Last Thursday, I finally had to admit that the winter cold had kicked my butt so I went to the doctor for the second time. The antibiotic prescription I got helped with the sinus infection but all the other parts of the virus continue. I'm still congested and I feel like sleeping all day long. I've spent most of the time that I wasn't working, doing just that with little bouts of reading and T.V. in between. Despite a series of sick days, I somehow managed to upgrade the server and several workstations to Windows 2000 at work. I spent so many hours troubleshooting, that I burned myself out and stayed completely away from the computer when I was home. Those are my excuses, and thank you to those of you who e-mailed to say you missed me.

Our cable was installed just in time for the virus induced veg-fest. I'm now completely addicted to The Osbournes (it makes me laugh) and Made (I'm a sucker for an underdog) and Farscape (Yay, for SciFi channel holiday marathons which allowed me to catch up on the series!) which were all new to me. I'm not sure I can go back to pre-cable days when my only addictions were Eastenders, Stargate and Angel. Alan's also got me watching The Shield. Too much TV!

All the veg time was not wasted, though, because as soon as the sinus headache and fever periods passed, I could read. The recommended reads from my sick bed include: The Translator by John Crowley (wonderful), Things That Never Happen by M. John Harrison (The stories are in order chronologically. I found his earlier work a little slow but was wowed by his later work.) and Philip Pullman's Dark Matter series (I'm on the second book and loving it). I also enjoyed the latest book in Cherryh's Foreigner series. It's my one ongoing series addiction other than the Anita Blake books.

Other news: Susan's added a comment section to her blog. There seems to be a lively discussion on speculative fiction going with many, many posts.

Go out and buy the latest Third Alternative. It looks great and includes new stories by John (Johnzo) Aegard and Brian Aldiss. I'm going to read it tonight if I can tear myself away from The Subtle Knife for a little while.