Pär's office is only a few blocks away from our apartment. Usually he'll walk to work and back, but sometimes in the morning he likes to get a ride. And sometimes he has a hard time dressing appropriately for the weather, because it takes more or less a blizzard to convince Pär that he should wear warm clothes.

PÄR
I'm taking the car today, okay?

KAREN
No, I need it today.

PÄR
You're just going to sit at the computer all day long.

KAREN
The fuck I am! I have a bunch of errands to run, as a matter of fact.

PÄR
So you're going to need the car? It's cold out.

KAREN
Why don't you just say what you mean? You want a ride.

PÄR
I want a ride.

KAREN
Okay.

PÄR
Yay!

KAREN
I just wish you'd ask me farther in advance than thirty seconds before you're ready to walk out the door. So I could, like, get dressed first.

PÄR
I wouldn't ask except ohhhhh it's chilly.
[Hugging himself and shivering]

KAREN
Stop it.

PÄR
Ohhhhh so chilly!!

KAREN
I'm giving you the ride! Quit selling!

PÄR
It's so chilly outside and I'm only wearing shorts.

KAREN
So wear your jeans, buttmunch.

PÄR
[Pause. Blank look. Return to what works.]
Ohhhhh so chilly!

KAREN
Actually it's pretty nice outside. Look out the window, the sun is shining.

PÄR
When it's sunny, it's colder, because there are no clouds to hold in the heat.

KAREN
Say what?

PÄR
Heat reflects off of clouds and bounces back to the earth.

KAREN
Don't give me your bogus science!

PÄR
Don't mock the science! It's true!

KAREN
You can't tell me I'll be warmer on a cloudy day than when it's sunny out!

PÄR
If you live in the shade, the air is warmer when there are clouds.

KAREN
Wha -- we're not talking about life under a rock. This is California. You've got sun shining on you everywhere you go.

PÄR
Irrelevant!

KAREN
The point!

PÄR
So, can I have a ride?

KAREN
Yeah, yeah.

When I visited my father on the east coast this Thanksgiving, he told me he'd recently developed diabetes, which means it's something for me to keep an eye out for. My father is in his late sixties and it's unlikely that I'd get it much earlier than that, if at all, but I asked my doctor about it when I went in for a checkup last week. She confirmed that it's not something I need to worry about. Aside from staying in shape, she said, (I think she meant getting in shape) the only concern would be that women sometimes develop diabetes when they're pregnant, because they suddenly put on a lot of weight.

(I know, that's twice in a week I've referred to the possibility of pregnancy in the journal. Don't get too excited, it's only theoretical.)

I was telling Pär this morning about what the doctor said. She'd mentioned that diabetic women often have very large babies, which prompted me to tell her I was scared enough about childbirth as it is, with a husband who's 6'5. She had a good chuckle over that. (I like to keep my doctor laughing. She gives such a great breast exam that I half feel I ought to be sending her flowers the morning after an appointment; a bit of entertainment is the very least I can offer.)

PÄR
Don't worry, it doesn't mean anything that I'm tall. I was a small baby.

KAREN
I told myself that. And then I was trying to imagine someone giving birth to a little baby with your head --

PÄR
That thing you're thinking isn't true, about babies' heads being full sized when they're born. They do keep growing as the kid grows.

KAREN
Right, that's what I realised. Because if a baby was born with your head on it, they would have killed it, put a stake through its heart, and burned it.

PÄR
Ha! Oh yeah? Well, your face, uh -- your face scares cows!

KAREN
What cows? We live in a city.

PÄR
I'm not good at coming up with insults.

KAREN
I didn't mean there was anything inherently frightening about your head, honey... I was just figuring out that it's about as big as a newborn baby itself. So it must have been less than a third of the size it is now, when you were born. Which came as a big relief for me. As I expect it did for your mother.