highland games 2012

Authentic fish and chips and men in kilts = my favorite day of the year!

Wolfhounds

CJ the hot didgerido player from the band "Wicked Tinkers"

Posing by the minis

Fish and chips!

The band "Brother"

random musings

These are the random thoughts I've had the last couple days. In no particular order....

"You know what's a weird word? Guacamole. Sure is yummy though..."

"That guy has lady hands."

"I need to organize the kitchen cupboards."

"He's cute. Too bad he's a processor. He's probably not that bright. Wait. I'm a processor now..."

"When I get home I should spend some time pulling some weeds."

"I need a book to listen to. I wonder if I can get an audio book on my Kindle..."

"I kind of want to give Thomas a hug. Except that he's a total douche bag." (he's a character on the show Downton Abbey)

"I should update my profile on Match."

"No Strings Attached came out 12 years ago? That means I graduated high school 12 years ago. Man, I'm old."

"My neck hurts. I need new pillows."

"I want to go to Disneyland."

upper respiratory infection

I went to the Minute Clinic yesterday at CVS and was diagnosed with an upper respiratory infection. The nurse practitioner was very nice. She told me to take ibuprofen and Mucinex during the day for the congestion and pain from the cough (also to help relieve some swelling in my ears and hopefully prevent an ear infection) and then perscribed a cough syrup with codeine in it and some pills to help with my cough at night so I can get some sleep. She also said to sleep with a humidifier if I had one.

After getting my perscriptions filled and purchasing the other medicine she advised I called mom to see if I could borrow the humidifier that we've had since J.R. and I were little. I went over to get it and ended up getitng talked into staying all day and resting on the couch. I have to say, it was nice to have other people take care of me for a few hours. I just hope I didn't get any of them sick. I guess we'll just have to wait and see...

Last night I came back to my house to sleep so I didn't keep anyone awake all night with my coughing. I took a couple of the pills, set up the humidifier, propped myself up on my pillows and tried to get some sleep. I got a little bit. I woke up every couple hours, but was able to get a few good stretches in of about 3-4 hours each.

I was supposed to teach in Relief Society today, but I'm not going to make it to church. I texted the girl in the presidency who is over the teachers and told her I was really sick. I'm going to plant myself either back in bed or on the couch and try to get some more sleep today, so I can hopefully feel well enough to go to work tomorrow. I have a feeling, though, I may be calling out again. We'll see. The blessing in all of this has been that my new roommate hasn't moved in yet. I would have felt really bad about keeping her awake all this week at night with my coughing, ad putting her at risk of getting infected. I need to kick this thing so no one else gets sick and so life can get back to normal.

Here's praying...

la fheile padraig

Happy St. Patrick's Day (La Fheile Padraig)!!

I honor of the holiday, here are some trivia facts and things I love about Ireland....

*St. Patrick's real name was Maewyn Succat and he was born in Scotland.

*The color originally associated with St. Patrick's Day was blue.

*There are more Americans of Irish origin than there are Irish in Ireland.

*There are four places in the United States named Shamrock, and nine named Dublin.

*Each leaf on a four-leaf clover means something: hope, faith, love, and luck.

Favorite Irish Actors:

Cillian Murphy (everyone else thinks he's creepy but--although I agree he makes a FANTASTIC bad guy--there's just something about him that I've always been attracted to...)

Jonathan Rhys Meyers (that brooding stare...need I say more??)

Favorite Irish Recipe:

Bubble and Squeak (cabbage, potatoes, and sausage)

Favorite Irish Movie:

what i learned last night

Last night was very informative. I learned...

...that cashews come from Thailand. I got sucked into watching an episode of "Bizarre Foods" on the Travel channel. I mostly regretted it because there are a lot of NASTY things that people eat in Thailand (like ant larva, roasted crickets, and fish stomach sauce), but the information about cashews was interesting.

...that people will pay a lot of money for an autographed, first edition copy of "Gone With the Wind." I watched a couple episodes of "Auction Kings" last night and loved it. It's like "Pawn Stars" and "Storage Wars" where people bring in the items they want to sell and then the auctioneer guys research the item, then have the auction. The book sold for $7500! There was also some petrified dinosaur poop that some couple in Wyoming had found on a dig (that sold for $175) and a home-made hot rod that a built entirely from scratch in his garage (and sold for $12000).

...that Heavenly Father answers prayers. I'm still sick (if I'm not better my Monday I'm going to go to the doctor). Last night was rough, even though I had cough drops and cough syrup. I said a quick prayer (in the midst of a coughing attack) to be able to get some sleep. When I woke up at 4 this morning, I realized I had slept through most of the night without a problem. Of course, I was then up (at 4) once again coughing and hacking up a lung. Literally. The gross things that are produced and that come out of my body when I'm sick is always amazing to me.

current obsession

Adam Levine. Lead singer of Maroon 5 and coach on the TV show "The Voice." He's just so pretty.
And his voice...sigh...to quote Katy, "His voice is like crack to my ears." I'm addicted.

still sick

So the allergies/cold has moved south for the winter--I mean spring--and has now settled in my chest. This happens every year. You would think I would be used to it. But I'm not. I still hate it. After a fitful night's sleep (fell asleep around 9:30, up at 2, up again at 3, back to sleep about 4, then up at 5:15 with my alarm) I called in sick. I took a couple Nyquil capsuls, hoping to just pass out for 8-9 hours and sleep my way well.

Didn't work.

Instead, I had a set of very strange, yet funny, dreams that I can't right now recall except that one of them involved Kevin from the Backstreet Boys, and I think the other one was something to do with Kristy...

*shrugs*

Drug-induced dreams are always a bit sketchy, and I was back awake a few hours later. Giving up, I went and--wrapping up in a blanket--sat on the couch, ate a couple slices of cold pizza from last night and watched some TV. Then I took a shower, went and deposited a check I received in the mail (that I've been waiting FIVE weeks for!), came back home, grabbed my pillows and camped out again on the couch for some more TV. I haven't found a new show yet that I'm addicted to on Netflix, and I'm all caught up on all my other shows, so I just flipped through a couple different ones. Kind of boring.

My throat is itchy and scratchy, my nose is congested, I have phlegm (which, p.s., I hate that word), and now a lovely, annoying cough.

Luckily, this thing usually only lasts about a week. I should be on the up-swing now. I'm trying to drink lots of water and OJ and thinking lots of healthy thoughts. Hopefully I can get some sleep tonight.