The "F" word

I'm gonna use it. The "F" word -- the three letter one, that is. The FLU. There, I said it out loud. This H1N1 flu stuff is starting to scare the bejeezus out of me.

Earlier this week, a friend of a friend of my sister's passed away from complications of H1N1. She was in her late 20s, had a 9-month old baby. Then last night, I came across the Cheaper Than Therapy blog, where a mother is chronicling the story of her adult son's fight against this. And this morning my mom told me that someone I grew up with has been in ICU on a ventilator for three weeks with it.

I got my kids and myself the regular flu shot, but I was going to pass on the H1N1 vaccine. Too new, too untested, I told myself. But the more I hear about this, the more anxious I am about it. I keep checking our county health department site to find out when and where we can get the vaccine.

I sat my kids down this morning and gave them all a lecture about washing hands and covering coughs. I'm considering instituting a ban on sleepovers because those all nighters don't really do anything to help their immune systems.

The building where I work has a community health clinic on the first floor and WIC offices on the second floor. For the past 5 weeks, I've taken the stairs to my third floor office (no touching the handrails!) because I'm sure that there are fewer germs in the stairwell than on the elevator. Then I hit the hand sanitizer as soon as I get to my office to get rid of whatever germs might have been lurking in the stairway.

And the thought of germs on Halloween candy that gets handed out tonight? I think I just have to say a prayer about that because that just might push me over the edge.

I'm trying to temper my anxiety with the knowledge that we know several people who've had it who, while being really miserable for several days, have not had severe complications.

Are you concerned? If it's available, will you get the vaccine for yourself and/or your kids? Do you think giving the teachers decorator bottles of hand sanitizer for Christmas is a little over the top?

What is it with the garage?

This post was brought to you by Facebook...

I posted on my Facebook page this morning that I want to clean out my closet today, but being Fall Break, I think my kids have something a little more fun in mind. One of my FB friends -- a guy, which is important to this story -- remarked, "Like cleaning out the garage."

What is it with men and the garage? I swear, I think that the priority of thoughts men have running through their heads at all times looks like this:

1. Sex.
2. Food.
3. Garage.

Likely followed by sex in the garage while a big steak is cooking on the grill nearby.

But back to the garage thing. Why is it that men seem to spend so much time thinking about this dirty, greasy space?

Often, we can have a house full of chaos and mess and Mike's first thought is to clean out the garage. As if the mysteries of the universe are contained out there. And I know I'm not alone. Other wives have told me their husbands are the same way.

Perhaps cleaning out the garage is to a man what organizing the scrapbooking or craft supplies is to a woman. Activity that looks like work, but actually is an escape from the real work that needs to be done.

Maybe it's that the garage is the man's domain. Maybe it's not so much the call of the garage, but distancing themselves from the nagging wife and the whiny kids on the other side of the door? I don't have any desire to spend more time there than I have to. There are mice out there. Or at least there were at one time and I'm not about to go find out if that's still true.

Can you tell much about a person by the way he keeps his garage? My neighbor's garage is immaculate. He epoxy'd the floor and put in an awesome heater. Some might say this points to his industrious and fastidious character (he is both). I think it's more that his wife let him do this so if he ever peeves her bad enough she can make him sleep in the garage without feeling too bad about doing so.

Men, shed a little light for us. What is it about the garage that is so appealing? Women, am I in the minority here? Or do the men in your lives have a thing for the garage, too?

The Biggest Loser: GRRRRRR!

Ok. Can I just say (of course I can, it's my blog) that I am SICK TO DEATH of contestants throwing themselves under the bus? Arrrrrggggghhhh! For crying out loud, let people make up their own minds based on how they perceive the game to be going. STOP saying "send me home."

Tonight it was Abby. The Black Team lost the Face Off Weigh Ins. I was thinking that either Amanda or Daniel should be a little nervous. Amanda because she walked out of the gym and has generally been a pansy this season. Daniel because he is just not putting up the kind of numbers you (usually) need to stay.

But NO...Abby starts it right off with "my journey is different than yours." And I understand. I do. Abby was on the Biggest Loser ranch to learn to live again, to learn to love again, to do more than just exist. But for crying out loud! I was royally ticked when the Black Team -- all but Danny -- honored Abby's wish and sent her packing.

AAAAARRRRRRGGGGGGHHHHH!

Ok...deep breath...now that my little rant is over, I will say that Abby has done a phenomenal job since going home. She's lost a total of 80 pounds and looks great!

Other highlights from tonight's show:

• Best celebrity mash up: Liz -- a cross between Paula Deen and Flo from the 80's show Alice
• Best quote of the night: Abby, upon hearing that she'd been chosen to face off against Tracy on the scale -- "Tracy is, um, well she's crazy. Tracy's crazy so you just never know what's gonna happen."
• Best nicknames: Given by Shay to Rudy -- Rudy the bear, the lumberjack, Paul Bunyan
• Best celebrity impersonation: Jillian, aka Dr. Phillian, trying to get in the heads of Amanda, Abby and Shay
• Best personal epiphany: Abby -- "I came here looking for a purpose - being present in my own life again. To have the energy to get up. I'm doing it. I can love people again. It's scary to love people when you've lost everything. I'm strong. I'm gonna live and not just exist anymore."
• Best milestone: Rudy -- who set a new Biggest Loser record by losing 100 pounds in just 7 weeks at the ranch!
• Best recurring theme: It's been said more than once this season -- YOU CAN MAKE A DIFFERENT CHOICE. I think that's worth putting on my mirror and my fridge and my dashboard.

Curious to hear what you all thought!

Looking for more great blogs to read?

Indiana's Top 50 Blogs contest is going on right now and there is lots of great content out there to read. Some of the blogs are business blogs. Some are lifestyle. Some are family blogs, like mine.

Oh, did I mention that my blog has been nominated? I have a measly 12 or so votes right now, but you know what they say...it's an honor just to be nominated. What I'm more jazzed about is that two of the other blogs I write for -- The Indiana Insider and Fit City Indy Moms Blog -- have also been nominated.

If you want to read some great blogs, go to Indiana's Top 50 Blogs and check a few out. (Oh yeah, vote if you want!) Of course, you can also find great content in the blogs listed in my blogroll to the right.

Gross anatomy

This morning as I was giving the kids some medicine, Charlie asked what would happen if he took Annie's medicine.

"It's illegal and you can go to jail," Annie quickly said. I took a different -- and less punitive approach and said that you should never take medicine that is not yours because it can make you very sick.

"Like sick, how?" Charlie wanted to know.

"Well, for one, it can damage your liver," I answered.

Relieved, Charlie said, "Well, then I don't have to worry about that because boys don't have livers because they can't get pregnant."

Hmm...maybe "Paging Dr. Charlie" is not quite in his future...

The girl cracks me up!

Remember last July that I told you my daughter Annie started her own blog? It's been a really fun experience to read what's on her mind -- sometimes things that she might not come right out and tell me in a conversation.

This recent entry gave me such a laugh, that I had to share it here (in purple, just as it is on her blog:)

Saturday, October 17, 2009

Wow.

THIS. IS. AMAZING. i have a B+ in math. my WORST subject. well not any more!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO *gasp for air* HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!! so friday was the end of the quarter. so mrs. boyll made figuring out our grade an in-class assignment. when she told us this i was thinking " great. im gonna have like an F! well at least no one else will see it." so i began adding and multiplying and subtracting and dividing on my little calculator. honestly i thought my calculator would explode with all the numbers i was putting in. finally i just had to add in my test score then i would be done. when i added in the 86% (a low B. i know i was amazed too.) from my test i couldn't believe my eyes. the little calculator said i had a 89.71% . i started rechecking my work to make sure i hadn't screwed something up during all my cal-cu-la-tions. (inside joke haha) i didn't. i really had a B+ in math. so when is Jesus coming?

Posted by Annie at 12:44 PM 1 comments

Am I boring?

I'm getting the feeling that my blog entries have become boring lately. Is that true? (Be honest, now.)

It feels a little like I've lost that zippy voice I had when I first started blogging. A little like my posts are kind of cliche and mundane, maybe a bit predictable. Even my Biggest Loser posts seem to have lost a little punch.

I've lost a couple of followers in the past few weeks, so maybe I'm just paranoid. I try to not get all wrapped up in the numbers, but can't lie -- I do pay attention.

Do you think I'm boring? It's ok if you say yes -- but please tell me what you'd like to read instead.