Howdy folks, it’s Wednesday! The week is halfway through. Hooray!

On Monday I visited my allergist for some more testing, since the first time I went I forgot to stop taking Claritin. Oops! In any case, they ran subdermal tests for treatable allergies – 13 needles total, each one containing a moderate dose of an allergen for which there is a pharmacological treatment. These include cat and dog allergens, dust mites, mold, pollen, as well as trees, grass, weeds, etc.

I came back with five positives out of the 13 tests: general trees, maple trees, birch trees, grasses, and weeds. This was interesting news, as I had previously thought I was allergic to cats and dogs. But their test showed that I had no reaction at all to those allergens! In any case, the tree, grass, and weed allergies hit me in three out of the four seasons, so the only season where I’m safe from allergies is winter. The doc prescribed me Allegra-D and Rhinocort Aqua – the former an antihistamine to block my main allergy symptoms, and the latter a corticosteroid to help keep my nose from being irritated by allergens and other airborne particles.

I’m looking forward to enjoying the summer without allergies. 🙂

In other news, Becky has started her internship at Strawbery Banke. It sounds like she’s enjoying it so far! She has her own little research area set up and she is starting to get busy with projects.

In two weeks Becky and I will be heading out to Portland, Oregon for the O’Reilly Open Source Convention. CBD is sending me and another colleague out there to take some classes and learn new techniques, and they were gracious enough to allow our spouses to come along for the trip. It should be an educational time for me, and a fun time for both of us. We hope to also spend some time with Jackie and the rest of the Ways while we are out there. 🙂

Finally, I hope you are all following along with our newly-created Scrabble This! blog.

🙂