Cold or Flu - (getting another one)

Ever wonder if you have a cold or Flu?
Colds and the Flu
How can I tell if I have a cold or the flu?
Read this bit read this from FamilyDoctor.org
Although the common cold and the flu share many similar symptoms, they are two different conditions.

The symptoms of a cold develop slowly and can include:

* Fever up to 102 degrees
* Runny or stuffy nose (often with green or yellow-colored discharge)
* Sore throat
* Cough
* Sneezing
* Fatigue and muscle aches
* Headache
* Watery eyes

Cold symptoms are generally more mild than flu symptoms.

Flu symptoms usually appear very suddenly and can include:

* Fever over 102 degrees
* Stuffy nose
* Nausea
* Chills and sweats
* Fatigue and muscle aches, especially in your back, arms and legs
* Cough
* Headache
* Loss of appetite

---------

Less than a month and I've gotten another cold!

Where I'm going, coming from and where I am.

Lovely day in New England so I set off to ski in the Wildlife Refuge across the river from where I live.

Here's where I'm standing in the snow, my skis beneath

The tracks I made behind me in the freshly fallen snow.

And where I'm headed, new tracks over the old tracks now buried beneath freshly fallen snow.

Moments like this, fluffy white stuff falling around me, make it wonderful to be alive.

Can bloggers rise to the challenge and help another?

Travis Erwin's house burned down a few days ago. They awoke to a funny smell, when he found the fire, his extinguisher didn't work well enough to make a dent. He watched helplessly as the flames consumed his house, the fire trucks arriving too late.

They've set a place to donate, anything and everything helps. Donations for blogger travis Erwin.

Last February Extreme Home Makeover was in town, there was an outpouring of support from the community. Did the support stem from the want to be on TV . . . or just a kind wish to help? Let's show that our willingness to help strangers and blogger buddies has nothing to do with wanting to be on TV but mainly a way to help another.

Daughter of the Sun - a Review

I downloaded Daughter of the Sun by Lonnie Ezell from iTunes, it cost around $5 to read on my iPhone.

I really enjoyed the story. It's about a woman, Elena, who was raised in a village that hates her because she wears the 'red', (she has red hair and is thought to have magic as did her mother). Elena is bitter over her treatment, over her mothers death and is determined to provide a better life for her daughter.

The magic is used by the "Breathe" - a great concept where a person breaths in, but in so doing, sucks the life out of something else, the earth, the trees, themselves, other people . . .

The evil Overlord needs a fresh thirteen children so he sends his son, the Duke to collect them. The Duke has some other plans in mind and also abducts Elena's daughter.

The story is about Elena's efforts to rescue her daughter and in the end save the world. The story bounces mainly between her journey and that of her husband's, Johan. Narrative also includes her daughter's point of view, and a few other characters which was easy to follow.

The main distraction from the story was the writing. Too many comments like 'rage boiled over' soon felt like writing overkill, and along with typos: 'he' should have been 'her', 'too' should have been 'to', misused italics, missing spaces, by the end of the story, although I enjoyed it, I didn't really 'feel' the story since I was rolling my eyes too often at over used expressions.

I would still very much recommend this story to others.

The iPhone app didn't offer the publisher, so I did some googling. (well, actually goodsearching I found a reviewer Greg Howley that said it was for sale at Lulu but the link didn't work. This might explain why I couldn't find a publisher in the book copyright section, and it explains why so many typing errors made it through to the final copy since Lulu is a self publish site and writers are on their own for proofing.

From this point, Lonnie can only get better and I'd certainly be open to reading what he writes in the future. I suspect his next story will be better proofed, or some wise publisher make pick up his story. For $5 it was worth it. I wouldn't pay the $17.05 I saw on Amazon

Cousins - keeping it straight!

From Wiki - thanks to Matt Leidholm see the wiki link
Ever wonder whether you're a first cousin, second or once or twice removed.
check out this handy diagram.

Are you from a big family?
I am! Just my 'immediate family' (brothers/sisters and their children) alone is over 30, maybe even over 40 now, I'll have to count.

When being a beta reader hurts!

Another fun novel is in my hands! Having read 2 of Tia's and left longing to have not only the hard copy in my hands, but desperately wanting the next in the series, I find myself already wimpering to myself as I read Kristin's because I suspect she'll likely hold off on writing the next in the series until she has a book deal, which means that Lisa will be left waiting. To that I say "Bugger!"

She's considering self publishing and I'm ready to tell her to go for it so that I don't have to wait - ha - aren't I bad!

Her novel (am I allowed to mention titles?) is a witty and fun Young Adult. (I haven't read many YA novels, although I enjoy watching YA oriented movies, so I figured I'd enjoy it and I am.)

I've also reads bits of novels from writers on crit groups, Carole McDonnell has a great story line (ask her for further details). I've only read bits of that novel, but what I've read I love and want to read it all!

In any case, I find myself getting quite annoyed that all these great novels haven't been published yet. I realize that competition is fierce but it really irks me when I read inferior stories that are published and I wonder why not these.

Back to reading! I'm reading it on my iPhone - isn't that cool! (Although I couldn't read it on my flight because I was using google, which, of course, couldn't connect from above.)



If Agents/Publishers were swayed by Beta readers AND the Beta authors approved, I'd go on a letter writing campaign!

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow, then ski in it!

Oh so lovely!
We had an excellent snow fall the past 2 days and I had a chance to go XC skiing today - soooo lovely. Just love snow. I took the photos with my iphone so not all of them came out due to either my glove in the way, or jittery hands.

Do you enjoy skiing? If so, where do you ski?