nearly Easter

I realized this morning that it is nearly Easter. I will have to run to the store tomorrow to get some candy for the kids. I talked to Dan and we will try to get to church, if we are both up to it (he still has that terrible cold) and have a very nice brunch at home. We will probably have breakfast burritos with various side dishes, which will be delicious.

Work has been sort of odd this week. We got in a very sick patient to the ER one night (he had a horrible infection) and that is always very sobering. Life can end so unexpectedly sometimes, so suddenly, so painfully. If you are reading this, please go hug someone who loves you.

my birthday in history

I saw on someone else's blog to give this a try:

Look up your birthday (month and date but not year) on Wickipedia. Find three important things that happened, two births, and one death on your birthday.

Since my birthday is Octover 17 here we go:

fun things:

538 BC - King Cyrus The Great of Persia marches into the city of Babylon, releasing the Jews from almost 70 years of exile and making the first Human Rights Declaration

1781 - General Charles Cornwallis offers his surrender to the American revolutionaries at Yorktown, Virginia

1979 - Mother Teresa awarded the Nobel Peace Prize

 

births:

1915 - Arthur Miller, American playwright (d. 2005)

1972 - Eminem, American rapper

 

one death:

1849 - Frédéric Chopin, Polish-French musician and composer (b. 1810)

 

frightening clown

 

Someone posted this picture at a discussion board where I am a member. I do not know where he found it, but I think it is one of the most frightening pictures I have ever seen. If I were at a carnival and this clown were to jump out at me after dark from behind a porta-potty or a tent I think I would pee my pants.

tornados in Tennessee

I just heard from my eldest sister who lives in Gallatin, Tennessee. The town where she lives was ripped up by tornados on Friday. She is OK, as are her house and her pets. While I feel very bad for all of those people who lost loved ones and homes, I am very relieved that my sister is well. Sounds like one of the tornados was quite near her house, too!

quiet weekend

It has been a very quiet weekend. Dan has been pretty sick with the bad cold for most of it, but he finally seems to be doing better today. The kids are soaking in every last bit of relaxation before having to go back to school tomorrow. I have been sucking up as much rest as I can, and it feels good.

On Friday I took Steven to the used game video game store and let him buy a used X-Box system and a few used games. He has been saving up his allowance (for doing household chores) for a couple of years and was only $5 short, so I pitched in that last bit of money. So the kids have been busy playing with that all weekend. We also went to the bookstore, where I got books on Roman history and on the samurai; and to the gourmet grocery store where we bought good cheese.

Yesterday looked absolutely gorgeous, but there was a strong and very chilly wind. Steven had a soccer game in Tecumseh, and we got very cold sitting there watching it. In fact, I went back to bed for a couple of hours after we got home just to snuggle up under the blankets and get warm.

Today is glorious, though. Dan and I took the dog for a short walk (he is getting very old, and a short walk is about all he can handle these days) and Dan is out doing yard work now for an hour or so. The dogwood and maple trees we transplanted last fall both look alive and happy, with plenty of buds. And flowers are blooming everywhere now!

my toe might be broken

On Sunday, when I was stumbling around with a killer headache, and loopy on huge amounts of benadryl I stubbed my little toe pretty hard. It's been hurting since - in fact it's been hurting more with each passing day rather than less. Tonight I finally showed it to one of my buddies, a pharmacist. I asked "Is this thing broken?" He looked at it. It has been bright red since Sunday, and it is still swollen up to twice its normal size. He asked me to wiggle it and I could, even though that hurt a lot. He thinks that it's more likely that its badly bruised than broken, but a slight fracture is a possibility. He also told me not to waste my time going to the doctor, as there really isn't anything they can do for a slightly broken little toe anyway, other than tape it to the next toe over until it gets better. So I am to soak it in warm water and Epsom salts tonight, then have Dan tape it to the next toe over for a couple of days with some medical tape, and see if it feels any better.

Poor Dan is still feeling very sick today. He spent part of the night propped up on the couch, even though I gave him two extra pillows last night. Since I am feeling much better today, I hope that he will begin to feel a lot better tomorrow, too.

The kids are loving having this week off for school break!

One of my friends lives out in the country and is in the process of selling his house. He has bought a lake front lot out near Napoleon, where he is having a new house built. He has a lot of wild flowers like trilliums at the old house. Tonight he wondered if Dan and I would allow him to transplant some of his wild flowers to the patch of woods in the back of our yard. Then, in a couple of years when his new lot is stabilized he would come out and get some of the plants for the new property, leaving us some of them for our trouble. Since  I love trilliums, I told him no problem!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

rough few days

Well, its been a rough few days.

One of the other wrestlers dropped a 45 pound free weight on Steven's big toe on Thursday night in the high school weight room; Dan and I spent most of the day on Friday with him at the doctor's office and at the radiology clinic. Luckily, the foot was only badly bruised, not broken!

Friday night Dan and I drove through a horrible thunderstorm with heavy rain, high winds, and hail to go to Ann Arbor for a concert at the Michigan Theater. We saw the jazz super group the SF Jazz Collective. They were  superb, playing a mixture of Herbie Hancock tunes along with their own original work. We also stopped at a cool used record store, where I picked up some interesting and unusual classical albums, and we went out to dinner at a classic student pizza hangout, called Thano's Lamplighter. It almost made us feel young again!  After all, we met as UM students, 23 years ago this spring.

Needless to say, Steven did not do well at Saturday's wrestling tournament; I did not even want him to go, but he went anyway.

Bill got sick on Saturday and must have slept something like 18 hours out of the 24.

I got it on Sunday. I woke up very early, crying from a bad sinus headache, and spent most of the next 20 hours knocked out from various drugs like benadryl, which I used to combat the pain. I missed work. On Monday I felt better, but the bright fluorescent lights really bothered me, so I ended up coming home early. Tonight I made it through my shift, though I am quite tired and glad to be home..

Dan was sick when I got home last night.  He has the fever/headache/cough/drainage thing going, as I did. He spent most of today in bed.

I haven't watched any more movies, though I am still amazed at how quickly Netflix processes their orders and gets things shipped out. I have had a lot of reading time, however, when my headaches have allowed.

Enough for now, I just got out of a hot shower, and it is time for bed.