Be still, my heart...

... I just heard thunder. Then I walked out to my porch and could smell the rain.

For the uninitiated reader, thunder has a serious aphrodisiac effect on me.

Finally ...

I can say that I'm 100% over that awful case of strep throat, or whatever it was.  I went for a four-mile fast walk last night with no ill effects (except frizzy hair).  Huzzah!

More days of bad television

After three days of antibiotics, the killer sore throat hasn't improved at all. I'm at a loss as to why it's so bad, and why I would have something like this in the middle of summer. And since my Infectious Disease specialist friend thinks that I'm on the right antibiotics, I'm genuinely worried as to why it doesn't seem to be working.

One of the most frustrating by-products of being ill is that I'm stuck in the house. I can't eat much of anything except oatmeal and tapioca, as just about everything else is painful to swallow, so I feel weak as well. Talking on the phone for more than a couple of minutes is painful. So I keep finding myself watching really bad daytime television.

I'm at the point of building an altar to Panacea if this doesn't shift soon. Or going back to the doctor.

Planets not in retrograde; planets in dumper

Overnight my sore throat managed to turn into the worst case of strep throat in history (well, my history).  I can't remember being in such bad shape that simply attempting to drink a glass of water makes me choke.

I went out around noon to the doctor, who ended up prescribing both antibiotics and prednisolone as my throat was so swollen. The combination of steroids and Aleve make it possible for me to sleep for an hour or two, but only if I'm sitting up. Otherwise I start doing this weird choking and gagging thing again. This is no fun.

Then I finally opened my email to find out that I didn't get the Bank of America job.  Sigh.

The latest from The New Scientist, or why I'm hosed

From the July 2 issue of a UK magazine.

You'll need to click on the link to see the faces being discussed. And if you're wondering, I wear size 10N shoes. 

Why men are attracted to women with small feet

Which face is more attractive? If you chose the face on the left, you share the tastes of most heterosexual men. It is a composite face, or "morph", made from the faces of eight women with unusually small feet. The face on the right is a morph of eight women with unusually large feet.

It's quite a difference, isn't it? Women with smaller feet have prettier faces, at least according to the men who took part in this study. So do women with longer thigh bones and narrower hips, as well as women who are taller overall. And the contest isn't even a close one. "These are the most strikingly different morphs I've ever seen," says Jeremy Atkinson, an evolutionary psychologist at the University at Albany, New York.