Okay, my tire is plugged, thanks to neighbor M. I asked him what I owed him and he asked me to grab him a bottle of ginger ale. Frankie has been bathed (I found a couple of fleas on him), cats have been Advantage'd. Not going to make the training, foo. Need to do laundry, work on slides, and run errands. And I think that will fill the rest of Sunday. Need to time errands to miss Saints traffic and the second line. Would rather be out watching game and second line, but oh well.

smonster, I've been meaning to ask you -- are you getting any relief from your hip pain? (Or is it your IT band? Or are they connected?)

And I ask non-altruistically, because my fucking left hip has been killing me for about a month. I think I know which muscles are the problem (primarily the gluteus minimus), but other than the PAINFUL foam roller, I don't know what else I should do for it.

Not smonster, Steph, but I sometimes have to deal with a pinchy hip as well. Rolling on a tennis ball or whatevs is indeed painful but it DOES work. Something about massaging the fascia so that they can relax and start to heal. Also recommend stretching all those gluteus muscles if that's what you think is causing it.

I was too optimistic about the state of my ears. I now have a great deal of empathy for babies pulling at their affected ears. I have used Mucinex, neti pot, steam and most variations of OTC cold medicine, and one ear is still horribly stuffed up and painful. I can't use the excess energy from the prednisone because leaning over makes me dizzy. Does anyone have any other suggestions?

I was too optimistic about the state of my ears. I now have a great deal of empathy for babies pulling at their affected ears. I have used Mucinex, neti pot, steam and most variations of OTC cold medicine, and one ear is still horribly stuffed up and painful. I can't use the excess energy from the prednisone because leaning over makes me dizzy. Does anyone have any other suggestions?

Advil or Motrin. Sometimes, the sinus passages are too swollen to allow the fluid to escape, and Advil brings down the swelling.

Sometimes, the sinus passages are too swollen to allow the fluid to escape, and Advil brings down the swelling.

If that's the culprit, Afrin will bring more immediate relief. I love Afrin. I wish I could marry it. Ibuprofen can be the best man.

I was going to suggest Afrin. My doctor says that, despite the label (and conventional wisdom) saying you can only use it for 3 days due to risk of rebound congestion, for a really bad cold with ear involvement, you can use it for 5-7 days.

Not smonster, Steph, but I sometimes have to deal with a pinchy hip as well. Rolling on a tennis ball or whatevs is indeed painful but it DOES work. Something about massaging the fascia so that they can relax and start to heal. Also recommend stretching all those gluteus muscles if that's what you think is causing it.

I've been using tennis balls, and when they didn't seem to help, switched to that evil foam roller (not in the same day). And I guess I need to find some stretches for the glutes/hip area. Cranky evil muscles.

I am trying to think of a way to describe some of the streches I do, but they are all weird and hard to explain. Like there's one where you sit on the ground with one leg folded in front of you, so your heel is close to your crotch. That's the working leg. The other is folded knee in front, foot to the back. Leaning back on your arms, raise the hip of the working leg foreward to stretch it. You can slowly start to lean back as far as you can, even lying on the ground, to deepen the stretch.

Pigeon is a great hip stretch. Actually here is a set of good hip stretches from yoga journal:

[link]

I know a good IT band stretch but am having trouble figuring out how to describe it. Will think on it!

The stretch Burrell mentioned is awesome.