How to Avoid the Swine Flu

As someone who many suspect may be responsible for the spread of the swine flu, I wanted to bring you several tips from msn.com.

1. "Slowing the spread of a swine flu epidemic in the United States could well depend on how quickly communities can empty schools, close day care centers and shut down public gathering spots — and on whether ordinary people are willing to stay away from their neighbors." I don't know about y'all, but I'm more worried about the UNordinary people and hoping they avoid people ;) I tend to avoid my neighbors 365 days/year, so I'm all over this. If I'm spreading swine flu, I'm spreading it to the people I love most!
2. "In some cases, people could be advised to stay 6 feet away from others in public, said Longini, who has built elaborate computer models that demonstrate how infection slows when such plans are implemented." Longini has a cool job. I have this visual of being at the mall and walking around with a personal-space perimeter... better yet, a bubble!!!
3. "In severe situations, people may be told to stay 3 feet apart to avoid the infectious spray of droplets when someone coughs or sneezes, Currie said." Wait... in "some" cases we would require 6 feet of space, but in SEVERE situations, we only need 3. This is some fuzzy math!

Dental Drama

Can't recall if I've blogged on this topic before.... Well, for starters, most all know this, but my darling husband and I are polar opposites. If I'm cold, he's hot... he cooks, I eat... etc. Another area of our differences is on dentists. I don't mind going to the dentist, which I'm sure is related to the fact that I have (knock on wood) never had a cavity. We tried a few years ago to get him to start going to the dentist regulary. After a cavity fill, a crown, and a broken dentist's chair, he went on hiatus from visiting the dentist.

Last Thursday, while I was still in Swinefluland, the husband bbm'ed me that his tooth really hurt. Knowing that it must be serious for him to say something that would prompt me to order him to the dentist, I ordered him to the dentist ;) The dentist prescribed a root canal. The endodontist that he recommended was not taking new patients, and over the weekend a family friend recommended her endodontist. She talked lovingly of the IV-sedation method they offer.

He called that office this morning, and they were able to fit him in. A little over an hour of tooth-tapping and putting ice-cold instruments along his gums, they determined that a root canal was not what was needed. Basically, his wisdom tooth (who still has those?!) was severely infected and needed to be removed. So... tomorrow calls for another trip to the dentist's office. fun times... nothing I love more than spending time at the dentist with my husband!

From SkyMall: Improve your hearing and enhance your image

Improve your hearing and enhance your image!
If a conventional hearing aid sounds like an embarrassment to you, try the Stealth Secret Sound Amplifier. It looks just like a cell phone ear adapter and works as a sound enhancer so you can join conversations and even hear soft voices from 50 feet away. Now you can enjoy the best of both worlds: a more youthful appearance and better hearing. Comes with charger (no batteries to replace) and three ear tips.

Um... wow... who knew that wearing bluetooth headsets "enhance your image"?! I thought it indicated IT geek!

Tagged

This is the look of someone who was woken up early to an application down issue :( I need my beauty sleep!



I tag Agent Dragonfly, Paula, and Diane!

Plano Stanley Visits Guadalajara

In my humble opinion, anyone who has not been closely following Plano (Flat) Stanley's visit to Guadalajara on my facebook album has been missing out on loads of fun.

I could tell lengthy stories about all 27 (current) pictures that are currently in the album, but this one is really deserving of more explanation. Our office in Guadalajara is near the expo center, where there are always conventions going on. This week's expo is for jewelry, and there are armed guards everywhere. On our way to Starbucks each morning, my co-worker/escort and I discuss getting pictures with Plano Stanley and the guys holding the guns. I generally am a more passive participant in these conversations.

Inevitably my co-worker/escort, the same person who got me dancing largely because I could not speak Spanish good enough to fully protest, stops on the way back to converse with a gun-holder and request that he take a picture with me. Today the goal was the guy holding the shotgun. While conversing with my co-worker, he was holding the shotgun down by his right leg. When the photo-op approval occurred, I made sure to stand AWAY from the gun... on his left side.

I'm standing there, holding Plano Stanley, smiling away, when my co-worker said: "Por favor apunte el arma hacia la rubia." Now, that is not exactly what he said, but the actions that took place following his rapid Spanish supported this statement. Loosely translated: "Please point the gun at the blonde girl." All of a sudden, the gun comes from the right side of his body to pointing somewhat near my head. Plano Stanley had ice running through his veins and was able to maintain his smile throughout.

I Am Always Taking Surveys

Some questions are just easier to answer than others.

Softly Call the Muster

Happy April 21st! Today marks a very special day in the lives of Texas Aggies. It is called "Muster" and it is another special and long-standing tradition for current and former students of Texas A&M University.

You can read all about it on either the A&M student newspaper web site (here) or on Wikipedia (here). A general summary is that every year on April 21st, Aggies join together around the world. The biggest gathering is in College Station (where A&M is based), but they are held everywhere from Texas to Afghanistan. At each gathering, the names of current and former students who have passed away in the past year are read off. A family member or friend of the deceased is present and replies, "Here," when their person's name is read off.

Unfortunately, I have not found an A&M club in Guadalajara, so I won't be going this year :( I'm actually really bummed to be in Mexico this week because had I stayed in Houston I would have travelled to College Station for it. Robert Gates, the 22nd Secretary of Defense, will be the speaker. He was President of A&M prior to taking on his current role, and he is just amazing to listen to. 

A Mexican First

On previous trips to Mexico, I have had the pleasure of experiencing the following firsts:

• Arrachera
• Mole
• Fried intestine
• Tongue tacos

Today, after my first torta, my co-worker/tour guide asked if I wanted to get some ice cream. Well, hello! Of course!

At the ice cream shop, there were the options of vanilla, chocolate, banana, queso, and tequila. Um, tequila ice cream?! You know I had to go for that. I have to say, the experience was a little bit strange. It was like homemade ice cream that had a tequila flavor. I'm not sure what I was expecting exactly (I think I was thinking more like a sorbet), but it was good!

Republic of Texas

Not sure if it’s been mentioned in the HCBC circle yet, but as part of the recent Tea Party festivities the current Texas governor (a fellow Aggie) made a point of saying that Texas was considering seceding from the Union.

 

We now have the potential for our first President: Chuck Norris (of course). Who’s ready to move to Texas now?

 

I mean, we probably won’t secede, but it’s nice to have a plan, just in case.

 

Happy Birthday, ABBA

As I think about birthday wishes for ABBA, I'm not sure I could summarize my thoughts any better than I did last year. So... I will steal part of last year's post:

I am really bummed that I am not in Cali to share it with her. If I was, there would be a happy hour scheduled at BBC, and we would be hoping that no one showed up so we could really have some fun ;) But… if people showed up, we would inevitably either get people on the dance floor or initiate some arm wrestling.

BUT… since I’m not there, I will have to settle for giving her a virtual hug, a big HAPPY BIRTHDAY and a toast from the glass of wine I hope to have at the end of the day today!

More Queen Analysis

Last semester, I introduced the series "Analyzing the Queen."It was a very long (and very informative) series about my testing with the Birkman method.

This semester, the major insights to ourselves is being gathered by doing a Strengths Assessment. It is a 177 question test that gives you two statements, and you select the one that most strongly reflects you. Not too surprisingly, my #1 "strength" came back as being a competitor. Along the way, some of the Question/Answer options made me giggle.

Can anyone guess how I answered this one?

Um, this one is obvious....

Pay Pal

Inspired by Guitar Hero: Metallica, the husband mentioned recently that he would love to go to a Metallica concert. Me being an instant-gratification/instant-situation-handling type person, I googled to see if there was a current tour underway. YAY! There is. They will be in Dallas on Tuesday, September 29th. The husband originally told me to hold off on getting tickets because he wasn't sure what his work schedule would be like then, but a very wise friend encouraged me to go ahead because I could always sell them.

So.... I hopped on eBay and found some good tix... lower level.... just offset from center stage. I managed to win the auction, even bidding against myself 3 times and driving the ticket price up $40 (don't ask... I will not go through eBay mobile again without some tutorials).

I ran into some issues with Pay Pal when trying to pay and needed to call them. As I was navigating their computerized phone system, they asked me to enter or say my phone number, one digit at a time. This just struck me as really funny. It would be impossible to say more than one digit at a time without making up new words, right? Like "thour" as a combination of "three" and "four." Then, I got this mental picture of someone trying to enter multiple digits at a time. Can't you just picture someone trying to hold down all 10 of their phone digits at once? I decided to attempt this and was almost able to get all of them with one hand, since my number has some of the same digits repeated.

The other super-amusing component of the call was the help desk agent who answered. When he discovered that the issue was that I apparently had 2 Pay Pal accounts with different email address and different last names, he commented that one of the names must be my boyfriend's name. WTF?! Who "takes" their boyfriend's name? Was he just trying to find out if I was single?

Avoiding Studying

Geez... I can't believe it's been over a week since I last posted. This is very shameful. Of course, today I am held captive in my study, attempting to finish the million assignments I have due Friday. What does this inevitably lead to? Well... facebook and blogging, of course!

Kim was kind enough to send me an invite to the Pop Answers application on Facebook, which I have not yet determined I like or hate. It is rather addicting. The game I just played was "Name something popular today that did not exist 10 years ago." I figured this would be right up my technology-innovation-loving-alley. I didn't do bad... tied the Champ with 75/100 points. Of course, that only equated to 2 of the 6 answers. You will see how brain dead I am today when you see all the ones I missed (those without an *). I have to assume KT missed them, too.

1. iPod *
2. Blackberry *
3. Facebook
4. Texting
5. Laptop
6. Wii

In my defense, I swear there were laptops 10 years ago. And really, is texting still popular? I roll that one up with #2 ;) I'm impressed that Wii made the cut. I totally shoulda guessed that one, since GH: Metallica has been on my daily agenda (though does not always get its turn). Others that I guessed that did not make the list: GPS, DVR/Tivo, wireless internet, blue ray. I do love my technology!

Day 3

Today is the 3rd day that I have owned Guitar Hero: Metallica, surely the greatest game ever created. Sadly, it is still in shrink wrap, untouched. Well, I've kissed and caressed it a few times, but all through plastic :(

Defensive Driving

In order to dismiss the speeding ticket the king got on his birthday, he has had to suffer through 6ish hours of DD. For the home stretch last night, he recruited some help on answering questions...



They passed :)

I Watch the News

My mom said something to me the other day and then quickly followed up with, "oh, you don't watch the news." This actually could not be further from the truth. I am actually a very regular 5:30/6am news watcher while I am suffering through cardio. 

Some things I learned while watching the news this morning:

• This is not a terrible story that I find humor in. However, I was thinking as I watched this story this morning that the lady who was brutally attacked after allowing a stranger in her house could have prevented this had she been a HCBC blog reader. Agent Dragonfly had all the right tips.
• This reminded me of The Office episode where Dwight teaches Michael to mark the baby to make sure there is not a mix-up. That is quite the "careless nurse!"
• Um... I think this is the exact reason that motorized bar stools never caught on! Why not motorized kegs?!
• OMG... you know that "how to deliver a baby" has got to be a WikiHow!

And that's your news recap for the day, courtesy of Queen B, the news watcher ;)