Hil, if you're at all interested in West Point, it would be worth a visit for an interview, at least. (It's in Westchester, right? I lived in Ossining for a year. Nice area.)

The ones making the rest of us look bad.

Yes. The ones who lead my gay friends to wonder why I'm a Christian. (The ones who lead me to wonder the same thing occasionally.)

Sometime in the middle of the night last night, I woke up with a woozy spell (yes, they sometimes wake me up), and after it passed, got up to visit the bathroom and walk things off.

I am not entirely sure what happened then, but I remember thinking that lying down on the floor sounded like a good idea. Nice, cool, and not vertical. After a few minutes of that, and wondering why my knee felt ouchy, I got up, took care of business (so to speak) and slammed down three Advil because I had what felt like a hell of a sinus headache.

WORST sinus headache of my life.

Anyhow I finally wake up for real a few minutes ago, and realize that I've got one hell of a goose egg on my temple, and a slight abrasion. I'm thinking I smacked into the doorframe on my way out of the bedroom. I've also got a nice cut on the inside of my lip where I apparently got myself with my own tooth. I'm not sure how the knee got bruised.

In short, ow-fuckety-ow. Plans to do heavy housework today have just been put on hold. I'm sitting up in bed with an icepack held to the side of my face.

On edit: Now that I've had a chance to think, I'm starting to freak out a bit.

Houghton, Michigan seems like a place where I would not be happy. Am I reasonably correct in this impression?

Depends. How do you like snow? The record yearly low snowfall is about six feet, and that was 70 years ago. I love the Upper Peninsula in the summer, and Lake Superior is wonderful. You'll have access to amazing skiing, boating, hiking, snowmobiling, skating, and camping. But the town is small, and it'll probably be pretty homogeneous in a waspy kind of way. The nearest larger cities are about 20,000 people (Marquette, MI, an hour or so to the south east) and 80,000 (Duluth, MN, a few hours to the west). I like them both (I've spent more time in Marquette), but that's an hour's drive for city amenities. If you like walking to art house movies or delivered food that isn't pizza you might be disappointed.

You'll be less than an hour (well, in the summer) from Misery Bay. Take that as you will.

If you'd like to see what the general area looks like, I have pictures from my Lake Superior circle tour here. I was there in August.

Toast.

Goodness, Anne. Is there someone nearby who could take you to a doctor?

I'm going to check in with a neighbor in a little bit. I'm feeling fine except for the headache.

And of course, me being me, I keep prodding at the goose egg to see if it still hurts. The answer is invariably "yes, it does."

Anne, go to a doctor, please.

Ouch, Anne! It sounds like you fell to the floor. You should get checked out. Why is it that medical stuff wants to happen on a Friday night?

I am definitely going to go get this checked out. Alas, my mom is out of town at the moment, so I am going to have to rely on the kindness of neighbors if it turns out I can't drive myself.

Anne, what Calli said. Please try to get in to see a doctor! I would freak out to.

On a very different note, happy birthday to Sox's HKFan!

Oh, Anne. Yeah, I'd be freaking too. In fact, I'm freaking on your behalf now. I'm glad you've got neighbors that you can count on when family are not available. That's a real prize in this crazy modern life.

I have a purring Harvey draped over my shoulder. If anyone needs to feel loved, I'll pour some of the purrs through the internet for you, because there is definitely more here than one person needs.

BTW, I just tried out the baking soda and vinegar in the oven - and very pleased with the results. It's not perfect in there, but by gum it's a far sight better than it was. Also, no nasty chemicals to muck up my breathing aparatus, or shred my skin. And I don't have to paranoid about any effects it might have on the cats. Triple yay!