Back.

Okay. I'm back. I know it's been a little while, but I can explain. First, there was traveling, which entailed many, many hours of driving (and much buying of expensive! gas.) Second, there was the almost-dying. Or at least the fear of being badly hurt with a totalled car. Let me explain. When we left my parent's house on Saturday, we were driving down the highway and it was "slushing" (in other words, a mix of rain and snow and ice was falling from the sky) and creating a layer of snow-ice-rain mix on the road. In addition, I apparently need new tires on my car. Anyway, Stephen was driving (which is why I'm still alive) and as we rounded a corner the car hydroplaned. I have all wheel drive and all four tires had no contact with the road for several, bone-chilling, seconds. As the car glided, rather serenely, toward the bare granite face of the rock wall that forms the outer boundary of the roadway I froze in panic. Luckily, Stephen was traveling the suggested speed for this particular curve, and the car did stay on the highway, and eventually regained traction. Scary, though.

After that you can be sure that we drove carefully. In addition to the hours we logged on the road, as soon as I got back home I came down with the flu. It's really not all that surprising since we encountered several sick people in our visits. It was only late last night that my fever finally broke and I'm back to feeling like I might be able to do something other than sit in my recliner and moan while sipping Theraflu.

The visiting was fun. My family is doing quite well. My parents and sister did lose power in the phenomenally destructive windstorm that hit western washington recently, but neither of them suffered any real damage. Just a few days in the dark eating out of cans. All the gifts were received graciously, and, it appears, with real excitement. On Sunday, Stephen and his brother, Patrick spent several hours singing Karaoke (which I forgot to record.) I also received several really cool knitterly things for Christmas, but I will blog those in another entry.

I also noticed that I've been tagged by Moni. So, here are Five Things that You Don't Know About Me and Maybe Don't Want To:

1. I have had five seperate surgeries on my mouth: the first when I was 10, to remove a cyst that was growing beneath my teeth, right on my jaw bone, right side, the second a couple years later to figure out if my adult tooth was ever going to come in (it wasn't,) the third when I was 16 to put an implant in where that tooth should have been, the fourth to remove my wisdom teeth (at 22), and the last one two years ago to perform a skin graft because the implant was loose and had rubbed against the surrounding gums causing them to recede. And I had braces in high school.

2. I have a high tolerance to novocaine. This means that when they did that surgery to put the implant in I could still feel something when the surgeon started to cut into my gums and they had to give me another shot. The result of all that? A severe needle phobia.

3. Because I have a needle phobia I have had cavities filled without novocaine. Also, if I have to have blood drawn, I usually have a little cry first. Some phlebotomists find this a little unnerving.

4. I eat lemon slices. Peel and all.

5. In the ultimate irony, I still have a soft spot in my heart for my childhood dentist, Dr. Emory. When I go home and I drive by his office I always point it out. In case any of you live in the area, his office is just west of the last stoplight in Sultan, Washington, above the little grocery store there. He was so good that I didn't even know that they gave you a shot with a needle to numb you up. I never saw the needle and the only thing I ever felt was the cold rush of the novocaine.

Well, that's all for now. Sorry that most of my five things are related to dentistry, but that's where my mind was today. Maybe there should be an alternate list? Maybe I'll save that for tomorrow. Oh, and the one, big surprising thing that we learned over the holiday? My BIL is getting married next month. So, congratulations Dave & Kim!