I'd mentioned in my profile that we had a new baby on the way, and it was really wiping me out. I'd been pretty sick through the pregnancy.

Well, she's HERE. One week old. Our adorable baby girl, born at home. I am very fortunate to have partners that give great labor support.

I was feeling much better, but overdid it and am not doing great just now. But I really hope to improve soon. I'd like to get back to my normal sturdy self.

In the meantime I'll be here enjoying the company of this sweetie.

In terms of birth order, which are you?

• The oldest child.

• The youngest child.

• Somewhere in the middle.

• All of the above.

Heh, I can't answer that one, as there's no option for multiple answers except for the only child one.

I'm a first born middle child - when I was 6, my parents adopted a hard-to-place 7 year old. Sheesh, the troubles that caused.

Anyway, they'll have those tests that will say which you are - they're always screwed up for me.

Would you continue in a relationship if you knew your partner was faking their enjoyment of sex just to make you happy?

• Yes.

• No.

What a binary question. They seem to think the only options are to break up or just let it continue. Does it never occur to them to *TALK* to their partner about it? Yeek.

Could you continue dating someone if their family members constantly acted rudely toward you?

• Yes.

• No.

Another "it depends".

Does the person keep in contact with their family and allow the abuse? In that case, no.

Does the person decide that in that case, they'll cut off contact with their family if they persist, and not put up with it? In that case (reference Aral and Cordelia in the Bujold novels), then yes.

Do you believe that money can buy happiness?

• Yes.

• No.

It can't get you happiness if you don't have it, no.

It can help smooth the path of happiness you've found.

And debt can destroy happiness.

Yeah, yeah, my usual issue - "it's more complicated than that!"

Do you like small rodents?

• No, small rodents scare me.

• No, but they don't scare me.

• Yes, I like small rodents.

Well, that rather depends. Are we talking about a pet hamster, or a possibly rabid rat in my laundry room?

There ought to be a Bad Questions button.

Okay, I've been spending some time playing around with Quickmatch - and seriously, I have some advice to give to men on OKCupid. I know most won't read it or take it, but I'm going to write it out anyway.

First - don't take your picture with a cameraphone in a mirror. Really, don't. It makes you look like the world's biggest loser. It says to me that you don't know any other human being that can stand to be within picture distance of you. Come on. Go out and ask some total stranger if they could take a picture for you, please, before you do the mirror thing. (I've only ever seen this with men.)

Next - and this applies more to both genders - think through a bit more what you write in your summary. I swear, so many of these boil down to "i am a layed back person, i like to have fun and i love to laugh". Shudder. Spellcheck, capitalize, and come up with *something* better. Because you know, most of us, anything that we'd find fun? We never want to do. And of course we avoid laughter. Gah.

If you can't make yourself sound interesting in the profile, nobody else is going to find you interesting either. Don't tell us you like to have fun - tell us what the things you do that you find fun ARE. Yes, in getting specific with your interests and what you enjoy, there will be people that avoid it. But then, the point is to find people that SHARE these interests. Tell us what makes you different that the average joe.

Just in case you're not, imagine that you're available. You're speaking with someone very attractive, but discover that they are not single. How would this discovery change your attitude toward them?

• I'd become less interested.

• I'd become more interested.

• It would make no difference.

Well, are they poly or not? I'd wonder. And in any case, I can find somebody interesting and want to know them well and talk with them, even if there's NO chance we'll ever end up in bed.

I wonder why I keep getting friends requests in my inbox lately from people who have looked up my profile and want to chat with me?

I mean, it says right in the request "claims to be your real friend in real life". No matter how interesting your profile, or how much we have in common, if this is the first I know of you, I am NOT going to to click accept on it.

How comfortable would you be in a relationship with someone who owns and trains with deadly weapons? Assume that this is not part of their occupation, but that no laws are being broken.

• This would make me feel safer.

• This would make me uncomfortable.

• This would make no difference to me.

Man, that's another one of the "depends on the person" questions. My sweetie has guns - doesn't bother me at all, in fact I had him take me to a range once to teach me how. The guy I was briefly starting to date before did too, and honestly, it made me more uneasy around him, which is part of why it didn't go farther. So *by itself*, not a problem.