things the squirrel told me

So I've had a sinus infection for the last few... ever, and it's so crowded in my sinuses, it feels like a dead squirrel climbed up there and died. Again. I don't know whether it's the drugs (or the squirrel), but I've been collecting interesting thoughts and observations:

1. Have you heard the phrase "scarce as hens' teeth"? It kind of cracks me up. For some reason it makes me think of chickens chewing gum or flossing.

2. Heat is a good thing. No heat is a bad thing. No heat means sleeping in a ski cap, under a down comforter, with your wool socks on and the heating pad on your feet. Let's not even talk about waking up, or what that ski cap does to your hairdo.

3. In an article in the New Yorker two weeks ago, Obama said this about his relationship with Michelle:

And then what sustains our relationship is I'm extremely happy with her, and part of it has to do with the fact that she is at once completely familiar to me, so that I can be myself and she knows me very well and I trust her completely, but at the same time she is also a complete mystery to me in some ways. And there are times when we are lying in bed and I look over and sort of have a start. Because I realize here is this other person who is separate and different and has different memories and backgrounds and thoughts and feelings. It's that tension between familiarity and mystery that makes for something strong, because, even as you build a life of trust and comfort and mutual support, you retain some sense of surprise or wonder about the other person.

And now I love him even more.

4. I've been reading a book about corporate coaching and the author says that when you hire someone, you're not getting involved in their attitude or thoughts, you're merely renting his or her behavior. Kind of an interesting way to look at your co-workers, actually.

5. I love my crock pot. I usually make a new soup every week in it during the winter, but this week I made soup on the stove instead. Unfortunately, that soup was so good that I ran out of it two days ago. So I had to delve into my previously crock-potted store of Mystery Soups in the freezer. Even after eating it, I'm not entirely sure what it was. I'm not even sure I made it. I may, in fact, have had alien soup for lunch today. Someone call me tomorrow to make sure I'm still alive, ok?