Awards Times Two

One of my transplanted British buddies Maddy, who hails from across the pond but now makes her home in the San Francisco Bay area and writes two (yes, two!) fantastic blogs, recently awarded me with two (yes, two!) lovely little awards on her blog Whitterer on Autism. The first is this adorable little "You Make My Day" Award that she herself received from Tara over at tlcillustration. According to Maddy, "Linda is a real gem. How she manages to juggle career, family, blogging and the pressures of work I can hardly imagine." Well, thank you, ma'am - I wonder how on earth you juggle your homelife with two rambunctious boys and two blogs and all that you do, too. Perhaps we've all just become mistresses of talented multitaskings?

Speaking of talents, I'm going to pass this award on to Connie at BrainFoggles who amazes me with her ability to blog every day while battling a laundry list of ailments that would put anyone else down for the count never to blog again; Pinky at Cheese in My Shoe because she always says the nicest things both in her posts and in her comments as well as posting about foods that make my mouth water; and Mighty Mom at My Wonderful Life because there's another talented woman who juggles home, work, and her blog with a sense of humor and adventure. All of these ladies truly do make my day!

The second award that Maddy was more than kind enough to pass along to me is "The Royal Banana For Blog Yumminess" Award which she in turn received from Slouching Mom. I can't say that I've ever been awarded a banana before but in her presentation of this cute little award Maddy said about me, "Now there's a woman who is a real trooper [now that I think I understand what a trooper is supposed to be - it always sounded like an insult!] There are so many different aspects to Linda's blog but if you've not visited before then her posting here called "Count five things" is a great introduction. [and I'm sorry I called you a sausage, I know that should have been 'hot dog'!]

... Uh, I'm not so sure I'd want to be called either a sausage or a hot dog but I think I get what Maddy was trying to say in that transplanted vernacular of hers! Thanks bunches (pun intended, bananas - bunches, get it??) Maddy for this cute little award and I shall pass it along to a couple of other bloggers that I find particularly yummy - Morgen of It's a Blog Eat Blog World and Captain Jean-Luc of Captain Picard's Journal. Not only do these two fine gentlemen have outstanding blogs but they both play damned fine Scrabulous games, too!

Do you know anyone who makes your day or exhibits blog yumminess? If so, then snag these awards and pass them along!

I've Been Awarded ... a Meme??

While stopping by My Wonderful Life on my blog rounds Sunday I ran into a veritable treasure trove of stuff that MightyMom (aka NinjaNurse) had awarded to me. It was quite the blog visit and gave me more than enough material for this post!

First off, MM awarded me with both the Silly Goose and Smarty Pants awards for her latest round of Thesaurus Thursday, a fun little game that she hosts every Thursday where she gives her readers two words and challenges them to come up with either the correct or a silly definition. If you've never stopped by to play on Thursdays, what are you waiting for? It's a great chance to show off your knowledge of obscure words or have fun making up what you think the definition ought to be! It's nice to be a Smarty Pants but I find it to be even more fun to be a Silly Goose!

Then, as if those two awards weren't enough to make a blogger happy for quite awhile, MightyMom then went on to award me with a pretty cool award that she got from another blogging buddy that we share, Pinky @ Cheese In My Shoe ...

Apparently this award means that my blog is a daily addiction for MightyMom and to that all I can say is "aw, shucks, thank you ma'm!" You can read more about the award here.

MightyMom wasn't done there as to wrap things up she awarded me the task of taking on The Book Meme which I really enjoyed doing. I love books and wish I had more time to read them as it seems like it's been way too long since I've emerged myself into a really good story. Not to say that there aren't some really good stories here in the Blogosphere but you know what I mean! Besides, I'm waiting patiently for Gale to get her novel published! While you're waiting, too, check out -

The Book Meme

• One book that changed your life: Geez, the first question right off the bat is a tough one! I'm not sure that there are any books that have changed my life per say but there have been a lot of books that have touched my life. If I had to name one book, though, I guess I'd say The Bridges of Madison County because it made me realize, all over again, how sad it is to live your life without the person that you love by your side and how much love can hurt even though it's also one of the greatest emotions ever.
• One book that you have read more than once: My father always said that he "didn't like to chew his cabbage twice" but I have no problem chewing mine several times over! When I was younger (still in my teens), I discovered the historical romance fiction of Kathleen E. Woodiwiss and I have reread - several times over - her novels "The Flame and The Flower", "The Wolf and the Dove", "Shanna", "A Rose in Winter", and - a particular favorite of mine - "Ashes in the Wind". I loved them all not only for the heartwarming and pulse-racing romance but also for the accurate history that each book contained. No one - and I mean no one - writes historical romance like Kathleen!
• One book that you would want on a desert island: "1,001 Recipes for Coconut"
• One book that made you laugh: I'm with MightyMom on this one - any of the books in the Stephanie Plum series by Janet Evanovich! Having lived in New Jersey not that far from Trenton when I was in the Air Force, I can picture and hear all of her characters quite vividly. Of course, reading the adventures of Stephanie does make one crave donuts while reading ... and cheesesteaks, too ... oh, and dark-haired Jersey cops and hunky bounty hunters and ...
• One book that made you cry: Just one?! I admit to being a total sap so cry when reading a lot of books (not to mention watching movies!). but one that comes to mind right away is "The Five People You Meet in Heaven" by Mitch Albom. What a great book and the made-for-TV movie was quite excellent, too!
• One book you wish you'd written: "The DaVinci Code" because it would have meant that I had the chance to go over and explore through the ruins of Rome and other fascinating parts of Europe while doing the background research. Plus I'd also have the money Dan Brown has from writing that book as well as being a household name in almost everyone's household!
• One book you wish had never been written: "Mein Kampf" - enough said.
• One book you're reading: "The Historian", a novel written by Elizabeth Kostova about a quest for the historical Dracula that reaches back through five centuries. My supervisor gave it to me to read months ago and told me that it was really very good and so far I've managed to get through maybe four or five chapters. I believe that there are others at work who are waiting for me to finish it so that they can read it next. Oops!
• One book you're going to read: "Wicked" as it's sitting on my nightstand waiting for me to just pick it up and start! Well, either that or I'll take the easy way out and go see the play instead!

A very big thank you to MightyMom for all of the great awards and for the meme tag, too!

Now, because this was a book meme I just have to tag my favorite retired librarian, Joan, and I'm also going to tag Patti and Jamie as they seem the type to loves books, too. If anyone else would like to snitch this meme (Mimi?) then by all means, go for it and let me know what you come up with!

Defining "The Flu"

Three days after coming down with a nasty stomach bug, I am finally starting to feel a lot better and want to thank everyone for their kind comments regarding my health and recovery. I also want to thank my cheeky little British friend Claire for her lovely post and cartoon rendering of my - shall we say - dilemma? Please bear in mind that Claire is suffering from another nasty sinus infection and perhaps that it what is affecting her sense of delicacy hence the rather graphic depiction. Oh wait ... no ... Claire has no sense of delicacy when it comes to some things but that's one of the things I love about her! Do stop by and wish her well with her bout of "sinus urination" if you get the chance!

Meanwhile, I also wanted to thank a couple of other folks for setting the matter straight regarding a stomach bug versus The Flu. I had lamented that after having now had a nasty upper respiratory infection/head cold and a stomach bug both in less than a week what was the sense of having gotten a flu shot and both Lee and MightyMom set me straight on the difference:

Lee of Tar Heel Ramblings said:

"Just a little bit of information that won't make you feel any better. What you have is almost certainly not the flu. Believe it or not, but there is really no such thing as "stomach flu." Flu symptoms include fever, body aches and sometimes a rash. But rarely does it involve vomiting or stomach upset.

What you have is probably not a virus at all, but rather a bacterial infection of some kind. Hence the nausea and vomiting."

NinjaNurse aka MightyMom of My Wonderful Life stated:

"NinjaNurse is obligated to inform the public of the following:

The flu shot you got does nothing for what folks call "flu" which is really a stomach virus (GI if you want to be specific) because that isn't the flu. It also does nothing for head colds as that is an Upper Respiratory Infection and isn't the flu either.

The flu is a disease caused by the influenza virus. It causes cough, congestion, fever, fatigue (extreme), generalized achiness, runny nose, and decreased appetite. It lasts 7-10 days. So, as long as you've not been in bed for a week going through 2 boxes of tissue a day and feeling like you were hit by a semi .... your flu shot worked. Be thankful!"

Ah-ha, well, yes, I guess that I did know that what with working in a medically-related field and all but for some unknown reason I have always called it a stomach flu. Obviously I am wrong in doing so as a quick check of Dictionary.com produced this definition of influenza (the full word for flu) that is even more chilling than what NinjaNurse depicted:

Main Entry: in·flu·en·za
Pronunciation: "in-(")flü-'en-z&
Function: noun
1 a : an acute highly contagious virus disease that is caused by various strains of orthomyxoviruses belonging to three major types now considered as three separate genera and that is characterized by sudden onset, fever, prostration, severe aches and pains, and progressive inflammation of the respiratory mucous membrane —often used with the letter A, B, or C to denote disease caused by a virus of a specific one of the three genera influenza A that has been widespread in the United States this winter —H. M. Schmeck, Jr.> b : any human respiratory infection of undetermined cause.

Alrighty then - that sounds much worse than what I have had recently as I can't even pronounce orthomyxoviruses never mind want them floating around in my system! Plus influenza has been known to wipe out large amounts of people at various times in history so I am going to be thankful that I did get my flu shot and keep my fingers crossed that it works!

Whatever it was that I did have - whether you want to call it a stomach bug or a stomach virus or I'm sure some sort of more colorful description that Claire could come up with - it wasn't fun and I'm still kind of afraid to eat real food for fear of setting my intestinal system off again but at least I was able to get back to work yesterday for my usual 16-hour Monday shift (hence no post!) and am going to be able to enjoy some of the incredibly out-of-season warm temperatures that are predicted for today.

In the meantime, though, Amanda has been home from school for two days with an upset stomach (lucky for her it remains simply upset and not active) and I've heard that my good blog buddy and all-around-nice-gal Ms. Maggie Moo is also home sick from work today with an equally upset stomach. If you get the chance, please drop by and wish her well.

And as for all of you who wished that Jamie would not get sick with this bug herself but be a carrier for it down to Florida - shame on you and what a lovely thought!

Update: I just found a post called Watch Out for the Norovirus over on The Boomer Chronicles and it sounds like exactly what I had! Well, except for the vomiting because as I told Rhea in a comment I left, "I didn’t have the vomiting as it seems to take an Act of Congress for me to be able to just throw up and get it over with and Congress failed to meet during my time of illness ..."

Isn't it nice when you can put a name to what ails you? Well, a name other than that of one's ex-spouse??

Catching Up ... Or At Least Trying To!

********************

Went to get my blood work done at the lab this morning and got the initial results back from the doctor which all check out okay. Apparently the Lyme Disease test takes a little longer but for the most part everything, including my blood glucose levels which can be tricky, are within normal limits. Like Kat, one of my doctor's nurses, always tells me "you can't have anything simple or normal, can you?" She is so right! So, I guess I'll wait a little longer and see what's what. I haven't had as much of the numbness and tingling today as I did the past few days so maybe whatever it is will be just some passing mystery malady that clears up on its own after clearing out my bank account with those outrageous co-pays we have! I'll let you know once I know something more.

In the meantime, I am horribly remiss in posting this next tidbit ... way back on October 3rd, I received the following award from Zubli and Shinade -

- and I am quite honored at having received it. Thank you so much to Zubli and Shinade!

Now if you thought I was late in posting that award, this next one is even later! Sandee from Comedy+ gave me this award on September 25th and it's quite the special award as I really do love Christmas and all that it stands for (aside from all the commercialization that is!).


This award originated at Santa's Community Blog and can be passed on to as many other bloggers as I'd like. According to Santa, the Spirit of Christmas Award:

"Quite simply it is those that have a generous and giving nature. Those who care about others. Those who have a kind word to say or a broad shoulder to lean on in the times that others need that. Those who display the "Spirit of Christmas".

To that end, I am passing this lovely little award on to Mimi for obvious reasons, Akelamalu because she's just the sweetest ever, Mighty Mom from Texas who has a wonderful blog that shows off her giving nature, and two of the nicest Connecticut bloggers I know - Patti and Ralph who are also husband and wife. Awardees can pick up the award code here and then pass it on to whomever they also feel displays the "Spirit of Christmas". A very belated thank you to Sandee for this very nice award!