Archive: August, 2008

Back in 2001 I was diagnosed with acute viral labyrinthitis otherwise known as vertigo. It came on suddenly and affected me to the point that I would fall over while crawling on my hands and knees and was restricted from driving for more than a month. My initial recovery took about 4+ months, but the downside with vertigo, is once you've gotten you are prone to have recurring episodes. I'd have recurrences here and there, but they were few and far between. Then in 2006, I started having bouts of it every few months; enough so that in February of 2007 my doctor decided to order an MRI of my brain. The test results didn't show anything out of the ordinary and just like that, I'd been vertigo-free for more than a year...

Until today.

Earlier this week I had an evening where I knew that something in my head felt "weird" - I told Jeff that my head felt funny, like I had vertigo but without the spinning. I went to bed early and in the morning felt better. I got up today feeling fine. I paid some bills, had some breakfast, and went out shopping for a few hours. After I got home I was knitting on the couch, catching up on season 5 of Project Runway when out of nowhere the spinning begins. Not enough that I can't walk, but I had to put the knitting away and I'm contemplating taking the vertigo meds. (Typing this is a bit challenging, but I don't have to look at the screen to type - just to proofread, and I can do that in stages.) When it comes to this disorder it's better if you don't rely on the meds because it allows your brain to figure out its own way of adjusting to the spinning symptoms. The meds do help with the nausea though. Of course the best medicine for vertigo is valium, but they won't give you that anymore. Instead I have a variation of a strong antihistamine which just makes you sleepy. We'll see how things go tonight since lying down always makes it worse. Here's hoping that this is going to be a short-lived episode.

I've been so busy lately that I've gotten backlogged on my blog entries. Of course, anyone who reads Jeff's blog pretty much knows what's going on with me anyway! Here is a recap of what's been going on for the last 2 weeks:

• We went to Florida for some wedding reconnaisance. While there, got to experience tropical storm Fay firsthand. Also found a venue for our wedding (Sanibel Harbour Resort & Spa) and have a set wedding date (4/4/09).
• Watched alot of Olympic events on TV.
• Had a short trip to Toledo to suprise my favorite aunt for her 50th birthday and had some extended family time with my dad (both in Florida and in Toledo).
• Bought some more yarn to support my fiber habit.
• Buried a statue of St. Joseph in the front yard of my house in the hopes that he'll help me sell it.

That's the highlights. When looking at it in list form, it doesn't really look like much...

Earlier this week I finished up one of my knitting projects. I'm rather pleased with how it turned out. :)

My house has been on the market since mid-May and in that time I've had 4 people go through it. That's a bit depressing, especially since I think it's an adorable house (IMHO). Given my Catholic upbringing, I'd always heard about burying a statue of St. Joseph (upside down) in the backyard when you want to sell your house. To be honest, I completely forgot about that tradition until a few days ago, but many people swear by it. One of my co-workers insists that is ultimately what sold his house. His house was on the market for 11 months, his wife planted a medalion of St. Joseph in the backyard and within 10 days they got an offer.

I can always use a bit of help in selling my house so we'll see if Divine Intervention comes along.

After doing some cooking for our party last week, I realized that I missed the kitchen. I tend to not cook as much in the summer, partly because of the warmer weather and more interesting things to do. So this weekend I decided to make some homemade pasta again using that spiffy KitchenAid that Jeff got me for Christmas. Man, I love that gadget! I made some lemon pepper spaghetti and some light wheat fettuccini.

Growing up we always made homemade ravioli, but never any of the ribbon pastas so I've had a bit of a learning curve. The spaghetti cutter doesn't make as clean of a cut as the fettuccini cutter and I don't have a proper pasta drying rack. I'm not giving up though! I want to make the lemon pepper dough again and make it into fettuccini noodles next time. I also want to make ravioli, but knowing that Jeff isn't a huge fan of those, I'll make some potato filling for him and voila - perogies!

My favorite tennis venue may be getting a facelift so that they can hold a combined tournament for men & women in the US Open series. Woo-hoo!!

http://www.sportsline.com/tennis/story/10918830/rss

This past Saturday, Jeff and I had a party. In the past, this has been Jeff's annual "Luau Party" but this year we decided to combine it and make it an Engagement party with a hint of Hawaii with the 12 liter mai-tai. As with most summer parties, the number at attendees can be somewhat unpredictable. We had a lot of "maybe" rsvp's which we guessed would be more of a no-show. Well, we guessed wrong and ended up running out of food. Jeff and I never had any dinner. Oh well, I suppose that's how you know you had some good food. I'll just have to adjust for next year.

Highlights for me are:

• Seeing the great mix of people and all the well wishes from everything. (And thanks to all for the unexpected gifts - we really didn't expect any!).
• The pantry display of Bear Attacks
• The yummy Mai-Tai
• Seeing cousin Dave & Niki, after only 10 days of being new parents. That was truly a surprise that we really appreciated
• Meeting Jeff's dad
• Jen's story about her German car dealer experience
• George spontaneously fixing our garbage disposal (thanks!)
• Hearing about my celebrity friends who bought Tommy Haas (a pro tennis player from our recent tournament trip) a drink at the Outback Steakhouse.

Can't wait until next year!