Wednesday Thoughts

The "man" is really getting me down this week. I need a vacation. I took a long lunch break today and went to the farmers market and out to lunch at my favorite restaurant. It helped but I think I need a day to sleep. Doesn't that sound so nice? Just a day or two. Or a week. Yeah, a week would be nice. Is that asking too much?

In other thoughts, I had some amazing gazpacho a couple weeks ago and I have been craving it ever since. It was like eating a bowl of summer - all the ingredients were so fresh! I've been trying to find a good recipe for it since then but can't decide on one. Do any of you either:

1) have a good recipe for gazpacho, or
2) trust a certain recipe website that you could recommend?

I'm excited to make some. I've only made it once before and it was so long ago I don't remember how to do it. It should be an adventure.

There is one thing I make every summer that symbolizes summer to me: zucchini bread. I love zucchini bread and I associate it with the hottest days of summer. What is your summer specialty?

And lastly, I've started labeling (tagging) my posts as you'll see on the lower left side. It's going to take me a long time to go through and tag all of them but it's been kind of fun to go back. Dang, I blogged a lot about the swine flu last year, didn't I? The funny thing is, just this past weekend I was with a group of friends and someone said, "what ever happened to the swine flu?" I'm not sure if he was waxing nostalgic or if he was just wondering.

Oh great, I just realized that by talking about it again, I'm going to have to label this post as being about the swine flu. Hopefully this will be the last time.

Happy Wednesday, friends.

Update

I vowed not to write anything more about the swine flu, I really did. But people have been asking me if I'm going to update the map I made the other day. And once I realized people were counting on me, I just couldn't let them down. I mean, this is the swine flu we're talking about. If the media has taught us anything this week, it's that we should never stop thinking about the possibility - nay, probability- of a total N1H1 flu pandemic. I'm just here to fuel the fire.

The first map contains information I gathered from several maps online. In some states, the cases have not yet been confirmed.

I feel the second map is more complete. And much easier to update. (Maybe the pig can say something new everyday?)

I hope you have found these maps thorough and informative. Good luck not getting the swine flu. I really do hope you don't get it.

Swine! Swine! Swine!

I don't know about you, but I have never seen, heard, or said the word "swine" as much in my whole life as I have this past week. In order to find out if I have it or not, I visited this very informative website my friend Sarah sent me: DoIhaveswineflu.org. I finally have answers now, and have planned accordingly. I must say, it's a relief just to know.

I am kind of getting sick of saying the word swine though (that's a lie). So I'm going to start calling the swine flu by it's proper name: the H1N1 Flu. I read that the government is forming an H1N1 "task force" and this is something I can really see myself being a part of. Once they see the informative, yet calming, map I made, I'm pretty sure they'll beg me to join. The main (only) reason I want to join is because I want a police-like badge that says "H1N1 Task Force" and has a pig picture on it. I want to bust into people's homes, flash my badge, and say something like, "We received an anonymous tip that someone here was sneezing and coughing - turn over your tissues for testing and no one has to get hurt."

Side note: the image with this post is something I saw on a CNN article this morning. Can you imagine the tan lines those people are going to get? (I know, I shouldn't joke. Starting now I'm going to take the H1N1 flu more seriously. I promise.)

Wednesday Thoughts

I think we've had enough swine flu talk this week for a life time, don't you? In case you're still freaking out though and need to be calmed down, here's a link to an interesting article I read last night that puts things in perspective. Some interesting facts it gives:

13,000 people have died so far this year from the regular flu in the US
36, 000 die annually from the regular flu in the US
1 person has died from the swine flu in the US this year

So maybe we should calm down about the swine flu a little bit. And start freaking out about the regular flu!!! (That's what I'm doing anyway!! Seriously, I had no idea the risk I was taking when I skipped the flu shot last year.)

As I said before, I don't mean to make light of something has killed people and really is tragic. I'm just trying to keep some perspective.

Moving on to something lighter... last night Katherine (my sister) and I were having a serious conversation about some recent developments in stem cell research. Suddenly I got the song "She Blinded Me With Science" in my head and couldn't get it out. Even though Katherine begged me to stop singing it, I couldn't (or wouldn't as the case may be). Here's my question for you: is there any other way to dance to that song than the robot dance? I actually have a lot more questions about that song, but I won't get into them right now.

One more thing about the swine flu. I feel bad for the innocent pigs out there who are just trying to live their normal lives. Justin and Kathy and I were talking about our favorite pigs and wondering if they feel awkward going out in public now. I hope not. We still love you, Babe, Wilbur, and Ms. Piggy! (Check out poll on side to show your support.)



I don't really have a lot more Wednesday thoughts this morning. In fact, I keep thinking it's Thursday. That can't be good.

Guess who's back?

Swine flu's back. Thanks for the link, Chris!



What did you learn from these PSAs from the 1970s?

Update: I'm already sick of hearing about the swine flu

I hope I didn't add to the panic with my post from yesterday. Based on everything I've heard today, I feel like I'm supposed to be in a complete panic right now over the swine flu. And now there's the possibility that a woman in Michigan has it so now it's time to totally freak out!!!!!! I guess I have two options:

1.) Go on with my normal life, but with a bit more caution about the spreading of germs. Oh, and stop hugging and petting pigs - especially if they have the sniffles and a fever. Maybe I should stop going to the petting zoo every day after work.

2.) Buy a bubble, inflate it, move into it. Never leave it.

You would think with the way the media is covering this, there's nothing else out there that could kill us. It reminds me of the summer when all we heard about was the West Nile virus. We were all scared that every single mosquito was a carrier and all back yard bbqs were canceled indefinitely. I bought some netting and spent my entire summer in it. Memories. Here's what I plan on wearing this summer (better safe than sorry, right?):


I'm going to cover it with these stickers just to be safe.

The Swine Flu Scares Me

When I first heard about the swine flu, my first thought was, "I don't want to turn into a swine!" So I decided to look into it and I discovered that the symptoms had nothing to do with transmogrification, thank goodness. But don't get me wrong, the actual symptoms sound pretty bad.

At first I thought that since most reported cases are in Mexico, we were probably safe in Michigan - for awhile anyway. But no, it's made its way up north. Here's a link to a CNN map. I think mine is better: (I really don't mean to make light of a horrible illness that's killed people, but the smiling swine make me less scared)




Promise me if I get it, you'll come visit me in quarantine? I promise not to kiss you and pass it on to you. I mean, unless I'm really enjoying our visit and don't want you to go. You understand.