It's not that we don't have anything going on. In fact, it's that we have too much going on, honestly -- the baby is really the least of it all! We're having our downstairs floors refinished this week in anticipation of our new living room and dining room furniture arriving next week, so that means cleaning out the entire downstairs and donating some well-used furniture to the Purple Heart. I have my 24-week appointment tomorrow (how is it possible that I'm 24 weeks along already?), and my new boss starts work tomorrow as well. We're transforming my office into a nursery for Tot To Be Named Later, and trying to find room for all of the stuff that is currently there. We spent most of the day yesterday at a graduation party for one of Dave's oldest friends, which was great, and which meant we got to spend the day in the sun.

Now, I'm off to take my usual Sunday-afternoon nap, after which there will be more cleaning, as well as a bonus round of laundry. I am SO MUCH FUN!

Former Devils coach Larry Robinson has taken himself out of the running for the NY Rangers head coaching job, thank GOD.

The Supreme Court has struck down the Texas sodomy laws that make it a crime for people of the same sex to engage in "deviate sexual intercourse."

Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote the opinion for the 6-3 majority, ruling that the law violated constitutional privacy rights. By a separate 5-4 vote, the court also overturned its 1986 ruling that upheld a Georgia sodomy law and that declared that there is no constitutional right to engage in sodomy in private.

The ruling will invalidate sodomy laws that exist in 13 states.

Lemon square?

I'm feeling restless, and in need of a new design. Any takers? I'll send you baked goods.

Naples, Florida must not be a hotbed of illicit activity -- they had time to bust a 6-year-old girl for selling lemonade without a city permit.

Avigayil Wardin sold plastic cups of lemonade for 50 cents in front of her house, prompting a complaint from an anonymous neighbor. The police officer who cited the child felt so badly that he purchased a cup of lemonade, and the city waived the permit fee for the tot. She's now back in business.

NHL Hall of Famer and hockey coach Roger Neilson died today at age 69, after fighting a long battle with skin and bone cancer.

Neilson was an assistant coach for the Ottawa Senators this season, and was the head coach of eight different teams, although he never won a Stanley Cup. He coached in Toronto, Buffalo, Vancouver, Los Angeles, the New York Rangers, Florida, Philadelphia and Ottawa, where he served as an assistant but briefly filled in for head coach Jacques Martin in order to reach 1,000 games as a head coach.

Godspeed, Roger. We'll miss you.

Dave and I had another opportunity to see Peter Gabriel last night, this time at the PNC Bank Arts Center in Holmdel. Despite the rain, the concert was amazing, and the sound was eons better than at the show we saw at the Continental Airlines Arena back in November.

I had a horrible day at work yesterday, and was honestly thinking of not going to the show at all, but after a nap, I got dressed warmly, grabbed an umbrella, and off we went. Friday night traffic on the Parkway wasn't too bad, and we arrived at our dead-center loge seats just as Peter Gabriel hit the stage to introduce the opening act, a band from Uzbekistan fronted by the lovely Sevara Nazarkhan. She reappeared later on to sing along with Peter on "In Your Eyes," which was magnificent.

Anyway, Peter came on at about 8:45, and proceeded to play 17 tracks, including older ones that we hadn't heard at the last show like "Shock the Monkey" and "Games Without Frontiers." I was also thrilled to hear him perform "Come Talk to Me" during the encore, as a duet with his daughter Melanie, using the same red phone booth that opened the Secret World tour shows. His daughter Melanie, who has been singing backup for him on this entire tour, is really quite lovely. We didn't get a good view of her at the last show, but she was often on closeup on the large screens last night. She sort of looks like Maggie Gyllenhaal, with a distinct resemblance to her father around the eyes.

When Peter announced "Don't Give Up," I leaned over to Dave and whispered that I wondered if her voice was up to the Kate Bush part -- she's a passable singer, but she's not really that wonderful. She was a bit flat at the beginning (and looked nervous as hell), but by the end she seemed to settle in and finished strongly.

Anyway, by the time he finished with the three encores ("In Your Eyes," "Come Talk to Me," and the always touching "Father, Son," the crowd was screaming. I think we stood up during "Solsbury Hill," and didn't sit again after that.

It was a wonderful night.

Oh, how I love the Daily News. The mother of a gay teenager from Queens is suing New York City, saying that her daughter was humiliated and harassed after wearing a "Barbie is a Lesbian" tee shirt to her middle school.

Kathleen Hodges filed suit yesterday in Manhattan Federal Court, alleging that the city and school officials failed to protect her now-fourteen-year-old daughter. She also alleges that her daughter's free speech rights were violated when the school sent the girl home for wearing the shirt and warned her that she would be suspended if she wore the shirt to school again. The mother seeks unspecified damages.

Secret Shame of the Week: I really, really like Kelly Clarkson's song "Miss Independent." When I get my voice back, I may even belt it in the car.

First, let it be said that I am generally a very understanding person when it comes to families and childcare issues, especially because I'm becoming a mom in a few short months.

However, today marks approximately the tenth day in the last two months that the admin whose department intersects with ours has brought her seven-year-old terror demon to work with her. He is currently running up and down the hallway with a large metal handtruck.

Of course, this admin's boss is one of those people who is never in the office, so he most likely has no idea that all of this is going on.

Grrrrrrr.

[Heather in New Orleans on business} + [head cold from hell] = distinct lack of updates.

I'll be back in NJ tomorrow night, and hopefully the river of phlegm will have subsided somewhat.

It's raining. Again. Or still. Whatever. And happy Friday the thirteenth! *swings black cat around*

Normally, I would be working a half-day today, but since I am flying to New Orleans for work this afternoon (to attend the American Diabetes Association convention over the weekend), I convinced Le Boss to let me work at home this morning. I mean, technically I am working all weekend, so it's the least he could do, right?

Dave is sick with a horrendous head cold, and I am praying that I don't get it. He was kind enough to sleep in the guest room last night (poor baby), and just looks and feels absolutely rotten this morning. Meh.

I'm supposed to email an agreement to one of our HR people this morning, but doing that involves dialing up and hoping that the stupid connection holds long enough for the attachment to send. I found out yesterday that all of the directors and above at my company have access to a VPN, but we peons have to do with dial-up. This means that I can't even think about opening any email with attachments while I'm traveling. Very efficient.

Anyway, I have a bunch of errands to do before I go -- getting my allergy medicine, mailing some half.com packages, and another secret task which is almost done but needs one final piece.

It's supposed to storm all weekend in New Orleans, but I hope that I at least get to wander around a little. I've never been there.

While out at lunch today, a few of my departmental colleagues and I started talking about exactly how the leave process works at our company for things like FMLA and short- and long-term disability. One of my colleagues was shocked and appalled by the idea that my company automatically terminates employees who exhaust a six-month short-term disability leave. Obviously, the person is still entitled to long-term disability insurance benefits, but their job is no longer held open after that six-month leave.

Is this an unusual policy? I believe that it's been the policy everywhere I've worked since I graduated from law school.

I've been following this story, about a four-year-old quadruplet who died of malnutrition, since last week, because the death happened about two miles from where I grew up. The whole story is just sordid and sad. Police are still investigating but no charges have yet been filed.

THE DEVILS WIN THE CUP!
THE DEVILS WIN THE CUP!
THE DEVILS WIN THE CUP!

Congratulations to the New Jersey Devils on their third Stanley Cup in nine years.

NHL trade rumor du jour: Eric "Egghead" Lindros to the Caps for Jaromir "Mullet" Jagr.

Dave and I trekked out in the rain this afternoon to the Bassett Furniture Direct store to finally pick out new living room and dining room sets. We ended up buying this dining room set, but with six chairs, this sectional, but in a much less ugly fabric, and this coffee table. I cannot wait to finally have a real downstairs filled with furniture. We have no dining room furniture at all right now, and it's getting a little old eating dinner from our old Ikea coffee table. That will get moved upstairs to the den with the futon-spare bed, which will be a nice place for me to hang out when the baby arrives. Now, we just have to finish the hardwood floors downstairs, and everything will be ready for the furniture to arrive in six weeks or so!

I kept meaning to link to this eighties tarot deck after I saw it. What a total blast from the past.

Robert Smith as Death? Priceless.

The sky coloured perfect
As the man slipped away
Waving with a last vanilla smile

Sex columnist Dan Savage is holding a contest to nominate sex acts for the honor of being known as a “Santorum.”

Some of the suggestions, particularly the one about "getting Santorum all over the sheets," are pretty amusing.

This story, regardless of it being about plagiarism, is NOT about Jayson Blair. No, it's about another Blair, one whom we're all too familiar with -- Blair "I'll Sue to Be Valedictorian, Oh Yes I Will" Hornstine. It now appears that Ms. Hornstine failed to properly attribute information from sources in five articles and essays written for the CherryHill-based Courier-Post since last fall, the newspaper reported.

Ms. Hornstine's response: "Like most every teenager who has use of a computer," she had "cut and pasted" notes she kept. I erroneously thought the way I had submitted the articles was appropriate. I now realize that I was mistaken. I am not a professional journalist. I was a 17-year-old with no experience in writing newspaper articles."

Is it wrong for me to hope that Harvard decides to rescind Ms. Hornstine's admission, perhaps citing "lack of experience in admitting liars and cheats?"

In a first for the Justice Department, the general counsel of HBO and Co. has been indicted for securities fraud.

Former GC Jay Lapine is facing charges that he helped his company design and execute an elaborate plan to artificially increase revenues -- sometimes by as much as 500 percent -- prior to a merger with San Francisco-based health care giant McKesson. When the scheme was revealed, the combined company's market value plunged $9 billion in a single day.

"Major corporate fraud cannot happen over an extended period of time without the complicity of accountants, lawyers and other professionals," Deputy Attorney General Larry Thompson said in a statement. He said the case proves the government's "commitment to follow the evidence wherever it leads -- to not only those executives but also to those lawyers or other professionals who defraud the investing public."

In its first warning letter of the 2003 calendar year, the FDA issued a stern warning to Hoffman-LaRoche for improperly promoting its Xeloda cancer treatment.

In a May 29 letter, the Food and Drug Administration chastised Nutley-based Hoffmann-La Roche for distributing sales material and a patient video that made "false and misleading claims," while omitting information about Xeloda's risks.

The FDA complained Roche's materials overstated the product's effectiveness, made unsubstantiated claims that Xeloda is superior to other cancer drugs, and minimized potentially serious side effects, such as diarrhea and hand- and-foot syndrome.

The agency also issued a similar letter to Johnson and Johnson's Centocor, complaining about its marketing of Retavase as superior to other products.

Both companies say that they are working with the FDA to resolve the issues.

Since we moved to NJ in the spring of 2000, I've been using this Sanyo wireless phone through Sprint PCS, and it's been great. I especially love the speakerphone feature, because it means that I can listen to my voicemail every day on my way in to the office.

However, after being dropped a few times, the phone is starting to show its age. I decided after doing some research to go with this Sanyo model, which is basically just the upgraded color model of my previous phone.

I headed up to the Sprint store on Sunday, and got a good deal on the phone because of my previous Sprint history. However, even after the phone was charged, I was having a terrible time finding service or a signal, even in places where I had never had any trouble at all previously.

I called Customer Service, and they advised me to take the phone back to the store, because they believed that there actually was something defective with the phone itself. I went back yesterday after work, and was pleasantly surprised to find that not only did they give me a brand new phone, no questions asked, but I was in and out of the store in fifteen minutes.

Last night was spent downloading 80s ringtones to my new toy. I now have The Cure's "Just Like Heaven" as my normal ringtone for calls that come in with Caller ID, and The Vapors' "Turning Japanese" for non-Caller ID calls. I also have The Cure's "Boys Don't Cry" as the shutdown tone.

I'm sure the ringtone novelty will wear off, but man, anything's better than "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" or the "Crazy Chicken" sounds that came with the phone.

Habitat for Humanity is planning to open a "slum theme park" at its world headquarters in Orlando, Florida, designed to give tourists an idea of the living conditions experienced by people who live in poverty.

I hate lurkers. I don't mean message board lurkers. I mean the people who hover outside of my office door when either I am clearly a) on the phone, b) talking with someone in my office about business and/or c) preparing for the meeting which is not scheduled to start for another ten minutes in a place that is not my office.

STOP HOVERING.

A Massachusetts Superior Court judge has overturned that state's new pharmacy tax, stating that the tax, aimed at raising funds for Medicaid by assessing drugstores for the private prescriptions they fill, is illegal. He also ordered the state to refund the $18 million it has collected so far, saying that the state had not received the required federal approval. Under the law, pharmacies were mandated to pay $1.30 on each private-payer prescription filled to the state.