That should me my new nickname - Sicky.

I guess it started around the time Abby came home with pinkeye on November 6th.

I ended up getting pinkeye, then the 5-week cough that turned into bronchitis.

Heading back to Maryland to see Paul and the kitties, I was actually feeling very well, but then Abby visited her old daycare and brought home - well, we'll blame her because she can't speak and defend herself yet - the stomach virus that spread to each of us over the Christmas holiday.

The following week, I crashed with a screaming sore throat, fevers and chills, which brought me to an Emergency Room 3 days later. It's not strep and the flu test came back negative. We're waiting to see if it is mono!!! I'll be getting a second opinion this week in Colorado because despite having gotten the flu shot this year, I think I've really got the flu.

In the meantime, I seem to do okay if I take 800mg of Motrin precisely every 8 hours and supplement with Tylenol in between. Any lag between medication time, however, the fever immediately returns, all energy is sapped, and I'm a helpless lump on the couch, shivering under 4 covers.

Time to go rest now.

You are in the audience at a small, intimate theatre, watching a magic show. The magician hands a pack of cards to a random member of the audience, asks him to check that it's an ordinary pack, and would he please give it a shuffle. The magician turns to another member of the audience and asks her to name a card at random. "Ace of Hearts," she says. The magician covers his eyes, reaches out to the pack of cards, and after some fumbling around he pulls out a card. The question to you is what is the probability of the card being the Ace of Hearts?

Read this very interesting debate touching on risk management and the effects of mathematical thinking mixed with human factor common sense.

I just spent the last two days facilitating a review team analyzing risks of a proposal. Two days of identifying risks in over a dozen areas ranging from program management to technical solutions and cost, yet no examination into the probability of the risk occurrence. The final assessment is the essentially the result of subjective opinions and the reviewers' "gut-feel," which is why only very seasoned veterans compose the review team!

With the skill-set of the employees, experience of the management team, and lessons learned from past performance, shouldn't a program be evaluated to be in a better state than perhaps a "green" program with no established means of handling similarly identified risks?

Our company is trying to instill more process and mathematical formulas into these reviews in order to come up with a better way to derive the overall program risk. I just do not see how that is possible without losing a lot of the human factor input in the assessment.

I just experienced the world's quickest hair cut! I walked into the salon at 1:55PM. My coat was taken, a robe put on, my hair washed (twice) with a scalp massage, my hair was cut and styled, and the cut was paid for and stylist tipped...all within 15 minutes. As I put on my coat to leave, I was not surprised to see the clock barely hitting 2:10.

The stylist was amazingly fast. I never saw her comb, shears, or her hands very clearly - It was all a blur.

I went to a Korean hair stylist next to the HMart in Aurora. It was called Leekaja Hair Bis. I get mistaken for Korean so often that I figured it might not be bad to try a Korean hair stylist. Perhaps they will know better what would suit me.

No one there spoke much English, but they know what they're doing and I felt comfortable right away and was willing to trust them. My hair stylist came up to me and said, "Style?" gesturing chin-length short cut. I said, "Yeah." "Bob," she said. I said, "Yeah." Half way through the hair cut, she pulled my hair to one side to indicate a part direction and asked, "This?" I said, "Yeah." Her hands barely touched my hair how quickly she moved to style it and at the end, she asked, "Ok?" To which I replied, "Yeah!"

I was totally happy with the cut.

I just took a neat online personality assessment test, based completely on selecting color preferences (I like looking at yellow more than teal, for example) where the results seem to be strangely more accurate than the ones I get every time I've had to take a Myers-Briggs assessment.

The test is called the Color Career Counselor, offered by CareerBuilder.com, and initial results are free. A more detailed report can be purchased.

The color test is based off of a patented Dewey Color System which is a validated personality testing instrument; the first to recognize the connection between personality and the four distinct color categories: Primary, Secondary, Achromatic, and Intermediate Colors. It claims to reveal who you really are - not who you believe yourself to be!

Anyway, my color preferences indicate that the occupation categories below best suit my personality and interests. I guess I'm lucky that being an engineer with a large corporation fits my personality decently enough!

BEST OCCUPATIONAL CATEGORY

You're an ORGANIZER

Key Words: Self-Control, Practical, Self-Contained, Orderly, Systematic, Precise, and Accurate

These conservative appearing, plotting-types enjoy organizing, data systems, accounting, detail, and accuracy. They often enjoy mathematics and data management activities such as accounting and investment management. Persistence and patience allows them to do detailed paperwork, operate office machines, write business reports, and make charts and graphs.

2nd BEST OCCUPATIONAL CATEGORY

You're a DOER

Key Words: Emotionally Stable, Reliable, High Energy, Practical, Thrifty, and Persistent

These adventurous types prefer action-oriented, concrete problems rather than dealing with thought-provoking, ambiguous, abstract dilemmas. Fields of interest include mechanical, construction, and outdoor careers. They might also enjoy working with machines, tools, and equipment to repair or build something.

A friend posted this on Facebook and I believe each statement.

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Written by Andy Rooney
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I've learned.... That the best classroom in the world is at the feet of an elderly person.
I've learned.... That when you're in love, it shows.
I've learned.... That just one person saying to me, 'You've made my day!' makes my day.
I've learned.... That having a child fall asleep in your arms is one of the most peaceful feelings in the world.
I've learned.... That being kind is more important than being right.
I've learned.... That you should never say no to a gift from a child.
I've learned.... That no matter how serious your life requires you to be, everyone needs a friend to act goofy with.
I've learned.... That sometimes all a person needs is a hand to hold and a heart to understand.
I've learned.... That simple walks with my father around the block on summer nights when I was a child did wonders for me as an adult.
I've learned.... That life is like a roll of toilet paper. The closer it gets to the end, the faster it goes.
I've learned.... That money doesn't buy class.
I've learned.... That it's those small daily happenings that make life so spectacular.
I've learned... That under everyone's hard shell is someone who wants to be appreciated and loved.
I've learned.... That to ignore the facts does not change the facts.
I've learned.... That when you plan to get even with someone, you are only letting that person continue to hurt you.
I've learned.... That love, not time, heals all wounds.
I've learned.... That the easiest way for me to grow as a person is to surround myself with people smarter than I am.
I've learned.... That everyone you meet deserves to be greeted with a smile.
I've learned.... That no one is perfect until you fall in love with them.
I've learned... That life is tough, but I'm tougher.
I've learned.... That opportunities are never lost; someone will take the ones you miss.
I've learned.... That when you harbor bitterness, happiness will dock elsewhere.
I've learned.... That I wish I could have told my Mom that I love her one more time before she passed away.
I've learned.... That one should keep his words both soft and tender, because tomorrow he may have to eat them.
I've learned.... That a smile is an inexpensive way to improve your looks.
I've learned.... That when your newly born grandchild holds your little finger in his little fist, that you're hooked for life.
I've learned.... That everyone wants to live on top of the mountain, but all the happiness and growth occurs while you're climbing it.
I've learned.... That the less time I have to work with, the more things I get done.

I Love My Job! - by Dr. Seuss

I love my job, I love the pay!
I love it more and more each day.
I love my boss, he is the best!
I love his boss and all the rest.

I love my office and its location,
I have to have to go on vacation.
I love my furniture, drab and grey,
And piles of paper that grow each day!

I think my job is really swell,
There’s nothing else I love so well.
I love to work among my peers,
I love their leers and jeers and sneers.

I love my computer and its software,
I hug it often though it won’t care.
I love each program and every file,
I’d love them more if they worked a while.

I’m happy to be here. I am. I am.
I’m the happiest slave of the Firm, I am.
I love this work, I love these chores.
I love the meetings with deadly bores.

I love my job – I’ll say it again.
I even love those friendly men.
Those friendly men who’ve come today,
In clean white coats to take me away!!!!

Something fun to see after a long day at work.

Some really cool slow motion videos depicting interesting characteristics of nature we take for granted. After you watch the first clip of the unbroken water balloon, you can select to see 14 others.

A friend of mine recently posted a note in Facebook which questioned whether or not getting married and having kids mean that you will lose all your friends, leading to a bleak, lonely life... My response is as follows:

It is possible to lose a few people from your social circle, but friends will change with you or at least accommodate your new situation in life. Getting married means you have chosen to spend and share your life with someone you love - your best friend, I hope. You spend more time with one another, but you still make time for your other friends. When you have kids, you spend more time with your family because by choice you have decided to have and love them above all else, but you still make time for your other friends. Just as you need your friends - particularly your girl friends - to be there for you to help you de-stress after busy weeks at work, you need these same people to help you relax when family demands result in built-up stress.

Believe it or not, since having Abigail, my friends have increased. It makes sense....as your life changes, you start bonding with people in a similar life situation. When you graduate and begin working you start to make friends with your colleagues. When you become a wife, you start connecting with married folks. So, when you have kids, you start connecting with other mothers. And guess what? You DON'T lose your old friends. The ones you still want to hang out with, you just do so. If maintaining their friendship requires you to do FUN activities that do not include the child, either your so-called friends can not accept you and the choice you made to have children OR you were not ready to have the child. In all cases when the latter is true, I strongly believe that the adults need to do everyone (in particular the child) a favor and think twice before getting pregnant.

Oh, lastly, raising kids can not just be you and your husband, unless you are a rare breed that knows instinctively ALL there is to know about parenting. Ever heard of "it takes a village to raise a child?" It's absolutely true. And you'll find that you will leverage all aspects of friendship - their ability to cheer you up and make you laugh, to allow you to let loose and be goofy, to offer you good advice, to help you out in times of need, etc. - and these friends become your support, your people, your village. So, quite frankly, I don't see how it's possible to lose friends when they become so important when you have a family.