Busy as a GI fungus...

So, right about now, I think I have enough material to write a country song: the furnace isn't working (woke to find the house at a balmy 63^o), went to the doctor yesterday and found that I have a GI tract infection, and it's my birthday soon, but don't feel much like celebrating....

Okay, now to elaborate on all that:

Since Chuck doesn't read this blog, I guess it's okay to complain about him (see my first blog entry for more on that). Way back in May, we had the furnace/air conditioning folks out to clean out the air conditioner. At that time, [apparently] we had them take a look at the furnace and found that we have a cracked heat exchanger. Okay, no biggie; they'll go back to the home office and give us a call with an estimate. Well, according to Chuck, he's contacted them three times throughout the summer and they still weren't able to pull together an estimate. So they must not really need the work then, right? And a reasonable, thinking person would call another business, b/c there's a ton of furnace places out there, right? Right? Well, maybe not. A couple weeks ago, I mentioned to Chuck that it would be a good idea to change out the furnace filter before we start it up for the winter. "Oh, that," was his reply. I'm still sitting here wondering just how long he would've waited to have another company come out if I hadn't said something. Did he not realize that fall's coming on quickly? As it is, the company that came out couldn't schedule the repair until mid-October. Mid-October!! So, I'm hoping that Indian Summer continues until at least that long...

Okay, so as for the GI tract infection: as many of you may know, I am a researcher who works on various projects related to river networks and morphology. I've been working hard to finish up our last season of data collection, and the flooding that we had in mid-September really didn't help me much at all. I really couldn't wait for the rivers to recede down to the level that they usually are at for this time of year, so needed to work in water a little deeper than I usually would. I'm fine with that and know that there's times when I'm just going to end up filling my waders and getting wet b/c part of the job is to characterize the river bed, and that involves actually touching the bottom and measuring the size of the rocks there or describing the sand sizes (this is called a pebble count). So, last Tuesday (Sept. 23), I was out with a coworker at 2 locations on the St. Joseph River and 1 location on the Prairie River. Needless to say, waders were filled, I needed to dive to actually touch bottom in some parts, and a bathing suit was worn under all my clothes so at least I was comfortable. Skip to the end of last week, I started to feel a lot of discomfort in my abdomen and just thought that it was something I had eaten. By Monday, I started to actually have a dull pain in both sides. So, yesterday (Wednesday) I was able to get in and see the doctor. She thinks that I have a gastrointestinal fungal infection, so I'm now taking nystatin 3 times a day for the next 6 weeks! Could this be related to being exposed to potentially contaminated river water? You be the judge, but I don't know any other way that I would've contracted this....

So, between the furnace and the gut rot, I'm not feeling much like celebrating my birthday. I'm supposed to "run" in the MSU Dino Dash on Sunday, but have only put on my tennis shoes twice in the past month to go "jogging". I'm not a runner, and have simple goals during these races: make it further on the route than the previous year before the walkers and pregnant ladies catch up with me; and to make it further on the route than previously before I need to start walking. Someday, I'll finish the race in under 35 minutes, but I don't think that this year'll be the year for that. As for the birthday, I'd rather just go to dinner at AI Fusion, so if you're in the Lansing area and bored on your Saturday night, stop by for some great sushi...


One thing I should probably mention is that I have been knitting quite a bit. The Clapotis shawl is going quite well and I'm very happy with how it's turning out. I'd definitely work this pattern again; maybe even making something for myself.






I have two more hanks of the Interlacements: one meant for Chuck's mom and one to knit up for myself. I won't work on the one for me until the Christmas projects are done, so it'll be quite a while...





I also started my second scarf for the MSU vs Michigan knit challenge. This is the "Linked Rib" pattern from Knitting New Scarves by Lynn Barr. Though it looks tough, the pattern really is an easy one. Just need to keep count of rows so that each of the ribs end up even...




Lastly, though I knitted this shrug 3 to 4 years ago, I never really finished it b/c I soon realized after seaming the sleeves that I'd likely never wear this. I dug it out last night to take a second look at it and think that it *may* pass as a scarf if I un-seam the sleeves, and remove the ribbing. So, maybe this'll be my third scarf to donate for the challenge.





Sorry to leave all of the fun photos 'til the end, but I really didn't feel like showing the world all of the dust bunnies that have built up around my furnace (boy, I really should sweep that before the repair man visits!) and the fungus photos found on-line while reading up about GI fungi.