About 3 weeks ago, 2 co workers had to take a week and a half of vacation. One was secretly getting married in Hawaii, the other was her sister, and pretty much had to go with her. One of our main bosses freaked out at my boss for letting two such vital people go at once, so I said I'd take over for them, in their absence. The pressure was on, to prove we did the right thing "letting" two people with such unique responsibilities go at once. The good news is, I pretty much pulled it off. A lot of people said I did great. A few told me they preferred me! The bad news, however, is I really did work my guts out for that, and was ready for a week and a half vacation, myself, by the time we got back.

I did take Wednesday off this week. That morning I had to take my 13 year old daughter to the orthodontist, so he could check on her "expander." She doesn't have braces yet. She has a device braced to the roof of her mouth to expand her pallett, to make room for the braces to straighten her teeth. Every night I gotta put this pin-sized allen wrench in her mouth and crank it once. One more month of that, then she will wear a retainer for a while, and then get braces.

That afternoon I did something I've wanted to do for a long time. I drove to Global Market, a small shopping mall inside our old, retired Sears buildidng on Lake Street. It had rows of booths almost more like the State Fair . Each booth represented a different country or culture, and sold specialty grocery items or gifts, or was a small fast food restaurant. It wasn't truely global though. Africa, Asia and South and Central America were pretty well represented, but Europe, Australia, and North America weren't. I had some so-so Vietnamese food for lunch And I walked across the lobby to an office that houses some of my old co workers who all quit a few year ago and went, together to this new company, so it was fun to see them.

That afternoon I had to go to the Ear Nose Throat Clinc. He stuck a thin tube with a scope on it up my nose and way down the back of my throat and explained my tongue is pushed so far back that's why it's hard to breathe when I sleep. I have to sleep over at a Sleep clinic some night soon so they can monitor me again. If that proves to be the case, it sounds like my options are surgery or surgery. Surgery to pull my jaw out farther, wow, I'd have an actual chin, I would have been thrilled if I were 20 and there were some kind of point to that. Or surgery to put some kind of screws in my tongue muscles to pull them back. I'll take the drowning, I think, thanks. I guess I don't know why I'm going to this, since I don't really like the prognosis, but oh well, might as well get it put in my medical record.

It's been below 0 out, but I've been running anyway. My new clothes I bought for myself this summer got too tight, and I'm too cheap to buy new ones again. So now I'm one of those dorks wearing everything I own , running down the sidwalk, with my dog on a leash, and my MP3 player playing Body Moving by the Beastie Boys, and Original Prankster by the Offspring, while steam comes out of my mouth, from behind my scarf. Oh well, I'll be well prepared for the Susan G Komen Race for the Cure this May. I was disappointed recently to find out that's only a 5K. I thought it was 10 !

In the news. Anna Nicole Smith died this week. It's all anyone can talk about. I thought she was annoying. And some astronaut lady drove out of state to try and kill someone she thought was dating her boyfriend. I'm sure it was horrifying to her intended victim, but it's so lame I have to laugh every time I hear about it.

Also we got our new Whirlpool Dishwasher from Warner Stallion, it only took an hour for the delivery person to completely install it, no complications, it runs great , and it's so quiet! To bad our old one didn't explode in to flames earlier!