I had an earache on Saturday the 28th when I finished and the next day, I had spiked a fever. Thankfully, my doctor’s office has Sunday hours so I got myself in and sure enough, I had a sinus infection but my ears were incredibly infected too. I was given some Augmentin which doesn’t seem to be doing anything so I’m headed back tomorrow (the 6th) to see if they can do anything else to help. My mom was good enough to get me some Sudafed when I was down with her and my dad this weekend and that has also been helping.

Anyway, I’ve been pretty sick and this is why my summary has been so delayed.

So… here are my thank-you’s:

[+] Everyone who donated. We raised over $100. I’m still waiting for donations to be recorded so I’m probably not going to know my final total for another week.

[+] Noelle for commenting and keeping me awake. She raised $210 for Samaritan’s Purse the next day doing what I was doing.

[+] Everyone who commented. I appreciate everyone who took the time out to visit me.

[+] My evil twin Sean and my cat Edda who guest-posted. I appreciated the two of them coming up with content for me.

[+] Everyone who prays for Brett. I appreciate the prayers more than you know.

So… my thoughts on how this year went are that I’m not doing a 24-hour blogathon again if I can help it — maybe 18 hours at most next time. I’m getting too old (32) to go without sleep that long. I kept the food I ate pretty healthy so that was good. I did binge on soda too much though in an effort to get enough caffeine. I enjoyed watching the Opening Ceremonies of the Olympics while I blogged and I’m kind of glad for the timing of those.

I’ll post prayer requests tomorrow.

It’s 7:00 here in northern California which means that I’m officially DONE except for a post tonight in which I’ll do my thank-you’s and comment on how things went over all.

Meanwhile, I’m looking forward to a morning of cuddling with Daniel and cat-napping. I was going to have a babysitter watch him while I slept but I realized that I’m probably just as well off curling up in the recliner while I’m in the living room with him. The living room and hallway are childproof so I can rest knowing that he’ll be OK.

Oh yes… please go visit Noelle at Life’s everyday adventures! and leave her some encouraging comments. She is one of my friends from past Blogathons and she’s doing a solo one like me though she’s fundraising for Samaritan’s Purse.

There can only be one thing that a hippie peacenik like myself would have to do with ballistic gel: MYTHBUSTERS!!!!

I haven’t actually watched the show regularly since probably 2008 or 2009 when my DVR got too full. We also haven’t had cable or satellite since February of 2010 and we didn’t get Netflix until a few months ago so I’m pretty behind. I don’t find this to be a problem because I really like their first season better than almost anything else they’ve done.

My favorite “myths”:

-beating the Breathalyzer: “Adam, the policeman says you have to drink more.”
-tree cannon: nice explosion — excellent bang for my buck as I could watch that particular part on a constant loop.
-their behind the scenes show: I love watching them comment on how things work and how they get along with each other.
-lawn chair/weather balloons: I didn’t actually see this episode until this year and I love that they busted the myth.

The episode I wish Netflix would show: the one where Adam does the gold paint and running on the treadmill. The scene where the paramedics are doing “rock/paper/scissors” to see who gets to take his temperature is probably one of the best scenes of any episode.

Another topic I saved for the braindead time!

Admittedly, most of the music and radio I listen to these days is KLOVE. It has nothing to do with wanting to have something Christian on for Daniel — listening to it makes me less likely to curse out drivers on US-99. (Sacramento drivers are the worst.) Thus, most of the bands I listen to these days are Christian ones because I just happen to be listening to a Christian station most of the time. I suppose there’s also the “not-subjecting-myself-to-music-that-will-lead-me-into-sin” factor but I wouldn’t be listening to songs that glorify the objectification of women in that manner anyway.

I think my favorite band right now is probably Casting Crowns. They have yet to put out an album where I don’t like at least half of the songs on it. Their theology is sound and they aren’t engaging in the political grand-standing that some of the other CCM artists have where they are stumping for either Romney or Obama on their mailing list.

In terms of secular music, I’m listening to either Loreena McKennitt or songs from 1998 and earlier. I tuned out of secular music in college and I can’t say I’ve missed it. I’ve never heard “Jenny from the Block” by Jennifer Lopez, I’ve never heard Justin Bieber sing, and I’ve never heard an Adele song all the way through. As I said, I can’t say that I’m really missing anything because it’s just not what I listen to these days.

This post will catch me up from my nap attack. Whee! 2.5 hours to go until I get to sleep, 1.5 until I can stare into space without having to come up with something compelling to say.

So, “Blessings” by Laura Story is a song that was played frequently on KLOVE last year and it’s one that probably would have just been one of those tearjerkers that people get overly emotional upon hearing… except that Laura herself came on one of the shows (Scott and Kelli) and I happened to catch it. She’s one of the worship leaders for her church and she talked about how everything could be all about her if she wasn’t careful and how her husband’s struggle to recover from surgery for a brain tumor humbled her.

Here’s the video of the song.

Here’s the video of the story behind it.

I’m at the point where I’m tempted to just mass-produce content, time-stamp it at 30 minute intervals, and go to sleep. Yeah… that would be cheating. I’m going by the rules of the Blogathons in which I’ve participated which make that illegal. It’s tempting but illegal.

Because I knew I’d get to the point where my brain was putty, I saved certain topics for the last few entries. Books are one of them. I’m one of those people who reads way too much and retains what she has read. This means that I can spout off statistics like a person having been up for 24 hours is as dopey as one who has a 0.08 BAC. Yeah, I don’t think I’m driving anywhere today if I can avoid it.

Right now, I have all of the “Death on Demand” mysteries by Carolyn Hart out from the library and I think I’m just going to have to re-check some of them out when I get more reading time because there’s no way I’m going to finish them before they’re due and I’ve renewed them three times. They’re lovely books — I just don’t have much reading time these days.

I’m a fan of murder mysteries in general. It’s probably the forensics junkie in me but I like to figure out how people think and what makes them tick. I have way too many favorite authors to list — Diane Mott Davidson, Joanne Fluke, and Joanna Carl just to name a few.