I have greatly pleased the Goddess of Folliculitis! My steady offerings and fervent prayers have been headed! My face is a pizza- a busted painful pizza- and not one of them good Napolitana ones, either. (God I could go for one of those today.)

Hopefully the nurses will give me some Botox today. I'm pretty sure that was a joke, but who knows? Last night I told them I was a bit uncomfortable, and they offered me this drug that is eighty times as powerful as morphine, according to Wikipedia. I wasn't sure I needed to go all the way there yet- I'm not trying to leave this place with a habit just because my butt was sore! (Shuddup Bill.) Anyway- we settled on Tylenol, and I slept pretty well last night.

One reason for my good sleep was because this young, gangly nurse named Alex was on my shift, and she is is very conscientious of not waking patients unnecessarily. Still, I should save her the trouble and tell her that the second anyone puts their force field near my first door, I immediately wake up. I won't tell her, though, because I'd rather miss seeing her tiptoe around my room, which I find hilarious, cute and thoughtful- very much like Shaggy and Scooby in dangerous situations.

As for time here- it goes by, but yesterday was a tricky day. The second week is usually the nadir of a transplant, and I'm moving along right on schedule. Yesterday's labs confirmed a plummet in my blood counts, and this is when malaise and caution become the keywords. This is all to say that yesterday, the only thing I could tolerate were cooking shows and blogs. Phone calls and visits were just not doable, so I had to convince mom and sis that yes, leaving me alone for any amount of time would actually be a good thing. I think they're slowly learning, although it is not in the nature of the women of my family to a) leave things alone, and b) take time to relax for themselves.

Anyschlong, for those of you who either missed it, or who suffer from different programming, Lidia made two dishes yesterday featuring polenta: one with a fancy pork-n-beans, and the other with a gratin of radicchio- AMAZING!!!!! Please feel free to eat some in my honor.

Also, I wanted to share some of the great random blogs I've found online, because we can never have enough shit on which to waste our time. (How Churchillian of me, omgz!)

Some great random food blogs:

Delicious Days is a site that I believe started out as a regular blog, and now has blowuptuated into something way more official. For the most part, I prefer smaller, homier sites, but these people ain't playing- their food looks amazing and inspiring. They live in Munich, and they eat well.

immaeatchu- I knew I had to check this out based solely on the name. Homegirl will eatchu, too, provided you live in LA, and are amazing. Lots of Korean influence, as she is Korean- YUM-OH! (Rachel Ray.)

Finding good blogs on Latino food has been tricky, to be honest. Either the presentation sucks, or the recipes do, or frequently both. That said, Cooking Diva seems to have a decent site, much as I hate to give praise to anyone with "diva" in their name. It's old, people. I've also been on the hunt for

While I have been hitting the food blogs HARD, there are two sites that kept me up reading last night, and should do the same for you:

The Daily Coyote: what would you do if you found a 10-day old orphaned coyote in Wyoming? Here's what homegrille did.

Chasing Summer is not a blog, but a thread on a message board for motorcycle enthusiasts. (I'm sure I oversimplified that, but, whatever.) Anyway, this is what happens when you and your friend dream of riding bikes from Alaska to Patagonia, and then life steps in and grants your wish. It's on a message board, so the format leaves something to be desired, but the story and pictures are well worth it. Inspiration for your ass!

Oh, before I forget to write this down somewhere, last night I kept having dreams in which I was able to transform disastrous and even near-death experiences into good stuff. The one I remember most clearly goes like this: I was in a field dotted with trees and boulders, and there were people scrambling everywhere because there was a huge, god-like wild boar/elephant/oliphant on the run. (I'm talking Princess Mononoke-type huge, where the mythical beasts are 10 times bigger). Somehow, I got myself noticed by the god-monster, and it decided to charge. I successfully dodged the first passes, ducking behind trees and bushes, but on this last charge, it was clear to me that nothing was going to work. Just before the beast reached me, I got up and bowed to it- complete with European flourish. Where the inspiration for that move came, neither I nor my dreaming self know. Apparently, that was all the beast-king wanted, because it was all good after that- I'm pretty sure there was even some kind of jubilant opera chorus going on afterward, and he went away satisfied and peaceful. (I know- the opera chorus thing cheapens the whole affair in an already cliche dream, but the whole bowing thing was very cool.)

Holla!