Meme 2: Return of the Meme

1. A book that changed my life:
Wow, that's a hard one.  I think every GOOD book makes an impression on you, makes you think, changes your world view just a little. Here are a few:
Thomas Lynch, The Undertaking and Bodies in Motion and at Rest
Beverly Donofrio, Looking for Mary
Antonio Damasio, Descartes' Error

2. A book that I've read more than once:
There are about 50 million books on this list.  I re-read almost everything that I like.  The ones I've read to replacing, though, are:
John Grisham, The Rainmaker, A Time to Kill
Stephen King, The Eyes of the Dragon, The Bachman Books, The Talisman, The Dark Tower Series
Annie Proulx, The Shipping News
Alexandre Dumas (pere), The Three Musketeers, The Count of Monte Cristo (I own 4 different editions of this one, sadly all in English)
Robert Crais, The Monkey's Raincoat

3. A book I'd take to a desert Island:
Stephen King, The Stand  1200 pages, I wouldn't get bored.

4. A book that made me laugh:
To be honest, and I'm not making fun of it, The Book of Mormon.  Every frickin' sentence starts with "And it came to pass that..."  My friend (who is Mormon) would read it aloud to us just to make us laugh.  True story.

5. A book that made me cry:
Adriana Trigiani, Big Cherry Holler

6. A book I wish had been written:
"Cleaning in Your Sleep" and the companion volume "Grant-Writing in Your Sleep"

7. A book that should never have been written:
I can't think of any.  Censorship is BAAAAD.

8. A book I'm currently reading:
Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner, Freakonomics

9. A book I'm planning to read:
Lemony Snicket, The End

10. Five people I'll send these questions to:
Y'all feel free to chime in.  I'm not tagging anyone in particular.

Tomorrow....

My personal football season kicks off with the USC Trojans taking it to Arkansas.  ESPN2 for those of you who'd care to watch it too!

Rusty predicts a whoopin'.  I agree.

They Might Be Tiny Toons

For your Friday viewing pleasure, Hampton Pig and Plucky Duck in
Istanbul (Not Constantinople) by They Might Be Giants.

Two great tastes that taste great together:

h/t Rachel

Free Chocolate!

Go here and sign up!  Nestle is sending a free bag of it's new Chocolatier products to anyone who signs up for their promotions team in September!

That time of year again...

It's officially football season.  Why all of a sudden I like football, I have no idea. But over the last decade, I have really built up a love for it.

As a girl, I hated it.  couldn't relate.  Too violent.  Silly.  Boring.  A waste of my precious reading time.  An obstacle to GOING HOME, PLEASE, until halftime or the end of the game after lunch at my Grandmother's house on Sunday.

Now I can't wait.  College, NFL, I don't care.  I watch it like one of those freaks with a fantasy team.  I know the teams, the coaches, the players.  I'm still learning the lingo, like "west-coast offense" and "slant pass into the flat", but I get it.

I appreciate the nuance of it.  Learning the strengths and weaknesses of the your own team and the opponent.  Special plays that are emblematic of  your own offense or defense.  the irony of the detailed and meticulaous preparation required to bash your opponents brains out.

From a scientific point of view, it's interesting too.  Sociologically, it's entertaining to watch men bond and reinforce social norms over some beer and pigskin-related violence.  Evolutionarily, it's amusing to see us put men dressed in costumes that emphasize their "manliness" (broad shoulders, thighs, and calfs; small waist, flat stomach.  Think about where the pads are and how different it makes them look...) up on a pedestal.  The ugliest-ass football player can still get a hot chick, just because he's a baller.

So, I've been immersed in it since yesterday morning.  GameDay came on at 7am, and since then I have been making up for a winter and summer of lost time.  I think I watched all or part of at least 7 games yesterday, between 4 channels.  And I am quite proud that I called that Tennessee stompin' of Cal.

Ov-er-ra-ted clap clap clapclapclap!

I was also rooting for GTech, mostly because I'm a Trojan fan and ND is anathema to me, but I was glad to see a good game, and I think GT still busted a lot of the ND hype.

Texas, Auburn, and OSU all played chump games (yes, Wazzu is a CHUMP team), so I'm waiting to see how good they REALLY are.

In other news, JD Booty lives up to the hype and my Trojans are starting to look like new faces in old places.  If they keep it up, the rest of the NCAA better watch out.

Biggest Chump of the Week: Wisconsin Lutheran, who lost to Valparaiso 54-0.
Happy Surprise of the Week: Navy beats ECU
I Expected it of the Week: Richmond beats dook.  By a shutout.
Shit Call of the Week:  A tie: The questionable helmet to helmet on GT vs ND, and the non-whistle which took a TD away from my Tar Heels, leading to a Rutgers score and victory.

Bad Officials of the Week:  Again, a tie: Pac-10 ref crew at the UofO/Stanford game and the Big 10 crew running the ND/ GT game (both for blown replay calls)

Sad as Hell

The Crocodile Hunter is dead.

Steve Irwin died at 11am Monday morning after being stung by a Sting Ray off the coast of Australia, north of Cairns.  Evidently Steve and his crew were filming an underwater documentary.

The irony of it is that Sting Rays aren't considered to be especially dangerous, and stings often cause little more than skin irritation.

Steve leaves behind his wife Terri and children Bindi Sue (8) and Bob (2 and a half).


Terri Irwin was in Tasmania, and wasn't present during the shoot.  She was notified shortly afterward by Tasmanian authorities.

Steve's death has crashed a lot of websites in Australia, including major news pages and the Australia Zoo site.

Steve touched a lot of people because of his passion for wildlife and his honesty about who he was and what he did.  And how much he loved his family.  I was always a big fan of Steve's and I will miss him more than I should.

More links and info here

photos courtesy smh.com.au, scotsman.com, wildlifewarriors.org.au

How many scientists does it take.....

Having been there from time to time, I can say that for once, The Onion reports fact:

Caltech Physicists Successfully Split The Bill

September 5, 2006

PASADENA, CA--Sequestered in a private booth at a Pasadena-area Cheesecake Factory for nearly 25 minutes, a party of eight California Institute Of Technology physicists emerged exhausted but visibly excited Friday evening after successfully splitting the bill.

read the rest!

h/t RL friend (and physicist) AS

Busy Busy

It's that time of year again.  Today is my DH's first day of school, so yesterday, of course, we spent all day making his classroom look pretty and organizing all of his books and papers and supplies.

33-36 students per class.  And as of 5:30 pm yesterday, he only had 32 chairs.  You gotta love it.  Hopefully that will be rectified soon.

And he doesn't have the worst of it.  The thermostat in the room next door went haywire over the summer and now only blows hot air.  In CA.  In Spetember.  With 37 bodies.  They told the teacher in that room that if they can't get it fixed today they will move him into another room until they can get the AC working.  On the other side of his room, there's no power to the outlets in the lab tables or the walls....  So having to play musical chairs doesn't really seem so bad.

One thing I do appreciate, though, is that he is teaching just one kind of class.  The same subject 5 times a day, rather than one class of this, one class of that, and three classes of the other.  It cuts his out-of-class work by 2/3!  Which is good.  With almost 200 students, he has a lot to do anyway.  I think we figured that he starts with 175 this year, which means it will be about 185 before the end of the month.

As for myself, we've been back to school for 3 weeks now, and things are starting to hit their rhythm.  I'm the course director for our freshman class, which means that I don't have to teach every day, but I am in charge and I have to make sure every thing is working according to plan.  Lecture and Lab both.

So far so good.  We have more students this year than last, and I think the students are all pretty smart.  I look forward to seeing what they will accomplish this year.

I had an epiphany on the freeway this am, while I was stuck in traffic.  But it must not have been that important, as I have no forgotten what exactly it was....  that's what it's been like lately.

I need a vacation just to catch up.  And maybe clean the house.

Public Service Announcement

Here's a tip:  If you have important news you want to share with your friends, make sure that you either tell ALL of them or don't.

It's really not fucking nice to feel left out just because you don't have a myspace and you find out third hand from inferences in the comments of others.

That is all.

Never Mind.

This is why I chose not to participate

I could NEVER pay tribute to anyone as well as they deserve, and certainly not this well.

Never Forget. Never.  Check out the 2,996 project.

Happy Birthday!

To adopted Blogmom Boudicca.  And again, I just can't compete with everyone else's presents!  Damn Harvey!

Friday Quiz -- Politics Edition

You Are a Liberal Republican

When you tell people that you're Republican, they rarely believe you. That's because you're socially liberal - likely pro-choice and pro-gay rights. You're also not so afraid of big goverment, as long as it benefits people and not politicians. You are the most likely of any Republican type to swing over to the Democrat side sometimes.

Pretty accurate. Except for that changing sides part .....
h/t Sharon and Deb

The WTC and Me...

When I was 17 years old, in the summer of 1994, I was part of a summer program that invited science students to New York for two week to study and be a part of "real" high level research. Among the amazing and wonderful things we did that summer was a tour of New York City. After taking the Circle line out to the Statue of Liberty and back, we boarded the bus and went into downtown. We stopped at the foot of the World Trade Center.

I remember looking up and up and up, unable to see the top. Wondering at the immense feat of engineering standing before me. Face to face with these twin giants, my friend and I laughed at the presumption of a handful of terrorists who tried to bring it down with a truck bomb. My friend J said, "You know, they built the towers to withstand a hit by a 747." We were all duly impressed. It seemed like overkill.

And it became a joke amongst us.

Fast forward 7 years.

September 11, 2001. 9 am.
I was sleeping in. It had been a late night Monday night, as a friend who had been staying with us in NC was set to fly back to CA that afternoon. Also, I was supposed to teach that afternoon after taking her to the airport.

The phone rang. It was my husband, stationed in TX in the army. "Turn on the TV." he said. "Any channel".

I fumbled for the remote, half awake, and turned on the TV to see the WTC, one tower standing, the other on fire from a gaping hole near the top. The morning show people were just beginning to realize that it wasn't a cessna that hit the building, but a fully loaded jumbo jetliner.

Before I could comprehend that, another jet hit the other tower. And I knew.

My heart stood still. But still, I thought, the buildings will stand. The people can get out, or be rescued from the roof, right?

I called my parents and Ben, woke up my friends, and crawled to the big TV in the den. What next? Were there more planes? Were any of my friends there?

The rest of the day is a blur of images: People jumping from the buildings, the towers collapsing in a cloud of ash, that video of the asian woman running in high heels and nearly being run down as the towers collapsed behind her. I remember screaming "just take your damn shoes off so you can run..."

I don't remember eating, and I don't think I slept. I just sat in front of the tv. The towers came down. They were supposed to withstand the unthinkable, that kind of hit, but they came down anyway.

I spoke to my friend a few days later. We reminisced about that day at the towers, and how we all believed them to be invincible. And how that came to stand for a lot of things. And now those things were gone.

I think we grew up a lot on September 11, 2001. But it's easy to forget. It's easy to over analyze and twist the facts to fit your own mindset instead of facing the difficult facts:

+Nineteen Islamofascist fuckheads hijacked four planes
+They deliberately chose flights that would be the fullest and carry the most fuel
+They succeeded in crashing three of those planes into pre-selected targets
+It was NOT a government conspiracy. Unless you mean the governments of Iran, Syria, etc.
+2,996 innocent people died. Many of them heroes who died trying to save the lives of others
+Unless we wipe jihadist thinking from the face of this planet, something like 9/11 WILL happen again

And if you don't believe that with even some small part of your soul, then you need to get your head out of your ass.

9/11/01

10:29 am:

Cox and Forkum Sum it Up (with a good link round up, below, as well)

This post stays on top today. Scroll down for more content.

As you may have noticed...

The 2996 site is down. Mirrors can be found here and here

The company hosting their domain basically told them, sorry, you're SOL.

Today of all days. When the site traffic spiked, the hosting company basically told them that they would not increase their bandwidth allowance and they should look elsewhere for services.

In case you want to make sure you DONT ever do business with such an unreliable host, the group to avoid is ehostpros.com

No I will not link them.

I will, however, give you all of their contact addresses so that you may email them and tell them what a crock of shit it is to shut down the 2996 page on 9/11:

sales@ehostpros.com
billing@ehostpros.com
abuse@ehostpros.com
info@ehostpros.com

Today's the Day!

So much so that I ran out and picked these up before work today to be sure they wouldn't be sold out:

Funny how football season and the 9/11 anniversary coincide....

Whoah!

Have y'all seen Dancing With the Stars this season?

Joey Lawrence:

             
then....                                      and now

So this is supporting the troops, huh? Try actually speaking to them

SMASH has the definitive, straight from the horses' mouths.  Including Code Pink's reaction to ACTUAL soldiers.

This is awesome...

The Baldwin Online Children's Literature Project.

Making a virtual archive of classic children's literature in the public domain.

h/t the venomous (and sniffly) one

I'll be in the Ladies Room

I just got FLOOR TICKETS to the Barenaked Ladies.

Tickets don't go on sale for another week, but Ladies Room members got first dibs today!

Yay!

Project Runway: Olympus Fashion Week

Out of place, much?

Hubby and I were doing some shopping today, and we went into a local home and decorating store.  I was looking for a large casserole dish, so we went over to the kitchen section.

As we browsed the Clearance section, I noticed what clearly HAD to be a Wilton Armetale tray.  These things just don't hang around long enough to make it to clearance, you know?  I was intrigued to say the least.

So I asked him to pick it up:

BTW, nice pics for a camera phone, huh?

Must... Get Through... Today....

I think I've got a concussion.

I was sitting at the base of our stairs because it's a good place to watch TV and talk on the phone (to this lovely lady, my homeboy, and then my Mom last night, actually).  It's far enough away from the TV that it's not blaring into the phone, but directly across from the screen.  Plus the carpet is pretty nice.  Nicest carpet we've ever had, in fact.

So I was chatting away with Mom and the Princess decided to favor me with one of her toys.  Not thinking clearly, I leaned over to pick it up, and then sat up to toss it for her.

When I sat up, I brought the top of my head into direct contact with the bottom end of the handrail of the stairs at full speed.

You know the little birdies on the Warner Brothers' cartoons?  Yeah, I saw those.

Anyway, after about 30 minutes of ice and two Advil, I was ok, but this morning I'm sore all over and the headache?  She refuses the Advil and caffeine treatment.  I've had post concussion syndrome before (dropped on my head in college), so I know the drill.  At least it's just a regular headache, not a migraine, although even my damn teeth hurt.

Now it's just a matter of sitting here two hours and then driving home.  Yay, home.  Maybe I'll bugger off early.  I do have things I need to work on at home....

Happy Birthday!

To BlogSis Mrs_Who!

I guess I'm growing up...

As some of you may know, I felt like shit last night.  On top of
whacking my head sunday night, the sinuses on the other side decided it
was time to play catch-up, including a sore throat.  Well, nothing
worked, and even the damn chloraseptic wore off too soon, so I asked hubby
to go out and get us milkshakes to fix my throat.  He got back about 10, just
in time to put on the news, right?


I get about halfway through my milkshake, look up, and there's
John Fucking FlipFlopper KetchupBoy spewing about how his religion
makes him who he is and how that should be important to everyone at
some speech he gave at Pepperdine (he was really in town to raise $$
for Angelides....)


I DID NOT throw my milkshake at the TV.  It was hard.  I DID
manage to grab the remote and change the channel, though.  But my hands
were shaking and I had to actually tell myself to put down the cup and
get the remote.


Hubby said he was proud of me.  Probably because he would have had to clean it up.....

Avast!

Arrrgh!  It be Talk Like a Pirate Day!

A Gender Gap in Science?

This study came out recently, and I'm not sure how I feel about it.  Ok, that's wrong.  On the face, without having read the actual text yet, I disagree with [the media's presentation of] it ENTIRELY.

You see, there's a very important factor that either they've overlooked or the media has chosen not to report....

Let me explain:

First of all, I want to make it clear that I've never experienced that kind of discrimination personally.  As an undergrad, while Caltech had 4 times as many males on campus as females, the Bio department was almost 50-50.  In graduate school, out of about 30 students in my program, 6 were guys.  My advisor was female, too.  So was her postdoctoral advisor.

Here, half of my department is female, including our chair.

But on to my main point:

One thing the study doesn't seem to consider is that women often PREFER to opt out of the higher academic jobs because of the demanding schedule.  We CHOOSE to remain in a comfortable lab, where our schedule is more flexible, we can work with the people we choose to work with, and we have time to be ourselves and actually SEE our families.

This is the elephant in the living room.  Academic Science has many of them.

Sure, a lot of women who are Dr. Shalala's age and even up to 20 years younger had to deal with chauvinist pigs and glass ceilings and all that.  They had to CHOOSE between a career and a family.  Women scientists of MY generation can have both, and are frequently choosing personal fulfillment over professional, in many cases.  I did.  That's why I teach, rather than pursuing a traditional academic career track.

What these older chickies can't stand is the rearrangement of priorities in younger female scientists.  They hate it that we wouldn't follow them blindly through the glass ceiling, that we can stop about a foot lower and say "Thanks, I'm good."  That we refuse to blaze their trail just because it's there.

I'm not naive enough to say that discrimination DOESN'T exist. However, that doesn't mean that gender-based discrimination is the ONLY reason why women don't get the highest jobs in academic science and engineering. And it's naive of THEM to say otherwise.

Democrats say the darndest things....

Someone's been drinking the Kool Aid. In fact, a couple of someones.

Let's start with Charlie Rangel, who once slammed President Bush by saying"[H]e has shattered the myth of white supremacy once and for all."

And then there's Nancy "Botox Babe" Pelosi, who once called him "...a man ... who [has] consistently failed to lead our country on the most pressing issues."

Well, today Rep. Rangel blasted Hugo Chavez of Venezuela for attacking President Bush and calling him the "devil". Hot Air has the video.

This from the man who openly supports Hugo Chavez' best amigo, fidel castro (begins halfway through the clip):

Interestingly, Rangel has backpedaled, issuing a statement that what he takes issue with is merely Chavez' "personal" attack on the President. Yeah, right, Charlie. Keep digging. See quote above.

Or how about this one from Nancy herself: "[his] capacity to lead has never been there. In order to lead, you have to have judgment. In order to have judgment, you have to have knowledge and experience. He has none,'' Where was Charlie for this one?

Rep. Pelosi joined in the fun too. Calling Chavez a "thug", she blasted Chavez for "abusing the privilege" of speaking at the U.N. Ha! She's defending a man she believes is "an incompetent leader. In fact, he's not a leader, he's a person who has no judgment, no experience and no knowledge of the subjects that he has to decide upon.'"

Hypocrite much?

Seven Songs

Ok, so I got tagged and it's Friday. Here we go:
List seven songs you are into right now. No matter what the genre, whether they have words, or even if they’re not any good, but they must be songs you’re really enjoying now. Post these instructions in your blog along with your seven songs. Then tag seven other people to see what they’re listening to.

This I can do.  They're not really  "new" by any stretch, but they are the ones I've been listening to and thinking about...

1. "Lovers in a Dangerous Time" -- Barenaked Ladies

Don't the hours grow shorter as the days go by
You never get to stop and open our eyes
One minute you're waiting for the sky to fall
The next you're dazzled by the beauty of it all
Lovers in a dangerous time

These fragile bodies of touch and taste
This fragrant skin this hair like lace
Spirits open to the thrust of grace
Never a breath you can afford to waste
Lovers in a dangerous time

2. "The Dark of the Matinee" --Franz Ferdinand

Find me and follow me through corridors
Refectories and files you must follow
Leave this academic factory
You will find me in the matinee, the dark of the matinee
It's better in the matinee
The dark of the matinee is mine, yes it's mine

3.  "The Difference" -- The Wallflowers

One, two boys by the river
Down by the water
Tellin' riddles in the dark
With fireflies under the moonlight
Carvin' the insides of a tree with a knife
Ever hear the one about the boy's big sister
His best friend come along
He tried to kiss her
The only difference
That I see
Is you are exactly the same
As you used to be..

4. "Ever the Same" -- Rob Thomas

We would stand in the wind
We were free like water
Flowing down
Under the warmth of the sun
Now it's cold and we're scared
And we've both been shaken
Look at us
Man, this doesn't need to be the end

Just let me hold you while you're falling apart
Just let me hold you so we both fall down

Fall on me tell me everything you want me to be
Forever with you
Forever in me
Ever the same

5. "Home" -- Barenaked Ladies

Where does the heart reside
If not where I lay my head?
I could run but I'm petrified
And choose this instead
Again and again

6.  "Californication" -- Red Hot Chili Peppers

Destruction leads to a very rough road
But it also breeds creation
And earthquakes are to a girl's guitar
They're just another good vibration
And tidal waves couldn't save the world
From Californication

7.  "This Love" -- Maroon 5

I was so high I did not recognize
The fire burning in her eyes
The chaos that controlled my mind
Whispered goodbye and she got on a plane
Never to return again
But always in my heart

Oh, and I tag the rest of the Cotillion ladies who haven't done this one yet!

I suck

So this week was my turn for the Spyvella chapter, but I have been dealing with some major issues at work (hence the dearth of posting this week). I'll try to get it together and post it soon. Promise!

My New Theme Song

Courtesy of Weird Al:

Oh, and just to prove what a freaking nerd I am, the equation displayed behind Al and Donny Osmond is the most common form of the time-independent version of Schroedinger's wave equation for non-relativistic systems

Obsess Much?

Work is a shitstorm right now for reasons I am unable to reveal publicly.

So, in order to make myself laugh (at least), here are the lyrics to "White and Nerdy" so that you can officially verify that you too are "Too white and nerdy..."

Lyrics below the jump!

Read More "Obsess Much?" »

Holy Google, Batman!

Wow, I'm link #10 for "olympus fashion week project runway". Seven of the nine links ahead of me are either OFW official pages, or major media pages covering OFW. And I'm only the 3rd blog, behind the greatness that is BPR...

If you got here looking for fabulousness, welcome, and have a look around!

Full circle

Over the last several years professional teams and colleges alike have been tripping over themselves in a rush to sell the "naming rights" of their home stadiums and arenas to corporate partners for a boatload of cash. Because of this a number of historic stadium names have been lost. Some examples: Candlestick Park, long home of the Giants and 49ers is now Monster Park, it's 3rd or 4th name; and New Jersey's Brendan Byrne Arena, long home of the NHL's Devils, is now the Continental Airlines Arena.

Colleges too are jumping on the bandwagon. Syracuse plays in the Carrier Dome (which ironically enough has no air conditioning!), and the University of Missouri briefly named its on-campus arena Paige Arena, after Elizabeth Paige Laurie, a Wal-Mart heiress, at least until her roommate at USC (that's right, she was not a U of M student, either!) revealed that Miss Laurie had engaged in academic dishonesty and subsequently left the university.

But the trend has now come full circle. Officials in Glendale, AZ announced today that the naming rights to the new Cardinals Stadium have been sold. To the University of Phoenix.

Now I know that U of P is a corporate entity more than a school, but it is deliciously funny to see a corporation pay to call a stadium "University of [anything] Stadium".

Some serious smackdown

...going on over at Babalu.

First, check out George's post on Clinton's interview with Chris Wallace.  Then read the comments!

Frankly, you should know you've lost the argument when you resort to saying things like "Sure wish Bush would have sex with some intern..."

The Babalu smackdown continues courtesy of Condi Rice.

Be sure to check it all out!

More than a comedian

As many of you probably know, Bill Cosby has an Ed.D. That's Education Doctor, BTW.

Here's what he has to say about education: "Why can't students practice algebra for hours like teams practice sports?"

Further:

...[W]hen freshman Kimya Thompson shouted that the subject was boring, Cosby, from Shelburne, brought her on stage.

He told her that if she and her peers didn't sharpen their academic skills, they'd be earning minimum wage.

Cosby told the 450 students that they couldn't go to jail for getting straight As, but they could get shot for selling drugs.

You tell 'em Bill!

Who says Project Runway isn't popular.....

Holy Cow! Within a minute of the end of this week's episode, this is what I get!  We'll see what happens after the west coast airing!

In the Pink!

Congratulations are in order for fellow blogger and Cotillionette Holly Aho and her family!

Happy Birthday!

To Sadie, daughter of my bloggyparents, Jay and Deb!

The original blog baby turns TWO today!

Time sure flies.  I hope she enjoys the present which should arrive Monday or Tuesday (damn slow Amazon.com.....)

More Happy....

It's also Happy Happy Birthday for blog-bro Contagion and the lovely Mrs. Smash.  Do drop by and wish them your best!

Ever wonder who the President talks to?

Jim of Parkway Rest Stop and his crack staff have uncovered a transcript!

Drink warning for the end!

It's Acute Maxillary Sinusitis

Yay!  I finally know what I have!

Ok, so I didn't actually go to the doctor.  I asked Dr. Google.

I just wanted some validation that tooth pain COULD be related to sinus problems, because I get relief from decongestants and steam treatments, the same as if I had normal sinus congestion.  Except my freaking teeth hurt SOOOOOO FUCKING BAD that I have been begging Hubby to shoot me in the face (NOW!!!!)


Not to mention that my left cheek is swollen and if you touch it, I WILL SHOOT  YOU.

A week ago I had many of these symptoms, but then, POOF! they were gone.  For a whole blessed week.

Tonight the motherfucker WOKE ME UP at 2 am!  But I know why.  The winds changed, and we are being inundated with smoke from the Day fire again.

Anyway, I started looking to see if tooth pain was ever associated with sinus problems, and every symptom listed is something I have:
nasal congestion?  Check.
nasty nasal goo (discharge)? Check.
Swollen, painful cheek?  Check.
Tooth pain not identifiable to one specific tooth?  Check.
More painful when lying down or bending? DEFINITELY
Better after steam, heat applied to face, and/or decongestants?  Check.

I had no idea that this was even possible, let alone common.  Go figure.
And now it's 4:30 AM and I need some sleep.... maybe I can, the decongestant seems to be working ok.