A week or so ago was the first time I ever spotted a Western Tanager in our backyard. Could have something to do with being sick & spending a lot of time looking out the window.

Yep, in the winter it's a knitting blog. In the spring it's a bird blog. When I'm sick it's a sick blog. (It would be a cooking & gardening blog sometimes too, except for the *$#!!% hand.) Who can fit in Chinese restaurants between all that?!

Listening: Jolie Holland, Scrabbel.

There's a robin living here who sings his little heart out constantly. Very sweet. He sounds slightly different from this but I guess that's how I know he's our very own neighborhood robin!

My medium-boiled egg jones seems to have passed, but in case it's passed on to you, here's my method for perfect medium-boiled eggs:

Put your egg(s) in a small pot w/ enough water to cover. Cover the pot &heat until the water boils, then turn off the heat. Leave for 6 minutes, then rinse egg(s) in cold water. Peel immediately. Bite off enough white to expose the yolk, then dribble a few drops of soy sauce into the yolk. Give the egg a couple of gentle squeezes so that the soy sauce gets absorbed down into the rest of the yolk. Mmmmm!

Hey, maybe now I want one again.

Anyway, I must be feeling better: yesterday I ventured out of the house & saw a Chinese restaurant I'd never noticed before. Unfortunately, I didn't have any cameras w/ me. Next time.

All that grumpiness in my last post must have been a sign that I was getting well. My voice came back! Still kind of scratchy & weak, but it's there. I can make phone calls now. In fact I made a couple of them yesterday. Woohoo! It's a thrill a minute around here....

Anyway, I've been meaning to point y'all toward Donna's new Waribashi Project. She's been collecting & washing chopsticks every day, like a maniac.

Is this weather splendid, or what?!

HELLO. Thank you! Gawd, I can't believe how people persist in constructing their fucking sentences this way. (& no, this is not a grammar post.) Arnold deserves some kind of medal for saintly patience; he actually takes the time to spell out the obvious, in an effort to enlighten any unconscious dolts who may happen upon his very clear explanation.

Sorry if I sound insufferably superior. It's the exasperation talking. By the way, if "gay men respond in the same way as women," does that mean that all women respond the same? Including lesbians & bi women? I guess so. Feh!

My body is in total rebellion. It's not enough for it to have a lame hand. I have now had this weird coughing flu for over 2 weeks now. I guess the silver lining is that I get to make my own contribution to the irresistable & charming genre of Sick Blog Postings.

So. This one started out pretending to be hay fever. It was like that for 2 days & then suddenly I felt like shit. That, plus I began coughing up gunk in bad colors. I had such violent coughing fits that I thought I'd gag or choke to death or something. Or at least throw out my back. Misery.

After about 10 days, I thought I was getting well, whereupon I had the audacity to actually go out to get some dinner. It didn't seem like an extreme act at the time, but my body decided it better let me know who's boss. I was slammed flat into the bed then, only dragging myself up to hobble slowly to the bathroom every few hours. I was hot. I was cold. I didn't want to eat anything except broth & some cubes of cantalope that Donna cut for me. I slept like the dead.

Mercifully, that flu-within-a-flu ended after a day or so, & I returned to my regularly scheduled flu: low energy & plenty o' coughing. By this time my throat is so fucked up from all that coughing that I can't really talk; whenever I raise my voice above a whisper, it sets off more coughing. In this condition, on Friday I ventured out to fetch snake bile from Chinatown (hey, only $1.25/box!), which is helping me cough less but I still can't really talk. Ventured out again yesterday for acupressure, & to get eggs to satisfy my jones for medium-boiled eggs with soy sauce.

& now I must stop typing before I draw down the wrath of the Hand Gods. Pray for me!