Swine flu

I just have to say something regarding all the panic in the news over swine flu. And that is- stop panicking! My original career was as a molecular biologist. It has always annoyed me when people used the word influenza for gastroenteritis. Huh? Well, let's put it this way- if your throwing up and have diarrhea- that is gastroenteritis. Influenza is when you have fever, muscle aches, fatigue, etc. So it always drives me nuts to here someone say they have the flu or better yet call it the stomach flu which does not exist in medical terms. So while that has always been my biggest pet peeve, lately, I have been so annoyed over all the coverage regarding the swine flu. There is no pandemic other than the pandemic of paranoia being created by the media. Yes the CDC is working to isolate the strain- which they have H1N1 and monitoring the areas where the 109 known cases have been reported. They've determined which anti-viral drugs counteract the strain.

However, for the Secretary of Homeland Security to declare a public health emergency because there are 109 cases is feeding into this hysteria. According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, a pandemic is defined as "occurring over a wide geographic area and affecting an exceptionally high proportion of the population." 109 does not seem like an exceptionally high proportion of the population. The pandemic in 1918-1919 took the lives of 25-50 million people worldwide with approximately 625,000 in America. Because of vaccines, the most recent pandemics of 1957-1957 took the lives of 70,000 and 1967-1968 recorded 33000.

Can you see how different 109 cases differs from the above numbers of the past pandemics?

Yes we should be careful and take precautions, but let's not spread fear and panic.

Yes, I am that mother....

that let's her daughter go to school in shorts the first sunny 40+ degree day. The weather here in the Northeast has been beautiful. Last night, I was thinking about how as a child I couldn't wait for summer. I may or may not have posted before about how I absolutely hate winter. Even as a child, I would not play in the snow very often. The kids make fun of me in the winter as I will video tape and take pictures of them building snowmen from the kitchen window.

So when my daughter asks to wear shorts on days 40-50 degrees, I can't say no. I remember the longing to just wear shorts on a chilly sunny day. Her teachers and other parents may think it's wrong but I feel her need. My son on the other hand has to be coerced to wear shorts to school even when it's sweltering. Strange.

Blog Reading

I'm not sure about everyone else out there, but I was wondering- when you stumble across a blog that you really like, do you go back and start reading from their first post? I do. It is so weird but I cannot help myself. It's like opening a good book and randomly picking a page to start reading. It's weird but I have to go to the first post and read up to the current posting. I think it is called stalking.

How about you?

End of April- already?

Sorry it has been weeks since I've posted. My son had a strange allergic reaction Wednesday April 8th. It happened right after he had a peanut butter sandwich so I naturally assumed it was peanuts. I called the next morning and requested a RAST test. But then he kept having the same swelling issue and he didn't eat peanuts/peanut butter. The doctor thought maybe it was still in his system and coming out. To be on the safe side- because it takes a week for the results of the RAST to come in- he did have some other tests done to see if he had high levels of histamines causing subsequent problems. Those all came in normal. The RAST came in normal and so we are to see a specialist. We immediately started him on Benedryl in the evening and Zyrtec in the day. It is working but we are on edge as he just starts to swell up around his lips, hands, and sometimes feet. But what a trooper he is getting his blood drawn. Not one tear or fuss and he had to go 3 times. Even I was getting upset!! Anyone else ever deal with this? At this point they think it is just seasonal allergies which I can handle as he is always sneezing and coughing from April to November. But to see his little face and hands swell so much that he can hardly move them or talk is scary.

Easter was good- despite worrying every moment about Jeffrey. The Easter Bunny brought the kids gerbils and they were so happy! Although now I am the gerbil caregiver. But they are really cute and are becoming more tame. LOTS of candy which is always the best gift.


Work has been super busy with a life campaign coming to an end and I am one policy short of the goal. Plus they decided to roll out a new computer program for auto policies. Love the forethought on doing that during our biggest sales campaign!!

So much has gone on and really need to break things down more in future posts. I have been reading every one's blog and feel really bad that I haven't been able to keep up. Weather has been beautiful the past few days - over 80 degrees since Saturday. Love it!!

Cooking and Wrestling

Yesterday I spent the day cooking and baking. My dad's birthday is today, but we had him over for dinner yesterday. I made sauce -as usual. I also found an easy chocolate cake recipe in my Woman's Day magazine and tried it out. I was really surprised at how easy and good it was. Everyone liked it. Unfortunately the store was out of one of the ingredients needed for icing so I used icing I had in the pantry.

I was going to try to get my soap made yesterday, but I ran out of time. I was able to get a lot done yesterday. My list looked like the following;

• laundry - I got around 3 loads done - including washing Paige's Easter outfit from when she was 6 mos old that got water stained from our roof leaking. Most of the stains came out but not a couple- any help?
• porch- although I wanted to scrub the porch down, it is slated to snow today/tonight and so I just swept it off and cleared off some accumulated junk
• bird house- Jeff finally finished making the bird house he and Jeff M started about 8 months ago. So glad to get that off my laundry table!
• paint - I touched up some areas in the dining room and painted a small patch on the living room accent wall. I thought the color from the dining room would make a nice replacement of the current purple, but I'm not liking it against the oak color on the main walls.
• sunning - I did spend an hour or so talking to my neighbor and sitting in the sun. I even got a little sunburn on my nose. I use a moisturizer with 28 spf but I always get a little burn to start my summer.
• library books- I found the last two books to go back to the library that are due tomorrow.

Although it's not an extensive list, with the cooking and baking, I did a lot of dishes which took up some time. There are a few more things that I need to attend to such as making the soap -hopefully tonight- and cleaning out closets and clothes.

Last night was the 25th Anniversary Wrestling match on pay per view and my son went to our friends for a party. I know nothing about wrestling although he did get some wrestlers (no clue who the names are) and a wrestling ring for Christmas. Now he wants more guys -again clueless as to names. Maybe for his Easter basket. We are getting them hamsters for sure but I am going to put some small things in their baskets. Not sure how Chester will react to the critters, I just hope they live a while.

A Lost Soul

Yep, that's how I've been feeling the past few weeks. Can't really explain it. Part depression, part scattered. Work has been unbelievably busy the past few weeks for me as I have been the only one in the office. No big deal, but it does make it hard for me to get sales and marketing done.

The weather has been great. Sunny for most days with just a few rainy days. Only one day did I wake up to snow on the car...uggh! That should be the last of that nasty habit! But despite how nice the weather has been, I have been under the weather. Not truly sick, but rather melancholy. I have been reading all my fav blogs and working on things around the house, but I feel as though I am just going through the motions. So I stayed away from blogging. I think I've kicked the feeling and the office seems to be back to normal.

Maybe now I will be in a better mood and figure out how to add pictures to this blog! ;P