some interesting stories, and I would recommend checking it out. They could use a better editor though. I don’t know if it’s just the copy editing that needs help or if it’s something more. I just know it doesn’t seem as flawless as I’d hoped, for a magazine calling itself “the high quality online science fiction magazine so many worlds have been waiting for” — but maybe it’s me, still wishing the internest [sic] wasn’t so so full of sloppy writing. Even one of my very favorite blog-o-writers, who gained fame as an actor but is now a writer first and actor second — or hmm, I should say, family man first, writer second, actor somewhere after that, judging by his recent writings… anyway, this blogorator is top-notch, and even he makes an annoying error here and there. (If I may humbly say, Wil: “led” is not spelled “lead.”) But with him I don’t mind much. I recently ordered one of his books on CD, and can’t wait for it to arrive. And if I ever get around to finishing the latest “Books” post (months in the making, oy) I’ll be sure to include some kind of something about that.
A strange thing happened after we left the pediatrician’s office. We were in the parking lot, trying to get the baby settled in her car seat. The straps were acting funny. So we were fiddling around with them, and just when we were getting them to work right, there was this terrific huge crash, then an even louder crash. I ran around to the other side of the car in time to see a small pickup less than a hundred feet away, on its side in the middle of the road, and another car with a bashed up front end accelerating away from the scene. I hadn’t seen the license plate, so I started to run after the car to see if I could get a glimpse. M. had the same idea — we nearly collided — and I let him do the chasing while I stayed with the baby. He was gone for several minutes. Tense minutes! I didn’t approach the truck, as a number of other people had come to give aid, including a nurse from the pediatrician’s office. Finally there were sirens and M. came back. He hadn’t spotted the car’s license plate number, but did get a description of it and saw which way it had gone. He went over to the scene to be a witness, and I hung back with the baby and watched the flashing lights and the traffic jam. After a little while M. came back with good news: the people in the truck were okay. Plus, when he and other witnesses were describing the runner’s car, they were conflicted about the color of the paint. Was it beige or gold? Oh hey, look over there, it’s a piece of the bumper. It’s beige — M. was right — and, omg, here attached to it is the license plate! Best ground score ever!
I have to say, thinking about it later — that accident freaked me right out. M. had seen more of it than I did. He saw the truck while it was still airborne, turning sideways and backwards as it flew. Airborne! It wasn’t even the freeway! Yikes! And, oh yikes, what if those car seat straps hadn’t caused that small delay? We could have been in the middle of the whole mess.
One other thing I was glad of: even though I had my camera with me, my brain did not tell me to take any pictures.
Sometimes I like my brain.
