Pain in the ear

I woke up Wednesday morning with a shooting pain in my ear. After a couple of days with a cold, evidently I slept in the same position all night and the drainage made its way into a pool around my tender cochlea. Which responded by turning beet red and ringing.

So a visit to the doctor yielded 10 days of the largest pill I've ever seen (see right). I have to swallow this thing twice a day (the quarter is just for perspective -- I do not have to swallow the quarter).

The good news is that it kicked in pretty quickly and my ear is feeling much better, though it does feel like I have a suction cup over my ear canal. The bad news is that this anti-biotic pretty much wrecks my bowels. I know.. TMI? Feel my pain.

Weatherman wins this time...

After a week of bad predictions, I decided to take my chances on the scooter again today with a 40% chance of rain prediction.  Well, the weatherman got it right for a change, and I ended up soaked on the way home from lunch.  Soaked.  Absolutely... soaked.  And face numb from the sting of tiny raindrops.

I guess I can consider it initiation.  I knew it was bound to happen eventually if I was going to commit to really commuting daily on the scooter.  Oh well.. at least it was just rain and not hail!

Girl... you'll be a .. uhm.. female person.. individual.. soon.

Today I've been thinking about the lack of a good solid term for a young woman around my age. In casual terms, if I were relating a story to someone about a man my age to someone, I would inevitably refer to him as a "guy" (i.e.: "I saw this guy wearing a Def Leppard shirt.") --or in extreme circumstances "dude" (ie.. "This dude tried to run me off the road today!").

But for the life of me, I can't seem to find a comfortable match for a woman. "Woman" just seems so formal, and "young woman" only works if the storyteller is, himself, old. "Girl" sounds too young or too condescending, and "gal" a little too square-dance. "Lady"? come on, that sounds creepy. "Chick" is right out.

So, what's a guy to do? Once again, the English language has failed me.

My daughter, the inventor

So.. I just want to go on record for patent purposes, that my daughter has invented a car that drives itself. So hands off, General Motors. Basically, according to her, you tell it where you want to go, then you can just play, or sleep. And it goes fast, like a roller coaster. It's called the All-By-Itself Car, and it's the future, my friends. I debated whether to post it, due to it's sensitive and revealing nature, but here's the rough schematic: