Getting back to normal

After what seems like a week of illness, Dad and I are both on the mend.  Lots of phlegm loosening up, but it's finally almost over.

While sorting the laundry today, a gigantic spider came out of Aspen's pile!  I screamed, killed it, and sent Aspen to clean his room.

We cleaned Hammy's cage, too.  I used the shop vac to remove the litter, then got it all back together.  Hammy seemed pleased.

Also refilled the wild bird feeder, potted my ivy that I've been rooting, and cleaned the shower.  Then I took an hour-long nap.  Tomorrow I plan to do some grocery shopping.

Dad rearranged the dogs' sleeping area, and put Brodie's crate back out there.  She is NOT thrilled to be between Copper and Dash.

Aspen put Dash in the house and threw the ball for Copper, and Copper played!  We were so excited to see him take a break from chicken-staring.  He's a little out of chasing shape, but he should get better with practice.

Pretty busy day for people who really needed a lot of breaks in between tasks!

Hammy is a martian!

So cold. . .

Copper is so cold!  "Holdya??!"

Enough already!

My summer cold has kicked in for real now.  Let's just say it's an upper respiratory infection, and let it go at that.

I spent a quiet day posting grades and processing data for my study of how men and women differ in their interpretation if sexual interest.  The data's looking pretty good now that I got the insight that I needed to calculate my own factor analysis of the items before computing my statistics.

If you're still awake after reading that...  Aspen has been completely ODing on his video games for the past two days.  He's taking advantage of Pat's and my illness.

Key to my survival will be getting my sinuses clear so I can sleep tonight.  We all know I cannot breathe through my mouth!

Back to archery!

First I tried to take a pix of Pat shooting his bow and arrow, but he forbade a shirtless pix. 

Then I took this pix of his perfect bull's eye, and he complained that the score of all arrows together isn't very high. 

Shows that he's feeling better -- he's shooting, and dissatisfied with a perfect bull's eye from 40 yds.

SOOOOO uncool!

So, Pat came down with a cold on Sunday, and I tried to be a reasonably decent caregiver -- I provided medications, fluids, and bland foods.  Yesterday, his head was really congested and he was coughing, and he had a headache.  Poor baby!

Despite my awesome attention as a nurse, I still got cursed with the same malady!  The nerve!  I'm on Day 1, with the periodic opening of my nose-faucet, alternating with the complete stopping of all air through my nose.  Perfect for napping.  I'm not really coughing -- knock on wood.  I'm sure that's tomorrow.

Long story short:  I'm sick!  :-(

I still managed to record my Chapter 4 lectures, so I'm a trooper.  I've been working on my data from my sexual interest study, and I'm completely flummoxed by it. How can men and women be scoring the same way?  I don't understand. . .  I've tightened up everything I can think of across three studies, and I keep getting this weird pattern.  Sigh.

Pat is feeling way better today, but we both took it easy today.  He kicked back on the recliner on the back porch for much of the afternoon.  Aspen's the only truly healthy one, and I'm not comfortable placing our survival in his hands.  LOL

I think Hammy's going feral.  I went to get him last night, and he was sitting in one corner of his cage, where he's kicked out all of his litter.  He was sitting upright on his haunches, front feet tucked up to his chest, with a look like a prairie dog. 

I opened his door and tried to lure him out, but he got one sniff of my hand and fled through his tube to his other cage.  He adopted the same stance in a corner of that cage; I opened the door over there, he sniffed my hand, then recoiled to the back of the cage.  I finally grabbed him (he didn't bite me), and took him to see Pat.  He climbed around a bit, with the overhead lights on so we could see him, and when Pat gestured (causing a shadow to pass over Hammy), Hammy dropped to his stomach and froze -- like a hawk had flown over.  That was pretty cute.  But he didn't really want to explore after that.

I took him down to see Aspen, and he squeezed upward in my hand so that only his lower hips were in my hand, then froze in that position.  It was really weird.  I put him back in his cage, and he fled for miles in his wheel.  I think he misses his Mommy!

Tuesday at home

Poor Patrick has a cold.  He's coughing, his head hurts, and he feels nauseated.  I begin this post with this description because it's the reason that I delayed my walk with Cathy from 8:30 to 9 am this morning.  And I'm so glad I did, because Sierra Skyped us at 8:30 this morning!  I answered on my Galaxy Player, so she couldn't hear me, but I could hear her.  And we could see each other.

It was funny trying to respond to her, first with rudimentary ASL (which she doesn't know), and then with little signs Pat made for me to hold up.  I think Sierra was as glad to see us as we were to see her.  All of our antics cracked her up!

After our walk to the boat launch (I rousted Aspen out of bed so Dash could come, too), my lungs were pretty thrashed.  I've detoxed from my daily 24-hour allergy meds, and am completely clean now.  But it feels like I've got asthma when climbing hills.

I got online and paid some bills, then the boys and I headed out for lunch at Quizno's.  Mmm-mmm-mmm:  Toasty!  We haven't had Quizno's in ages.

We headed over to the motorcycle shop to pick up the belt for Pat's quad, and Aspen tried out the different quads that they have for sale.  He's really interested in getting a bigger quad.

Speaking of which, he had his phone interview with Home Depot yesterday.  I don't know what the next step is supposed to be, but at least they let him know that it's a 20-29 hr/week stocking job.  They said NOT to go to the store to inquire, but it seems like he should go to the store and make himself known.

He's still on the waitlist for his classes, and no one has contacted him about the entry code for the one class that is not full and for which he has all of the pre-reqs fulfilled.

I am plugging along, updating my online lectures, and am getting ready to start working on my report on my inferring sexual interest study.  Different things keep interfering with my getting to work on that. . .

The weather is beautiful up here right now. . .  upper 80s and sunny.  It's great for our break from school.

Brodie and Hammy

Brodie and Hammy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0cD9Zod2DsQ

Sunday at home

We had a busy day at home today, full of glamour and thrills.

After watching Sunday Morning and drinking our coffee, I sorted the laundry and got it started.  Then I sanded the front door, stained it, and varathaned it.  Meanwhile, the boys worked on the shed.

Aspen and I made chicken salad for dinner while Pat practiced his archery.  During dinner, Pat brought Sierra's hamster down in a plastic container so he could play in the same room as us.  Brodie found that fascinating!

Now my shoulders and forearms hurt from my day of labor, and we're relaxing in front of the TV.

Saturday at home

OK, getting sick of sleeping fretfully.  But when I went to bed last night, Sierra was just starting to cross Hudson Bay!  What a scary image, flying over a dark cold expanse of water.  Pat told me to just tell myself that she's at Girl Scout camp in Carnation, and that little trick let me fall asleep.

At 1:24 am, we realized Aspen was still up editing his game narration video (you can check his postings at Fmily), so now we're both awake, trying to kid ourselves into going back to sleep.  We figured that Sierra was somewhere over the North Sea at about that time, which also seemed scary.  I managed to fall back asleep after some tossing and turning.

Awoke to a cricked neck, but the realization that she must be alive -- no phone call from the airline!  We've waited patiently all day for her posting on her travel blog, and were richly rewarded by an outstanding description of her first day in Ireland.  I'm so happy that she's absorbing the full details of her trip.  She's the perfect person to be traveling, because she's got such a curious mind.

Pat headed out to Flint Tip archery club to try to make some new friends, so I feverishly knitted to make up for yesterday's deficit.  I'm really coming along on his new archery vest.

At 10 am, Aspen appeared, and went out to play with Dash.  He knows that he's responsible for filling the buddy void that his sister left, so he resigned himself to sitting in Pat's chair to keep me company, when I remembered we have two Doctor Who specials on the DVR to watch.  That made him very happy!  And then I reminded him that the new season starts tonight, and he's over the moon.

We headed out in his GTI to return his rented Comm Studies textbook via UPS, then to Taco Bell for the lunch he's been requesting for the past week, then to Carpinito Brothers for the produce I've been requesting for the past week.  I also picked up some phlox to replace the spent sweet peas in the window boxes.  They smell so good and look so pretty!

I turned on the TV to discover the Little League World Series was on, and realized that baseball is interesting when played by 12 yr olds.  I used to love to watch my brother play, and I loved to play softball, but I hate professional baseball.  That's because it's boring compared to watching little kids!  I made Aspen come in and watch the Nevada coach's pep talk when the team was down 7-5 going into the 6th (and final) inning, because it sounded exactly like Coach Feist.  Brought tears to my eyes!

Pat got home just as nap time arrived, so I settled in with my nap-inducing "People's Court," and took a power nap.  Now I'm ready to go record some more Intro Psych online lectures, before our 7 pm viewing of the first episode of the new Doctor Who season.  If I plan this correctly, the guys will have to make dinner while I'm working.

Sierra's flight trajectory

I figured out how to track Sierra's flight with a map and trajectory on it, and it looks so creepy!  She's flying over Canada, headed for the Arctic, skirting Greenland before landing in Ireland tomorrow morning.  Just seems like she's heading into the unpopulated areas of the world. . .

Sierra left for Ireland today

After a fitful night sleep, I awoke to the realization that the day has come:  My baby is leaving for three weeks in Ireland.

Even her brother, who hasn't risen before 10 am in weeks, got up to give her a farewell hug at 7:30 am this morning.  (You can see me in the mirror in the bathroom, if you look closely.)

So, she piled into her boyfriend Chris' Passat, with only 44 lbs of checked luggage and a backpack for her carry-on.  I stood on the porch and waved as they pulled away, and came back inside.  Pat had his archery equipment in hand, kissed me goodbye, and headed out to the range to meet a new member who wanted a tour.

I couldn't settle down to my normal morning routine of knitting, drinking coffee, and watching TV shows on my DVR.  I had a restless feeling, so I used my energy to record some lectures for my Introductory Psychology online class (you can check them out on YouTube -- my channel is creatively named jillseiver).

After finishing the chapter, I decided it was time to go harass Aspen, who had returned to bed after Sierra's departure.  His dog, Dash, was sleeping on the foot of the bed, so I decided to tease Aspen by trying to get Dash to jump on him.  "Get your Daddy!" I exclaimed, while tapping Aspen's hip.  Dash gave out a low growl.  "That's weird," we both agreed.  So I tried again, tapping Aspen's hip and saying "Get Daddy!"  Dash growled louder.  Was he playing, or was he really trying to protect Aspen?  One more tap provided the answer, as Dash yelped, jumped to his feet, and clamped my forearm in his mouth.  Aspen growled, "NO!" and pinned Dash to the bed (I'm pleased that my retired wrestler can still win in the 65 lb Border Collie category).  Dash was confused, and submitted immediately.  Then Aspen banished him, and Dash fled to hide under Big Pop's desk.  Aspen is determined to eliminate that biting behavior, and immediately took Dash out for a vigorous bout of Frisbee, followed by some training.

After a yoga session, I sat with Aspen to get him to sign up for his fall classes.  He's been dragging his feet all summer, and now we have only 4 weeks until the quarter begins.  He has two classes in his major that he has to take as prerequisites for all of the other classes he must take (he's majoring in software development).  Of course they're both full with waiting lists.  He's pretty lucky though, because one class has only one student on the wait list, and the other only has 4.  It's possible that people could get dropped for non-payment and he could get rotated in.  But this close to the start of the quarter, it's not a sure-thing.  He is learning that he should listen to my advice regarding school!  :-)

He finally got a call-back from Home Depot about the job application that he submitted last May.  But again, he foot-dragged about calling back until he finally called 15 minutes after the call center closed.  So now he has to wait until Monday.

Did I mention that he's 18?  It's so fun to fulfill the stereotype.  LOL

My student from Eastern WA University with whom I am conducting a study came over to analyze the data that has come in so far.  It may sound weird to have a student over to my house, but this whole thing is sort of weird, because her kids attended the same home-school group that my kids did.  Her oldest son and Sierra were pretty tight a few years ago (friends, flirty), and Sierra was the lead in the Shakespeare plays that my now-student directed.  It's all very inbred!  Small town!  Anyway, unfortunately we did not have adequate respondents in two out of the three categories of participant that we need, so we're back to recruiting.  At least she was here to help me be brave while Sierra is flying around.

After my student left, Aspen went out to start the briquettes for grilling the steak.  I came down from my evening shower and asked what was burning.  Pat said I was smelling residual smoke from starting the briquettes, but I thought it smelled like current smoke.  Finally, after dinner, Pat smelled the smoke and noticed that no smoke was coming out of the BBQ.  That's odd.  So he looked out and saw a lot of smoke under our back porch roof.  That's odd.  He went outside to investigate, and saw smoke coming out of the storage closet where we keep our Girl Scout style fire-starters (egg crates filled with dryer lint and candle wax).  The door was slightly ajar, and as he walked toward it, he saw the flashover as the smoldering fire burst into real flames.  Three 18-egg egg crates were fully engulfed inside of our storage closet!  He grabbed the crates and rushed toward the backyard, inadvertently fanning the flames, so he threw the crates onto the stone patio as soon as he could.  Here are the remnants:

OMG -- that could have been a disaster!  He managed to catch it right before it became a real house fire.  My rescue swimmer is still my rescuer and hero!  Aspen is completely unaware of anything that could have caused those egg crates (which he had carried out to the BBQ, broke off one, lit the fire, then returned the extra crates back to the closet) to catch fire.  But logic tells us that some heat got close to those fire-starters, and they smoldered to life over the next half hour.

As we all recovered and caught our breaths, Pat said, "Sierra's right -- we couldn't even make it one day without her!"  She's known it since she was little -- we're incompetent and need her to live.

We miss you, Sierra!  :-)