So I’ll admit, I haven’t been paying a whole lot of attention to the news lately.  Apparently this swine flu is a pretty big deal.  It’s killed 149 people in Mexico and there are another 20 confirmed cases.  In the US there are 40 confirmed cases, but it hasn’t killed anybody and people here seem to get over it like it’s any other flu.  A few other countries have some confirmed cases and a few more countries have some suspected cases.  It’s just a little odd that it’s killed so many Mexican people, but to everyone else it seems to be just a regular bug.  I don’t know if it has to do with vaccinations, health care or genetics.  Maybe someone’s already answered that- I don’t know.  Like I said, I haven’t been keeping up much with the news lately.

Also in the news, Bea Arthur died at the age of 86 on Saturday.  She’s best known to people my age as Dorothy on The Golden Girls.

My work day was pretty steadily busy today for the most part.  Afterwards I went out surfing with Lars.  It started out a bit slow but then the tide came back in a bit (is that right?) and even though there was a pretty strong rip, we had a good time.  The waves weren’t huge, but they broke nicely and we both caught some really good ones.  There were several that I caught today where I felt like I had really good control over what I was doing and where I was going.

I came to realize that most people have what I’m calling a signature dismount, or a way they instinctively jump off the board.  I’m talking about times when the wave has just run out and you voluntarily get off the board.  Michael Mercer (who was working today and could not join us), for example, will take a dive into the water.  Lars sort of sits back off the board.  I tend to walk off the back and kick the board out away from me.  For the most part, anyway.  There was one wave I rode in really far, but to get it going I moved my weight pretty far up on it so that it ended up hitting the sand and I involuntarily walked off the front of it.  The board popped up and rammed into a spot just above my elbow and it’s been hurting ever since.  Fortunately the water was coldish, which I’m guessing will help keep the swelling down, but it’s pretty damn tender, particularly if I have to exert any force with my right arm, like when pushing myself up on a board or picking up something heavy.  Oh well, I’m sure it’ll be fine soon.

I think, after two days, I might be done with the springsuit already.  It’s chafing the back of my knees and my shoulder blades a little.  Besides, Lars was in a neoprene top and baggies today, and Josh, a guy who’s out there surfing a lot when we are (congrats on the pregnancy too, by the way- and the same to his brother, who recently moved here!), was wearing a rash guard and baggies yesterday and today.  Besides, I’ve been wanting to get my neoprene top, which I’ve had since my birthday, wet for a while.

Lars and I surfed about an hour and a quarter, maybe an hour and a half then went on in.  Barry went out surfing too, but we didn’t see him.  Lars took off and I was going to help Hannah with a project but her computer wasn’t working very well.  The issue was that she’d had to publish some web pages but her images weren’t showing up online even though they were showing up on her computer.  The solution was pretty simple (for someone who works on web pages for a living) and when she called me later tonight I was able to help her pretty quickly.  She just hadn’t uploaded the image folder.

Amanda and I watched a Supernatural when I got home, followed by tonight’s Big Bang Theory and How I Met Your Mother, in which something was said about girls whose names end in -ly that had us reconsidering our daughter’s nickname.  I wanted to watch the season finale of Heroes after that, but Amanda was tired and went to bed.

Her sunburn continues to hurt her, particularly on her legs.

I mentioned to Amanda that I hadn’t felt Milly moving around much lately, and she said she just didn’t tell me all the time when it happened, so I spent a few minutes after she went to bed feeling my daughter stretch and kick inside the womb of my wife.

I then helped Hannah with her problem over the phone and caught up on this, my own website.  I was pretty far behind.

Also, as the title says, today was my mom’s 53rd birthday.  I called her and talked to her for a while this morning.  I haven’t gotten a gift for her yet, but I intend to.  I just haven’t been able to think of anything yet.

Zach Dotsey