SICK!!!

After spending all winter healthy as a horse, I've finally succumbed to a dreaded illness. I went to bed Sunday evening with a little bit of a sore throat, and woke up Monday with a REALLY sore throat. Then as the day went on, I could feel a fever rising. Not good. I made it through the day at work on Monday, and went home and CRASHED. Slept for 1 1/2 hours. My precious husband got me some Wendy's chili (one of my favorite foods of all time!), so I got up to eat that and to watch The Apprentice. After that, back to bed. My fever rose throughout the night, topped out at about 100.5, and my throat felt like it was on fire! But sadly enough, I have a deadline at work today that I just can't skip out on. So I did go ahead and come to work, and the more I'm up and about the better I'm doing. I'm MAD, though, that right now is when I go and get sick, when my mom's coming to visit in 2 days! So in the hopes that I might be feeling better by Thursday, I went to the doctor this morning. I was just about sure I had strep throat, because I had the painful sore throat and fever, but no other cold/flu symptoms, and strep throat went around here at work a week or 2 ago. However, the doctor (who was an Aggie, by the way, very nice guy) did a culture and it wasn't strep. He said it was pharyngitis, which is a big name for a virus that attacks your throat. Being a virus, there's nothing really I can do except wait for my body to heal itself. So he just recommended a fairly high dose of Aleve and an analgesic throat spray to make eating/sleeping easier. Said I should be better in 7-10 days. So sorry, Mom! I'm going to be pathetic while you're here!!! So the good news is that I'm really not very contagious anymore. The bad news is that he said I was most contagious on Saturday and Sunday before my symptoms showed up. Sorry, Lifegroup!!! I hope none of you come down with this! If you do, just down some Aleve, and you'll feel better in 7-10 days...

Down in Flames

Last night Gonzaga's dreams of victory in the NCAA Tournament went down in flames, and my brackets went with them. I had them picked to win it all. Sadly enough, when it all went down, I was sound asleep snug in my bed. Who would've thought it wouldn't be safe to turn off the TV when they have a 17-point lead at halftime?! I feel your pain, Adam Morrison.

You gotta feel bad for a guy who'll cry like a little girl right there on the basketball court. Ah well. There's always next year - for me to make some new brackets and Morrison to break into the NBA. Life goes on.

A Necessary Evil?!

I haven't posted in a while because I've been busy with Qwyzzle, but I have excellent news that together Kristy and I finally finished all 100 levels! Yes! We are the champions, my friend!!! We were a little bit disappointed that there wasn't any kind of reward at the end, just a note that you MAY get added to the hall of fame, but probably not. What's that about?! But it's still pretty satisfying to have figured out all 100 levels without cheating (unlike SOME people I know who shall remain nameless!!!). So we finished Qwyzzle on Tuesday, and then the next 2 days I've been working feverishly trying to catch up on all the work that I didn't do last week because of Qwyzzle! But now I have a moment to breathe so I'll post something before Kristy ends up biting her own wrists out of boredom. So having to actually DO the work that I'm getting paid for is the first necessary evil that I was referring to in the title of this post.

The second necessary evil is actually in reference to myself, apparently. One of Justin's friends posted on his blog a little quiz you can do to find out what kind of soft drink you are. Here's what it told me:

You Are Diet Coke

You are energy in its purest form. No need to complicate things with sweetness. And while people may hate your aftertaste, you are seen as a necessary evil. Your best soda match: 7 Up Stay away from: Coke

What Kind of Soda Are You?

What?! I'm too busy to be sweet, I leave a bad aftertaste, and people see me as a necessary evil?! Obviously these results are in no way accurate (I hope!), but I'm a little alarmed at how long and loud my husband laughed at these results. He spent the rest of the evening saying, "A necessary evil!" and laughing uncontrollably. He was a little sobered by the fact that his result was Coke, which is the kind they say I should stay away from. But I feel pretty sure that our marriage is still ok regardless of what this quiz says. There are some pretty funny quizzes on this website, though, so you all may want to check it out.

It Really IS A Madness!

I grew up knowing about March Madness. In high school and college I made my brackets and watched to see how well I did. In college, I watched some games and cheered desperately for KY. But my whole experience of March Madness so far in my life has been through the eyes of a single girl. Until this year... Now I'm married to a basketball fanatic, and I'm learning to discover that in March there really is a Madness that takes over the vast majority of the male population of America.

I guess I was just outside its realm of influence before. But now it's like I'm seeing March Madness with fresh eyes. College basketball is everywhere you turn, in every thought, every breath. While we were in San Antonio, we had complete strangers strike up long basketball conversations with us just because of Justin's Kentucky t-shirt. These guys knew all about Kentucky's stats, their history, their prospects for this year's tournaments... And they weren't even Kentucky fans!

Then I got home on my lunch break yesterday, and I couldn't even watch "As the World Turns" because they've replaced it with basketball! Since when is daytime TV supposed to be sports?! And not only was Justin watching the games on TV and flipping back and forth between several games, but he also had another game streaming live on his computer!! Now this really cracks me up - the website where he can watch all the live games has something called a "Boss Button," where if you're watching the game at work, and your boss suddenly comes in, just click the "Boss Button" and an Excel Spreadsheet will pop up and look like you've been working.

A friend of ours has even subscribed to the March Madness Network on TV, so he can simultaneously watch 3 games at once. Needless to say, Justin will spending a lot of time at his house for the next couple of weeks!!

Now please don't hear me complaining or saying that any of this is bad. It's not. In fact, it's great! (I'm slightly relieved to learn that it's not only MY husband who has this Madness!) I'm just commenting about how overwhelmed I am that all this exists! Before this year, I thought March Madness was only a cute name they came up with to call the tournament season. Now I realize they were being perfectly serious! These guys, and some women too, have a fever... And the only prescription is more basketball!!

So I say, if there's something that so many people are getting so desperately passionate about, including my precious husband, I better get in on it too! So today I'm wearing my Kentucky shirt, Kentucky socks, and I'm even wearing my blue underwear! (Sorry if that's TMI! I'm afraid the poor Wildcats need all the help they can get in this year's tournament!) Go get 'em, Wildcats! And bring on the Madness!!!!

Qwyzzle: The Scourge of Office Productivity

Some friends on a discussion board told me about an online quiz game that is a lot of fun. So innocently, without knowing what I was getting myself into, I started playing Qwyzzle 100. Now, I'm hooked and I've inadvertently gotten my whole office hooked too. None of us are getting any work done! It's an online game that has 100 levels. On each level, you're given a picture and a clue, and you have to use logic and lots of Google searches to reason out what the answer is. Upon entering the correct answer, you're taken to the next level and given a new, harder puzzle to work out. It is SOO ADDICTIVE!!! You find yourself obsessing over what the answer to your level is... You can't concentrate on getting any other work done because you're thinking about the level you haven't solved yet! And then when you finally get it, you know you should work on something else, but the thrill of solving just carries you into starting the next level! It's a vicious cycle that you just can't stop until you've solved all 100!!!! I started out working on it only at home, but then one day I was bored at work so I started working on them there. Then, Kristy told me she was bored, so I told her about it and she got hooked. Then Meredith heard us talking about it, so we told her about it and now she's hooked. Now Tracy came back from vacation and heard us all talking about, so she's going to start them too... Yet another person falls victim to Qwyzzle, the scourge of workplace productivity!! Meredith, who is still a good worker and only does them at home, said "Last night I was up til midnight working on Qwyzzle... Then even when I went to bed, I couldn't stop thinking about what the answer might be!!!" Kristy said, "These are hard and I can't concentrate on anything else... I think I'll stop at Level 50." Well, right now she's on Level 61. She got caught in the Qwyzzle trap!!! I'm also on Level 61, so I've made significant progress. But there are still 39 LOOOOOOOONG levels until I reach 100. We'll see how long it takes! Ah, but to imagine the thrill of victory when I get there! So if you're brave and have some time on your hands, try Qwyzzle 100... IF YOU DARE!!!!

TAGGED!

Four Jobs I've Had:
1. Church secretary
2. Day care worker (12-18 month-olds)
3. Missionary
4. Youth camp leader

Four Movies I Can Watch Over and Over:
1. Remember the Titans
2. The Princess Bride
3. Finding Nemo
4. Anchorman

Four TV Shows I Love to Watch:
1. The Apprentice
2. The Biggest Loser
3. Deal or No Deal
4. Extreme Makeover: Home Edition

Four places I've Been on Vacation:
1. Eureka Springs, AK
2. Dakar, Senegal
3. Poland
4. European Tour (England, France, Greece, Italy)

Four Favorite Dishes:
1. Wendy's Taco Salad!!!
2. Cajun Catfish
3. Mexican Casserole
4. Chili

Four Websites I Visit Daily:
1. Gmail
2. South Beach Diet Discussion Board
3. My hubby's blog
4. My family's blog

Four Places I'd Rather Be:
1. At home in bed
2. In Ohio with my family
3. Anyplace warm lying in the sun
4. At home in bed

Four Others I'd Like to Tag:
1. Justin
2. Corrie
3. Mom
4. Jessica

Fun Was Had By All

We had a fantastic time in San Antonio this weekend! We left Waco on Saturday morning and stopped outside of Austin for lunch at a place called The Salt Lick BBQ - it was the best barbecue I've had in my life. Then we continued on to San Antonio, checked into our hotel, and took the bus downtown. We wandered downtown, saw the Alamo, took a boat tour of the Riverwalk, and ate dinner at Casa Rio, an awesome Mexican restaurant right on the water. It was great! We took the bus back to the hotel and managed to catch the end of some college basketball games on TV, which was quite a treat since we don't have cable at home. The next morning, we got up and went to Oak Hills Church, where Max Lucado is the pastor. So it was pretty neat getting to hear him preach. He preaches exactly the way he writes - great imagery but not much substance. Then we started heading back north, stopping at the San Marcos outlets on the way. We shopped there for a while, but had the most shopping success at the Half Price Books we found a little further up the interstate. Then we got home at 5:00 on the dot to see the NCAA Tournament Selection Show. So all in all it was a very successful weekend and we had a lot of fun! I've posted a couple of pictures of the weekend on my Yahoo! photo album, which you'll find here.

Mormon Polygamy on HBO Show

I just saw this feature in the CNN Headlines about a new show coming out on HBO this season called "Big Love." It's about a Mormon family in Salt Lake City, which involves a man with three wives, and their struggles in keeping the peace in such a family. I'm really quite interested that such a show is actually being made in modern America, and I wonder what kind of response it will receive. Does anybody have thoughts on this?

Click here to read the full article.

Green Thumb?

I've decided to try my hand at gardening. Well, seeing as I don't have a yard, make that indoor potted gardening. I was given a poinsettia at work at Christmastime, and everybody else's in the office croaked, but mine flourished. So I began to wonder if maybe I have a green thumb, and since our apartment management forbids pets, I thought plants might be a subsitute of something I could take care of. My husband, who is so adept at figuring out ways to make me happy, learned of this new idea and bought me a miniature rose plant for Valentine's Day. It was a precious little plant, and I fell in love with it immediately. So I began researching miniature roses and trying to figure out how to keep this poor little thing alive. For the first 2 weeks, things weren't looking so hot. The leaves started to turn brown and all the blooms died. I said, "Maybe the green thumb idea was just a figment of my imagination." But then I decided to really get serious and invest in the little dude. So I bought a nice big pot and some moisture-controlling potting soil and repotted it, and I bought some Rose Food that I'll start giving it soon. I'm also leaving it outside all day while I'm at work, because roses need full sun. And it's starting to turn around!! I'm starting to see some new growth, which is a good indication to me that it's not dead! So we'll see if I can ever coax any blooms out of it. But either way I'm encouraged. My first 2 attempts at gardening in pots are turning out very nicely.

San Antonio or BUST!

Spring Break is coming up, and Justin and I have decided it's time to GET OUT OF TOWN! Sadly enough, even though Justin has Spring Break off of school, I still have to work. So we're just taking a little weekend excursion to San Antonio, only about 3 hours from home. We're looking forward to strolling the Riverwalk, remembering the Alamo, and eating some of the best barbeque Texas has to offer! (Check out http://www.saltlickbbq.com.) I'll plan on posting some pics once we get back, as long as I can figure out how...

Finally Succumbed

So I've finally succumbed to the blogging craze that's running rampant in this culture. I resisted having one for so long, because I felt like I didn't have anything valuable to say! But I'm looking around wondering, do any of us really have anything valuable to say? I find that I figure things out better when I'm telling someone else about them. So I'm hoping to post not only silly things, but also deep things to think about, and in writing about them, hopefully form my own opinions better. I'd love it if anyone else wants to add to my inner dialogue and add their own opinions too!