My friend Rick is blogging again--and living in Minnesota!

My friend Rick is blogging again--I'll have to update the side bar here. He's at http://crookedmaple.blogspot.com/

He actually lives here in the Twin Cities, so maybe we can finally get together! He's an old family friend back from my youth in Chicago.

Welcome back to Blogville Rick! Welcome to Minnesota!

Till next time,


Suzi

Facebook friends!

I am SOOOO excited! I have been trying to find my best friend from high school, Sandy, for over 10 years now. One sad year I received the Christmas card I sent her back in the mail with no forwarding address. After looking on classmates.com, searching on switchboard.com and other places, I had almost given up hope. Then I found a few long lost friends from high school on Facebook. And today, in my email in box, was a notice from Sandy! SHE had found ME on Facebook! Hurray!

Alas, she's in Texas and I'm in Minnesota. But at least we can be in touch online. I love our shrinking world.

On another note, I finally went to the doctor yesterday. My lungs are clear and he thinks what I've had for two weeks is probably viral. Nevertheless, he gave me a prescription for my cough and an antibiotic that I'm not to use unless there's no improvement by Tuesday.

Today Luke says he thinks he's got what I have. Sigh. At least Tim is feeling better and was finally able to visit his mom today, who has moved to a care facility for rehab while recovering from her back surgery. She must be feeling better, because she asked Tim to bring her calculator, which she said is what she's missing most about being away from home.

You can take the accountant away from the office, but you can't take the office away from the accountant? If it were tax season, she'd probably be seeing clients in her room and advising them on the phone--which is what she did in April 2003 when she had her stroke at the end of tax season.

Oh, in still other news, on Wednesday this week we had a departmental party in Anthropology/Sociology, sponsored by our TAs (Teaching Assistants). The theme was elections 2008, and we formed teams to vote for our favorite professor for president of the department. In between games we watched SNL clips of the debates. In the end, the votes were counted, and.........drumroll........I, the administrative assistant of the department won as dictator of the department. Maren, our lead TA, showed a power point presentation of me in my various offices on campus, in the Bethel president's office (with my name plate), in the president's office and parking spot. It was really fun, and Tim was there too.

What a great week. And I think I'm feeling better, too. Now I hope Luke doesn't get any worse......

Till next time,


Suzi

My cold is hanging on.......

Well, I've been sick for about a week and a half now. Last week I had no voice at all. Friday I stayed home from work and thought if I rested the whole weekend, I'd be good as new on Monday. Today is Tuesday, and my voice is still rough and my cough still is not quitting.

But I am seeing improvement. Fortunately, I only teach twice a week, Tuesdays and Thursdays. Last Tuesday we had a guest speaker. On Thursday I gave my students a group activity and an in-class writing assignment. Today my TA did most of the talking/discussion leading. Thursday our class visits the library--I'm off the hook.

Good thing my job does not entail answering phones all day like past jobs have. Something funny, though, is that a friend called that I haven't talked to in awhile. She said, "you're breaking up" but I wasn't on a cell phone. I laughed and said, "that's just my voice."

My co-workers are getting tired of listening to me hacking and croaking at them. But at least none of them have gotten sick. Yet. Tim was doing pretty well, too, but yesterday he came down with a solid case of the sniffles and runny nose. Yech.

But, we could be a lot worse off. Tim's mom had back surgery today, which was successful, but she was in a lot of pain. Tim and I are staying away from the hospital because of our colds. She'll be in the hospital for a couple of days, then a couple weeks at a care facility for rehab. Please pray for her.

My own sweet mom is planning for knee surgery. My nephew is having sinus surgery (he's 20).

I am thankful more and more for good health.

Tomorrow, I plan to have a stronger voice and less of a cough (Lord willing!).

Till next time,

Suzi

It's October!

Well, October is here, and just as the evening frost is giving some relief from his allergies, I've come down with a cold and sore throat. I've been gargling salt water and mouth wash, sucking on lozenges, drinking lots of fluids. Hopefully it will be better soon!

Today Raven and I encountered a stray dog--or at least a dog without an owner. It's hard for me to do anything when I see a dog except try to keep out of its way when I've got Raven. This morning, however, a green mini-van driver stopped to pick it up and try to find the owner. It was walking along a busy street, so we were worried it would get hit by someone. Hopefully this story will have a happy ending!

It's a beautiful, crisp fall day! This morning is the non-public schools marathon, and we encountered lots of folks and young children and more dogs participating in that. Tomorrow is the Twin Cities marathon--I think they will have good weather for that, too. We're about a week away from peak of the fall colors, but there are some beautiful trees around.

Last weekend was a nice get-away. The trees there are beautiful. Luke went horse-back riding for the first time, and on the next round of riders, a rider fell off the horse Luke had been on. She (the rider) was galloping on the horse and pulled up on the reins and little too hard and quickly. The horse abruptly stopped, but she kept going. Fortunately, it seemed like she was only banged up and bruised, although she thought here tail bone might have been broken.

Well, I'm going to try to take it easy today to get rid of this cold. Hope you all have a great weekend!

Till next time,


Suzi