Misc. musings on FB, chicken wire, and HCG.

There comes a time in every IFer's day when she must ask herself: is Facebook really worth it? For me that time came this morning at 8:15 when I stumbled upon my due-date buddy's baby shower pictures. I am SO glad she lives 1000 miles away. I mentioned last post that I thought I was doing ok with this whole due date business, but seeing her, all pregnant and happy, seeing her doting friends and hearing about the gifts from her elated husband made me all but tear up right at my desk. It should be me too. I deserve it too. I did everything I needed to do. I could have told at 7 weeks too. I could have been 8+ months too. I could have been having a boy too. Just wait 'til she actually gives birth. I might just fall apart.

The new fur baby is getting out of our yard now. So we're 'touching up' the fence with some beautiful 1" mesh chicken wire this evening...or I mean "poultry netting" as it's called these days. God it looks horrid. But crossing my fingers that it works because now an annoying situation has turned dangerous. It's all I can do to keep from leaving work right now, at 10:30am, to go finish the job and keep an eye on things. DH returned from work yesterday evening and upon being attacked with kisses by only one dog, the original fur baby, ran around frantically trying to find the new one. He called her name around our very small lot and eventually heard a quick repetitive "thump, thump, thump" against the back fence and discovered our poor girl stuck between ours and our neighbor's backyard fences (there is about 10 inches of space back there, don't know how she even managed to fall between them). Her tail was wagging uncontrollably against the boards at the thought of having DH home! She seemed unhurt so he tried to pull her up and out, tried to get her to grab onto a rope with her teeth so he could haul her out that way, and as she was having none of it, he had to remove a plank and let her walk out into the yard. Fur baby 1 was noticeably distraught at losing his buddy but the escapee acted like nothing had happened, she had simply found a 'secret hideout' where she sat and waited for her people to come home and give her a big hug.

Since the first fence incident is the event that precipitated The Big Fight, DH and I stepped around this new situation gingerly. How 'bout attaching some lattice? We both agreed that would be nice - DH has some tiny grape plants he eventually wants to plant where she's been jumping up. The lattice could extend the height of the fence by a good 2 feet which ought to do it. But no, DH won't be ready to plant the grapes for a while and he wants a particular type of framed lattice so it won't look horrid and all of this could take weeks - or even months. Ok then, how bout more chicken wire? No it looks so very ghetto that DH can't stand it. Ok I said, well, there's this in-ground electric fence that we could get and it's really nondescript. You can't really see it in your yard - you bury the wire and it works by triggering a "static correction" collar around her neck every time she steps out of bounds. It won't be intrusive and it will have the added bonus of keeping her from digging in the garden. We agreed this would be the best solution. So I went to PetSmart and purchased the 'stubborn dog' pet safe system. It was in a locked cabinet. It's not a cheap item. And it involves a shock collar. So they keep it locked up. Right away, just looking at the box, I had a sinking feeling. By the time I got home and started reading the directions, and staring at the two-pronged static inducing receiver on the poor dog's collar I had to say something: "DH, I'm starting not to like this idea." It's really not a big deal. Just a little flick of static when she goes the wrong way. She'll probably get hit a few times with it and then never have to be "statically corrected" again. But I knew there had to be an easier, less guilt-ridden way. The other problem with the 'in-ground' wire is that it's more obvious and cumbersome than you might think. You have to run it a certain way around your yard, twisting and splicing the wires just so in areas that you don't want activated, and then you have to somehow run the wires back indoors to connect them to a receiver. We have less than 100 feet that we need to reinforce so this production, paired with the shock collar, and the price of the thing ($220 - and this was not even the deluxe system) seemed like an overreaction. So we went back to chicken wire and are now installing two feet of it - not extending above the fence but protruding out from the top of the fence at a right angle. So if she tries to climb the fence, she'll hit the wire overhang and won't be able to get over. If she aims for the wire overhang itself (which is pretty high if she doesn't have the fence itself to launch herself up), it's too flimsy to support her weight so the idea is that she'd just fall back into our yard. Query whether her second try at this (after the wire has been all but flattened against the fence) could be a success... My only answer is that she seems to have been readily offended by the first chicken wire monstrosity so I think she may not go that far. If she does, we'll cross that bridge when we get to it.

I'm supposed to get AF this friday according to the first day of my very spotty artificial Provera-induced LMP. Saturday would also be acceptable. After that, it's 'late.' I have NO symptoms. Not even the all-in-my-head symptoms to obsess about. I usually have plenty. I am discouraged. I assumed that of course once my HCG was negative, I would get AF on schedule. I had hoped the Provera really would kick start my cycle. So far I'm not convinced. But I'm getting ahead of myself. I guess I should worry about HCG really being zero first. I got stuck today. Results tomorrow.