The plague has hit

My two oldest children have come down with what their doctor calls 'H1N1', whatever that is. If you haven't heard of H1N1, you've been in a cave for the last year. Let me just say, H1N1 sucks.

H1N1 has hit home hard.

This swine flu has relegated my kids to sleeping lots, laying on the couch and all around feeling terrible. It has resulted in a lot of coughing, sore throats, runny noses and high fever. The only bonus is there is not much vomiting associated with this flu. Not much of a consolation for a little girl who has never felt this bad in her life.

So far, only my two kids have been afflicted, but it seems only a matter of time before this ruthless virus marches through our house. Until then, wash your hands after reading this post.

A lifelong dream realized

I've always wanted an ant farm. Why? I have no idea. Maybe it has to do with watching a tireless animal spend its few remaining weeks pursuing a fruitless endeavor. I don't know.

A lifelong dream has finally come true. The combination of doing something sciency for my kids and having vast amounts of disposable income inspired me to finally purchase an ant farm. And this is not your daddy's ant farm. This is a space ant farm equipped with LED lights and everything.

Behold:
The 'sand' is a gel. It reminds me of agarose. I took delivery of 30±2 harvester ants this morning and added them to the farm. I expect crops by Fall.

Here's another pic with flash:

Now, back to my stout and Easter eggs.

Several tidbits

I've been away from blogging for a while. I have a reason. Read the following tidbits for more.

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My Thanksgiving sucked. 75% of my children got sick with something. In one case, my 5-week old needed a urgent surgical (non-emergency) procedure. The local pediatric surgeon was enjoying the holiday and couldn't be bothered. So, our pediatrician sent us to Rochester. The Mayo clinic is located in Rochester, MN. The Mayo clinic is one of the top medical facilities in the world. Kings stop by on a regular basis to have their colons examined.

If you live in the Midwest (USA) and a doctor sends you to Rochester, it is because you either had your arms removed by a farm implement or you have a disease that has not yet been named. In other words, you don't get sent to Rochester unless you have a dire medical situation. To hear a doctor say my infant son had to "go to Rochester" scared the shit out of me. In my mind, that translated into "this is a critical situation and your son is in a dire medical situation. Failure to act now will endanger his life." Well, it wasn't that serious. The threat was not imminent, but it was serious enough that we couldn't wait until Monday.

Long story short... after a visit with no fewer than 4 doctors on Friday and an unplanned follow up today, I am delighted to say his only major problem is that he is still related to me. He should recover fully.

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My Thanksgiving sucked (sorry to be redundant). My three year old started vomiting in the morning on turkey day and continued to do so every 45-60 minutes for about 24 hours. I felt so bad for her, but I was sooooo proud of her for hitting the bucket every single time. I stayed up helping her all night. This was the night before the preceding story took place. I was very tired.

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When we took our son to Rochester, we were expecting that he would need surgery. Therefore, we could not feed him. He eats every 2 hours and this was torture for him and us, but mostly for him. While he was screaming in the ER, I discovered one of the greatest medical inventions of all time: sugar water. The nurse brought us something called "sweet-ease." Cute huh? It was just 24% sucrose in water. She dipped the pacifier in the sweet nectar, plugged it in his mouth and he sucked like he had never sucked before. He fell asleep even though he was 4 hours late for food. The sugar water induces a strong sucking reflex which induces, as far as I can tell, a state of euphoria (just for you mjenks).

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To add to all of this, my youngest daughter has a chest cold. She sounds like she has been a 2-pack a day smoker for 10 years. I feel so bad for her, but she does sound kind of cool when she talks. Her spirits are high (so are mine thanks to Mr. Daniels, he he he he), and she is getting better.

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Don't you hate it when people talk and talk and talk about their kids. Thanks for reading.

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I realize none of this has to do with Chemistry or Homebrew, but for me, writing it has been theraputic. I promise, once things slow down, I will post something interesting. I actually do have a post almost ready about how Irish Moss works. I just need the time to pull it together. I also racked a spiced ale tonight. It tasted pretty good.