Well this week has been fun for me. I guess it went something like this:

Sunday I spend the day trying out the new Oxy Acetelen welding setup that Mark and I just got. Blobs of molten steel, the shower of sparks flying from the angle grinder, ah bliss. That night I sleep fitfully and suffer from chills and a slight fever. In the morning I decide that I'm not well enough to go to work. I take my temperature and it's idling around 100. My housemates go to work. I sit back and prepare to spend an uneventful day at home.

The first sign that all is not well comes when I realize that the fun book I had planned to read was in fact a book I had already read. Oh well. I then notice that my temperature was on the rise, so I looked around for some aspirin or something. After about 10 mins of ache semi-naushus rummaging around I find 1 remaining Advil. My search through the kitchen is similarly unsuccessful. For lunch I have 1 can of Progresso black bean soup and half a can of baked beans. (God help me) I sit down in front of the tv and begin to watch and old tape of Sinfeld, Frasure and Ellen. All those one name shows. In the next few hours my fever increases until I cant' actually get up. I have become marooned on a beanbag archipelago somewhere in the middle of our living room. My only equipment:

• 1 2 liter bottle of seltzer (lime)
• 1/2 can baked beans
• 1 insulin pouch
• 1 thermometer
• 2 heavy blankets
• 1 set bathrobe and pair of official SGI sweat pants.

Tues temp down to about 101. Wed temp down to about normal throat hurts like it razors stuck in it. Thurs go to doctors and get 40 500 Mg tablets of Penicillin VK to kill off my strep throat. The worst part was that before I got the sore throat set in my symptoms were similar to those for "metal fume fever" which can happen if you breath vaporized Zinc or a number of other metals. (see first few sentences about having fun welding on Sunday just before this all happened.) I think this is the first time I've been releaved it was strep throat. :-) While I was at the hospital getting my Penicillin I went to the library and looked up info on this form of metal poisoning. I'd been in there about 40 min and it wasn't until I asked the woman behind the desk about where I should look for more info that she said "You mean you don't work for the hospital?!" and I realized that the hospital library wasn't public. :-) Anyway now I'm back at work, and my new Aeron chair had arrived, and in order to try out some new software our group has gotten a cute color laptop. It's kind of fun, and now that I've plowed through the hundreds of mail messages, I almost feel like I'm ready to start contributing again. Phew.

-Kurt "That was no vacation that was a near death experience" Schaefer

PS

For about the past 8 years I've thought it would be funny to write in to Late Night and ask "Letterman" if he was still faster then a rolling O, and why he's stopped wearing the lettered jersey. I've never done it because I figure it's to dated a reference. The villain from "Letter Man" was The Evil Spell Binder. Little evil guy with a wand and a turban. I always thought that the wand was clearly more flexible and useful then relying on wearing the right lettered jersey.