A Quick Sob Story

After not posting for a week, here's a quick sob story to explain my absence:

I started the week (Labor Day) doing what any red-or-blue-blooded scientist should be doing on such a day: LABORING! I had science to do, dammit. It was a fairly productive (yet stressful) day as I tried to wrap up and plot results that I owed my superiors on the eve of their return from a long European trip. I also needed to finish up replies to reviewers on my latest paper.

Tuesday started pretty good- my new laptop (as demanded by all of 5 votes, it has been named UPGRAYEDD!) arrived and was off to the IT folks for setup. But it quickly deteriorated when I found out that it was time to switch offices- a move I had been informed of, but was formalized that morning. As such, I had to begin packing and moving my crap -- a fairly frustrating distraction. Finished most of the reviewer replies and started switching offices.

That night I made a bad mistake. I left the bedroom window open overnight despite the fact that the nice, cool air was drying out my throat quickly. I woke up with a sore throat that didn't distract too much that day. It kept me up that night, however, as what was bad for the throat is also bad for the sinuses. On Thursday, I tried to fight through a pretty bad head cold, but didn't get much done over all. Friday was pretty bad too. It was supposed to be my day off, but I went in for a few hours trying to make up for time lost due to moving and sickness. Blerg.

Today was spent resting. It's really hard to concentrate with a nasty head cold. I've found the best medicine is Mucinex-D. The pills are so large that I doubt they were meant for humans, but it gives you 6 hours of relief. I discovered this pill-shaped-miracle last year at this time when I was interviewing with the Airforce Research Lab. That's right, I was almost a professional space weather forecaster for the US Airforce.

I should have some interesting stories starting Monday. Being that it's the first full day of NFL goodness, I'll spend the day weeping over the Lions.

Oh, and GO BLUE!