Know a good roofer?

Or at least a good way to deal with shingles?

Turns out Mr. Wonderful has a nasty case of the shingles.  In his mouth and on his head.  The poor guy is in so much pain...

We ended up in the MGH emergency room yesterday morning (Happy MLK Day to you too) after he woke up with a swollen, rashy face and a horrendous headache.  Not a pretty sight!  The ER was great and we were done and on our way after about an hour...when the dr. decided that the rash was too close ot his eye, so we had to go to the Mass Eye and Ear ER to make sure it wasn't in his eyes.  That took forever and we finally got out of there around noon.  Eyes were fine. Saw some scary stuff in there--I hate bloody stuff to begin with, but it almost makes me nauseous to think about stuff wrong with the eyes.

By the time we got home, I think Mr. W was in agony.  I picked up all his meds and when I got home, he was looking for the pain meds.  This is man who won't take a tylenol for a headache...
He managed to sleep off and on but hasn't eaten in two days.  I'm figuring he won't be going to work for the week, which is probably good because he's been complaining about being tired.
However, he's a lousy patient and doesn't like people taking care of him, so he can be a little difficult.
I'm hoping my immune system is built up enough to avoid catching this, even though I'm still fighting off the cold I've had for a couple of weeks.

I've added Bolthouse Farms juice to my diet to try to give my system a boost--I'm loving the Green Goddess juice.  It looks like something from a swamp, but  seems to be loaded with nutritious stuff and not too much sugar.  I've read about people "juicing", but I haven't gotten into that yet due to lack of time and/or ingredients.  I'm doing much better lately with taking my vitamins and supplements, exercising and trying to eat healthy.  Usually happens in January...

In the meantime, I keep feeling like my face is itchy, and I can't tell if it's sympathy pains or paranoia.

La presidenta argentina no tiene el cáncer de tiroides

Apparently the president of Argentina Cristina Kirchner does not have papillary thyroid cancer...the nodules were benign.  Good for her--she won't have to have RAI and do the LID.  But didn't they biopsy them first?  I quickly scanned the BBCMundo article and I don't remember how many nodules they said there were.  I'll have to follow the news for the next couple of days  and see what the follow up is...while I'd be happy to discover post-surgery that it was not cancerous, I'd be really annoyed about having to go through the surgery for nothing....

Still battling a nasty cold that seems to die down for a few hours and then flares up again.  I think I've gone through three boxes of kleenex in the past couple of days.

Spending my weekend writing rec letters too--not as bad as last year, but I'm behind a little bit.

Off to bed now after watching the NH GOP debate. I think reading the Twitter feed was more intereresting.

Goals for 2012

In 2012, I will.....

1.  Keep exercising, whether it's 30+ minutes a day on the bike or walking.  That should help control my weight and hopefully get me off blood pressure meds!  If I can do more, I will.  I know that 30 minutes is doable based on my past experience, and it's better than nothing.  I won't sabotage myself that way.
2.  Take my daily vitamins and supplements.  Daily.  Really.  My Sis-in-law gave me a pill organizer thingy that says "Hormonally Challenged" for Christmas--made me laugh.
3.  Not stay at school so late.  Sigh.  Maybe I'll try to leave by 3 or 4 two days a week?
4.  Get back to cooking more so I can avoid frosted pop tart mornings and frozen dinner evenings.  I was doing much better the year before.  Need to do less processed stuff.
5.  Drink more juice/veggie smoothies.  They're supposed to be really good for you, and I haven't attempted to enter that world yet.
6.  Make more of an effort to talk to my friends on the phone every now and then instead of just reading Facebook status updates and feeling like I'm in touch with them.  There's something missing, and it's because I no longer make an effort to call people to actually talk to them.
7.  Try again to do something cultural at least once a month.  Better get planning for this month....
8.  Travel outside the US at least once, preferably more.
9.  Travel inside the US outside of New England.  And New York doesn't count if I go to Jul's to scrapbook for a weekend.
10.  Take Mookie and O'Malley to a new vet.
11.  Finish a cross stitch thingy.  I have about 4 different things in progress.
12.  Organize my arsty stuff so I'll be inclined to do more of it.
13.  Figure out once and for all where my &^%$# Sullivan clan came from in Ireland, and what the connection is between Charlestown, Fall River, Lawrence and Manchester NH.  They moved around way more than I thought!
14.  Read at least one complete novel in Spanish.  I started one last year.....
15.  Finally make my house livable.  It's getting there and I'm finally making decisions about the "stuff" my parents and grandparents left here.  Need to organize so much stuff.

So, there you have it.  My list for 2012.  It looks mostly doable, and I don't think I'm setting myself up for failure too badly.
I need to find some ways to boost my immune system too--I'm dying with a head cold again.  It probably didn't help that Mr. Wonderful and I spent yesterday walking all over Boston, from Charlestown to Chinatown and back.  It was such a beautiful day that we had to get out and enjoy it.  We strolled along the waterfront, thru Faneuil Hall, stopped at a Chinese bakery for my fav coconut butter buns and then had chowda and Boston Cream Pie at Durgin Park before walking home via the North End.  Lines at Mike's were nuts, so we didn't get any cannoli.  Still, it was a pretty nice day and a great way to kick off the New Year....
I'll just take some more TheraFlu and go to bed.  I have tomorrow off too, and then back to school on Wednesday.