Saturday, July 31, 2010

New computer!

Typing at you from a new, awesome computer. I'm still in the process of setting it up but looking forward to zoomin' along and not plodding painfully through. It's just amazing how far computer technology has come in the last decade since I bought the previous machine. I'm pretty psyched right now.

Once I get all of my documents reloaded and software squared away, I'll start making much needed updates to my website. I know it's kind of a mess but haven't been able to do anything with it since my previous computer sadly passed away. (I'm still a bit sorrowful, btw, as I sit in my office, staring down at the carcass of the old computer and thinking of all the things we did it to coax it back to life. It was a good machine for me).

Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Yum

Soft foods I have eaten in the last few days:

*Buttermilk
*Plain yogurt
*Vanilla ice-cream
*Cherry ice-cream
*Chocolate cake
*Crepes with Nutella
*Stuffing
*Grandmother's Soft Peanut Butter cookies (Which are NOT as soft as advertised; not recommended, btw, if you're looking for a 'soft' snack).
*Apple sauce
*Fried mozzerella cheese

I visited the dentist today and the verdict is I'm healing very nicely. Hopefully by next week, all will be back to normal.

Monday, July 26, 2010

LotD

The NY Times has an intriguing article in its most recent Sunday magazine that explores what the new social media means for privacy and how difficult it is becoming to control one's image online. It's a thoughtful analysis but no real solutions. Worth a read over here.
The loss of wisdom, part 2

So far so good. Other than the fever, my worst symptom has really been itchy gums. I'm SO desperate to scratch the back of my mouth. That's not a good thing though, so I must be patient. I've been told the itchiness is a sign of healing. I guess I'd rather itch than have a dull throbbing pain in my jaw.

I also have uneven mouth opening. The right side of my mouth isn't as amiable to opening as the left side, so it creates an odd situation when it comes to eating. I have a new appreciation for soft foods.

Sunday, July 25, 2010

The loss of wisdom

I'm a bad blogger. Finally figured out what was up with blogger and then I took off. I actually had to travel out of the country for business and the morning after I returned, I dragged my jet-lagged self to the dentist and had the thing done that I've been dreading all the years of my life: wisdom teeth extraction. All four teeth are now gone.

I ended opting for the optional sedation for I don't remember much and apparently went on a soliquoy on the merits of a new grocery store in our neighborhood. I think I felt some tugging, some smashing, but for the most part, while I was awake, I was blissfully unaware. The aftermath hasn't been as bad as I feared. Well, Saturday morning was less than fun but not for reasons I thought.

For the most part, pain has been minimal. In fact, I felt nothing on the left side of my face, prompting me to ask whether anything had been done on that side. I felt some tightness in my right side and some minor pain that radiated down the front side of my neck. My doctor prescribed an antibiotic and two pain prescriptions -- ibuprofen and Tylenol plus codeine. I took pain pills that first day and not since. The pain really hasn't been that bad -- my gums just feel really, really itchy and like there's stuff back there, pieces of peanuts or the like.

What was surprising was the fever. It started the evening of the surgery and I just figured I was cramping up after spending 10 hours the previous day on an airplane and then lying on the sofa all day. By the time Saturday early morning came around, I was absolutely miserable. I couldn't figure out if I was hot or cold, my body ached, my head was splitting, and I was woefully nauseous. My temperature registered at 101.6 at the highest.

J called the dentist at 7:30 am and he assured us that this was normal, though everything we read online seemed to imply otherwise. Around 8:30 am Saturday, my fever broke in a particularly grotesque manner that I hope won't lead to further complications (read: dry socket). I spent the rest of the day on the sofa, recovering and by early afternoon, my temperature was normal. I tried solid foods -- crepes with nutella -- for dinner and that was good, though quite the chore to chew. My right jaw just doesn't seem to want to open for me.

Today for a special family occasion, I chomped slowly through two slices of pizza (try chewing pizza only on the fronts of your teeth -- it's highly inefficient) and even eating cake was not fun. Tonight, I think I'm giving up on solid food because even though it was delicious, I don't think I'm up for making that effort again. Luckily, I have some celery and potato soup made from last week that was frozen especially for this occasion and there's plenty of ice-cream and yogurt in the refrigerator.

All in all, this experience isn't anything close to the horror stories I've heard people tell and for that, I'm grateful. I think it'll still be about a week before I can eat normally again, but I'm doing my "jaw excercises" and rinsing now with salt water so hopefully I'm speeding the recovery along nicely.

Sunday, July 18, 2010

LotD

On the Fourth of July, I wanted to post the text of the Declaration of Independence. You can read the whole thing here. I took the opportunity to read it for the first time and I'm ashamed to say that I never actually had read it before or if I had, didn't remember anything past the famous preamble. If you get it chance, read it; it's enlightening. The list of grievances are long and surprising, especially in light of today's political climate.

Parenting is apparently no fun. You can read about it here. That's not to say people don't love children, it's more than they don't enjoy the act of parenting. It's a fine distinction. On the same subject, why more women are remaining childless.

The Quiet Hell of 10 Years of Novel Writing and who do you write like? are the two writing links for this week.

Saturday, July 17, 2010

Test, Test, part 2

I found the workaround -- it's annoying but useful. I'm posting it here in case anyone else is having the same problem with blogger. Basically, blogger keeps "loading" in the input window, which makes it impossible to type anything at all. If you're having this problem (and I was having it on two separate laptops, though running the same browser), then when you get stuck on the "loading" new post screen, hit "Save now," and then go to "Edit post." You'll be able to type just fine in the "Edit post" screen. It's only the "new posts" that don't seem to be working (at least for me).
Test, test

My being offline has been inadvertant and actually rather annoying as blogger hasn't been allowing to me to post since at least the 4th of July and I have a lot to say! This may be the first of a couple of test posts as I may have found a workaround Blogger's weirdness.