Is it appropriate for me to talk about having a bowel movement that happened so quickly that it created a vacuum in my intestinal tract?

What if I mention the yellow pus that squirted out from my second toe because of an ingrown toenail?

Is there a boundary of appropriate content for ones personal blog? Perhaps…perhaps not. These are conversations that I am able to have with my partner and close friends…one topic is normal biological function, one is only gross in that the pus is a nasty yellow colour - but again a normal bodily function to heal an infection.

And admit it - that first one either made you gasp or burst out laughing…and gasping increases oxygen flow and laughing is heart healthy, so that makes this blog medically sound.

But seriously…I CAN talk about whatever I want, but SHOULD I. Do you really want to hear about bodily functions/infections? The answer is likely, no.

About a year ago I wrote a post called You Can’t Do That On Blogs.  In that post I talked about slander, copyright, libel, and using unreferenced images or those not in the public domain.

But even with those “restrictions”, you can still pretty much blog about any topic that you want. You can talk about technology, fashion, business, pets, religion, hobbies, politics, movies, moral issues, whatever - because it’s your personal public blog - and a lot of what you talk about is covered under your Freedom of Speech.

So while I have the freedom to do it, again, it might not be in my best interest to do so. I might lose readers that I so cherish because they don’t want to hear about the latest secretion from my toe. On the flip side, I might gain readers who like to hear about medical oddities. Do I want both kinds of readers, sure, but which do I want more?

One has to be careful not to alienate people who actively help carry on the conversation, because that’s really what blogs are about - creating conversation, sharing ideas, adding value to readers. And I, like all writers, often have trouble coming up with a topic to write about. There are many times when I vacillate on whether I want to keep blogging, and then a new topic pops into my mind during a conversation and voila, you get another post.

As long as you all keep coming back and keep commenting, I’ll keep coming up with volumes of wit and sarcasm to keep you entertained.

And no more posts about BM’s or pus. I promise. For now.

This past weekend David and I, and several other friends, went camping. It was our first camping trip of the year, which is in and of itself rather tragic.

Usually we’ve been camping a number of times by June, but for some reason we just haven’t gotten into the groove in 2008.

Scott found a campground about 2 hours away, right in the midst of Napa Valley, that offered a refreshing and relaxing venue for camping. The place was pretty much in the middle of nowhere, and offered a creek-fed swimming pool, hottub, full showers/bathroom facilities, and meals. Aside from that you were pretty much on your own to provide entertainment.

We spent a lot of the time playing Catch Phrase, which is a very addictive electronic game where you try to get people to guess the word on the screen without saying any parts of the word. But back to camping…

Here are some photos of the place so you can see the layout and just how much nature we experienced, including an incredibly terrifying snake, and about a hundred million really cool lizards.

It is worth noting that I almost stepped directly onto the snake before I happened to look down at my feet and screamed. David actually had the nerve to touch the snake, at which point it curled up and slapped its tail against the ground over and over again - I’m thinking it was pretending to be a rattlesnake. Had we been on the islands, it might have been a Leopard Snake, which pretends to be a rattler to get away from prey.

The little lizard was more tame and actually let me get just a few inches away from it before scampering off into the brush. Very interesting markings on it too…nature can be pretty cool when it’s not deadly :-).

Finally we end with an allergic reaction, which you will not see a photograph of. When we got home, my right earlobe swelled to about 4 or 5 times the size of normal. The right side of my face was flaming hot, and the swelling lasted for over 6 hours, despite my intake of loratadine and application of topical benadryl to my ear. It was pretty freaky and I did not take a picture of it.

And now it’s back to the grind of work. I am, however, looking forward to the next camping trip, which will likely be up to Sly Park where we usually go. Have a great day everyone!

I took a few days off last week because I wanted to work on the book. For the first couple of days, all was well, until Saturday when I woke up feeling nauseous, light headed, and woozy. That’s a technical term.

I slept most of the afternoon, after barely finishing a delicious breakfast that David made, and by evening I was feeling a tiny bit better.

Sunday, however, the congestion packed itself in, and my nose plugged up, I started coughing constantly, fever, cold chills, hot sweats, I was going through my 4th or 5th menopause I think.

Anyway - Monday. I still feel like crap, I got about 4 hours of sleep once I finally found some old nasal spray and gave myself the chance to breathe again…I’m worn out and feel like patoopie. Another technical term.

Anyway - that’s why I’ve been hiding for a few days. Thanks to all zero of you who missed me :-).

I was taking the Facebook My Personality application test, and here were the results:

You think you have avoidant personality disorder

You have an extreme fear of the potential negative opinions of other people and that leads you to avoid social situations altogether. You feel inferior to other people and expect them to reject you. The worst thing that could possibly happen is being embarrassed in front of all of your friends.

I like the way they phrased that…. “I think” I have a PPD. I don’t really think that, it’s just what the application determined based on my answers.

And anyway, I KNOW what kind of personality disorder I have…

* Image attributed to user WriterHound via Wikimedia Commons

I was at the dentist the other day and I asked about teeth whitening. It seemed like a relatively quick and easy and not very expensive thing to do, so I said, what the heck?

So here’s what my teeth look like when cast into plaster moulds:

Obviously, my teeth are not green, but for some reason they wiped this gooey green stuff onto the teeth to identify them.

I got the moulds in case I needed to get any bleach tray replacements.

So here’s the starting point of my upper and lower teeth….we’ll see how the bleaching process goes and just how white these things will get:

Not too bad huh? Hopefully the bleaching will get these a bit whiter - I want to get rid of some of that yellowing which comes from age and from tons of coffee/tea/wine. So I’ll post now and then and you can see how it work out in case you’ve been thinking of doing it yourself.

Cheers!

I am ridiculously tired of coughing.

I am also ridiculously tired of my bowels spasming.

I am furthermore, ridiculously tired.

That sure is a bright red colour. On a steamed lobster, that colour is ok, but when that colour is the colour of a person’s body…not so much.

That’s pretty much how I looked this afternoon, after having an allergic reaction (we think) to ginger. David made a ginger soaked ahi tuna for lunch, crusted with sesame seeds and various other marinades, but he used a LOT of ginger.

Usually, I do not have a reaction to ginger at all - I love the stuff an can eat a whole plate of it when we go to sushi - however, this was raw ginger not the pickled variety you get at a sushi restaurant.

Anyway - not 30 minutes later, I’m on the phone with a coworker and I feel my face start to flush, I get light-headed, and my head starts throbbing. Within 5 minutes, almost my entire body was red, my face was swelling up, my heart was racing, and I was started to get chills.

I wrapped up in a blanket, after taking a benadryl and two ibuprofin, and laid down on the couch shivering. According to our faulty thermometer I did not have a fever, but I was shaking as if I was.

For probably 2 hours my body continued to be bright red and puffy from all the blood at the surface, and my heart continued to race. And then it passed. I started to regain my normal skin colour, the pounding headache went away (since my heart rate was slowing down), and in general I felt much better.

But I have to say it was rather freaky having your entire body bright red and warm, while shivering underneath a cover.

Be mindful of what you eat :-).