Finally caught up! (Almost)

I'm finally caught up with the blogs I follow, except for just one, which I'll go read very shortly. In the meantime, before I forgot, I wanted to post to let everyone know what I've been up to.

The trip to MN was very nice. I love seeing my cousins, even though they're between seven and 12 years older than me. They all have kids, and one is a grandma. The memorial for my uncle was very nice, about 30 minutes long. That night we went to my cousin Carole's house for pizza. The whole family showed up. Four cousins and their spouses, my aunt, me, seven of the nine grandchildren, one spouse of a grandchild, one boyfriend of a grandchild, and one great-grandchild. So about 20 of us hanging out. A really nice way to end the evening.

The drive up and back was not a lot of fun. My back has been bothering me for a week and a half now, and sitting in my car for six to seven hours doesn't help. I stopped at every rest stop just to get out and walk for a few minutes. It never really made anything more comfortable, it just made it possible for me to get out and walk at the next rest stop.

I thought it would be nice, having a short week of only four days, but yesterday afternoon my throat started feeling sore. By the time I went to bed last night, I was shivering, and fearing I had a fever, took my temperature. It was about 99F. Not bad by any means, but enough to make me shiver almost uncontrollably with sweats and a sweatshirt on, under a blanket. I had already taken Ibuprofen for my back, so there was no point taking anything for my fever.

When I woke up this morning, my fever was gone, which I expected, but my throat was worse. And I completely felt like crap. So I called in and left a couple messages for people letting them know I was taking a sick day. That was at 6:30AM, I then went back to sleep until 11:19AM. I've lazed around all day, doing nothing, hoping that I'll be feeling better tomorrow or Sunday.

I'm supposed to go to my aunt's house Sunday for lunch and to see the movie The Watchmen. While I don't want to get anyone sick, I do want to see that movie, so I'm hoping my throat is better and that whatever this is doesn't spread to my nose by then.

Flashback to yesterday morning. While putting my socks on, I heard a bluejay screeching outside. When I turned to see if he was nearby, I saw a charlie on my balcony. When I got up to shoo him away from the bird feeder, I notice the bluejay was AT the feeder. I stood there for a minute, drinking in the wonder at a bluejay at my feeder. Once he flew off, I opened up the sliding door, stuck my arm out to shoo away the squirrel. He just looked at me like I was crazy. So, I opened the door a bit more, stuck half my body out, waved my arm some more, and told him to shoo. He jumped up on the railing and contemplated just how far outside he could entice me.

Making sure I blocked the entrance to my apt, so charlie wouldn't get any ideas about running inside, I stepped all the way out onto the balcony, still in just my socks. Charlie tried to get me to follow him further by leaping from the balcony to the outside ledge of the window in the second bedroom. Knowing that was not far enough to prevent him from returning to his feast of birdseed, I stepped closer to the railing, continuing to tell him to shoo and go away. Finally he gave up, jumped to the tree, scampered down the trunk and bounded away to someplace more quiet. I said goodbye to Charlie, went back inside, closed the door, put my shoes on and went to work. What work he put me through!

Besides the bluejay, I received another sign that spring is coming very soon. No, it wasn't the 60 degree temps today, although that is a good indication. This was another feathered friend, the American Robin. It's the first one I've seen this year, and I know when they show up that spring is on the way. It's so nice now that I'm starting to hear the birds singing outside my window in the morning, instead of the chip chip that I hear mostly in winter (with the occasional chick-a-dee-dee-dee).

I never did post a video of one of this week's Idol performances. I'm really slipping, because there were some really bad ones this week!

Enjoy your weekend!