Merl Reagle is an evil genius

This Sunday's crossword is in celebration of Merl Reagle and Will Shortz appearing on the Simpsons tonight! How cool is that?!? Last Sunday's theme was the separation of church and state, so there were blanks in the puzzle where words that included "church" intersected with state names. It was a fun and challenging puzzle. This week's puzzle has the musical notes from the end of the Simpsons running diagonally across the center of the puzzle. This man is mentally disturbed. Who comes up with stuff like this? Anyway, check out the online version of the puzzle here.

I'm feeling much better. The swelling in my throat has gone down tremendously and I can swallow and talk again. Antibiotics, man. Seriously. Painkillers helped too.

It's another beautiful autumn day up here in Seattle. I've been making christmas present for everyone that may lead to new crafts to sell on etsy. I've gotten a lot of comments on the Obama "Yes we Did!" shirts that I made for Kora and a friend. I think I'll list them on my etsy shop and see if anyone will buy them. Right now you can access my shop at wwww.dejahleger.etsy.com.

better

Thank you, universe of medical technology, for the miracle of antibiotics! Oh, joy. I started feeling better the very next day, and now, two days later, I can swallow in gulps, eat most solid foods, and I think by tomorrow I won't even need my special liquid painkillers. My dad and Shelley were up here to help out--not specifically to help out, but the timing was such at least that they could watch the girls while I went to the hospital to find out why I couldn't swallow and why my throat and ear hurt about as much as labor pains.

Kora but her chin pretty good the day before yesterday too. She accidentally fell on the playground while she was out with a friend. Luckily, again, my dad was around who used to be a medic in a hospital, so he could look at the wound and let us know what he thought we should do about it. Initially we thought it could use some supergluing, but in the end we all decided that it didn't warrant it. Instead we cleaned it and put on some barbie bandaids and it seems to be healing up just fine.

Now Jenna's up too, so we have that much more help around while we recover from our dramatic day. Last night we were all at Callie's house, and I felt so at peace just surrounded by family...total happiness.

Ear boo boo

I have the worst ear/throat pain thing in the world going on right now. I went to the hospital this morning because I couldn't even swallow. I still can't really, and that's with pain killers. Yikes, man. I just gave birth two months ago, but this is up there with pain levels. The doc at the hospital couldn't find anything wrong with me, that's the weird thing. No ear infection. A swollen lymph node, but nothing serious. No fever, no flu, no cold. Nothing. Maybe a cavity that has gotten infected? Oh, it's so frustrating.

Add to that the drama of Kora falling and cutting her chin open. It's not that bad, but it was a bunch of chaos while five adults tried to hold her down, clean the wound, and try to decide if we should superglue it or not. I think we win the drama of the day award.