I've officially been the coldest that I've ever been

Three weeks ago, we had a pretty good storm hit. I had to go to Las Cruces on Friday, and as I passed the wood train trestle just down from Cloudcroft the thermometer in my car said it was 3 degrees F outside.

I thought that was pretty darn cold, and I was smart enough not to get out of my car there.

Tonight I was doing Apollo spotting at the observatory.

It was 15 degrees F.

The wind was gusting at 20 MPH.

The wind chill factor made it an effective -2 F.

Definitely gotta get better gloves and boots.

Holly Hippodays to All Y'All!

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas/VEWPRF/Kwanza/whatever. We just finished Christmas dinner at the observatory, I made Alton Brown's City Ham, a risotto, and orange-scented green beans. Russet made a sweet potato au gratin; we also had brownies, hot spiced cider, salad, and far too many sweets and appetizers. I also made two iced teas from Teavana that were quite nice. I spent probably six hours making my stuff, the ham takes quite a bit of time and two steps.

Russet received from me a copy of Grammar Girl's book, also a copy of the fairly recent GURPs Vorkosigan book, and both the new Harry Potter DVD and the DVD set of Bones Season 1 (all of which are actually gifts for both of us). I received a copy of Monty Python's 40th Anniversary set and a CD which Russet somehow didn't realize that we already have, but the coolest thing that she gave me was a monster cook book: a collection of ALL RECIPES from America's Test Kitchen! Quite looking forward to playing with it!


But the best gift that I received this season came from my immunologist: my IgG level, which is the most important factor that they measure my condition with, IS NORMAL! On top of that, tests showed that I'm building immunities to the vaccines that I received in October for seasonal flu and pneumonia! So Russet and I are very happy on that one.

We were in Phoenix for almost two weeks (a long story) and I had an opportunity to get an H1N1 vaccination, unfortunately I also got sick for the first time since my last pneumonia in June. It was a mild virus, enough to make me feel lousy and give me a fever for a week or so. Because of my immunodeficiency, even if I get a virus, I have to start taking antibiotics because of my weakened response. If you're immune-depressed like me, you can't take a vaccination while you're sick because it will mutate into a lethal pathogen and kill half of the people on the planet and drive the other half mad and blind.

My IgG level being in the normal range doesn't mean that I'm now producing antibodies, it just means that I'm responding excellent well to treatment. We'll be continuing to monitor it on a quarterly or more frequent basis, and in another six months, if the trend is still upwards, we might look at reducing my treatment level. It's still good news regardless.


I hope you all had a holiday with a minimum of stress and conflict and a maximum of fun and joy, with lots of good eats. Here's to a great 2010!