I must say, I could have picked a better week to come down with a cold. If you’re thinking, “But hey, it’s the weekend, and you can rest up and try to be ready to go in on Monday morning,” well, you haven’t seen the stack of work I have waiting for me when I go in tomorrow. Heh.

Posting will continue to be light; the worst of this ends in the next week, but similar activities will be going on my end for another six weeks from here. And if you’re thinking, “Haven’t you been at it hard like this since the beginning of August?” You, you get a cookie.

Could be a whole lot worse, though.

Hmm. Four words is about all I’m good for today.

1. Cold. I have one. It is kicking my ass. Were it not Rick’s birthday today [happy birthday, buddy!], I would be going straight home when I left work. As it is, I will leave after a while tonight, because I don’t want to get anyone else sick.
2. Beauty is truth; truth, beauty.
3. Green is starting to replace blue as the color I favor the most.
4. Books are something that I don’t read often enough of. Requires too much … something.

[This where I note that Rick tagged beauty to Jessica, but she tagged sexy to a camera. Isn't it the male that's supposed to have the gadget-lust? Heeeee. And to answer your question, Jessica: yes, better equipment can make you a better photographer. It's worked for me. And no, you can't have my 10D.]

Let’s see who I hate enough to foist this upon:

1. Chris.
2. Brad, becuase he’s several timezones away and can’t hurt me.
3. Jonathan, just so Ashley can’t. [I'm such an ass.]
4. John Wilson, who has no link because I can’t remember his URL anymore. [But my aggregator does.]

Oh, and words.

• Penalty.
• Vacation.
• Competition.
• Spelunking.

Back to writing a proposal through the fog…

Well, you get the point from looking at the thin archives this week that I’ve been dang busy, and if you look around, you’ll even figure out why. Suffice it to say that it’s been crazy. In amongst all the fun, I’ve come down with one of my biennial cases of otitis externa, which has me down from stereo to mono. Not-so-fun times. Thankfully, I have good medication in-hand for dealing with it. I’ll be back and kicking soon. Meanwhile, I’m digging out the 3000+ feed items that had accrued since my half-hearted pass through FeedLounge on Monday.

Thanks to those who left me well-wishes; I’m over the sinus infection and now am just battling the concomitant cold. [For the record, it really was the cold that exacerbated the issue, so maybe the sinus infection was concomitant to the cold? Ahhh, who cares. Pass the NyQuil!]

Predictably, work went insane while I was gone. All I did today was put out fires. Maybe I’ll make headway tomorrow…

Fighting off sinus infection. Missed work yesterday and today. Coming out of it now, I think, but … feel like I’ve been run over.

I really would like to know why Wednesdays have been bringing me skull-crushing sinus headaches for me this month. At least today’s version isn’t accompanied by a migraine. Little comfort, though…

Crap … I just lost a filling on a molar. Well, not lost … part of the filling covers the outside of the molar, and I just felt it come loose. I put it back in its place, but I will be calling the dentist come 0830 and seeing if they can fit me in today. :sigh:

I might have a thumper of a headache today—it’s showing indications that it might dissipate before evening, though—but I’m overjoyed by the fact that it’s 63F in the upstairs of my house with no input of my own. No, wait … it’s 62.5F!

I figure that I’ll fire up the heat sometime in November, but for now … it’s awesome weather if you’re a polar bear like me. [Yes, I'm wearing shorts. No, I'm not cold.]

Could someone direct Roto-Rooter to my right ear? Thanks. [Actually, by the time the hockey game started last night, I actually could halfway hear out of that ear. It was glorious ... and then the pain medication wore off, and it wasn't so much fun.]

Today’s a full day: we’ve got a campus visit day with prospective students on campus here this morning, then I’m wandering over to the office to do a few things, I’ve got some SGA stuff to do, and then there’s another hockey game tonight.

My life is rapidly returning to the helter-skelter days of my undergraduate career. Phew.

Turns I have a sinus infection in addition to the otits externa. After some antibiotics, ear drops, and nasal sprays … I feel much better.

Back to the office tomorrow to hit it full-throttle.

I’ve ended up with another lovely external ear infection. Unfortunately, it’s been three or four years since I last had one, so I don’t have any of the antibiotic/steroidal drops to handle the problem. I’ll be at the doctor first thing—I’d prefer that this eardrum didn’t rupture again.

It’s great that the Internet lets us treat symptoms when they’re not out of control; my TMJ is a lot better, although I still can’t open my mouth very wide.

[Insert joke about how I can't put my foot in my mouth right now here.]

Of course, now my allergies are acting up again. I can’t win for losing. [Yes, Mom, I'm taking my Claritin.]

Man. It feels like I’m developing TMJ.

Color me unhappy.

Sammy Sosa got a lot of crap last season when he sneezed his way onto the disabled list. Now, I believe him.

Yesterday as I pulled into work, I had the urge to sneeze. I was in mid-parking turn, so I held the sneeze back so I wouldn’t hit the car on either side of me. My body overpowered my mind, though, and with most of my body tensed up so I wouldn’t sneeze, I did so anyway. I felt a large POP! just under my rib cage on the left side.

Suffice it to say that sit-ups are not something I’m keen on doing right now. That said, it is a lot better today compared to last night, when I was around Stephen, Misty, Rick, Jessica, Jeff, Amy, Jason, and Chris, and every funny thing someone said was great until I actually started laughing…

Said to Gareth yesterday:

Y’know, I used to get sinus infections about every six to eight weeks and have a real good and nasty sinus headache about once every two or three months. Now, I get the sinus headaches very regularly, and I haven’t had a sinus infection for a year or so.

I seem to have fought this infection fairly well, and I could tell when I got up in the middle of the night that I was getting to the big breakup of it … which ends up looking and sounding very nasty. I’ll just leave it there.

But if I’m loopy for the next day or two—well, loopier than normal—you’ll understand.