And The Winner Is...

Scabies, ladies and gentlemen. After three weeks of intense nightly itching in various parts of my body, I gave in to my wife's suggestion to go to the doctor, and this is what he tells me I have. And my, what a pleasant thing to have, it is. I invite you to read up on this glamorous affliction at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scabes.

A quick excerpt:

Scabies is caused by the mite Sarcoptes scabiei, variety hominis, as shown by the Italian biologist Diacinto Cestoni in the 18th century. It produces intense, itchy skin rashes when the impregnated female tunnels into the stratum corneum of the skin and deposits eggs in the burrow. The larvae, which hatch in 3-10 days, move about on the skin, molt into a "nymphal" stage, and then mature into adult mites. The adult mites live 3-4 weeks in the host's skin.


So yes, as we speak there are living organisms crawling around under my skin. Although this condition, I'm told, is rare out here in the desert, we have had a mild, wet winter, which is conducive to picking up the nasty buggers from plants and top soil, which is no doubt where I managed to find them.

Moving onto more pleasant things, here's a picture of me spending an afternoon pushing Brenna on her swing. It's been in the 80's the last few days, and with the setting sun, the swing has been in the perfect location for enjoyment (and by the way, despite what Wikipedia says, my condition isn't contagious, so neither Brenna or Emily have things crawling inside them at the moment).

That UFO shaped thing in the foreground is the top of our new pergola, which I hope to install on the deck very soon. The green post there in the foreground, along with the other four from our old arbor, were hacked off today by Emily's dad.

Laziness strikes again, some pictures from the yard, including this narcissus or daffodil, can't remember which this is. I have posted some other new blooms in the last few days at the Hoes site, so please check that out as well while you're in the neighborhood.

And here are some gazanias that are growing leaps and bounds in this warmth (to call this heat would be a slap in the face to June and July, who are laughing ominously for their turn to take center stage).

Tomorrow when the sun is back up, I'm going to try and take another picture of this plant, which my aunt gave me almost ten years ago. It's a gold dust dracanea (sp?), and to my recollection, it's never bloomed before (at least not in the six years I've lived out here).

The blooms are white and stringy and actually smell like honeysuckle, somewhat sweet. I won't attempt to taste one, I have enough bodily issues at the moment, thank you very much.

Other exiting things I have to look forward to this upcoming week:

- As acting chairman of our church's finance committee, I have the dubious honor of getting to present our budget deficit, which should go over like gangbusters. Tomorrow can't get here soon enough, so I can get that over with.

- A dentist's appt on Tuesday, where I will yet again be berated by my hygienist for not flossing enough, not flossing correctly, or a combination of the two. If I'm lucky, I'll pick up a few cavities for my slackassedness (that's a word now, look it up), and get to go back for some fillings.

- An extremely busy work week, coordinating the reissue of thousands of ATM cards for credit unions across the country, to make an April 1 mandate where without doing this accounting departments everywhere will scream in horror with balancing issues. If these cards aren't reissued correctly, members will get stranded trying to buy things with glorified ice scrapers. No pressure, or anything.

I'm sure there are more things to look forward to that I could post, but I think with any more excitement I might just curl up and wait for April to get here, and that just wouldn't be fair to March.