Are you kidding me?

The Swine Flu is in Minnesota. Yay us. The governor had a lovely press conference this morning and advised us all that "there is cause for concern, but not panic." Why does everyone keep telling us not to panic, yet they are in our faces 24 hours a day about this damn flu? Will they tell us when it's time to panic? When one of my family members shows cold/flu-like symptoms, my 1st impulse is not to run to the doctor. How are we supposed to know the difference between a run-o-the-mill virus and this "possible pandemic?" I am just going to sit back and wait for it to show up in my kids' school, because for some reason I feel pretty certain that it will. There is a family in my neighborhood that just returned from visiting family in Mexico for the last month. Should I start wearing my surgical mask a-la Michael Jackson? Oh! And just an FYI, apparently we're supposed to be calling this the H1-N1 novel virus so as not to give our little piggy friends a bad rep. Whatever.

A Little Wine - ing

Okay. So let me just say that I am NOT a wine drinker. Everyone who knows me, is clear about the fact that I am a hard-liquor gal. Liquor is quicker. But my better half (who is reading over my shoulder right now and wondering what the H I'm doing) and I were at MGM today and as I cut through the wine aisle on the way to the checkout, a few of the labels stopped me in my tracks. They are too funny and clever! So, while I have no idea if they are any good, these wines get an A+ for creative names. Disclaimer: I am in no way, shape or form suggesting you run out and buy these wines. I don't know ANYTHING about them other than the fact that they have awesome names. Also - don't try to convert me to wine. Ain't gonna happen. Don't send me comments full of outrage that I don't like wine. Don't care. So. That being said, onto the great names I saw: First off, by now I'm sure everyone has heard of Bitch wine. Now I see we've added to that category with Royal Bitch and Bitch & Wine, and Bitter Bitch. Funny. Another clever name is the generic, plain white label with "Good Pinot Grigio" or "Good Merlot" written in black on it. I think though, my favorite would have to be Mommy's Time Out. I told hubby that our dentist (Dr. Fenske - she's awesome!) should copyright her term for wine - 'coping elixir'. That's awesome!

Catching up

I figured I had better write something in April before the month was over. This will be a random stream of consciousness blog (as opposed to my well organized and articulated prior posts). I was dumb enough yesterday to actually open a message in Facebook that I thought looked weird. Should have listened to that inner voice and hit delete, but no. I had to be curious. Well that curiosity let the Koobface virus into my Facebook account and laptop which then started sending messages to all of my friends on FB infecting even more computers with this lovely little virus. Once I had it, my laptop was taken over. I believe "turned into a zombie" is how the article in PCWorld put it. http://www.pcworld.com/article/155017/facebook_virus_turns_your_computer_into_a_zombie.html
It was kind of comical how I was trying to "beat" the virus by getting to emails and links I wanted before it could hijack my computer and reroute me to some fake "virus scan". Eventually, I was able to get rid of the stupid thing (with my smarty brother's help, of course). But I managed to waste most of the day on it. Of course, I can usually waste most of the day on the internet anyway, so it was really anything new! Ah technology. It's just so darn handy.

In other recent exciting news around here, it seems like the crappy economy and money woes are hitting most of my friends as well (please read that with appropriate sarcasm). I love my friends. They are THE best in the world and make me laugh just when I need it. One of my unnamed friends recently saw her therapist to talk about how to deal with her husband's depression and their general lack of money etc. The therapist asked the standard "Do you feel safe at home?" and my friend responded with "No. I'm afraid I'll trip on all the crap that's lying all over the house because I am sick of being the only one to pick anything up." She quickly found out that most therapists really don't have much of a sense of humor. They also don't think it's funny when you mention that you don't think of divorce, but you do think of killing your husband! Now I thought that was he-larious, but I guess Ms. Therapist didn't. I guess I have a warped sense of humor.

I also had another girls' weekend with my 2 pals who are responsible for all the shenanigans in my life. We basically went on a pub crawl from Albertville all the way up to Deerwood. Don't worry, there was a designated driver. We love townie bars and the townies in them. We found a new one in Longsiding, MN. Very fun. A stop at the Blue Goose, The Deerstand, Coach's Corner, and Spaulding House rounded out the evening. You really have to love a bar that hosts an evening called "ABC - Anything But Clothes" and the owner shows up in waders. That's it. Waders. No shirt, nothing under the waders. Just waders. He-larious. I'd say more but.... then I'd be killed, or worse yet - not allowed on any more girls' weekends! Eeeek!