For those who don’t know, Janelle and I are big Over the Rhine fans. We actually met while attending an OtR show in Cincinnati back in December, 2004, along with other fans of the band from all over the country. Well, this past weekend, Janelle and I made the trek back to Cincinnati to attend the same show we met at, with a lot of the same people that were there the first time around. The weekend was amazing, to say the least.

For anyone who’s seen OtR in the past three years or anyone who’s heard Trumpet Child, you should also know that Mickey, their drummer, is officially retired now (from Over the Rhine, anyway). His last two shows with them were this past weekend.

Fans should know that Over the Rhine will be considering releasing an album of the covers they’ve done throughout the years. Some songs include “Fever,” “Hallelujah” (as made famous by Jeff Buckley and Rufus Wainwright), “Moondance,” and “Orphan Girl” (Gillian Welch cover). There are tons more, but those are all I can think of off the top of my head.

Janelle took some pictures, so I’ll link to those when they go up.

Yes, folks, I’m once again showing symptoms of… something. Here’s what I’ve got:

• Headache
• Achy joints (I feel like I have freaking arthritis)
• Congestion in the ears (sore)
• Fatigue
• Dry, persistent cough

No fever… yet, at least. And no sore throat, so I doubt it’s H1N1. The real test, I hear, is to bite a pig and see how quickly it dies. You may need to bite a bird, too, since H1N1 is technically also an avian flu. Just don’t bite any humans.

I’ve come to the conclusion that I’m a very vain person. I give a little too much thought to my hair, and I’m easily distracted by mirrors of any kind. I don’t do it as much anymore, but I used to take an awful lot of pictures of myself.

I dye my hair. Why? It’s more aesthetically pleasing. I don’t give a rat’s ass how girly it is. I want to make the world a more beautiful place and I’m starting with my hair.

This is not a new phenomenon. I’ve been dying my hair one color or another since I was about 15. Back in high school and college, it was colors like blue and red and green. Now, it’s colors like black and dark brown. My natural hair color is dark brown with a lot of grey.

I spend an inordinate amount of time looking at clothes. Somehow, I don’t mind the fact that I drive a Hyundai Accent that currently smells like Oktoberfest. This is probably weird.

So I’m sick again. Starting Saturday morning, symptoms started popping up, and by Saturday evening, I was effectively out of commission. Here are my symptoms:

• Severe fatigue
• Headache
• Achy muscles
• Fever of 100.7
• Sore throat
• Cough
• Runny nose

Informed readers might notice the similarity of those symptoms to swine flu symptoms. Well, Janelle noticed too, so I went to the doctor’s yesterday to get checked out. They had a sign at the check-in desk saying that if you might have swine flu, you’re required by federal law to let them know immediately so they can escort you to the room as soon as possible. So I let them know, and you know what they did? They gave me a freaking mask and made me sit in the waiting room. I got a few glares.

Anyway, as it turns out, I don’t have swine flu. But I’m still out of commission. I slept for fourteen hours last night (and that’s after a two hour nap yesterday afternoon) and I’m still tired as I’m writing this at 6:45 in the evening. The good news is that my fever is gone, and the rule of thumb is you’re ok to go 24 hours after that. So I don’t know if tomorrow is looking so good, but Thursday’s definitely good.

Ok, so I’ve been a total fatass these past few weeks, and my birthday’s to blame. Here’s a brief list of the stuff I’ve had in the past week:

• Key lime pie
• Klondike bars
• Snickers cake
• Cookies (probably about two dozen, although I received three dozen)
• Cheesecake
• Confetti cake
• Pizza

So that’s one week’s worth of damage. To make matters worse, I haven’t even really had anybody over for my birthday, except for family. Yes, I ate most of that on my own. There are times when exercise is an exercise in futility, and I think I just hit one of those times.

We have a gym at work, but I’m always intimidated to go there out of fear of looking like a pansy-ass newbie. I don’t use real weights. I use machines. Apparently, only women use machines (and even then, only girly women). I’m afraid if I go there and use the machines, someone will fix me a pomegranate martini and leave the Lifetime network on the television when they leave.

Don’t get me wrong—I still do some minor strength training at home. Yeah, laugh it up. Ok, I don’t actually do a lot of it. But I’m trying to do more, since I’m eating like a baby whale. I’m actually typing this right now in the hopes of sticking to it. I don’t think muscles will change my gangly demeanor, but it’ll make me feel better about the desserts I’ll be finishing off in the next few days.

Oh, did I mention that on Thursday nights, I go out for half price appetizers at Applebees at about 10:30? If any PlattFormers want to drag my ass into the gym, it will be greatly appreciated, pomegranate martinis or no.

My dad and his wife just made the trek up to Kansas to help me and Janelle finish out our basement. Improvements include adding two light switches and wiring for two lighting fixtures, putting in an entire ceiling, and adding a wall to block off a portion of the basement for storage.

If you don’t know, hanging drywall on the ceiling is hard! Even with the eight foot sheets, it’s pretty labor-intensive. So we got pretty tired out doing that, and the wall was the last thing we put in. We did some quick measurements, built the wall (if you don’t know, you build the frame for a new wall first and then put it into place), and put it into place, only to discover that my house was built crooked. The wall is seriously slanted. So we had some work to get it into place.

This is the most amazing part, though. Christine (my step-mom) just got a big-ass hammer and started hitting the wall until it went into place. I was so tired that it took me a moment to register, but it soon clicked: You could just hit it until it worked!

This got me thinking about how much easier my life would be if there was a web design equivalent.

PNG transparency not working in Internet Explorer 6? *Whack!*

Three pixels off in Internet Explorer 6? *Whack!* One pixel off. *Whack!* There, I fixed it.

I think, really, I just want a way to hit Internet Explorer 6.

Anyway, the ceiling and wall are in. Janelle and I still have to finish mudding and sanding both and at least paint the ceiling before we can put the lights in. Soon, band practices will be held, and I’ll be able to work out my web design aggressions on my congas. All will be right in the universe.

So I’ve been sick pretty much since Friday. I had an eye infection, an ear infection, and something in my throat. This morning was the first morning I was actually feeling pretty decent (although still not so great). So my alarm goes off, and I turn the light on, ready to start the day. Sherlock jumped up on my bed, heaved quickly three times, and threw up all over my bed. Thankfully, we had just washed our spare set of sheets, so we just switched them out. But the little punk jumped up on the bed, threw up, and then ran away. He jumped up on the bed specifically to throw up. That is evil.

After I got out of the shower, the devil-cat attacked my foot with his vomit-stained teeth. Bear in mind that my arms are covered in scratches from the last four days at home with this cat.

Well, that’s not entirely true. I actually have some scratches from Zoey as well. Zoey likes to explore behind my computer desk. Occasionally, he’ll get the speaker wire wrapped around his leg. When this happens, he’ll briefly try to pull it loose, but then just collapse onto the ground and start wailing. I mean really pathetic crying, too. Not even meows—just a long, sad howl. I went to free him yesterday, and he panicked and dug all of his claws into my right arm. The cat really has no idea how to be mean unless it’s completely by accident, which is actually kind of an endearing quality unless he’s breaking into your room at night.

And all of this is after Franny and Sherlock systematically tag-teamed the consumption of the flowers I bought for Janelle on Friday. They seriously ate half of the flowers!

Well, there you have it. Four days at home has reduced me to blogging about my cats again. I was able to work today, so hopefully that will jolt me back into having something else to write about. Oh, and maybe I can find the motivation to work on my portfolio again. Anyway, good night!

Yesterday, on the way out of Wal-Mart, we tripped the alarm. You know, the one that goes off when you try to steal merchandise? (My father tried to push both me and the cart out of the store before anyone showed up, but that’s besides the point.) We got searched and it turns out some sunglasses (that we paid for) were the culprits.

We got home and discovered that a portion of our groceries were missing. Blueberries, strawberries, chocolate… All the good stuff. We checked out receipt, and sure enough, we had paid for it all. I blame the turnstile bagging mechanism.

But this isn’t just about the loss of a few berries and some stuff we probably shouldn’t be eating. This is about justice! We were accused of stealing, when we were in fact the stolen from. My dad briefly considered suing Wal-Mart, and I was forced to make my guacamole with a lemon instead of a lime (and don’t even get me started on breakfast this morning).

Anyway, today, we made our way back there. (Unfortunately, without the receipt.) We were unable to recover any of our lost groceries, so we made our purchases and left, dejected. When we got in the car, we discovered we were the proud new owners of some ranch dressing and Louisiana hot sauce that we had not paid for. Being the morally upright citizens that we are, we were glad to see cosmic justice in effect. Tomorrow night: hot wings.

I forgot to post on this, but I am now in sunny south Florida. Sorry to all my friends down here who didn’t know. Give me a call and maybe we can hang out.

Anyway, I’m staying with my dad, for now. Marisa (my sister) and her boyfriend Alex are also here. We went diving this morning and caught a lobster, but we threw him back because it’s not lobster season right now.

Anyway, I have a camera with me, so expect a few pictures when I get back (Monday), but not until then, because I forgot my USB cable.

I’m not doing so well. I myself am fine, but a number of my friends are going through hell right now. For their sakes, I’ll spare you the details.

To the two people responsible, just know that I harbor no ill will toward you and will continue to support you as I always have—as a friend. My own dismay is born solely out of concern for you and the other involved parties. I want to support you, but I don’t know how. I will continue to be here in the coming months.

To the two people most affected, my heart goes out to you. No, this isn’t fair, but your noble reactions have already impressed me. I will also support you as much as I can.

And to my friend with the potential medical issue, just know that I am praying for you and will do everything I can to bring you through this. You’ve made it through this before, and I know you’ll make it through it again. Let me know if you need anything—anything—and I’ll be right by your side, as will Janelle, and as I’m sure your love will be.