Sounds like a good plan, doing some activities. On the furrier end of things, we live in a small apt. and enjoy our guinea pig very much. They definitely take up more space (especially if housed correctly... ie. a fair bit bigger space than the -expensive!- one sees in the stores) than the other pets you were thinking of. You know of course that it's all I can do right now not to go into the proper care and feeding of them and how to build an inexpensive, easy and properly-sized enclosure.. but I digress.

Since you are so far ahead in time, maybe you have done your activities already(!) Glad you have a T appointment tomorrow. Please keep us posted, ok?