Apparently I've Been Tagged

Scott put my name on his blog, which means I'm supposed to answer these questions or something.

1. One book that changed your life?
Prolly the Bible. Though I've never read it all the way through. I mostly read fiction and history, and my mind wouldn't let those books change my life.

2. One book you've read more than once?
Well, I've read several more then once. I won't list them here, but my favorite to read more then once was Jurassic Park. Yes, the books came out before the movies.

3. One book you would want on a desert island?
Unlike Scott, I'm not going to google "One book you would want on a desert island"
and come up with some fabulous answer. So instead I'll say something very long.

4. One book that made you laugh?
Erm, uh, Three Weeks With My Brother by Nicholas Sparks.

5. One book that made you cry?
Nope.

6. One book you wish had been written?
The Way I Am By Jesus Christ

7.One book you wish had never been written?
The Da Vinci Code, because it wasn't as good as Angels and Demons, and its been way too overhyped.

8. One book you are currently reading?
Issac's Storm By Erik Larsen, author of Devil In The White City.

9. One book you have been meaning to read?
The Art of War by Sun Tzu.

10. Now tag five ppls.

Melissa, Kendra, Mom, uh, yeah, I'm not that popular, actually.

super awesome play dough fun

For all the haters


super awesome play dough fun

I'm sure all you cool internet ppls have done this already, but I think its pretty funny none the less. Here are my results for the type of American English that I speak...

Your Linguistic Profile:

70% General American English

10% Yankee

5% Dixie

5% Midwestern

5% Upper Midwestern

Hilarious. Really.

I just realized that almost every single one of my posts starts out something like, "sorry I've been away" or "Its been a long time since I posted."


Makes me sad.

Wow, I'm Sorry.

This almost seems foreign. Not that it was all that familiar. So sorry for the gap from last post to this one.
All is well here. We did not die from the strep, in fact. The lazy bug sure jumped up and bit me though, at least as far as this blog is concerned. I've also found more enjoyment trying to get some things done around the house. I took some time and finally cut down a huge weed that was on the verge of turning into a tree in our backyard. I made our elderly neighbor so happy that he finally talked to me after we've lived here for almost 3 years! It was a good feeling to get that thing cut down.
Boy, that sure sounds boring in print. Here's something fun. Check out this video. Its from a band called The Avalanches. It's an older song, but a good one. Nothing objectionable, really, just look out for the freaky old man with a turtle body. Enjoy!

Blech

So I have strep throat. My wife had it about 12 days ago, finished her antibiotics, and then I end up getting it. Nasty stuff. My fever overnight was up to 100.3, and this afternoon got up to 101.
So yeah its awesome. I feel pretty good right now though, but will be contagious until tomorrow afternoon.

More bad news: we noticed last week that our son had an irritated navel. So we brought him to "Urgent Care", it's like an ER, just at a doctors office. The Dr. who saw him took one look and said that it was fungal like yeast or athletes foot, and to put Lotrimin on it.
Didn't work. In fact it got worse, fanning out across his stomach in the form of small pimple-like welts. It had also spread to some um, nether-regions.

Needless to say, this freaked us out.
We were able to bring him to his regular Peds Dr. yesterday, and he confirmed that it was indeed bacterial, and spreading. He promptly got him on an oral antibiotic, and instructed us to cover the area with gauze and paper tape, after applying triple antibiotic ointment.

Then he scared the crap out of us. As he was having the nurse do the initial dressing, he told her to be careful and use gloves, because it may be MRSA. Now, I won't get into all of what MRSA is and isn't, and also, browse the internet for its meaning with caution, there are a lot of conflicting reports out there, and some real scary stuff.
In short, it's a really bad Staph infection that is very difficult to get rid of and is highly contagious. It can cause some bad problems as well.
Well, though the Dr. said this, he wouldn't know until a culture was done. I got the call with the results today. Now, the nurse was very nice, but the conversation went a little like this:

*RING!*
me: "Hello?"
RN: "Yes, I have the results of your son's test."
m: "okay."
r: "Looks like strep, so stay on the antibiotics, and let us know if his symptoms worsen."
m: "But he doesn't have any symptoms, he only scratches every once in a while. Do you mean if the rash spreads?"
r: "Rash? Oh I thought this said he had strep throat. No its actually a staph infection."
m:*Almost faints*
r: "Sir?"
m: "I'm here. It can't be staph. That would mean MRSA."
r: "One second please."
*Little Girl From Ipanema Muzak Interlude*
r: "Sir?"
m: "Yes."
r:"Its a strep infection. On his skin. Not staph. Sorry."
m: "Thank you so much!"
r: "Yes, just keep doing what we told you to do, and let us know if it doesn't get better."
m: "Thank you, we will."

So it turns out that strep throat can pass to the skin. Who knew?
Bottom line: we're gonna be okay, Lord willing. And be carfeul, if any of you ever get strep.

Sorry About My Absence

Alrighty. Since there are so many of you weirdos out there that actually like reading this, and have decided to pressure me into posts by linking to me, here's something new.
Its not terribly exciting, but its a recap of the past few days.

Saturday June 3:
I got up early and went in to work. My wife and I were to meet my sister and her family at the Lincoln Park Zoo. Since I had to work, my wife and son drove down by themselves. And some fantastic things happened to her on the way: first, she was cutoff on the expressway, and almost ran her van off the road. After she recovered from that and made it to the zoo, she was feeling better and decided to get something to eat for her and my son. As she was making her way to the pavilion, she noticed a 4 year old boy with no adults around. She asked if he was okay, and she could tell he had been crying, and then he ran away from her. She chased him down, and got some help from security who had been looking for him. So all was well. However, she had been holding him on her hip, where upon he had urinated all over her. So, she had to buy herself a new shirt.
At the checkout, she pulled out her debit card, only to discover that it was not indeed her card, but a Red Lobster gift card, redeemable at Red Lobster, The Olive Garden, or Smokey Bones. Not the Lincoln Park Zoo gift store, unfortunately. Luckily she had just enough cash.
There is more to this story, but as you can see, its getting to be a bit long, so I'll move on.
Our son loved the zoo. The funniest thing that he did was call the polar bear a white fish!
Everything was a fish, except the lion, which he roared at. It was a great time overall, except for the aforementioned fiasco my wife had, and the insane amount that it cost to park. But we will be going back for sure.

Monday June 5:
After work, I decided to cut the grass. I usually start in the back, but decided to start out front.
As I was making a pass next to my neighbors house, I noticed a person coming from their house that I'd never seen before. Now we don't know all of our neighbors by name, but I usually recognize their faces. What proceeded to take place can't be put into words that make sense.
Only that I meet the strangest character I've ever known, who frightened me a bit, knew a lot about my family and I , and oh yeah, has been living next door to me, less then 20 feet away, for the past 2.5 years, and I had no idea that he lived there.

Well, thats a brief recap, I may fill in some more of the dates later, but I wanted to post SOMETHING, cause nobody hipped me to that fact that I need to post daily, or I wasn't cool anymore.