In July 2010, I caught the influenza virus from The Bloke and spent two weeks eating Japanese bento boxes because he and I had it at the same time – and neither of us had the energy to cook.

Despite having moved to the country and gotten all this good country fresh air…the flu has me two for two.

Yep, got the flu again, and this was even worse than last year. Three weeks all up with the last week turning into a blur of fevers, pain and other miseries. I am only now just starting to recover, though I still have to take a mid-day lay down because I get exhausted.

All my well-laid plans are now up in the air. I don’t think I’ll be recovered enough for Melbourne this weekend, so we’re putting that trip on the shelf indefinitely.

Poor Brin knew all along that mum was sick and has been extra quiet and cuddly while all this has been happening. Asimov… stopped sleeping on me for a while. Haha.

The Bloke has been an absolute champion, taking care of me and getting me the little extras that helped make things tolerable (apple juice, strepsils, cough syrup). He has escaped the flu, despite close contact, kisses, etc. If that isn’t proof that zinc (and vitamins) helps prevent illness, then I don’t know what is.

I’m scrambling around to catch up with myself at the moment, but I’m already yawning again… Maybe one more lay down… Just a short one…

Ever since a few weeks ago, the birds around our house seem to take special delight in pooing on The Bloke’s car. The Bloke has gotten annoyed. I have been quietly amused and calling the the Poo-pocalypse.

This isn’t too bad. It was a lot worse, but then he washed the car. He meant to wash it yesterday, but it got cold. I decided to whip out my camera and take a few shots.

I suppose that’s what we get with all the trees in front of the house.

I have been having a blast of a time keeping busy with all things bookish lately. Echo Falls is now available via CreateSpace and Amazon.com. I am nearly completely done with formatting it for ebook sales, so it will be available on Amazon for Kindle and Smashwords.com within the next few weeks.

However, formatting and getting the word out does not the next book write… I’ve already started the next one, but I want to make more time for it. Unfortunately, time isn’t something I have a heap of with all the planning going on for other things.

I have a birthday coming up for which I will be getting my third tattoo (or, at least, approving the art depending on the timeline), going on a small trip away, and going out to dinner with a friend (and The Bloke, of course) here in town. Said friend will be pet sitting Asimov and Brin while we are away, so that means plenty of house cleaning to do! Bleugh.

Does anyone else have dust bunnies that breed like, well, bunnies?

I know this isn’t the most exciting update by any means, but I feel a little overwhelmed, to be honest. I’d like to drop everything and finish writing the next book because all of this has been so much fun, but I prefer not to be a starving (not to mention dirty, poor, etc) artist for the time being.

More updates soon.

I want a nap.

Things have been very busy today with various appointments and such. I have a lot of good news to be happy for, though. I am not diabetic. I’m not even prediabetic and didn’t even have to take step number two – the Glucose Tolerance Test.

I can’t begin to explain how happy that makes me. I was so afraid that I had crossed that line when I gained weight. To not even be close to it… Beautiful.

The not so great news is that my cholesterol is high (which I can deal with using dietary changes, so no drama) and my liver is acting a bit wonky. I had more blood taken today and have an ultrasound next Monday with another appointment with the GP next Tuesday to go over the results.

On top of that, I have my heart monitor strapped on today and will be handing it back in tomorrow. I imagine the results of that will be there next Tuesday as well. I have had some flutterings, so if there is something to see, it will have shown up on the monitor.

All in all, this makes me wish for calmer times in a hurry. I am so looking forward to a weekend in Melbourne in August…

I meant to keep this blog more current, but that very thing I meant to talk about here – life – is the the exact thing that has been keeping me too busy to post here much often.

I have pictures of the pets (Brin is getting so big!) and even a video or two that I have yet to upload, but I’m so tired right now that I can’t be bothered to get up off the recliner. Haha.

There are other things going on causing big stress, but they are the kind of things I can’t really talk about here right now.

Plans for a birthday weekend in Melbourne have been put off until we have the above things sorted. Honestly, I’m not even prepared to think about August. I went to the doctor today and I’m getting bloods taken tomorrow (including the always fun glucose tolerance test that involves multiple pokes and three hours of my life) and next Tuesday I get hooked up to my 24 hour heart moniter thingy with a doctor’s appointment after that.

Bleh. So anyway, I’m not thinking much past next week, let alone August.

Hopefully everything will settle back down in a hurry!

Wow, ten days since my last post. Eesh. I don’t like that at all (but it’s bound to happen again).

The question of the day is, “Did you watch the royal wedding?”

Well yes, yes I did. I’ve had all sorts of reaction of that, but I don’t care what people think of it.

1. I’ve never seen a royal wedding before. Diana’s wedding happened before I was born. (Gasp! A clue to my age!)
2. I like all the pomp, circumstance and explanation of symbolism and etiquette.
3. I wanted to see what her dress looked like.

So now that’s settled… Haha.

Things have been super busy here with high stress for both of us. Somehow we both managed to be going through a tough time at work at the same time. Both our bosses haven’t been treating us all that great lately and all that work stress has translated into needing to be a bit careful around each other when the work day is done.

We’ve been doing a lot of talking about our future and where we want to go from here, and some big changes are going to happen in the next year and some. Nothing is solid yet so I can’t say much, but let’s say it might involve us trading in our manual for an automatic so I have a vehicle to drive…

It’s hard to make any solid decisions when the stressors are high, so we’re not committing to anything, but the plan we’ve been shaping has been looking good for a little bit now.

For interested parties (there have been a few comments about it), children aren’t in the books for right now. I still have a long way to go before my health is sorted out enough for me to feel confident that I can have a healthy pregnancy. Plus, we’re pretty darn happy right now and are thinking of adding to our family in a different way. After all, dogs are pack animals…

So that’s what’s new on our end. Our wedding anniversary is next week, but I can’t say too much because the Bloke might read this… Teehee!

This week has mainly been dedicated to taking care of my husband and thinking about taking care of my husband while he’s been dealing with a nasty cold.

The Bloke tends to go through a cycle when he gets really sick:

1. Sniffles, snuffles and general denials of illness
2. When the stuff really hits the fan, he needs plenty of sleep and as little irritation (aka contact with anything and everyone except his laptop) as possible
3. Functioning a bit better and happily taken care of
4. Recovering super-smartass mode
5. Sniffly
6. Healthy again

Super smartass mode is always my clue that he’s feeling a bit better. He still sounds horrible, but something is working right and he’s been through the worst.

It’s actually a bit strange to have him sick, as he used to never get sick.

I’m just glad to have him well on the mend.