Say Hello to Captain Jenny Rackham

Because this is my pirate name:

Captain Jenny Rackham

Even though there's no legal rank on a pirate ship, everyone recognizes you're the one in charge. You have the good fortune of having a good name, since Rackham (pronounced RACKem, not rack-ham) is one of the coolest sounding surnames for a pirate. Arr!

Isn't that fun. And so appropriate! I know you want to try it. So go take the pirate quiz and let us know what your name is :)

Paging Dr. Kevorkian

I have never had strep throat until this week.

Growing up I knew kids who got it all the time. Some of my good friends were constantly missing school due to strep, but for whatever reason I was never really susceptible to it. Then this week I had a sore throat, which I initially dismissed as some kind of 24-hour summer cold bug. When the soreness didn't go away - and when it got worse - I called the doctor. A quick swab later and I was diagnosed.

If you've never had it, it sucks. It sucks really, really bad. Take the worst sore throat you've ever had and multiply it by a million. Just swallowing is misery, my ears hurt, my tonsils are swollen, the glands in my armpits are swollen, my head hurts, my neck, arms and legs ache (from tensing my muscles each time I swallow.) I had no idea it was this bad.

I've just started on antibiotics and have a week left of them. I really hope they kick in soon. I'm only supposed to take one pill every 12 hours, but I was very tempted to eat half the bottle when I got home today. Instead, I've been using Chloroseptic throat spray, which is magical stuff (basically a really strong anaesthetic). It numbs everything for about ten minutes.

If you've ever had strep, I have a newfound respect for you. Just like I have for all those kids who got it when I was younger.

... and my arms aren't tired at all

So thanks to the magic of FlightMemory and my obsessive-compulsive habit of keeping ticket stubs (back to age 7), I now know the following about myself:

- I have flown 383, 083 miles to date
- I have flown the equivalent of 15.39 trips around the earth
- I have flown to the moon and more than halfway back (1.6o5)
- I've been in the air for 856 hours and 23 minutes of my life, which is 5.1 weeks or 1.19 months
- I've made 342 flights on 27 airlines, 29 different aircraft types, to 77 different airports.
- 55 of my flights have been in first class. 330 of them were in a window seat.
- 41.8% of my flights have been on American, 11.8% on Delta, and 10.6% on Southwest. (those are my top three)
- 20% of my flights have been from O'Hare, versus only 15.3% from Dallas/Fort Worth. I guess it really has been awhile since I lived in Texas.
- A full 20.6% of my flights have been on the McDonnell Douglas "Super" 80, which is a plane that most frequent fliers hate.

Obviously these stats aren't perfect, since I took a trip or two as a baby that I don't remember. But interesting nonetheless. The site also generated the following nifty maps: