Car Closure

After the death of my not-so-dearly departed Daewoo, I was left with residual payments on the loan. Today, I paid off the loan. I'm very grateful to those who have helped me get through the car-less months, particularly Sarah. Now that I no longer have a the remainder of a car loan and the IRS has been paid off for a while, I feel much better.

Now I'm looking to get some debt with something to show for it. A new car! I've been researching, and so far, I'm considering the Honda Fit, Nissan Versa, Hyundai Accent, Suzuki SX4, and Scion xD. If you have any info/opinions on any of these cars, I'd love to know!

"It's worth your weight in gold!"

How much is that, exactly? Well, it turns out that right now my weight in gold is approximately $12.5 million. I don't know whether to be impressed or depressed. I just wish I could cash myself in!

Boolean Faux Pas

First off, I hadn't noticed how long it had been since my last post. Bad blogger. As the end of school nears, fewer of my brain cells are active. As demonstrated in the following tale.

The latest topic in my computer science classes has been Boolean logic. (If you don't know what Boolean logic is, don't worry. All you need to know is that it involves operators like "and", "or", and "not".) We were going over a problem and I had to think up another example off the top of my head. So I wrote on the board: X and (Q and (P or N)).

Two guys in the back started snickering immediately. Curious, I asked them what was up. What I hadn't noticed was that I had written "porn" on the white board in front of the whole class. Yup. We all had a good laugh about it, then we finished the example, porn and all. By the way, the next example was X or (Q and (C or N)).

Sinus Update ... or is it?

<---- Not my head.

As requested, here's an update on my sinuses. Yesterday, I had a CT scan at the doctor's office which meant that the results were available almost immediately. The doctor took a look and said, "No infection, your sinuses are perfect." Wow. There's something about my body that's perfect. Who knew? It only took a couple of surgeries, prescriptions, and allergy treatments.

Yet the pain remains. It feels like a sinus headache, but it apparently isn't. So my awesome ENT referred me to two doctors to follow up on more possibilities. Yes, you read that right. Two doctors. A TMJ/facial pain specialist and a headache specialist. The two main possibilities are that I have TMJ or that it's some variant of migraine. It could always be something else, though. I will probably have to schedule the appointments after the end of the school year, but that's less than a month away.

It was neat to see the CT scan images. Nothing cooler than seeing cross-sections of your own head. I apparently still have a bit of extra bone on my septum, but it was too close to my brain to mess with. Oooooh. I also got samples of some neat new prescription that should stop the post-nasal drip I'm enjoying. How's that for gross? That should help with my sore throat and inflamed tonsils as well.

Stay tuned for the next installment of Rachel's Head.

Is it stuffy in here, or is it just me?

My sinuses don't like me. I've had two surgeries on them suckers. In the first one, the doctor removed a piece of bone the size of a marble from my septum and performed a turbinoplasty. I could breathe so much better, but was still getting regular sinus infections. So we tried a balloon sinuplasty - like an angioplasty for your sinuses. It got better, but not totally.

So I went back to the ENT today. He took a look and said that either there's still a blockage in there or it may be somehow migraine-related. I've got a lot of questions to ask, but I get to see him tomorrow in another office of his 30 minutes away. I'm going to get another CAT scan and hopefully we'll find an answer to this thing.

I have to give props to my ENT, though. It's much better than it used to be. I haven't missed a single day of work this year due to sinus infections. I can at least work through them. Thank goodness for good doctors. (And his staff is great, too!)

I'm grateful that my health is as good as it is. Sure, I have issues, but I'm able to function and enjoy life. As I listened to the news this afternoon, I thanked my Heavenly Father for the blessings I have received and prayed for those who need them more.

I'll spare you the grisly details ....

I just reformatted my computer. Waaay to many things were going wrong. Like the fact that the computer wanted to run checkdisk every time I rebooted. I was rather nervous, as I have never done this before. And once you've started reformatting, all of your data is gone .... forever. I think I checked at least a few dozen times to make sure I backed up everything I needed.

So far it looks like I succeeded. Things have been running pretty smoothly. I had a few bumps along the way, like trying to install an illegal version then getting a conscience when it didn't work and buying a $300 retail copy of Windows XP. Thank you Best Buy with your no interest for 6-months. There's still an issue with restoring my Outlook data, but I'm sure that will be solved.

I've wanted to pull my hair out a few times, but I've learned some things and gained a lot of confidence. Now I just have to spend a few days at Mom and Dad's figuring out their computer problems. They always take me out to dinner as payment, though :)

Just don't give me an apple.

This week is TAKS week.

Next week is national teacher appreciation week.

They couldn't do it this week because it would be too much of a contradiction.