Caroline’s Kitty Corner

I’m trying to burn a couple more sections of a book I got off of Audible this afternoon, and there was apparently a problem with one of the disks so it’s starting all over again.  Good thing I’m using CD-RW disks so that I can erase the bad one and re-use it.

Anyway, I thought that tonight I’d write a bit about my Christmas decorations, or at least the ones that we’ve got up so far, and what my plans are for tomorrow when I’ve got someone coming to help string lights.

Two years ago we set up a tree.  If I remember right it was a five-footer, and we put it in front of our windows.  Cally took an immediate liking to it, and started using it for her personal jungle gym.  In fact, at one point she even managed to knock the entire thing over on top of me.  So last year, partly because of Cally, and partly because the tree that we’d used had sort of seen better days, we decided not to put up a tree.  I really wanted to do something this year though, so on Thanksgiving Day I found a really cool tree.  It’s a four-foot table tree with lights and fiber optics.  So, in addition to the traditional lights the tip of each branch has the fiber optic thing that changes color constantly.  To top it all off, the tree is white.  I was told that the tree is absolutely cool-looking.  We got some purple bows with gold beaded trim and I put those on for decoration.  Cally still thinks the tree is a chew toy, but as far as I know, so far she hasn’t tried climbing it this year.  Every time I have to retrieve her from the vicinity of the tree she lets out this really loud pitiful meow as if I’m seriously hurting her.  Poor little unloved beast!

Anyway, as part of the decorations, I wanted to find the rope lights that I used a couple of years back in the windows.  Unfortunately they seem to have disappeared into one of our many closets, and we don’t know where they got off to.  So I was going to forego the whole light thing.  Today though, someone in the building called us to ask if we wanted any of the Christmas stuff she was going to throw away.  I said I was definitely interested in looking at what she had so she brought it down.  Among all the things she had I found a box that plugs into the wall and then you plug in strings of lights to the box.  There’s a button on the box that, when pressed, plays about 30 different Christmas songs over and over.  As each song is playing, the lights on the tree or whatever flash to the rhythm of the song.  So, that’s pretty cool.  I hooked that up and tried to count the songs.  I lost count though at around 10 songs.  I also found several strands of lights.  I haven’t been through them all yet, but the ones I did check I only found one dead bulb, so that’s not so bad.  I can always pick up replacement bulbs at some point and put them in.  So, my plan is to either put lights up around the windows, (which sort of makes me nervous with these lights because our windows leak so bad), or else string lights up around the wooden archway that separates what’s supposed to be our dining area from our living room area.  I’m going to get the opinion of the person coming in tomorrow morning to help with that part.  I have this thing about standing on chairs, and besides, putting my arms above my head for extended amounts of time causes me to have problems.  So, we’ll see what happens.

I’m also a really big candle person.  I love to have them lit, especially the ones that really have a good smell.  I haven’t lit any in probably about a year now because I’m just not home as much, and if I don’t let them burn for at least a couple of hours at a time the wax starts to get funky.  But, I’ve got this thing that holds 4 candles and the front of it has snowflakes.  The light reflects off the snowflakes and shines through the holes.  I normally try to put in 4 of the same kind of candle so that they all match of course.

As for our other decorations, I’ve got a couple of little ornaments that I’m going to put on the tree, and then on the shelf that everyone has outside their apartments I’ve got a few little things set out along with the singing dog and Santa that Hallmark was selling last year.  We’ll finish the whole thing off with a door hanging that we’ll be getting later this week made out of real pine boughs, bells, ribbon, candy canes, and other things.  We’ve gotten these things every year since we moved in to this building in 2002, and they’re really neat.

Well, it’s getting to be about that time, and I really should get to bed.  And anyway, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is calling my name again so I want to read a little bit more.  But I wanted to write about my decorations.  What are others doing for decorations/

Okay, so today I’ll write about the sleep study.  Fortunately I didn’t do anything, um, weird this time, and I actually did get a bit more sleep.  It was pretty much the same as last time.  However I made it a point to count the number of electrodes that they pasted on me and came up with twenty.  There were four on my legs, (that’s total not on each one), two on my chest, two on my chin, two by my eyes, two by my ears, and the rest on my head.  They are either coming up with a new system for checking oxygen levels, or else they ran out of the standard equipment because instead of the usual clip that they put on your finger they wrapped something around my finger and then taped it.  I felt like I had an IV in my hand because I couldn’t move the finger or really do anything effectively with my hand.

I was really super tired Wednesday night.  I had just come from a Lions Club meeting where someone received a Melvin Jones award, which is one of the highest awards you can get as a Lion.  I wanted to take a nap earlier in the day, but I knew that I’d probably be making a big mistake if I did that so I made myself find things to do to occupy myself.  

So, once they got me all hooked up to the electrodes they put the first mask on me.  If you haven’t ever had the opportunity to see what these masks are like, they’re interesting.  The first one they tried on me only went over the nose.  It was this rubber thing that fit onto a cup and then two sets of straps connected to this cup along with a head piece that rests on the forehead.  I had this first mask on from about 10:00 PM until 1:00 AM.  I finally couldn’t stand it anymore.  It was probably the most painful thing I’ve ever dealt with on my face accept for my rejected cornea transplant in 1995, and I’ve still got a swollen spot on one side of my nose and a sore spot on the other from the mask.  Apparently you can’t see the spots, so that’s good.  The second mask was on me for about two hours.  It was another nose mask, but it had a lot more padding.  I liked it but it seemed to let a lot of air out the sides where it wasn’t supposed to leak.  Finally I asked for a full face mask.  These masks are the same as the nose masks, but they go down to either the top of the chin or just under the chin.  The one I had went to the top of the chin and covered both my mouth and nose.  I have a mark from that one too, but there was no pain and no leaking, so that made a difference for me.  Once my machine comes that’s the kind of mask I’m going to get.  They started me off at number 7 and worked me up to 9, which by some standards is rather low.  But it was enough for me, and the sleep I did get was quite good, especially since it was a strange crackly bed and the light was still there.  I’m not sure, but I think I may have actually had the same room both times.  There was only one other person there that night since it was the night before Thanksgiving, but I didn’t want to put it off any longer.  So, it’s done.  The next step is waiting for my doctor, or whoever it’s going to be, to contact me about getting someone to come by with the machine and show me how it works and get me set up with the mask and everything.  So, we’ll see what happens there.

Well, I seem to be having typing issues all of a sudden so I think I’m going to get out of here.  I’ll let everyone know when I get my machine.

I had originally planned to update everyone on my sleep test from last night.  But, after reading a recent entry on Snowflake’s Blog I decided that I wanted to put off that entry for a while in favor of a great family story of my own.  The difference is that this entire story actually happened.  I’m reasonably sure though that nobody mentioned in this even reads my blog, so I shouldn’t have to worry about any 2:00 AM phone calls or Christmas packages containing rotten vegetables.

I’m the youngest of five kids; the oldest is twelve years older than me and the rest are spaced between us.  I can’t remember if this particular incident took place at Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner, so let’s just say that I’m pretty sure I was nine.  I was old enough at any rate to understand what was going on around me.

Anyway, we always had the infamous kids table set up off to the side of the regular table.  At nine I was feeling pretty much too old to hang out with the kids, but I was there just the same.  My oldest sister had two kids at the time, ages five and three, so I was the big kid.  My other sister was nearing her sixteenth birthday, and somehow to topic of conversation turned to the upcoming driver’s license test.  From out of nowhere, my five-year-old nephew spoke up and says, “Kristina can’t get her driver’s license until she gets her period.”  Now, of course he actually meant to say permit and we all knew it, but everybody just started laughing.  I’m sure that my sister probably wished for a really big hole to open in the floor so that she could crawl into it, but the rest of us thought it was the best line of the day.

Anyway, we’re leaving in about a half hour to spend Thanksgiving with a friend and her family, so I’m going to end this, but I just remembered that story and had to share it.  Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

Well, it’s been a long evening, so I thought I’d write up another entry.  Tonight I’ll do that other entry I was thinking about, and by the subject I’m sure you’ve all ready guessed what it’s going to be about.  Taz and Cally.

I wanted to tell a story about when we first got Cally, but it requires a bit of background before I can get to the story part, and I hope that it doesn’t lose part of the humor in the telling.

We wanted to get a second cat because we were both really getting kind of busy during the day, and Taz was spending a lot of time home alone.  I thought that it would be good for him to have a playmate, so we sort of started looking around.  We heard about Cally, and I jumped at the chance.

So, when we got Cally home, she was really scared.  She’d been with one family for a year, and then with someone else for a couple of weeks before she came to us, so she was kind of in shock anyway.  We wanted to introduce the cats to each other slowly so we set up a litter box and food station in our guest room.  Now though, I have to explain a bit about the layout of our apartment for this to make any sense.  When our building was designed I guess they wanted to give the appearance that we had balconies on the apartments or something, so some of the units have sort of an extended living room area with a couple of extra windows.  So, when you first walk into our apartment you’re in the kitchen.  Walk forward a little and you have the living room straight ahead, to the left is the master bedroom and to the right down a short hall is the guest bedroom (now my office), and the bathroom.  Our living room is one that extends out farther because we are on the end of a wing.  So, in addition to the big windows that we have in each bedroom and in the living room that face north, we have a smaller window that faces east.  All of these windows have a very wide shelf at the level of the window sill.  And, apparently you can look out the east window and look in the north window of the guest room.  At that time we had a couple of chairs set up in the corner where the north and east windows come together, and this is where the story starts.

As I said, we had Cally in the guest room so that she could get used to things more slowly; scents, sounds, things like that.  I spent several nights in there with her so that she wouldn’t be alone, and I went in several times a day as well. Jim went in also, but she refused to even give him the time of day so it was pretty much me.  At one point though, maybe two or three days after she came to us, Jim and I were sitting in the chairs by these two windows watching TV.  Taz came up, and we were petting him and giving him some attention so that he wouldn’t think we were trying to ignore him.  He climbed up into the east window and sort of started pacing.  We didn’t think anything of it because he has always liked the windows and we figured that he was just trying to get some sun.  As we were watching TV though, Taz started to growl and hiss.  I’d never really heard him do that kind of thing before, so it was pretty weird.  Jim suggested that I go check on Cally because he suspected that they had seen each other for the first time.  Sure enough, when I went into the guest room Cally was up in the window with her back arched just hissing like crazy.  They had, for the first time, noticed each other, and it wasn’t very pleasant.  We couldn’t help but laugh though because it was just so funny to see those two sitting in their respective windows carrying on this non-verbal conversation, and both trying to outdo the other.  From then on, Taz would sit outside the door of the bedroom and growl.  A couple days later though I decided it was time to start mixing them a bit so I left the bedroom door open.  Cally wanted no part of it and she curled up on her condo or under the bed.  The next day I opened the door and tried to slip in without Taz getting in and Cally slipped out.  That was the end of her staying in the bedroom.  She was cautious for a while, but she started exploring and soon this place was as much hers as it was Taz’s.  They had no trouble sharing food or litter box, so we took down box number 2.  We figured there was no reason for it.

They get along quite nicely now.  They have their occasional spats, (usually at 3:00 AM on top of my legs), but for the most part they do really well together.  Cally has also finally warmed up to Jim which is good.  He wanted to be friends, but at first she’d run the other way if he tried to come close to her.  Those days are definitely over now.  The only thing that sort of set her back was when we took her to the vet to get declawed and fixed, but after the misery she put us through for a couple of weeks we decided that we were absolutely not going through that again.  And, the rest is history.

I had a hard time tonight trying to decide what I wanted to write about in this entry.  I actually have to ideas, but I think I’ll save one of them for another time.  For now I’m feeling like being informative, maybe.  Tonight’s topic?  anti-virus software.  Okay, don’t stop reading, I know you’re tempted.

Anyway, it’s like this.  For years I was really super cocky and I said that I didn’t need no stinkin’ virus program.  Well, I learned my lesson the hard way, not on my machine, but on Jim’s.  It was just over three years ago and I remember it well, partly because of the needless expense it caused us.  We had just moved into our current apartment.  The building was brand new, and construction wasn’t even completely finished on the building when we moved in.  The worst part about the whole thing was that they didn’t even have any cable connection yet, so we had to go back on dial-up.  After being on cable, dial-up is awful!  Anyway though, I keep our computers networked (which pretty much taxes my knowledge of networks in general).  I started this about 4 or so years back so that we could share first our DSL modem and then our cable modem.  (And, now that our machines are in separate rooms the network is really paying off.)  Well, when we moved I didn’t have the network connected because it was pretty much pointless since we didn’t have cable yet.  This also meant of course that there was absolutely no firewall, hardware or software, and of course, no anti-virus software.  Within a matter of days, the computer was doing some really strange things.  So, I decided that I was going to be smart and take a trip to Best Buy and pick up a copy of Norton.  Good thought in theory.  Unfortunately, by this time the computer was just too far gone.  I took it in to a local computer shop, (rather conveniently located about 6 blocks or so away from us).  I don’t remember what it cost us to get it fixed, but I do know that they had to reformat the hard drive, and I believe they said that there were over 900 viruses on board that machine.  So, you can see how stupid I can be at times.  I learned my lesson from this experience, and I tell this story many times when talking with people who don’t understand the importance of practicing “safe computing”.  I don’t consider myself to be stupid, but that was really a boner on my part.

So anyway, you’re probably wondering where I’m going with this, and I’m getting there in my own sweet time.  Be patient, and you’ll see my point.  Since that time I’ve been experimenting with different anti-virus programs.  I found Norton to be very system intensive, and at that time it kept crashing speech programs, so for quite a while I used the free anti-virus program AVG.  I loved the price tag, and I’d heard very good things about it.  For a while I also experimented with a program called F-prot, but I just kept going back to AVG.  

Recently though, I read an email about a program called Nod32 which, although not free, offered both a 30-day timed evaluation and a reasonable price tag.  I downloaded it about a month ago.  Although my time wasn’t supposed to run out until sometime next week, I started getting warning messages yesterday that my demonstration time had expired and that my virus definitions could no longer be updated.  It was time for me to make a decision.  Should I go back to AVG or should I pay the $39 and get a licensed copy of Nod32?

Stay tuned for the next installment.

Haahaa.  No seriously, I decided to go with Nod32 and here’s why.  In reading through the information on the web page I liked what it had to say.  Also, while using AVG I found that I had to set it to update and scan my computer during the night because during the scan process my machine was very slow to respond and just plain sluggish overall even though I’m running a 2.8 gig machine with 512 megs of RAM.  Also, I found that many times the message that AVG had finished updating or scanning never went away on its own as it should have done, so that would often become an issue for me.  

After installing the Nod32 demo I was surprised about several things.  First of all, the set up process was very straight forward.  Not that other programs aren’t, but many of them require additional configuring once installation is complete, and many times people don’t have any idea what choices to make because things aren’t explained well.  There was no configuration needed with Nod32.  Second, the program interface was unbelievably simple, and completely navigable from the keyboard.  The screen consists of two panes; one for the selection of options and the other for the options themselves.  It couldn’t get more simple than that, right?  Then there’s the matter of the system itself.  When Nod32 updates, a balloon pops up informing me that my definition signature is current and then it goes away.  No cluttered screen, no window blocking more important things on the screen.  I have yet to encounter a virus, so not sure how it’ll handle that, but given everything I’ve seen so far I have absolutely no reason to think that it won’t handle that well too.  I suppose it’s a good thing that I haven’t gotten a virus yet, so people, please don’t start sending me viruses okay?  SMILE!  (I heard of a guy who literally collected viruses to see if he could learn to crack them).  

Anyway, that’s my story.  Took me long enough to get to the point, but I enjoy being long-winded.  But now it’s bedtime.  Maybe my next entry will be about the other topic I was thinking of writing about.

I’ve called my blog Caroline’s Kitty Corner, but I’ve never really talked too much about my cats. So, I thought that tonight, since I really don’t have anything better to do I’d write about them. I was sort of inspired since Taz, our 10-year-old tabby, is walking around on my desk right now trying to get me to pay attention to him. He’s also blocking my speakers. Cally, our three-year-old calico, normally likes to sit in front of the monitor. Now, this might sound harmless enough, but I’m telling you, this cat probably weighs about thirteen pounds. Taz is only eight pounds, but that’s still about the weight of a new-born baby. Oops, I just bumped him and heard about it. Now he wants to help me type. Good thing I proofread before posting.

Anyone who says that cats don’t have any personality has never owned cats. These guys are two of the most interesting animals I’ve ever seen. Take Cally for instance. She loves water. I remember one time, not too long after we first got her two years ago, when I was attempting to get into the tub to take a bath. Not knowing that Cally was sitting on the edge of the tub, I put my foot up and kicked her right into the tub which was completely full of water. I think she was a little bit surprised when it happened because it took her a little bit to realize what was happening, and she climbed out really slow as if she was trying to decide whether she liked it or not. Then she went and used our carpet as a towel. And, she didn’t learn from this. Now whenever I go to get in the shower she’s still right there and has to watch as I turn on the water. She will either stand outside the tub and meow at me, or she’ll climb onto the side of the tub and stand between the two curtains. I’m telling you this animal is mental!!!

Taz on the other hand is just plain crazy. He likes to sleep under the covers with us. Last night he was sleeping by my feet and then decided that he was cold. So, he crawled up on top of me because he just couldn’t walk up on the bed itself, and started purring in my ear and nudging the covers. This is his way of saying that I have to pick up the covers and make a tunnel for him to crawl into. So, he went in. Then he’ll lay down and start slowly pushing Jim and me in opposite directions as if he’s trying to push us out of bed so that he can have more of it for himself. Taz is also one that loves to be picked up and held. Cally is a snuggler too, but it’s got to be on her own terms. And anyway, she’s so heavy that even if I did pick her up I wouldn’t be able to hold her for very long.

Well, I’m going to try adding a picture that I have of me with both cats that was taken on February 14, 2004. I’m not sure if what I’m going to do will work, and I can’t sign up for the Blogger picture thing because it has a stupid graphical verification to get past. So, you may get a picture, you may not. (And you won’t. I’ll see if I can get it added later on somehow.)

Okay, this is really super funny.  I got this from Snowflake’s Blog.  It works like this.

In a Google search, type “YourName needs” where YourName is your name, and then take the first ten things that come up and add your own comment.  Make sure to put your entire search term in quotes as I have done here.  I had to go beyond the first ten things because I had a couple of duplicates.  So, here are my results.

1.     Caroline needs to find a way to begin to make amends for what she has done. …
Hmm.  Well, whatever I’ve done I’m sorry!  But please, someone, tell me what it was so I don’t do it again?

2.     Caroline needs to calculate an hourly heat input rate for her natural gas …
Hey, wait a minute here.  I have not eaten any beans today, nor have I had any in at least a couple of weeks.

3.     Caroline needs many buddies, and even more prayers. Caroline will never be adoptable.
Well thanks guys.  I know I’m a pain in the butt, but isn’t “never” kind of severe?

4.     Caroline needs a car to get to the supermarket
Well finally one I can agree with!  Yes, I sure could use a car, but then I’d also need a driver.

5.     Caroline needs the money but is reluctant to take from a child.
Again, this goes back to the car issue.  I can’t get a car unless I have the money, and I can’t seem to find a child with enough to pass on to me, especially since I’d feel so terrible about taking from him/her.

6.     Caroline needs an MRI every year for the rest of her life.
Now this is news to me.  What, are they afraid that I might not have a brain and they need to keep checking?

7.     Caroline needs to find a central London location for the event.
Hmm.  Never even been to London, and now I’m planning events there.  Wow!  I guess I sure do get around!

8.     Caroline needs help coving a bedroom ceiling.
Well, let me look up the word “coving” and then I’ll let you know if I still need help.  Hmm.  Wonder if they’d let me change the ceiling in my bedroom of a rented apartment?

9.     Caroline needs other people for almost every thing and is surprised when she doesn’t get her way.
Now this makes me sound like a spoiled brat!  I’d like to think I grew out of that stage a long time ago.  What?  You mean I can’t have that great new toy for Christmas?  I’m terribly upset now!  I need all of you to help me get over it.

10.     Caroline needs to be able to trust her heart.
Okay.  At least the last one is true.  So I will trust my heart.  I’ll post this entry and go to bed.  I trust that you all find it acceptable?

Well, I’m going to go to bed early tonight, I hope.  Last night I was up late reading blogs and then couldn’t get comfortable.  This morning I had to get up early.  The night before I had three conversations going on MSN Messenger and didn’t want to break them off because I was having a blast.  So, tonight I really want to try to get to bed at least by 10:00, which is the time I really try to stick to, especially during the week.  I don’t have to work tomorrow, and then I’m going out of town for the weekend for the Wisconsin Council annual awards banquet.  I’m on both the scholarship and awards committees, so have a few presentations to give on Saturday night, and meetings on Friday and Saturday.  So that should be a rather hectic weekend.

I finally heard from the sleep clinic this afternoon about scheduling my second night in the Hospital Hilton.  I’ll be going in on November 23rd, which is of course, the day before Thanksgiving.  We have plans for Thanksgiving Day, but I’m hoping that I will either sleep better now that I know exactly what’s going to be going on and because I’ll actually be on the CPAP machine the entire night, or be able to come home and crash for a couple of hours before we get picked up for dinner, (which is probably going to be sometime around 11:00 or 12:00.  I know last time they woke me up at 5:00 AM, so I should have time to come home and sleep if necessary.  And believe me, I won’t make the same mistake I made last time.  I’ll be changing in the bathroom, not in the room.  I just wish I could put on a couple of eye patches to block out the light.  Then I’d really be able to sleep better.  I just can’t stand light!

Speaking of light, here’s a strange one.  I was at the VA again today doing another type of open house.  There were vendors all over this big conference room, and they sort of had us divided up into sections.  So, our table was right by the Wisconsin Regional Library.  Anyway though, I was absolutely floored because this room was very poorly lit.  I normally sit around my apartment with very few lights on, especially if I’m in front of my computer, but I was really surprised that a public room would be that dim.  I can’t even describe it well, except to say that it was probably half of what a typical room would be with all the lights on.

Well, if I’m going to make my 10:00 PM bedtime, I need to go now and post this.  So, that’s it for tonight.

Okay.  So today I found out that I’ve got a stalker.  Well, that’s not really true.  I gave out my blog address last week and the person has been silently reading.  SHE NEEDS TO LEAVE A COMMENT.  Haahaa.  She says she’s stalking me, so that’s why I’m calling her a stalker.  Seriously though, it’s nice to know I’m being read.  I know that others are thinking that they’re only being read by two or three people, but it would really be interesting to know how many people; legitimate people and not just spammers that get deleted right away, actually visit blogs.  I’ve never actually randomly looked at someone else’s blog without knowing the person, but it’d be really easy to do.  I actually saw something on blogger.com about a person who was trying to go for this massive record of visiting a certain number of blogs with a certain amount of time.  Sorry I can’t be more specific, but I honestly just don’t remember the numbers.  Me and numbers don’t really get along.

Well, the cold seems to be going away, and I’m considering myself lucky that with my asthma it wasn’t any worse.  And, that funky zit thing is gone too.  I killed it with Avon, and it’s been fine.  Why am I writing about this again?  Who knows.

Tonight I went to the Outback Steak House for dinner.  If you’ve never been there you have absolutely no idea what you’re missing!!!!  I’m sad to say though I actually chose not to get a steak this time.  I went for the Alice Springs Chicken, which is this absolutely huge chicken breast with bacon, cheese, mushrooms and honey mustard.  It came with a side of their garlic mashed potatoes which were, as usual, excellent.  I also split an appetizer of breaded mushrooms.  Now, I have to say that I’m really picky about breaded stuff.  I don’t like a lot of breading because to me it takes away from the flavor of the food, and in some cases ruins it for me.  These mushrooms had the absolute best breading ever!!  It actually had a bit of a kick to it, and it almost tasted like the mushrooms were grilled.  I really don’t know how else to explain it.  I’d recommend this place to anyone who loves steak and all related food.  Jim stayed true to form and got a cheeseburger.  I don’t get it.  We go to a really nice place and he gets a burger.  He says he used to drive his mother nuts that way too.  Oh well, more for me.

Last Wednesday I placed my order for the Professor that I wrote about in a previous entry.  I’m not sure when it’s supposed to arrive, but I’m getting really excited about it.  It should be a really neat thing, and I hope it’s worth it.

Well, I’m starting to get behind in my TV shows again, so I think I’m going to go put in a video tape and curl up with a cat or two.

Okay, so tonight I feel like whining, just a little bit.  I figure that everyone should know about this.  SMILE!  I chose to get my flu shot, which I do every year.  I just happen to be one of those people who seems to catch every little bug that goes around, and since I have asthma, I always get the flu shot.  So anyway, I’ve got that on my left arm.  It’s not overly painful, but it is just a bit uncomfortable.  (So why am I on the computer?  Because I can.)  Then, there’s this slight matter of a cold.  Again, compared to some things I get, it’s very mild.  In fact, I choose to call it allergies rather than a full-blown cold.  Unfortunately, my nose isn’t very happy with me at the moment.  It has apparently decided that tonight of all nights is a really good night to start producing a zit!  Can you believe it!  Terrible thing!  Anyway though, so every time I try to blow my nose or even open my mouth the stupid thing hurts.  (Sorry guys, this doesn’t mean I’m going to shut up for a while.  I don’t know how anyway.  SMILE!)  So, between my left arm and my nose, I’ve decided that it’s time to trade in my body for something newer.  Haahaa.  

I bought some air freshener plug-in things the other day, and it was right after I plugged those in that I started to get stuffy, so that’s why I choose to blame allergies rather than an actual cold.  Unfortunately though, unplugging the things doesn’t seem to have made any difference, so who knows.  

Well, there really isn’t much else going on here tonight.  It’s raining, and we had one really loud thunder clap, but that’s it.  If we’re going to get a storm in November, at least it should be a real one.  Come on!

Okay, it’s time for me to get out of here.  I’m going to go soak my head or something, so I’ll write more later.