Friday, April 17, 2009

It's been a month, you say?

There are some excuses reasons.

1. You know what I really don't recommend? Having your whole family get sick with strep throat. At one time. Really awful strep, that leaves the parents of the family with fevers of over 102 and feeling like they'd be in less pain if they'd been hit by Mack trucks.

2. Having the whole family getting strep throat over Passover. I would really strongly suggest that if you don't take part in recommendation #1, you make note of recommendation #2 and avoid having the whole family get strep throat when most of the family's favorite comfort foods no longer reside in your home. Trust me, matzah ball soup will not get you very far when your children refuse to eat matzah ball soup.

3. Exposing very small babies to said strep throat. For this, I humbly beg the forgiveness of every single person (especially the new parents) that I know. The person who gave us strep throat had been on antibiotics for over 24 hours before we were exposed, so we thought it was safe. And we had a longer incubation period--it was a good 4 days before I got sick, when the normal incubation period is 1-3 days.* Therefore, we didn't take any precautions and managed to inadvertently expose 3 babies under 2 months old (one under 2 days old) to strep throat. I really do feel awful about this, and am trying to avoid several more very new babies until I'm sure that we're all completely healthy.

4. On a completely different note, I think it took me...well, until now to get caught up from the week off for spring break. Work has been insanely busy lately with teaching two new classes this semester. Preparing lectures and going over labs takes a really freaking long time! I'm looking forward to next semester when I don't have any new classes to teach (!!!!). It will be only the 2nd time in 7 semesters that has happened.

5. Did I mention that I have Tuesdays off next semester? No classes on Thursday or Friday mornings? And that next semester will be the heavier of my two course loads for the 2009-2010 academic year? Not yet? Huh.

Right, back to reasons I haven't been here...

6. We have a Wii Fit now. I have fallen in love with many aspects of this board that insults me and makes me feel guilty when I don't use it. On April Fool's Day, I got on for my daily body test and it said "Balance...board...broken! Ha ha, just kidding!" How could you not love it? But it is a demanding lover and takes up a lot of my time. On the other hand, I have lost 4 pounds in a month and my blood pressure is back down to 108/70 from 120/80. Go me!

7. I've decided that I'm expanding my gardening this year. While we're on water restrictions already, vegetable gardens are exempt--so I'm planting a lot more in the ground. I missed gardening last year. Other than jogging, it's my primary form of outdoor exercise; even more, I love watching them grow. I'll still have my containers of tomatoes and peppers and 2 varieties of beans. I'll have either basil or oregano growing on top of the upside-down tomatoes. In-ground, however, I'll have peas, Swiss chard, a mesclun mix, baby spinach, strawberries, corn, and onions. I'm also interspersing some perennial flower seeds with them--they'll get watered well since I'll water my veggies, but I don't expect them to flower this year.

This has meant a lot of extra work. I spent all day last Sunday outside in the garden, pulling up ugly little bushes, pulling out roots, and all sorts of soil things. (In retrospect, since I started getting sick with strep on Monday, this might not have been the most brilliant idea.) There's more to do, particularly for my corn patch, but I have the strawberries in the ground and have planted my annuals for the year. I also started seeds for my tomatoes, beans, peppers, and Swiss chard. Assuming I feel OK this weekend, I'd like to get part of the corn patch prepared.

8. Ummm...I think I'm out of excuses.

I'm going to commit to posting at least once a week for the next two months!


*Perhaps we were exposed to it by someone else in that time? I don't know who it would have been, as both kids were home from school and weren't around many kids, but it seems like it could be possible.

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