October was a great month — personally and otherwise. I'm pregnant, and my baby's going to be born in mid-June. And yes, I found out that I didn't gain as much weight as I thought. I know it's shallow, but it made me feel better. :)

Yesterday I met a friend of mine who's pregnant with her second child. She told me my doctor is really famous, which I didn't know since I chose her for her excellent English. Then my friend added, “She's also very good at performing abortions.” It's a totally cultural thing, and she didn't mean anything malicious. She was doing her best to reassure me that my doctor's a renowned expert in every aspect of pregnancy and that I should feel 100% anshin (peace of mind and spirit) about my first pregnancy. But it just sounded so hilarious, I burst out laughing. (So did Hero Material when I told him.)

As for non-personal news, I can't share any yet. But I'll definitely update everyone as soon as I can.

On the writing front, I'm trying to go through All's Fair 1st beta comments — alas, there are more issues than I'd expected — and do NaNoWriMo this month. I'm trying not to do to much — my brain's turned into mush and I tire easily these days, even when I'm just reading a book! So I'm trying to do little bit at a time and rest frequently so that I don't feel exhausted.

(Other than being tired easily, foggy-brained and sleepy, I'm doing pretty well. No morning sickness or anything like that. So I count myself lucky. :) )

Hope everyone has a lovely and productive November!

In case you haven't seen my announcement on Twitter or Facebook, I'm pregnant. I went to see my doctor last Friday, and she confirmed it. (Hero Material went with me just in case I needed some moral support and translation help, but he didn't have to do anything except wait outside since my doctor spoke good English.)

EDD is June 25-ish.

So on Friday, I immediately ordered a copy of What to Expect When You're Expecting.

On Saturday, I looked for pre-natal vitamins. Guess what? I couldn't find any at the local pharmacy. So I decided to order via the net. Then I read about how a lack of folic acid can create birth defects. So I told Hero Material that our baby is going to born wrong because I didn't take pre-natal vitamins in the last 4-5 weeks. Stress much? He had to calm me down by saying how we probably get enough from our diet since we do eat an awful lot of vegetables and salad every day. That wasn't enough for me. So I spent $20 on a regular multivitamin (only 100 pills; yes, vitamins here cost their weight in gold) to tide me over until the pre-natal vitamins arrive from the States.

Anyway on Sunday I got my copy of What to Expect When You're Expecting. It was pretty cool until it said I should exercise every day because it's good for the mom. I'm thinking, “I really don't care that much to exercise EVERY DAY.” Then it went on to state that it makes for a smart baby. Then I'm thinking, “OMG, d*** you!”

They had me. I mean…how am I going to resist the “If you don't exercise, your baby may not born as smart as s/he could've been, and it's all your fault!” implied in the text?

So I'm on my 4th day of walking and light weight training. Holy cow, I've never exercised this regularly except when I'm trying to lose weight. It's weird to realize that the scale weight is going to go up even with the exercise and good nutrition. Of course, I am eating enough for two full-grown rhinoceroses at the moment. Hero Material made me a huge salad for lunch today, and I told him, “Man, that was good! I'm going to have to have that again!” He said “Sure”…not realizing that I meant “again” to be “right now.”

P.S. I'm not a saint, so I indulge in a cookie when I'm craving something sweet. It's not an American-size one though. Each yields two bites, max. I'm also limiting myself to no more than two cookies a day.

September's been pretty productive.

I finished Step 5 for All's Fair, and now it's all with my 1st beta.

A Goddess to Love was supposed to be done by today, but for some reason, I couldn't seem to get in the right mood for it, and I kept nodding and not making the changes I know I need to make. Maybe it's because I spent like more than two months on revision…? Anyway, I'm letting it sit a little longer.

I also had a chance to talk with Agent, and I started outlining / arcing a new story. I don't know much about it except that the heroine is an assistant / nanny, but since I'm the one writing it, a lot of people are going to die. (Don't worry, h/H get their happy ending!) Actually I think the body count in the new nanny project is going to be greater than the one in All's Fair, which features assassins as heroine and hero, plus a Russian mafia boss.

Who said romancing a nanny was safe?

I've listened to multiple workshop tapes from 2010 RWA. Many of them are excellent and inspiring. I highly recommend getting the whole set if you can. It's cheaper than buying each workshop separately.

I also had a chance to watch some really good low budget Asian horror drama. The plot's pretty straightforward, and the supernatural elements are pretty familiar (to Asians, that is!), but I loved how they managed to create awesome mystery and tension by continually escalating the stakes and intensifying the internal and external conflict of all the characters. I just couldn't stop watching. Thankfully it had only sixteen episodes. (Some dramas go for over 50 episodes.)

As for reading, September has been a lackluster month. Jeannie Lin's Historical Undone was good, but the rest of the books I started were mediocre, clumsily written / plotted, and/or just boring. A couple of them got hyped quite a bit, so I'm sure that didn't help.

Fortunately I just got Sin Undone by Larissa Ione, who has yet to disappoint. So that should make up for September. :)

Since Peanut's death earlier this week, I've been very blue about the fact that the big cage has been sitting empty and forlorn. My morning ritual usually starts with checking up on our hamsters and making coffee. It depressed me every time I said, “Hello, ham-chans!” and then realized that there was nobody to squeak back at me. Then throughout the day I look at the cage to see how Peanut's doing, and when he's not there, it makes me feel like I want to cry. In a way it's harder…when the others passed away, I always had another hamster or two to cheer me up and keep me company. Having no hamster at all now feels unimaginable.

So Hero Material and I cleaned out the big cage and redid the set up. Then we went to a local pet store to get some new hamsters. We thought about getting a pearl white and a plain black one, but it didn't work out because the latter looked a little sick and kept biting everyone. *sigh*

So we decided to get blue sapphires instead, but they had three boys in one cage, and we couldn't buy just two like we're thinking about and leave one behind. That'd be cruel, and we couldn't decide which two to take since they were all extremely cute and even-tempered.

So now we are three. Say hello to our little friends: Bigger, Digger and Nester.

Bigger is the biggest out of the group actually. He's very sweet and likes to munch on timothy hay.

Digger is the smallest, and he likes to dig around in the food bowl…

Nester is the mid-size one, and he likes to make nests. He reminds me a little bit of Shiro because she used to make gorgeous nests too.

May they live long and prosper.

On Wednesday, I cleaned out Peanut's cage. Well, as it happened I set the water bottle incorrectly or something because he wasn't able to drink any, and we didn't notice…for over fourteen hours. The poor thing was so dehydrated and in great pain, barely moving the next morning. Fortunately Hero Material found Peanut and started giving him liquid-rich food. Our little hamster's doing much better now, and let me just say that they don't call Hero “Hero” for nothing.

On the writing front — I'm now done with the fifth step in the revision process for All's Fair!

chapters: 21 / 21 (100%)

And I sent out the revised draft to my 1st beta, so now I'm done with six out of nine steps.

steps: 6 / 9 (67%)

I just finished Jeannie Lin's Harlequin Historical Undone The Taming of Mei Lin. Despite its length, it was excellent. I recommend it highly.

Went to the pool today and tanned a little bit. I don't really like to tan, though my skin turns brown very easily, but I read some studies that getting vitamin D via sunlight can help you feel better, etc. Since I spend a lot of time indoors, I thought it might be good to get out a bit.

I don't know about the health effect, but my arms and legs are quite tan now. (I didn't tan my face…for obvious reasons…)

P.S. The studies / articles I've read about vitamin D:

• Vitamin D & depression
• Vitamin D & allergy
• Vitamin D & pregnancy complication
• Vitamin D & breast cancer

P.S.S. No, I don't have all the issues mentioned above, but I can get mildly depressed from time to time.