WooHoo! The fever has ended. And after only 12 days. LOL Of course, recovering isn't as easy as just saying the sickness is over. I've still been barfing a lot, and have been really weak and tired. All that fever, and chills, and shakings, and barfings really took their toll on my system. But I'll tell you, after 16 nights of lying on the fold-out couch, it'll be great to get back into my waterbed tonight. I have a doctor's appointment on Wed (3/2) and will do another update soon after I hear what comes back from any of my blood test results.

	I can officially claim to be "un-sick" now. Well, I am still kind of in recovery mode; but I'm so much better than I was during the past couple of weeks. And for a change, I had good news at the doctor's office. While my T-cells are still really low, they jumped from 47 to 128. That's nearly tripled! And the evil viral load dropped from a huge high of 337,000 in Jan. to 10,924 here in March. WooHoo! That's a hugely gigantic change of which the doctor and myself are quite happy.
Nothing ever showed up in my blood work explaining the fever of the past few weeks. All that was out of whack is that I am slightly anemic. The doctor isn't sure if that's a problem with the current meds or not; but will keep an eye on it with the next blood work at the end of the month.
Here I am finally back to working some. It's taking a long time to recover from the fever and chills but working at the body shop isn't too stressing, so I've been filling in for Tara some.

One evening, on the way from Jim's house to mine, we could see smoke billowing, up in the distance. At first, I was afraid that it was near my house (ever since the 12th St. fire years ago, I have always been worried about fires). However the fire was even further past my house, and was clear downtown on 5th St. where an old supply building was burning.

While sick and stuck in the house, I still wasn't out of the loop, thanks to the internet. I set up a third computer, out in the living room, so that it would be easier for me to continue chatting with everyone. Of course, some people really had a lot to chat about too. Since I wasn't able to get out, Tara brought her new kitties, Ethel and Fred, to EAC so that I could see them on the webcam. Aren't they cute? There will be more Fred and Ethel pictures later on too.
Tara and Mark working, while I peek in on them.

Tara's little boy, Austin, turned four this past week and with Jason (Tara's boyfriend) coming back into town for the birthday party, Jim and I were invited over too. There was even an extra special guest and we had a great time!
Yummy pizza and a Spiderman cake mIkIE picks on Tara, who is "practically perfect in every way"
Austin's really into Spidey (who isn't??) and the house was decorated with all sorts of Spiderman stuff.
Austin blows out the candles, and Lauren watches from nearby
What's that? Another Spiderman present? ROFL mIkIE and Austin playing with the new toys
And a special guest appearance by Spiderman himself!!
Leatherman meets Spiderman
	Spidey surprised Austin by jumping up onto the porch and peeking through the window. He stopped in long enough for a quick picture or two, and to deliver a present.
Poor Austin spent the rest of the evening, looking for Spidey to show back up. Several times he was sure he spotted him out in the backyard. (considering some of the adults, mainly Jim, kept putting on the Spiderman mask, sneaking outside and jumping up by the window, it's no wonder the kid was sure that Spidey was still out there. ) (The part of Spiderman was played by Stephan)

While at Tara's house for the birthday party, of course, Jim and I both got to personally meet Ethel and Fred. Jim's in love and ready for some new kitties as you can see here.
Ethel	Fred
Hey! Wait a minute! All this talk about kitties; but we missed one more family member - Lucy the Airedale. And this month, Lucy was the lucky one chosen for the GBS of the month!

Jim does the ceilings, while I did the walls

mIkIE does trim work,

and the ComputerTutor plugs things back in.

Sneak Peek

Still in progress is my house painting. My bathroom and kitchen are getting a make-over. They are nearly finished now; but not quite, so here's a sneak peek at some of the work-in-progress.

Oh yes, on Monday the 14th, I'll be turning 43, so I'm sure I'll have something to tell you about getting a year older. LOL
Pictures of birthday stuff and remodeling coming soon!!

Who would have thought that turning 43 would be such a good thing? After that fever I had, I am so very happy to be getting older. ROFL I was in a really good mood and had a really nice birthday this year. I spent most of the day working for Waikem Honda (with a fun project of setting up a webcam to catch a thief) and visiting with Tara at EAC. For dinner, Jim and I used the gift certificates from my Mom and Dennis (a Christmas present) and had a really nice dinner at Bob Evans.

A couple of us had a joint birthday party this past weekend, so I really wasn't expecting a birthday cake this year. There was a year (back a few) when everyone thought that everyone else was getting me a cake and I didn't get any cake at all that year. The following year, everyone was so worried about me NOT having a cake that I ended up with EIGHT cakes the next year. But DO didn't let me down. The night after my birthday, she had Jim and I up for dinner with a good friend of ours (Sharyn), who recently had heart surgery and was finally recovered enough to be out and about a little bit. (Boy, do I feel for her. Recovery is sometimes the hardest part of being sick, because being "half-sick" is terrible.). And there on the dinner table was a lovely birthday cake for me (and the best kind - WHITE cake, Mmmmmmmm )!

MouseOver Peek-a-Boo

Sharyn plays peek-a-boo from under the blankets. She's recovering well from her heart surgery and it was really good to see her up and about again.

Do I really look 43??

My honey - Jim

DO, along with her sewing machine, where she makes all her doll clothes.

A picture of me taken by me

Remodeling/Repainting

My house didn't so much need remodeling as much as repainting. In the ten years since Randy and I first painted these rooms, a lot of dirt and dust has blown in because of all the construction of the school next door. Then while I was sick, DO would stop in nearly every day at lunch to check up on me and we would watch some of those "fix-em-up" shows on British TV. So now that I am over being so sick, it seemed time for Jim and I to take on some new projects. This time it's repainting my bathroom and kitchen (I've got other rooms on the list, but these seemed like a good place to start).

the Bathroom

Here are some of the first pictures and they are of the only remodeling that we actually did. We constructed two new cabinets, and closed in the end of the tub frame.

One of the biggest reasons that I wanted to paint the bathroom was to get rid of all of the dark paneling on one side of the room. Plus I was tired of the vines and leaves that I had painted on the other wall. The idea was nice; but I'm just not enough of an artist, and I never really liked my artwork. So all the walls first got a good dosing of white paint.

Making the ugly paneling go away

Starting to look better;
although the olive color just doesn't work in the room

The other end of the bathroom

The finished room

the Kitchen

The kitchen wasn't really on my projects list; but upon spying a couple of rolls of unwanted wallpapers up at DO's house, I was struck with an idea. Why not wallpaper the kitchen cupboard doors? Ever since Jodi and I had stripped the cabinet doors (in July 2000), I hadn't really liked the way the kitchen looked. It was just too dark. While I was busy painting in the bathroom, Jim tackled and finished wallpapering all the cabinet doors quick nicely.

Painting in Progress

Now I know that this next picture is not the most flattering picture of Jim, but it helps to illustrate my next comment. Even with my problems in life, I'm a very lucky man. Twice in my lifetime now, I've been blessed with a great man. Look at him there. Not only does his put cold towels on my head when my fever is raging, or hold me when shivering uncontrollably with the chills; but here he is painting my kitchen. What a great help he is to me, and that's just one of the many reasons that I love him.

one side of the room finished off by adding some masks from my collection

Sheagra is glad to see me put "her" kitchen back together

the stove and basement door

wallpapered but not yet painted

the finished upper cupboards

BEFORE
AFTER
click for a larger picture

Other stuff happening this month

My friend Ruth, from Waikem Ford, went to Kansas to see her new grandchild; my Mom had to deal with a couple of sick dogs; DO made some yummy Texas Sheet Cakes; Tara's boyfriend Jason has gone out of town (to Georgia!) to work; Jim had been going on a bunch of new job interviews; I've been doing some more work for the Waikems; I had to have the brakes on my car replaced because they had started grinding; and, of course, I've still had a few sick days - but I continue to take all my meds every day!

Finishing Touches

My bathroom is finally finished. All the trim is painted, and all the bric-a-brac has been placed. Jim had a really great idea of moving some of my many masks to the newly painted rooms. (You do know that I have a wall full of masks that I've collected over the years, don't you? So many of you have given me masks that the wall was really OVER-full.)
With the masks, some pampus grass from the yard, and the corner shelves, the bathroom is really looking good now.

If you mouseover these pictures below, you'll see that I added some masks to the kitchen also. As I was going through things to put on the wall, I came across these plates that my Mom got me one year (for a birthday I think. Oh wait. I can look it up here. [opening calendar on the left. clicking, clicking, clicking] Ah ha! There it is! Mom sent them at the end of Feb. 2002 (week two), for my birthday. Thank goodness for the internet and my website. I'd never know when things happened to me without it. LOL )

Oh no! What's that bubbling on the stove? It doesn't look like gingerbread. ROFL
	Nope, I'm finished with gingerbread creations, now I'm moving onto candies. Jim and I are trying to make good old-fashioned sugar rock candy. It should be simply and easy to make since I did find the best recipe from a teachers website listing this as a project for a K5 class.
That's Jim pouring out the hot sugar liquid. And that is a pan of sugar that we must have cooked too long. It became "hard tack" candy. LOL

Of course, I was hoping to see crystals forming immediately, so it seemed the best place to view this phenomenon would be to turn YardCam into CrystalCam. If you check the webcam, you too can see the jars on the shelf and although there are crystals forming after a couple of days, they are just too small to see on the cam right now. But the jars are pretty up in the window.
You'll probably notice that a couple of those batches in the window are also turning into hard tack candy instead of the crystallized candy. Hmmmm. Maybe I need to find a 5 year old to help me with this project.

A new Arrival

Well, I have a happy boyfriend tonight. He's got a new kitty! An adorable female, lilac Siamese kitten named "Bobbi" (that's short for "Baba Ghanoush". If you've ever watched "MXC" on the Spike network, you should understand that name. )

Left to Right: Baba, mIkIE, DO, Aries, and Jim

Gabby wants to get the kitty.

Baba Ghanoush

Click for a larger image

Sheagra didn't even hiss when introduced to Bobbi

What is it with cats and keyboards? LOL

Getting settled in (and tired of our camera flashes)

My un-happy kitty , glaring around the corner at me with THAT other cat

Zombie Eyes! and a Spinning Cat Head! I counsel my friends and clients who have digital cameras to always take as many pictures as possible. You can't take a perfect picture every time, so by taking 100 pictures, then surely one or two will come out really good. MouseOver this picture and you'll see just how glad I was that Jim was following that advice and taking several pictures in a row.

My shower doesn't have walls but is three shower curtains wrapped around the tub. Now that the bathroom was so much brighter, I thought I'd look for some new shower curtains. The two smaller pictures to the left show curtains that I found at Bed Bath and Beyond and Target that I really liked. But instead of purchasing any of those, I had Jim cut some some bamboo which I slid down behind the back curtain, tub and the wall. Viola! Martha Stewart style for free!

The only additional thing that I have done in my kitchen was to add a small swag over the window. It really softens the room, and adds that tiny touch to make it just perfect now.

More pictures of Baba!

"Baba-Cam"

Feeding Time!

MouseOver Special Did you say MOUSE over?

Baba the Internet

A few short video clips of the kitty in action!

Thinking about Baba being a new arrival, do you remember earlier in the month I mentioned my friend Ruth going on a trip to Kansas? She went out there to see her daughter and the newest arrival to their family - Blake!

Progress on Growing Sugar Crystals

It's been a week and a half now, and the sugar candy is finally being to "grow". Click on either image below for a 800x600 desktop wallpaper
Slowly, but surely, the crystals have finally started forming. I'll keep you updated on the progress as it develops.

As you all know, Easter seemed to come a little early this year. Luckily for us, up here in Ohio, we didn't have snow on the ground, so I think that I can actually believe that Spring is here. Here's another new arrival this month. I'd like to introduce you to the newest member of DO's family, Russell. Let's see. DO has three daughters (Jodi, Melissa, and Linda); and Missy had Russell; and Russell and his girlfriend Jeanette had little Russell. It's all getting confusing now. LOL

Linda and DO fixing the feast

Some of the Goodies

I seem to have spent all Easter making faces at the camera

It's my Jim!

From Linda's glare, it's easy to see why one should NOT bother the cook

Already at the computer seat

Tired of Easter and all the relatives

DO

Cliff

Becca made sure to get her time on my webpage this month. LOL She just keep showing up in the pictures. Smiling away.

Early Spring Yard Cleaning

Finally. A warm day (near 70) and a dry day (no snow or rain), so I spent it doing some cleaning in the yard and clearing out of my flower beds. Here's the proof of Spring - the first ladybug.

draining the fountain
tiger lilies poking up
Irises will be blooming in these beds SOON!

Happy Spring Everyone!

See you next month for the April showers,
and I sure can't wait for those May flowers.