Does this look infected?

Does this look Infected?

Back in August Dave was in the hospital for 2 weeks because of an infection in his hand that got "out of hand" so to speak. (pun intended) It started for a tiny poke he felt while cleaning up around his house. He doesn't remember what poked him because it was such a small thing that he didn't really pay attention to it. A week later it was swollen and his whole hand was in a good deal of pain. So he opened the wound and drained the puss. 3 days after that he couldn't move his hand and the pain had moved all the way up to his shoulder.
At that point I stepped in and drove him to the ER where they gave him an IV antibiotic as well as some strong pain killers. (poor Dave was all loopy off of them) Just as Dave was expressing to me that he thought he would be able to leave soon the Doctor came in to tell us that Dave needed to be admitted to the Hospital and that he would need surgery asap.
The picture above is the day after surgery. They had to remove infected tissue from his tendons and even from the bone. The picture below is from one week after the first picture was taken. The Doctors said that it was an aggressive infection and that he needed to be on IV antibiotics 'round the clock in order to contain it. So there he was stuck in the hospital for 2 weeks over a little poke in his hand.
Apparently if we had come to the ER any later he may have lost his hand. Its amazing how fragile the body can be...

"Editor" is just a fancy title...

This semester I enrolled in Journalism looking to be a copy editor. I figured that position would not only give me the chance to improve the school paper grammatically, but it would also help me to improve my own skills in that area. For the first issue our editor in chief, Desiree, asked of I could write a story since they were understaffed. I wrote about the construction on campus in the bookstore and the cafeteria.
After that Desiree decided that I was a capable person and she suckered me into taking on the position of Assistant News section Editor. I was a little annoyed with this because all I wanted was to copy edit and being the Asst. News Ed. meant that I would have to work a bit harder than I had originally planned. Meaning I would have to write stories occasionally as well as copy editing.
2 weeks into classes the News Editor, whom I was being an assistant for, quit the paper completely, leaving me to take her place. So now I am the News Editor, which is a position of leadership and my duties include:
-Finding possible stories on/off campus
-Assigning stories to my writers and myself
-Assigning deadlines & due dates
-Writing stories for my writers who don't come through for me
-Lecturing and disciplining those on my team who slack off
-Designing my pages
-Editing my writer's stories
-Editing my pages before print
and
-Stressing out 24/7

At first I was overwhelmed and highly upset that they threw me into this. After all, most of the people on the paper have at least spent one semester there before. Some of them have been working for the paper for over a year! Not only did they choose me, someone with no experience in journalism, to be an Editor of an entire section, but they also gave me a team of writers who are also all new and inexperienced. To make matters worse, I have 5 writers. 2 of which never answer my calls or emails and they also never do the assignments I give them. I have another writer who is an older man from the middle east and does not speak English very well. He also is from a country where men are in charge of women, so when I assign him a story to write he will basically tell me that he's not going to. He'll then tell me about a story his is working on (which often has nothing to do with RCC or Riverside) and that he'll be writing that for the paper instead of what I assigned him and that he'll get it to me when he gets around to it... So of a team of 5 writers I really only have 2 I can rely on.
I was bitter at first and frustrated, but after working on the paper for a few weeks now I realize that I like having leadership positions and that high responsiblity motivates me. My editor in chief has told me that she would not have given me the position if she didn't think I could handle it, which I'm taking as a complement. It makes me feel good to know that the RCC paper team feels that I am trust worthy.
Journalism has kind of consumed my life right now. I feel like its a full time job, but I'm growing more and more attached to the class and the paper. Now I don't know if I can keep myself from enrolling in the class again next semester.
Wow, this story has gotten rather long... I think I'll stop here for now. More updates on the paper later!

Gotta love my Pup!

I figure that until I have kids of my own, Arrtoo is pretty much going to be treated like one. I'm always taking pictures of him! Since my old Roommate, Jacqueline, has moved out I've been letting Arrtoo in the house now. (Jackie is the daughter of my land lady and she also was never to fond of Arrtoo... or any animals in general really...) So I'll have him in the house while I'm cooking or cleaning and I'll talk to him as though he understands me. Its kinda funny when I realize what I'm doing... (I think he kinda does understand me as a matter of fact!)
This is Dave and Arrtoo. Dave is really the only Boyfreind I've had that loves Dogs as much as I do! (The past two boyfriends not only didn't like dogs, but they really didn't like Arrtoo, which of course was a huge problem for me.)
I plan on having about 5 dogs someday. I joke with Dave about how I want enough dogs to have my own sled team!