Otitis Oschmitis

What a fun year I've had so far! January it was a killer head cold, February was a sinus infection, and now March brought me a nice ear infection.

Apparently, I have bilateral Otitis Externa, also known as Swimmer's Ear. It is an infection in the ear canal that causes swelling throughout the ear canal and usually severe pain whenever the ear canal is moved, such as by pulling on the earlobe. I'm so lucky I get to have it in both ears!

My personal opinion was that there were three contributing factors to my getting this infection:
1. We went scuba diving last weekend.
2. We dove and swam in some pretty gross and murky fresh water - some places underwater visibility was about 2 feet and everything else around us was green/black/dark.
3. I was a bit paranoid about remnants of my sinus infection hanging around so I cleaned my ears out good before diving so I wouldn't have any additional problems equalizing.

Probably any one of these wouldn't have caused a problem but the combination of these was just the ticket.  Anyways, I'm on oral antibiotics, ear drops, and prescription ibuprofen and they seem to be working. Today it doesn't seem too bad although my ears are still fairly blocked up.  Earlier this week I was miserable and half deaf!

So, the moral of the story is:
1. Avoid swimming in fresh water or dirty water.
      Probablility of getting swimmer's ear in regard to location highest to lowest:

• Fresh water (lakes and rivers)
• Ocean water
• Bath water
• Pool water

2. After swimming in probable risk areas, rinse your ear canal with 1:1 white vinegar and rubbing alcohol and let dry.

3. Don't clean out inside your ear unless it is seriously gunky. Your ear canal should mostly clean and dry itself.

Anyways, I'm not complaining (too much). I have had a decent week overall. Last week I found really good recipes for chocolate muffins and poppy seed muffins that I'm tempted to make again.  My work has been proceeding well, although phone calls are somewhat painful or difficult still. General Conference is this weekend! Life is good.

Florida Springs

We just got back from a dive trip in Florida. We did our open water training dives at some fresh water locations near Crystal River, Florida. We successfully certified and had a pretty good time while doing it.

We dove the first day in a underground cavern called Devil's Den. There are lots of rocks and large crevices you can swim through with a maximum depth while we were there of about 40 feet. We did a few daylight dives and then a night dive there. We saw catfish and some other little fish.

The next day we did a drift dive down Rainbow River in Dunnellon, Florida. This was my favorite dive. We went upriver in a boat and then jumped in and dove as we floated downstream. We saw lots of turtles and lots of fish of various kinds. There were some springs in the river that you could check out. Unfortunately we have no pictures of this day at all.

After that dive we went and snorkeled at Three Sisters Springs in the Crystal River. We saw a wild manatee from the boat but didn't actually swim or dive with any.  Then we dove at King's Spring on the Crystal River. It was a bit spooky because the visibility was awful, but we saw some neat things like blue crabs.

Flowers at a very nice rest stop in South Carolina

Devil's Den

Devil's Den from above

The devil at Devil's Den

So much moss on the trees in Florida.

Devil's Den

Devil's Den 

Devil's Den 

Devil's Den 

Pond near Devil's Den

Palm tree

Lizard - I think it's an anole.

We thought this was funny. (It's really Citrus County.)

More books

Here's what I've been reading (or listening to - i went on an audiobook only kick for a while). I last posted my books in mid-August 2011 so there's a good-sized list here.

A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail by Bill Bryson
This was pretty good. I learned a lot about the Appalachian trail since I knew next to nothing about it when I started. It describes how he hiked the trail - in pieces - and the people and things he met along the way. 3.5 stars.

Statistics You Can't Trust: A Friendly Guide to Thinking About Statistics in Everyday Life by Steve Campbell
I don't really remember this book well. I think I started reading it and it was not quite what I was hoping for so I just skimmed the rest.

1984 by George Orwell
It was better this time than when I read it in high school. 4 stars.

The Code of the Woosters by P.G. Wodehouse
Apparently some classic characters, but I wasn't crazy about it. 3 stars.

Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood
This book was so interesting. It is based on the real story of a maid in Toronto who was accused of murdering her employer. 4.5 stars.

Breakfast at Tiffany's by Truman Capote
I read this because I watched the movie and I didn't like it so I figured the book must be much better than the movie. I don't think it is. Maybe a little bit, but not really. Lame and boring. 2.5 stars.

All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque
This was a good book. It was very sobering and sad, but that is true to war. 4 stars

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night by Mark Haddon
This is about a 14-year old boy with autism who decides to investigate a crime that happened near his home. It was okay, but a little dull. 3 stars

A Thousand Never Evers by Shana Burg
This is about a girl in Mississippi in the sixties. Meh. 2.5 stars

Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift
I hadn't read this before and didn't really know the whole story. I didn't know there were really 4 or 5 different voyages. It was decent. 3.5 stars

The Final Solution by Michael Chabon
This is a book about a super old detective and a boy with a mysterious bird. 3 stars

Twilight by Stephenie Meyer
Re-listened to this audiobook while exercising. 3 stars

New Moon by Stephenie Meyer
Re-listened to this audiobook while exercising. 3 stars

Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer
Re-listened to this audiobook while exercising. I think this is the best one of the set. 3.5 stars

Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer
Re-listened to this audiobook while exercising. 3 stars

Matched by Ally Condie
This dystopian book is about a society who chooses what a person does and who they marry. It's about a girl who gets matched to her best friend but then there is a mix-up that causes her to question the society. 4 stars

David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
A very long chronicle of the life of David Copperfield. Very well-written with great characters. 4.5 stars

Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card
One of my favorite books. I've read the whole series a few times now. 5 stars


Speaker for the Dead by Orson Scott Card
4 stars


Xenocide by Orson Scott Card
4 stars

Children of the Mind by Orson Scott Card
4 stars

Ender's Shadow by Orson Scott Card
4.5 stars

Shadow of the Hegemon by Orson Scott Card
4 stars

Shadow Puppets by Orson Scott Card
4 stars

Shadow of the Giant by Orson Scott Card
4 stars

Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother by Amy Chua

This book is about the difference between Chinese parenting and Western parenting. That doesn't sound super interesting (to me), but it is a good, easy read and I enjoyed it nonetheless. 4.5 star

Diving update

Jeran and I recently finished the class sessions for our SSI Recreational Diver certification. It was very fun and interesting. We're excited to take a short trip to Florida soon to do our open-water dives to complete the certification.

The classes were fun and we miss having that to look forward to. There were 6 classes (Monday and Wednesdays) and at each there would be an hour or two of classroom learning and discussion followed by a few hours learning and practicing skills in the pool. We got to be pretty expert at removing and replacing our masks under water, locating our regulator if you misplace it, and all sorts of other necessary skills.

Unfortunately, the day of the second class I noticed I had a sore throat. That weekend I had an AWFUL cold (or strep or something) with a sore throat for 5 solid days. Then, on Monday I thought I was starting to recover but was still congested and dove anyways without too much trouble. Then Wednesday I was going downhill again but went to class. I toughed out the weekend (and it was rough - toothaches, earaches, the works), thinking every night that tomorrow I would be so much improved. Well it wasn't happening so I went to the doctor on Monday. I had a bad sinus infection and was put on antibiotics. Several days later I started really recovering. Hooray for modern medicine!

Anyways that's probably too much information, but it was a huge part of my dive class experience. I learned what blocked sinuses felt like with increasing pressure and that you definitely do not want to dive deep with blocked sinuses. Pool depths can be dealt with if you're not too blocked up and are very careful, but some days I was miserable afterwards.

Anyways, we're looking forward to lots of fun diving experiences and hopefully a lot more healthy days!

Westward Ho!

We recently returned from a nice trip to Utah. It was both a snowboarding trip and a family visit trip (and for me a business trip also). Nice to have it be so multi-functional.

We went snowboarding twice, one full day at Beaver Mountain and one full day at Snowbasin. They were such different experiences. At Beaver, there were a few inches of new snow and we spent a good portion of the day off the beaten path enjoying the powder. At Snowbasin, there was pretty much no new snow and the groomed trails were a bit hard, but we had such a large group with us and were less familiar with the terrain so it we stayed on the trails so it didn't matter that there wasn't fresh snow. Considering what snow conditions have been this season, I'd say we got pretty lucky on this trip!

Lunch break at Snowbasin

We snowboarded (and some skiied) with lots of Jeran's extended family at Snowbasin. It was so fun!

We visited Temple Square and toured the Conference Center with friends.

We got to some good quality time with family and visit with friends and relatives.We played lots of fun games, shoveled snow (some of us...), and forgot to take many wonderful pictures. As always, it went by way too quickly, but it's good to be home!