I'm cured... hopefully

All of my little red bumps are gone and I don't have any itchy spots anymore. The places that were the worst on my legs are almost back to normal. It is crazy how taking massive amounts of steroids cleared things up right away. However, I finished up my last pills on Wednesday, so hopefully it doesn't come back. I'm still taking antibiotics for a couple more days.  I'm washing everything I own this weekend.

This past week I also went to the doctor to get blood labs done. I have an appointment for this coming Wednesday for a normal annual checkup.  They already called me and said my blood work looked good but I was slightly dehydrated, so they want to try it again this week. I'm not sure if I have to give blood again or just pee in a cup. Hopefully they are content with the more easily accessible bodily fluid. Once I get all this taken care of  the next thing I need to do is make an appointment to get my eyes checked. I have a feeling I am going to have to get glasses. I guess this is what happens when you get old.

Impetigo Update

It has been a week since I first went to the doctor and found out I had some strange bacterial infection. I've been taking three different meds, but my steroids ran out on Tuesday. The area of my leg that was the worst had gotten much better by then, but I was starting to get random bumps at other places on my legs. I was getting a little worried, but I just kept taking my antibiotics.

This morning I woke up and I had red bumps all over my hands. They don't look nearly as bad as what I have on my legs, but they were definitely spreading as the day went on. The hand bumps were getting really itchy and the leg bumps weren't getting any better. I decided to go back to the doctor. He said that I probably did have impetigo on my leg, and that antibiotics were going to continue to help with that. However, the sores from the impetigo had led to another infection and that was in my bloodstream and it was taking over. Awesomesauce!

Impetigo

Things have been busy with us lately. For the last 3 weeks I have been gone more than I have been home. I took a trip for work to PA, then a couple days after I got back we drove up to Indiana for a week of vacation.  It was our first long car trip with the baby, and she did great.  Anyway, a couple days before we were leaving to drive north I started getting red bumps on my leg.  Amanda had poison ivy not too long ago, so we assumed that I had it too. 

I've had poison ivy a few times in my life.  Luckily every other time I've just had a few itchy bumps and then it goes away.  No big deal.  This was different.  As the week went on it got worse. Way worse.  The last couple days of our trip I had open sores on my leg and it started popping up in other patches.  We called the doctor and scheduled an appointment for last Friday when we got back.

I gave in

I have succumbed. I finally got a smart phone. I now have to pay for a data plan every month.  Not only did I sign up for more money to fly out of my pocket every month, but I got an iPhone 4S.

Today was launch day and I wasn't surprised when I went to the AT&T store and didn't see a line, and they had plenty of stock. (Except for the white ones, which I didn't want anyway).  I got in and got out and had my new phone in the matter of minutes.  This is the second Apple product in a row that I have purchased on launch day.  There is something wrong with that.  It is time to buck the trend.

I'm obviously going to love my iPhone, but right now I am still in the buyers remorse stage that I always have after spending more than $100. This does not bode well for the inevitable car shopping trips that we will be taking over the next couple weeks.  I enjoy having stuff, but I really hate buying stuff.  

Now with my iPhone I can take fancy pictures on my camera and tweet or facebook from anywhere.  Who knows, maybe I will even post to my blog more often now that I have stepped into the 21st century.

The lamest iPhone yet

You probably know I'd been waiting in anticipation to hear what Apple was going to announce about the new iPhone. I've never owned an awesome phone, but I was finally in the market to buy one. When I read through the announcement last Thursday I was ticked that it was the exact same form factor. I wanted a larger screen so bad. I thought for sure we were going to get it.

Since the announcement I have gone back and forth on whether I was going to buy one. I'm considering getting an Android phone, but I don't know if I would be as happy. I've been using iOS for quite a while now, and I think I would miss it. I didn't preorder a 4S, and I'm not sure how difficult it will be to get one. All I know if that my current phone is on its last legs and I need to get something soon.

Apple makes higher quality products that any other consumer tech company. I know once I get a 4S I will love it, but there is a part of me that knows something better is just around the corner. I waited forever to basically get a phone that has already been out for 18 months. Something just seems wrong with that.

Back to the homeland

We made the long drive up to Indiana to visit family and we couldn't have picked a better time to do it. The weather is perfect and the leaves are beautiful in NEI. Growing up I always loved autumn, but I haven't made the trip back to enjoy it since I moved away. Early October is a perfect time to come back home and spend some time on the farm.

The fantasy layer

A couple years ago I would have been the first person to mock a fantasy football enthusist. The whole idea seemed like using sports as an excuse for guys to play make-believe. From the outside fantasy football (or fantasy anything) seemed like a phenomenal waste of time. Then....

Last year one of my friends from college set up a fantasy league and asked me to join. I was reluctant, but decided to go ahead and do it... but I wasn't going to spend much time with it. Then we had our draft, then week 1 rolled around. I was immediately hooked. It was so much fun. It was a game that depended on the outcome of other games. I loved it. Football games that I never would have cared about suddenly became exciting nail-biters. There was a week where both me and my opponent had RB's playing on Monday night. We went back and forth and it came down to the last play. As Houston was running the 2 minute drill going down the field Foster caught a screen pass for 9 yards to set up a field goal. He needed 15, and I lost by two tenths of a point or something like that. It was insane; more exciting that any playoff game I saw last year.

My Facebook timeline

Yesterday I used this tutorial to go ahead and enable the new profile view known as Facebook timeline. Nobody else can view it unless they also have timeline enabled on their account... at least not until next Saturday when timeline goes live for everyone. I have to say I am impressed. It looks really nice, and is pretty cool to go through an entire year of facebook activity. I applaud facebook. While it is awesome for me to look at my own history, I don't think I really want everybody else to be able to look at it. I'm not sure why they would want to, but nonetheless it is a little creepy that they can.

I've never kept a scrapbook. The closest thing to it is my blog. The facebook timeline is a really cool way to look back on what you've been up to. It is essentially a beautiful online scrapbook of your facebook junk. I like it a lot. It makes me want to share more on facebook just so it will be included on my timeline for years to come. I mean, that is exactly what facebook is trying to accomplish, and I think it will work. However, when it goes live I will have my timeline set to private (if that is even possible). It just feels weird to have any random friend be able to go back and look at all this history, even though when it was initially shared it was open to them bit by bit. I can't really explain it, but it feels strange to think about others browsing through my timeline. By messing around with lists and privacy settings you could use facebook to create a pretty awesome scrapbook of personal stuff. However, I would never put anything online that I wasn't okay with anybody getting ahold of. If it is online you have to assume it can be seen by everyone. That is a good policy to live by. If something might be questionable, then you probably shouldn't post it.

I won't have anything in my timeline that I am ashamed of or embarrassed by. Still, I don't feel okay with having it out there for everyone to see.  Facebook is taking a step forward by making our online lives that much more visible... but it might be worth taking a step backward on your own part to evaluate what and how you share things.

On the course

Somehow I had a couple days of vacation left over that I had to use before I lost them. I'd tried to take the last 3 Friday's off, but it wasn't working out. I was frustrated when I wasn't able to take the whole day off yesterday either. I did however get to leave a couple hours early so I could get out and play some golf. Ever since I played a couple weeks ago I've had the bug. Plus I needed to break in my new shoes. The weather was perfect yesterday so I took advantage of it. I freaking love golf. I love that I can go out there and forget everything and just focus on my next shot. I always look back fondly on the days when I played competitive golf in high school. I wish I had the time to play more now, but I always appreciate the chances I do get to be out on the course.

New Golf Shoes

The past couple weeks have been extremely busy around here. Work has taking up a lot of my time for sure, and at home baby is keeping us plenty busy. She is crawling all over the place now and standing up on everything. There is no slowing her down. The rest of the month of September is going to be packed for us, and October isn't looking any more relaxed. It should be a fun couple months.

Even though last week was only 4 days I probably put in more hours than I do on a typical 5 day work week. I had to work from home for a few hours on Monday, then Tuesday I was at my desk for 14 hours straight. We had an offsite meeting on Wednesday that I had to prepare for, and I was a little nervous about it. I was in meetings most of the day on Wednesday, but when we got done we played some golf.