CritterKeeper

I'm so sorry for your loss.  I hope she didn't suffer.
I know where you're coming from with the planned visit being a little too late.  My dad's brother and sister were planning on coming to visit for his 75th birthday.  Instead they got to come to his memorial.

She's passed.
I've spent so much time preemptively mourning her over the last couple of days that now I'm to emotionally drained to feel much additional sadness, though I'm sure it's only a matter of time before it hits me again. In the mean time though, it's at least a little bit of a relief to know that it's over.

Yikes!  Glad you're getting things checked out promptly.  Hope it's either nothing, or something easy to fix!

My grandmother is in the hospital after falling down her cellar stairs and hitting her head badly; she's not expected to make it.
The timing is particularly cruel too (not that any time would have been a good time). She lives a good four hour drive away, so we were usually only able to see each other a few times a year; our next visit was going to be next week, and we had recently been talking about how we were both looking forward to it...

Got back from my main doctor about 30 minutes ago, after being told to see him by the podiatrist (we'll call him Dr. P). Dr. P told me to stop taking the Bactrim and get my back pain checked out for possible kidney problems. My main doctor did just that and found that there may in fact be kidney problems, based on where and how bad the pain is. He ordered labs stat and should have the results tomorrow. In the meanwhile, he suggested putting a lidocaine patch over them if my oxycodone isn't giving me enough relief.
This one's got me a bit scared, folks. I don't know what's going to happen.

Just for variety, I woke up last night around 4am in a cold sweat and very nauseous.  Unproductive retching.  No improvement by 7am so I called in sick to work, at first just for the morning but there weren't a lot of appointments in the afternoon so I let them convince me to take the whole day.  Nausea was mostly gone by mid-day but still slept most of the afternoon.  I had some ginger ale and Jello, this evening I went to the grocery store long enough to get crackers and Rice Krispies, my go-to bland diet since I was a kid, and some Gatorade and juice.  Tomorrow is my day off.  Here's hoping it works itself out by Weds so I can get back to work.

Just for variety, I woke up last night around 4am in a cold sweat and very nauseous.  Unproductive retching.  No improvement by 7am so I called in sick to work, at first just for the morning but there weren't a lot of appointments in the afternoon so I let them convince me to take the whole day.  Nausea was mostly gone by mid-day but still slept most of the afternoon.  I had some ginger ale and Jello, this evening I went to the grocery store long enough to get crackers and Rice Krispies, my go-to bland diet since I was a kid, and some Gatorade and juice.  Tomorrow is my day off.  Here's hoping it works itself out by Weds so I can get back to work.

Yeah, I checked Facebook and apparently his back is really bad right now.  Here's hoping he feels better soon, for his sake first and for the comic a distant second.

 
And this discussion has entered freefall

It's the MessagEase keyboard. Available free from Google Play, and (I think) from the Apple Store.
The two most essential things to know about the MessagEase keyboard:
1) It WILL take some getting used to, but once you deal with a bit of a learning curve it's fast and easy.
2) Press-and-hold the Hand key to get to the help and configuration screens.

I've been having this weird need to take a deep breath.  I don't feel like I'm suffocating or anything dramatic like that, but when it happens it doesn't feel right unless I get full expansion that I can feel in my diaphragm and ribcage.  Sometimes it'll turn into a yawn, maybe because that's the closest thing in the regular world, but most of the time it's just inhale deeply, then exhale.
I'm wondering if it's because of the CPAP.  I've been using it for over two weeks now, and I sleep just fine with it but I don't really feel any different during the day.  I am, of course, asleep when using it so I can't tell whether it's helping me until I see the sleep doctor again and he downloads all the saved data from the machine.  Is wearing the mask and breathing into it until I fall asleep making me more aware of my breathing?  Is it some sort of effect from breathing against increased pressure retraining my lungs on what feels normal?  Am I just weird?  Guess I'll find out when I see the doc again.
Don't worry, if I get any shortness of breath or other signs of hypoxia I'll call sooner than that.
Interestingly enough, in order for insurance to pay for the darn thing, I apparently have to use it at least five hours a night for most nights, so it has given me another incentive to curb my tendency to read, internet, or otherwise keep myself awake far too late in the night and ending up short on sleep.  You'd think that and fewer apnea incidents would make me feel better rested....

 
It's a matter of personal taste.
Understand that from the plant's point of view, the purpose of capsaicin, piperine, or allyl isothiocyanate (the "hot" components of peppers, peppercorns, and radishes*, respectively) is to make the various fruits undesirable to non-preferred consumers. Which, for capsaicin and piperine, are mammals. (Radishes, there are no preferred consumers - they hate everybody. But then, the allegedly-edible part of a radish is a root, not a fruit.) The seeds have a very low survival rate when they are chewed on by mammalian grinding teeth and then pass through a mammalian herbivore's digestive tract. Fruit-eating birds, on the other hand, will mostly pass the seeds through unharmed and then deposit them - possibly far away - in a nice little dollop of fertilizer.
* A whole radish doesn't actually contain any allyl isothiocyanate. It contains two other chemicals** kept in separate compartments in each cell. When the radish is cut, crushed, ground, chewed, or otherwise damaged, this separation breaks down and the two chemicals react with each other to produce the spicy chemical.
** Yes, chemicals. I know it's a bad word in some circles, and you should never eat anything with chemicals in it. But the only thing chemical-free is hard vacuum. Like maybe you might find in the void between galactic superclusters, and I wouldn't bet overly strongly on even that. Oh, also, every living organism on this planet is the result of 2-4 billion years of random genetic modification of at least four different causes - radiation, chemicals, viruses, and sexual reproduction - so the only non-GMO food is salt.

I'm totally using "YES! ME GIRL! HAPPY LADY GIRL WOMAN!" next time somebody asks me a stupid question about my gender.

To my local post office to get a passport. Mrs. Prof and I are celebrating her retirement and our 35th wedding anniversary by going on a trip to the U.K. this October. I'm also going to meet up with a mate who does a radio show out of Lincoln called "The Cyber Den" and hopefully be a guest on his Wednesday program. (He did the interview with me on the Calibrations CD.) After that, it's a guided tour for us through England, Scotland, and Wales.

HA!!! Suck it, Quetzalcouatl! /flex

Eh. Frankly speaking, as far as I am concerned Magus is only a bit player.

 
You wouldn't know it from many of the attacks on anyone who objects to a "treasured tradition."  I grew up in Chief Illini territory, I know of what I speak.

I have enjoyed a number of comics that center around activities I am not personally engaged in, such as paintball, or experiences I do not share.  For some reason, I do tend to find video game digressions more annoying than most.  In this case, I think it's just that I'd much rather spend time with the actual characters.  However, if this sort of thing is enjoyable for Dan and helps him recharge, then I am not going to say he shouldn't do it!  I'll just have to read along and hope I find some charm or interest in them.

I have enjoyed a number of comics that center around activities I am not personally engaged in, such as paintball, or experiences I do not share.  For some reason, I do tend to find video game digressions more annoying than most.  In this case, I think it's just that I'd much rather spend time with the actual characters.  However, if this sort of thing is enjoyable for Dan and helps him recharge, then I am not going to say he shouldn't do it!  I'll just have to read along and hope I find some charm or interest in them.

Not to my knowledge.  It's funny but people almost always agree which of the two a given groaner should be up for....

I don't care about all these people. I want Phill to return. *cries*

It's really a pity that most people's knowledge of Helen Keller's life begins and ends with her childhood, because she was a remarkable woman!  She was not the first deaf and blind person to learn to communicate; Charles Dickens had already written about Laura Bridgman's achievements there, which is what inspired her family to go beyond the home sign language they'd relied on until that point.  But she was the first deaf-blind person to earn a bachelor's degree, from Radcliffe College in Harvard University, and went on to become a world-renowned author, public speaker, and activist.
She campaigned for women's rights and suffrage, labor rights, and socialism, as well as advocating for the disabled.  She was one of the founders of the American Civil Liberties Union.  She was not a communist but a member of the Socialist Party.  When she advocate dfor the disabled, she spoke openly about the link between poverty and disability, such as poor factory conditions and diet, as well as women forced into prostitution contracting syphilis, then a leading cause of blindness.  She realized just how lucky she had been to be deaf and blind in a family who could afford to hire specialist teachers and send her to special schools, and fought to help others with disabilities who did not have access to such advantages.
She also carried out a secret love affair, and engagement, and almost eloped.  She enjoyed music through feeling its vibrations.  She traveled to dozens of countries and was friends with fellow radical Mark Twain.  She outlived not only her teacher and companion Anne Sullivan, but her successor Polly Thomson, and her ashes were placed next to theirs in the National Cathedral.  She was not perfect; she was a follower of Swedenborg and a supporter of eugenics.  We tend to picture her in a Victorian or Edwardian setting, but she didn't pass away until 1968!
 
"The few own the many because they possess the means of livelihood of all ... The country is governed for the richest, for the corporations, the bankers, the land speculators, and for the exploiters of labor. The majority of mankind are working people. So long as their fair demands—the ownership and control of their livelihoods—are set at naught, we can have neither men's rights nor women's rights. The majority of mankind is ground down by industrial oppression in order that the small remnant may live in ease."
— Helen Keller, 1911

Maybe because her hair turned green? *scratches head* Only reason which I can see, though it may also simply be more conclusion jumping.

And Ellen is to afraid of bombs.

Ellen and Ashley are clearly going to be the best sister-in-laws ever seen in fiction.