Still whining

I'm still sick. It's been over 2 weeks and I'm getting tired of feeling so bad. My eyes burn, my joints ache, my nose runs, my chest hurts, my glands are swollen. I am one big mess.

The Whine River

I still feel terrible. I just want to sit around and whine. That probably won't make me feel any better, but I'm ready to give it a try. Nobody's going to pay any attention anyway so I don't know what it would hurt.

Somebody offered me a cough drop today. I didn't think I was coughing that much, but apparently it was enough for her to want it to stop. I think I just cough now without thinking about it. Like I used to breathe.

Breathe. I'll be glad when I can breathe again without rattling, snorting, or sniffing.

In case you can't tell, I'm not a pretty picture when I'm sick. I'm grumpy, grouchy, and resemble something a cat hacked up.

Hackers

Did I tell you I was sick? I've been sick for two weeks and I still feel awful. Nobody cares because everybody else is sick too. My co-workers, my cousins, strangers, everybody is sick, getting sick, or getting over being sick.

Even Kelly Ripa (from Live! with Regis & Kelly) has this nasty winter malady. I saw her on TV this morning. I don't know what she's taking for her cold, but I want some. She had a glazed over look in her eyes and a smile plastered on her face. She was able to function (more or less) but she was feeling no pain so I doubt if she cared one way or the other.

That's how I want to feel until this goes away. Just smack that stupid smile on my face and prop me up in a corner til spring. I'm tired of coughing till my side aches, I'm running low on tissues, I'm sick of looking at soup for breakfast, lunch, and supper, and I'm bored with wearing pajamas 24 hours a day.

If you'll excuse me, I have to go take a nap now. I'm already dressed for it.

Cinnamon Pears with Wild Blueberries

This is a fabulous, low-fat, too-easy-to-be-true dessert.

Ingredients:
1 can cinnamon-flavored pear halves
Wild blueberries

Directions:
Place one or two pear halves in a single-serving, microwave-safe dish (or just put them all in a single layer into one bigger dish). Fill center of each pear half with blueberries, mounding slightly. Spoon additional berries around pears as desired. Pour pear juice from can over the pears and berries. Microwave for about 2 - 5 minutes depending on the microwave and whether you use one dish or individual dishes. (I cook one serving at a time about 2 1/2 minutes when I use frozen berries but I have a low watt oven.)

Serve hot. Top with whipped cream if desired.

If you want, add just a little butter (real butter) to the top of the blueberries before microwaving. You decadent thing, you.

Ups and Downs

I got back from a trip to California yesterday. It was a business trip, not pleasure. It is too much of a hassle to ever be a pleasure for me to fly that far. Especially this week when the snows threw the airlines out of whack and everything was delayed, canceled or just generally screwed up. One would think from their slow-witted response that snowstorms had never ever affected flight before.

Jingle Jangle

Did you know that the US mint was introducing a new dollar coin this week? I hadn't heard that before today. They need to learn a little about publicity, don't you think?

Anyway, in case you hadn't heard either (and if you did hear, from where or from who?) it will be a gold colored dollar coin featuring George Washington. Every three months a new coin will be minted with the face of a different president in the order in which they served.

Congress believes this dollar coin will be more popular than recently minted coins Susan B. Anthony and Sacagawea. (Recently, as in a recent century, young people.) They base this belief on the popularity of the state quarters which were well received by the public, and introduced coin collecting to millions (well, maybe thousands).

The World Keeps Spinning

.... and still I don't fall off.

Did you ever wonder if you were unintentionally cruel to the people around you? Did you ever care that some careless remark hurt somebody's feelings?

I am a big woman. I passed pleasingly plumb about a half ton ago. I can't hide it. I don't try to. I didn't mean to get this big, but it happened.

The other day I was eating lunch with the women I work with and one of them started to talk about overweight people she knew who sat in chairs and broke them. One or two of the other women joined in with their own stories.

They didn't hurt my feelings. At least, not about my weight. I know I'm fat. Obese. Whatever. But it did hurt me that they didn't care if they hurt my feelings.

Then I started wondering. Did I say something inadvertently to hurt their feelings and they were just retaliating? I hope not. And I sincerely apologize if I did.

You can't take back hurtful words no matter how sorry you are afterwards. When I was in grade school, I purposely hurt my baby sister just because the other kids were teasing her. I don't know if she remembers that, but I do. I was supposed to be her protector and I let her down. It breaks my heart everytime I think about it.

Isn't it lovely

I was going to say I'm having one of those weeks, but when I think about it, it's the whole year so far. I hope it doesn't last much longer - not the year, the stuff that makes it "one of those".

After having an unusually warm beginning to the winter, we're having record breaking temperatures and snow storms. I can't do anything when it's this cold. Not think. Not breathe. Nothing. I have to admit that it was beautiful when it was snowing - at least, until I had to go out in it to drive home.

I probably shared at least some of the Calvin & Hobbs Snowman cartoons with you, but I can't remember when and they are appropriate today so who cares? Here they are again.








This one is called "Over the Hill".

Super Bowl Weekend

This is Super Bowl weekend 2007. I mention it because it's a big deal in Indianapolis this year. The Indianapolis Colts are playing the Chicago Bears. Good for them. I think Peyton Manning and Coach Dungy seem like genuinely nice guys and it's nice to see nice guys win.

But... I don't like football. I don't like professional sports. So I'm over that subject.

I got bit on that little area beteen the nose and the lip yesterday. I guess it was a bite - I was eating lunch and could feel a bump like a hive beginning there. I went into the bathroom to check it out in the mirror and thought "Oh, that doesn't look too bad." Then I turned to leave and caught sight of a profile view. Holy Schamoly! It looked like I had a second nose!

It's cold here this weekend. Sky, our mailman in Florida, would say that it was because of all the people from Indianapolis and Chicago going to Miami for the Souper bowl. They are causing a draft from the frigid north. When they come back they'll "open up the southern gates" and it will get warmer again. If you don't believe it - just wait till Tuesday or Wednesday and let me know if the temperature is still in single digits out there.

Speaking of states, here is a fun little game to test your geography knowledge. Just place the 48 contiguous U.S. states in their proper position before th time runs out. Third Grade Geography Test

The "e" on my computer is only working when it feels like it. I have to watch closely as I type or it will look like this: Th " " on my computr is only working whn it fls lik it. I hav to watch closly as I typ or it will look lik this. Do you know how many times you have to type "e" in a normal paragraph?

Birthdays

My first great niece will be 17 on Friday. It seems like only yesterday that she was just learning to walk. I don't know how she got to be so old so fast.

When she was young and visited me, she liked fast cars (Hot Wheels) and a game called Pizza Parlor. At 17, she probably still likes fast cars and pizza.

Some things never change.