<p>MN has had several flu deaths already. Several have been teens. I really need to go get a flu shot!</p>
<p>NM, the local 17 year old who died of the flu was up your way when he passed.</p>
<p>I hope you all are feeling better. Definitely get a flu shot. It wasn’t such a big deal.</p>
<p>I had heard that missy. Now a 14 yr old girl has passed away. I think that is five deaths here. Stay healthy every one!</p>
<p>I wanted D2 to get a flu shot while she was home – but she came down yesterday with a cold, and they won’t give you a shot when you’re sick. Maybe she’ll get better by Friday and can sneak in then. She leaves Saturday.</p>
<p>She figured out how to work with her hair/banks. Now it looks terrific.</p>
<p>CF – great news about FangSon’s interest in his course.</p>
<p>Everyone get and stay well …</p>
<p>It’s a class in political analysis, which I thought would be writing papers, but evidently it’ll be more like How to Write Like Nate Silver. I wish they used the free stats program R instead of Stata, which you have to pay for, but I guess Stata is the standard in political science.</p>
<p>Love Nate Silver … so a class in writing like him would be pretty fabulous in my book.</p>
<p>I hope you’re warm and snugged up at home soon, Missy, and that the rest of the family doesn’t catch it.</p>
<p>Wicked bad flu season.</p>
<p>CF, Stata is what I purchased for ShawSon as it was used in one of his classes. He’s still using it. He doesn’t like R as much. Not sure why. I just looked and it wasn’t so cheap for a perpetual license ($179) but was, IIRC, significantly cheaper for a semester.</p>
<p>I LOOOOOVE Nate Silver too. How could I not? He’s a nerd being nerdy about politics. </p>
<p>Thank goodness I had a flu shot, but nevertheless I’ve gone from a nasty weeklong cold before Christmas to some lowlevel nasty thingy now. I hope everyone gets better soon. Everybody who is healthy and hasn’t had a flu shot should march down to the drugstore TODAY and get one.</p>
<p>Stata seems to be the standard in social sciences. And R is the standard in biology, and Matlab/Octave is the standard in physics, engineering and machine learning. Plus, everybody loves Python. The annoying thing is, R, Octave and Python are all free (and I can program in all of them), whereas you have to pay for Stata.</p>
<p>I had never heard of Charming Charlie before I saw it mentioned here. S2 and I stopped in a shopping area in Woodbridge yesterday on our way home from DC. There was a Charming Charlie so I took a look (S2 stayed in the car while I did that-not his cup of tea). Couldn’t believe how big it was and how much stuff they had.</p>
<p>Hope those that are sick start feeling better and that nobody gets the flu.</p>
<p>Never heard of Charming Charlies, so I googled it to see if it is a midwest/east coast phenomenon. There’s one in our local mall. Huh.</p>
<p>Same here, Zetesis. When I googled after I got home, found there was also one closer to me. Maybe hadn’t noticed it/heard of it though since I have boys .</p>
<p>In my case, I hate malls and hate to shop …</p>
<p>Z, good for your daughter and her hair. I wish I could tame mine after all these years. Bangs or no bangs, I’m the person whose brush/curling iron/comb gets stuck in it when I try to style it :-0</p>
<p>Glad for your son’s class, CF. I love Nate Silver’s magic with numbers.</p>
<p>Feel better everyone, and yes, if you don’t have an allergy problem with any of the delivery methods, get thee to the flu shot shop! CVS has a new, very small needle that is almost painless. Our insurance covered it completely. I have several friends in the anti-vaccination camp who couldn’t believe I’d taken my boys for one on January 1. I understand there are risks, but I personally believe that any immunity is some immunity, and worth the potential sore arm. Is there hard science anywhere contraindicating this year’s vaccination?</p>
<p>I don’t know about this year’s vaccination, Plant Mom, but I have a severe anaphylactic reaction to the tetanus toxoid vaccine – and that was confirmed with allergy testing to be an allergy to the vaccine itself, not the serum it is in. (Surprised even the allergist.) So I can easily believe that there might be some people allergic to the flu vaccine. (Though for those who couldn’t take the flu vaccine because of an egg allergy, there is now an egg-free version.) Luckily I don’t have an allergy to the flu vaccine.</p>
<p>My office is full of sick people who won’t stay home. I am ready to buy them all surgical masks to wear. Seriously, if you have 300+ hours of sick time, shouldn’t you stay home when you’re sick?</p>
<p>Just finished book club and every one is gone. I am enjoying a nice glass of cab. H is out of town. I plan on staying up and reading. For the book club you have to make soup and salad…no extravagant meal. Has to be simple. I made an escarole and turkey parmesan meatball soup and a spicy chicken corn chowder. Happy that everyone found something they liked.We discussed Gone Girl. Interesting discussion on long term relationships/marriage and sociopaths! Overall everyone loved the twists and turns and even though some had difficulty in starting the book everyone was engaged to the end. All would recommend to friends to read.</p>
<p>Just had a b-day dinner for my mom – 84 years and still going strong. We are grateful!</p>
<p>Happy birthday to your mom Z!!! :)</p>