Sick Day
I've been sick for the last three days. I went in for the morning on Tuesday but found myself coughing and sniffling and honking at my desk. This is fine when you're alone in an office or even a cubicle, but when you share an office with someone you quickly become self-conscious about just how much phlegm you're producing. So I went home again that afternoon, after postponing the talk I was supposed to give today (Wednesday) until next week. This morning I decided to ride it out one more day, just get the rest and fluids that the doctor always prescribes for such things. It seems to have worked.
When not sleeping or staring dazedly at the television through cold-medicine-glazed eyeballs, I learned how to use my new cd burner. Iomega's Predator was going for a fairly low price (about $150), so I snapped one up and joined the 1990s, at least in that respect. My Mac resembles Frankenstein's monster – it should be dead, but I keep shoving new parts into it and it keeps marching on.
Now burning mix CDs and backing up data is fine and all, but what I'm most interested in is Video CDs. I'm tired of the stacks of tapes with old TV shows that I watch once a year, usually when I'm sick or bored. If I could get those stacks of tapes down to corresponding stacks of CDs, now that would be something. So I've learned how all that works – it basically requires hours and hours of processing time, but the end result is an hour or so of adequate video on a CD, that will play in most home DVD players. Apart from archiving all those episodes of "Let's Bowl" and "Invader Zim," this will also be great for the occasional home video. Since I don't have that DVD burner (yet!), it will be nice to be able to send out the latest holiday or vacation video on CD instead of tape.
But enough with the geekspeak. Cooking lately has been practically non-existent. Reheated leftovers and dinners out with out-of-town guests have been the order of the day. I did make a chicken pot pie the other night, but that has been about it. (I did make the crust in that heavy-duty food processor Jen & Geoffrey sent us. Thanks guys!) I'm hoping to get back on the horse here later this week, but getting sick kind of kills the motivation to create culinary masterpieces.
This afternoon, when I started to feel better, I grew tired of wallowing in my own filth and actually began to tidy up the place. While dealing with the kitchen, I noticed that there were two lizards who had found their way in through the cracks around the edges of the window screens. They were just hanging out on the inside of the screen, happy as clams, if clams are happy. I shooed them back to the outside, lest they become playthings and (eventually) afternoon snacks for certain feline marauders we know.
Christina and I had dinner with Michael at Anna's last night. It was quite a sight, me snuffling and coughing into my baked ziti while a sunburned "Mr. P" (as some of his students call him) regaled us with tales of third grade terrors.
I think that's all I've got for now, except for the obligatory media report.
Just watched: Soul Survivors – I really wanted to like this one. Really, I did. It has Eliza Dushku, Luke Wilson, and Casey Affleck. And man, does it ever suck. As horror films go, this one is even worse than The Dorm That Dripped Blood. Hey, maybe that's because they were made by the same person!
I've been sick for the last three days. I went in for the morning on Tuesday but found myself coughing and sniffling and honking at my desk. This is fine when you're alone in an office or even a cubicle, but when you share an office with someone you quickly become self-conscious about just how much phlegm you're producing. So I went home again that afternoon, after postponing the talk I was supposed to give today (Wednesday) until next week. This morning I decided to ride it out one more day, just get the rest and fluids that the doctor always prescribes for such things. It seems to have worked.
When not sleeping or staring dazedly at the television through cold-medicine-glazed eyeballs, I learned how to use my new cd burner. Iomega's Predator was going for a fairly low price (about $150), so I snapped one up and joined the 1990s, at least in that respect. My Mac resembles Frankenstein's monster – it should be dead, but I keep shoving new parts into it and it keeps marching on.
Now burning mix CDs and backing up data is fine and all, but what I'm most interested in is Video CDs. I'm tired of the stacks of tapes with old TV shows that I watch once a year, usually when I'm sick or bored. If I could get those stacks of tapes down to corresponding stacks of CDs, now that would be something. So I've learned how all that works – it basically requires hours and hours of processing time, but the end result is an hour or so of adequate video on a CD, that will play in most home DVD players. Apart from archiving all those episodes of "Let's Bowl" and "Invader Zim," this will also be great for the occasional home video. Since I don't have that DVD burner (yet!), it will be nice to be able to send out the latest holiday or vacation video on CD instead of tape.
But enough with the geekspeak. Cooking lately has been practically non-existent. Reheated leftovers and dinners out with out-of-town guests have been the order of the day. I did make a chicken pot pie the other night, but that has been about it. (I did make the crust in that heavy-duty food processor Jen & Geoffrey sent us. Thanks guys!) I'm hoping to get back on the horse here later this week, but getting sick kind of kills the motivation to create culinary masterpieces.
This afternoon, when I started to feel better, I grew tired of wallowing in my own filth and actually began to tidy up the place. While dealing with the kitchen, I noticed that there were two lizards who had found their way in through the cracks around the edges of the window screens. They were just hanging out on the inside of the screen, happy as clams, if clams are happy. I shooed them back to the outside, lest they become playthings and (eventually) afternoon snacks for certain feline marauders we know.
Christina and I had dinner with Michael at Anna's last night. It was quite a sight, me snuffling and coughing into my baked ziti while a sunburned "Mr. P" (as some of his students call him) regaled us with tales of third grade terrors.
I think that's all I've got for now, except for the obligatory media report.
Just watched: Soul Survivors – I really wanted to like this one. Really, I did. It has Eliza Dushku, Luke Wilson, and Casey Affleck. And man, does it ever suck. As horror films go, this one is even worse than The Dorm That Dripped Blood. Hey, maybe that's because they were made by the same person!
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